Some Truths About Dog Training

Dog Training, Puppy Training, Making your Bad Dog Good... there are more books and websites out there on the subject than one could possibly read in their dog's lifetime.  Some try to simplify dog training into as few steps as possible and claim you cannot go wrong (you can).  Some rehash psychology 101 and bog you down in conditioning terminology.  The right book/article is somewhere in between.  Depending on what you need and your dog's personality, there are a few of you and a few dogs that will succeed with the minimalist, somewhat automated approach.  Most people and dogs need a bit more.  A little reminder of classical and operant conditioning and seeing these concepts through the eyes of the dog goes a long way.  The more you can think through your actions and how your dog reacts to them, the better off you will be in the long run.  These concepts work in so many aspects of your dog's behavior.  You will start to understand your dog at another level.  You will also bring your relationship with your dog to another level.  That is what dog training should be about, improving your bond, not automated responses.

As a dog trainer, I try to read all the books I can, if for no other reason than to know what my clients may be reading.  While there are many I have not yet gotten to, one I have read that I like is Gwen Bailey's  The Perfect Puppy.  It may be a little on the heavy side, but an owner that puts the time into reading this book is the type of owner the luckiest dogs have.  Another great book, not so much for training, but for insight, Patricia McConnell's The Other End of the Leash. I am kind of a huge fan of hers!

Please be honest with yourself when it comes to more than just basic training.  If your dog needs actual behavior modification, you may want to consult a professional.  Please feel free to contact me, if I can help, I will.
www.dogism.com

Pets and Death

There is never a good time to talk about pets and death.  There is a worse time however and that is in the moment.  Have you prepared for the actuality that something can happen to you and your pets would be left without you?  Jason and I recently prepared wills on the insistence of my father.  I procrastinated as long as I possibly could.  I do understand that something could happen to either one of us every time we leave the house (even in the house).  Accidents happen.  But if something happens to me, Florida law states everything goes to Jason and vice versa. Simple enough.  Then it hit me.  We were preparing for a trip out of state for the long weekend and it really hit home that something could happen to both of us at the same time.  Florida law also states that pets are property, nothing more than our sofa.  Without a will, I do not even know what would happen to the sofa, so I could not chance it with my pets.  Yes, we have friends and family that would step in and take care of them, but again, the worst time for any of them to have to decide something like that is in those overwhelming moments.  (Let's be honest here, no one would really wants the bird, so I have to be sure I have her covered, if nothing else).

I am not even going to pretend to really understand probate law, but a quick internet search taught me that you have to be very careful in your wording and have a trust set up if you have particular financial and care giving wishes for your pets.  We would probably want a good lawyer for these documents.  For now, we have kept it simple.  We have designated our furry and feathered property to people we know will love and care for them or find the best possible new home.  I really do not care what happens to the sofa, but there is now someone to take care of that too.

Dog Talks

Do you have conversations with your dog like I do? If I stop to think about it, I know they understand very little of what I am saying, but I talk away at them anyway. Sometimes, I even get responses back that seem eerily appropriate. Dogs can pick up on a lot of cues, from our tone and cadence to body language and respond to that. Sometimes, they hit the nail on the head and reinforce our belief that they understand us so well. I think many people do not give dogs enough credit for what they understand. However, we can also confuse our dogs and make learning more difficult if we don't stop to consider the perspective of the dog. Dogs learn human language as we do, by association and repetition. It does not matter what words you use for any behavior, as long as you are consistent. Students are constantly asking me what words to use for specific behaviors and every time I answer, it is up to them. The dog only knows what they are taught. Recently, I was doing some training with a woman and her puppy. I showed her how to teach the puppy to spin in circles. She loved it and was excited about the puppy learning to "dance" with her kids. The next week, she was frustrated that the puppy was not doing the trick well and told me that she even tried changing the cue word from "dance" to "spin". Her thought process was that the puppy knew it was not really dancing and therefore would respond better to "spin" since that was what it was actually doing. I could not help but chuckle a little. In the same week, I had an agility student question if using the word "charge" to refer to the A-frame was too exciting for her naturally hyper dog. I asked her if she had already taught the dog that "charge" meant to be excited and she said no, but that it is a common use for the word. It took a full explanation on my part to make her understand that her dog had no predisposed understanding of the word "charge".

Now, once we teach these words, we need to use them correctly. I am often correcting students who are telling their jumping dogs to "get down". I ask them, are you really looking for a "down" here (as in lay down) or are you wanting the dog to "get off".
I too am guilty of this. Since my dogs have so much freedom when walking on retractable leashes, they will often make a turn at a sidewalk intersection, but I want to continue straight. I will say "this way" and they know to change directions. One morning, we were near the end of our walk and we hit a point where we could go right or straight and still get home. Luey was ahead and turned right and I said to him, "oh, are we going home this way"? Of course all Luey heard was "blah blah blah this way" and immediately changed direction. I felt bad because he was tracking a scent and I pulled him off of it for no reason other than a poor choice of words.

Go ahead and enjoy your little chats with your furry friend, but if you are having any behavior issues or not getting training results, take a look at how you are acting first and remove extraneous words and actions, it may be that simple.

How Soon We Forgive

Dogs can have a profound effect on our emotional state. Usually, it is positive. They make us smile when we come home, they make us laugh with their silly antics. They are comforting when we are down and soothing while we relax. When bad things happen to our dogs, we naturally worry or cry. The loss of a dog can take a terrible toll on us. But how often have you noticed a dog making you feel hurt or jealous? Sounds a little strange doesn’t it? But it is true. Even though they have no way to knowingly cause these feelings and we really shouldn’t take their actions to heart, we sometimes do. In my current puppy class, there is a Havanese pup that is home with “Mom” all day and “Dad “works. There is a strong bond between Puppy and Mom that is actually interfering with Dad’s ability to form a bond. He tries to act tough, but you can tell it is hurting his feelings a little. Mom had to work the dog most of the class, but Dad still carried the little girl out, snuggling her against him.

Recently, Bailey spent the weekend with his breeders, a mother and daughter, at a conformation show that we were unable to attend. Brittany, the daughter, is Bailey’s handler at all conformation shows. She has a special relationship with Bailey; she was around for his entire singleton puppyhood and now gets to see him with some regularity because of shows. After the three day weekend, Brittany brought him home and he was his usual wild self, not even calming down to say good bye to Brittany. She tried so hard to get his attention and have him be still just for a minute and he would not. Finally, she said “fine, jerk”. I could tell that it hurt her feelings just a little that she could not get the attention she wanted from him. I too felt bad because I would (and have) feel that same way if I wanted his attention but he was more excited about something else. (Like how he completely forgets I exist the second he gets to doggy daycare and then refuses to leave after an entire day). Bailey has no idea what he is doing; he is just living in his happy moment, being a dog. But we emotional humans feel it inside, even though rationally, we know we should not. Like a good dog, we do not stay upset for long. As Brittany turns to leave “the jerk” still bouncing around the yard, she calls behind her in the usual sweet voice reserved for him, “I love you”.

What on earth(dog) is bikejoring?

Obviously, I am a fan of dog sports, but I had no idea what bikejoring was. Bikejoring, in a simplistic explanation, seems to be the off season sport for sled dogs. Using specialized harnesses, dogs pull a rider on a bicycle. (In my defense, Florida has a rather limited dog sledding season). Earthdog, a sport I have only seen on TV, is for the small terriers. Natural “ratters”, terriers navigate through tunnels trying to locate vermin (who have been safely placed in the tunnel) and perform a series of instinctual behaviors to find and indicate the presence of the vermin. The bird dog version of this is a hunt test and a new favorite activity of Bailey. Quail is planted in large open fields, two dogs run together, tracking the birds by scent. When they find the bird, they offer the classic “point” position for the handler to find and flush the bird. The bird is shot by a designated shooter and retrieved by the dog back to the handler. While I am not happy about the fact that live birds are used, this is exactly what these dogs were bred to do and it is pretty special when you see a dog allowed to behave so naturally. I have also never seen dogs so happy and excited and I have seen some pretty excited dogs at agility trials.

There are many, many dog sports, some more familiar such as agility, obedience, flyball, dock diving etc… I personally love it when you can find a sport that compliments your dogs natural instincts as well as its abilities. For example, dock diving and Labs, a pretty perfect match. Unfortunately, a variety of dog sports are not easy to find in a lot of areas. People are getting creative though. At one recent event, an organization was set up featuring border collies who played soccer. The idea is for people and dogs to play soccer together, check out soccercollies.com. I was also able to attempt lure coursing with Luey at another event. A fuzzy something was tied to a pulley system and was pulled in a large circle around a makeshift track. Dogs were having a blast. My velcro dog however, would not chase past the first turn as he would lose sight of me. Luey has his own unique instincts.

Type “list of dog sports” into Wikipedia for a lengthy list of sports with links that explain each to find your next dog sport.

Bacon Dog Treats

6 slices cooked bacon – crumbled (extra bacon never hurt anything)
4 eggs, well beaten
1/8 cup bacon fat
1 cup water
1/2 cup non fat dry milk powder
2 cups graham flour (which I can never find so I use whole wheat flour)
2 cups wheat germ (substituted whole oats when I ran out one time)
1/2 cup corn meal

(I will give you the directions as is, then I will add what I have learned)
Mix ingredients with a strong spoon; drop heaping tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Turn off oven and leave cookies on baking sheet in the oven overnight to dry out. Yield: about 4 dozen dog cookies. – Bullwinkle.com

Okay, here is what I have experienced when making these: a strong spoon does not help when the dough is so thick my arms are not strong enough to mix it. I just roll up my sleeves and get my hands messy. The dough also does not spread at all. Whatever you blob on the cookie sheet is what will come off the cookie sheet. With the bacon bits and any crisping the cookies do, there can be sharp little points if you just blob it on. I recommend forming small-ish, flat-ish circles or in this case, hearts. The dough is pretty sticky, so I spray my fingers with cooking spray to manipulate shapes. The flattening of the dough also helps with more even baking. My cookies usually bake for longer than 15 minutes, I look for browning and I do leave them in the oven overnight. Other than the samples the dogs get of course. Yield: two happy dogs in my house.

An Exceptional Read

I just finished a very interesting book. I use the word interesting because it was not a story, but a scientifically based education on dog physiology, psychology, biology, other ologies, behavior etc… it is called Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz. She has a very clever way of explaining scientific study, research, theory and conclusion in a non technical way and weaving it into story like prose. She uses examples from her own relationship with her dog, Pumpernickel. She shares with us how to relate the information to our own dogs. I found myself connecting with what she was explaining and at times exclaiming “my dog does that”! She goes into careful detail regarding the physical make up of a dog, how they see, smell and hear. She explains how their senses are similar and different to ours. There is no way I am going to do justice to this book trying to explain it. What I can tell you is that I feel a deeper connection and understanding of my dogs by having read this.
I believe this to be the reason she wrote the book. The book centers around the idea of seeing the world through a dogs perspective. Only a dog can really do this, we can only infer, just as any other person cannot really see the world as we do. Consider when someone says to you “I know how you feel” and you think, how can they know how I feel? Sometimes it is even upsetting that someone “thinks” they understand your feelings when you know they really do not. Now consider when your dog does something you are unhappy with. We often jump to human like reasons the dog got into the garbage or destroyed an object. Many feel their dog is upset with them or being vindictive. Did they consider that maybe the garbage just smelled really good and it is in a dogs nature to find and eat the source of the really good smell? Did they consider that the texture and taste of the leather shoe was highly appealing to an animal who naturally chews? The book will make you stop and think before you create an anthropomorphic reason for every action your dog makes. I can now think a little more about what something is like from my dogs perspective and tailor my actions or reactions for my dogs benefit.
This book will not be for every one or even every dog lover. While she has written a much easier and much more fun read than the dry and technical dog behavior text book I am struggling through, she does include much study and research. If you are not one to find the nitty gritty of behavioral science interesting, dog related or not, you will probably not find this book as enjoyable. Or if you do not want to know that there may be other reasons your dog licks you other than the equivalent of a human kiss, you will not want to read this.
The author however, is clearly a dog lover before a scientist. She readily admits that she still applies some human like traits to her dog, scientifically based or not. She is offering a new, better way of looking at our dog, not trying to spoil all of our fun.

http://insideofadog.com/index.php