The Pawse

Driving cross-country back to NOVA, invisible fence, Kikopup

2012-04-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

WAAAAHHHH it has been waaaaaaayyyy too long since my last post. I do have a good reason though. lol. For the last couple months my husband and I have been packing up all our stuff to prepare for his deployment and so I can move back to VA to be with family during it. So all of our stuff got put in storage except for some clothes which I had to ship to VA and the dogs. :)
Then, after he left, my mom flew out to California and helped me drive 3,000 miles with my puppies to her house. I've been here about a week and have some downtime right now cause I'm still trying to find a job, so hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this blog a little more for the next several months.

Well, a lot has happened (obviously).
Where to begin? That's the only problem.

This is a video I was recommended by fellow trainers from Kikopup's channel on YouTube. It is about how to train a dog to stay behind an invisible barrier. I am using her methods to train my dogs how to use the Invisible Fence. (For those of you who may not know, it's the electrical fence underground that transmits to a collar that delivers an electric shock if the dog tries to go past it).

The "traditional" method of training them on the fence would be to put flags up where the fence is and then walk the dog to the barrier and yank them back yelling no. Repeat until the dog is so terrified you're going to yank on them that they don't go near the flags again. Yay! =/ Then you associate the yanking on the leash when they're near the flags with the beeping noise emitted by the collar. Then you take the protective cover off of the collar's prongs so that if the dog doesn't back up when they hear the beep, they get shocked. What I'm trying to do is get my dogs to learn the barrier using only positive reinforcement. They choose to stay on their side of the barrier because that's where all the good things are! Then, once they have that down and do not cross the flags, I'm going to associate the barrier with the beeping noise on the collar. And my hope is that they will never get shocked because they will know that the beeping noise indicates they're leaving their area and will choose to turn around. Worst case scenario, they may get shocked one time which will only reinforce their desire to remain on their side of the invisible barrier. The difficult thing is the barrier I'm training them on is HUGE. My parents have an enormous yard. So, in Kikopup's video, her barrier is minuscule in comparison and it's going to take me a bit longer to proof my dogs on it. Meaning, I still have to add in distractions! Which is in Kikopup's second video:

Harley is doing very well. I've gotten to the point where she is off-leash and will wander around inside the barrier while I am on the other side. Only occasionally does she cross the barrier, and even then it's usually only a foot and in an area we have not practiced as much. I will start adding in small distractions with her today with my eventual goal being to throw a ball across the barrier and her stopping at the flags and not going past them. Hah! That will take me a while. =/ I'd like to have both Harley and Ace perfect on the fence and wearing their collars in a week so I can actually get out of the house! I'm basically trapped here until I do. I am able to leave them in my bedroom for very short periods of time if I have to run buy dog food (which I did the other day) but I do want to get a job while I'm here and need to start going to business to inquire about openings soon. Also, it'd be nice to be able to open the door when they need to go out and not walk them on the leash. Although, for a while at first I'll probably be an overprotective mother and hover on the porch watching them to make sure that they don't shock themselves or something. Or get into fights with my parents' dogs.

Aside from the barrier training, I have a VERY long list of things I want to work on with them. I also have a very long list of books I want to read related to training.
I'll let you know what all of those are letter. Gotta leave you wanting more, right? Hah.

So once I have my dogs trained on the invisible fence, I will let you know how that went. I'd like to be able to post a follow-up video to Kikopup's showing how to combine her barrier training methods with an actual Invisible (electric) Fence and collar.

Well, gotta run do some training! :)
More later.
Thanks for pawsing!

Dog Body Language and DINOS posters

2012-01-16T11:49:00.000-08:00

I found these lovely posters by Dr. Sohpia Yin online. They have great illustrations of how to greet a dog, how kids should and should not interact with dogs, and identifying fear body language in dogs.

You can download these and others as PDFs here.

This last one is a poster depicting Dogs in Need of Space (or DINOS). Haha love the acronym. It is not from Dr. Sophia Yin though. There's an article on DINOS as well, but this poster pretty much sums it up. Ace is a friendly dog, and does well at doggie day camp and with other dogs off-leash, but he's also a DINOS. Luckily, I suppose, he needs so much space that he scares off most people so we never really run into the situation on the poster. :P

Well that's all for now, just wanted to share the posters.
Thanks for pawsing!

In Training leash clips and Thundershirts

2012-01-10T16:05:00.000-08:00

Good grief it's been ages since my last post. I really need to get back on the ball so I can stop beginning all of my posts like that! The holidays really put a dent in my blog life I suppose. I didn't really read anything new or do anything new training-wise with my dogs.

So, real briefly I'll just give an update on my pups. I mentioned that Ace got neutered back in November, and now he's all healed up! We took Harley in to the vet for an ear infection the day after Christmas, and it was so bad that they had to anesthetize her the next day to flush her ear out. They decided to spay her at the same time so she wouldn't have to go under twice and to save us money since anesthesia is so expensive. We took her to get her stitches removed Saturday morning, which was the day of her Intermediate class graduation but when they removed the sutures, the incision was still open and bleeding so we weren't able to go to class. :( But luckily, one of the other students couldn't go to class either so her graduation will be this Saturday! :) Unfortunately, my husband will be gone this weekend for work so he won't be able to attend her graduation. :( Also, when we went to the vet to get Harley's sutures removed, the vet also prescribed an anti-anxiety medication for Ace because he has pretty bad separation anxiety. We left for about 2 hours one night and when we came home, seven ornaments (plastic collectible Hallmark ornaments) had basically been shredded. And another time it was the carpet, and another time it was the dog bed, and the cinnamon pine cones from the coffee table, and my watch, and the poop bags... and the list just goes on and on. Well, I think that's all of it.

Today, I finally made the "In Training" leash clips I've had planned for months.

Today, I also bought a Thundershirt for Ace. He is very reactive toward other dogs- any time he sees a dog he barks his head off. He's not aggressive by any means, but it started when he was a puppy - he would get so excited when he saw a dog and he wanted to play with them that he'd whine and bark. And now the barking is a lot louder and sometimes turns into almost a snarling sound. Well, the Thundershirt is supposed to be good for reactivity toward other dogs and barking (as well as many many other things), and I've heard that it's a miracle worker. So I put the shirt on him when I got home and then took him for a walk to see how he would do if we saw another dog. Well, there were no other dogs out, but we heard other dogs barking and usually he'd bark back, but he didn't. Yay! The only time he did bark was when we saw the mailman, and it was only a little "woof" and then I was able to get him quiet and calm again. It's also supposed to be good for separation anxiety. I'm a little scared to try it for that though, because I think Harley would try and eat it off of him. :P

One other thing that happened today was that Harley started playing with the door stop again. She hasn't done that since she was a little itty bitty baby! And the funny part was that I just watched the video of her playing with it as a puppy last night for the first time in a while! And luckily, I got her playing with it today on video. :)

Well, thanks for pawsing. More later, I promise. :)

Neutering, comfy cones, and Halloween

2011-11-08T14:31:00.000-08:00

We got Ace neutered a week ago today- November 1- and he's getting his stitches removed Thursday. Just in time for our trip to Vegas! We're having the pups stay at the PetSmart PetsHotel and they're going to do Doggie Day Camp for two days as well. I upgraded his neuter to laser surgery- which has a faster recovery time and there's less pain and swelling too. I also got him a Comfy Cone- which is a cushion-y fabric cone instead of one of those awful plastic cones.

Ace in his comfy cone:

Here is the link to the website describing the comfy cone. http://www.allfourpaws.com/the_comfy_cone.php You can't buy it on this website however. But you can buy it on Amazon and I'm sure a bunch of other websites as well.

I plan to get Harley spayed at the same vet- which isn't our usual vet. Our normal vet couldn't get Ace in for a neutering for an entire month! So we took him to a different one- El Toro Animal Hospital- which I just loved! It reminded me of my vet back in Virginia. It had a cozy, small-town feel with lots of cute knick-knacks and a little boutique and a cat sleeping on top of the computer- just like my vet back in Rappahannock! :) Also, El Toro has the laser surgery and my regular vet does not. Well, anyway, I plan to have Harley spayed there too and then we can use the comfy cone on her as well! We also got Ace microchipped, which reminds me, I still have to register his microchip to get him in the system.

I got the dogs Halloween costumes just for fun. We didn't have anywhere to take them, but I just wanted to take some pictures. :P I got the costumes super cheap on Halloween day- I think something like $3.50 each. I got a lady bug costume for Harley and a bumble bee costume for Ace. Not as cute as the frog prince and princess costumes I wanted but still pretty adorable.

This pic isn't great, you can't really see the majority of the costume but I think it's still pretty cute. :)

Trying my best to keep up with the posts!! Sometimes it's just hard to think of something to write! Bloggers Block. :P
Well, hopefully I'll have more soon!
Thanks for pawsing
L

Graduate Programs

2011-11-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

Man it has been too long since I last posted. It seems that's how I always start off a new post. Well, I have been doing searches for weeks and weeks on graduate programs in the animal field. (And the education field and psychology field trying to figure out what I want to do). I've been searching for animal behavior, animal psychology, and ethology programs, and recently discovered a few new areas in the field- Anthrozoology and Humane Education/Leadership. I found Canisius College, which has a semi-online Anthrozoology Master's program. Here is their description of the program:

"Canisius College offers an online Master’s Degree in Anthrozoology, the discipline that focuses on humanity’s relationship with other species. A major emphasis is on an examination of the relationships between people and their companion animals, but the scope of our program also includes animal use in science, industry, agriculture, and zoos.Our program embraces the positive value of human-animal relations by focusing on the many benefits that accrue to humans by including animals in their lives. It also covers the benefits that are provided to animals by humans. It is an interdisciplinary field of study that includes scientific investigations, philosophical considerations, religious perspectives, animals in literature, and humane education. Our program also examines the intersection between animal protection and environmental protection: the special relationship that exists between two worldwide movements."

http://www.canisius.edu/masters-degree-in-anthrozoology/default.asp

This program seems more legit -- well, that's not really the right word -- it's more... respected, I suppose? Well, it seems more respected than the American College of Applied Sciences program- their program that I'm interested in is the Master of Sciences in Companion Animal Behavior Analysis and Counseling. "The program employs a scientist/practitioner model following the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) and evidence based practice. It uses a blended-learning course delivery model consisting of Internet-based courses (both synchronous and asynchronous), 5-day residency lab courses with animals, real-world practicum in the student’s community, and a capstone empirical research project (thesis) designed to fills gaps in the companion animal scientific literature. The program is specifically designed for the working adult who might not otherwise be able to attend a traditional campus-based program.

Graduates are trained to work as companion animal behavior analysts in leadership positions and as part of a behavior management and intervention team that includes the behavior analyst/counselor, the family or facility veterinarian, and the animal’s caregiver(s). Graduates may be employed by animal-related organizations including animal shelters, animal sanctuaries, veterinary practices, animal behavior businesses, humane societies, SPCAs, NGOs, educational institutions, wildlife parks, government animal control organizations, health departments or other such organizations.

Graduates may also enter the profession as self-employed animal behavior professionals and consultants, and as forensic consultants/expert witnesses in animal injury litigation matters; college, university or vocational school adjunct instructors, media consultants and alike."

http://amcollege.us/CompanionAnimalBehavior

Then there's Valparaiso University, which has MA and MEd programs in Humane Education.

"Humane Education is a unified course of study that explores the connections between human rights, environmental preservation, and animal protection and provides learners with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to become conscientious and engaged citizens for a healthy, just, and humane world. Humane Educators foster creative and critical thinking, respect and responsibility, civic engagement, informed decision-making, and problem-solving in classrooms, workplaces, personal lives and the world."

http://www.valpo.edu/grad/humaneed/index.php

And I just found another distance learning program - University of Wales Trinity St. David. They have an MA in Anthrozoology that is a completely online program- but it costs £10,719, which is almost $20,000 - and I'm not even sure if that's for the entire 180 credits, or just one year, or what.

"The MA in Anthrozoology will be of interest to anyone who would like to investigate the many and varied ways in which humans perceive, engage, compete and co-exist with non-human animals in a range of cultural contexts.
The MA Anthrozoology is especially relevant in terms of Continual Professional Development for individuals who are involved with the care of non-human animals in a professional capacity (eg, vets, veterinary nurses/technicians, animal trainers, dog wardens, zoo keepers, conservationists, charity workers etc.), as well as for students who have completed social science undergraduate degrees or who have a science background and would like to expand their research interests into the social sciences."

http://www.trinitysaintdavid.ac.uk/en/courses/postgraduatecourses/maanthrozoology/

All of the programs are just so expensive! And they take so long to complete. Two years for the Canisius program if you do it full time each semester! And I can't do full time right now. I have a job and two puppies and just don't have time to be a full time student again on top of all that. Also, most of them want a GPA of at least 3.0- and I had a 4.0 at one college, but by the time I graduated it was 2.9 cause I was taking so many credits (22!) and got married all in one semester. They say they let in students with lower GPAs on a case-by-case basis, so I just need to make my case really good! Canisius says the GREs are optional, but I definitely would take them before applying to help my case! So I guess the first step would be to study for the GREs... now begins my Amazon search for GRE help books. :P

So none of this is exactly related to dog training, but it is related to the field of animal behavior and my possible career path. :) I just need to start down that path sometime soon or I know I probably never will. Or I'll do it when I'm 60 and all my kids have graduated college and are out of the house and I've finished paying of THEIR education. Which is something I don't really want to do- I don't want to wait THAT long. lol.

Well, thanks for pawsing! That's all for now, just wanted to share my search results with you all. =D

Graduation week and gentle leaders

2011-10-16T00:05:00.000-07:00

So Harley and Ace both graduated from their Beginner classes this week! :) Harley graduated Monday- which was also my 1 year wedding anniversary- and Ace graduated Wednesday. It was interesting to see how the two different trainers did their graduations and it was also neat to see how the pups did on Week 6 as compared to Week 1. Major improvements in my opinion. I got some really cute pictures of both of them wearing little graduation hats!

Harley's trainer/my trainer said that Harley is ready for the Intermediate class as far as knowing all of the behaviors, but not ready in regards to her reactions around other dogs and people. She still gets super excited and barks and jumps on people. So, the trainer recommended that we get a gentle leader for Harley before we put her in intermediate. So, the other day I bought a gentle leader- well, technically it was a Top Paw head collar, which I liked better because 1) it was cheaper, 2) it has padding on the nose strap, and 3) it attaches to the collar as a nice little safety feature. She's not too fond of it, of course, but we're working on it. It does make her walk better, we just can't stop for long or she'll try and get it off.

The intermediate class with Harley's trainer isn't until November, so that gives me time to work with her more and get her ready for it. Ace's trainer is a little more lax in the criteria for letting dogs into the Intermediate class. I taught her intermediate class this week, and I think neither of the dogs should be in it- personally, I think Ace is better than them because one of them won't even sit reliably. And dogs should at LEAST be able to do that before moving into the intermediate class.

That was the first intermediate class I've taught- and it wasn't that bad. I have my own intermediate class starting on Tuesday, so I'll have to let y'all know how it goes. Hopefully the dogs in that class will at least be able to know how to sit. So far three are signed up, and I've only taught one of them previously. So at least I know one of them knows the behaviors.

Well, it's getting late and I have to get up early to go to work!
More to come, and hopefully this time I won't wait so long before the next post.
Thanks for pawsing,
L

Training patches and merit badges etc

2011-10-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

So, once again, it has been way too long since my last post. I really need to get back into this full swing! But it's just hard with my husband away... I have to deal with the puppies on my own as well as do all of the home care stuff... and that's on top of work.

Well for a while now I've been looking for something for my dogs that alerts people to the fact that they are in training. I'm tired of people petting them without asking or telling me that they don't mind them jumping on them. (You may not mind if my dogs jump on you, but I do!!) I didn't think people were actually rude enough to go up to someone's dog and pet them without asking... but that's not even the worst of it. When I took Ace to his training class last week, as I was wandering around practicing, a couple came up to me and started petting him without asking. But at least they asked him to sit before they did (they just didn't ask ME for permission). Then, while the woman was petting him, Ace stood up and she proceeded to tell him "Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit" repeatedly (which is terrible training anyway) and then she shoved his but to the ground to make him sit before I could interject and correct her! I wanted to haul off and smack her. So then I did interject when the man started petting him- before he could push Ace around- and I told him that Ace didn't need to sit the entire time he was being pet. Ugh what is with people that 1) they think that that's acceptable to do to ANY dog and 2) that it's acceptable to do to a dog that's not yours and you don't even know!?

Well I found a couple of "alert" things I like, but they're either ridiculously expensive or not sold anymore or something like that.

http://www.pawsitivedog.com/DogInTrainingVest.html

http://shop.cautionwalker.com/main.sc

I also love the idea of the Good Dogs of America merit badges. There was also a program called Dog Scouts USA but I think it's no longer in existence. I found a Dog Scouts USA badge on ebay which is how I found out about it, and I found a couple references to it on other peoples' blogs, but they're website is non-existent and they're Facebook page hasn't been updated since 2008 I believe. The Good Dogs of America program is so cute sounding. You put your dog through training and you can buy a bandana for them which you then iron on the merit badges they receive. They're are 19 badges total and each one represents a different behavior that they've mastered. Like down, come, sit, shake, drop it, etc. The only problem is, you either have to be taking a training course through one of their registered trainers or you have to be a professional trainer to buy them. I am a trainer, so I created an account to see how much they cost... you can only buy the badges in packs of 5 each... and to buy all 19 badges is $199! Gah. So that one was crossed off the list...

http://good-dogs-of-america.com/merit_badges.html

After I looked into these two programs, I thought of making my own "In Training" thing- maybe a bandana or a thing that clips onto the leash or something like that. I tried to make a bandana, but a couple things went awry. 1) I wrote "In Training" in the wrong spot because when I put it on Ace, the fabric folded over exactly where I wrote it. So if I make a second one, at least now I know where not to write. And 2) the pups got a hold of it and destroyed it. lol.
Then I tried to make a leash clip out of felt and fabric paint... and it just looked awful. And the dogs got a hold of that too. I swear I don't leave things out where they can easily get them- I put them up on the desk and they never pull things off of it, but then of course the two things I'd been making are the only two things they pulled off the desk. grr. haha.

I found a bunch of websites that had training patches- but most of them said "Service Dog" or "Therapy Dog" or something like that. Then I found this one site, things4yourdog.com, which had a bunch of really cute patches. Although most of them do say things like "therapy" or "service" or assistance" there are a couple that don't.

I want people to want to meet my dogs- I just want them to pause (PAWSE!) before they pet them and ask permission, and also not just hightail it if my dogs start barking. I need people to see that they're in training and give me a chance to tell them that they're training and are only puppies and ask them if they'll let my dogs practice with them.

I was going to buy these right off the bat, but they're $18 each and I wanted two for each dog- the Young Dog In Training and the Ask To Pet one. So that got crossed off the list too.

http://www.things4yourdog.com/specialty%20patches%20for%20dogs

I found some plain "In Training" patches on ebay that were only $5 each, but they were just so boring in comparison to the cute ones from things4yourdog.com. There were also ones that said "Ask To Pet" for only $5. I looked into custom embroidery patches, but that usually requires a minimum number of items or a minimum total amount- also very high price wise. So I ended up getting the ones from ebay- which I am happy about now. :) I plan to attach them to clips of some sort and then attach it to their leashes.

Here is the ebay patch after I finished attaching it to a backing and some clips to clip onto the leash!

Oh! I also found the cutest dog Halloween costumes for them. I want them to have costumes just to see how they'll handle it and so I can get some cute pictures and take them out for a walk with my hubby on Halloween. I really wanted them to have matching costumes- not exactly the same, but a pair. Like if they were both boys, I'd have them be Batman and Robin or they could be an angel and a devil. I also didn't want the costumes to blend in with their fur- Harley is light colored and Ace is black. I found angel wings and bat wings, but I wouldn't want Ace to be the angel cause that's a little girly. I found a couple that were kind of cute, but none that really made a good pair like I wanted. Then I found a Frog costume that had a crown on it... *Light Bulb!* (random Despicable Me reference). And I decided that I want them to be the Frog Prince and a Princess. I found the two I liked and they're just sitting in my Amazon.com cart waiting for me to pay. :) Not sure what the hubby will think but he'll just have to deal with our dogs wearing costumes for one day out of the year. I am opposed to animals wearing "clothing" in general. They do not need it, that's why they have fur. The only exception is clothing that is a necessity- like for dogs that need booties because they're hiking in snowy and icy weather or something like that.

They're going to be so cute!! Even though I know I'll probably only be able to get them to wear it for 5 minutes. Oh well, as long as it's long enough for me to get a picture! :D

Halfway point

2011-09-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

Ugggh man I haven't written in a while. I really want to keep up with this too so I feel terrible about falling behind. But my husband is gone for a month and since he left I just haven't had time or motivation to do this. Especially since I'm the only one taking care of the puppies 24/7! Well we're almost to the halfway point of this separation and the puppies just made it halfway through their classes this week! (Hence the title of this post).

It's interesting to see the different teaching and training styles of the trainers doing Harley and Ace's classes. I find things I like and don't like about each one. So hopefully it'll help make me a better trainer too, cause then I can pull all the things I like about the classes I've taken and combine them. The trainer teaching Ace's class (who is my co-trainer where I work) begins every class with a puppy massage, and I've begun to use the same technique in all of my classes too. It's basically just calmly and slowly petting your dog while holding them close to you to get them to calm down and not be so excited or anxious during class. It really helps Ace out- since he has a problem with getting too excited around other dogs. I have to massage him periodically throughout class to keep him calm. I've begun doing the same thing with Harley in her class because she gets really excited too. It's funny, my husband and I thought that Ace would be worse in class because he's so excitable when he sees other dogs on our walks, but actually Harley has been worse about acting up in class. Until yesterday, that is. For some reason Ace was just not on his game yesterday and kept freaking out when he saw another dog and he wasn't interested in his bully stick. The bully stick worked the first week, and a little bit last week, but not at all yesterday. And it didn't work at all for the really anxious dog in my class that my manager suggested it for. I had to switch that dog into private to see if he'll be less anxious that way.

Last weekend I had to leave the puppies home alone overnight while I went to camp out for a free dress giveaway for Marine wives of Camp Pendleton. I had to work that Friday night til 9:00 and then I came home to take the dogs for a long walk and prep the kitchen so they wouldn't destroy it. By prep I mean spray every surface with no chew spray, and put bully sticks, kongs filled with peanut butter, and toys all over the place. Then I left around 10:00 to make the half hour drive south to my friend's apartment, who then drove us another half hour south to her friend's apartment, who then drove us to the event site. We got there a little after 11:00 and I got home the next morning a little after 10:00. So the dogs had been inside and alone for over 12 hours! But, amazingly, nothing was destroyed. They didn't even chew their whole bully sticks! I think that's partly due to it being overnight and not during the day. They're used to being in the kitchen all night while I sleep- I don't quite trust them yet to leave them in my bedroom with me. And there have been a couple nights here and there when they were in there for 12 hours- like when my husband would go to bed early and I'd stay up and go to bed later without taking them out and then he wakes up extra early and doesn't take them out before he leaves for work and I then sleep in longer than normal. Because they were much more ill-behaved when I left for work on Sunday for 7 hours. They're not used to being alone that long during the day- cause usually my husband is home for at least part of the time.

Dealing with the dogs while my hubby is gone is a lot harder than I anticipated! I'm the only one here... so I'm the only one they go to when they need something or want attention. It's exhausting! well, having two puppies at the same time was exhausting anyway, but at least I was sharing the work with another person. I can't imagine what it'll be like when he deploys! I need to make sure that they're trained pretty perfectly before that so that at least I don't have to worry about them being terrible at walking on leash or freaking out when they see another dog or having accidents in the house, etc.

First day of school and anxious dogs

2011-09-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

Man it's been a little while since I last wrote something for this blog... almost a week! Argh I can't believe I fell so behind! I'm so disappointed in myself.

Well anyway, Ace has his first day of class tomorrow night which I am excited about. Though I'm also nervous since he gets very excited around other dogs, especially when he's on the leash. He's gotten a lot better on his walks- last night when we took both of them out, a dog was coming towards us and Ace never freaked out. He just watched it as it passed right by us. I was so proud of him! But just to be on the safe side, I'm going to buy a bully stick to distract him with during class if I need to. My manager actually suggested that because the other day I had a dog that was going crazy in class because of all the other dogs. He was barking the entire time and I could barely hear myself think and had to keep stopping class to try and distract the poor dog. So my manager suggested I just have a bully stick in class in case a dog does that again, then I can give it to the dog and let him chew on it and calm himself down. Then I can suggest that the pet parent get a couple for their dog for class times and other situations they need their dog to chew on something and not get too anxious or excited.

I feel like a terrible pet parent, I haven't worked with either of my dogs in a couple days. It's just been so crazy since my colleague resigned- I come home from work exhausted. And then our A/C broke and water soaked the ceiling and leaked through the fire alarm and set it off at 2:00 am the other day... it's just been a mad house here all week!

Well, I'm exhausted.
More tomorrow, I promise.
:)
Thanks for pawsing!

Velcro dogs and tear-jerking poems

2011-09-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

So I was just thinking about that phrase "velcro dog" and thought that it fits Ace pretty well. Whenever the pups are asleep and I'm chilling on the couch and need to get up to go to the kitchen or bathroom or whatever I try not to wake them up - cause they take forever to go to sleep in the first place. But it seems like whenever I get up and no matter how quiet I am, Ace knows it and follows me around. As I was meditating on him being a velcro dog, I decided that that's not exactly an accurate description. It's more like it's a bungee that connects us. Because when I "pull away" it's like he "snaps back" to wherever I am. I can never go very far before he just appears at my side. I think he just likes to be able to see me. Because when I got up earlier to go into the bathroom he just laid down in the hallway and watched me. He didn't even come all the way into the bathroom! lol

I found this poem that someone else posted... I have no idea who wrote it, but it is very touching. My husband would say that I'm a big sissy, by which he means I cry at everything (even Lowe's commercials at times) and so this poem, of course, made me cry.

My family brought me home cradled in their arms.
They cuddled me and smiled at me and said I was full of charm.
They played with me and laughed with me and showered
me with toys.
I sure do love my family, especially the girls and boys.
The children loved to feed me, they gave me special treats.
They even let me sleep with them - all snuggled in the sheets.
I used to go for walks, often several times a day.
They even fought to hold the leash, I'm very proud to say.
These are the things I'll not forget - cherished memory,
because I now live in the shelter - without my family.
They used to laugh and praise me when I played with that old shoe.
But I didn't know the difference between the old ones and the new.
The kids and I would grab a rag, for hours we would tug.
So I thought I did the right thing when I chewed the bedroom rug.
They said that I was out of control, and would have to live outside.
This I did not understand, although I tried and tried.
The walks stopped, one by one; they said they hadn't time.
I wish that I could change things, I wish I knew my crime.
My life became so lonely, in the back yard, on a chain.
I barked and barked, all day long, just to keep from going insane.
So they brought me to the shelter,
but were embarrassed to say why.
They said I caused an allergy, then they each kissed me goodbye.
If I'd only had some classes, when I was just a little pup,
then I would have been a better dog when I was all grown up.
"You only have one day left." I heard the worker say.
Does that mean I have a second chance?
DO I GO HOME TODAY?

Did you cry too? :P Well, I think it shows exactly why dogs need training and why so many dogs end up in the shelter! Please make sure this doesn't happen to your dogs. Please train them! Behavioral issues and lack of training is the number one reason dogs go to shelters. And it's the easiest thing in the world to fix most of the time. Here are a couple of quotes I found that I really like as well.

Properly trained, a man can be dog's best friend - Corey Ford

In order to truly enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely train him to become semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog. - Edward Hoagland

If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went - Unknown

Well I have to go into work tonight for a few hours to cover classes again. I guess I should stop thinking of them as K's classes and think of them as mine, since they are mine now, but I didn't post the class or schedule it or have the students from week 1 so it's hard to think of them as my students. Well I'm only going to be in half an hour before the first class and stay half an hour after the second class- just to give me enough time to set up and then clean up. I wish I didn't have to cover classes on Saturday since my hubby has a 96 this weekend (meaning time off- he doesn't work Friday through Monday) so I'd love to have more than one full day with him. I work Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday, so I have parts of all those days with him and then all of Monday. Still, if K hadn't resigned, I would've had all of Saturday with him too. Ugh. Oh well. I get the commission. I am happy about that. lol.

Well, gotta start getting ready soon.

Thanks for pawsing. :)

Resignation, craziness, and more craziness!

2011-08-30T23:44:00.000-07:00

So... the trainer whose classes I covered last week resigned yesterday. With no advance notice. So I came into work expecting to be doing customer service, cash register, and trying to sell classes and stuff and ended up having to teach class again. But before that I spent almost 3 hours on the computer just trying to fix the schedule. I had to try and cancel some of K's classes and switch the name of which trainer was teaching it for others... and I wanted to reorganize the calendar so the classes were in order by time of day. What I mean is, our monthly calendar has spaces for a class to go- 8 per day and 16 on Saturdays and Sundays. What would make sense is for all the classes to be in order on each day. Like have 5:00 be first, 6:00 be second, and 7:00 be third. That's the way I was trained to do it and that's the way our store's other trainer, S has been doing it. K, however, would just pick a slot that wasn't already taken- so the calendar would read 10:00, 4:00, 12:00, 5:00, 2:00, etc. It was one big jumbled mess that I found very confusing to read- and very hard to read quickly. So if I just had to glance down to see what time my next engagement was it was impossible to do! I couldn't just glance at it, I had to study it for a minute to make sure I wasn't skipping something!

So that was part of the craziness. Then, as I was rescheduling stuff, I noticed that K had left me a note telling me what time all the classes I needed to cover this week start. There was a week 1 puppy class she said started at 6:00. The master calendar said it started at 7:00 and the computer said it started at 7:00 but her attendance log also said 6:00, so I didn't know if she'd changed the time... Then, some of the enrollment forms (forms the customer fills out saying what class and time etc) said 7:00 and two of them said 6:00! So I had to talk to the manager and figure out what to do... and then I had to call the two pet parents whose forms said 6:00 and see if they could come in at 7:00. One said no, so I put her in a Sunday 10:00am class. The other one wanted to be put into a different class anyway, so I put her and her 3 puppies (!) into the Sunday class as well. So instead of the 7:00 class having 6 dogs in it, it had 2. And only one showed up. It was totally awkward to give my big long "day one" speech to one person. I told her she could switch into a different class if she wanted but unfortunately that's the only time that works for her. I felt bad because she was looking forward to the social aspect of the class - for her dog - and having only one other dog in it is kind of not that great. So, I have to call that pet parent to see when he wants to schedule a makeup and if he's going to make it to the rest of the classes etc.

Which reminds me, there was a man that called the other day to apologize for missing S's class that morning so she told me to schedule a makeup for him and there was another class covering the same material a couple days later- at 8:00pm - so I told him about it. And he thought I meant 8:00 am because apparently that's when he showed up and he was very unhappy and apparently talked to the store manager for like 45 minutes. The manager just confirmed my impression of him - he thinks very highly of himself (only told me over the phone that he was a doctor about 8 times) and thinks that other people are stupid and that anything that goes wrong is someone else's fault. So the manager basically told me that he now thinks I'm a complete idiot and that it was all my fault- he wouldn't give up until the manager pretty much told him that she was going to have a long talk with me about it and "take care of it." Man, people are weird. I know I am. Hahaha.

Oh, remembered another crazy thing... as I was doing scheduling, I discovered that we have 5 intermediate classes starting over the period of about 7 days. And we should have one starting every other week. And unfortunately I couldn't just cancel some of them because there's someone signed up for almost all of them! Which is weird because it's so far in advance. So I have to let S handle that one because I think one of those classes is hers and she'd be the one taking K's Intermediate students since I'm not comfortable with that material yet. But man that was a shocker to find!

So this week I'm now working Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday... which sucks because my husband is off Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday for Labor Day weekend. And since I don't work Monday at all or Tuesday during the day- it would've been nice to have a couple days with him in a row! I'm not supposed to work Saturdays- I told the managers many times that I want one day on the weekend to have off since he works weekdays and goes to bed early. And since I work weeknights and weekends, I would hardly ever see him if I didn't have one weekend day off. So my schedule was supposed to be Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday. And once Harley and Ace graduate, then it can be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday.

But that reminds me that I'm still not done scheduling. I came home tonight and found some I need to fix. Somehow with this craziness, I ended up scheduling myself to work 6 days a week in October.

Anyway, that's enough for now.
Nighty night y'all.
<3 L

Homeowners insurance and CGC certified dogs

2011-08-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share this... I think it's hilarious. But also sad. Not in a "boo-hoo" sad but more of a "what is this world coming to?" sad. Make sense? It's an article from the Chicago Tribune about a man who lost his homeowner's insurance because of his dogs.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/problemsolver/ct-biz-0828-problem-stephenson-20110827,0,2244177,print.column?ST=1

It's really short. So, you know what, I'll just post the whole article:

Allied Insurance paid Tom Stephenson's claim after a storm knocked down his backyard fence.
A short time later, the insurance company abruptly canceled the West Chicago resident's homeowners policy.
It wasn't the claim that led Allied to pull the plug. It was his dogs.
In July, an Allied adjuster visited Stephenson's house as part of a routine check. A few weeks later, Stephenson received a letter from the insurance company saying his policy would be canceled because he has pit bulls.
Stephenson was apoplectic. He could handle the policy cancellation. What he couldn't accept was his dogs, Bumper and Tease, being called pit bulls.
They are, he said, highly trained, award-winning American Staffordshire terriers.
For Stephenson, it was a matter of perception.
"It's insulting to call my dogs pit bulls," Stephenson said. "When pit bulls bite someone, it makes headlines because, honestly, they have a very strong bite. But they call everything a pit bull. Well, they're not pit bulls."
Stephenson said that after he received the letter from Allied, he called to complain. The customer service representative told him that certain breeds of dogs are prohibited from coverage, including both pit bulls and American Staffordshire terriers.
"We got the policy out and there was nothing about dogs on it," Stephenson said.
Even so, he told the representative he wanted a new cancellation notice calling Bumper and Tease by their correct breed. His primary concern was that Allied would send his information to other insurance companies, which might also have a problem insuring homes with pit bulls.
Stephenson said he asked his agent and Allied to send a new letter, but none arrived. So he emailed What's Your Problem?
"I'm not saying anything bad about pit bulls, because there are some great pit bulls," he said. "It's all the way you raise them and what you do with them, for crying out loud. I could take a poodle and make it the terror of the neighborhood."
He said both his dogs are sweethearts, and the older one, Bumper, has been used as a therapy dog in visits to senior centers and children's hospitals.
"We've got every obedience degree possible," Stephenson said. "Everybody brags about my dogs."
The Problem Solver called Nancy Smeltzer, a spokeswoman for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, which owns Allied Insurance.
Less than a week later, Stephenson received a corrected cancellation letter, stating Allied dropped his coverage because he owns American Staffordshire terriers.
In an email, Smeltzer said Allied's dog policy is pretty standard.
"Like most insurance carriers, Allied does not write certain dog breeds in Illinois," she said.
Included on the list are both pit bulls and American Staffordshire terriers, along with 15 other breeds, including Rottweilers, Dobermans, chow chows, Akitas, mastiffs and English bull terriers.
The policy also excludes coverage for houses that have any mix of an ineligible breed with an eligible one, such as a Rottweiler-Labrador mix, Smeltzer said.
"These dog breeds are not written because they have a higher incidence of causing property damage and bodily harm than other dog breeds," she said.
Smeltzer added that "exceptions could be considered" if the policyholder's dog has received the Canine Good Citizens certificate from the American Kennel Club.
Stephenson, while glad to get the corrected letter, said he was never told about the possible exception. Both his dogs have Canine Good Citizens certificates.
"All my dogs have much higher certificates," he said. "They didn't even ask me if my dogs had certificates."
Not that Stephenson has to worry about coverage. Shortly after Allied dropped him, he signed up with Allstate.
"I was very upfront with them. I told them that I got dropped (because of my dogs)," Stephenson said.
Allstate told him owning American Staffordshire terriers was no problem.

And that's why I think that it's so important to have dogs get CGC certified. Not that it would've mattered in this guy's case since his insurance apparently didn't tell him about the exception... But that's why I tell anyone who comes in with a "bully breed" (I'll be PC and not call them all pit bulls), especially if it's a puppy, and especially if they admit to me that they're hiding it from their landlord- that many landlords are lifting breed restrictions if the dog is CGC certified and that our Advanced class preps dogs to take the CGC test.

I plan to get both of my pups CGC certified- not that it'd really matter for homeowners insurance since neither breeds are ever on breed restriction lists, but it's just a good thing to do. Then, I can get them both certified to be therapy dogs so I can take them into hospitals and things of that sort.

Bark-alaureates and impregnation

2011-08-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

Training class tonight went pretty well. Harley was so excited by all the other dogs- one of which was a 5 month old Golden Retriever who was much calmer than Harley. She kept barking- though not as much as this little Yorkie-mix. But it was helpful for me to see how all the pet parents feel when in class- especially when with a crazy dog! :P It was very hard to listen to the trainer and make sure my dog was behaving at the same time. So, had I not been trained to know exactly how to teach the things we covered in class, I probably would not remember the material very well and struggle a bit to remember and work with my dog correctly over the course of the next week. One thing that's a bit of a downer... there's no class next week, which means we'll finish one week later than anticipated. And I start working on Mondays the week after the original graduation date- so that means that I'll now be working the night Harley graduates. I scheduled a class to start that night too so it's not like I can just ask off. So hopefully my hubby will be back from his training by then and can take her to her graduation. Or I'll just have to find a time to schedule a makeup.

I just remembered that I haven't been keeping up with my dog college. :P It's pretty fun and informative though not at all "real." But here's the link- it's done by the same people that produce the Dog Fancy magazine. http://www.dogchannel.com/dog-college/default.aspx I have two diplomas from it- for the 100 and 200 level courses - Bark-alaureate, meaning that I graduated with better than 90% on all the quizzes. And actually, I graduated with all 100% in the level 200 classes and all but one quiz in the level 100 classes. Which was so frustrating- I missed it by one question on one quiz. And if you get 100% on all quizzes in all 4 levels then your name is submitted into a drawing to win free dog food for life. Oh well. :P Can't remember what brand of dog food it was anyway- I'm probably feeding mine better stuff. haha.

Well, I was so worried about Ace tearing the kitchen apart while he was home alone while Harley was at class... and he totally surprised me and didn't destroy anything! I'm not sure if he barked or cried, so I can't call him a perfect little angel like I'd like to because I'm not 100% sure that he wasn't a nuisance.

Just remembered that I need to get them registered so I can get their rabies tags. I also would like to get Ace's pedigree and get him registered with the ASCA (Australian Shepherd Club of America). And I need to get them fixed before Harley's estrous cycle starts and Ace starts mounting her at the right end. So far I'm not worried about him impregnating her... cause he mounts her at the wrong end. And then she proceeds to lick and bite his... for lack of a better word... thing. Which is just plain weird. But he's not humping her rear so I'm not too worried. Poor confused little Ace has no idea how to procreate. haha. I'm fine with that though. :P

Anyway, it's late and I have to work tomorrow. I must admit I'm afraid that there'll be a little drama about the shenanigans that went on on Saturday. Ugh... lol.

Until the next post,

Thanks for pawsing :)

Saturday's surprise classes, kids' activities, and oblivious people

2011-08-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was much crazier than I anticipated. I thought the trainer whose classes I'd covered Tuesday and Thursday would be back but when I got into work the other trainer began telling me what time K's classes were. Very confused, I asked her if K was coming in. To make a long story a bit shorter, the manager was under the impression that I knew I was covering her classes on Saturday when in fact, I was not... so I had scheduled a makeup session for one of K's students for 10:00 and K also had a class that I was supposed to cover at 10:00. And one of the students in the class had missed the two previous weeks so they were behind the rest of the class... So thank goodness S was there to cover the class while I handled the makeup - I had the student from the class who'd missed the two weeks come to the makeup with me and I taught both pet parents the curriculum they'd missed. And though makeups are only supposed to be about 15 minutes long, because there were two of them and because one of them had missed two weeks, it ended up being almost an hour. Then I just spent the rest of the day trying to sell classes, rescheduling classes and waiting to see if anyone would show up for the new dog orientation. But the manager was incredibly grateful that I stepped up to the plate and covered the other trainer's classes even though it was spur of the moment. I was fine with doing it. I love teaching classes- I can't wait for my own to start! Though I have to admit, I wish I was getting part of the commission for it... :P

Well to steal my area trainer's idea, I plan to print out some coloring pages for kids to do if they get antsy when they're in class. So I looked up dog-related coloring pages and found a couple okay ones, and then I found activity pages from the AKC about dog agility, safety, training, etc. Like crossword puzzles, find the hidden picture pages, fill in the blanks, etc. I bought two boxes of crayons (24 each) to take to work with me when I go in on Tuesday.

http://www.akc.org/pdfs/public_education/agility_matching.pdf
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/public_education/bailey_goes_home.pdf
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/public_education/CanineCrossword.pdf
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/public_education/canine_words.pdf
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/public_education/grooming_crossword.pdf
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/public_education/hidden_picture.pdf
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/public_education/safety_scramble.pdf
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/public_education/tail_tales.pdf
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/public_education/where_breed_come_from.pdf

I just remembered something that happened when I was training with the area trainer. I was with her and the other trainer (which was strange that the three of us would be at the same place at a time) talking to a man looking at dog food, I believe. I'm not sure how he got onto the topic, but somehow he strayed from talking about dog nutrition or whatever to bashing us and our coworkers. To make a long story short (again), he rambled on and on and on basically about how we were not going to make anything of ourselves or become successful working there and we should quit and go to school to get a degree because he is getting his MBA and is very wealthy and successful, blah blah blah... He mostly was talking to the area trainer the entire time - well, she was the only one interjecting and answering him - but oh how I wanted to interrupt to tell him that I do have a degree, and in Psychology no less, and I plan to get another degree (or two!) somewhere in the near future. I kind of have to have money first though. Well he was just completely oblivious to our reactions and terrible at reading body language- the area trainer tried to tell him she needed to go about a thousand times (gross overstatement of course, but you get the idea) and he kept saying "but one more thing!" and I'm pretty sure the three of us were showing how offended we were in not so subtle ways. Not in rude ways... but generally I think it is very hard for a person to completely hide when they are hurt, or offended, upset, or angry and so though we did not intend it, I'm sure we showed it.

I just finished watching Julie & Julia which is what inspired me to write a blog in the first place. So it's taken me about two hours to write this post because I basically have only written during the commercials. Haha.

Oh just remembered that today I went to Borders- they're having the 50-70% off closing sale. So sad that they're going out of business, but it's great on my wallet. I bought two more books for my dog-related library. I got From Baghdad With Love and AKC's Citizen Canine. As well as a bunch of other books that I'll read in a year... when I have free time. Lol. Certainly don't have very much now.

Well... unless I think of something else to add to this post in the next minute, this concludes this post. :)
Until tomorrow - Harley starts class tomorrow night!

Training classes and puppies as cats

2011-08-25T22:59:00.000-07:00

Today I taught some more classes- again, covering for another trainer. I taught a week 2 Puppy class and a week 4 Beginner class and then had a personal training camp in the hotel. First, I'm not going to bash the other trainer, but I'm just confused as to what the pet parents have been taught so far. There are certain behaviors that they should've known by now and they told me that they hadn't learned some of them or had no idea what I was talking about. So, for example, in my second class of the night, they were already supposed to have been taught drop it, leave it, and down. And one pet parent said that they did not do drop it and only briefly covered down which means that the only thing left that they were supposed to learn that week was leave it. And that does not take an hour to teach. So what the heck else were they taught that day?

Anyways... So I kind of had to squeeze a lot into an hour for that class covering things they should've already known so that we could get on to the next things. And one of the pet parents that had missed the previous week specifically asked if they could schedule a makeup session with me. So I scheduled to meet with them on Saturday first thing when I come into work. I'm not sure if that's really right but I don't know when the other trainer will be back and they wanted to get the makeup in before next week's class, and I felt bad that the trainer had not scheduled the makeup with them before she left for this week.

Another whoops for the night- after my first class ended, one of the hotel managers told me that there was a personal training camp that did not get done and the dog had already checked out. And that was the third personal training camp for that pet parent that a trainer did not do. Now, no one had ever told me how to tell if I had training camps scheduled, no one told me when I came in to work that day, and I kind of figured I wouldn't be doing training camps for a while since I just started training. So it's partly my fault- since you know what happens when you assume. (You make an ass out of u and me). I felt so bad and I really hope that the pet parent schedules another training camp that someone will actually do.

There was a second training camp scheduled- and I did do that one. It was a cute little Boston Terrier mix- brindle with floppy ears and a bit bigger than a standard Boston. He had the sweetest, goofiest personality. He was also one of the most toy motivated dogs I've seen. He actually preferred a toy to treats sometimes and would work to play with the toy. Apparently he's had issues in the past with automatically rolling over when someone asks him to lie down. This is a problem I had with Harley too. This happens when you create a pattern- if every time you ask your dog to lie down you then ask him to roll over, eventually they're just going to roll over when you ask him to lie down because they're anticipating that that's what you will ask for next. Not once today when I asked him to lie down did he roll over! He did roll over at other times, but never immediately following the cue "down."

Something I want to mention that I find incredibly odd is a behavior that Ace does. I've noticed that (usually at night) he will go to a specific toy, put his mouth around it and then just sit there like that for a while. I'm not sure if he's sucking on it or very subtly licking it or nibbling on it, but sometimes he also wiggles his toes and curls his paw up kind of like cats do when they knead. So I googled this behavior and apparently dogs do knead like cats in rare occasions. I read conflicting descriptions however- one resource said that puppies will grow out of it and the other said that they never grow out of it. I have yet to see any harm in Ace doing this so I see no reason to stop him because it calms him down and he does not do it obsessively.

Off work tomorrow- so hopefully I can get a lot of reading in! Another of the books came in- High Energy Dogs. I'm really looking forward to reading this one since I have a Lab and an Aussie- two very high energy breeds! haha.

Well, night y'all. :)

Dog parks and group classes

2011-08-25T16:25:00.000-07:00

I read an article and a bunch of comments about how dog parks are great in theory but in reality not that great or safe for pups or people. And now I will not be taking mine to any dog parks.
Here is the link to the article- following the article are a bunch of stories and comments supporting what was said in the main article. http://leerburg.com/dogparks.htm

This snippet is from an especially touching story- I cried, no surprise there seeing as I cry at Lowes commercials, but still- about a dachshund attacked by a rottweiler at a dog park. "Grr the brown dachshund was just getting used to being around other canines at dog parks. He stopped soiling the ground whenever he was approached by a dog and wasn't afraid to sniff another mutt. Grr became that scared little dog again on July 2 when a hulking Rottweiler cornered and attacked him in a central Bakersfield dog park. Despite getting kicked and punched in his face, the growling Rottweiler only stopped after it fatally punctured Grr's throat. The dachshund would die about 31/2 hours later, according to Animal Emergency and Urgent Care."

So now, I mostly just intend to take mine to a regular large park (not a dog park) that I have previously taken them to, as well as a pet friendly beach (but I'll still be very wary there). And I'd like to take them to doggy day camps sometimes as well- just because I know that all the dogs there have their vaccines and have been evaluated and it's a safe environment.

Harley (hopefully) will start her training classes next Monday and Ace should begin the following Wednesday. I'm taking them to classes, not because I have doubts about my own abilities to train them, but because I can't provide them with the social aspect and the distractions that a group class can. Sure, I could train them outside where people walk there dogs, but the second one of my dogs barks, the other person usually freaks out and whips there dog away in fear of mine- not realizing that mine are puppies and just want to play. So then there goes a chance to train my dogs in the presence of another dog. And that's what I really want to work on- getting them used to being around other dogs and behaving "properly" around other dogs, so that when we do encounter another dog on a walk, they won't go berserk with excitement and unintentionally scare people off. That's something I don't think people realize- is that even trainers have issues with their own dogs. We're not perfect, our dogs aren't perfect. Although I want both of mine to be able to be demo dogs for the classes I teach, that'll be a ways down the road yet.

Speaking of classes, I came really close to selling classes yesterday- like 4 of them. I was very proud of myself for clearly impressing a couple people with my knowledge in different areas, and for "planting the seed" (to borrow the phrase from my area trainer) of training in a couple peoples' minds. This one couple in particular had come in a few days before buying a bunch of stuff in preparation for a pitbull puppy they were going to get in a couple days. Then yesterday they came in with said puppy (adorable, 7 weeks old- too young to be taken from mama in my opinion) and I spoke to them again about training. The first time I'd encountered them they'd seem at first against the idea of training them outside the home, since the man had trained all his previous dogs himself. But when I mentioned that the Advanced class preps dogs to take the CGC test and some landlords nowadays are lifting breed restrictions if the dog is CGC certified, their entire demeanors changed. They admitted to me that they weren't supposed to have a Pit and were going to have to "hide" her til they found a new place. And so when I saw them yesterday, they were very happy to see me again and genuinely seemed as if they will sign up for my puppy class a few weeks down the road since the pup is still too young.

Well shucks... time for work. But at least I'm teaching classes again tonight!!!
More cute pet parent stories to come!

Contest, Sit Means Sit, and more rambles

2011-08-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

My pups' picture is in a contest for "Sit means Sit" best Action shot. So... please vote for it!

http://www.sitmeanssit.com/photo-contest/?photo=754

On that note though, I decided to look into the Sit Means Sit training program because a customer was gushing about how amazing it is and I wanted to see for myself what was so great about it. First, I hate the way the website is laid out. It's taking me forever to find anything regarding the training program's methodology and beliefs. Plus I had to register twice to get access to articles which is just plain annoying. And I just downloaded an article of theirs which explains why electronic collars are humane. Hmm... not sure I believe that one no matter what they say. I will admit that possibly they are not as awful as they used to be, but I still do not believe in using them. Dogs learn so much faster with purely positive reinforcement (though apparently people want to use the term progressive reinforcement now). Using positive/progressive reinforcement is enjoyable for the dog, it makes training fun, it helps create a better bond between dog and parent and helps stimulate their mind as well. Dogs trained with this method are - I won't say smarter- but better problem solvers, and dogs trained with the "traditional" method (choke chains, prong collars, shock collars, "dominate" the dog, etc) generally end up being very fearful of a lot of things, including the pet parent- plus, they end up being not very independent or mindful or happy-go-lucky or any of those kinds of things.

I just conferred with my area trainer and she was not a fan of their program either. And I read some more articles- and all of them had a plug for their electronic collar. I watched a video where they used an electronic collar on a 5 month old puppy in place of a clicker. They shocked the dog to mark a desirable behavior. One, that just sounds backwards, Two, why would ANYONE put an electronic collar on a 5 month old?, Three, although electronic collars may not be as bad as they used to, why would anyone substitute a collar for a clicker- clickers work wonderfully! If it aint broke, don't fix it.

I entered the contest though because I am somewhat competitive and it's for a $25 gift certificate to their store- and though they do sell electronic collars (ugh), they also sell normal toys and treats... and I could always use more of those. Seriously, I go through like a bag of treats a week! I guess that's what two 5 month old puppies will do to you. :P

That rabies shot really knocked them out. They slept most of yesterday. I was afraid that then they wouldn't be tired and wouldn't sleep through the night, but they did, thank goodness. I still have issues with that occasionally- seems like either Ace can't hold it all night, or he just wakes up and wants attention. So I decided to "test" him and not get out of bed to take him out if he wakes up and whines- to see if he'd have an accident or if he'd go back to sleep. So I tried it- the first night was awful he cried forever but I was hoping he was going through extinction and I just tried to go back to sleep. But now, he rarely ever wakes up anymore- or if he wakes up, he doesn't wake me up. So, I've come to the conclusion that on accident, I trained him to wake me up so that he would get to see me. Does that make sense? I think he just doesn't like to be without us and he realized that because whenever he'd cry I'd take him outside and he'd get to see me, he began crying just to see me not because he had to go outside. So, I extinguished that behavior and now I usually can go all night without having a puppy whine and bark and wake me up!

Man, I really went off track from the original topic of this post, but that's alright. Time to start reading Don't Shoot the Dog! I suppose. :)

Under the bridge... that's falling down

2011-08-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today I taught my first classes. They weren't even technically mine, I was just covering for another trainer. I had a Puppy class's graduation, and the third week of a Beginner class to teach. I was so nervous! But I think it went pretty well, and I think it's easier this way instead of my first class being day one of a class when we have to give this big long speech about training, positive reinforcement and a bunch of other stuff. Plus, the customers didn't have to know that this was my first time so that helped. I was able to kind of pretend that I'd done this a million times and that helped me get through it without stumbling too much.

In the second class of the night, there were only two dogs: a Pug and a Jindo. We were supposed to learn "Down" which can be very difficult for many dogs to learn. My own dog, Harley, had a difficult time learning it. But none of the normal techniques (i.e. luring dog from a sit to down with a treat starting at their nose and bringing it to the floor, plus some variations on this technique) worked for either of the two dogs in the class so I had to use the bridge technique for both of them. This is when you sit on the floor with your legs together and knees bent to make a little bridge for the dog to go under. It's a lot easier with small dogs, but I was able to get the Jindo under my legs pretty successfully. The point of this technique is that they'll follow your hand/treat under your legs and you click and treat when they lie down. Your legs should be low enough that they can't just walk under your legs but not so high that they will refuse to go under them. Each time you should lower your legs a little bit until you hopefully get to the point where the dog will not want to go under your legs and will lie down next to them. It's kind of complicated and a bit hard to explain, and it is very difficult to fade from going under the legs to just using a simple hand gesture or verbal cue. But I was very proud of myself for remembering this technique because for my final exam during training, I had to teach a week 3 Beginner class and completely forgot about the bridge technique for one of the dogs in the class that was having a difficult time with "down."

Tomorrow I'm not teaching any classes but I'm teaching two more on Thursday- I can't remember which weeks but they're both Beginner classes I believe.

Whew what a day- I'm exhausted! Oh and one of the books I ordered- Don't Shoot the Dog! came in, so I'll try and start reading that soon.

Don't dog ear these!

2011-08-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to jot down my list of dog books that I thoroughly enjoy. And since I am against dog ear-ing pages of books, please use a book mark with these. :P

Inside of A Dog by Alexandra Horowitz. Truthfully, I haven't finished it yet, but so far it is very interesting. When I flew from VA to CA, the man in the seat behind mine saw me reading Reaching the Animal Mind and recommended to me the book he was reading at the moment, which was Inside of A Dog. Although I'm enjoying it, I just haven't had time to finish it yet.

Encyclopedia of Dog Breeds by D. Caroline Coile. This isn't really a good "read" but it's got a lot of great information and is organized very well in my opinion. I like to study it so that I will be able to know a little bit about each breed.

Reaching the Animal Mind by Karen Pryor. This one goes into the method of clicker training- and I thought that it would be a bit like a text book- kind of dry to read with a lot of information shoved into it, but it was very funny and a really quick read. There was a lot of information in it but it wasn't given to the reader very obviously. It made me cry- there were a couple very touching and sad stories in it.

Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin. I read this for a class I took in college on Animal Minds. I really enjoyed it- it has chapters on different animals: Cats, dogs, horses, cows, chickens. I especially liked the chapters on cats and dogs.

51 Puppy Tricks by Kyra Sundance. I love the way this book is set up- the tricks are very easy to understand because there are step by step pictures accompanying each one. And then there are little troubleshooting tips for each trick as well. Although some of the methods used to teach the tricks aren't exactly in line with what I would do, I like the book for the most part. Mostly I just use the book to give me ideas of what to teach my dogs next and then I come up with my own technique for teaching it. (I'm not saying I'm inventing new techniques, I'm just doing whatever comes naturally- which could be based on things I've read in the past).

And I am hopefully going to begin reading It's Not the Dogs, It's the People! A Dog Trainer's Guide to Training Humans by Nicole Wilde, High Energy Dogs: A Practical Guide to Living With Energetic and Driven Canines by Tracy Libby, and Don't Shoot The Dog! by Karen Pryor soon. As soon as they come in. I ordered them almost two weeks ago... so hopefully it won't be long now.

Also on my "To Read" list regarding animals and dog training...

101 Dog Tricks: Step by Step Activities to Engage, Challenge, and Bond With Your Dog by Kyra Sundance
101 Ways to Do More With Your Dog: Make Your Dog a Superdog with Sports, Games, Exercises, Tricks, Mental Challenges, Crafts and Bonding by Kyra Sundance
10 Minute Dog Training Games: Quick and Creative Exercises for the Busy Dog Owner by Kyra Sundance
Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
Dog Language: An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior by Roger Abrantes
Training the Hard to Train Dog: Effective Training Techniques for Working With Shy, Controlling, and Stubborn Dogs by Peggy Swager
The Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller
and the list goes on and on......

I still have yet to read Marley and Me by John Grogan, and although the following books have not as much to do with dog training, I still want to read them. From Baghdad With Love: A Marine, The War, and a Dog Named Lava by Jay Kopelman, Oogy by Larry Levin, One Dog at A Time by Pen Farthing, Saving Cinnamon by Christine Sullivan, and Until Tuesday by Luis Carlos Montalvan. All of them are about dogs- and the majority are about dogs in Afghanistan or Iraq as military dogs. Since my husband is a Marine, the books are combining my two biggest interests right now.
When I finished my training to become a trainer, the area trainer gave me a huge list of books I should read. I think I'd already read maybe two that were on it. And I haven't made that dent any bigger because my books have not come in! They should arrive by next week. Hopefully. Well as soon as I read them, I will review them!

Two Shots in the Rump

2011-08-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

So today my pups Harley and Ace are going to get their rabies vaccines. They are almost five months old and are about to start training classes. I think that it would be easier to sell the training classes to customers if I can tell them that I put my own dogs through the same program. Plus, I want to get them CGC (Canine Good Citizen) certified and I think this is the easiest way because the Advanced course preps the dogs to take the CGC test.

Harley is a yellow Lab and Ace is a black tri Australian Shepherd. My husband and I got Harley first- right when she was 8 weeks old. And then about a month later we got Ace- when he was 13 weeks old. Funnily enough, they are only 3 days apart in age. Ace is older and they really do act like brother and sister. Harley is the adorable yet irritating younger sister who always wants to play and Ace does his best to ignore her when he doesn't. Though if they are playing and he wants to stop, he always runs to mom and hides behind me.

Ace is also the alpha. If she has a toy and he wants it, he'll take it and she won't do anything about it. But if he has a toy that she wants, if she tries to take it he'll growl at her and then she'll just spend the next five minutes lying next to him and barking in his face. :P