Smart Dog

Resolutions

Christmas is over. Gone. All that's left is New Year's. Which always gets me to thinking about lofty goals about how I'm going to improve my life over the next 365 days.

Normally I aim too high and am "off the wagon" by February. This year I'm doing something a little different. I'm setting smaller, more achievable goals.

Of course, most of my goals revolve around dogs. That's what you get when you're a dog trainer, I guess.

Here are some of mine:

• Work on nail trims at least once a week.
• Finish watching Steve and Jen White's 12-hour tracking seminar DVD's and get Nemo started in tracking.
• Enter Tango (or Lily) into a Rally-O competition.
• Have more fun with the dogs. Get out and enjoy the sunshine at least once a day with absolutely no purpose other than to enjoy the company of my dogs.
• Give Talos back to Service Dogs of Virginia without entering into a deep, dark depression. (That's one I'll never accomplish, I fear.)

I'm interested in hearing some of your dog-related goals and resolutions for 2010. Leave a comment and let me know what you and your dogs will be up to in 2010!

Escape!

  Ask me why I have half a pack of el cheapo hot dogs sitting in my sink right now.

Go ahead, ask me.

I'll tell you as soon as the adrenaline stops and I can peel myself off the ceiling.

See that cutie-pie of a face there on the left? That oh-so-handsome Great Dane I talk about all the time?

He escaped the yard. Ran right out the gate behind me.

Stopped about 15 feet away and gave me "The Look." The Look that says catch me if you can, I dare you.

This is what went through my mind, literally:

no collar, same color as snow, will look like a deer, freezing, tennis shoes - wet - cold, need food, don't panic.

I arranged those thoughts into reasonable action and called to him excitedly as I ran the other way with the GOOD DOGS into the house. I didn't hear thundering paws behind me, so I peeked around the corner. He was peeing in a big drift of snow, completely unconcerned that we'd all left him.

This was not going well.

I ripped the door off the fridge and grabbed a pack of hot dogs, then grabbed a squeaky toy as I ran back out the door - the remaining three GOOD DOGS in tow. The squeaker grabbed Talos' attention, but he was nowhere near ready to come inside. He was still looking to be chased.

Still inside the yard, I threw the hot dog over the fence so he didn't have to worry I'd dart after him. I had good aim (for once) and the hot dog didn't land in a snow bank, but rather on the driveway. He ate it.

Still inside the yard, I walked a smidge closer and tossed another. At this point, I stopped feeding him and began feeding the GOOD DOGS lots of pieces of hot dog. Tons of hot dogs were going to them. None to him. Talos took a step closer.

With my back to Talos, I opened the gate and continued to feed the others. Before I could turn around to see if he was intrigued, his head was in my face.

I gave him an entire hot dog, and closed the gate. All the while acting as if I was the most unconcerned person in the world, as if this happens everyday.

I continued feeding all the dogs bits of hot dogs as we went back inside.

The morals of this story:

1. Keep an eye on your dog - slipping through the gate (or door) happens in an instant.
2. Don't chase! (If I would have ran toward Talos it would have made his day! And would have made him impossible to catch.)
3. Reward your dog heavily when he comes back.
4. Teach a rock-solid recall and practice it everywhere.

Did He Just Eat That?!

  In just a few days, this house will be a wreck: wrapping paper everywhere, new presents laying all over the place, and food (glorious food!) all over the counters.

Sounds fabulous.

Unless you have a dog.

Emergency vets are super busy over the Christmas holiday because in all of the chaos, we tend to forget to keep a keen eye on our dogs.

Look up opportunist in the dictionary and you'll find a picture of a dog. They LIVE for opportunity. They LOVE opportunity. And all it takes is one quick moment for all the Christmas fun to turn into Christmas disaster when your dog steals the tin of oatmeal-raisin cookies, or the package of chocolate fudge, or eats the tinsel off the tree, or eats the earrings, or swallows the pieces to the new board game, or simply eats too much fatty food.

Have I scared you yet?

There's a fine line between information and fear. Fear isn't my intent. I want you to enjoy Christmas! But I also want to save you and your dog a visit to the emergency vet.

So keep these things in the cabinet. (Not on the counter. Not on the table) Anything that has these ingredients:

• raisins
• grapes
• macadamia nuts
• chocolate (dark chocolate is the worst, but all is dangerous)
• fatty foods (dips, finger foods, etc)
• anything with bones

Other ways to keep your dogs out of trouble:

1. Don't leave your dogs unattended. Even if they're usually good, keep an eye on them as temptation lurks.
2. Don't put small gifts under the tree.
3. Use a baby gate to keep the dog away from the tree and presents when you're not around.
4. Don't let your dog drink the water out of the Christmas tree stand.
5. Put breakable ornaments high on the tree.
6. After all the presents are opened, keep the dog away from the packages. Even if your dog's not a chewer, do you really want dog drool all over your new XBox game or Droid phone?
7. Keep your dog's diet regular. A little too much fat can spell trouble!
8. Keep your emergency vet's telephone number handy.
9. Keep this number by your phone: (888) 426-4435. It's ASPCA's Animal Poison Control Center.
   

Last Minutes with ODEN

If you've ever loved a dog, this video will touch you. An ex-con found love in the form of a dog. You WILL cry.

Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

Snow Hounds (Video)

We love the snow! This is Talos the Great Dane's first big snow. And because he's a service dog in training, we'll have to return him to Service Dogs of Virginia before next winter. So every snow's important to us! Enjoy watching the dogs romp...

Fear Not (Video)

We're always on the lookout for ways to expose Talos to new and unusual sights and sounds. When we were at the Christmas Tree farm we had the chance to get our Christmas tree bundled. The bundler is loud and big. And there was plenty of room to move away if Talos showed any fear or avoidance of the crazy contraption.

The key to introducing your dog to something novel is to do it incrementally, to do it systematically, and to always (and I mean always!) go at your dog's pace. If you see signs of anxiety (tucked tail, ears back, lip licking, hiding behind your legs), STOP! Move further away, speak calmly and quietly to your dog, and try to feed some extra yummy treats. If your dog isn't eating those delicious treats, you know he's still too stressed. Move even farther away. Keep moving away until the dog's body language is more relaxed and until he's able to take treats.

What NOT to do: Don't reprimand your dog, don't boss your dog, don't pull your dog closer, don't stay there and expect your dog to get used to it. That's not fair to the dog and proves to the dog that you're not on the same team.

Take a look at what a really good relationship (developed through clicker training) can get you...a dog who's a little uncertain, but who trusts that everything's ok as long as he's with you.

A Test for Talos

'Tis the season for holiday parties, get-togethers, and socializing.

All of these are terrific opportunities for Talos (and me) to measure our progress on basic good manners (walking politely on leash, laying down on his mat, and name recognition to name just a few).

Our biggest test yet came Wednesday night at Frederick City Hall at the Frederick Chamber's Holiday Networking Event.

Over 300 people were making merry! This was Talos' first foray into a big, loud, bustling, crowded venue.

It was shoulder-to-shoulder and back-to-back in City Hall. Talos couldn't walk next to me - there simply wasn't enough room. He had to trust me and follow me, winding around the legs (and rears) of hundreds of (very noisy) people.

Stop and think about that for a moment from the dog's point-of-view. He can't see where we're going. He just has to follow. He doesn't know when I'm about to stop, he just has to slow up when I do. He doesn't know the hundreds of people reaching out to pet him, he just has to trust that they are friendly hands reaching for him. He doesn't know the booming base is from the microphone in the other room, he has to be patient and trust that nothing bad will happen.

He resisted the urge to sample the goodies being passed around (see the picture above) and was polite and social with everyone.

This was a test for Talos. And he passed with flying colors. That's the power of clicker training. Everyone knows you can get lots of reliable behaviors quickly, but I love the residual effect of clicker training just as much -- the wonderful trusting relationship that develops between me and the dog.

Talos was occasionally unsure, uncertain. But because our relationship was built with the clicker, he trusted me. And I upheld that trust. If he balked at anything, we took our time and went at his pace until he was ready to proceed. Training is a relationship - not something done to the dog. Never forget that.

Bittersweet

December's a time of celebration and a time of remembrance here at SDU. First, it's Nemo's birthday month! Who doesn't like birthdays? This is the little squirt when we brought him home in February of 2006. When we thought he was a Labrador mix.

And this is our big guy now. What a love. Two years ago, we went through some really rough times with Nemo. We didn't think he was going to live. It was hell. He had a usually-fatal fungus called pythiosis. It was a bad few months. He went through the holiday season with several surgeries. Healthy as a horse now, we're thankful to have Nemo with us.

December is also the anniversary of the loss of Lucky, my Australian shepherd. It's been just a year since he died of a heart attack. The dog who taught me so much about dog behavior has been gone a year...it's hard to believe. While his behavior problems were quite plentiful, oh the lessons I learned from him. I'm thankful to have crossed paths with this dog. He's buried at Lake Anna (he's enjoying the Lake in the picture above).

While not good with people, Lucky was a very good leader in his dog-world. We relied on him to raise the service pups we brought in. He'd tolerate but so much of their silliness, then would firmly - but gently - tell them when they'd crossed the line. I never knew how much work he did for us, raising puppies, until he was gone. Talos could use some "Lucky lessons," long about now.

It All Comes Back to Basics

Am I the only one who looks for a more complicated explanation than what's really happening? I tried to explain away Talos' lunging and barking behavior by attributing it to his adolescence.

Yeah, turns out that's just not the case.

Well, it could be a contributing factor, but the real reason he's lunging and barking is, well, because I haven't done enough foundation work with him.

Sad, but true.

I took him to class today and while he did much better than I anticipated, it was very clear that we have a lot of work to do. 

The Down Side:

• His sits are very slow. (He's slow to start them after I give the cue, as well as slow to actually execute them. For the dog trainers reading this: his latency and speed are the pits.)
• He doesn't have a very good stay.
• Duration of eye contact is minimal (five seconds or less)

The Up Side:

• His name recognition and "Look" are terrific.
• His loose leash walking is quite nice.
• Downs are terrific.
• His "settle" (go to his mat and lay down) are spot on.
• When given the opportunity to play with another dog, he's got good social skills and takes doggie corrections very nicely. (The Border collie did not appreciate Talos smacking him in the face with his paw and he told Talos by snarling and snapping his teeth. Talos understood precisely what the Border collie said and the paw was not thrown much after that!)

So, while there are more ups than downs, we have a lot of work to do. The morals of this story:

1. Recognize small bits of inappropriate behavior and do something about it before it becomes big chunks of inappropriate behavior.
2. You can never spend too much time on the basics!

Off to School

Talos is just turning eight months old - an adolescent. And just like human teenagers, we're seeing some behavior changes. Some are good, some not so good.

One not-so-good example: he's barking and lunging at other dogs. He wants to play, but is getting frustrated because I won't let him go to the dogs right away.

I don't let him visit the other dogs for a number of reasons:

1. When he's with his for-good person, he can't visit every dog he sees.
2. Not every dog wants a huge cow-like dog in his face.
3. He can't visit another dog if he's going to pull me to get there. 

That's enough reasons, right?

It's very difficult for me to find a training class during the day. I teach classes every night, but can't take him because I'm working - I've got to work with my clients.

Thankfully, one of my dog-training friends (who is an excellent trainer to boot) offers daytime classes and offered us a spot in her beginner level course on Fridays. So starting tomorrow, Talos is enrolled in remedial good manners classes!

I think it will take several sessions for us to get this behavior under control. But at least we're starting early. If you notice a behavior you'd rather not see in your dog, don't wait to see if it will get better! Talk to a qualified positive reinforcement trainer and enroll in a class or get some in-home training.

Behaviors don't get better with time. In fact, they normally get worse. So do yourself (and your dog) a favor and nip it in the bud before the problem grows into something unmanageable.