Smart Dog

Puppy Swap

We're extending a warm welcome to Ike, and at the same time bidding Teddy a fond farewell and good luck on his next journey. Ike is actually General Eisenhower. And Teddy, of course, is Theodore Roosevelt.

Remember when I went away for a month? Teddy's puppy sitters fell in love with him. They've been waiting to raise a pup, but wanted an older, more stable pup. Ike was slated for them, but is still kind of a youngster and not as "easy" as Teddy is. It was then we made the realization:  here's Teddy (who they're already in love with) - the easiest pup to live with, and who's already spent an entire month in their home without any trials or tribulations.

I'm always up for a puppy, so it was an easy decision to make when the Director asked what I thought of the idea. So this morning Teddy's off to his new family -- who have two great young kids and another dog for Teddy to play with. And my guys are getting familiar with Ike.

There are a few things we've already noticed about Ike - he's a big-time retriever (he already knows how to pick up a keyring and a phone!) and he likes to bark.

When he's done with his meal in his crate, he announces it by barking. And barking. And then barking just a little bit more. That's definitely high on our priority list of things to work on!

Ike is a Labrador retriever and he's four months old. He was donated to Hero Dogs by a generous Labrador breeder. Ike's lines have a great history of producing dogs with excellent hips and elbows - very important for any dog, but especially for a dog who will have someone depending on him for many years to come. We look forward to sharing Ike's journey with you.

Perfecting Teddy's "Kennel" - Video

A lot of people find it interesting to see how much work goes into training. Whether working with a service dog or a pet dog, the training is the same. Clicker training creates an eager dog, a dog who wants to be part of the process. A willing dog makes a great training partner. 

Too often, I hear owners say "He knows how to do this, he's just being stubborn." In my experience, the dog isn't stubborn. He doesn't really know the behavior like you think he does. If you're confident your dog knows what you're asking, put him through the test for stimulus control. Here are the four conditions of stimulus control:

1. Your dog does the behavior when asked. (Your dog goes to his kennel when you ask him.)
2. Your dog doesn't do the behavior if he isn't asked. (Your dog doesn't go to his kennel if you didn't ask him.)
3. Your dog doesn't do some other behavior when you ask. (Your dog doesn't sit when you ask him to kennel.)
4. Your dog doesn't offer the behavior when you ask him to do something else. (Your dog doesn't kennel when you ask him to sit.)

I thought Teddy's kennel behavior was pretty good so I put it to the stimulus control test. And video-taped it. Ugh. We have a lot of work to do! Check out the link at the bottom of this post for the video. (You can see it on YouTube if it looks odd when you watch it through the blog.)

So the next time you swear your dog knows something, give him the test for stimulus control. I'll bet he doesn't really know it. That's ok. You're the teacher - get out there and work with the dog some more. We're working hard and will get all of Teddy's behaviors under stimulus control. It just takes time and training.

 

A Quick Talos News Brief

It's been a long, hard twelve weeks since I turned Talos in. I can't believe it's only been twelve weeks, if I'm being honest. It feels like FOREVER ago. I miss him as badly today as I did the day we turned him in.

The good news is I don't cry every day. But it took me a long, long time to even be able to look at pictures of him. Just looking at this picture here is a little difficult still.

I got a nice "Talos Update" from Service Dogs of Virginia. He's sleeping in bed with the Training Director (yay!), he's learning to retrieve, and he's doing well on his footwork behaviors.

Brace dogs need to be flexible. I don't mean the bend-y kind of flexible, but more like able to do a lot of different things with their feet. His job is going to be to help someone keep their balance. So if his person needs him to move closer, he's got to be able to figure out - quickly - how to get closer to matter which direction he's facing, where his hind end is, etc.

He's got to be able to pivot, to turn in tight quarters. That's not an easy thing for a dog as big as Talos to do! Big T is taller than me when he's on his hind legs - he's no shrimp! So I'm doubly impressed that the big lug is learning how to be so light on his feet.

I'm hoping to get his tribute video together soon -- seeing as I can now finally stand to look at his picture without dissolving in tears. (One or two still slide down my face, but they're at least controllable now.)

And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to drive down for a visit in November. My birthday present to myself. I think I can handle it. Actually I think I'd enjoy it - and be able to control my urge to run for the border with him.

More Denver Zoo Training Video!

If you've ever complained that you can't wipe your dog's feet, that you can't trim their nails, that you can't clean their ears, you need to take a look at this video I took while I was behind-the-scenes at the Denver Zoo.

The trainers are working with two male hyenas and most of what you're seeing is their husbandry behaviors. It's imperative for these animals to willingly accept veterinary care. If the animals are stressed for veterinary care, it makes it harder on the animals, the trainers, and the veterinarians. Instead of sedating, it's much easier (and better for the animals) to teach them to accept care. If you have a hard time seeing the video here on my blog, check it out on Smart Dog University's video channel on YouTube.

 

Hyenas, Belugas, and Penguins - Oh My!

The October issue of Your Smart Dog is hot off the presses!

Quick: What do hyenas, beluga whales, and penguins have in common with your dog? Here’s the answer: they all learn the same way. And ALL of them can benefit from training, specifically positive reinforcement training.

In the last two weeks, I’ve had the good fortune of going behind the scenes with trainers from the Denver Zoo and Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, IL.  Oh sure, it’s really cool to watch hyenas in a training session. And there’s nothing quite like watching a sea lion conquer his fear. But here’s the really cool thing: as fascinating as it is to watch those exotic animals learning, it’s even better to bring that training to people and their dogs!

Click here to keep reading about how positive reinforcement training can help you and your dog!

A Scary Moment on Our Morning Walk

Alternate Title: WHY I HATE UNDERGROUND ELECTRIC FENCES.

We walked every day in Europe. We walked a long time. A long way. It was really fun. I wanted to keep up that habit when I returned home. So this morning, I leashed up the three dogs and we went for a nice neighborhood stroll. As I walked out the door, I dismissed the idea of bringing my cell phone (the battery was really low). And I'd never ever needed the DirectStop. Ever. So it stayed behind, too.

The walk was nice - Lily (the dog who's reactive to other dogs when she's on-leash) did a great job dealing with the maniac dog who rushes his electric fence barking like he's going to kill us if we get close enough. (This alone is enough reason for me to hate underground electric fences. But wait, there's more. Keep reading.) She started to go into her frenzy but then turned and looked at me when I called her name and very quickly was back under conrol. Nice work, Lil!

We continued our walk, loving this beautiful morning. Around the next bend was a 90-pound dog, safely (so I thought) contained by his invisible electric fence. Thing is, he looked WAY too close to the road. Generally, he stays about 30 feet away from the road.

Uh oh.

He took a step closer. By this time, my dogs (Lily, especially) noticed this big guy who is very stiffly staring at us. Stiff is never something you want to see in an unfamilar dog - it usually means trouble. I yelled at him (I can sound pretty tough) to get away, but he's laser-locked on my dogs, taking very deliberate and slow steps toward them.

By this time, my guys are pretty fired up. I was unable to get Lily's attention, so she's in full-blown bark mode and now, with Tango (my yellow Lab) and Nemo (the hound/Dane mix) as back-up, she's in rare form. When Tango and Lily are together, even Tango (who ususally uses his brain and is reasonable) gets a little haywire.

The neighbor dog wasn't stopping. I had some decisions to make. And quickly. I wasn't going to get in the way of him. I hoped he'd notice that it was going to be three against one and would reconsider. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, he kept taking those slow, deliberate paces straight toward us.

I decided against trying to pull the dogs away: (a) I'm not strong enough (I was outweighed) and (b) tension on leashes, especially in a situation like this, is never a good idea. My next thought: give my dogs as good a chance as possible if this big dog decided to have a go at them. So I dropped Nemo's leash -- he's the least likely to fight and would try to escape if possible.

By this time, the big dog is squarely in the middle of my dogs. I'm still yelling (like an idiot) and thankfully Lily begins to calm down. (I don't think it was because of my yelling - more about that in a minute.) Things are still awfully stiff among the dogs, there's a lot of posturing and I'm still not sure how this whole thing is going to turn out.

I decided to drop Lily's leash as well - she's the smallest and if there was going to be a disagreement, I wanted her to be able to get out of there, too. Finally, I walked between Tango and the big dog, calling my dogs as I did it.

They looked up (!) and I began to walk away. The big guy decided he'd like to follow, so I turned, made myself as large as I could (hard to do for a 5' 1" person) and bellowed "GO HOME." He didn't necessarily listen, but I think the bass of my voice took him by surprise. He looked up at me and at least stopped moving forward.

My dogs got lots, and lots, and lots of food (I always carry food with me) and we extricated ourselves from the situation.

Remember the yelling I was doing as the dog was approaching? If I could do it all over again, I'd try to get myself under control first - yelling was ineffective at best. It could have helped encourage a fight. I was panicked, however, at the thought of a fight, blood, and the fact that I had neither my phone or any way to get an injured dog back to my house.

Things I will never leave behind again: Cell phone and DirectStop.

If you have an underground electric fence: PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COLLARS ON YOUR DOGS ALL THE TIME. The dogs really DO know when the collar isn't on. DON'T leave your dog unattended. And when they start to bark like maniacs at the boundary, call them back! All that frustration is not a good thing for your dog. And having them cross that barrier to get to my dogs isn't good for me. Or my dogs.

14 Days Gone

I managed only one post while I was in Italy and Germany the last two weeks. On our travels, we stayed in very small towns and very small inns, and the connecting to the internet wasn't a sure thing. There were so many pent up blog posts rattling around in my head at the moment - I'll get them organized and start getting them all up here in the next several days.

I've never been without my dogs for that long. Two weeks felt like forever. We had fun on our trip, don't let me give you the wrong idea. Loads of fun, actually. But as our return date got closer, the more antsy I got. In fact, we were in Munich a day early - that's where we flew home from - and I had to really resist the urge to see if we could get an earlier flight.

The dogs stayed at our house, where I thought they'd feel most comfortable. I had my wonderful aunt come in and stay with them. She's not a dog owner, but loves to be around dogs. I'm wondering if two weeks of dog hair didn't drive her a little batty.

The reports from her were good - all the dogs did well and caused no problems. (Thank goodness!) I emailed home every chance I could get to get updates on how the dogs were faring. The report was always the same: the dogs are fine, but we think they miss  you.

The eight hour flight home from Germany felt endless. I didn't think our luggage would ever drop onto the circulating belt. Clearing passport control and customs seemed to last forever. And driving the speed limit, especially after racing along at over 100 mph on the autobahn, was torture.

Finally -- finally -- we pulled into our driveway. We raced out of the car and ran into the house. The dogs looked happy to see us until they realized it was really us. Then they were ecstatic! Jumping, standing on their hind legs (something they almost never do!), whining, and circling and bumping us. It was sheer joy for both the dogs and for us!

I have never been happier. It appeared that the dogs were pretty pleased, too. Now we're trying to get back into our regular routine and it's all falling into place rather easily. There's nothing like coming home to an overwhelmingly happy homecoming!!

Look for more posts and pictures from the tour of Italy and Germany this week!

Dogs Across Italy

For the last week, I've been traveling across Italy. I've always been curious to see if Europe really is as dog-friendly as it's rumored to be. Keep in mind that I've only been to three areas - not really enough places to make sweeping generalizations. But I'm going to make them anyway because it's all I've got to go on. There have been dogs everywhere. The town squares, hotels, in a restaurant, and on the street. I've seen pups and I've seen old dogs. NONE of the dogs have been in a prong or choke collar. Not one. It's fabulous! The odd thing is that I haven't yet seen any of the owners show the dogs any affection. I've even stopped to smile at a dog and owner (my Italian's non-existent) and either the owner doesn't notice or doesn't care about my interest in the dog. On the up-side, all the dogs look very well cared for and are very well behaved. And I've seen only ONE dog on a Flexi! In fact, most of the dogs have been on a two-foot leash! Excellent! I can't figure out how to post pictures on the blog from my iPad, but rest assured, I've been taking A LOT of dog pictures and will have lots of posts when I return! We're off to Germany tomorrow. The hotel owner has a shihtzu and has already offered me free beer in return for some dog training advice!