The Smart Dog U Blog

Get Your Dog To Notice You!

Does your dog dash out the door, pulling you along behind. 

If you dropped the leash, would your dog even notice?

Does your dog pay more attention to the distractions outside than you?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you're not alone! This is one of the most common complaints I hear from owners. Their dog doesn't even know they exist once the dog is outside. Thankfully, there's an easy remedy to this situation. 

You'll need:

• a clicker
• delish treats
• 6' leash (no retractable leashes!)
• regular buckle collar (no prong or choke collars!)

Leash your dog, put your treats in a fanny pack and have your clicker ready. Open the door, step outside and wait for your dog to look at you. Don't move any further than just outside the door. As soon as your dog looks in your direction, click and give him the treat. You may have to reach and put the treat in his mouth if he's really distracted. Then just wait some more. Click every time your dog looks in your direction. If you're using super high-value treats, your dog will start looking at you more often than he's looking at his environment. 

Here's a video of my four dogs so you can get a feel for what this exercise looks like and how to do it. Each piece is only about two minutes long.

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...

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.

Wet and Cold Tracking Day (Video)

Nemo and I went tracking today despite temperatures in the 30's, a drenching, cold rain, and the threat of snow. Yeah, I think I really am the crazy dog lady...

What IS tracking, you ask? Tracking is a competitive form of search and rescue. We're not really rescuing anything, except a glove, when tracking though. In tracking, the dog uses his nose to follow a scent (or "track") that has been laid by a person. On the track are objects (usually the aforementioned glove). The dog's job is to follow the scent of the person who laid the track, which of course leads to the object (the glove).

Competitive tracks are hundreds of yards long, involve several turns and curves, and might involve several types of surfaces (grass, weeds, woods, pavement, cement, etc.). In tracking, the most important thing to remember is this:

THE DOG IS IN CHARGE. (Unlike every other competitive dog sport, in which the human is in charge.)

Dogs have noses a zillion times more powerful than ours. We can't smell the track. We don't know where the track is. We have to trust our dogs. How cool is that?

So after a couple hours inside a warm, dry building learning about the fundamentals of tracking, we donned our rain gear and went out into the cold rain.We're only beginners, so we started with very short tracks. It was a fun time, albeit cold and wet. Nemo was shivering by the time it was all over - I turned the heat on high and covered him with my down coat so he could warm up.

Here's a quick video of our soggy, but fun tracking morning...

 

 

Three Dogs, One Christmas Tree

Our annual Christmas tradition includes cutting our Christmas tree. We always take some dogs with us, of course. It's just not Christmas if the dogs aren't included!

 

We found one of Talos' relatives when we were at the Christmas tree farm! A cow!

It was a cold and windy day, threatening rain, but we all had a fine time.

Christmases spent with dogs are my favorite memories.

Chaotic Mayhem (Video)

This is what it looks like when four large dogs are playing in one small room. It's chaos. Controlled chaos, but chaos nonetheless. 

Lily rarely partakes in playtime. It's one of those once-in-a-blue-moon deals. It's so rare that I yanked the video camera out when they started this crazy play session. 

A couple things to notice: Nemo loves to play with Lily. They are play-buddies outside, but not usually inside. So when he saw her playing inside, he was ready to go! Knowing Nemo would interrupt her play with Talos, and knowing that this kind of play so rarely happens, I asked Nemo to restrain himself (which he did pretty nicely, I thought). 

Also, watch toward the end when Lily shakes off. That's a dog communication signal that often means "I'm done." Notice that even though Talos tries to re-engage her, she's pretty much done. 

There's lots of noise: growling, barking, yips. These are all normal play sounds from my group of dogs. Just like mothers can interpret their baby's different cries, I can tell immediately if a dog is no longer enjoying the play, just from the sound of the mayhem. These guys (and girl) are having nothing but fun. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ-TVVBEpEA

Two Updates

If you're a regular Smart Dog Blog reader, here are updates on two recent posts:

I was officially "mummified" last night, much to my delight. I was able to get in two hours earlier than expected and was thrilled to again sleep with the dogs!

The little bird that examined Nemo's tonsils this morning has made a great escape. I didn't see him during our afternoon play session outside.

Nemie's No Killer

Nemo's had a mixed history with the birds in our yard. I've always thought he was a friend of the backyard birds, but occasionally they'll wind up in his mouth. Not alive. I've seen him stick his head into a bush to look for them. I tell myself he's just curious, that he's not intentionally trying to harm them. But he IS a dog, after all, and dogs DO kill things.

I had no definitive evidence until today. The little yellow finches are late nesters. Their little ones are just leaving the nests about now. While I was refilling the finch feeders, Nemo occupied himself with something in the yard. I looked over to see what he'd found and...you guessed it: it was a baby yellow finch!

I  blurted "Nemie?!" in surprise. He looked at me with a quizzical expression, opened his mouth and deposited the fledgling onto the lawn. A little wet, but unhurt.

Yay, Nemie! You're NOT a bird killer! You really were just curious! The young bird flew a few feet, then had to rest. I took all the dogs inside - no need to press our luck (or the bird's!) - and have been watching him hop from place to place. I'll have to re-check the yard before I let the dogs out again, just in case he's still hanging around.

Do I think there will be dead birds in Nemo's future? Of course. He's a dog. He's curious. He has strong jaws and sharp teeth. Even if he doesn't mean to hurt them. But at least this little guy made it in - and out - of Nemo's jaws safely.

Nemo's Karma

Back when Nemo was but just a pup, I wrote an article about stress within the pack. You see, Nemo was the stress! He wasn't mean, he was just a pain! Lily and Tango wouldn't play with him, they wouldn't even play with each other because it attracted Nemo's attention. Every time Nemo came their way, they hunkered down and hoped he didn't notice them.

Of course he noticed them. He noticed when they breathed. He noticed when they blinked. He noticed everything either of them did. He bugged them and bugged them. It got to the point where we actually considered finding Nemie a new home. I sent a special edition of the Your Smart Dog, the Smart Dog University monthly newsletter, trying to find a great new home.

Clearly, we didn't find a new home. (Could it have been that our ridiculously high standards excluded just about everyone? Probably.)  In any event, we're very happy today that we still have Nemie.

Especially because now Talos is the pest and Nemie is the victim! It's wonderful to watch Nemie get a little bit of his own medicine. Talos isn't nearly as annoying at Nemo was, but he's annoying enough, according to Nemo. 

Enjoy this video, which shows Talos being only minimally annoying to Nemo. 

Odd Dog(s) Out

A local Rhodesian Ridgeback club was having a fun practice day and we were invited to bring our dogs to a lure-coursing practice in the beautiful town of Lovettsville, VA. Always excited to see and try a new dog-related activity, off we went at 7:00a this morning. 

There were about 20 Rhodesian Ridgebacks and every one of them knew exactly why they were there. Charged up and ready to run, they were excited to get the morning started. I wish I would have gotten some of them on video so you could see just how graceful and powerful these dogs are when they run at full-speed, chasing the little plastic bag (lure) as it zips around the field on a small piece of rope. 

Dogs under a year shouldn't do a full course. It's too jarring on their still-developing joints. This club has a special course for puppies. It's a short, straight course without turns. They pull the lure slowly (thank goodness - Talos isn't what you'd call fast. Or graceful.) to keep the pups at a reasonable speed. 

Alas, all I have is video of Talos taking a "puppy fun run." While it's cute to watch a puppy do just about anything, it's not even close to what lure coursing looks like. I'll post the video shortly. 

I do have some footage of Nemo, too, but it's almost as bad as Talos' run! Toward the end of the morning, though, Nemo was getting that the point of lure coursing was to chase the lure. He liked to run out a bit, then would look over his shoulder to see where we were. If he'd run too far away, he'd leave the traveling lure and make a bee-line back to us. With Dana running the course with him (what a great husband I have!), Nemo finally made a successful run! And Dana got his cardio in for the day!

Despite being the only people without a Ridgeback (or two), everyone made us feel very welcome. We feel like we made many new dog friends, as well as people friends today.