The Smart Dog U Blog

Former Friday: Talos Beats the Heat (video)

A little over a year ago, this is what we were doing on a hot Friday night...It's so hot right now, I thought this deserved to be posted again.

Talos hates the water - has hated it since he was a wee pup. It's been triple digits here in the Mid-Atlantic. The dogs don't even want to go outside until the sun goes down. We rigged up a cooling room for the dogs out under our only shade tree inside the fence. It's a garden hose on the "mist" setting.

Watch how 100+ degree weather changes a dog's mind...

 

K9 Nose Work: Catch the Craze!

K9 Nose Work ^TM is crazy fun. For you. For your dog. Wondering what K9 Nose Work is? I thought so. Take a look at this video to see some K9 Nose Work dogs in action! Smart Dog University has a new K9 Nose Work class scheduled to start August 3 (6:30p in Frederick, MD), if you think your dog would be interested. (Hint: You'll love it!)

   

Enough of Old Man Winter

Ok, I love snow as much as the next girl, but come on! This winter MUST end soon, lest I lose my mind!

Last year was different: there were back-to-back blizzards. Everyone enjoyed a solid week off work, we were all house-bound just long enough to really enjoy "roughing it."

Read the rest of this post at our new hangout on the brand spanking new website!

Click here for the new Smart Dog University blog site. 

You'll be taken directly to this post on the new site. 

Dogs Don't Grow Up

 So many puppy people ask: "When will this puppy calm down? He's crazy, I don't know if I can keep up with this pace!"

Here's the thing. They don't usually slow down 'til they're dead. That's the magic of a dog. They love to play at any age, they're ready to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it.

For the life of me, I can't imagine anything other than full-speed all the time. That's what makes a dog a dog.

I had the pleasure of watching 8-year old Tango chase 6-month old Ike around and around the house today. It's too cold to stay outside, so the dogs do their playing indoors. Sure, the house gets a little messy, but a little mess is worth all the smiles that result from watching an adult dog play with the same enthusiasm as the youngster.

 

The Odd Couple

We have three dogs who help us raise service dog pups. This is how it normally goes:

Tango, yellow Labrador, is the police officer - he keeps the pup in line. He doesn't tolerate a lot of silliness from the pups. He's the one I count on to put a silly, jump-on-your-head Labrador in his place.

Lily, black Labrador, is the school marm. There will be no funny business around here, mister. Life is serious. There isn't very much time or opportunity for play, says Lily. She also keeps a pretty tight paw on the pup.

Nemo, well, he's usually contributing to the delinquincy of the pup. He's the pal, the one who's always ready for a run around the yard, a game of tug, a wrestling match. He self-handicaps so the pup is always this close to winning. We call him the baby-sitter sometimes because he does such a good job of keeping the pup occupied that he (the pup) stays out of trouble.

When Ike showed up, he gravitated toward Tango. I cringed inwardly - neither Tango nor Ike would ultimately be happy with this choice, I thought. It would irritate Tango to have to continue to tell Ike off, and Ike wouldn't enjoy being told off. But Tango's a pretty good communicator - he gets his point across very well - so I let the two of them work it out.

Well, wouldn't you know: Tango seems to not only tolerate Ike, but Ike's actually gotten Tango to play with him! This is odd for a couple of reasons. (1) Tango doesn't play a whole lot. He retrieves. Retrieving is a one-dog sport. (2) Tango simply doesn't like puppies. At the risk of anthropomorphizing here, puppies make Tango wrinkle up his face in disgust. You can see it on his face, I swear.

Somehow, some way, Ike has broken through (or maybe it's broken down) Tango's wall. And it's not just about play, either. Ike crawls into Tango's bed and snuggles up with Tango. In the past, when a puppy has invaded Tango's space, I see the wrinkly, disgusted face on Tango right before he gets up in a huff and finds a different spot to rest.

Not this time. Not with Ike. I can't explain it, but I do have fun watching this new relationship unfold.

 

Teddy's Goof-Off Day

Don't let this silly face fool you. Teddy's a grass-churnin', rip-roarin', goof off fool! The dogs were home alone for a few hours today and were more than a little ready for some R + R in the backyard when I returned home.

I still had a lot of work to do when I got home, but I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and multi-task. I took my work outside with me and sat in the Adirondack chair under the shade tree.

Lily's idea of goofing off is to lay flat on her back and have her belly rubbed. Continuously.

Tango's idea of goofing off is retrieving the tennis ball. Continuously.

Nemo goofs off in a few different ways: he lopes around the yard blowing off some steam, he then rolls in the grass, kicking his feet to the sky, and then heads for the kiddie pool for a cool-down.

Teddy goofs off in a million ways, but his favorite goofing-off activities involve annoying Nemo.

It's been a long, tough week here at Smart Dog U - we're having a kitchen re-do. The past few days have found me and the four dogs sequestered in my office as the kitchen cabinets were installed. Lots of banging, noise, and dust.

So at the end of a very long week, the dogs had to blow off a little steam. Here's a quick look at that fun. (If you have a hard time seeing the entire width of the video, double click it and you can watch it direct from YouTube.)

 

The Trouble with Vacations

Not a lot of prose today. Just the cold, hard facts. It's really hard to come back after vacation. Especially a vacation with the dogs. A vacation the dogs enjoyed as much as we did.

Vacation for this family is spent lakeside. We love the water, we have dogs who love the water - it's perfect. Here's what I find so refreshing about a vacation, besides the fact that I'm away from the hustle and bustle of every day life:

No make up. No hairdo.

No clothes (we wear bathing suits all day, sweats in the evening).

The dogs come along to enjoy vacation with us.

We spend the entire vacation with the dogs, doing what we all love.

The dogs are TIRED at the end of every day. There's no better sleep than a deep, relaxing sleep. We both (dogs and people) get that at the end of every day on vacation.

We all eat a whole lot less because we're always at the dock, always moving.

We always see a few bald eagles. There's nothing more majestic than watching a soaring eagle from the dock!

Finding new places to explore.

Vacations are nice I guess, because they're, well, vacations! We heartlily enjoyed ours and are dreaming about the next trip to the lake!

 

Baby Steps

There are lots of ways a pup can get his food. He can work for it. He can eat it out of a food stuffed toy. He can find it scattered about the patio. One thing this little guy won't be doing is eating food out of a bowl. That's way too easy.

Teddy needs to keep busy, he needs to problem solve, he needs to take more than 30 seconds to eat his meal.

Food stuffed toys, like the red Kong in the picture, are great food-delivery systems. You stuff your dog's dry food (kibble) into the Kong, drop the Kong on the floor (so some of the kibble drops out and grabs the dog's interest) and let the dog figure out the rest.

To make this task fun and interesting, we make it really easy at first. We put the food into a large Kong - the kibble will fall out easier this way. After a week of feeding Teddy this way, he'll get really good at getting the food out quickly and efficiently.

The next step is to add a little bit of difficulty - enough to challenge his problem solving skills, but not too much that he gives up. Peanut butter or nonfat yogurt is a great "stuffer." Simply line the inside of the toy with the peanut butter (or yogurt), fill with kibble leaving a little room for some more of the goopy stuff. The peanut butter or yogurt is really enticing for the dog, and also slows him down a bit.

The middle portion is relatively easy - it's just kibble, and the hardest part to get out is the part where the food is stuck to the peanut butter way deep into the Kong. If you spent enough time letting the dog learn how to get plain kibble out of the toy, I'll be he'll remain committed to getting the last little bit, especially if there's some gooey goodies in there, too!

After another week of gooping up the contents of the toy, you can make the game even more challenging by gooping the Kong with peanut butter and kibble, described above, and then freeze the whole thing!

The frozen Kong  seems to be a favorite of Teddy's. He seems to really enjoy the challenge of getting the frozen peanut butter and kibble out. He's good at using his paws to help hold the Kong so it doesn't move around. 

Why do we care about stuff like this? The whole idea of "working for dinner" is a nice one - why waste the opportunity to train by simply putting the bowl of food on the floor for the dog to eat? Use your dog's dinner as treats to reward good behavior! Or, teach your dog how to become a problem solver by letting him figure out how to get the kibble out of the food-stuffed toy. The longer it takes the dog to eat his dinner, the more time you'll have to get stuff done without your dog sticking his nose into whatever it is you're doing! You'll keep your dog mentally challenged. You'll tire your dog out. All these things are GOOD things and can help a manic, overactive dog become calmer.

Spring Fever Hits the Big Dogs (Video)

The weather in the Mid-Atlantic is looking very much like Spring! The sun is shining, the grass is green, the birds are singing, and the big dogs are a little silly! Every time I let them out (I should wise-up and just leave the door open), they throw their heads up and take in big gulps of air. Just once I wish I could know what that feels like - they look positively mesmerized by what's floating on the breeze. 

Anyway, after those first few minutes of tranquility, it's off to the races! They run here, they run there. They jump. They stalk (ok, only Talos and Nemo stalk - the Labradors are not stalkers, thankyouverymuch). I put together some footage today of the dogs enjoying the day. 

Take note of how physical Nemo (black dog) and Talos (cow lookalike) play. They're well-matched play partners: they both like the same kind of play. An Australian Shepherd or a German Shepherd would not find this kind of play at all enjoyable, however. They're more chase and be chased dogs, not wrestle and body-slam. 

Notice that Lily's nowhere to be seen. She's a wallflower when it comes to playtime. The two big dogs are too rough for her and playing with them is just not fun for her. She was curled up under my feet, tucked safely out of harms way.

Note: In the second video, you'll hear Talos yelp at the end of the tape. Talos (or Nemo) came down on Talos' leg funny and Talos limped for a few minutes. Talos is completely fine. In fact, the first video was taken after that fall. 

Spring Fever courtesy of the Big Dogs:

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...