Train with your dog, not at your dog.

There are a few things dog trainers hear more than others:
“He knows better”
“She’s being stubborn”
“How do I get my dog to stop (digging, barking, etc.)?
“What is the best way to punish my dog?” Very rarely is it, “What is the best way to reward my dog?” Ask yourself which way you would have asked it.

Sometimes I think, “Gee, are you really sure you wanted a dog?"

It is not the dogs’ fault that you have not trained him properly. It is of no use to get mad at your dog because your dog does not understand English, or whatever language you speak to her in. You will get much more out of your training, and the relationship you have with your dog, if you don’t make training adversarial.

One of the things we need to come to grips with for our training to become better is to get over the notion that our dog respects the fact that we are human. They have no natural respect for humans and it has to be earned and it will not be given just because we expect it or because we walk on two legs.

Dealing with your dog as an adversary, instead of being a training partner, will set both of you up to fail. You don’t like failure and neither does your dog. When you call your dog to come, and she does not, we take it personally and blame the dog for our failure. We wonder how the dog would dare not obey the command of the king, or queen, of the household kingdom. How dare they?! I am going to guess that you got your dog because you wanted a friend who would give you unconditional love. Not because you wanted someone around who would obey your every command no matter whether they understand what you want or not.

It does not have to be this way. Your dog does loves you and looks forward to your coming home so that you might have wonderful moments together everyday. Work with her so that the line of communication becomes a two-way street. Your dog will listen to you, and you need to listen to her. If you take your time to teach your dog what you want when you say something, and are consistent about what you want, your dog will meet you more than halfway. Your dog only fails to comply with your requests because they don’t understand what you want, not because they want to blow you off, or “they know better.” Dogs are not born knowing what we want them to do. They don’t know how we want them to behave in our home and they don’t understand any language on earth except woof. What dogs can do is read us very well. They do it better than any other animal on the planet including humans.

Your dog needs to be trained to understand what behavior you are looking for and not just be scolded for doing the behavior you do not want. Just think about how difficult it would have been for you to learn that 4x4=16 if you weren’t taught math and just scolded every time you got the answer wrong. You might have gotten there eventually but it would have taken a long, long time and been very frustrating and chances are you would have been resentful about it.

There are two things that you have going in your favor when it comes to dog training.
1) Your dog wants to please you.
2) You are smarter than your dog.
If you can’t figure out how to train and manage your dogs behavior how in the heck do you expect him to do it?
Give your dog a break. A little patient training from you will go a long way to keeping the two of you happy together for a long time. Just remember that you did not learn to drive before you learned to start the car. Your dog training should use that approach as well.

Finding a Vet

A few years ago I had a friend who adopted a golden retriever they named Ricki. She is a great dog and the family fell in love very fast. The dog got sick and had to go through many procedures, some of which were uncomfortable for the dog, and expensive for them. What really makes this a sad story is that when they went to get a second opinion they discovered that their original vet had been a very poor choice. The new vet questioned the diagnosis and began to treat the dog after they transferred her care to the new vets office. This was after they had spent several thousands of dollars before they made the switch. All of the dogs’ symptoms soon cleared up and except for the occasional doggie accident Ricki’s only office visits now are for routine checkups.

What I hope this story brings to the forefront of your thoughts is that you should make an informed choice regarding a veterinarian for your pet. Just because someone went to a veterinarian college does not mean they are an ethical person if they weren’t one before. After a couple of years it was discovered that the original veterinarian was an alcoholic with a gambling habit that cost him his family and finally his business. I hate to think about how many other people paid too much money for poor advice, unneeded tests and procedures.

Of course this story is an exception but it is a good example to us that we need to be as careful choosing a veterinarian for our pets as we would be in choosing a doctor for our family. We should also educate ourselves about the health of our pet so that we have a basis of knowledge when we talk to the veterinarian. There are many sources of information available to us through books and the Internet.

When you get a feeling in your gut about the veterinarian follow it. More often than not your instincts are right. Once you find a vet you are comfortable with they should always be willing to discuss what is going on with your pet. If they don’t the run as fast as you can out of the door and never come back!

Some basic things you should look for in choosing a vet are:

Patience – Your vet should take time to discuss what is going on with your pet, especially if the pet is new to you or you have never owned a pet before.
Concern for you and your pet – Does your vet give you advice regarding the well being of your pet? They should. Does the vet take time to ask questions of you regarding your pets’ health?
Does the vet listen to you – You should feel that you could ask the veterinarian anything regarding the health of your pet.
Concern – Do you feel like the vet is genuinely concerned about your pet and also your relationship with it?
Are you an ATM for your vet – Your vet needs to make a living, and they should, but they should take into account if you bring in a lot of animals because it can be very expensive. If you are doing rescue work ask if a discount is available.
Does the vet hide behind closed doors – Do you get to go into the examination room with your pet or visit while your pet is in a medical clinic?
Does the vet love animals - You might be surprised to find out that some people who practice veterinary medicine don’t have a deep affection for animals. They are just good at science and became a vet in order to make a good living. Try to find out if your vet has pets or animals at home. Does your vet display comfort and concern when around your pets?
A Referral – A referral from a friend, or someone else you trust, can be a great way to find a vet but remember that the person making the referral has to know something about animals and ask if they use the vet. Sometimes people just want to be helpful and don’t really know what they are talking about. When you meet the new vet, or after a few visits, if something does not feel right look for another veterinarian. You should feel happy, no you have to feel happy, with the choice you make.

Find a pet first aid class held in your area. This will give you a good foundation of knowledge you can use to draw from in your search for a vet and you will also have some idea of what you need to tell the vet when you and your pet make a visit to the clinic.
Your pet will give you many great moments in your life. The least you can do is find the best veterinarian you can for them.

Stupid Human Tricks

One of my pet peeves (no pun intended but it is funny) are idiots that do not know how to greet a dog. Almost never is it people who don’t know dogs and know they don’t know dogs but usually the people who know dogs (or at least say they do) but really do not.

Example: A week or so ago I was walking with a pit bull in downtown San Diego trying to get her ready to take her Canine Good Citizen test. We walked by a store where I knew someone who worked so I stopped outside the doorway to talk to him. As we were standing there a young woman walked by and asked it she could pet the dog. Sure I told her. She started petting the dog and before you could say Jack Russell she had her face pressed up against the pit bulls face and was kissing her. “I just love dogs” the young woman said as she stood up to leave. She demonstrated how little she knows about dogs, and I sincerely doubt that she knows how lucky she was. Had the pit bull been either the boxer or German shepherd I worked with recently the end of the encounter between the two cultures might have had a very different ending; Say with a run to the emergency room.

Sadly I see this kind of behavior from humans all to often and when something goes wrong somehow it is always the dogs’ fault. That just seems wrong. The dog did not ask you to pet them; they did not stick their face into yours (a very rude thing in the dog world and a challenge to fight to boot). Please, when you see people doing this most stupid of behaviors say something. You just might save them a few stitches and more importantly a dogs life.

I have attached a great cartoon of how not to greet a dog. It is very well done. Lili Chin did the work and you can view more of her work at http://doggiedrawings.net

Charger Fan

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit with a pit bull mix named Charger. Her owner asked me to do an evaluation of her because she was doing some resource guarding and was beginning to get a little aggressive with three dogs in the household and more aggressive with the female pack leader.

I met Teri, the mother, and Charger late in the afternoon at her place of work. I took along one of my dogs, Handy. Handy is probably the most stable, non-threatening dog I have ever seen. She will correct another dog once in a while but her buttons really have to be pushed so I use her often when working with shy or fearful dogs. So far she has never been hurt and we just hope we keep the same good karma going.

At first Charger was growlie but we soon put an end to that and shortly had the dogs taking treats while sitting side by side. Like most trainers I like to make money, and need to make money so I can keep on training, but I also like to be fair with people. I gave Teri some ideas to try at home so she could save money. If the ideas worked for her then great, if not then she could call me and we would set up a training schedule for her and Charger. So far I have not been called for training so I guess everything is going well. I have seen Teri a couple of times and get good reports on Charger.

All that you have read prior to this in this story is not really what the story is about at all. What it is about is how amazed I am about the behavior of dogs, well all animals I guess.

When I met Charger and Teri for the consultation Teri had a litter of kittens in her office. They were they in a box and were being well tended to by Charger. The mother of the kittens had been killed by a coyote. A friend of Teri’s found the kittens so she and Teri would take turns caring for them. When the kittens were very young Charger, the aggressive pit bull mix, decided that she would be the kittens mother. She would lick them and clean them up if they messed themselves and would take care of them the way any good mother takes care of her off spring. The kittens would climb out of their box and Charger would gently pick them up and put them back in. She allowed the kittens to crawl around on her and she would play with them.

Sadly, but as it always is, the kittens have gotten older and are just about ready to leave the care of Teri and her friend but I think it is Charger who will miss them the most. She found a moment of peace in this world and her peace was found helping another creature quite unlike her. She might have some problems with aggression but I can only wish that most of us had as much compassion for others unlike ourselves as Charger showed to her kitty’s. Thanks for the lesson Charger. You are beautiful.

Part of what training is all about.

Today I worked with one of my favorite dogs in the whole world, Bobbi the pit. In order to understand the background I have with Bobbi you can read a blog about her story on: http://www.deltasociety.org/Page.aspx?pid=508. Anyway, suffice it to say that Bobbi has been in my life since she was eight weeks old. We fostered her until she was adopted by Giovanna who later became our friend and when Bobbi needed training she turned to me.

I have been working with Bobbi off and on for over a year now. Between that training and the time she spent with us as a foster dog I have grown to love her very much. Bobbi started having some dog/dog aggression issues and it seemed like no matter what we tried she was not getting better. I was beginning to feel that maybe I was too close to the situation and a new set of eyes was needed to get a new perspective on things. In comes Zoe. (By the way, Bobbi was in Zoe's life at 8 weeks old as well)

Zoe and I have a professional relationship that over time blossomed into friendship. I guess that the friendship cemented itself after we attended the Association of Pet Dog Trainers convention at the same time. Now days we bounce ideas off each other regarding dog training (mostly I'm picking her brain, not the other way around). Zoe is very bright, a wonderful dog trainer, and the kind of person who gives dog training a good name. Today she showed me part of what dog training is all about.

Zoe is the trainer I asked to come into Bobbi's case to take a fresh look at it. Today she gave two hours of her precious time to Bobbi, Bobbi's parents, and me. After the training was over I think we all were happy that Zoe came to check in on Bobbi's case. Bobbi learned a few things, as did her parents and I. Besides the formalities of training I also learned what an important part of training is all about. The dog.

Trainers are an egotistical lot. I think we have to be just to do this job. If we don't have faith in ourselves, and our ability, why on earth would a client or their dog. Confidence is our first tool, and maybe the most important one, in our bag of teaching aids; Dogs read confidence like a book. Because of our confidence and ego we all to often do not ask for help when we should and the bottom line is the dog loses. We have to keep in mind that we don't have all the answers, we can't always find the solution and sometimes we need to ask for help. That doesn't make us any less of a trainer. In fact it might say something about who we really think is important and it's not us or even the client; it is the dog.

Because of Zoe taking her time to come and see Bobbi I think she is on her way to improvement. Zoe is not only my friend, she is a competitor, but she took time today not to make money but to work on the bottom line. Zoe knows what the bottom line is. I hope that I do and I wish more trainers did. All of us got into dog training because we love dogs and want to help them to a better life. We need to remember this. They really are our bottom line.

Thank you Zoe. I've learned a lot from you.

Home Check

Besides dog training I am a volunteer for Labradors & Friends in San Diego. I do home checks for them for prospective adopters. I do enjoy the work but I do not take it lightly. It is easy when you see a very good potential new family for a dog that is in need of a new home but it gets a little dicey when there is some question in your mind.

You always want to help the family find their dog, and for the dog to find its forever home but once in awhile you come across a situation that you have to think about for one reason or the other. It does weigh on you a bit that you might make the wrong decision and that if you had not approved the dog for a home that might not be a good fit that the dog could have gone to a wonderful home and had a very good life. I guess that you just have to trust your heart when you make that determination.

If you have a question about dog training you can contact me through the web site: acmek9services.com