HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It's hard to believe! Oliver and Amelia have turned two!

The memory of the super soft fur, tiny ears and puppy breath still lingers in my mind.

While watching them play in the littler box, I used to wonder how they would be when they grow up?

I also remember all the planning, socializing, natural rearing so they would grow into smart, loving and healthy dogs.

Let me tell you that even though they were raised in identical conditions, they have turned out to be my YING/YANG pair!

Oliver is the best dog one could ever hope for: loving, obedient, smart, eager to please, an awesome retriever and swimmer. The icing on the cake is that he is also a handsome dog. When we go to agility trials, he has a fan club of admirers that come to pet him and comment on how gorgeous he is. As a proud mom, I could not be happier and more grateful.

Amelia, on the other hand does not come to the trials with us. Why? First of all she is not even close to being ready to compete and second she is a HANDFUL! 

Amelia has one and only one mission in her life: cram the most amount of fun into the shortest amount of time! She wants your undivided attention all of the time, she wants to play, chase, run, steal anything remotely edible, hoard all the toys, jump on you, bug the other dogs and sleep on top of you. All of this done with at least three times the force a "normal" dog would use leaving everyone involved bruised and exhausted. 

She had her own B-Day party by jumping on the dining room table, stealing a Blueberry marmalade jar (glass of course), taking the lid off and eating it's contents until it was not even sticky anymore.

Maybe the lesson in this is to be grateful for the awesome things in your life and love everyone for their own uniqueness.

www.traineddoghappydog.com

You can have what it is you want...

Let's face it, training during summer in Florida is a bummer! I find myself procrastinating and getting distracted with ten other things before I make myself go out and do something with my dogs.
But to keep my agility dogs in shape and ready to bounce back into trial mode when the fall trialing season starts, I REALLY need to train through summer. Because performing well at trials is important for me, I try to push myself by thinking how I feel when my dogs perform below par because I have the seemingly perfect excuse: "I is so hot!"
I play this quote in my head, over and over again: "You can have what it is you want or you can have your excuses for not having it." Very powerful...still so hot out there.

Ok, Lilianne you need a plan. We will train a minimum of 3 times per week, very specific exercises, each practice short and sweet (and hot). We just need to practice the weave poles, not even all 12 poles just correct weave entry. How hard is that? just 2 poles, I will send each dog 3 times. I will do a couple of simple one-jump exercises (Linda Mecklenberg's jumping system is my favorite); that will keep the muscles they need for jumping in shape. Amelia and Oliver need to work on their running contacts. I am experimenting with this new (for me) method and it looks like they are fast learners but you need to get out an do it!

Today I made it! After putting it off for a couple of hours, my guilt level rose to the max as I had left Holly, Amelia and Oliver in their crates in the garage after giving them their breakfast and promised them that after tending to just one urgent stuff, today we would train!

So armed with some super high value treats (tripe and meatballs) which I think is the doggie equivalent to a Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (which is my idea of a high value treat if I was to work in this heat), we trained, the dogs had a great time, were really eager to work for the super yummy treats and I am sure I sweated at least one pound off. Maybe I should get a scale and weigh myself after each session, that might keep me motivated!

"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of."

Ogden Nash

This is so true and because I am raising two puppies, I can assure you this stops being funny!

I open the door to the garage to put out the trash and both puppies rush out, get one in, the other stays out and plays hard to catch, I finally get it and when I open the door to get it in, the other comes out! They could play this game all day but I start to get exasperated.

A fast and fun solution is to teach them the "Touch my hand" game. It's very easy, and the puppies love it. You start by placing the palm of your hand about 3 inches in front of your dog's muzzle. Out of curiosity he will approach to smell and quite possibly touch it. When he does so, readily "mark" the behavior with an enthusiastic "YES!" and immediately give him a treat. The key is to get him to actually touch your palm. Because puppies are usually always interested in food, you can practise 5 or 6 times in a row gradually increasing the distance he has to move towards your palm.

Now you can use your palm to get your puppy in or out and to stay on the side of the door YOU want him on!

Below is sequence of photos that will help you see the training process.

Additional training tips:

1) If he does not actually touch your hand rub the treat on it first.

2) If he gets bored after just one or two reps, your treat is not good enough (try slices of hot dogs)

3) If he insists on smelling the hand that holds the treat, put it behind your back and hold your palm right in front of his muzzle.

4) Remember to "mark" the touching with an enthusiastic YES! followed immediately with the treat.

Happy training!

We did it!

We did it! Sabrina and I finally got our long awaited CATCH (CPE Agility Trial Championship).

For those of you who are not that familiar with the Agility jargon, a CATCH involves getting at least 94 qualifying runs in at least 3 different levels (ascending in difficulty) in 7 different classes. When you get your CATCH, you are awarded a humongous rosette and a bar. Yes a PVC bar just like the ones that are used on the jumps. You run a victory lap around the ring holding your bar and afterwards all your friends sign it. I know, it sounds silly but it is a huge thrill!

Since Sabrina celebrated her 10th Birthday last September, she was experiencing the normal slowing down and "creaky" joints; so for the past year we had been doing limited showing just competing in one or two classes instead of the usual five per day that are the norm at CPE agility trials (CPE stands for Canine Performance Events, one of several organizations that offers agility trials).

As would be expected, the closer we came to earning our title, the more elusive it became! I lost track of how many "almost perfect" runs we had where one little mistake, usually my fault, would cost us the coveted "Q" as we call a Qualifying run. I must admit that some days I just wanted to throw my arms up in desperation and quit. To add on to the stress, Sabrina started being lame on and off because of a cronic injury that I think is related to her jumping a gate to get to the store and steal samples of dog food. Typical Sabrina...We keep several different samples in baskets under a table and she just picks the Pheasant and Brown Rice! So now we are adding quiropractic adjustments, accupunture, Chinese herbs, massage, supplements, icing, you name it we have tried it!

Now for Sabrina, it was a different story. She could not care less how many "Q's" we were missing or if we got that big rossette or not. I don't think she even cared if she had pain or not. After watching me run with the other dogs and loudly voicing her objections, she was so happy to be let our of her crate... it was finally HER turn. Probably the fondest memory that I have of competing with her is how many times people I don't even knew came up to me and said: "She looks SO HAPPY running out there with you."

So when the thrill of the win is over and the photo and rosette have faded, my heart will still be joyful for the happy runs we had together. Sabrina, you are the BEST!

Play and Learn

Last weeks homework was for you to reward your dog many times for looking at you whenever you said his name. You see, if you say your dog's name and he does not even turn to look at you, there is no point in calling him because he is NOT going to come; so you are just practicing the wrong behavior over an over.

I like to teach my dogs to come by playing a series of games. This not only makes it fun for both of us, but it also teaches him that coming to me is better than any other thing he is doing. When competing with very distracting stimuli, like a squirrel, or the neighbors horses, dogs or cats, I really need to make it worthwhile for him to stop the chase and want to come to me. Fun games are a great way to do this.

One of the first games that I play with Oliver and Amelia is called a restrained recall. I ask someone to help me by holding one of them by the collar ( I use a buckle collar, not a choke collar or any other type of correction collar), while I run away from him hooting, hollering, waving and acting very silly. At this point he is pulling trying to break way from the person holding him to chase after me. I will then turn around, kneel down and call him "Oliver COME! My helper will now let him go and he will come like he has been released out of a sling shot, running full speed towards me. All this time I will be praising and smiling. When he gets to me I pat him, shower him with praise and also give him super yummy treats.

We can usually repeat this 3 or 4 times allowing me to increase the distance that I run away from him. Since we live on a farm, my dogs can wander a few hundred feet from me, so I make it point to practice right from the beginning to come to me from a good distance.

I will continue to practice giving him a treat whenever say his name and he LOOKS at me; this is really the first step to a truly reliable recall, if I can get his attention, I greatly increase the probability of him actually coming.

Stay tuned for more games!

"Come!"... "Come!"..."Come here!"..."I said COME!"

If you have kids, you know that the possible responses to calling them are:
1) "What?"
2) "Wait a minute"
3) "I'm coming" (yeah right!)
4) Pretend they didn't hear you.

No matter how many times you explain that if you call them is because you want them to come, you will invariably get one of the responses above.

I have news for you, your dog is your kid.

One of the most common complaints I get from dog owners starting a training program is: "He does not come when I call him". The expectation is that I will wave my magic trainer wand and install on your dog a come when called key just like the ones on your TV remote control.
What I hear is owners describing features they want their dog to posses just like they were picking a car. "I want a blue car, with leather interior, power windows, GPS, anti-lock brakes etc." "I want my dog to come when I call him, even when he is running away from me at 40 miles an hour chasing something."

I have more news for you. Coming when called is not a built in feature in your dog. You have to TEACH him to come.
Almost everyone's attempt at teaching their dog to come are: to call him, and then call again, then again and again with the voice level escalating rapidly and then adding in some frustration and anger. Needless to say, if a raging person was yelling for me to come to them, I would seriously wonder if that would be a safe thing to do! Well, your dog is no different. To top it off, the consequence of coming is usually something "bad" from the point of view of the dog. For example, he was out running around having a grand old time sniffing, chasing a squirrel, barking at the neighbors cat, dog, kids and now you spoil all this by having him come in and end the fun!

To teach your dog to LOVE coming to you, you have to convince your dog that coming to you is the best thing that he could think of doing. Some good starting points are: using a pleasant and inviting tone of voice, calling your dog for things he enjoys, like mealtimes, walks, belly rubs and cookies.
If you have to do something "bad" from the DOG'S point of view, then go and get him, snap the leash on and take him with you as opposed to calling. Yelling "Come" a million times when you know your dog is not going to respond is teaching him that he can ignore you.

I you would like to polish your dog's recall skills, do the following homework during the next week. Write down how many times you call your dog for pleasant things versus unpleasant things. If the unpleasant outnumber the pleasant, you will know why your dog refuses to come to you in the first place. Remember pleasant is defined by the dog not you.
Carry treats in your pocket and reward your dog with one every time you say his name and he stops what he is doing to LOOK AT YOU, add some lavish praise too. Resist the temptation to call more than once or even better do not call at all if you know your dog is very distracted and the probability of him obeying you is close to zero.

In next weeks post I will give you more homework and additional exercises for you improve your dog's recall skills. Until then, happy training!