"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!

Amelia's Paw

I observe Amelia’s paw as she tries to climb all over me while I try, unsuccessfully, to take a power nap. I cannot but stand in awe at its perfection: round, pitch black, all the shinny little hairs arranged in orderly lines, covering it like a bonbon covered in melted chocolate. How can this little paw harbor so much strength? Even her nails are shiny, hopefully a consequence of her Raw Diet and the Salmon supplement she gets everyday in her food. I am proud of the good job I have done about keeping them short. I am now a little nail obsessed since my vet told me how important nails are in sending signals to the brain for balance, proper body posture and prevent injuries –very important for my agility hopeful.

Then I look to my right, where Sabrina who just turned 10 years old, is huddled up to me. She sneaks up on to the supposedly forbidden couch when I take power naps. She is sound asleep, doing a much better job of ignoring Amelia than I am. For an instant I am saddened by her paws, also round, shinny and beautiful and now sprinkled with lots of white hair, getting creaky and a little painful with every year that goes by. I quickly force the thought out of my head, as I know she can hear me. Focus on the good times, I order my brain. It is the natural law of life, maybe a glimpse of my own aging. How many times have I wished, for a slimmer body, faster legs and less pain in my feet. I wish I had started running in Agility when I was younger. Maybe I am the one who is jealous of those perfect puppy feet?

But the passing of time makes us who we are today, hopefully wiser. So for right now I will look back at our journey with my dearest Sabrina, slowing down but still looking at earning the coveted Agility Trial Champion title, we are just 2 qualifying runs away. She has taught me most of what I know in Agility and thanks to her, the ones that I have trained after her have had the privilege of not having to endure my training mistakes. Thank you Sabrina. We hug each other tighter.

And that persistent little paw that won’t let me nap is a glimpse of the new exciting journey that lies ahead. Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

BE CONSISTENT

When I decided to start writing a Blog, I did some research to find some tips on how to get started. There is no shortage of advice out there, but one thing was mentioned by ALL sources: Decide how often you want to write and BE CONSISTENT, because your followers will be expecting it, so don’t disappoint them.

This made perfect sense I thought, it is just like dog training. Be consistent, don’t change your commands, don’t give commands you cannot enforce, don’t set up your dog for situations that are more distracting than what you have trained. Consistency is the key to your dog understanding that you really mean what you are asking of him. You confuse your dog when you are constantly varying your criteria and you have to be consistent with your training schedule to see improvement.

So I decided I would post once a week. I could write during the week, revise it over the weekend, get input from my family and post Sunday night or Monday morning. It would be a nice treat for my followers at the beginning of their work week.

Well, I got a taste of my own medicine with this blog writing business. I caught a cold that took two weeks to go away, then we hosted an agility trial that left me exhausted, then…opps, I am out of excuses! I have not posted since October 11. I simply procrastinated and voila, I wrote nothing for a month. I even forgot that I had outlines for not one, but two Blogs!

So many of my students come to class and sheepishly admit: “I did not train at all this week” and you know what is always so amazing? The dogs have not forgotten but the owners are so rusty. So they forget to BE CONSISTENT and then the dog starts getting confused and performs poorly.

So let’s renew our vows together! I will start typing away and you will pick up your leash, load your pocket with treats and get out and train. Your dog will love it and you will feel so much better too. It is so easy to BE CONSISTENT!

I am working on my next two posts. I will be on time, will you?

I said "NO"

Watching my young puppies play with their mother is simply fascinating. We humans think of language mainly as a verbal communication, so we tend to oversimplify dog language as barking, whining and probably because it is so obvious, tail wagging. But if you watch closely you will start noticing so many subtle cues that are easily missed through casual observation. In this particular instance, Holly was playing with a toy, which she strategically placed close to the puppies enticing them into the game. A tug-of-war soon ensued with the puppies clamping on, and pulling harder and harder. Acting bold and cocky they even started growling as they tugged.

All of a sudden Holly stopped tugging, gave them a stern stare and moved her muzzled forward ever so slightly; the pups stopped in their tracks, let go of the toy and immediately adopted submissive postures: belly up, ears plastered back and avoiding eye contact. This whole act probably took less than 3 seconds!

This game was repeated on and on and Holly's reaction was exactly the same every single time: subtle, fast and right to the point. I could not help but think how ineffective we humans are when trying to correct out dogs. We nag, nag, nag, beg, plead, nag a little more, beg, plead, threaten, yell...Our dogs resort to ignoring us or even escalate the negative behavior in response to our agitation. Wouldn't it be great if we could also be subtle, fast and right to the point?

Did you know that allowing your puppy to play with his mother and siblings is very important because it allows him to practice "doggie language"? This is something we quite clearly are not capable of doing well. It will make your puppy more accepting of our clumsy human corrections and will also allow him to interact safely with other dogs. Puppies should not be separated from their dam and litter-mates until they are 7 weeks old. By practicing this dog-dog communication your puppy will be able to distinguish threatening or playful signals that the other dogs display. Once you pick your puppy and bring him home allow him to play regularly in small groups of other well socialized dogs. This is a key part of his early training and proper socializing.