Cindy Bruckart, CPDT

You’ve got two picnic tables full of food, six kids running around the yard with popsicles, drumsticks and squealing laughter, grandma with her walker, your nephew with his skateboard and your brother in law with sunglasses, a beard, a hat and a few too many drinks in him. This is not the time to attempt to teach your dog, for the first time, about table manners, children, walkers, skateboards and drunk people with sunglasses, hats and beards!

The time to train is BEFORE the desired behavior is critical. It’s no different with recall, sitting, staying or walking nicely on leash. If you wait until it’s absolutely crucial that your dog behaves correctly without error, you and your dog will both be frustrated.

A Salem, Oregon man made the news when police found out he was using a shock collar on his children. People were outraged to hear that he'd chased his three year old child with the collar, making the child cry, because he thought it was funny.

John Seroczynski, the national sales manager for D.T. Systems, a shock collar manufacturer, said it was not likely that the children were seriously injured.

He was obviously talking about physical injury, as he explained that no shock collar today would burn a person or dog and would not cause any serious physical injury.

I'll give him that, but every fiber of my being will stand firm in the opinion that those children have been seriously injured. Perhaps not physically, but absolutely emotionally. If there was no harm done, why would the father be in custody and why would any of us care?

Seroczynski said the collars are not to be used on humans.

Last week it was adolescent behavior, this week I've heard several stories about scary encounters with off-leash dogs. One involved a family with small children and a leashed dog being rushed by FIVE off-leash dogs on a hiking trail. The five dogs consisted of four muscular bully breeds and a yappy chihuahua bringing up the rear. This family had no idea where these dogs came from, if they were friendly to dogs, adult humans and most importantly small children.

They scooped up their kids and hoped that their well-socialized white shepherd could handle the situation on her own. Jasmine, the dog, immediately dropped and rolled over. The big dogs stood over her, growled, sniffed and moved on. The little dog attacked immediately and moved on when Jasmine didn't fight back.

All of that took place before the owners sauntered around the corner with a very relaxed, "Oh, sorry."

In the past week, I have talked to three very distressed dog people. Two of them are fostering dogs, and the other just adopted a dog. The issues they're experiencing range from inappropriate chewing, to serious separation anxiety, to attention seeking behavior, to general "what the heck do I do with this dog?"

I patiently gave my best advice to all of them, and everyone has calmed down. However, I still wonder if they really heard the most important thing I said to all three of them.

"He/She is an adolescent."

I say this a lot, to a lot of people, because most people get frustrated over doggy behavior during doggy adolscence. It's no different than parents with children. Sure kids are a lot of work when they're babies and toddlers. They need a lot of attention during grade school, too. But it is in the scary, confusing forest of adolescence that both kids and parents can feel lost and in need of serious guidance.

Opinions vary on the benefits and dangers of feeding dogs soy products, and I'm no nutritionist, so I won't comment. However, there is apparently some new research about soy (in pill form) helping dogs with cancer. I think this is exciting!

Not only are they researching ways to use soy as an effective and less stressful canine cancer treatment, if it works well the treatment will be less expensive for dog owners.

You can read the story here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090408140210.htm

I've been asked to help Project POOCH (www.pooch.org) in a new way. My new mission is to help three of the youth develop their skills in training other trainers. This means helping them figure out how to get their own knowledge and skills into the hands of other youth in a way that is meaningful and effective for the new trainers and the dogs in their care.

This is a BIG task! Dogs are easy to train. People are much, much trickier! Teaching humans to teach humans is daunting. Luckily, it's a subject I'm passionate about and very excited to continue to discuss with the guys at Mac Laren Youth Corrrectional Facility.

Last Thursday we discussed some of the issues they've been having as trainer mentors. Much of what they face is similar to what I deal with in my own clients. As I've looked over my notes and thought about how we'll move forward, I've been giving a lot of thought to why it's so much easier to work with dogs than people.

I will admit that there are days when I just don't feel like teaching classes. It's not often, but it does happen. Once I start a class, however, I forget about whatever it was that got me sidetracked in the first place. I don't think about housework, paperwork, finances, being tired or anything other than the dogs and owners in front of me. That's how I know I'm doing what I should be doing.

After class, I often marvel at the commitment of my students. It's easy to forget sometimes that my students might not feel like coming to class either. They have families, jobs, housework, TV shows to watch and probably a million other things to do. But there they are, dependably taking time out of their busy life to learn how to do their best for their dog.

What a difference a year makes! Last year I wrote about gardening with dogs here on DSD. Well, here we are again knee deep in Spring projects with five dogs running around the yard.

But this year is different. My dogs are now 1, 2, 2, 7 and 13. They are still curious about what I'm doing, but don't get quite as excited about helping me dig a hole or tasting any new thing I might plant.

Their paths through the yard have been well established and I don't plant things that will get in their way. Their recall is great. They respond immediately to, "Get outta there!" All digging, wrestling and pooping happens in appropriate areas of the yard.

How do I describe this client of mine who always leaves me smiling? Her dog has issues. His previous owner got him at eight weeks and promptly plopped him in the garage with an older, not-so-friendly dog where he stayed until he was four months old. Somehow, he was able to adapt to his new home, complete with small children and another dog who is about the same age.

His issues? Well, he tends to start any meeting with a new dog by fighting. Originally, he would lunge maniacally on-leash toward any stranger or dog...but we've gotten past that now. He is still quite nervous about stange men and does the funniest air-snap I've ever seen. I know, air-snaps are warnings and they aren't funny...but his just are! He's a goofy looking Lab mix whose name is Bubba, which refers to his Bubba Gump style.

I love going out to dinner with my husband. He listens to what I’m saying with genuine interest, gives me honest, loving feedback and tells great stories. We are constantly making each other laugh. We can always think of something to talk about.

Sometimes I notice other people eating together, couples or otherwise, who don’t seem to be having such a great time. In fact, they appear to be two strangers who happened to sit at the same table. Each is looking around in the other directions, reading a paper, talking on a cell phone…everything but being engaged in conversation with the person across the table.