The Dog Blog

Since Talley, my 5 year old Enlish Lab is the least able of all three labs to relax while I work with other dogs, she accompanied me to the kennel today for a training session with a board and train dog. One problem is that her stocky little self is quite food driven, and she hates to be missing out! However, she also has learned the behavior, while on leash, to bark and lunge at approaching dogs. Relaxing and working around other dogs is wonderful for her. During our session, Talley was reinforced for calm down/stays, while I worked with the little Eskimo mix nearby. Then Talley got a turn to do the fun stuff! Consequently, she is learning by association that having the other dog nearby really makes good stuff happen. Such a soft and anxious little dog is she, I cannot imagine inflicting any kind of punishment on her.

I recently wrote a blog on my own site about my oldest dog's journey Into The Twilight.  While he has several aging issues going on, I am most impressed with how little effect his loss of sight has had on him.  I know I shouldn't be surprised, but it really drives home one of the big differences between humans and canines.

We humans so often say, "Seeing is believing!"  This just doesn't seem to be true for dogs.  In the canine world, smelling is believing.  A dog doesn't have to see a bowl of food to know that it is in the room.  Russell (my old blind dog) proves this to me every day.  In fact, all I have to do is sit down at the opposite end of the couch with a cup of yogurt and he makes it quite obvious that he is completely aware of what he can't see.

Meet Friday, my nine-year-old shepherd mix. I adopted her when she was eight weeks old. She was my very first dog. In hindsight, I realize I should have gotten an older dog, but my family's thinking was that with a puppy, we could shape her behavior into whatever we wanted. Ha! What they don't tell you is that it's hard to shape a puppy's behavior when you don't really know what you're doing.

Hi. I'm new at Dog Star Daily, and I am honored to be here. For my first post, I figured I'd introduce you to The Dog That Started It All – and how I sort of failed at raising her.

HOW MANY WAYS DO WE LOVE THEM?

 Reflecting on the early morning stentorian rumbling snoring of Talley, my English Lab, inspired the content for this, my initial Dog Star Daily blog. Let me add that I am honored to be rubbing elbows (or blogs) with the talent that comprises the Dog Star Daily team. What do we really love about our dogs? For myself, this is infinite, too many ways to count. As I reflected on this, I decided to list things that perhaps we take for granted, the little things that make us smile, the things we would dearly miss, things that would leave a gaping void. Certainly every single dog loving reader could easily construct such a list, or maybe already has one floating about in their thoughts.  Here are but a few of the things I love about the Look What I Can Do! labbies, things that make me smile, things that would be dearly missed:

Yesterday I saw an ad for genetic testing for dogs. Specifically it is a DNA test to determine what breed a mixed breed dog may be. The part that caught my eye was the claim "Breed count matters to trainers". It made me pause. I mean I stopped to really consider the question, does what breed a dog is change the way I conduct training for that dog and their people?

I have to say I honestly don't think it does. Sure I take breed traits into account IF they affect what issues I am there to work with for the client. But I have worked with plenty of random bred dogs who's breed is a big fat question mark. It doesn't mean I can't do my job at 100% lacking that information.

We've all been there. You find yourself saying the same things over and over again. Working through the same old problems. The dogs start to annoy you. The clients really start to annoy you. You feel like your skills are not improving and maybe even worsening. You feel like you've “lost it”.

You're in a rut.

Sometimes you attend a seminar, or read a new book, or simply allow the passage of time to get you past these frustrating points. Other times, you need something else.

I recently went through one such rut. I didn't feel like I was getting any better at what I do. I wasn't communicating to my clients efficiently. It was like there was no real energy behind my words... no conviction. I was speaking like someone who had said the same things over and over again. I felt like a robot programmed to explain the concept of “house training”.

I got my first second dog about twenty years ago. Dog number one, Brum, was an only child. At the age of 6 he came to live with me, his 4th home. By the age of 12 he was still our only dog, and the apple of my eye. Many people would assume that adding a second dog to the family would not be a good idea with a canine senior citizen in residence, but if truth be told, it was for purely selfish reasons.

It's human nature for us to want to control our resources and our environment. We become anxious and stressed when we loose the ability to predict and plan or when control is taken away from us. This applies to some people more than others. 

So when it comes to our dogs and our family 'pack' why is the top dog method so very popular? Why do we find it fairly easy to implement and in many cases we clearly enjoy implementing the pack rules?

The pack rules involve the human in the relationship displaying a number of behaviours around the dog in order to reinforce that the human is in fact the alpha wolf or alpha domestic dog! This will also include human infants and children demoting the family pet wolf, I mean dog into the position where the dog understands they are at the bottom of the family pack hierarchy.  

It’s hot here in the Northeast as we find ourselves in steamy July weather, heading into more of the same in August. I’m not complaining, mind you, some like it hot and I’m one of them. It makes it a bit tricky, or should I say sticky, playing golf and walking Rusty, but I would rather have it this way than be out at ten degrees with a thirty mile an hour wind in my face mid-January.