If you've ever loved a dog, this video will touch you. An ex-con found love in the form of a dog. You WILL cry.
Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.
Snow Hounds (Video)
We love the snow! This is Talos the Great Dane's first big snow. And because he's a service dog in training, we'll have to return him to Service Dogs of Virginia before next winter. So every snow's important to us! Enjoy watching the dogs romp…
Fear Not (Video)
We're always on the lookout for ways to expose Talos to new and unusual sights and sounds. When we were at the Christmas Tree farm we had the chance to get our Christmas tree bundled. The bundler is loud and big. And there was plenty of room to move away if Talos showed any fear or avoidance of the crazy contraption.
The key to introducing your dog to something novel is to do it incrementally, to do it systematically, and to always (and I mean always!) go at your dog's pace. If you see signs of anxiety (tucked tail, ears back, lip licking, hiding behind your legs), STOP! Move further away, speak calmly and quietly to your dog, and try to feed some extra yummy treats. If your dog isn't eating those delicious treats, you know he's still too stressed. Move even farther away. Keep moving away until the dog's body language is more relaxed and until he's able to take treats.
What NOT to do: Don't reprimand your dog, don't boss your dog, don't pull your dog closer, don't stay there and expect your dog to get used to it. That's not fair to the dog and proves to the dog that you're not on the same team.
Take a look at what a really good relationship (developed through clicker training) can get you…a dog who's a little uncertain, but who trusts that everything's ok as long as he's with you.
A Test for Talos
'Tis the season for holiday parties, get-togethers, and socializing.
All of these are terrific opportunities for Talos (and me) to measure our progress on basic good manners (walking politely on leash, laying down on his mat, and name recognition to name just a few).
Our biggest test yet came Wednesday night at Frederick City Hall at the Frederick Chamber's Holiday Networking Event.
Over 300 people were making merry! This was Talos' first foray into a big, loud, bustling, crowded venue.
It was shoulder-to-shoulder and back-to-back in City Hall. Talos couldn't walk next to me – there simply wasn't enough room. He had to trust me and follow me, winding around the legs (and rears) of hundreds of (very noisy) people.
Stop and think about that for a moment from the dog's point-of-view. He can't see where we're going. He just has to follow. He doesn't know when I'm about to stop, he just has to slow up when I do. He doesn't know the hundreds of people reaching out to pet him, he just has to trust that they are friendly hands reaching for him. He doesn't know the booming base is from the microphone in the other room, he has to be patient and trust that nothing bad will happen.
He resisted the urge to sample the goodies being passed around (see the picture above) and was polite and social with everyone.
This was a test for Talos. And he passed with flying colors. That's the power of clicker training. Everyone knows you can get lots of reliable behaviors quickly, but I love the residual effect of clicker training just as much — the wonderful trusting relationship that develops between me and the dog.
Talos was occasionally unsure, uncertain. But because our relationship was built with the clicker, he trusted me. And I upheld that trust. If he balked at anything, we took our time and went at his pace until he was ready to proceed. Training is a relationship – not something done to the dog. Never forget that.
Bittersweet
December's a time of celebration and a time of remembrance here at SDU. First, it's Nemo's birthday month! Who doesn't like birthdays? This is the little squirt when we brought him home in February of 2006. When we thought he was a Labrador mix.
And this is our big guy now. What a love. Two years ago, we went through some really rough times with Nemo. We didn't think he was going to live. It was hell. He had a usually-fatal fungus called pythiosis. It was a bad few months. He went through the holiday season with several surgeries. Healthy as a horse now, we're thankful to have Nemo with us.
December is also the anniversary of the loss of Lucky, my Australian shepherd. It's been just a year since he died of a heart attack. The dog who taught me so much about dog behavior has been gone a year…it's hard to believe. While his behavior problems were quite plentiful, oh the lessons I learned from him. I'm thankful to have crossed paths with this dog. He's buried at Lake Anna (he's enjoying the Lake in the picture above).
While not good with people, Lucky was a very good leader in his dog-world. We relied on him to raise the service pups we brought in. He'd tolerate but so much of their silliness, then would firmly – but gently – tell them when they'd crossed the line. I never knew how much work he did for us, raising puppies, until he was gone. Talos could use some "Lucky lessons," long about now.
It All Comes Back to Basics
Am I the only one who looks for a more complicated explanation than what's really happening? I tried to explain away Talos' lunging and barking behavior by attributing it to his adolescence.
Yeah, turns out that's just not the case.
Well, it could be a contributing factor, but the real reason he's lunging and barking is, well, because I haven't done enough foundation work with him.
Sad, but true.
I took him to class today and while he did much better than I anticipated, it was very clear that we have a lot of work to do.
The Down Side:
- His sits are very slow. (He's slow to start them after I give the cue, as well as slow to actually execute them. For the dog trainers reading this: his latency and speed are the pits.)
- He doesn't have a very good stay.
- Duration of eye contact is minimal (five seconds or less)
The Up Side:
- His name recognition and "Look" are terrific.
- His loose leash walking is quite nice.
- Downs are terrific.
- His "settle" (go to his mat and lay down) are spot on.
- When given the opportunity to play with another dog, he's got good social skills and takes doggie corrections very nicely. (The Border collie did not appreciate Talos smacking him in the face with his paw and he told Talos by snarling and snapping his teeth. Talos understood precisely what the Border collie said and the paw was not thrown much after that!)
So, while there are more ups than downs, we have a lot of work to do. The morals of this story:
- Recognize small bits of inappropriate behavior and do something about it before it becomes big chunks of inappropriate behavior.
- You can never spend too much time on the basics!