I’ve mentioned before that Edison, one of my current adoptables, is doing K9 Nosework. This is a scent tracking class that is so fun for wearing out dog brains. The best part about it is that it is designed for reactive dogs, so if your dog loves other dogs, great! But if they don’t, you’ll be in a scenario where people understand and automatically accommodate that. Pitlandia recently mentioned a nosework adventure that SecondHandDogs did, which I discovered right after I started my class! We just had our 6-week graduation, and I took a video of one of Edison’s final searches. Right now, the dogs are still searching for food. In another 12 weeks, they will be searching for Birch oil, which is the scent that level one competition requires. SecondHandDogs covers the class methodology pretty well.
Monday Musings: On Talents
Most of the bios for my adoptable dogs read pretty similarly. Working on crate training, eats from food toys, enjoys long walks. I try to individualize them as much as I can, but the truth is that most dogs in my house go through a similar learning process.
They learn that whining, crying, and pawing result in nothing; and that being quiet and still leads to a multitude of rewards: chicken scraps, a tossed toy to play with, a bully stick, a quick snuggle. They become accustomed to staying in a crate during the day, because my day job is what enables me to have fosters in the first place. They s-l-o-w-l-y learn that walking right at my side earns the opportunities to sniff that exciting pile of bunny poop.
As similarly as I treat each dog, and as much as they all need to learn, it never fails that there is one unique skill each dog seems to come equipped with. Some are stellar for baths. Others never crowd me in an attempt to get petting. Edison is a dog who was born to ride in the car. The very first night I had him I had a dinner date right after our training class. I could have either took him home and been late or left him in the car (I definitely don’t recommend trying this with a new dog!) I left him curled up in the back seat, and to my surprise my seats were still intact when I got back! He loads up and unloads easily, and even waits for the cue to get out — a very good thing, since he’s much faster than me. He also naps like a champ, even when I’ve been a bad foster mom and not worn him out before a long drive.
What about you? What special talents did your dog arrive with, factory-ready?
Training Time: Props to the rescue!
Bear and Kiko are the adorable little dudes that are calling my place ‘home’ – for now! (they’re available for adoption). A while back, some nice UYR supporters commented on their pictures and asked me how I’m dealing with their leash reactivity. Goodness knows, I am not an expert. I even feel a little weird giving advice to anyone else about reactivity, because I am so new to it myself. But then I thought, “Hey, maybe it would be nice for people to hear about this from someone who is muddling through it herself, like me!”
This post would better be titled “An Ode to my Clicker“, because I love that thing to pieces. What is a clicker? Well, let me tell you.
Actually, one is enough, if you can ever remember where you put the darn thing. And my mom will tell you: I never can, so I try to have a bit of a herd (school?) of them around.
In seriousness: a clicker is an event marker. It tells the animal the exact instant where he found the answer/performed the action/made the right choice. So often dogs of friends or family will respond to “Sit!” … but by the time you’ve reached for the treats on the counter and offered it to the dog, his butt has popped right back in the air again. What you’ve just done is rewarded the dog for standing back up, not for sitting down! The clicker eliminates this by “marking” the sit rather than the stand-up.
But just like dogs don’t come with a user manual, they also don’t arrive knowing that the “click” = right answer! This is the first and easiest step in training. For those of you who love to treat your dogs, it will be a great time!
Treats: At home just set aside a portion of dinner to be used as training treats. When out and about you’ll likely need something with more “oomph” like pea-sized chunks of cheese or packaged moist treats. Put these on the counter or in a pouch on your belt loop.
Clicker: Such an inexpensive tool considering how powerful it is … love.
Click, and then retrieve a treat and give it to the dog. You should be treating the dog within three seconds of the click, but don’t have the treat in your hand ahead of time. This is bribing, and while bribing has its place, that place not the technique at hand.
Do this several times. Click, treat. Click, treat. Click, treat. After about five times, wait a second, and then click. If the dog looks at you expectantly, like “Hey hey! That noise means food, right?”, your work is done. The marker is ‘charged’ to mean food is on the way. If he doesn’t look at you, give him the treat as before. If you’re not having success you can always return to it later in the day! Sometimes the best training sessions are only five minutes long.
If you’ve stumbled across this and are thinking “Ok, my dog has successfully turned me into a human vending machine, now what?” … keep stopping by, and we’ll stumble along together. Thanks for reading!
ADHD: Not just for Homo Sapiens
How many of you know someone (or ARE that someone) who has a dog that knows all sorts of tricks, as long as you never venture outside your kitchen? For those of us who have busy neighborhoods, or would like to eat with our dogs at outdoor restaurants, or bring them to farmer’s markets, or any number of things, a dog who only listens in the kitchen isn’t going to do us any good. Which means we have to work on training with distractions.
This can be doubly hard when working with a reactive dog like Dexter. In my ultimate trained-doggie fantasy land, I could hold him in a Down-Stay just off the sidewalk while dogs passed by on a walk. Right now, we’re lucky if I get a split-second stay at all, without other dogs. All the smells, noises, and cars outside is enough to distract him. Still, I’m determined, and we are making great strides. For a dog that didn’t even know what a leash was when I got him, he’s make some awesome progress.
This is him in a church parking lot about 20 feet from the sidewalk. He hadn’t had his morning kibble yet, so he was working extra hard for his food.
We haven’t done a Down ON the sidewalk yet, but he’s a rockstar at Sit (unless there’s another dog within 30 feet or so)
So we’ve made definite progress! Let’s just hope that this home visit goes well. On another note, this is my 30th post! Go me!
Maizie-girl, The Ultimate Focus Dog
Remember this adorable face?
I had the honor of meeting many, many pups when I traveled to Staunton VA to photograph Mazie, a DRNA dog. She’s probably the luckiest foster dog I’ve ever met, because she has a whole horse farm to run around on! Makes me almost feel sad for Finnegan who’s stuck in my townhouse, but we each have our strengths, right? Anyway, I got to check out some horses and the other doxies before Maizie and her FM arrived.
This might be a good time for a word about my photography preferences. Every one has their own method and I’m no photographer (quite the contrary!) but I thought I would share. I like photographing one dog at a time, with all other dogs contained in some way. I average one website-worthy shot of about every 50, and having another dog to contend with can double or triple that number — taking 150 photos can be tiring! So, even though I loved all those other wieners, into the x-pen they went. One pup, Noelle, (the Westie in the first picture) stayed with us but FM handled her so all was well. Just know, if I come to shoot your dog, I want the rest of them rounded up, if only for my sanity!
Mazie has what I call training magic. All dogs can be trained, and I personally attribute many issues to handler error rather than the dog’s inherent ability. But lets face it … there are those dogs who give you that “you want me to do what?” look, and promptly bury themselves back in their doggie bed. Mazie is not one of those dogs. She is a pup who caught on to “focus on the treat” quickly, and with almost laser-like intensity. She figured out I needed her to stand still for the photos after only a couple of shots, and even walking on the leash with FM she checks in often, as if making sure they are on the same page. If you want an agility or rally expert, this is your girl! I almost took her home with me, actually. (Ok, I say that about all of them, but this girl really tugs on my wannabe-trainer heartstrings.)
That mark on her neck is likely from her being chained, and the eye is something she was born with. Doesn’t slow her down one iota, though!
The other pups weren’t quite as interested, perhaps because I had previously banished them to the x-pen.
Happy Memorial Day weekend!
onedoglife 