Photo banner

In keeping with the new times and forever evolving Facebook...a banner or poster of sorts needed to be created for Wags Facebook page. All pages (as in business pages on Facebook) are going to change within the next few weeks and will include a cover banner. My impression is that - either you can create something and have some fun with this, or when the deadline approaches, Facebook will automate the process for you and just let you drag in photos from your fb files...


So, after a few hours of tinkering (time I didn't intend to spend on this kind of project :-) - the result is now live, and I thought it should be shared here, too!
The dogs in the photos are a really nice representation of dogs from several different classes: Puppy Foundation skills class, Adolescent Manners class, Thinking Games, and even the outdoor Rovers in the Rink - Recall class. 
So that's that: Wags photo banner prompted by technological changes. Enjoy!

Puppies...

A couple of shots of two new Puppy Foundation Skills students: Rosetta (above) and Rocky (below). Both are currently enrolled in the class, learning some basic puppy obedience, getting some exposure to "stuff"...grates, weird surfaces, tunnels, other puppies, people...learning and experiencing things about Life.


Every puppy class and group is a bit different as the dynamics will continually change and be different depending on who the puppies / and the people / in the group are. Right now, with three puppies ( a fourth one joining us next week) - two are quite a bit larger in size than the very tiny Rosetta. Besides the "curriculum", I think one of the biggest learning that puppy owners can take home is to learn a bit about "reading their dogs". 




















The main emphasis in Puppy Foundation Class is really on developing the human-puppy bond and working on some simple skills, but we do break for short play / when appropriate / where pups have a chance to be off leash and meet one another. 


When setting these puppies free to go explore and meet on Tuesday night - there were some great real-life examples of some actual "dog-demos" of how dogs communicate with their bodies to indicate how they feel about a particular interaction. I think the group learned some very valuable life skills...and hopefully also took home the message that just like parents would intervene (hopefully) in a playground of kids if the play gets too rough or if a child seems to feel unsafe - being an in-tuned puppy parent also includes interrupting puppy-play, keeping a close eye on the interactions and watching and monitoring carefully.


From here we shall continue. What I personally love about the new (since last year) Open Enrolment format, is that new puppies can join the group at any time..therefore bringing in some unfamiliar elements from time to time - which is great for a developing little puppy! Once a new pup joins, they stay with us for 6 weeks (or 8 weeks in some cases) and graduate once through the 6-week class rotation. I'm already looking forward to meeting the new addition next week...dynamics will again change and the environment gets more distracting to work in. But it's amazing to see the learning and soaking up of skills that go on with the little ones! 


Next week - Puppy class participants: remember to bring toys (!!) we'll work on some play as well as Puppy Come! Recall Games...

Sisters

It's been so much fun...these sisters have both graduated from Wags classes. Both dogs are successful adoption stories...
Molly came to Wags Foundation skills class in the Fall, and Siku graduated from Adolescent Mutts and Manners class just last night! Fun to look at photos side-by-side: you can see the Family resemblance?! True sisters! Thanks for bringing them both to Wags classes - and hope our paths will cross again!

Public Off-Leash Dog Parks.

I have just gotten off a live webinar hosted by the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) with Sue Sternberg: "A look at interactions between dogs in public dog parks". Living in an area where dog parks are very much the norm and seem culturally like the "THE place to take your dog", I thought I should share some of my notes.


It was a very informative and enjoyable 1.5 hours, hearing Sue talk and watching video that she used to illustrate her talk with. Sue has dedicated considerable time and effort to shooting video across the US in public dog parks and collecting, editing and now presenting this footage in a very educational and also highly entertaining presentation. 


First off, she discussed some design related things that make for better or worse interactions between dogs as well as between people and their dogs. Things like footing makes a difference - sand being better footing in a dog park, because it slows dogs down, and makes them work harder for each step they take. Having more physical interruptions/ bushes, trees etc is better as it naturally will interrupt the dogs - rather than an open field, which grants no physical interruptions. Sue has observed better all-round behaviours in parks that have NO Fence around the perimeter. Dogs tend to display better behaviours (possibly because to be able to go into an un-fenced area they probably are under better control to begin with) and people in un-fenced areas are more in tuned with their dogs, according to Sue. Again - maybe simply  because having no fence means they cannot afford to disconnect from their dogs - they need to keep an eye. A video snippet from a Seattle dog park displayed a sign at the entrance (to a fully fenced park) saying: "Off leash does not mean out of control." 


Having access to benches in a dog park is according to Sue not the best thing, as people then tend to sit down to chat and socialize and do less interacting with their dogs. In general - the more walking and moving the person does, the more interrupting of dog-to-dog play and the more interacting with their dog - the better.


To summarize the beginning part - the 3 most important components for a safe and healthy experience are:
1. Owner Attentiveness
2. Interruptions
3. Lack of Congestion


Sue has catalogued a whole range of behaviors in dog parks, and if she is indeed on the right track with her findings (which I believe she is) sadly it sounds like people are not seeing what they think they are seeing when they take their dogs out "to play". What the general public seems to believe is "play" in dog parks, very often can be classified within just a few categories - and it's questionable whether any of them are actually play. According to Sue's observations and extensive video-footage, these are the most commonly observed behaviors in off-leash parks:

• Chase
• Mobbing
• Targeting
• Bullying
• Humping

She went on to identify the difference between healthy chase and risky chase, showing video footage of both and explaining how to identify the difference. Ironically - the video footage she showed of healthy chase was NOT filmed in a dog park, but within a play group at her shelter at a trainer's course. She was saying she could actually not find examples of healthy chase in her extensive video collections from dog parks. Risky chase was a different matter and dog parks had provided ample examples of that.


For dog owners, the main point in learning to see the difference lies in being able to identify a few key differences in body language. Healthy chase involves ears back on the dog doing the CHASING, tail high or level on the dog being chased, and healthy chase is most often initiated by the chasee. In Risky chase the ears are forward on the chaser, the tail is TUCKED on the chasee, the chaser has an open mouth, and there is body slamming. 


Sue went on to talk about and define the other commonly observed behaviors as well: mobbing, targeting, bullying and also concluded this section by stating that dog parks largely are made up of groups of UNFAMILIAR dogs. And that unfamiliar dog groupings is not conducive to PLAYING. The healthiest play-interactions that she has observed and witnessed are dogs playing one-on-one with a familiar buddy or one-on-one play together with a Human Being!


As the presentation was going on, and questions were allowed in the chat forum, I had to ask a burning question...something I have certainly started to see as a Big correlation, not a coincidence - and something I seem to witness a lot in the dog-people I come in contact with. My question to Sue was "I am wondering if You see a correlation between leash reactivity ("Leash aggression") and perhaps too much dog park time / too much dog-dog play / or inappropriate off leash play?"
Sue's answer..."Absolutely; I see a correlation between too much play and leash aggression." Dog-to-dog play can become addictive, and create out of control behaviours. Add a leash to that dog - and now you have frustration. "Socialization" does not make these dogs better. To help these dogs, the people need better control of their dogs.


Not too long ago, I "attended" a long 20 hour video seminar on Aggression with John Rogerson: another one of the Great's in the dog training world:World's Leading Dog Trainer/Behaviourist.
In his seminar he talks a lot about the dog park issue as well. He feels that perhaps in our attempts to "socialize" our dogs, and especially through strong dog park culture - we are creating feral / dog-addicted-dogs / out of our "domestic" dogs. Echoing his feelings, Sue also said - one of the best gifts we can give our puppies and young dogs is not to try to "socialize" them (for the sake of being social), but teach them how to IGNORE other dogs; how to focus on their human. What puppies should be learning in puppy class is that their HUMAN is incredibly important! And when allowing free play and interactions; there should be a ton of interruptions. The basic rule of thumb being: interrupt! (Which I am happy to say I prescribe to and certainly am a big proponent of the idea that puppy training is about the pup-human relationship; and when allowing puppy play - tons of interruptions.)


Back to the Dog Park.
The culture of going to the Dog Parks is alive and strong, and probably won;t change much, at least right now. So - what to do about this information?


Well, for one; try to learn to Read your Dog. What is his body posture saying? Is the interaction a good experience for him? Is your dog feeling safe? 
Or maybe Safety is not the issue. Maybe he is having a grand time...but might it be that he is actually practising BAD behavior?  Maybe he needs to be interrupted, not so much because he is causing another dog suffering, but because REHEARSAL of a bad behavior is also not a good thing?


And as his guardian - if nothing else; one of the most important behaviours to be on the look-out for that Sue stressed is actually very simple to observe: WHEN (or IF) THE DOG'S TAIL IS TUCKED BETWEEN THE LEGS: YOU NEED TO INTERVENE!
Get the dog out of there (as in: leave!) or - get yourself in between him and the other dogs so you can help him out, put a barrier between him and the other dog or simply: Pick him up! Your dog needs your help! Sue spoke very strongly about taking a stand for your dog and helping him out by picking up if and WHEN needed: Your small, medium and even large dog - when they need your help. Pick them up! IT's your job as a guardian to protect them and offer help. 


With those words I will close off and leave this as Food For Thought for you. I think the last paragraph really summarizes it for me: Is the Dog Feeling Safe? If not - we need to note the sign(s) of how he communicates that: EARLY (!) so we can intervene and help and also respect what the dog is saying. 
One of the most difficult client conversations I have had was with a woman who had a very submissive, frightened  "tail tucking" dog who clearly did NOT enjoy being forced to meet strange dogs in the off leash dog park daily. When I suggested to the woman that perhaps this dog is not a good candidate for the dog park and I would look for other was of getting the dog out for exercise, she responded with enormous frustration: "But we've had dogs before and the dog park is SO MUCH a part of our Life-style! That's what we DO! Every day! That's where we meet our friends!"


It made me very sad that there was no regard for the dog or what the dog was so clearly saying about the situation. We DO have it all wrong if the reason we go to the dog park is because WE want to hang out there!

Pinot's weather report.

Unreal how much snow was dumped on us in the last 24 hours!! I enjoyed a fabulous walk in the woods with Pinot yesterday. Maggio is on bed rest (and lots of bones) right now while we wait to figure his elbow-issues out. It's hard to leave him behind, as he just would like to go, go, go, but it's also obvious he is not feeling all that great about moving too much, so we have to limit his exercise for now. By the end of the week, there should be a Plan of Action in place for how to best address what's going on with his elbows.

Pinot is soaking up all the solo attention and honestly does not seem to care whether Maggio comes along or doesn't. As long as she gets to go - she's happy. That's all that matters :-) Pretty self-centered creatures when it comes to stuff like that?! 

With the accumulated snow - it was too funny to watch her literally not be able to "reach bottom", but keep experimenting with kangaroo-style leaps alternating with belly-flop attempts looking like  she was thinking "maybe I DO float on this if I try again?" 

She didn't float, no matter what style she tried, but it sure looked like fun trying! And we both got a really good work-out! It really was quite the show, this "walk" of ours; playing in the snow and watching Pinot's intense, crazy energy - insisting on playing her favourite Frisbee games despite it being quite difficult to get around in places. At times she was literally over-her-head-deep-in-snow, and I had the occasional thought go through my mind about snow-shoes perhaps being a smart thing (not that I own a pair) as I was labouring along, too - in the sometimes thigh deep snow. Great exercise, and a remarkably soft landing when a loss of balance threw me off. Pinot was doing all kinds of "four-wheel-getting around" and just seemed to have a total blast, too! I DO love the snow. This is what winter is supposed to be like!

More Than Manners

Another fantastic class came to a close last night and was finished off (after some fun training) with the popular Grad Photo session. The class was a group of four (sadly one did not make it last night) who have all previously taken the basic "Manners" class and now continued on with their Education and thus subsequently graduated from "More Than Manners". 

My favourite thing with More Than Manners is that I can really customize the program to meet the needs and desires of individual groups, so the content can vary greatly from class to class - depending on where the interest lies! 

This flexibility makes it great fun for me as an instructor, too - as the class continually re-invents itself and keeps evolving! You could be in "More than Manners" class several times in a row, and the curriculum would always be different. Which makes it one of my favourite classes to teach!

This particular group has been working on a host of different things, ranging from heel-work, recalls, stays with distractions to some flat-work for agility handling as well as TRICKS! We've worked on lots of tricks, and there has been lots of fabulous results with the trick teaching in this group! It's really been fantastically Fun!

We've built a lot of the tricks through "free shaping", but also experimented and tried different ways of achieving results. Here's an article from the Whole Dog Journal that will explain shaping and "hybrid" methods in more detail if the term is not familiar. 


In my experience, some things are easier to shape than others, and I am not opposed to "Shameless luring" to get some behaviours started, if it seems very difficult to find a starting point for shaping. (Teaching a dog to spin left or right would be one example where I find a lure works just perfectly fine, whereas free shaping a spin, I would say is: admirable, but not necessary :-)


However, if luring - the key is to understand that "shamelessly luring" any behaviour for too long has the risk of resulting in "shameful luring" (if one can call it that) - as the bribe will be hard to fade if you stay with it for too long.


In this More Than Manners class we have thus used a combination of methods for teaching tricks: some have been lured (spin left and right, roll over as well as weaving through legs a la Freestyle dancing), some have been "prompted" (backing up and sit pretty) and other tricks have been free shaped (pivot work on a stool for rear end awareness, "get onto something", and "get into something", we also went from having prompted the "Back up" to free shaping the same behaviour). 


The take-away message in all of this is three-fold and I think was well demonstrated by the dogs and people in this group as well as in some of the challenges we have been trying to work through:


1. Free shaping really is a FANTASTIC tool to have up your sleeve. If you and your dog both "get it" - there is So Much you can use it for! The more tricks and things you teach your dog using free shaping, the faster the next behaviour will be to teach. Dogs really truly become our partners in the process and LOVE experimenting and trying! AND the learning becomes very powerful and well understood!


2. If free shaping does not seem to work for you or your dog - instead of giving up - go the "shameless" route or try prompting! (being aware of dangers of staying with a lure too long...) Regardless of which one of these techniques you use for trying to teach your dog something - as long as you are not hurting your dog or accomplishing things through intimidation - isn't it better to go through all of these tools in your tool box, and try to find something that works - rather than stop teaching new things or say "only Free Shaping is true dog training" (because yes, there are schools of trainers out there who have very strong beliefs on this matter).


and finally and maybe most importantly 3. Often times it is not even the final product that matters, but the journey for how you got there and what happened in the process! There is much valuable insight to be gained from these (sometimes seemingly silly) exercises and what happens in the process as we teach. What we are really doing is teaching our dogs How To Learn and ourselves How to best Teach. The more you know about that process, the easier it will obviously be for both you and your dog to "get it". And a partnership where you both "get it" is obviously going to be one where it is fun and enjoyable to spend time together doing more new things! 


And maybe that sums up a big part of what I think Dog Training classes are all about and what I certainly have seen develop at a deep level in all of these recent More Than Manners graduates: they've all been building the Learning and Teaching partnership, where the Journey itself starts to become so enjoyable, that the Destination does not so much matter! 
(It gives me goose-bumps:-)