I’m really disgusted by the crowd over there, they are so adamant that they are a “touchy feely” group with the dog’s best interests at heart, and yet they find it ok to attack each other? It doesn’t make sense to me. Yes, I have seen people abuse ecollars, but I’ve seen people abuse cookies. I actually had a student in class once that was literally shoving food into her dogs mouth, like cramming it back to his molars, all the while saying “good doggie, here’s a treat!”. That dog was desperately trying to get away from her and her treats, but she had him trapped on a chair (little dog), he couldn’t get down, and she was putting nearly her whole hand in his mouth and forcing food down his throat! Tell me how that is fun or rewarding for the dog? I assure you, that dog looked sadder and sadder each time he came to class, and no amount of direction, suggestion, or demonstrating on my part could get her to stop. Poor dog. I often wonder if he ever just ran away.

Anyway, here is my comment to this charming post on how anyone who uses an ecollar obviously is going to rot in hell, I’m sad that just don’t even listen to another view, just jump to “oh, no bad bad bad – people everywhere abusing dogs!” Riiiiight, because my dogs are abused. Yup, the ones sleeping on the couch right now. The ones who are going to go to the park later to play ball, the same ones who get the best food I can provide, daily exercise, tons of toys, and we even pet them! Abused, yup.

I just hate it when people are so one way that they don’t even listen to the other side. Yes, you are entitled to your opinion, but with that comes the understanding that so is everyone else, and just because they don’t agree with you doesn’t mean they are wrong. Grrrrr!!

***********************************
Comment on Dogster Blog in response to their post about the simpleLEASH

“You all have gone off the deep end, shaking fingers and getting all self righteous, it’s kind of sad to see. Just throwing around ugly words about how horrible people are. So much for a dog “community.”

I have seen almost every dog training gimmick misused in some way – dogs with neck injuries because they have been whipped around on a “gentle” leader, dogs that have worn gentle leaders to long they have cut into their nose – how is that “gentle”? Choke chains can cause permanent skeletal damage, pinch collars can get embedded in flesh, and I’ve seen dogs absolutely tortured with electronic collars. Heck, you can even abuse cookies and end up with a fat, confused dog!

Really, anything can be abused if someone tries hard enough. Electronic collars are not bad, certainly the way some people use them is awful, but used properly, with the right amount of training, they can be valuable tools, especially with higher drive dogs.

I think the biggest problem with this product is that without a proper introduction to what a dog should do, chances are high that they will misunderstand the stimulus and bolt away from it, or, yes, some dogs will have pain induced aggression and certainly could bite the person closest to them. It’s not a product I would recommend just putting on your dog and hoping for the best, however, if you are going to do ecollar training, do it correctly with the help of an experienced professional.

I have four dogs, and have trained thousands more in the last 20 years. I’ve done almost every method out there, starting in the “good old days” of yank and crank and hope they get the idea eventually, to now where we are using clickers, food, toys, and markers to shape the most minute behaviors. Of course, I prefer toys and food and dog that wants to work with me, but you know what? Some dogs are so damaged that they need something else. I have worked several dogs through fears, as well as aggression problems, using a remote collar. Cookies wouldn’t have helped these dogs.

I have a dog that wears a remote collar whenever he leaves the house. We have done years of work, and he will still kill a dog given the chance. I choose not to give him that chance. He understands exactly what he should do when he feels the collar, and he knows darn well I can turn it up should he choose to ignore me. And I’m sorry, but all the cookies and counter conditioning in the world is not going to stop that dog when he takes a dislike to a particular dog.

I realize how you all think ecollars are “cruel” to the dog, but did you ever stop and think that if I didn’t use one how cruel it would be to let my dog attack another dog? How would you like to be the owner who’s dog gets picked up and shaken? How cruel would it be to me for my dog to have to be destroyed because I didn’t take steps to control his dog aggression? How cruel would it be for my dog to never be able to leave the house for fear that he would hurt another dog?

Tolerance people, and stepping back to listen to another viewpoint.
**************************************

Here’s the thing. I’m going to tell you a secret. A dirty one. My dogs? Ya, well, they aren’t really what I would call “trained”. They are simply very good at following cookies around. And I am very good at leading them.

I have actually trained dogs. Lots of dogs. To do useful things. Just not mine. Because they have always been good enough. They could pull off a demo, help me teach a class, and were moderately reasonable house pets. Now that I have time on my hands though, not working, the baby is getting to be more willing to do stuff with me rather than nurse 27 hours a day; I decided that perhaps I would enter my pugs in some obedience competitions. Pffbt. Well. There is this small problem. They haven’t actually ever been trained for obedience competitions. Hunh. Who knew?

Teak is a disaster. She is great at her flyball game, and loves to play agility (by her own rules, not anyone else’s), and she a great little demo dog. As long as I have a handful of cookies. Ask her to hold a sit, quietly, without busting a brain gasket because THERE ARE COOKIES IN HER HAND? Um, no. Shewouldliketodoitallveryfastrightnowpleasecouldyouhurryupabit? She gets so overspun that she just can’t think. She just wants to jump! and go! somewhere! anywhere! fast!!

Karma is another disaster. Karma knows very well the things she learned the first two years of her life. Those things she learned early on are cemented in her little collie brain. After that, her processor shut down and refused any new input. No kidding, when I try to teach her something new, she cries and slinks like she’s getting beaten. With the cookies. Yes, I beat her with the cookies, because that makes sense. Her brain smokes. And then the circuits fry and it’s over. I kind of gave up, because she’s Josh’s dog, he should train her, and really, of all the dogs she listens the best. She’s easy, doesn’t run off, doesn’t eat other dogs, and will lay down the instant the command comes out of your mouth. So really? I don’t care if she never learns anything new. I just wanted her to have some fun. But judging from the whining, training isn’t very fun for her, so whatever. Have a free cookie dog, and go get your ball.

Dyson. *sigh* Dyson is exceptionally gifted at games where he gets to do the thinking. Detection work? The dog is a genius. Tracking? Spectacular. Service dog for mildly cracked owner? Brilliant. Doing things which require him to respond quickly and accurately to an actual command? Dismal failure. I like to tell people it’s because we work better together as a team, that he’s better at thinking on his feet. Really? Reeeally??? It’s because he’s a bull headed, stubborn bastard and I don’t feel like fighting with him. I really would rather work WITH him, I hate trying to get him to work for me. Even for something as simply as “Lie Down you large, unruly, begging animal” he makes four circles around the living room to find the appropriate spot. He won’t just LIE DOWN. Luckily, he’s generally a good dog, at least around the house.

Jester, strangely, is about the best of the bunch when it comes to actual obedience training. (He’s definitely the most rotten house dog though, trash can raiding, cat box filching little scrounger) He’s much more methodical than Teak, and apparently somewhere along the way over the years, I have put quite a bit of actual, real live training into him. He is less frantic about everything, knows most of the obedience drills already, and other than being a rickety old man lacking a bit of enthusiasm (cause he’s tired and where are the blankets already?), he does pretty darn good. I guess, somehow I either actually trained him, or he learned some things by osmosis.

And all of this? All of these pretty words about why my dogs do and don’t do things? Excuses. All of it. Lame excuses for why I haven’t ever actually trained my dogs. Maybe I was busy training other people’s dogs. Maybe I haven’t done a thing with them for the past year and a half because I’ve been busy gestating, being hormonal and all that. Maybe….

Or maybe I’m not that good at really training dogs. Maybe I’ve just learned how to get them so far, and I don’t really know what the next step is. Maybe while all my friends were training, competing, trialing, and pushing their own dogs to the next level – maybe I was too busy trying to make money and running a business and I never learned how to push my own dogs further. Maybe I have always had some excuse – “Well, this dog can’t do that.” “I don’t have the money.” “I don’t have the time.” “Some day when I get this super deluxe puppy, then I can play that game.”

Or maybe, just maybe, all along I’ve been so afraid of failing, of my skills and my dogs not being good enough, that I never really tried. Guess we’ll see, won’t we?

And it struck me, I don’t miss it. I don’t miss it at all. 20 years of my life spent constantly hustling, and I really don’t miss it. I will say, most of my good friends used to be clients, and even my husband was someone I met through a client. So over all, dog training has been good, but 20 years? It’s enough. I don’t miss the endless potty training questions, the general unwillingness to follow directions, the constant pressure of being “on.” I’ll admit, my brain has rotted in the last few months, but my heart just isn’t in it for training any more.

I still love working my own dogs, but that is more about the relationship than the actual training. I still love dogs, I just am really, truly enjoying not being the one held responsible for all their shortcomings.

The funny thing is, everyone is a dog trainer these days. “Left my lucrative career as a lawyer/dentist/fill in the blank here, to follow my passion and work with animals!” I giggle inside. You moron, you don’t work with animals that much, it’s all about people. There is as much, if not more, human psychology involved than there is animal behavior. I spoke to a friend in Texas today and she said the same thing, everyone is a dog trainer now. It’s like the new, cool profession to have. Man, I’ve been a dog trainer since the days when people would look at you like you were and idiot and go “Dog trainer? You get paid for that?” Times change.

I guess I’m a little sad. Dog training was such a huge part of my identity. It’s all I ever really wanted to do. Now I’m just sort of floating along, not really sure what’s next. I’m taking care of my baby, which, I suppose is a pretty important job, but it’s different. I’ve been trying to think lately of what I should “do”, like for money, to contribute, and absolutely nothing sparks my interest. I used to get fired up about training dogs. Teaching classes, private lessons, organizing all the little pieces of it. Now, not so much. What else will I do with myself? Good question. If you come up with any suggestions, be sure to let me know. For now, I’ll worry about getting Q the best start possible, and maybe I’ll clean my house or something when she learns to nap. Hunh…..

Here’s the problem. People are exceedingly stupid. This is a known fact amongst dog trainers and anyone who works with the general public. People somehow expect rescue organizations to be able to fully guarantee a dog’s behavior after placement – it’s a dog. It is alive, it has feelings and makes choices. I have no say in what a dog will or will not do once it is out of my hands. And yet, you want to blame me for the fact that the dog has pottied in your house, even though I told you NOT to leave it unsupervised. Rrmph!

It is difficult enough to get people to cooperate with a training plan with a dog they have raised from puppyhood, getting them to understand the needs of a dog with an unknown history is nearly impossible. Granted, I am often told that I take this all too personally, and folks in rescue may march to the beat of their own little drum, but mostly they do their best to make sure each dog goes to the best home possible. We can only do so much.

Any new dog, puppy or rescue, should really be tightly supervised the first few weeks in a new home. This does not mean cut it loose and let it “explore” it’s surroundings. That’s a guaranteed way to get piss on your carpet in a corner somewhere. Start slow, keep them on a leash in the house, crate them when you can’t watch them. Don’t just turn them loose and hope for the best. That’s just dumb.

If you want a dog to be successful, don’t give it room to fail. Dogs who come to my house don’t chew things up, because I don’t give them the opportunity. They don’t crap in the house because I make sure they get outside, and when I can’t directly watch them, they are in a crate. Yes, it means more walks and more time spent exercising a dog, but I’d prefer that to cleaning up whatever destruction some unknown dog chooses to perform in my house. Plenty of toys, plenty of exercise, and no free time on their own to explore their “creative” side, and you’ll all be happy.

That said, if you’ve ever rescued a dog and been blessed with a “good one,” you’ll know why I keep coming back to help. Some of the best companions come out of the shelter or from a rescue group. Some of the most loving and dedicated dogs were once someone’s throwaways.

Still not sure how they ended up deciding to have it at a mall, but there you go. The part that kind of sucked was it was split, with most of the events at the mall, and flyball and disc dogs about a mile and a half down the street at a high school. Made it nearly impossible for flyball competitors to wander the vendors, cause we’d have to pack up, leave our dogs, and miss some races to do so. Also, the grass at the high school was really dry and by the end of the weekend, most of the disc dogs had dropped out and many of the flyball dogs had really sore feet. I know somewhere in the last three races of the weekend our own beloved Karma ripped open all four of her feet. Three torn pads and a fourth was sliced up the side. Too much hard running on dry grass with stickers in it. She hung in there and didn’t complain a bit until she got home, and then she tuned into a total pathetic drama queen who was about to die from the pain.

We raced the whole gang Friday, Dyson earned his FDX – yay D! – and took Saturday off to check out the happenings at the mall. Karma raced all three day with a different handler on Saturday, and Sunday Josh raced her. Karma is a flyball machine, and other than sore feet, made it through the weekend without a hitch.

I was on the fence with the mall thing. They did provide lots of shade and water, but it’s not as much fun to sit on the concrete to watch. We missed the herding dogs a lot – apparently there is just no where to put sheep in a mall! Splash dogs was much cleaner, as the pools were on concrete instead of dirt – that makes a huge muddy mess – and everyone was happy that the waits were so much shorter this year to use the pools and do all the other activities, but I can’t help but think that the waits were less because there weren’t nearly as many people in attendance. Absolutely ridiculous gas prices have impacted people’s willingness to drive anywhere – this is not the only dog event that has suffered this year.

I hope they raised a decent amount of money, I know our flyball raffle did fairly well – but I’m hoping that next year will be a bit better. Better grass, more (cleaner!) human potty facilities, more people, and hopefully they’ll be able to put it all in one place. Maybe the mall can handle it, or maybe we can take over a college campus somewhere. Who knows. It was just such an amazing, huge, awesome event in years past, this year was just a bit of a let down.

“Ya, he’s great, only sometimes he still barks at people at the door. But I think that’s because he’s a dog and stuff.”

True story.

Lucky for Bear, he met a guardian angel who saw his potential, had the means to send him to school, and found him the most wonderful, loving, patient home a dog could ask for. Bear is still settling into his new home, and has now been joined by his doggie companion, an older lab named Missy. Missy came from the same broken home, and came here for just a week of brush up training, and now they both live in doggie heaven. Missy is about 8 – I still wonder why anyone would ever give away an older dog like that, they are just getting perfect – and somewhere in her life someone worked with her. She caught on to things very quickly, and once I found some treats she liked (see post about Natural Nibbles) and her beloved cheese sticks, we rocked right along. Such a delightful, lovely old soul – she makes a nice counterbalance for Bear’s youth and exuberance.

I’m more than thrilled to have had the opportunity to worth with these two dogs, Missy is officially my last in board dog, and I have closed up shop so I can concentrate on getting ready for this human baby. I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful it is to work with this team of people who helped these dogs get a better life. The lovely lady who took them in and rescued them from a life where they were simply left to their own devices, and the wonderful couple who wanted to adopt them both, keep them together, and will surely love them always. In a world where all too often I see people throwing away dogs like so much garbage, I like that I can close this phase of my life with feeling like I helped a couple of truly nice dogs be just a bit better so that they can have a better life.Best of Luck always Bear and Missy, enjoy those hugs and kisses, you deserve them…

Of course, since my dogs will eat rocks and sticks, they couldn’t be trusted for any type of realistic taste test, so I shared them with an in board dog, Missy, who was proving to be exceptionally picky and wanted nothing to do with my normal array of training treats. She loved them, I only wish I had more! I’m not sure yet where exactly they’ll be available, surely online and at your favorite pet health food store.

Strangely, my cats are also insanely drawn to them, and have stolen the empty bags and pilfered the crumbs. Have at it gang, enjoy! Thanks much to Natural Nibbles for asking us for our opinion – a big paws up!!

Rowan and I attempted AKC obedience, and even though she did great, I didn’t read all my rules and screwed it up for her by giving her double commands – what do I know.

I tell people that I don’t have many titles because I am too busy working with other people’s dogs and training on the weekends to worry about pursuing titles. I tell them I’m not really all that competitive, that I don’t enjoy the insane amount of politics (which I really don’t, and is why I hate hate hate anything to do with the AKC), and that it is expensive – which it is.

But you want to know the Real Reason why I don’t compete? Honest to goodness the truth? It’s because you have to get up FUCKING EARLY to go to these events. I have to get up at 5 AM tomorrow for flyball – I haven’t seen 5 am in I don’t know how long. I’ll do it, cause I love my dogs and they love flyball – but there you go – the truth behind my lack of titles. I love my sleep more.

Bear is still here, going to be staying a bit longer. He is, as predicted, doing very well with his obedience and social skills. He’s still a bit behind, but that is understandable given that he is a rescue and the first year or so of his life he was just left out back to entertain himself. I still think he’s a nice little dog, although we’ve learned that he is absolutely terrified to have his back feet touched, and not too fond of the front ones either. We’re working on that. Lots of foot rubs and cookies. He’s figured out that paying attention gets him cookies, so he’s looking at me a lot more, which is nice. He’s very please with himself when he figures out new things, which is also a huge step in the “I am using my brain power now” direction.

I have pretty much announced that I am starting maternity leave to all my contacts and people who refer to me, and what do you know? I think it worked! The phone has been dead silent for days, which is nice, but a bit bizarre. I am now 28 weeks, and although October 1st sounds really far away – it’s only 12 weeks!! Yikes!! 12 weeks, 3 months, oh my holy cow, am I ever not ready for this!! But then, is anyone, ever? Baby is busy and so far healthy, and I am over being pregnant. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long summer.

We are gearing up for Wags for Wishes this weekend, a huge doggie event that is a fundraiser for the Make A Wish foundation. It’s got every dog sport you can imagine – flyball, disc dogs, lure coursing, splash dogs, racing Jack Russell Terriers, earth dog stuff, agility – it’s just awesome. We are racing with our flyball team on Friday and Sunday, and plan to check out the rest of the events on Saturday. This year they are holding at a mall, so we’ll see how that goes. It’ll either be really cool, or a liability nightmare. Can you imagine dogs running wild through Lancome or the Apple store? Ya, that’s kind of the image in my head. That, and drawing way too many spectators that are not dog savvy and will get in the way of competing dogs.

It’s always irritating when spectators walk through the flyball camps and send the dogs into a frenzy of “Intruder, Intruder – must kill!!!” Flyball isn’t at the actual mall, so hopefully we’ll get more of the “in the know” dog crowd.

Will let you know how that goes – should be interesting to say the least.