Kid and Dog Safety

One thing that worries me most as an owner is kids around my dogs. It's not that I'm against kids or that my dogs are vicious. In fact we purposely get our dogs use to the assaults from a young age by pulling on their ears, tails, lips, feet, fur and anywhere else a child might pull. Now don't go thinking I'm yanking them around by different body parts all the time.  How we get them use to it is:  while petting, we gently pull on something (leg, ear, fur, etc) and then quickly go back to petting. That way they aren't put in an uncomfortable spot and get rewarded for no reaction to the incident. I also tend to borrow friends' kids to teach my dogs not to jump on children (My friends don't seem to mind as their kids get to play with dogs and learn dog signs, so they are more prepared when they meet new dogs). This also aids my dogs because they get to learn kids equal good things (even if they invade their bubble).

It's the fact that most kids don't know how to read dog body language. They can't tell when the dog is nervous, anxious, scared, or just down right wants to get away. I don't blame the kids for not knowing, I blame the parents for not teaching, not knowing dog body language, or not heeding the owners warnings. Recently I watched a toddler run up to a dog and hug it. The problem with this is that the owner of the dog was trying to stop the kid and get the dog away, because the dog was very scared and trying to avoid the toddler. The kid's parents watched laughing at the child's assault on the dog, until the dog let out a warning growl. Then they tried to scold the owner for having "a dog like that in public." I spoke out at that point (as a trainer and a dog reactive dog I just can't stand when people are wrongly accused). I informed the parents that the owner was following every aspect of the law and it was infact them in the wrong. They didn't believe me at this point, so I proceeded to point out that if they couldn't tell by the dogs obvious attempt to go the opposite direction from their kid (and their dog), then they should have clearly seen the owner step in front of her dog and yell "stop she's nervous" before their child ran up to the dog. It's not fair to blame the owner or the dog in this situation, they tried to stop the assault.

It's become clear through my years of training that most parents and dog owners don't know the warning signs of dogs. If you don't know the warning signs then you might look at these following photos and go "how cute"

 

In all six of these photos the children are in danger of potentially getting bit because the dogs are put in an uncomfortable position. You can see some dogs trying to avoid the situation (looking away). You can also see the half-moon eye (indicator that the dog is uncomfortable). Now if you looked at these and thought with at least 1 of them "aww that's a sweet picture" or "I don't know what's wrong with this one," you may not have a grasp on dog body language. Don't feel bad it's more common than you think. That's why I created this post, so that you and your children can learn, when a dog needs to be left alone. By learning the warning signs of dogs you can avoid most bites. Now if you looked at all of these and cringed you might be a trainer (or have a wonderful grasp on dog body language)

The picture below is a great tool in trying to decipher doggy language

I know that one or more of these signs can go unnoticed. I usually keep it much simpler in my classes. I stick to the 3 major signs to look for. The first one is avoidance. This is where the dog will look away from the stressful situation. If the dog is looking away, don't force the dog into the situation. The second sign is lip licking (called tongue flick in the picture). This is where the dog is constantly licking their lips. This is a signal that the dog is overly stressed and is trying to calm down. Again do not force a dog into a situation if you see this, bad things will happen. The third and final sign to pay attention to is yawning. You may think the dog is tired, but that is not the case.  It's a calming reflex and informs us again the dog is overly stressed and needs to be removed from the situation. If these warning signs are ignored, the last step is for the dog to give a warning bite. The dog may or may not get skin, but if it does get skin it can be potentially dangerous for the child.

It doesn't matter how great a dog is with the child, every dog (just like every person) has a breaking point. Some dogs have a shorter fuse than others (just like people). That is why we want to teach our children to respect a dogs personal space

Below is another picture that can be useful in learning dog body language. It has a few more signals to help decipher dog body language.

Now learning all the signs may be a difficult task for some of the younger kids. However, you can teach a young child to generally respect a dog's space. By teaching your children to speak to dogs quietly (not yelling or squealing) that can help fearful dogs be comfortable. 

We want to also teach children to not run up to a strange dog. Just like you don't want your kid to run over to the creepy guy in the van handing out candy, you don't want your child to run up to a strange dog. That dog may be sick, it may be a service dog, it may be fearful, or it may be hurt and in pain. All but being a service dog, can result in your child getting bitten by the dog. If you child runs up to a service dog it can distract the animal from doing it's necessary job. Make sure that you and your child ALWAYS ask if it is okay to pet the dog. Just because the dog is out in a public place doesn't mean it's fair game. If the owner says "No" don't take offense, it's not you, it's their dog. 

I had a wonderful experience of a dad and his daughter at work one day. I would take one of my dogs to work on a regular basis at one point, because she has been the best help dealing with reactive dogs. I was talking to a coworker when a young girl ran up to my dog, but before she got to my dog the dad grabbed her hand and told her she had to wait to pet my dog until I gave permission. This little girl was down right adorable and shy. She kept whispering the question to her dad and in turn her dad would tell her "I don't know you have to ask her (pointing at me)." The child would then stare at me bashfully and the cycle would repeat. It took about 5 min for the girl to finally ask me "Pet dog?" She was so shy that was all that could squeak out. I smiled, thanked her for asking, and yes she could pet my dog. I also thanked her father for teaching his daughter this. He didn't believe that he was a minority of parents (at least in my neck of the woods) that taught their children to ask politely instead of allowing them to bombard my (or any) dog.

It is also important to teach a child to leave a dog alone while it is eating or chewing a bone. I can tell you as a child I learned this a hard way. Looking back I'm glad parents scolded me instead of our dog when he bit me. Luckily he didn't break the skin, and I learned to stay out of his space while he had his bone or food. I've seen many people blame the dog. You have to look at it through the dog's eyes. Would you want someone to come over and snatch the fork out of your hands? Or would you get uncomfortable if you were at a restaurant and the waiter stayed at the table and watched you eat your food? The same can be said for dogs. They don't want their bowls grabbed from them or to be stared down while eating just like you don't. And just like people they have different reactions; some may simply slink away and not eat, some may get angry and lash out.

Below is a wonderful picture of the "do's and don'ts" for young people to follow.

One useful teaching tool I have developed is I always teach the kids to relate to how the dog is feeling (just like I have done in this post and previous posts with you readers). It helps them (and you) understand the dogs point of view. If you use real life scenarios it can help the child understand. For instance: the scenario I gave you with someone snatching the fork out of your hands. You wouldn't like it, so do you think the dog would like it? By letting the child think about it, you can help them understand why we shouldn't do it other than mommy or daddy told them not to do it. 

Now children and dogs can coexist quite wonderfully. My littlest dog is a therapy dog and he loves visiting school children. In fact, he's better behaved around children than he is adults. One of our favorite times of the year is when a friend of mine invites us to her school. We get to help teach the children what is required to take care of dogs and how to greet dogs.

There are wonderful tools out their to help children and pets interact appropriately. The first thing you want to do is talk to a trainer if you are expecting a child. They can help you prepare. If your dog hasn't had any basic obedience lessons you will definitely want to sign up for one. You and your dog will learn commands that will help your pup learn boundaries and commands that will help him/her leave things that belong to the baby alone. If you are wanting to get a dog and already have children then go ahead and sign up for a training class even if the dog already knows basics. Training provides a bonding experience and if your children are old enough they can get in on the action. I always encourage parents to bring their kids to my classes and if the children are old enough (usually around 10 or older) a lot of parents will have them do most of the training.

Not training related, but a quick update on why no post

First I want to apologize for no post. I have been working on a post about kid and dog safety in honor of national bite prevention week, but right now that is put on hold.

My hometown of Moore, OK was hit by a tornado yesterday. I was on my way to my parent's house yesterday afternoon to check on my childhood cat (he's 18 and not doing well, so I'm faced with a tough decision about his quality of life). Being born and raised in a town known for it's attraction to tornadoes, they really aren't something I fear too much. I was close to home when I heard on the radio that a twister touched down less than a mile from them. I ended up heading north to a friend's house, where I waited for some news. After hearing that my parents were not hit by the tornado I weighed whether it was safe to continue to their home.

All the roads directly home were closed due to destruction, so if I wanted to go home I would have to drive 45 min west and then 45 min south and 45 min east to get to their home, so I decided it was best to return to back home (on a side note in Oklahoma we measure distance in time not miles). I couldn't go east because a tornado ripped through a town on the east side on Sunday. I spent my drive home and evenning updating family who couldn't get ahold of my parents (the cell towers in town were down) and checking on my childhood friends and their family. I'm happy to report that all my friends and family survived. Some didn't have any damage, some sustain minor damages, and some lost their homes, but right now what matters most is that they are alive.

Again I am sorry this has no reference to dog training, but one thing that training has taught me is that sometimes life gets in the way. And my life got in the way. I had to make sure my loved ones are safe.

If you want to help the efforts in Oklahoma you can donate by texting:

"FOOD" to 32333 to donate $10

 "RESPOND" to 50555 to give a $10 donation

"STORM" to 80888 to donate $10

These go to reputable agencies like the food pantry, CWS and the salvation army. It will charge your phone bill so be aware

To treat or not to treat?

I think what has irked me the most in my training career is the fact that people harp on the use of a treat reward. I hear time and time again that dogs should do what you ask without a reward.

I recently had another "trainer" gripe me out for rewarding my dog with a treat (Sadie is learning the whisper command now). I use trainer in quotes because in my opinion a trainer is someone who can adapt with the emergence of new techniques and new science, which this person has not. This is the same person who when I took my little dog to agility class with her, (now mind you my dog was about 8 months old at this time, so he was exhibiting juvenile behaviors and being a little rebellious teen) she tried to bully me into buying a pinch collar and also yanked the leash out of my hands and forced my dog into a "down" by jerking him to the ground and stepping on the leash and was going to stay there "until he gave up." Well for one I've seen the damage a pinch collar can do and I refuse to put one on my dogs ever and I will show you better options for your dog than that type of torture device. And for two if you have ever met my littlest dog or any other Schipperke then you would know how stubborn and crazy smart the breed is. He didn't "give up" like she planned instead he wiggled off the leash and then preceded to run around the rink like a maniac all while she chased him like an idiot (I may have not known much about training at this point in my life, but I knew enough to not chase the dog).  Needless to say, we left that day never to return. The next few years I spent listening to other people's horror stories of interactions with her. Myself and other positive reinforcement trainers have spent long and hard hours (and years) correcting the reactive behavior that has resulted from her capital punishment mentality.

But off of that tangent now and back on the use of treats. My simple response to the statement "a dog shouldn't need treats; they should do what I want for simple praise" is do you expect to go to work and not get paid for that day? If you expect a payday, then why shouldn't your dog? They are doing hard work. Not only are they having to decipher our language, they also have to figure out what action goes with what word we are saying. Put yourself in the place of your dog.

Imagine if you met an alien race; they don't speak your language and you don't speak their language. However, they are trying to teach you the actions that go along with some of their words.  The alien looks at you and says "sshrfp." You have no clue what that means or what to do. So the alien pushes you down (you land in a sitting position) while saying "sshrfp" and after you land says "srp." Does "sshrfp" mean push or sit? And what the hell does "srp" mean. Do you know? Let's try it again: you stand up and again the alien says "sshrfp" and pushes you down. This time you land a little more on your side, but still essentially sitting. And the alien says "srp" after you land.  Have you figured it out yet? What does "sshrfp" mean? What does "srp" mean? Want to try it one more time? Or are you getting tired of being shoved around? Well to bad: you stand up and once again the alien says "sshrfp" and pushes you down, when you land the alien says "srp." Can you figure out what message the alien was trying to convey?

Let's try this again only with a little twist. Now the alien has a cupcake. The alien shows you the cupcake. The alien uses that cupcake to guide you (without touching you) into sitting in a chair. Then says "prp" and gives you the cupcake. The next time the alien says "brrp" and guides you into the chair with a cupcake. Once you sit the alien says "prp" and gives you the cupcake. Can you tell me what "brrp" and "prp" mean? Do we need to try it again? Well let's go ahead and try it again. You get up, the alien shows you a cupcake and says "brrp" and guides you into the chair. Once you sit, the alien says "prp" and gives you the cupcake. Have you figured out what all the words mean yet? Could you take a guess at any of them? If the alien says "brrp" would you think to sit in the chair?

This is what your dog is having to deal with. If you say "sit" and then push on their butt, then what action are you actually teaching them? Did you teach them that "sit" means put your butt on the ground or did you teach them that "sit" means I touch your butt and then it goes on the ground?

This goes along with my number one question for the treat naysayers:  how do you get a dog to learn the commands? The easiest and simplest way to get a dog to do a sit and down command is by luring them into it using either a treat or toy reward. I have seen the naysayers methods first hand (see my rant): generally they force the dog into a sit or a down, but what they fail to see is that they always have to "force" the dog to do the command. I use force in quotes, because you may not see them physically push the animal into the command, but what you will see is them having to tell the dog "sit" or "down" several times and then resort to touching them (either their butt for "sit" or their shoulders for "down"). In my opinion, I shouldn't have to touch my dog for them to do the command. The research out there shows that animals learn better if they figure things out on their own.

Now don't get me wrong I do believe eventually a dog should be able to do a command without the use of treats. I don't really bring out the treats unless we are working on commands my dogs may be rusty on or if they are learning behaviors. My littlest dog has his Canine Good Citizen (CGC)  certification and is also a registered therapy dog through Therapy Dog International (TDI). For both of these tests he had to perform all the tasks set for him without any treats. This means he had to walk nicely, stop when I stopped, Sit/stay and down/stay, come to me, and many more tasks all without treats. He even had treats thrown at him that he had to leave alone, and again he had to do this without treats. To me the ability to have your dog do commands without the use of treats is the real proof on how obedient he/she is, but that comes after your dog learns the commands.

I always tell people I won't leave you stuck using treats in my classes. I always show people how to wean their dogs off of treats, but it's usually up to them on when to wean them. I will help reinforce this by giving the dog praises when they come up to me and sit or down.

Boredom Blues

The past year and a half, between work and school, I've been away from my home most days for at least twelve hours (if I'm lucky). No one has suffered more than my pups and boy have they let me know! The past week or so (probably going on 2 weeks now) I have come home to my pups having torn up something new. Mostly it's been trash (like my nice new box of Kleenex that I forgot to put up) or bags of treats that weren't hidden very well from my dogs' super sniffers, but sometimes they find things like my favorite lip gloss that fell out of my purse one morning. Now I know I can't blame them for this type of behavior. Blame lies solely on me for not exercising them properly. I failed my pups by not walking them like I should and by not doing training sessions like I should. I keep promising myself and them that they will get me back soon and that we can go walking, hiking, swimming and training. I keep thinking that on my only day off that we will go out and go hiking along my favorite trail, but it seems mother nature has a different plan because it is always raining on those days I plan to go.

This leads me into what seems like the number one reason people seek my help. And that is destructive behavior (chewing, digging, destroying, etc). I can't keep track of the number of times I've heard "fluffy keeps chewing my (insert random item)" or "Fido won't stop shredding the (rug, towels, paper, etc)" or even "Rover keeps digging out (or jumping over) my fence." Usually that is why people seek me out when they come into my store. They don't know why their dog is destroying everything or won't stay in their yard no matter what they try. The answer to this is very simple: They are bored and need to exert some energy.

Most people come to me and want the fix all cure for this type of behavior. And the best part of this behavior is that there is a (mostly) fix all cure! Walk your dog more! The first question I always ask in these situation is "how often do you walk your dog?" The answers vary from never to once a week, or not enough. Most of the time if you can walk your dog for about 15 min at the minimum you will start to kick boredom in the butt.

However, it seems that I am always met with resistance on this answer. I get excuse after excuse. Because of where I live the most common excuse I hear is "We live on (5,10,40,80,etc) acres and the dog has access to all of the land." People just don't get why their dog is so destructive even though they have all this land to run on. I heard the most beautiful explanation/comparison from a fellow trainer:  "Imagine you live in this big, beautiful glass mansion. You have all the room you want inside the house and can go anywhere you want in it. The only stipulation is you cannot step a foot outside. So you can see what's out there, but you cannot go outside for any reason. Eventually you will get cabin fever won't you? (insert yes answer here) This is exactly what your dog is facing. He may have all that land to run on, but he's seen it all and he's done it all and he's bored with it just like you would be in the house." Walks are extremely important, not only because they give the dogs (and us) physical exercise needed, but also because they give the dogs the mental stimulation they desperately need. Walks can also help bond dogs who are just meeting each other or even don't like each other. Walking is an important aspect of being a pet parent.

Now if your dogs are like mine a simple walk will help but not completely stop the problem. When I first adopted my newest dog, Sadie, we walked at least 6 miles a day for the first 3 months. This was because she had so much pent up energy from being in a kennel that she needed to get out. We cut it down to 2 miles every other day, but the past year and a half that seems like an impossible task. You see I live in a different city than I worked at and went to school at so I had been commuting between 2 and 3 hours a day, so right now we are lucky if we get in a half mile walk a week. That means I have to find other ways to relieve their boredom while I'm away. A great tool for this has been puzzle toys.

I bought my first puzzle toy a few years ago, before they became so popular. I found a great deal on a Nina Ottosson toy on the internet and bought it for my littlest dog. I was in love after that point and when I could find a new or different one at a great deal I would snatch it up to check it out. Now we have a collection of kongs, puzzle feeders, treat balls, and anything similar to all of these.

When I was working and taking Sadie with me most days, I would feed Pyrate by giving him his kibble in a puzzle toy that day. It kept his mind working and he was a whole lot less destructive. Puzzle Toys provide mental stimulation for dogs and provide an outlet for destructive behavior. Kongs can be stuffed with whatever you want and you can put it in the freezer for teething puppies. You can find all kind of recipes for kongs here. I usually put some kibble and mix it with pumpkin or yogurt and then seal it with peanut butter and freeze it. My pups go crazy for theirs!

These always provide hours of fun for my dogs and they help keep them distracted when I need to study or work without the pups' help. I have even discovered a toy for Pyrate's horrible separation anxiety! We found a treat ball that I could record my voice on so every time he would roll it he would get a food reward and could hear me talking to him. He would roll it just to hear my voice!  There are different types and different difficulty levels, so there is usually one for every dog out there.

Dog on the Loose!

So one confession I have to make about one of my personal dogs: she has the worst recall EVER! Okay maybe not ever, but for a trainer it's pretty embarrassing. I think what's worse is her recall in the yard is absolutely amazing! At the dog park she is the best! She will come to me at a drop of a dime (no treats needed)! I even get a long lead and put on her to practice and she does amazing every single time! But if you give her one inch of freedom she is gone and is never coming back! It's almost become a right of passage in watching Sadie. She will run away from you. She's runaway from me, my boyfriend, my dad, my mom, my boyfriend's mom, and a really good friend who watched them when I was working 12 hours and afraid a grass fire was going to hit the town we live in. She now comes with a list of what to do when (not if) she runs off. I do believe this might have been one of the reasons she was returned to the shelter after being adopted. And by all means this is really her only bad habit.

I've pretty much come to the realization that she (unlike our other 3 dogs) cannot be trusted off leash ever! I'm okay with that; we've worked around it. There is a retractable leash for going potty (the only time I recommend and use such a thing) and a long horse lead when we go hiking or swimming. My only problem comes when that gate blows open or when the front door doesn't latch all the way. We've perfected the "wait" command, so much so that I've actually walked across the street with the front door wide open. I've even been able to leave my front door open while loading the car and haven't had to worry one bit about her bolting. She's a master at "wait," but what happens when I fail at it? Notice I say I failed, not her. She doesn't fail at it (like I said she's a master), but there are times that I fail at administering or practicing the "wait" command.

Today was such a day that I failed. We've been house sitting for my brother, which has been nice having a fenced yard to play in. The catch comes that the back yard is set up so you have to enter and exit through it to get into the house, which for the most part I love, because I can let the dogs out off leash while I set the alarm and then worry about the leashes after the door is shut and locked. However, when someone comes over and the gate doesn't latch is when we run into problems. I'm not laying blame on the visitors; it was in no way their fault. It had happen to me, but I was just luckily right by the gate before any harm could result. If anything it was my fault. It was my fault, because I had knowledge that the gate could do that and I didn't practice "wait" at the gate with Sadie like I should have.

However, it's these experiences that we get to practice the recall she so badly needs. Those times when there is not a leash attached or a fence she can't get out of. The ones where she fails miserably at almost every time. Let me give you back ground on Sadie's runaway habits. The first time it happened was 3 days after I adopted her. She took off when the leash came unhooked from her collar during the car ride and I was letting her out of the car. She ran for a mile and a half before a neighbor who was walking her dog at the time caught her and held her until I could get to her. When she stayed at my boyfriend's mother's house she probably got a good quarter of a mile to half a mile away after our female Boerboel opened the door for her. While staying at my parent's house one day while I was at work the front door blew open and she ran out. I'm not sure how far she got, but she was gone for about 45 minutes. So as you can tell usually when she's running away, she doesn't stop running for a long time. But the glorious thing that happened today, is she got three houses down and came to one of my brother's friends who ran out to help. This has never happened before! It's normally an ordeal and I have to get a familiar car (i.e. my car or my boyfriends car) in front of her in order to get her back. She never stops that soon! NEVER!

Well I do believe that our recall training is starting to pay off. It might be a slow road, but today was a glimmer of hope that things were starting to click. I think if I were to have treats on hand she would have come back quicker, but I won't know until next time.

As a trainer you never like to admit that your dog is less than perfect, but sometimes they aren't perfect. I believe my experiences, like this, give my clients the realization that I'm not a perfect pet parent all the time and my dogs are not perfectly behaved all the time. They get to see that I'm human too and I screw up just like they do. I think it helps (or at least I hope it does) the connection that we have; they get to see that my dogs aren't 100% all the time, they have their moments. I've had clients before tell me that their dog could never compare to mine, so I whip out these stories (or stories of potty training Pyrate) that let them see I have faults and my dogs have faults just like everyone else. They bring me down off of the pedestal they placed me on. It makes it easier for them to come to me with their problems because I have dealt with them before. They know I won't look down on them, because they are struggling with something; I will help them out and guide them through it. 

Who stole the socks?

I've learned recently that Animal Planet has officially been ruined for me. While house sitting I was trying to kill some time before I had to get out of the house, so I turned on the television. After flipping through the channels I deemed that there was nothing on worth watching, so I turned to my old reliable favorite. However I only managed to get  about a minute into the show before I just had to turn it off.  The show was "Bad Dog!" and it was all about klepto canines. I watched clip after clip of dogs stealing random items from their owners and the owners chasing the dogs trying to get said item back. I cringed at every clip (and I only watched two and a half clips). I can't believe how many dog owners think that this behavior is funny and acceptable. When did it become funny for your dog to steal things?

Now don't get me wrong Pyrate and I enjoy the occasional game of chase. I do this as a reward because he absolutely hates playing fetch! It's like pulling teeth with him, so after a good round of fetch I will chase him around while he plays keep away. However, I never chased my dogs when they stole something! This is the worst thing you can do, because you just made it an incredibly fun game of keep away!

Two simple commands can keep situations like the klepto dogs from happening. A "leave it" command is key in getting the dog to stay away from whatever they like to steal. "Leave it" is a simple command that means exactly what it sounds like. The dog must leave it alone. Ideally this means even when you are not in the room; however, to get to that point means a lot of hard work and trust exercises. I always give the example of Pyrate. With him I can place a plate of food with in reach, tell him "Leave it" and walk out of the room for 10 min without worrying about my food disappearing. I am always met with disbelief of this feat, but I also explain this took 3 years to accomplish. Not only does it take a very long time to get to that point, but it also takes constant work. This meant when I left for a summer to go travel in the outback that my dog's training faltered. It took another couple of years to be able to trust him once more.

Not only do the dogs need to know "leave it," they also need to learn a "drop it" command. This is so we can get the items they stole back from their grips.

With two simple commands you can keep the dog from continuing stealing. By removing the fun from the game and by presenting alternate behaviors to get the attention they are seeking your dog no longer has to be a kleptomaniac.

I know that every client I have worked with thinks that their dog could never leave that sock let alone a tasty morsel! However, I've never had a dog come to me that didn't pick up the "leave it" command by the end of the lesson. Now don't get me wrong I have seen the dogs mess up on the "leave it," but it's through no fault of the dog. Usually, as the pet parent, we get too excited for our dogs to learn this wonderful command that we go a little to fast. Breaking the command up into stages works best for our dogs (just like any difficult task). Usually by the next week all the dogs in my class can leave everything we throw at them alone. I've had pet parents who have watched a class that was a week ahead and swore to me that their dog would never be able to do the same.  We can usually throw treats at the dogs, toys, paper, my treat pouch, just about anything until we have "land mines" everywhere. The dogs always surprise their owners in this exercise, because they are leaving everything they tell them to and even doing it at a distance! It's after this exercise that the pet parents start thinking their dogs can be as good at "leave it" as mine are with it!

Why a new blog and what brought me to this point in my life

Today I have decided to create a new blog about my experiences, concerns, trials, tribulations, and general dog training information that I encounter.  This stems from my realization that I cannot walk away from training as easily as I thought I could at the beginning of the year. I have decided that I will continue on training even after I get my new degree. I have also decided to create a new blog about training after I have been mulling over information I gathered from a wonderful training conference I was able to attend earlier this year.

One thing that stuck in my mind from this conference was write everything down. I have failed this in the past. I wish I had a journal, notebook, or something that I kept when dealing with Pyrate's antisocial problems. I remember the dog I adopted and the problem he became after a certain incident. Now he's getting back to the dog I originally adopted. I have nothing to look back at to see the turning point or to show to new people that this amazing pup was a real troublemaker.

I became interested in dog training almost 6 years ago when I adopted a breed of dog I knew nothing about. I quickly learned the problems I faced. Everything from potty training (breed standard 1.5 years if you're lucky), running away, jumping (6 ft in the air), biting, digging. Now I know this was mostly typically puppy behavior, but the more I researched the breed I just adopted, the more I realized how much work would be involved. I quickly started calling all the local trainers and found one that matched my needs perfectly. I will say this was back in the time when positive reinforcement was something that was scoffed at and was barely used. It took some search to finally find a place that practiced positive reinforcement and would allow a dog without a rabies vaccination at his age in (see he had to start the puppy series over again since he was a stray). He quickly excelled and proved to everyone how smart this breed is. It was years later that I actually became a dog trainer after a friend showed me the fun tricks I could do with my dog (we taught him everything from target to riding a skateboard).

My love of training actually occurred before then. It happened back when I was 16 and volunteering at the zoo. I was able to help out in enrichment activities and observe several training sessions.  This continued on when I went to the Smithsonian National Zoo (shortly after adopting Pyrate) and did an internship working with birds. Two of us were put in charge of creating a training and enrichment program for a problem bird named Romeo. I fell in love with training at that point. I was able to go into the cheetah area while I was working there and do training with the cheetah's as well. That summer was the start of my love and it took a few years later for me to even think about transitioning into dog training. It wasn't a hard transition, but it was one that never occurred to me before the day I started my tricks class.

I love watching as others realize that their dogs can be as well behaved as mine. I love sharing with other pet parents my trials and tribulations and them sharing theirs with me. It's an amazing feeling helping those who need it the most, the ones who are at their wits ends realize that they can have an amazing dog. That is the reason I have created this new blog. In hopes that others will join me in the trials and tribulations of myself and the owners around me and also in hopes of bringing information to others who may be struggling with their own pet.