A puppy not afraid of the Camera!

Porky Dog

Last night I was told by a respected co-worker my dog was fat! I knew he was getting porky but still I thought he had a tuck after his ribs. But she is right and it has been a battle with my husband to not feed Scout everything in abundance! I took Scout to the vet today to weigh him....88lbs! He has gained 5 pounds since spring! WHAT? I thought dogs were supposed to drop weight during the summer! So starting today Scout is on his way to dropping 3-5 pounds. Remember: Overweight dogs can damage joints, heart, become more prone to diabetes and if an injury happens they often recover slower. Keep your pets lean!!

Paws on Parade

October 1st will mark the 18th annual Paws on Parade for the Bangor Humane Society. While I won't be able to actually walk with Scout in the parade I am doing my part by raising money for the Humane Society. Small steps to making a difference. Right? I don't know about you guys but I go through phases where I really want to do something big in my life, usually it is animal related. I want to donate a week of my time and go to a poverty stricken area and help catch and treat the stray dogs there or start up some sort of organization that will make a difference in the dog world.

What kind of participating/fundraising/ donation of your time have you guys done for making or educating the dog world?

Flying into the Weekend!

Have a great long weekend and holiday!!

Cut those Toe Nails!

Tip of the Day: Whether you have a young puppy or an older dog it is never to late to begin getting them accustomed to have their toe nails clipped. I can't stress enough how important it is from day one with a puppy to handle their feet. In our puppy class we talk a lot about handling a dog to get them used to grooming and vet visits and often I think people sigh with relief if they have a dog with short hair that won't require grooming visits. Truth be told though, all dogs have toe nails and that is part of grooming maintenance for your pet. Don't expect to do all four feet, start with just one toe. Clip the nail, give your dog a treat and put the clippers away. Do this every day, maybe aim for two toes or a foot but always treat after each clip or have someone feed your puppy while you trim the nails and your dog will offer you his foot for a pedicure! My lab is very patience when I clip his nails because I did this method with him from day 1. I have clipped too close to the quik before where it made him bleed a little bit but he was just as eager to give his foot back because 9 times out of 10 its a good experience. It makes your life a bit less stressful and you don't have to pay someone else to trim the nails. If you just don't like doing the nails yourself and do pay someone, it is still a good habit to reward with treats while the other person does it or work on conditioning at home to get your dog to accept it.

Finally getting a moment after a long but wonderful weekend. I had one very tired puppy on the ride home Sunday, practically comatose! He swam and he ran and he swam some more. Tucker the other dog definetly gave Scout a run for his money. They played pretty well together but Scout did have to give a few "back off!" corrections.  But overall still buds. On Sunday, two other dogs showed up to camp, a yorkshire terrier and a corgi/jack russel mix. I was so proud of Scout! A lot of times I think people owning big dogs get worried about them with little ones but Scout is very respectful when approaching new dogs. If they give him corrections he backs off or changes his demeanor to make it so the little dogs accept him and will play with him. Photos to come of the half pint dogs and their interactions!

Scout and Tucker Saturday night after a day of playing!

A Trip to Dodge Point

It has been months since Scout and I have gone to dodge point in Newcastle. Whenever we have a moment of spare time it seems to be filled with construction on the house. Shingling, painting, lawn mowing, laundry  you name it, it seems to take up our time. But this morning we found time and Scout loved it! I took my camera and we sauntered along and while Scout frolicked I took photos. Here are a couple I took.

Here is Scout bounding out of the ocean. Whenever we approach the beach he gives a fleeting glance and I tell him go ahead and he runs for the water. He likes to troll around in the ocean biting at the waves. He is quite amusing to watch!

A Dog who can't wag his Tail

It was a hectic weekend. I did my first wedding gig! It went quite well but I did realize that it is a niche I am not going to explore too much. Like most jobs it was very exhausting. I think I will keep my focus on portraits, children and pets.

On Sunday we finally got our boat up and running and took it for a spin around the lake. It is going to be a fun boat...fast! Scout enjoys these type of recreations. He does things like ride on snowmobiles, 4 wheelers, boats etc. On this particular occasion though he came out with an injured tail. I don't know if it was the awkward sitting in the boat while it spins around or the fact that he did some boat diving. We stopped in the middle of the lake and jumped off the back of the boat to swim and cool off. Once Scout got the hang of it he was launching himself out 5+ feet, mind you he had no running start.

When Monday morning rolled around I had a dog that was depressed, uncomfortable and couldn't wag his tail. It is not too fun having your dog go through that, knowing you can't really help or explain the discomfort. But fortunately working at the Vet I explained his situation and asked to get him some pain medication and monitor him and his tail for a few days to determine if further examining is required. Needless to say today he is on the mend. He is able to wag his tail a bit more, he can lift it a bit higher and I suspect by tomorrow he'll be close to back to his goofy, tail waggin' self!

Photo Friday!

Body Handling

Training Tip of the Day: Help your dog become more comfortable with being handled. To do this use classical conditioning. We are going to pair our hand on our dogs body with food. This helps create a more stable dog and helps make Vet visits a bit less stressful.
For example I'll briefly explain how to get your dog to accept having his toe nails trimmed. Start out touching the foot and feed your dog treats, you stop touching the dog - the treat goes away. We are changing our dogs emotion so that he wants us to touch his feet because it equals something really positive and tasty! Pick up your dogs foot, treat, clip a toe nail, treat or have someone feeding your dog while you trim the nails. I have done this with my dog since he was a puppy and I have quicked him once (cut his nail too short so it bled). He was hardly phased by it and was willing to give his foot right back to me so we could continue with the other toes and feet! Viola!! The power of food!

This method of training applies to everything on your dog, look in his mouth - treat, look in his ear - treats, pull on his tail - treats, tug on his fur - treats, the last couple are great ways to prepare your dog for children but you get the picture!

Red Light, Green Light

A new technique I've started implementing with Scout and his desire to run down the driveway to greet the car pulling in is to play red light green light. I am really the one that plays the game with him, I did get my father to participate one evening when he was going to be stopping in but it is based off of the simple learning theory of dogs. Scout has had a lot of practice with the behaviors we like we will reward and the ones we don't like cause what he wants to stop or ignore him.
So in terms of our red light green light game. Scout wants that car to come into the driveway all the way to the house because it is exciting, it means someone is home. With this new game I have started in order for him to get that car into the driveway he has to remain in a sit and the car will come forward, if he breaks his sit and moves towards the car, the car stops where it is. The idea came to me when I stopped at the mailbox to get the mail one day and he started to run down the driveway but when he became aware it was me he stopped and waited. When I started down the driveway he got up and started to move forward so I over exaggerated and got into the breaks so it was very noticeable the car stopped. Scout stopped. I started forward about 5 feet and Scout broke his sit and so again I got into the breaks. Scout stopped and sat. We did this dance about 3 times total. By this time Scout is beyond the excitement that someone is here and you are able to call him back to the house where he can remain in a sit stay until the visitor gets to the end of the driveway. It has actually worked quite well. Again I am really the major player of the game but when my father visited it worked really well. He pulled in and Scout charged down the driveway as usual and my dad stopped the truck and low and behold Scout stopped almost puzzled like "Oh crap you know the game too!" I was able to call Scout back to me immediately and put him into a down stay. With hand signals behind Scout so he couldn't see, I would wave my dad forward as long as Scout was how I wanted him and would use the universal sign for STOP if he broke the position. Not only did this limit the chasing but it helped Scout learn some self control and allows him to make the decision to sit or down and stop moving forward. He has the power to make that vehicle move forward!

Photo Friday!

I just have to say I had such a great night of training with Scout last night. We were up at Green Acres and participating in the Canine Good Citizen Class and we were on! I teach a puppy class before the CGC one and we have 5 puppies and one exuberant outcast who is very friendly but the other dogs find him a bit much. So I pulled Scout into class during the puppy play time and separated him and the happy puppy from the rest. He played so nicely with the puppy, Stan, and Stan was doing so good with his calming signals to Scout. A lot of groveling, play bows, tongue flicks, it was adorable. Scout also did a lot of self handicapping. This is when a dog that has an advantage, in this case size, doesn't use his full strength or ability. So when Scout was playing tug with the puppy he really only held the rope and didn't whip him around like he could have and a couple times he laid right down and rolled on his back and let the puppy climb over him. Puppy class I think set us up for a good training class that followed.

In the CGC we do a lot of walking politely! Everything stems around it really. We do dog/handler greetings where we approach, ask our dogs to sit and then shake the other persons hand. This is the area that Scout needs the most work in but he still does quite well. We did two rounds of recalls. The first was Scout recalling past the other dogs on leash. He was like a bullet, straight to me and fast!! The second we did two dogs to a time and in the class is Scout's best friend Romie and we were paired together. So when cued to call our dogs Tracy got the jump on me on calling so Scout was about half way to me and drifted to Romie and Tracy. I kept it positive and exciting and continued to call Scout and he came! I apparently go blind in these moments because I was just trying to figure out something exciting to get Scout to come but I was told after he did a great recall away from Romie because everyone said they were around to start playing. My positive reinforcement for the night was my instructor telling me it was actually probably better practice to call him off of Romie than it would have been if he came straight to me!

Each week Scout also seems more relaxed at class. The first class he wouldn't lay down on his own during "down" time. Last night if we weren't moving but listening or having a discussion he chose to lay down in a relaxed down and observe! He makes his Momma proud!

It's Training Tip Thursday

Tip of the Day: Dogs have the easiest way of learning: Behaviors that are rewarded will be strengthened and repeated but behaviors that are ignored (if not life threatening) will often extinguish themselves.
So if you have a dog that squirms while you hold it, don't put it down at that point because you have taught your puppy or dog that wiggling and putting up a stink gets it what it wants...to be on the floor. Instead wait for a moment of calm behavior and then reward the dog by placing him on the floor. Keeping this little thought in mind will help with so many behaviors. It applies to crate training, only let your dog out if he is quiet, not when he is screaming/barking/whining, unless you know for certain if it's a puppy it needs to go to the bathroom, it applies to jumping, demand barking, begging etc.

Wordless Wednesday!

Training Tip

Tip of the Day: When teaching your dog a new or old behavior one of the biggest things is to only say your verbal cue once! So when you ask your dog for a "Sit", say it once and then if your dog was taught with a hand signal, follow through with that instead of repeating yourself. You don't want a dog that learns to sit only after you've said "Sit" 6 different times.