Awesome Obedience Videos Free!

Anyone who is looking for really good free videos for training exercises for their puppies or dogs, I found a really good trainer on youtube. He can be found at http://www.youtube.com/tab289 . You can look through his videos and find some really sweet lessons. He also makes good videos that are not hard to watch like some. Very easy to understand and solid, science based learning. I learned some stuff this morning and much of it was really good review. I especially liked his leave 'teaching come' video. Check it out! Always more to learn!

Happy Training!

Mary

Gal's New Trick

Today Gal decided to show off and climb onto the rattan trunk out on our front porch. We got such a good kick out of it. There didn't seem to be any particular reason for it. I think she just likes to get up high. Maybe she's feeling a little small around here with all the big boys and humans. Anyway, I decided to take advantage of it and turn it into a trick that I could put on cue.

One of the most important things about trick doggin' is going with the flow. If a dog shows an natural tendency to do something it will be much easier and more fun for you and your dog if you can turn it into a trick. She also likes to 'sing' like her mother. I hope I will be able to capture that and put it on cue as well. Maybe someday she will be sitting on the trunk singing when she's asked to. What a sweetheart she is.

Check out a website I just discovered called domorewithyourdog.com. You can earn titles for your dog for doing tricks and a championship title for doing really difficult tricks. It is all done online and with the more advanced tricks you just have to document the tricks on video. Really fun. Do More With Your Dogs, I like that name!

Happy training!
Mary

Gal Goes to the Village.....

Yesterday I took my little Gal to Cocoa Village for the second time. I was really pleased in two areas the first time I took her earlier in the week. She loves people of all shapes and sizes which is so critical to a well balanced dog. The other thing I was really happy about was that she showed really good dog to dog body language and was more than happy to interact with any dog that she came in contact with but not overly friendly so as to be rude like some puppies I have had.

Those were the good things.....then of course we discovered her weakness which I wasn't surprised about. Well as most of you know, Gal is a country dog and is not used to city sounds so she just wanted to crawl in a hole when she heard the cars and trucks going by so close to the sidewalk. Yikes! She kept pulling on the leash and sitting on my feet trying to feel like she was safe from the big motorized monsters that seemed to be everywhere! Both times we simply kept moving forward, hoping to quickly find a place that she felt more comfy like in the outdoor cafe on Brevard Avenue. It is a good place for people who have dogs to bring their canine friends and socialize. I don't think I have ever gone to this place without meeting someone else with a friendly dog. Of course I wanted to make sure that ANY dog she met with was truly friendly and would provide a positive experience for my little friend at her tender age of 13 weeks.

It is vitally important that our pups get as much exposure in a positive way to as many types of places and meet as many types of people and other dogs as we can before they turn 16 weeks so I have really been pushing it to wait this long to take her to town. Anyone who knows me realizes that home is where my heart is and I hate to make the trips to town to socialize my dogs so I put it off as long as I could but now was the time, it HAD to be done!! Ha!

I was pleasantly surprised to meet a young couple with two friendly dogs at the outdoor cafe. So I grabbed something to eat and pushed my way into the life of two young people with their dogs. They seemed to be there for the same reason so I introduced myself and our dogs. The friendliest dog they had was the cutest package of muscle and bone! She was an English Bull Dog/Beagle Mix!! I simply loved her. She had all the cuteness of the English Bull Dog without the smashed face and malfunctioning sinus cavities. She had Beagle ears and no tail. Her owner said she was so excited to meet other dogs that she wouldn't stop pulling so he brought her to visit with my little girl.

Their other dog was an adult female Pit Bull. She seemed a little more serious than the bull dog so I was just a little more watchful when they met. For some reason her owner seemed really concerned about what she would do so I asked him what he was afraid his dog would do to my pup. He was concerned that she would mount the puppy and cause a fight. I assured him that if his dog mounted Gal, she wouldn't try to start a fight with his dog. Gal is a well socialized puppy (except for the car thing) and that would have seemed like normal behavior to her. She isn't old enough to get growly over a little mounting. Besides the Pit was so big she could have mounted her on all fours. Anyway, all went well. The Pit never mounted Gal. They got along really well. Turns out that the young man is an aspiring dog trainer! He was trying to figure out where to get started. I, having been there myself, was just the person for him to talk to so we got along really well. We sat and talked for quite some time. I gave him my card and hopefully we will meet again soon to socialize and train our dogs. Having help socializing is really important. It also makes it easier to train a dog who is maybe, overly friendly as well. Bull dogs are such muscle machines that some dog owners are too afraid to get their dogs near one. Understandable given all the horror stories you hear but what is a bull dog owner to do??

Gal sat there visiting with the Pit Bull and finally we walked to the car. I was really pleased that my Gal was very relaxed on the way back to the car. She didn't seem to notice the cars at all. That was the original purpose of my trip so MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I think the next time we go to the village, probably today, she will be much less worried about the cars and trucks. I want to build on this as soon as possible so that she can get over this care thing. I will also play with her next to my own car at home with the motor running with her on a leash so she can't run away from the scary motor sounds.

A little background on why my dogs tend to get that way about cars. We live in a rual area on 2 and a half acres far away from the main road. The intire property is fenced around the parimiter. We drive our cars inside the gate to park in the car port. Sometimes the dogs will go under the cars to rest and get cool. When they are puppies they often won't come out when we call so we have to turn on the car to make them uncomfortable enough to leave their comfy spot. So at our place cars that are running are things to stay clear of. We always have to take them to town and sit on a bench to watch the cars go by and get them used to the sound of moving vehicles so that they can realize that cars in the street have nothing to do with them when they are on a leash in the Village. Every home situation is different so each family has it's own challenges. I am very happy to say that I think we are making jolly good progress against this fear of Gal's! Country dogs in the city!!!!

More adventures with Gal!

Really enjoying Little 'Gal' today. I started working on basics for trick doggin' with her and I'm just so excited about how she responds to training. She loves people and other dogs as well. We are fortunate that we get lots of 'other dog' visitors here at out place. My friends like to think of it as our private dog park. 2.5 acres of Aussie heaven. She is learning to spin left and twirl right. ...I use spin and twirl to differentiate between the directions. We do puppy push ups (sit, down, stand, down, sit) so that she can learn to sit from the down, down from the stand and so forth. A dog doesn't really know 'sit' unless he can do it from any position.

Gal is starting to outgrow the anxiety piddling that she does when someone touches her. Something that all the girls in her litter were afflicted with. Some female puppies and occasionally male puppies get so excited when they are touched that they just can't 'hold it'. Her auntie outgrew it at around 4 months so I'm hoping that she will be over this really soon. My solution is that I just do most of her petting outside so that if she piddles it doesn't really matter. Also, if you have to or want to pet them or touch them inside, just make sure that you don't get her excited before you pet her. You can also encourage her to sit up like a coyote howling before you touch her by luring her with your hands or a piece of food. If she is in a confident position like that she is less likely to 'let go' and piddle on your floor. The main thing is to NOT scold her. Remember that she can't help it and actually if you scold her it will get worse because you will increase the excitement and anxiety.
 

Hope you are taking time to enjoy your puppy/dog and remember to keep things as positive as possible. If you want your dog to learn tricks easily, try not so fuss at her if she isn't doing what you want. She doesn't understand so if you think about it, it's not really fair to make her feel bad for something she didn't know was 'wrong'. Being positive helps your dog to feel free to try new things when you are trying to elicit a new behavior. Raising a puppy is not all fun and games and when I tell people to make a lot of rules it is sometimes interpreted as be stern. That isn't what I mean by having a lot of rules. I mean help her to understand that if you want 'this', you have to do 'this' first. That's the way dogs learn best.

Happy training!
Mary

Gal's Retieve and Other Activities

The last few days have been interesting with Gal here at our house and no other puppies to mask her soft little personality. I was just a little surprised at how timid she was when she didn't have her siblings and cousins around to give her the confidence she was showing before. Now I knew she was a little on the soft side but she is more like her mother than I thought. Of course all this means is that she needs a few confidence building activities every day. She loves the little fleece tug toys I made for her so I use them to play tug several times a day I sit on the floor (which also builds her confidence) and play tug and retrieve. I let her chase the tug toy as I pull it around making it act like a small animal, this stimulates her prey drive. The last two dogs I worked with were much more aggressive with the toy so it is taking some getting used to. She doesn't last as long as the boys did when they were pups so I need to make the sessions shorter. I like to leave her wanting more so my goal is to keep her going until I think she is getting ready to quite on me and then I quite before she does so that she is ready to play the game enthusiastically next time we start. I try to play the game only when she is feeling energetic so that I don't have to work so hard. That also helps her to be the one engaging instead of me which is what I want.

Another thing I started this morning is giving her all of her food from my hand, not from a bowl. I want her to look at me as the giver of all good things. I want to keep her a little bit hungry for training. That keeps her focus on me. So I measure out her food and put it in my training treats pouch and use her kibble, along with some cut up, somewhat dried chicken dogs to keep her interest. I also discovered that she loves the fleece fabric I make her tug toys from. I decided to make her a blankie! Ha! Never had a pup with a blankie but she likes it and I will use anything she like to keep her coming back for more. She kept bringing me the left over fabric so I cut her a small piece for her very own. She seems to like having me put it over her head so that she has to roll around to find her way out. I don't think I have ever had a soft temperamented dog who seemed to like this before.

She really got excited when the boys (my four grandsons ages 5-12) came to my house yesterday. Even without the other puppies around. This tells me that she is not excessiveily shy or that would have been overwhelming for her. She takes a few minutes to adjust to new dogs when they come for a visit. If they come at her too quickly she lets out a scr-e-e-ch..... especially if they have tails. She eventually investigates what that thing is that is hanging from the back of those (non Aussie) dogs. She tried to use them as tug toys and that didn't go over too well. Ha! Anyway, she will be going with us to the bowling alley tomorrow. That should be an interesting sensory overload. It is so quiet out here at Rachito Larapinta that the sounds of fast moving cars on the main road and such noises are a bit intimidating. We need to make sure that this becomes normal to her if she is to become a service dog or even if I just want her to walk on a leash where she might encounter those things in daily life.

Teaching the Retrieve to a Young Puppy

I love to start this with a puppy when they are just getting started in life. It builds a great foundation for a dog to crave retrieving. There are two main componenets to this early on. Getting down on their level in a small area and making sure it stays fun. Now there are some puppies who will require more than this but if your puppy already likes to carry things around in his mouth, the main thing you have to help him learn is t...hat when he has something long and fuzzy or stringy in his mouth, if he brings it to your vacinity it COMES TO LIFE! Dogs naturally like to chase things that move. It's attached to their survival instinct. I like to get them tugging on the other end of it and then when your puppy lets go, just give it a short toss. Make sure he sees you do it. If he has just a little bit of drive and trust in you he will bring it to your vicinity even if he doesn't bring it right back to you. Try not to act like you are going to take it but when you get a chance just play a short game of tug and you can let him win now and then but if you win just toss it a short distance and then when he brings it in your area again repeat this. If you keep from making direct eye contact your puppy will be less intimidate. Men usually have more trouble with this than women for some reason. Direct eye contact in the dog world is a sign of dominance or even agression between dogs.

If he/she EVER brings you a toy, whether you want it or not, Play, Play, Play! Pay him for bringing it to you. There is plenty of time later to teach him 'not now'. At this early stage, pay your dog for doing any of the things that you will eventually use to teach him the retieve. You can do this in a small area so that they don't run off with the toy into the other room or something. This is another reason to limit the amount of toys your dog has to play with, it make it special when he only has a few. Too many, just like kids and they will get bored and go looking for a shoe or a ball of yarn. Small areas are always best for puppies when teaching them stuff like this. You can even put a string on the toy so that you can get it from him more easily. There are other ways to do this, this is just one way. More on this later!

Happy Training!
Mary

Doors Opening for Gal!

Today I am trying to get Gal to go through doors when I ask her to. She is a little leary because she doesn't quite know what is going to happen on the other side yet, or if the door is going to "get' her before she can get through. So we sat on the front porch with the adult dogs and propped the door open. Gal was on the outside and we wanted her to come on to the screened in porch. She would come close and then get a little nervous so we would send the adult dogs out to 'get' her. We told the big dogs "Go get Gal!" So they would go outside to where Gal was waiting and sniff her and then we would call them into the porch. She would follow them part way and then stop and retreat. We repeated this several times until she followed the big dogs on to the porch. We gave her treats when she made it all the way in and then played a game of tug and petted her some. She really liked that, what a food hound! This was easy for us because we just sat there with the door open and sent the big boys out to get her several times and all we did was to reward her when she got past the threshold. Before long she was comfortable in there and we closed the door for a short time and then let her go right back outside where she felt the safest.

Gal is learning to trust the house because she was raised in an outdoor kennel from 4 weeks old until now. She is great if we bring her in on a leash or carry her in but I want her to be comfortable coming in and out on her own before we bring her in to live here at 12 weeks old or when her siblings are all gone. So tomorrow we will do it again and she will probably follow the big dogs in with much less hesitation. This is a good way for her to learn to trust us. She will learn that when we call her, good things happen! We never want to scold a dog when they come to us, even if we are furstrated and feel she should have come sooner because we want our dogs to trust that being with us is the best place, and safest place EVER!

She wanted to come the first time but her caution won out. It took about three or four times. She recovers very quickly and each day she feels more comfortable than the day before. Now we would be further along if she were living in the house without her siblings but because she spends so much of her time with the others, it is quite an adventure to travel that far without them. The others will be leaving this week and next so she will gradually spend more and more time at the house or with the big dogs. This is very different than the way most people would raise their puppies but the principle to learn here is to be patient and reward what you like. If you don't have other dogs, by all means us a leash and just reward when they come in and out of the door. You can even stand with the door open and walk in and out and reward. We are experimenting and trying to see just how much of her education she will get from the older, confident, stable dogs. Don't try this unless your dogs are buddies with the puppy and she is excited about doing what the big dogs do.

Happy Training!
Mary