What Do You Mean Your Dog's Not Perfect?

“People throw away what they could have by insisting on perfection, which they cannot have, and looking for it where they will never find it” – Edith Schaeffer

A few weeks ago, at a conference, I was chatting with another dog trainer about a client of hers having issues with sibling rivalry between their 5 year-old adult male dog (whom they had had since he was a puppy himself) and a new, 4 month old puppy that they had brought home about a week prior.  The adult dog had always been reactive with other dogs, and was targeting the new puppy.  No serious injury inflicted, but scary nonetheless.  I asked her what she was doing to remedy the situation and she stated matter-of-factly that she was going to recommend that the client euthanize or re-home the older dog.  I must have cocked my head in the same way that my dogs do when I grab the keys and head to the car without them, because she quickly backed up her statement with the following one:  “Well, the older dog is just not what they expected and I am afraid that if the puppy grows up with him, the puppy will live her life walking on eggshells!”

My mind was boggled. . . are we supposed to expect perfection from our dogs?    Then I thought of my own dog, Curious.

I remember the day Curious was able to call our house her “home.”  We were 2 days into fostering her, Curi was sleeping soundly on her new dog bed next to my husband’s side when he rolled over and said “I really like her.”  I knew then that Curi had found a permanent home with us, but I had no clue what was in store for me in the next 5 years to come.

Curious came to us with MANY handling problems and reactive issues with other dogs.  She had been a stray on the streets of Philadelphia prior to living in our house and she knew nothing about proper home living, including house training which took her almost 6+ months to fully accomplish.  I quickly started working on a behavior modification for her reactivity issues and desentization program for her handling fears.  While working Curi through these problems, I quickly realized how intelligent she was and immediately enrolled her in some obedience classes.  Curi was progressing nicely, climbing the ranks through classes, testing out different dog sports, and working on gaining her Therapy Dog Title.  Curi proceeded to earn her TDI title in 2009 and found her true love in Agility.  Curi loved Agility and was always eager to conquer a new adventure in her agility classes.  I was thrilled to finally have a dog that had the potential to compete!  And then, it happened…

August 5, 2010 Curious woke up was unable to control any of her natural motor functions (including walking, vision and breathing was labored).  After days in the hospital she was diagnosed via MRI with a cyst on her brain stem.  Curi needed emergency brain surgery in order to have any chance of surviving.  Nobody thought she make it through the surgery, but I knew my Curi was strong enough to do it. She refused to give up her fight even after being placed on a ventilator to aid her in breathing. 

But making it through surgery was only the first step.  As she recovered, it became clear that Curi’s agility days were over.  We were back to the beginning in teaching her how to walk and handle stairs. – Contacts and Weaves were faded thought. 

As I thought about Curi’s future I realized that my expectations needed to be realistic ones for her.  What could she handle training wise?  Could she learn new things?  Why does she become frustrated so easily now?  Does she even like training anymore?  As Curi built up her strength I slowly started training with her again, but in keeping all of my new questions in mind so that I made appropriate decisions for her.  Although I found that Curi still loved training, she is only able to handle it in short segments now.

Today, 2 years later, Curi is able to attend agility classes, but she is only capable of handling jumps and tunnels.  Curi can no longer do any contact equipment as it causes her to lose her balance and she has a potential to injury herself by falling off.  Curi went from up and coming competitor in agility to doing small  courses just for fun, and I am OK with that.  In fact I LOVE that!  I am in love with every ounce of Curious, imperfections and all!  Nobody is perfect, right?  Then why do so many of use expect our dogs to be without imperfections?

Curi’s life is not about what she can do for me, but about how I can make her life as fulfilling as possible.  I am just one example of many trainers with an imperfect dog, striving to do for her what makes her happiest and most content…And if that is playing on an agility course for fun and avoiding other dogs on a walk then so be it!

As far as what happened to the other trainer’s client; I’m not sure.  My hope is that she put them on a behavior modification plan to teach the dogs to live with each other and perhaps actually like each other.  Or at the very least, given the owners a “no dog is perfect, but we love them anyway” speech.  But one thing is for sure, no dog that I’ve ever owned ‘fit the mold’ of a perfect dog.  But part of what gives each dog the character that makes me love them are the imperfections themselves.

So stop worrying about perfection and go hug your imperfect dog!

-By Christy Grossman, CPDT-KA

The Top 5 Indoor Games You can Play with Your Dog on a Hot Day!

I love dogs, I really do.  And I spend a lot of time trying to prove how smart and easy to teach they are.  And it's true!  They are smart and easy to teach. . . but there's one thing that you can't teach. . . you can't teach them how to quit! 

Dogs don't know how to set limits for themselves!  You've got to do it for them.  My dog, Porter will chase a ball for hours.  He doesn't care if it's -4 below or 115 degrees in the shade.  The dog thinks of one thing and one thing only. . . chasing a ball.  He will literally chase a ball until he falls over.  Since he doesn't think about it, I need to and give him a break.  On days like this, I'll let him chase a ball for a few minutes, but only a couple of throws and then back in the house.  Not nearly enough energy draining for my 1 1/2 year old border collie mix!

So, on this day when the forecast hits triple digits in Philadelphia and it's surrounding areas. . . here's a little advice to keep your dog healthy and you sane in the heat. Check out my list of the top 5 doggie pacifying games that you can play in the AC!

1. Clicker train a trick:  If you've done lessons with me, you know where my sympathies lie. . . I love clicker training!  Mostly because it makes dogs think!  If your dog knows a clicker or marker word, teach them a new trick or work on some obedience.  Need some inspiration?  Check out this fun game that I play with my dogs all the time: http://www.clickertraining.com/node/167.
2. Hide & Seek:  A great way to practice your obedience and have some fun!  Put your dog in a stay in a room where he can't see you (If your dog's stay is not so good, have another family member hold him) while you hide somewhere in the house.  Then call your dog to find you and praise or play a game when the dog gets to you.  The possibilities are only limited to your creativity. . . so try under the covers of your bed, in the closet, or anywhere else that your dog may not suspect. 
3. Track the Treat:  This one is Uluru's favorite!  Teach your dog a little bit of scent work by hiding treats around the house so they can find them.  Put your dog on a sit stay in a room of the house where he can't see what you are doing (or if your dog is too excited to stay, close them in a room while you do the next step).  While your dog is on a stay or in a room away from the action, hide small bits of treats around the house, then release your dog to find them.  At first, make it very obvious by hiding them in very easy places like in the middle of the floor or around the edge of the room and helping them find the treats.  But as your dog gets better at this game, you can hide them in tougher places like on baseboards, on chairs, in  your shoes, or behind barriers.
4. Pupsicles:  When I worked at the animal shelter, I had a core group of volunteers who would help me with this, and the dogs absolutely loved it!  We would make Pupsicles for the dogs to give them a little relief from the heat and kennel stress.  In disposable dixie cups, we would pour canned chicken or beef vegetable soup and freeze them overnight until they were rock solid.  About halfway through, we would stick a rawhide stick into the pupsicle so that it looked like an actual doggie pupsicle and continue to freeze it.  No time to make a dog pupsicle?  Go to the grocery store and buy some frozen soup bones (beef only!) and give the dog the whole frozen bone.  That will keep him cool and busy for a while!
5. Pet Store Trip:  Itching to get out of the house?  Petco has air conditioning!  Take a trip to a dog friendly store to pick up a treat or a bag of food and take your pup with you.  My dogs are always tired, even after a quick trip to the pet store, because there is so much to see and smell there.  Don't forget to incorporate a bit of obedience into your trip. . . make your dog sit as other customers oooohhh and ahhhh over how cute he is.  Or make your dog stay while you read the labels on their favorite treat.  And don't forget the 'leave it' command for walking by the parrot cages!

So even though it may be too hot to hike today, there are lots of fun activities that you can do to wear your dog out both physically and mentally today!  Now go spend some time with your pup!

Dog Training TV Shows Good or Bad?

I hear it at practically every first lesson I go to.  Sometimes it is disguised as an innocuous "ssssshhhhhttttt" and a finger poke to the ribs of a dog when he doesn't do what they want.  Other times, people will just come out and ask me, and it usually sounds like this "What do you think of insert name of basic cable dog training personality here?  You probably hate so-and-so, huh?”

And my response to people is always the same, (Fellow dog trainers, don't bail out just yet.), I don't hate them.  No, not even Caesar!

Now, if I had my druthers, and was to choose one of these personalities to train my own dog, it would probably be Victoria Stillwell.  Not because I think she's a  super fabulous trainer or anything, I just think that methodology wise, we would probably mesh as well as possible with such a limited pool to choose from.  However it's always in my mind that while these people may be dog trainers, above all, they are television personalities. But I digress, that's not what this blog is about.

This blog is about why I personally like dog training TV shows, not so much for the content, but for what it can do for our nation's dogs and for me as a dog trainer and small business owner!  Without further adieu, here are the top 3 reasons that I love dog training TV shows!

1.     Dog training shows let people see that there are dogs out there worse than their own:  And this is important!  People watch those shows portray some pretty significant behavior problems.  And with clever editing, those behavior problems end up looking really severe!  And then, in 45 minutes, POOF!, those behavior problems are fixed!  These programs show people that there is hope for even the most advanced behavior problems.  And how do you fix them?  Why, you get a dog trainer of course!  Transition to. . .

2.     Dog training shows let people know you are out there: Think about it, if people didn't know that resources were out there, where would their ill-behaved dogs go?  The shelter?  That big farm in the sky?  Or worse...dumped somewhere to face a slow and uncertain death? Lucky for dog training professionals like me, network TV has pointed all of these unknowing citizens right in our direction!  No dog owner, you can’t have Cesar Millan come to your house, but you can have Philly Unleashed!  In the owner’s mind, almost as good, but less expensive!  In the dog’s mind, even better! Transition to. . .

3.     Dog training shows make me look smart:  Know what’s exciting? Taking 4-6 sessions worth of knowledge and squeezing it into about 45 minutes of the ‘cool stuff’ to make for good TV.

Know what's not exciting?  A dog trainer waxing poetic about the intricacies of changing emotional response to a trigger, desensitization to aversive stimuli, or the 10-step program details that an owner needs to follow to stop their dog from flying off the handle when you touch said dog’s stuff. 

Why?  Not good TV.  But that's the kind of stuff that a dog trainer needs to have a working knowledge of and teach to a client so they can modify the dog’s behavior, not just put a band aid over it!  And trust me, I’ve seen a lot of people try a quick fix by another trainer or do something they’ve seen on one of these shows, and it backfires, and when it does, they are more than happy to hear someone who knows their stuff wax on about behavioral theory!

And all of a sudden, (see point 2), you are not almost as good as the TV personality. . . YOU ARE WAY BETTER!

So, next time somebody asks me what I think of a certain dog training TV show personality, I’ll point them to this blog!  That’s my stance, and I’m sticking to it!  Now go outside spend some time with your dog!

Your Dog Just Growled; Did You Remember to Thank Him?

I have so many amazing clients, and this story is about one of them. Edith is one of those clients that dog trainers dream of having. She has a wonderfully, well-balanced Golden retriever who is a joy to work with. She has taken just about every training class possible and supplemented with private lessons. Lola the dog goes to doggie daycare twice a week to keep up her socialization skills. Lola is also fortunate enough to accompany Edith to work on days when she is not in daycare. Lola is a therapy dog and regularly visits children and the elderly. Despite some health concerns and joint issues (oh goldens!) Lola is pretty much the perfect dog, and Edith is responsible for it.

So, imagine Edith's surprise when last week, Lola growled at a child! After a long day of riding around in the car for work, Edith decided to visit one of her favorite boutiques. Since it was hot outside, she was hesitant to leave Lola in the car, so the boutique owner allowed her to bring the dog inside. Lola was asked to do a sit-stay while Edith looked at an item.

Then, it happened, a child ran up to Lola and jumped on her to give her a hug. Lola then growled at the child, and the child's mom pulled him away. To say that Edith was devastated was an understatement. She called, in tears asking what her next step should be. Should she have an evaluation done on Lola's temperament? Report the incident to someone? Begin a behavior modification plan to desensitize Lola to children? She didn't want her poor dog to be taken away from her or put down!

"No", I said, "you should thank your dog." Edith went silent...

Now, I'm not saying that you should praise a dog for growling at people on a regular basis. But, if you've got a well balanced dog who does not make a habit of overreacting to things, a growl can be a very good thing, and here are 5 reasons why:

5:  A growl may be telling you that something is wrong. In this case, Lola has Bad hips. Her owner and I knew that her hips are sometimes painful after long rides in the car or after heavy exercise. Perhaps this incident exposed something that was painful to or uncomfortable for the dog. As dogs can't articulate this kind of issue, sometimes a vocalization is the only way the dog can get it through to you that something is wrong.

4:  A growl is a signal to you, the dog's owner that he has been pushed beyond his threshold. 8 hours of work+ long ride in the car + hot day + painful joints + screaming child coming at you when you are trying to do something else (hold a sit-stay)= TOO MUCH!!! Oh owners, pay more attention to what you ask of your dog!!!! Don't set them up to fail!

3:  A growl lets you know what areas you need to do more training work. Let's say that your dog has not had much exposure to children holding balloons. But you've noticed that every time your dog sees a child holding a balloon, he gets startled and growls. That's your signal to desensitize your dog to children holding balloons. ASAP!!! Wasn't it nice of your dog to give you that information?

2:  A growl can also tell you that your dog is not a saintly, perfect being that is tolerant of everything...they have bad days, just like us! We hold our dogs to such high standards, don't we? They're supposed to relinquish their toys or food on our whim, heed every command we give with sometimes very little feedback or reward from us, understand all of our body language even though we are entirely different beings, and most of all...never get upset at another person or dog! Seems unrealistic now that you think of it, right? Dogs have bad days, just like people. If you've got a dog who is a good dog, but growled at someone...maybe he's having a bad day. It happens to the best of us after all!

1:  A growl is a growl...your dog did not bite! I see so many clients that say something along the likes of, "He tried to bite me, but I was too fast and got away from him!", to me. My answer to them is always..."He didn't try to bite you, he gave you a warning. If he wanted to bite you, he would have.". And this is true.

So, while none of us would ever like our dear, sweet, dogs to growl, Next time yours does, look at the context of the situation. Remember that growling is often not an act of aggression, it is a form of communication. And if you ever need clarification on what the context of the growl was, don't hesitate to ask your trainer. (And, if you don't have a trainer, I know where you can find a good one...). But, next time your dog growls, remember that he growled, he did not bite, attack, or cross the line. Thank him and remember to be vigilant about where your dog is and who is around him.

The Importance of Proofing Your Sit-Stay...(Or Why Hotels Should Require People Deposits Instead Of Pet Deposits)

 So, here I am, standing in an awful motel, covered in orange juice in rural Virginia.  You can't make this stuff up...

Let me back up for a second and start at the beginning.  My friend, Cindy, and I decided to go to the clicker expo in Nashville, TN to learn some new dog training skills.  As I wanted to bring Uluru, I somehow convinced Cindy to forego her plane ticket for a 12-hour drive to Nashville.  We arrived, exhausted, at the Sheraton in Nashville, where I forked over my credit card.  As the concierge rang it through, she mentioned the non-refundable $75 pet fee that we would incur upon checking in.  My immediate thought was: man, I hope that Uli doesn't get stressed or sick and have diarrhea in the room.  Cindy had an audible thought that made said concierge cock her head much the way a dog would when asked if they would like to go for a walk or a ride in the car; "Do you have to pay a deposit for children too?", Cindy said, "because people are way more likely to mess things up than dogs.". Thinking that she probably just jinxed us and that Uluru would surely puke, have explosive diarrhea, or worse yet, both; I shook my head, grabbed our keys, and we went to the room to settle in.

The next few days were great.  Uli worked well at the conference, I got to be a proud dog trainer with an awesome working dog, we ate good Bar-b-q, learned a lot, and had some good laughs.  And best of all, no diarrhea explosion...phew.

Finally, it was time to go home, back into the car for 12 hours.  We decided to drive for approximately half of the trip, and stop for the night in a hotel.  But the trip was riddled with traffic and we were exhausted, so we stopped at the first pet friendly hotel that we could find...the Days Inn, Abingdon VA. 

Now, this was one of those, Bates Motel-type hotels where all of us have undoubtedly stayed at some point while on a road trip.  The kind where you wear flip flops in the shower and feel things crawling on you in the night.  Uluru immediately started itching when we got into the hotel, and didn't stop scratching until wen left.  But there were beds, and a shower, and we were exhausted, so we crashed. 

So, you are probably wondering, ok, Nicole, tell us about proofing stays...well, here you go.

It was the next morning, around 7:30.  We had our stuff packed in the car, and I was going to walk back to the lobby and hand in our keys.  I took Uluru with me, walked her to the desk, placed her in a sit-stay, and handed the key to the woman working at the desk (in doing so, I'm pretty sure I woke her up).  

I looked over and realized that there was a continental breakfast laid out (well, sort of), and a couple sitting at the only table in the lobby/dining room, eating waffles and talking about whatever folks talk about in rural Virginia.  Uluru was obediently holding her sit-stay.  I decided to grab us a couple of oj's for the road, never fathoming what would come next...

I grabbed two to go cups, filled them with orange juice, and picked up a lid.  I placed the lid over the top of the first cup and pushed down.  And then it happened...in a very Incredible Hulk-type movement, I obliterated the cup.  Oh, yeah, I crushed it.  And there I stood,  in a shower of oj,  juice running down my hands and my jeans, remnants of the crushed cup still in my hand, jaw dropped.  

Not 5 seconds later, probably wondering what was taking so long, Cindy walked into the lobby, dropped her jaw, then burst into a hysterical fit of laughter and yelled, " Napkins!".

We spent the next few minutes frantically sopping up orange juice with crappy paper napkins, wile everyone else in the lobby acted like we weren't there.  It was almost like we were in a time warp.  Nobody moved, offered to help, or even laughed at us.  They just kept on talkin' about fishin', or sleeping behind the desk, or doing whatever!!!  At one point, Cindy asked the desk clerk if she had a mop, and she replied incredulously, "No.". But she did get us a dry washcloth.

We finally had the place cleaned up, and got ready to walk out.  As we were walking out, I looked back, and saw Uluru, still sitting frozen in the place where I had left her about 10 minutes earlier, looking terrified that I would forget to release her from her sit-stay and that she would be doomed to stay in that horrible motel lobby without us.  I looked back and called, "Take A Break", and she left her stay as if we had shot her out of a gun.  As much as I wanted out of there, I stopped for a minute and thought, thank God I practice so much stay!

So, the moral of the story is, always make sure you proof your commands in all kinds of distracting situations.  Sometimes, we get so caught up in teaching fun tricks or challenging behavior sequences that we neglect our foundation obedience.  So take some time today to work on real-life commands like stay and come.  You never know where it may come in handy.

...Oh, and beware the free continental breakfast...

Bad Dogs at Dog Shows

So, some of you may know that Uli and I went to a dog show yesterday.  More on how that went later. . .

But first. . .

How did this all start, you ask?  How do I have time for this?  Why do I want to enter the realm of crazy dog show people?  Am I going to start wearing embroidered Australian Cattle Dog baseball caps and elastic waistband pants that reach up to my boobs?  I don't have an answer to any of these questions for you (except for the last one. .  NOOOOOO!).  All I know is that about 3 months ago, I started feeling like I needed to put a title on a dog.  And what better dog to do it on?

So next thing I know, I'm researching dog shows and I've entered one.  Here's the problem. . . Uli is not a purebred dog.  So in an all-time low, even for me, I used scotch tape to tape Uli's ears upright for a picture to send to the AKC to prove that she is a purebred Australian Cattle Dog.  And much to my surprise, it worked!  So now, the only thing we had to do was train for it. 

I entered a prep class, in which Uli was the best dog ever (not surprising. . . of course).  But our heeling was lagging.  So I did it, I hired a professional.  Uli and I started going for private lessons with Terri at Up Front Farms, who helped us clean up everything just that much more.

So here we are at show day!  I was up by 5am cooking bacon, cutting hot dogs and cheese, and packing every toy that Uli has even remotely played with for the show.  I arrived with my purebred Australian Cattle Dog at 9am for a 10:50 class, giving us ample time to practice and warm up before going into the ring.  Another cattle dog handler looked at me with her head cocked to the side as if to say "Really?".   But I didn't care, Uli was working wonderfully.  I, on the other hand, needed a Xanax.  I settled for a mimosa in a sippy cup brought from home (told you I was prepared!).  Just the thing to take the edge off of my nerves (and everyone thought I was just drinking OJ).

It was our turn now.  We went to the ring with amazing focus.  200 points in the test, I needed 170 to pass.  On-leash  heels: -3.5 points.  Figure 8: perfect score.  Stand for examination: perfect score.  Off-leash heels: -3 points.  1 minute sit-stay: perfect score.  3 minute down-stay: perfect score.  Now the last test, the one that Uli has never blown. . . I think we have it in the bag.  Recall:  DQ. 

What????  So Apparantly there was something really exciting behind me that I didn't see, because Uli did.  And she wandered past me.  As I realized that she might go behind me, I gave a second command. . . which was enough to disqualify us.  Ugh.

So if you ask, how did Uli do?  She did pretty well.  If you ask how I did. . . I blew it for us. 

But I'm not upset.  In fact, I'm pretty fired up to go into another show.  I learned my lesson about double commanding.  And Uli was happy because she got to spend the whole day with me eating bacon, cheese, and hot dogs and making mean faces at sweet female golden retrievers who weren't really challenging her.  So hopefully, next time I blog about dog shows. . . we will have the first leg to our title.  Yesterday was just not our day, but it was a good first time in the ring. 

Talk to you all soon!

Max and Echo are CGC's!

Congratulations to Max and Echo, who passed their CGC exams in the sweltering heat last night.  It wasn't comfortable for any of us, yes those two pups stuck it out and finished on top!

Awesome job!