Making the command sit a Pavlovian response

While I do not use much food when I train a dog, I do use food to condition a response to the word “sit”.  I do this for a specific reason, to be able to disrupt a dog’s prey drive when all other commands fail.

A dog quickly learns that if I have a piece of food in my hand, the dog will not get the treat until he or she sits calmly facing me. 

In order to look up, a dog has to sit down.  So if I show the dog a treat and then lift my closed hand, the dog will sit down to see the hand holding the food.  I am very careful not to say “sit” as I raise my hand.  If I say “sit” as I raise my hand, the food becomes a bribe.  You sit down and I will give you food. 

But when the dog sits I give it the food as I say “good sit.”  What I am doing is programing a Pavlovian response to the word.  The dog associates the word sit with the pleasure of the food.  He also associates the act of sitting with pleasure.

After a couple or repetitions, the dog will sit when I raise a closed hand over his head.  Now I do not always have a treat in my hand, and the dog has a good enough nose to know whether or not I have food.  But hope springs eternal in a dog.  The dog sits for me since he knows the only way to find out for sure if I have food, is to sit still.

In my group classes, called Neighborhood Pack, I can stop almost any behavior just by walking over to the dog and holding my hand over his head with the fingers close.  The dog stops the unacceptable behavior to find out if I have food to offer.

This then becomes useful when my clients are out with their dogs.  The word sit can often change behavior, especially behavior in prey drive, when all other commands fail.

A dog may go into prey drive when it either feels threatened or sees prey.  Prey drive is a part of the fight or flight response.  When you dog goes after a rabbit, a deer, or another dog, it is in prey drive.  And prey drive actually causes bio chemical and physiological changes.  The dog’s eyesight, sense of smell and even hearing narrow on just the object of the prey drive. 

When all else fails we give the command “sit” and the Pavlovian response to that word is often enough to get the dog out of prey drive and back under control.

You can practice and reinforce this command every day.  When you feed the dog, raise its dish.  When it sits tell him “good sit” and then put the dish down.

Sorry I've been gone so long

Back in 2006 I opened Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes when I retired from the Sheriff's Office.  This was never supposed to be a full time job, just something for an old cop to do.  The goal was about a thirty hour week and enough income to pay the bills.

And that is what it was until 2012.  Suddenly I was working six or seven days a week anywhere from 40 to 70 hours. 

As a result this blog fell by the wayside.  It wasn't that I didn't have something to say, it was finding time to say it.

I've grown as a trainer and as a result at any given time I have about 60 to 80 dogs that I am working with.  Neighborhood pack has grown from one session a week to four.  Some days I get here at 9 and don't get home until 8 or 9 at night.

But this has become a very rewarding way to spend my retirement.  I get to watch so many dogs change and so many owners improve their skills.

I'll try to be better about posting things that may help you. 

And now I have to go work with a dog

Doug

Dog Training - In praise of praise

    I have a huge advantage over most dog trainers.  I don’t train in order to make a living, or even as a supplemental income source.  I have a nice police pension and no longer have to work for a living.  But I am a type A personality and the idea of becoming a couch potato after retiring had no appeal. I train dogs to have something to do

    This allows me to stand back from the industry and make my decisions without being influenced by the need to make money.  As long as I pay the overhead, finances are not my motivation.

    When I met Pat Muller, the inventor of Manners in Minutes training, it was an “aha” moment.  I realized that she had come up with a training system that made sense to both the dog and the dog owner.   And since it made sense to both of them, it was the fastest way to train a dog.

    The dog training profession is almost entirely made up of two schools.  The first school is the all positive reinforcement methodology; the second is a dominance/alpha school.

    Positive reinforcement is by far the largest school.  The vast majority of trainers are in this school.  The idea is simple.  Reward positive behavior and through repetition the dog will perform reliably.

    I find some major flaws in this technique.   Too many trainers use food as the reward.  Food reward has some major drawbacks.  Some dogs are not food oriented.  But more often, as I have written before, the trainer fails to get the owner to see the difference between motivation and bribery.  Many times I see dogs that have turned the tables of the owner.  The will only perform for food.  Or they will deliberately misbehave so that the owner gives them food to change their behavior.  Far too often someone ends up with a fat dog that only behaves when food is immediately available. 

   And while some of them claim to be all positive, frustration can lead to harsh corrections. 

   And there is a lot of smugness and self righteousness by many of these type trainers.   They have a built in excuse for their training failing you.  It is your fault, you aren’t kind enough.

    I think, in theory, the dominance/alpha school is closer to the right track.  But in practice, most of them get it wrong. 

     It seems far too many of them are just plain bullies.  They end up punishing the dog to the point that the dog obeys out of fear.  And fear is not the relationship you should have with a dog.  They misinterpret the alpha/pack concept to cover their own shortcomings.

   Because of these people, dominance training has become a dirty word within the dog training industry, especially with the all positive people.

   There is a third school.  I call it the balance school.  It isn’t all positive reinforcement, but instead of punishment it uses gentle correction techniques.   But what sets it apart is the use of praise.

    Unfortunately there are not a lot of balance trainers. You really have to work to find one.  And a lot of people who claim to be balance trainers aren’t.

    I tell my clients even if they mess up on everything else, if they get the praise right, the will get the dog right.  It will just take longer.

    There are some simple rules for the effective use of praise.

1.        Try not to gush.  Gushing is using the same phrase multiple times for one performance.  So when a dog sits when told to sit, tell them “good sit” one time.    Dogs often mistake gushing as barking and one of the reasons dogs bark is to invite play.  Gushing can sabotage training.

2.       When the dog obeys a command, make sure you praise it immediately.  Since one decision gets only one reward (good sit) praise the dog as it obeys, not after the fact.  “Good sit” should be said as the dog is in the act of sitting, not when the dog has been sitting for a while.

3.       Praise everything the dog does even if you did not give it a command.  If you walk by and the dog stands up, tell it “good stand.”  If it does not get up tell it “good down.”  Praise makes the dog believe you are in charge.

4.       If you make a correction, praise the dog when it obeys.  Corrections without praise are revenge; it is the praise and not the correction that makes it training.

5.       Praise the action.  “Good dog” means you like the dog. “Good sit” means you are reinforcing the command.

     The effective use of praise can often overcome other poor training techniques and incompetent trainers.

Doug

Training dogs by e mail

When I opened Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes in 2006 and started training dogs professionally, I thought I had everything figured out about what I would be doing.  Now 6 1/2 years later I find myself doing a lot of things I never thought of originally.

Neighborhood Pack started out as just a way to give my clients some extra time to work with me on their dogs.  Today it is a major part of my training.

I had never even thought about training a deaf dog.  But each year I train a couple of deaf dogs.  I also didn’t realize that this blog and a Facebook page would be in the mix.

But the biggest surprise is that I find myself training a couple of dogs each year by e mail. 

It started out, like so many things, simply enough.  A Lakeland breeder I know asked me to contact the owner of one of her dogs.  The owner was having a couple of problems that just needed some knowhow to get through.  The word got out and pretty soon I was getting regular requests from that breeder or others to help one of their dogs out in pet owners homes.

Then I was contacted by a Lakeland owner for some help.  The problem was easily cleared up.  But the dog owner was so impressed that she asked if I could help her train the dog in the entire Manners in Minutes system.

What resulted was a series of e mails.  I would explain how to train a command.  She would start working the dog in the command and as questions came up she would e mail and I would answer.

Wisely I kept all the e mails.  Last fall when I found myself going to Williamsburg VA for seminars those e mails became the basis of my new workbook.

And now when I train a dog by e mail, I have a workbook to guide the owner to the dog they want.

The one downside, I only get to see pictures of the dog.

 

Doug

 

MiM Seminar in VA is happening.

  I am pleased to let you know that the Manners in Minutes seminars in Virginia will be September 29th and September 30th.  The seminars will be at Hollybriar Farm in Lanexa Virginia, near Willamsburg.  Our host will be Pat Rock who breeds Lakeland Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers.

    Saturday the 29th I will be training a rescue dog, with serious issues, in the Manners in Minutes system.  This will allow you to see how this awesome method works.  I will take the dog through all the basic commands.  The six hour seminar includes lunch and plenty of time to answer your questions.

    You will also get a copy of my workbook, which will allow you to use the demonstrated methods to train your dog in Manners in Minutes.

    Sunday will be a six hour workshop where I will be working with a number of dogs and going over:

         Imprinting puppies to prepare them for their new homes.
         Dealing with Fear Aggression
         Dealing with shyness and skittish behavior
         Bolting
         Seperation Anxiety
         Manners in Minutes in Conformation and other events.

   This session also includes lunch and plenty of time to answer questions.

   For more information contact
Pat Rock
804 843 2787 or
757 871 0292

   Or you can get a copy of the flier by e mailing me a ppmim@qwestoffice.net

Hope to see you there.

Doug

 

Willaimsburg VA MIM seminar

For the last couple of years our friend, Pat Rock of Hollybriar Kennels in Lanexa Va has wanted me to come out and do a dog training seminar on the Manners in Minutes system.  This year we are going to be able to do it.

     I will be at Hollybriar (near Williamsburg VA) on September 29^th and September 30^th 2012.  Both mornings I will be training a new dog in the Manners in Minutes system to show people how easy and quickly it works.  The afternoon seminar on the 29^th will be on how to use Manners in Minutes to work with aggressive and submissive dogs.  The afternoon seminar on the 30^th will be raising puppies in Manners in Minutes and how to prepare show dogs for the ring using the system.

    As I have written in this blog before, at this time there are only two training centers using this system, Pat Muller’s Quansa Kennels in South Beloit, IL and here at Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes in Colorado Springs.  Since so many people find this blog looking for Manners in Minutes training, this will give some of you a chance to find out about this system if you can’t come to Illinois or Colorado.

   Pat Muller does have both a book and a DVD on how to train in this method.  So you can train without working with either of us.  But sometimes it helps to not only see it in person, but to be able to ask questions.  This will be that opportunity. 

   If you have stumbled onto this blog looking for help, and you live near Williamsburg, then this may be what you need. 

    In addition to a supply of the q-bone and q-calmer training devices I will have a brand new workbook that will explain in great detail how to train your dog yourself if you are able to attend this seminar.

   As soon as a few more details are worked out I will post here, and on the Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes Facebook page, how to sign up for this class.

   I hope you can come.  And since Pat is a Lakeland breeder you will get to see the breed I so often write about.

Doug

A dog nose how to go on a walk

     A while back I did a home visit with a client.  I do not do a lot of those since most problems can be diagnosed and dealt with in either my private lessons or in our neighborhood pack group sessions.  But this dog was bought from a puppy broker/trainer who seems to deliberately make his puppies and students dog aggressive.  That is because he is also a trainer who specializes in dog aggression.  And your dog always needs lots of extra lessons.

     Since the behavior wasn’t improving as quickly as I wanted I decided to see the dog on his turf.

     The walk was a success and I spotted what was delaying improvement, but I also saw something I realized a lot of people do.  They don’t let the dog get as much out of a walk as they do.

     A lot of us take our dogs for a brisk walk.  We are getting exercise as well as exercising the dog.  So we tend to keep the dog on a short leash next to us.   We will however, stop and chat with a neighbor or maybe pause to look at something interesting.   We even stop to smell the roses.

     Yet we don’t let our dog do the same.

     A dog gathers a lot of information through its sense of smell.  They in many ways use their nose to gather information the way we use our eyes.  So for a dog a walk is much more about what you can smell than what you can see.

     As we walked the dog I had the owners give him six foot of lead rather than one pull him in next to them.  And he was able to keep up.  He would bound ahead, almost to the end of the line, to check out an interesting smell.  He would finish his information gathering, and then bound ahead to the next great smell. 

     He never tugged ahead, nor forced them to slow down when they went past him to the end of the line.  Manners in Minutes training teaches your dog never to have a tight line. 

     As the walk progressed he got to be a dog doing dog things.  And as a result he was much more relaxed.  And since he was relaxed and having a good time, he did not spend the whole walk worrying about other dogs.  He even went up to a fence where there are other dogs.  With a short line, this sends him into a barking frenzy.  But with a relaxed line he said hello and kept going.

      So the next time you go for a brisk walk with your dog, give him or her a little line.  Let them get as much out of the walk as you do.  Your dog nose what to do.

Doug

A Dog's Six Words

When I first started training dogs in the Manners in Minutes system seven years ago, someone asked me “If a dog could talk what would he say first?” I did not have an answer then. I think I do now.

     If we could give a dog just six words, I think it would come up with two phrases.

     The first would be “It’s not fair.” A dog wants a good pack leader. And a good pack leader is firm, fair and consistent.   I believe a dog has a strong sense of what is fair and what is not.

      But I have also come to the conclusion that dogs are born con artists. Even the best behaved dog is always looking for an opportunity to turn any situation to their advantage. Personally I think the only reason my two Lakelands, and for that matter your dog, haven’t taken a car to go joyriding is that they don’t have thumbs to steer with.

     So if a dog could say “it’s not fair, it would use the phrase the way a four year old human does. Sometimes it would mean you aren’t being fair. But other times it would just mean “give me my way.”

     The next phrase would be “But you said.” Dogs, like children, are born lawyers. While their vocabulary may be limited they know what each word and each command means. And they take them very literally.

     I don’t teach the command “stay” but rather the command “wait.” Stay is usually used to keep the dog sitting in one place while you walk away. I want my dog to stop whenever and wherever I command at the moment I give the command. Wait is an X on the ground where the dog is not to move from until I release it. But unless I add something else it is up to the dog whether they stand, sit, or lay down while holding their wait.

     Sometimes someone else will tell their dog “sit” in here. The dog will sit then get back up. They will then tell the dog “I said sit.” And then I will tell the owner you said sit and the dog sat. You didn’t tell him to wait.

     And as I do the dog looks at them and thinks “But you said.”

Doug

Dog aggression, throw the first punch.

There are only two reasons a dog becomes aggressive. They are play and fear.

Play aggression is the rarer form. It usually occurs when a young puppy is encouraged to play too rough with people. Because of a puppy’s instinct to please, the puppy begins to think that being rough pleases people.

This is desire to please by being rough is how police and military bite dogs are trained. The dog is taken out and sent after someone wearing either a bite sleeve or suit. When the dog bites and holds on it is praised. Then when it lets go it is rewarded with a toy (usually a Kong) to play with. The dog makes the association between the two. Knowing that the Kong is definitely a toy, the dog sees biting a human as part of the game. The difference between this and a pet dog is that these dogs have “off” switches.

Sometimes people accidently train a puppy to be aggressive by playing more roughly than they should. The dog grows up thinking that all humans want to be played with as roughly as possible. And often a dog that has been taught to play rough with humans also thinks it should play that way with dogs. These dogs do not have “off” switches. And playing rough with humans can also result in being fear aggressive with other dogs.

The most common form of aggression though is from fear. For whatever reason the dog has become deeply fearful. And when something or someone triggers that fear the dog has three choices, negotiation, fight or flight.

The first and best choice is negotiation. Dogs do negotiate, they do it through body language. When a properly adjusted dog is confronted by something that it is not sure is prey or predator, it uses body language to say “I don’t have to fight and I am not a threat to you.” Provided that the dog knows what to “say” and the object or being answers or ignores the dog, the dog will attempt to avoid confrontation. Many dogs that do not grow up in a pack, or who do not have any pack based training, may never learn to negotiate.

Flight should be the second choice. If there is no good reason to fight, and the dog has a way to move away from the danger, it should leave rather than fight. But if the dog cannot retreat, because it is backed up against an object or on a line, the only choice left is fight.

Some dogs chose to fight even when there is the choice of flight. This may be because they do not know they have an escape option because at some point they chose flight and it did not work.

Dogs also believe if you are going to get into a fight, you throw the first punch. This is why even a small dog will launch itself at a large opponent. A fear aggressive dog will always try to throw that first punch even if it does not need to.

Once a dog has become fear-aggressive it is going to take work, a lot of work, to undo this reaction. The dog does not see itself as being wrong, it truly believes it is fighting to save its own life. The dog’s judgement has become so warped, and its fear so deeply ingrained, that it sees no other option.

But it can be fixed.

First the owner must establish trust in the dog. Many dogs love you but they have not learned to trust you. Without the dog trusting your judgment, the dog will never have an “off” switch.

So any training to deal with aggression has to meet these conditions.

1. The dog must trust the owner so that when the owner sees the dog is fearful, and is about to go to aggression, the owner can tell the dog that it does not have to become aggressive.
And the dog must learn to do what the owner is telling it to do.

2. The owner has to know how to recognize the aggression before the fight starts.

3. The owner must have an “off” switch that works both before and after a fight starts.

4. The dog must have training in group situations where it is tempted to become aggressive but is never allowed to succeed.

5. The training must trigger the ability to negotiate before turning to fight or flight.

6. The dog must learn not to fight even when the other dog is challenging it.

7. You must have the ability to protect your dog if the other dog becomes aggressive even though your dog has done everything right.

8. You have to learn to avoid situations where your dog will be attacked.

What I cannot tell you is how long this will take. It depends on how long the dog has been aggressive, how deeply the fear has entrenched itself, and how much time you can devote to working on it. I have had many dogs respond within a few weeks of training but others have taken much longer.

Genetics can also play a part. In any litter one puppy will be the most confident and another is the most fearful. Plus as any good book will tell you all puppies go through a period where they have a lot of fear reactions. Most will go through this with little harm. But a very few will never gets past this stage without help from a good trainer.

I am currently working with the most fear aggressive dog I have ever seen. And I have been working with this dog for almost a year. This is a rare European breed, the only one I have worked with so far. It hasn't been easy but I never give up on a dog.

When we started the dog was afraid of everyone, dog or human, other than its owners. I believe it was born this way. In fact had the breeder been a good breeder they never would have placed the dog since I am sure this behavior was abundantly clear even when it was a puppy.

This dog did not come in until it was almost five. And unfortunately the only time the owner tried to deal with it they went to someone who used a shock collar. That just made things worse.

But with a lot of dedicated work from the owners we are getting there. The dog comes to pack almost every week. The only problem left is that the dog still has trouble with its body language. He body still says fight when she means play.

But where they could never have anyone in their house before the dog now lets other humans be around her. And she doesn’t challenge every dog she sees.

Finishing this dog is actually up to her new pack mate. A couple of weeks ago they added a puppy to their house. Like many dogs this once super fear aggressive dog learned to get along with puppies before she learned how to get along with adult dogs. And instinct has kicked in, all dogs take part in raising puppies in the pack.

The new dog will actually grow to be a much larger dog. They are best friends. This dog will become the dog she was meant to be.

A word of warning, by itself a puppy does not cure aggression in adult dogs. Had they brought the puppy in a year ago, this dog would have killed it. But through their hard work they now will have two great dogs.

If you are here to find a trainer, and you can’t come to me or Pat, then read the other blogs here on this site for selecting a dog trainer.

Consider the following things.
1 Can the trainer specifically tell you how the training will deal with aggression? A simple “I can fix this” is never enough.
2 Will the trainer let you see them work with aggressive dogs?
3 Take in the list above. If the trainer cannot tell you how they are going to do those things, don’t train with them.
4 What will the trainer do, and what will it cost, if the dog needs more training. Remember some trainers will actually encourage the aggression so you keep coming back until you run out of money.


Doug

The Brittany and the Parakeet.

I called my sister the other night to wish her a belated birthday. We talked, as we occasionally do, about growing up. I asked if she read the blog “Butchie’s Paper Route. She then reminded me some other family dog stories.

When I was about 4 and my sister was about 2 our Dad decided it was time to get a family dog again. He found a Brittany Spaniel. Her name was Dozie (pronounced doozie) from combining our names, Doug and Suzie. I don’t think Dad saw this as prophetic. But it was.

I personally do not believe any dog is dumb. I tell people if you know someone with a dumb dog, what you really know is someone with a smart dog who’s figured out acting dumb pays well in their home. I don’t think Dozie was dumb but she was flighty and absent minded.

We lived in Wichita at the time. The people next door owned a Boston Terrier. The dogs were good friends and their favorite activity was chase. Back then no one had fences so the dogs would chase each other around the Boston’s house. Dozie was usually the chaser, meaning that the Boston was probably the dominant dog.

The Boston was much smaller than a Dozie. About the third time around the house he would run under the gas meter. This was the old fashion kind with the big body that came out of the ground between two pipes. He could make it under the body. Dozie would follow him. But she was too big to make it so would run head first into the meter, knocking her woozy.

A couple of years later we moved to Arlington Texas. We added a parakeet to the household. His name was Sweetie Pie.

Sweetie Pie soon learned to exactly mimic my father’s whistle, which Dad used to recall Dozie.

Periodically you would hear that whistle. And Dozie would dutifully run to the dining room where he was kept. She then would frantically look for Dad, who was often at work. Sweetie Pie then would add insult to injury by loudly declaring “Dozie is a dirty bird.” She would look at the bird in disgust and then go back to whatever she had been doing.

Sadly I don’t have a picture of a Brittany to put with this blog. I kind of wish I did. I don’t think there is a prettier dog than an orange and white Brittany.

Doug

Pat Muller and Manners in Minutes

I check the stats on this blog on a regular basis along with the stats on my website, www.ppmim.net. Among other things I can see what web pages or articles get looked at and how many people looked at them. I also get the search phrases that found each site.

One of the more common search phrases is Manners in Minutes or Pat Muller Manners in Minutes. I think some people are looking for her rather than me.

So if you came to this site looking for either Pat or her wonderful training system, let me tell you about her.

I met Pat about seven years ago when she gave a seminar in Denver. We had taken Chicklet, our female Lakeland Terrier, to that seminar when a fairly good and very likeable trainer in town here had worked with Chicklet. And unfortunately his training had not helped, it had just made things worse. When I asked my breeder what to do, she sent me to Pat.

I attended a lot of seminars when I was in law enforcement. Most were pretty good, some were excruciatingly bad (usually the subject was okay but the instructor was lousy) and a very few that had an immediate and important impact. When Pat stood up and explained how her system and tools worked, a light bulb went on over my head. This was a system that both the dog and the owner could understand. And this was a system that mimicked how dogs learn when raised in a working pack. And Pat is one of those speakers who leave an indelible impression on you.

A few months later we attended a Lakeland event at Pat’s Quansa Kennels in South Beloit IL. There is a reason I call this blog the Accidental Dog Trainer. Somehow from those two events, without intending for it to happen, I ended up opening a Manners in Minutes training center here in Colorado Springs when I retired.

It did not take me very long, due to the Manners in Minutes system, to start to build a solid reputation as a dog trainer here. And it would be easy for me to get a swollen head. Cops aren’t known for having modest egos. But for the first couple of years I got to go out and train with Pat for a few days each year. And that has kept me humble. It still does.

When each dog finishes in here, it goes out a well trained and well mannered dog. A big part is my experience in using the system, an even bigger part is the system itself. But the biggest reason for that dog and owner’s success is the talent and brilliance of Pat Muller.

So if you got here today because you are looking at training in the Manners in Minutes system, then yes, you should use it to train your dog.

There are a couple of ways to train in this system. Pat does mail order both a book and a DVD on how to train the dog yourself, along with the necessary training equipment. And she has a Yahoo group that supports her system. A few of you may know someone who has trained in the system who can help you. I think it really helps to have someone with experience in the system to work with you, but I know that is not always possible.

Through Pat I know a number of people who are not doing this professionally, but help out with rescue and other organizations.

If however you want to travel where you can work in a training center in this method, at the moment you only have two choices, Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes here in Colorado Springs with me and Quansa Kennels in South Beloit IL with Pat.

As much as I would like you to come here for training, and I will add that I think it’s prettier with a nicer climate, if you can't come here, go to Quansa.

Listen to Pat, do what she teaches you. You will end up with a wonderful, well mannered and obedient dog.

I did.

Doug

PS The picture is Pat Muller training me at Quansa a couple of years ago. The dogs were fine, I needed some extra work.

Dog Training, money back guarantee

A few nights ago I had to stop for a couple of cans of dog food. I feed a good kibble but always add a small amount of canned dog food as kibble does not have enough fat for a dog’s diet.

Usually I buy my supplies from an independent (non chain) pet store here in Colorado Springs. This guy is awesome, knowing how to match dogs to food by breed. The best food for one breed may not be the best for another, and this guy is a pro. I send all my clients to him and have had a lot of problems cleared up just by getting a dog on the right food.

But he is all the way across town and was closed by the time I finished here in the center. There is one of the large pet supply chains that is not too far out of my way so I go there when I have to.

I don’t like going there. That is because of one of their “trainers” knows me on sight. This person was at a dog show I had a booth at a couple of years ago. Although this person did not talk to me they did stand there while I explained Manners in Minutes to someone else. I remembered this person because I have a great memory for faces, a survival skill left over from my police days.

Whenever I go into this store this trainer makes a point of running me down to let me know how great the store’s training method and trainers are. I am not that impressed. First it is hard to be in awe of someone who has “trainer” on their smock but every time I see one of them they are either stocking shelves or running a cash register. Secondly my office is bigger that their training area. And third their method is food based training which I have explained my views on elsewhere on this blog.

I did not see this trainer (I also still have my surveillance skills) so I went in. As I walked in I glanced at their board for training. I saw, handwritten, “guaranteed money back dog training.”

My first reaction was “Huh.” Why would they do that? How can you guarantee training? Either you can train a dog or you can’t. If you can’t then you should not take the dog and its owner as a client.

You aren’t selling a washing machine. If you sell someone an appliance and you give them their money back you get the appliance back. But if you sell someone a skill, you can’t take that back.

Then I thought is their training so poor that they need to refund money to keep people from being angry at them? And then I knew the answer, it is marketing.

Dog training is approached differently if training is not your main product. If I owned a chain of stores that sold a variety of products then I would know that training is not going to make or break my business. Due to the high cost of prime retail space, every square foot has to produce income. Since training will never produce the income per square foot the sales of supplies, toys, equipment, and all the other things I sell I can’t afford to use a lot of space. And too keep the price of training down I am not going to pay my trainers a lot.

So since training is not going to be a large source of profit, why bother? And the answer is the marketing plan behind chain store training. The reason is repeat business.

Over a lifetime you are going to spend a lot of money on food, treats and toys. You are also going to need an occasional replacement for a bed, or collar, or line, or something else. By getting you to train in the chain store, they build a relationship and you get in the habit of coming regularly to my store. Then they make their profit from those sales, not training.

So does this affect the quality of the training? I think so.

First since I want to get you to come into my store as often as possible, and I have to keep my costs down, I have to do group training.

Group training has both advantages and disadvantages. For someone training with a dog for the first time I think the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. In any group there is one dog that needs more work than any other dog. That dog will take up a disproportionate amount of the hour session. Also there is usually one human who also takes (often demands) more time than anyone else. And usually they are together. So if you are one of six people with a dog, odds are you won’t get an even share of the instructor’s time and effort.

Due to the cost of space, training spaces in these classes tend to be small. Not every dog is going to get along with every other dog, at least at the beginning. The smaller the training area, the greater the danger that someone can get bit. So you keep your dog on a short tight line. A short tight line tells the dog you are worried. The dog figures that if you are worried, it should be worried too. So you and the dog spend too much time worrying and not enough training. Also small training areas limit the amount of movement you can do with the dog and increases the danger when you are concentrating on the command that another dog will successfully go after your dog or you.

I always wonder about the quality of the trainers. This is not a hard business to get into. Many people with good training skills start by having group sessions at the park. There are a number of issues with this choice, but I think it is better than working in too small a space. If you can’t afford to open a training center, which are usually located where rents are lower, you can start there and then move up. But either way you are going to do better financially than working in the chains.

So who is left in the labor pool since each store has a trainer? Often it is someone who doesn’t mind stocking shelves and running a cash register in order to train. Or is it someone who doesn’t mind training in order to have a job or to make a little more than someone who is just a clerk? While I do not doubt there are some very good trainers in a few of these stores, I do doubt that all of them are equally good.

As for the training itself, the training method must not offend anyone in any way. So this training has to be food motivation. I stay away from food training for one simple reason, it is hard for someone training a dog for the first time to tell the difference between motivation and bribery. Most clients err on the side of over using food. And they end up with a fat dog that won’t do anything if you don’t have a cookie in your hand.

And what could happen if I go to one of these places, have the training not work, get my money back, and go somewhere else? It could be nothing bad, or it could make things worse.

To me there are two possible outcomes. If you have an easy dog, one that has not developed strong habits and/or major alpha drive, then this may be all the training you need. An easy dog does not need that strong a trainer, provided you are working the dog on your own.

If the training works then well, most of them teach several different classes so you can continue on to get to whatever level you need. This often leads you to spend a lot more, and you are going to go to more than one six to eight week course. So you may spend 18 weeks or more to train the dog. And if you miss a class, then your dog does not learn everything or is automatically behind.

If you have a dog that already has the more serious problems this kind of training does not work well for you, then even if you get your money back, you have spent your time for little or no results. However you have also convinced the dog that it does not have to respond to training making your task all the more difficult if you go to someone else. You can get your money back, but not your time, and you may now have an even more difficult dog.

My advice, don’t automatically discount this training. But just like any other trainer, before you sign up, go watch that trainer train. That way you are making an informed decision.

Does Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes have a money back guarantee? No. First of all you are not going to start training here until you have come in for a free consultation. And I strongly discourage from signing up until you have had some time to think things over. If you don’t understand what I do and how I do it, or if you are not comfortable with me or the system, this is not going to work well. On the other hand if it is for you, then success is just a matter of us both doing our part.

The other week I had someone come in for an evaluation. At the end she asked if I had a money back guarantee. I told her no. She asked why. I told her I never had a dog fail in here, but I had had people fail.

She never called back. Sadly I don’t think chain store training will work with her dog. It had too many problems. But at least she could get her money back.

Doug

Puppy Training Part III, the worst two weeks to own a dog

I think the hardest two weeks to own a dog are weeks 14 and 15.
Because of the way a dog’s mind develops weeks 8 (usually the youngest age a breeder will sell a dog) through week 14 are pretty easy. Again during that time you aren’t really training, you are conditioning.

Training differs from conditioning in that in training we give the dog a command and if it performs, we reward the behavior. If it does not we correct. In conditioning there are no corrections, just distraction.

We take advantage of the fact that during that period, the puppy’s whole world revolves around its owner(s). When we tell the puppy to sit we raise our closed hand. Since a dog has to sit down to look up, it sits and we praise. When the dog comes running to us we praise it effusively while giving a recall command. Since puppies are all about pleasing us, the praise reinforces the reaction to our words.

If we walk by and the puppy stands up we tell it “good stand” and if remains laying there we tell it “good down.” If it bites our hand we shriek or use a rattle can while saying “no bite.” When it releases we praise.

Because a puppy is all about pleasing us during these weeks, it seems like the puppy is already training. And if it were not for what happens in weeks 14 and 15, it would be.

Then the puppy hits week 14. This stage in a dog’s development can be described as the worst parts of the terrible twos and puberty all wrapped up in one. The world is not about you, it is about the puppy. The dog has gone from pleasing you to pleasing itself. It truly believes it is now smarter than you and you are there to do what they want, not the other way around.

I see this all the time in Neighborhood Pack Sessions (group). Puppy came in for puppy class and now comes to Neighborhood Pack every week. It sees how the adult dogs listen to their owners and tries as hard to work for its owner as the big dogs do for their people. Exposure to adult dogs in a pack situation is one of the best things you can do with a puppy.

And Mom and Dad are just beaming. By week 13 I can see it in their eyes. Their little darling is going to be the best dog ever. Why they won’t even have to spend the time or money on adult class.

The next week the phone rings here at Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes. It is puppy’s owners. I get told that the dog will be 16 weeks and one day (the point where it can train as an adult) on the 22nd. They would like the 7:00 AM appointment.

I know what they are going through. And I can usually give them the 7:00 AM appointment.

Oh and the picture is Vino, the legendary service dog Rottweiler, as a puppy in 2009.

Doug

Why dog training fails, part III

Every now and then I get a minute to look around the web at web sites for dog trainers. I pick a city and see who is out there and what they have to say. You never know when you might find something to help you improve.

Today looking a city in the Midwest, I came across a website. On every page the trainer emphasized and re-emphasized their years of training. And yet they did not seem to have stayed anywhere very long.

Then I remembered something a great trainer told me once.

This person was not a dog trainer. He was my field training officer when I joined the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office in 1984. And he was a great trainer.

This was old school police training. Back then you did not go to a six month academy and then 14 weeks of Field Training. They swore in and took you to the range where they taught you to shoot, in an afternoon. You then spent a week working in each section of the office. That was followed by just five weeks of field training and you were out on your own. If you survived, and did not get the sued, then you went to the academy before the end of the first year.

When I showed up that night for my first shift most of the deputies introduced themselves. One made a great show of telling me, in front of everyone, that he was a ten year veteran.

Later that night Skeeter brought up that conversation. Then he told me:

“Look there are two kinds of ten year veterans. One kind has one year of experience ten times. The other has ten years of experience.”

This is why I highly recommend you meet with any dog trainer before you decide who is going to train your dog. You want a trainer who grows and improves with every dog, not someone who does the same thing over and over again.

Doug

A Boston Terrier's Tale, an update

The most popular article on this blog, judging by the number of views, is A Boston Terrier's Tale.

I just got this picture from Moose's owner. I'd like to share it and his e mail with you.


Doug,

I wanted to wish everyone at PPMIM a happy holiday season and give you an update on Moose. I would imagine a lot times in your business, you work with a dog and then owner and K-9 disappear and you never know the rest of the story. Moose as you remember was an adopted dog and a very troubled one due to 15 months of abuse. He had severe
fear aggression toward large dogs and men. I 'm happy to report, thanks to PPMIM, Moose continues to be a success story. He no longer has any fear aggression towards large dogs or strange males and hasn't for over a year. All the group therapy and continually practicing the principles learned has paid off with huge dividends. Moose continues to be an ambassador for the Boston Terrier breed. At the dog park he spends the entire time racing from dog to dog as if he is the official greeter. He really has turned into an amazing dog. Moose has demonstrated a passion for frisbee and runs side by side with his sister Lily(lab pit mix) like a veteran. In his down time his favorite thing to do is snuggle. I have attached several photos of Moose doing what dogs are supposed to do.. just enjoy life. Thanks again for providing a safe and controlled atmosphere which allowed Moose to shed his fears and become a normal, life loving companion.

David

I'd like to take a lot of credit for this, but it was a good owner, comminted to his dog, hard work on both their parts, and a solid system that made this happen. I just got to see the results.

Doug

Canine Rage Disorder

I’m not a veterinarian so I can’t make any judgments about medical causes of this condition, but I have seen one case of extreme Canine Rage Disorder. So this blog is about rage and a possible behavioral explanation for the rage.

I received a call well over a year ago. A vet referred an owner to me. The owner explained that he had a French bulldog that was extremely aggressive. The dog was fine with another dog in the home, his wife and he, but would suddenly attack any other dogs or humans.

I like to know generally what I am going to be asked to deal with before people come in for an evaluation. But usually I wait to get the details. And I deal with aggressive dogs all the time. But this owner was almost frantic. He said he was reluctant to even bring the dog in for fear it would attack me. I assured him that I was used to working with aggressive dogs. I told him that if the dog did attack it was an occupational hazard I have learned to live with.

I will not work with any dog without the dog and owner coming in for a free assessment before taking the dog. First I like to have an idea of what the dog is like. And it is very important that the owner understand the Manners in Minutes dog training system and be willing to do the work required for the training to succeed. If the training is to succeed the dog, the owner and I must be on the same page and be able to work together.

I always come out to see the dog as soon as you pull up. I am watching the dog as you bring it in. The dog tells me a lot about itself from the minute I first see it. By watching this I get a lot of information about what is going on with the dog.

Except for that evening every aggressive or dangerous dog has told me, via body language that I needed to watch out. This dog gave me nothing to alarm me. But I was on guard because of our phone conversation.

When a dog comes in I have you wait at the door. The dog is always on a line. I watch the dog and ask a couple of questions. But I am really looking at the dog’s behavior and judging its reaction to the center. If all goes well I have you drop the line to see what the dog does next.

I was a little more cautious than usual but again did not see anything. I deliberately stood away to the side at a distance. Then I told the owner to just let go of the line.

When I do this I am looking at three things, confidence, curiosity and caution. The dog has walked in and has already figured out by smell that there have been thousands of dogs in here. To a dog that is supposed to mean that the center is possible a den for a really large pack of dogs.

First I want to see if your dog confident enough to leave your side. A dog that has no confidence will just stand there with rear and front ends lowered. A dog with too much confidence will start peeing on everything in sight to “mark” territory.

A dog with normal curiosity will quickly begin to explore. And if the dog has the right amount of caution you will see it in their body language. When you go to some other pack’s den, you need to be prepared for confrontation.

This dog stood calmly for a moment. He took two steps. Then he turned suddenly and latched on to my shin.

It hurt. But I was a cop for 24 years. Police work is a contact sport and I have the scars, healed broken bones and surgical reports to prove it. It wasn’t very high on my list of pain situations. And I don’t panic easily.

Normally I would have just growled hard at the dog and walked my way up the line (reaching down would have guaranteed an attack at my face) until the line pulled the dog off my shin. But the owner was panicking and any movement on my part would have escalated the situation and made things worse.

I stood there taking the bite and calmly told the owner to slowly pick up the line and pull the dog off of me. Then I had to calm the owner who was reacting all out of proportion to the situation.

After I calmed the owner I had him attach the dog to a point so that the dog could not make another mistake and started to find out what had happened.

The owner told me he got the dog several years ago. The dog was normal and had no aggression. When the dog was two it disappeared from his backyard.

The dog was chipped so they checked regularly with the Humane Society to see if he showed up. After a year the figured the dog was never going to show up. They bought another dog. They did report the dog as stolen.

After the dog had been gone for two years they got a call from the Humane Society. The dog was at the shelter and had been identified via the chip. They went and got him. The Humane Society told them that the police had gone to a home of an older lady on a mental health check the welfare. Due to the lady’s behavior they had taken her in for an evaluation which turned into a mental health hold. As there was no one to take the dog the Humane Society had been called. When they checked for a microchip they found one and discovered the dog had been reported as stolen. As there is no legal right to stolen items in Colorado, the dog had to be returned to the owners regardless of how the other woman got the dog.

They took the dog home and he seemed to be fine until they took him for a walk in the neighborhood when he tried to go after every dog or person he saw. They thought time would cure him but he hadn’t gotten any better.

Then the owner told me that he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his military service. With all kinds of alarm bells going off in the back of my head I asked some more questions and then did some behavior testing.

My greatest concern was whether or not the dog had lost the ability to trust. If he had, then the chances that training could undo the damage were minimal, at best. As a rule of thumb I will not work with a dog that has lost that ability to trust. But there were some signs that he still had the ability to trust.

I do not like people to sign up for training at the end of the assessment. I want you to be very sure before you start with me that this is what you want. And based on what I now had heard and seen I wanted to think about this dog before committing to training it.

I sent them home with a brochure and told them to think it over. I also wanted to thing about whether or not I was willing to work with this dog.

I mulled it over for a couple of days. I decided that the dog was worth the effort. And I believe that if they followed my instructions that we could fix the behavior. But I knew if it failed the dog would be too dangerous to ever have even the slightest chance of getting loose. I decided that I would impose some unusual conditions.

I decided that if the dog worked with me, and it did not work, then I would refund their fees but that they would have to agree to put the dog down. If this dog was so traumatized that training did not work, the dog's life was one of constant fear and that kind of dog was just too dangerous to everyone.

Then I thought about the owner. I figured his wife would keep that agreement but I wasn’t sure about the husband. I knew they loved the dog and they might be tempted to keep it even if the training wasn’t working. Sadly sometimes there is no choice but to put a dog down. But not everyone will make the best decision for the dog.

Luckily they never called back, so the decision was taken out of my hands. I never learned what happened to the dog.

Assuming that all the information they gave me was accurate, I believe that whatever happened the two years that dog was gone filled that dog with rage. And sadly I will never know more about what caused it and if it could be undone.

I haven’t seen anything even close to this since, but I know the next phone call for this condition will come sooner or later. I hope the outcome is better.

Doug

Testing Dog's DNA

In the last year or so, the cost of DNA tests for mixed breed dogs has gone down to the point where I am seeing more and more clients test their dogs. The results are almost always surprising.

I’ve found out that more often than not, a mixed breed dog is not what the owner was told. The exception of course, is a dog that you get from someone who owned both the parents. But almost every other mixed breed is not what the client was told.

Shelters and rescue groups often make an educated guess. They base the guess on the dog’s looks and sometimes its behavior. But on those dogs where my client has done a DNA test, the rule of thumb is that the guess only accurately gets one of the breeds.

Such groups also tend not to guess any of the breeds who are generally (and inaccurately) described as difficult or mean. I don’t think I’ve ever had a guesstimate mention bull terrier, even though the head shape gives that away.

But for the record, I don’t do much better. I rarely get more than one foundation breed right. And I tend to balance looks with behavior to make my guess.

I’ll give you some good examples. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent but these are dogs I have worked with.) The first is Kirby. He is obviously German Sheppard. His coat texture, coloring, and head give that away. But he is also very, very verbal. He tends to be grumpy and standoffish. And his torso is low slung. His bark is more of a baying than the sharp bark of a GSD. So I guessed he was part beagle,

I got that one wrong. He is German Sheppard, Labrador Retriever, Border Collie and at least five ancestors whose lineage is mixed to the point it cannot be determined by that type of DNA testing. That DNA test goes back three generations, the parents (2 dogs), the grandparents (4 dogs) and the great grandparents (8 dogs). Most of the DNA tests I have seen go that far back.

Another was Franklin. His owners bought him from a trainer and puppy seller notorious for selling dogs that are aggressive. He seems to make them that way to get you to keep coming back for more training until you run out of time, money, patience, or all three. When they got Franklin they were told he was a terrier mix.

Based on his color, his coat, and his size, I thought he was a Blue Kerry mix. However behaviorally he just was not right for a terrier. His aggression was always a bluff. And terriers rarely bluff.

When his DNA came in there was no terrier dominant. He was Schipperke, Papillion, Labrador along with the usual number of unknowns. The Schipperke explained the tough guy image. Schipperke is a non sporting breed that is a ratter on European river barges. This explains the terrier like traits. The Papillion, a toy, explains the worry about safety behavior. And the Lab explained the poor impulse decisions.

While its not necessary for you or the trainer to know what breeds are in your mix, it is a nice to have piece of information. At least you can get an idea where the behaviors come from.

By the way, when someone tells me they have their DNA results I don’t let them tell me what they are. Instead I have them bring it to the next Neighborhood Pack (my group) session so all of us can guess before we find out for sure.

So far no one had gotten more than one breed right.

Doug

Lakeland Terrier Puppies for sale

The title of this blog was deliberately worded in hopes of getting to people looking to buy Lakeland or any other breed of puppies. If you found it because you are searching for a puppy, please read on before resuming your search.

I am the proud owner of two Lakeland Terriers, a dog trainer, and the friend of three of the finest Lakeland breeders you could ever know.

Last week one of them spent a couple of days visiting us. She just ended her term as president of the US Lakeland Terrier club. She told me that they had registered about a 165 puppies with the AKC each year the last two years. What she then said shocked me. She said that half the puppies came from puppy mills.

That hit hard because the last time I had checked it was difficult to find my breed in the puppy mills. I was pleased with that then because I knew that it meant others would not go through the heartbreak we went through with our first Lakeland Terrier who was a puppy mill dog.

So I searched for Lakeland Terrier puppies and was horrified to find quite a few were available from puppy mills.

I would like for my breed to be more popular. And the more Lakeland puppies that get bought, the more likely the breed is to stay around and have a stable breeding population. And on a philosophical level, if people buy puppy mill Lakelands, they might be a Lakeland owner for life.

And that is exactly what happened to me. We moved into a new house and could get a dog. Two days later I went to work and when I came home that night my wife and youngest daughter had gone to the puppy store and we had a dog.

I had heard you don’t buy a dog from a puppy store but did not know why. But I also knew you do not tell your fourteen year old daughter she has to take a puppy back.

Back then I could not find anything out about the breed but by day two I was a lifelong Lakie person.

The reason you don’t buy puppy mill dogs quickly became apparent. Button no sooner became an adult and her kidneys started to fail due to a genetic fault. We would keep her alive until she was seven, but the average life expectancy for a Lakeland is 12 to 14 years.

I would spend more keeping her alive those seven years than the two breeder produced dogs I own now would cost me.

It would have been easy to assume that Lakelands are short lived with very expensive medical costs from that experience. Fortunately by then there was a lot available on the internet. That is when I found out why you buy puppies from reputable breeders. The higher cost at the start is quite often more than offset by longer life and lower vet bills.

Many of my training clients buy puppies from the puppy stores, who get their puppies from puppy mills. Now these are usually nice dogs. Their owners often tell me that they paid one third to one half as much as they would have paid from a good breeder. I hope that they were lucky and got a dog that will live a normal life span. But on more than one occasion I find out they had the same bad experience I did.

I also see dogs from good breeders. And they did cost more. But they have fewer health problems.

Losing a dog is never easy. But losing a dog well before its normal life expectancy is horrific.

The sad fact is that puppy mill puppies are cheaper because the breeding programs these breeders aren’t sound. They mass produce dogs using female breeding stock too often and too long. And the older a female dog and the more often she breeds, the more likely the puppies will have genetic problems and shorter life spans.

The fear is that the puppy mills will make it harder and harder for good breeders to place their puppies. And since good breeders don’t make money from breeding, there will be fewer and fewer source of sound and healthy dogs, especially in the lesser known breeds.

It would be a shame if my grandchildren wouldn’t be able to consider owning a good Lakeland when they are adults.

Doug

If you are looking for a reputable breeder for Lakeland Terriers go to the United States Lakeland Club website. There is a list of reputable breeders.

The only way to train a dog is

The other night after our Neighborhood Pack Session three of my dog owners were outside talking. I joined in.

These three have been working with me for a while. And each of them has an awesome dog.

Vino is a Rottweiler. He started his training at nine weeks. He has been trained to be a service dog and is the subject of an earlier blog. He is 22 months old now and just an incredible dog. He works for his twins. He now gives an alert up to 45 minutes before the little girl goes into grand mal seizures and will intervene if her brother starts bumping his head into the wall he will push him away and sit with him until he calms down. He has passed every test and certification with flying colors.

Athena is a Rottweiler, Aussie cattle dog and Akita mix. She is a rescue. She is a one in a thousand dog. She took one look at her new owner, decided she loved her new mom, and has been a jewel ever since. Training her was a breeze and she is one of my pack leaders in Neighborhood Pack. She will often quell bad behavior in another dog with just a look.

Charlie is a young pit bull. When he started he was dog aggressive. We got him past that quickly and he became playful but at the first sign of any rough play would get pretty defensive. Now he is just playful with everyone. Maturity and experience will tone that down.

Vino’s Mom started the conversation by telling us that she had taken him into one of the chain stores. He was wearing his service vest. The store “trainer” came over and told Mom that she trained service therapy Rottweiler’s. She immediately asked if Vino had been trained in a method that uses corrections. Mom answered yes and the “trainer” launched into a harangue that dogs can’t be trained with methods using corrections.

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Athena’s Mom also added that she had a similar experience in another of the chains. The trainer had lectured her about the “only way” to train dogs. She went on to explain the superiority of food based training, the favored method of many chains.

Charlie’s mom got stopped by a neighbor. Apparently this is one of those “I come to you” trainers who lives in her neighborhood. The trainer had seen Duke jump on her as they left the house for their walk. The trainer then told her how her training methods are wrong and she should change trainers. The trainer did not realize that jumping only occurs at the start of a walk and is a way he expresses pleasure. It is also the sign of a young dog who hasn’t quite understood why he should not do that yet.

Each of these three different trainers told my client that their training method was the “only way” to train a dog.

At that point one of my clients said that the “only way” to train a dog is the Manners in Minutes system. I disagreed. I believe that a good trainer can train a dog in any method.

I know I could train in any system; choke chain, pinch collar, clicker, food based, or any of the others. . I use the Manners in Minutes system because it is efficient. Not only do I think the dog catches on quicker, I believe the owner learns this method faster than any other. And I have set up my training lesson plan and center to maximize the method.

I have a training center rather than train in a park because I can control the environment. The center also means I don’t have too little or too much space. And I can control who and what the dog is exposed to as the training progresses.

I use very little food because I have long since realized that a client training for the first time will often use food as a crutch. The temptation to offer the food too often or too soon is hard for someone to resist when they first start working with a dog. As a result the client ends up bribing rather than motivating the dog.

I don’t like choke or pincher collars because for an inexperienced owner it is too easy too over or under correct. Under correction has no effect on the dog, over correction results in resentment. Electronic collars don’t make sense to the dog. I don’t use harsh alpha methods because a pack leader is firm, fair and consistent, not a bully. I don’t use clickers, even though I think they are the fastest way to learn to properly time praise, because too many owners have no control when they do not have a clicker at hand.

I stopped offering group classes to start training because I noticed that in every group there was always one dog that was so out of control that too much of the allotted time was spent on that dog to the detriment of the others. Every group always had someone who for various reasons needed a disproportionate amount of my time. Group tends to put the owner with an easier dog at a disadvantage.

So to make sure that the time I spend with you and your dog is efficient I start you in private sessions. That way you and the dog get my undivided attention. Then when the dog and you are ready I move you into group since there are many things we can do in group you can never do in private sessions.

If you have found a good trainer then there is no “only way,” just what they believe is the best way. And if you have found a trainer who has the “only way,” odds are you do not have a good trainer.

Doug

Saying goodbye to a dog

Yesterday a car pulled up just as I was shutting things down to go home. I did not have anyone on the schedule. The car looked vaguely familiar.

Lani got out of the car. I had not seen her in a while. Back in 2009 she and her roommate Tammi, brought me two very interesting dogs. The first was Billy, a Dutch Sheppard; the second was Bosco, a Dachshund.

They were a challenging pair. Bosco was deaf. Billy was a retired military bomb detection dog. And to make it even more interesting, Tammy is vision impaired.

The challenge with Billy was his former occupation. Military and Police dogs are trained to think of their jobs as a game. The reward for doing well is a Kong. So these dogs are toy aggressive. In addition Billy was dog aggressive. He could not let a dog near the patrol as it might be carrying an IED.

Billy was arguably the most dangerous dog I have had to train. He was willing to kill. At the same time he was also a very easy dog to work with because he had learned to trust his handler. My job was to show him that Lani, Tammi, and I were to get the same respect as his military handler.

Billy also had some difficulty with his back legs, they had been severely injured in a bomb blast.

The training went well. Billy and Bosco moved on to group. Billy kept his eye on every dog in the room but had learned to live with others.

No one comes to Neighborhood Pack forever so eventually Lani’s pack slid into memory.

About a year later Lani came by with an article from the Fort Carson paper. Billy was now a therapy dog in their Wounded Warriors program. He related well to the combat veterans because he too was a wounded vet.

Lani had come by yesterday for Billy to say goodbye. He is 14 now and that is the life expectancy of his breed. He has kidney problems.

I could hear him out in the car. He knew where he was and he wanted to come in.

Lani had us pose for some pictures. Billy let me scratch his ears. Then he took a treat from me.

He has lost some weight, his back legs are a little less reliable, and he has some breathing problems. But he seemed to enjoy visiting his old haunt.

Billy, like me, had found something to do when he retired. Lani and Tammi gave him a wonderful life. The joy this dog brought far outweighs the loss soon to come. I'm grateful Lani and Tammi let me say goodbye.

And I am sure he will be waiting for us when our times come to cross the rainbow bridge.

Doug