Remington's tale

This is a dog I trained about a year ago. He had been adopted from a local shelter. When he was found he had three bullet holes in his leg. They were already infected and his left rear leg had to be amputated.

His new adoptive parents named him Remington.

When his owners called their question was, “can you train a dog with three legs”? I hadn’t had one yet but could not think of any reason why Manners in Minutes wouldn’t work. I had already trained a couple of deaf dogs so this did not sound like too much of a challenge.

As soon as they walked in the center I had them drop the line. How the dog reacts to his first few minutes in the center helps me identify problem areas. Remington was just about right. He explored with confidence but natural caution. That meant he wasn’t too timid or had too much out of control alpha drive. He also showed no signs that the missing leg was impairing his movement.

Remington is an Australian Cattle Dog mix according to the owners. Like any herding dog, once he checked out the center, he tried to herd us all in a corner. That meant he thought he was higher in the pack than humans.

Herding dogs are some of the easiest dogs to work with. We put two Q Calmers on him to help him concentrate and started the lesson.

Now one of my beliefs is that all dogs are born con artists. They quickly learn that the body language for submission is cute and endearing to humans. We say “oh look how adorable he is.” As soon as they hear that they now know they can manipulate us to get their way.

In every lesson there comes the moment when the dog recognizes that if I continue their life will change. Manners in Minutes training is about pack order and the dog is taught that humans are higher in the pack than they are. If they are comfortable being higher in the pack, (if they aren’t you probably don’t need a trainer) they will resist the change.

At that moment the dog will instinctively try to get the owner to feel sorry for them and stop the training. Most will tangle themselves in the line.

I was teaching Remington to walk on a long line with the line always slack. As Remington walked past his “Mom” he suddenly dipped the hip on the missing leg. Although he had been in the center for almost thirty minutes, he had never done that at any other point. He then looked at her with “help me” clearly on his face. She instinctively got up to rescue him.

Like any good pack leader I immediately growled at her. “Don’t you get up and indulge this dog.” She sat down and we continued. He would try the leg dip three more times. When it didn’t work he stopped and did not try that again for the rest of the lesson.

Think about it. I bet your dog has at least one manipulative body sign. And I bet it uses it to get away with everything short of murder.

Doug

Pushing a Pumpkin

We picked up Chicklet, our female Lakeland, in September of 2004. In October my wife put out the Halloween decorations. She immediately seized on the plastic pumpkin we had by the door.

Periodically she digs it out of her toy basket. She will grab it and shake it, she will stick her head in it, and often she will push it around the floor with her fiercest growl. She will put other toys in it and then get them out and shake them. She will play with it for quite some time, and then unexpectedly leave it and go on to something else.

For the longest time I thought it was just one of those goofy things dogs pick up. Then I thought about what Lakeland terriers were bred to do. Unlike the other terrier breeds that are used to go after foxes, the Lakeland will not only bolt the fox out where the hounds can kill it, it will also go into the den and kill the fox.

Now in the Lake County of England, where the breed originated, fox are not hunted for sport. Most of the farmers have sheep and the fox endangers the sheep herd. So for economic reasons the Lakeland was developed to be able to go in the rocky terrain to make a kill so that the farmer did not lose sheep. They have been known to spend up to a week tunneling and digging to get to the fox.

When I read that I knew why Chicklet pushes the pumpkin. In almost every breed, play is also practice for the work they were originally bred to do. Chicklet is practicing pushing rocks aside to get to the fox.

And it isn’t just Chicklet. The picture is a puppy at nine weeks. Izzy saw the pumpkin and started working with it immediately. Izzy is a proud graduate on Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes and a wonderful dog. Hopefully I told her owners to get her a pumpkin, otherwise she may appropriate theirs this October.

Doug

Training a Bear

Sometimes you get a dog that is a perfect match for his or her name. And as you can see, Bear matches his name.

Bear was in last weekend for his first Manner in Minutes training, and he was a delight. His owner brought him in the week before for an evaluation. I could tell right away he would be fun to train.

I had to talk to Pat Muller, the wonderful trainer who came up with the Manners in Minutes training system a couple of days earlier. I mentioned Bear and told her he was a Golden Retriever/ Chow mix. I had not seen that combination before but told her I thought it would be a great one to work with. Pat, who has worked that mix before, confirmed that those two breeds make a delightful dog.

Now the Chow Chow is a “serious” breed. They are a nice dog if well socialized and under control, but dangerous if they are not. Golden’s on the other hand are all about fun and attention.

So Bear was very serious about fun and attention.

He left here with all the basics in place. He will be back next weekend for follow up. I am looking forward to the session

Doug

I don't like shock collars

Last weekend we went to a home and garden show. The last time we went I was surprised to see one of our local dog trainers had a booth. As he has a lousy reputation and is known as a hustler, I wasn't surprised to see him there.

This show had a local trainer of one of the chains. I haven’t paid much attention to them other than to note that two of my customers had “thrown them out” of their homes when they came to do a presentation. They do advertise extensively and have a great logo.

I saw the trainer with a dog that I would describe as way too worried. But we had flooring to look for so we walked past. Later when they walked by I was amazed to see the dog wearing a shock collar.

A little bit of research found that this chain does train with shock collars. I just cannot find a way to rationalize that. I could see, in an extreme case, where you might use a shock collar. I have never had to use one, but I was a cop too long to say that I would never use it. But if I did, I guarantee that when the dog left my center, it would never wear it again. To send people out with a permanently attached shock collar is just beyond belief.

It is one thing to correct a dog. But it is another to punish it. To send someone home and rely on their experience, which is limited if they are using a dog trainer, to be firm, fair and consistent isn’t realistic. We have all seen those college psychology experiments where the student is allowed to shock the test subject.

And the bottom line: I barely understand electricity. I don’t think I ever meet a dog that did. Why would you subject a dog to discomfort at best, and outright cruelty in some situations?

I’m not sure what I would call this, but it definitely isn’t dog training.

Doug

Button and the TV remote

My first Lakeland was named Button. A puppy mill dog, she was a great pet and a constant source of amusement.

One of her more endearing, and sometimes frustrating, habits was stealing the remote to the television. Often you would go to change the channel only to find the remote missing. At first you might think it had fallen between the cushions or on the floor. When that search failed, the next step was to go to Button’s crate. And more often than not, there would be the remote. Button would be nearby with “how did that get there?” look on her face.

After a while the game took on a new dimension. Button would run through the room with the remote in her mouth. I did not know it at the time, but it was her way of initiating a chase, which by the way can be a dominance test. The way we dealt with it was to ignore her and change the channels by hand.

But the game wasn’t over yet. The next step was for her to change the channels with her teeth. That guaranteed she would be chased. At the time I thought that she had learned that trick by accident.

When we had Button we did not know anything about Lakelands or Manners in Minutes training. Later after she went over the rainbow bridge, I was talking with some Lakie owners. It turned out that she wasn’t the only Lakie that had learned that trick.

Like a lot of breeds, Lakelands absorb a great deal of knowledge by watching what their humans do. She had made the connection between the remote and the TV, figured out how important it was to her people and turned it into the game.

So now when owners tell me the amusing, and sometimes frustrating, little quirks their dogs have, I know where the behavior comes from.

Why I like Pit Bulls

When I first started training the only group of dogs I worried about were the bull terriers. I started my police career in the 80s. Back then the pit bull was very popular with the people who were making and dealing drugs. The would often have several dogs staked out with overlapping circles. The theory was that the dogs would delay the police if they came to raid.

I have a fellow deputy who once had to shoot a pit bull off his arm when the dog would not let go. We were particularly wary of their reputation for the strength of their jaw. I listened to more than one bandit brag about how he had bred his dogs for the aggression.

Fortunately for me, the first bull terriers to come into my center were four American Staffordshire Bull Terriers. They belong to my friend and groomer, Kris. She has been raising and showing these dogs for some time and the male she brought in was in the top ten for the breed.

Knowing that Kris is also a trainer and has very good control of her dogs lessened my worries. I found them to be sweet, easy to train and eager to learn. Now Kris does not train in the Manners in Minutes system, but wanted to see it for herself since like many good trainers she is always looking for something to make what she does better.

When I commented on how nice the dogs were to work with Kris explained that when the dogs were still fighting in the pits before it was outlawed, they were too valuable to let them fight to the death. So the owner had to be able to go into the pit and get his dog out without getting bit by either dog. By breeding they are gentle and sweet to humans.

Later when discussing training bulls with the developer of Manners in Minutes training, Pat Muller, Pat also added that during the period when the dogs were still fighting, they were the family pet during the rest of the week. At the first sign of excessive aggression, especially around the owners children, the dog was put down. So over time only the gentlest and sweetest of the bulls (around humans) were bred.

Since then I have worked with a number of Staffordshires, Am Staffs, and Pit Bulls. I look forward to everyone of them. They have all trained well and are some of the best dogs I have turned out were from these breeds.

The lesson from all this is that any dog is dangerous if it isn’t properly trained and socialized. Pit Bulls aren’t more likely to bite than any other breed. As a matter of fact, the most popular breed in this country is the Lab. And Labs are also the dog breed most often reported to the police or animal control is the Lab.

Books shouldn’t be judged by their covers, and dogs shouldn’t be judged by their breeds.

Training the dog owner

A couple of days ago a gentleman called me about training his dog. It is a bull terrier mix of unknown origin. It had just shown some aggression towards a child and an adult. No biting, just aggression.

I explained to him how Manners in Minutes training de sensitizes a dog to behavior that triggers aggression, and where aggression in dogs comes from. I then told him about how we build behavior training from one command to another so that when we are done, the owner has on, off, and dimmer switches that controls the dog’s behavior.

His comment was he was sure when we finished I could control the dog, but when he went home he would not be able to control the dog.

He hit on one of my pet peeves about dog trainers. A lot of people who become trainers started out in someone else’s class (as I did) and did well with their own dog. From that they got the idea that they could train dogs. And, in a way, they can.

Most dog trainers are natural alphas. They never really had a problem with their or anyone else’s dog because dogs recognize their alpha qualities and do not challenge them. I don’t know how many times someone has told me to watch out for Spike because he hates everyone. I then have to tell them fine, but get Spike off my lap because I’m getting tired of rubbing his tummy.

Now I have a huge advantage. I spent twenty four years as a Deputy Sheriff working the streets. After walking into more than one situation where you either take control or end up in the Emergency room, you learn to be a very effective alpha with people. If you can own a bar full of drunks who want to fight, being the pack leader to a dog is not that hard. So it would be very easy to amaze people with how well their dog does with me.

I also spent twenty of those years as a Field Training Officer. If I can teach a twenty one year old young man or woman how to deal with that bar, making you the alpha dog in your pack just isn’t that hard.

When your dog goes home with you, I’m not there to enforce the rules. So if I fail to train you to be in charge, I’ve failed you and the dog.

And sadly all too many trainers just do that. The dog is fine with them and at the training center, but you go home with the same old dog. Before you pick a trainer, go watch them train. If they don’t spend more time with the owner than the dog, find another trainer.

After the first Manners in Minutes session I tell owner the dog doesn’t need to come back for the follow up, the owner needs to come back.

Doug