Super Nanny Has Great Dog Training Tips?

I do not have children. However, I really enjoy the show Super Nanny. I think because it shows how certain skills can make a real difference in relationships between children and their parents. Also some of those skills are or should be used in dog training.

What are these qualities that I see that remind me of dog training AND/OR good dog care?

1. Consistency, consistency, consistency. In both cases, beings without the knowledge of how to navigate through human society as yet.   This builds both a communication between parties, and a knowledge of correct societal behavior.
2. Praise
3. Discipline
4. Activity and Exercise.
5. Parental participation

These all happen to be a good part of any dog training plan as well.   Bringing up a child is harder, as they have the ability to verbally talk back and argue LOL.   Plus time outs in crates would most likely be frowned upon.

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2ND Leg on Day 2 of Vacationland Dog Show

I inadvertently hit a future goal today, when Magoo completed his second leg with a 188.5.   It did seem to work better to NOT tire Magoo out in the morning.  Who knows though, the spirits of dog training were with us this warm afternoon.

Tomorrow it's going to change a little as Bri will be with us, and my friend, Missy, will handle Bri during the long stays.   I was going to perhaps have Missy handle Magoo if he had his two legs, but he is slightly distracted when we line up for the stays, and Bri won't be that distracted.  Plus Bri is smaller by more than 50 pounds.   I have never tried Bri with a different handler.   Of course, this is all assuming we pass the first part of Novice for Bri.

Magoo was definately more acclimated to the environment today, which was a huge help.   A conformation judge ran up to us, and was disappointed that both of Magoo's ears weren't standing.   He is an attractive dog both physically and temperamentally non the less!!

So proud of Magoo today.   But I would be anyway, he is an awesome dog.   I did not have a helper today, and I wanted to concentrate on just getting our leg.   So sadly, I have no video to show you what a ten point difference would look like.   Hopefully, tomorrow, Magoo will be in good form again, and we can show you the best performance that I am capable of right now:)

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First Leg for Magoo

Magoo's first leg video:



I had tired him out a bit more with exercise yesterday.   He was way distracted by the grass and the different dog smells in the beginning.   We completely missed our first auto sit.   Our last leashed autosit almost gave me a heart attack, as you can see him start to down and then catch himself. 

His heeling was better on his first trial where we disqualified.   So I am not going to exercise him as much before we go to our third trial today.   This will be Magoo's only fourth time in the ring.   I don't necessarily have a friend going with me (my friend Cindy was assisting yesterday), so I don't know whether I will get the video or not.   We will see.   Gotta get ready now, I will be leaving for the second day of Vactionland's dog show in 45 minutes.

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May 20th Ends Unlimited Off Leash Beaches in York

Every year, as the tourists pull into town, there is a period from May to September, where the laws change for off leash dogs on our town's public beaches. From May 20th to September 15th, verbally voice controlled dogs are allowed off leash on the beaches from sunrise to 8 AM. From 6 PM to sundown, dogs are allowed on the beach leashed only.

Interested in the animal control ordinances of York Maine? I am included the link below.

http://www.yorkmaine.org/Portals/0/docs/Ordinances/AnimalControlOrdinance_2006-05-20.pdf

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Preparing for Trial Notes

I figured out finally that it was not last year I was trialling, but the year before. So it has actually been two years since either Bri or I have been in the ring. There are a lot of training and handling things that have been coming back to me, but I had forgotten. These have been my own way of doing things and experiences when preparing:

1. Do not step off before you say heel when practicing or in a trial. This is something that I have been way guilty of, and I am sure that I suffered handler points off for.
2.  Also point #1 holds true for when you say stay, say it first them walk away.
3.  When training for the stay commands, vary the length before you give the command so that your dogs do not start to anticipate. I change the time before I walk away, while I stand there, and when I come back and stand next to them. Otherwise, you will find that your dog starts to anticipate when you are likely to move.
4.  I do front and finish totally separate when practicing. They are just two positions, and I don't want the dog to bypass position one. I find the easiest way to do this is to practice them at different practice sessions, and not as anything close to one movement. Before I got into competition, I always trained come as one move to the finish instead of a front and finish, and that all had to be retrained later on.
5. The week and days before the trial, try not to focus or panic over any one thing.   I try to do the routine over and over again, and if something isn't quite right---I go over it quietly and don't make a huge fuss over it or do too many reps on it.   I have found that doing the latter is a great way to confuse the dog and pretty much guarantee something unexpected will happen.   For instance, the first year her fronts were not straight.  So the days before the trial, we did a whole lot of reps on fronts.   So in the ring, I got front everything, including auto sits.  Whoops!!   I am sure if I thought hard enough, I could come up with some other examples on how this screws up the preparation.  

The other thing that I learned is, nothing is every going to go perfectly.   I had arranged for Bri's owner to come with us on her days.   If you have two dogs in the same class, you need someone to handle the second dog in the long stays.   So I had prepared a weekend that we both thought Bri's owner would be free.  Turns out, they forgot about a wedding on that day.   Luckily, I have some friends that are going to stand in.   I am going to do some prep work, but I don't know how either Bri or Magoo would react to having someone different handling them.   It may not be a big deal in the stays, or it could confuse them greatly.   Even if I practice with other people now, the real test of how it will go is going to be the trial.

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Tennessee Natural Flooding Disaster-Help Needed

The International Association of Canine Professionals is a group that looks out for each other. One of our members reported that there has been a natural flood disaster in the state of Tennessee. They are on the ground floor helping out the rescue efforts there to shelter and protect pets in the area.

If you can help in any way, please contact TFloyd0817@aol.com. Apparently the news in our area has not been mentioning this natural disaster very much. Here are some articles that I found on it.

York PA Red Cross to the Rescue
Environmental Report on What Happened
CNN's Report
Obama Declares Disaster Region

New Hampshire and Maine Dog Trainers
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Too Fast Eating for Boris

Boris and Leon are good friends. They have their occasionally yips and yaps at each other, but they are probably the best together as far as sharing and playing. Boris has been so understanding about the sharing, that he allows Leon to go into his food bowl. I discourage this and have Leon leave it. Recently, I noticed that Boris threw up his breakfast on two days in a row.

I realized that he was eating too fast, in order to ingest all his food before brother Leon would wander over. This is no good for two reasons. The first reason is Boris as a growing puppy needs to eat his food in peace. The second is that vomiting can cause very serious issues with your dog.

So in addition to monitoring them for now during meals, I have been teaching Boris how to eat slowly. Truth to tell, I always thought Boris ate a little too fast like a little piranha. Food used to fly everywhere, so he has gotten better than he was when he fist came here.

With Boris, the best way has turned out to be lured sits in between mouthfuls. I hold the full bowl in my hand, have Boris sit, then throw one mouthful into the bowl with the release word.   That way instead of inhaling food too quickly with air and then throwing up, Boris is instead eating slower.   There are some products on the market that have a stem in the middle of the bowl which is supposed to slow down eating.   You can also put a smaller bowl upside down in the middle of the larger dog dish to slow down eating.

 

I prefer to use this time to put in a little training with Boris.   Since I have spent so much time with my clients and the competition coming up, Boris and Leon's training has slacked off.   So any small additional time, such as his feeding time, is a bonus.

 

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Thee Privileged Pet LLC Closes in York ME 5/3/2010

There are a limited number of ways that you can vacation with your dog. One way is to have them stay in a kennel, another way is to bring them with you (need rv dog friendly, camp dog friendly, or hotel dog friendly places to do this), and another option is to have a place like mine where dogs stay in your home. I actually know a few pet sitting people in the area that do this. To be in the home, however, there are some training and temperament requirements that are insisted upon by the owners of these establishments. These are usually found by referral of veterinarians and others in the area (hard to locate without a referral in other words).


An increasing number of people don't want to place their dogs in a kennel. I am one, it would have to be an absolute emergency for me to need to do that. Luckily our tenants and friends, my pet sitting friends, and others have been there to help if we need to leave for a couple of days. We almost always vacation with our pets, and know of pet friendly places to do this.



One of the kennels in the area is closing, The Privileged Pet LLC. Actually I believe the official day of closing was May the 3rd. The house and kennel now look to be for sale. It is a small kennel, and in reading an article done about them recently, the economy and probably the increase in more home like accomodations have most likely made doing business hard for them. The overhead of keeping a facility like this, even though it is small, is no small thing.



I am curious as to what will happen to this property now. Although it changed ownership (and was closed down before for a little while), it has been a kennel for at least 23 years or so.



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