Boone In The Mid Part of Teaching A Down

The above is the progression (4 to 6 days) after the first four days approximately of  "molding" a down (shown below):




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Gigi and Paddington Show They Are Friends Now

After about two and a half days, Gigi and Paddington were doing this:




Instead of Gigi doing this, when she first came here (seems so long ago now):



We are also happy to report that Gigi and Paddington's relationship has remained friendly after they went home. These are the results that make dog training so worth it!!! We are able to use Gigi's obedience skills to calm and control her, while she figures out another dog means her no harm. Equally important, is the other dog does not see or experience anything physically negative from Gigi, and that puts them at ease and able to befriend her as well.

Your dog experiencing behavioral issues? Call Maine's Dog Trainer for your Maine Dog Trainng needs. Robin Rubin of Mannerly Mutts is glad to help. Call 207-361-4395 or e-mail mannerly_mutt@yahoo.com for your Maine Dog Trainer.

Gigi Has a New Family Friend

Paddington is a dog in Gigi's Owners' family. Previously, Gigi has not been able to warm up to or accept Paddington. Paddington is a super soft and submissive dog, and so he had come to be very worried about Gigi.

So we all decided to try a little camp Mannerly Mutts retreat for the Gigi and Paddington together. Sometimes the nervous energy of the owner or the stress of doing something so new and hard for the owner's learning curve (and Gigi is a tough little personality) can dampen the progress that owners can make on their own. In this case, that had come to a successful point, but had a hard time passing that one barrier.

The very first night, we started Gigi out in the crate with Paddington on the outside. Paddington was pretty worried about being in the same room with her. She did well once a couple of tantrums were over with, she stopped with the vocalizations that told me she was very worried about this as well. So then she was allowed out of the crate but with a muzzle on. Overall pretty good, some rushes at Paddington but very mild and obviously she was just trying to make a point.

I have noticed that Gigi is worried about dogs bigger than her. While we can never really get into the dogs' mind, from observation of her behavior, it seems she has the "I will get you first or I will be sure that I can push you around first syndrome". The handler needs to teach Gigi that this dog that she is meeting is not a threat, and therefore does not need her "treatment". The problem with the treatment being, is it's a big barrier for friendships with the other dog even being possible when she is acting like a nut. And not a nut in a good over the top play way either, but by trying to pile drive the other dog and dominate him or her.

Equally important in this case was to have Paddington's trust that Gigi was going to act appropriately (or as appropriately as a totally socially challenged dog can act) and that he can enjoy her and not worry about her. So once the muzzle on, we worked on some positive interactions. The first night, Paddington was like "no way am I going to trust this little black girl". Day two, he did not seek to hide from her as much, but I had to make him come up the stairs and be with us. By this time, Gigi had made her good intentions known to Paddington by doing the socially challenged Gigi back leg kick. Normally in most dogs, this is a warning move, but much experience with Gigi has taught me that this is HER invitation to play and be her friend. Gigi has not to date gone back on her friendship promise once this move rears it's head. Still Paddington, not familiar with this other Gigi, needed a bit more time before he could consider the friendship possibilites.

Day two and a half, Paddington is looking pretty comfortable around Gigi. His tail wags high when she is around, play bows are offered by Paddington, and he does not look to uncomfortable by her over the top "method" and play style. He is beginning to trust that this won't end badly for him now. Paddington starts coming up the stairs to seek out Gigi and everyone's company on his own steam today. There are about six or seven play sessions with Gigi and Paddington involved with each other. Gigi has tried humping him a few times, and has been discouraged from that particular activity. (I should also mention that on day one, Gigi tried to hump my husband). Especially when Gigi wants to play, and Paddington is lying there, she tries to hump him when she gets discouraged that he is not moving. Other dogs here have told her to bugger off, but Paddington being unusually soft and submissive does not. So the owners and handlers need to tell her to cut that out (just in case, it doesn't mean a dog is going to do anything bad, but avoiding this can cut down on a lot of future problems. Other dogs can just misunderstand this move and attack).

Gigi is very intrigued with Paddington's hair as well. I have just realized that she hasn't met any real long haired dogs here. She seems to seek through his fur, as if to confirm there is actually a dog in there LOL. Crossing my fingers that this goes as swimmingly on the way home:)

Magical Days

In working with dogs, there are so many magical days. I normally forget to document most of them. Then there are times where I didn't bother to get the camera, just wanting to stay in the moment. Yesterday was just such a day:)

It started with our boarder and behaviorally challenged, Gigi, waking up. Gigi is so much fun, the very first thing she wants to do each morning is play. Play with doggie companions who are game for such play:) So she tippy tappies around on her toes identifying each playmate and making "inquiries". Gigi is also a student of play, as she had never done it before with a dog. I notice she studies hard what the other dogs are doing, and then tries it herself. I noticed her doing this, when she figured every likes to chase each other. Then she didn't know what came next after she got to them though LOL. Then she started figuring out about boxing, wrestling, and mock mouth fighting.

So yesterday, Leon was fetching my slippers, and it finally clicked to Gigi. You chase the thing, you get the thing, and then you run and get chased. Her and Leon had such a wonderful time doing this. Gigi even brought the slipper back a few times as Leon was trained to do. You have to watch her though, as she is likely to rip and shred, and these were my good slippers:)

Gigi and Jack also got to playing for a little bit. Jack's been teaching her that mock mouth fighting does not mean giving pressure to sharp teeth by whining at her when she is too rough. So Gigi had a heavenly morning right up her alley and gave my dogs a bit of entertainment as well.

Yesterday was a horrid weather day. It started with snow, and by the time Roxy and Harley, two Great Dane clients, needed walking, it was sleeting out. So I put on my boots with the screws in the bottom (works great by the way) and leashed up Leon with his pack on. We walked there with Leon being reintroduced to the concept of heeling to a client's house, as his knees have been doing really well lately. Leon and I got the Great Danes and went down to the beach, which was at low tide.

The dogs really had fun despite the adverse conditions. Well everyone except Roxy who has a horror of all that is damp. She does not do wet, and so she just stuck close by me as Harley and Leon tore up the beach. The good thing about bad weather days, is that the beach is totally empty even at low tide!! My hands were numb by the time we went back, because I had to take the gloves off to get all the dogs leashed up again.

When I went home it was time for training. I did fetch exercises with Jack around the worst distraction I could think of, bread that he couldn't eat while training. I had him also doing fronts through two English muffins lying on the floor, and needed to concentrate on fetch and give while auto sitting and staying next to two muffins. A whole lot of training has been going around things he tends to be an aggressor to Leon over in order to increase his tolerance threshold and obedience threshold around those things. In the meantime, and until a semblance of that goal is reached, he is limited as to his total freedom that he used to have in the house.

Leon was next, and we did his practice retrieve. He understands getting and retrieving keys, gloves, scarves, remote controls, and his toys. Now I am starting working him on a bowl. We also did his freestyle dance moves, which he loves. I think I will start this with Jack as well.

And thus ended a very productive and fun day. All the dogs slept very well that night:)

Got Homework? Part 2

Got homework, do I ever!! This period between now and February is notoriously slow. I actually seem to acquire my most problem and behaviorally challenged cases at this time of year. There is a Springer in Canada whose owners are deciding whether to bring him to Mannerly Mutts camp for some weeks. One Doberman puppy that is scheduled to start on the first week of December. He is not a behavioral case, just a normal puppy of my favorite breed ever.


In the meantime, I schedule marketing projects, my own dogs training, and any special items during this period of time. There is a nice young couple that is helping me with my video project for my online and written dog manual in the works, and to be launched next year. I am also keeping a diary of the work to prepare Jack and Bri for Open trials next year. It's really unfortunate to have short haired dogs in training during the coldest months of the year. It just happens that trials heat up again in the ME and NH area in the Spring though. There really is no getting around it. Summer is too busy to train (my dogs), although we did catch some trials during that period last year. The point is, the brunt of the training was already done previously with only maintenance work to be done. I wasn't really in it last year to compete point wise either. I just wanted everyone to qualify. This year, I want to be up there in points. That's not more stress on the dogs but more stress on me, as it is I that teach them LOL. If they are doing it wrong it's because I taught it wrong. Then there are the handler errors, which the dogs have zero control over.



In order to catch my errors, I have been video taping my exercises periodically. I also am hoping some of these come out well enough....eventually....to be part of my online training manual. This won't be a subscription service, but a convenient area where clients can pull up the lesson plan for that week as they continue to work. They will also be reminded of what the exercise should look like, and be able to keep notes on their own progress. I will most likely keep a video diary of my client's progress on a go forward basis as well.

There were a bunch of things that I fixed from Week 1 retrieve start. We are now on week two, but I refilmed the working of week 1's exercise. Before starting, your dog should be confined (crated) for two hours. After retrieving your dog, you warm him up on Novice heeling exercises until he is doing those reliably. After he is, the steps are to put your dog in a stay, open his mouth with your left hand (palm should be on top of his nose), present the article, say fetch just as the article is presented before his nose, then pop open his mouth and place the article behind his canines, say good boy and scratch under the chin (just a couple of seconds), then say give, and heel him away. You then restart the exercise. You do this for five repetitions twice a day. So 10 repetitions in all. After working, you quietly hang out for twenty minutes, and then allow your dog to relax in peace for an hour without anyone bothering. This is what lends a well trained dog a quiet, calm, and confident demeanor. This is my video diary of how week 1 was going:



On week 1, I would like for his auto sits to be much crisper and quicker. He was distracted by two dogs on property that he hadn't met, the people helping with the camera, and his brother Leon wandering around. Still, these are the distractions that we want him to be not distracted around. The wind blowing everything around was not helping him focus too much either.

On week 2 video, unfortunately Bri and Leon had both just gone up to Jack before we started. So he was very distracted with wanting to go off and play instead of work the five reps LOL. Hence, he was a bit resistant to opening his mouth.

On a couple of reps, I saw that I popped it in crooked. Also, the old I am moving before I say "heel" crept in there. I believe I had also forgotten to walk as if I was heeling in a trial at the beginning. Noting these things as we go along help me formulate my lesson plans, and help me build my skills to a higher level as well. Jack is also helped by me learning how to more simply and consistently show him the right way. Sloppiness or mixing up the steps or inconsistency will result in a dog that has been trained to do it wrong, because that is what he/she thinks you want.

Carolyn Scott Freestyle Dance

Here is what freestyle dance with your dog can look like:)