Happy Halloween!

Here are some great pictures from our Halloween party last week-enjoy!  

Halloween Tip #3: Make it Fun For Your Dog

Making Halloween Fun for Your Dog

For some people, Halloween is all about the thrill of being scared.  However, this is not what you want for your dog.  In order to increase your dog's socialization and build their confidence, Halloween should be a happy positive holiday.  So, here are a few quick tips:

• If you want to work with your dog during this time, watch for signs of stress and give them plenty of breaks in a comfortable, low-key location (crate training anybody?).
• Treats, treats, and oh boy! more treats!  Every time the doorbell rings, give them a treat-this way they learn to come to you instead of the door...just make sure you don't reward them for barking.
• Have them interact with friendly strangers who will give them a tummy rub.
• Teaching your dog to wear a costume?  Have them play fetch in it several times or eat dinner while it's on.  This way, they see the costume and think something exciting is going to happen.
• Introduce pieces of your own costume, or you child's costume, piece by piece over the weekend.  If your dog is scared of masks (or some other similar costume component), let your dog get used to it in increments.  Leave the mask out on the floor for a few hours and play with toys, do a short training session, give them dinner, all while ignoring the mask.  Let them investigate it at their own discretion.  Later, pick it up with one hand and give them treats from your other hand.  Work on this process until you can put on the mask and have your dog react positively. For more about desensitization, view this post Cheri vs The Chair.

Halloween Tip #2: Keeping Your Dog Safe

Keeping Your Dog Safe from Ghouls

As you probably know, that's of crazy things happen on Halloween night.  Ghouls, ghosts, goblins, teenagers...all getting into trouble-as the smashed pumpkins that are seen on the morning of November 1st attest.  On Halloween night, keep your dog either in the garage or in you house.  If your dog is being a scaredy-cat because you are having a Halloween party and/or a lot of trick-or-treaters are coming by, keep them in a separate room or a kennel.  Work on ironing out those fear issues later when you have more time and control of the situation.  

Halloween Tip #1: Only Tricks, No (Human) Treats

Only Tricks, No (Human) Treats

Halloween officially kicks off the holiday season.  With the holidays comes family, friends, decorations, food, and lots of other things that are exciting for both you and your dog.  However, the holidays is a very important time to keep a watchful eye on your pooch.

During halloween, packaged candy is in abundance and can be a real health hazard if your dog ingests it. Here are three reasons why:

• Chocolate is toxic for dogs.  Of course, your dog and the amount and type of chocolate they ingest is a factor, you never want to take that chance.  Check out a previous post for more information: The Chocolate Chart
• Xylitol, an artificial sweetener (most often found in gum, but also found in many other sweets), is also very toxic for your dog.  Check out this website for more information: Vet's View: Xylitol can be deadly to dogs
• If your dog is anything like Cheri, they will attempt to eat anything that is remotely appealing.  Wrappers, with all the sticky smelly bits leftover, seem to be a tasty treat.  However, when ingested they can get stuck and cause all sorts of intestinal damage.  

The main point of this message?  Keep Halloween candy out of your dog's reach.   Make sure they aren't dumpster diving for wrappers, begging tidbits from visitors, or stealing children's peanut butter goodies.   Give dogs their own "special treat" instead, a nylabone or stuffed kong.  Have them perform "tricks" for guests and make sure they are rewarded from their own store of dog appropriate treats.  

Pluto's Dog Door

Just a few fun pictures I took at Disneyland this summer.  We went and saw Mickey's house, and of course, he had a dog door for Pluto-not really sure how it's supposed to work...any ideas?.

On and Off Side Weave Entrances

Here is some terminology that I'll rarely use in class, but that may be helpful when you are discussing a course with other agility enthusiasts.

On Side Entrance: The dog is heading toward the weave poles on the side they should be entering.  With our practice set of weaves, this would mean they are headed towards and can see the red tape.

Off Side Entrance:  The dog is heading toward the weave poles on the opposite side they should be entering, meaning they will have to go "around" the first pole before officially entering the weaves.  With our weaves, they would not be able to see the red tape until they go around the first pole.

Do you feel confused?  Here is a great diagram (courtesy of AgilityNerd.com, which, I may say, is a great website) that may help you out:

Obviously, the dog should learn to enter the weave poles regardless of the angle or location his or she is coming from, no matter the technical terms involved.  However, if you like learning agility jargon, feel free to start incorporating these new terms!

Poisoned Dog Lips

Canine Stress

Canine stress can be manifested in many ways: stretching, itching, yawning, licking lips, turning away, diarrhea, etc.  Many different things can cause your dog stress, including, but not limited to:

• children
• thunderstorms
• loud noises
• corrections
• overly assertive behavior

But wait! You say, my dog LOVES children or is completely fine during thunderstorms.  Obviously, this is a extremely general list and because your dog is unique, they also have unique triggers inducing stress.  So, the best thing to do is to look for the signs of stress if your dog.

How about we review the video from last week's post about the weave poles and see if you can't pick out a) what Cheri's stress reaction is, and b) what is triggering her stress reaction.

Think you have the answer?  Then read on and see if you've got it.

Cheri gets stressed after she 'fails' the weaves twice in a row and gets a verbal negative marker for it.  So, what does she do?   She itches.  Could she really have had a legitimate itch?  Sure, but it's unlikely, especially since I know that before this little video, we had worked pretty hard on the course after an already long time at work, school, and agility classes.  After this video, we wrapped up and went home.

So, is stress bad?  That really depends on how much stress your dog is experiencing.  Everybody and every dog gets stressed and this is often what motivates us to change.  A little stress during training is not bad, and if dealt with correctly, helps a dog to grow.  Take the above video for example, or think of the first time your dog learned the dog walk or teeter.  Most dogs are not comfortable the fist time.  But, with making sure they positively complete the task, you can work through this stress and make it beneficial for both you and your dog. 

However, excessive long-term stress is emotionally and psychologically bad.  Think of the Fourth of July and all its fireworks-if you live in a place where the celebrations are loud and long, this could negatively impact your dog.  This blog, focused mainly on items for agility, is not intended to help your dog with long-term or excessive stress.  If your dog experiences extreme stress over a long period of time, or is constantly stressed, it's probably best you consult a behavioralist. 

The take home message is this:  Look for signs of stress in your dog.  If you find they are experiencing stress, ask yourself, "Is this something he/she needs to get over? Or is this a one-time event?"  If it's something small they just need to get over, work on creating that environment of success to help your dog work through his/her issues.  If it's a one time event (you're at the dog park and there's a crazy dog running around terrorizing your Chihuahua), then just leave and take your dog out of the situation.  

For a great article about canine stress, read the article Identifying and Coping with Canine Stress

Halloween Party Flyer

Costumes Galore

Just a few images to get you excited about our upcoming Halloween party and costume contest!

Reworking the Weaves

Dog training is an art.  Dogs are variable, unique, and make their own decisions.  They are not a math problem that can simply be solved by doing all the exact same steps every time.  Often handlers get frustrated with their dogs because they don't behave or perform to their expectations.  An example of this is when a dog is learning the weave poles.  The weaves are very hard to master, but it can be done.  Along the way, however, there may be many items to work through.  Often people will get very excited, saying, "Did you see that? Fido totally just did the weave poles all on his own!"  The handler will then send Fido through the weave poles again and again, expecting him to do it perfectly every time from here on out.  When Fido skips a weave, or otherwise makes a mistake, the handler will become frustrated with the dog, wondering why he did it right before and is making mistakes now.  There are so many factors that affect a dog's performance at any given time.  That's why you work on minimizing these factors and proofing your dog  How you handle the mistakes, however, is really the focus of this post.

Getting mad at your dog over and over after he makes a mistake will only teach him that working with you is a negative experience.  Nobody likes to fail repeatedly and neither does your dog.  Instead, if your pup is having a hard time, you want to help them out and create that environment of success. 

The video below is an example of this concept.  This was filmed several months ago when Cheri was becoming pretty competent on the weaves but was still in the earlier stages of the learning process.  She had been doing the weaves more or less independently but would still have occasional issues.  Watch the video, then I'll discuss a little more below. 

(P.S. the sound in the video is terrible-even I can't understand what I was saying at the beginning...something about treats...it's not really relevant, so don't worry about that portion.)

So, as a quick recap, Cheri was doing the weaves and missed on of the last gaps.  I gave her a negative marker, started her over, and she missed it again.  At this point, I realized that the first miss was not just a fluke (that does happen sometimes) since she missed the exact same spot the second time through.  So, the third time I take her through, we slow down a hair, and I give her a deliberate hand signal when she gets to the problem spot, reminding her that she needs to come around that pole.  If you missed this, I would recommend watching it again.

Also, a few other points to notice:

• My negative marker was relatively unemotional (I could actually use some work here though).
• Once she did successfully complete the weaves, she got extra praise.
• I took her through one more time and she again successfully completed the weaves-this reinforces the positive pattern.
• If you watch closely, you can probably figure out one of the reasons why she missed the spots both times.
• It is interesting to also observe what Cheri does after the second time she misses the weaves and after the second negative marker I give her.  This behavior will be discussed in a post next week.

USDAA

While Zoomdog is not currently affiliated with a specific agility organization, we do focus mainly on rules, equipment, etc. of The United States Dog Agility Association (USDAA).  Check out their About Us  portion of their website to learn a little more about their origins and accomplishments.  USDAA has also made many changes this year, to check out a few of them, visit DogSports article: USDAA New Nips.

Cache Humane's Sweat for a Pet

This Saturday, October 8th, Cache Humane will be holding their annual Sweat for a Pet.  Check out their flyer below and make sure you come and try out our agility equipment that day!