Jun 25
This community centre opened its doors to dogs for 3 days this week. The pool had been turned into a place for kids to learn about fishing (they put salmon in it) and before they emptied it they decided to give dogs a chance to swim. My friend Christine brought Utah and I brought Delilah and we decided to test it out. Fun! It took a while but D figured out how to jump in and use the ramp. As expected, Utah, the golden retriever had no trouble!
Jun 21
Furniture designed for eating Kongs
I’m training a new dog walker (Emma) to join our crew. We were walking into the park with our leashed up k9′s when I alerted her to an approaching dog and his owner. Armed with our toy (for Sunny) our treats (for Tyson), we were able to maintain focus and reward as they passed without incident. Behind us was another dog walker that I know. Seconds later there was a scuffle and I heard her say “DUUUUDE….WTF!!!!!”. I hate being smug but why did I know that something was going to happen with this approaching dog/owner if we didn’t take precaution? So I proceeded to describe to Emma what she should look out for. She coined it the MACHO MAN SYNDROME. Here’s the 10 ways to identify a MACHO MAN and his unfortunate dog.
1. He has his dog on a choke collar or prong collar.
2. His dog is always over 50 lbs.
3. His dog has been transformed to look scarier. In this case it was a Dobi with cropped ears. Dobi’s with floppy ears are much cuter.
4. He is male and between 20-30.
5. He has an off-leash dog in an on-leash area.
6. His dog is obviously intact.
7. He never picks up his dog’s poop. According to him, it will melt(?) when it rains, or oops, he forgot a bag.
8. His recall to his dog involves yelling.
9. If his dog misbehaves he gets pinned.
10. His dog has a ridiculous name like Punisher.
There’s nothing you can do when you have a run-in with this kind of owner. He can’t be educated. So your strategy is to avoid him at all costs. By the way I seriously regret ever naming my dog Tyson. My next dog will for sure have more of a pansy-like name and hopefully a more gentle disposition.
Tyson and Delilah don’t play often enough but when they do, it’s definitely photo worthy.
I once bought a bag of chicken strips from Costco. When I realized they were from China I stopped buying them. I was under the impression that this bag, sold at Loblaws, was manufactured in Canada. There’s a notice going around from a vet clinic that dogs may potentially be getting sick from these strips – particularly the ones from Thailand and China (see below). Upon futher research these Vitalife strips are in fact from china.
Chicken Jerky Treats and Your Dog
Even though it was Saturday and I typically don’t do group walks, I had 5 dogs to walk today. The huskies need a lot of space to run. Winnie takes off in forested areas after squirrels and Tyson prefers forested areas where he can chase balls. So where did I end up? Bronte Creek. The tall grass is great for Tyson to retrieve but I can still see Winnie if she chases a squirrel, and Kaiya and Dahla had plenty of space to run. Oh it was so nice there this am. It’s 35 minutes away and $16 to park! But it was worth it.
May 19
Trainers at When Hounds Fly posing with Karen Pryor. From left to right: myself, Mirkka Koivusalo, Karen Pryor, Andre Yeu and Emily Fisher
After Karen Pryor presented at the PABA conference she made her way over to Andre’s school, When Hounds Fly where 10 of us had the good fortune of having dinner with her. To sit down with a pioneer of force-free training is seriously an honor. Even though dinner was delicious, I was so focused on listening to every word Karen was saying it was hard to eat. And when one of the other 10 guests chimed in, and I learned about how that person is making a difference in animals lives -it was very inspiring.
Some of the guests were local KPA (Karen Pryor Academy) graduates. Others, like Emily and I, came to clicker training on our own path and are now teaching classes. But whether it’s working with horses, running chicken camps, studying canine cognition, teaching group classes or competing in dog sports – all of us are committed to training animals based on the science of learning.
Of course the conversation kept going back to the struggles we face as positive trainers up against those that subscribe to dominating dogs, and inducing pain through shock collars and prong collars. It’s so frustrating!!!
Around 50 years ago Karen Pryor discovered that the best way to train dolphins was with operant conditioning. Nothing has changed since then. Her most famous book, Don’t Shoot The Dog was intended to so people could learn to apply the science-based literature to train humans and animals. Now Karen Pryor Academy is teaching students all across North America the principles of clicker training.
Dinner with Karen was a huge success. Thanks to Andre we were all brought together to continue Karen’s mission – to change the world one click at a time.
Kongsicles
My dogs absolutely love them. It takes me about 7 min to make them in the morning, and then they go in the freezer for a couple of hours. It’s so worth it. I actually make them while the coffee is brewing. Coffee is my reward after I make the kongs (a little positive reinforcement my way).
Kongsicles keep my dogs busy for hours and hours. You can fill them with lots of healthy goodies – wet food, brown rice, eggs, kibble, nut butters, fruits and veggies, even my left over smoothies. If you have high-energy dogs like me -they are cheaper than buying bones and toys.
Once I started making them, I was hooked. Not only because I saw how much my dogs enjoyed them but more so because if I didn’t make them, I’d have to see a very disappointed puggle standing with his face planted against the freezer door. There are some things that are worth being committed to doing for your dogs and this is one of them.
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