Paws In Progress: July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Roll Over - Trick Tuesday.. belated

Roll Over Rover. Every good dog needs to know Roll over as a cute trick to show off to friends. Start with getting your dog into a down position. Do NOT say down. Once they are down you will take your treat and get their attention on their nose and get them to follow your treat with their nose over one side of their shoulder until they roll over. This can be a tough one for some dogs so remember: Slow down...stop talking.. and praise for small progress. The fast we go the more excited they get and they can't focus The more we talk the more they have to be on constant alert waiting to see if they are supposed to respond to a different command If you don't praise and treat for some progress and your pup is having a hard time with it he/she will just give up and stop trying. I want to keep them engaged and wanting to work with me so if they are having a hard time it is always ok to treat for small increments than gradually ask for more. The dog in the video is Harley. As far as I know she has never learned roll over before.... here is how it went. So 1st video is persistent patience... 2nd video is treating and praising for some progress 3rd video is all done :)

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Crawl - Trick Tuesday

Crawl / Be sneaky / soldier
Whatever you would like to call it it all means the same thing... to crawl on their belly across the ground.
Start teaching this from a down position. Use a treat to get your dog down - do NOT say "Down". (You don't want to lure your dog out of a down command as they don't understand the crawl command yet and they shouldn't leave their down command) Anyways.. so use your food to get them into a down do not say "Down" inch the food from their nose out away from them just a little bit and very slowly. If you go to fast they will get up. Treat on the 1st little inch forward and mark it with a word "Good" / "yes" until they are confident and continually inching forward for you then start having them go a little farther each time until they get the treat but you want to start with reinforcing fairly quickly as you want your dog to have fun with it and not get bored and give up. Once they have the concept down then start saying the word "Crawl"
Good luck! Send us your pics and vids of working with your dogs.
Here are 3 videos of me starting to teach it with Buddy, Clover and Ritter

Dog Fact about the song "A Day in the Life"

Dog Fact for the day found on Animal Planet's facebook page.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Etiquette for greeting people

Elsa waits politely before going to "Say Hi"

Your dog should ALWAYS wait for your command to "Go Say Hi"
I use this at the front door, out in public, anywhere except with members of the family who live in the home.

When dogs have no rules for greeting people they are...
a.) Excited, Rude and overly exuberant in the greeting
b.) fearful / anxious / not sure what to do
c.) Reactive / Aggressive
d.) Aloof and just don't care about people

What are these Rules?

When someone approaches and wants to pet or see your dog. Stop the person 1st and tell them your working on training or manners and to wait just 1 sec. Tell them you will have the dog come to them. You are having the dog go to them so that your dog has a choice if they don't want to, much more comfortable than having this person come at them tower o

ver them and corner them. Even if you have the friendliest dog in the world there will be 1 person your dog may be unsure of and its not fair to force your dog in a position where they cant get away or back away if they feel the need to.
Get your dog to settle. Ideally you have the dog in a calm sit next to or even behind you. Your dog is holding their sit here on a loose leash you do not need a death grip on the leash, you are not just restraining the dog the dog is required to practice impulse control and hold the sit on their own.
IF and ONLY when your dog is settled down and in a calmer state do you make the decision to allow them to greet a person. If your dog is still overly excited and not able to sit on their own, do not allow your dog to go greet the person. *Straining at the leash... you give in.... dog gets what they wanted... dog is learning tight leash gets me what i want you are reinforcing your dog pulling on their leash and now they are more likely to pull next time*

Io is shy so her owner hands the stranger a treat.

Tell your dog to go "Say Hi" / "Make friends" / "Visit" allow your dog to go forward and greet. Correct for any jumping on people. If your dog is meeting children I HIGHLY recommend getting down with your dog and holding on to your dogs collar so that you have extra control.

Io greets and allows petting. Although this person is petting on the head when at all possible try to encourage people to pet from under the chin and on the chest. Also notice she is bent down next to the dog not hovering over the dog. Io's owner is also engaging and making sure Io knows this is a team effort shes not just out on her own greeting this person.

By making the dog wait and then putting a command to go say hi helps with general greeting manners as well as showing the dog you are in charge and making it clear that you have already checked it out - now they can go say hi. Almost all dogs start off friendly and happy go lucky and we encourage them to socialize when they are young but the problem we run into is as they get older it turns into a habit of running up to people and as they get old and turn into teenagers and mature... they are running up to a person out of habit but then trying to make their own decision if this person is ok or not. Do not let your dog decide who is and isn't ok. That's up to you.

Stewie is very well behaved as the kid pets him but his owner holds his collar.

For a Shy dog while you get your dog calm beside you, you can hand the stranger a treat and ask them to "Please offer this treat out to my dog, Please DONT pet him, hes shy" This will help to make positive associations with people without anything negative or scary like a hand reaching out too.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Wait to feed the dog!

Quick training tip:

DON'T FEED WHEN YOUR DOG WANTS TO BE FED. If you get in the habit of feeding your dog every morning as soon as you get up many dogs start anticipating you getting up means that they get breakfast as a result lots of dogs over time will start trying to wake you up earlier to get fed earlier. I know of a number of dogs whose owners wake up at 4 or 5am to feed their dog then go back to bed. This is NOT necessary.
Instead:
Get up, start your day, Feed your dog on your time. Don't feed them at a set time every day so that they aren't expecting it at any particular time. My dogs get fed twice a day and every day is different. Some days they eat at 5am some days 7 or 8am. In the evening same plan... sometimes its 4 or 5pm sometimes its closer to 7pm. If you take your dog with you on a vacation or to a friends house it will be alot easier for you to enjoy your vacation or for the person taking care of your dog if they are ok with eating at any time and not demanding to be awake and fed at 5am.

With these tips your dog will still get fed but you can enjoy a morning to sleep in once in a while.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Nose Touch - Trick Tuesday

Weve decide to challenge you to teach your dog a new trick every week and practice and post pics and vids.
I want to start with something very simple that some of you may already know.
Nose Touch - Teaching your dog to touch their nose to your hand.
You will use a marker word that catches the exact second their nose touches your hand - we use "YES". Some people like to use a clicker and you can we just dislike the need for an extra tool.

Start with treats in one hand then transfer them to the other hand so your empty hand will smell like treats.
Hold your hand flat out near your dogs face and encourage your dog to touch your hand with their nose. Do not do it for them but encourage them to do it even by accident the 1st time is ok.
The second their nose is in contact with your hand say "YES" and treat immediately.
Continue this and trade and switch hands until your dog understands and has the hang of it
Once they understand this you can start raising or lowering your hand so they have to jump for it or lean down low. Still saying "Yes" when they do it and treating each time.

Simple Fun Trick to start with.

Other uses for Nose touch - shy dogs encouraging them to go greet someone. If your dog already knows and enjoys this game and you have a shy dog it can be a great ice breaker to have the person just hold their hand out and have your dog go touch for something positive.

Harley: the lab
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&list=UUUcqW_f8ZqmHni8Pk0Eq7GQ&v=KhngiBykieo

Vader: the shep
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T6vJxYQdMQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UUUcqW_f8ZqmHni8Pk0Eq7GQ

Stripey + Blackie: cats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quXYzHaymiI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUUcqW_f8ZqmHni8Pk0Eq7GQ

Share your pics with us!! #tricktuesday #pawsinprogress or @pawsinprogress These hashtags can be used on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Tally up of Fosters and Transport

39 Dogs whos lives we have helped save from Jan 2011 to July 2013

Many of these dogs were on death row when we pulled them from the shelter.

Please consider fostering. You could save a life.

Knowing where they go and getting to meet their new family makes it easy to see them go from the shelter to a great home.

Dakota January 2011 (1st Foster 4 GSGSR)

Ozo March 2011 (Foster 4 GSGSR)

Lily April 2011 (Foster 4 GSGSR)

Link May 2011 (Transport 4 GSGSR)
Took Link from Shelter in Grass Valley to Vacaville.

Cubby May 2011 (Foster 4 GSGSR)

Luke August 2011 (Foster 4 GSGSR)
Came from a hoarders house that got busted in Loomis that had 80+ animals.
Luke was such an awesome dog. I will never forget the family coming to meet him and he walks up to the daughter and nestles his head into her shoulder and I knew that was the right home for him.

Reese September 2011 (Foster 4 GSGSR)
I evaluated and pulled Reese from the Sacramento City Animal Shelter. He was a matted, filthy, stinky long haired shepherd that had not been taken care of. I gave him a bath and spent 3+hrs brushing him out before he started to look like the beautiful shepherd that he is.