Safety First

I've realized lately that lots of our training, and lots of our equipment, has to do with safety.

Elka is on a collar and leash when we go outside, to make sure she's safe. She can't decide to run into the road, or chase something and get off our property, anything like that. On our walks, she's on a harness and collar, with liberty's attachment to make sure more than one thing will have to fail to put her in danger; not that I'm sure she'd just hare off somewhere the instant she had a chance, but better safe than sorry. See, there it is again.

In the car, she has a harness which hooks to the built-in child seat anchor vehicles have. In the case of an accident, it will hopefully protect her, and also the humans in the car, preventing the 75 pound dog in the back seat from becoming a missile within the vehicle. It also keeps her from just jumping out when a door is opened, so her exit can be controlled to a safe place and situation.

All my Elka stories are new again (plus a new one)

I make the joke, somewhat seriously, that I started this blog to give the people around me a break from dog things.

I can talk about different dog topics, from breeds to training to health, longer than most people I know. It's one reason the Internet is such a great place. There's a message board for that. Or Twitter or Facebook, or another blog. I've spent a lot of time on Doberman Talk, and learned quite a lot. Learned enough that I'm able to give some of that knowledge back when new members come aboard.

Never Stop Training

Yesterday, Patricia McConnell posted "Gotta Love That Recall" on her blog, and while I read and recommend her as often as I can, I also noticed the specific phrase which I've poached for the title of this post: Never stop training.

I'd been thinking about this lately, in fact, when a certain long nosed miss started nosing up to peoples' plates in a manner she had not otherwise displayed. I may or may not have been mostly unbothered by this, for it was rarely, if ever, my plate she was getting too close to. This is Elka, who I can leave in the car with McDonald's or other takeout and she will not touch is. Elka, who has been in a room with a coffee table full of nachos and dip and even pigs in a blanket and not touched a thing. Elka, who dropped a turkey sandwich she had in her mouth when I said "drop it", and left along a dropped tupperware of taco meat when I said "leave it".

(forgive the old picture, I don't have a new one of her lurking in the "safe range" of food that is not hers)

Taste of the Wild Giveaway Winner!

Wow, guys, we had 38 entries for the Taste of the Wild giveaway! That's very exciting.

What's less exciting is my pictures of the winner selection. Elka, you see, was focusing very hard on this freaked out looking squeaky chicken that I got her from Wal-Mart. I figured, "Okay, she can do that while I write down all of these names, then I'll throw the names on the floor, per usual, and she'll pick one up and go back to chicken squeaking."

Blog the Change, April 15, 2012

Well, I daresay my Blog the Change platform is the same as it was back in January.  Train your dog! Your life, and hers, will be better.

I don't know a lot of dog owners, at least not to talk to at length. I try to "spread the gospel" anyway, as it were. One library patron got a puppy a few months back, and lately has come in describing how the puppy is chewing everything up. Oh, we've dealt with that, haven't we? I recommended feeding her only out of Kongs, which would contain her regular meals but mixed with a bit of yogurt and freezing, to use up that mental energy. Apparently the puppy does well in other realms, with sitting nicely for her meals, and retrieving. 

One of my friends, when visiting somebody else, taught the dog in that household "touch". Another friend's dog knows "roll over", which Elka does not, by the by. Any time Elka is on her back, it is on her own terms, and it's typically on a couch and on an object of her vigorous affection.

"Touch" and "roll over" might seem like silly tricks. "Touch", however, can lead to other things, like closing doors or cabinets, or send aways in agility and other dog sports."Roll over" might be pure fun, but you all know that I think trick training is valuable in and of itself. When you do trick training, you're still spending time with your dog and bonding, and working together. When Elka and I trick train, it's also typically when I bust the clicker out, and she's overjoyed to see that happens. The clicker means treats, and Elka loves treats. She also kind of likes getting something right, which is nice. 

Elka's "drop it" is still quite nice. She had a piece of candy in her mouth that somebody had let fall on the floor, unnoticed (a Sour Patch Kid). My fiance said "drop it", and she did immediately. I'm so very proud of that in her.

Dogs that you spend time with aren't bored. Dogs that you train don't tend to get cast aside and end up in shelters. Rescue, maybe, because sometimes home situations occur that are unavoidable. I think it was in Playtraining Your Dog that Patricia Gail Burnham said something about how people will sell their conformation champions, but asking somebody to sell their titled Utility Dog? No way, José. Granted, there's also a degree of training that goes into conformation dogs, and I don't know that owners give them up that easily either, but every owner is different, and competitors may be in it for different things, to be sure.

Recall Revisited

So, with a fiction project in the works and the ebook notion dancing in my head like a sugarplum, I've been re-reading my Command Clinics, trying to have a critical eye. It's hard, when you think you've done well!

For instance, Command Clinic: Recall. I wrote this entry in June of last year, before much of anybody was reading or following. Recall is a super important thing, though, and one of the questions that gets asked a lot in the Internet circles I travel through and lurk at. Just how people think a dog should magically listen to them just 'cause, people also magically think that of course dogs come when they're called. If a dog doesn't, that means the dog doesn't like them personally, right?

Well, no.

Command Clinic: Drop it

I've put off this particular command clinic because, thinking back, I couldn't actually remember how I taught Elka "drop it". It's a cue that she certainly knows, and obeys, as I mentioned in this post, when she dropped the remains of a turkey sandwich she'd found in the park. If I was already eating a turkey sandwich and told to spit it out, I don't know that I would. So, good Elka, really!

So, "drop it" is important. It can keep your socks hole-free, keep a game of tug civil and controlled, protect your fingers while playing fetch, and keep your dog from consuming hazardous things like rocks and bottle caps and the like.

How to Make a Doberman Mean

I seem to be a landing pad for the title question, "how to make a Doberman mean?", so I thought I'd give a few pointers.

First, you do your best to select a breeder who you think cares about the breed. You pick a breeder who health tests, who lets you see the puppies, who lets you see the sire and dam, and who provides you with a pedigree.

It's the Time of the Season

It's only October 10, but the leaves are all changing. The hills are slowly going red and yellow, instead of their summertime green.  It gets cold at night (and we've already had at least one frost), but it's still warm during the day, for the most part, and Elka and I have been getting our pre-winter park walking in still.

Night Maneuvers

A few months ago, when it was still icy and snowy out (read: not good walking the dog weather), I bought a laser pointer.  We'd used one to play with the cats at home, this one was four bucks, I figured I would give it a shot with Elka.  Really, you don't need much excuse to buy a cheap laser pointer; it even included the batteries.

Want to play a game? Tug!

Elka's favorite game is Tug.  She will try to play it with any toy ever, from a rope (you know, marketed as a tug toy) to Gumby (who puts up with it), to a tennis ball (which fits almost entirely into her mouth and doesn't work).

Tug is a fun thing for her, and can be for me too, though the game has to have rules, as one might guess.  There are some people who in fact say that you should never play with your dog, as it can mess up the "pack hierarchy" or make your dog aggressive.  I don't really buy into the whole "pack" notion; dogs know the difference between people and dogs.  A whole bunch of dogs together might make up a pack and have rules within it as such, but if you've got people and an "only dog" in a household, I don't think it applies.

Aggressiveness is a can of worms I don't really want to get into, or at least not when we're talking about a fun game! Suffice to say, if your dog has aggressive tendencies in the first place, or is very very possessive with toys, don't play tug.  There are problems already in place and you don't need to ask for more.  But if you have a well-balanced dog who lets you give and take toys happily?  Tug away!

Fun in the Sun!

It was bright and sunny this afternoon, so I told Elka "let's go out back and play!"

Well, I don't need to ask her twice. She grabbed a tennis ball, and away we went.