Book Review: When Pigs Fly! by Jane Killion

The full title of this book is When Pigs Fly! Training Success with Impossible Dogs! 

Elka is not an impossible dog.  She's very smart and sometimes difficult and frustrating because of her intelligence (a combination of "What'll you give me for it?" and "I don't see the point", I'm sure.)

When Pigs Fly! uses clicker, treats, and basic notion of drives and motivations to make working with your dog the joy you hoped it would be.

Wordless Wednesday

I call it Still life, on couch, with DoberLasers

Insurance

It may or may not surprise you to learn that not all homeowner's insurance companies cover all dog breeds. Did you know that prior to reading my sentence?  I sure didn't know it prior to owning a house and subsequently purchasing a "dangerous breed".

Dobermans, among others I'll list below, are considered to be "dangerous dogs".  There's a varied amount of politics and a small amount of statistics that goes into what makes or breaks a breed's reputation.  Actual bites and attacks are one of these things, obviously, especially against children.  The fact that all dogs have a mouth full of big pointy teeth is another, with varying PSI of bite pressure ability is another, though I don't think most people think too hard about that.

It's an issue.  I'm not saying it isn't.  But can you guess who I think is to blame?  Poor dog owners, bad breeders, and people (yup, that includes kids) who don't know how to act around dogs.

Book Review: Barking, by Kim Campbell Thornton

Elka is not a problem barker.  She in fact barks appropriately, occasionally in play, but most often as an alert if she feels somebody's approaching the house who ought not be.  I promise I won't brag about this any more than necessary.

Barking is a big problem dogs owners face, however, as I discussed in Dog Manners: the barking edition.  Dogs bark; it's a main means of communication.  And dog barks mean something, whether we humans get the point or not.  So, if your dog is barking, and you think it's a problem, then there's a definite miscommunication going on.

Barking, by Kim Campbell Thornton, is a rather short book that discusses why dogs bark and what owners might do about it.

Command Clinic: Bite Inhibition

Puppies bite.  It's what they do.  Babies bite too, or rather gum quite vigorously.  They're new to this whole big world thing, and explore it with the tools that they're given.

Puppies learn about biting, and what's too hard and what's acceptable, from their mother and their littermates.  When you bring your puppy home, the burden of teaching switches to your shoulders.

In addition to barking and house breaking, biting is a common problem when you first bring your toothy little darling home.  It doesn't mean your puppy doesn't like you, it doesn't mean she's aggressive, and it doesn't mean she's spiteful.  It's how puppies play, and it's how puppies interact with the world (though some use their paws too; Elka did.  I imagine Boxers do too, if you can imagine such a thing.)

Dog Manners: the barking edition

Hey, you know what really bugs me?

Walking down a street and having no fewer than six dogs bark uncontrollably the entire time I'm on their stretch of sidewalk.

Do you know who I blame for this?

The owners.

I continue walking down that street, despite my annoyance, because I'm using those horrible animals to train Elka to behave calmly and look to me for guidance, regardless of the situation.  I talk her through as we walk by, and I assure you I keep my language clean, but what I say is not complimentary to those dog owners.

Command Clinic: Recall

Why won't my dog come when I call her?  Probably because I haven't worked hard enough to tell her that every time she come, she'll get rewarded.  Sometimes the reward will be an immediate return to what she was so interested in to begin with.  Sometimes the reward will be a coveted, high value food item, like a french fry or some bacon.  Elka is learning this, though I should have been working with her on it all along.

One recall pitfall is simply calling your dog's name.  Elka hears her name a lot in the course of the day, I'm sure, and it doesn't mean "come here to me" every time.  Also, we've used "come" enough times without her fully knowing what the word is that we've changed the word.  "Come" means something might be going on, but Elka has learned to ignore it through unrewarding repetition.  "Here", however, means "get over here right now".  It means "what treat will I give you this time?" or "how about we play?"

But, how did I change her mind?