Its Like He Is Part Of The “Me” Generation

Posted on November 6, 2008
Filed Under Class, Jasper | Leave a Comment

today was my first official day assisting in a dog class. it was a lot of work but i really enjoyed it. my instructor asked if anyone wanted to lead a portion of the class and i kept my hand down. i dont think i will ever be teaching a public class unless its related to service dogs. im not a public speaking kind of girl.

speaking of public speaking my mother and i went to see bill cosby at benaroya hall on saturday. the place was completely sold out and packed from floor to ceiling with people. i had to take some anxiety medicine just to get into the auditorium and it still didnt prevent me from freaking out. if i would have had jasper there, he would have picked up on my anxiety immediately but liame didnt even seem to notice that i was in distress.

i wonder how old does liame have to be in order for life stop being all about him and instead start focusing on me a little. its like he is part of the “me” generation. if i have even a little tone of anger or frustration in my voice, jasper picks up on it immediately and starts displaying submissive body language and tries to diffuse the situation. but liame could care less if i scream at the top of my lungs. i think its because i have been training liame in a positive manner and he knows of no consequences that might occur if i get angry. jasper on the other hand was probably the victim of some type of violence by one of his previous owners to have learned what the negativity in my voice means. he is so traumatized by his past experiences that he wont even hardly let my husband tickle me without trying to get between us.

24 Commands And Counting

Posted on October 28, 2008
Filed Under Class, Firsts, Things That Make Me Smile, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

today we learned the command “open”. having mastered the commands “take it” and “tug” we chained them together to produce “open”. this is the first opportunity i have had to chain a command. i think i like it! i want him to be able to do the “get me a beer” party trick one day to show just how special he is. so far, these are the commands he knows:

sit
down
roll over
shake
high five
bow
turn around
back up
touch
go lay down
off
leave it
take it
drop
wait/stay
come
heel (well most of the time)
thats enough
open
focus
tug
get it
nope
no

Today Liame Goes Under The Knife

Posted on October 6, 2008
Filed Under Care, Class, Mistakes, Tips and Tricks, Todays Mood | 1 Comment

both my mother and liame are scheduled to have surgery today and i am surprisingly much calmer than i should be. last night i stayed up way too late and took some photos of liame - just incase. i know. i know. he is getting so skinny i have started calling him my little gazelle. he bounces around the house like a little baby deer dancing in an open field. its so very cute.

my canine studies instructor has given members of the class the opportunity to be assistants in 2 of her classes. this will give me a great opportunity to work with other dogs and learn how to motivate them with more than just food. it will also give me the opportunity to make up for the leash popping i did to liame the first month or so i had him. i read about it in the monks of new skete book and in all honesty really didnt know how ineffective it was until i was fully engrossed in my classes at ahimsa. the monks made it seem like it was going to work quickly, in all honesty, it didnt work AT ALL no matter how many times i did it. assisting in this class also gives me hours towards my CPDT. since ahimsa used marker training and that isnt the focus of seattle dog works, its going to be interesting to see the difference between her methods and those taught at ahimsa. christine has an amazing wealth of knowledge and a great sense of humor, something which was grossly missing in all of the classes i took that were not led by amanda brothers of side kick dog training.

update: he made it!!!!!! they took bone fragments out of both elbows. more info to follow at a later date.

Mary McNeight, CCS

Posted on September 29, 2008
Filed Under Class, Firsts, Things That Make Me Smile, Things That Make Me Want To Cry | Leave a Comment

the boss I loved so dearly was just fired today. no one really knows why. this is not good news. i hope it wasnt for helping to accommodate me. i wish him the best of luck in this job market.

we passed our test! i am now Mary McNeight, CCS. actually if you want to get technical about it, im really Mary McNeight, BGS, CCS. isnt it interesting that i havent been crediting myself with my bachelors degree from the university of michigan but am marking my name now with a CCS, like somehow my bachelors degree isnt relevant anymore? anyway… i am tracking my hours training Liame (and Jasper) and I am over half way there to qualifying for CPDT. at least I have something to fall back upon if I was to get fired too.

A Relevant Canine Studies Post

Posted on September 25, 2008
Filed Under Care, Class, Mistakes, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

today i take my canine studies exam. so in the post i will use some of the terms i have learned in class in relation to my issues with liame. currently i am no longer relevant in liames life while he is out on the street. other dogs, smells, things on the ground are more salient. yesterday a dog walked infront of liame and i told him to “leave it”. normally just this command works to redirect his attention to me and not on the other dog. i repeated the command several times and then slowly using the gentle leader guided his head towards myself. when he didnt respond to that i body blocked him. so at this point he cant even see the other dog but is so focused on that area that i cant get him to look at me while again repeating “leave it”. we tried the “focus” command a couple of times with no luck and then went back to the basics when we initially learned the command where i put my fingers together like i have a treat, touch his nose and then draw an imaginary line to my face. it worked for a split second but when he realized that i really didnt have a treat in my hand he then went back to fixating on the other dog. i decided to take my small victory (him looking into my eyes for a split second) and just leave the situation because i was blocking traffic in the middle of the sidewalk.
so, to fix this issue, i need to become “the portal to all things good” in his life, continue to interrupt and redirect him when he fails to execute a command given to him and reward him for when he does respond. so from today on, even though we are on the raw diet, i will continue to feed him his kibble as a reward for keeping his attention on me and for responding to my command. eventually we will switch out to a type of raw reward once this class ends (im thinking i might use carrots since they are a favorite of his and they can be chopped up into small pieces without getting oxidized). i have now learned how imperative to keep working with him on a daily basis so that he has no more adolescent lapses in judgement. currently i have failed in my management of being 100% salient in liames life. thanks to my canine studies class i now know that fixing this issue is going to take time but he will be back up to speed within a few days of implementing my plan of attack.

What Do You Want Him To Do Instead?

Posted on September 18, 2008
Filed Under Class, Mistakes, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

for the longest time i have been battling with liame whenever he gets in or out of the car. while i am opening up the back of the car he is usually running around wherever we are looking for something to eat or chew. this frustrates the hell out of me. i dont think there is anything i hate more than trying to fish things out of his mouth.

so after having it drilled into my head by my canine studies program instructor, i sat down and thought about the problem i was having and asked myself the question, “what would you rather have him do instead?” my response: all i want him to do is just sit and stay. for last couple of days before entering and after exiting the car i have told liame to “sit” and then “stay”. dude it worked like a charm. look at the picture in the post, how cool is that? but now i feel sooooooooo incredibly stupid. it took me a really long time to figure out that i was expecting him to know how to act when getting in and out of a car. it makes me wonder how in the world a normal person without hours and hours of dog psychology and training behind them end up with well behaved dogs.

Did I Miss A Developmental Window?

Posted on September 14, 2008
Filed Under Care, Class, Firsts, Major Steps, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

liame went swimming today for the first time ever. in all honesty, i was really quite surprised and bummed by his lack of enthusiasm to get in the water. we were at magnuson park for our canine studies class and my instructor told me that it would be unusual for a lab puppy to just take to the water like a fish (or a lab) the first time in so… i tried to let it go. i want to have that all around stereotypical american lab that is a THE family dog, plays fetch until the cows come home and dives off of docks just to get into the water. maybe with repeated exposure he will eventually learn to enjoy it. i wonder if i missed the developmental window for a lab to love swimming?

Canine Studies Is Just Fascinating!

Posted on September 8, 2008
Filed Under Class | Leave a Comment

sorry for the lack of posts, weve been quite busy with canine studies classes and my current 9 to 5 job.

we had a real dog training class tonight in my canine studies class. the students brought their dogs in to class and we were tasked with teaching other peoples dogs. most of our (liame and i’s) official dog training classes (not canine studies classes) have been puppy classes and have been managed really well to prevent any negative interactions between the puppies while playing. this type of management serves two purposes, to prevent the puppys from having bad experiences during their crucial developmental periods and to prevent the layman from feeling like other dogs are “aggressive” towards their puppy. as i have learned in my canine studies classes, body language and behavior play a key role in determining whether or not an interaction is truly aggressive or is just part of normal pack behavior. due to his specialized training i have been overly vigilant and i have been very proactive in preventing anything negative happening to him and so when liame got nipped today by an older dog during class so i got to experience the visceral reaction the layman has when their puppy gets bit by another dog. it scared the shit of me and freaked me out a bit when he yelped in pain, tucked his tail between his legs and ran off. prior to my canine studies class i would have continued to freak out, worry for days and tell the owner never to bring her dog near mine again. but thanks to the class, i now know that liame got bit on the butt for basically being an annoying puppy around a mature dog. it was kind of like a doggie equivalent of a slap on the wrist.

canine studies is just fascinating. how much of a dog geek am i that i prefer nothing more than to be in the presence of dogs and their owners till all hours of the evening (that and i have a small little plastic statue of st. roch - the patron saint of dogs).

Canine Studies Here We Come!

Posted on August 8, 2008
Filed Under Class, Firsts | Leave a Comment

yesterday we went to our first canine studies class. liame did fairly well when it came to sitting by my side and calming down for the 3 hour long class. the teacher and i were very pleasantly surprised by his behavior since the last time we were there i couldnt keep him still. im hoping that liame being calm wasnt a function of him being exhausted from me running him around downtown in an attempt to find a bus to get me up to capitol hill and rather knew that since he had his vest on, he had better settle down. we will find out next week wether it was exhaustion or association. although i was relatively nervous to be in my first real class since leaving college i think i did a pretty good job of controlling the anxiety (although it did require medication since i also had a major dentist appointment the next morning). i left class feeling rather confused about learning theory i am hungry for more information, which tells me that i have finally found my calling.

Always End Your Training Session On A Positive Note

Posted on August 5, 2008
Filed Under Class, Tips and Tricks, Todays Mood | Leave a Comment

im trying to teach liame the “which hand” trick. i cant understand what i am doing wrong. he seems to want to slap his big old paw on any hand he can get to and sometimes hop up and hit both hands at once. this wouldnt be so much of a problem if he had soft nails, his paws weren’t the size of frying pans and i didnt have an allergy to dogs. every single time we play this game i end up with scratches and hives and wondering why in the heck do i keep trying to train this trick. yesterdays training session also cemented for me how much my mood is affected by this new little guy of mine. because he just couldnt seem to get it i was so frustrated at the end of our session that i didnt want to return to work or be near anyone. only after i calmed down did i remember that wonderful piece of advice from our 100 or so puppy classes, ALWAYS END YOUR TRAINING SESSION ON A POSITIVE NOTE. i forgot all about these words of wisdom because liame has picked up everything that i have trained him in a session or two (weve been working on “which hand” on and off for several weeks). remember if you dont keep your training fun and positive neither you nor your dog will want to continue.

keep looking »