Tag Archives: Franny

home veterinary visits ROCK!

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Van Morrison playing, cinnamon rolls in the oven, yummy pineapple and pomegranate fruit salad on the table, hot black coffee, a clean floor, and dogs exercised. Now ready for the veterinarian to arrive! Home visits rock!

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Stress free for humans and dogs, and a lovely way to visit and ask questions. As my dogs age I am trying to make choices that will be as stress free as possible, but also balance that with aging health care needs. My two senior girls have the normal lumps and bumps, some achy joints here and there, good teeth but a few that need to be monitored for sure. The boys just need well checks, and frankly $eeker loves to be messed with!

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One of my big concerns this time around was their rabies vaccines. I’m very careful to not over vaccinate, but I also understand the real risks with rabies. We travel, we hike in the back country, and we’re out and about all of the time. I wanted a good check up, but also wanted to discuss their ages, health, and potential risks with a rabies vaccine at their age. They were due, and it’s the only vaccine I give my dogs throughout their lives. They get a single cell parvo and distemper as puppies, and then every three years a rabies vaccine. We support our dogs socially, emotionally, physically and nutritionally, and I will say they are pretty damn healthy!

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I did my pre veterinary visit research as always. I like to discuss options, but I don’t want to waste my time or my Veterinarians time being uninformed. So before this visit I called the State Veterinarians office to find out my options as far as titers, vaccines, age, and health. What was legal, what was recommended, what was possible. I called our City’s Deputy Chief to find out what my options were for licensing based off of titers should that be the route we take. I read various articles with benefits vs risks of vaccinating a senior dog. And I should note, I don’t use Veterinarians (at least not twice!) that don’t like to talk with me, discuss options, or explain something that is completely out of my scope of knowledge. My dogs, their skills and knowledge, equal exchange in a discussion.

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I use about five different veterinarians for various specialties. Chiropractic work, rehabilitation, well checks, etc. I balance my dogs care.

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Dr. Raines has been one of the veterinarians we use with our dogs over the years. He is THE first Veterinarian my puppies see. He makes sure that they LOVE coming to see him. On the floor, petting, loving up, kind hands, and always something great to say about my new puppies. As my dogs age, he will be looking after their health and well being with me. He knows all about life with senior dogs, two of his, when I first met him, were 18 and 18.5 years old, and still had a great quality of life.

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When Dr. Raines and his assistant Mandy walked up to the front door, they were greeted by happy barks, jumping up to say hi, twirling, and wagging tails. It was a love fest of sorts and mutual. $eeker fell desperately in love with Mandy. It makes me smile every time to witness this type of mutual love, and kindness. And how lovely for a medical well check visit to start this way.

Everyone was examined, lots of cool conversations, and the bonus was that my husband was home. This was his first veterinary experience like this and he loved it. His voice was heard, he got to watch and learn, and he loved that our senior girls were not stressed.

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$eeker kept easing his way onto the pillow in hopes Mandy would massage him again. Franny loves being touched so her examine was more like a Spa Day for her. Story oddly enough didn’t want to be messed with too much, I’ll have to do even more handling work before the next visit. Ocean and Franny, from the mouth of Dr. Raines, are in awesome health, Granny Rock Stars!

And I had them in their new holiday attire too!

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My only complaint, while they had coffee and tea while we were all settling in, they ate nothing! Next time, I will simply hand them a plate of yummy food. Part of people coming to my house is me being able to feed them, that is my simple pleasure!

Cheers to stress free veterinary visits, cheers to healthy dogs!

Nancy

confessions of a camera killer

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Hi, my name is Nancy and I kill cameras. Part of my recovery is admitting I have a problem.

I have killed them in four different countries, and several in the same state. One was dropped from a tall building in Spain, that was my favorite camera of all time. Another held under water in Indonesia to get mushed banana off (that was Spore by the way!). One was left on the roof of our car in Baja and most likely bit the dust in the desert, that camera had all of our honeymoon photos on it. And yet another got run over by a snow machine in Antarctica. I’m not going into the cameras that met a tragic death here in Montana, the numbers are high, their deaths varied, and it just makes me too sad.

I have been cameraless for over a year by choice. I had to seriously consider my handling and care taking skills with cameras, and electronics in general. Was I born this way, or was I shaped by my environment? How did camera carelessness seep into my life, when did it happen? I have solely relied on my camera phone for the past year. Surely if I didn’t kill that I could possibly be ready for another ‘real’ camera.

There I said it!

And now enter my friend Sherry, a very talented photographer, who had an extra camera just hanging around. I received a box one day and inside a camera, and a nice one! I was beyond blown away. It was the most generous gift I have ever received.  Will I kill again? That remains an open question. I will take this one day at a time, and also stack the cards in my favor by adding a thick strap, padded case, and a water proof carrying bag. I think she must have sensed my frustration with my camera phone, and is just a super nice person all the way around! It feels good to hold a heavy, delicious, REAL camera again!

I’m grateful to have four canine super models at home, so this was fun!

Nancy! oh happy day…

walking the Grande Dames

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How do you know when your teaching, training, and/or work has paid off with your dogs? How do you know when there is an understanding of a concept, or a behavior, important to the success of your team? How do you know when you and your dog have a mutual understanding, a relationship, a healthy functioning relationship?

This afternoon, when all seemed fairly quiet in the neighborhood, I decided to take the two Grande Dames for a walk. All three of us needed some fresh air, our legs stretched, and a bit of time together. Harnesses on, leashes clipped, poop bags in pocket, little baggy of left over turkey, coat, glasses, gloves, and ready to go!

I use to walk them together when they were much younger, but in recent years, I usually take one at a time, or one out with one of our male dogs. You see Franny and Ocean aren’t a good combination anymore, not in the past eight years anyway. They have had enough bad experiences while out on walks to last a life time. So they formed an alliance in a way, an alliance in the sense of, ‘take no crap!’ It’s like walking Dyna & Mite. Individually great, but together they can be fairly explosive, especially in an unstable environment, like in a neighborhood with off leash dogs. They really don’t want to engage with other dogs when out on a walk with me, and truly they just want to enjoy their time.

So off we went, it’s so special to walk with my girls, and I feel that every time I leave the house with them now. Franny has slowed way down, Ocean still has a great deal of pep in her walk. But they both enjoy sniffing and marking, and that we did!

Our walk was uneventful and relaxing the mile out from our house. Cool air, a bit of snow and ice on the ground, lots to smell. However, on the mile back things were a bit dodgy. I try to always take the path of least resistance. The girls, especially at their ages, don’t need any explosions, or the stress that comes with them. So we try to avoid conflicts. I will detour, wait, and sometimes even throw food at an on coming dog to keep them away from my girls.

So my original questions about “how do you know…?” Well, on our way home, the girls and I spotted two dogs behind a wood slat fence starting to fence run on our approach, and set up on us. Both girls stopped and looked right up at me! You could not wipe the smile off of my face. “Thank you” was the first thing that came out of my mouth, and then a piece of turkey for both girls. We crossed the street and kept walking, without conflict. When we crossed the street, a young black lab came roaring down it’s back deck stairs, into a yard, and right up to the fence we were just passing, and started to off load verbally on us. It caught us all off guard. Franny jumped sideways and went piloerect (and that was it which shocked me), Ocean gave that young dog a hard stare and low growl (and that was it which surprised me), then they both looked at me, “You two are freaking awesome today, thank you!”, a small piece of turkey and off we went, crossed back to the other side of the street once more.

I was so proud of my girls, and grateful for an almost conflict free walk. They had a lot of choices with the situations they were put in today. And it could have gone a totally different way. They have, enough times, made other dogs regret their choices for surprising them, again, when they are together it can be explosive.

We came home relaxed, happy, and filled with fresh air. These Grande Dames mean the world to me! May our walks continue …

Nancy

why I love treibball!

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Last year, the spring of 2011, I kept hearing about this new dog sport from Germany, something about urban herding, balls, goal keeping, etc. Everyone was spelling and pronouncing it a bit differently, lots of different opinions were floating around, good and bad, and I couldn’t seem to obtain clear information. In all honesty I wasn’t looking that hard, I was busy with other dog sports and family stuff. But it piqued my curiosity on some level.

I love YouTube for a lot of reasons; music, comedy, movies, and dog sports to name a few. Some of my good friends from various parts of the world I met through YouTube. One  evening I settled in with a glass of wine and searched for TREIBBALL. I was truly surprised how many videos came up. I watched about twenty videos before I came to one that made me smile and move in my chair, that is always a good sign by the way!

YES!

A woman, her dog, a soccer field, and a dozen or so exercise balls. I was hooked. I could sense that this was a team sport all the way around. And it only took this one VIDEO to turn me on to a new dog sport challenge. What I liked about this video was the trust at a distance, and that each team mate had a job and/or task to perform, independent of each other. I love, love, love freedom in training once there is a partnership and trust. For me it is being able to read each other, understand each other, and work through concepts together.

The history, where did it all start? Jan Nijboer, a German trainer came up with treibball, a combination of what he felt were complex behaviors that included soccer and herding skills. Mental and physical work for a dog. Today he runs the International Natural Dogmanship Center where he trains people to train their own dogs. Thank you Jan for your creative way of thinking!

I was looking for, and needed a breath of fresh air in my own personal training program, something to challenge me and add new skills. I also wanted to try a new sport that wasn’t concussive for my dogs,  and that all of my dogs could learn, even with their varying ages.

I am a visual learner. I can watch something, and in my brain, some place, it all makes sense. (OK, my neuropsychology friends, tell me why?) Dogs sports, cooking, knitting, gardening, but not carpentry. That my dear friends, I suck at!

So we went to work. We had a bunch of beach balls at home, the benefits of having kids. We also had a couple of exercise balls, the down side of aging and squeaky joints!

The kitchen, our favorite training ground is where we started touch on the ball. $eeker can be a bit grippy, so I wanted to make sure we had a solid foundation and new understanding of the balls purpose. Ocean has a HUGE fear of balloons, so this didn’t go well. I had to leave the balls out in the house and yard as ‘ornaments’ so to speak. I let her observe the other dogs practicing touch with the balls for a few days and asked nothing of her. When she was comfortable and offered a touch, we moved forward with that. Being able to observe was so helpful for her.

What hit me right away was that the balls were not the focus, the TEAM or handler/dog relationship was the focus. The balls were a way to access each other. I loved seeing that.

My dogs all have distance skills, or what we refer to as ‘go to’. Distance is different depending on the context of the task at hand. Whether it’s hiking, freestyle, agility, or games in the yard, ‘go’ means ‘keep going until you hear otherwise’. Distance is so fun to play with, and when you have distance combined with understanding of behaviors and vocabulary it’s feels like freaking magic! Here is a VIDEO of our distance/mat work that we play with all of the time. If your dog has a plethora of behaviors while performing in front of you, can they also do it 30,40, 50, 100 feet away? Fun all the way around.

Ah, the pushing. This was tricky at first as I had four dogs and four different styles of pushing. $eeker took to it like he had just stayed up all night and watched every treibball video on YouTube, AWESOME. Story was offended that I was asking him to move something with his face. He truly had a look of disgust when we practiced this. So I let him come at it his own way. He will push to get it rolling and them guide it with his chest. He wants to see me, and he wants his face off of the ball. He took the longest to learn this concept. Ocean was initially a light tapper, but once she got into it she knew instinctively how to guide and direct that ball right to me, my little perfectionist. Franny, well this is where her game stopped. Repetition and tasking are not her things. While she is still a great toucher when the ball comes out, she believes the ball should move on it’s own if the ball wants to move, she’s no baby sitter, and for sure no ball slave!

Then I started to put all of these skills together, and play, play, play -

  • go to mat
  • go to mat and lay down facing me
  • go to mat/down with duration
  • go to mat clockwise and counter clockwise
  • go to amt with balls all around the yard
  • touch ball
  • balance with ball, handler/dog opposite of each other
  • fun games in the garden with pushing and distance runs
  • playing new games with counter and clock outruns
  • playing games with ‘wait’
  • playing games with discrimination and multiple balls
  • playing games with directing the ball around objects
  • playing with blind finds
  • playing with control or driving the ball to the handler
  • changing up ‘push’ with ‘bring it’, ‘drive it’, ‘find it’
  • working on multiple ball brings before reward
  • games with more distance
  • keeping motivation high
  • short games at first
  • introducing balls on windy days
  • playing in all weather
  • games, games, games

I can say that out of all of the activities we do, my kids and husband love playing this with the dogs in the yard. The equipment, balls, are light and colorful and you can kick them to the other side of the yard for the next dog to bring in. They all love doing distance work, again it feels like magic. And the dogs love it!

I have quite a few VIDEOS logged on my own YouTube channel. Check them out if you love this sport!

For me, this sport has all of the components to be challenging, interesting, intense, and fun. I love that once I send my dogs out to their ‘place’ behind the balls, once they are released the game is theirs, making choices and decisions on their own to get the ball to me. Awesome! For my dogs, it allows me to see their abilities to solve concepts, reason, work through problem solving, work through frustrations, work as a team, and when finished have that look of being completely satiated! Woop!

Nancy, pushing on!

dogs that take, dogs that give, and those waiting to return to the Starship Enterprise

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You don’t have to listen very hard to hear someone say, “my dog loves to please me, my dog is so loyal”, or conversely “I wish my dog was more loyal, I wish he wanted to please me”. I’m not quite sure the root of these sentiments, where is Chrysti the Wordsmith when you need her!

Personally and professionally, I’ve always found this a bit odd. Simply from the stand point of slavishness, is that even a word? Why yes it is, I just looked it up! The sentiments tend to suggest a dog that see’s and feels nothing else in life, but it’s owner. Ego? I don’t really know.

Now I have seen that butter soft Golden Retriever, with big beautiful brown bedroom eyes, They appear to melt into their owners, follow them around adoringly, look deep into their owners eyes, UNTIL, the rabbit goes by, see ya!  Pit Bulls can be the same. I’ve seen Pit Bulls look like they want to crawl inside their owners skin they love them so much, they just can’t get close enough, can’t get enough contact, can’t look into that human face without turning into a virtual jelly bean, UNTIL, the ball comes out, THROW IT!

Is there in fact such a thing as a loyal dog, a dog who is genetically pre disposed to pleasing another species? I don’t know. I think more than genetics it is the rare pairing of just the right dog with just the right person, and magic, it happens.

So here is my current line up of dogs. This is who they are and what they came to the planet with. I love them for who they are, not what I need them to be.

Franny – She is my partner, she is not a taker, and only a giver every once in awhile. She does not require me to support her emotionally or physically, she has good confidence, and great instincts. Franny does lay next to me when I am not feeling well or when I am particularly tired. She likes to check in with me, particularly in the evenings. She has a slight guarding quality so she will step in front of me at home if there is something outside that causes her concern. She has never done anything that I am aware of,  to indicate that she has wanted to please me. She’s more of a ‘keep up if you want to hang with me’ kind of dog. A true partner, trust on both ends for us. But this has taken time!

Ocean – She is a taker. She was a spooky, low confident puppy. Timid, fearful and extremely cautious. Her whole life has been about us supporting her emotionally, physically, and spiritually. She comes to us for comfort, but does not give us comfort. She comes to us if she is afraid, so we can reassure her. If I am having a bad day, stressed or concerned, she leaves the room. She is not capable of handling emotions from anything or anybody, outside of neutral. If we were out hiking and something hit the fan, she would take off running, and expect me to deal with it, she would not be there to help me out. I/we take care of her, she was never born with enough grit to support, please, or be loyal to anything.

Story – He is my giver and my partner. He is my gift, plain and simple. He stands next to my side and I can feel that we are in this together. He allows me to love him and work with him, and I allow him to love me back and push me to be a better person. On a low day he will come and comfort me and nuzzle me. He looks out for me when we are hiking, and always keeps an eye on me, always. He is my one dog that will stop and wait for me to catch up. He will allow me to lean on his back if we are going up a steep hill, and he will step in front of me and stop if he is unsure of what is coming down the trail. If he is frustrated with some new sport we are working on, he lets me know, he does not obey anything or anyone, it’s about fairness for Story. He has integrity, grit, and kindness all wrapped up into one dog, but he expects the same from everyone he encounters.

$eeker – he is not a giver, a taker, or a partner. I am still so up in the air about my dear sweet $eeker. He lives in a world where sometimes we just don’t get each other, I don’t feel he is present, or I feel he is present with the other voices in his head? This morning on our hike he was amazing, playful with me, attentive, and I could feel him wanting to be with me. Other days I’m not sure he even see’s me. To be honest, I think we are all his little experiment, and one day I am going to turn around slowly, and catch him whispering into his shoulder, “my work is done here, beam me up Scotty”.

Nancy

what is your dogs barometer for safety when out and about?

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Franny, my forever teacher.

Since I have four dogs, I tend to walk them singly or in pairs. I want to enjoy my walks as much as my dogs, so I choose to do multiple walks, and take a bit longer to do so. And I like when we can all be successful.

All four together, and we are nothing more than a moving circus, an Italian circus on caffeine to be more specific! And it gets even crazier should an off leash dog come into our space, which hasn’t happened in awhile. I don’t want to put my dogs into that position so I opt for the path of least resistance.

This past week I have been pairing Story with Franny for one of the walks. I wasn’t sure if it would be a good pairing at first.

Story is like walking a steam train. Franny is aging quickly, and really slowing down.

Story could go 10 miles with little to no effort, Franny prefers something just under a mile.

Story likes to visit with other dogs, do some fancy prancing, or work a bit. He likes an interactive walk. Franny likes to smell every single bush and tree, mark every single bush and tree, and ignore everything else in life. She for sure does not want to visit with other dogs.

Story considers any dog barking at him a potential friend, or sex partner at the very least. He is super social and is not offended easily. Franny knows she moves slower now, she knows she is vulnerable and could not get away if she needed too, and jumps when a dog barks, even from behind a fence. It’s been causing her some stress. She does not want to be in a big dog environment at all.

BUT, what I have been observing is so cool. Story has become Franny’s barometer for safety. If a dog barks, even in the distance, Franny will look over at Story. If Story is unfazed, which is the case 99% of the time, she keeps her Grandma trot going. Anything that causes her concern in her environment and she will look to Story for information. Her walks this past week have been so stress free and lovely. Story has leveled the playing field for her, and she can do her sniffing and marking with little to no concern now.

AND, Story now slows down for her, and will only pick up the pace if she starts to drag too much. He is pacing her all on his own. What I am observing is Story sensing that his walk with Franny has a different purpose than when I walk him by himself. He is so attentive to her, and patient.

So I started to really observe my other walks. What are my dogs barometer for safety.

$eeker rely’s on a walk having some work, that is his barometer for safety. A leash walk around the neighborhood does nothing for him other than cause stress because there is no focus. But if I grab the small video camera, he knows we will stop someplace and do some fancy prancing, or tricks, or creative heeling, etc.

He is focused, engaged with me, and feels safe when our walks have a goal in mind. He totally knows what a video camera is for! While he loves being paired with Ocean, she is his muse after all, she does not give him any information on his safety.

$eeker and Story do well being paired together, but it’s like walking with two frat boyz! You kind of have to be up for that kind of walk.

Ocean, my beautiful Ocean. Her barometer for safety is me. When we are out and about, she looks to me for information. When she is uncertain, I simple think in my mind, thank you for telling me, I will take care of it. And I do what ever is appropriate for that particular situation. Cross the street, turn around, redirect her, or throw a hot dog at an off leash dog so we can continue to walk without being harassed. She can trust me, I am her barometer.

Nancy, who has enjoyed her walks this week!

our Dog Gym – the final stages!

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An awesome Sunday to be sure!

We were set to go hiking and swimming this weekend for our dogs birthday’s, but Franny was having a Grandma moment and didn’t really want to get out of her rocking chair. So on Saturday we had a Spa Day instead, baths, brushing, nails, massages, garden hang time, and raw Cornish game hens to crunch on for awhile.

Today she was feeling a bit more perky so we went to work at the gym after our morning Walk & Train group.

Believe it or not, it was the first time I really worked my dogs in there, fun, fun, fun! I think they thought so too!

tug tug tug, Ocean’s favorite game. She loved playing on the rubber flooring, no slipping and easy to run.

$eeker wasn’t sure about sequence work inside a building and on rubber flooring, but he was the one who didn’t’ want to stop in the end, he loved it!

Franny secured all entrances and exits, watched the flow of cars for a bit to get a feel for her new digs, and then settled into her favorite spot, on top of the puppy dog walk trainer, same place for the past 10 years!

gorgeous Bridger Mountains in the back ground, our indoor A-frame!

Our potty area and meet & greet area. Fenced with trees, water, pine cones and more. It’s a huge space measuring 90 X 40 feet. It has already been put to use this past week with classes and privates.

My eternally happy boy Story!

Our outdoor arena is fenced, and Spore is moving some of the arena sand around to make it a bit more even. 60 X 60 of outdoor agility and training fun! I love this space! Outdoor lighting will go up later this fall.

My flower pots are still growing, even with this heat and dry weather. Pineapple sage, lavender, tri sage, cream marigolds and petunia’s

My Soul Dogs. They were so happy to be working in the gym today, even Franny cracked a smile, this is rare! Or perhaps she was having a daffy moment?

Story’s favorite place at home, and apparently favorite place at the gym!

My beautiful Ocean, at 10 and still wanting to work on her tricky tricks, I love you Ocean! She was a happy girl today!

Moving forward. Our Gym is becoming more than I dreamed of!

Nancy

multiple dog households and conflict

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When I was pregnant with my second child, and the due date was nearing, I asked a very dear friend of mine, who was the mother of five, how do you avoid sibling rivalry? You see, I grew up in a household with four girls, I was #3. This was an important question for me.

My dear friend took a thoughtful sip of afternoon wine (that’s why I love her!), munched some apple with with cheese, took a deep breath, and said very wisely, only have one!

So what did I do? Well I had my second baby, and then added multiple dogs, rabbits, birds, and fish. We live in multiple everything! My children, so far, after fourteen years, love each other and enjoy each others company. I am a grateful Mom!

And I honestly think my dogs are sated with the company of each other, same with my birds, and fish. But it is not by chance. It has been very deliberate, very thoughtful, and incredibly managed.

Since January 2012 I have had three friends and seven clients that have lost one of their dogs do too multiple dog household conflict. It was either an immediate death, or such intense injuries that a dog had to be euthanized. While this is not everyday, it is also not that uncommon. It would be safe to say that it is way more traumatizing on the owners than it is on the remaining dog/s. The dog/s left in the household almost always have a sense of relief, relief from what is individual, but the calm is palpable. I have met very few owners who will ever trust the remaining dog/s in the house, and it can, not always, but can lead to multiple euthanasia in the same day.

Is this avoidable? To a large extent yes. Conflicts take more than one, why they happen is completely individual. It could be space, the wrong mix of personalities, food, resources, favored person, sleeping, breathing, smell, age, anti social, same sex, under exercised, etc. The one factor I have found to be common is unmanaged, from a very minute amount, to amazing freedom with little to no human interaction.

I am asked almost weekly if my dogs get along. Yes they do. This video exemplifies the love and respect they have for each other, just watch it to the end, it makes me smile every time.

Does it mean they play, roll around, and slap high fives on each other everyday? No way. Have they ever had conflict? Yes, twice in 10 years, and both times it was Ocean when she was coming off of a medication that had a psychotropic component, acepromezine and/or metronidazole. The conflicts were more screaming at the other dogs, never injury. With even better Fort Leavenworth type management, everything resolved in less than a week. No grudges or prolonged anger.

Here are some tips for owners of multiple dogs. I for one love having a group of dogs in my house, but I also like a peaceful existence.

Tips

  1. My Dog wants a Dog – Please do not add to your household because you think your dog wants another dog. Whoever pays the bills, buys the food, and scoops the poop is the decision maker and the care taker. It should be your decision not your dogs.
  2. Be the Match Maker – When you are thinking about adding another dog to your household, look at your current dog/s and think of what would be a good fit in regards to personality, sex, age, energy. Choosing the right match is actually essential. For example, if you have a low confident dog, you DO NOT want to add the same or the exact opposite (Joe in your face and pushy). Choose future dogs that will blend nicely with who you already have. Take your time until you find the one.
  3. Keep your dogs in good health – If dogs don’t feel well they don’t act well. You cannot afford this in a multiple dog household. Social Time – Multiple dogs don’t always have to be together. In fact it’s better if they are not. Social time should include you time, other people and outing time, and other dog time if your dog/s are social with new dogs. Time for them to hang together is important but it doesn’t always have to be play, hanging is OK. Emotional Balance – With multiple dogs it’s important to have an emotionally stable environment. If one dog requires more touch or more space in order to breathe deep, than so be it. Create an environment where your dogs feel loved, safe, part of your family, understood, and cared for. Nutritional Well Being – Having multiple dog households on a stable and appropriate diet is super important. Having dogs on a sugary high simple carbohydrate diet is a disaster waiting to happen. If they are being taken care of on the inside, they will feel better on the outside. Junky food leads to bad behavior. Physical and Mental exercise – This is training at it’s best! This is imperative and non negotiable, in my book. All dogs in a household need their physical and mental exercise needs met daily. Taking this edge off allows for dogs to truly settle. What you want to avoid is a house full of fully loaded dogs. That energy will have to go someplace, and you don’t want them to direct it at each other.
  4. Management – The more dogs, the more management. The more dogs, the more training. The more dogs, the more structure. If you don’t want to manage your dog/s in your household, you have two choices. 1) let them manage each other and eventually have conflict, either a little or a lot, and then take having multiple dogs seriously because you now have a problem. Or 2) manage your dogs and take that time so you can enjoy your dogs, your dogs can enjoy you, and the household can remain conflict free. This means doors, yard, house, sleeping areas, feeding areas, out on walks. You need to be aware what your dogs are telling you. You need to know where everyone is. If there is some minor tension between two dogs, you need to proactively give them each separate spaces (baby gate off areas, temporary fence separating yard area, etc.) until you can determine what caused the tension, and/or the tension passes. You are in charge, you have dog/s depending on you to do the right thing.
  5. Unattended – Leaving multiple dogs alone and unattended while you are at work or out and about is really never a good idea. While some households have virtual fur carpets during the day and never an ounce of conflict, other households can be like the Texas Chain Saw Massacre. In my world, instead of risking potentially bad behavior or conflict, all dogs should be in a separate space when you are not home. Whether it is crating, kennel, or baby gating off rooms. When you are gone it’s down time, not run around and play time and get into trouble. You want to come home to well rested pleasant dogs.
  6. Night night … Most dogs tend to do well sleeping at night in the same room or various places around the house. I don’t see a problem with this unless you have an instigator. In that case, crating or baby gating a small area would be advised.
  7. Observe, don’t label - Don’t get into the habit of labeling your dog/s as the Alpha in your pack or the Boss of your pack. Its a disservice to your dog/s. A pack is generally a familial unit, starting with Mom and Dad all the way down. And besides most dogs that I have met that were labeled as Alpha, were just rude and inappropriate dogs that had little to no training, an emotionally unstable environment, no management, and were left to do it all on their own. Become and observer not a labeler. Learn more about canine body language.
  8. Be a benevolent owner – Your dog/s need to know on every level that they can trust you.

The only conflict I want in my house is cleaning up fur balls under the couch! Nancy

treibball blind finds

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So I started Treibball about one year ago. I had heard a bit about the sport, saw my friends in Missoula getting started with it, and decided to give it a go.

Exercise balls are easy and cheap enough to purchase, so that was a selling point for starting this new sport too. After 10 years in agility with expensive and heavy equipment, it seemed dreamy to have fun colored equipment that you can literally kick into place.

I have started nearly thirty teams now in Montana, and frankly, I’m having a blast.

Today we did blind finds, meaning

    • sending them out to a place where they cannot see me
    • I cannot see them
    • then allowing them to get to the ball
    • pick it up and direct it back through obstacles
    • around a corner to me
    • working with about 100 feet of distance

Just last year -

My dogs weren’t sold in the beginning, in fact I’m pretty sure they thought I had finally lost it. What do you even mean, run away from me, find a ball, and push it back, really?

Ocean who was nine years old when she learned this new sport was not thrilled. She is terrified by balloons and when she walked into the yard the first day and saw all of the big balls, she ran for the hills. I was a traitor for sure in her eyes. I just let her play fetch int he yard with the balls as yard ornaments, and let her watch the others get acquainted with the game. When she was ready and offering to be close we started working. At almost ten now, this Grandma rocks the treibball! I am so proud of her.

$eeker is freakishly good, he gets this game, the nuances and all. And the bonus, his stay at a distance has improved by leaps and bounds.

Story, my honest and true steam train of a dog thought this was stupid and awkward. But as he does with all sports, he watch’s, takes his time learning the game, and then becomes amazing. His ability to direct with his chest makes me smile each time.

I have an arsenal of videos from the stirring the oatmeal stage (it isn’t very pretty or exciting, but int he end it’s imperative for a healthy foundation), to where we are now – VIDEOS

Have FUN, Nancy

living with a dog outside of neutral – part 7

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Living is the foundation. While we have spent 10+ years with Franny, and have had to learn and grow a great deal so we could all be successful, living our lives together was always at the center of our thoughts.

It sounds rather obvious, but you might be surprised by the great number of professional trainers and/or behaviorists that recommended extended crating, extended kenneling, limited freedom, and a life on a leash. The Stockholm Syndrome was not my goal. Choice and trust within safe boundaries was my goal. I am a true believer in learning by doing. Again, it comes back to living. Franny has camped on the beaches of California, traveled across Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada, hiked/ran a large portion of the local mountain ranges, and has been part of demonstrations in local schools. Her life with us, I would like to believe, has been full, adventurous, loving and to a degree complete. If only she could tell me.

While this list might appear somewhat overwhelming, please keep in mind, it grew over 10+ years. And it is still growing.

Diet -

One of the characteristics that separates wild from domestic is the ability/inability to eat within proximity to humans. Franny would not eat or look at food with us in the house or even near by outside. She killed and scavenged for her food when we first brought her home. The break through was a mistake really. We were remodeling a large section of our home, so we lived in a tent in our yard and had our kitchen set up under the apple tree. The BBQ was the center of activity with every meal. I started to just chuck meat scraps out into the yard while I went about my business in our outdoor kitchen, some cooked some raw, never putting pressure on her by watching or talking with her. I threw them pretty far out. During a weeks time, I noticed that Franny would start to wag her tail and watch me as I went near the BBQ, so I started to lesson the distance. She would now lay and watch me and wait. Over a months time, she would come close to my alfresco kitchen, lay down and wag her tail, and eat close and from my hand. BREAK THROUGH!

I had accidentally, and also to my great joy, created a rockin’ great positive emotional response to the BBQ, and what I could offer her. Now I could use this new skill of hand feeding for teaching and trust building. yay!

We transitioned onto kibble over time, but it didn’t go well for her. Her system couldn’t assimilate the high phosphorus and magnesium content in commercial food. She developed struvite bladder stones that had to be surgically removed do to their size.

She went on a full raw diet, based on Dr. Tom Lonsdale’s book, Raw Meaty Bones. We also used BARF prepared raw food, and then transitioned into making our own. All of our dogs have been on an 80% raw diet for the past nine years. Whole carcass in the AM, mixed ground meat, offal, a wee bit fruit/veggie, and crushed bone in the PM.

Raw Feeding Video. We use kibble for convenience on busy days.

Multiple Dog Household Feeding Video

Sleeping -

Franny wouldn’t come up onto my bed, no chance no way! She liked to be in a small dark corner of the closet, or in a corner of the kids room. My problem with this was, she went into a very dark place in her mind, eyes would glaze over, and we were not welcome. I wanted her to feel safe and comfortable in our home and especially when sleeping.

We put a dog pillow in every room for her, so no matter where she was she had her OWN space, but I purposefully put them in more open areas. In my bedroom I put a crate half way in and half way out of my closet, right next to the head of the bed where I slept. Comfy crate mat, comfy temperature too. We would fall asleep listening to each other breathe. For the first year or so I would shut the door of the crate so she was where I needed her to be at night. For the past nine years it has remained open. She still sleeps next to me about 80% of the time.

Now that she is older and likes a bit more comfort and warmth, her winter nights are with me on the bed. I sleep with a smile each night.

crate management -

Shortly after we got Franny we also added crate management to the house. She showed signs of property guarding, and I didn’t want to go down that path.

Every time we leave the house she is crated. All I have ever had to say is ‘Franny kennel up’ and she saunters right in. She loves her crate and it was conditioned as a good and safe place to be from the get go. I do not believe in extended crating, the longest she is in there during the day is 3 hours.

barrier management -

We live on the end of a cul d sac with large picture windows. Ten years ago we had nineteen young children and thirteen dogs on the circle, it was a freaking moving picture show everyday!And she had second story front row seating, yikes!

To watch this type of activity was completely over most dogs skill level, but Franny decided she would just bust through the window to get out there. Self control was not a strong suit. We bought stain glass window film and applied it so it went from floor to three feet up. I didn’t want to keep her restricted from the most use rooms in the house, and yelling at her every minute of everyday wasn’t on my list of things to do either.

Cutting out the visual was awesome. She could still hear everyone, which was good, but without a strong visual I could start working on calling her to me with ease and rewarding her coming away from the windows. We had it up for nearly six years before we did another remodel.

Now the windows are clear, she can see everything clearly. But the windows have been conditioned as ‘nothing cool happens here’ space. She may bark a couple of times at a dog that comes close to our yard, or a strange FED EX person walking up our drive, but comes right to me. Conditioning is so much nicer than forcing, and the stained glass film was pretty!

car -

Because Franny was reactive in the car and actually cracked a window I had to be creative about our travels.

I started to take her by myself to dog areas, park a bit away and feed her her dinner by hand while she watched the other dogs. As she visibly relaxed I lessened the distance a bit. Then I would drive by these areas and do the same. I was desensitizing, hopefully, and taking some of the intensity out.

While we can drive by dogs without  acknowledgment of their presence on this planet, If I park and leave her in the car, she will still off load with great intensity. So I don’t park any place with her that has that possibility. My presence is part of the package for calm in the car, I am under no illusion here!

exercise -

This was tricky. She wasn’t toy driven, a bit but not for any type of duration. She liked walking but it didn’t make a dent in her exercise requirements. She loved to run, but it was usually paired with running after something to kill. She was great at hiking.

I started to do backyard agility training for fun, and also mental exercise for her. To all agility fans out there, Franny is a dog that ran as fast as the handler, no more no less. If you were bullet fast so was she. She never popped a contact, missed a weave, knocked a bar, or missed a cue. She was perfect! But she had zero interest in the larger agility scene. She clearly was doing this for me, as she never volunteered to do it on her own. It proved to be a great relationship building experience.

Every night we played with fun tricks in the family room. My kids were used as obstacles most of the time, my husband a launching pad when we got into vaulting skills. Those are some of my best early memories.

My husband who is a runner started to take her on extended trail runs, 15-35 miles per week for over seven years. She rocked as his trail companion. They could pass cows, deer, bears, other hikers and dogs. She loved running with Spore! When she turned ten though she kind of started to refuse the outings.  I think this was harder on Spore than Fran to be honest.

things we taught -

She has gone through agility, freestyle, treibball and herding training with me. While none of them totally lit her up, she does enjoy a fun little session in any of these. Freestyle for sure has become fun for her as she ages. great mental and physical exercise!

sit

come to me

down ( without the threat of pain , fear or discomfort!)

touch an object

go to table (go to transferred into a whole bunch of stuff over time)

roll over

sit pretty

shake/bake

spin

twirl

bow

between my legs

in

jump on my back (she wouldn’t go across water when we first got her, so we taught her how to jump on or backs and we would carry her across)

kennel up

settle gets you everything, push gets nothing

hop up

all agility obstacles

watch me

now (if I really needed her quickly on a trail, now meant, post haste!)

stop and drop (if she saw prey to chase, stop and drop was the behavior we taught, we started this on a long line, see prey at a distance, stop, and a whole baggie of steak was dumped between my feet)

sit/stand/down when car goes by (incompatible with chasing a car) we spent an entire summer on old county roads working on this. My husband would drive the car two miles in either direction and just keep passing us. I needed her to hear the car from aways away and start working on her not setting up so much, and then offer a behavior that was better than chasing, a long line was used for this as well. Meat balls worked great too!

on by – when another dog was near by, for us to keep moving if it looked like it may not go well

stay

gate zen – so we didn’t have bolting out of our space, yard, house, car

drop

back – fun freestyle move

books -

These are the books and/or authors that have been with me through my journey and into my professional career. These are not all of the books I have read, but the one’s I found most useful. I went through a period of reading two books per week. And then I had my stack of ‘pleasure’ books as well that I was reading at the same time. Most of these books can be found at DogWise. Where it says everything, I read all of the books/booklets that author wrote. They aren’t all about dogs, but rather relationship, training, behavior and ethology…

Patricia McConnell – everything

Roger Abrantes – everything

Jeffrey Masson – everything

Suzanne Clothier – everything

Terry Ryan – everything

Bob Bailey – all articles

Culture Clash – Jean Donaldson

Jane Goodall – everything

Mark Bekoff – everything

Next of Kin (awesome!)

Applied Dog Behavior and Training (3 volumes) – Steven R. Lindsay

Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog

Crate Games

The Rosetta Bone

Applied Behavior Analysis

Learning and Behavior

Four Paws, Five Directions

Aggressive Behavior in Dogs

On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals

Peak Performance: Coaching the Canine Athlete

The Only Dog Tricks Book You’ll Ever Need

K9 Kitchen

When Pigs Fly

baby Sounds CD

Dr. Dunbar’s Good Little Dog Book

Alone Across the Arctic

A Shepherd’s Watch

Don’t Shoot the Dog

Disc Dogs DVD

Intro to all breed herding DVD

NATURE’S Dogs that Changed the World DVD

Rhythm Paws DVD

My Dog Pulls: What do I do?

The Well Adjusted Dog

The Elephants Secret Sense

things I’ve learned -

Everything! Franny has taught me how to open my eyes to the world around me, be aware, and build my skills. This applies in all aspects of my life. The one aspect of our relationship that continues to grow is our trust in each other. While love was not part of who we initially were together, it has grown over the years through the fun and dark times. When I look at her there is a feeling of fullness and depth. She is part of my personal biography, my every fiber.

Nancy & Franny …