Sunday, July 29, 2012

What are the odds?

That I would end up in a restaurant with the bathroom doors marked in this manner??

Friday, July 20, 2012

Have dogs...will travel....

Spent the day driving from Mississippi to Maryland for a 2 week long Detection Trainers Course that starts on Monday. I have 5 dogs traveling with me. In my world happiness is finding a motel where you can back right up to the room door AND you can find a spot like this next to a mcdonalds when everyone (including me) needs a bathroom break.




Calix gives the great big hotel bed his stamp of approval and is totally okay with sleeping on pink sheets....

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

First Oprah...now Dr. Phil....

The payback for the wonderful Mississippi winter weather is the current high temps and high humidity. Of course that pretty much describes much of the eastern US (which did NOT get our wonderful winter weather). I currently happen to be training two dogs to track as well as continuing to work several of mine. This requires some early mornings in order to get tracks for four dogs out of the way before it gets too hot. There's not much on TV at 5AM while I am getting ready. Nothing really except Dr. Phil. The other day I caught a comment he made as I was bringing one set of dogs in from outside and taking another set out (going out all together would result in a free-for-all play session that would result in no one taking care of their business).

Anyway Dr. Phil pointed out that people always ask him if something is "normal". He said that his standard answer is that if it is not disruptive to someone and doesn't cause the person any problems then it is "normal". I am paraphrasing (it was 5AM after all), I sure he also used some Texas colloquialism (my favorite is "no matter how flat you make a pancake it still has two sides).

In traveling around the country, teaching dog training to people, I often encounter owners who are embarrassed at the behavior of their dogs. Often this justified (or they wouldn't need my help) but sometimes they are just overly concerned because I am a "dog trainer". They feel like they need to apologize for their dogs behavior or they expect that I wouldn't approve - like I am going to issue a report card regarding what kind of a dog owner they are. Our dogs are to enjoy and different people have different priorities when it comes to what they want from them. What might be considered unacceptable behavior in one household might be encouraged and enjoyed in another. Take me for example. Very few people come to my door (2 malinois, 2 rottweilers and a german shepherd, go figure?). I have no interest or inclination to teach my pack of dogs to greet people politely at the door. I don't have a need for the skill and would much rather be spending my time on behaviors that are valuable to me (like tracking or finding illegal narcotics). In the rare instances that I have non-dog company come to my house I just send everyone to their kennels and let them out one at a time after everyone is in the house. In another household, with people coming and going, my dogs behavior might be unacceptable and might warrant someone seeking professional training help.

What IS unacceptable are two categories of behavior. The first category is bad behavior that does disrupt things and does cause problems.  Sometimes this can be perfectly normal behavior for the dog, however the behavior is not compatible with them existing in our household in harmony.  Those types of behaviors are usually obvious (although often challenging to fix!). The second category is less obvious - it is where allowing or condoning one behavior spills over into other behaviors. I see this a lot with reactive dogs or ones without self-control. They are rewarded or encouraged for their lack of self control in some areas and then the person is trying to address issues related to lack of self control in other areas. Often I encourage people to look at the bigger picture when they are trying to modify a very specific behavioral problem and expect consistent and compatible behaviors for such dogs.

This doesn't apply just to everyday and household manner. It also applies to sports (and work) in so many areas as well. With certain dogs there is a spillover in their attitude towards interacting with the handler. If the dog lacking self control does not have to have self control any in other aspects of his life then I think he is usually less likely to exhibit high levels of it in sport or work. This does not mean that the household has to be a boot camp environment (my own house is far from it) but I encourage people to look at the bigger picture of what message their are giving the dog by allowing or encouraging certain behaviors. If it is "normal" by Dr' Phil standards then great, otherwise takes measures to manage it or modify it - especially with young dogs.


One of the challenges of tracking in the middle of the summer. You find some relatively nice green grass and no sooner do you get a track laid than this happens!


Friday, July 6, 2012

Jilly Bean aka "Mom's Special Girl"

Due to their lifestyle since puppies all of my dogs are very adapt at going with the flow. It seems like no matter where we are or what we are doing they just adapt and take everything in stride no matter how odd or sudden the change is. This was particularly noticable over the past month of traveling all over the eastern half of the country. We traveled from Mississippi to Vermont, stayed in more than 10 different places over the month - motels rooms, motor home kennels, car, dog trailer, other people's houses.... We also had several unscheduled stops and changes due to car trouble. On top of that they also hung out during the day in the dog trailer parked next to multiple firing ranges at the FBI Academy for two weeks. There's probably not a caliber of weapon they havent heard fired by now.... Nothing phased them - they even accepted an intact male malinois that is with me for training into their group without a ripple.

However....one dog (even though I can't take credit for raising her from a puppy) gets points for being extra extra good. Jilly Bean aka "mom's special girl".

Not enough room in the crating area of the motor home for all the dogs? Jill gets left out.



Can only take one dog into the hotel? Jill gets to go...



Only room in the Jeep for one dog? Jill's my girl....

I was looking at her today and said "Why can't the rest of the dogs be as well behaved as you?" And I swear that I heard a voice in my head say "Because then you wouldn't appreciate ME so much!"