More thoughts...

Some days I hear people talking about how hard it is to have a puppy, how much Work it is. How the puppy are driving them crazy.

I do not understand it. Sorry, but I don't. They are puppies, babies, and do that young critters do - play, eat, poop, pee, learn and Sleep. I think we expect too much of our puppies - or have the wrong attitude towards it. Some people seem to think that dogs are born wellbehaved, and to some people "wellbehaved" means - lacking personality.

A puppy is easy! It gets tired quick, learns fast, is curious and playfull. What you need is patience untill the puppys behaviour are under control. Most puppies can't control their bladder untill they're 6 months old. People either dont know that or forget it.

And then, talking about puppies and bladders - Take away the friggin peepad/newspaper! All you are teaching your dog is to pee inside. Sure, if you have a wee tiny little lapdog I guess it can be very convenient to have a dog that pees in a litterbox... but a lot of dogs are bigger than a cat and pees a lot more! But housebreaking your puppy - don't teach it to pee in certain spots in the house... teach it to go outside. By the time you have it trained to pee on the newspaper.. you could have had it housebroke.

Kaiser is soon turning a year old, and he's full of play, love and opinions. I like my dogs to have opinions. I acctually love them for that, if there's no opinions there's no communication. And communication is what I am all about. He doesn't have to like all the things I do, and he's welcome to let me know that he don't. Now, depending on HOW he does it. He got the "look", a special face he makes to let me know that "Noooo... i dont agreee!", but he will still do it. With a bit of a huff and a puff some days. It's allright, he might not like it - but he does it for me.

I like him to have his personality, to do the things he does. While other people might view him as "illmannered" or "enoying" - I see it for what it is. Play. He is well aware of how to make me laugh, and apparently he likes it. My laugh has become a sort of praise for him, which is alright too! I litteraly can not get angry with him, I rarely got angry with my B either.

Anger has nothing to do with dogtraining - especially not puppies. What you do in anger can easily ruin 2 months of work.

To train in a "break" word - like my hey, is easier than you might think. Pick a word or a sound and use it - when the dog quits its behaviour PRAISE. Soon enough they know that that word means "quit doing what you are doing and come to me". Without rubbing your puppies nose in its pee (which you shouldn't be doing anyway!), waving a rolled up newspaper around (which only teatches your dog that you turn aggressive and noicy and mean all suddenly).

Ah... i'm going to quit my rambling now, my spellingabilities are still asleep so I'm heading towards the coffeepot!

Have a good one!

It's been a while...

It has been a while since I logged in here.. I've been sidetracked.

Decided to dust this blogg off and bring it back to life as I got asked today to write down my thoughts about dogtraining, I'm going to start here.

First, there's a lot of talk about packleaders, alphadogs and dominance. And on tv you will see people using different methods refering to these 3 words.

I am not impressed. What you learn on tv are ways to handle emergencies - where a behaviour has become so out of control that brute force, be if fysicly or mentally, is the only way out.

Second, people show. And thats GREAT! But what people don't realize is that to have a Good canine citizen in your dog takes time. Out side of the showring or trialfield. To have a nice walk in town, good behaviour in the house and a happy and obedient dog - has nothing to do with training it for show. Nothing at all.

I am not "the packleader". Not in the way you see the word used, I do not "dominate" my dog.

Why?

I dont need to. It's as simple as that. Kaiser and me, like Batzo and me, are a team. Partners. In the relationship I am boss - not because I focus on dominating him, but because I reinforce the behaviours I like, I shape them into being what I want.

A good dog has drives, playdrive, preydrive, fightdrive, fooddrive, toydrive, a will to herd or hunt or.. it is our foundation. It is what we base our training and our relationship on. A dog comes with buildingblocks, they are opportunists. They will do what they gain from doing, if it's food, a pat, a click, a "good boooy!" or a toy - it doesn't matter.

How do you shape a good foundation in your dog?

First, you have to find the buildingblocks that are the most solid. Is it food drive? Does balls mean the world to your dog? The goal is that your interaction with the dog is what it's trying to get.

It starts when the dog is just a pup. Thats where you start identifying the drives, the braveness, the will. Those buildingblocks are our mold to form and create a happy, loving dog that will be a joy to be around.

We have to know What is in our dog - and let it work for us. People say that a high drive dog is "hard". In my way of thinking it is not true, instead of correcting that dog, instead of trying to push it around and instead of ending up in a conflict situation - let the drives work For you. Pick out the drive you feel is best suited for the occation, normally it's food or play drive, and use it.

By making sure that the puppy gains something by coming to you, affection, praise, candies or a toy you are building the foundation for a good recall as it gets older. By teaching the pup to wait for a heartbeat before eating - you are teaching it patience and the Very usefull commando "wait" or "Stay" - which Will come in handly later on in life.

Kaiser and the successfull "gossiptraining". I have taught him to look at me when other dogs bark at him, using a clicker to mark the behaviour I want. You dont Need a clicker, but it might help speed things up a bit.



He is happy, willing - and if you pay attention, he's following handsignals and little looks from me - he knows how to read me. A very attentiative dog that says "Hey look at me! Im good, i know this, did ya see what i did? Look at me, come on, Im GREAT!" That is what I want in my dogs. Joy - and selfasteem.

Take it easy! ..and i'll be back.... lol

:)

Today...

We had a little victory today...

Before I've had to work one dog at a time - with the other one close around of course.. But today, Kaiser and Abby was able to work at the same time. Nothing fancy, just sit and lay. But still! That they both can handle to separate commandos, when it's for Kaiser, when it's for Abby, and when it's for both..

It's colder than HECK today. And the "kids" got to play for a while, they ran around and had fun. They both make me laugh so hard, and they're realy great together!!

Hmm.. what else...
I'm tired, but proud over myself and the dogs. Only bad i've done today was forget the camera inside. I should have had it with me out!

And the dried heart was an Epic win.

...but...

They spit out the storebought candy.

They Spit It Out.
With a look like " do you Realy expect me to eat That?!"
..and they Did eat it. And like it. Untill I made the homemade livercandies.

I'll be damned... oh well, atleast its healthy for them!

A new game!

Abby and Kaiser had two nice long plays today... I haven't been feeling ok today and are realy realy tired, knee's arguing and voer all I'm kinda mushy, so training has been very little today and the dogs got to play and run and sniff.. good to have the two of them, atleast they can get energy out playing.

So..
I threw out candies in the snow - and both dogs did a Super job at finding them! ..Abby started digging, and soon Kaiser joined - belive it or not.. but they had located our missing ball!! How the heck Abby managed to find it in this deep snow I have no idea, smell prolly?

And they have a new game.. I left Abbys leash on today for their runs.. and soon enough Kaiser was leading her around. It was hillarious! ..and he acctually brought her to me a couple of times when I said "Bring'er!". He's brought her before, herds her to me, but to see him lead her over was just amazingly fun and I was laughing sooo hard.

He likes carrying the leash, I use it as a "treat" when he's walking nice too.. if he's good he gets to hold the leash. Overall he likes carrying stuff..

Oh, Abby's trying to teach him how to steal my coffee cups. And she still carries it in the handle. As she does with the little yellow bucket.

I'm happy, but mushy... and I love seeing the dogs together and all they come up with! They're an awesome couple... And Kaiser is my hero! <3

Good night, I'm going to hide out in a book...

One reason why..

..I think that something needs to be done - not about the wild dogs per say, but about the attitude towards dogs.

Dogattack

It resulted in a 10 year old boys death.
A woman in the video talk about "killing sprees" - It will take away the sumptomes for a while, but it Wont solve the problem.

What Should be done is raise awareness as to What happens to dogs roaming free, they still have their instincts and it doesn't take long untill "Fluffy" goes generations back mentally and turns wild. A Wild dog does not count humans as leaders, we're merely prey or enoyances.

What should be done is reward the dogowner that Take responsability by neutering their dogs. That don't just let them out and ignore them.

This is heartbreaking.
Both for the child and his familys suffering, but also for the dogs - and the view on dogs that things like this will inforce.

There's allready laws agains certain breeds in our communities, but it's not the breeds that should be targeted - it's the owners, the breeders and the neglect that can lead to things like this. In 90% of the cases the shit isn't on the lower part of the leash - but the upper part.

Humans who buy and/or breed dogs have a RESPONSABILITY, towards the dog - and towards society. Dogs should be "good neighbours" too! And dogowners, being a good neighbour isn't hard - but it takes responsability and action.

..not tomorrow.
Today.

Nice day!

I've been trying to catch up in school, so between reading and writing and learning I've had nice breaks with Kaiser... He's doing great!

We went for a long walk with a friend today, thru town. I should walk him in town more often... but he did great! Heeled like a big boy, but wants to say hi to Everybody all the time. But what else is there to expect, he's allways center of attention (well, almost allways anyway) anyhow, he did Great! And I'm soo proud!

I'm starting to teach him to walk in front of me, using a swedish word as commando for that and he's picking it up realy good! And backs down to my side when told to. Such a good boy!

..but...

apparently my homemade livercandies made the bought dogcandies taste bad. Hrm... guess I'll have to start hunting for more liver. Abby prefers the bought dogcandy tho, is fun to see the difference in taste the dogs have!

Have a good night!