Place your hand over your dog's muzzle, hold it there for a second or two and then remove it. Does your dog let you do this? If yes, move on to the next step...

Place your hand over your dog's muzzle and keep it there as long as possible.

How long can you ride the bucking bronco before you get nipped off? Or if your dog isn't a bronco, how long can you sit there while your dog simply shuts down and doesn't move a muscle?

Moral of the story: If your dog can't even set still with your HAND on his muzzle right under his eyes (where the noseband fits), why do some people (maybe even you?) complain about how "Oh he doesn't like it" and expect a dog to tolerate that constant pressure without trying to buck it off like he does your hand?

Ever dog I've tried this on who comes into the store whose owner asks about pulling on the leash has failed this simple test with epic proportions.

Something's not right when, if a dog won't submit to a human hand on its muzzle, we expect it to submit to a noseband.

A week or so ago, a couple came in with their shepherd/husky mix. Beautiful dog, but the owners left something to be desired: the husband was the gangsta-type, all tough and whatnot about his dog, the dog had a belt for a leash, and the wife...well, don't remember much of her, but she definitely didn't say anything that made me think that she was any smarter about dog care than her husband. So we asked if we could help them.

They wanted to know why their dog was escaping his tie-out so often, for starters. Well, it couldn't have been that it's beginning on mating season now, is it, and the dog happened to have balls that poor Uly would find handy instead of his one egg? So we mentioned getting him neutered, but no, apparently even the VET said he's too old to be neutered. Mmmm-hmm.

So what now could they use to keep him from escaping when he's on his tie-out? They head to the check-chains, but since my co-worker is taking care of them, it doesn't dawn on me until the hubby's tossing chains over the dog's neck like horsehoes that something might be wrong here. "Are you using the chain for training or for a tie-out?" I ask. "Oh we're looking for something he can't escape from, he's broken them airplane cables even, he's so strong," he replies. I bite my tongue and instead of telling them that yes, their dog will not escape from a choker because it'll freaking KILL it not to mention that he's fitting the chain completely wrong, just explain that a chain is not meant to be used with tie-outs because it could get caught on something and literally choke his dog.

So then we asked about a proper leash instead of the belt. "Oh, we got tons of leashes at home, we just never remember to bring one with us," is the reply. I'd love to see the look on any police officer's face when they explain this to him because, well, I don't know about y'all, but where we are, when in public, a dog is REQUIRED to be on-leash unless under strict control. My managers' dogs pass this test. This poor mutt though, not so much.

And then the poor mutt misbehaves and doesn't listen when they tell him to sit. Hubby grabs the dog roughly around the neck and says "Nein." Hexen, my first thought was to break up in complete laughter (and I almost did), but then I just turned around and did a *facepalm* because really, there was nothing else I could do. People have called me a know-it-all when it comes to dogs and dog training, but man alive, "NEIN"?!?! I think by this time I'd gathered the remnants of the Serenity Prayer back together in my mind and was repeating it to myself with gusto.

Well, they end up leaving with a dog license (late fee added with joy, might I add) and a harness that they were sure he couldn't escape from. I didn't know at the time, but oh yes those things can be slipped with ease, as demonstrated by a German pinscher at another time.

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And then there's the tale of The Great Dane and the Show Chain.

The Dane is about a year old and with experienced Dane owners, so they know what to expect and how to handle such a huge dog. This thing is absolutely a giant by now too, coming up to my waist (and I'm only 5'8"!) and giving me the LEAN treatment and saying "Pet me, you fool!"

I guess they thought it was time to start really training him, so they asked to look at check chains. But not the ones we had in stock on the collar rack, they were looking for something in particular, some type of chain they'd used on their last dog "that stretched." No, it wasn't a nylon choker, and they definitely weren't interested in the regular check chains (though they did use those to find a proper fit, which STILL ended up being too large), so they asked to look through the Coastal catalogue to see if anything fit their mind's description of this strange chain.

They settled on a show chain. No amount of explaining otherwise would sway them.

We ordered the chain and watched for it (my quick-release HS prong collars were in the same package, so I was extra-excited for this order). When it came, I looked at the tag, and right there it said "For Show Purposes Only!" (I was not too excited when my prong collars came in...US$37.99 for the small size and US$40.99 for the med size! Talk about "WHOA, sticker shock!" But I got them anyway :\ ) Oh well, no changing some people I guess...they were excited to put it on him and see how it looked, and of course, he looked like he was ready for the show ring. Such a thin chain could only be comfortably used at the show ring anyway: I could only imagine it causing the dog more discomfort than necessary because of the thinness of it digging into the neck with a motivational correction!

My co-workers and I have a running bet (no losses or gains to anyone though) on how long it'll be before the family comes back in with a broken chain because they corrected a bit too hard.

A few months ago, someone came in asking about something to stop her chocolate Lab from pulling. It turned out that she already had a Gentle Leader and taken classes from one of the store employees (who works at a different location than I), but was still pulling like a train. She was pretty desperate to find something that would stop it, so I explained the pinch collar to her and recommended that she give it a try with some loose-leash training. And to add to the bonus, I threw in my name a phone number in case she had any questions, since she lived pretty close to my neighborhood. [Had she lived way far away from me, I probably wouldn't have done that.] Anyway, she decided to get a pinch collar for her chocolate Lab puppy too since he was starting to become a puller (he was the appropriate age). Because her one Lab was about 95-lbs, I sent her away with some extra links as well in case she needed them.

Turns out that she didn't need the links, because she came back later to return them. But she did rave about how that morning's walk was one of the best ones she'd ever had with both dogs!

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This morning, I was setting up after opening and someone came back to look at our Innoteks. My manager kind of pointed at her with that "This is right up your alley, go help her" manner: it turned out that her sherpherd/collie mix (she was doubtful about that as it looked almost exactly like a border collie) was somewhat dog-aggressive and she was looking to an e-collar to fix the problem. Now I feel comfortable using remote trainers, but only for certain things, and for me to explain how to use it with aggression was way outta my league, so I just directed her to what I knew would work: the pinch collar. She was very open to the idea, and understood that she needed to first work on getting the dog's attention first and working on respect for her before starting to correct for aggression. As a caveat, I started to refer her to MY trainer, who I know is absolutely solid with any type of dog, but then I remembered that he is located way far away from where we live, but when I mentioned that, she simply said "Oh wow, that's where we've moved to!," so she was at least in the right area! I gave her his name and the name of his training school, and after explaining the basics of starting to work with aggression, suggested that she give him a call and set up an evaluation. And not only did she live in the far-out town in which my trainer lives, she only stopped by the store on a fluke, just to check it out while she was in the area for a job interview. So I can't say that I believe in certain deities, but I can definitely say that someone or something set this meeting up between us that morning.

Well, she called back later in the afternoon (which I was completely NOT expecting), and asked for "The girl who was helping me this morning who sold me a collar." I told her that was me, expecting some kind of question...instead the first thing she said was "You are a saint!" Apparently, she'd started immediately working with her dog that afternoon and even received two comments from her neighbors about how well-behaved her dog suddenly was! "If only they would've known him 10 hours earlier!" is her exact words.

I don't think it's "sad," I don't think it's really "pathetic" even. I believe it's just plain wrong and against all better judgment, and the vet that recommended this should have something done to him/her that really takes him/her down in the eyes of his/her colleagues.

A woman came into the store the other day with a cute little dog, about Sheltie sized (but not a Sheltie) on a Flexi lead. My first note was that the dog was also wearing a head halter.

Great, two of the things I hate on one dog at the same time.

Didn't really get a chance to talk to her until she was checking her items out and paying, and I asked her (nicely, of course, it's good to gather information before I go stabbing it through it's collective vitals) if she knew that she had an anti-pulling device on her dog and was also using a device that promotes pulling away from her. That's pretty much all I got to say until she left the store, because I was given this explanation and, because I've learned what I can say to what types of people, really couldn't say what I wanted to...

"My vet recommended that I do this because my dog is a bit aggressive, and this would keep me in control of her."

First: You have an aggressive dog and you're giving it 26 feet of freedom instead of keeping it right next to you so it CAN'T go after another dog?

Second: You're letting your dog have the freedom to RUN (and gain momentum) to another dog while you have the control of that handy little button that slams on the brakes to a cord connected by a tool to a part of the body that really shouldn't have that kind of sudden pressure (in that small of an area) exerted upon it?

My co-workers and I just about cried for that dog. ------------------- In other news, I can't guarantee regularity of blogging much nowadays. Two jobs is taking a toll on me, both socially and personally, so bear with me and I'll get relevant stuff up here as I can.

The first being the woman who mentioned that she worked Schutzhund. I can't even imagined how I looked when I heard that, my eyes must've been bugging out of my head and my smile was probably too wide for my face, and who knows if my hair was standing on end on top of my head. Apparently there are more clubs around here than I thought, but when I mentioned the master trainer of the club of which I've attended trials, she said that he did DVG and not USA (United Schutzhund Club of America) style. Any takers at explaining that? Since it's the only club at which I've attended trials and actually been able to see what's going on and how training goes, I thought that's how most all Schutzhund worked. Granted, I've heard that you can teach police K9 and Schutzhund through clicker training/positive-only, but I've got doubts about that. But believe me, I was excited to meet someone who worked with the sport so locally.

The second one made me wish I had a bit more money: a customer came in, checked out with his dog food and whatnot, and then asked to see a remote trainer. I got one of the Innoteks off the back wall, started explaining the collar to him, the different stim levels and whatnot, and then asked if he'd ever used one before. His answer stunned me: he was an inventor and merely wanted to see the mechanisms of the remote and receiver (which I couldn't take out of the box, but he was interested in anyway) because he wanted to work on something like a remote pinch collar. I took him back to the pinch collars and asked again if I'd heard right, that he wanted to use this medieval-torture look-alike and transform it into something the public would take to even better and he said "That's exactly right. When they're puppies, doesn't the mother bite their necks in order to correct them?"

Turns out that this man knows his dogs! We talked for a while about the publicity and political correctness of using the term "shock," which, though connected to an absolutely phenomenal training tool, causes many people to jerk back and go "Wait, I'm going to do WHAT to my dog?!" The same thing is caused by the pinch collar, when just by looking at it, people shake their heads and say "No WAY am I even touching that thing, much less putting it on my dog!" and then of course, it's either up to the great orator, the magical salesperson, the well-known and well-spoken-of dog trainer, or the extremely desperate/open-minded customer to get it out of the store. This guy's idea was to use only a few of the prongs and make a remote training collar out of those instead of having the whole collar made up out of them, taking away that torture-device look...even the remote trainers have 'prongs' on them, don't they, and people still use them?

After he left, my co-worker and I were still discussing his idea, and she gave me an earful about how she was so upset about peoples' responses to the training collars&they're here to help the dogs, she said, not hurt them. Even dogs use pain and punishment among themselves, only when needed and it ceases immediately when the desired response is achieved.

People amaze me every day, and that experience really made my day, knowing that someone out there has the time, desire, knowledge and motivation to think of making something like that gives me some hope about aspects of humanity.

But on to fun accomplishments:

My breaking and training class participated for fun in the livestock show presented by the University, obviously only in the equine part unless someone was conned into doing the whole thing: presenting the horse, a lamb, a beef and a dairy cow, and a pig. Seeing as how I had to work yesterday, I couldn't do it all, plus I don't know the first thing about handling any livestock other than horses, so I only showed as a student in the class. The equine portion consisted of showmanship, in which we lead the horse through a pattern and demonstrate good handling skills, while the horse demonstrates its respect of the handler and knowledge of cues.

First came the preparation: Mystique pretty much would walk, trot and back in hand, but forget pivoting on her hindquarters! I'd taught her to yield her hindquarters to me when I asked, but making the front end move around the back end was just about impossible without constant physical pressure. I'd pretty much gotten to the point where, working in the arena with all 24 head that morning, she wasn't going to perform and I may as well do what I could with what I had.

I've never been in a horse show either, but I know there's also a lot of cleaning that goes into it, especially regarding the horse: problem being, Mystique lives outside and outside during this season usually means a whole lot of dirt, snow and mud. Even so, the night before, I went to the barn and waited my turn in the wash rack to simply shampoo off her legs and tail and coat them with a hefty spritz of Show Sheen to keep the dirt off until the morning. I spent 30 minutes getting the horrible dreadlocks out of that mare's tail, but it lasted: the next morning, I barely even had to brush it out and it was so silky and pretty! Her one white sock, on the other hand, had a bit of dirt on it, so I washed both back legs again, scrubbed the dirt off the hoof walls, and called it a morning. (The day before, my prof showed me how to rasp down her hooves, even gave me a chance to do so, and he'd helped me clip her bridle path and clean up her whiskers.)

My portion of the show lasted about 2-3 minutes, but it was some of the most intense minutes ever, and that darned horse pulled out all the stops for me! She walked next to me, picked up the trot IMMEDIATELY as I leaned forward and sped up, halted when I did, backed up as I faced her, and...and...she did an almost-perfect pivot the 270-degrees required of us! Her square set (all four hooves together, weight distributed equally and squarely across all four legs) was not quite what we'd practiced, but I moved from side to side appropriately as the judge walked around her, then said "Thank you" and dismissed us. I watched the video (hopefully I'll get it up on YouTube one of these days if I can find the camera cords and the CD needed to record onto the computer) and was simply amazed. Mostly by her tail, but come on...30 minutes well-spent and everyone agrees that a beautiful long, flowing, silky tail is half the battle!

We placed 4th overall out of 20! :D

But man am I learning that the concepts of learning and punishment are almost exactly the same, if applied differently!

Pull and release. Pull and release. If you keep pulling, then the horse/dog has something to pull against and will just keep resisting.

Learned that when Mystique kept throwing her shoulder to the outside and completely messing up her perfect circle by side-cantering out and while I was cranking her head to the side, my prof told me that while I was pulling, there was no release. I was doing almost everything right: pulling on the direct rein, creating a "Wall" with my indirect rein and bumping with my outside leg so she'd hopefully move off it toward our circle again, but I wasn't releasing. And not only would she break the circle, but once she hit the fence (almost literally, she was running perpendicular to it at times and then TURN suddenly and keep cantering), she then tried to slam me into the wall or the stalls adjacent to the arena.

Teaching her to give to the bit and flex wasn't pretty...we had to tie her head to the horn, tie the other rein to the D-ring on the saddle, and just drive her around in a circle at liberty for a while until she started giving and flexing. Then it was one GOOD circle at the canter (which was all I was asking of her to BEGIN with), a hose-off and the pasture.

Despite that, I had her walking and trotting next to me for a good half hour, just doing groundwork. Oh, and I didn't have a lead rope on her...she was just hooked-on to me, just like an off-leash doggy. I've never had that happen before with any horse, probably because I've never worked with one this extensively, and wow the feeling of trust and the bond you feel when you're doing that...amazing.

It continually amazes me how different animals are, yet the concepts of behavior are kinda sorta the same.

I brought home some Geneflora the other day to see what it would be able to do for his sometimes-still-loose stools and allergies. He's already on Wellness Venison & Rice (single protein and single carb formula), so I know he's getting some good food that's meant for allergies/sensitive tummies, but Mom claimed that she could see his feet turning a bit pink again, so I talked to my manager. She not only was on the equestrian team, but is also an animal science major and works part-time at a vet's office, and while she's not totally 100% holistic and natural (she knows when to draw the line between trying something different versus going with what's proven), she's had a lot of success with some alternative remedies that I'd never even heard of before I started working there. One such remedy is Geneflora, a powder that's basically dry Yorhund (dog yogurt), chock-full of all the good bugs and whatnot that'll make it through the acid pit of the stomach and into the intestines where they're supposed to live. So far he's been on it 1 whole day, mostly due to my...erm...sneakiness at getting it into his food during the morning since he now sleeps in my room. Dinner's a little bit harder, but I managed last night. It'll be interesting to see how much improvement, if any, it gets him with his allergies, stools, gas, and whatever else.

The store recently got some free treat boxes for those loyal customers who buy 30-lb bags of Wellness brand dog food (I'm seriously not doing a plug for them here, just the brand that's mixed up in all this), no charge to us and free to select customers. We were also told that they're free for us too, provided we took them under cover of darkness. One such treat is a Yogurt, Apple & Banana Wellbar, which I figured&Z is fed yogurt and bananas and apples when they're in season, and the treats are meat-free so there's no poultry protein for him to react to&so I spirited out a box of that one night. Wow, he loved it and when I told my parents about it (and THEY made sure he liked the treats too!), they told me that this might be something we could give him on the rare regular occasion and to spirit out a few more boxes. No problemo!

I've also been hearing customers (and other staff) raving about the bully sticks. Now, Z's never been much of a chewer, he doesn't really touch the Nylabones we give him and he's never shown interest in shoes, utensils, furniture, etc...so I wasn't sure about this. Every customer who talked to me about bully sticks just kept saying how hard their dog chewed, if they didn't have these then they'd be out a few sets of furniture, no shoes on their feet, etc. Either way, Z still likes to chew on his toys, not destructive chew, but just manipulate them and exercise his jaws. I figured it was worth a shot, even at US$5.99 per stick (not counting tax and discount). He didn't even know what to do with it! I let him sniff it, take it in his mouth...and then it was like "Well, OK...do what now?" and spit it out. I held it up to his mouth and let him lick it, then he started to sort of test-chew it and I praised him! He just really started to get it this morning; we went back to my room after breakfast and had some bully-stick time before I had to run off to the barn to work Mystique. I put it away before I left and when I came back, we had some more bully-stick time before my shower&and now he's really getting into the whole "Hey, this is something I can chew and it tastes good!" thing.

I'd have some pics of Mystique (my palomino Quarter horse mare that I'm working with for this equine breaking/training class), but the library unfortunately has Photobucket blocked, so I'll probably post one under the Member Gallery.

But personal life aside...

AIKI has another client that she will hopefully be getting a call from in order to set up an evaluation. I was helping someone find some chews and he mentioned something about the Dog Whisperer and how he needs to come to our area (which he actually did once and I wasn't available for it unfortunately). I said "Oh, you have some behavior problems?" and things went downhill from there :P I explained some things, answered his questions, and he did admit that it's really that he needs to be trained more than the dogs (think Reagan-omics), but would I really be interested in working with 2 Beagle littermates who are about to turn 3? You bet. I gave him my name and number, told him that I was out this weekend (friends from school coming down for burgers and beer), and I was available pretty much during the evening when I wasn't working.

Which also got me thinking seriously about starting some business cards or something like that. Or at least join the APDT so I could have some title or something beside my name since I'm not connected with any breeders or kennels or something (sorry about harping on that, the whole credentials and titles...my family has mucho experience in the medical field, so we know how important education is, as well as the ability to prove it from somewhere :\ ). And that got me to thinking...

This is really the place that got me started, Adam and everyone else from the Westhost version of DogProblems to this one. And yes, I had a crazy name back then, but then I shortened it and realized that it had a meaning (linky to Wikipedia entry). Weird thing is, I never really would've connected it to dog training, but when you think about it, when you have a working relationship with your dog, some of those concepts really pull through! So maybe if I can scrounge some $$ together and make some business cards, I don't even know what I'd call my 'business,' if it could be called that... "AIKI K-9 Academy" or something like that, with a slogan or something about how your relationship with your dog should be harmonious, you work better as a team, etc...don't get me wrong, I like some Eastern stuff, I dabble in New Age some, and while I don't really like this whole "Natural, no-punishment, no-violence dog training" out there, I do think (like I mentioned above) that some of the concepts can really work when applied to real-world training.

And then I crash back to Earth and realize that yes, it's doable, but I'd have to quit for a few months when I go back to school to finish my bachelor's. But then I fly again when I remember I'm going back part time (only 3 classes left, darnit!), and I can build a clientele up there, or even work as a behavior consultant for the local vet. And not only that, but I'll be coordinating with Animal Science advisors at my local uni, so those classes plus a bachelor of Psychology, I'm really starting to realize what an opportunity that fell into my lap when I couldn't find the funds to pay for winter quarter!

Today's just a great day...totally offsets the horrible morning I had in which the horse spooked at just about ANYTHING and had the flexion and lightness of a 2x4. Which I was about to use to beat her upside the head. I keed. :P

I'm not even home and the family calls me back on my cell phone asking if I was available for hire because they had a few problems with Jake. Apparently, on the way home, the daughter tried the loose-leash method and when she walked into the house, she was very impressed that it had actually worked!

I was pretty floored that they were calling me so quickly! However, I was also a bit nervous (believe me, I wished I'd had someone, anyone's number from this site to go over things one more time), but I figured if I could do this own-self, big-girl, then I guess (while the rest won't be EASY), it'd be OK.

All in all, the session went well, I told her I charged $25/session with a free first session...I want them to feel comfortable with me and I want to learn about the dog(s) and the family and see if they'd be able to follow everything. I'll write a more in-depth blog about it later (time limits here at la bibliotheque), but just figured I'd let everyone know here that I'm getting results in the real world!

(Now comes the concern about insurance, credentials, liability, etc...honestly though, I figure if I stick with general obedience and not major dogfighting rehabbing, I should be OK.)