Training ISSR Shiloh Shepherd Wolf Creek's Sadie of Zion

2007-03-10T07:54:00.000-05:00

Sadie Hits the Road

Well winter is over and spring is on the way. The temperatures is creeped up to over 50 and it is time to see how much damage vegitating over the winter has done to the dogs and I. Sadie just came out of her 3rd heat cycle and I need to see what kind of shape she is in. With this goal in mind I got out the bike and hit the road. I decided to take the dogs one at a time on this first outing of the season just to evaluate their condition. I took Storm first simply because he makes the most fuss if I go biking without him so I figured if I tired him out first he will be calmer when I take the other dogs. All my dogs do well with the bike and love the exercise. Each one has its own issues but none of them are serious.

As expected Storm immediately went into his flying trot. Those of you that have seen him in the ring know that I am not bragging when I say he moves like a dream. Once we start moving he is totally focused on the run. His head is always straight ahead and never varies even if a dog should come after us. He is oblivious to the world around him. However, if you remember, I said that each dog has issues and Storm did not fail to disappoint. No matter how long it has been since he went to the bathroom about a mile into the run he has to go again. He is so focused on the run that he does not miss a step. He just goes like a horse plop plop plop. As a matter of act I did not even know that he did it until I gave Sadie her turn on the same course and I noticed the large pellets that he left behind. He completed the run of about 2 miles without missing a step and was not panting very hard so I will increase the distance for him tomorrow.

Sadie was next. She is more interested in what is going on around her then Storm is but stays in position without fail. She does not have the trot down yet and still starts out with what I can only describe as a collie hop. Part of my goal with Sadie is to get her into the grove and improve her trot. Since she is the youngest we did about 2.5 miles. She did not get near tired enough. It took her until the last 1/2 mile to relax and slip into the flying trot but she will get there. Her issue is loss of concentration. For example on one leg of the course we have to do a 1/4 of a mile on a fairly busy street, I feel much more comfortable when that leg is over because I worry about the traffic not giving us the right of way. Just as I made the turn onto the busy street a Doberman came out of no where, ran out into the street with the owner yelling and running after him. Like I said Sadie is easily distracted and immediately turned toward the dog with her hair up all the way down her back, so I had to stop in the middle of traffic. I did not have a training collar on her so I did not want to take a chance correcting her while riding the bike so I stopped and let the Dob catch up. I gave a simple "Ah" and made her stand her gound. The dob came up to her and they did the mine smells better than yours dance and by the time they were finished greeting each other the owner caught up with us. He apologized and said that the dog bolted out of the house before he could do anything. I told him it was no problem, gave him one of my cards, hint, hint and we went on our way. Sadie was not near tired enough when we got back so I will definitely increase her distance tomorrow.

Next I took Pepper my Border Collie. Pepper is the oldest and the most over weight so I keep her run down to a couple of miles at a very slow pace. Pepper does not know how to pace herself so when we first start out she runs so fast that it is hard for me to keep up with her on the bike but, this only lasts for about the first 1/4 mile befor she wears herself out. She also notices everything and has something to say about it so I have to watch her the whole time and catch her attitude change before it escalates into a all out chase after what ever catches her attention. Last year she caught me off guard once and ran down the road after 2 Doberman's and a lab. I did not see it coming until she was ahead of me. I hit the brakes on the bike but the rear brake failed and the front one caught. For those of you that ride bikes with hand brakes you can guess what happened. The only thing that stopped was the front wheel and i ended up on top of pepper surrounded by 3 other dogs and their owners wondering what had happened. Fortunately the only damage was to my ego for doing this in front of my neighbors and their dogs. I know they were thinking what kind of dog trainer is this. In any case I have learned to pay a little more attention to her than the other dogs. When we got home she was exhausted. She was going so slow that I had trouble keeping my balance on the bike.

Finally it was Lizzy's turn. Lizzy is a Collie/Shepherd Mix and about a year younger than Pepper. I took her on the same 2 mile course as Pepper and it fit her like a glove. She was winded when we got back but not excessively. I will work her up to longer distances gradually. Lizzy has long since gotten over her issues. She had a bad case of separation anxiety when I rescued her from along the road. It was so bad that when I first picked her up and tended to her wounds she went thru a 2x4 wall to be with me. This has long since been cured and she can now be left alone all day, if necessary, without worry.

Well that's our first outing for the season and my chance to refocus on the dogs. Over the winter I tend to get a little side tracked but this change in the weather is just what I need to get back on track. I have another blog that has pretty much gone dormant due to lack of enthusiasm on my part and I think it is time to wake it up as well. (http://pawpawmikes.blogspot.com/)

2006-09-03T19:14:00.000-04:00

The Magic Shirt

Now that my busy season is drawing to a close maybe I can get back to Sadie updates. And, what better way to start but with a little behavior that to spite all my years of observation I have never seen before.

If you have met Sadie in person you may think that she is this sweet little girl, because for the most part when we are out in public she is, but the way Sadie presents herself in public is nothing compared to the way she is at home. At Sadie's ISSR (International Shiloh Shepherd Registry) LER (Litter Evaluation Report) at 8 weeks Tina Barber our breed founder nicknamed her the "Ever Ready Bunny" and believe me she lives up to her name. Every waking minute she is ready to go. Even though she is now 14 months old she acts like a puppy. It is very difficult for me to keep weight on her because she is so active. Even if she settles down enough to eat the least little thing will distract her and she is off to investigate. Even if I take her out for a run with the bike or long walk it does not faze her. When we get back the other dogs are totally exhausted but she is still ready to go. Nothing phases her. Then the magic happened.

My Border Collie, Pepper, developed hot spots on her front leg so I wrapped it, put an old shirt on her so she could not bother the bandages and told her to leave it alone, which she did. I went outside for something and left her and Sadie in the house for a couple of minutes. When I came back into the house I found Pepper laying on the floor and Sadie had pulled up the sleeve on the shirt and was laying next to her working on the tape, which she had half way off of Peppers leg when I got back. I guess she thought she was doing her a favor. I took the shirt off of Pepper so that I could change the bandage and just for the fun of it I put it on Sadie.

Now, I have been studying dog behavior for many years and have never seen anything like this. The second I put the shirt on Sadie her attitude changed. Her ears went back and her tail went down. She came over to me and laid down next to me. I got up and went over to the couch to sit down and observe her. When I did she quietly got up came over to the couch got up next to me and put her head in my lap. When the other dogs walked past her she just ignored them, she would never let one pass her without grabbing them by the neck trying to get them to play with her, but now she just ignored them. This was not the same dog.

I left the shirt on her for the rest of the afternoon and it was like I had a new dog. Her temperament went from hard to soft in seconds. Just to test it I took the shirt off and she immediately returned to her normal over active self. Now ever time I put the Magic Shirt on her she turns into this soft loving dog. I wonder how much I can get for this shirt on eBay? I know a few of my clients that could use it. If you look closely at the pictures you can see the submissive look in her eye. If anyone out there try's this, and I know some of you will, please let me know your results.

2006-06-15T08:40:00.000-04:00

Sadie's First Show Part 2 Preparation

Sadie had some socialization and some obedience training but she had never stood for examination so I decided that I would take her to a local club for some confirmation run thru's. Even though she was all right around other people she had never had anyone examine her the way a judge would. I was also concerned that having been taught to sit at my side when I stop she would not hold a stand. Most handlers believe that you should not teach a dog Obedience if you are going to show that dog in confirmation. I however, do not believe that and have always been able to train a dog to do both. With Storm I taught him that if I used the "HERE" command he was to walk or stand next to me but if I used LEFT or RIGHT he was to sit next to me on the appropriate side. I do not use the HEEL command because there are times that I want my dogs to heel on the left and other times I want them to heel on the right so I teach them the difference. It was my intent to do the same thing with Sadie but it was 2 weeks before the show and we had not worked on this.

One evening about a week before the show I took Sadie to a local training club to do some run thru's. It just so happened that the night I choose to go there were about 20 dogs that showed up for the 40 min confirmation class. If you have ever been to a show you know that you can not judge 20 dogs in 40 min fortunately another breeder showed up and we were able to split the group in half giving instructions to the beginners at one end of the building and doing run through's with the others at the other end that way we at least had time to run our dogs through a couple of times. Sadie moved well and had no problems standing for examination. She even allowed the judge to examine her bite and open her mouth without a problem. She did not sit the whole time. I would like to believe that it was because she knew the difference between HERE and LEFT but is more likely that she just had not learned to set consistently when I stopped. Whatever the reason I was very pleased with her performance.

This would be Sadie's first road trip since I brought her home last fall. I take her and Storm with me frequently but never over a half hour at a time. Storm loves to go and will try to knock down the door as soon a I get dressed to go anywhere. Sadie on the other hand will run the other way as soon as she sees me head for the garage. I have yet to figure out what her problem is with traveling. She does not get car sick but does occasionally drool while in the car so this time I decided to give her some Ginger Snaps before we left which I hoped would take the edge off.

For anyone that has not been to a show I would suggest that you make a check list of the items you will need to take with you. The following is the list I use for Dog shows.

Dog Crate
Exercise Pen
Show collars
Show leads
Grooming Supplies
Win Sheets
Towels
Dog food
Camera
Dogs Papers
Business Cards
Shiloh Tri-folds
Training Tri-folds
Trash/dog waste bags
Dog dishes
Bottled water
Umbrella

This was also the first road trip we took in the new car that I bought for just this purpose. I liked my Avalanche and it worked great with just Storm and I but with the addition of Sadie it was not very practical, it just did not have enough interior space or headroom for 2 dogs. Since I do not see myself as a minivan person so I compromised with a Buick Randovoz. (What we do for our dogs) By removing the rear seats there was more than enough room for 2 dogs and all the equipment I needed. It also had the added advantage of getting better mileage than the avalanche. The car also came equipped with a navigation system which turned out to be invaluable. Whenever I get a new client I give a free evaluation which I prefer to do at the clients home so that I can evaluate the dog in its own environment. Because of this I have to find a lot of addresses over a large area and with the navigation system all I have to do is enter the address and it directs me right to their home. The same is true with shows I just entered the address and off we went.

Next Sadie's First Show Part 3 the Show

2006-04-26T19:53:00.000-04:00

Sadie Becomes a Lady

I had to interrupt the Story about Sadie's first show for this important announcement. No, Sadie has not started a new workout routine. She has become a lady. Since necessity is the mother of invention and I did not have anything to put on her during her heat; I took a pair of my underpants, put them on her backwards, and put her tail thru the fly hole. She does leave them on but when she walks she lifts her back legs like she is walking on hot coals. Regardless, the guys are after her!

Next time back to her first show part 2

2006-04-15T10:37:00.000-04:00

Ok dad if we are going to a show you had better get this food off of my nose!

Sadie's First Show
Part 1 Confirmation

When you first get a puppy they are a bundle of joy, you feed them, love them, train them and in Sadie's case prepare them for what you hope will be your contribution to the foundation of an extraordinary breed. No matter how much care you take in planning and selecting the foundation dogs for your kennel you always second guess yourself and those that help you along the way.

In my case I left the this choice up to the breed founder Tina Barber. No one else knows more about these dogs than she does. I got to know her well enough that she understood my training techniques, personality and what I was looking for in a bitch. Even then I did not leave this very important decision of up to her without having some sort of track record with me. Having already matched Storm with me I had confidence that she would make the correct choice again.

Having said that no matter how good a match you think you have you are never sure about the quality of your dog until you get what hopefully is an unbiased 3rd parties opinion, in this case that of a judge.

The other reason I choose to show my dogs is quite frankly monetary. Noting increases the value or demand for a puppy more than being the prodigy of titled parents. Storm should have his championship, although that has not yet been confirmed, and if I can get Sadie titled and I get the blessing of the breed warden to breed them prospective buyers would not have to rely on my opinion of these dogs but that of numerous judges.

Even though I do not like the politics that seem to accompany confirmation shows for the reasons listed above it is a necessary evil. I would much prefer to compete in intellectually based competitions such as Rally, Schuthund, Obedience, Agility, Tracking or whatever because it is much harder to show favorites when the judge has to go by a finite set of rules and not just his opinion of the way your dog looks. However, prospective buyers are much less impressed with training titles than with beauty pageants. To me the dogs intelligence is more important than how the dog looks. It is what I us to select a dog and what I intend to breed for.

Unfortunately the number of opportunities to show our dogs in confirmation are few and far between so when one presents itself within a reasonable distance from me I am there. All of Storms shows were in excess of a 4 hour drive so when I became aware of a Rare Breed Show in Columbus (a 2 hour drive) I was all over it. Sadie had just turned 8 mo old and I was anxious to see if others would be as impressed by her as I was. Since I was going anyway I figured I might as well enter Storm as well since most of the time at a show is spent sitting around and waiting he would give me something else to do. There were to be 5 shows 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. This meant that I would have to be in the ring a minimum of 10 times and if either of them win I would have to go in even more. Since it had been 7 months since I had been in the ring and Sadie had never been in the ring I decided a little preparation was in order.

Next Sadie's First Show Part 2 Preparation

2006-01-19T10:01:00.000-05:00

First Rough Terrain

I held off on this post because I wanted to add some pictures to it but the weather has not cooperated and we have not had any more snow so I figured I had better post it while it was at least close to winter. Besides, I want to write about Sadie's first show so I had better get busy and post it now.

This was my first trip that went beyond a fairly straight predefined path. Up to this point the only commands I needed were "GO" and "WHOA" the path was defined and relatively flat. However it is difficult to teach the dogs "HAW" (left turn) and "GEE" (right turn) in that situation. A friend of mine has a plot of land not far from me that has woods, corn fields, streams, hills valleys etc. An ideal place for this type of training. He uses the land to hunt and run 4 wheelers so there are some roughly defined trails. The perfect place for what I want to accomplish.

The trip started out like normal. I know that this blog is supposed to be about training Sadie but since most of her trips were rather uneventful I thought I would convey this one. It was Lizzy's turn to go with Storm so I hooked up the harnesses, put on the ski's, grabbed my poles and we were off. The route I choose started off up the side of a hill. The hill was in a corn filed and was steep enough that the dogs could not pull me up but not so steep that a tractor would tip over when cultivating the corn. After much effort on both our parts we reached the top. As I soon found out going up was the easy part. Coming down the other side was another story. Now I have no problem with downhill skiing but doing it with cross county ski's in a corn field with the stubble of last seasons corn stocks sticking up in rows like columns of little toy solders is another matter all together. To complicate matters I could now see that there was a line of trees at the bottom of the hill and by the time that I realized this I was over the crest of the hill and on my way down the other side. I could not turn because I was skiing parallel to the corn stubble and if I turned hitting the stubble I would surly fall so I decided to ride it out and hopefully be able to stop at the bottom. About halfway down the hill I realized that I was catching up with the dogs. I yelled "GEE OVER" which I had only used a couple of times with with the dogs but to my amazement Storm moved to the right pushing Lizzy over as well. I went flying past them and now I was leading them. Granted I could have stopped at any time but were is the fun in that. I reached the bottom of the hill, exited the corn field and stopped just before the woods. The dogs caught up just as I stopped so we had a group hug and savored the moment. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of a very memorable trip. I gave the command to "GO" and off we went into the woods.

As we left the corn filed and entered the woods I could see a heard of about 5 deer off in the distance but fortunately they spotted us before the dogs saw them and ran off in the other direction. We continued thru the woods on a rut fill path that had been carved out by 4 wheelers. It was a little tough for me to keep my footing but the dogs had no problem at all. We soon reached a creek that was about 30 foot wide with a crud bridge. It was mostly snow covered and the dogs had no trouble going across and did not even hesitate. The planks on the bridge were spaced about the same distance apart as my ski's which could have been a real problem but as it turned out I was able to traverse it and avoid the gaps. We continued around the edge of the property with the dogs running in the path pulling with me off to the left trying to avoid the ruts. We are now about a half hour out which is the point that I like to start heading back in the general direction of the car. The dogs are new at this and I do not want them to get too tired or over do it to the point that they stop enjoying it. Having been a Land Surveyor years ago I learned to love the outdoors and acquired a very good sense of direction. So we headed off in what I determined would be a rather obstacle free course back.

We were following a tree line when I saw a path off to the right just wide enough for me and the dogs. About 10 yards before reaching the path I yelled "GEE". Now I am not convinced that my dogs know these commands well enough at this point to be what I would consider dependable. In my mind it is more likely that they saw the path and would rather go off into the woods than to just continue along the edge. Whatever the case they turned to the right and took this narrow trail. Right after they made the turn they went over a little mound. This mound looked like it was about 5 foot wide and about 2 feet high. Since it was right in the middle of the trail the only thing I could think of was that someone had dumped a pile of dirt here to make a little jump for a trail bike since the path was not wide enough for a 4 wheeler. In any case by the time I saw the mound it was too late to stop the dogs since they were already over it and I was too close to stop before hitting it so this was going to be my first ski jump. This would not have been too bad but just as I hit the top of the mound I spotted the dogs on the other side jumping a small stream that was obscured from my view. Just as they hit the other bank of the stream I hit the top of the mound the line when taught jerking my belt with the combined weight of 2 dogs totaling over 160 pounds. Needless to say I flew thru the air and landed on my but in the middle of the creek. The dogs stopped turned around and looked at me and I could swear they were laughing at me sitting there in the water. I landed on one of my ski poles breaking it in half but other than the fact that I was soaking wet, a mile away from the car, and it was about 20 degrees I was fine. Needless to say it was a cold trip back to the car but fortunately the dogs seemed as anxious to get back as I was and they pulled the remainder of the way with me trying to balance myself behind them with one ski pole. I would like to think that they pulled harder than they had all day because they knew I was uncomfortable for me but it was more likely that it was because they were tired and just anxious to go home.

Next time Sadie's first Show

2006-01-12T17:41:00.000-05:00

Winter Arrives

After working with the dogs on pulling for a couple of months I could not wait for the first snow so that I could try out what they had learned. The snow finally came and I was ready to go Skijoring. For anyone that does not know what Skijoring is when you attach one or two dogs to your waist, put on cross county ski's and have a good old time. You have to understand that I have done downhill skiing many times but cross county is a different story. You can count on one hand the number of times that I have been on cross county ski's let alone attached too two dogs.
Storm always goes with me to help teach the other dogs but I alternate the second dog each time I go. The above pictures show Storm and Sadie on one of our later outing but the first time I went I decided to take Pepper since this was our first time on the snow and even though she is about half the size of storm she will pull more than her share and next to Storm knows the commands the best. Our first trip would be to the Ohio-Erie Canal Towpath which is less than a mile from my house. We arrived in the parking lot a few minutes later and the dogs were rearing to go. There is a new stretch of the path that heads north for about a mile and a half to a dead end. Once you reach the end you have to turn around and come back the same way. I figured that this would be a good location for our first trip in the snow because the lack of tracks in the snow indicated that there was no one else on the path and for our first outing the less distractions the better. As I stood at the entrance the dogs were anxiously pulling on the 15 foot rope that I had attached to their harnesses, the other end of which was attached to a belt around my waist. I put the dogs in a SIT/STAY put on my ski's and we were ready to go. The path is fairly flat and runs along a 5 foot wire fence that separates the towpath form the PPG lime lakes. On the other side of the fence is about 10 to 20 yards of brush and then the Tuscarawas River. The Tuscarawas is a river in name only you can take a canoe trip down the River for a short period in the Spring but most of the year it is too shallow. We started along the path with the dogs pulling about half the time and me doing about half of the work.

We had just gotten started and were about a quarter of a mile in when all of a sudden I felt a tug on my waist and off I went as fast as the dogs could run. I regained my balance and was being swept down the path with the dogs in a full run. You would never know that they were dragging a xxx pound man. I looked to the right and there between the fence and the River I saw a white tail popping up and down in the underbrush. What the dogs saw long before I did was the south end of a northbound deer doing all it could to separate its self from us. The deer was going the same direction that we were but at a much faster pace. The dogs didn't care that they had no chance of catching it, especially pulling the extra weight, they were just enjoying the chase. I immediately had a flash back to may first down hill skiing experience. My brother-in-law was showing me how to ski. He took me down the beginner hill one time and said that's it, lets take the trail thru the woods, like a fool I listened to him only to find myself exiting the other side of the woods in the woods into the middle of a Black Diamond hill. There was no where to go except straight down and down I went. I started to get scared that I was going to fall so I squatted down. Big mistake, this just made me go faster. By the time I reached the bottom I was going faster than I had ever gone without a car under me. Just as the bottom of the hill came in site so did about a hundred yards of moguls. I hit the moguls and it was all over, I went head over heals, broke the ski's and the poles went flying. To this day I think he did this to me on purpose in any case I stood up which surprised everyone including me and walked back to the lodge, oh to be young again. I was hoping that this would not turn out the same way. It took about a half mile for the deer to outdistance the dogs to the point that they could no longer see it. The way I train them to pull is to praise them when ever they pull without my help, well needless to say I am flying down the trail telling them what a good job they are doing, trying to watch the deer and trying not to think about what would happen if I fell.

What a rush. This went on for about a half of mile before the deer got out of sight and they lost interest. This experience gave me quit a glimpse of what these dogs are capable of and what I had to look forward to. I would recommend Skijoring to anyone that has a Shiloh and lives where it snows. It's inexpensive, good for the dogs and a heck of a lot of fun. The only word of caution I have is to make sure that the dogs know at least 2 of the commands, "WHOA" and "GO", before you try it on skies. The turning commands can come later, "HAW" and "GEE", but you must be able to get the dogs started and be able to stop them under any circumstances.

Next time turn it up a notch.

2005-12-26T13:27:00.000-05:00

Walking on Loose Lead and Recall

Before I continue with Sadie's first class I would like to clear something up from my last post. When I said that I did not believe in treat training what I should have said was that I do not believe in using treats as a reward for good behavior. However, I am not opposed to using treats as a last resort to enticement the dog to perform a new behavior. For example if I am training a dog to crawl I will use a low table and try to talk the dog into crawling under it while repeating the command. If this fails I am not opposed to using a treat or his favorite toy to entice the dog to crawl under a low object while repeating the command. The treat will however be eliminated at the earliest possible opportunity. I want the dog to perform the behavior because he wants to please me not because of some artificial stimulus. Now let's return to Sadie's first class after being so rudely interrupted with my little tirade about treat training.

The next exercise that the class was ask to perform was walking on a loose leash. Everyone got up and was told to walk in a circle. Some of the dogs were being pulled around, some refused to move, some jumped all over the place and others were being lead around with a treat in front of their nose. Sadie was the only one that walked next to me and actually watched to see what I was going to do next. My point here is that these dogs had 3 weeks of training and are still not able to walk on a loose lead. Up to this point Sadie had had one 10 min lesson on how to walk politely on a loose leash. The more I see of this class the more frustrated I am becoming.

Next the instructor ask everyone to return to their chairs and take a seat. I had released Sadie so she was free to do whatever she wanted and the instructor did say take a seat which is exactly what she did. Now Sadie is 50 lbs of puppy and she did not quite fit in a plastic lawn chair. Her but was sticking under one arm rest her feet under the other and when she laid down she rested her head on the arm rest. This drew a big laugh from the rest of the class. It was like she was sticking her nose in the air to the other dogs saying I deserve this because I am so superior to the rest of you that I should not have to sit on the same floor with you. Being the strict disciplinarian that I am I went right over and grabbed..............another chair and sat down beside her and waited our turn to be called for the Recall.

The instructor started calling us up one at a time for recalls. Since I was last in line I had to watch while about a dozen dogs and owners went thru the process. The procedure for this was to have an assistant hold the dogs leash and then have the handler go across the room and call the dog. This process would have been fine, however with the handler 10 to 20 feet away and no way to get the dog to come to them other than voice, treat or toy these dogs quickly learned that if they were not in the mood there was nothing the owner could do to make them come if they did not want too. One owner finally gave up went back and picked up the dog and carried it to where she was. This was evidently OK with the instructor because noting was said. The other dogs ran the gambit form totally ignoring their owners to running around the ring in circles. When it was Sadie's turn she stayed with the assistant, which was all I really cared about since she does not usually like strangers. I bent over and said "HERE" and she came running. This was her first recall in public and I was very happy with the results. After one night I could see that she was way ahead of the other dogs. I would have quit the class at this point if it were not for the socialization issue.

Because of the socialization (passing the dogs around) I decided to complete the next 2 classes and see if she improved. The next time we went I allowed her to be passed around as I observed and she was fine only looking back occasionally for reassurance and by the third week she had no trouble at all with the strangers handling her I think she was actually starting to enjoy it. In any case she finished the class head and shoulders above the rest of the dogs, which is pretty good considering that I did not work her at all between classes and the other dogs had been attending class for 6 weeks instead of Sadie's 3. My next dilemma will be what to do with her next, I can not take another six weeks of untrained dogs and owners. If I do take her back I will skip at least one level.

Next time Winter arrives.

2005-12-17T10:27:00.000-05:00

Sadie's first class.

Recently I have been writing about training Sadie to pull either a skier or other object. I think that she is on track to make exercise a daily part of her routine. Now its time to address Sadie's other issues. In this case I am talking about Socialization. She has had no problems adapting to Me, my family or the other dogs but after her LER (Litter Evaluation) the breeder had some concerns about her flight and fight drive. Because of Sadie's LER I had some advanced warning and was aware of what to look for so that it could be corrected as soon as possible.

Even though I was told that Sadie had a Hard temperament I have seen no signs of aggression other than normal puppy attitude. However, I did notice that she would back away from strangers. Strange objects were no problem, she would stand her ground and investigate anything however she would back away from strangers and occasionally bark at them. This is one activity that has to be stopped as soon a possible. I knew that the answer to the problem was socialization but because of my lifestyle this would take some extra effort on my part. Even though I take her to pet stores with me and take her along when I meet with clients and their dogs it was just not enough so I decided to take her to a puppy class where she would be handled by one stranger after another.

Before I moved here about 30 years ago I lived in Canton Ohio and was one of the instructors and a member of the board at a Training Club there. They have since built a new building and moved to a new location that is about 45 minutes away from me. I decided to take Sadie there and put her in a puppy class because I knew that part of the class included sitting on the floor in a circle with about 10 other people and their dogs and passing the dogs around the circle. This is exactly what Sadie needed but trying to fit another evening out with the dogs into my schedule would be a problem. I managed to rearrange my clients training schedule so that I could have Thursday night free to attend the class.

I drove down with Storm and Sadie for a visit and found that the class was 6 weeks long and I arrived on week 4. I talked them in to letting me come into the class in the middle and while I was at it I enrolled Storm in the advanced class that was after this one. He loves to work and I figured that since I had to make the trip anyway I may as well use the opportunity to work Storm around the other dogs as well.

The class started with everyone sitting in a chair with their dog beside them around the out side of the ring. Well I should say Sadie was sitting beside me, the others were jumping all over the place. Keep in mind that these dogs have had 3 weeks of training. The first exercise was getting the dogs attention. The way they teach this is to put a treat in the dogs face then bring it up to their mouth so that the dog looks at them. I forgot to mention that each of the handlers had a little bag of treats strapped to their waist because they used treats to train these dogs, which I do not believe in and which was one of the reasons I left the club 30 years ago when their training started getting more politically correct and less and less effective every week. They went around the room one at a time and ask them to get their dogs attention. Everyone with the exception of Sadie required a treat stuffed in their face and then slowly moved up to the owners mouth to get the dog to look at them. Some did not even respond to that. When it was my turn I looked down at Sadie said her name and she looked up at me. No treat just a word of praise when she responded. I could not have used a treat if I wanted to because I do not carry them with me.

The next exercise was the one that I brought her for. Everyone split in 2 groups and sat in a circle on the floor. Once seated we were instructed to pass our dog to the person on our right. Well, Sadie wanted no part of this she was bound and determined not to leave my side. This would normally be fine with me because I have no problem with a dog that would rather be with me than with someone else unless, they do not want to be with someone else out of fear, this I can not abide and I had a feeling that fear was part of the reason Sadie did not want to leave me. I also did not want to traumatize her and force her to be passed around a bunch of strangers. I opted to get up and walk her around to each person and let them hold and touch her. She was all right with this so we both went around to each person in turn and had them hug, pet and talk to her. She look at me a number of times for reassurance but accepted the attention without a problem.

During the trip around the circle I helped a couple of the owners fit their collars properly and in one case reversed a choker that was on backwards. The owners probably thought who does he think he is, he comes in her 3 weeks late and tells me what I did wrong. If they only knew how hard it was for me to sit there and see all the mistakes and do nothing they would understand. I wanted so badly to stand-up and say all right everyone get up and we will straighten these puppies out in about 10 minutes. What they teach in this 6 week class I teach in the first night of a private lesson.

Let me interrupt here to get up on my soap box for just a moment. I am not saying that I am a better trainer than the instructors there but its more of a comment on what happens to organizations like these. Years and years ago clubs like these were started with very good intentions, in this case to help people train there dogs. The founders had a vision and a talent that they passed on to their members. They refined there techniques until they were able to produce very obedient dogs that performed at the top of their game. When I was an instructor here I remember graduating classes where half of the members competed in obedience trials and all of them scored in the 190's. Today they are lucky to get one in a hundred that competes and then they are satisfied to qualify and will never see scores in the 190's. So what happened? What happened was no one was willing to stand up for what they knew to be right and they gave in to one or two outspoken individuals that complained about the techniques used. The club became "Politically Correct" resulting in watered down training techniques and the loss of good trainers that got frustrated with the new methods. It was during this period that my mentor and I left the club and started our own. This was also where I learned that you could get paid for what I had been doing for free for a number of years. A few years later I moved further away and we parted ways because we could not agree on the financial end of the business. Now that I am older I regret letting money come between friends.

The club continued on and over time the new members lowered their expectations and their dogs performance showed it. Soon new members were quitting because of it. Their solution was to shorten the classes and add more classes to the schedule. This increased the number of new members and help compensate for the increased turnover. Classes were shortened from 10 weeks to 6 weeks and training nights went from one night a week with 3 classes (Beginner, Novice and Open) to classes 5 nights a week with 4 classes (Puppy, Beginner, Pre-Novice, Novice). Basically what they did is replace Beginner and Novice with 4 classes, this increased the time to get through Novice from 20 weeks to 24 weeks. Then because more and more people lost interest they dropped Open and replaced it with a night of run troughs for the one in a hundred that continued on their own. They found that even with more classes more and more people were failing to accomplish what was required for the next class so they started recommending that they repeat classes. Now by the time they get through Novice some of them have been training for over a year and are still not as proficient as my clients that get 4 weeks of training. What a waist of a dogs short life.

All right I will get off my soap box now and get back to Sadie's first class.

Next time Walking on loose lead and Recall

2005-12-15T14:01:00.000-05:00

"$^!# happens"

I was time for my next practice session, this time I was going to have them pull an old tire where the grass was shorter and it would be easier. It was a beautiful day so I decided to go to a local park that has a very large open area. I talked my wife into coming along to help. We were the only ones in the park so the dogs did not have a lot of distractions. I hooked up the team to the tire with Storm and Lizzy in the lead position with Pepper and Sadie behind and off we went. I had to help them get started because the tire turned out to be a bigger drag than I anticipated. But, once they got it going they did fine. Sadie and Pepper kept getting tangled up in the line and I was having a problem getting all of them to pull at the same time. Storm and Pepper did all of the work while Sadie and Lizzy just walked with them. After about a half hour we returned to the truck and decided to take them around again in teams of two. I remove the gangline and put it in the truck. My wife took Pepper and Sadie and I took Storm and Lizzy. We let them pull us around the park again but this time we went to the wooded edge of the open area taking a path thru the woods that took us out of site of the parking lot and my truck for about 10 minutes. We made a big circle and returned to the truck.

All in all it was a good outing until my wife opened the door to the truck, reached under the front seat and found that her purse was gone. You see when I put the gangline back in the truck I forgot to lock it. There were no other cars in the lot and no one around. Her purse was under the front seat and with the tinted windows it could not be seen from the outside of the truck. (Does it sound like I am making excuses for not locking the truck) The only explication that I could think of was that someone was hiding in the woods watching and when we went out of site for 5 minutes they got into the truck stole the purse and ran away. She lost her ID a couple dozen credit cards and $250 in cash. Needless to say I don't think she will be too willing to go with me again. I later found out that they had been having a problem in the area with someone doing just that. In one case a jogger locked her purse in the trunk and they broke the front window and went thru the back seat to get it out of the trunk while she was jogging. As it turns out I was probably better off not locking it because they would have most likely broken the window to get it anyway.

At this stage in my life these things don't bother me like they did when I was young after all its only money and no one was hurt. We just reported the incident and I went home to prepare for my next adventure.

2005-12-09T19:48:00.000-05:00

Now that they have pulled as a team I was ready to take my team on the road. I went out and got an old tire, packed up all the equipment and off we went to a local park. I hooked the gangline up to the tire and brought the dogs out one at a time and hooked them up to the gang line. I hooked Pepper up first and went back to the truck for Storm and just as I got him out of the truck two ladies came over to meet him and while I was talking with them about Storm and Sadie, Pepper used the opportunity to wiggle out of her harness. I realized that I had hooked up the harness but neglected to hook up her collar and she took off for the woods.
Of all the dogs to get loose Pepper is the only one that likes to play catch me if you can. None of the others would have been a problem. Pepper is my rescued border collie (too smart for her own good) and she knows as well as I do that there is nothing I can do to get her to come back if she does not want to. Pepper was my demo dog before I got Storm and will do anything I ask her to, Obedience, Agility you name it and she always came when called. However, since I got Storm I have not had the time to work all the dogs so she gets left out. To get even with me for not working her she will play "catch me if you can" any chance she gets. If she gets out of the yard she will go on a "walk about" for a couple of hours before returning home. If I am with her when she is in one of her moods she will run about 30 yards turn around look at me stick her tongue out at me and say Naah Naah.... Naah. Well at least it seems like that's what she is doing. Being a professional trainer this can be a bit embarrassing. And wouldn't you know it she would take off while I was talking with 2 potential clients about Shiloh's and training. I just ignored her and went on with my conversation like I was not concerned. Once she realized she was not going to get a response out of me she came over and sat down beside me and I finished hooking her up.
The dogs did great. They pulled the tire down the trail for about a half mile we then turned around and came back without a problem. They were exhausted. The tire was a large truck tire and the grass was long so they had to work extra hard to pull it. Because of this I kept the distance short. Tomorrow I will take them to another park that is more open and has short grass.

2005-11-25T10:22:00.000-05:00

Team Work

The day after my last post I received the dog team equipment, 4 Harnesses, One 4 dog gangline and a shock cord. I tried the harnesses on the dogs and found out that Pepper was a little more over weight than I anticipated and her harness could have been a size larger but hopefully if this works out she will drop a few pounds. Sadie's harness was a little large which I planned on since she should grow into it very quickly. I took them out two at a time Storm with Lizzy and Pepper with Sadie. Storm and Lizzy worked out fine they are close to the same size and can move at the same speed. Storm knows the commands required to do this (left,right, go and whooa) and Izzy will follow. Later I tried other combinations like Storm and Sadie shown above.

Pepper and Sadie were another story. They are near the same size and Pepper knows all the commands however Sadie was more interested in grabbing Pepper by the harness then walking with her. I did manage to get them to go ahead of me like Storm and Lizzy did which is all I wanted to accomplish on their first outing. On our next outing I will add a weight for them to drag. I figure it will take about a week to get them used to pulling the weight.

It is now 2 days later and I am ready to try pulling some weight. I would have preferred to have them pull and old tire but since I did not have one I had to find something else. It so happened that I was raking leaves so I raked them on to a tarp and had them drag the tarp to the back of the property. I did this in teams of two, Sadie with Storm and Pepper with Lizzy. Both teams had no trouble pulling the tarp full of leaves the few hundred feet required to take them from my front yard to the compost pile in the back. I then tried them in a team of 4. This was a little more difficult but so far training them to pull has been one of the easiest things that I have taught them. They are progressing much faster than I anticipated.

Now that I know they have no trouble with the harness and no trouble pulling weight, at least in teams of two, the next step was to start increasing the distance and combining them into a team of 4. Since I still did not have anything for them to pull I took out an old plastic dog crate and hooked it up to the gangline. I had to determine what order to hook up the dogs so I decided to try it by intellegence this time. Storm and Pepper in front with Lizzy and Sadie behind. I figured that since Storm and Pepper were the most educated I could control them better. Lizzy and Sadie would just follow. Besides Storm already knew left and right and I could control him better than the others.

Well off we went. I am sure that the neighbors thought I was nuts. Here I go down the street running beside 4 dogs pulling a crate banging and scraping along the pavement. My planned layout quickly went out the window when Lizzy and Sadie took off, passed Storm and Pepper and instead of having 2 dogs in front and 2 in back I ended up with 4 dogs blocking the whole street with Lizzy and Sadie pulling the crate by them selves while Strom and Pepper ran beside them. Back to the drawing board.

Next time Field Trip

2005-11-09T20:06:00.000-05:00

Sadie's Exercise Program Part 2

Hopefully by now I have convinced you of the importance of exercise now all I have to do is figure out how to fit it into my daily schedule. My daily workout takes me about an hour, after all if I don't stay healthy I won't be around to take care of my dogs. I also believe that each of my dogs should get an hour workout. That's 5 hours a day. Now if I add too that 1 hour a day for grooming and 1 hour for training that's 7 hours a day just to maintain the dogs. Where do we get the time?

Years ago this was not a problem leash laws were not what they are now and I could go for a cross country run and take my dogs with me. We could all get a good workout together. Some of my fondest memory's are of getting up at 5am and going for a 10 mile run with my first German Shepherd Heidi, but she is long gone and so is my ability to put my knees through a 10 mile run. I used to be an avid runner, running at my peek as much as 109 miles in 4 and a half days. Then last year I blew out my knees while, of all things, running with my dogs. The doctor said that the cartilage is going in my knees and if I want to avoid surgery no more running.

Even though I miss the running I can replace it with rowing, biking or some other aerobic sport but what about my dogs? I had to find a way to keep them in shape as well. I am still trying to work this out and it is not easy. I have had to sacrifice some of my workouts so that I have time to take the dogs out on the bike. I can not combine their work out with mine because if I go slow enough to take them on the bike it is not fast enough to give me a work out. Right now I have reduced my trips from 4 to 3 by hooking Pepper & Lizzy together and taking them at the same time. Later I will be hooking Sadie and Storm together reducing the number of trips to 2. Sadie is just learning to run with the bike so I still have to take her by her self. She is also only up to 3/4 of a mile and Storm can go on all day. Then there is the problem with the weather.

Winter is just around the corner and I can't ride my bike in the snow. Originally I was going to go to the gym and workout indoors in bad weather but then again what about the dogs. I thought about training them on a treadmill but I know how boring that is for me let alone for the dogs so I had to come up with another idea. Which I did. Cross-country Skiing.

Cross-County Skiing is a very good aerobic workout, it is done outdoors, and I can take the dogs with me. As long as my knees can take it I have decided to give it a try. I used to to down hill skiing but have never done cross-county let alone with 4 dogs. My only misgiving is that I will get lazy and let the dogs pull me and loose out on my workout, again.

Here is the plan. I have just order the equipment for the dogs, 4 harnesses, and a gangline for 4 dogs. Once I receive the equipment I will start training the dogs. Fortunately I live right next to the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath (http://www.canalwayohio.com/) which runs from Cleveland South to Zoar Ohio. This is where I normally go biking and the path is only about 8 feet wide with vegetation on both sides so unless the dogs decide to take off into the woods dragging me behind I should have no problem training them to stay on the path. By the time I teach them to pull me either on a cart or on my bike we should have some snow and they will be ready for the true test. The way I see it the worst case is that they pull me the whole way and I will still have to come home and get on the stationary bike to get my workout. But in any case we should all have a good time and they will get a good aerobic workout along with the pulling motion required to build up their chest and the tendons in their legs for future shows.

Next time Team Work

2005-11-02T16:17:00.000-05:00

Sadie's Exercise Program Part 1

Watch and Learn. . . . . . . . . . . . . .That's a girl

Get up there. . . . . . . . . . . . . OK OK I'm trying

Almost there. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This isn't so bad

Watch out you'll knock me off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ta Daaaa

As you can see I have been having some problems getting Sadie to jump on the trampoline for exercise. Even with Storms help I am having a problem getting her motivated. All kidding aside in my opinion exercise is one of the most important parts of your dogs daily routine.

I can not over emphasize how important exercise is to your dogs longevity. The worst thing about owning a dog is that for most of you your best friend will only be with you for 15 years or so and if they do not get enough exercise a large amount of that time will be spent in pain. It has only been in recent history that our dogs started getting things like Cancer, Arthritis, and other degenerative diseases . When I was young I don't remember knowing anyone that lost a dog to any of these aliments. And lets face it dogs in the wild don't get any of these things.

There are two causes for this problem, the chemicals in their food and water and lack of exercise. We can take care of the nutritional part of the problem by feeding a good holistic dog food with plenty of protein and only letting them drink untreated water. That means no city tap water. Exercise, on the other hand, takes much more time and effort on our part than just choosing the correct food and in my opinion has a more profound effect on our dogs health than the food does.

Genetically our dogs and their ancestors, like humans and our ancestors were hunters. That is our dogs have been genetically engineered to spend most of the day moving and tracking game and as a result their bodies have been engineered to move. I am not going to get into the science of it here but in general each muscle, bone and tendon is designed to be used, exerted and then decay only to be replaced with new cells. The cue for all this to happen is exercise, day in day out exercise. If your dog does not get daily exercise its body will think that there is no game to hunt and as a result gives a signal to its cellular structure that it had better conserve energy and get ready for a tough winter or drought because game is scarce. The result is that after only a couple of days without exercise their bodies start to shut down. No new cells are built and they will just lay around and start to decay allowing the old unused un-replaced cells to begin to deteriorate. All the food they eat is stored as fat and is no longer converted to energy. No new cell growth takes place and the cells start to decay. They become more susceptible to decease and our dogs get things like cancer and arthritis making their later years not only painful but much shorter than they need to be.

We have done this to our dogs and to ourselves by taking an out door creature whose genetic structure demands that they move to survive by hunting, and placing them in an environment that is contrary to their genetic makeup. We stick them in crates, pens, small apartments, tie them to trees and maybe if they are lucky they get a slow leisurely walk a few times a week. To compensate for putting them in this position we let them lay on the couch, sleep in our beds and feed them junk food. We keep them in a vegetative state just so we can be greeted at the door by a friendly face with a wagging tail. We spend thousands of dollars on veterinary care trying either to save our dogs life or make them more comfortable with drugs. We treat their symptoms but do nothing to get at the root cause. Lack of exercise.

However, like the commercial says "But wait I have some good news!" and its not that you can save money on your insurance it is that you can save your dogs life and help it live a longer and more productive pain free life with daily exercise. With daily exercise decaying cells are expelled from their bodies and replace with new healthy vibrant ones. Their senses are sharpened and minds kept active. With just a small investment of time on your part you can help your dog live a longer more productive life. Now I am not talking about letting your dog out into the back yard in the hopes that he will move around enough to stay healthy. It takes much more than that. It takes keeping your dog moving for an hour or so each and every day at 50 to 75% of its capacity.

At this point the first thing that comes to mind is. That's all well and good but how can I spend and hour a day exercising my dogs, an hour grooming them, an hour training them, work a full time job, and still have a life? That's a good question. You should have ask it before you took on the reasonability of a dog. I still struggle with that question myself but I have found some things that work for me and will share them with you in my next installment.

Next time Sadie's Exercise Program Part 2.

2005-10-20T17:38:00.000-04:00

My time saving Grooming/Training Session

Any time I can combine tasks to save time believe me I will. I thought I would just pass along a little trick I learned to combine Sadie's Grooming and Training. This may seem like common sense to most of you but quit often we get caught up in the task at hand and forget that we can turn a routine task into a training experience.

In stead of periodic baths that tend to dry out the dogs skin I prefer to brush and wipe down down my dogs with a damp cloth on a daily bases. I see no need to give them a full bath unless they happen to get into something that requires a deep cleaning like a roll in the mud or in the case of Strom the other day a brush with fresh paint, pardon the pun.

Storm for example has only had one bath since I got him and that was because I left him in a kennel overnight and I had them groom him before he came home. I forgot to warn the groomer that Storm does not get baths and may object to the process. When I picked him up the groomer told me that when he tried to put him in the tub Storm wrapped his paws around his neck and would not let go. That's the other advantage of not giveing baths, you don't have to fight it out with them.

In any case they have learned to look forward to their grooming sessions, so much so that they fight with each other to be the first one up on the grooming table, as you can see by the picture. As soon as I head in that direction they all start to jump up on to the table with the exception of Sadie who is too small to make it up. She just circles the table barking in frustration and trying to jump up. She has learned that if she jumps up on the bench first then she can jump from the bench to the table. The intelligence of these dogs amazes me daily.

My grooming sessions take about 15 minutes for each dog and serve 3 purposes. One they each get a good grooming, two I get to examine them thoroughly for any physical problems and three each dog gets a brief but effective training session.

Here is a list of the commands that I teach during each session.

Here
Climb
Stand
Sit (Setzen)
Turn around
Down (Platz)
Roll Over
Release command

A typical session goes something like this:

My first step is to clear all the dogs off of the table using "CLIMB Down". Once the dogs are off of the table I select the dog that is the most behaved, that is the dog that is sitting quietly. Next I will use the dogs name with the HERE command and ask that dog to come to me than I use "CLIMB up on the table". The only problems I have at this point is stopping the other dogs from cutting in line. Once the dog is on the table I use there position to determine how I will begin. They will either be standing or sitting. If they are sitting I ask them to STAND and vise versa. I do all the brushing and examining that I can do in this position and then I ask them to either SIT or STAND depending on the position they are in. Then I do all the brushing and examination that I can do in that position. I am now ready to do the other side at which time I ask them to "TURN AROUND" at which time the dog will turn and face the other direction. I then replete the process on that side using the SIT and STAND commands. If the dog is just learning the commands as in Sadie's case I will have them change positions a number of times on each side. Once I have completed all the grooming and examination that I can do in these position I ask the dog to "CLIMB Down" because there is not room enough on my table for the next step. Once off of the table I put the dog in a DOWN and then ask the dog to "ROLL OVER" at which time I brush and examine the stomach. Having completed this I use the release command and go on to the next dog.

This whole process takes about an hour for all 4 dogs and I count it as one of their training sessions for the day.

Next Post: Exercise.

If anyone has any comments please feel free to let me know. Good or bad they will help me improve my posts and also give me ideas for future posts.

2005-10-13T14:29:00.000-04:00

Storm as a Trainer

This photograph might look like Sadie is in control but don't believe it. She only goes as far as Storm will let her, which is a lot further than I let her go. Thanks to Storms patients her nipping is getting under control. Whenever they are around each other all Storm wants to do is play. According to my wife Sadie has turned Storm into a Juvenile delinquent. She claims that he used to be so good but since Sadie arrived she gets him so worked up during play sessions that he will no longer listen to her, as if he ever listened to her in the first place. What she doesn't realize is that Storm initiates most of the play sessions not Sadie. I, on the other hand, look at it as a welcome break for me. If Storm is working with Sadie and correcting her I don't need to. Any of the work load Storm can take off of my shoulders is welcome. Sadie has turnd out to be much more work than I anticipated. Going from 3 dogs to 4 is not 25% more work but 100% more, especially when one is a puppy.

Sadie has not been getting out to for socialization near as much as I would like but she did manage to have a sleep over at a friends house this past weekend. She made herself at home within a couple of hours and I found out that she defiantly prefers men. She cozyed right up to my friends husband almost immediately but took a bit longer to accept her. It also took Sadie over a week to connect with my wife without showing any fear and I think she is still a bit afraid of her, but then so am I. She got along well with all the humans in the house but I understand that the cats were another story. Whenever one of the cats came into the room she would hid under the table, so much for a her hard temperament, hard head is more like it. I was told that they enjoyed her visit and are now ready for a Shiloh of their own. This turned out to be a win win visit for all involved. Maybe I should start renting her out for weekends. It would give her much needed socialization and me much needed rest.

Even though she did not interact with the cats much during her visit she must have learned something from them because when I got her home and let her out in the yard with in about 10 minutes she came prancing back to the door as prod as could be with the biggest mouse I had ever seen, head hanging out of one side of her mouth and tail drooping down from the other. Needless to say this did not endear her to my wife but I thought it was cute.

Her house training has been coming along very well. She still piddles a little when she greets me but she has started making it through the night without getting me up. However, just when it looked like my much anticipated uninterrupted full nights sleep would become a reality I got another setback. Storm. He has gotten so used to getting up with Sadie that now he wakes me and the rest of the pack up 2 or 3 times during the night. Being awakened by a 100 pound Shiloh is not the most pleasant experience in the world.

I have learned to sleep facing away from him in the hopes that if he thinks that I am asleep he will go back to sleep. My first interruption comes when he stands up. He has got this habit of shaking his head when he first wakes up. His ears hit the side of his head which makes the sound of a helicopter taking off. I try to ignore this in the hope that he will go back to sleep because I know what comes next if I don't ignore him. His next step is to come over and sit next to the bed. I know he is there because I can feel his hot breath on the back of my neck. I dare not turn move, let alone turn over and face him because then there is no chance that he will let me go back to sleep. It isn't long before his patience wears thin and he gets more insistent. The next thing I feel is a paw hit my arm and literally pull me over to face him. Now I know that at this point my only chance to get back to sleep is to tell him too "Go back to bed". Most of the time this works but then I lay there wide awake wondering if he really had to go or if he just wanted to go out to see if the neighbors dog was out and in the mood for a race up and down the fence line. Well, last night he did not go back to bed but a few minutes later pushed me with his nose and hit me in the head with his paw. By now I was getting mad because this would have been the 3rd time that I got up with him, gathered all the dogs together and walking out into the yard in my skivvies just to watch him walk the perimeter of the yard and mark each corner. This time I yelled go back to bed and he left. Big mistake. False alarm or not the next time he asks to go out I will get up like it or not. Because, the next morning when I got up in my bear feet and walked to the bedroom door in the dark I discovered that he had left me a big present right where I would step in it. Lesson learned.

Next post:My time saving Grooming/Training Session

2005-10-02T18:05:00.000-04:00

Sadie's Training Schedule

Before I get into Sadie's schedule I would like to point out two things that will shortly appear under the links column on this page. One will be Sadie's weight chart. Sadie went to the vet last Saturday to get micro chiped and at the same time she got to meet my vet, a few cats and a few dogs. While I was there I had her weighed and she had gained 6.6 lbs. She went to 19.6 pounds and is now at 21.5lbs.

I will also be posting her vocabulary list. This list will include the words that Sadie has been taught along with a chart indicating how well she recognizes them. So far she is learning HERE, HER NAME, GET BUSY (her potty word), OUT, CRATE, KENNEL, LEAVE IT, SIT, DOWN, STAND, BRUSH and of course, don't do that, stop that, ouch, leave her alone, not to mention a few expletive I can not repeat here.

The follow is Sadie's typical schedule;

4:30am Rise and potty
5:00am Breakfast
5:30am Potty break
5:45am Training
6:00am Kennel Training 1hr working up to 4hrs.
12:00 noon Lunch
12:15pm Potty
12:30pm Training
12:45pm Crate Training 1hr working up to 4 hrs
4:00pm Dinner
4:30pm Potty break
4:45pm Training
5:00pm Grooming
10:00pm Bed

2005-09-23T22:29:00.000-04:00

Sadie's Pack

This week Sadie became part of a pack. Her pack has 3 other members that have been here long before her. It is too early to tell where she will fall in the pecking order but after this weeks observation I don't think she will be happy being the omega. She challenges each member of the pack every chance she gets and will only back off from my alpha female.

Her pack consists of Lizzy a shepherd/collie alpha female and Pepper the omega female border collie. That leaves Storm, my ISSR Shiloh Shepherd male, somewhere in the middle. Since packs commonly contain an alpha male and an alpha female then that would make Storm the alpha male by default but not by attitude he defiantly respects Lizzy as the alpha.

You might have noticed that I did not say that I am the alpha male. Most trainers would stress the fact that the owner must be the alpha in order to control the pack however I am not convinced that this is the case. I am human and by definition I can not be a member of the pack and I do not think my dogs look at me as another dog. I will not breed with the alpha female and I will not fight with the alpha male for leadership. I will however use my dogs pack instincts to help them adjust to life in the world of humans. I look at my role more as a Teacher, Supervisor, Mentor, Drill Instructor or in other words Trainer. A lot of trainers say that you must be the alpha. I think frequently they do this in order to justify unnecessary use of force under the guise of becoming the alpha member of the pack. I would much rather let the job of alpha be determined by my dogs amongst themselves and I am happy to take on the role of Trainer. To say that only the alpha male or female can train a dog is like says that a father is the only person that can teach a child.

As trainer one of the problems I faced this week, or I should say mistakes I made, was the way in which I brought Sadie into our home and introducing her to her new pack. Storm and I are very close and Sadie was the first thing to come between us. His reaction was rather unexpected. I expected some jealousy, maybe some aggression toward her or forcing his way between us but his reaction was totally unexpected. He wanted nothing to do with her or me and for the first time he would ignore me when I ask him to do something. This from a dog that would either do or try to do anything I ask of him. He became totally independent. The dog that would not eat until I was in the room started eating if I was not around. The dog that would bound at full speed when I whistled totally ignored me. The dog that would jump up on the table to be groomed as soon as I picked up the brush now waited his turn. The dog that would get into the shower after me just so that he would get toweled down each night would now wait in the next room. He had to be coaxed into the house if he so much as saw Sadie inside. Fortunately I quickly realized my mistake and saw what I was loosing. In my enthusiasm for the new puppy I totally ignored what I have had and treasured for over a year. My solution was to let Storm help train Sadie. So far he has taught her to put both front feet into the pond when getting a drink so that she can have wet feet when it is time to come into the house. He taught her to only eat out of a flat dinner plate and not out of a bowl and I swear he taught her how to fart. What ever he teaches her it will be well worth it because he is back to his old self and even solicits play with her during which he is in-creditably gentle even when she is hanging from his jowls.

Next post Sadie's Schedule

Introduction

2005-09-18T18:27:00.000-04:00

Introducing Wolf Creek's Sadie of Zion aka Red Girl aka Sadie

Born: 6/30/05
Coat: Smooth Brown Sable
Temperament: Hard

I acquired Sadie (formerly Red Girl) from New Zion Shiloh's in Fillmore NY on Saturday September 17 2005. Sadie is an ISSR Shiloh Shepherd and destined, along with Zion's Perfect Storm, to be the foundation of my kennel Wolf Creek Shiloh's of New Franklin, Ohio.
Even though Sadie is already almost 4 weeks older than I prefer to acquire a dog I will put off her training until I have observed her long enough to customize a training program based on her unique personality. I have helped many clients train their puppies but this will be the first puppy of my own that I have trained in quit a while. Most of my clients come to me with adult dogs that have either never been trained or improperly trained. This is a unique oppertunity for me that I have been looking forward to since I decided to resume breeding.
I have not done any breeding since I gave up on GSD's over 25 years ago. I just did not like the direction the breed was heading and I could not tolerate the the Politics. The basics are still the same but I still have a lot of catching up to do. I am learning that you can not avoid the politics no mater what breed you choose but at least the ISSR Shiloh's are heading in a direction that I not only support but will dedicate the most precious thing I have to offer, my time on this earth.