Tuesday, June 25, 2013

It's my birthday today!!!

Can you believe it? I'm 9 years old today.

Last night, after Mum changed the sheets on the bed and I was rolling around, snorting and getting my smell all over the clean sheets, Mum took a look at me and said, 'I'm so lucky! I get to sleep with you every single night, and spend every day, all day with you; and I am constantly in awe of how amazing you are. I am so grateful I am to have you in my life!'

Ditto Mum, ditto!!!
  • I may be getting a little white on the face, but I'm still just as handsome as ever.
  • I may be a little more mellow when Mum's working during the day, but when it comes to play time I am always raring to go.
  • I may get a little ache and pain a little more often, but I still heal up really well and really quickly.
  • I may not want to wrestle with my strong sis Gracie as much as I used to, but I still love a good zoomie session.
  • I may not want to do five runs a day in agility now, but give me a one or two runs a day and I can still really turn it on.
  • I may just want to hang out in the yard some evenings, but when it's time for a seven mile hike, I'm in!
  • And tricks? Old dogs really can learn new tricks...I love learning them every single day with my Mum.
Here's to many, many, many wonderful, loving, fun, entertaining days to come!

And hey, Mum? What's in that box the UPS dude delivered the other day?

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Snake avoidance training using clicker training!

With all the snakes we've seen around here lately, including the one that bit me and the one Gracie found after a little agility practice that Mum thought may have been a Copperhead, we needed to do something, and something quick!

After Mum and Gracie saw the third snake and Mum couldn't tell exactly if it was a dull milk snake or a copperhead, Gracie and I had to go out for the next night and day on leash. Not fun when you are used to running around the yard like wild the wacky dogs we are!

The next morning Mum saw the skin from the snake she and Gracie saw the day before and used tongs to take it inside and get a good look.

After looking really close, Mum is pretty sure that this is the skin from the snake that bit me the other day; the Eastern Milk Snake; and definitely not a Copperhead. It eased her mind a lot, but Mum was still thinking about how interesting Gracie and I find snakes and that the likelihood of us seeing a Copperhead is increasing rapidly.

Here's the snake skin Mum saved.

After finding the fresh snake skin and doing a little Googling about snake aversion/avoidance training, Mum got a bright idea! Why not use the snake skin to teach us to stay away from them? The skins look a lot like a snake and they really smell like snakes, which would help a lot in our training.

What Mum found on Google was that most of the SAT is based in shock training. WHAT?! Well, we are not ever going there! I'm 18 lbs, and a very soft dog, so using a shock collar on me...well, it just isn't going to happen. 

Gracie, Mum and I are really good at clicker training, so Mum started teaching us snake avoidance training using clicker training that very day and it's working, working really, really well! 

This is what Mum did with me:

1. During our first session, Mum refreshed me with my 'Leave' command. It's still really, really good, so we progressed to the next step. If you need to refresh or need help in teaching your dog leave it, here's a great vid utilizing clicker training.

2. On the back deck, she put me in a sit stay about three feet from the snake skin and had me stay. Dang I was a sniffing fool! Mum could see my nostrils really working and taking in the scent. And I was very interested. Luckily it was a little breezy that day and I was down wind, which helped as well.

2. After a while I got even more interested and started making my move to get closer, so Mum used my really reliable 'Leave' command to keep me from the snake. When Mum says 'Leave' sometimes I sit, but more often come closer to her. I get lots of good clicks and treats for that.

Yep, yep, I've got that apprehensive look about me.

3. But Mum wanted to try and take the SAT to a safer level than just my behavior when she says 'Leave'. Distance is important with snakes. So when I started shaping into backing up with the leave it, Mum clicked and rewarded the instant I moved a paw back, saying yes and giving me a jackpot.

4. After a little more time passed, I then began shaping into barking and backing up when I saw/smelled the snake skin from about 2-3 feet away. Yes, even bigger jackpot!!!! Now we're talking...I'm becoming a snake alert dog...that's what we want! By this time, Mum didn't even have to say 'Leave,' which is important as she may not see the snake before I do, so that command has been faded now.

5. Mum stores the snake skin in a glass jar and gets it out everyday to work with us; using only stainless steel tongs to touch it. We've also progressed to Mum hiding it in the house and in the yard and it's working great.

6. As we've worked in the yard, I've progressed even further to sniffing areas where Mum thinks the snake may have been recently, and I am backing up fairly reliably. Now we're working on increased distance.

It's working great! As with everything that is this important, we are going to continue to work and work (well it's a game to me) on our snake avoidance training very regularly. Our overall goal is for me is when I smell/see a snake that I bark, let Mum know and come back to her or at a minimum back up a few feet from it and always, always leave it alone.

We hope we don't encounter any more snakes, dangerous or not....they are just yucky!!!

--------------------

Note: A lot of people have asked me what to do if you don't have a snake skin. Well, we hear that there are fake snakes that you can purchase to work on this skill. You may not be able to include the scent part of the training (unless you can find snake scent somewhere (for us we would need Copperhead, some may need Rattlesnake), but utilizing a variety of snake look-a-likes is one stage that we will be including in our SAT. These fake snakes are probably going to be rubber, which offs a significant smell very similar to many dog toys on the market. So we will be washing them thoroughly with soap and water when we get them, and then bury them in a pile of decomposing leaves and dirt for a time period, to hopefully get rid of as much rubber smell as possible. 

Friday, June 07, 2013

Book Review: Mr. and Mrs. Dog by Donald McCaig!

Working dogs have much different lives than non-working dogs, and Donald McCaig just gets 'em. If you have a working dog, an aspiring working dog, or a busy bee dog like me and my sis, Gracie, you'll really love Mr. McCaig's new book, 'Mr and Mrs Dog: Our Travels, Trials, Adventures, and Epiphanies.'

Last year, we were pleased to find and read McCaig's book, 'Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men: Searching through Scotland for a Border Collie,' it's a great tail of a far reaching search for the ultimate sheep herding dog.

So when McCaig's new book came out last month, we herded at the chance to read it. Special thanks to the great folks at University of Virginia Press for sending us a copy to read and review.

McCaig's writing style is different from a lot of dog books we read. Different in a really good way! It's storytelling at it's best, mixed in with opinions on dog training from McCaig himself, and those he knows and admires. Always interesting, always thought provoking.

Mr. McCaig is a sheepdog trainer, living with his wife and nine dogs on a farm in the western mountains of Virginia. He frequently competes in sheepdog competitions in the US and throughout the world, hence his keen insight into the world of sheepdogging.

In his new book he recounts the journey to qualify Luke and June for a spot on the US team which will compete in Wales at the World Sheepdog Trial. A little spoiler, he makes it to the Worlds and you'll be cheering him on all along the way.

If you like great stories about great dogs and great competition, we know you'll love Mr. and Mrs. Dog.

Don't forget to visit his Facebook page! And get the book, or get it on Kindle

Monday, June 03, 2013

Wanna join a new Pack?

Many of you know that I've been on Squidoo for years now, writing about things I love, find interesting, learn and want.

Not too long ago, one of the founders of Squidoo, my fan and super supporter, Megan Casey, left the company and started a new venture called Pack. It's really new, and still in beta, but if Megan has anything to do with it, you can be sure it will be really fun and really great!

Megan not only cofounded Squidoo with Seth Godin, she's been a book editor for Penguin Group and Random House, and a frequent speaker at tech and start up conferences. Then she found Luna, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, her familiar, and decided that celebrating dogs needed to be taken to the next level.


So I signed up a few weeks back. Created a Pack page for me and for Gracie. Not too difficult, actually pretty simple to get started. Pack is by invitation only right now, but I know my readers are pawsome dog lovers, so.....

If you'd like an invite, then feel free to email me (just click the link) and let me know you want an invite to Pack and I'll send you one! It's a link that gets you in to sign up for an account. I think it's gonna be fun!
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