My new friend Buster the kitty

Jenn and Eric took me over to Aron and Alexandra's house last night. I met a new friend Buster the kitty. He is so interesting and fascinating! I have never been so close to a kitty before. He even came right up to and rubbed his face onto mine. How cool is that?
I've got to tell you that secretly I was hoping that Buster might run from me and we could play chase. But Jenn says that kitties are not for chasing. I must be kind and gentle to kitties or they will not want to be my friends. So we played the sniff each other's butts game instead.
So can cats and dogs really get along? That depends on the individual cat and dog. Puppies need to be raised from a young age to respect kitties and other pets and to learn that chasing them is not appropriate. Kitties need to feel safe around dogs so they will not run (which can flip on the chase/prey instinct in some dogs).

Want to learn more about cats and dogs getting along? Here are some great articles to help you do smooth introductions between your felines and canines.

Cat Chasing
Making Peace Between Cats and Dogs
Dogs and Cats Can Live in Perfect Harmony In the Home, if Introduced the Right Way

Cheap Fun with the Bucket Beast!

I am the Bucket Beast!
Show me a plastic bucket with a few inches of water and I'll show you the most fun ever and how I become a scary monster. First, I run around as a warm up. Then I put my feet in the bucket.Then I shove my head inside the bucket and dig with my feet to slosh it all around.Behold the beast!Don't be scared-it's just me.Jenn thinks it is very funny that I have like a gazillion toys and yet my favorite things to play with are old cardboard boxes and plastic buckets. Puppies don't need you to spend big bucks to have big fun with them. You can have puppy fun on the cheap any old time. If all else fails, get silly!

I'm a Therapy Dog!

I took my certification test today with Therapy Dogs International and I passed! It was a very exciting day all around.

I started my day by visiting Laura, Anthony and Mona at their house while Jenn was teaching classes. Jenn thought I might burn off some energy playing with Mona and be relaxed for the TDI test. But I found a bucket filled with cool water and I had so much fun putting my head and feet in it. Laura had quite a job getting me cleaned up and dried before my TDI test.

Laura was nice enough to drive me over the meet Jenn for the test. I was really happy to wiggle my butt for the evaluator and for all the people there to help her. Jenn kept talking to me and telling me I was a good boy.

The TDI test is similar to the Canine Good Citizen test. These are some of the things I had to do:

• walk politely on the leash without pulling
  
• sit politely while people pet me and crowded around me
  
• let someone brush me and handle my ears and feet
  
• sit/down/stay/come
  
• walk through a crowd of people with walkers and wheelchairs and then politely say hello to them
  
• remain calm with banging and distractions
• be alone with a stranger for three minutes and be quiet and polite
  
• walk past a food bowl filled with wet dog food
  

Wow, that last one was hard! But Jenn told me to leave it and I did. And I did it all. Yeah for me!

For more information on TDI and how to help your dog become a TDI visiting friend, click here.

Jenn is at TTouch Training...

Jenn left this morning for another TTouch horse workshop in Virginia with Linda Tellington-Jones. Linda is a really wonderful person that I got to meet last year when she came here to do a training. I was just a puppy then, and Linda was so kind to me.
I was nervous and she did touches and strokes that made me release tension through my whole body. Linda developed the TTouch method, a gentle way of helping animals overcome fears, pains and increase learning potential. She started the work with horses to help them recover from injuries, overcome fears like having to load into a trailer and teach them how to take signals from the rider in the saddle. Jenn is learning from Linda about using TTouch on horses.
Jenn says that there is a lot of force and heavy handed training in working with horses. Lots of people think that you just have to show them who is boss by being physical and punishing them. Using the TTouch Method is a more nurturing way to connect with the horse without force. Here's Linda guiding a horse with her voice, light lead signals, and body movements.
That all seems pretty cool. I'm glad Jenn is learning more and I'm really glad she likes to practice TTouch with me. Jenn is presenting a TTouch workshop called "From Growing Pains to Aches and Pains" at the APS/Paws4Ever on May 20th, 7-9pm. It costs $10 at the door and all proceeds benefit Paws4Ever. You can come and learn about how TTouch can help your puppy live a great life.

Check out more about the Tellington TTouch Method.

I'm 20 months old!

Jenn wanted to get some even more handsome pictures of me since I'm officially 20 months old this month! She tried many methods to pose me with Big Sandy and Bernie. Bernie wanted to keep moving. That's OK-more pictures of just me.
All the azaleas were blooming, so she tried to get them in the picture too.
I like posing for pictures. Jenn said that her friend Meghan was going to come over and she was going to take some pictures for Jenn's website. I'll be all ready to pose for her too!

My Drill Team Performance Debut!

What an exciting weekend! I performed with the Paws4Ever Drill Team on Saturday at the YMCA Healthy Kids Event. We debuted our new routine called "25 Miles" which was choreographed by Sharon Ashe and also performed our routine to "I Will Survive". Sharon was also there and performed both routines with Bernie. They did great! I did great! It was really fun and afterwards, Jenn walked around with me and Bernie and we got lots of attention from people. I got to wiggle my butt and get lots of pats from adults and children. It was way fun. Jenn posted videos of our performances on YouTube.

25 Miles

I Will Survive

Dude, where are my feet?

One important thing in agility is for a puppy to know where his feet are. That may sound silly, but if I'm not aware of my feet, they could knock into the poles as I am going over a jump or I could lose my balance on obstacles like the dog walk. Learning where my feet are gives me awareness and helps my balance in agility and in general.One of the objects that can help me learn about the placement of my feet is a ladder placed on the ground. I step through the rungs one by one, lifting and placing each foot. Jenn and Eric built me my own plastic PVC ladder over the weekend. Why not just use a real ladder? Jenn wanted a lightweight ladder she could take with her so her canine clients could use it too. It is made of 1" PVC pipe, four PVC elbows, and 16 T-joints and cost about $20 for the materials. Eric cut the pieces with a saw and Jenn put the ladder together. She got instructions here on how the build a PVC ladder.

Jumping in Agility

I am learning some fun things in Agility class at Paws4Ever/APS. We had our first class outside in the agility field. First, we practiced waiting and being patient at the "start line". This is the place where we go over the first jump in the course and your dog has to wait for you to tell them, "jump". This is so hard to do! I just want to go!Then we practiced backchaining. This is where we learn a series of things starting with the last thing first. We were supposed to do a jump, a jump and then the tunnel. So we practiced the tunnel first, then doing one jump and the tunnel. Here I am demonstrating with Dee, our instructor. Then jump, jump, tunnel. Backchaining is a great way to teach your puppy complex tasks.

A New Adventure at the Southern Village Park

Jenn took me to the new dog park near Southern Village on our way to Barbara Long's Therapy Dog class at Carolina Meadows. First of all the park is big! It has two different sections you can go into, one for little dogs and one for big dogs. There were about six other dogs there and I was little nervous about meeting them all at once as they crowded me a bit at the entry gate. But they sniffed me and I sniffed them and then I could sort out who I wanted to play with. This little spitz was very cute and wanted me to chase her.
The ground is covered in mulch, so there isn't any grass to smoosh my feet into which is too bad. The dust sure gets kicked up when dogs start running. There are plenty of trees and a shaded gazebo too. And a water station that provides drinking water to all the dogs. That is really cool. Here I am chasing my little spitz girlfriend again.
There were a couple people that really weren't paying any attention to their dogs at all. They just sat around as their dogs did whatever they wanted. One dog was being a big bully holding other dogs down by the neck and not letting them up while they screamed for help. One dog was crying so loud and getting so stressed out and her person just stood around talking, paying no attention. I felt so sorry for her.

Jenn is always watching out for me. She says that humans need to monitor their dogs while they are playing in the park so they don't become bullies and so they don't get bullied. Some dogs need help keeping their play at an appropriate, safe level. And dog parks are not the right thing for every dog.

How can you be a good advocate for your puppy in the park?? Here's a great article by Pat Miller called "Dog Park Ettiquette"

My busy social calendar!

Life is getting really busy lately. I have so many commitments with Drill Team on Mondays, Therapy Dog on Tuesdays, and Agility 1 on Thursdays. Here's the rundown:

On Mondays, the Paws4Ever Drill Team is getting ready for our first performance of the season which will be Saturday, April 18th at the YMCA Healthy Kids Day at the Meadowmont Swim Club in Chapel Hill. We will go on at around 10:40am and do two routines. One is are old standby "I Will Survive" and the other is our brand new routine "Twenty Five Miles". It is very cool. I get to spin, twirl, and do-see-do.

On Tuesdays, Jenn and I go to Carolina Meadows for Therapy Dog class with Barbara Long. Barbara is a wonderful trainer and she's going to give us lots of practice to get ready for my therapy dog test. I have to get even more comfortable with strangers petting me, being brushed and touched, keeping my cool around medical equipment, and approaching people with walkers and wheelchairs. We also have to practice a lot outside of class. At the end of six weeks, we'll take the Therapy Dogs International (TDI) test. On Thursdays, we're back at Paws4Ever in Agility 1. Jenn said I'm doing much better in Agility now that I'm neutered (and a little older). I can keep my composure while the other dogs are taking their turns on the equipment. Last week, we worked on going over the dog walk, targeting, and going through the weave poles. My best girlfriend Mona is in class with me, but I can't sniff her butt until after class. Bummer.