Jet and Bernie Pass CLASS BA Evaluations

Well, this is certainly embarrassing! Would you believe that both Jet and Bernie have passed the CLASS (Canine Life and Social Skills) BA Level evaluations and I have not. Inconceivable! I mean, I can understand Bernie passing, cause everything is so easy for him. But Jet??!! She's so much younger than me and frankly, she can be a little high strung (do I need to remind anyone of the toilet paper incident?).
But back to me. I just don't understand. I did everything in stellar fashion, scoring an "excellent" on every item on the BA evaluation but one, the boring "STAY". I was so excited to be doing well, I just didn't want to sit on my mat for a whole minute. So I got up twice and apparently, that is an automatic incomplete for the whole test. Darn it! I was so close.

Jenn did say that it is totally OK and that she was really proud that I did really well on all the other items on the evaluation. We have some work to do, but I can take the evaluation again in a few weeks. So, in the meantime, I can fill you in on all the ins and outs of training for the CLASS program.

Does Your Dog Have C.L.A.S.S.?

It's very exciting that the Association of Pet Dog Trainers has a new program called C.L.A.S.S., which is short for Canine Life and Social Skills. Jenn became an official CLASS evaluator and is now teaching CLASS at Extraordinary Ventures in Chapel Hill.

So what's CLASS all about anyway? CLASS is a three-level evaluation for dogs and their person to demonstrate real-life skills, along with assessing your person's knowledge basic dog handling and care. The program also promotes the use of reward based training with all dogs. That sounds terrific! But can I actually use these skills?

Jenn says most definitely and that training me for the CLASS evaluations will be a great way to brush up on my overall skills. I love to work in training classes, but CLASS skills extend into real life, that's the point.

It's not just about learning stuff for training classes. It's about you and your dog learning real life skills that you'll actually use everyday. Stuff like learning to walk on a loose leash, settling down on a mat at home and in public, calmly and politely meeting strangers for petting and treats, laying next to your person quietly as they are eating a meal, and coming when called, just to name a few.

So your person can take you out in public, your world can be expanded, and CLASS dogs can be ambassadors of good social behaviors and go places that other dogs can't. Check out the skills that I'm working on for the first level of CLASS called the B.A.:

1.	WAIT AT THE DOOR
Real-life Relevance	The ability to maintain position until invited to advance through a door is a convenience to the student and can save a dog’s life.
	WARM-UP TIME
Real-life Relevance	A dog is better able to focus and relax when he has a chance to assess his immediate environment.
2.	COME AND LEADING UP MANNERS
Real-life Relevance	Coming when called could save your dog’s life if he gets loose. Training a dog to want to come to you also helps strengthen the bond between dog and student.
3.	LOOSE LEASH WALKING AND ATTENTION
Real-life Relevance	Teaching and practicing loose leash walking and checking in with one another builds comfort, ease, and connectedness between the dog and student.
4.	MEET AND GREET
Real-life Relevance	The importance of a dog remaining politely at the student’s side shows the dog’s self-control when meeting someone. This also allows the opportunity for the student to understand if it is appropriate or not for someone to greet or handle their dog.
	BONUS 1: ROLLOVER, SPIN, FETCH, SPEAK, OR PAW
Real-life Relevance	Teaching simple tricks is a fun way to practice training with your dog. See
5.	LEAVE IT
Real-life Relevance	Leave It is useful when you do not want your dog to go near something, and can be a life-saving skill.
6.	WAIT FOR THE FOOD BOWL
Real-life Relevance	Rather than grabbing or rushing for the food, waiting for the food bowl is good manners and strengthens a dog’s self-control.
7.	STAY
Real-life Relevance	Stay is useful when you need your dog to remain in place.
8.	SETTLE
Real-life Relevance	A dog who can calm down on cue is more manageable in the home and may be more welcome in other social settings
9.	GIVE AND TAKE
Real-life Relevance	Living with a dog who does not guard food or objects, willingly drops items on cue, and takes items gently from the student is safer for the student and less stressful for the dog.
	BONUS 2: TRICK OF STUDENT’S CHOICE
Real-life Relevance	Tricks are fun, can be useful, and exercise a dog’s mind.

So when your dog gets all that down pat and passes the BA Level, there are two higher levels of CLASS (Masters and PhD). Talk about higher education! So, I have my work cut out for me. I really need to work on those stays. If you want to learn more about CLASS, you can visit the official CLASS website and watch a demonstration of all the skills of the BA Level by clicking here.

How Kids Should Act Around Dogs

Suffice it to say that I think children are like little aliens! They move differently and they talk differently than most humans. They sometimes really freak me out. Although Jenn and Eric did a good job socializing me as a puppy to children, it is just as important for parents to guide their children on how to act around dogs not only with their family dog, but with other dogs as well. Here's my friend Will feeding me out of my Squirrel Dude. Will's parents have taught him really good things about how to behave around other people's dogs. But some children can get away with lots of inappropriate behavior even with the family dog.

Dr. Sophia Yin has put together some terrific posters to show what kids should do around dogs like being polite and kind, playing appropriate games like fetch, and using reward based training:And what kids should not do around dogs like bothering the dog while eating or sleeping, taking objects away, climbing on the dog, hugging the dog, or putting your face in the dog's face:You can learn more by reading Dr. Sophia Yin's blog. The more we can all learn about helping both dogs and children get along, the safer we can all live together.

There's also a great book to guide parents by local trainer Barbara Shummenfang called "Happy Kids, Happy Dogs".

Hot Summer Safety Tips

Oh my! It reached 100 degrees today. Makes me want to slow way down and try to stay cool. It's really a good idea to keep some tips in mind when it gets this hot. First of all, give your puppy access to lots of clean, cool water. I prefer my water in a baby pool of course.It should go without saying, that you need to be especially careful about leaving your puppy in a hot car in the summer. Here's a study by the Animal Protection Institute that showed just how hot the inside of a car can get even in the shade with the windows cracked. For example, on a 100 degree day like today, the inside car temperature rose to 124 degrees. Just don't take your puppy with you if you have to leave them in the car, even for a couple of minutes. It's just not safe and it's totally against the law in North Carolina and other states. It is especially dangerous for older dog, small dogs, or dogs that have breathing issues to be locked in a hot car, even for just a few minutes. OK, let's talk a little about feet, cause your puppy's feet can really get burned by hot concrete in the middle of the day.
It's a good idea to walk your puppy either early in the morning or in the evening on really hot days. It will keep their feet from getting burned and it will lessen the chances of heat exhaustion or heatstroke.

The Association of Pet Dog Trainers has a great article on Dog Safety Tips for Summer. You can learn all about the signs of heatstroke and more. Take special care to keep your puppy safe this summer!

K9 Kindness promotes reward based training!

Jenn's been super busy with a new project called "K9 Kindness". She and a bunch of other local reward based dog trainers are working together to promote training your dog with kindness right here in the Triangle. Check out their super groovy logo by Top Notch Dog trainer Barbara Shummenfang. K9Kindness has a super new website with resources, articles, and videos all about how you can train your dog without pain, fear or intimidation. There's even a section where your human can submit your reward based training success stories. Most importantly, they are doing a "No Choke Challenge". They're going to give away 100 harnesses in exchange for choke, prong, or shock collars.

So dogs don't have to walk around like this:
Or like this:
Or this this! Yikes!:

They can walk around with their human like this:

That's much, much better. Amazing what the gentle training equipment can do. So stay tuned for all the K9Kindness events promoting rewarding training with your dog. And when you make a donation to K9 Kindness, it is tax deductible. Even better. Go to www.k9kindness.org for details. (Illustrations by artist Cathy Lester and courtesy of www.nevershockapuppy.com).

Dog Bite Prevention Week

Dog Bite Prevention Week is coming up May 15-21st, so here are some resources for understanding why dogs bite, the warning signs, and how to keep yourself safe. Millions of people are bitten by dogs every year, and there are lots of things you people can learn to avoid those bites. Children are especially vulnerable to dog bites, so it is so important that we teach them how to behave around dogs and supervise all interactions between children and dogs. Here's a video created by veterinarian and behaviorist Dr. Sophia Yin showing some of the warning signs of fear when a child approaches a dog.



Scary! That dog gave many warning signs, but the child didn't understand them, and there was no parent around to intercede. What can we do??!!

Dr. Sophia Yin has written a terrific blog explaining how to read fearful body language and why dogs bite when you humans greet us inappropriately.

Here's another poster by artist Lili Chin which shows how to greet and how not to greet a dog. Click on the picture to get a bigger version:

Here's a great resource called Dog Gone Safe. Their website is devoted to preventing dog bites through awareness and education.

And, please read this article by Dr. Sophia Yin called "Seven Tips for Preventing Dog Bites in Animal Care Professionals and Pet Lovers". And watch her video "How To Avoid Dog Bites".

Educating yourself about how to greet dogs properly and learning to read dog body language can go a long way in keeping you and your family safe from dog bites. Be safe!

Jet is 16 months old and still a puppy!

Time has really flown by because our puppy Jet is now 16 months old! She's about 50 lbs and has grown a big puffy tail. She is still a puppy in many ways, even if she looks like a grown up dog. She still has to sleep in her crate at night and be crated while Jenn and Eric aren't home, just to keep her safe and out of trouble. And I keep waiting for her to not have sooo much energy all the time. Jenn says that Jet is in her energy peak which is when 9 month-18 month old teenage puppies really require lots of activity, physical exercise, and benefit from continued reward based training. So Jenn and Eric are keeping Jet busy. Eric took Jet to Family Dog 2 at Paws4Ever that Jenn instructed. Jet learned to hold her stays, improved her loose leash walking manners, and learned how to do a little bit of Rally.
Rally is super cool for young dogs to continue their basic training skills in a fun way. You and your person practice heeling on a course set up with obedience skills. Here's Jet giving Eric great attention.
Now, Eric's taking Jet to Jenn's class called K9 Cross Training. It's for dogs that have already taken some basic classes and want to learn more skills in a creative setting. Jet's currently working on learning to ride a skateboard. That sounds so cool!
Boy, after all this training and keeping Jet active, this is the best part! A tired Jet!
Keeping your teenage puppy in fun, reward based training classes, providing lots of exercise, and containing them when you can't watch them are things you can do to get you through those most challenging months of your dog's adolescence.

Help for Your Puppy's Destructive Chewing

So your puppy is chewing you out of house and home? I've got some suggestions to keep your stuff intact. First of all, I do have some experience in this area. Jenn says that I was one of the worst chewers she has ever seen. I even tried to chew the mortar around the bricks of the fireplace! Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. And, I did eat part of a hat that some unlucky person left on the coffee table on one memorable occasion. Anyway, I'm here to suggest ways to help set your puppy up for success in managing their chewing habits.

1. You need lots of proper, durable, non-edible chews for your puppy to chew, like Nylabones, Kongs and marrow bones. Puppies will imprint on what you give them when they are very young. So don't give your puppy old shoes to chew on or you will have an adult dog with a shoe fetish. And stay away from plush toys unless you want them vivisected.
2. Put your valuable stuff out of puppy's space and supervise/crate your puppy so they are chewing the right things. Dude, if you leave your stuff on the floor and are not watching your puppy, you can't blame them when they chew up your favorite socks.

3. You need to redirect your puppy if they are chewing something they shouldn't. If you catch your puppy with your cell phone in their mouth, don't turn it into a chase game. Calmly go get a toy and trade them.

4. Use a taste deterrent spray like Bitter Apple to pretreat your stuff. If your stuff tastes bad and puppy chew toys taste good, puppy will naturally gravitate to their own toys. This is also helpful if you have children/toys. You can treat the kid toys with the taste deterrent and puppy will learn that the kid's toys taste nasty.

5. Exercise helps too as tired puppies don't have the energy to rip the house apart, so don't forget exercise as a helpful part of puppy chewing management.

So, some consistent management on your part can go a long way to help your puppy/teenage dog navigate through their chewing phases which can last up to 18 months.

And, check out this article from Nylabone for more tips, "How to Prevent Destructive Chewing".

The Nylabone Company is offering a $2 off coupon for their non-edible chews. I really like the super tough Dura-Chews. Not the Flexi-Chews that are too soft for me.

Why you shouldn't put your puppy on electronic fencing-EVER!

Using electronic training collars and electronic fence containment systems (called E-Training) on your puppy is bad news. Really bad. And Jenn is no stranger to the negative impact of using electronic fencing (read her blog on how my friend Big Sandy lost her leg while on electronic fencing).But the companies and trainers that recommend these products don't want you to know what can happen to your puppy over time. They don't want you to know that your puppy's behavior, brain chemistry, and their health may be affected by being repeatedly given electronic shocks. They just want to take your money and give you the illusion that your puppy is safe and hope you don't ask questions later.

But dog trainers and owners are asking lots of questions about the safety and effectiveness of so called "fenceless fences". The real questions don't usually start until a dog's behavior becomes extreme and/or violent. And many times, the once trusting, friendly family dog is blamed instead of the system that has conditioned the dog to behave abnormally.

It all starts with learning. Dogs learn through associations, which is called classical conditioning. You know, Pavlov's dogs right? Well, that's how we learn signals and cues, and that good behavior = good stuff. But, we also learn that negative associations just as easily.

And with electric fence conditioning, you have no control over what your dog's associations will be. For example, a person walks by your house, your puppy runs up to say hello and gets a shock from the fence. The puppy now associates a stranger walking past the house with the shock. Stranger = bad things. This is why many puppies on electric fencing grow up to be adult dogs that have aggression and reactivity towards strangers.
Certified Pet Dog Trainer and Certified Dog Behavior Counselor Pat Miller explains, "I have seen at least 2 lovely, apparently very stable dogs, end up with serious aggression problems that I believe were totally and solely the result of their confinement in an electronic containment system. Different owners--one a Golden retriever, the other an Airedale. We salvaged the Golden; the Airedale was ultimately euthanized." This testimonial on e-fencing and many others by respected trainers can be found here.

This also explains why the number one issue that Jenn sees with dogs on electronic fencing is fear based aggression towards people, especially children and joggers. Why? What is usually running past your house or on bikes and skateboards? Right, kids and joggers. If your dog is outside unsupervised on electric fencing, who know what associations are being created day in and day out.
Richard Polsky, of Animal Behavior Counseling Services, examined the connection of shock/pain/aggression in five different litigated cases of dogs mauling a passersby in "Can Aggression in Dogs be Elicited Through the Use of Electronic Pet Containment Systems?"

The other thing that really worries Jenn is people using these shock/fence systems on young puppies. How does it affect a puppy's developing brain chemistry to get shocked? How is affects their heart and other organs? The truth is that no one knows.

What we do know is that experiments on rats at Harvard demonstrated that brain chemistry and emotional responses are altered by electric shocks:

"Vadim Bolshakov, assistant professor of psychiatry, and his colleagues taught rats that a certain sound they heard would be accompanied by an electric shock. After learning that unpleasant fact, the animals became startled every time they heard the tone whether a shock followed or not. Bolshakov and his team then examined their brains, and found conclusive changes not seen in rats that heard the sound or felt the shocks separately. " from the article "Brain Changes in Learning Measured" by William Cromie, 5/30/02.

What can keep dogs safe and secure without the risk of altering your dog's health and behavior? How about a real, physical fence? How about training your dog to come when called? Those are options that I can live with.For more on electronic fencing:

Why I REALLY Hate Electronic Shock (Invisible) Fences by Pamela Dennison

You can read Pat Miller's Whole Dog Journal article on electronic fencing here called "Simply Shocking: Electronic Containment Systems May Be Convenient for Dog Owners, But Are Not Safe for Dogs".

Why use rewards vs. punishment with your puppy?

Reward based training rocks! Using rewards instead of punishments to train your dog is not only a scientifically based, proven way to teach commands and modify behavior, it also helps condition your dog to love learning. Through classical conditioning, we associate good things with training and good things with being with you. I love to learn new things with Jenn, earning praise, treats, and attention in exchange for my good behavior. I look forward to our time together and I can't imagine wanting to learn anything if I was constantly corrected or punished. What fun would that be? It would be completely stressful. No thanks! Jenn also likes to teach reward based methods to children.
Kids can learn some terrific life skills using reward based training with their dogs including being gentle and kind, taking the time and patience to understand the dog's emotions, and using treats and praise instead of force and fear.
Author Stanley Coren recently wrote in Psychology Today, explaining:

"Classical conditioning of emotions provides one reason why reward-based training procedures should work better and establish a stronger bond between the dog and his trainer, than punishment based systems. Every time you give the dog a treat, or some other reward, you set up the event sequence "sight of you-treat-pleasant feeling." Even if your timing is off and you are not a very good and knowledgeable trainer, there is no harm being done in this case. Every instance of reward makes it more likely that the dog will feel better about you because you are actually conditioning the emotional response "sight of you-pleasant feeling."

You can read author Stanley Coren's whole article from Psychology Today:

"Reward Training versus Discipline Based Dog Training: Which Works Better" From Psychology Today By Stanley Coren