Dog Trainer's Log

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People love rules. And dog trainers love routines.

Can you remember those old obedience class homework handouts: practice 15 automatic sits, heel forward with three left turns and three right turns, practice two fasts and two slows, practice sit/stay for three minutes and down/stay for five minutes on lead with distractions. I can. Taped each week’s assignments up on my ‘fridge. Practiced them religiously, 15 minutes in the morning and another 15 minutes at night.

There’s nothing wrong with rules. Or routines. Those homework handouts were how I trained Taryn all the way through utility, and how I earned her SOTC CD (a club title awarded to mixed breeds by qualifying three times under three different fun match judges.) Those homework handouts were still around and part of my training plan when I started Jazz, who eventually earned an AKC CD, a CKC CD, an AKC CDX and who I trained and showed in utility. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Image by Ninja M. via Flickr

Madison and I have been working on her play skills – every day, a couple encouraged and praised tosses and retrieves of her favorite toy, the ginormous Nylaknot left in the toybox by the gordon setters. I’m still focused on trying to reward the right behavior (and not commit CRAP training – constantly rewarding ‘almost’ perfect.) While it’s important to reinforce approximate performances in the very beginning of shaping a skill, the trap lies in staying at ‘almost’ and ‘close enough.’ [Read the rest of this entry...]

It happened so fast that I couldn’t capture it on film.

I said, as I’ve said to the southern belle several times a day for the last 38 months, ‘Where’s your toy? Go get a toy!’ [Read the rest of this entry...]

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Syracuse Obedience Training Club, Inc. will be hosting its second annual Doggone Good Day on Saturday (tomorrow, January 23) from 9a.m. to 4 p.m. at their training building, 6392 Deere Road, Syracuse NY.

Activities at this event are specially planned to help the public meet owners and dogs of various dog breeds, representatives of local dog clubs and rescue groups; see dog activities demonstrated; and explore different dog supply and dog food vendors. Special events will include: [Read the rest of this entry...]

Image by State Library of New South Wales collection via Flickr

Big conformation classes can last for a half-hour or more. Even though smaller classes are shorter, a dog that wins his individual breed class has a long stretch to look forward to in the Winners ring. At specialities, Best of Breed classes, aka ‘intersex,’ can run 50-75 dogs, and often end up being split into multiple sections. Those are the kinds of classes where Madison, Ch. Kabree Mad About You, learned her default behavior: stand-still-look-pretty (SSLP.) [Read the rest of this entry...]