Halfway point

Ugggh man I haven't written in a while. I really want to keep up with this too so I feel terrible about falling behind. But my husband is gone for a month and since he left I just haven't had time or motivation to do this. Especially since I'm the only one taking care of the puppies 24/7! Well we're almost to the halfway point of this separation and the puppies just made it halfway through their classes this week! (Hence the title of this post).

It's interesting to see the different teaching and training styles of the trainers doing Harley and Ace's classes. I find things I like and don't like about each one. So hopefully it'll help make me a better trainer too, cause then I can pull all the things I like about the classes I've taken and combine them. The trainer teaching Ace's class (who is my co-trainer where I work) begins every class with a puppy massage, and I've begun to use the same technique in all of my classes too.  It's basically just calmly and slowly petting your dog while holding them close to you to get them to calm down and not be so excited or anxious during class. It really helps Ace out- since he has a problem with getting too excited around other dogs. I have to massage him periodically throughout class to keep him calm. I've begun doing the same thing with Harley in her class because she gets really excited too. It's funny, my husband and I thought that Ace would be worse in class because he's so excitable when he sees other dogs on our walks, but actually Harley has been worse about acting up in class. Until yesterday, that is. For some reason Ace was just not on his game yesterday and kept freaking out when he saw another dog and he wasn't interested in his bully stick. The bully stick worked the first week, and a little bit last week, but not at all yesterday. And it didn't work at all for the really anxious dog in my class that my manager suggested it for. I had to switch that dog into private to see if he'll be less anxious that way.

Last weekend I had to leave the puppies home alone overnight while I went to camp out for a free dress giveaway for Marine wives of Camp Pendleton. I had to work that Friday night til 9:00 and then I came home to take the dogs for a long walk and prep the kitchen so they wouldn't destroy it. By prep I mean spray every surface with no chew spray, and put bully sticks, kongs filled with peanut butter, and toys all over the place. Then I left around 10:00 to make the half hour drive south to my friend's apartment, who then drove us another half hour south to her friend's apartment, who then drove us to the event site. We got there a little after 11:00 and I got home the next morning a little after 10:00. So the dogs had been inside and alone for over 12 hours! But, amazingly, nothing was destroyed. They didn't even chew their whole bully sticks! I think that's partly due to it being overnight and not during the day. They're used to being in the kitchen all night while I sleep- I don't quite trust them yet to leave them in my bedroom with me. And there have been a couple nights here and there when they were in there for 12 hours- like when my husband would go to bed early and I'd stay up and go to bed later without taking them out and then he wakes up extra early and doesn't take them out before he leaves for work and I then sleep in longer than normal. Because they were much more ill-behaved when I left for work on Sunday for 7 hours. They're not used to being alone that long during the day- cause usually my husband is home for at least part of the time.

Dealing with the dogs while my hubby is gone is a lot harder than I anticipated! I'm the only one here... so I'm the only one they go to when they need something or want attention. It's exhausting! well, having two puppies at the same time was exhausting anyway, but at least I was sharing the work with another person. I can't imagine what it'll be like when he deploys! I need to make sure that they're trained pretty perfectly before that so that at least I don't have to worry about them being terrible at walking on leash or freaking out when they see another dog or having accidents in the house, etc.

Training classes and puppies as cats

Today I taught some more classes- again, covering for another trainer. I taught a week 2 Puppy class and a week 4 Beginner class and then had a personal training camp in the hotel. First, I'm not going to bash the other trainer, but I'm just confused as to what the pet parents have been taught so far. There are certain behaviors that they should've known by now and they told me that they hadn't learned some of them or had no idea what I was talking about. So, for example, in my second class of the night, they were already supposed to have been taught drop it, leave it, and down. And one pet parent said that they did not do drop it and only briefly covered down which means that the only thing left that they were supposed to learn that week was leave it. And that does not take an hour to teach. So what the heck else were they taught that day?

Anyways... So I kind of had to squeeze a lot into an hour for that class covering things they should've already known so that we could get on to the next things. And one of the pet parents that had missed the previous week specifically asked if they could schedule a makeup session with me. So I scheduled to meet with them on Saturday first thing when I come into work. I'm not sure if that's really right but I don't know when the other trainer will be back and they wanted to get the makeup in before next week's class, and I felt bad that the trainer had not scheduled the makeup with them before she left for this week.

Another whoops for the night- after my first class ended, one of the hotel managers told me that there was a personal training camp that did not get done and the dog had already checked out. And that was the third personal training camp for that pet parent that a trainer did not do. Now, no one had ever told me how to tell if I had training camps scheduled, no one told me when I came in to work that day, and I kind of figured I wouldn't be doing training camps for a while since I just started training. So it's partly my fault- since you know what happens when you assume. (You make an ass out of u and me). I felt so bad and I really hope that the pet parent schedules another training camp that someone will actually do. 

There was a second training camp scheduled- and I did do that one. It was a cute little Boston Terrier mix- brindle with floppy ears and a bit bigger than a standard Boston. He had the sweetest, goofiest personality. He was also one of the most toy motivated dogs I've seen. He actually preferred a toy to treats sometimes and would work to play with the toy. Apparently he's had issues in the past with automatically rolling over when someone asks him to lie down. This is a problem I had with Harley too.  This happens when you create a pattern- if every time you ask your dog to lie down you then ask him to roll over, eventually they're just going to roll over when you ask him to lie down because they're anticipating that that's what you will ask for next. Not once today when I asked him to lie down did he roll over! He did roll over at other times, but never immediately following the cue "down."

Something I want to mention that I find incredibly odd is a behavior that Ace does. I've noticed that (usually at night) he will go to a specific toy, put his mouth around it and then just sit there like that for a while. I'm not sure if he's sucking on it or very subtly licking it or nibbling on it, but sometimes he also wiggles his toes and curls his paw up kind of like cats do when they knead. So I googled this behavior and apparently dogs do knead like cats in rare occasions. I read conflicting descriptions however- one resource said that puppies will grow out of it and the other said that they never grow out of it. I have yet to see any harm in Ace doing this so I see no reason to stop him because it calms him down and he does not do it obsessively. 

Off work tomorrow- so hopefully I can get a lot of reading in! Another of the books came in- High Energy Dogs. I'm really looking forward to reading this one since I have a Lab and an Aussie- two very high energy breeds! haha.

Well, night y'all. :)

Dog parks and group classes

I read an article and a bunch of comments about how dog parks are great in theory but in reality not that great or safe for pups or people. And now I will not be taking mine to any dog parks.
Here is the link to the article- following the article are a bunch of stories and comments supporting what was said in the main article. http://leerburg.com/dogparks.htm

This snippet is from an especially touching story- I cried, no surprise there seeing as I cry at Lowes commercials, but still- about a dachshund attacked by a rottweiler at a dog park. "Grr the brown dachshund was just getting used to being around other canines at dog parks. He stopped soiling the ground whenever he was approached by a dog and wasn't afraid to sniff another mutt. Grr became that scared little dog again on July 2 when a hulking Rottweiler cornered and attacked him in a central Bakersfield dog park. Despite getting kicked and punched in his face, the growling Rottweiler only stopped after it fatally punctured Grr's throat. The dachshund would die about 31/2 hours later, according to Animal Emergency and Urgent Care."

So now, I mostly just intend to take mine to a regular large park (not a dog park) that I have previously taken them to, as well as a pet friendly beach (but I'll still be very wary there). And I'd like to take them to doggy day camps sometimes as well- just because I know that all the dogs there have their vaccines and have been evaluated and it's a safe environment.

Harley (hopefully) will start her training classes next Monday and Ace should begin the following Wednesday. I'm taking them to classes, not because I have doubts about my own abilities to train them, but because I can't provide them with the social aspect and the distractions that a group class can. Sure, I could train them outside where people walk there dogs, but the second one of my dogs barks, the other person usually freaks out and whips there dog away in fear of mine- not realizing that mine are puppies and just want to play. So then there goes a chance to train my dogs in the presence of another dog. And that's what I really want to work on- getting them used to being around other dogs and behaving "properly" around other dogs, so that when we do encounter another dog on a walk, they won't go berserk with excitement and unintentionally scare people off. That's something I don't think people realize- is that even trainers have issues with their own dogs. We're not perfect, our dogs aren't perfect. Although I want both of mine to be able to be demo dogs for the classes I teach, that'll be a ways down the road yet.

Speaking of classes, I came really close to selling classes yesterday- like 4 of them. I was very proud of myself for clearly impressing a couple people with my knowledge in different areas, and for "planting the seed" (to borrow the phrase from my area trainer) of training in a couple peoples' minds. This one couple in particular had come in a few days before buying a bunch of stuff in preparation for a pitbull puppy they were going to get in a couple days. Then yesterday they came in with said puppy (adorable, 7 weeks old- too young to be taken from mama in my opinion) and I spoke to them again about training. The first time I'd encountered them they'd seem at first against the idea of training them outside the home, since the man had trained all his previous dogs himself. But when I mentioned that the Advanced class preps dogs to take the CGC test and some landlords nowadays are lifting breed restrictions if the dog is CGC certified, their entire demeanors changed. They admitted to me that they weren't supposed to have a Pit and were going to have to "hide" her til they found a new place. And so when I saw them yesterday, they were very happy to see me again and genuinely seemed as if they will sign up for my puppy class a few weeks down the road since the pup is still too young.

Well shucks... time for work. But at least I'm teaching classes again tonight!!!
More cute pet parent stories to come!

Two Shots in the Rump

So today my pups Harley and Ace are going to get their rabies vaccines. They are almost five months old and are about to start training classes. I think that it would be easier to sell the training classes to customers if I can tell them that I put my own dogs through the same program. Plus, I want to get them CGC (Canine Good Citizen) certified and I think this is the easiest way because the Advanced course preps the dogs to take the CGC test.

Harley is a yellow Lab and Ace is a black tri Australian Shepherd. My husband and I got Harley first- right when she was 8 weeks old. And then about a month later we got Ace- when he was 13 weeks old. Funnily enough, they are only 3 days apart in age. Ace is older and they really do act like brother and sister. Harley is the adorable yet irritating younger sister who always wants to play and Ace does his best to ignore her when he doesn't. Though if they are playing and he wants to stop, he always runs to mom and hides behind me.

Ace is also the alpha. If she has a toy and he wants it, he'll take it and she won't do anything about it. But if he has a toy that she wants, if she tries to take it he'll growl at her and then she'll just spend the next five minutes lying next to him and barking in his face. :P