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Happy New Years

all us friends and families too!!!!

There are things I definitely dislike about the AKC. One is the fact they seem to support commercial breeders. They almost jumped into bed with Petland a few years ago but came to their senses when the fur started going up as people heard about the pending deal. I think they realized the move would give them a huge black eye in the PR department. (well bigger than the one they got for even considering it) They say they cant do anything about puppymills because they are only a registry but I have to wonder how true that really is. If they required more of the people doing the registrating then things could change. Consider how much money those puppy registrations are bringing in after all.
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On the other hand they have supported health testing for some breed issues. They also have programs like the Canine Good Citizen test and more recently the S.T.A.R program. (think CGC for puppies and their owners)
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It has been on my mind lately because I have been thinking about some of my long term training goals for the year. If I decide to show in obedience who do I send my registration fees to? AKC of course. If I decide to pursue a tracking title who puts on the event and again benefits from my registration fee? Yup the good ole AKC. I am even a member of a local kennel club that puts on a yearly show. Who for? Pick yourself a prize if you said the AKC. The downside to living in the boonies is less access to UKC events without major travel time. Lets face it, the AKC runs alot of the show in the dog showing world. (no pun intended) At least for the moment.
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If I decide to try for the tracking title with Jenny I need to first get her registered with the AKC though the PAL program. From the AKC website: Purebred Alternative Listing/Indefinite Listing Privilege (PAL/ILP): The program that provides purebred dogs a second chance.There are various reasons why a purebred dog might not be eligible for registration. The dog may be the product of an unregistered litter, or have unregistered parents. The dogs papers may have been withheld by its breeder or lost by its owner. Sometimes, it is the dog itself that was "lost." There are many dogs enrolled in the PAL/ILP program after they have been surrendered or abandoned, then adopted by new owners from animal shelters or purebred rescue groups. The PAL/ILP program allows the dog and owner a second chance at discovering the rewards of participating in AKC events.
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Again another $35 to the AKC. (not counting the cost of trialing of course) With the economy the way it is the AKC is bound to see some decreases in show entries. While I understand the mission of the AKC is to promote the purebred dog, I think in some cases they are not doing the best for some of the breeds. Alot more on this subject can be seen over at the Terriermans blog: http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/ While I dont agree with everything he says, or how he says it, he definitely has some good points when it comes to the dog fancy and breeding for health.
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I wish we had alter classes at shows for people to be able to show dogs without the burden of having an intact dog. Not everyone interested in showing wants to breed after all. They say the point of the show is to prove breeding stock but I would argue that showing dogs from a line, even though altered, would help show the results of what a good breeding program can produce.
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Another thing I would like to see is obedience classes for mixed breeds included as well. Yes it may not promote purebreeds but it promotes responsible dog ownership by promoting training to the average person. How can that not be good in the long run? Besides, it seems like they need to consider the revenue from every entry fee possible. Of course when you have commercial breeders pumping out registered puppies, even of questionable health and temperament, perhaps clean money doesnt have the same appeal. (not that I am bitter or anything)
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I just heard that the AKC wont be allowing the S.T.A.R program for special groups anymore. (think prison programs) I guess their reasoning is that the dog needs to be taken through the program by a long term owner. While I understand the intent of the program, I am saddened that they cant see the big picture in this case. I used to be a CGC evaluator but gave up the title when they added fees for evaluators and because I didnt want to give out the award just because people could get their dog to pass with dogs that didnt deserve it. My standards on what I consider a Canine Good Citizen and what others are were just to extreme for my liking. Its like the dog with a CD title that is not well behaved outside the ring. Its not supposed to be just about that moment in time, but for the lifetime of behavior as far as I am concerned.
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I am also dismayed that breeders seem to have changed. I am not sure why it happened but no longer can you count on show breeders being reputable by virtue of being involved in showing. Not all of them are doing health testing or breeding for better temperaments. One has to wonder why that is. Is it because chasing ribbons and wins has become more important? From what I have heard about UKC showing, with their written evaluations and no professional handler rules, it seems they may be on a better track. Perhaps the AKC needs to stop thinking they are the only option. They may want to do it before they hemorrhage the few responsible breeders they have left in their show rings. Just a thought.

Hi Mia,

This was a summer of conferences squared! One of the topics that kept buzzing through my ears was a phenomenon commonly described as “Black Dog Syndrome,” an affliction suffered by dogs who turn black after eating too much licorice. But seriously, as you know, this is the commonly held belief that dark-coated dogs in shelters are less likely to be adopted than other dogs.

A recent proponent of this belief is Amanda Leonard. At the Association of Pet Dog Trainers 2012 Conference, Leonard gave a talk titled, “The Plight of the Big Black Dogs and Gender Myths.” As her website explain, "My year at the Washington Humane Society served as the inspiration and field work for a term paper for my very first class at [George Washington University]. That term paper turned into a multi-year project to expose Big Black Dog Syndrome and help shelters find homes for their black dogs (and cats)."

Leonard is not alone in believing in a “Black Dog Syndrome,” but does it really exist? In animal shelters, is there an adopter bias against dogs who are all black? Or maybe there is just a bias against dogs who are big and black, as some have suggested? Or maybe, people have less favorable opinions of black animals when explicitly asked but maybe it doesnt reflect in adoption rates? Maybe there is no bias against black dogs, there are just more of them in the dog population and therefore more in the shelter? Ultimately, how might researchers investigate this idea of a Black Dog Syndrome?


Research on Black Dogs 
There has been lots of research presented on this topic this Summer! At the International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ), Heather Lum, Nicole Nau & Kymberly McClellan presented their study, Exploring the “Black Dog” syndrome: How color can influence perceptions of companion animals. In this questionnaire-based study, sixty-five people looked at pictures of animals of different colors and offered opinions on areas like the animals  friendliness, aggressiveness or adoptability. They found the black dog was rated as least friendly and most aggressive and the lighter colored pets were considered more adoptable (study summary available here).

Also at ISAZ, Heather Svoboda & Christy Hoffman -- from the Canisius Anthrozoology Masters Program -- presented a poster on A novel, empirical test of Black Dog Syndrome. Their study won the ISAZ Conference Poster Contest, and next week Heather will join Do You Believe in Dog? for a guest post to discuss her research. Excellent!

But there was even MORE black dog research this summer! Later in July, at the 50th Animal Behavior Society Conference in Boulder, Colorado, Patricia McConnell, Taylor Jarmes and Keira McIntyre presented The Black Dog Syndrome: Factors influencing difficulty of canine adoptions. (McConnell is the PhD, CAAB we often mention on this blog, and she has been thinking about this topic for quite some time, see her earlier post). Their study on the Black Dog Syndrome had an interesting twist, so lets take a look...

TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER black dogs are less likely to be adopted than other dogs, McConnell and her students looked at the amount of time dogs spent on the adoption floor, as opposed to the amount of time dogs spent in the shelter overall. There could be a myriad of reasons why a dog does or does not make it onto the adoption floor, and coat color is not necessarily one of them. For example, depending on the shelter, a dog might be held back from the adoption floor if its sick, has behavioral issues, was recently picked up as a stray or if all the runs on the adoption floor are taken. So time spent on the actual adoption floor is an important detail when investigating whether black dogs are bypassed.  

(How much time is spent on the adoption floor? Source)

By examining adoption records and photographs from a shelter in Stoughton, Wisconsin, McConnell and her team determined dog primary and secondary coat colors. This way, they could check whether dogs were in fact black or whether the dog had a more varied coat.

Ultimately, they determined that “coat color did not significantly alter a dog’s days on the adoption floor when analyzing the entire population or when eliminating puppies.” Additionally, the amount of black found in primarily black dogs did not influence how long dogs stayed at the shelter.

Where Are We With Black Dog "Syndrome"?
To date, there doesn’t seem to be much empirical support for the Black Dog Syndrome, but as you might imagine, there are many ways to go about investigating it. For example, within a particular breed, are certain colors preferred over others, and is black more or less desirable? Or, if we were to examine a large population of entirely black dogs of a certain age and size, might the phenomenon apply? Of course, when exploring this topic, data could be collected in many different ways -- from mass data sources that look at adoption rates to reports from prospective adopters. Researchers could even look at peoples

Newfoundland & Labrador

behavior towards dogs of different colors.

WHAT ABOUT A REGIONAL or cultural Black Dog Syndrome? Kalita McDowell of the Canine Research Unit at Memorial University of Newfoundland explored this question in her research, which she also presented at the 50th Animal Behavior Society Conference. McDowell wondered whether “breeds of dogs native to, and largely celebrated in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Labrador Retriever and Newfoundland, both of which have a dominant black coat colour, will be preferred by the residents of the province and thus contradict the BBDS [Big Black Dog Syndrome].” 

I checked in with McDowell for more details and heres what she had to say: "I found that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians only preferred more black Newfoundlands than other participants, however they did not prefer more black-coated Labrador Retrievers than other participants (everybody preferred black Labs to yellow and chocolates, and yellow more so than chocolates)." Lots to mull over!

Regardless of color, when it comes to dog adoptions, people give a hoot about the way dogs look, which kind of stinks because behavior is very much where it’s at! After all, looks fade, even in dogs ;) (kidding, totally kidding).

Glad y’all are getting some sun and beach and looking forward to next week’s guest post by Heather Svoboda!

Cheers!

Julie

More reading
McConnell, P. The Black Dog Syndrome: Fact or Fiction? The Other End of The Leash Blog. (Additional studies on coat color mentioned in this blog post).

References
Weiss et al., 2012. Why did you choose this pet?: Adopters and pet selection preferences in five animal shelters in the United States. Animals 2, 144–159. (Full article here)
ISAZ 2013 Conference Program
ABS 2013 Conference Program
 

On my way home from work yesterday, with the window down and a pleasant breeze coming through the truck, I decided I’d take Sensi out for a little romp in the yard.
We don’t have a fence, so I thought it would be nice to put him on the 30-foot training lead I bought a few years back. That way, he wouldn’t be tied to my side and could at least move around with a little freedom.
If you haven’t read my blog entry, The wonderful, magical Halti, please do. It was how I first discovered that yes, I could walk my dog without him pulling me to the moon and back.
But Sensi’s not exactly a spring chicken any more.
As he’s aged, he tends to stay by my side more and more regardless of whether he’s wearing the Halti. If anything, I have to tug and pull at him to get him to stop grazing on the grass and walk with me.
Though I use the Halti for any walks, I was only planning to hang out in the yard last night. I didn’t even consider using the Halti.
Sensi was excited to see the long lead — it’s been a while since he was last out on it.
We walked outside and I lead us around the side of the house, heading toward the backyard. There’s a small mowed path that runs along the house’s side. It’s on a rather steep downward angle, and to the side of it, there’s a large gully where the grass grows tall.
As I started heading down the hill, Sensi stayed behind me, chomping on the tall grass like a cow would.
As the length on the lead began running out, I called for Sensi to come. He jogged up to me, and then kept on going. And he picked up speed. He picked up a lot of speed.
I was about half-way down the hill at this point, and I barely had time to realize that he wasn’t stopping.
I didn’t see the chipmunk in the tree at the bottom of the hill until the very last second, right before the slack on the lead ran out.
My arm jerked forward, and like usual, I was determined not to let go. I have always had this unrealistic belief that I could hold on.
So I went flying. Literally — flying. With my hand still clinging to loop on the lead, my feet picked up off the ground and my body jolted forward.
About four-feet later, I landed squarely on my hip. The lead had finally been pulled out of my hand, but it landed just a few more feet in front of me.
As my husband later noted, it probably would’ve quite comedic to watch my little mishap — my body being flung forward and then landing clumsily, picking my head up to see my dog scratching at the tree.
But no one was around to see. And just as I began picking myself up and reaching for the lead, that darn chipmunk exited the tree.
He disappeared into the long grass, in the direction of the swamp, and off my dog went after him.
A bad situation, I thought, was about to get a lot worse. I’ve not only been yanked off my feet, but now my dog’s running off too.
“Sensi!” I yelled. “Come!”
The old boy stopped dead in his tracks and returned to me. And wouldn’t you know it, he walked right up to the hip I landed on, sniffed it and gave me a quick lick.
Yeah, like that’s going to make it OK.
We went back inside, and I after I’d gotten my wits about me, I grabbed the Halti and we went back out in the yard. This time, Sensi was an angel.
But incidents like that remind me, even good dogs can have bad moments.

Since I never had a dog of my own as a kid, I was quick to latch on to other kid’s dogs.
The other kids never seemed too interested in their dogs. I’d always try to incorporate their dog into whatever game we were playing; they’d look at me strangely and yell at their dog to go lay down.
Fortunately, I had a cousin who lived nearby and liked having her dog Rose around.
Rose was a sweet tempered Golden Retriever who, like most goldens, was very food motivated. She’d do just about anything for a treat.
Armed with our little hands full of dog treats, my cousin and I would set up obstacle courses for Rose. We’d make her jump over stuff, army crawl on her belly under stuff ... it was bonafide kid-designed agility course. Only we didn’t focus so much on the agility as we did just getting her to do the different things.
Rose always obliged. She tried hard to figure out what we were asking her to do, and she never let us down. There were, after all, treats in our hands.
We were effectively using a positive reward training method, but as kids, we didn’t know that. In our eyes, we were just bribing her to do stuff and kept it us from boredom. I did learn, though, that it was a good way to train a dog — nevermind the terminology.
As much as I enjoyed my relationship with Rose, I always longed for the kind of relationship she had with my Uncle.
It was the way that my Uncle interacted with Rose that really set a precedent for me.
I wanted to have that type of bond with a dog. More than a decade later, I still haven’t forgotten that.
Read more about my Uncle and his dog tomorrow.

I am so grateful! Kikos eye is better!

Here we have another Ask A Dog Trainer question.  This one is about food!

Rosie is my 5 month old German Shepherd and I am feeding her puppy kibbles, grain free. I feed her twice a day now but did feed her 3 times a day when she was younger. I noticed when I fed her the amount suggested on the bag she doesnt eat it all and will have left overs over night. When do I switch her to adult dog food? How much do I feed her? How often should I feed, and is it best before or after her walk? 

Deciding how much to feed your dog and when can be confusing for new dog owners.  Its all complicated by the fact that each dog is different with different needs, and when youre dealing with puppies, youre dealing with growing dogs whose needs can vary from week to week.  There are, however, some general guidelines you can follow.

1) Never follow the recommended feeding amount on the dog food bag.  Dog food manufacturers want you to buy more food.  The more food your dog eats, the more youll have to buy.  The problem is that most dogs dont need as much food as whats recommended, and youll either end up with an overweight dog or a lot of left over food.  Each dog has different needs and these needs can vary based on age, size, and activity level.  For instance, both my dogs, Cody and Lollie, each weigh about 60 pounds.  Lollie is a 3 1/2 year old boxer / bulldog mix who spends the majority of her day sleeping.  Fifteen minutes of play in the morning, or a long walk, will wipe her out.  She eats about 1 cup twice a day.  Cody, on the other hand, is a 6 year old Labradoodle who is much more active.  On any given morning he will run anywhere from 3 to 13 miles with me, and his food intake adjusts accordingly.  On calmer days, hell receive 1-1 1/2 cups twice a day, but on the more active days he can eat up to 4 cups twice a day.  Both dogs receive treats fairly generously, but Im always watching for weight gains or losses and will adjust their food accordingly.

2) The battle over when to switch to adult food has been long fought and there are many different opinions.  Many different breeders will say that once a puppy is on solid food, she can eat whatever the mother is eating, whereas some say to wait until the puppy is officially an adult (about 2 years).  The biggest concern with puppy food and adult food is the amount of protein and fat.  Puppy food generally has more of each to assist your puppy with rapid growth and high energy.  Generally, I recommend waiting until your dog is about a year old before switching to adult food, but Ive known dogs who have had to switch earlier or later based on certain needs.  If you think your dog has some abnormal nutritional needs (growing too fast, not putting on weight, not growing fast enough, tired more than usual, etc), consult your vet about it.  The biggest thing here is knowing your dogs individual needs and meeting them.

3) As far as how often you should feed her, I recommend twice a day; once in the morning and once and night.  Alternatively, you could feed 3-4 smaller meals throughout the day, but this is often unrealistic for working parents.  I do NOT recommend feeding one large meal or free feeding.  There are a lot of obedience reasons tied into this, but from a health stand point, I prefer to know how much my dogs are eating and when theyre eating.  This way, if they become sick, I can tell the vet what their diet has been recently.

4)  Whether you should feed before your walk or after your walk really depends on your walk.  If your walk is a 20-30 minute leisurely stroll, I recommend feeding about 20 minutes before your walk.  This will allow your dog to digest some of her food and then evacuate her bowels on her walk, as opposed to trying to set up a separate time to do so.  If by "walk," however, you mean "moderately paced run for 30+ minutes (which a young puppy should not be doing anyway)," feed your dog at least 30 min-1 hour after your run.  The idea here is that you do not want your dog to have too much food on the belly as her temperature rises (like it does with strenuous exercise).  If theres too much food on the belly, your dog runs the risk of becoming ill or even developing bloat.  Instead, if you allow your dog a little time to cool off before eating, things will be much safer.  Note, this also applies to giving your dog large amounts of water or water that is too cold.

So, as you can see, there are a lot of factors that go into feeding your dog.  As with most things, there is not one set of rules, as each dog is different in a variety of ways.  By taking the time to learn about your dogs specific needs, youll be able to determine the best way to feed.

 Remember, if you have a question for the dog trainer, feel free to ask on our Facebook page.

In my previous blog, What’s better, treats or toys? I wrote about how some dogs are motivated more by their prey drive than their food drive, and how it can be more effective training these dogs by utilizing that prey drive.
Terriers are notorious for their prey drive. Most were bred to be ratters — digging out rats from holes in the ground — or other types of small game hunters.
One terrier breed in particular has quite the reputation for its prey drive making it difficult to handle.
No, it’s not the pit bull.
It’s the jack — that little, wiry-hired dog best known as the Jack Russell Terrier. Recently, the American Kennel Club changed it’s name to the Parson Russell Terrier.
After the sitcom Frasier featured a Jack named Eddie, the popularity of the breed skyrocketed.
Unfortunately, many of these dogs ended up in shelters after their owners discovered their dogs to be high energy, independent, squirrel-chasing little troublemakers.
The prey drive for this breed is very strong. They are well-known to become obsessive over birds, squirrels, rabbits or any other kind of small game that frequents their yards.
Their independent streak makes it even more difficult to get a handle on these dogs.
As barnyard ratters, jacks were used to living an independent life. Because of that history, they have a great propensity to be independent-minded — meaning, of course, their minds aren’t always on what their owners want from them.
They’re also small little bundles of energy. These dogs can be on the go longer than the Energizer Bunny.
So what makes a good home for a jack? Someone who can give them daily exercise and keep their minds stimulated in other ways too.
Training games that incorporate their prey drive and athleticism are great ways to both build a strong, respectful relationship with dogs of this breed, and keep them well-balanced and well-behaved.
I’ve written about one local woman who gets her jacks involved in agility competitions. She reports that all of her jacks have excelled at this sport, and that it gives them all the stimulation and exercise they need.

At a quick glance, it seems that a dog takes many repetitions to grasp a lesson. According to �dogma�, a dog has to practice a behavior many times until the lesson seeps into his limited mind. Then, once a lesson is mastered, it becomes so ingrained in the dog's brain that it becomes a habit. That dogs require repetition to learn from an experience is particularly noticeable when we are trying to train the dog to do something that isn't natural for him, such as walking nicely on a lead in an area full of interesting sights, sounds, and smells. It would seem that this exercise is difficult for a dog to learn and would require many practice sessions for it to become a reliable habit.

Therefore, traditional thinking holds that it's best to start practicing the lesson with puppies before they might have the opportunity to practice the undesirable habit of pulling hard on the lead and also while they're small and easy to out-muscle.

A clue that repetition, while part of learning, isn't fundamental to learning is revealed by other observations that people commonly make that contradict this traditional premise. For example, we don't think of ball playing as something mastered through repetition. It looks like the dog is having fun, and that seems a sufficient explanation. The first time the owner attracted his dog's attention to the ball and rolled it away, the dog immediately chased it, grabbed it, and then carried it around proudly. The lesson took one repetition and had a permanent effect for the rest of the dog's life.

This pure example of learning shows us the formula at the core of the process. If an activity is natural, the dog gets it immediately without the need for repetition. And, since the most natural activities involve the prey instinct, we find the best examples of quick learning in this regard. In ball playing, what determines each individual dog's enthusiasm and rate of progress is how much prey value he invests in the ball. That some dogs may take longer to build an attraction to the ball is not due to a need for repetition, but because the prey instinct isn't yet turned on. Through repetition, as the dog grabs the ball, his sensitivity to its novelty or his owner's influence starts to relax until drive starts to flow into prey making. Once uninhibited, the ball no longer has a being to which the dog needs to appeal for access, which initially thwarted his drive to chase and bite it.

A habit is like a riverbed: The stronger the flow that courses through it, the deeper the bed is carved, and the more water it will be able to channel. When the full current rushes through the organism, a completely mature behavior emerges as if learned. In truth, the lesson was gained in the first instant of making contact through the prey instinct, no matter how feeble the first trickle. It just took time for the pathway to be scoured deeply enough in the dog's brain and body to handle the full load of drive.

Sensi just after receiving anesthesia

Todays post is more or less a video-blog (which I believe is called vlog), but I just wanted to add a bit of information to the video.
I took Sensi to Oxford Veterinary Hospital recently for two procedures — a doggie dental and minor surgery to fix a blood clot in his ear.
My veterinarian, Dr. Stephen Steep, is awesome and allowed me to film the whole thing.
The ear is a procedure weve had done once before — not on the same ear, but the other one. Essentially, Sensis allergies are driving him to scratch and shake to the point that hes breaking the blood vessels. The blood clots up and if allowed to stay, would eventually wrinkle up his ear like what we call cauliflower ear or wrestlers ear in humans.
Besides being bothersome to Sensi, I just cant handle my good lookin boy becoming all disfigured when its something that can be fixed.
There is more than one way to tackle this problem, but considering it worked so well for us on the other ear, it was no brainer to employ the same method once again. Lets hope its the last time!

UK Police Dog History
Specialist Search Dogs

11th - 14th March
Thanks to Alan Pickles for these.

The introduction to my book, With Courage and Trust has once more been brought to my notice for all the wrong reasons. Yes, I still have to laugh!
In those days Dogging meant competition dog trials and I suppose we had many gay or should I say happy days.