It’s a holiday weekend and folks are going to be getting out and enjoying themselves. If you’re one of them and plan on taking your dog please remember that even though the temperatures are cooling down it can still get deadly hot inside your car.  Leaving the windows cracked and a little water is not enough.  If your dog can not accompany you wherever you go, plan on leaving him at home.  If you do take him be sure he’s ready for a public outing.  How is he with strangers, or in crowds or with strange dogs. As much as we love them sometimes our dogs are happier to just stay home than be in uncomfortable surroundings and the most uncomfortable and sometimes fatal surroundings is the family car in the sun.

Do loud sudden noises have your dog running for cover?  Barking like crazy?  Trembling uncontrollably?  Well, know that you’re not alone.

While there are a multitude of sounds that each individual dog may be sensitive to, there are 4 major sounds that often cause mild to severe anxiety in most dogs:  fireworks, thunderstorms, gunshots and vacuum cleaners.  Many of you may have seen your furry friend displaying one or more of the above signs of stress during this past 4^th of July weekend.

Our own boy, Cody, is extremely sensitive to thunder.  While our previous dog, Abbey, would glue herself to our side, cower and shake during a thunderstorm, Cody’s reaction is to bark loudly and continually, while running from one end of the house to the other and then back again.  Stressful for him, for sure, and pretty irritating for us too.

And yes, gunshots have the same reaction on Cody.  My dog trainer colleagues who live in metro areas laugh at this because gunshots are something they don’t often experience.  Or, if they do, they know it’ll soon be followed by sirens.  Not the case here in the country where neighbors may be target shooting on their own property at any given time of the day.

And the dreaded vacuum cleaner.  Not only does this scary looking object make an extremely loud, whirling sound, but it also moves!  Who hasn’t watched at least one of their dogs bark, bite and chase the vacuum cleaner as you’re trying to vacuum up some of Fido’s fur off the floor?

The good news is that there’s help for your dog’s sound sensitivity.  In fact, it’s very important that you help your dog become more comfortable with these sounds, for anxiety and stress have detrimental effects on the health of your dog (just like us humans).   There’s a behavior modification protocol, counter conditioning and desensitization (CC&D) that has many applications, but is certainly useful for dogs with sound sensitivities.  Counter conditioning is connecting “a good thing” with “the bad thing” in such a way that “the bad thing” ends up predicting “the good thing.”  The “good thing” is most often some extremely yummy food that your dog will do back flips for when you bring it out.  Desensitization is insuring that the connecting of the “good” and “bad” is performed in such a way so that the dog doesn’t display the reactive behavior.

Let’s use the vacuum cleaner as an example.  It’s helpful to have two people to do the set ups:  one person is in another part of the house with the dog, while the other person has the vacuum cleaner.  When the vacuum cleaner (the bad thing) is turned on, the person in the other part of the house with the dog feeds the extremely yummy food (the good thing) to the dog.  When the vacuum cleaner (bad thing) is turned off, the food (good thing) goes away (you can think of this as Open Bar/Closed Bar).  This scenario is repeated multiple times until eventually when the vacuum cleaner is turned on, the dog looks at the person with the food as if to say, “Where’s my yummy food?”  This is known as a conditioned emotional response (CER) and is normally the point at which you can begin decreasing the distance between the dog and the vacuum cleaner.   The important thing in this process is to GO SLOW.  It’s not an overnight fix, but all dogs can make progress.

Our guy, Cody, was totally over the top when he first heard a vacuum cleaner, but with some effective CC&D, he now walks calmly beside the vacuum cleaner or even lies down in its path wondering when if a piece if yummy food might fall from the sky.  And you know what, periodically it does!

Lisa & Nicole at the Fearful Dogs Seminar in Atlanta

Recently I had the pleasure of spending 2 days in Atlanta learning with renowned trainer and behaviorist, Nicole Wilde.  Nicole is an international leader and author with a specialty in working with fearful and aggressive dogs and wolf-hybrids.

The first day of the workshop included a variety of topics to address the dog’s issues, such as anxiety, fears, and phobias; the physiology of fear and extreme fear; root causes; human body language which affects fear; nutrition; the need for physical exercise and mental stimulation; the role of training foundation behaviors; working with aggressive dogs in the home; behavior modification and protocol design; as well as complementary therapies.

The second day of the workshop included a variety of techniques, methods and strategies for working successfully with clients so that they too can make progress and achieve success with their fearful or aggressive dogs.

It was a delight spending 2 day learning, as well as reconnecting with training friends of  mine and meeting some new trainers.  One of the group class techniques I learned is the Sniff & Circle exercise to be used with group classes.  This exercise is designed to let dogs get to know one another through their noses vs. meeting face to face on leash.  The class rotates from training station to training station and each dog gets to sniff the mat of every dog in the class.  Here’s a short video of the Sniff & Circle exercise the first time we implemented it.  It was quite effective in helping the dogs settle.

Continuing education is important to me.  I have most all of Nicole’s books and I really enjoy working with clients to problem solve their dog’s fearful or aggressive behavior.  The seminar bolstered my existing knowledge base so that I can be even more effective helping clients and their dogs.

We were delighted to be asked to participate in the first annual Bark-E-Que sponsored by Operation P.U.P.  (Prevent Unwanted Pets). Operation P.U.P. is a non-profit group dedicated to the promotion of spay and neuter education and assistance.

We were so happy that we could be there to introduce so many people to clicker training and answer their questions on training and behavior.

Lisa chatting with a gentleman about Cold Nose College classes.

There were many of the local rescue groups and shelters there as well, they included; Castaway Critters,  Humane Society’s Mountain Shelter,  Logan’s Run Rescue , North Georgia SPCA and the Whiskers Project.

Several of the local veterinarians were there to  give talks on a variety of topics to pet owners. Dr. Mary Brennan of Alternative Veterinary Services gave an informative talk on pet foods and nutrition.   Dr. Hilty Burr of Lake Chatuge Animal Hospital spoke about the human pet bond.  And Dr. Kirk Vardeman of Hiawassee Animal Hospital gave some great information on flea and tick prevention.

There were demonstrations as well. The Towns County Sheriff’s department K9 unit was there showing their crime stopping abilities, and  Cold Nose College was proud to be able to give a clicker training demonstration. I gave a brief description of clicker training and narrated as Lisa worked with Lucy, a beautiful hound mix who is currently available for adoption at the Mountain Shelter. I do think the crowd was impressed with just how quickly Lucy started responding to Lisa’s cues.

We were also so very pleased to see so many graduates and students of Cold Nose College there. I’m sorry we didn’t get photos of everyone, but here is a shot of Melody and Stuart, and their pups Maya and the recently rescued Aussie Aragorn.

A big thanks again to Operation P.U.P for putting on a great event.

Cody & Gibson Enjoy Life in the Country

The joys of living a rural life in these beautiful mountains certainly feeds my soul in a hundred different ways.  I believe I can also safely say that my dogs would call life in these mountains “doggie heaven on earth,” as evidenced by the way they bound around with wild abandon on our 20 acres, with seven acres of fenced pasture.  However, there can also be a downside to the life of a country dog and that’s what I call Country Dog Syndrome, a lack of appropriate socialization to a variety of people, places and things, including other dogs.  They hang out with us at home, enjoying life on the farm or mountain top, and get few chances to become familiar and gain confidence in new situations.  This lack of appropriate socialization can manifest itself as fear, which may present as withdrawal, avoidance or even aggressive behaviors.

The very best thing you can possibly do for your dog, besides loving and feeding him or her, is to make sure you start the socialization process early with your puppy.  The prime period of socialization is the first three months of a puppy’s life.  This is the period when they learn what’s safe and what’s not in our human world.  The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior recommends that owners take advantage of every safe opportunity to expose young pups to the variety of things they’ll experience in their lives and recommend they can begin class as early as 8 weeks of age (making sure they’ve had one deworming and first round of vaccinations).  Enrolling in a puppy class during these first three months can be a great way of improving training and giving your pup exposure to people and other dogs in an environment where illness can be minimized.  If you’ve just adopted an older dog, socialization is just as vitally important.

But what is “proper socialization?”  It’s making sure your puppy or dog has a “positive and safe” experience with that new person, place or thing and not putting your dog into situations where he’ll be stressed.  So, pick the park on a Sunday morning or a home supply store on a week night where there are fewer crowds and less activity in general.  Expose him to tall people, short people, people of color, bearded people, big hats, open umbrellas, people with sunglasses, small children, people uniform (think UPS and FedEx), etc..  Also remember to pair these new experiences with a piece of yummy food that your dog loves.

Proper socialization also means that the socialization journey continues throughout the dog’s lifetime.  It’s just not something you do for a few months and then stop.  The longer a dog is away from something they were once familiar with, the more unsettling it can be when the dog is reintroduced to that stimulus.  Similar to the way I used to be so very confident whipping my car in and out of 8 lanes of traffic in the city during rush hour.  Today?  Well, if I wasn’t visibly shaking, then I know I’d have a flurry of internal butterflies doing that very same thing!  So make it a point to get out and about as much as possible with your new canine kid in order to help him/her become a confident, adult dog.    Copyright 2010, Lisa Waggoner, Cold Nose College, LLC.  All rights reserved. 

Cold Nose College is proud to announce that Brad Waggoner, partner and trainer,  has now graduated from the Karen Pryor Academy of Animal Training and Behavior.

Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior is an innovative institution committed to educating, certifying, and promoting the next generation of animal trainers.

World-renowned trainer, author, and behavioral biologist Karen Pryor is a pioneer of force-free training technology. Pryor launched the Dog Trainer Program to ensure that pet owners and their dogs have access to top-tier training delivered by superlative teachers.

As a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, Brad has completed an intensive education process and demonstrated a high level of skill in training dogs as well as teaching dog owners. “Our graduates are not only skilled trainers, they are excellent teachers,” said Pryor. “I’m proud to be able to welcome Brad Waggoner to the growing family of KPA-Certified dog trainers nationwide.”

Brad and his training partner Cody

As clicker trainers and trainers who use positive reinforcement to work with our animals I sometimes find it interesting just how punishing we, as a group, can sometimes be.  R+ trainers know that we can teach far more efficiently and with longer lasting results using positive reinforcement methods, but when it comes to or own species we sometimes seem to forget this.  There have been several recent instances that bring this to mind.  For example, a manufacturer of products that we like is purchased by another company that produces products we don’t like and instantly we want to boycott those products that we liked and found useful. Or the publication that we’ve loved for years runs one ad and the whole community of R+ folks are ready to never buy again. Or maybe it’s the TV celebrity with whom we have differences that promotes a product, now we’re ready to find a replacement for that product.

Please know that I sometimes find myself acting this way as well.  So why is it that when our animals make a mistake or are not “getting it” we take a step back and ask ourselves, “How can I help this animal succeed?” Yet when it comes to our own kind we are so quick to throw the baby out with the bath water. As Karen Pryor said so well at Clicker Expo, that’s not being very clickerly.

So here’s my challenge to you and to me: When faced with something that seems not to be going the way we want, whether it’s with a dog, a horse, a child, a friend, a spouse, or even a large corporation, lets ask ourselves, “How can I effect change in a more clickerly fashion.” That is, knowing that behaviors that are rewarded will be repeated and those that are ignored will eventually extinguish.  We’ve come so far in the understanding of the science of learning, now we simply need to apply it.

Daffodils and daylight savings time, baseball players and spring training, always a sure sign that spring is on its way. After this very cold winter, my mind turns to the myriad of ways one can have fun with their dog, whether it be indoors of out of doors. To have a well rounded dog, it’s important to give your furry friend both mental stimulation and physical exercise. What better way to accomplish this by having fun with your dog by participating in one of the many popular dog sports available these days.

Cody - Learning the Tire Jump

My favorite outdoor activity to do with my own dogs is Agility…not the competitive agility that you see on television, but the backyard agility that can be done most anywhere and any time with little investment in equipment. I also have a keen interest in Canine Freestyle. Ever heard of that? Why, it’s dancing with your dog! Canine freestyle requires that the dog/handler team execute a choreographed routine (simple to complicated) performed to music. It’s a sport that’s held inside, so if outside activities aren’t your cup of tea, then this sport could be for you. Carolyn and Scott and Rookie’s routine is an incredible example of the teamwork involved in this fun sport.

Another outside activity that requires water, is Dock Diving. If you have a dog who loves water, then maybe this sport is for you. It’s easy to understand and fun to watch. The participating dog jumps off an elevated diving dock into a portable pool and the dog with the measurements for the longest and highest jumps is deemed the winner. And then there’s Flyball. It’s a sport where teams of dogs race against each other from a start/finish line, over a line of hurdles to a box that releases a tennis ball to be caught when the dog presses the spring loaded pad, then back to their handlers while carrying the ball. First team to have all four dogs across the finish line wins. It’s exciting!

All dog sports happen to have two important things in common: teamwork and training. Just like the baseball player who continues year after year to train, not only in the spring, but year round, the dog and handler teams involved in these sports spend time training not only on the fancy, finished behavior or routines, but on the foundation behaviors needed on which to build other more complicated behaviors or routines. The most common foundation behaviors are focus on the handler, off leash polite walking or heeling, a reliable recall and the ability for your dog to be comfortable in a variety of environments.

It’s never too late to teach an old dog new tricks and it’s also never too early to begin foundation behavior training. The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviorists (AVSAB) recommends that puppies begin classes as early as 7 to 8 weeks of age provided they’ve had one round of shots and one deworming.

Roxie Enjoying Agility at Cold Nose College

So whatever the age of your own canine kid, shake off this cold winter and celebrate spring by enrolling your dog in a training class. Whether or not you have any interest in any of the above dog sports, you’ll be helping your furry friend become a well behaved member of your family. At Cold Nose College we offer a variety of classes focused around important foundation behaviors that set your dog up for success in your home or in a dog sport of your choosing.

Happy Spring Training!

I always so enjoy the school programs we do whether it be a dog bite prevention program, a career day or discussing the benefits of positive reinforcement in working with dogs, children and people.   I had heard about therapy dogs who worked with children in schools to assist in literacy programs.  Thanks to my friend, Laurie Luck, whose dog, Tango, is a R.E.A.D. dog, I was motivated to explore the R.E.A.D. program.  The mission of the R.E.A.D. program is to improve the literacy skills of children through the assistance of registered therapy teams as literacy mentors.

The first step in the program is for a dog to be a registered Therapy Dog, which Gibson is.  Second step is to order the training package to begin the process, so I did that yesterday.  I’m looking forward to receiving it and getting started.

Smiling Gibson - R.E.A.D. Dog to Be

Gibson is always such a willing participant in our school programs, so I know he’ll enjoy, as I do, the ability to help make a difference in the lives of children who are learning to read.  We can’t wait to get started!