Dogs And Where Are All The Good Men?

I had a student with a somewhat fearful dog. Fearful of strangers and strange dogs. 

One of the questions I sometimes ask during an evaluation is, “why do you have a dog?”

Her answer? “Because I hate people.”

I asked, “Seriously?”

Her: “Yep.”

I have a couple of thoughts on this. First, because of this viewpoint, this is why her dog was fearful. She didn’t adequately socialize her puppy, so the adolescent dog was now afraid of strangers and strange dogs. Further, if you are single, and you are wondering where all the good guys are, maybe they are all around you but you are driving them away. 

Just sayiin’… 

Plan accordingly. 

Dogs And Trusting Your Gut

I can’t tell you how many times I have trusted my gut about a dog and was glad afterwards. 

I remember a Husky that I was working with, teaching him how to walk on a leash. This must have been at least 25 years ago. I had just started walking with him. My gut told me he was thinking about biting my calf. I stopped everything and had the owner acclimate him to wearing a basket muzzle. Several days later, I started the leash walking again, and sure enough, he went for my lower left leg near the calf. If it hadn’t been for that muzzle, and my gut feeling, I would have been injured. 

I made this kind of gut trust a part of my training long ago. It isn’t always right, but it is an essential tool that can be developed. 

Since I am on the road a lot, I also trust my gut when driving. It has saved me many times from bad situations. I remember one time I was heading westbound on NE 8th street in Bellevue, WA. There was an older lady in her car on the right of me, waiting at the exit to a property, getting ready to go into my lane. I was in the right lane, and I moved quickly to the left lane. Sure enough, as soon as I passed her, she pulled out into traffic and t-boned the guy behind me. 

I can give other examples, both with dogs, traffic and people. I had a weird experience today. Gut feel was right again.

There are ways to hone your gut instincts. But that is for another article.

Do your own research for now. 

Plan accordingly. 

North Korean Dogs

North Korea holds national dog meat cooking competition with contestants from across the country

Do I need to say any more? 

Would You Go In Debt For Your Dog?

Yes.

So would you.

Plan accordingly. 

Dog Training Evaluations

I did an evaluation of a rescue dog last night. I'm 99% sure the problem isn't behavioral but medical. I'm almost always right on these things. They are going to consult with their veterinarian.

They had previously hired a dog trainer that had recommended punishment, or avoidance of the situations, for this dog... or euthanasia. 

Something to consider. 

Plan accordingly. 

Dogs And Punishment-Based Training

There is no such thing as “punishment-based training”. Dogs don’t learn the word associations, such as Sit, Down, Come, or Heel, through punishment. 

If you don’t know what I mean, then you haven’t done enough study. If you use that terminology, you don’t understand what you are talking about or the application of the concepts. This is why you should only work with a trainer, or mentor, that knows the difference.

Plan accordingly. 

Dogs And Nice People

There are a lot of nasty people out there. 

Not nice to others. Not nice to dogs.

When I was a kid, I took it personally. I figured it was me. What's a kid know?

As an adult, I know that being nice is a choice. You can either be nice or nasty. 

Plan accordingly. 

New Dog Vaccine Requirements For Colorado

There are also new vaccination changes that impact local doggy daycares, boarding facilities and groomers. All of those facilities now need to have a record of current vaccines for:

Rabies- pets over 16 weeks old

Distemper- dogs over 8 weeks old

Parvovirus - dogs over 8 weeks old

FVRCP - cats over 8 weeks old

Dogs And Civil War

Just about every week, some major news outlet publishes an article about how the US is on the verge of a civil war. 

No, it isn’t. 

That’s just clickbait to get readership and to manipulate the SEO for that website. 

Similarly, there are dog trainers that make ridiculous claims of competence that they can fix every dog. If that was true, then they should go to every municipal shelter and set free all those extremely dangerous dogs on the euthanasia list. Good luck with that.

Don’t believe everything. Some of it is BS.

Plan accordingly. 

Dogs And Flaky People

Many times a completely normal dog is messed up by an unstable person. 

Just sayin'

Plan accordingly. 

Ideal Dogs And Real Dogs

When studying what type of dog to get, it is advisable to read the breed standards. These define the ideal dog of that breed. Obviously, when dogs are mixed, and if you know the genetics, you should also investigate what possible traits a dog might exhibit (though that can be blurred by mixing breeds). 

Then, onto the real dog. That dog can never be exactly what the breed standard describes. Partly because the breed standard only identifies a handful of essential traits of the breed, but other aspects are often not mentioned. Thus, you have to do a lot more digging and testing to see what you are getting yourself into. 

Plan accordingly. 

Testing Rescue Dogs In Shelters

Many shelters do not allow you to bring your dogs to see if they are going to get along. 

What to do?

I'd ask the shelter to bring out a variety of friendly dogs and see how those introductions turn out. It is better than no test at all.

Plan accordingly. 

Dogs And Artificial Intelligence Robots

Researcher says tech could replace nearly all human labour within 20 years and societies urgently need to prepare. 

I’ve been pondering what this means regarding dog ownership soon. This AI / robot freight train is heading out way. It is going to spill out in ways that I can’t yet comprehend. Yet, these futurists are saying we urgently need to prepare. 

Will machines breed, train, care for our dogs? Will they replace animal control? Will they so hyper-supervise us and our dogs as to be oppressive? Will they selectively breed humans and dogs for their own purpose?

Where were the dogs in Orwell’s “1984”, Shelly’s “Frankenstein”, or in the other science fiction novels? These authors played with these concepts a lot over the past few centuries. 

If you can…

Plan accordingly. 

How To Behave Around Dogs

Many behavioral problems that dogs exhibit are a result of people not knowing much about dogs. 

You want a better-behaved dog? Study what you are doing wrong first. 

Too much internet/ popular remedies have no connection to reality. They sound good to humans, make for good marketing campaigns and social media videos. But they are wrong from the dog’s perspective. 

You can’t ship a dog away to fix the dumb things people, including you, are doing. It isn’t just about the dog.

What you are doing is probably messing up your dog in some way. Figure that out.

Plan accordingly.

Dog Fights And Training Foundation

An observation... (MORE)

Dogs And Discouragement

So, you got a dog and it isn't turning out like you hoped. 

This dog is going to take a lot more work.

That can be very discouraging. 

Some people give up at that point and get rid of the dog, or isolate it in such a way as to be a prisoner.

Instead, how about this?

Pick yourself back up again and start to do the hard work. 

Plan accordingly. 

Dogs And Door Kicking Kids

A relatively new fad, being promoted online, is for kids to kick open people’s doors in the middle of the night. 

The police are warning that homeowners could perceive it as a home invasion, and do the deed, ending that kid’s life. 

But what about dogs? There are plenty of big dogs that would rush out the door and destroy one of these kids. So, it isn’t just the owners that will feel threatened, so will these dogs. And there are plenty of dogs that would defend their property this way. And if someone owns multiple dogs, and if the owner isn’t home, that kid will be turned into hamburger.

Territorial defense is a natural behavior that can’t be legislated away. 

It is only a matter of time before a story like this makes the news.

Don’t mess with people’s territory. Or a dogs’ territory. 

Plan accordingly. 

Dumb New Dog Tricks

I’m amazed at the number of dumb things people do to dogs, especially when they get a new dog.

They think it is OK to “test” their new dog, such as teasing them, hugging, kissing on the lips, laying on top of them, tricking them, and such. Only for the dog to then lash out. 

How about not testing the dog and just letting it be a dog? 

Plan accordingly. 

Dog Rescue And Big Ideas

A few years ago, I came up with a proposal for a product that was pitched to the CEO of one of the largest pet related corporations in the world. The idea was that a percentage of the sales of that product would be donated to fund microgrants for small pet rescue organizations around the country.

They (obviously) didn’t go for the idea. I still think it is worthwhile and maybe I will have the opportunity to suggest it to someone else. 

My point is: dream big dreams. Sometimes it might look like all the chess pieces are in place to make your move. We need to be thinking out of the box to find new ways of funding animal rescue. What is currently being done isn’t working. If you get that opportunity, give it your best shot.

Plan accordingly. 

Dogs And Commies

Communists murdered over 100 million people over the past century, way more than Hitler. The people wanted their revolution, and they got what they wanted. Repression, slave labor camps, racial discrimination (yes, do your research), organized theft, mind control, propaganda, and so on. Read Marx, Lenin, Mao and such. I have. Socialism is the path to Communism, it always has been.

Well, there are dog haters that have done the same thing: state control over your life. What got me into being a dog trainer started with my opposition to dog breed bans. The people and interest groups pressured politicians into passing draconian dog breed ban laws. In Denver, not known for being a very free-thinking city, passed such a ban, and officers went door to door, without warrants, seized thousands of innocent dogs and put them to death. You can find pictures of huge piles of dead dogs online if you look for them. In many ways, the same mentality applied to those dog commies as to what happened in other places towards humans. 

None of this ought to be. It should be shameful and disgusting to call yourself a commie (or socialist) as much as it should be to be a dog banning advocate. Repression is never a good thing. 

Plan accordingly. 

Dogs And Valley Fever Prevention

I just left the house to do my regular morning walk, and turned around and went back inside. It slightly rained last night, and the gusty winds are kicking up a lot of dust. 

If you live in Phoenix, you are exposed to Valley Fever fungi spores. For most people, they never notice it.  But for some, they get a large enough dose to get Valley Fever, and that can be very dangerous. Same with your dog. I wouldn't have my dog outside today with all this dust. I've had student's dogs die from Valley Fever. The Newfoundland in the header of this blog died from VF, it went to the dog's brain. It's no joke.

Plan accordingly.