Category: Dogs

SpiritDog Training.

I have relaxed my rule about posts from commercial concerns.

For the first time since July, 2009, I am presenting a guest post from a commercial business. This is how it evolved.

On the 11th February this year I received the following email:

Hi Paul,

Anne here from SpiritDog Training!

I came across Learning From Dogs while researching supplementary dog training materials and I am impressed with the articles you shared on your website.

I noticed that you are accepting guest contributions on your blog and I was wondering if our team can contribute an article for your site?

Our founder, Steffi Trott, has been featured in major publications such as Reader’s Digest, FitBark, Romper and Rachel Ray In Season so you can be assured that the content will be of high-quality.

I’ve prepared some topics here which I’m sure your readers would enjoy:

1. How Much Exercise is Too Much?
2. How To Teach Your Dog To Bark On Command
3. Which Doodle is The Best Fit For Busy Families?
4. Dog parks: Yay or nay?
5. Fetch or keep-away? How to teach your dog to return his ball every time
6. Nail trim horror? How to get your dog used to doggy pedicures

Please let me know if you are interested in any of these.

Looking forward to hearing from you, Paul!

Kind Regards,
Anne

I was minded to accept the invitation. I have received no income and I am not endorsing SpiritDog Training. But I thought that on balance this post should be allowed.

First, some words from Steffi Trott:

I am Steffi Trott, the dog trainer at SpiritDog Training (and hopeless dog enthusiast!). I am an energizer bunny who loves everything related to animals, the outdoors and – of course – training. I have four dogs of my own that I – of course – train every day and that participate in competitive agility as well.

I am always committed to finding the right approach for every dog and owner team – taking into consideration the individual disposition and natural strengths and weaknesses of everyone involved.

I have been teaching dog training to thousands of clients both locally and through online lessons since 2013.

I train with clients all over New Mexico and travel to teach seminars – which has taken me as far as Germany!

I studied dog training with European trainers such as multi-worldchampions in agility and European Open winners Silvia Trkman, Polona Bonac, Martina Klimesova and Anna Hinze as well as US trainers like Kim Terrill and Daisy Peel.

I have a lot of personal interest in dog cognition and behavior and keep up to date with all scientific publications on the matter.

Dog training is a very new field and just over the past couple decades trainers have gained an understanding of how much we can influence a dog’s behavior with positive, game-based methods. I firmly believe that every dog trainer needs to strive to perfect their own training skills and never stop learning and exploring.

Let me join you in finding the best possible approach for your dog!

So to the guest post submitted by Anne Handshack, the marketing associate, on behalf of Steffi.

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Adult dogs and playing – rethinking our expectations

By: Steffi Trott

In my work as a dog trainer, I frequently encounter the expectation that adult dogs should enjoy “playing” with other dogs. In many cases this is a misguided idea. It can cause owners to push their dogs into situations in which they are uncomfortable and may even show reactivity. Today we will look at how adult dogs interact and whether or not “playing” is a common behavior for them.

Puppies love to play

Everyone knows that puppies love to play. You can pretty much put any two puppies of any two breeds into the same space and they will run and wrestle with each other within minutes. This intense desire to play starts as soon as puppies can move around – as early as 3 or 4 weeks of age. Puppies retain the play drive until they are somewhere between 6 and 24 months old. In general, working or guard dog breeds stop to play with any other dog earlier, while companion dogs and many Doodles continue playing for longer. Some dogs completely stop any play – others get more selective in when, with whom and how they play.

Interaction yes, play no

Most friendly and socialized dogs do not dislike other dogs once they stop actively playing. They simply don’t want to race, tug and wrestle anymore. A well-mannered and social adult dog will still greet other dogs, sniff them and wander around and mark bushes with them. If your dog e.g. was friends with the neighbor’s puppy, chances are that they will both stop the wild playing at roughly the same time and switch to more laid-back interactions.

Once a dog reaches this specific point in his life at which he stops to constantly seek out play with other dogs, we need to rethink the social situations which we put him in. Have you been taking your dog to a busy park regularly? Chances are there were many other, young and playful dogs there. If they bother your dog with incessant playbowing, barking and running up to him, he may not enjoy these outings anymore and you may want to change your walking routines.

Ideally you should find canine friends for your adult dog that have the same energy level and are looking for the same interactions.

Time to quit daycare?

My clients frequently come to me with the same concern: Their puppy used to do great at his doggy daycare, but around the first birthday he stops interacting and playing as much with the dogs there. Their report cards say that the dog spent time sniffing around by himself or perhaps even got a bit snarly with the other dogs. Of course, owners are worried – is their dog regressing in his social skills?

Not at all. Again – daycares are mainly filled with young, boisterous, energetic puppies who want to play all day long. As dogs grow up, most of them reach a point at which that just does not sound like fun anymore. This is completely normal and not a reason for concern. Again, it is important to take your dog’s cues into consideration when deciding on activities for him. For a lot of adult dogs, daycare just is not so fun anymore. They might need to quit going there as the energy level is too high and they do not participate in wild play.

How much play is appropriate?

Even if you have an adult dog who does still occasionally play with other dogs, you need to monitor his play behavior. Dogs should ideally always be supervised when playing together so that owners can intervene if issues arise.

It might be that your adult dog enjoys a bit of play, but eventually wants to just sniff by himself and be left alone. If the other dog now keeps on pestering your dog the situation might escalate. You need to always be the dog’s advocate. If your dog doesn’t want to keep playing, help him to make that happen!

Play drives can vary

While puppies always want to play with any other dog; the same adult dog might have varying interests in playing based on the day. It could depend on:

What he has done so far on a given day – if he has only relaxed he may be more open to playing than if he has gone on a long hike or trained a bunch
If “something better” is around – many adult dogs would prefer e.g. playing frisbee over playing with another dog, but if the owner puts away any toys the dog may choose to then play
The environment of their interaction – in a new place many adult dogs want to first sniff and explore, whereas they may be more open to playing in a known and somewhat “boring” place such as their own yard
Their play partner – adult dogs generally prefer to play with dogs they know rather than “doggy strangers”

The Bottom Line

Puppies love to play with any other dogs. Once they reach adulthood, it can be difficult for owners to recognize the signs that they are not so interested in this anymore. The change can be sudden or gradual.

It is important to never push adult dogs into playful interactions. Your dog will decide himself if or when he wants to play, and you should be mindful of his preferences. Perhaps he only wants to play with a certain other dog or only for a short time. Or maybe he does not want to play at all!

You need to always be his advocate and make sure that he can be comfortable in interactions with other dog.

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If any of the readers of today’s article have views as to whether or not this guest post should have been allowed then please I would love to hear from you.

More from the family.

And it involves dogs! Well in a roundabout way!

Back on Monday I spoke of Rik and his company Ahead4Heights.

Rik then sent me another piece of news about a film that he produced at short notice for Brixham Council.

Recent projects being a the Front page of the local rag, a roof inspection in Teignmouth for one of the largest local roofing contractors who is now on board and promising more work.

More interesting was a commission from Brixham Council for a short film showing the natural beauty of an area near Brixham in order to oppose a planning application for 400 houses. I received a call on that Friday telling me they needed the film for the public inquiry the following Tuesday! With only that Sunday looking good for flying I managed to fly, edit and upload the film later that evening so they had it for Monday morning, it was played at the hearing and has become a pivotal part of the evidence and was watched over 600 times over the following few days.

The land in question is dog walkers heaven and used by all the local residents.

Here is that front page of the Herald Express.

I regret that it is probably far too small a file to show the details. Never mind!

Dogs can be so smart!

But the day is tinged with sadness!

Today, Tuesday, we went across to The Red Barn to get some hay, a regular occurrence.

Tyler, the manager, was not there but his brother, Zach, was. But just as important were Jean & I seeing Tully again. He is such a sweet dog and so full of life. A Labrador cross. But we learnt that recently he had been hit by a car, suffered severe injuries, and had to be put down. Even Duke, another dog of the same breed, seemed sad.

Apparently Tully was hit by a car and the driver didn’t even stop!

So on to today’s post.

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Dog Pretends To Go Outside To Go Potty So She Can Get A Treat

Such an adorable little liar 💛

By Caitlin Jill Anders
Published on the 8th February, 2021.

Even though Dakota is almost 12 years old, she still acts like a puppy most of the time. She loves meeting new people and taking naps, and is happy pretty much all the time. Her absolute favorite thing in the whole world, though, is food.

“She acts like she is innocent but … is an evil genius inside when it comes to food of any kind,” Cheryl Dorchinsky, Dakota’s mom, told The Dodo.

When the family got a new dog door and wanted to teach Dakota how to use it, they of course turned to treats to help encourage her. She was scared of it at first, but once treats were involved, she quickly turned into a dog door pro and never looked back.

Once she knew how to use the dog door, though, she also quickly figured out how to use it to her advantage to trick her family into giving her extra treats.

Whenever Dakota goes outside and goes to the bathroom, she gets a treat, so one day, she came up with a genius plan. She decided to start going outside through the dog door, sitting right outside it for a little while, then coming back in as if she’d gone to the bathroom and asking for a treat.

What Dakota failed to consider is that the dog door is clear — so her mom can see her sitting right outside it, very blatantly not going to the bathroom.

“At first I believed her but then questioned how she came back in so fast,” Dorchinsky said. “I would watch and noticed that she was doing that. It’s almost like a child who thinks you can’t see them if they can’t see you. She always looks away. It’s funny!”

Even though Dorchinsky has totally caught on to the sneaky scheme, Dakota doesn’t care. She still does it every single day, because the potential treats are absolutely worth it.

“She seems very proud of her scam,” Dorchinsky said. “There is no shame in Dakota’s game.”

Despite knowing that Dakota isn’t actually going to the bathroom most of the time, Dorchinsky still gives her treats anyway. It’s hard to say no to that face.

“If I don’t react she will bark at me to let me know she went potty (fuzzy liar),” Dorchinsky said. “She is adorable and I totally give in. Maybe she deserves the treat for not going potty on the porch?”

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As I said, dogs are very smart!

Picture Parade Three Hundred and Seventy-Six

More fabulous photos from Nimbushopper.

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In a sense these are an extension of yesterday’s post about the wolves.

But so far as these dogs are concerned I shall never tire of downloading them and sharing them with you.

Dear Lulu!

She is now a wealthy dog!

From the BBC News of seven days ago:

Lulu the dog inherits $5m from deceased US owner

Lulu the border collie was left $5 million (£3.6 million) after her owner died last year.

Bill Dorris left the dog in the care of his friend, Martha Burton. The will states that Burton is to be reimbursed for Lulu’s reasonable monthly expenses.

The love for dogs shows no bounds at all.

Beautiful creatures!

Now here’s an idea!

Using the dog’s nose to sniff out positive Covid cases!

I follow Tony and I have been across to his blog before One Regular Guy Writing about Food, Exercise and Living Past 100.

But on the 15th February Tony came up with a brilliant idea; read it for yourself:

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Dogs’ highly evolved noses can rapidly detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus

For some 15,000 years, dogs have been our hunting partners, workmates, helpers and companions. Could they also be our next allies in the fight against COVID-19? As a dog owner with a small poodle who could sniff out a chicken bone in the middle of a football field I was not surprised to learn this.

According to UC Santa Barbara professor emeritus Tommy Dickey and his collaborator, BioScent researcher Heather Junqueira, they can. And with a review paper published in the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine they have added to a small but growing consensus that trained medical scent dogs can effectively be used for screening individuals who may be infected with the COVID-19 virus.

I would volunteer my 15-year-old poodle, Gabi, for this study.

This follows a comprehensive survey of research devoted to the use of trained scent dogs for detecting COVID. “The most striking result is that studies have already demonstrated that dogs can identify people who are COVID-19 positive,” Dickey said of their findings. “Not only that,” he added, “they can do it non-intrusively, more rapidly and with comparable or possibly better accuracy than our conventional detection tests.”

Not surprisingly, the magic lies in canine sense of smell, which gives dogs the ability to detect molecules in tiny concentrations — “one part in a quadrillion compared with one part in one billion for humans,” according to the paper. Add to that other optimizations for smell, such as a large nasal area and the structure of their noses, which allows inflow through the nostrils and outflow through nasal folds. Further, with 125-300 million olfactory cells and a third of their brains devoted to interpreting odors, dogs are well equipped with the ability to sniff out the volatile organic compounds that indicate the presence of COVID.

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I must gently disagree with Tony’s opening statement. Dogs evolved from the grey wolf something like 23,000 years ago.

But what a great article and will we see the authorities take him up on the idea? I certainly hope so.

Beware of dog theft

Yet another scary story.

This time via Facebook from Sally McCarthy in England.

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Greenland Chocolate Labradors

February 7th, 2021

We wanted to share this sad and scary experience one of our puppy owners had after collecting their puppy. Picture for reference, not puppy in question. Sharing to hopefully help others.

I had quite an unsettling experience yesterday on my way home with our puppy yesterday. I stopped at a service station to give her a cuddle and a break out of her crate and while I was standing at the back of my car with the boot open with the puppy in my arms a van with Polish numberplates pulled up really close behind me. The man leaned out of his window and said in a tone of voice that came across as really threatening “what a nice little doggy” then “can I ask some advice?”

At that point I thought I heard the passenger door of the van open (I couldn’t see the passenger side because of how he had parked). I put puppy back in her travelling crate, slammed my boot and locked my car as fast as I could, and walked to the driver’s side. At that point I realised I couldn’t get into the car, where my phone was, without unlocking the car so had a standoff with the man obviously waiting for me to unlock the car, which I was not willing to do in case he opened my boot.

After what felt like forever, especially as I was parked at the back of the car park away from any other cars, he gave up and sped off through the car park towards the exit with his phone in his hand. I didn’t want to wait around to see if he had called anyone to come so got in my car to drive off only to find him waiting for me at the exit and he started following me.

Fortunately within about 10 minutes the weather was awful so with the reduced visibility on my side I managed to lose him although my heartbeat and breathing didn’t return to normal for quite a while afterwards! As he hadn’t actually managed to take the puppy I wasn’t sure whether to report it to the police however I did submit an online report this morning as I am in no doubt that was his intention and that had I allowed him to distract me it would have given his accomplice enough time to corner me.

I just wanted to share as I have heard the stories of dog nappings and a friend of mine had a dog stolen 2 years ago during a walk but I am really shocked that anyone would consider attempting it in a public place that was hopefully covered with CCTV.

I have had dogs all of my life and have never worried about dog nappers before but now I have come face to face with them I just wanted to let you know that it does appear to be as bad as the media are saying so please keep your little ones close when they are allowed out for walks. I am going to buy a rape alarm to carry with me on dog walks from now on and my sons, who quite often walk our older dog alone, have been told the dog walks have to be done in pairs now and will be carrying an alarm too.x

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What a frightening experience for Sally.

But at least she had the sense in writing this up and I am republishing the event so as to inform the maximum of people.

Please share this!

German Shepherd

A wonderful video.

This was sent to me by Jules. Julie is the partner of my friend of too many years, Richard Maugham. Richard and I go back many, many years. Indeed we met on a flight in the Commodore PET Jet over 40 years ago. Prior to that Richard was working for Olivetti and me for IBM Office Products. We were then selling electric typewriters and the early forms of dedicated word-processing machines. As I said a long time ago!

This is what ‘Frosty Life’ has to say about the video:

My daughter has a German Shepherd puppy that is huge, but is only 7 months old. This German Shepherd has never experienced snow before. Watch as Rollo, the German Shepherd experiences snow for the first time and then he barks at the snow. This GSD has his hackles up as he growls and barks at the new fallen snow. It is amazing to watch her German Shepherd as he experiences snow for the first time and barks at it. He ate the snow and now he likes it.

Enjoy!