Skunk mating season is upon us, so be sure to supervise your dogs carefully when they are outside. Getting skunked is no fun for dog or owner! Skunks have been more active recently; I smelled one at my house last week when I let the dogs out in the morning and later I saw what I presumed to be the culprit, a freshly killed skunk in the road nearly a mile away.
Should your dog get skunked, you can try this recipe for decreasing the odor:
1 quart hydrogen peroxide
1/2 cup baking soda
2 tsp dishwashing liquid
Mix together and rub over entire coat. Allow to sit for about 10 minutes. DO NOT wet the dog first. DO NOT attempt to store once it is mixed- it will explode. This may lighten the dog's coat- just like a peroxide blonde! I have also used it with some success on dogs who have gotten into sewers or other stinky things.
In Kentucky, skunks are our most common animal diagnosed with rabies. There have already been 10 confirmed cases of rabies in Ky in 2009; 5 of these were in Fayette county (Lexington area) which is usually an area with multiple cases each year. 6 of the 10 cases so far this year were in skunks; one was in a dog, one in a horse. In Kenton, Boone, and Campbell counties we are most likely to see rabies in a bat. Kenton had confirmed cases of bat rabies in 2001, 2002, and 2006; Boone in 2004, and Campbell in 2001. Over the past 10 years Kentucky has typically seen 20-45 cases of rabies per year. In 2008 there were 6 cases in dogs and 1 in a cat; in 2007 5 dogs and 2 cats; and in 2006 5 dogs and 4 cats.
Make certain your pets are up to date on their rabies vaccinations. Should your pet have a bite wound of unknown origin, their rabies vaccine should be boostered. If you plan to travel with your pet in the Lexington area, you would be wise to carry a copy of your rabies certificate with you.
Also remember if your pet needs to be euthanized for any reason, is not current on its rabies vaccine, and has bitten someone recently, it MUST either go through a quarantine period first or have its brain submitted for testing after death. This is a legal requirement, not a requirement of our hospital. So be sure to keep your pet up to date to avoid any unpleasant issues around an already difficult time.
And be very careful in approaching wildlife and in allowing your pets to approach. Rabies is a real disease and it does really happen in this day and age!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The dreaded nail trim...
One of the most universally hated procedures we do is the nail trim. Clients hate to do them at home, dogs hate to have them done, and I hate to do them on someone else's dogs ;-). Amazing that such a simple, easily trained procedure can be the cause of such angst.
Recently there has been a lot of TV time spent promoting a product called the "Pedipaws" and it's cousin the "Peticure". These products are both basically nail GRINDERS as opposed to nail CLIPPERS. In the TV commercials, the dogs relax on the couch and let their owners effortlessly grind the nails away....but we've all been around the block a few times and fallen prey to those infomercials before, right? Flowbee, anyone?
Here's an entertaining video about what REALLY might happen if you try one of these products:
Ok, here's the skinny on these products. For years show groomers have used nail grinders on their dogs. These can be either products specifically made for the purpose, or many use a dremel drill with a sandpaper cylinder or grinding stone. I use a dremel mini mite cordless on my own dogs; for a larger dog you probably need a full sized one. The main difference in the TV products is they have a "guard" which is supposed to protect you from trimming too short. Now, I haven't personally used these products, only looked at them. To me the guard does not look like it is going to prevent anything and I am a bit worried that some dogs could be at risk for getting their nail caught in it. However, the guard is removable. The products themselves should be fine to use, they look a little less sturdy to me than a typical dremel or nail grinder, but they're also probably a little cheaper.
The advantage to these over trimming your dogs nails is you can get them a bit shorter and a LOT blunter, so no more sharp edges. This is great for older folks with thin skin or those with expensive hardwood floors and large dogs. Some dogs object less to them than to the nail clippers, but this is not universally true. If the nails are really long, you still need to clip them before you grind or you will be there for days. I see absolutely no reason to use them in cats, who do best with human toenail clippers (the slightly larger ones, not the teeny fingernail ones). You can get cat nails plenty blunt and short with these.
BUT just like using nail clippers you have to TRAIN your dog to tolerate it. Sorry folks, no magic bullet here. And I do not dremel nails for my patient as a general rule unless they are sedated for surgery (we alway trim nails any time we sedate a pet, sometimes I will use my own dremel on dogs I think I can do a much better job on provided that mine is charged up and in the clinic, and it's not a big dog with thick nails- mine is too small for that). Training a dog to tolerate nail trims or grinding is generally not that hard to do, especially if you start with a puppy, but it does take some time and persistance. (Personally I think if you are not willing to invest at least that much time in training a dog you should look at other options like a goldfish, but that' s just me). We generally talk about how to do this with all of our new puppy clients at least once during their puppy visits. However, below I will post a video that is quite good for teaching a dog to tolerate nail trimming (essentially the same procedure for nail grinding, I just add a step in which I start by turning the grinder on every night while I feed the dogs so they start to associate the noise with something pleasant). One additional caveat; if you have a dog with hair legs or belly, you must be careful not to catch their fur in the grinder as it can get wound up quite tightly very quickly. One easy safeguard is to take an old kneehigh stocking and put it over their leg; poke the nails through the end or cut the very tip off; this will confine the leg hair and keep it out of your way. Here's the nail training video:
https://youtu.be/ZiPAoiikzoA
This video was the winner a year or so ago in a contest for videos of positive training techniques. I think it is quite good. If you are dealing with a young puppy, I do add in one thing that is slightly less positive but certainly not harmful in any way; I like to hold the foot just tight enough that they can't pull it away and wait for the pup to sit quietly (this is best done up off the floor, a washer or dryer top works well). If they want to wiggle, that's fine, I just hold the foot and wait till they're done. Sometimes the wiggling can get quite dramatic and they will twist themselves inside out. Not what I would recommend to the puppy, but again, I just wait until they relax, then I praise, treat, and release the foot. The dog learns very quickly that nothing bad happens if they hold still, that struggling does NOT get them what they want (release), and that cooperation is in their best interest. This is best done with a young puppy as with a larger, older dog who is determined it can turn into a rodeo which we would prefer not to do. However, I really do like them to learn early that fighting me is not to their advantage and never gets them what they want. The timing of your praise is very critical; it is best to keep your mouth shut and just sit there while they wiggle as anything you say to try to soothe them sounds like praise and reinforces the wiggling. As SOON as they relax for a second praise and loosen your hold a little, offer a tiny treat with your free hand. If you get the timing right, for most puppies this takes 2-3 5 minute sessions before they figure out what you want. There is the occasional one who is a bit harder core (most often an older pup, in which case fall back and follow the video above and table this for a while).
Hope this helps! A few five minute sessions as a puppy can save you and the dog a lot of stress through the rest of their lives, and your vet will love you for it. Even if you prefer not to trim them yourself, do the work to accustom them to the foot handling and half the battle is over.
Recently there has been a lot of TV time spent promoting a product called the "Pedipaws" and it's cousin the "Peticure". These products are both basically nail GRINDERS as opposed to nail CLIPPERS. In the TV commercials, the dogs relax on the couch and let their owners effortlessly grind the nails away....but we've all been around the block a few times and fallen prey to those infomercials before, right? Flowbee, anyone?
Here's an entertaining video about what REALLY might happen if you try one of these products:
Ok, here's the skinny on these products. For years show groomers have used nail grinders on their dogs. These can be either products specifically made for the purpose, or many use a dremel drill with a sandpaper cylinder or grinding stone. I use a dremel mini mite cordless on my own dogs; for a larger dog you probably need a full sized one. The main difference in the TV products is they have a "guard" which is supposed to protect you from trimming too short. Now, I haven't personally used these products, only looked at them. To me the guard does not look like it is going to prevent anything and I am a bit worried that some dogs could be at risk for getting their nail caught in it. However, the guard is removable. The products themselves should be fine to use, they look a little less sturdy to me than a typical dremel or nail grinder, but they're also probably a little cheaper.
The advantage to these over trimming your dogs nails is you can get them a bit shorter and a LOT blunter, so no more sharp edges. This is great for older folks with thin skin or those with expensive hardwood floors and large dogs. Some dogs object less to them than to the nail clippers, but this is not universally true. If the nails are really long, you still need to clip them before you grind or you will be there for days. I see absolutely no reason to use them in cats, who do best with human toenail clippers (the slightly larger ones, not the teeny fingernail ones). You can get cat nails plenty blunt and short with these.
BUT just like using nail clippers you have to TRAIN your dog to tolerate it. Sorry folks, no magic bullet here. And I do not dremel nails for my patient as a general rule unless they are sedated for surgery (we alway trim nails any time we sedate a pet, sometimes I will use my own dremel on dogs I think I can do a much better job on provided that mine is charged up and in the clinic, and it's not a big dog with thick nails- mine is too small for that). Training a dog to tolerate nail trims or grinding is generally not that hard to do, especially if you start with a puppy, but it does take some time and persistance. (Personally I think if you are not willing to invest at least that much time in training a dog you should look at other options like a goldfish, but that' s just me). We generally talk about how to do this with all of our new puppy clients at least once during their puppy visits. However, below I will post a video that is quite good for teaching a dog to tolerate nail trimming (essentially the same procedure for nail grinding, I just add a step in which I start by turning the grinder on every night while I feed the dogs so they start to associate the noise with something pleasant). One additional caveat; if you have a dog with hair legs or belly, you must be careful not to catch their fur in the grinder as it can get wound up quite tightly very quickly. One easy safeguard is to take an old kneehigh stocking and put it over their leg; poke the nails through the end or cut the very tip off; this will confine the leg hair and keep it out of your way. Here's the nail training video:
https://youtu.be/ZiPAoiikzoA
This video was the winner a year or so ago in a contest for videos of positive training techniques. I think it is quite good. If you are dealing with a young puppy, I do add in one thing that is slightly less positive but certainly not harmful in any way; I like to hold the foot just tight enough that they can't pull it away and wait for the pup to sit quietly (this is best done up off the floor, a washer or dryer top works well). If they want to wiggle, that's fine, I just hold the foot and wait till they're done. Sometimes the wiggling can get quite dramatic and they will twist themselves inside out. Not what I would recommend to the puppy, but again, I just wait until they relax, then I praise, treat, and release the foot. The dog learns very quickly that nothing bad happens if they hold still, that struggling does NOT get them what they want (release), and that cooperation is in their best interest. This is best done with a young puppy as with a larger, older dog who is determined it can turn into a rodeo which we would prefer not to do. However, I really do like them to learn early that fighting me is not to their advantage and never gets them what they want. The timing of your praise is very critical; it is best to keep your mouth shut and just sit there while they wiggle as anything you say to try to soothe them sounds like praise and reinforces the wiggling. As SOON as they relax for a second praise and loosen your hold a little, offer a tiny treat with your free hand. If you get the timing right, for most puppies this takes 2-3 5 minute sessions before they figure out what you want. There is the occasional one who is a bit harder core (most often an older pup, in which case fall back and follow the video above and table this for a while).
Hope this helps! A few five minute sessions as a puppy can save you and the dog a lot of stress through the rest of their lives, and your vet will love you for it. Even if you prefer not to trim them yourself, do the work to accustom them to the foot handling and half the battle is over.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
More peanut butter recalls...and a chickadee
More peanut butter recalls keep coming in and there are some new ones involving dog treats. Most of them seem to be peanut butter stuffed rawhides, cowhooves, or bones, so if you use anything like that be sure to check the link below, scroll down to "pet food recalls" and make sure none of your brands are involved. It might not hurt to check out the human ones too!
And just for fun, here are some pictures of a cute little chickadee I took today. Those guys are hard to catch, they don't hold still very long unless they're on the ugly plastic feeder (not very photogenic!). I KNEW there was a reason I hadn't bothered to clean out my planters!
And here's a picture of the creek, visible again now that much of the ice is melted. The creek itself is still mostly frozen though; up until this year it never froze, but whatever they did with their bulldozers this summer has had a big effect.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Obedience explained...Utility
Ah, we are back to obedience! Yesterday we went to another show n go and I was able to tape Andy's utility routine successfully this time.
Utility includes the most fun exercises of all of the obedience classes. Unfortunately, they also are the most difficult to get a dog to perform consistently and well under varying conditions. While many dogs learn to become extremely consistent in open and qualify the majority of the time, far fewer ever become quite as reliable in utility. Even in the "B" classes on any given day it often ends up being "survival of the fittest" and about a 50% qualifying rate is typical. In "A", with green dogs and handlers who have not finished an OTCh, the Q rate is closer to 5-10%. It's not unusual to have a class of 15-20 A dogs and not have a single qualifier.
It was about 10 years between retiring Levi, my first dog who finished his UDX, from obedience, and starting to seriously think about competing in utility with Andy. I forgot just how darn HARD it is! Teaching the exercises for the most part is not that difficult and Andy had known almost all of them to one degree or another for quite a long time. But the utility exercises require the dog to work away from the handler and to think through situations and make some decisions, and getting them to pull it all together in a strange place on any given day is tough.
The utility exercises are:
-Signal exercise (a heel off leash pattern at the end of which you stand/stay your dog and go to the other end of the ring, then ask him to down, sit, come, and finish. All commands in this exercise are hand signals and a verbal will result in an NQ, although you MIGHT be able to get by with a verbal command to heel if you lose the dog during the pattern- you'll take a big hit though).
-Scent articles- you provide a set of five metal and five leather dumbells; you will keep one of each and handle it to put your scent on it while the steward places the rest across the ring. The dog is sent to the pile twice, once for the leather article you have scented and once for the metal (only one scented article at a time is in the pile). He must correctly identify and retrieve the scented article.
-Directed Retrieve- three gloves are put out at the end of the ring as you and your dog stand with your back to them. There is one in the middle and one in each corner. The judge will instruct you which number glove to retrieve and you must pivot and send the dog to retrieve the correct glove.
-Moving stand- You begin heeling at one end of the ring and on the judge's command, without stopping, ask your dog to stay in a standing position and continue another 8 feet or so. The judge will then examine your dog (run his hands over him) and the dog is expected to stand without moving his feet. You then call the dog directly to heel position.
-Directed jumping- a bar jump and a high jump are placed about midway down the ring, one on either side. The dog is asked to go out between the jumps to a point at least 8 feet beyond them, stop on the handler's command, turn and sit. The handler, on the judge's instruction, then directs the dog to take the appropriate jump and come to front. This is then repeated for the second jump.
When I got Andy, I had intended for him to primarily be an obedience dog but when he was pretty young we got sidetracked into agility. He LOVED it and I was hooked. Up until he was about a year old, we worked on heeling and focused attention but I didn't think he was ready to show quite yet (now I see those old tapes and wish like heck I'd had him in the ring then!). Eventually I thought asking for that extreme focused attention might be causing us some issues in agility so we stopped working it for a while, although we still worked off and on on teaching the rest of the obedience exercises. Our Q rate in agility is awful since there is a big discrepancy between his speed and mine, but we were having fun regardless. Finally when he turned 7 it hit me that I had better get my act in gear and get his CD. He did that pretty quickly with reasonable scores although we didn't put the work in to do as well as my original goal had been (he did blow an all breed HIT on his second or third try, can't remember which, at a horrible muddy outdoor show when I had to call him twice on the recall.. AAAGH! He was easily 3 points ahead of the dog who ended up getting it...). A few months later he was back in the ring in open and earned his CDX (waiting for second commands became my nemesis with this dog...he wanted SO much to make sure he was right!). When it came to utility though we got hung up for a long time because I could not get him to do the signal stand. When I stopped, he insisted on sitting. I worked on that problem for almost two years and FINALLY got it fixed (I'm not really even sure how, it just seemed to "click" for him one day). I started showing him in utility only at my two home clubs' shows, knowing he wasn't really ready but hoping I would "luck" into a leg. Right. When he was almost ready to turn 10, it suddenly hit me that I had better get my act together or he was going to be too old. At that point, he was qualifying consistently on all the exercises except the directed retrieve (gloves), usually not that difficult an exercise but tough for Andy as he never REALLY learned to "mark" the glove you were sending him to. We got some help with that at a Laura Romanik seminar and did several shows where we had such near misses and missed qualifying by the skin of our teeth. We were almost there...and then suddenly he fell apart. In retrospect, I believe that around this time his hearing started to fail. At any rate, his barking became a big issue (previously he only barked once on each go out) and he got to be REALLY bad about barking when he got to the article pile before settling down to work.
At this point, Andy will be 12 in June and I would estimate only has about 10% of his hearing left (the AKC rules state that a dog cannot be "without useful hearing" and still be shown; I figure he still hears his clicker, his squeakies, and some of the things I say to him so he still falls under the legal category). His barking not only got worse in obedience when his hearing started to go, but also around the house, so I don't think we are likely to be able to fix it in the time frame we have left. He has two utility legs and only needs one more qualifying score so we are crossing our fingers he can do it when the spring shows start back up! He has started to have some heart and kidney issues as well, so our time left for him to be able to compete may be getting short.
You can see him below at a local show and go yesterday; this is what we call Andy's "freestyle" utility interpretation! He is going to loose BIG points for barking, and along with the aging and hearing loss he now has a tendency to anticipate (so you will not see him do an actual moving stand, in practice we always keep heeling instead. As you can see, he still knows where he is supposed to stop and getting him NOT to until I give the command is tough!). But he still has tons of attitude and enthusiasm and he is so much fun to train, even if he is an old man!
Utility includes the most fun exercises of all of the obedience classes. Unfortunately, they also are the most difficult to get a dog to perform consistently and well under varying conditions. While many dogs learn to become extremely consistent in open and qualify the majority of the time, far fewer ever become quite as reliable in utility. Even in the "B" classes on any given day it often ends up being "survival of the fittest" and about a 50% qualifying rate is typical. In "A", with green dogs and handlers who have not finished an OTCh, the Q rate is closer to 5-10%. It's not unusual to have a class of 15-20 A dogs and not have a single qualifier.
It was about 10 years between retiring Levi, my first dog who finished his UDX, from obedience, and starting to seriously think about competing in utility with Andy. I forgot just how darn HARD it is! Teaching the exercises for the most part is not that difficult and Andy had known almost all of them to one degree or another for quite a long time. But the utility exercises require the dog to work away from the handler and to think through situations and make some decisions, and getting them to pull it all together in a strange place on any given day is tough.
The utility exercises are:
-Signal exercise (a heel off leash pattern at the end of which you stand/stay your dog and go to the other end of the ring, then ask him to down, sit, come, and finish. All commands in this exercise are hand signals and a verbal will result in an NQ, although you MIGHT be able to get by with a verbal command to heel if you lose the dog during the pattern- you'll take a big hit though).
-Scent articles- you provide a set of five metal and five leather dumbells; you will keep one of each and handle it to put your scent on it while the steward places the rest across the ring. The dog is sent to the pile twice, once for the leather article you have scented and once for the metal (only one scented article at a time is in the pile). He must correctly identify and retrieve the scented article.
-Directed Retrieve- three gloves are put out at the end of the ring as you and your dog stand with your back to them. There is one in the middle and one in each corner. The judge will instruct you which number glove to retrieve and you must pivot and send the dog to retrieve the correct glove.
-Moving stand- You begin heeling at one end of the ring and on the judge's command, without stopping, ask your dog to stay in a standing position and continue another 8 feet or so. The judge will then examine your dog (run his hands over him) and the dog is expected to stand without moving his feet. You then call the dog directly to heel position.
-Directed jumping- a bar jump and a high jump are placed about midway down the ring, one on either side. The dog is asked to go out between the jumps to a point at least 8 feet beyond them, stop on the handler's command, turn and sit. The handler, on the judge's instruction, then directs the dog to take the appropriate jump and come to front. This is then repeated for the second jump.
When I got Andy, I had intended for him to primarily be an obedience dog but when he was pretty young we got sidetracked into agility. He LOVED it and I was hooked. Up until he was about a year old, we worked on heeling and focused attention but I didn't think he was ready to show quite yet (now I see those old tapes and wish like heck I'd had him in the ring then!). Eventually I thought asking for that extreme focused attention might be causing us some issues in agility so we stopped working it for a while, although we still worked off and on on teaching the rest of the obedience exercises. Our Q rate in agility is awful since there is a big discrepancy between his speed and mine, but we were having fun regardless. Finally when he turned 7 it hit me that I had better get my act in gear and get his CD. He did that pretty quickly with reasonable scores although we didn't put the work in to do as well as my original goal had been (he did blow an all breed HIT on his second or third try, can't remember which, at a horrible muddy outdoor show when I had to call him twice on the recall.. AAAGH! He was easily 3 points ahead of the dog who ended up getting it...). A few months later he was back in the ring in open and earned his CDX (waiting for second commands became my nemesis with this dog...he wanted SO much to make sure he was right!). When it came to utility though we got hung up for a long time because I could not get him to do the signal stand. When I stopped, he insisted on sitting. I worked on that problem for almost two years and FINALLY got it fixed (I'm not really even sure how, it just seemed to "click" for him one day). I started showing him in utility only at my two home clubs' shows, knowing he wasn't really ready but hoping I would "luck" into a leg. Right. When he was almost ready to turn 10, it suddenly hit me that I had better get my act together or he was going to be too old. At that point, he was qualifying consistently on all the exercises except the directed retrieve (gloves), usually not that difficult an exercise but tough for Andy as he never REALLY learned to "mark" the glove you were sending him to. We got some help with that at a Laura Romanik seminar and did several shows where we had such near misses and missed qualifying by the skin of our teeth. We were almost there...and then suddenly he fell apart. In retrospect, I believe that around this time his hearing started to fail. At any rate, his barking became a big issue (previously he only barked once on each go out) and he got to be REALLY bad about barking when he got to the article pile before settling down to work.
At this point, Andy will be 12 in June and I would estimate only has about 10% of his hearing left (the AKC rules state that a dog cannot be "without useful hearing" and still be shown; I figure he still hears his clicker, his squeakies, and some of the things I say to him so he still falls under the legal category). His barking not only got worse in obedience when his hearing started to go, but also around the house, so I don't think we are likely to be able to fix it in the time frame we have left. He has two utility legs and only needs one more qualifying score so we are crossing our fingers he can do it when the spring shows start back up! He has started to have some heart and kidney issues as well, so our time left for him to be able to compete may be getting short.
You can see him below at a local show and go yesterday; this is what we call Andy's "freestyle" utility interpretation! He is going to loose BIG points for barking, and along with the aging and hearing loss he now has a tendency to anticipate (so you will not see him do an actual moving stand, in practice we always keep heeling instead. As you can see, he still knows where he is supposed to stop and getting him NOT to until I give the command is tough!). But he still has tons of attitude and enthusiasm and he is so much fun to train, even if he is an old man!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Stopping by woods on a snowy evening...
Or in this case, a snowy morning...
"The woods are silent, dark and deep 
Above me is the view of the house down the street- it is REALLY snowing hard. I was worried about the little downy woodpecker girl on the sunflower feeder; she wasn't eating, just huddled up looking cold, wet and miserable.
The icicles on the feeders made it interesting for the birds to get to the seed...maybe we could come up with a similar idea to keep fat cats away from the food bowl but let skinny ones through? And wasn't there a movie with a jail made out of icicles- maybe one of the Batman movies??
Even Cory wasn't wild about having to go outside to potty this morning. Sniffing around is ok, but actually having to get down to business is a whole 'nuther thing. See how big the flakes were? Andy had been out about 15 seconds when I took that shot and already his back was full of flakes.
Stevie had a GREAT day watching the birds. He'll be exhausted tomorrow for sure!
This shot wasn't quite in focus, but I thought the little titmouse was so cute!
Don't let them fool you... the finches look like they're waiting in line patiently, but they're really worse than the little old ladies at the midnight madness sales- they'll elbow each other out of the way and get nasty the first chance they get if it means going to the head of the line.
The pileated caught me by surprise- I usually hear him drilling away out there, but he was quiet today. I knew if I walked over to the window for a better shot he would take off, so I had to settle for these from across the room. Once he flew to the edge of the woods, I got the photos below though.
Andy and Cory couldn't believe I actually wanted them to lie down and pose for pictures. You've got to be kidding. As long as we're here, we'll just eat some snow though.
I will get back to the utility part of the obedience series later...the battery ran out part way through Andy's run, and then when I tried to upload it the speed is WAY too fast. If you've seen Andy do obedience, you know faster and higher pitched is NOT the way to go ;-). Also I promised video of clicker training Stevie to do the weaves; we haven't had much of a chance to do that lately but I hope to have some more time this weekend. I do have some footage but I'm having some trouble figuring out how to edit it; believe me, clicker training cats is a WHOLE different pace and you want me to edit it down!
"The woods are silent, dark and deep And I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep"
This morning I woke up at 5 am as the power clicked off. Yesterday we had six inches of snow, followed by 12 hours straight of driving freezing rain. Around 8 this morning it changed over to HUGE snowflakes coming down hard and fast. Luckily the power came back on about that time. This was the view from my living room window.
Above me is the view of the house down the street- it is REALLY snowing hard. I was worried about the little downy woodpecker girl on the sunflower feeder; she wasn't eating, just huddled up looking cold, wet and miserable.
The icicles on the feeders made it interesting for the birds to get to the seed...maybe we could come up with a similar idea to keep fat cats away from the food bowl but let skinny ones through? And wasn't there a movie with a jail made out of icicles- maybe one of the Batman movies??
Stevie the clinic cat is home with me and watching the dogs go outside through the sidelight. I think he was pretty happy to be a litterbox user today.
I loved this cute little titmouse. He had to work to get to the food, but once he figured it out he kept coming back for more.
Even Cory wasn't wild about having to go outside to potty this morning. Sniffing around is ok, but actually having to get down to business is a whole 'nuther thing. See how big the flakes were? Andy had been out about 15 seconds when I took that shot and already his back was full of flakes.
Stevie had a GREAT day watching the birds. He'll be exhausted tomorrow for sure!
This shot wasn't quite in focus, but I thought the little titmouse was so cute!
Don't let them fool you... the finches look like they're waiting in line patiently, but they're really worse than the little old ladies at the midnight madness sales- they'll elbow each other out of the way and get nasty the first chance they get if it means going to the head of the line.
The pileated caught me by surprise- I usually hear him drilling away out there, but he was quiet today. I knew if I walked over to the window for a better shot he would take off, so I had to settle for these from across the room. Once he flew to the edge of the woods, I got the photos below though.
Andy and Cory couldn't believe I actually wanted them to lie down and pose for pictures. You've got to be kidding. As long as we're here, we'll just eat some snow though.
Around noon the snow stopped, and while the sun didn't exactly come out, it did get brighter; the pictures below were taken "after the storm". Hopefully the trees will keep bending and not too break.
I will get back to the utility part of the obedience series later...the battery ran out part way through Andy's run, and then when I tried to upload it the speed is WAY too fast. If you've seen Andy do obedience, you know faster and higher pitched is NOT the way to go ;-). Also I promised video of clicker training Stevie to do the weaves; we haven't had much of a chance to do that lately but I hope to have some more time this weekend. I do have some footage but I'm having some trouble figuring out how to edit it; believe me, clicker training cats is a WHOLE different pace and you want me to edit it down!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Obedience explained...Open
Open is IMO MUCH more fun than novice. The exercises are more interesting, but they don't require quite as much intense concentration and independent decision making from the dog as utility. Once a dog gets comfortable in open, they can get very reliable in their performance and and it all just seems to flow along smoothly. Open does require that the dog is physically sound enough to handle the jumping exercises (the high jump is set at the dog's shoulder height and that is doubled for the width of the broad jump; there are certain breeds that due to their structure may jump 3/4 of their jump height- for example, basset hounds).
Probably the hardest part of training for open is teaching the retrieve. For some dogs, it is ridiculously easy (they don't call them "retrievers" for nothing!). For other dogs the idea of putting a foreign object in their mouth, bringing it back to you, and actually holding it until you take it, is just not appealing. Then once you teach it, refining it (clean pickup, no mouthing, etc) is another challenge. I teach a retrieve with a clicker, by shaping the behavior (we'll talk more about that later). It probably takes longer at the start than traditional "forced retrieve" methods, but once the dog starts to get the idea it can go very quickly. It is actually taught in two separate parts, the actual retrieve (running out to get the dumbell and bringing it back) and the hold (holding the dumbell while sitting in front). I usually find the retrieve relatively simple to teach and the hold considerably tougher. You can also tell what I enjoy teaching and what I don't; my dogs usually aren't the best about mouthing the dumbell and having clean pickups. I am working with Cory to clean that up but it's going to be a long haul. Cory probably had the best natural retrieve drive of all my dogs, but he was the hardest to teach a hold to; we got stuck there for a LONG time until it dawned on him that he could sit without dropping the dumbell, then actually fix his sit and get it straight, all without dropping it. It is something we work on daily, although most often not with a "formal" retrieve but instead with bringing me a lot of different objects around the house and learning to hold them until I take them.
The hardest behavior to MAINTAIN when you are showing a dog week in and week out, is the long sit. In open, the stays are done with the handlers out of sight. The dogs are placed in a line, the handlers leave the ring and the dogs are expected to hold a three minute sit followed by a five minute down. At some point, most dogs will get bored or tired and lie down on the sit. Once they discover they can do this and there's not a darn thing the handler can do about it, it is REALLY hard to fix the problem.
The exercises for open are:
Heel Free and Figure 8
Drop on Recall
Retrieve on the flat
Retrieve over the high jump
Broad Jump
Group stays
Below is a video of Cory doing open at our show and go last weekend (aren't I lucky to belong to a club with such a great facility? ). There are a few caveats (that's what you call it when it's your own dog, if it's someone else's dog it's called an excuse!). Cory is very green and has not yet shown in novice. This was only his second time to do the open exercises in public with distractions- he has been working on them at home but hasn't really even done them at club, except possibly a couple of times when we had the building all to ourselves. You can see that the additional distraction of jumps in the ring and a dog doing utility (fun stuff!) in the next ring was tough for him to handle, especially since he knew the dog and handler in the next ring well and the judge was someone he especially likes. It took the whole first half of the heeling pattern to get his head together (didn't hurt that I was between him and the jumps for the second half either). I did not ask for a drop on the recall as he's not ready to put that together yet; and as you will see, we haven't worked the broad jump much.
When I watch this video Cory reminds me for the first time of his great, great, great grandam Tuppence who was a CH/UD dog. Some of my LONG time clients might remember her, she belonged to my tech at the time Pam and came to the clinic every day and was good buddies with my old man Levi. Tuppence passed away in 1997. I never think of him looking like her, but there's just a little hint there! Andy reminds me of her from time to time as he gets older as well.
Hitting the boards of the broad jump with his feet would have been an NQ. He is not really ready to do that yet, I should have faced him and called him directly over. He also would have lost points for the bark (his dad is the champion of that!). For some reason that day he totally lost his "around" finish in both rings, we will have to go back and fix that!
Open is divided into A and B just as novice was; however the rules are just a little different. All dogs start in A UNLESS the handler is a judge or has trained a previous dog to an OTCh (Obedience Trial Championship). Once they finish their title, they have 60 days to continue showing in A or until they get a High in Trial; then they must move to Open B. Dogs can compete in Open B for the rest of their career. They also can enter Utility and Open B on the same day; once they earn their utility title they may work on two additional titles. For a UDX, the dog must qualify in BOTH open B and utilityB on the same day 10 times. In addition, points are awarded for placements in both classe based on the number of dogs defeated. In order to finish an OTCh, the dog must have an Open first, a Utility first, and one more first from either class and must earn 100 points. Open B is VERY competitive and many of the dogs have a very high qualifying percentage. The difference in placing or not may be a bump on the heeling pattern or a slightly crooked sit. To place in the B classes you generally need around a 196 1/2 or higher, I have seen three way run offs for first place with all dogs scoring a 199 1/2. Open B is TOUGH if you are going for scores! Many people showing for their UDX are not competitive for placements and OTCh points and are not as concerned with high scores.
In Open A the scores are typically lower just as in novice. Just as in novice, your dog must Q three times with a score of 170 and at least 50% of the points for all exercises. Once he does, he may now put CDX (for Companion Dog Excellent) after his name.
Probably the hardest part of training for open is teaching the retrieve. For some dogs, it is ridiculously easy (they don't call them "retrievers" for nothing!). For other dogs the idea of putting a foreign object in their mouth, bringing it back to you, and actually holding it until you take it, is just not appealing. Then once you teach it, refining it (clean pickup, no mouthing, etc) is another challenge. I teach a retrieve with a clicker, by shaping the behavior (we'll talk more about that later). It probably takes longer at the start than traditional "forced retrieve" methods, but once the dog starts to get the idea it can go very quickly. It is actually taught in two separate parts, the actual retrieve (running out to get the dumbell and bringing it back) and the hold (holding the dumbell while sitting in front). I usually find the retrieve relatively simple to teach and the hold considerably tougher. You can also tell what I enjoy teaching and what I don't; my dogs usually aren't the best about mouthing the dumbell and having clean pickups. I am working with Cory to clean that up but it's going to be a long haul. Cory probably had the best natural retrieve drive of all my dogs, but he was the hardest to teach a hold to; we got stuck there for a LONG time until it dawned on him that he could sit without dropping the dumbell, then actually fix his sit and get it straight, all without dropping it. It is something we work on daily, although most often not with a "formal" retrieve but instead with bringing me a lot of different objects around the house and learning to hold them until I take them.
The hardest behavior to MAINTAIN when you are showing a dog week in and week out, is the long sit. In open, the stays are done with the handlers out of sight. The dogs are placed in a line, the handlers leave the ring and the dogs are expected to hold a three minute sit followed by a five minute down. At some point, most dogs will get bored or tired and lie down on the sit. Once they discover they can do this and there's not a darn thing the handler can do about it, it is REALLY hard to fix the problem.
The exercises for open are:
Heel Free and Figure 8
Drop on Recall
Retrieve on the flat
Retrieve over the high jump
Broad Jump
Group stays
Below is a video of Cory doing open at our show and go last weekend (aren't I lucky to belong to a club with such a great facility? ). There are a few caveats (that's what you call it when it's your own dog, if it's someone else's dog it's called an excuse!). Cory is very green and has not yet shown in novice. This was only his second time to do the open exercises in public with distractions- he has been working on them at home but hasn't really even done them at club, except possibly a couple of times when we had the building all to ourselves. You can see that the additional distraction of jumps in the ring and a dog doing utility (fun stuff!) in the next ring was tough for him to handle, especially since he knew the dog and handler in the next ring well and the judge was someone he especially likes. It took the whole first half of the heeling pattern to get his head together (didn't hurt that I was between him and the jumps for the second half either). I did not ask for a drop on the recall as he's not ready to put that together yet; and as you will see, we haven't worked the broad jump much.
When I watch this video Cory reminds me for the first time of his great, great, great grandam Tuppence who was a CH/UD dog. Some of my LONG time clients might remember her, she belonged to my tech at the time Pam and came to the clinic every day and was good buddies with my old man Levi. Tuppence passed away in 1997. I never think of him looking like her, but there's just a little hint there! Andy reminds me of her from time to time as he gets older as well.
Hitting the boards of the broad jump with his feet would have been an NQ. He is not really ready to do that yet, I should have faced him and called him directly over. He also would have lost points for the bark (his dad is the champion of that!). For some reason that day he totally lost his "around" finish in both rings, we will have to go back and fix that!
Open is divided into A and B just as novice was; however the rules are just a little different. All dogs start in A UNLESS the handler is a judge or has trained a previous dog to an OTCh (Obedience Trial Championship). Once they finish their title, they have 60 days to continue showing in A or until they get a High in Trial; then they must move to Open B. Dogs can compete in Open B for the rest of their career. They also can enter Utility and Open B on the same day; once they earn their utility title they may work on two additional titles. For a UDX, the dog must qualify in BOTH open B and utilityB on the same day 10 times. In addition, points are awarded for placements in both classe based on the number of dogs defeated. In order to finish an OTCh, the dog must have an Open first, a Utility first, and one more first from either class and must earn 100 points. Open B is VERY competitive and many of the dogs have a very high qualifying percentage. The difference in placing or not may be a bump on the heeling pattern or a slightly crooked sit. To place in the B classes you generally need around a 196 1/2 or higher, I have seen three way run offs for first place with all dogs scoring a 199 1/2. Open B is TOUGH if you are going for scores! Many people showing for their UDX are not competitive for placements and OTCh points and are not as concerned with high scores.
In Open A the scores are typically lower just as in novice. Just as in novice, your dog must Q three times with a score of 170 and at least 50% of the points for all exercises. Once he does, he may now put CDX (for Companion Dog Excellent) after his name.
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