I try to get video of every search and then post the videos for the students to see before the next class. This gives the people are chance to see their dogs and themselves in action. In addition to being a lot of fun, it’s also a great way to familiarize the people with their dog’s “body language” during searches.

A few weeks ago I blogged about Harley, a fearful dog that has benefitted from Nose Work. Here’s Harley latest class. I introduced what we (quite logically) call elevation: boxes are now off the floor and the dog has to learn to search both on the floor and on top of other things. For Harley this represented something new, and as a result, initially was a little scary. Watch how being rewarded for searching helps her work this problem out on her own with very little human intervention.

Shadow, however, is ready to interact with her environment any way she can. This video shows a few searches (it’s a little long, but worth watching all the way through) including some slo-mo of her literally following her nose, and ending with a rather funny pair of finds.

Last, here is a video from a “Intermediate Odor” class with dogs that are searching for odor paired with food. Muneca is doing multiple hides in the reception area of the Maywood Vet Clinic.

For information on Nose Work classes in my area see my classes page. For a trainer near you, see the Nose Work Association web site.

Video from Nose Work Classes is a post from: Dog Spelled Forward

Spike gets a treat

In November I enrolled in the Karen Pryor Academy Dog Trainer Program. Karen Pryor and her students are best known for clicker training. This is a departure for me. I’ll get into what lead me to this decision in a later post. Today I’d like to share some of the fun homework I had over the holidays.

Capturing a Behavior

Capturing is exactly when it sounds like: catching the dog (or other animal) doing the behaviors we’re looking for!

The first step is to figure out what you want to train. This is best done not by deciding what you want and then training the dog, but observing what he does and then decided what we want to work with. What does your dog do on his own, with no encouragement from you? Does he sit? Lie down? Lift a paw? Tilt his head? Any behavior you see can be captured.

Once you have selected the behavior you want, get your clicker, a bunch of treats, a timer, and a pad and paper. If you have not worked with your dog before with a clicker, take some time to click-and-treat, click-and-treat etc., for a few minutes to make sure he understands that a click means a treat is coming.

Now watch your dog. Every time he does what you want click and treat. Here I am starting to capture Buddha’s paw lift:

You want to click *as the dog performs the behavior* not afterwards. It takes some time to get the timing right. I chose a nice "big" behavior to capture with Buddha so I had room to be sloppy.

It’s important to break up your training sessions into 2 or 3 minute chunks – don’t work for so long that you or your dog get tired or discouraged. You can mix in some play in between, and this training may take a few days. Remember, it’s supposed to be fun!

Putting it On Cue

After a while your dog will start to offer the behavior more often. He will start to expect the click when he does what your looking for, and you will start to anticipate when he will do it. Now it is time to start counting.

Set your timer and keep count of how many times you click. (If you can get someone to help you, they can keep count.) When you can get to 10 or more clicks a minute, it’s time for the cue! A cue can be anything that your dog can see, hear, feel or smell. (Detection dogs use the smell of drugs as a cue.)

When you see your dog is about to perform the behavior, give the cue and then click and treat when he does it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

After some time you will see that your dog is waiting to hear (or see) the cue. Continue to click and treat when you ask for it, but do not reward him for doing it on his own. Buddha was having problems with this in the video above. This will teach your dog that when you’re working together, he should perform the behavior only when asked. At the same time don’t reward him for doing something else when you give the cue. Make sure he understands the relationship between the cue and the behavior.

The dog training program is a comprehensive course. So comprehensive that after I was done capturing behaviors with a dog, I was required to work with another species!

I am working on getting Spike to peck his mirror on cue. It’s a very different game, but I am having a great time with it!

I have started a Youtube playlist right here. It has a few more videos on it, and I will be adding more as I go.

Clicker Training: Capturing a Behavior and Putting It on Cue is a post from: Dog Spelled Forward

Not Snickers.

Is is over? Maybe not, apparently Aurelia can still counter-sue and since they refuse to make anything more than cursory statements about how they are/were violating federal law and lovin’ it, we don’t know yet. Hopefully after the New Year they will announce that they have come to their senses and leave Mr. Saks and his family in peace. Or nothing will happen at the next council meeting and we can assume it is over.

Rather than end the ChipIn on the right I have “rebranded” it to Animal Farm Foundation. Let’s wait and see what happens with Aurelia in the next few weeks. Boarding Snickers must have cost them a few hundred dollars at least, so if you are so inclined, please give.

Jim Sak and Snickers Reunited is a post from: Dog Spelled Forward

Here’s the video. You can click here for a larger, more beautiful, version.

Dogs in Cars from keith on Vimeo.

And for those of you ready to scold about dogs riding loose in cars, two things: if you watch you’ll see leashes, and get over it and enjoy the video. Just this once.

Great Video: Dogs In Cars is a post from: Dog Spelled Forward

Clearly a deadly creature

Aurelia IA has a breed ban and ordered Snickers out of town, literally under pain of death. This is, of course, in direct conflict with federal law with regards to service animals and despite the fact that Mr. Sak has had Snicker for more than 5 trouble-free years. Snickers is pit-bull shaped, and no amount of common sense, evidence or facts is going to get in the way of Aurelia Iowa’s city government.

For example, here’s a very revealing quote from a story on MSNBC.

City Council member Jeff Bowen refused to answer questions about whether he thought the City was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities act. “Well I guess the attorneys will have to figure that out” Bowen told us, “I don’t have any comment.”

Wow. Nothing like standing up for yourself and your opinion. (Really. It’s nothing like it at all.)

See an update here:

Tomorrow there will be a hearing in Sioux City (which also has a failed breed ban of its own, BTW.) It’s possible that this hearing will result in Mr. Sak having his service dog returned immediately. It’s also possible that it will result in more delays or just a temporary decision.

Aurelia’s city government has refused to respond to request for comment, so there’s no reason to believe that they will go down without a fight.

Until this is resolved I am going to continue my fundraiser. While Mr. Sak’s legal representation is being supplied pro bono, Animal Farm Foundation has already provided housing and care for Snickers for over a week, and they still are a worthy beneficiary of our donations anyway.

Please chip in!

Update on Jim Sak and Snickers is a post from: Dog Spelled Forward

Below is a widget from ChipIn. It will accept a donation of any amount and deposit in my PayPal account. On January 21st I will send all other money to Animal Farm Foundation, which is already trying to help the retired police office and war veteran keep his service dog. I have set a goal of $2000. That’s 100 people giving $20 each. I think we can do that, don’t you?

Why do I think you should donate some money to this cause? Well, not just because it’s a lot more effective than liking a Facebook status or resharing that awesome anti-Millan Esquire article from 2006 for the 20th time.

Aurelia IA’s government has shown themselves to be shining examples of the bullies that perpetuate BSL. Is there a better example of bullying than taking away a service dog from a retiree? This is one of the battles we need to win if BSL is ever to be eliminated in the U.S. Put down the like button, open your wallet, and put your money where your snarky comment would be.

If you use a blog, you can easily embed this widget on it. If you have Facebook account, use the button below to share this post.

The cowardly bullies in Aurelia may have already ruined Mr. Saks’ Christmas, but we can do our best to fix his New Year!

Make a small donation and then spread the word: let’s help this man get his dog back and put a nail in the coffin of BSL.

Let’s Do Something about James Saks’ Service Dog! is a post from: Dog Spelled Forward

But I digress.

In BraindeathAurelia, Iowa a retired policeman and war veteran has had to surrender his service dog because he (the dog) is a pit bull.

Here are the money quotes:

Aurelia is “simply exercising its authority to protect and preserve the rights and property of its residents — whether or not that’s trumped by” federal law. said George Wittgraf, an attorney representing BraindeathAurelia.

Well, it is trumped by federal law. This genius of an attorney didn’t just watch his client open itself to incredibly expensive legal and civil consequences, he’s bragging about it to the press.

Second, breed specific legislation does not protect communities. It is the refuge of lazy cowards that lack the knowledge and/or willpower to do what it takes to actually protect people from dangerous dogs.

“They had several people come forward saying they were concerned about the pit bull because of the nature of the breed. They just feel it’s unsafe. They’re aggressive and could hurt somebody. If the service animal was anything but a pit bull, it would have been fine,” said City Clerk Barb Messerole.

Yes, that’s right. Based on the complaints of several of the “friendly citizens of Aurelia” these Mensa candidates have decided to defy federal law and take away a disabled veteran’s service animal.

What more can I say? Brent Toellner has written volumes on the stupidity and ineffectiveness of BSL, and on the beautifully coined term panic policy making.” This appears to be a result of this kind of policy making: Aurelia’s breed ban apparently dates back to, get this, a single bite.

A miserable Christmas to you too, Auerlia, Iowa. Here’s hoping for coal in your stocking.

And a very, very, very, costly loss in court. The kind that ends careers.

Retired Policemen Has Service Dog Taken Away is a post from: Dog Spelled Forward

Really, the only thing it needs is more Border Collie. Maybe next year….

(You may need to click on it to see the full width.)

The 12 dogs of Christmas graphic was created by Pet365 – a UK stockist of brands like Hamish McBeth who make leather dog collars.

Some Christmas Fun is a post from: Dog Spelled Forward

Nose Work looks deceptively easy: we start out hiding treats in boxes, move on to other items, and eventually transition from food to distinct odors. But while there is a devil in those details, what I enjoy most is that it is 99% improvisation. There are very few “wrong” things to do, I can’t think of any problems that can’t be fixed by simply taking a few steps back, and it’s really hard to not have fun while you are doing it. I’ve even taken to calling it “playing nose work” rather than “practicing” or “training.”

Here are a few videos from classes in both Maywood and Jersey City. A few videos have some “comments” added where I had the time.

First, here’s Harley’s first time ever. Harley is a recently-rescued dog that can be fearful at times, and often has problems dealing with the background barking and growling at the day care. In just 45 minutes of playing around, she gained some focused and was reluctant to leave the boxes to go home.

In Maywood I have a class with some more seasoned dogs.

Muneca is a rock star, and a great example of how much fun it is to watch a dog that is really having fun:

After a few classes, Muneca is starting to “indicate” that she has found the “hide,” rather than just diving in right away.

Remy is a lot of fun to watch:

He is all nose. It’s a wonder he doesn’t walk into walls is so focused on odor.

Jetta has so much drive, she tends to outrun her nose:

This is a great “problem” to have. In other words, it’s not a problem and the dog will sort it out soon enough.

K-9 Nose Work is the most fun you can have with your fur on. Give it a try! I have nose work classes starting in Maywood, Jersey City and NYC next month. If you don’t live around here, check out the nose work association web site and find a trainer near you.

Fun With K-9 Nose Work is a post from: Dog Spelled Forward

I can personally attest to how keeping Caffeine lean has put off hip surgery she was a candidate for for 5 years. Now if I could only figure out a way to better control my own weight.

P.S. More stuff coming her soon…right now this blog is a victim of its own success – classes and privates running 7 days a week.

Pet obesity graphic produced by Matt Beswick for Pet365 – a UK stockist of dog coats, collars and accessories. Click here to view the full post.

Does This Puppy Make Me Look Fat? is a post from: Dog Spelled Forward