Puppy Caffeine is so innocent. Not.
We got to the grooming salon (where the rescue was going to introduce us to their two remaining puppies) a little early. I had rushed home from work, picked up Dagmar and Christian, and driven us down Route 17 to Lyndhurst without any dinner or even a cup of coffee. So when we saw the salon was closed I drove over to a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee for the adults, a hot chocolate for Chris, and a few donuts.
When we returned they were unloading the puppies from their car. We rushed to follow them into the building. (Puppies!!!) I absentmindedly left our empty Dunkin’ bag on a low windowsill right inside the door when I couldn’t find a trash can. We spoke to the rescue people while we watched the as-yet-unnamed puppies play. We had adopted Sally some eight or nine years earlier, so we needed some help with ins and outs of the adoption process.
At some point I heard a strange sound, turned, and looked: the Dunkin’ Donuts bag had been completely shredded, and a triumphant female puppy was scanning the debris for anything edible.
“You should name her Caffeine” I quipped.
We went home without a puppy, but within a few days we decided we wanted to bring the female home. I called the rescue.
“Hi, my name is Eric? We looked at two puppies earlier in the week and are interested in the fe—”
“Caffeine? Sure, she’s still here. When do you want to pick her up?”
The name had already stuck. (And they knew we’d be back.)
Just about any trainer will tell you that the most difficult combination you can have in a puppy is high intelligence and high energy. Well, as much as I hate an overused metaphor, Caffeine was a perfect storm of nuclear fission and rapid data acquisition.
Very soon after she survived the parvovirus scare we signed up for puppy kindergarten at the nearby PetsMart. At this point PetsMart was still using lure-reward training, and this style of training was completely new to me.
My exposure to dog training had been very long ago as a kid, and more recently the aforementioned (now rather cranky) guy on PBS. I had not encountered using treats before, but from the moment I saw a puppy being lured into a sit with a treat over his head I thought “Oh! Duh.” It seemed so effortless and the use of a positive reward marker struck my technological/science fancy.
Rather than being the “crutch” that so many condescending “old school” trainers called them, the treats, combined with the marker, became a way to truly communicate with another species! Over a decade earlier, while still in the Army, I had been drawn to computers by the challenge of translating problems in computer language. Now here was the ultimate hacking – translating what we want into something a non-human can understand!
I soon found myself buying books like The Culture Clash
Caffeine did very well in kindergarten, but the class was, as puppy kindergarten should be, focused on getting her socialized and giving us a clue. It was obvious that this little hellion needed more training. The instructor had mentioned St. Hubert’s Dog Training School to us a few times.
The adventure was really about to begin.
Interesting post Eric…I dig the “Caffeine was a perfect storm of nuclear fission and rapid data acquisition” …awesome imagery and phrasing
I have 2 questions and one suggestion.
Suggestion: While you are linking to various books on Amazon (btw…great suggestions, those books are awesome) why not create an associate's account with them so that you can get a % of the sales made through your linkage. Its not much but its a win-win-win and it allows for easier tracking. I use it on my motorcycle blog and its a great feature for the readers. Take a look http://www.2wheeltips.com/magazine/read/traffic…
1st Question: Who designed your blog? I like it…
2nd Question: After reading the first part I had envisioned a different second post. I thought you would tell us why you think women dominate the dog training sector. Is this still coming and Part 2 was a digression or…?
Keep up the good work.
Those are affiliate links. I make pennies from amazon (and dogwise) so I'm not really sure if it's even worth the effort though.
Melanie Barti at melbarti.com designed my logo and the website layout. First class designer and very, very busy because of it. Brandon Jones translated it to the thematic theme for wordpress.
I'll probably return to why women dominate dog training, but part of my point is I don't know why. After I wrap up what made me want to be a training I am going to write about why men can/should be interested and how they can/should look at it.
Although, I may dedicate a post over on Dog Star Daily to that subject……thanks for the push on that.
Cool regarding affiliate links. Smart..Amazon IS pennies, but they got the technology part down-pat.
I'll check out melbarti…thnx for the info.
I always thought that women take up dog training because, and I hope this doesn't come off sexist in some ways, to make real money in dog training you have to be a Ian Dunbar, or Cesar Milan, or similar….the rest will be lucky if they hit 6 figures.
Few female dog trainers I've met have all been married which gave them the freedom from having to make a living while pursuing what they really love to do. I think many men would love to get into dog training as a profession but in today's society men are still expected to be primary cheddar-makers. Hence, got to work while the wife is developing her dog business.
All this is of course generalization and oversimplification, but perhaps there is something to it?
I'm sure demographics do play a part. In terms of income, dog training makes a better supplemental job than a primary one.
But there are plenty of thriving full-time schools run by women and plenty of women that have “serious” dog training businesses that make serious money.
And while Cesar may be the most famous dog trainer (or whatever) in the world right now, I'll see your Ian Dunbar and raise you a Jean Donaldson, Patricia McConnell, Pamela Reid, Pia Silvani, Pat Miller….and plenty of other names I can't think of off the top of my head. Not to mention Victoria Stillwell and Andrea Arden that are television personalities and “real” dog trainers. (Andrea has a successful school and appears on two tv shows, come to think of it.)
Short list:
1) All things being equal, a woman's body language is more dog-friendly than a man's. Most men have to work harder to be equal handlers. (IMO)
2) Girls are “allowed” to be more empathetic than boys. This makes them more open to careers like animal training that may not pay the bills as well but are ultimately more rewarding.
3) Men tend to gravitate toward Cesar's style of training and his ideas. Meanwhile, something like 95% of the people that seek out dog training help are women, and they will most likely prefer a women's methods.
There are more ideas rumbling around. Worth a blog post or two.
Right on…I like the short list…Im sure all that plays a part as well…
and of course, I cant disagree with your list…those are all famous names who are doing well in terms of money (I hope…I mean, they should, right?). I only listed 2 for sake of brevity.
Interesting post Eric…I dig the “Caffeine was a perfect storm of nuclear fission and rapid data acquisition” …awesome imagery and phrasing
I have 2 questions and one suggestion.
Suggestion: While you are linking to various books on Amazon (btw…great suggestions, those books are awesome) why not create an associate's account with them so that you can get a % of the sales made through your linkage. Its not much but its a win-win-win and it allows for easier tracking. I use it on my motorcycle blog and its a great feature for the readers. Take a look http://www.2wheeltips.com/magazine/read/traffic…
1st Question: Who designed your blog? I like it…
2nd Question: After reading the first part I had envisioned a different second post. I thought you would tell us why you think women dominate the dog training sector. Is this still coming and Part 2 was a digression or…?
Keep up the good work.
Those are affiliate links. I make pennies from amazon (and dogwise) so I'm not really sure if it's even worth the effort though.
Melanie Barti at melbarti.com designed my logo and the website layout. First class designer and very, very busy because of it. Brandon Jones translated it to the thematic theme for wordpress.
I'll probably return to why women dominate dog training, but part of my point is I don't know why. After I wrap up what made me want to be a training I am going to write about why men can/should be interested and how they can/should look at it.
Although, I may dedicate a post over on Dog Star Daily to that subject……thanks for the push on that.
Cool regarding affiliate links. Smart..Amazon IS pennies, but they got the technology part down-pat.
I'll check out melbarti…thnx for the info.
I always thought that women take up dog training because, and I hope this doesn't come off sexist in some ways, to make real money in dog training you have to be a Ian Dunbar, or Cesar Milan, or similar….the rest will be lucky if they hit 6 figures.
Few female dog trainers I've met have all been married which gave them the freedom from having to make a living while pursuing what they really love to do. I think many men would love to get into dog training as a profession but in today's society men are still expected to be primary cheddar-makers. Hence, got to work while the wife is developing her dog business.
All this is of course generalization and oversimplification, but perhaps there is something to it?
I'm sure demographics do play a part. In terms of income, dog training makes a better supplemental job than a primary one.
But there are plenty of thriving full-time schools run by women and plenty of women that have “serious” dog training businesses that make serious money.
And while Cesar may be the most famous dog trainer (or whatever) in the world right now, I'll see your Ian Dunbar and raise you a Jean Donaldson, Patricia McConnell, Pamela Reid, Pia Silvani, Pat Miller….and plenty of other names I can't think of off the top of my head. Not to mention Victoria Stillwell and Andrea Arden that are television personalities and “real” dog trainers. (Andrea has a successful school and appears on two tv shows, come to think of it.)
Short list:
1) All things being equal, a woman's body language is more dog-friendly than a man's. Most men have to work harder to be equal handlers. (IMO)
2) Girls are “allowed” to be more empathetic than boys. This makes them more open to careers like animal training that may not pay the bills as well but are ultimately more rewarding.
3) Men tend to gravitate toward Cesar's style of training and his ideas. Meanwhile, something like 95% of the people that seek out dog training help are women, and they will most likely prefer a women's methods.
There are more ideas rumbling around. Worth a blog post or two.
Right on…I like the short list…Im sure all that plays a part as well…
and of course, I cant disagree with your list…those are all famous names who are doing well in terms of money (I hope…I mean, they should, right?). I only listed 2 for sake of brevity.