The Dog Blog

The NY Times had a wonderful small article this weekend about training English Cockers for hunting.  My English Cocker fits right in with the description of the breed in the article. 

My particular favorite part was where the author named his dog "Havoc".  If my rescue cocker didn’t already come with a name I certainly would have picked that as hers.  It would have been perfect.

Another part of the article spoke of the weekend long training class that the author attended.  I’ve done several of these dog training classes here in Austin and can attest to the fact that I’ve learned something at every one of them.  Generally they are very very worthwhile and if you ever get a chance to attend one, be it for agility, hunting, tracking….whatever, do it.  The sheer joy of being around all of those people training their pups is enough to encourage you to learn new techniques and tactics.

 Enjoy the article, and keep training your dog.

Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
www.fideliodogs.com
512.231.8095 

Don’t know if you’ve been following the saga of SpotRover over the last few weeks but ‘ol Spot is a Brittany that was a really tough puppy to train.  He just wasn’t much interested in doing anything that I or anyone else wanted him to do.

Well, the good news is that I worked with Spot and his family again last week and it’s amazing to see how much he’s improved and how hard they all have worked on the exercises.  I knew the "switch" would just turn on with him one day and he would start to realize what we wanted from him but I didn’t know it would turn on so fast.  The last lesson was a pleasure, he paid wonderful attention and was just a very good puppy.  I truly believe he’s going to be a great dog for his family if he keeps working on his manners.

 Well, if you can’t tell which one is Spot….then you need a little more practice identifying the personalities of dogs.

Big pats to SpotRover and his family this week.  Keep up the good work.

Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works
www.fideliodogs.com 

I ran across this  article on dog waste in the NY Times this morning.  And though I’m a big advocate of picking up after the pups when they go on the neighbor’s yard, I do think the Freakonomics folks took this one a little far into the Orwellian netherworld.

Still,  I can pretty much assure you that I would pick up EVERYTHING if this ever went into effect.

Worth the read at the very least.   http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/magazine/02freak.html

Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works
www.fideliodogs.com