Over the last few years I’ve run across several different combination designer dog breeds. Labradoodles, cockapoos, goldendoodles…you get the idea. It’s an interesting idea to mix breeds like this because it widens the gene pool and allows for the best traits of both breeds to be combined.
Today I started working with a wonderful little 12 week old puppy today that was of a mix I’ve never seen before and has a wonderful mash up name. This pup was a cross between a Cavalier King Charles and a mini Poodle. It’s a Cavapoo and was it ever cute!
That’s one for the new name book for sure.
Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works
www.fideliodogs.com
My deaf dog training update.
Right before the holidays I got to meet my favorite hearing impaired dog that I had been training recently. I wanted to meet in a park where i knew there would be crazy and tons of other dogs would be running around. In short, this was the training test for these clients.
I’d had two sessions with this dog practicing with the remote vibrating collar. Everything had gone great in their yard and neighborhood, but I wanted to see how things would work out in the real world.
To me, training recall is one of the tougher things to teach a dog. There is always something "out there" more fun for the dog to sniff or play with rather than come back to the handler. Dog trainers constantly struggle with clients to make them understand how important it is to practice recall until their dog comes to them without thinking about it. Every dog trainer wants to make certain that running back to you is automatic response when the dog hears the word "Come".
With this deaf dog we taught it that when a vibrating collar was activated it was the same as the word "come" to a hearing dog.
What I got when we got the the park was a fantastic surprise. They let the dog go and it immediately streaked out into the park to play with the other off leash dogs. We let it play for a few minutes and then the owner "pressed the button" to call the dog. She stopped playing immediately, looked around for her owners, and came running full speed back to them. I was completely elated. She did that every time we called her for the next hour out there and in the midst of the most extreme distraction (30 or so dogs) imaginable. I was so proud of the three of them.
I have great things happen to me all the time training dogs, but when the owners told me that they were now confident they could take her anywhere with them, I almost cried. To give that dog and those clients a much better quality of life is why I LOVE training dogs here in Austin.
Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works
www.fideliodogs.com
It’s really cold out there for Austin tonight but you should really suck it up and take your dog out for a walk. Even for 10 minutes. They’ll appreciate it!
Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works
www.fideliodogs.com
I get people all the time that tell me I must really enjoy my life. They think hanging out with dogs all day long is just heaven compared to their corporate gig they do from their cube under fluorescent lights.
When I first started training full time I felt pretty odd telling people what I did for a living. I was still in the mindset of my corporate days, and just felt strange saying "I’m a dog trainer." Slowly but surely I started realizing that every time I told anyone what I did they would invariably say "how cool" or something like that and launch into questions. This phenomena really peaked last night at my first Christmas party of the season.
I was attending a corporate function (it’s name shall remain anonymous), the kind I went to over and over in my business days. But last night every time I met someone at the party and told them what I did we managed to get into an interesting conversation. This hardly ever happened in the old days when I told folks I was in sales! You tell someone you are a dog trainer though, and all of their nervousness and pretense drops away, they just start talking, asking questions, and generally open up. It’s why I got into training to begin with. Everyone loves to talk about their dog and what it’s up to.
Most people know about the study that shows how dogs reduce people’s blood pressure when present, but I’m starting to believe that just talking about dogs with people does the same thing. I can’t prove it, but I certainly saw a major change in people last night at the party when they asked me "what do you do" and the words dog trainer came out of my mouth.
Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works
www.fideliodogs.com
512.231.8095
Temple Grandin is an amazing lady. She has a gift that allows her to see things as animals do in many circumstances which puts her on a different level than the rest of us.
As a dog trainer I run across odd things now and again that require me to actually sit down and think like a dog. This happened last week and I thought it was interesting enough to write about and something others might find helpful.
I’ve been working with a client whose dog was refusing to use their dog door. This isn’t that unusual for dogs newly faced with a dog door but this pup had been going in and out of a different doggie door for several years. It turns out that the owner had recently replaced their house door and put in a shiny new doggie door for this pup which it wouldn’t have ANYTHING to do with, it wouldn’t even put it’s nose to the door when I got there.
This just didn’t make sense. Most dogs would have some trepidation about going out a new door but it was almost like this dog had "forgotten" how to open it and that just didn’t square with how intelligent this dog was in other areas. After sitting down for a few minutes and looking the doggie door over, I thought back to something Ms. Grandin said in one of her books about animals and shiny things. This dog door had a small shiny edge on the bottom of the plastic flap that stood out. We grabbed some painters tape and covered over the shiny part and within five minutes we had the dog jumping through the door and pushing the flap up himself. Amazing! Something that simple had kept this pup from going outside for weeks and weeks.
Moral to the story is, sometimes all the dog training in the world won’t help you, but cutting out the glare from the shiny stuff will.
Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works
www.fideliodogs.com
512.231.8095
My favorite dog store Fetch is stocking up for the holidays with neat new dog toys that are probably worth a view.
I don’t know about you, but my dogs can demolish a stuffed toy in about the time it takes for me to pull it out of the bag. Fetch has a new dog proof soft toy that is made of multiple layer of material and other tough materials. It’s worth a try if you pups eat them like mine do.
Another favorite toy if you have a single dog is the Kong Time toy that dispenses Kongs at different times thoughout the day. It’s a great way to keep the pup busy while you’re slaving away the hours in that cube.
If you’re into stuff for your dog, give Fetch a visit at 3636 Bee Caves.
Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works
www.fideliodogs.com