The Dog Blog

I just finished reading a fantastic small article in the NY Times today. They have an ongoing series on life with a new puppy and today’s installment was on dealing with a dog trainer.

There is absolutely quite a bit of “science” in dog training but there is equally, if not more, “art” to it. A lot of dog training involves being able to communicate with the owners AND the dogs and that’s were things fall apart for most dog trainers. The question of method comes up so often and this wonderful quotation from the article is what I repeat so many times to potential clients on the phone. With due credit to the NY Times here it is:

Shawn Stewart said “No one out there can say that any one method will fit any dog or owner.”

I just love it and it is ever so true.

The article is here and I do recommend you take a look if you have time. Article

Also, if you have the time and want to hear a bit more about my “philosophy” take a look at my previous post “No Guru no Method“.

Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works

I’ve had a lot of people pay me a lot of ways over the years, but one of today’s clients did it up right!

Here’s the setup:

A great golden retriever puppy that is 14 weeks old.
A very cool client family with 2 kids which are fantastic and work a lot with the puppy.
A lot of hard work done over the last three weeks training with the puppy.

So, after the lesson today the Mrs. says “hey, we need to pay you for the lessons, let me get the checkbook” and walks inside the house. When she comes back outside Stella (the puppy) runs over to her on the front porch and waits while she writes the check. After she finishes signing everything she rips the check out, hands it to the puppy and yells at me to call Stella over. One quick “Here” command and Stella flashes across the yard to bring me the check! No chewing, no slobber, no running off with a multi-hundred dollar check, just straight to me in that wonderful Golden Retriever “I’m doing the right thing” way. Amazing.

Now, I ask you, is that a well trained puppy or not?

So, if I can have a wonderful ending to any Monday I think this would be it. A Golden puppy running across the yard bringing me a check. That makes today a VERY good day indeed.

Steve Haynes
A very PROUD Austin dog trainer
Fidelio Dog Works
www.fideliodogs.com

Proof of the power of Place command

Well, this is proof of what can happen.

This puppy, a full bore border collie was chasing the poor cats around like crazy in the house before he learned the place command. The cats were getting a bit fed up, the people were getting a bit fed up and well, the puppy was just doing what puppies do…. which is wreak havoc.

After working on the command for about 30 minutes, this little bit of peaceful coexistence came about. Can you say happy dog/cat owner or what?!

And, just to toot my own horn a bit, here is the email I got from the owners a couple of days after the lesson.

—————
Steve,

Thank you SOOOO much!!!! I think Monty had a great time with the lessons (yay treats!). He is certainly having fun practicing with us!

We were so impressed with you that we are telling all of our friends who have dogs about you. Thank you for being so helpful and friendly…we are eternally grateful! We’ll keep you updated on his progress!

Brittany, Scott, and Monty

—————–

Once again, Place command saves the day!

Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
www.fideliodogs.com

We work with kids all the time around here at Fidleio Dog Works. Almost every family wants their children to be involved in working with the dog and that’s a great thing. The more the kids work with puppies and older dogs, the more the relationship becomes cemented and the stronger the bonds become.

There is a downside though. Kids have short attention spans, and puppies have shorter attention spans. Sometimes this can cause a bit of friction in the house. When working with your kids, remember to keep the sessions very short, usually 2-3 minutes works great for this. These short sessions are fantastic for the dogs as well.

With puppies, it’s always better to train more times per day for shorter segments. We would much rather have you do 10 sessions of 2 minutes than to sit there and try to get the puppy to work with you for 20 straight minutes. It’s just to much for their little minds to take in most cases.

Along these lines, I’m posting a link to a video of my daughter and me working with a schnauzer pup on the “Place” command.

You’ll notice that the puppy and the daughter have roughly the same attention span on this. Still, I’m proud of both of them. The puppy learned the place command perfectly and my Daughter isn’t bad on the command either! Now, if she’ll just do that when she turns 16…..

All my best,

Steve Haynes
Fidelio Dog Works
www.fideliodogs.com

This has been a puppy month at Fidelio Dog Works.

I’ve got a number of clients that have gotten new pups in the last few weeks some of them brought from as far away as northern Canada. Getting these little guys shipped is no small task and we had a number of days where we were wondering if we would ever manage to get the the little guys and gals to their new homes. But, by this past week all were here and settling in nicely and it was time to start training.

If you’ve read any of this blog you know that I’m a HUGE believer in getting puppies into training early. I really like to start with them at eight or nine weeks old as they are generally really receptive to the training we do at that time and we’ll get roughly eight weeks of training during their imprinting phase which is enormously important.

Sammy, one of the lab puppies I’ve been working with for five lessons now just graduated to walking with me off leash yesterday. He’s 12 weeks old and already has his place command, come, sit, heel, finish (come around to the heel position when you come to me). This is pretty impressive even for a 12 week old dog. Needless to say, is owners have been putting in a LOT of work with him but it just goes to show you what can be done if you start training early and do it the right way.

Hannah is a little Golden puppy that we’ve done just two sessions with at this point but she already has her sit, walk on the correct side, sit when the handler stops moving and come commands down quite well. I had worked with Hannah’s owners before with another of their dogs but they are completely amazed and how quickly little Hannah is picking up on the training we’re working on. I fully anticipate Hannah will be off leash trained by the time she’s 16 weeks old at the rate she’s going.

So, if you are thinking about getting a puppy in the next few months book your trainer now (doesn’t have to be me but book someone) so that you get the amazing benefits of working with the pups when they are young. You won’t be sorry and you and the pup will have a much happier life together.

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

A couple of months ago I got a call to work with a client that had a particular dilemma. He is a hunter and last year a deer that he had wounded managed to escape and he wasn’t able to find it. Now for hunters this is a VERY bad thing. It’s not managing the wildlife correctly and it’s wasteful.

So, Ken, being the good, responsible hunter that he is decided that he would never let that happen again so he wanted to train his new Patterdale Terrier pup to track wounded deer so that he would never loose another one.

I won’t go into detail of how we did all this tracking work (lots of time out in the cactus studded woods gives you some idea) but this little dog was a natural born tracker.

Zada, the pup, has the true traits of all great Patterdales, she is VERY TENACIOUS. That means that if the trail of the deer went over a cactus, so did Zada. It just didn’t matter what she had to go through to find the deer, she would do it!

Imagine my surprise last night when Ken sent me some pictures of little Miss Zada tracking a Squirrel. Well, now, I’ve never exactly taught a dog to track squirrels but it looks like Ken’s been working on this and, as expected, Zada is doing her dogged best to find whatever she’s told to look for.

So, take a look at the pictures below of Zada tracking her quarry and know that she is only the second dog I’ve ever seen that can literally climb trees!

And, by the way, Zada doesn’t need the fire department to come help her down from 20 feet up in the trees.

Enjoy!

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

Technorati Tags: puppy, Tracking dog

As a dog trainer I get asked all the time what type of dog someone should get.  Most of the time, people are confused about the answer I give them.  I start by asking them all kinds of questions about what type of lifestyle they have, how active they are, how tolerant of dog hair they might be, how big a dog they want… on and on and on until I sift through the huge number of breeds there are out there and come up with a "hit" on a couple of different breeds.

I went through this process with a client a few months ago.  They hired me to meet with them, look at their home, and talk to them about the best breed for them.  These folks hadn’t had a dog in years so for all intents and purposes they were first time dog owners.  After we went though about an hour worth of questions and discussion, we narrowed things down to two of my favorite breeds, Welsh Springer Spaniels and Schnauzers.

After debating the merits of each breed this family chose to get a Welsh Springer pup and they’ve been as happy as can be.  The reason I’m bringing this up in the blog is that so many people choose the wrong breed for their lifestyle.  If more people would take the time to sit down and really look at how they live, we could match them up with a wonderful dog, even if it’s a rare breed that almost no one has heard of like a Welshie.

Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works
512.231.8095 

My last post went into a bit of detail about a puppy that’s been staying with me for a week to "brush up" on his basic obedience and to try to get him into some sort of shape so that when he goes home his people won’t be pulling their hair out about what to do with him. Needless to say, this puppy has been a handful.  He’s very strong willed, confident, and energetic which has made for a very interesting dog training week.

 Now, SpotRover isn’t a bad dog at all.  He’s just a high energy hunting dog that’s very focused on anything that moves or flies. Basically, he’s just like what a serious hunting person would want.  The problem is that it makes it extremely difficult for him to focus out in the world and around the neighborhood, he’s just not a suburbs sort of dog.

I have to say that my main goal this week was to get this puppy to do something, anything, for me without me having to resort to Making the pup work.  Well, Friday evening we finally got it. After training with him all afternoon something clicked in his little doggie brain and he started to realize that if he paid attention to me and offered some positive behaviors he would get rewards.  Soon after that the puppy was out with me heeling off leash, sitting at each stop I made, and coming on recall the first time.  Even a professional dog trainer can be astonished when things start to click and the dog "gets it".

Truth be told, if SpotRover continues along this path I think he’s got a very bright future and has the possibility to become a wonderful pet.  Now, if I could just get his family to undertand that they’re going to have to take up marathon running to give this dog enough daily exercise, I’ll have won the day.

Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
www.fideliodogs.com
512.231.8095 

Puppy training is more art than science.  When you are dealing with 8 to 12 week old pups patience is a must have.  That being said, they can achieve some amazing things.

I had the pleasure finishing a set of lessons with a wonderful 12 week old Golden puppy this morning that managed to begin working off leash. At 12 weeks this a a very impressive feat and I was amazed that these owners had practiced all of the lessons and used the techniques so effectively. Their pup was heeling off leash, sitting when the handler stopped and moving in whatever direction they moved without delay. 

This of course bodes very well for these owners as they can move onto much more advanced work with their dog and begin practicing this off leash obedience everywhere.  After all, isn’t that what everyone wants, a pal that can go with them anywhere off leash?

 Congratulations to these owners, they are excellent dog trainers and a model for everyone.

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

I had a wonderful experience this week. I had the opportunity to be present when a client of mine ( a very responsible young teenager) picked up her first dog. I was so excited to see the joy on her face when the breeder handed her the pup. I could just tell things were going to go smoothly.

As a trainer I see lots of kids with dogs, but most of the time the pup is acquired in a backwards manner. All too often parents think that getting a dog will “teach” their kids responsibility. Unfortunately, I’ve personally never seen this pan out. Very shortly the dog will be the total responsibility of the parents which probably don’t have the time to tend and exercise a young puppy properly. However, there is an encouraging trend I’ve notices lately with my clients.

Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a distinct shift with the kids I work with. Parents have been requiring the children to do significant amounts or research on the various breeds of puppy they are interested in. These parents have gone one step further and frequently asked the kids to prepare “reports” on the different breeds and to analyze their characteristics to see how they might fit in with the family lifestyle. One of my clients that was 8 years old prepared 9 different reports over the course of several months to prep her parents for the upcoming puppy decision. In every case, this has worked phenomenally well and each of the children that was required to perform pre-puppy research has proven to be an excellent dog owner and young trainer.

So, the long and the short of this is that if you think a dog is going to make your child more responsible, think again. If they are really interested in having a dog they’ll be willing to do some research on different breeds and tell you which would be the best dog fit for you family. Just to get them started, here is very good starting point:

American Kennel Club: http:www.akc.org

Just remember though. When you make a great match between kid and dog there is nothing like the smile on both their faces when they first meet. It’s a wonderful moment!

Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works