Our famous DOGTOBERFEST is back for the month of OCTOBER!!! If you aren't familiar with our October Dogtoberfest Special - We offer 1 day in October to specific breeds or mixes. On your dogs day, they will receive daycare for only $20! (rolling back our prices back to 1999!) If you don't see your dogs breed or mix, the Mixed Breed day is October 26th and for any breed we missed, that day is October 31st.
(Limit 1 per dog. If your dog could be considered multiple breeds, please pick one day to come for this special. If you are on a pass, day must be paid separate. Ok for boarding use. $20 fee may not be discounted further. No coupons or additional discounts.)
Any questions about Dogtoberfest, feel free to call our RSM facility at 949-635-9655 and Tustin at 714-368-7077 and our staff will be happy to answer any questions!
Most clients would like to know how to stop their dog from chasing squirrels or how not to pull on the leash. Those questions are somewhat easy to answer with a well laid training plan. A few days ago, I was asked a different sort of question that I found much more difficult to answer.
This client's agility dog struggled with several issues: separation anxiety, counter surfing, start line problems, bar knocking, and a few other things. The underlying comment I made to her was that her dog lacked self control. Of course then she asked how to develop self control. As I thought about an answer, I realized how huge the answer would be. I couldn't answer that without a lot more thought.
In general my dogs have great self control. They weren't born with it, it has been instilled in every fabric of their life. Learning cues like leave it help but my dogs also know that just because they see something they want, it doesn't mean it's there for the taking. Games like It's Your Choice by Susan Garrett and Nothing In Life in Free are also great self control ideas.
So thanks to this smart student, I will be doing a series on implementing self control. I will be using Rodie, my recent puppy addition, for this series since self control is what we work on day after day.
Our first lesson will be about Waiting For the Cue. It's often the case that when we teach dogs a new behavior, that's all they want to do. If you teach them to High Five, soon they can't respond to sit or down without doing the High Five. Then grandma comes to visit, reaches down to pet your dog, and she gets slapped in the face with High Five.
In our classes, this is how learning new behaviors goes:
1) Shape behavior with click/treats (lure only if needed)
2) Add Cue once dog can offer the full behavior
3) Teach Dog to Wait for the Cue (no longer rewarding offered behavior)
As you will see in this video, Rodie, struggles with many concepts. Rodie has three behaviors on cue pretty reliably: Sit, Down, & Kennel. Now the challenge is to get him to wait, listen, and respond to the correct cue given. The problem is he likes Down WAY better than anything else and thinks everything should be down. He also thinks he should throw me a Down at any given moment.
Getting dogs to understand the concept of Waiting For The Cue will create a thoughtful dog who listens to their human and has the beginnings of self control. Take it slow, be patient, and have a sense of humor.
For those of you who haven't met me, my name is Liz and I am one of the staff trainers at Wags. I recently was able to assist my first foundation agility class with one of our longtime instructors Lisa McFarland and it was a really eye-opening learning experience for me.
One of the most interesting things I learned via assisting was how important it is for us as instructors to help our students learn the real value of rewards. The concept that is number one here at Wags is that we focus on learning to identify and reward your dog for appropriate behavior, and stop focusing on and being distracted by unwanted behavior. Reinforcing the right things over and over makes them become automatic over time, and letting go of the things we feel our dog shouldn't be doing will allow the "less-desirables" to fade away. Also, we need to remember that our dog determines what is valuable! We may think crunchy biscuits are the greatest, but our dog may really prefer a soft liver treat. Or, he may prefer to tug on a toy or pounce on a furry squeaky thing! Ultimately it doesn't matter what reward our dog will work for as long as we can identify ones that motivate him. We as trainers and owners need to be open to finding what excites our dog, and then once we do, be prepared to run with it!
One student in particular really stood out to me over the session. She joined us coming from a more traditional background, using corrections to train and not all that thrilled about giving her dog food rewards. But over the 6 week agility session, she has not only come to understand the "why" of positive reinforcement training, but she has began to see its awesome effects on her dog. She was fortunate that her dog was already a willing participant, but now her dog is blossoming into an enthusiastic, eager-to-please partner which is so exciting to see!
The staff trainers at Wags train dogs not only because we like to hang out with them all day, but because learning to communicate with a dog is such an amazing experience. When we can share that experience with students and open up entirely new avenues for them, it makes it twice as rewarding for us as well!
Last night is the last class of this session for Level. I hope to see you in a RSM agility or obedience class soon!
Romi here over at the Tustin Wags & Wiggles! For my first blog post, I decided to make it a cute, short one! I compiled some pictures of Wags client dogs and staff dogs that have been coming to us since wee bitty puppies and have grown into beautiful adults! I thought it would be fun to compare the before and after pictures! One of the perks of the job is watching our puppies grow! Enjoy the photos! :)
Sir Punk Rodent is really his full name. Rodie for short. He just joined the pack of Team Agility Zurborg. He's a 4 1/2 mos old Chihuahua who is full of evil thoughts. He loves to bite, chase, harass, and be a total punk. He has no thoughts of self preservation and will climb any mountain, jump off any building, and wear his superman cape all day long.
I realize he's the wrong color but we will soon rectify that with a special blue merle shirt. Gator loves him which of course was a mandatory requirement.
Rodie was a client surrender. He originally was adopted from the OC Shelter at a mere 8 weeks of age. The problem is Rodie is a resource guarder and will snarl when handled. He will guard his food and toys. Sounds like he will fit in just fine at my house! That's my specialty.
If Rodie continues on to compete in agility, that means I will have run in every single jump height in my career. I'm proud of that, big or small, rescue or purchase, they can all be trained to a high level of competition. He's been to several agility trials now and agility peeps are great about socializing him. He's already started learning about turning around posts, standing on planks (even ones that move), rear end awareness, recall, stay and more.
The first thing you have to know about Tortoises is that they can go on a "tortoise rampage". You never know what prompts it. They just get angry about something. I just spent 3 hours battling my tortoise. Bump is a 15 year old sulcata tortoise we rescued from the LA Shelter. He now weighs 67 pounds.
Gator as a Puppy and Bump as a
younger smaller tortoise.
He's huge now.
Today Bump decided that he HAD to fit inside the smaller hut for our other tortoise. Bump can't fit through the opening, designed just so he couldn't bully the other tortoise. He got his front half in and got stuck. His very loud grunts got our attention from inside the house.
We pull him out requiring a good 20 minutes of heaving. I figured he wouldn't think it was worth a second try. Wrong! So I went out trying to distract him. Gave him a treasure hunt of luscious organic carrots and zucchini. He hunted for 45 minutes, devoured them and returned to bashing his head against the hut. I tried rose petals in his hut, butternut squash on a stick, and a second treasure hunt. Why is this tortoise not tired already?
I'm beginning to get battle weary. So I move the other tortoise who is pinned to the back of the hut to another part of the yard. An empty hut surely wouldn't be worth head trauma? Wrong again. I hear some more horrible grunts and Bump has now got half of his body into the hut. This time is takes two humans to pull him out.
I'm desperate now to resolve this and getting cranky. I pull out the hose. You can't pick him up and move him so sometimes a little water can change his mind about a location. Not this time! I give him a little bonk on his nose as he approaches the hut. I swear he has steam coming out of his ears, he's on a mission.
Finally, I just dismantle and move the hut that is now pretty much destroyed. Why did I not think of this 2 hours ago? What this angry pig headed monster of a tortoise just taught me was sometimes it's just easier to remove the temptation than teach an animal not to do something.
The crazy summer months at Wags is finally over and it's time to take a little vacation. We all worked super hard taking care of everyone's dogs while all our clients jet setted from the beach to the desert. I chose the coast in central california to play agility with great weather, great friends, and great life lessons. My dogs were so happy, loving, and made my life complete. I even had a stow away named Rudy, a chihuahua, nicknamed the Punk Rodent who may just become the next agility star. More on Rudy later.
Apparently, this trip was going to include an agility lesson on Humility. There is nothing like a good fall on your ass to put any ego you had on hold. Of course it was caught on video, hope you enjoy it. I love how Gem really wanted to make sure "I" was okay after I took a spectacular feet sliding dump on my butt on one of the most important agility runs of the weekend.
