Tag Archives: dogs

01/1/12

Reviewing 2011; Goals for 2012

I celebrated New Years Eve at a twilight dog show, with my three adult dogs: Clover, Chip, and Winnie.  It was lovely, and really encapsulates that doggy year that I have had.

This post is quite personal in comparison to my regular content, but I hope it may still be of interest to my readers. I’ve broken this post up into different doggy-interests, and described 2011 happenings and 2012 goals in each.

Winona at the Border Terrier Club of NSW’s Championship Show in 2011. At this show, Winona was given Best Puppy in Show and also awarded Best Head. Go Winnie!

 

Conformation

I have been focusing my showing efforts on Winona, and she has accumulated approximately 70 points over the last year.  I have hopes that she will collect her remaining 30 points next year and so gain her champion title.  She has also had the most success, gaining several baby puppy in groups, puppy in groups, and a runner up in group along the way.  Her mum and dad, Clover and Chip, have been shown sparingly, but Chip has still been awarded points over the year gone. Clover… Clover had fun.

 

Earthdog

In South Australia, unfortunately, we have had some problems with our Earthdog judges, which meant that I was one of only two judges in the state.  This is problematic as passes at each level must be awarded by at least two judges and, as I can’t judge my own dogs, it made it difficult to gain titles on my dogs.

Chip, however, had passes from 2010, and so got his “Senior Earthdog” title early in the earthdog season.  He then went on to receive three “Master Earthdog” passes, but he needs one more under a different judge to get his ME title.  Unfortunately, he is likely to be leaving us before the next earthdog season, and so it seems unlikely that he will gain his ME title.

Clover is in a similar boat, also having three “Master Earthdog” passes. However, next year, she’ll still be here to compete and so should gain her ME title easily.  We then intend to pursue her “Master Earthdog Excellence” title, which involves a further five passes in senior and an additional five passes at master. It will be tight for us to achieve this in our short earthdog season, but I hope we may be able to!

And darling Winona… At 6 months, I took an innocent puppy to earthdog practice, and found myself coming home with a dogged rabbit hunter!  At 6 months and one day, Winona gained her first pass for her “Novice Earthdog” title.  However, she was not entered in anymore tests for the season. Hopefully we will be able to achieve her NE and her SE titles in 2012.  (But “Senior Earthdog” does involve a recall and this is not a forte of my independent Winona.) Continue reading →

12/24/11

Dog Memory

My first border terrier was a dog called MacDogald, and he now lives with my parents. However, he has come back for a week as my parents are overseas. Mac is dog aggressive, and one of the reasons he moved to my parents house is because I didn’t feel it was fair on him to have foster dogs through the house.

Mac has met Winona, the 14 week puppy, numerous times. Mac is good with puppies – he seems to understand that they’re ‘special’.  When he met Winona at my house, that was fine. He tells her off when she gets annoying, and that is quite okay in my household.

Mac met Mr Chip through the fence, and Mac did not like Mr Chip on first sight. Mr Chip was quite happy to make friends despite the growling (Mr Chip is not very clever).

The interesting case was Mac meeting Clover.  Clover grew up with Mac, but Mac moved out when she was about 2 years old.  She has visited Mac at his house several times, but due to pregnancy and puppies, Clover hasn’t seen Mac for 5 months. Clover hasn’t seen Mac at our house for about a year.

Mac and Clover were very good friends when they were here. There is only one serious tiff I can remember of there 2.5 years or so that they lived together.  They played well together.  Mac has separation anxiety, and Clover was a comfort to him when he was otherwise home alone.

A young Clover cuddling Mac.

That being said, since Mac has gone, a lot has changed. Clover has grown up, matured, had her first litter of puppies… And otherwise, become a bitch.

So I introduced the two of them with caution. I first allowed them to meet through the fence.

Clover’s reaction was phenomenal. It cannot be described as anything but ‘remembering’. Continue reading →

12/21/11

McGreevy: General Dog Training Thoughts

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

 

McGreevy described animal training as “a bit of an art and a bit of a science”. ‘Training’ animals means changing the frequency to which animals show certain behaviours. Learning theory is a universal language that clarifies the nature of training, explaining what will work and will not work, and its general principles apply regardless of the species being trained.

Training often seeks to establish connections between two or more events, and does so by using operant conditioning (i.e. rewards and punishments) and classical conditioning, and often these two work together.  ‘Conditioning’ is any relatively permanent response that occurs as a result of exercise (that is, any responses formed by maturation or debility are not from conditioning).

Trainers often have exquisite timing, and have the ability to self reflect on their progress.

 

 

Photos © Ruthless Photos

“Life coaches”

McGreevy prefers to use the term ‘life coach’ to describe the relationship between a dog and a person.  Life coaches have opportunities for the dog to have success, but also rules.  (The concept of ‘alpha’ asks for people to adopt an unrealistic, pseudo dog role that is not very useful for dog training.)  How dogs and people interact is relevant to the dog’s success.  The handler of a dog needs to be relevant to the dog – a boring or passive life coach is irrelevant for the dog, and the dog will not work.  Dogs will form a bond with their owners, and a trust, but this trust is not generalisable to all situations or to different people.

‘Trust’, itself, is an interesting concept.  It is difficult to measure, and is built on consistency.  During training, trust is built be trainers being caregivers and companions rather than ‘leaders’ or ‘dominant’.

Generally in dog training, we seek dogs that will respond to cues (e.g. the word ‘sit’) with appropriate behaviours.  It is an ongoing process that requires maintenance in many contexts and environments.

 

Dog social order

Dogs with one another have a social order, but it’s not so much a hierarchy. Dog social order is built on difference, not dominance.  This ‘difference’ is a different desire for different resources, meaning some dogs are more inclined to seek some resources than others.  The ideas of social order shouldn’t be ‘thrown out’ with dominance theory.  In short, dogs have evolved to compete with one another.  Excellent coaches tap into the resources that dogs compete over, and use them in training (as rewards).

 

This concludes our section on training dogs, but we will continue to investigate more McGreevy topics in posts to come.

 

In the meantime, I wonder:

What do you think are the ‘art’ and the ‘science’ bits of dog training?

How does your self-reflection as a trainer go?

How would you measure trust with your dogs?

 

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

12/15/11

Buddy the Foster Dog

I just shared a moment with my newest foster dog. He flew to my state yesterday so I could foster him and find a new home.

He was hanging out with me in the kitchen, and somehow I ended up on the floor with him on my lap, giving him a cuddle.

I know dogs generally object to cuddles, and so I was rather attentive to his body language for feedback on this interaction. If you took a picture of this dog, in my arms, from a distance, he probably looked somewhat tense. However, his face revealed how relaxed he was: His eyes were closed.

Here was this dog, on my lap, tucked up to my chest, my arms supporting him, and my head over him – and this dog, totally at my mercy and relaxed, after knowing me for about 30 hours.

Buddy having a cuddle in the sunshine.

And I got to thinking, aren’t dogs amazing? Continue reading →

12/14/11

Questioning Working Dogs (McGreevy)

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index.

 

McGreevy posed some interesting and deep questions regarding working dogs, their welfare, and the morals of owning working dogs.  Dogs have served us in a number of ways:  Police dogs, pastoral dogs, customs, quarantine, racing, sledding, security and guarding, vermin control…  These dogs are admired and placed on a pedestal, but there are ethical questions surrounding their work.

 

Herding and Pastoral Dogs

Dogs that herd find this itself, work itself, rewarding.  These dogs can be punished from being removed from work (negative punishment).  Why do dogs find work so innately rewarding?

Part of the reason may be the conditions that many working dogs live in.  McGreevy showed a slide with dog kennels from a working farm.  These dogs were on a chain, attached to metal (i.e. hot) kennels, confined to an area with their own faeces, and surrounded by flies and fleas.  Of course these dogs want to work, if that means they get to leave these substandard conditions.  Obviously, there are welfare issues associated with this treatment.

McGreevy called for more research into pastoral working dogs, particularly in regard to the financial contributions these animals make to farmers.

 

A smooth Collie goes through sheep herding practice.

 

Continue reading →