Highland Obedience

Saturday, June 18 - Put on your galoshes, the field is wet but we are having outdoor Good Citizens class and nosework. We will NOT be having the leash walking class today, however.

Rain around the corner - no classes this morning!!
See you next week.

I've abandoned the dogs of Dartmouth to visit the Azores and spent a part of yesterday in a town called Cachorro, which means dog in Portuguese, on the Island of Pico. Accompanying photo should explain how the town got its name....
The Azores are amazing. Unspoiled, gorgeous, and historically, geographically, geologically fascinating - this is a place totally worth visiting.

Unfortunately, the dogs here (the furry ones, not just the lava formations) all appear to be very well-behaved so I'm not needed and will be coming home all too soon...

If your dogs aren't as well behaved as the dogs of the Azores, visit us at Highland Obedience. We'll teach you how to have more fun with your dog.

Despite it being mother's day, we had a great turn-out for our first outdoor social hours of the season. The weather was superb. Just the right temperature for good canine romping. Lots of friends rejoined us from last fall and there were many newcomers.
Socializing in a safe managed environment is a great way for dogs to be dogs and get rid of lots of pent up energy. Many of our clients, particularly those with timid and poorly socialized small dogs, have seen amazing changes in their dogs self-confidence and well-being since attending social hours. 

Little Dogs and Big Dogs had a great time this Sunday. If you'd like to join us, visit our website for more information.

Although weather conditions and evening darkness force us to hold many classes indoors, there is no better training environment for an AKC Canine Good Citizens class than the outdoors with all of its distractions: great smells, squirrels, cars driving by, dogs barking in the kennels, and, at last Saturday's AKC CGC class, a yard sale going on in the background with the most interesting people coming and going. As you can see from our videos AKC1 and AKC2, the dogs did great! A number of the yard sale visitors stopped to watch the classes for awhile and more than a few made some variation of the comment: "oh, these are such good dogs, they are so well-behaved, MY dog would never do this" to which I would reply, "oh yes, your dog can do this - any dog can do this." to which they would reply, "oh no, MY dog is crazy, MY dog is wild!" or "oh no, MY dog is too old and can't be trained" or some other comment that would imply that it was something inherent about THE DOG that was the problem. But it is not! It is a rare dog that cannot be taught to walk nicely on a leash and do a basic down stay in a mildly distracting environment. In fact, I've never met an untrainable dog. I have, however, met numerous nearly untrainable owners.... owners who won't take the time or don't believe in the dog or lack the skills required and are mismatched with the dog they have ended up with. The dogs in our CGC classes are well-behaved because their owners have taken the time to train them, to bring them to classes, sometimes lots and lots and lots of classes, and to do the homework in between the classes. There is no magic formula for the creation of a well-behaved dog: it is a combination of time and effort, knowledge and skill. If you have a misbehaving dog, don't blame the dog! Find someone who can give you knowledge, who can improve your skill. Take the time and make the effort to help your dog become an exemplary household member! It is well within your reach. Find out more about our dog training classes.

The problem with fostering is that it is a really easy way to just end up with a lot of dogs... Weeks have gone by and somehow that foster pup is still with us, and, um, it is not for lack of offers to move her along to a new home. It is just that, somehow, she seems to have found a spot that apparently needed filling and here she stays. Well, time to sign her up for Puppy Class!

I spend a lot of time with puppies of all kinds and I spend a lot of time telling people what they should and shouldn't do at home with their puppies. But, in truth, I don't often have to live with young puppies. In fact, it has been about thirteen years.... until the foster puppy came to stay last week. A feisty 9 week jack russell terrier pup with attitude and already a bad start to life. When she first stepped foot in the house, all I could think was WHAT WAS I THINKING? I don't have time for this! But it has been an interesting and refreshing experience. Refreshing because it turns out, if you do all the stuff we've been telling you in class, and you do it consistently, it actually works and it doesn't take a lot of time. A little terror off the streets at 8 weeks, one week later this little terrier sits before meals, sits to get petted, sits to leave her crate. She rarely fusses in her crate, she's great in the car, she doesn't chew on things she's not supposed to, she doesn't nip or chew on people, walks on a leash like a champ, and she is pretty close to house trained. Don't get me wrong, she's still a little terror -- after all, she's a terrier, but a pretty well behaved one and, with continued training, she'll be a great little dog. Plenty of exercise, stimulating environment, lots of dogs to play with and learn from, simple ironclad rules, and a puppy in the house is not so bad - and certainly a source of lots of laughter. The puppy has adopted Diana as her reluctant mother figure and Diana is being surprisingly tolerant, she has the little dogs in the office thoroughly befuddled, and she is working to get the horses to bend to her will. Want a well-behaved pup? Turns out it really isn't so hard. Come to puppy kindergarten at Highland Obedience and we'll do our best to teach you how!

OK, I always think these days that it goes without saying but then we get yet more and more clients with problem puppies from pet stores. Pet stores are not the place to buy puppies..... NO reputable breeder is going to sell puppies to a pet shop. Let me just repeat  that, NO reputable breeder would ever sell puppies to a pet shop. REALLY. Here are three good articles listing all the reasons not to buy a puppy from a pet shop:One, Two, Three. Pet store puppies often come with a host of problems. They are generally difficult to house train because they've been stuck in cages where they are forced to soil all around themselves. They are rarely properly socialized and end up with aggression and anxiety problems. They have all kinds of genetic problems from seizures to underbites to weak hearts. The most ADD dogs we get are invariably pet store dogs.
A lot of people tell us they simply had to rescue that poor puppy from the pet store, but every time someone "rescues" one of these puppies and pays that pet store for that animal, the market that puppy mills cater to is being supported. If people saw the tortured conditions many of these dogs come from, and really understood the direct connection between them making that purchase and creating that market, maybe they would understand the real cruelty of their choice. But despite all the publicity over the years and all the myriad programs, websites, etc. advising against it, people are still buying pet store puppies.

Dogs are sentient beings, not toys. Don't shop for a puppy like you would for potatoes. 

We got three new clients with problem dogs just this week, thanks to pet stores. Maybe that is good for our business but it is so very very very sad for dogs.

We see so many clients who are mismatched with their dogs. For both the dogs and the owners, the results can be grim. ACTIVITY LEVEL: Get yourself a breed of dog with an activity level that is likely to match your own. An extremely active dog in the home of an owner who goes to work all day, comes home tired and wants to watch TV, is going to end up redecorating the living room, eating favorite shoes, and unravelling the toilet paper rolls. Don't want to spend your life focused on entertaining your too clever dog? Don't even think about getting a border collie. SIZE: Think about what you can honestly handle. We see many clients with dogs that they cannot physically manage. This can be a disaster and very dangerous. No matter how much you love big dogs, you should not get a large breed puppy if you are physically infirm or frail, have back problems, etc. If you must have a large breed dog, get an older dog with a proven calm temperament. TRAINABILITY: Some breeds are decidedly easier to train than others. If you don't have much training experience, don't get breeds that are notoriously challenging to train. Is this your first dog? Bypass that Chow and don't even look at that afghan hound. NOISE LEVEL: You live in an apartment complex where people enjoy their quiet? You don't like barking dogs? For heavens sakes, don't even contemplate a terrier.... There are lots of great articles and good books out there on picking the right dog. Do your research before you choose. Beware the advice of friends and neighbors, not to mention many dog breeders. Also, be HONEST with yourself about who you are. If you think getting a dog might inspire you to get more exercise - stop! Start getting more exercise BEFORE you get the dog.... see how it goes. If you can't get yourself more active without the dog, don't expect the dog to change you. 
Also, remember that even within a given breed, individuals can vary tremendously. Once you have picked a breed, you still need to pick the individual just right dog for you.

By the way, I've never had a "purebred" dog... there is a lot to be said for a good old fashioned mongrel... but that's another blog.

Don't pick a puppy just because it's cute.... They are ALL cute. 

Pick a puppy that is going to be well-suited to your lifestyle and that comes from a background free of genetic disorders. I risk offending people if I start naming breeds with particularly high percentages of the likelihood of serious genetic defects, so I won't.... But please, do your research. If the dog breed you fancy is particularly prone to genetic anomalies, consider a different breed or make sure that you have several generations worth of data to inspect from your chosen breeder to ensure that your pup has the least likelihood of these defects. If you are committed to spending real money on a purebred puppy rather than adopting a dog from a shelter or rescue, then you need to make sure you know what you are buying. You should know about the health histories of both parents and grand parents. You should talk to other people who have purchased puppies from this breeder, preferably people who now have adult dogs - the older the better, that will give you the most useful information. Here are some great guidelines for choosing a breeder. Falling in love with your puppy only to find yourself saddled with a lifetime of vet bills and then an early death, is not so great. 

When someone tells me their dog has all kinds of skin problems related to all its skinfolds and needs various medications to get through life and then tells me, "but you know, that's normal for this breed" it makes me want to weep. We should not be breeding dogs for whom this kind of thing is "normal". Normal should be a physically sound animal without a predisposition to a host of genetic health (or behavioral) issues. When you buy puppies from breeds that have been so overbred for all the wrong traits that the likelihood of certain genetic disorders is 15% or 50%, think twice, or three times. If you still want that breed, spend lots and lots of time researching your breeder. An excellent website about genetic disorders is the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, they have excellent breed statistics on everything from hip dysplasia to thyroid problems.

Be a responsible dog owner by not supporting irresponsible breeding. (Please!) AND, of course, once you have your pup, sign up for puppy class!