Our wordless wednesday post is all about search dogs doing disaster work, enjoy!
Max a Belgian Malinois working the bark barrel
Emeline indicating on the bark barrel
Abby a german shepherd working the rubble pile and alerting on the buried subject
The love of a canine
When trying to choose a trainer or behaviorist to help your family and canine i would like to give a few pointers. There are hundreds of “trainers” out there, and not every trainer has the skill set or capability to handle every dog or situation. I have referred out potential clients to other trainers in cases i either didn’t have the time or compete understanding of the dog’s issues or did not feel that the owner or family was wiling to do the work necessary to fix the behavioral traits that were exhibited. A mark of a GOOD trainer will be thorough pre-screening of the family and canine (s) prior to money exchanging hands. I require a registration form/questionnaire to be filled out prior to my FREE 1 hour behavioral consult. Yes that means i DRIVE over an hour on my own time and money to visit the potential client and K9s before a dime is exchanged. Yes i have performed MANY free consults and NEVER provided training for the family for numerous reasons, and i am sure i have been taken advantage of a few times, but I am NOT a dog trainer for the money, this is not my job that pays the bills. Please be weary of anyone who expects money up front prior to even meeting you or your dog, let alone experiencing his behavioral or training issues to ensure they have an understanding of the family and the canine. I train my search and rescue dogs thousands of hours a month so that others may live, not to make a buck, and i will not compromise a family and their dog so that i can pad my bank account.
Secondly please remember that not all certification programs for dog trainers are created equal, and just because you have a trainer who has graduated from a dog school or dog online academy does not mean they are qualified! There are many different associations you can join and international programs you can pay thousands of dollars to in Canada and other countries so that you can become a “professional”. It is essential that you also look at the trainer, their own dogs, and their experience. I started training dogs over a decade ago, and i have plenty of “certifications” and letters after my name from various organizations for demonstrating my knowledge and experience training dogs, but my real life experience training and raising dogs is what taught me more than any book or school, and I do not know everything, I have SOMETHING to learn from EVERYONE.
I feel i have a natural talent with dogs, an understanding of them on a deeper level then most, a way of communication with both the dog and the owners that you cannot buy from any “school” or verify through any test (which has been confirmed by all my clients both human and canine i have worked with over the years). I have an open mind i am always ready to learn whether it is from another dog handler, another dog trainer, or the client or canine i am working with and i love to develop new relationships with other humans who enjoy canines as much as i do. You will not see a flashy website with big words to try and impress you, all you will get is just me, in my muddy dog hair covered clothes that smell like liver treats. Yes i have the paper proof of my knowledge, i have the initials after my name, but most importantly what i have to offer is me, and i challenge you to invite me over to meet your dog, no strings attached, and lets see what i can offer you. I cannot guarantee you the snappiest, showy cookie-cutter obedience routine, that is your job as the dog’s handler, but what i can offer you is the TOOLS needed to achieve that. I can teach you how to COMMUNICATE with your dog CONSISTENTLY, i can help you earn his RESPECT and his yours, and I can get you the FOUNDATION needed to achieve whatever you wish with your canine companion. Yes we do believe all dogs should be canine copilots for life, and no i do not whisper……I translate.
Raina with attention in her “look” command
The focus of this weeks post is how to manage leash reactive dogs in the presence of other dogs. It is always embarrassing when you go to the vet or on a walk in your neighborhood and your dog lunges and barks aggressively at every dog he or she see’s. One of the major factors that is put into play with leash reactive dogs is they default to the environment, and do not trust the handler. It is easy to combat this and set your dog up for success.
Start in your living room with a bag of high value treats in your pocket. When your dog makes eye contact mark the behaviour (say yes or use a clicker) and feed a peice of treat (your dog must already understand what a clicker means, if you would like to start clicker training with your dog please see our website.) Continue to do this for 5 minutes 2-3 times a day all around your home when it is calm and quite. The idea is to reinforce to the dog that this is a desirable behavior and it will get you good rewards! Once he or she is readily offering you eye contact you can pair your command with it i usually use eyes or look. Once you are getting the eye contact say “look good girl good look yes” and give her the treat. Continue this for 4-10 session depending on the dogs response. Once you can say “look” and your dogs head whips around and makes eye contact with you then you know you are on the road to her understanding the command. Next you need to generalize this command, that means start taking her to different places (still with little to no distractions and keeping her close by you) and give her the command, rewarding when she makes eye contact. If she doesn’t oh well, you can show her the treat she could have gotten and walk around waiting a minute before re commanding.
Once she is steadily responding to your command you can start slowly adding distractions. If they are to much (she doesn’t make eye contact when asked ) DO NOT GET FRUSTRATED. This is YOUR fault, you have raised the criteria too high too quickly. This is the biggest mistake that owners make and it is not the dogs fault, why would you punish her and degrade your relationship? Go back to a calmer situation and cement in her attention to you and eye contact for a few sessions, then move on to distractions again. NEVER BE AFRAID TO DROP BACK IN TRAINING. The best trainers are the ones who work on the dogs AGENDA not their own!
The eventual goal is to proof the command so that she automatically reacts in any situation no matter how distracted she is or how many dogs are around to bark at. This command and training also reinforces her attention to you and not the environment. It will desensitize her to reacting to other dogs and give you guys a good head start on the ULTIMATE relationship you would like to have!
Jennifer Culver CPDT-KA IACP
Scout in the front seat on our way to Virginia this morning. We packed up the pooches and figured we would head to some warm weather for the day!!
Eme and i in 2010 at the NJ water weekend
She never grew into those ears!
Eye spy
An Eme-lion tribute, pictures from her first year
Our wordless Wednesday post is all about working dogs in action this week.
Raina alerting on a door, the subject was in the back of that building.
Abby playing with her subject after the find
Emeline about to take off
Our focus for this week’s terrific tip Tuesday is how to work on the relax command.
Have you ever gotten a new puppy and been so thankful that he has finally fallen asleep on the doggie bed that you don’t dare want to pet him or speak to him and wake him up???? What is he just supposed to know through telepathy that you think its good he is relaxing? Dogs do not know anything about living in the human world, it is our responsibility as their owner to teach them what we do and do not like them to do in our world.
The moment pup finally lays down and starts to relax we want to praise and pair a word with it. I usually use settle or relax as it isn’t generally used in normal conversation and it tends to be spoken in a calm manner which helps reinforce what we are training to teach anyway. Anytime you see the desired behaviour mark it and pair it with your cue or command. Now obviously we want to calmly praise the dog not pull a toy out and go crazy, but you can provide a few high value snack morsels in slow succession for a minute or so keeping the pup in the down position and calmly petting him. This reinforcement will help show him what it is that makes us his owner happy and what behaviors he should repeat in the future.
(let me tell you it was hard to find a picture of any of my dogs relaxing!! I must just take shots of the action times in their lives)
Typical weekend for the pack consists of some fun and play after some work. Sunday was no different and the girls all got what they needed! Raina worked some HR, making fast work of a problem that was set up 48 hours prior. The dog amazes me every time i see her work. I got lucky, really lucky that not only did i get an amazing genetic package with her (thanks to my team member Rita who bred Raina and her sister from a previous litter Abby) but i also have had years of dog related experiences in multiple facets to be able to raise her to be such an amazing working dog. You really cannot have a good canine search team without both the genetically appropriate dog and the knowledgeable trainer who knows how to work their dog to its fullest potential. Raina’s fullest potential was obvious when she was a certified airscent and HR dog at 12 months old, she has been ROCK SOLID ever since.
But i have digressed obviously, can’t help it 🙂
Emeline also ran a nice short, hot trail through a parking lot and around the school building with contamination everywhere. She did great, especially getting a direction of travel when casting her on the blacktop.
After we finished up the work we piled all 5 dogs in the truck and headed out to our swimming spots, first stopping off at the Delaware river section where its deep enough for the girls to really swim.
One going out, one coming in
Next we moved on to a more shallow inlet section where max and frank really got to enjoy it, as neither swims in deep water.
hanging out in the cool water
We finished up the day with obedience. The key to a well behaved dog is regular fun obedience sessions which we do daily.
Attention healing with happiness
Eme and Raina
So the last 3 weeks Eme has had to survive life with no trailing, i just couldn’t do it with one hand, not the way that beast pulls.
So today one of the Dog Corps. interns, Luke wanted to set up her trail. I wanted something short and sweet, but i didn’t want to know anything about it. He hung out on the porch of a house and took off about a half mile. An hour later we suited up.
Our ritual is set, she understands as she sits in the truck what is going to happen. She watches as i grab her trailing vest, her long line, and the baggy that contains “her persons” scent. As i walk to my LKP (last known point) to place out her paraphernalia she whines ever so slightly so i do not forget her. Not like i can, i mean i would look pretty funny following an empty harness around in a circle! My nose certainly can’t do the things hers can but she doesn’t know that, she thinks the world of me for just being me!!!!
I got her dressed, presented her article gave her the german command to track and we were off like a whirlwind. No doubting her being correct in our direction of travel, her nose glued to the ground and her four legs moving faster then mine as i run behind her to keep consistent tension on the line.
Emes’s trail July 6th. Subject is blue eme is red
She took her turns perfect with no hesitation and never once airscented (little wind but his scent pool would still be present after an hour of sitting out there) her head finally came up once she reached his shoe!
Flashback friday is a weekly picture post of the past and present dogs of the Canine Copilot pack, including our fosters!
4 month old Emeline and Kendal hanging out after a swim in the river
Eme and Frank hanging out during a pack hike
Scout!!!
Elite Instinct K9 Training 