August 1, 2010
Are you ready for a contest????
Description: below are 15 photographs taken during Pat Miller’s travels over the last several years to seminars, workshops, and on the back of the Harley. Your job is to correctly identify the locations of as many of them as possible. Identification must include city, state (if US), country, and a brief description as to what the photo represents or where in the city it is located. The contest will run for 3 months. If more than one person correctly identifies all 15 photos, the one with the most accurate descriptions wins. If there is still a tie, the winning name will be drawn after November 1, 2010. All entries must be received at our office by November 1, 2010. Decision of the judge (me!) is final – no whining allowed!
Prize: A collection of all five of Pat Miller’s books, signed to the winner or recipient of the winner’s choice, or a $100 gift certificate to a Peaceable Paws Academy, Workshop or Class held at the PPaws facility in Fairplay, Maryland.
Caution: I know this won’t be easy – I will be really surprised if anyone gets all of them right, so don’t be discouraged if you can’t get them all!
One entry per person please – multiple entries will disqualify the sender – and be sure to include your name, mailing address and e-mail address.
Submit all entries electronically to: pat@peaceablepaws.com
Peaceable Paws employees are not eligible to win.
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Ready… Set… Go!
Warm Woofs, Happy Guessing, and even Happier Training,
Pat
July 28, 2010
Always a popular class, we offer our Downtown Hound experience just once a year, when we can take advantage of the long summer evenings. It always fills quickly, with some of our favorite students. This year is no exception.
Our class is:
Katie and Brooklyn – an 8 month old Rottie/Shepherd mix (below):
Kristy, Bobbie and Grace – a 1 year old Belgian Tervuren:
Mary and Milo – a 2 year old Collie mix:
Lori and Pearl – a 1 year old Cockapoo:
Ronda and Shea – a 7 year old Australian Shepherd (foreground):
Karen and Cullen – a 2 year old Shepherd mix:
Last night was Week 3 of the class, and we met at the very dog-friendly Prime Outlet Mall just 10 minutes from PPaws. Week 1 is always here on the farm so I can see how everyone does outside the safety of the training center, but without uncontrolled public encounters. Week 2 is at the nearby C&O Canal, where public encounters are usually minimal – although last week we had two off-leash dogs – a Pitbull and a small Terrier mix, some running up the bank from their fisherpeople and play nosey-greetey with all the class dogs. Fortunately everyone handled it well.
We arrived at the Mall at 6:00 pm at our previously arranged meeting spot – between the Food Court and the kid’s fenced playground area. Katie had told me the week before that she couldn’t be there. By the time the 5 dogs and 6 humans had gathered, we were attracting quite a bit of attention. In fact, when I arrived at 5:55 pm, several of my students were already taking advantage of the opportunity to practice polite greetings with curious mall shoppers.
 Attracting attention at the Oulet Mall It’s always a good idea to give your dog a few minutes to get settled in a new place, then practice some basic sits and downs to get their brains in thinking mode. Targeting and Find It-Toss are also good for this. We practiced those, then did a little dog-weaving (having one dog move through the others, who are on a sit or down and being reinforced to attention to their humans).
 Kristy and Grace doing dog-weaves Then we strolled through the mall, taking advantage of various benches, chairs and grassy spots to sit and reinforce dogs for relaxing with us, as well as reinforcing them for walking past mall shoppers, and being walked past.
 Politely passing mall shoppers seated on bench At an open area of the mall we stopped, took a seat on a stone wall, and had each team demonstrate a trick.
 Pausing for a break and a round of tricks at the stone wall  Pearl's trick: standing on her hind legs to target to Lori's hand As we strolled back to the front of the mall we found a mechanical horse to play with (no, we didn’t put quarters in) and then a mechanical dragon that was even better!
 Mary introduces a cautious Milo to the horse. Note Milo's fearful body lsanguage - hind legs out behind him, tail down, ears back...  Cullen wants to *ride* the horse!  Grace needs coaxing to sniff noses  Cullen masters the dragon  Shea needs a little convincing We ended the class relaxing in Amish-built lawn chairs outside Legacy Furniture, and did one last round of tricks. They were such nice chairs Bobbie and I went into the store to find out the price. They ranged from $270 for the simple basic ones, to $700 for the rocking swing. We didn’t buy anything.
 Relaxing in Amish-built lawn chairs outside Legacy Furniture  Cullen says, "That was fun! Can we do it again?" I am so proud of this class! The dogs are great, the humans are doing an excellent job, and at the end, sitting in the comfortable Legacy chairs, no one seemed in any hurry to leave. Good work gang – CLICK!
Next week’s class meets in beautiful downtown Sharpsburg, with a planned stop at Nutter’s Ice Cream. Yum! And it’s a Level 2 Instructors Course Academy week. We’ll be busy!
This past weekend was also a Shaping Workshop at PPaws, with 5 participants. We struggled with extreme heat, and a thunderstorm that shut down all but one of the dogs, but it was still great fun. We started with shaping “Body Parts,” did “101 Things to do with a Box” and then substituted “Prop” for “Box” and began shaping for a specific behavior with the prop. Other behaviors included turning on a “That Was Easy” button, and “Go To Your Place.” This is always one of our favorite weekends – shaping is such a blast! Our 2011 Shaping Weekend dates are June 4-5 and October 29-30. Mark your calendars!
 Mini-Goldendoodle Riley does 101 things with a box I hope you and your dog are having a lot of fun this summer too!
Warm Woofs and Happy Training,
Pat
 Artsy photo of the week: Luna moth on cypress at PPaws
June 8, 2010
This past weekend was Nose Games time at Peaceable Paws – and what a fun time it was! We spent two days playing with dog noses, and ended Sunday afternoon with tired and happy canines and humans. This was the first time we’d offered this workshop, and I can’t wait for the next one!
Our Nose Games workshop differs from the competitive Nose Work seminar that’s touring the country, in that we explore a variety of scenting opportunities rather than just focusing on the competition, although what we do lays a solid foundation for Nose Work, if that’s where you’re headed. As the trainers in our group discovered, nose games offer endless possibilities for working and playing with clients’ dogs as well as their own. A simple “Find it!” with a treat tossed on the ground is an easy and effective way to engage a dog who knows and has a happy association with the “find it” cue, when his mind and behavior are wandering off to inappropriate zones. It;s a great way to add more exercise to your dog’s routine, as well as environmental enrichment – for dogs in homes as well as dogs in shelters.
 Karol Kennedy's three-legged Terrier mix, Nike, plays "Find it in the grass" - much harder than "Find it on rubber mats." It’s interesting to note that, while dogs have an excellent sense of smell constantly utilizing it is, in fact, fairly hard work for them, and tiring. Most dogs, on a hunt, will use their eyes and ears first, and resort to scenting out prey only when necessary, because of the biological imperative to conserve energy for survival purposes.
As I anticipated, our workshop dogs needed lots of breaks, and we built in recovery time by pairing teams up and having them watch each other work (an excellent learning experience) as well as taking discussion breaks (also useful for learning) and potty breaks.
Here’s our two-day outline for Nose Games:
Day One:
9:00am – Introductions; Discussion of scent work; Reading your dog
9:30am – Working Session #1:
Introduction to Nose Games: “Find It!”
Find it Toss
Find it in Plain View
Find it Hidden in Plain View
10:15 – Gather – discussion
10:30am – BREAK
10:45am – Working Session #2:
Review Session #1
Work with Toys/Objects
Hidden in Room
 Leslie Fisher's Bridgette waits patiently out of sight while mom hides treats.
 Then enthusiastically and eagerly looks for - and finds - several hidden treats. Take Scent
11:30 – Gather – Discussion
NOON – LUNCH
1:30pm – Push/Mark
 Lynne Young's Wyatt - who has done this before - marks to indicate he's found the scent.
 The scent is birch, dabbed on this tiny Q-tip, wedged into the tread of a tire. 1:30pm – Working Session #3:
Review
Training the Push/Mark
Hidden in Boxes
 Barb Flook's Aussie, Twister, finds the box with the treat inside.
 A little mre challenging - Catherine Schuler's Dachshund, Shade, finds the treat in a box on the chair. 2:15 – Gather – Discussion
2:30pm – BREAK
2:45pm – Check This
3:00pm – Working Session #4:
Review
Check This/Look Here
3:45 – Gather – Discussion
4:00pm – Questions/Discussion
5:00pm – Close
Day Two
9:00am – Review/Questions from Day One; discuss Day Two program
9:30am – Working Session #5:
Review Day 1 work
Scent Discrimination – salient scent
10:15 – Gather – Discussion
10:30am – BREAK
10:45am – Working Session #6:
 A pause for rest and discussion.
Review
Introduce New Scent – non-salient scent
11:30 – Gather – Discussion
NOON – LUNCH
1:30pm – Working Session #7:
Review
Scent Discrimination
2:15 – Gather – Discussion
2:30pm – BREAK
2:45pm – Nose Games
Find Hidden Treat (owner doesn’t know where)
Find Hidden Owner
Scent Discrimination Boxes
4:00pm – Q&A
4:30 – Close
The best part for me was watching the dogs progress from Day One when they had no clue what we were doing, to the end of Day Two when they were purposefully searching, on task, for the hidden treats. To see Leslie Fisher of Look What I Can Do dog training working with her very enthusiastic and on-task Labrador Retriever, Bridgette, click here.
Our next Nose Games workshop is Scheduled for September 11 and 12. Come and have fun with us!
Warm Woofs and Happy Training,
Pat Miller
May 30, 2010
A weekend of shaping fun with some of my best training friends in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina, topped off by dinners at wonderful locally-owned restaurants with numerous delicious veggie options – what more could a training junkie ask for?
 Dining out at "The Laughing Seed" (guess what *that* is!) in Asheville.  Asheville nightlife - Wolf hybrid meets Dachshunds Huge thanks go to Lisa Waggoner of Cold Nose College (Murphy, NC) for hosting this event, and to Gail Hubbard and Susan Wilson for making their facility, A Good Dog’s Life available for the weekend. We had 18 working teams and another dozen observers. In addition to Lisa, the group included longtime training friends Beth Brock, Jenny Schneider, Tracey Schowalter, Viviane Arzoumanian, and AnneMarie Easton.
 Long-time PPaws friends, l to r: Tracey Schowalter and Matsi, Beth Brock and Dice, AnneMarie Easton, Jenny Schneider and Little Bit, Viviane Arzoumanian and Pasha, me, and Shaping seminar host Lisa Waggoner with Gibson We started with some foundation discussion and then set right off with “Body Parts” shaping, where participants selected a specific body part and shaped movement of that part – a turn of the head, a lift of the paw, a flick of the ear or tongue… the possibilities are endless.
 Shaping a paw lift  Tracey discovers that shaping a head turn can be a Zen exercise with Matsi, a dog who hadn't yet learned to offer a lot of behavior! From there we moved to building behavior repertoire with free shaping, using the time-honored “101 Things to Do With a Box” and then “101 Things to Do With a Prop.” Props included a skateboard, doorbell, crate, cradle, book, a toy truck, and more. Following 101 Things, working teams selected a behavior goal to work toward using directed shaping. This often makes more sense to goal-oriented humans than the open-ended “101 Things” activity. We also started shaping “Go to Your Place.” A simple directed shaping exercise.
 Lisa waits for Gibson to make a clickable move. Her goal: have him go to the book, lie down, and put his paw on the page.
 Success!  It was a delight to see Viviane's Pasha wake up to the fun of shaping. By end of day Sunday she rang the bell! Homework assignment for the evening was to write up a shaping plan for a specific behavior the attendee wanted to teach her dog, with the emphasis on splitting (breaking the selected behavior into very tiny steps) rather than lumping (making the mistake of trying to shape for too large pieces of behavior). Review of the plans on Sunday morning helped attendees identify their lumping tendencies. Beth Brock won the grand prize of a Peaceable Paws baseball cap for splitting into the most steps – her plan numbered 54 total steps.
We returned to working sessions, starting with work on the plans the participants had written, with some teams making admirable progress toward their final behavior goals. We ended the day with a “Shaping Show-Off” – where dogs and humans demonstrated their success with their shaping plan behavior, and one other behavior they had worked on for the weekend.
 Shaping Molly to rock the cradle.  Beckie waits for a well-behaved (previously dog-reactive!) Josie to make a clickable move toward the doorbell.  Jenny shapes a somewhat hesitant (but catching on!) Little Bit to get on the stool. We applauded each others’ achievements, and dogs and humans were happily exhausted by the end of the day.
This is by far my most favorite workshop to give. Because shaping is “errorless learning,” it’s almost impossible for participants to make rapid progress as they grasp the delightful fun of shaping.
There is still room in the 2011 Peaceable Paws calendar if you’d like to host a Shaping Workshop in your town, or attend one here at PPaws in Fairplay, Maryland!
Warm Woofs and Happy Training,
Pat Miller
May 20, 2010
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
This quote, often attributed (perhaps incorrectly) to Irish political philosopher Edmond Burke, is at the heart of the debate between many otherwise philosophically aligned positive reinforcement trainers. Do we speak our hearts about the atrocities committed by TV personality Cesar Millan in the name of “dog psychology” or do we simply commend his success in encouraging more people to seek help for their dog’s inappropriate behaviors as we work to repair the damage done to some or our canine clients whose humans have tried to emulate his methods? We are after all, some say, supposed to be positive trainers – should we not reflect that in our behavior with those we disagree with as well as those we are congruent with? Should we not work to shape the behavior of those humans with positive reinforcement rather than use positive punishment when they act in a way we consider inappropriate, just as we would with our dogs?
This difference of approach surfaced recently in regards to two events related to companies long held dear by positive trainers: Premier (www.premier.com ), and Bark (www.thebark.com).
Premier has long been considered a leader in the field of positive dog products, offering items such as the Easy-Walk Harness, the Calming Cap, Manners Minder, Gentle Leader and much more. Bark Magazine is my second-favorite publication (after Whole Dog Journal – www.whole-dog-journal.com ); it’s not as focused as Whole Dog Journal, but it’s an interesting eclectic read, and the regular columns by Patricia McConnell (www.theotherendoftheleash.com), goddess of dog behavior, are by themselves enough to make the magazine worth the price of subscription.
I was hugely dismayed when Sharon Madere, co-owner of Premier, contacted me in early 2010 to inform me that they were selling the company to Radio Systems Corp, a well-known, very successful shock collar company. I was, no pun intended, shocked. Sharon herself gave me the impression that she wasn’t thrilled with the sale, but that it was beyond her control since she wasn’t a majority holder in Premier. She was determined to make the best of it, and optimistically offered that, since she would continue on in her capacity of managing the Premier division of Radio Systems, she was hopeful she could help the parent corporation see the light and eventually, perhaps, move away from marketing of shock collars for dogs. She was contacting well-known professionals in the training and behavior field as a courtesy, and to hopefully garner their support for the move.
I very much appreciated the courtesy, but sadly advised Sharon that I would be looking for alternative sources of equivalent products, as I was unwilling to knowingly contribute my purchasing dollars, even circuitously, to a company whose primary purpose was to shock dogs.
A few weeks age, a Facebook friend recently brought my attention to the fact that the most recent issue of Bark magazine contains an advertisement for a shock collar company. Because Bark generally promotes positive, gentle relationship with dogs, it was an unpleasant surprise to see this ad in a magazine high on my list of favorites. When I contacted Bark editor Claudia Kawczynska, she said she had already received numerous e-mails from concerned readers, including some who were canceling their subscriptions as a result of the ad. She realized they had made a horrendous mistake in accepting the ad, and promised that they would never do it again. The difficulty economy, she said, had clouded their judgment.
Shortly after that, I read several blogs and e-mails that chastised positive trainers for being so hard on companies that made business choices and as a result, fell from grace. “We are,” they said, “positive trainers. We should no more use positive punishment on these people than we would use it on our dogs. Where is the positive in this blacklisting behavior toward these companies?”
In my mind, the Premier and Bark examples are entirely different scenarios. Premier, made a permanent and deliberate major business decision, knowing it would alienate some customers, that puts them in bed with a company that goes against everything I stand for and believe in relative to dog training. Premier is now an integral part of that company, regardless of who manages it. I no longer buy from Premier. While I hope Sharon succeeds on her mission and wish her the best of luck, I won’t spend my money there. (Besides, taking my purchasing dollars away from Premier isn’t positive punishment, it’s negative punishment, and most positive trainers do use negative punishment from time to time.) Bark, on the other hand, made a one-time poor business decision that they openly regret and have promised not to do it again. I will continue to support and write for Bark. And yes, I am pretty open about my disapproval of the Dog Whisperer’s training methods.
I agree with Burke, or whoever it was who really wrote that quote. Good men – and women – need to be willing to stand up and speak out against the evils that are all to present in the world of our canine companions.
And now, I’m headed off to North Carolina to spend a weekend shaping and have fun with some of my very best dog trainer friends. Guess what my next blog will be about!
Footnote from out last Academy: Beth, one of the Border Collie sisters, was adopted by one of our PPaws apprentices and is happily in her new home.
Max, the Sheltie, was adopted by a knowledgeable and experienced couple from Pennsylvania (shelter professionals) who appeared willing and ready to work with his car-reactive behavior.
Pippy and Riley are still waiting for their forever homes at the Humane Society of Washington County (MD); (hswcmd.org)
May 11, 2010
Ach – our busy season is in full swing now, and it’s hard to squeeze in blogtime. But everything that happens now, I think, “Oooooh – I want to put that in my blog!” So – we’re on Day 2 of a Level 2 Behavior Modification Academy right now, with some wonderful dogs – grist for my next blog, but first I want to share our most recent Reactive Rover event with you.
Our Reactive Rover weekends are three days of intensive counter conditioning and desensitization for dog-reactive dogs. We accept up to six dogs for a weekend. We had a late cancellation for our April weekend, and only had five.
I sometimes look forward to Reactive Rover weekends with a little trepidation. I love being able to see the transformation that can occur in three days with some reactive dogs – and the delight of their humans when they see how well their dogs can, often surprisingly quickly. Sometimes, however, the weekends can be very draining. Even grueling.
But these were five fantastic dogs and their humans! We’ve had some challenging Rover weekends recently, so it was refreshing for Shirley and me to have a very successful, less stress-inducing group for a change.
We start on Friday, with half the group arriving at 8:30 to begin class at 9:00 am. This gives us time to escort teams into the training center one at a time, and get them set up in their alcoves. We work very hard throughout the weekend to avoid unexpected encounters and over threshold outbursts.
Reactive dogs come in all shapes, sizes and ages. This time, Group One consisted of:
Jamie and Bryn a 2 year old Aussie Chow mix, of Arlington, VA.
Sandy and Buddy, a 6 year old Bichon, of Reston, VA
Linda and Layla, an 8 year old American Bulldog, of Rockville, MD.
When they arrived we stashed them in alcoves to avoid arousal and over threshold barking and lunging, spent 40 minutes discussing reactive behavior and our plan for the weekend, then sent them out on an escorted hike, spaced far enough apart to prevent incidents, with RR coaches Catherine Schuler and Tracey Schowalter (www.puppyadept.com ). I’m a firm believer in the value of exercise, both because it uses up some of the energy that might otherwise feed reactive behavior, and because aerobic exercise promotes endorphin release. Endorphins are mood regulators. It’s good to take advantage of nature’s own behavior modification pharmacy whenever possible!
As Group One left for their hike, Group Two arrived:
Dr. Esra Yavuz (veterinarian) and Bogart, an 8 year old Australian Shepherd mix, of Bel Air, MD
Linda and Jack Bergen and Stella, a 4 year old yellow Lab, of Newtown, PA
(sorry – no photo – they had to leave early, unexpectedly)
Group Two got the same discussion, and just as it was time for them to hike, Group One returned. We use two-way radios to choreograph all the teams’ movements. When Group One teams were safely stashed, temporarily, in their cars, the Group Two teams left for their hike.
Throughout the weekend dogs and humans did counter conditioning set-ups, discovering threshold distances, obtaining a conditioned emotional response (CER) of “Other dogs make chicken happen!”, and gradually increasing intensity of stimulus by decreasing distance, increasing numbers of dogs, and eventually doing pass-bys, parallel walking, and approaches.
This group progressed rapidly with all of their set-ups, and by the third day all of them were able to work in close quarters with the entire group, moving randomly amongst each other, with a couple of my dogs thrown into the mix just for giggles. We often, on Day Three, have at least one or two dogs who have to work on the periphery of the close group work. Not this time – they were all superstars!
We’ve gotten a couple of glowing reports from our Roverites after they went home and put their new skills into practice:
“Buddy has done really well so far since we’ve been home- I’ve been really proud of his progress. He’s done fantastic on his walks when we see other dogs. I can’t believe I look forward to seeing other dogs on walks now, to practice what we’ve learned- what a change!
But we still needs work when we see his nemises, Shaggy. I did see a small improvement though when we saw him yesterday, and hopefully I can use what I learned this weekend to improve these sightings in the future.”
Sandy and Buddy
Layla has been doing great. Yesterday we sat on our front
porch…chicken in hand…and waited for dogs to walk by…which they
did…I’d say “check it out”, she’d look and eat chicken. No arousal
whatsoever. This morning we were out on our back deck and our next
door neighbor dog, who barks all the time, was out, too. I had my
handy chicken with me. Again told Layla to “check it out”…she would
look over at the barking dog and then she look back at me/chicken.
Total success.
I am now looking forward to seeing other dogs, too…Who would have
thought!
Linda and Layla
Success stories like these are wonderfully reinforcing for me, and I’m looking forward to our next Reactive Rover weekends, scheduled for June 25-27, and October 1-3. These fill up fast, so if you’re interested in bringing a dog or auditing, get on it quick!
We also have several other great workshops coming up:
Shaping (my favorite): July 24-25
And a delightful new addition to our offerings:
Nose Games: June 5-6 and September 11-12
Come and play with us!!!!
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