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
July 22, 2010
Summer is certainly our very busy time here at Peaceable Paws, and the endless weeks of 90-plus degree heat seem to be making our academies and workshops more tiring than usual. So here it is Thursday already, the AC in my office is not working again (and it’s going to be over 90 again), and I’m waaaay behind on getting this blog done. I intended to get to it last Sunday, immediately after our Level 1 Academy, but Sunday was the Humane Society of Washington County’s “Bone to be Wild” motorcycle ride, and I was just too hot and tired when it was done to think about writing. So here we are… better late than never!
Academy week was terrific – hard work, and very satisfying. We had great humans and great dogs – always an excellent combination. The week is about half hands-on training – we work with dogs from the shelter – and half lecture and discussion.
Day One we talk in the morning, then go to the shelter for a tour, and to select dogs. My wonderful husband Paul does the tour. I usually arrive at the same time as the students, but a storm was threatening, so I phoned to tell him I was delayed bringing horses in, and they went ahead without me.
Good thing! As Estie (one of our paid staff) and I were bringing horses in, Sturgis the pig decided to go walkabout. He usually sticks pretty close to the barn, but when the horses were all in their stalls, he was nowhere to be found. Estee and I spent a frantic 45 minutes calling, banging the garbage can lid (which usually brings him running because it means food) and searching for him. I finally found him halfway down the ½-mile long driveway. Just as I pulled up behind him in my car, I saw him nose the horse’s electric fence, give a piggy squeal and dash toward the road. Damn!
I headed after him in the car and he finally turned off into the edge of the woods. Phew! Now – how to get him back? I didn’t have his leash and harness with me, and didn’t want to leave him to go back to the barn for it. I had been toying with the idea of teaching him to walk up a ramp into the car, but hadn’t put that into his training repertoire yet, so that was out. When we got him last October I could pick him up, but I was pretty sure he’d grown too large for that. I gave it a try anyway, and ended up sprawled on the ground, hanging on for dear life, with no chance of lifting him.
Finally I engaged my trainer brain and used a little gentle negative reinforcement, swinging a leash behind him, annoying him just enough to herd him back to the barn and safely into his stall. Then I raced to the shelter, arriving just as Paul was finishing up the tour.
The seven Interns had 10 dogs to choose from. They get to spend a little time with the dogs, then each write their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices on a slip of paper, and I get to decide who gets whom.
This Academy, we had:
Gina Burger, working with Sparrow, an intense but very responsive Collie Shepherd mix.
Diane Curran with Brandon, a somewhat solemn Akita mix that I adore
Jana Frank with Bongo, a happy Husky mix with a great sense of humor
Joan Morse, CPDT-KA (high scoring graduate!) with Nook, an adorable, thoughtful Dachshund/Jack Russell mix
Tracey Peter, a shelter employee, started with Abby, a very attentive Border Collie/Chow, but Abby got sick on Day Two and Tracey switched to Guinness, a much more challenging Hound mix. Guinness finally agreed to lie down on Thursday.
Gayle Rojas, worked with Teddy, a remarkably wonderful Boxer. Academy assistant Steve Buckman is still trying to figure out how he could add Teddy to his pack of two Boston Terriers.
And last but certainly not least, Susan Duffy did an excellent job with Willow, a 4-month-old Lab mix pup who was almost as mouthy as Maggie, our recent foster Westie.
Tuesday through Friday we had a discussion session each morning until our dogs arrived from the shelter, and then everyone got a 45-minute hike around the farm to reduce stress and burn up shelter-kennel energy.
Then a group class, where we teach our 6-week Basic Good Manners curriculum in 5 days. There are additional discussion sessions each day where we sort out the mysteries of canine body language, operant and classical conditioning, schedules of reinforcement, laws of shaping, rules of stimulus control, business basics, ethical dilemmas, and more. We also do two additional training sessions with dogs each day, during which I work one-on-one with the Interns and their dogs. Students are invited to observe any of our evening that are going on during the week, and they get three take-home open-book quizzes.
Finally, Saturday morning arrives – time for the written final (not open book) and the practical exam, where each student demonstrates to the group what s/he has accomplished with her/his dog during the week. Finally, after tearful good-byes to the dogs, I meet individually with each Intern to talk about their academy experience, and how we can help them attain their goals for the future. Congratulations, Interns! Two Level 2 academies to go and you can add PMCT (Pat Miller Certified Trainer) after your name!
Left to right: Gina and Willow, me, Joan and Nook, Jana and Bongo, Susan and Willow, Tracey and Guinness, Gayle and Teddy, Diane and Brandon
I’m always a little sad to see everyone leave, but I know I will see many of them again – at future Peaceable Paws academies and workshops, and at seminars and conferences – Clicker Expo, APDT, and more. I am also always hugely impressed by how much humans and dogs can learn in just 6 days. I see students leave with a much better understanding of the scientific principles of behavior and learning, and with much greater confidence in their skills as trainers. The dogs go back to the shelter with a solid repertoire of basic good manners behaviors, and in some cases a new-found grasp of the value of having a relationship with humans. They also get a certificate for a free 7-week Peaceable Paws good manners class, and their new humans get a copy of the PPaws class training book so they know what their dogs have learned.
Now – onto the next events: a Shaping Workshop this weekend (one of my favorite things to do!) followed by an Instructor Academy the week of August 2nd.
Questions for the day: Will it ever cool off? Will it ever rain?
Oh, by the way, as of Tuesday, all the Academy dogs except Teddy had already gone to their new homes. That’s a record!
Warm Woofs and Happy Training.
Pat
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
April 7, 2010
Okay, so… I knew this would happen. Now that I’ve started to blog, every time something happens I think “Oh, I need to put that in my blog!” That means that at least this time around (and probably in future times, at least some of the time) you get a running commentary on my week.
Last week was a full one. First of all, the weather was scrumptious, reaching well into the 80’s by week’s end. I heard a weather reporter say it was the nicest two-day Spring we’ve ever had. Everything is starting to blossom… here are some of the flowers around the farm:
 Wonderful ground cover - taking over a whole corner under the kitchen windows. Anyone know what it's called?  The tree just outside our back door - only blooms for a few days but it's gorgeous! I don't know what kind of tree it is - I say every year I'm going to ask the tree guy, and I never do...  I know this one - tulips!  Hyacinths, I think...  And, of course, daffodils!! A Visiting Trainer
Trainer Carla Herbert was visiting from Florida for a private intern week, and we had a lot scheduled. She brought along one of her dogs – a Catahoula Hound named Kona, and we worked a little every day on various behaviors, including the one depicted below in pictures – shaping her to go into her crate. I noticed on Day One that she was hesitant to crate up, so we added that to the list of things Carla wanted to work on, and by Thursday Kona was happy to trot into her crate on her own.
 Kona - hesitant to approach crate  Well, maybe...  Is this it?  Yay - treats get tossed away from the crate!  I can go farther in...  And even farther!  Now I get treats *in* the crate.  By Thursday, Mom can even close the door! Monday afternoon I had a return client – an 80-pound dog who barks and lunges at other dogs – and people. This was his third visit, and while he’s made some progress, I know he could do better. I switched his owner from straight counter conditioning to more of a Leslie McDevitt “Look At That” approach, and it seemed like a better fit for both of them.
After shelter behavioral assessments on Tuesday morning, we met with the Behavioral Foster Care Committee. This is the still-embryonic program I referred to in my last blog. We’re going to call it GOLD Paw (Giving Opportunity, Love and Direction), and are looking forward to a September launch by the time we get all our ducks in a row. Meanwhile, shelter staff is already on the bandwagon – when I was at assessments this morning they were advocating for three dogs to go to behavioral foster homes – foster homes that don’t exist because the program isn’t up and running yet. But at least one of the dogs – a three-month-old Pit puppy – will come to our Level 1 Training Academy next week instead of being euthanized.
Wednesday and Thursday we had several interesting privates. A lot of intra-pack aggression cases (can’t decide if I’m getting more of these clients because I wrote on that topic in a recent WDJ article, or if I wrote on the topic because I am getting more intra-pack aggression clients), and one dog-human fear-related aggression. I do tend to have a preponderance of aggression and reactivity clients, but have never seen this concentration of aggression between dogs within the same home.
One case in particular stood out for me as a reminder that clients aren’t always seeing what’s really going on. In this home there are three large dogs – a lively adolescent (1.5 years old), and two aging, arthritic dogs (each 9 years old). What the clients saw as the young dog aggressing toward Older Dog A was actually a combination of the older, very arthritic dog being defensively aggressive toward the young, high-energy body-slammer, and the older dog being inappropriate with resource guarding until the young one decided he’d had enough and was going to stand up to the elder. Among my many suggestions for management and modification were:
- Increased exercise and play opportunities for the youngster with age and play-style appropriate dogs – perhaps a candidate for doggie daycare.
- Pain medication for a dog who is so arthritic she can barely walk.
- Feed the dogs in separate rooms to avoid resource guarding.
Sad to see good, caring owners who hadn’t realized the impact the addition of an energetic young dog would have on the quality of life of the two seniors, and who didn’t realize the importance of management when they did bring the youngster in, to prevent escalation of emotions to the point of serious fighting. And who have allowed their senior dogs to live in pain because more than five years ago a vet told them that Rimadyl would kill their dog.
Bite Inhibition
Last week I was also in the middle of writing an article for Whole Dog Journal on bite inhibition, so I asked Carla to take some photos of Scooter, our Pomeranian, biting me as I groomed him (below). Scooter has fantastic bite inhibition, so while he looks like a demon dog in the photos, you can see me smiling, because he never actually puts pressure on my skin with his teeth. And yes, this is the closest to a Dog Whisperer set-up that you’ll ever get from me.
 I hate being groomed!  I *really* hate being groomed!  I *really* hate being groomed and I am *very* fierce! Dogs on the Road
As Carla and I traveled around Maryland and beyond last week, we twice encountered dogs on the edge of the highway – always a heart-stopper. The old Humane/Animal Control Officer in me doesn’t let me drive past a dog on the highway, so of course we had to pull over both times. The first was a small Terrier mix, limping on three legs on the right shoulder as we were headed south on Hwy 81, at Exit 5. We had already passed the dog, so we had to do a three-loop cloverleaf to get back to where we had seen her. When we got back there, she was gone. I pulled the van over onto the curb of the highway on-ramp, and we got out and started up the hill.
Carla said, “There’s a person up there…” and sure enough – there’s homeless man living up there on the hill in the woods. I hiked up anyway, and he was sitting in a camping chair in front of his makeshift tent, clutching the little dog in his arms.
“She’s my dog,” he said defensively, and I assured him we were just making sure she was okay.
“She’s fine, she’s my dog,” he repeated numerous times. She was clearly well-fed, and the injury to her left front paw was old and healed, so I turned as started back to the van. He followed us at a distance, repeating that she was his dog, and stating several times, “The Humane Society Officer has certified that she’s my dog.”
I actually think dogs and homeless people go together well most of the time, and, reassured that the dog was okay, we drove off. Of course, when I got home I called my husband Paul (Executive Director of the Humane Society of Washington County), and as soon as I started describing the scene, he said, “Yep, we know him.”
“Do you give him food for the dog?” I asked. (Our shelter has a food bank). So now, they are arranging to drop off food for her, and have found a vet who is willing to donate pro bono vaccinations for the dog. They are also going to help clean up some of the garbage that has accumulated around his camp. All is well at Exit 5.
We saw the other dog on the side of a Pennsylvania highway on our way to see Dr. Karen Overall (more about that in a moment). Reddish-colored Pitbull on the shoulder, no collar, no tags… dashed back down the shoulder when I pulled over to try to coax him to me. Fortunately, Carla spied a young man walking toward us some distance up the road, so we drove up to him. He said it was his neighbor’s dog, and he was trying to get her back home. We handed him the only leash (good quality leather!) I had in the car, crossed our fingers, and continue on to Karen’s. (Note to self – keep cheap leashes in all vehicles at all times!) Since the dog was clearly frightened of us, we didn’t think it would be of any use to try to help him, so we continued on our way. We hope all is well on that Pennsylvania highway.
Reassuring to see two dogs we thought were in trouble who actually had humans looking out for their best interests, even if we did see them at high-risk moments. A friend of mine on the West Coast was not so fortunate. Cheryl Syring was driving home at night with a friend and they saw an elderly yellow Lab in the road in the path of an oncoming car. They flashed headlights and jumped out to try to wave the driver down, but to no avail – he slammed into the dog, and the dog died a short time later. In all my years in Humane/Animal Control work and the years I’ve spent since, rescuing dogs from roads, I’ve never had that happen. I cannot even imagine how horrifying that must be.
Ending on a happier note… our trip to Karen Overall’s home outside Philadelphia was to sit in on a consult I had referred to her – a client of mine with a drop-dead gorgeous Belgian Malinois who suffers from generalized anxiety disorder and an elusive liver problem. First time I’ve ever had the privilege of sitting in on a Karen Overall consult, and it was more than worth the three-hour drive each way. Although this young Mal was found stray last Fall, Karen agrees that he is an extremely well-bred dog, and was intrigued by the mystery of how he might have come to be a stray.
I had tons of “Aha!” moments during the four-hour consult, and a lot of reassuring confirmation for what I had already observed about this dog. But one thing Karen said in a new (to me) way was immensely valuable. She talked about treats, toys and praise, etc., being various reinforcers for dogs at various times, but, she said, “a dog’s most important currency is information.” They are always seeking to understand how their world works, and how to make it work for them, and they need information in order to do this. For an anxious dog, many behaviors we may read as “aggression” – growling, lunging – are ways of testing the environment to seek information. She reassured our mutual client (as I had already done) that when their dog was growling at them he wasn’t about to bite, but was merely offering information (I’m not comfortable here) and seeking information (what is happening, and how are you going to answer?)
Karen Overall is in my “goddess” category, and with this gem of information she has given me a whole new way to look at, and explain, various dog behaviors that are often troubling to clients. Thanks to Karen for being an inspiration and a leader in the positive dog training and behavior world!
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