tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46228410491053127612011-10-01T08:07:18.215-06:00JRMnoreply@blogger.comBlogger461100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-662974249973451272011-01-03T12:18:00.006-06:002011-01-03T12:52:30.764-06:00

Yesterday was cold here in Wisconsin. It is, after all, January. But we'd just had a big melt and my usual walking path was largely uncovered after a month of thick snow and ice. My dogs were glued to my side - I couldn't take a step without one in front of me and one behind. Usually it's only one being pushy at a time unless it's meal time and it wasn't. Then I remembered that after the

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-83006485165743862112010-12-29T16:26:00.002-06:002010-12-29T16:27:51.171-06:00

If you're yelling, you've already lost control of the situation. That's not good, IMO. (And I seem to yell a lot. I'm trying to cut down.)

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-28886497624165248342010-12-27T09:27:00.002-06:002010-12-27T09:30:28.331-06:00

With the arrival of both baby Wiggle in November and Sprout's terrible twos, time is limited so I'm going to try keeping up with just some quick tips.Quick Tip #1 - Taking time to spend one on one time with dogs or children can make your life easier.When the dogs or children are driving me nuts I have to stop and think about the last time I gave them all my attention. Usually it's been a little

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-23187617360890331642010-12-27T09:17:00.000-06:002010-12-27T09:18:10.949-06:00

Bringing Home Baby The Cat Edition Go through the owner surrender cards at any shelter or rescue or look through a classifieds section and you will see a sad number of cats being given up because of a new baby. Sometimes it is an automatic response. For years old wives' tales told of cats sucking the breath from children and passing dangerous diseases around. Modern times have shown us

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-56533305837561888482010-12-27T09:15:00.000-06:002010-12-27T09:16:48.360-06:00

Baby sounds CD: http://www.soundsofbaby.com/ Websites and Online resources: http://dogtrainersbaby.blogspot.com/- one dog trainer's blog comparing raising her daughter to how she trains her dogs. www.ourdogsonline.com – a very supportive community with good advice about dog training, care, nutrition, etc. www.sitstay.com, amazon.com, www.cleanrun.com, www.planetdog.com – just a few places

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-19676869551917405762010-12-27T09:12:00.002-06:002010-12-27T09:15:06.377-06:00

The next few posts will be things that I've written in the past and can never find on my computer when I need them. So here they are!This list was compiled while I was confined to bed rest at the end of my first pregnancy.My poor dog Cousteau didn’t know what to make of his mom not getting off the couch orout of bed. I had been his primary source of fun and mental stimulation and now I wasn’

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-52311375252734314402010-08-21T19:42:00.006-06:002010-08-21T20:16:02.131-06:00

Today our family had a chance to go to see a USF2000 race. My father-in-law works for the series owners and we were able to get VIP passes and watch the action from the pits. You would think that since one of Bug's all time favorite movies is Cars that this would be the best day of her life. Unfortunately Bug is also noise sensitive, so what should have been lots of fun for her turned out to

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-14437430610239899902010-08-08T07:37:00.002-06:002010-08-08T08:07:06.715-06:00

...and of course I want to be virtuous. Usually. But patience is not easy to come by. Sometimes we just don't have a choice.When Havana was a puppy, I'd already been a professional dog trainer for about 4 years. I was doing everything "right" - puppy classes, careful socialization, relationship building, etc. We were enrolled in puppy class where I work and it was a lot of fun, although

JRMnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-59870982692768379602010-08-06T11:01:00.002-06:002010-08-06T11:21:39.395-06:00

In all of my research on helping kids and dogs get along, one of the most important things is to get dogs used to the physical changes around the house as soon as possible. I always recommend:Figure out where baby furniture will live and put it there ASAP. If you can't do that just yet, at least move any dog beds or other furniture that will need to be moved.If the dog will no longer be allowed

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-78265048947466957312010-07-31T18:12:00.003-06:002010-07-31T18:25:37.579-06:00

I always tell my puppy class students that the first time I was taught "look" (the dog looks up at my face on my command), I seriously thought my teacher ran out of things to show us that night. Now it is one of the commands I use the most, especially when we're out in public. Having your dog look at you on cue is just so darned handy, even if it takes a little effort to teach. When your dog

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-2254399376663103212010-07-27T20:08:00.002-06:002010-07-27T20:42:33.488-06:00

Today in my scatterbrained way, I forgot to close the gate to the girls' bedrooms. When I went to put Sprout down for her nap, I was greeted with an upended diaper bin and pieces of dirty diaper all over the floor. (Thankfully we do cloth diapers so the worst of the nastiness has been flushed and dirty diapers are largely inaccessible to the dogs.) Even though I knew it was my fault, I called

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-77848168979977207932010-06-25T07:28:00.002-06:002010-06-25T08:04:48.853-06:00

My little Sprout said her first sentence last night. It was only two words, but it was still a sentence. She said "BE QUIET!!!" when the dogs were barking. Or it might have been "PUPPY QUIET!" Either way it had a subject and a verb and according to 4th grade grammar, that's a complete sentence. Maybe a better question is why on Earth did she choose to scold the dogs as her first sentence

JRMnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-8952792858645104262010-06-23T08:22:00.002-06:002010-06-23T08:32:06.310-06:00

I don't really want to think about how long it's been since my last post. Sprout is now almost 18 months old. Bug will be starting Kindergarten in a few short months. And oh yeah, I'm 19 weeks pregnant with a baby Bug has named "Wiggle". And wiggle s/he does! So humans and canines alike have been neglected while I struggle with nausea and exhaustion. Agility with Havana was not particularly

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-48259093472928459692010-06-23T08:21:00.000-06:002010-06-23T08:22:41.415-06:00

This was originally posted at www.ourdogsonline.com - a wonderful online resource that I encourage everyone to check out....I think Bug and Havana are psychically linked. And not in a good "Go save Timmy, Lassie!" way. I sat through a painful ballet class with Bug. Her inner collie was hanging out for all the world to see. -Initially so excited she couldn't shut up. (Bark much?)-Had to

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-10865083651267681092010-06-23T08:16:00.002-06:002010-06-23T08:21:00.039-06:00

I am pretty new to the whole blogging thing, so I'm not entirely sure how to handle comments. I love that people are reading my blog (and maybe I'll make that effort to keep up with it better!). On the other hand, I'm embarrassingly American - I am only fluent in reading and writing English. Some days even that's questionable. So I have decided that I will only consider approving comments

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-68352960591468997282009-06-08T10:32:00.002-06:002009-06-08T10:52:25.669-06:00

I greatly dislike puppies. Don't get me wrong, they are adorable and fun...when they belong to someone else. I love teaching puppy class because for one hour a week I can be surrounded by puppies and then they all go home to poop on someone else's floor and chew on someone else's stuff. I think I've mentioned before that I really like adolescent dogs because they're learning sponges with

JRMnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-34203692066672629892009-06-07T21:27:00.002-06:002009-06-07T21:55:03.065-06:00

It's been a good 9 months since my last post. Pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn/pre-schooler rearing will do that to a gal. Now that life has returned to it's new normal, at least for a little bit, I hope to be better about posting.I added Havana, my now 3 year old smooth collie, to my life knowing that she was a working dog who needed a job. I figured that wouldn't be a problem. (Oh how

JRMnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-38069946227088959942008-09-16T05:43:00.002-06:002008-09-16T06:24:36.070-06:00

The cairn terrier I had growing up never really had a chance to be around other dogs. She was friendly enough, but my family just never knew other dogs to put her with. Cousteau liked to play with other dogs when he was younger, but he was never really appropriate with them. His misread or ignored other dogs' signals and was generally more of a pain in the butt than a good playmate. I

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-17845771667251372262008-09-08T18:33:00.002-06:002008-09-08T19:50:07.401-06:00

I have an interesting puppy class this session. Out of 10 dogs, all but one is a sporting/gun dog and the one that isn't is a standard poodle mix, so I figure that's about the same thing. Can you imagine the energy level of even 8 of these puppies in one room?! Oh, did I mention that at least 3 of them have a future in field work.Don't get me wrong, the puppies are great and the owners are

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-12067474015040727152008-08-14T06:35:00.003-06:002008-09-08T18:33:24.815-06:00

In my puppy classes I teach the humans that they have the right to control who interacts with their dogs and how they do it. They need to realize that their puppies rely on them and if they think the puppy will be overwhelmed by a person or situation it is their responsibility to help the puppy through it and get the heck out. One of the most common, and potentially most damaging, situations is

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-51119218428068315582008-07-31T06:30:00.005-06:002008-08-13T05:48:57.724-06:00

Bug recently celebrated her third birthday. She was fortunate to get many wonderful gifts, including Hi-Ho Cherry Oh and Go Fish. Bug loves playing these games - probably because she gets the adult's undivided attention while we play.I am not a fan of a society who protects our children from competition. I feel that propping kids up by not keeping score at their sporting events, eliminating

JRMnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-27979732749072448372008-07-31T06:10:00.003-06:002008-07-31T06:27:36.286-06:00

It's been quite a while since my last post - roughly 3.5 months. I've had the will, but not the energy to post since I found out I was pregnant a few days after the last time I was here. This is wonderful news - we're very excited, but I've also been pretty sick and miserable for 3.5 months. :P But this brings me to the point of this post - kids and dogs are what they are.I distinctly remember

JRMnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-76884063947138580462008-05-01T08:25:00.001-06:002008-05-01T08:27:19.052-06:00

Raggzz, the cairn terrier we had growing up, wasn't necessarily the smartest dog on the planet. She wasn't dumb, but she wasn't above average. Well, she was the cutest darn cairn terrier ever born, but that had nothing to do with her brain power. However, despite a complete lack of training she managed to learn what “eat”, “walk”, and “bath” meant. In fact, we even switched the words around a

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-88010618113041427542008-05-01T08:13:00.001-06:002008-05-01T08:14:48.770-06:00

When Cousteau was about a year old, he decided to venture into the open door of our 110 year old house's cellar. That's not so surprising, but was amazing is that with all of the stuff down there for him to get into – hoses, gardening equipment, paint supplies, litter box, packing materials, etc. - he chose to find a chunk of rat poison laid down by the house's previous owners (something we were

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-55000096395018345202008-03-12T20:42:00.002-06:002008-03-12T20:43:45.217-06:00

I have a toddler and a collie – I know a little bit about dealing with fears and phobias that pop up at random and I think I'm getting pretty good at working through these situations effectively. Conditioned Emotional Response or CER – classical conditioning forming an emotional reaction between a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus. We often deal with fearful responses and

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-9961193060255779932008-03-12T19:33:00.002-06:002008-03-12T19:35:08.321-06:00

Schedules of Reinforcement...I hate these guys. Just give a dog a treat and be done with it! But it's not that simple and different schedules are more effective for certain things, so here goes my take on them. Schedule of Reinforcement – “a program or rule that determines how and when a response will be followed by a reward.” The schedule has an effect on how the response is learned and how

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-78771432521079803202008-03-06T21:06:00.002-06:002008-03-06T21:07:49.291-06:00

Premack's Theory of Reinforcement – something good can reinforce something not as good. If you do a certain thing you have the chance to do something else that you really like. This has the possibility of increasing the likelihood of the desired behavior without having to use a standard food reward, although food can be used. My insane black Lab, Beamish, had the hardest time learning “stay”.

JRMnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-64896812569487861352008-03-06T15:09:00.002-06:002008-03-06T15:12:19.167-06:00

Habituation – when one stops reacting to a meaningless stimuli. One is able to sense the stimulus and respond, but has learned not to. There is short term and long term habituation. Short Term Habituation – stimulus eliciting the orienting response (or thing that makes you react) happens over and over again intensely in short intervals. The dog stops reacting relatively quickly within this

JRMnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-66393987632189307972008-03-05T20:59:00.004-06:002008-03-05T22:22:50.599-06:00

This section really has very little to do with every day life. Feel free to skip it unless you're a big behavior nerd like me. There are two types of conditioning or learning. One is Classical Conditioning and the other is Operant Conditioning. Classical conditioning happens when the student makes a connection between two things. She then responds to the first event in anticipation of the

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-32684182132814975112008-03-05T17:03:00.002-06:002008-03-05T17:05:42.467-06:00

Wow, it's been an embarrassingly long time since I last updated my blog. You'd think with a toddler and two active dogs that I would have tons of time to write, but somehow I don't. Go figure! This entry will be a bit of a departure from my other entries. I'm getting ready to take the Certified Pet Dog Trainer exam (www.ccpdt.org) and I'm going to multi-task and up date my blog while I

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-24081457322722342672007-10-04T06:55:00.000-06:002007-10-04T07:14:52.855-06:00

One of the things I love about clicker training is that it encourages the student to try different behaviors without fear of being corrected for the wrong response. If I am teaching my dog to sit and she lies down instead, I don't do anything. I don't scold, place her in a sit or pop her collar. Nor do I praise, click, or reward her. I do absolutely nothing, which tells her she didn't get the

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-26219476649956478172007-10-04T06:36:00.000-06:002007-10-04T06:55:31.953-06:00

Having a collie means that I have to deal with a fair amount of chasing, circling, and barking. Well, more than a fair amount of barking, really. Collies are freakin' loud when they want to be! Havana seems to have a hard time thinking when she's barking, so I've been trying to teach her some self control, but let her have fun, too. I don't want to completely suppress a natural instinct that

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-47194757276634437802007-10-03T13:02:00.000-06:002007-10-03T13:33:31.547-06:00

When I teach puppy socialization classes I tell my students to try to ignore the puppies during off-leash play time. Yes, get involved if the puppies need them, but otherwise let them be dogs for 15 minutes a week. This is hard for some people. It's hard for some dogs, too. In every class there is one dog who will stick to their person and not move. They may be interested in the other

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-78679040903159612432007-09-26T13:43:00.000-06:002007-09-26T14:00:22.226-06:00

Last Wednesday didn't start out as a bad day. Sure, BabyBug woke up earlier than usual which put my schedule off a bit, but no big deal. Unfortunately that just got the ball rolling.Bug was clingy at home, so we got to my Mom's late. Then Bug decided to throw an enormous crying fit as I started to leave, something she's never done before at Mom's. Between that and the slow construction

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-36712998697433345802007-09-16T20:41:00.000-06:002007-09-26T14:30:32.727-06:00

I remember feeling so frustrated when I couldn't get Havana to lie down on command in Puppy class. Or in Puppy 2 for that matter. For crying out loud, I'm an instructor and I can't get my dog to lie down without a lure?! However, with life being as busy as it is, I didn't devote a lot of time to downs when I wasn't in class. One day I made the concerted effort to teach Havana down without the

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-47072570509029357072007-06-08T12:15:00.000-06:002007-06-08T12:35:35.028-06:00

Cousteau is largely a fearless dog. I can really only remember one time that he was frozen in fear and that's when he saw a mylar balloon as a puppy. He froze in the middle of a busy intersection while commuters, ummm, encouraged us out of the road. I was so amused that my big, tough dog was scared of something as simple as a balloon that I burst out laughing. Cousteau had long since figured

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-35959002059544960812007-05-23T19:14:00.000-06:002007-05-27T06:59:49.079-06:00

Now, I'll admit I have a Lab who eats everything, so I've never really had to experience the frustation of a dog who tries to starve himself. However, the cairn terrier I had growing up would just randomly decide she wasn't hungry. One day she'd eat all of her kibble, the next she'd take a bite or two and that was that, then maybe she'd eat only half of her food for the next week. My parents

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-84881887867887570792007-04-22T20:35:00.000-06:002007-04-22T20:54:25.016-06:00

When Cousteau was about 18 months old he developed a terribly annoying habit of barking wildly and jumping at me whenever he wanted something, like the tennis ball or a treat. I read up and realized that Cousteau was doing something called a "demand bark" - essentially demanding whatever it was he wanted by being obnoxious. The best way to deal with this is to ignore the dog during that bad

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-28698600530635620472007-04-18T13:46:00.000-06:002007-04-18T14:04:25.114-06:00

I hate puppies. Really. They're great when they belong to someone else and I can pet them and watch them play and then they go somewhere else, but I'd rather not have a puppy in my home. Ironically, last summer I brought a puppy into my home. While I prefer a completely untrained, full grown adolescent dog any day of the week, I knew I wanted a performance pet and I stood a better chance of

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-34471999935185767672007-03-09T20:03:00.001-06:002007-03-09T20:03:57.036-06:00

I recently did a behavior consult with someone who just adopted a puppy from the rescue I work with. The dog has some issues with being left alone. One of the points I really stressed is to make leaving and coming back very low key, even to the point of ignoring the dog apart from a "see ya later". The farewell should be very basic and dull, but the dog should be left with some kind of special

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-36345249380766552142007-03-02T14:46:00.000-06:002007-03-02T14:48:05.681-06:00

My friend's border collie is a workaholic. If he doesn't get to train in obedience or agility every day he literally shakes and whimpers like a scared bird. Sprocket is an extreme example of a dog who needs a job. But really, most dogs need some sort of job to give them something to focus on and use up their energy. When we think of dogs with jobs we tend to think of herding dogs on a ranch,

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-48384421033190990352007-03-02T14:44:00.000-06:002007-03-02T14:46:42.239-06:00

I am one of the worst canine agility handlers on the face of the planet. Agility is basically an obstacle course for dogs. The human handler gets to walk the course, which is different every time, and plan how to get the dog through in the shortest amount of time possible. I trip over obstacles, forget what they're called, wind up on the wrong side of things, run into my dog, wind up off course,

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-71079735434597766452007-03-02T14:42:00.000-06:002007-03-02T14:44:11.726-06:00

The posts that are currently showing are posts from my old blog - http://dogtrainersbaby.blog.com/. I've decided to move my blog here for a variety of reasons, but if you just can't get enough of The Dog Trainer's Baby, you'll be able to find new content there, at least for a little while. :)

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-2499398736393740592007-03-01T15:25:00.000-06:002007-03-01T15:27:39.143-06:00

When I got Cousteau I read every book I could find in the library on training. It wasn't much and most of the literature was written in the 1970s - what I now know was NOT a good era for dog training. Amazon.com recommended the Monks of New Skete book - what I now know was NOT a good training book! Cousteau spent the first month of his life with us being smacked with a rolled up newspaper,

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-61677586746573292542007-03-01T15:24:00.000-06:002007-03-01T15:25:39.073-06:00

It's taken me awhile to shake that darn Disney image of dogs. Poor Cousteau has had to be uber-dog for most of his life. I expected him to be perfectly behaved, to obey immediately, and never do anything I'd consider gross. Then I happened to go to a Suzanne Clothier seminar. http://www.flyingdogpress.com/ I had heard her speak before and I really enjoy her. We have slightly different views on a

JRMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4622841049105312761.post-81512650883407858012007-02-20T14:29:00.000-06:002007-02-20T14:32:46.906-06:00

I never set out to be the crazy dog lady. I just wanted a dog and my husband wanted a yellow Labrador Retriever like the ones he'd grown up with. So when we got married 7.5 years ago, I bought him a yellow Lab as a wedding gift. At that time I had no idea how much that darn puppy would change my life. I expected a Disney-like Eddie Bauer catalog model. What I got was Satan on four paws with

JRMnoreply@blogger.com2