Pantops Pet Salon & Spa
Charlottesville's Professional Dog Grooming

Two months ago, when I got diagnosed with cancer my first thought was, “I need a dog to make it through this.” I’d been wanting one for years so I’d already done the research and decided on a Bearded Collie—they’re smart, hardy, playful without being hyper, and I love their coat. I found an adorable litter of nine black and white puppies. I read some excellent books on clicker training and daydreamed about teaching Anansi to love his crate, fetch the paper, and run agility obstacles. Then my doctor told me my white blood cells were low–that I shouldn’t get a puppy because of the biting/clawing and risk of infection.

I was heartbroken. I didn’t want to get an older, already trained dog. I wanted a puppy whose need for training would keep my mind off being sick. I couldn’t wait until I was done with chemo-I needed a dog to help me through it and I don’t really know when I’ll be “done.” I’ve had some good experiences with shelter dogs but I’ve also met some who had aggression triggers and health problems that surfaced months after they were adopted.

Then a newsflash appeared on the website where I found the puppies. A three-year-old named Blazer needed a home. He came from a fellow responsible breeder so health and temperament history wouldn’t be an issue. But he was already trained in Obedience and Agility, what does that leave me to do? I also couldn’t get over the idea that he was Someone Else’s dog. I felt like taking him home would be like dogsitting for my neighbor’s Golden. Sure, he’s a nice dog. But no matter how long he visits, he’s never my dog.

But then I met Blazer. I walked into a house packed with seven Beardies in full coat. One touched his nose to my hand while the others swarmed in a mass of hair. I instantly liked this dog but figured he wasn’t the one available. “That one’s Blazer,” Lucy, the breeder, said. I looked closer—he was the only black and white dog. My last dog was a black and white Springer so my mom and I both have a thing for that color! I sat on the floor to pet the circling dogs and Blazer kept coming over to gently lick my cheek. When the pack settled down, Blazer sat on the side of the kitchen with my family as if he was already ours.

My favorite part of seeing him was when Lucy brought him out to demonstrate his agility work. He zoomed out the weave poles and jumped up high—he looked like he was having a blast! He tripped up a few times so I’m looking forward to taking some agility classes to hone his skills. I also realize now that his foundation in obedience allows me to branch out to work on more complicated training exercises including therapy and scent work.

If it had been any of her other dogs, I wouldn’t have been sold. I would have had to visit some more older dogs until I found the right one but Blazer is Special with a capital S and when my friend adopted her older Lab, she said she had a similar experience. Puppies are cute, but remember that you can fall in love with an older dog too so when looking for a new dog, consider the pros and cons and what would be best for your situation.

“Reaching the Animal Mind” by Karen Pryor is an awesome training book is opening my eyes to just how creative animals can be. Karen has trained a variety of animals—dolphins, wolves, gorillas, etc She trained her fish to go through a hoop for food although one time she wasn’t ready with the treat to reward him. The fish dropped to the bottom of the tank, respiration doubled. She said she didn’t know a fish could get so upset! You can see it happen in this video.

A whistle marks a correct behavior for dolphins. After they hear the whistle, they get a treat. Typically, Karen uses this technique to convince an animal to repeat a behavior, or to move closer to the desired behavior so the treats are repeated. With Malia the dolphin, she decided to try a game now called Show Me Something New. So she would only whistle/treat a new behavior, thus encouraging Malia to be creative and explore new ways to earn her fish. The first few behaviors Malia came up with were normal things that dolphins do… waving fins, a tailslap, etc Eventually she ran out of those behaviors and began to branch out. She offered aerial flips and twirls, even a beautiful upside-down jump that Karen has never seen another dolphin do.

Then, there was Malia’s art project. The cement at the bottom of her tank was covered with a thin layer of silt. For her new behavior, she swam circles at the bottom of the pool and used the tip of her dorsal fin to make beautiful loops in the silt. Karen tried the Show Me Something New game with another dolphin. Hou did a few flips, spit, and nodded. He “was able to innovate, but Hou was not Malia. Malia, face it, was an artist.”

You can try the Something New game with your pet—not just dogs, if Karen can train a fish then cats can be trained too! A version of the game is called 101 Things to Do With a Box. Set a box on the floor and say ‘Yes!’ (or use a clicker, etc) and treat each time your pet does something new. Don’t cheat and give suggestions, just wait it out and see what happens.

If you’d like to know more about Karen’s style of training (clicker training, in the dog world), the best resource I’ve found is actually a free e-book called Mind to Mind: Training Levels. I do highly recommend “Reaching the Animal mind” for the psychology involved and hilarious anecdotes but “Mind to Mind” has more practical instructions.

Let us know what your pet comes up with!!

I’d heard of clicker training but couldn’t understand why a dog would care about a clicking noise. Still, it’s a method used by many people who train their dogs for complex tasks like agility and freestyle (doggie dancing) so I began to research it. The first thing I learned is that the clicker is not a remote control! It creates a marker sound (click!) that signals a correct behavior and a coming reward (rewards can be food, tug-o-war, praise, etc). Because it’s short and immediate, it can be precise. With treats alone, you might try to give your dog a treat for sitting but then he gets up to get the treat…so what he’s really being rewarded for is getting up. You can use a verbal marker like ‘Yes!’ but variations in tone and emotion, not to mention it being a word used outside of training, means this isn’t as clear to the dog as the sound a clicker makes.

The fascinating thing for me about this type of training is that it gets your dog’s brain working. Typically, I have trained my dogs to sit by luring them with a treat. But they’re not really thinking about sitting, they’re thinking about the food and happen to come into a sit position because I lift the food over their head. I’ve also tried pushing my dogs into position—it’s not harmful but it’s not getting them to think either. Using clicker training, I instead “shape” behavior by click+rewarding each step the dog makes toward the desired behavior. Once they’re doing the behavior consistently, you can begin adding a cue/command and gradually decrease the treats. If you’re lucky, you can also “capture” a behavior. For example, a sit. Even wild puppies eventually sit down for a break…there’s your chance to click+reward. Once your dog realizes that his actions make you give him a reward, he might even start “throwing” behaviors at you to see what he can earn!

You can see an example of teaching a Great Dane to go to bed in this video.

For more about clicker training (and an entertaining read about a crazy Border Collie), check out “Shaping Success” by Susan Garrett.

Some other training tips to keep in mind:

-“Charge” your marker at the start of each session by clicking/rewarding for nothing

-Keep training sessions short and fun (timing depends on the dog)

-Avoid corrections (ie if your dog lays down instead of sitting let the lack of click/reward show that it’s not what you wanted)

-Aim for success—keep your reward criteria easy enough that your dog is earning a treat 70% of the time

-Vary rewards (sometimes no reward, sometimes a great reward)

-Heighten the criteria for rewards to be earned

-Use jackpots (lots of treats/really good toy) for breakthroughs

-End on a high note even if it means going back to a much simpler behavior