Stray Dogs

I used to live in a house on a secluded corner, between two stop signs where it was convenient for people to drop off animals, especially dogs. I would wake up a lot of mornings and find empty containers that had food in them and a puppy or dog wandering around outside. On occasion, when I wasn't home, I would come home and find a dog tied to my front porch. Sadly enough, there was a highway not far from the house and I'd find a lot of cats or dogs that would get hit by cars and trucks and I would end up burying them, just because someone wanted an animal and then changed their mind, deciding it would be better to drop it off and forget about it. I would always check to make sure and see if the dog had a collar or tags, a lot of the time they didn't have anything at all. I would take pictures, make flyers for 'found dog' and post them around local businesses and put an ad in the newspaper. The newspaper here will let you put an ad in for free if an animal is found. Not a lot of people would come forward and claim their dog. I would try to find homes for the drop offs. I would call the local shelters and the pound to see if anyone was looking for them and if they could take the dogs. Usually there was no one looking for them and there would be a waiting list to get the dogs somewhere safe, where they could be properly taken care of, so I would keep them until there was room for them. I moved a couple years ago,unfortunately the people that moved into my old house have the same problem I did with drop offs and strays. I am still trying to understand why people would do this to an animal, hoping that maybe it would get lucky and someone would take it. Probably not considering that it might get hit by a car or truck, it could get in a fight with a wild animal and have a violent ending. why they would shirk the responsibility off on to someone they don't even know? What always made people think that someone else would or could take care of their unwanted pets ? If you have a dog and he seems a little unruly or untrainable and you're thinking about dropping it off somewhere, consider obedience training, working with your dog just a little bit more or finding a home for him yourself. Keeping a puppy and keeping up with the proper care and training of one is rewarding and well worth the effort!

Dog Hoarders

Last night I was looking for something to watch on Netflix and came across a series called 'Confessions: Animal Hoarding' and I couldn't believe what I was seeing! People that have an excessive amount of animals, especially dogs that they had somehow accumulated. Most started with two or three and end up with more than the average person could possibly handle. The biggest problem I think there is, is not getting their animals spayed or neutered and getting attached to and not re-homing the new puppies. I think it could be really easy to become a pet hoarder but not so easy to take care of a lot of animals all at the same time. Seriously, how much attention can someone give 10, 20 or more pets?! What I seen on this show was a lot of serious abuse and neglect from owners that really didn't realize they were abusing or neglecting and thinking that no one else would or could take care of these animals or love them as much as they did. A lot of the homes where these animals were, weren't even clean enough for an animal to live in and would cause the owners serious medical problems. The other thing that caught my attention was the massive amounts of money people would spend on dog food and toys but no veterinarian care. Putting the dogs first and making sure they had enough dog food to feed these large broods before they would buy food for themselves or for their own family to eat. That makes no sense to me at all. If a human doesn't take care of their own needs and health first, how can they take care of any animal? If pet hoarding is a priority over their own health, there is always the possibility that these people might end up not being able to take care of their 'pets' and ending up having to be hospitalized, or some maybe even dying, with no one knowing these pets exist and a massive amount of animals dying of starvation or disease.

Bear - Training an Outside Dog to be an Inside Dog

Bear is a 6 month old lab mix puppy that has mostly been outside and kenneled, not being left to roam around in the house very much at all because he would walk around his house and pee everywhere he would walk.
I'm babysitting him for a while, probably for a month or so and my plan is to have him completely housebroken before he goes back home. He was brought to me with his kennel and that is where I keep him at night or if I'm not home with him. My two dogs are housebroken and usually I let them have access to water when ever they want it but this week with Bear here, the rules have changed. No water sitting out in bowls and I make sure everyone closes the lid on the toilet. I have been taking him out every two hours. At First I would take him outside, he would do his business, pee and poop and then I would bring him in the house. It seemed like as soon as I would bring him in, he would pee on the floor. I got an old towel and would wipe up his pee with it and put him and the old towel in his kennel, he has never peed inside his kennel since he has been here. Every time he has an accident, I do the same thing each time. I take him out now, every two hours, leave him on the run for ten minutes, bring him in the house, have him wipe his feet and pet him. He is doing really good!
Hopefully in the next week or so I will be able to only put him in the kennel at night. Surprisingly, he really hasn't been chewing up anything. I gave him a chew toy but he really shows no interest in it. The sad thing is, every time I train a dog for someone else, I'm sad to see them go because I tend to get attached but know Mommy, Daddy, the rest of the family and puppy will all be happier and he will have a forever home! People are less likely to re-home a puppy or dog that is housebroken and follows commands instead of doing whatever they want to do or are left unattended outside. Outside dogs tend to be neglected or forgotten.

Training Buddy with Sign Language

Signal for Sit

From the day I got Buddy and started training him, I used hand signals with words. Now when I want him to do something, I can use a hand signal or word and either way, he understands. The first signal he learned was sit, I use my pointer finger and point up. An open hand facing him is stop. My hand flat and parallel to the ground is lay down. A fist is quiet, almost the same signal as sit but pointer finger is bent in with the rest of my fingers. I always have the open side of my hand facing him so he doesn't take it as a threat. You can use any hand signal you want to train with, just make sure you are always consistent with the signals so you don't confuse your dog. At first I would forget to use the signals or forget which signals I used for what and then realized if I didn't know what I was doing, neither did Buddy. For rewards I used treats and petting at first, then I slowed on the treats and went to petting and belly rubbing. I can't always have a treat in hand for him so the petting is more convenient, he isn't always expecting food treats and I don't have to worry about whether he will work with me or not, he will and most dogs will because they love attention!!

Wipe Your Feet

My dogs have been trained to wipe their feet when they come in from the outside, it was one of the easiest things to teach them other than 'sit' and it sure does help keep the floor a lot cleaner during wet or muddy seasons. The easiest way to teach them is if you have stairs in the house as soon as they come indoors. Preferably carpeted stairs that are easy to maintain and keep clean. I have older carpet and what I do is wait until it is dry outside and run the shop vac over them and if they get really bad, I run the carpet cleaner over them but don't make the dogs wipe their feet until it dries again. How did I do it? The first thing I did was call my son to the door every time I brought the dogs in (one at a time, of course!) then I stand at the top of the stairs, my son would stand at the bottom. I would say "go wipe your feet" and my son would clap twice. We did this every time the dogs came in from outside. It only took two days for both dogs to learn this, they were about a year old when I decided 'wiping their feet' was a better alternative than wiping off their paws and scrubbing the floor every time they came in. I think with a little more work, you could most likely get a dog to wipe off his feet on an area rug, maybe walking in a circle around the rug two times while telling him to 'wipe your paws!' I don't give them treats, I give them a moment of attention before I let them come upstairs into the rest of the house.

Chasing His Tail

Dogs are too funny! Buddy chases his tail all the time and never has caught it, not even once, after four years. He always goes around in little circles, always ends up almost falling over, growling at his own tail like it will stop and wait for him to catch it. Then there is Duncan who has no tail, so what does he do? He chases Buddy's tail! I always wonder what is it that makes a dog chase his tail or what makes a dog chase another dogs tail? I can get them toys and play with them for hours but they must eventually get bored or annoyed because they always revert back to tail chasing. Why do they chase their tail in the first place? If a dog ends up chasing and catching his own tail, what will happen? Will he hurt himself? If he bites his own tail, will he stop chasing it? Do dogs eventually outgrow chasing their tail? Even if I never figure all of this out, it's great entertainment just sitting and watching all the chaos!

House Breaking a Puppy

When I get a new puppy, I always forget all the time and work involved in training a new pup. I always forget that it's a lot like having a little 2 or 3 years old human child around the house that can't talk. I really don't like doing it to them, but the most effective way I've found to house break a new puppy is crate training them. It seems kind of cruel but it works and it doesn't take long. Normally it ends up being between 1 and 3 weeks.

I put them in a crate most of the day and night. If a puppy is in a crate, not much bigger than they are, they usually won't pee or poop in it. If you are lazy about letting them out and they have no choice, yes, they will make a mess inside and then you end up working twice as hard to train them and it just makes it a more frustrating and longer process. You are going to need time, a lot of time to spend with your new puppy while trying to train him. Every two or three hours, you want to let him out. The first thing to do when you let him out is to take him outside and to walk him. Pups and dogs will both walk in circles until they do their business. When it's time to go back in, you can give them food and water. After giving them food and water, put them back in the crate until they whine to go back out again. Positive reinforcements, petting and talking to them works well. After they go out and do their business a second time, let them back in to play and learn with you anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour and then put them back in the crate for another two hours. Leaving food and water with a puppy is a bad idea, they tend to over eat and have to randomly pee and poop, not giving you or the puppy a fair chance at being trained. It might sound mean, putting them in a crate for two or three weeks, but the training is well worth it!