Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Front, Come, Here…they all mean the same thing (Day One Hundred and Seven)

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There is no doubt in my mind that my dogs understand (at least in part) what I am saying to them; (which is why we say “W” for walk.)  Just how many words a dog truly understands depends upon the researcher, I have heard anywhere from 160 words to over 250!  I think there are some words that are very important for your dog to understand and these words will be your verbal commands.  You may also want to combine your training with a non-verbal a.k.a hand signals or silent commands.  If I have a hand signal for my command, I use the hand signal when I say the verbal.  If you have been doing this, try not saying anything and just using the hand signal and see what your response is.

 Just as there are varying opinions on how many words your pet understands, there are also varying opinions on what commands your dog should know.  In my mind there are some that are very important and I would like to share those with you here and (in my opinion) how and when you should use them. 

“Sit” – The most basic of the commands, and usually the easiest to teach, this means, “Put your butt on the floor/ground.” I use this command when I am feeding them; when someone is coming in the door, or when we are on walks and a car is approaching (with the hope that if for some reason my dog is EVER without me on the road, it will prevent him from getting hit by a car.) (Non-verbal is a closed fist.) 

“Down” – The command means, “Lie down,” we use this for when we are eating dinner and we do not want the dogs sitting at our sides waiting for scraps of food.   (Non-verbal is my hand palm side down, moving from about waist height down to hip level.) 

“Stay” – This means “You sit or lie where I tell you to, and you stay there until I say you get up.”  This command is important if you are bringing groceries into the house or putting them in the car and you don’t want your dog outside without you. (Non-verbal is hand palm side down, at about waist height.) 

“Wait” – Similar to stay, with the exception being “You will be allowed to participate just not yet,” most times my dogs are in the car without their leashes, when I stop and want to take them out of the car, I tell them to “Wait” this command has prevented many dogs from dashing out a door and getting hit by a car. (Non-verbal is hand with the palm side facing the dogs; like a stop sign.) 

“Place” – Our dogs lie on mats while we are eating dinner, we refer to these mats as “Place” when we sit down to eat we give each dog a treat, when we are done with dinner and they are released, we reward them each with a couple of carrots.  Sampson is so conditioned sometimes when we take the plates out of the cupboard; he automatically goes to his “place.”  Delilah hasn’t progressed that far yet. (I usually point with my finger and then say, “Stay” giving the hand command for stay.) 

Delilah on her "Place."

 

“Come” “Here” or “Front” – This command is a matter of preference, I use “Here” but my dogs will also respond to “Come.”  This means, come back from wherever you are and whatever you are doing and “Check in” with me.  Usually I am rewarding them for returning; especially if we are on the trail. (Non-verbal is me tapping the upper part of my chest a couple of times with my palm, sometimes I will just crook my finger at Sampson.) 

“Ok!”  – This is their release command, it means “We’re done” and you’re free to do whatever you want (within reason of course.)  I usually clap my hands, give them rubbies and tell them “Good Job!” 

“Crate” or “Kennel”  – What it means is “Get in your crate,” my dogs spend very little time in their crate at this stage, but if you have a new puppy or dog, it is a good basic command to teach.  What you call this is your personal preference, some people also say, “Kennel up.” (My hand signal is pointing into the crate.) 

“Leash”  – This means I need your leash on you, because I want you to stay with me.  I do not (as of yet, have a non-verbal command for this.)

“Heel” – The command means you should come and sit by my side,  most people heel their dogs on their left side but some heel to the right, depending on your preference and your dogs.  I will slap my left hand against the side of my leg as my non-verbal command.  Normally you would combine Heel with:

“Walk” or “With Me” – This means you will walk alongside me wherever we are going.  I do not have a non-verbal for this.

“STOP” or “NO” – To me this is one of if not THE most important command, it means what it says, the way I taught Sampson was NO/STOP and directed him away from whatever it was he was doing (Delilah is still learning this one.)  Once he got out of the car and saw a big black crow sitting in the road, his natural instinct was to go after it and he took off, but he did not see the car that was zooming down the hill; I screamed “Sampson, “STOP” and he put the skids on, and stopped himself just as his front feet hit the road. 🙂  I think this command saved my dog.

Of course you must find a word that you are comfortable with, that will also be easily remembered by both you and your pet. 🙂

Dogs and Children (Day One Hundred and Two)

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A number of years ago, Hubby and I went to a house party; the hosts were people we use to bowl with but didn’t see frequently; in my opinion we didn’t have a lot in common, but Hubby wanted to go, so I went.  I wasn’t having a particularly fun time, but Hubby was so we stayed; because it was a birthday party there was a keg and one of the things that really bothered me about this, was that some people had their children there.

For the most part the kids were inside the house, while the adults were outside but the host’s dog was also inside the house, and there was no adult supervision in there.  Sometime after midnight, a four-year old boy just about had his face ripped off by the dog, of course no-one actually knows what happened because they were all outside and most of them were drunk.  Seeing as I hadn’t been drinking, I offered to drive the mother and son to the hospital.  I cannot remember how many stitches that child had in his face, (I did see him a few years later and there was no scarring)  but I do remember that the dog was destroyed.

The memory of that boy and dog has haunted me for a while, which is why whenever there are children around my dogs, I am right there too.   I do not want  to place my dogs in a position where they feel threatened and feel the need to defend themselves.  I am also conscious of teaching the children who are around my dogs, to be kind to my dogs and treat them with respect.

Today my little grandson was over and Delilah had a spurt of energy and wanted to play with the ball, naturally my grandson who just turned three wants to throw the ball. I will not allow him to take the ball from Delilah, instead I sit on the floor with them and act as the intermediary;  when Delilah is ready to relinquish the ball, I hand it to my grandson and he can throw the ball.  In my opinion, this is a win-win situation, I get to spend time with my grandson and my dog, and I am teaching my grandson to respect animals.

Positive Reinforcement (Day One Hundred and One)

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Last night at obedience class I decided to try something new with Delilah; she is highly motivated by food so I filled my pocket with dried chicken and off we went.  I am very glad I did.  We had a full class with a couple of new people and dogs; and there are a number of very BIG dogs, one of the big dogs (Gunner, a Giant Schnauzer) has a tendency to “punk” the other dogs.  Simply stated this means, he will lunge at another dog while he is growling.   This scares me because he is a very big dog; and if he “punks” Delilah, she will go right back at him; generally his parents are right on top of it and rein him in, but it still worries me.  I try not to be positioned next to Gunner.

This is a Giant Schnauzer, look where his head is.

There are a couple of other dogs that tend to get aggressive on their leads and that is why they are at class, to learn how to behave around other dogs; one of these dogs is Zoe.  Zoe’s mom Marcy admits to being nervous with Zoe and her aggressiveness, so she has her on a gentle leader.  (If you are unfamiliar with a gentle leader it fits around the dogs muzzle and is designed to keep the dog from pulling, it is also supposed to make it easier for you to make corrections with your dog.)   

Last night one of the new dogs that came in was Vinnie, I thought Gunner was big but Vinnie is enormous, he is an English Mastiff and has to weigh at least 150 pounds!  I saw Vinnie coming in and I positioned me and Delilah between Chet and Sampson and Zoe and Marcy.  Vinnie didn’t seem at all aggressive but we had a huge class and moving room was tight.

An English Mastiff, now look where his head is!

While we were in a sit, Zoe punked Delilah, and this is the best part, Delilah did nothing!  Marcy was puzzled because neither one of us saw what prompted Zoe to do this, then Zoe did it again and again neither one of us saw what prompted it; but this time Delilah responded.  Since they were both on leash, it was very quickly under control.

Sara decided we were going to do weaves, so we had to put our dogs in a “sit” while we took turns walking our dog around the room and weaving in and out between the dogs.  I was a little anxious about all these dogs walking so close to Delilah and so I took one of the treats out of my pocket, held it in my hand and placed my hand down near her mouth.  Immediately she started licking at and nibbling the treat, she was so engrossed with my hand and what was inside it; that she paid not one bit of attention to any of the dogs walking around her!  Our turn to walk came, (we were last) and we passed with flying colors! 

Now Sara had us repeat the exercise with our dogs in a “down” position; Delilah’s eyes were fastened on my hand, which was in my pocket.  I would pull a treat out, she would lick and nibble, then I would wait a few seconds and pull another one out and so we managed to make it through the weaves with no incidents on our part.  For the rest of the class, Delilah’s eyes were on my pocket and nothing else, the only problem was she was so obsessed with the treat, that she kept walking around behind me to see if I had something in my other hand!

Sometimes when the class is large, some of the people make a second circle, inside the outer one and they work their dogs in there.  This is really a great exercise for the aggressive dogs because they not only have dogs in front and behind them, but dogs will be passing them on the side. After the weaves were done, Sara worked Zoe in the middle of the ring.  Chet and I happened to be in the outer ring and Sara noticed that Zoe was only tugging when she came near Sampson and Delilah.  Sara seems to think Zoe is becoming comfortable with us and our dogs, Sara thinks this is good and perhaps there will be a time when we can let Sampson, Delilah and Zoe off leash together.

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