Three Years

I've said it multiple times, when I decided to take on Seppel I had absolutely no idea what I would do with him.

For those who might be stumbling upon this blog, I got Seppel from an internet friend who passed away. Through the efforts of a dog forum and his owner's daughter we had him flown to OR from NC.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

The summer of 2012 I joined another Pit Bull forum that had local members on it and I was re-introduced to the sport of Schutzhund/IPO. Seppel took to bite work immediately. The "club" was a group of people who got together on Saturdays and some weekdays. Unfortunately this club was 2.5 hours from my house and it was a really long way to drive for training. I ended up looking for trainers more locally and wound up finding my current trainers down in Salem. It's still an hour away but the drive is much more manageable, not to mention it has been totally worth it.

Seppel has exceeded any and all expectations I had for him. Before we started doing IPO I was really worried about what I would do with him. Training Seppel was very different from training my dog Seth. Seth picks up things fairly quickly and has been pretty easy to teach new things to. Seppel and I did not have the same kind of connection and I was really at a loss as to what to do with him because more often than not he really frustrated me. [I'm sure the feeling was mutual!].

Here we are three years later. We are in an IPO club. Seppel has his CGC, URO1, and a BH. We've got our sights set on an IPO-VO in October and and IPO1 next summer. He knows "all the things" when it comes to protection and could do all three IPO protection routines. We're playing catch up with Obedience and Tracking but he has also proven to be a great little worker and is a lot of fun.

I could not have lucked out more than I have. I'm so thankful to have a dog that I can compete with, in a sport that we both enjoy. He's taught me how to be a better dog owner and a better dog trainer.

I also could not have had a better dog to introduce me to the  Pit Bull breed. Seppel is dog selective but he is not all out dog aggressive. I don't know if he would ever actually grab a dog, but he's shown me in several instances that he could be aggressive. I believe if another dog wanted to go, he would be down. While he can be selective, he is controllable around most other dogs and can control himself when we are working. I am always really careful if I have him off leash somewhere, I try to be mindful and watch the area - if another dog comes into an area that we are in I will typically leash Seppel until the other dog is out of sight. Usually if I have his ball he's fine - all he cares about is the ball. He has a lot of energy but it is manageable. There have been days where I have been too sick to exercise him and he is okay although by day 2-3 he is pretty restless. Generally speaking if I don't do something with him daily he will follow me around and has a hard time settling down. Seppel is not a "real deal" apbt, but I think he is a very good "starter" dog for me in the breed. He is tenacious, he's always game to do whatever it is I want to do. He always wants to have fun and can usually handle anything I throw at him. As far as his personality goes I think he is everything a Pit Bull should be.

Seppel has absolutely changed my life and I am so thankful he's here!

He's even been teaching me how to be a helper!

What to Look for in a Dog Trainer

Just what should you be looking for, when looking for a dog trainer?

I think this is something important to write about and share because when I threw this question around to a few of my friends they agreed this question is kind of subjective.

I chose the trainers that I train with based on experience and certification. I was also looking for someone who specialized in the sport of Schutzhund. Jennifer has been in the sport of Schutzhund for 20+ years and is a Schutzhund judge. To become a DVG judge you must:

• Be a minimum of 25 years old and maximum of 55 years old
• Be a DVG member for a minimum of 5 years
• Have at minimum, 1 year as training director (club or LV)
• Have been a trial chairperson for a few trials
• Only be a judge in one organization
• Have titled two dogs from IPO 1 to IPO 3 or (VPG) and one of these dogs (or another dog) must have a BH and an FH
• Have been a helper (in some cases theoretical knowledge is enough)

Ryan is a level 3 helper which is the highest certification you can receive. It means that he is certified to work competitions on the National and International level. He too has 20+yrs of dog experience.

For what I want to do, both Ryan and Jennifer are more than qualified. When I first met them for training I was able to see how they worked with both my dog and I. We share similar ideals and philosophies when it comes to dogs and I am comfortable with the way they train. Jennifer has used e-collars on some of the dogs she trains but has never made me feel pressured to use one. What I like about both Jennifer and Ryan is that they treat dogs as individuals and there is no one training method they use. Most of their training is motivational reward based training but they do use some aversives. I am not purely positive but I do not use harsh corrections with my dogs. I prefer to use rewards and motivation in my training. They are happy to accommodate that and I have never been pressured to do something with my dog that I am not comfortable with.

As a person who may not be looking at a specific sport here are some things I think are important to look at when considering someone.

-What are their qualifications? Do their personal dogs seem well trained? Have they titled dogs in any sports or conformation? How long have they been working with dogs? What is their training background? How much experience do they have training dogs?
****While having titled dogs is not a requirement for teaching the basics, if this person has done nothing with their dogs - how do you know they are capable of training your dog? A title essentially shows that the person was capable and willing of putting the work in to train their dog for something specific. It is a way to show the effort that they have put in in training the dog.
-What breeds do they have experience working with?
****You want to find someone who has experience with multiple dog breeds, also someone who sees dogs as individuals and doesn't approach every dog the same. Not every dog thinks the same way.

-What methods do they use?
****Be clear in what your intentions are. Does this trainer use aversives such a prong collars, choke chains, or leash corrections? Does this trainer use a clicker? Does this trainer use positive reinforcement only? I strongly encourage researching various training methods to decide what you think is best for your dog.
-Can you audit a private session or class?
****You should be able to watch this trainer train to decide if they would be a good match for you and your dog.
-Talk to people! Meet with various trainers, talk to them about your dog and what you are looking for. You don't have to settle with just one person, interview several and then decide who might be the best match for both you and the dog.

As I said previously, what we all seek in trainers is dependent on the individual and what they need.

At this point in time, you do not have to have any special qualifications to become a dog trainer. There are schools: Starmark Academy, National k9 School for dog trainers, Florida Dog Trainer[E-collar], Animal Behavior College just to name a few. There is also certification via CCPDT. However nothing is required and anyone can claim to be a dog trainer. As a dog owner it is our responsibility to research and advocate for our pets.
****Experience is more important to me than a piece of a paper. Many trainers have years of experience under their belt but have not gotten any special certifications. I wouldn't rely on a piece of paper to determine whether or not a trainer is a good one.

I would not recommend any type of "boot camp" or training where you leave the dog with the trainer for X weeks. While it's great to send your dog off for training, YOU need to be there to learn how to train YOUR dog! Not to mention you don't know how they are treating your dog if you are not there seeing the dog daily. An exception would be a place that boards & trains, while having you as the owner out multiple times a week to learn how to work your own dog. Overall I just don't think that type of training is necessary, you are better off scheduling a private lesson once a week so you can work one on one with the trainer to learn how to teach your dog specific behaviors.

In closing, for the goals I have personally I would not seek out a trainer who did not have titled dogs. Often times the trainers I recommend to people are active in the dog world, they either do obedience or they show in conformation as well as various other dog sports. Especially for training basics I feel an obedience instructor, or someone who competes in obedience, is more than capable of teaching basic commands because obedience as a sport is just an extension of the basics - sit, down, heel, stay etc.

I hope this is somewhat helpful. I didn't want to get into it too deeply but hopefully this gives you a place to start when looking for a trainer!

Fit Dog Friday: Swimming Safety

Today's Fit Dog post is brought to you by Seth who tried to drown today!

The weather has been dreadfully hot lately. I have started swimming the dogs [the boys particularly] when it's super hot out because my dogs [especially Seppel] need an outlet for their energy. When it is really hot out it is hard to give them adequate exercise and is even really too hot to do any training outside.

We go to the same park and there are two places we can go to swim. One part of the park has large river access and they are swimming in fairly deep water, another part I think is actually a creek and not the river and it is far more shallow with swimming access only in the middle.

Seth has had several close calls. The first time he tried to freak me out, he grabbed a large tree in the water and was trying to pull it up to bring it to shore.  The second close call was more recently. He tried to grab who balls in the water [long story about that haha] and he ended up vertical and was struggling to right himself. The big scare came today when he got water in his ear. He was in the middle of the river in the deepest part and was trying to shake the water out of his ear, he went under water 2-3 times and finally righted himself and came back to shore. I almost had a heart attack!

The thing is, I own a dog life jacket. I bought one for Seppel when I was rehabbing him from his FHO surgery. I don't know why I didn't really think about it when I started letting the dogs swim. I guess I thought they were pretty good at it and that nothing would happen. Today was very eye opening for me, a few things crossed my mind. The first thing was, if I had to jump in after him - could I find him? I don't know for sure how deep the river is, but it is pretty dark water and even though I knew the area he was in I really wonder how easily I could find him to drag him out. The second thing I was thinking of was that I am not a great swimmer, I can swim but I am nothing special. What if I drowned in the process of trying to save my dog?

With that in mind, I stopped at petsmart on the way home tonight and bought Seth his own life jacket! Both boys have one now and they will wear them when they go swimming. I think it's better safe than sorry. Seth is a fairly strong swimmer, but he obviously gets a little distracted and isn't super concerned for his well being. Seppel is cautious to begin with and not nearly as good of a swimmer as Seth is, so it's good for him to wear one as well.

I have yet to take LiLo out to see if she is interested in swimming. I will definitely purchase a life jacket for her as well if she really gets into it or put one of theirs on her.

I don't frown upon people who do not make their dogs wear life jackets to swim. I never would have really considered it if I didn't have what I felt were a few close calls with my own dogs. I would just be so heart broken if something happened to one of them.

Here are a few pictures from tonight. I like Seppel's life jacket better than Seth's, I think the design is better. However Seth's is less bulky.

Pacific Northwest Regional Championships 2015

This past weekend a friend and I went out to watch the PacNW Regional Championship in Centralia Washington. To my knowledge and from what we saw this was a German Shepherd event, but don't quote me.

We had a lot of fun watching the obedience and protection routines. It's always interesting to see how other dogs work. It only rained a little bit. Not enough to ruin the day.The lighting was hard to deal with, I only got a few pictures, but it was really fun to go, and fun to go with a friend!

8 Photos of Happiness

I was tagged by ZoePhee to post eight photos of Happiness.Thanks for the tag, I love posting pictures of my crew - they make me the happiest!

Here are the guidelines for this tag:

1. Thank your nominator(s) and link them to your post.
2. Link to the creator of the tag, Ariel's Little Corner of the Internet.
3. Post your eight photos of happiness.
4. Pop in a brief description of the photo, why you chose it, or just let the photo do the talking!
5. Spread the happiness and tag up to 10 other bloggers.

******I Tag anyone reading this post who would like to join!******

Wordless Wednesday

Dogs as Individuals

Something I don't understand are the people who do not allow their dogs to be individuals. These people dress their dogs alike and their dogs do everything together. In some cases the dogs cannot even be separated because their owner has set it up so the dogs are so bonded to each other they cannot be apart. I've also seen a few scenarios where Dog A loves to fetch but Dog B does not, so the dog owner makes it their mission to teach Dog B that fetch is fun.

You can teach a dog a lot of behaviors, but you cannot teach natural drive.

Don't get me wrong, you can build up the drive that the dog already has, but Dog A - who loves to fetch, will always be better/faster/happier at it than Dog B who is doing it because you taught them to/you've given them some type of incentive - not because they inherently have the drive for it.

I think it is a really easy trap to fall into. I have three dogs with varying levels of toy and prey drive. It would be awesome if they would all play with the flirt pole - it's a quick and easy way to wear my dogs out. However, only Seppel and LiLo enjoy the flirt pole. It would be just as awesome if they could all do IPO. However neither Seth nor LiLo have the drive for bite work that Seppel has. While it can make my life difficult in some ways, I am really learning to appreciate each dog as an individual. This became extremely apparent to me after taking Seth and Seppel swimming last night.

Yesterday was super hot. I decided to take Seth and Seppel to a local park to go swimming. I have had it in my head that I would love to try dock diving with Seppel. When we got to the park and started playing I quickly realized that Seth is far more driven in the water than Seppel is.

Seppel has no problems fetching his ball [or a toy] from the water, but he is extremely careful about it. I don't think he dislikes the water - he will gladly go in, but he is cautious. I think he enjoys playing fetch and I think he enjoys going for the ball, but it is not his favorite game - much like dry land fetch is.

Seth on the other hand seems to really enjoy swimming and fetching the ball in the water. He is super fast about it and jumps right in. When we pulled up to the park today Seth was super excited and vocal, he knew what we were going to do and he was ready to go!

It really got me thinking as we headed home last night how different Seth and Seppel are. I had high hopes for Seth to do IPO [before I had Seppel] and because it is something I can do with Seppel I have put a lot of my focus on him. Watching Seth going after the ball in the creek made me really start thinking about his potential for doing dock dogs. It also made me realize that I need to accept that dock dogs is probably something Seppel will ever do. I can probably teach him to jump off of a dock, or build his confidence in the water so he becomes faster - but he simply does not have the drive for it that Seth does. That's perfectly OKAY! It's exciting to me to find something different that Seth can do [and enjoy!].

I really do appreciate the differences between my three dogs. Between the boys I have dogs I can do various sports with, and with LiLo I can rely on her to behave when I take her places - she is a wonderful companion dog. I appreciate that I can take all three of them somewhere and they can run around together and get along, but I am really happy with their individual personalities and individual strengths that they have to do different things. I also appreciate that I can separate them all, and while the dogs who have to stay home might be bummed - they don't completely fall apart and lose it.

In closing, I just think it's important to recognize and appreciate your dogs for who they are. To accept the drive that they have or don't have, to be happy with who each of them are, as individual dogs.