Employee of the Month

Are you one of those dog owners who praises a dog for a job well done?  If not, you should.  And if you do, remember to be consistent with your praising.  If you're wondering where we're getting at, of course we're going to explain ourselves! 

You see, one of our owners taught us from a very early age to protect our home and surrounding area.  We learned that if we barked at strangers and/or strange sounds around our home, our owner would praise us and give us a treat.  Being intelligent, dashing canines that we are, we took full advantage of this 'job offer' and barked at strange people who passed our house because that was what our owner taught us. 

Now, you may think that barking at every person who goes by may be going a little overboard, but remember that we are just canines and we do not have logic, so even if the person passing by is not a threat, we do not know this.  All we know is to react, which means we bark.  However, we do have a sense of smell, so when that person who comes by our house and/or up to the door is 'familiar' to us (meaning, we recognize their scent), we probably will not bark, but will become extremely excited (ex: when one of our owners walks up the sidewalk and we recognize them and start wagging our tails excessively and knock over a fan, etc).

We wanted to bring this type of scenario to your attention because last night, we heard strange sounds outside of our house and we sounded the alarm (Rocky howling and Desi barking in high-pitched, short barks).  One of our owners (not the owner who taught us the personal protection/guarding skills) became very agitated with our alarming noises and told us to stop it.  This really confused us...weren't we supposed to alert our owners if unfamiliar sights and sounds approached???  Since our other owner recognizes canine behavior a little better, he calmly proceeded to get our attention, thank us for alerting them, and then practiced our 'down' techniques that we learned with grilled chicken bits a few months earlier.  Once we heard the down command, we immediately laid down and remained calm.

We may not be perfect (even though we think we are), but we are smart, loyal, and passionate towards our owners.  Whether you teach us good habits/tricks/commands or bad habits/tricks/commands, we will always be consistent in our behavior, so please remember this before punishing us and/or reacting in a negative manner after we did something that we more than likely were taught or learned from our owner.  We may just be dogs, but we deserve your respect and to be treated fairly because everything we do, we do in our owner's best interests.

Happy Birthday to us!!

Sometimes, good things come in pairs.  For us, this past weekend was a 'double the fun' weekend.  Of course, we had a lot of fun celebrating the 4th of July (minus the loud, scary fireworks that numerous goofballs set off around the neighborhood).  However, the real excitement was our third birthday celebration!  For those of you 'not in the know,' the black dogs of the Toes N' Tails Gang (Rocky and Desi) turned 3 years old on June 30th.

How did we celebrate you're probably thinking?  We celebrated by taking a trip north to enjoy our birthday with our brother Murphy (also born on June 30th).  Not once, but twice, we enjoyed dog bone sundaes (if you haven't had one, it's vanilla soft serve ice cream with 3-4 dog biscuits mixed in). 

To be completely honest with you, the process of us enjoying our treats did not go as smoothly as our owner's imagined.  For our first sundae treat, we escaped from our owner's clutches and took off into the woods searching for small animals (or whatever else we smelled).  Our owner had to get in the car and drive about a mile away to come pick us up.  Knowing that our dog bone sundaes awaited us, we jumped right into the car so we could get home ASAP!

Our second sundae treat went much smoother, however for the second treat, Desi had some real issues with the hardwood floor that the treat was placed on.  Desi scooted and scooted the dish around the floor before finally wedging the dish into a corner, where she then made quick work of the sundae.

So, we're finally 3 years old (that would be 21 in dog years).  No, we didn't celebrate 21 years like many humans do.  However, we'd much rather have a good romp around the woods and a tasty treat than anything else, so I'd say our day was pretty 'doggone' good (sorry we really couldn't resist).  Even better, we got to see our big, chubby brother Murphy, who hasn't changed one bit.

Some people covet expensive material items or trips to exotic locations for their birthdays wishes.  But for us, it really couldn't get any better than enjoying the simple pleasures such as spending time with our family, eating ice cream, and chasing squirrels around the woods.

Hot Under the Collar

We know taking car rides with your dog is an extremely pleasant experience.  You love your dog's company and the dog REALLY loves being out and about with the ability to take in so many smells and sounds.   However, there are a few precations that you should take when your canine friend is riding along with you.

First, never, ever, ever let the dog ride in your lap as you are driving.  If you don't do this and wonder how anyone could drive with a dog in your lap, well it does happen and we've seen it.  If you do do this while driving, stop immediately!!  This is dangerous for you and your pet!  What if the pet hits the steering wheel and you wreck?  What if the pet distracts you and you wreck?  What if the pets leg gets caught and twisted in the steering wheel when you turn?  None of those are desirable options, so please keep your canine in the back seat.  The back seat will still allow him to sniff, see, and hear everything around him and your dog will be quite content to have 'their own space' in the car during the trip.

Secondly, if you stop to run errands while your dog is with you and the temperature is 75 degrees or above outside, please do not leave your dog in the car for more than 3-5 minutes at a time (not 35, but only three to five!!).  Dogs have a body temperature that is higher than humans and with the permanent fur coats that we carry around (yes, thinning hair/bald guys are jealous of us), it gets hot FAST when dogs are stuck in a hot car.  Even with the windows cracked, the temperature to a dog is extremely uncomfortable as well as unhealthy/unsafe.  If you truly care about your dog, you will take this advice to heart!
Lastly, do not let your dog stick his head out of the window when the car is traveling at high speeds.  Most vets will tell you to never let your dog stick his head out the window (because of eye safety issues with the wind affecting the eyes and/or flying bugs/objects getting into their eyes).  However, our owner lets us put our heads out the window if we're just puttering around the city or neighborhood as we're really only averaging a speed of 10-15 mph (with all of the stopping), so they think that is ok.  But if you are unsure, err on the side of caution and crack those windows only enough so the dog can stick his nose out.

We hope these car tips are suggestions that you really take to heart.  Not just for the dog's safety, but for your safety as well.  Now if you'll please excuse us, we're about to pile into the the car for a nice long car ride north.  We can wait to see what smells, sights, and sounds are in store for us on the way!!!

Our Favorite Spot

When you were training your dog, do you remember the exact details of the training session?  Where you were, what time was it, what were the surroundings?  You may or may not, but the chances are, your dog familiarized itself with those details and those details helped your dog make it through the training session.

We mention training surroundings because someone recently came to one of our owners with a question.  What was that question, you may be wondering?  The question was "why does my dog go find a carpeted area of the house to get sick on (or even worse, to eliminate (use the 'restroom' to you humans)) instead of going/staying on a hard (easier to clean) surface such as hardwood/tile/laminate flooring?

The reason that canines may search out the carpet or rugs for these occurances is largely due to the fact that when you're training them to go outside, you take them to eliminate (potty) or get sick on a grassy surface.  Since the dog uses this surface successfully and is reinforced with a treat and/or praise for using the grassy surface, the dog files that rough surface into his reaction database for a later time period.  Reaction you are saying to yourself?  Yes, reaction is what we call that.  You see, dogs really don't "remember" things in their life, they really just react to situations and individuals.

A dog has no logical thinking skills, no way to track time, and no way to remember specifics.  A dog's present and future behavior is based largely on feel, smell, and sound.  Feel meaning if the ground is rough and that is where the dog goes to the potty, than that dog will usually always go in the grass (or on gravel, etc).   If you train the dog to eliminate on concrete or a hard, smooth surface, than that dog will usually always go on concrete (or a hard, smooth surface).  This is why a dog heads straight for the carpet (rough) when inside if they have an emergency where they just can't hold it until the door is opened for them.  Please keep this in mind when reacting to what your dog did....they are just doing what you praised them to do!!!  Also, please keep in mind that if you do not catch a dog in the act of a negative activity (going inside, biting/chewing on something it should not, etc), you have to catch them in the act (yell loudly 'NO') or else you might as well not even say anything at all.  If you come home to find that your dog has chewed up your shoes and they are not currently in the act of chewing, the dog will have no clue whatsoever what you are talking (or yelling) about if you decide to react towards them, so you may as well save your breath.  When our owners were trying to train us to not chew on stuff or to not potty inside, they would 'bait' us (put stuff out for us to chew on and then hide) into that behavior so they could catch us in the act (and yell 'NO') so we would file that behavior away as something that we should not do.

We can also give you a few examples of smell and sound.  Smell meaning that they can identify other dogs or people or places based on the smell of who is around them/where they're going (dogs can smell a great distance away, so if your dog gets excited when you're not that close to the destination it's because they already can smell where you're headed (if they've been there before)).  Sound meaning that they can identify if a situation will be positive or negative based on what they're hearing (if you have ever been around a dog that is scared of men, it's not because (well, it's hopefully not because) of the current male in their life, but probably because of a past experience with a male that was not kind to them.  Dogs hear the deep voice of a man and react to negative experiences based on that deep voice.  The same holds true for vaccum cleaners or whatever other crazy noises scare your dog.  And just remember, if you chase the dog around playfully with the vaccum once and the dog doesn't find this funny, the dog will probably be hesitant around a vacuum for the rest of his life.

We hope this rambling information helps you out.  Remember, in training sessions, it's not the dog who is usually the problem, it's more than likely an incompetent training (and that includes some 'professional' trainers).  We're headed to a nice shady spot to cool off, so we suggest that you find one as well!

Dog Treat Olympics

Like most dogs, when we were young pups, our owners attempted to train us to do certain functions necessary to our behavioral development (stay, sit, down, etc) as well as specific 'tricks' for their enjoyment (speak, shake, etc).  Throughout these training sessions, our owners were consistent in their praise as well as their reward method.  The reward method which we speak of is treats.

Now, for the novice dog owner, 'treat' is basically the same thing, which would be any sort of reward that a dog seems to enjoy (dog biscuits, dog bones, human food are just a few).  However, some dog trainers feel that classifying treats on different levels and rewarding those treats based on the degree of difficulty of a function/trick/skill that a dog has accomplished.

Since you're reading with intense anticipation, we're going to let you in on these levels just because we're that darn thoughtful of our human companions.  The three levels of treats that we receive from our owners are gold treats, silver treats, and bronze treats.  Examples of bronze treats would be pieces of dry dog food (seriously, some dogs cannot tell the difference between what they eat for meals and what they get for treats), carrot sticks, Milk-Bone biscuits, or any hard dog biscuit that you buy at a store or make at home (check out the internet for many easy, cheap, and quick to make/bake dog treat recipes that are more than likely a lot healthier than mass-produced dog treats you find at major retailers).  Examples of silver treats would be meatier/smellier treats such as 'Snausages' or something along the lines of that, peanut butter treats (store bought or homemade), or pieces of cheese (they can be slices or small cubes).  Examples of gold medal treats would be pieces of cut up hot dog, pieces of cut up chicken breast (small cubes), or small pieces of sliced steak (our FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).  Dogs are natural carnivores, so when you bring out smelly animal flesh, we're probably going to do whatever is necessary to obtain that piece of meat.

How you reward these level of treats is subjective to your individual training situation.  For a new pup, any sort of acquired training (potty outside, sit, down, etc) deserves a gold treat at the beginning stages of the dog's life.  However, as the dog develops into an adult and needs more advanced challenges (stay, fetch, etc), you can then start to work with the different levels of treats.  When we were young pups, we received all sorts of treat levels for potty breaks and for sitting down.  Once we got a bit older, we strictly got bronze treats for those actions and our owners focused on more advanced training (stay, down, leave it) for the silver and gold treats.  Once those were mastered, our owners moved on to the most difficult challenges (tricks or training in front of distractions (other people, other animals, other dogs (we didn't group 'dogs' with animals because we believe that we're somewhere in the middle of the two....not techincally people, but definitely not just an 'animal' of some sort)).

Keep in mind that the more distractions around the dog, the tougher it will be to train the dog.   This holds true even if you have gold treats for the dog.  When Rocky was a pup, our owners could have been holding a raw piece of New York Strip in their hands and he would not have cared if there were distractions around him (squirrels, open/unfenced areas, etc).  When you're just starting to train and/or are moving onto more difficult training routines that the dog has not mastered, please be sure to try to limit the distractions by training in your own home, then in your own backyard, and then finally in more public areas such as parks.

If your dog is very smart and very good at easily/quickly picking up any and all training and tricks, you may want to consider moving onto stuff like agility training or water sports (retrieving, etc).  We canines love a good challenge and there is nothing that can get us in trouble faster than not being challenged (ex: staying at home all day bored and unexercised while our owner is at work/out at a restaurant, etc).

We hope these training tips and treat classifications help you out!  As always, if you have questions or comments, please leave them in the comments section and we'll address them.  In the meantime, happy training!!!

The First Day of Summer

While the recent warm weather has definitely caused a little discomfort to us canines (while don't you try walking around all day in a permanent winter coat), we are excited to announce that we have a new favorite appliance in our owner's home.  No, it's not the vacuum cleaner and no it's not the dishwasher (both of which could disappear forever and we would not miss for a second).  Give up yet?  Well our new favorite household appliance is none other than the fan that our owner brought up from the basement a few weeks ago.

Since some strange guy came to our house a few weeks ago and told us that the metal box that sits outside the house isn't working that well, our owners have been using fans around the house.  Have we taken full advantage of these machines that cool the rooms?  Of course we have.  Being loyal fans of the Toes N Tails gang, you should be well aware of the fact that anything/anyone/anyplace that remotely benefits our lives and more importantly, our comfort level, will be held in high regard when it comes to our views on the matter.

Whether the fans are in the living rooms (during the day), the kitchen (during the times when those self-centered owners leave us at home), or in the bedroom (the evening/nighttime), we are usually parked right in front of one of these 'cool' machines.  Are you wondering if we block the airstream from our owners?  If you are wondering (and even if you aren't), the answer is yes.  Why do we care if our owners can feel the breeze or not as long as we're comfy?  Just like when we take a walk and we end up jerking our owner's arms out of their sockets when we see an attractive target (squirrel, other dog, ice cream cone in some kid's hand, etc), we take our needs/wants/desires into consideration well before we take our owner's needs/wants/desires into consideration.

Is that the correct way to go about living?  Probably not, but then again, we're just dogs, so we really don't know any better (or at least that's how we spin any situation in which our 'optimal living' may be in doubt).   Enjoy the first day of Summer and whenever you have a day where it's really hot and you long for a cool, shady spot or a spot in front of the fan, just imagine us spread out in front of one of our fans and hopefully that image will cool you off a bit.

A Shoulder To Cry On

If you've been reading this blog for quite some time, you're probably aware of just how spectacular us canines are here at the Toes N Tails gang. And if you have the opinion that we're not that spectacular, hopefully you've at least benefited from a few of the tips/suggestions that we have provided in hopes of making your daily experiences with your dog as optimal as possible.
Today, we're not going to give you any tips or suggestions on how to make your dog's life better. Today, we're going to give you a suggestion on how to make your life better. To be specific, we're talking about a resource to turn to when one of life's unexpected, unfortunate happenings rears it's ugly head and decides to happen to you. This could be a job loss, a health issue (yourself or your friends/family), a financial issue, or any other issue that causes the smile on your face and the joy in your mind to disappear. If for some reason you experience an unfortunate event that really affects you, we suggest that turning to your dog can and will be a big help in easing the pain.

Your dog? Yes, your dog. No matter how how bad it hurts or how tragic the event, your dog will be there for you to help you ease the pain.  A canine may not be able to solve your problem or reverse your tradegy, but they will be able to comfort you and give you an outlet to release your pain.  We at the Toes N Tails gang have been there for our owners in times of need and we're quite certain that your dog will be there in a time of need for you as well.  Pet us, hug us, hold us, talk to us, cry if you need to....whatever it is, we'll be there for you to comfort you. 

We make joke around about hogging the bed, chasing squirrels, and eating your unattended slice of pizza when you're not looking, but our true goal in our lives are to loyally be there for our human owners.  We want to protect you, we want to bring joy to your lives, and we want to be there for you in times of need.

If your someone that has recently been affected by life in a negative manner and could really use a pick-me-up right now, go find your dog and pet them, hold them, talk to them.  We guarantee that you'll feel at least a little bit better about your current situation.