Dog Handling

Its all about behaviour!

So here we are again another month in 2016 May and it has to be one of the warmest autumns on records. Great for night Dog Training.

Over this last six months I have been doing lectures at the SPCA in Rotorua with their permanent paid workers and permanent volunteers. This has been a most enlightening experience for me and hopefully a new way of looking at dogs for the receivers of the information as well.

I started the lecture season with a chat about Interaction. You see to me 'Training' an animal is not really what I want. I want a two way conversation with that animal by way of Interaction. I don't really want to have to beat an animal over the head and tell it 'I am boss' listen to me. I want the animal to love and respect me while knowing that I will love and respect them in return. I like to get an understanding with the animal that it is not the lesser being but we need to get our behaviors meshed in some way so that we can do things together for the benefit of each other.

Now the more I thought about this, the more it became a wacky way of looking at our life sharing with other creatures. For example I own a pet Cow. Her name is Wave. We have been living together and sharing for 13 years. It’s a long time to know an animal. She is just lovely and we understand each other. There is nothing nicer than the cold winter mornings in the shed with her. Leaning against her surprisingly warm body and releasing her steaming creamy milk while she munches on whatever I have prepared from the garden or from the bakery in town for her. She has a wide and varied milking diet and absolutely loves molasses but you can't beat a good strawberry lamington. I can groom her and hug her and she trusts me to do a lot of stuff even to holding her while the vet does procedures. In a word it is 'Trust' that she has in me. This is not unique of course, millions of people experience a great two way relationship with a large number of creatures outside of the human race. That is what having a pet animal is about. Sharing your life with another creature. Many people will vouch for their relationships with pet mice or parrots. And many people have tamed wild things to interact with them. Like hand feeding sparrows until a particular one becomes your best friend.

So having qualified that maybe I am not a Dog Trainer, but perhaps I am someone who enjoys interacting with other species by way of body language, smooth voice sounds and providing a safe haven and food for that particular creature.

I notice when I start to have people coming to training with their dogs that they totally do not understand what their dog is about. what it's fears are, how much it trusts it's handler, why it is behaving in a particular way given particular stimulation and how after two or three sets of that particular stimulation the behavior (for better or worse) becomes ingrained as a part of the interaction under those given circumstances.

Let's take the pet sparrow for example. Every day I take a piece of bread outside to a table on the deck and I feed the birds. I sit quietly in a chair by the table and eventually one cocky fellow comes up and takes the food from my hand. Next day same time same place that sparrow does it again, so I start talking to the sparrow while it is eating. Next day I start talking to the sparrow as I come out the door of the house onto the deck. That sparrow knows my voice already and he is down there sitting on the table as I sit down at the chair. .Then he hops on my hand to take the bread. Next day I call him he flies down from the roof, lands on my hand, I carry him to the table, feed and talk with him and then he flies away, etc. There is a growing sense of trust. Food is the catalyst for that trust. Providing food for its young is something all mammals and birds do. So in order to win the trust of any creature it is important to hand feed that thing, then it is important that the creature hears your voice in conjunction with that food. By supplying food to that creature we are offering to be a parent to the creature to give it a safe food supply and to give it willingly.

With this in mind it is only natural to me that if I want to win over a dog, I am going to use food. If I want best behavior outcomes and good interaction and good response to voice or clicker or whistle, I am going to use food. Food is not forever, as once you have the dog's trust you can get rid of the feeding by hand constantly while teaching new things, although I still really like to reassure my dogs by feeding by hand and later on throwing them their food to catch. I like their food smelling of my DNA. It is part of my interaction with my pet. The donkey loves hand feeding, the goats love hand feeding, and it is a very special sharing, in the same way as dining with your family is a very special thing to do. If you want the best warm fuzzies, sit down and hand feed your dog and let him lick your fingers for the gooey bits. The time you take to share food with your dog will be well rewarded by your finding it easier to get him on side to do extra things for you. Especially to get him following you around like you are 'the goddess' or 'god' himself. My Chip is a devoted fan of mine. He hates it when I go without him, but we have an agreement. I tell him to 'Stay, I will be back soon' and he lies quietly in the porch without muttering a word until I get back. Then I don't make a fuss, just a nice low 'good boy' and he wags his skinny tail and lies down again. About ten minutes later I will take him for a wander to do his toilet and then we will be together while I do stuff around the house. Just boring old dog and human interaction. Nothing profound or genius, just a nice comfortable trusting relationship. There are a few things we are still working on but at 21 months he has pretty much nailed it that if I tell him to 'leave it' then that's the rule. I say leave it once and I walk away and he just has to come with me. I am more important to him than fresh cow poo. Now that's a reassuring thought isn't it?

Forget Training - Interact with your chosen 'other creature’ the rewards are constant.

Club Captains report

Another good productive month for Dog Sports Rotorua. We now have 32 (+ a few pending) paid up members. But the best news is that 10 people signed up for the $180 per annum subscription which includes as much use as they wish to make of the Club and the option of a set of shed keys. The Committee took a bit of a punt on the idea in order to avoid what happened last year when for about three months through winter we didn't take enough $2 ground fees to pay the rent to the Stockcars. The money collected in advance will be put aside in a savings account to fill the gaps in the rent should it occur again. Club member numbers are up but Club usage falls due to the cold nights. For example for two nights this week we would normally have had 37 members use the Club. Instead we had 22 and the really cold times haven't hit yet. That is a difference of $30 over two nights. It makes a difference to paying the rent in the long term. Remember that the Ground fees are not checked or demanded, we rely on honesty of our members to put the money in the box. You can put in $10 for five uses and keep note of it in the sign in book so you can remember. Or you can be generous and give us $3 instead of $2.

We have the Club AGM coming up on June 10th which is a Friday night. Please note your diaries and make an effort to come and enjoy a bit of snack food and a cup of tea or coffee plus our Trophy and Certificate presentation for the year and the AGM which shouldn't take longer than half an hour. Most of our Executive are happy to stay on, however if you have a passion to work with us in the Executive all of our current elected members are happy to have someone step up and work with them. All positive input to our group is welcomed. Our meetings through the year are open to all members and we usually have a shared dinner before them and share all the club information openly.

The Club Executive gets very little feedback from the members as to whether they like the program as the Club runs it, or whether they feel good about their dog work or not. If we know that there are things working well or not then we can tweak the system to make sure everyone is comfortable with their training.

The Club is responsible for Club Competition once a month. A lot of members don't attend even though we advertise it widely. The points earned add up throughout the year and result in trophies and certificates at the end of the year. If you keep winning in your class you go up to a higher level. It gives focus to your training and really is a great day. It is also an opportunity to do our Sprint Competition. What is really amazing is that two new people did their first sprint and won out of B team and into A team on their first outing, so congratulations to Linda and Minnie and Carol and Jade. I finally won out with my Sophie to A Team as well but it has taken twelve months to get there as it has for Pam and KC but we got there in the end. Our Sprint Champ never let us down Nicole and Sophie (2) did three obstacles in A in 11.45 secs.

It is very competitive and great fun. You don't need to train for it and in terms of dog fitness and enthusiasm Sprints are very worthwhile. If you haven't tried Club Competition the next one is on the 14th of May, so come along and be part of the fun. There is no pressure and it is so nice to see all the levels of Club Members working alongside each other. Come and join us as often as you can, that is what Dog Sports is about.

Please send me your photos, adverts, stories, poems etc to be added to our newsletter.

Check out our nationwide placings for some of our NALA dogs in results—awesome !

Happy training
Debbie Trimbach
Club Captain.