Blogger fail! The post where I catch up yet again.

So my co-worker told me the other day I am a blogger failure. She is right. It has been over a month since I have posted! That is a long time between posts, even for me. Ooops! I have been busy working on some personal issues and just got side tracked. (It turns out I was concentrating more on what I feed my dogs than what I was eating. Now I'm trying to make healthier choices which seems to mean more time cooking and such.) I also find it easier to post things to my facebook page when I am busy. So if you come here and I am quiet check things out there instead. http://www.facebook.com/K9SolutionsDogTraining If it makes you feel any better I am behind in my blog reading as well.

This cutie is Frankie. He is being fostered by a friend and will be available for adoption soon through ACDRA. It is believed he may be a Kelpie and not an Australian Cattle Dog however. He needs to learn some manners first. A home without cats may be a better fit for him too. He is about 2 years old and was saved from a kill shelter.

Zola is still doing very well on her meds and diet. She is a very normal puppy. We have even finally turned the corner and she is sleeping through the night now. This is a HUGE improvement for my life! She is also giving me cues when she needs to go outside to potty as well. Another big victory. I wasn't sure that would ever happen given that I don't limit her water intake due to her condition. I admit it got better once I stopped babying her and stopped sleeping on the couch after the middle of the night outings. See, I do know what to do, I was just being too emotional about it. Puppies are sometimes to cute for our own good.

Jenny is having a not so good time with her skin right now. I had to increase her Temeril-P which I hate to use. I swear one of the days we got some snow cover she seemed better. But I don't know if that was wishful thinking or not. It makes me wonder how much of her problem stems from an allergen outside. Of course maybe I am just grasping at straws.

Jack is doing wonderfully. I took him for a do it yourself bath/brush and blowout recently. Wow he sheds a lot! I know this but every so often he impresses even me with the amount of fur I comb out. I got an undercoat rake with slightly longer tines that works really well on him.

The two most current prison puppies are doing great. Rosie, the cattle dog/pit mix has been adopted already. I ran into her new owner today at the Loyal Biscuit during an outing. He was there buying a second crate for his car. It seems she likes to teeth on his interior. Ahhh the joy of puppies! He reports she is doing great. The the other pup Daisy, the red nose pitbull, is going to the shelter daily so potential adopters can meet her. She can be a handful so we are trying to find just the right match for her. You can see them both about 10 minutes into this video: http://vimeo.com/37466423 Or check them out on our official facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/K9Corrections

I am hoping to get some t-shirts with my logo on them ordered soon. I would like to be able to offer them for public sale too but I'm not quite sure if I can manage that. I am pretty small time as a business so I need to look into it more. I am also going to need to get new logos on my car this year. Not only has my logo changed slightly, they are peeling off after having them a few years. Maine winters are not kind to window stickers long term.

Before I go need to answer a readers question that I found in my comments when I (finally) approved them. I cannot give you a comparison between the Freedom No Pull harness and the Sensation harness because I have not used a Sensation harness yet. Sorry I can't be more help with that.

Again, I will try to blog more but no promises. Sometimes you just gotta make time for yourself first  :-)

Thank you Nicole Wilde!!

I want to give a huge shout out to Nicole Wilde for a generous donation of books and a video for our K-9 Corrections program. Our program is very small so donations help us greatly and are much appreciated.
*
The dogs and handlers are doing great. Here are a couple short videos of them doing some pivot work in preparation for one of the rally exercises. This is Erica. She is a little shy with some new people. I think she would do best in a home with no young children because of that.

And this is Blue. He will need a home with an active owner or another dog to play with. He and Erica play together very well but he can be quite rough.

Both dogs are available for adoption through the Humane Society of Knox County. We also got a new set of APDT rally signs made up finally. Our last set somehow got misplaced. It was aggravating because I had made them up myself along with all the sign holders too. And now the fencing I used for those has been discontinued. It is a tough time of year to find any type of garden fencing as well. Thankfully I think I may have found a solution using PVC pipe pieces with slots cut into them. I'll keep you posted on how it works.
*
Thanks again to Nicole Wilde for her donation. We couldn't do this without the support of our community, the facility, our facebook fans, and other trainers like her. I just cannot express my appreciation enough. Thank you.

Waiting to exhale

Saturday I took these two cuties to the prison to be the new dogs for the K-9 Corrections program. This is Brody. He is a 6 month old sibling to another puppy we had on the program named Russet. He is a 1/2 German wirehair pointer, 1/4 Labrador retriever and 1/4 Chesapeake bay retriever. He was returned to the shelter for being unruly and for house training issues. It turns out he is a submissive urinator which is NOT to be confused with house training, though it can be as frustrating. Submissive urination can be managed easily once it is identified as such by a few things. One is to ignore the dog when you meet them. They are usually not confident and therefore putting any social pressure on them will cause the peeing. It is a body signal to you that they are not a threat. If you yell at them for peeing they will misread that as you having missed their signal so they will pee even more. Once you build up the dogs confidence they will usually outgrow it. (another management tip is to do greetings outside the house so they pee on the ground and not your floors)

And this puppy is Rocko.

He is a mixed breed of unknown origin. We think he could be a Jack Russell/Beagle mix or possibly a Bull Terrier mix due to his behavior and head shape. I learned long ago however that trying to guess a dogs genetic makeup based on looks alone is a crap shoot. (I saw a video presentation a few years ago with slides of puppies and dogs with known parentage and most of the time our guesses were quite wrong!) Because he had been labeled a pit mix by the shelter the previous owner adopted him from I had to get special permission for him to be on the program. Once a dog is labeled a pit that's what everyone assumes they are. Regardless of the truth he is the very first pit mix to be allowed to participate in K-9 Corrections. That means I am on pins and needles hoping he makes a good impression and that no one complains and gets him booted. He needs to "win over the masses" so to speak. An awfully big job for such a little guy! He is super smart though so I think he can do it.

So far everyone is doing very well. After the first day they haven't had any more submissive peeing from Brody and no one has freaked out about Rocko being there. (there has been one negative comment but not worthy of sharing) You can see video of them playing together on the facebook page. So think good thoughts that this might help be the beginning on changing some minds about what a pitbull really is and can be.

A plan B day

So today didn't go exactly as planned. I had hoped to head over to Wag It in Lincolnville to watch some Wag It Games this morning. Unfortunately my daughter had to be somewhere so mom as taxi became a priority.
*
After my taxi duties I headed over to Bolduc for my session with the K-9 Corrections puppies. Things are progressing well tho the pups are still a little shy in new situations. Of course given their rough start (they were born under a trailer with no heat or human contact) this comes as no surprise.
*
I had also hoped to get the dogs out for a walk today. That also didn't pan out. To assuage my guilt I did get in a grooming session with Jack and a training session with Jenny. Here are some new treats I found at the Loyal Biscuit that are super cool for our training sessions.

They are teeny tiny and kibble like so they don't dry out like the soft treats can. Soft treats can also have a lot of sugar in them which can be a problem for dogs with allergies. (I'm told.) Since Jenny will work for any treat these work perfectly for us. I did toss a few soft treats in the bait bag among these to add some variety. Soft stinky treats tend to be higher value for most dogs.

Aren't they cute? They also come in other flavors. For our session we worked on targeting her back feet onto a book. This is going to help with the super fabulous trick I have in mind to teach her. It's all about baby steps to a grand finale. It took longer than I expected but by the end I think she understood the exercise. We'll see what she remembers tomorrow. I love shaping work!

*

Her itching has decreased while she has been on the temeril-P thankfully. Her coat seems dry and dull to me now though. I want to give her a bath but am concerned it will trigger an itchy spell. Maybe I'll get brave and chance it tomorrow after a walk. Hopefully the weather cooperates. Fingers crossed!

A K-9 Corrections Update

Check out the photo of Jenny settling in to her new home. (She is playing the part of the pillow in the photo.) She has a new brother named Chester. I guess they are getting along ok. VBG Russet is also headed to his new home. Hopefully I'll get photos of him to share soon.

Here is new puppy Mason. A collie, husky, heinz 57 mix. He is 9 weeks old and needs to learn he doesn't need to be such resource guarder of his food.

And his sister Maya. They are also both very shy with people. They were born under a house so didn't learn about humans until they were a few weeks old when they went into a foster home.

Everyone loves having puppies on the program!

(Jenny is doing much better today. Her skin is less red and she seems less itchy. Hopefully it continues to improve.)

A surprise visitor

Remember this sweet face? His name is Jack and he went though the K-9 Corrections program with his sister Patty back in the spring. He came for a surprise visit today.


He is almost all grown up. Check out how handsome he is now.

Here is another photo of him partway through the program.

And another of him now. He got a lot bigger than we expected he would. More photos and videos of him from today can be seen on our facebook page. Go take a peek. (Does anyone else think he looks like a borzoi in the face?)

I managed to keep his pending visit a secret from the handlers and let me tell you it was NOT easy. It was a great surprise and nice for them to see how well he turned out. He recognised his handler before Joe recognised him and wooed at him. It was so cute! It was a great day and I think everyone was very excited to see Jack again. I'm so glad he got such a great home and is doing so well. Score one for us!