Flying through the Tunnel!

Zoe

At my apartment complex, we have a little fenced in dog run that they've furnished with a tunnel and some platforms. The girls absolutely love the tunnel.

Phoenix, with Zoe peeking around the corner.

They both get so excited to run through the tunnel and it's super cute! It's nice having somewhere fenced that I can let them run around off leash when I can't make it to other parks. I also will use the area for training, too!

Do you have a place you like to go to train your dogs?

7 Tips On Getting The Perfect Recall At The Dog Park! Positive Training

One of my most frequently asked questions is how I got such an amazing recall with both of my dogs, especially in regards to going to the dog park or any off leash area. So today I'm going to share some of my best tips with you and they are not in any particular order.

1. Stay engaged with your dog! 

If every time you go to the dog park, you sit on the bench and play with your phone your dog will definitely find the environment more rewarding than you. Play games with your dog, walk around and stay interesting!

2. Don't call your dog when they are distracted.

When you're first starting to training your recall, don't overuse it. Don't call your dog unless your are 98% sure they will come. The dog park is a very distracting environment, there are sights and smells and other dogs. When your dog is super distracted they likely won't hear you calling anyways. Wait until your dog isn't distracted and then call them. I've also been known to use my recall word as they are already coming to me so they associate the action with the word. If you need to get your dog and your dog isn't able to listen just go get them. If they are hard to catch I would recommend keeping a leash on and letting them drag it.

3. Go when it's boring.

It's so hard to compete with all the sights, sounds and other dogs. If you really want to work on your recall, go to the dog park when it's super boring during off times when there are not very many dogs or people around. The middle of the day on a weekday or early in the mornings is a good time for this. Let your dog sniff around as much as they want and then when they get bored with that pull out your best treats and practice calling them and then releasing them back to do whatever they want. Do this a bunch of times. You can even try clipping your leash on a couple of times, rewarding them for that and then unclipping it and letting them free again. Make sure they never realize when you're actually going to leave the park. Then once they are really good at recalling when the distractions are lower you can slowly start building up to going at more distracting times but don't call your dog if you aren't sure if they will actually come!

4. Reward your dog any time they choose you.

Yes, I am one of those people who takes treats to the dog park. If you go when it's not busy during off times, taking treats into the dog park is not an issue. Just don't feed other people's dogs and they will eventually learn the snacks are not for them and go away. I always reward my dogs any time they voluntarily give me attention without me asking for it. Any time my dogs choose me, I reward them.

5. Play hide and seek.

Wait for your dog to get a little distracted, then step behind a tree or behind a rock and out of sight. When your dog finds you make sure you give them a big reward and make a huge deal out of it! Be fun and be exciting! This is one of Zoe's favorite games and we still play it! Both of my dogs have so much fun trying to find me and actually "silence" has become one of my strongest recall cues. When I go dead silent that has become their cue to immediately come looking for me and it's more powerful than my actual verbal cue.

6. Don't end the fun when you exit the dog park.

Many dogs won't come when called at the dog park because when you call them the fun ends. They leave the dog park and go home. Don't end the fun when you exit the dog park. Many dog parks are situated in regular parks. Every time we were done inside the dog park, I would always take Zoe for walks around the park. We would go around the lake and she got to hunt for squirrels and we also played a lot of training games. The time we spent walking, playing and training outside the dog park became more reinforcing than being in the dog park and Zoe always looked forward to leaving! It was never a big deal because she knew that the fun wasn't ending when the leash being clipped on and the gate was closing behind us. We were always off on our next adventure, whatever that might be.

7. Practice makes perfect.

Dogs don't generalize very well so it's important to practice in lots of different environments and with lots of different distractions. If your dog isn't very reliable yet, there are no fences or if there are leash laws, I would recommend using long lines. Long lines come in various different lengths from 10ft to 100ft and they are not very expensive. We are lucky that we have a lot of designated off leash areas in Oregon. You can also practice your recall on your regular walks by calling them and running backwards a few steps. Don't forget to be exciting and fun!

Final note and words of caution on dog parks.

Dog parks can be great places to visit and they can be terrible places. I would just like to caution everyone on that. The best dog parks are ones with large open spaces with lots of room. I would definitely avoid the small ones. Remember that anyone with any sort of dog can enter the dog park and you will have no idea how well socialized those dogs are.

I recommend going to a few different parks and checking them out before you enter with your dog. Watch how the dogs are interacting and if something makes you uncomfortable don't take your dog in. I would also not recommend going when it's really crowded because dogs can get overwhelmed/overstimulated easily and it's a lot harder to control the situation. If you are visiting a dog park and someone's dog is making your uncomfortable it's okay to take your dog and leave. Always advocate for and pay attention to your dog and to what is going on around you. Remember that you can't control other people and their dogs but you can control yourself and your dog.

If things are going south at the dog park, just take your dog, leave and have an adventure together on the other side of the fence!

How did you train your recall?

Today we are joining the Positive Pet Training Blog Hop! This month's theme is "Recall" but any positive posts are welcome! Be sure to hop around and check out everyone's posts!

Thanks so much to the hosts!

Dog Park Etiquette Fail and a PSA

On Friday the sun finally came out and I took the girls to the park. We were running seriously low on new photos so I definitely wanted to get some and the girls got play time so it was a win-win situation. We did our thing, the girls ran around and I took photos. It started to get late so I took an exit trail to head back to the car. On the way back the girls decided to go look for bunnies in the blackberry bushes. It's not my favorite thing that they do but since we haven't been near those bushes in a while, I figured I'd let them check them out. 

While I'm standing there waiting for the girls to catch up, this lady comes up on me with two black labs and as she gets up to where we were, Zoe pops out of the bushes and she's clearly limping. The lady even saw her limping and definitely heard me exclaiming about it. "Oh No!!! Zoe what did you do!? Why are you LIMPING!?" The lady then allows her two labs to just be in my face. They were skittering around me, jumping on me and generally being labs which would of been fine if Zoe wasn't hurt.

The lady continues to meander and by meander I mean she is slowly wandering up the trail, still making no effort to get her dogs out of my space. At this point I probably should of said something to her but I was starting to get mad. I knew I wouldn't be able to be polite so I said nothing. She stops part of the way up the trail and starts playing with her phone!!! Meanwhile, Zoe is still limping around and I really need to get her back on leash and check her foot.

What seemed like 10 minutes later this woman is still not getting her dogs and I can't get to Zoe because her dogs will not stop bothering me. She's still playing with her phone.

Note: This photo was taken before she was injured!

I know I talk all the time about being a proactive owner and it's because it's so important. I know it's hard to always think of all the things our dogs might do but common sense does go a long ways.
 
Dogs when they are hurt are not always nice. If you see someone at a park and their dog is injured or if an injury happens right in front of you, it's so important to get your dogs and keep your dogs out of their way. The person really needs to be able to check their dog, get the dog on leash and leave. They can't do that if your dog is getting in the way. If one of her dogs had jumped on Zoe in that moment, Zoe might not have reacted well to it. When dogs are hurt they may become aggressive. Even though they didn't bother Zoe, they definitely impeded me from getting to her which could of led to further injury.

Eventually this woman figured out that I was getting pissed and she did come and finally get her dogs. I was able to get Zoe back on leash and we hobbled about a half a mile to the car, taking frequent breaks. I couldn't find anything in her paw and I didn't see any entry points for thorns. I ended up bringing her home and soaking her in a warm bath for 30 minutes. She's still a little gimpy when we go outside over the past few days but we are taking it easy and not doing anything too strenuous. I'm making her rest and I sort of think she bruised her paw on a rock or she could of tweaked it stepping in a hole. Her leg and paw is not swollen, there's no heat in it or anything. I can wiggle it around and she doesn't act painful. She also does not limp at all inside our apartment. I'm sure she will probably be fine but I will take her to the vet if this continues.

Have you ever had an annoying experience at the dog park?

Zoe and Phee visit Mt.Tabor!

Hi everyone happy Fit Dog Friday! This week we went on a fun walk at Mt. Tabor! Mt. Tabor is a volcanic cinder cone and they've turned it into a beautiful park! The park features hiking trails, a play ground and a dog park. We didn't use the dog park, but we did have a lovely walk.

Mt. Tabor is a great place to work out because there are a lot of stairs you have to climb to get to the top! When you get to the top, if you can peak between the trees you can see Portland! It's pretty neat!

The girls had so much fun checking this place out. It's not close to our place, so we don't get to go very often but we always have a great time when we make it out there! If you're in the Portland area and you want to go for a nice walk, I'd recommend this park. It's great!

Dominance, Dog Aggression and Dog Parks

Usually it's my sister who did the bad thing! Not me, sweet Zoe!

So we had an incident this week and because I like to keep things real, I'm going to tell you about it. Everyone makes mistakes and I ended up making one. I'm lucky we came out of the situation okay. Honestly, I wish I could tell you what I was thinking when I made this mistake and I'm still kicking myself for it. I know better than this but I screwed up anyways.

I've been walking my dogs separately this week, I'm planning on doing a post about it soon.  It's been hugely eye opening for me and I've been really enjoying each dog for her own personality and I love the one-on-one time.

On Monday I was out with Zoe. It was the holiday and all of the neighbors were out, too. Lately, I have been feeling badly about Zoe never getting to meet new dogs because we always have Phoenix with us and she doesn't like other dogs. Zoe used to go to the dog park all the time before we got Phoenix and she had a ton of friends there.

Zoe playing with her friend, Jasmine, the Great Dane

Zoe & Marley are best buddies!

Kisses from a bully puppy!

Zoe is generally pretty friendly with other dogs but she's had a few dogs try to bully her in the past and she's had a few dogs go after her. She really doesn't appreciate rude behavior and she's not shy about saying "hey, I don't like that!"

So we were out walking and this "brilliant" idea pops into my head, why don't we head over to the dog park? It's nice out and she could run around off leash. Generally, I avoid the dog park on weekends and holidays (or whenever any of my neighbors are using it) and I know my neighbors dogs are pretty much all terrible. I know better but I did it anyways. I really wish I could do that day over again! Why You Should Avoid Dog Parks!

We get to the dog park and one neighbor is in there. He has a husky and a shih tzu. I've seen his dogs before and in the past I've noticed that they are a little barrier frustrated. They were barking at the fence at Zoe and they seemed too excited. The owner and I talked a little bit, giving the dogs a chance to calm down a little and I asked him if he would call his dogs away from the fence so I could come in. He came and got his dogs but had no control over them and the shih tzu began growling at him. This is where my gut was telling me to turn around and go away but I didn't listen. Why did I open that gate!? Sigh. I think the owner holding the husky back made him even more frustrated because when I opened the gate, the owner let go and the husky just bull dozed Zoe. It was one of the rudest greetings I've ever seen and it didn't turn out well. Zoe was instantly defensive and they got into it. Zoe actually ended up pulling out a chunk of his shedding hair.

So I yelled HEY!!! at them and they separated and everything was okay for a few minutes. The other owner was so nonchalant about the whole thing and because of his reaction to it, I doubt this is the first time his dog has gotten in trouble with another dog. Then he proceeds to tell me, "My dog is just a dominant male. All dogs are just trying to be dominant, you know!"

Bigger SIGH. Here's where I'm going to insert an amazing article on the Dominance Controversy by Dr. Sophia Yin. Basically dominance has been disproven by science. The scientist that came up with it and has sense retracted his research and apologized! I recommend reading the article. It's really good. (I have more resources available on the Dominance Controversy, just visit my training page.)

My take on the whole incident was this was a young dog who was too excited who didn't have dog/dog manners. He was also being a husky, his body language was overly forward and I don't think he knew any better. He is a husky who is not trained and is obviously not well socialized. He's probably not exercised enough, either. I never see them walk him and the only time he's out is when his owner sits with him the dog park. It's not his fault but his owner just thinking he's being dominant is not helping the situation. Dominance is not a personality trait.

Ladder of Aggression

Zoe was not being "dominant", either. She was responding to a threat. She was defending herself. She didn't know if that dog was going to attack her. All she knew was that she was suddenly being bulldozed by a bigger dog that she didn't know. Her response, in my opinion, was a bit over the top but I get it. Zoe has had other dogs go after her in the past and she's learned that rude dogs do not listen to her. So she has to escalate and be really loud, scary and bigger than the other dog to get her point across.  I'm not saying it was okay at all. It was not good and I'm not happy about it. We are lucky that they stopped when I yelled and that neither dog was seriously injured.

I ended up apologizing to the owner and we left the dog park. There was no way they were going to get along, the husky kept poking at her and kept trying to bully her as she wandered around trying to sniff things. It was a bad situation and leaving was the only thing I could do. The other owner had no control over his dogs, he had no intention of even trying to control his dogs and it just wasn't going to work out. It's never a good idea to let the dogs try and work it out. Things just go from bad to worse so leaving is the best thing for everyone.

So what is my take home from this? I need to listen to my gut instinct. Dog parks can be okay places for some dogs but they are not for everyone. Small enclosed places with other strange dogs don't work for my dogs anymore. They can do Thousand Acres because it's a big place and they can get away from other dogs easily. We also go there at off times and I don't stop to chat with people. The interactions out there with other dogs are very short 5-10 seconds at the most. They sniff each other in passing and we all go on our merry way. In a small fenced area, there's no where to go. With dogs, it's fight, flight or freeze. In a small enclosed area, there are not many options.

I will no longer allow interaction with any of my neighbor's dogs and we will only use that fenced area if no one is around.

I feel very badly about what happened, for both Zoe and the husky. It's my job to protect my dogs and I failed her. The only thing I can do now is to try my best to make sure that never happens again. I'm sharing this with everyone so that you can learn from my mistake as well. Always listen to your gut instinct. If a situation feels wrong it probably is. Always be an advocate for your dog.

Have you ever had an incident at a dog park before? What did you do?

Hiking With Dogs Meetup! Fit Dog Friday

I recently joined a "hiking with dogs" facebook group for my area. I joined because I wanted to find out where the other dog people were hiking (for some new ideas of where to go) and potentially make some new friends. I was really excited when I found out that they do group meetups.

Trying to Focus on the Good

We've all had those days where things just don't go quite right. Where you roll out of bed and there's a dark cloud following you around and it's just not so great. I had one of those days yesterday! I woke up late and my husband and I had a miscommunication about me dropping him off at work. He thought I had decided to stay home so he was about to leave me here. I popped out of bed just in time to tell him to wait and then I had to rush and my brain was not fully awake by the time the girls and I hit the park.

Best Buds - TBT

Zoe and Marley are best buds! This was back when Zoe was 2 years old and taken at the dog park I used to go to when we lived on the other side of town. Marley belongs to a good friend of mine and he's a really sweet dog. We don't get to see him very often anymore and we miss him!

Funny Girls! Sisters on Saturday!

These two crack me up! They were very happy to get out to the park yesterday. I love this photo because it looks like they are laughing.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Curious Amusement! Reactive Dog!

I've talked about Phoenix being a reactive dog a bunch of times. Her reactivity honestly just depends on the dog at this point in time. If it's a large overly hyper and rude dog she can get snarky. So we've been working a lot on that and we've been going to Thousand Acres really early in the morning so we can avoid most people and dogs. We are getting to point where we are seeing a lot of the same dogs, she's either met some of them already or she's avoided them (a lot of the time she chooses avoidance and ignores the dogs)  but recognizes she's seen the dog before and it's fine. After our hike, I will generally stand off to the side so Phoenix can see the action but not be in it. We play the "look at that game" and she gets food for looking at dogs. I've also been working on counter conditioning her to dogs in motion because that will set her off since her previous owners allowed her to fence fight.

So when my husband decided to do the taxes the other day and suggested that I go to the park at 3 in the afternoon I was a little hesitant. It was a warm and sunny day, 70 degrees! It was the warmest day we've had so far. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea. Generally the park is the most busy on the weekends and this was a week day. My husband really needed the quiet to get the taxes done and I decided to go ahead and go. I armed myself with some pretty high value treats and we were off.

When I got there I was happy to see that the parking lot was not full and I hoped there weren't very many people out there. We made it off the entry trails and onto some of the back ones. We encountered a few dogs here and there but everything was fine and just like when I go in the mornings. The girls were busy sniffing the sniffs, eating the grass and racing each other back to me for their prized treats.

We got to this one part of the trail that takes you down to the river and here comes this guy with a medium sized tan dog. The dog was young and looked a lot like the girls but with floppy ears and a bigger head. They greeted her properly and politely and continued up the trail. The dog came up for a visit with me and discovered that I had some delicious smelling stuff on me and it was all over. She began jumping all over me and freaking out wanting the food. I've learned that the best thing to do in this sort of situation is to just stand there quietly and allow the owner to deal with their dog. So I stand tall and ignore the dog. I look over and my dogs have returned. Zoe is a bit further up the trail but Phoenix is very close within three feet. Meanwhile this dog is still jumping all over me and sort of spazzing out. The owner calls and calls the dog but she will not go back and he just stood there and kept calling her. If I had started walking she'd have came with me and her owner was getting really mad so I stayed still.

I look over at Phoenix and she's just standing there watching this dog jump all over me with this curious amused look on her face. Like she was laughing at me! It was so cute and I was the proudest dog mom ever. Before, she would of gone into "I must guard and protect" snark, snap the whole reaction thing. Instead she just stood there wagging her tail and smiling at me. No reaction, no worried expression, nothing but curious amusement.

Eventually the dog figured out that she was not getting anything out of me and that I was a very boring person. She returned to her owner and we continued on our way. I am SO proud of Phoenix. It was a truly amazing moment for us and I'm so happy with her progress. This is the kind of thing that gives me hope that the training is having an effect on her and that maybe one day she will "normal". Whatever normal is.

Taking it Easy on Fit Dog Friday

Prior to Phoenix hurting her leg we had been going between 4.5 - 6 miles "free running" a day. Free running basically means they run loose while I meander and take pictures of them. They do a lot of running around, mixed in with stopping to eat grass, zoomies and trotting. After Phee hurt her leg, I rested her for a few days and we just went on potty walks. Now that she seems all better I decided it was time to get her back out to the park but I didn't want to push it too much. We did two days of around 3 miles then took a day off due to the rain. When the rain stopped we went out and did a 4.5 mile loop.

Zoe Going Solo on B&W Sunday

Happy Sunday everyone! Since I'm resting Phoenix (to read why click here), I took Zoe to the park for a solo trip. Zoe tends to really love these kinds of outings. While I always feel guilty for leaving Phoenix home because she's sad, I'm glad to get some one on one time with Zoe.

I hope you are all having an awesome day!

Peek-A-Boo! Wordless Wednesday

So the management at my apartment complex installed some dog training equipment at the dog park in our complex. Zoe says there's a bit of a problem with the "tire" jump!!

Smiling on Sepia Saturday

Yesterday I talked about how the wind spooks her. After we got to the park where the wind is less she was so much happier! I was able to capture a bit of a smile!

Mud, Mud and More Mud!

Happy Wordless Wednesday everyone!

It's a mud pit here after all the rain!I will admit that I'm getting a little tired of the mud. We've been covered in it for over a week. LOL

Dognapped by the DogFather!

The "DogFather" dognapped us in the name of this weird thing called "exercise"!!! 

Remember my post on Fitdog Friday about my husband taking the dogs to the park? Here's their mischief post! :D

Windy Walks on Fit Dog Friday!

My husband took the dogs out to Thousand Acres for a fun windy walk! I stayed home because I haven't been feeling that great this week. The girls were very confused about their Dad taking them! They even took off to look for me! The walk went pretty well once they figured out that it was just him and that he had some treats for them! 

Sisters on Saturday

Having a good time at Thousand Acres! :D
Phoenix is so funny, she likes to "get" her sister sometimes when they run!

Zoe's Followers on Fit Dog Friday

Zoe made some new friends out at the park while she was trying to hunt the other day! These two followed her everywhere and I think they were really puzzled by what she was doing!

Two on Tuesday!

 

The girls having a good time out at Thousand Acres! :)