The importance of crate training- for disaster prep

There are so many reasons to crate train your pets (and I'll focus on dogs here) that I don't even know where to start but one that rarely gets discussed is the issue of disaster preparation.

In the event of an emergency, especially an evacuation, it is almost impossible to flee with dogs who are not crate trained. If you have to go to an evacuation center, they will not take dogs who are not in crates. And if your dog is not used to being in a crate he's going to freak out. He'll bark incessantly and possibly hurt himself trying to get out. He may get expelled from the building for this behavior, which may land him being crated outside where it is less comfortable and less safe.

People may think they can flee with their dogs in their car, loose. But what happens if the dogs have to stay in the car for hours at a time, and it gets really hot during the day? If your dog is crated inside your car, you can open all the doors and windows and create enough airflow and cross ventilation to keep your dog cool yet safe at the same time.

If you work at a hospital or facility that becomes "mission critical" in the event of a disaster, you will be needed at work for days at a time. If you don't have someone reliable to step in and care for your dogs you may need to be able to bring them with you and keep them with you for days at a time. Again, this will be almost impossible to safely manage if your dogs are not crate trained.

If they are crate trained, they can be safely contained almost anywhere. You can evacuate to a hotel that doesn't take pets because your dogs can be safely kept in the car. Because they're crated, the chances are higher that you'll be allowed to keep them in the room.

Crate training should be a life-long practice, not just a puppy potty training tool.  What I mean is that your dog should be cool just chilling and hanging out in his crate when you ask him to.  So to keep that behavior "fluent", you need to do it often enough that it's not a big deal to the dog, it's not horribly unusual.  This doesn't mean you're crating for too many hours, etc etc-- I'm not talking about something abusive.  But we need to be able to safely park our dogs for awhile, at our discretion, and it's our job to make that experience pleasant for them, not strange and frightening.

Protecting your dog's eyes from the sun

I live in an area that had a lot of recent solar eclipse activity, and this morning I read this interesting article about the eye damage that can easily result from just a few seconds of exposure at the right angle to the sun's rays.  We all know not to look directly at the sun, right?

But what about the position we're putting our dogs in, when we are training our dogs?

Is our dog's face (and eye line-of-sight) toward the sun when we are asking him to sit, or doing a retrieve, or a down-stay?  In other words, when our dog is obediently looking up at OUR face, are we inadvertently positioning his face and his eyes to be getting more direct-line exposure to the sun than we should?  We often position ourselves with our back to the sun for our own comfort-- so we can see our dog well-- but we don't want to accidentally expose our dogs to dangerous sun radiation in their eyes.

The exposure won't cause pain, but will ruin their eyesight.  It doesn't take much. The upward angle of a small dog's head will be greater than a large dog's, though both are now a consideration in my mind.

I'm much more aware of this now, thanks to the eclipse, and I'll caution my dog training students to be aware of this as well.  In almost every case it's easy to make minor adjustments to ensure our dear dogs are not being asked to essentially look into the sun as they are looking into our own faces during training.

Here's to keeping training fun, positive, effective AND safe for all involved!  Especially our dear dogs.

Moving (with dogs!) from CA to WA

In February we moved from Palos Verdes Estates, CA to Vancouver, WA.

This move was years in the planning and since we were leaving the state we'd spent all of our married life in (and my entire childhood) we decided to take a 10-day drive up the coast to our new home, visiting many of our favorite places.  This post is about the logistics of doing that with 2 dogs in the car, too.

My minivan has had its two back rows of seats removed (those were being moved up with our other possessions in storage containers).  We've always had a huge dog crate behind the driver and passenger seat (the biggest model they make) for our large Borzoi, and behind that we have two more smaller crates (we used to have 3 dogs).  One of the smaller crates is for my oversized Sheltie (35 lbs), and the other has been opened and stacked top-into-bottom, so it's like a large drawer that's open at the top.  This is used for storage.  Both the smaller crates sit on top of a 10" high wooden platform which has plastic storage boxes under it, open at the top, so they too operate like pull our drawers.  This is our normal minivan configuration.

When we left PVE, my van was filled with some essentials for our trip up-- last minute kitchen items that didn't get packed because we used them up till the last minute, my large suitcase, dog food and supplies, a water filter, my big computer bag (with devices and chargers), some towels, dog blankets, etc.  My husband's Prius was full of his suitcase, his golf clubs, his computer bag, etc.  We had walkie talkies so we could talk without relying on cellphone coverage  We caravaned up together.

We drove up the coast stopping in Carmel, Mendocino, and Gold Beach OR.  The trip took 10 days and was stunningly beautiful.  The dogs slept in the car almost every night, which worked out really well.  Because they each ride in their own crate (with water bowl, crate fans, and locks if we need them) we have the ability to keep windows open wider than you would if your dog was unconfined.

We obviously took frequent breaks during the long hours of driving to stretch everyone's legs and potty the dogs.  We took care to go slowly during curvy roads through the coastal forest to prevent any motion sickness in the dogs.  We kept their food and dishes easily accessible so we could pull over at feeding times, or quietly go out and feed them at 6am.

It was a long and beautiful trip, and even I was happy to see it end when we arrived at our new home.  The dogs had so much adjusting to do-- once we got to the new home they still didn't know we weren't just at another hotel (another temporary place) and they didn't start to really settle in until our possessions (and their beds!) arrived later.

All of the dog training we've done over the years made this trip a breeze.  Our dogs are comfortable in strange locations out in public, they are polite and easy to handle on leash, they know how to "settle" on their mat no matter where the mat is, and they know how to load and unload into their car crates easily.  We adhered to their normal routine during our trip (feeding them at the same time as usual, etc).  The only thing that required more diligence on our part was recognizing that they were getting less exercise than usual, and we needed to keep track of their eliminations.  After hours of driving (with their snoozing in their crates) they required longer walks to get them to potty.

In our new home, we don't have a fenced in yard which means our dogs must be leashed every time they go outside (we now live on a golf course).  These routines have also taken some adjustment on everyone's part.  I can no longer open the side door and let the dogs come and go as they please (and I have to intentionally take them out and for walks to eliminate).  They' adjusted well as have we.

The first time we took them to the new large dog park we kept them both on leash while we walked the perimeter, giving them a chance to get acquainted with the new park.  Our Sheltie is now mostly deaf, so he stays on leash since he can't hear me.  We found a wonderful new vet, and are settling in nicely.

A tiny first aid kit for hiking with your dog!

This tiny first aid kit is definitely on my "to do" list now!
Must share - details here

Retractable Leashes (Flexileads) -- good or bad?

Today I'm sharing some information from Dr. Mercoloa which which I heartily agree!

Retractable leashes are popular primarily because they aren't as confining as regular leashes, allowing dogs more freedom to sniff and poke around on walks. But unfortunately, there are many downsides to this type of leash.  Read more here:

10 Reasons Why You Should Not Use a Retractable Leash

Training for a well mannered “café dog”

Would you like to have your dog calmly laying by your table at a sidewalk café, while you enjoy a coffee and good conversation with a friend?  You can train for this, and it does require training. 

While there are many restaurants with outside patios and tables where a dog would be allowed, in every case where the restaurant prohibits it, it is not because of the health codes (they’ll say it is because they don’t want to offend you).  It’s because dog owners who didn’t train their dogs ruined the dining experience for the other customers.  So let’s go on a campaign to create well mannered café dogs!

What is a well mannered café dog?  Let’s list the behaviors involved:

 

1. Is calm and quiet in the presence of lots of distractions including:
   a.       Other dogs in the environment, including other dogs who are not well mannered.
   b.      Food servers walking up with trays of food that smell very tempting to the dog
   c.       Banging and crashing of dishes, glasses, plates
   d.      Food within reach and often under the table.
   e.      Food that is accidentally dropped on or near the dog.

2.       Able to “down stay” for long periods of time.

3.       Able to maneuver under a chair or the table—ie, willing to lay down where you want him to lay down, because as a polite customer you’re doing to make sure he is out of the foot traffic of other customers and the food servers.  This one takes a lot of special training and is very important.
 

4.      Able to stay in that position even as YOU carefully maneuver YOUR position.  You may scoot your chair out, move it a bit, etc.  None of this is a signal to your dog to get up.  

How would your dog do today against these criteria?  How would you set up a training plan to improve in these areas?  I’ll  address that in upcoming posts. 

What's holding your training treats?

When you're training your dog, having your treats handy (and a variety of treats with different levels of value from the dog's perspective) is important.  The timing of your click is important, but the treat should follow quickly don't you don't want to have to be fumbling around for it. 

I'm constantly urging my students not to use ziplock baggies in their pockets for this-- it just creates too much fumbling and it creates an annoyance for them.  I just discovered this 4-pocket apron from a garage sale supply vendor that would be great for training.  It's rather girly, so would be better for women and girls, but I've also heard that Lowes and Home Depot sell "nail aprons" that accomplish the same thing for about a dollar.  This one here is about $3.

Check it out, and consider getting something like this if you're not already happy with your treat holder.  

http://www.sassysigns.com/Apron_p/01as-apron.htm