Champion of My HeartA real-time memoir about life with a fearful border collie, by Roxanne Hawn

Longtime syndicated columnist and dog writer Steve Dale recently published a new eBook through Tribune Media Services — Good Dog. Since I don’t have a Kindle, I’ve not had the chance to read it. However, when I asked Dale about the history of dog training — going back to before I was born — he shared some interesting insights.

You see, I knew that the dominance / punishment style of dog training that I loathe really took hold back in the 1960s. What I did NOT know is that positive reinforcement practitioners were also on the scene back then.

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I cannot call this a review because I have NOT tried the product myself. However, I did attend a webinar last month for this new VueZone wireless webcam that’s being marketed to pet families as a way to monitor pets when you’re away. That includes, I’d guess, trying to decipher dog behavior problems that crop up.

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My silly schedule in 2011 precluded Lilly going to dog training classes with our dog trainer in Boulder, Gigi Moss. Since I took last week “off” for Thanksgiving, we finally had time to attend a level-2, drop-in class. Alas, it was at a busy outdoor mall the day before Thanksgiving. Lilly had a little trouble. These photos tell the story of her comfort and her worry.

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Taking a week “off” is relative, of course, meaning mostly not owing drafts to clients. Other demands of life continue. HOWEVER, Lilly and I ventured to Boulder for dog training class with our dog trainer Gigi Moss … for the first time this year. I’ll tell you how it went tomorrow. Today? A video showing just how much Lilly loves her dog trainer.

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As promised, some agility humor for our dog training friends who already have earned or aspire to earn a Master Agility Champion title (MACH) with their dogs. Meet Chaos, a nationally ranked Labrador Retriever who TWICE had to earn her 20th and final double-Q to get her MACH #5. All this … at the age of 10.

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So, the question is this: If your dog could earn merit badges for training accomplishments as simple as SIT or DOWN or being housetrained, would you take part?

That’s the idea behind Good Dogs of America. Your dog could indeed earn 19 different dog training merit badges … from a local dog trainer who offers the program as an add-on to their current dog training curriculum.

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Many thanks to my friends at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley for inviting me to their Q&A with Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog. Exhausted and weary from real life, I chose NOT to take notes. So, here are just a few tidbits.

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Stick with me, kids, while dipping into cognitive psychology, because the brain retraining touted in this book mirror and helped me better understand the dog relaxation protocol.

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Friday’s eureka-moment post about Lilly’s summertime fears of the house comes from something I read in Alexandra Horowitz’s book “Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know”. Today, a few other items of note from the book.

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In summers past, I lamented the resurgence of Lilly’s inexplicable fear flare-ups. It happens only in the summer and only in the evening. Trust me, we’ve run through all the possible scenarios. But, I have a new theory.

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Thanks to everyone who shared our Kissing Booth Dog Video last week. As promised, here is a behind-the-scenes look and answers to the most-asked questions.

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The Relaxation Protocol for Dogs audio files we created remain one of our most popular fearful dogs resources on Champion of My Heart. Perhaps it’s time to revisit how this behavior modification plan for dogs works.

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Since we have no herding news of our own, after a long lapse in lessons due to non-stop work and family demands, today Champion of of My Heart looks at how someone else uses some clicker training in a herding context.

Herding is often taught using mostly pressure and “corrections.” And, when you ask about how clicker training might fit into the process, you’ll hear some grumbling about things like:

• The livestock are their own “reward.”
• Clickers make dogs focus too much on you and not on the task at hand.
• It’s a natural, much more dynamic process than teaching another kind of trick or easily segmented task.

So, when our pal Anna from Happy Healthy Pup, who recently relocated from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Atlanta, Georgia, suggested I talk to Astrid Smith from A Dog’s Journey … well, I sent and email and got on the phone.

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After more than four years blogging about real life with a fearful dog, I’ve learned a lot and made oodles of mistakes. When Caring 4 Creatures, a rescue group based in Atlanta, Georgia, asked me to write a guest post, I summed up several important lessons for anyone who adopts a fearful dog.

I hope you’ll pop on over there today to see what I have to say in the guest post called “Adopting a Fearful Dog,” including:

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So, I spent a little time, just a few minutes, working on HOW I might teach Lilly to wag her tail on cue. We’ll have to keep working on it, but I plan to treat the the wag / no wag a bit like an on / off switch. Here is my 5-step plan for teaching this dog trick.

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