Champion of My HeartA dog blog, where everything is a work in progress, by Roxanne Hawn

Rather than our usual weekly training update, we’re instead sharing a video we made this week showing (as best we can) the “whiplash” recall. Trying to train and film at the same time affects Lilly’s overall performance (slows her down), but I think you’ll get the idea. The goal is to get her to turn on a dime and return when called.

We learned this “whiplash” strategy from Leslie McDevitt’s book, Control Unleashed.

Clearly, we’re doing this in an “easy” situation. She is unleashed, on fenced property, and we’re headed toward the gate on our way out for a walk. It’s a good time to practice these quick turns because she is usually sprinting toward the gate with excitement, and I get the chance to ask her to change her momentum and return to me.

We do this a few times, every time we go for a walk.

I’m not saying Lilly would turn this quickly and easily if there was something really FUN or SCARY up ahead, but at least the pattern is set.

We decided to film these examples because I’ve been getting so many calls and emails from friends and neighbors asking about how to get a dog to COME when called.

Sometimes the dog + family relationship is just too new and the recall practice lacking. Sometimes the pull of wildlife or other exciting things is just too much.

I don’t claim to be a recall expert, but I do know that the more you practice and the more you reward the COME, even in easy situations, the better chance you have of it working when the world intervenes.

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We found this video online as well. It uses the same basic techniques from Leslie’s book. The background music made me laugh.

My family had several dogs when I was growing up, but the first dog I chose, raised, and cared for on my own was a Dalmatian named Penelope Grace. She was a handful, but when you’re 22 years old, that doesn’t seem like a biggie. Yet, early on, I established all kinds of rules because I was a grown-up.

Looking back, my rigidity and my rules and my relatively cluelessness amuses me. Early on, Penelope wasn’t allowed in the living room. She wasn’t allowed on the furniture. She wasn’t allowed loose in the house alone until she was about 7 years old. Her life was a long series of Don’ts.

Clearly, I changed my mind sometime between Easter 1990 when Penelope came home and 1996 when this photo was taken on a bed. The living room rule held until we moved into our current house in 2001, where the great-room-like layout made keeping her out impractical, if not impossible. Plus, the whole main level of this house is tile, so dog dirt isn’t as big of a deal.

You might think I kept Penelope in march step thanks to her “strict” upbringing. You, however, would be wrong.

Other than the fact that she wasn’t afraid of anything (which as longtime readers know is VERY different from my experience with Lilly), Penelope never really did anything I asked. It’s totally my fault, of course. I knew NOTHING about dog training back then, even though I took the usual 8-week classes available in our suburban community.

Penelope pretty much dragged me through life, doing what she wanted, when she wanted. She could also be very sweet. And, as she aged, she wasn’t really any trouble in the house per se, but she was never “easy” by any stretch.

If you only look at me based on our house dog rules, you’d think I was a total pushover these days. Lilly and Ginko are allowed pretty much everywhere in the house, including on the furniture. Lilly, at least, is allowed to jump up on me … heck, she is even trained to do so.

And, yet, my two current dogs are better behaved, more trustworthy in general, and all around easier to share life with than Penelope ever was, despite my “rules.”

Sometimes, I remember the wrist, elbow, shoulder, and back pain Penelope caused from poor leash manners. Other times, I just enjoy the fact that I can rarely even feel Lilly on the end of her leash because she is right by my side, smiling.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to learn more about the real lives of dogs, their real needs, their real abilities. Many thanks to my friends and colleagues who continue to teach me things and explore new ideas about what being  a 21st-century dog mom is.

My life is better. Day-to-day household management is easier, but more importantly, my dogs’ lives are better and happier because I learned how to be a partner … and not just a girl with a long list of silly rules.

When we told the physical therapists working with Tom’s mom about Lilly being able to roll a therapy ball around like a circus dog, they were excited to see it. So, on Monday, we took Lilly down to the residential physical therapy place so that she could visit her Grandma, see some of the residents, and show off. It went really well.

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Last week, I decided to try a friend’s dog bathing strategy of taking Lilly into the shower with me. That’s probably TMI. Yes? Well, it worked remarkably well. (No photos, of course.)

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Last Friday on Twitter, I posted a Mini-Rant that prompted a few people to ask what on earth had happened. There is NO way to tell that particular story in 140 characters, so here is the full-sized rant.

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Thanks to diligence on my part, Lilly is MUCH better about the toenail thing than Ginko. I take the tiniest bit off of each of her nails once a week, both so that they don’t get too long and so that she never gets out of practice with this grooming task. We jokingly call it Turkey for Toenails, but most times I use cheese instead. One toe, one hunk of cheese. It’s a good trade.

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During the long, cold, snowy winters, it’s hard to find a good time for a real deep-soaking, heavy-sudsing bath. So, we sometimes resort to the famous “snowbath.” Observe.

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It’s been a couple of months since we got our Therapaws mat from Soar Pet Products as an experiment for Ginko’s arthritis. Since he had a major swelling/pain flair up right after New Year’s Eve, I’m not sure we’ve had the chance to give it any kind of quasi-scientific go.

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I shot a little video earlier this week of Lilly and Ginko playing chase and jaw wrestling games. For those who know Lilly’s noisy play style and stunted social skills, I’ll ask you to pay attention to how quiet this particular play session is. Ginko does many things to ensure Lilly continues to play, which is very smart and polite of him, I think.

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Saturday, I caught up on my dog grooming duties. Most weeks that means Lilly and only Lilly, but I decided I’d attempt to trim Ginko’s front toenails. With a muzzle and enough cheese, I can occasionally get him to cooperate. Just as I imagined myself drafting a victory blog post, our celebratory dog training jackpot went terribly wrong.

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