I wish I didn’t need to think about training dogs to be careful around crutches, but real life does its thing. I went through our dogs’ repertoire of behaviors and found some that prove helpful to me since I have many weeks / months ahead of me on crutches. Here are some prior dog behaviors that pay off if / when you get hurt. Cute videos, including one of a tiny Clover learning “go to place.” Don’t miss it!
In September 2023, Clover attended her fifth NW2 competition. We did not earn a title that day, again. The challenge of nosework, unlike other dog sports, is that the first couple of titles require perfection all in a single day. You don’t get the build toward titles until later. For NW1, it’s 4 searches (with 1 hide each) in a single day. Clover did that on her first try. And, she *nearly did it on her first try at NW2. But, here we find ourselves, without that elusive 5 perfect searches in a single day … yet … because the searches are harder and can feature multiple hides. Here’s how things went. Don’t miss the video of us searching at the bottom of the page!
Rather than mistakes dog owners make, maybe I should call this … the dumbest things I ever did when it comes to dogs. Granted, most of them happened when I was much younger and less experienced with being responsible for 100% of my dogs’ care. Get ready to laugh (or be horrified).
One of the things we’re most famous for are FREE audio/video files that make the canine relaxation protocol easier to do. It might look like simply a way to teach dogs to stay, but the RP is much more complicated than that. It’s meant to teach dogs prone to fear, stress, or over-arousal to defer to you and relax no matter what weird stimuli happens (noises, movements, etc.) Hard to believe I never made a canine relaxation protocol demo video before, but here you go. Below is a video of what it looks like when I do it with a behaviorally normal dog. In this case, first Clover and then a short snippet with Mr. Stix.
Dog Halloween costume advice for 2021! I know I’m cutting it close, but a lot of dogs get put through too much stress purely for a good laugh or cute pix for IG or a funny video clip for TikTok. Avoid these common dog Halloween costume mistakes with this advice from a longtime dog mom who learned these lessons the hard way + ideas on what to do instead.
As we started testing the theory that Tori could, in fact, now ride in the car without getting sick, we took her to her first-ever agility class in early July 2018. After years of only doing agility at home with the equipment we have here and what I can teach her on my own (after years and years of classes, even though I’ve never competed), Tori walked out and nailed it. It was the sweetest, funniest thing to see. Don’t miss this short video.
It took several weeks into an online dog training class that I’m taking with Clover for me to gain some insights into why I sometimes fail in my training efforts with her. That doesn’t mean the answers and solutions will be easy, but I see things more clearly now. Eureka moments in dog training just ahead.
Looks like I waited TOO LONG to write about our success completely rebuilding Clover’s agility teeter-totter training last summer. It was going so well that Clover even did the agility teeter-totter at our group class in early October 2017. Alas, in recent weeks, Clover has gone back to treating the agility teeter-totter like her sworn enemy (again). If nothing else, dog training gives people the chance to practice patience and creativity. Thank goodness I shot some video of what worked last summer so that I can try the same things again. Cute 1-minute video ahead.
Cooperative Care for Dogs is an important and growing topic in the worlds of dog lovers and veterinary medicine. Cooperative Care for Dogs simply means training dogs (typically using food rewards) to be compliant partners in the care they need. This could be anything from regular dog grooming and dog care tasks such as keeping toenails the proper length to prevent breakage or injury to teaching your dog to maintain certain body positions while being examined or even while getting an x-ray or ultrasound by your veterinary team. One of our canine heroines, Clover, helped me shoot a little video demonstration of what cooperative care means here at Champion of My Heart.
It took a while to find a used dog agility teeter-totter to buy, but we finally did just before Clover’s third birthday. It’s going to take some time to fix Clover’s teeter-totter worries that have been brewing for nearly a year now, but Tori figured it all out in basically a day and a half. Cute videos ahead!
