The Training Hub

Mary-Ann Sontag December 8, 2020

I really love what we have done with our living room — for all kinds of reasons.

Some people have a gift for making spaces beautiful — Suzanne has that. Her house is so lovely! I admire that ability but it is not one of my strengths or maybe it is, but I have not spent the time to nurture it. I imagine all of us have many talents, hidden by the realities of time and priorities.

My priority is to thrive over the Pandemic Winter.

I spent some time thinking about what would support that goal, reflecting on what has helped in the past when things were tough. There is no need to re-invent the wheel — if we know what helped, we should trot those strategies on out!

Pozy with a felted wool ball — they are excellent for retrieving.

I have a love affair with cycling.

Enter the Peloton bike.

I worry about the amount of sitting that happens when we are working from home in a pandemic.

Solution: Cheap Craig’s List treadmill turned DIY treadmill desk.

It helps me to be working steadily towards established Hopes and Wishes (aka goals), and so I set some for my dogs and created a training space to support progress through the Pandemic Winter.

Claire’s SuperPower seems to be obedience.

I am hopeful that someday I will get to show her again and finish her CD. And when I do, Claire will be ready to march right into Open and then Utility. That is my Winter Want for Claire: All three obedience titles in 2021.

The space that was the living room is now the Training Hub — for me and the dogs (yes, Dear Husband has many saintly qualities and tolerance is one of them). It supports not only training but also Hopes and Wishes, and related — health, broadly defined.

The space inspires me to keep marching towards the end of this long, dark Pandemic Winter.

What inspires you?

Activities, Kids, and Pozy's Ear Frizzles

Mary-Ann Sontag December 7, 2020

Yesterday in a blog comment Sarah asked about the kinds of activities one can do with a Berner, and if there are any especially good dog-related activities for kids. Great questions!

The Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America (BMDCA) has a wonderful Info Series that includes short articles about all things Berners, and there is an entire section of articles covering Activities; you can find these articles by clicking HERE and scrolling down the page.

You will see there is an article about Juniors in the Activities section — that article includes info about activities involving kids. Agility is an especially fun event for kids to do with dogs, but so is obedience, Scentwork, and conformation — any activity could be fun if a dog and young person want to get involved with it and have a good trainer.

Zeus (Wildflowers) and one of his humans, Raymond.

The ethical treatment and training of a puppy/dog is a wonderful way to teach children prosocial skills that will have broad and valuable application in their lives. Dr. Ian Dunbar has an excellent video titled Dog Training for Children that families can watch together so that everyone is on board with how we train in ethical and effective ways.

I got in the mood to groom dogs yesterday and Pozy was swept up in my enthusiasm. Puppies grow wild ear frizzles…

I decided the time had come to give her a more polished look.

It is easy to trim ears. Just buy/order an inexpensive pair of thinning shears and thin the ear frizzle. I leave it about 3/4 of an inch or so long but it is not an exact science and doesn’t need to be. If you mess up — no worries because it will grow back (think of the bad parental haircuts you probably got as a kid!)

I also tidied up her feet…

Just a pair of scissors — rounded tips are a bonus but not required.

There is no need to send your dog off to someone for grooming — it is easy to do it yourself. If you must use a groomer for some reason, best to use one that lets you watch (and feed cookies to your dog).

And again, if your grooming efforts yield imperfect results — so what? Nobody takes away your birthday if the dog’s ears are not perfectly groomed.

Sparkle with her imperfectly trimmed ears — my birthday remains on May 24, FYI.

Best wishes for a marvelous Monday.

November!

Mary-Ann Sontag November 1, 2020

I suspect one reason we all have sleep deprivation when the clocks fall back is because we wake up and start thinking, “is this the right time or the old time? What time is it really?” as we check devices that may or may not have adjusted automatically.

Who can sleep with all that mental drama going on?!

Once when Alison was visiting she observed that it would be easy to teach Zoey to hold her ball when she brought it back rather than simply spitting it at me to throw again.

Huh!

It was an excellent observation and has shaped how I now train the pick up games that are the foundation for formal obedience retrieves.

Sparkle will hold an item for as long as it takes for me to notice. Seriously.

The #pickups are actually a series of different behaviors. The dog has to be willing to pick something up, hold it until the release cue is given, and chase or find the item.

Sparkle is pleased to report that her apprentice has mastered the skills and now has her own franchise: #pozyspickups.

The next step is for Pozy to learn to wait when the item is thrown. That is an advanced skill that we are working on, as you can see in this video…

What if Pozy breaks and nabs the cookie before being released? She eats the cookie and I acknowledge I pushed too far, too fast and go back to staying close with a restraining hand on her chest to keep her in position, and lots of cookies for self-control.

When we train something well, there is no need to tell a dog she is wrong.

Family Photos!

Buttercup and Zeus from the Wildflowers…

I talked to Penny yesterday and it sounds like Zeus is settling into family life well. It is also clear how valuable it is for Zeus and his family to have Georgia, Patty, and Buttercup nearby for fun and to be resources — thank you to all of them for creating community around the puppies :)