Recovery from a serious soft tissue injury, such as a ligament tear/strain, or maybe a meniscus tear can be a long process, but in some cases using rest and slow rehabilitation without surgical intervention is much better than the surgical alternative. Recently a study in people demonstrated the long term process can be better in fact than using a surgical procedure. In some cases it is easy to get through a minor injury, but on the other hand there is a lot [More...]
Wanna Play? Poke, poke, poke! Stevie Ray being prodded into play fighting with her pup Joey. So cool to watch him as he pokes her pretty hard with his nose, attempting to goad her into a game. Down he goes immediately to his back, tail wagging an scratching it as he wiggles about exposing his neck and chest to Stevie Ray. He is so gentle with her, giving her absolute control. He even knows he needs to be gentle and is far [More...]
What would you expect from your dog, or any normal dog if some stranger in a uniform came into your home and into your personal space, leaned over you and grabbed you, took you from that home with your family and the love you were used to and placed you in a small cage and took you away from them in a strange vehicle to a strange place. Then they put you in another cage, albeit a little larger, but likely with [More...]
Is your dog afraid of people? Afraid of men, or maybe men with beards? How about men or anyone wearing hats? Experience with people is often neglected with young dogs. Maybe they grew up in isolation at a breeder’s, or at a previous owner before they were rescued. We often wonder why dogs have issues with strangers, but they may truly lack any experience and have had to deal with strangers and the situations they present, completely on their own without guidance. [More...]
We face fear flooding all the time in normal life as people. Every time we do something new. Maybe it is the first time you take your new puppy to puppy class, or maybe that first Dog Agility Trial. How good you are at handling stress of this nature will certainly impact how easily and quickly you adapt to the circumstances around you. This is also true of your dog and in fact, if they sense the apprehension in you, it will [More...]
My Bullseye View comes from detailed and objective observation of behavior and the accurate determination of cause and effect, or rather, stimulus and response. When I see something occur, I believe it occurred for a reason, always. If it was not as expected I wonder and try to determine why. If things repeatedly re-occur that way, then I am sure. Then as I see obvious patterns in behavior, I can do two things. One is to rewind the video of what I [More...]
You don’t have to look very far to see what stress can do in a dog. I walk a mile around my neighborhood and I will face at least three dogs who bark and scream at me and my dogs with amazing intensity. I often wonder how long it will be before they are in for a hernia. There are a few more who bark incessantly, but are not necessarily blowing a gasket to do so. Then, in that same mile, there [More...]
A dog is not looking at the world and thinking about other things. They are not thinking about the agility trial next weekend, or training in the yard later. They are not thinking about the view, or how nice the weather is or how great it is to get out and stretch their legs. They are thinking about what they smell, what they hear and what they see. If they were swimming, they might be thinking about what they feel and what [More...]
So I asked my friend Joe (Joe More), not to be confused with my dog Joey, what he thought the chances of Joey eating the kidney in his meal today were after refusing to eat it yesterday; he hummed and hawed. In the end he gave in to my hints that he should go with Joey eating it. From my perspective, the answer was obvious. All of my dogs eat their raw meat and bone dinner as though they are eating an [More...]
What is Dick’s Dog House? Even in what might be perceived as the negativity of this corner of my world; my dog house will be presented with a positive spin and always with a potential way out. This is not a bad place, ever. My dog house is a safe place. A place to think and be relaxed. It is a place to make a good choice. A good choice on what behavior is best. A place to be comfortable. This is [More...]
Dealing with Ring Stress in Dog Agility for Bullseye Performance
One of the most common problems I see with all dogs in general and certainly many who compete in dog sports is the lack of skills to deal with stress and the lack of ability in people to recognize and understand their dog’s reaction to stress. I am not sure if they have ever thought about what it is like for their dogs going from a practice with familiar dogs and familiar faces and zero traffic to a dog agility trial. I [More...]
Dog Agility Contact Obstacle Criteria for Bullseye Performance: Part2; The Teeter
Teeter Criteria: The ultimate goal is to have my dogs get on the teeter straight on always, no matter what the course might dictate as the actual approach; drive to the very end as hard and fast as they can without hesitation into a crouch as they go past the pivot, until the teeter hits the ground, then release straight forward once on the ground. No leaving before it hits. No sideways motion. In the case of the teeter I may choose [More...]
Dog Agility Contact Obstacle Criteria for Bullseye Performance: Part 1; Common Ground
One simple rule that applies to the performance of all obstacles for all of my dogs is that it is my dog’s job to recognize and perform any obstacle that I have placed in their path, according to how they have been trained to do so, from the instant their focus is placed on the obstacle until they have completed it. I can and do assume that my dogs are fully intelligent enough to look ahead; recognize and perform all obstacles and [More...]
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