July 2010
The Canine Sport of Tracking
Erin Sullivan and her American Pit Bull Terrier, Doc, in a successful tracking test. Erin writes about her adventures in training Doc, a rescue dog from Baltimore, on her blog: baltimorebulldogs.blogspot.com. Photo by bartlettimage.com.
The sport of American Kennel Club (AKC) tracking started out as a stepchild to its competition obedience Utility Dog (UD) title. Although you needed to pass a separate tracking test to earn your UD title between 1936 and 1946, tracking garnered a one-paragraph description in the rules and regulations of the time. Fans of tracking pushed for changes in the rules as a result of increased understanding of scent work and, in 1947, tracking became a separate class. The Tracking Dog (TD) title was the only tracking title available until 1980 when the Tracking Dog Excellent (TDX) title was added.
Using Your Dog's Bowl As a Training Tool
It’s valuable to practice the “food bowl wait” exercise daily. If he gets up or goes for the bowl, just lift it up.
Subscribers Only You may think feeding your dog is a simple matter of dumping food in his bowl and plopping it down on the floor in front of him. You may be wrong. Mealtime is fraught with significance for your dog, and loaded with opportunities for you to influence his health and his behavior. Failure to take advantage of these could actually contribute to the development and/or escalation of problems that might otherwise be averted. A few deliberate decisions and choices on your part can go far in creating harmony in your home.
Are Raw-Fed Dogs a Risk?
Author CJ Puotinen’s six-year-old Labrador Retriever, Chloe, has been a Delta Society Pet Partner since her first birthday. She can no longer participate in the Pet Partners program due to her raw diet.
Delta Society is one of the largest and best-known organizations that registers and insures “pet therapy” volunteers and their companion animals. Pet/handler teams – known as Pet Partners – brighten lives in hospitals, nursing homes, group homes, schools, pre-kindergarten programs, libraries, jails, women’s shelters, homeless shelters, senior centers, adult day programs, and a host of other facilities. But on May 19, Delta Society triggered a firestorm of controversy, complete with conspiracy theories, angry denunciations, frustration, and confusion, when it announced that effective June 30, “any dog or cat from a household where raw protein food is fed is not eligible to be a Delta Society Pet Partner.” Delta’s Raw Protein Diet Policy raises serious questions about the safety of feeding raw food regardless of an animal’s pet-therapy status.
Understanding Highly Predatory Dogs
Here’s a dog who was bred for hunting and who is showing very strong predatory behavior – the raised forepaw, stalking, intense concentration on the “prey.” The predatory behavior, however, has been completely channeled into a perfectly harmless activity: chasing tennis balls.
Subscribers Only I remember a day when I was waiting in the vet's office for my dog's appointment. The man sitting next to us started telling me, with beaming pride, about how his little white Westie had caught seven barn rats in the past week. I couldn't help but admire this cute, fluffy dog's superior hunting skills. Predatory behavior in dogs is something I respect. From following a scent trail, to stalking a bird, chasing a ball, or herding sheep, I am intrigued with the many forms predatory behavior manifests in our dogs; it is part of what makes dogs so amazing! But, predatory behavior is not so admirable (and much less socially acceptable), when, instead of it being a country terrier ridding a barn of rats or an Aussie herding sheep, it is your city dog chasing a skateboarder or the neighbor's cat.
Unwanted Dog-Reactive Behaviors
This dog is reacting to the sight and proximity of other dogs; time to move him farther away!
Subscribers Only Dog-reactive behavior can be alarming and frustrating for a dog owner, as well as damaging to the canine-human relationship. Most of us adopt our dogs with the hope of sharing them with the rest of the world – on walks, at family picnics, at events around town, and sometimes at canine competitions. It’s not quite as much fun when you have to leave your canine family member at home because he barks, leaps around, lunges at, maybe even tries to bite other dogs.
Be a Hair-O
Some would be embarrassed to be caught without a coat. But if you donate your dog’s hair for helping clean up the oil spill in the Gulf, we’d call you a hair-o.
One man’s trash is another man’s ecological disaster recovery tactic. Local hair salons and pet grooming centers are saving hair and fur clippings to help with the cleanup of the British Petroleum oil spill that’s been polluting the Gulf Coast since April.
