My time saving Grooming/Training Session

Any time I can combine tasks to save time believe me I will. I thought I would just pass along a little trick I learned to combine Sadie's Grooming and Training. This may seem like common sense to most of you but quit often we get caught up in the task at hand and forget that we can turn a routine task into a training experience.

In stead of periodic baths that tend to dry out the dogs skin I prefer to brush and wipe down down my dogs with a damp cloth on a daily bases. I see no need to give them a full bath unless they happen to get into something that requires a deep cleaning like a roll in the mud or in the case of Strom the other day a brush with fresh paint, pardon the pun.

Storm for example has only had one bath since I got him and that was because I left him in a kennel overnight and I had them groom him before he came home. I forgot to warn the groomer that Storm does not get baths and may object to the process. When I picked him up the groomer told me that when he tried to put him in the tub Storm wrapped his paws around his neck and would not let go. That's the other advantage of not giveing baths, you don't have to fight it out with them.

In any case they have learned to look forward to their grooming sessions, so much so that they fight with each other to be the first one up on the grooming table, as you can see by the picture. As soon as I head in that direction they all start to jump up on to the table with the exception of Sadie who is too small to make it up. She just circles the table barking in frustration and trying to jump up. She has learned that if she jumps up on the bench first then she can jump from the bench to the table. The intelligence of these dogs amazes me daily.

My grooming sessions take about 15 minutes for each dog and serve 3 purposes. One they each get a good grooming, two I get to examine them thoroughly for any physical problems and three each dog gets a brief but effective training session.

Here is a list of the commands that I teach during each session.

Here
Climb
Stand
Sit (Setzen)
Turn around
Down (Platz)
Roll Over
Release command

A typical session goes something like this:

My first step is to clear all the dogs off of the table using "CLIMB Down". Once the dogs are off of the table I select the dog that is the most behaved, that is the dog that is sitting quietly. Next I will use the dogs name with the HERE command and ask that dog to come to me than I use "CLIMB up on the table". The only problems I have at this point is stopping the other dogs from cutting in line. Once the dog is on the table I use there position to determine how I will begin. They will either be standing or sitting. If they are sitting I ask them to STAND and vise versa. I do all the brushing and examining that I can do in this position and then I ask them to either SIT or STAND depending on the position they are in. Then I do all the brushing and examination that I can do in that position. I am now ready to do the other side at which time I ask them to "TURN AROUND" at which time the dog will turn and face the other direction. I then replete the process on that side using the SIT and STAND commands. If the dog is just learning the commands as in Sadie's case I will have them change positions a number of times on each side. Once I have completed all the grooming and examination that I can do in these position I ask the dog to "CLIMB Down" because there is not room enough on my table for the next step. Once off of the table I put the dog in a DOWN and then ask the dog to "ROLL OVER" at which time I brush and examine the stomach. Having completed this I use the release command and go on to the next dog.

This whole process takes about an hour for all 4 dogs and I count it as one of their training sessions for the day.

Next Post: Exercise.

If anyone has any comments please feel free to let me know. Good or bad they will help me improve my posts and also give me ideas for future posts.

Storm as a Trainer

This photograph might look like Sadie is in control but don't believe it. She only goes as far as Storm will let her, which is a lot further than I let her go. Thanks to Storms patients her nipping is getting under control. Whenever they are around each other all Storm wants to do is play. According to my wife Sadie has turned Storm into a Juvenile delinquent. She claims that he used to be so good but since Sadie arrived she gets him so worked up during play sessions that he will no longer listen to her, as if he ever listened to her in the first place. What she doesn't realize is that Storm initiates most of the play sessions not Sadie. I, on the other hand, look at it as a welcome break for me. If Storm is working with Sadie and correcting her I don't need to. Any of the work load Storm can take off of my shoulders is welcome. Sadie has turnd out to be much more work than I anticipated. Going from 3 dogs to 4 is not 25% more work but 100% more, especially when one is a puppy.

Sadie has not been getting out to for socialization near as much as I would like but she did manage to have a sleep over at a friends house this past weekend. She made herself at home within a couple of hours and I found out that she defiantly prefers men. She cozyed right up to my friends husband almost immediately but took a bit longer to accept her. It also took Sadie over a week to connect with my wife without showing any fear and I think she is still a bit afraid of her, but then so am I. She got along well with all the humans in the house but I understand that the cats were another story. Whenever one of the cats came into the room she would hid under the table, so much for a her hard temperament, hard head is more like it. I was told that they enjoyed her visit and are now ready for a Shiloh of their own. This turned out to be a win win visit for all involved. Maybe I should start renting her out for weekends. It would give her much needed socialization and me much needed rest.

Even though she did not interact with the cats much during her visit she must have learned something from them because when I got her home and let her out in the yard with in about 10 minutes she came prancing back to the door as prod as could be with the biggest mouse I had ever seen, head hanging out of one side of her mouth and tail drooping down from the other. Needless to say this did not endear her to my wife but I thought it was cute.

Her house training has been coming along very well. She still piddles a little when she greets me but she has started making it through the night without getting me up. However, just when it looked like my much anticipated uninterrupted full nights sleep would become a reality I got another setback. Storm. He has gotten so used to getting up with Sadie that now he wakes me and the rest of the pack up 2 or 3 times during the night. Being awakened by a 100 pound Shiloh is not the most pleasant experience in the world.

I have learned to sleep facing away from him in the hopes that if he thinks that I am asleep he will go back to sleep. My first interruption comes when he stands up. He has got this habit of shaking his head when he first wakes up. His ears hit the side of his head which makes the sound of a helicopter taking off. I try to ignore this in the hope that he will go back to sleep because I know what comes next if I don't ignore him. His next step is to come over and sit next to the bed. I know he is there because I can feel his hot breath on the back of my neck. I dare not turn move, let alone turn over and face him because then there is no chance that he will let me go back to sleep. It isn't long before his patience wears thin and he gets more insistent. The next thing I feel is a paw hit my arm and literally pull me over to face him. Now I know that at this point my only chance to get back to sleep is to tell him too "Go back to bed". Most of the time this works but then I lay there wide awake wondering if he really had to go or if he just wanted to go out to see if the neighbors dog was out and in the mood for a race up and down the fence line. Well, last night he did not go back to bed but a few minutes later pushed me with his nose and hit me in the head with his paw. By now I was getting mad because this would have been the 3rd time that I got up with him, gathered all the dogs together and walking out into the yard in my skivvies just to watch him walk the perimeter of the yard and mark each corner. This time I yelled go back to bed and he left. Big mistake. False alarm or not the next time he asks to go out I will get up like it or not. Because, the next morning when I got up in my bear feet and walked to the bedroom door in the dark I discovered that he had left me a big present right where I would step in it. Lesson learned.

Next post:My time saving Grooming/Training Session

Sadie's Training Schedule

Before I get into Sadie's schedule I would like to point out two things that will shortly appear under the links column on this page. One will be Sadie's weight chart. Sadie went to the vet last Saturday to get micro chiped and at the same time she got to meet my vet, a few cats and a few dogs. While I was there I had her weighed and she had gained 6.6 lbs. She went to 19.6 pounds and is now at 21.5lbs.

I will also be posting her vocabulary list. This list will include the words that Sadie has been taught along with a chart indicating how well she recognizes them. So far she is learning HERE, HER NAME, GET BUSY (her potty word), OUT, CRATE, KENNEL, LEAVE IT, SIT, DOWN, STAND, BRUSH and of course, don't do that, stop that, ouch, leave her alone, not to mention a few expletive I can not repeat here.

The follow is Sadie's typical schedule;

4:30am Rise and potty
5:00am Breakfast
5:30am Potty break
5:45am Training
6:00am Kennel Training 1hr working up to 4hrs.
12:00 noon Lunch
12:15pm Potty
12:30pm Training
12:45pm Crate Training 1hr working up to 4 hrs
4:00pm Dinner
4:30pm Potty break
4:45pm Training
5:00pm Grooming
10:00pm Bed