Blog • Page 31 of 36 • Three Dogs Training

Holy moly – Three Dogs Training has a mailing list!

Want to get the latest positive reinforcement and Three Dogs Training news in your inbox? Join our mailing list!

We’ve been busy as beavers at Three Dogs lately, but most of the changes have been behind the scenes and out of sight.

One of them that you can see for yourself – if you look just a little over to the right – is that we’ve got a spanking-new mailing list. I thought out loud awhile back that it would be nice to have one to keep people updated with all the new things we’ve got going on and I guess someone was listening.

We’re still finalizing what we really want to do with it, but I can tell you right now what I’m not going to do with it: any of that creepy stuff like loaning it out or selling it off.

It’s easy to join – just put your email in the box and click subscribe. It then sends an email to confirm that you wanted to sign up and even lets you know how to unsubscribe – but who would want to do that?

So, if you’re interested, give it a click and join in on the fun. Best of all, it’s free!

Everyone’s looking forward to Halloween, but what about your dog?

While Halloween is great fun for us, it is often very stressful for a lot of dogs. Here are some helpful tips and products.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year.

It distills everything that a holiday should be – fun silly enjoyment with chocolate!

Halloween also happens to be the day we adopted Boo, but that’s another story.

The air is crisp and kids are running around acting and dressed strangely.

There are knocks on your door constantly and there’s food being handed out from bowls that are probably at dog height.

Halloween activities are all great fun for us, but can you think of a combination of things that could put a dog more on-edge? (Unless, of course, you added firecrackers into the mix?)

One of the reason we like holidays so much is that they are departure from the norm of everyday life. We do different things. We adopt different schedules. In a word, things are different. For a large number of dogs an unexpected change in routine is like fingernails on a blackboard and can set off a spiral of stress-related, unhealthy behaviors.

Where to put the Chocolate?

The bowl of mostly chocolate should be up and away from the dog. Your dog should not be able to reach it by jumping or putting his paws up, or knocking it over.

What about all the knocking strangers in weird costumes at the door?

I can’t see anything through this Peephole!

Your dog doesn’t need to be right by the door. Have your dog in another room as far from the door as possible. Give your dog a stuffed kong or other puzzle toy so he/she is happily occupied. A stuffed bone, or goat horn would be good too.

I have written a number of blog posts on anxiety aids and have a number of products that can help in the Boo-tique.

If none of the anxiety aids or toys helps reduce your dog’s stress, your veterinarian may be able to prescribe some anti-anxiety medication.

Then it will be time to call a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and/or a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant so that next year your dog can have a

Happy Halloween.

Goodbye, Riley

Riley, a good friend and great dog, was taken from us far too soon.

There were hundreds of fireflies serenely flying all around the yard Riley loved the night she left her family. There was no question that it was little Miss Riley telling everyone she loved them and everything was going to be OK.

The adorable, fuzzy, petite Ewok had come to Linda and her family only three years before. A cuddly, sweet, gentle soul who loved doing her “bang, bang” trick Riley was more than happy to snuggle up in everyone’s lap one minute and work very hard for Linda to try to become a therapy dog the next. Riley ultimately told Linda she was more happy just being Linda’s personal therapy dog—and she was.

While Riley’s life was short it was filled with love from her human family, her canine family and her extended family in which I was happy to be included.

Sometimes the Universe deals us a raw hand and sometimes when it does it softens the blow just a little in ways we do not even expect. Riley was around long enough to welcome and begin teaching Maggie, the puppy golden, how to be a comfort to the whole family and carry on Riley’s love of mischief while she softened the blow of Riley’s early departure.

I know that every night Linda and Maggie will look for the fireflies; to try touch Riley’s spirit one more time.

The sky, too, is feeling the loss of Kinsey

Kinsey’s loss is one that touches the hearts of everyone who knew her.

It is raining out now—the kind of rain that is slow and depressing—not a grand thunderstorm that thrills. I can only imagine the sky, too, is feeling the loss of Kinsey.

This very clever, almost-nine-year-old Mini Schnauzer was the proud owner of Jill and Linda. They brought her to me when she was just a four-month-old baby-dog for her puppy class. Bright and happy to work Kinsey sailed through her classes and found herself becoming a happy working Delta Pet Partner early in her life. She brought her two humans with her to nursing homes and other spots where she would routinely make people smile as she sat with them for petting, or sat on their laps for a snuggle, or did a few little gag-parlor tricks to make everyone giggle.

When first I mentioned Rally O to Kinsey’s human Jill— Laughing at me Jill said, “There’s just no way.” But, of course, Kinsey would not be daunted by anyone’s doubt—she sailed through her rally exercises and always looked at the distraction toys as if to say, “Who are you kidding, I am so all over that…” I knew then that the exercises would have to be more difficult and perhaps I needed better distraction toys. Kinsey pushed us all to be better and better. She helped shape the lives of her sister Shelby and baby brother Arlo as she guided them on how to live in a human world—Kinsey knew it was all about carrots…

The love that Kinsey gave to and received from her humans was, as so many of us have known from that special dog, epic in its scope. We all have had a dog (and if you’re lucky more) who moves our hearts profoundly and permanently. Kinsey was that dog. Just as Jill and Linda shaped and lured Kinsey’s behaviors for training, Kinsey shaped and lured their hearts for unconditional love.

As I said when Dante passed:

All told, dogs ask very little of us. They ask us for love, they ask us for patience and understanding, and for our mercy and bravery when their time comes. And once they’re gone, they part with one final request: to not let the pain of their loss stop us from someday filling the dog-shaped hole they leave in our lives with another canine soul.

Kinsey will be missed beyond description.

Pinball versus Stick

Pinball takes on his foremost nemesis: a stick in our backyard.

Finally a sunny and comparatively warm day we decided to combine some fun outside for the newest addition to the family, Pinball, along with a chance to test out our newest gadget – a Flip camera.

Pinball was the only member of Callie’s litter – the only boy in the litter – who wasn’t adopted from the shelter right away. When she died it seemed right to bring him here. He seems to be liking it – or at least the stick.

Enjoy!