Sunday mountain hike

When I woke up this morning, there was a thick fog outside. So I thought that I would spend some time working on stuff for the new YouTube channel (which you find here). After a couple of hours though, the fog cleared and the sun was shining from a clear blue sky, so I changed my mind and headed out to the island outside of Tromsø to hike to a mountain top with Link.

Link and the fantastic view on the way up.

Link thought it was way too hot to walk up any mountain, so just 30 minutes into the walk he simply stopped and lay down. It is important to listen to your dog in situations like this, they can easily overheat and heatstroke can kill. So my choice was to either let him rest and then go back to the car, or find another way for him to cool off.

Link refusing to walk...

Luckily there were several small lakes on the way up, so he had plenty of opportunities to get his temperature down.

Link doing what he loves most, bathing.

There were also several spots of snow when we got higher up on the mountain, and of course we also stopped there so Link could play, eat snow and cool off.

Link rolling in the snow.

 On the top of the mountain, it was rather windy, so keeping cool there was not a problem. Link and I both ate and I had some coffee. I have been up here twice before, and this was by far the time with the best weather conditions. It was actually nice to sit on the top, something that is usually too cold.

Link on the top, with Tromsø in the background.

Another really positive thing about the walk today is how nicely Link handled meeting other dogs during this hike. We met maybe ten dogs today, and Link was so much better than he has been before. I won't say he's perfect, but he has definitely improved.
So all in all it was a really nice day. Hope all of you have had a nice weekend!

The Positively Pledge

Yesterday I talked to my boyfriend about pledging to positive training of dogs, just because that is what I believe works best and is most ethical. So when I found the Positively Pledge today, just by chance, it took me less than a second to decide to sign it.

The Positively Pledge. Picture from www.positively.com

I believe all dog owners should sign this pledge. There is no need for force or threats in dog training. And if we don't need it, maybe we shouldn't use it.

You can sign the pledge here.

A very good day!

Yesterday was a fantastic day! Not only was it my birthday and wonderful weather, Link was given a clean bill of health by the vet after a couple of weeks with an ear infection.

Link waiting outside with me after work. Wonderful weather on a wonderful day!

 Another reason why this is a good day is that Link has done a good deed today. He donated blood to a injured dog that needed serum! 

Link got a band aid on his leg where they draw his blood.

But back to Links ear. He has had a mild ear infection that turned into a ugly inflammation after 2 weeks of treatment. We had been able to cure the infection but for some still unknown reason, the inflammation got worse and wouldn't go away. So one week ago we put him on cortisone and when I had him checked by the vet today, everything looked really good! So now we're going to gradually decrease the dose of cortisone and in about 1,5 weeks time he will hopefully not need any more medication. 

Link was rather tired after a long day at work...

 Another good news is that I finally got the blog's youtube channel up and running. So far I've only gotten the video that I made about Link's first year uploaded, but I promise there is more to come. The plan is to start making dog training tutorials. Hope you guys will like it!

The channel is called Dogtelligent and you can watch the video here.

Wonderful Weather on our Sunday walk

Today we finally got the good summer weather back! I've stubbornly claimed that August is a summer month, despite the very autumn-like weather we've had lately.

During today's walk Link had some balance training on a type of swing.

At first he thought it was really scary, but he soon felt more confident.

Tomorrow it's Monday again, but I'm not sad. Tuesday is my birthday! The best day of the year. I can't wait!

Physical therapy for my Golden Retriever

Before we went on vacation in the end of June, Link had an appointment with the physical therapist at work. She analyzed how he walked and moved, how he reacted to pressure on different parts of the back and bent and stretched legs and neck. She found that even though he had very symmetrical muscles (which made me really happy, since that means I've been doing a good job when it comes to the rehabilitation after the surgery. Read more about that here), he is a bit stiff in the back behind the ribs.

So when I came back from the vacation, Link was put on an anti-inflammatory/analgesic drug and he got an appointment to her three weeks ago. During the first session she also found that he was really stiff in the neck and has a slight problem balancing his hind body when leaning forward. She showed us some exercises that we were supposed to do daily until his next appointment one week later.

I decided to use the clicker as a marker to tell Link when he did the right thing, but I didn't technically use proper clicker training as I lured Link into position with a treat (but which he of course didn't get until I clicked). The advantage of using a clicker instead of my voice is that it is much more precise. In addition, Link knows when I start clicking that he get rewarded for trying things, so teaching him the basics in how to stretch was done in less than 10 clicks.

After Link's second session with the physical therapist, she told us that he was better and that the next time I should be with them during the massage so that I can learn how to do it myself at home. 

We have now kept on doing the exercises for another week and a half, and hopefully next week we will get an appointment with her again. Looking forward to learning something new!

 Below are some pictures from the first day we trained how to stretch. The pictures are in really poor quality because they are snapshots of videos, but at least you get an idea of what we are doing.

The rolled up yoga mat is there to give Link a barrier that he should keep his hind paws behind while leaning forward. He is supposed to have his head and back in a straight line, so this isn't perfect, but at least you can see what we are trying to do. 

Streching the neck forward/down.

Stretching the neck upward/back.

Stretching the neck to the left and to the right.

Gun dog training my Golden Retriever

Lexie, the 4 year old golden retriever female attending the gun dog course last weekend.

 This weekend Link and I attended a three day course in gun dog training for retrievers. In addition to Link there were three Labrador retrievers, one female Golden retriever and one Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retriever. The instructor of the course, Vera Verlo, is a clicker trainer specialized in gun dog training. She has three Labrador Retrievers herself, that she competes with in gun dog trials for retrievers.

Link waiting for me to send him to retrieve a dummy.

 Friday

 Firday evening the instructor held a seminar. We learned the basic steps of gun dog training:

• Obedience - Not the dog sport, but basic gun dog obedience like heeling, being quiet and only retrieve game/dummy on cue
• Marking - Seeing where the dummy falls and remembering it
• Sending and directing - The dog should be able to be directed by the handler in the direction of the dummy. If the dog walks too far away from where the dummy is, you should stop it and direct it towards where it is.
• Delivering the dummy/game - Without shaking, chewing, spitting out on the ground or dropping one dummy to pick up another. The game or dummy should be delivered by the dog unharmed, right into your hand.

Todd, the second youngest participant of the course. He is a 1 year and 8 months old Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.

Saturday

 Saturday it was time to get out into the field for some basic "hunting obedience", how to correctly use the dog whistle, how to search for dummies in a field search and how to direct your dog to find game that it has not seen where it fell.

Lexie and her owner showing us a perfect "hunting heel".

Link showed me that even though he can heel and retrieve under controlled conditions (indoor or somewhere outside where we often are), he was more interested in all the smells in the forest and running around with the dummy, than working with me. He was the youngest dog participating, so it was not so strange that he was the dog with the least previous training (well, him and Todd the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retriever that was just a couple of months older than Link). Learning our limits is also important though, that is the only way to find out what we have to work on.

The chocolate lab called Iver retrieving a duck-shaped dummy.

We were also taught the basics of a "close search". I'm sure there is a better term for it in English, but what it means is that the dog searches for the dummy close to where it is. It is used for when you send your dog out to do a so called "blind retrieve", you give it the "stop" signal, followed by the "close search" signal, when it comes to the place where the dummy is.

Link learning the basics of "close search".

Sunday

 Sunday we were also out in the field and that day we learned more about marking both on land and in water, and how to send the dog straight out to the dummy. We also got a chance to try the "qualification test", which if you pass it gives you the opportunity to participate in proper gun dog trials for retrievers.

The 6 year old black labrador felmale called Kimmie, retrieving a dummy. She is also a therapy dog that we got to know during the first weekend of thearpy dog training in May.

Link and I did extremely much better this day. He did really well when we trained sending out. We trained using a bowl with treats, so he was instantly rewarded for running straight out. Between his turns we trained being calm and quiet. It was hard for him to sit there and watch the other dogs work, but he did really well.

Here I am sending Link out to retrieve a dummy.

Next time it was our term it was time to try retrieving on land and in water. We tested what Link would do if he was sent to a dummy on land (he wanted to get into the water so badly!), and then to the other one that was in the water. Link went directly out to the dummy we sent him to, ran back towards me, ran past me, dropped the dummy and leapt straight into the water to get the other dummy. He eventually brought that dummy back to me though. So somewhere inside him, he feels good about running/swimming out to things and picking them up. But taking them all the way back to me is something we have to work on.

Beautiful Eine, a 4 year old black Labrador. He is like Link, aspiring to become a therapy dog.

 We also trained directing to left and right using hand signals. The dog is then sitting in front of you and there are one dummy on each side of the dog, some distance away. Link responded well to these signals, even though we have never consciously trained this before.  

Cute Todd.

He did surprise all of us in the end though. He was sent out to retrieve a dummy out on a small pond, but instead of swimming back to me with the dummy, he got out of the pond on the other side. There he dropped the dummy and went away to... well.. shit. Just hang in there, that is not the impressive part! I called him back to me, and sent him to retrieve the dummy from the other side. He didn't manage to do it on the first try, but the second time he swam over, found the dummy and retrieved it right back to me! I was ecstatic! I could not hope for more. Considering that this is the first time in his life that he has been asked to do this, I think it is really impressive that he grasped the idea and preformed so well.

Eine retrieving from the water.

 We also got to go through a walk through of the qualification test. We did it as training, with rewards all the way for Link. We definitely was not ready to do it then and there, but it was good for us to see how the test is done. The things that you preform during the test is:

1. Sitting next to you while the judge greets you 
2. Heeling on leash
3. Heeling off leash
4. Stay
5. Recall
6. Sitting while dummy is being thrown
7. Retrieving dummy
8. Sitting while a shot is fired

Me walking 50 meters away from Link while he stays on command next to the instructor. The mountain in the background is Tromsdalstinden, the mountain Link and I climbed the previous weekend.

 We didn't fire the shot during our walk through of the test, Link was already exhausted, so I didn't want to put him through more. We had already trained getting used to and liking gun shots, both on Saturday and Sunday.

These are the things we have to work on:

• Heeling in different locations and terrain, both on an off leash

• Retrieving into my hand (first while on leash so that running away with the dummy isn't an option)

• Using the whistle: 
• Close search. Starting by teaching link the signal for it by putting treats on the ground around Link and letting him find/eat them on the signal (double whistle on the dog whistle)
• Stop. Blow the whistle once and the dog should stop. You start teaching this by blowing the whistle once and then throwing a ball or a treat to the dog. The dog thus learns to stop what it is doing and have all of its attention on you
• Recall. This I have already taught Link, but we still have to practice it under varying conditions.

•  Sending out to the dummy (using bowls with treats in the beginning), and directing the dog to the left or right using either whistle or hand signals.

When we can do all of this, it is time to start putting everything together and to increase the difficulty. And maybe then we could pass the qualification test.

The pond where we practiced retrieving from water.

Miserable dog walk and failed training

An example of me and Link failing to cooperate. This picture was taken during the gun dog course, where I was in a much better mood and hence better able to handle situations like this. Today was not such a day.

Sometimes everything you do seems to fail. No matter how much you try to motivate your dog or try to be fun, it just keeps sniffing the ground and pulling on the leash to get away from you and do something else. I had one of those days today.
 
During Link's and my walk home from work tonight, nothing seemed to go the way I wanted. At first we trained on some of the things we learned during last weekend's gun dog course, which went fairly well, but then the trouble started. Apparently a female dog in heat had been there before us, so Link paid no attention to me nor to lose leash walking. Then we met the first dog, a Cairn terrier. I managed to get the now very exited Link to sit while the terrier walked towards us, but in the moment it passed, Link lunged out. The only thing keeping him from getting to the other dog was my firm grip on the leash. Link barked out of frustration. The terrier, thankfully, just kept on walking. I thought I handled it fairly well, under the circumstances, and figured we could still get this walk on the right track.

Then the second dog meeting. A Boston terrier and a mutt. They began barking and growling at Link the second they saw him. This did not exactly calm him down. Link growled back a little, but it wasn't hard for me to hold him back or to get him to walk away with me. At this point though, I was irritated and Link was very stressed. I know that the more irritated I get, the more stressed Link gets. So I decided to just stop for a while, sit down on a bench and wait for Link (and me) to calm down.

It didn't work. Link started pacing back and forth next to the bench. Eventually he sat down, but then he started whining and barking. He just was not able to relax. And I felt my irritation grow. I tried not to show Link that, but he wasn't fooled. I settled for a few seconds of calm behavior from Link and then we got on our way again.

Soon after that, we met a Staffordshire bull terrier. I got Link to sit by my side as it approached, but like with the Cairn terrier, Link lunged. Only this time he lunged behind me instead of in front of me. This got me off balance, and it didn't exactly get better when I tripped on a stone. I almost fell on top of Link, but to my great relief I managed to stay on my feet. This whole maneuver however, led to Link getting all the way over to the other dog. Which in turn, turned out to be aggressive. It snapped at Link and growled fiercely. This probably took Link by surprise, he has never met an aggressive dog like this before. So thankfully he backed off for a second, long enough for me to regain my balance and be able to get Link under control. The Staffordshire bull terrier kept growling and Link answered in kind, when I held him back. Both me and the other owner mumbled something about how crazy our dogs were, both of us rather embarrassed about the whole situation.

I had by now gone from irritated to completely furious. I'm really glad that I am 100% convinced that it never helps to physically punish a dog, and also relatively good at keeping my temperament in check. A lesser person (or less convinced person) would have gone medieval on Link at this point.
I felt that another loss right now was more than I could take, so from that moment on I walk with Link on a very short leash and as fast as I could. I really needed the walk to be over!

The last dog meeting was with a Soft coated wheaten terrier, but I didn't even try to get Link to cooperate with me as we passed it. I just kept the leash short and kept on walking. Link tried to react to the dog, but wasn't given much time nor space to do so. I just wanted to get away from it all.

The rest of the walk home were to my relief eventless, but I had to really focus to stay calm. I felt like the worst dog owner in the world. Furious with myself as much as with Link, and at the same time I felt bad for Link. None of this was Link's fault, yet somehow the dog always gets the shortest end of the stick in situations like this.

I will try to not beat myself up to much about this and start fresh with training Link to pass other dogs again tomorrow. And I will try to remember the wise words I read in a dog training book once: "If you feel that you are in a bad mood or irritated, don't train your dog. Cuddle up with your dog in the sofa and read a good book instead."
Next time, that's what I'll do.

Dogsitting the neighbour's Bichon Havanais

Daisy wearing her cone collar, also known as Elizabethan collar. She is a Bichon Havanais with "wrong" type of coat. I think she is prettier than the dogs with correct coat.

 This evening we are dogsitting our neighbour's Bichon Havanais Daisy. She had surgery on her eye 2 days ago, so when her owner had to leave her for a few hours tonight, I said I could watch her. She is wearing a cone collar to keep her from scratching her eye. She is used to the collar by now, because this is the second time she has had this surgery (but last time it was the other eye). She had a condition called Cherry eye, for which the treatment most often is surgery.

Going for a walk.

We went for a walk down to the store where my boyfriend used to work. I waited outside with the dogs, while Mads went in to the store. Being the dog lover that he is, of course he bought treats for the dogs too.

Both dogs waiting to get treats.

 Link and I have been attending a gun dog course all day, so Link is exhausted. To keep Daisy from trying to get him to play all the time, I had to let Link into our bedroom and up in the bed where Daisy can't get to him. Poor Link, too tired to play, but too much of a gentleman to say no to Daisy's play invites.

Link and Daisy while we waited outside of the store.

Tomorrow Link and I are going to attend the second day of the gun dog course. I can't wait, it is so much fun! Even though we are among the least experienced participants of the course and have hardly impressed anyone today. We have a lot to work on, to put it that way. I will tell you guys more about it tomorrow. Hope you have a lovely weekend!

How to turn a normal dog walk into a training session

Yesterday when Link and I went home from work, we went through the city center. This is not an area in Tromsø that we visit often, actually it was only last week that we were there for the first time. As it is important to expose your dog to different environments and make them feel comfortable anywhere, I realized being down town is something we have to do more often. There are so many unfamiliar sights, sounds and smells there. For Link to be able to take all that in, at the same time as he does lose leash walking and tries to stay focused and calm, takes training, time and patience.
Our walk today was the third time we went to the city center and Link still gets rather easily spooked, though he quickly relaxes again. Today I realized that he reacts to statues, so we trained standing on one small statue of a bear and sitting next to another of a woman.

Link sitting next to a statue that he initially thought was scary. Using a little time and a lot of treats he eventually even liked sitting next to the statue!

When your dog is in a place where it hasn't been before, it sometimes help to do things that are familiar and fun for the dog. This makes the dog associate the new place with something it likes. So when we came to the bicycle parking we did some weaving between the poles.

The bicycle parking behind the library was perfect for training weaving, something that is both familiar and fun for Link

When Link appeared to feel comfortable I decided to challenge him a bit. We walked up some metal stairs. He seemed a bit hesitant at first, but after the first few steps he became more confident.

Link walking up the metal stairs.

During our walk we also made a point to seek out different materials to walk on. We found asphalt, concrete, gravel, grass, wood and metal (the stairs).

Link standing on gravel

Link standing on asphalt.

Link sitting on grass/vegetation.

Link standing on wood.

Link sitting on concrete.

 When we got closer to home I also started to ask Link to balance on things, a game we had when he was little. Below are two pictures of Link balancing on top of the dome-shaped "lid" of a rainwater drain.

"Mom, this is a difficult.."

"Look I made it! May I have the treat now?"

I definitely think spending the walk training and exploring is a much better way to use the time spent on walks, than just walking from A to B. The instructor of the therapy dog course said that she always made sure to do 4 (if I remember the number correctly) different things on every walk. Examples could be balancing on fallen trees, hiding treats or toys for the dog to find, asking the dog to crawl or jump over something, etc. Only your imagination sets the limit to what you and your dog can do during your walks.

Trying out a new blog app

Hope you all are having a wonderful day! I know I have, I will tell you more about it tomorrow :)

Book Review - Reaching the Animal Mind by Karen Pryor

Few books have changed they way I think in such a radical way as this book have. Even though I thought I had grasped what "clicker training" was before, I now realize I was more or less just training with a clicker, not clicker training. Yes I did shape behaviors from scratch, and I believe I have good timing when using the clicker, but it was like things fell into place when I read this book.

By reading this book I've learned more about in which situations training with a conditioned reinforcer (like the clicker) is the way to go, and in which situations it might be wiser to use a primary reinforcer (such as food) directly. I've learned much more about the role of raising the criteria and to be consistent with what you click for. I've learned that you actually don't have to wait until an animal offers a behavior reliably without a cue, before you can add the cue (something I never were completely able to wait for, but my dog still learned so I just accepted that maybe I wasn't such a good clicker trainer). But according to Karen Pryor, you don't need to wait with the cue, and she is the person that developed clicker training into what it is today!

Personally, the most important thing this book taught me (for me as a biologist/physiologist) was the neurobiological explanations of how and why clicker training works and what it does in the brain. This might sound boring, but reading about it was anything but. In the books I've read before (written by Norwegian clicker trainers), the theory behind clicker training has been explained using mostly "psychology"-language. I am, how should I put this, skeptical to a lot of the theories put forward in the field of psychology. I often find them un-scientific. So even if I saw that clicker training worked, like they said it would, I didn't do it wholeheartedly. I didn't "love" it. I often still trained with luring, not that I will stop that altogether now, but I will definitely use clicker training more.

Another mindset that was completely changed for me after reading this book, was that I realized that I don't need to get another dog to get an other animal to clicker train. Right now I'm thinking of getting a couple of gerbils to practice my clicker training skills on. We'll see if I actually do it, but it was really a long time since I felt this inspired!

This is definitely a book I can recommend to anybody, whether or not they train animals. The author manages to talk about this relatively narrow field in a way that makes it interesting for everybody. All of her stories about training all kinds of animals, from hermit crabs to dolphins, are really entertaining at the same time as they are educational. She even writes about the human equivalent to clicker training, namely TAGteach.

If there is one book you should read this summer, I believe it should be this one!

Miniature Schnauzer

A Miniature Schnauzer I saw at a dog show in Harstad a few years back.

The Miniature Schnauzer was originally bred from Standard Schnauzers mixed with Affenpinscher and poodle. The purpose of this mixing was to get a small dog that could double as both guard/herding dog and ratter.

Last year (2013) it was the 17th most popular breed of dog in the US. And it is easy to understand its popularity! It is a quick, happy and relatively easily trained dog with a practical size. But it might not be the first choice if you are living in an apartment building, since being a guard dog it can be quite vocal.

A "friend", an Affenpinscher I brought home one day when he had gotten lost. I called the owner and they were happy to see each other again. This is one of the breeds that was in the mix when the Miniature Schnauzer was created.

One thing to be aware of when getting a Miniature Schnauzer is that their coat needs regular grooming. This can be rather time consuming, or expensive, since to get a proper "Schnauzer cut", you are likely to need a professional handle it. The coat of the Schnauzer should not be clipped, it should be stripped. That is how you maintain the "right" quality of the fur. Dogs that are clipped get a very soft coat, which might be good enough for a family pet, but not if you are planning to show the dog at a dog show. Show dogs get stripped short on their back, sides, ears, neck and tail, and are supposed to have long hair on the nose, above the eyes, on the belly and the legs.

Long "eyebrows" and a long beard is the signature sign of all the Schnauzers. This is a Miniature Schnauzer at a dog show.

Health

 The Miniature Schnauzer has one big problem: The teeth. As many other small breeds of dog, there is simply not enough space in the mouth for all the teeth. In addition, for some unknown reason, they get tartar buildup faster than most other breeds (at least in the dogs we have here in northern Norway, this may vary in different breeding populations around the world). This, if left untreated, leads to periodontitis and in the end loss of teeth. So make sure you train your puppy from an early age to allow you to brush its teeth to prevent this.

Miniature Schnauzers also in my experience often have problems with their backs, also this may be a local problem in the Norwegian population, but I doubt that it is unheard of in other populations.

Diseases that are known to occur in Miniature Schnauzers around the world is hyperlipemia (excess fat in the blood), pancreatitis and diabetes. They are also prone to a bleeding disorder called "von Willebrand disease". It's an inherited disease that is caused by a deficiency of a protein required for normal platelet function.

Miniature Schnauzers normally live for approximately 12 years, but dogs living for more than 15 years are not uncommon. In spite of the health issues mentioned here, it is a relatively healthy breed.

My dog Link as a puppy and the miniature Schnauzer Rocky playing in the snow.

Training

Miniature Schnauzers are easy to train, as they were originally bred for working. But being a Schnauzer it also has a will of its own. You should put in a lot of time for training this energetic little dog, but it doesn't demand more than what a normal family could provide in terms of activities. It isn't the most demanding dog to have, but being bred from working dogs, they need to use their heads to feel fulfilled. The companion dog part of their ancestry make them well suited as family pets, but be aware that they have a tendency to bark. If you want to do dog sports, but not have a large dog, the Miniature Schnauzer just might be the breed for you.

 

Link and our neighbor's miniature Schnauzer Casper.