Congratulations to me !!!

 I am now Nancy Freedman-Smith CDBC, CBATI
Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, with  IAABC, The International Association of Behavior Consultants,  Certified Behavior Adjustment Training Instructor 

March comes in With 3 Great Dog Author Events

Susannah Charleston will be talking about Possibility Dogs   

One Book, One Community – Read. Reflect. Engage.  is a campus-wide initiative that seeks to engage students, faculty, staff, and the community in reading, discussing, and analyzing the same book. This semester the One Book One Community Committee has chosen The Possibility Dogs by Susannah Charleston. Copies of the book are available in the YCCC Library. Please join us for either of these two events, which are free and open to the public.

YCCC has two free events planned and hopes that faculty, staff, students and members of the community will join us.

March 8, 2017 – Noon
Susannah Charleston, author of The Possibility Dogs will be on campus for a discussion of the book, working with dogs and therapy animals.

ABOUT the AUTHOR:
Susannah Charleson was first published under her given name in 1981. A content provider before the term became an idiom, she has written magazine and newsletter articles, multimedia productions, PSAs, news stories, commercials, features and movie reviews for commercial radio, Web content for publisher Thomson/Wadsworth, radio theatre and parody for public radio, catalogue copy for a vintage jewelry store, and serial fiction on AOL. In addition to writing for media, she has worked in radio and television reporting news, weather, and traffic. Susannah hosted a Dallas-area arts & entertainment television program for thirteen years.

She is a flight instructor and canine search-and-rescue team member in the United States. Her search partner Puzzle is a Golden Retriever certified for the rescue or recovery of missing persons in urban, wilderness, disaster, and scent discrimination/trailing searches. Susannah and Puzzle share their home with a rabble of Pomeranians, a rescued German shepherd-Labrador retriever-pit bull mix, and a rescued Skye terrier-chihuahua mix out of Hollywood.

Susannah’s first book, Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search and Rescue Dog, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April 2010. This critically well-received book also appeared on the New York Times, Dallas Morning News, Amazon and Denver Post Bestseller lists, with excerpts appearing in D Magazine, Bark, and other online venues. The e-book returned to Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestseller lists in fall, 2012. Scent of the Missing is available in audio formats from Blackstone Audio and in e-print for Kindle, iPad, etc., as well. Portugese, Polish, Czechoslovakian, Japanese and Chinese editions are also available now.

For more information on the book, including a video trailer with Puzzle working in the field, visit the Scent of the Missing website. Scent is available through Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and fine independent booksellers nationwide and may be ordered directly from the book’s website, online, or purchased in stores.
Scent of the Missing was optioned for television in 2010 and is owned by CBS Productions.

A book that follows Susannah’s work with rescued dogs trained for mental health service to the disabled and for therapy work in the wake of catastrophe or trauma — The Possibility Dogs: What a Handful of Rescues Taught Me About Service, Hope, & Healing, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 2013.

Audiobook editions of both Scent of the Missing and The Possibility Dogs are available from Blackstone Audio/Downpour.com. Susannah narrates both books.

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RSVP to the ARL to hear  Amy Sutherland talk about Rescuing Penny Jane

Rescuing Penny Jane Book Talk and Author Meet & Greet Thursday, March 16th  |  6PM The ARLGP is proud to host bestselling writer Amy Sutherland. Amy will be at the ARLGP to talk about her new book Rescuing Penny Jane.  Penny Jane is an ARLGP alumni that Amy adopted while volunteering at the ARLGP. She presents an unforgettable and inspiring trip through the world of homeless dogs, shelters and the people who work so hard to save them.   Longfellow Books will be joining us for this paw-some event. Grab Rescuing Penny Jane at their Monument Square location, or purchase it at the ARLGP the night of at the book talk. 20% of all Rescuing Penny Jane books sold through Longfellow Books will support the ARLGP!

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And last but not least, Patricia McConnell! 

Boxborough, Massachusetts -- March 23, 2017

Holiday Inn, 242 Adams Place

7:00 to 9:00 PM

The Education of Will

Patricia will be talking about her memoir, The Education of Will: A Mutual Memoir of a Woman and a Dog. The "Will" in the title of Patricia's new memoir has two meanings. First, it refers to her Border Collie, Willie, who came as a "troubled, spark of a dog," who was loving and attentive, but also consumed by fear. However, the word "will" also refers to will power, which, as the book shows, is not enough to help a panicked dog, much less a dog owner overwhelmed with her own fears. Patricia will touch on her very personal story about how her beloved Willie first set her back, but eventually led to healing from the traumas in her own past that she had tried to "will" away for decades.

Join Patricia as she details her personal journey with Willie to turn a life of fear into one of confidence and compassion.

Registration information coming soon.

Barnacle rocking kid's tricks class. Literally.

Free Tricks Workshop at Scarborough Dog Days.

Join Gooddogz Training at Dog Days of Scarborough this Saturday at 2:30 for a free and fun interactive Tricks Workshop. 
Come teach your 'ol dog some new tricks!
Teaching tricks is a great way to engage your dog's mind, improve your bond, teach your dog how to learn, and teach you how to be a better trainer.

Week 3 with Hannah, teaching trade and tug

 I am making no secret that I am making things up as we go along.  The first thing I wanted to help with was startle reflex.  I want to put a lot of great experiences  in the behavior bank. Our hope is  that when Hannah  is startled, she won't act defensively with her teeth.  When Hannah feels the stomping vibration of someone approaching, she is happy and knows what to expect.
She knows something is coming and it will be pleasant.

She learned sit, auto sit and down and really is doing amazing with all that.

This past week my normal syllabus called for recall.  Hmm. How exactly is that going to work?  Mom came this week and she told me that the dog is never far from them and they don't expect her to come.
In the yard, she is on a 30 foot line.
We did work out a cue for come. It involved putting food in the luring hand, and starting mid way at her body and basically swiping her all the to her head, and then walking backwards and then feeding. That worked great.

After Hannah worked for a while, I asked if she played with toys and the answer was a resounding YES, so I gave her this great fleece toy with a tennis ball built in. Well, I have to say I was surprised at how totally normal, young dog acting she was, and I knew right there they next thing that she needed to learn was DROP IT , and proper tooth play.  She was very gentle with her mouth and didn't once get me by accident.  This was the first thing that I taught, that except for not adding a verbal cue, I taught it the exact way I do all my dogs.

Give the toy, tug tug tug then put your hand with food at the nose and wait for them to drop it. Feed and then repeat the game.  This will teach her that it is play when the toy is moving, and time to give it up when we stop the motion. She nailed it.  I think you can see from the photos below that she really did play hard!
Next week we will define take and drop a bit clearer.
All and all I could not be happier with her .

I was surprised at how much Hannah loved to play! 

She is tugging hard here. Tugging won't make her aggressive. Hannah like all dogs  is going to use her teeth anyway,so best to teach her the rules in a fun way.

Drop it! Good girl!
When we teach the trade up game, the dog gets something of greater value than what they are playing with and then they get the prize back.  

Week 2 with Hannah, the deaf and blind dog

I just love how easy it is to capture a moment on my cell phone!
  Below you will find two very short videos of Hannah in class. My only wish is that I recorded Hannah  just as soon as I saw her walking in the parking lot on the way in.   Hannah was just like most young dogs. She totally   recognized where she was and she was excited to be there.  She wagged and sniffed and was clearly happy.  Hannah  totally seemed to know me and gave me a sweet howdy.   On the way in, she aced the three steps down and then the three steps up.
I was impressed.

This is no lie.  We are making stuff up as we go along. We continued to introduce her to people by stamping our feet twice the treating, and that is going really well.

She learned no mugging, just like I teach dogs with sight and hearing.  We held out  our fist with food inside and if she didn't back off and stop trying to get the treat  with her mouth and paws then she wasn't rewarded. We are still using a scratch behind the ears as a marker that she did good and a treat is coming.

In class this week she learned that two taps on her butt mean sit.  Check her out. She learned this in minutes.

And then we taught her the beginnings of automatic  sit.  When I go, you go and when I stop you sit.
I continue to be impressed.

She did so well in class in fact that her owner who has another dog at home, and has fostered quite a few dogs mentioned that in some ways working with Hannah is easier than with other dogs.   Hannah's world is all about him and his wife.  She has no other competing reinforcers.  She is not distracted by other  dogs, or toys, and pretty much is there with them all the time.  She is content to just be around them and while I think they have challenges to face, there is truth in that statement.

We have no class next week because of the Fourth of July, but I can't wait to see her the following week. I will try to get more video.  

Training Hannah, she is deaf and blind

9 month old Hannah, a rescue dog from Indiana joined my group Manners class at The Training Center on Forest Ave in Portland this past Saturday.  Because her training has so many challenges I will be blogging about what we taught her and more importantly, how we taught it.  I googled  training deaf and blind dogs quite a bit and didn't really come up with much, so I will be posting here in hopes of helping someone else down the line.

Not that long ago the Animal Refuge League in Westbrook  took in 3 young deaf and blind dogs and they contacted me about helping with with them. I went in to meet them but they were already all set and did an amazing job at helping those dogs.  They were older than Hannah and one in particular had behavior issues. Kudos to the ARL for doing such a great job with them.  What I learned from meeting those dogs is that the ARL used three scents to help the dogs find their way.

The ARL used Lavender for crate. Hannah's family is already doing this and they are using Lavender on bedding also.
The ARL used Sage on walls and Basil in Doorways. I suggested this to Hannah's family and I think they may try it, although they report she is getting around amazing well. I saw her on our stairs and she was quite impressive!

The first thing that we taught Hannah was a marker. A marker means that she did good and a treat is coming.  For that we used a quick scratch behind the ears followed by a high value treat.   Hannah finds this pleasant.

My biggest concern is that she may be startled and bite.  She shows no signs of that now, but now is the time to work on this.  Hannah is actually quite clever and very, very sweet.  We came up with the idea that her people would stamp their feet 2 times and I would stamp over and feed her. We also played find it on the floor but stopped because she was so clever she started to look on the ground for food as soon as she felt the floor vibrate.
I have to say, considering I was making the stuff up as we went along, I found this to be a really smart way to go.  We know that Hannah feels the vibrations on the floor and this paired people approaching with something very pleasant.  It also teaches her  that stamping means something is coming.

We also started to teach her to sit with both a lure and capturing. It didn't take her long to start offering sits and I was really pleased with that! She also started to learn down with a lure on her mat.

I plan on blogging her classes over the next month.
I welcome suggestions from those of you who have trained deaf and blind dogs.
Happy training!

update
I think we will follow in this dog's footsteps.

Useful dog trick - fetch toilet paper

Things are CRAZY on the Gooddogz Facebook page. This trick is going viral with an International audience.  So funny!

Check your labels! Peanut butter with deadly Xylitol

I am posting a link to a well written article about the dangers of Xylitol on Preventivevet.com.     It is now found in some peanut butter. Be super careful with gum and candy and baked goods.  Read labels and ASK!
http://www.preventivevet.com/dogs/is-peanut-butter-safe-for-dogs

Belated Tongue Out Tuesday, Co pilot edition

First Foray into Rally Free...we did less than meh

Yesterday I submitted a video for my first Rally Free entry, and well let me just say it was a whole lotta learning experience.  I am about 99 percent sure that we didn't Q (qualifying score), but I decided to send it anyway, so that down the line I will have a before and after.

My dog Beck, has had some epic behavior issues the last few years. Beck is 5 now and things really magnified at about the 3 year mark, which is more common than you would think. When dogs reach maturity, stuff catches up to them.  \

At around the same time, I tore my miniscus andwe  moved.  Needless to say, it has taken a while, but he is a happier, safer dog than he was this time last year. The thing is, I am still treating him like a circus freak and I need to re- eval my training plan and start working with the dog I have who is in need to a lot more training out and about in all kinds of places.
Now Beck is some kind of brilliant in my kitchen and in Rally Free you get the entire routine 10 days before hand.  Hand signals are frowned upon and we had the entire routine on voice cue with some subtle body cues.  But ya would never know it.  As we like to say in the dog training, there were "a lot of competing reinforcer"s in that field.
For the record, our mistakes in Rally Free have nothing to do with my dog being stubborn. He was just a little more than overwhelmed at his new training area, and working for several minutes with no food is tough! Rally Free is easily way more difficult than the highest Rally level but I love it, and we are hooked.  I had LOTS and LOTS of idea to make our next run so much smoother.
No, I am NOT posting our video here.  I may at some point post a before and after. Or maybe not.
I will enter the next few and well, wish us luck.

This photo of a random lobster roll is here to remind me of my reinforcer when I get that first Q!

Links to my two commissioned reactive dog articles

I am really proud of the two commissioned reactive dog articles that I wrote for Petcha.com.  The first one, Defining the Reactive Dog explains what a reactive is, and helps you figure out a plan going forward.

The second one, 10 Tips to Teach Your Reactive Dog To Stay Calm   is just that. 10 tips. I am proud of both of them.

This marks a dozen articles published on Petcha for me, and I have to say, while I struggled writing them and I am NOT a prolific writer, it sure feels good to have them done.  I applaud my writer friends who can whip out thousands of words a week.  Having these 12 under my belt has given me inspiration to work on my book.  So far I have 3 chapters in the can as they say in the movies.
 Stay tuned!

Gooddogz in the RUFF is my trademark Reactive Dog program. I am taking a break from group reactive classes and will return later in the summer with batteries charged and my program reworked.

10 Things to do if your adult dog bites on Petcha.com

My latest from Petcha. I can't post it here because they paid me, so they own it.
You can read it on their site here

My best post from Petcha - Socialization tips for adult dogs, A tail of Two Collies

With an adult dog, things around the house are usually quite a bit calmer than with puppies or young dogs. Watch for changes in behavior from younger days. Dogs who went to day care or were the life of the party at the dog park may show signs of no longer enjoying these activities. I often tell my clients the following analogy: “When I was younger, I used to slam dance in a mosh pit, but I rarely enjoy large crowds these days.”

To read the full article, please click the link to be taken to the Petcha.com site. 

A Tail of Two Collies - Socializing the Adult Dog 

Useful Dog Trick - Fetch me the toilet paper!

New Training space on Forest Ave in Portland and other cool news!

Hello out there!

Goose and Finn love the new Forest Ave  space

The big news around here is that I secured a new training space at Forest Ave Veterinary Hospital in Portland on Forest Ave.  I share the space with another trainer and the staff at the clinic.  It is my hopes to be able to help more dogs and their families by cutting down on my travel time .  In the last month I have turned away quite a few dogs who live too far out of area, but would have been willing to come to me if I had a suitable place to see them.
I am hopeful that this will be a great thing!
My first clients at the new space start  this next week and most of the time slots that I allotted are filled!

Puppy class starts at Forest Ave starts Thursday, and I will be offering Therapy Dog Prep, Puppy Play and Learn, and Freestyle on Saturdays starting in June.

I have been writing lots for a new site Petcha.com . Currently I have 6 articles posted, but another 5 or more should be up soon.  You can view all my Petcha articles here.
Petcha has been  amazing to work for.  The biggest news is that they paid me a really good amount of money to write a puppy article for their new venture Petcha Puppies, which is a glossy magazine.  Nice to see that print isn't dead.  Don't think that it will be available until winter, but I am looking forward to sharing that with my parents who send me clippings of dog articles pretty much weekly by snail mail. They are adorable my parents, and I am very fortunate to still have them with me.

I have been working hard to try to make my web site easier to navigate, but so far it is not going that well. I created a page listing all group classes.  My web site is confusing to navigate because I am training at Mainely Agility, Poetic Gold Farm,two  Pet Quarters and now Forest Ave.  Have you ever seen that movie If this is Tuesday it must be Belgium? That is pretty much how I feel about life every day.  Here is the link to my new At a glance page.


I have been super busy, but I have pledged to blog twice a week because I have been told by multiple sources that Google is penalizing me in web searches for www.GooddogzTraining.com for having a blog that I do not update. For the past few years, I have focused energy on my Gooddogz Training Facebook, but moving forward I will be sharing my time between both.
If you haven't already, please visit and like my Facebook page.
Happy Training! 

The Couch

Today I am an ace sleuth detective. I slip into the furniture store wearing inconspicuous clothing and dark sunglasses, determined not to make another furniture mistake. Purchased less than a year ago, our current couch has turned out to be a “dreaded dog hair magnet.” So under the cover of anonymity, I wander purposely around the store, searching for suitable fabric that will camouflage and repel fur.
Having dogs, and therefore having dog hair, you learn things about material. Parachute nylon-good; codura nylon-bad, very bad. It’s embarrassing watching the kids go off to school after their backpacks and pants appear to have spent the night down wind to a furball tumbleweed. Denim is usually good, but I do not want to live in a denim house. As a grown-up, I long for a real couch, instead of the usual fur and jelly cushions.
At the end of the aisle, I spot Ultra Suede. Very interesting. As I stand there pondering, I’m startled by a voice: “Can I help you?” Then before I can answer, I’m receiving the spiel about the wonders of this new miracle fabric: stain resistant, easy to clean, and guaranteed. “Sounds wonderful,” I say and then excuse myself to the ladies room, only to double back a few minutes later when the coast is clear. Carefully I open my zip locked bag of dog hairs and scatter a few on the sides of the arm. To my astonishment, it looks as though the couch is playing catch with the fur. My mouth is gaping as I witness a perfect couch landing. The hair went south and due west to connect with the ultra suede. Another dreaded pet hair magnet! Could there be above average static electricity today, for some reason? No, this cannot be. I have come prepared and reach into my bag to retrieve a dryer sheet. Palming the “Bounce” like a magician, I stretch my arms and covertly wipe the couch arm, and then drop a few hairs once again. Inconclusive. Back into the bag one more time for the lint brush and tape. The ultra suede passed the removal test unlike some fabrics that just seem to inhale the hair.
Moving on, I methodically test couch after couch. Some seem to be feeding on fur. Note to self; write a B-movie about couches that need dog hair to survive.
I do not even bother with the silk and chintz type materials. Never mind dog hair, they would never pass the kid test. We are a tough family-the kind of family that stain-resistant fabric was invented for.
Moving on, I arrive at the home entertainment couch. It has rocking seats, moving foot stools and hidden compartments. Storage bins could hold a weeks worth of food. The next Noreaster, we would only need to leave the couch for bathroom breaks. I start to feel sea sick, so continue on. Here is an interesting one. They call this brushed fabric. The fabric looks tough, but it’s also very similar to what we have now, and I know that doesn’t work for us.
And then I spot the leather. For a few moments I allow myself to dream of life with this beautiful couch, love seat and ottoman, but then the reality of canine toenails, Koolaid, and the ache in my foot where I was impaled by the ears of the Lego giraffe this morning sets in. We would destroy this couch in no time flat.
My high expectations are gone. I ask for several swatches and head for the car. At home I will double stick tape the swatches directly to the dog’s bed for further observation. Deep in my heart I know we will be a slip cover family for a few more years.


This post was written in 2002!  There are more choices for materials today than there were back then. I may need to revisit this.

Why the dog didn't fetch the shoe - Gooddogz Training tip #1

This is a reenactment

Beck is showing you all where I was sitting when I came up with the brilliant idea to ask him to fetch my sneakers.  Sure I could have just reached for them.   Beck has a very good understanding of fetch, bring and deliver to hand. I had never asked him to fetch shoes before.

 "Beck fetch the shoe".

Beck did not fetch the shoe after much asking and pointing, so I picked it up and tried to give it to him.

So I asked him a few more times and the answer was still the same. "NO".

Beck is a very biddable dog when it comes to work, and after all he did want to go out, so he offered up another option that he hoped would get him out the door.

Quoting my daughter.  "The dog has standards. He didn't want to put your stinky feet in his mouth, and he knows where your shoes have been."

This has been a public service for  all dogs from Beck.  The message here is simple.  Sometimes there is a very good reason your dog doesn't want to do what you ask them.  So ask yourself, what can I change to better communicate with my dog and is what I am asking fair.   When I showed Beck that he could fetch laces, and not put his mouth on stinky feet or poop residue he was fine with it. 

Honor the dog.



We have joined the Blog the Change hop.  This is my contribution for dogs.

3 Simple Tips for Using an Old Collar to Help Your Reactive Dog

 Any time we can lower our dogs stress and  arousal levels we should do it, especially if we have a reactive or fearful dog.  The following tips are simple and have the potential to make a big impact on your dog.Try it and report back!

One -
Desensitize and Counter Condition your dog to the jingle of collar tags.

It is so easy to do this. You MUST start below threshold, at the sound level to which your dog does not react.
For dogs,  life is about associations.  What does your dog think when he hears a collar jingle?
Many dogs equate  jingling tags  with A DOG IS COMING.
Change the association, change the emotion, and make life easier and more predicable for your dog!

  Pair the hidden collar jingle with super high value tasty food.  Do not use kibble for this.  Use  canned dog food, chicken, hot dogs, liverwurst or other equally vile smelly goodness.  Don't skimp here. 

Think open bar, closed bar. When the bar is open, the dog is hearing the jingle and eating.   If the dog stops eating, you have gone over threshold and need to make it softer and or move the collar further away.  You may need a helper for this.

 Step two,   the jingle of the collar is then followed closely by the food. We are changing the dog's association to the noise. It will no longer mean "oh S*#t here comes a big scary dog that may eat me" ,  to "oh goody, something good is coming my way!"  You will need to do this first in your house starting at a low almost too soft hear level and gradually getting louder and louder.  Take your cues from your dogs and go slow! 
 Be sure to bring high value food with you on walks and be prepared for the real thing.


Two- 
Tape your own dogs tags so they don't jingle,  or buy a pouch that your dog's tags fit into.
 With much thanks to a client in class whose tags we had to tape because her dog was freaking out another dog in my reactive dog class for this one.  She realized that OTHER DOGS were reacting to her dog less on walks when she walked with the tape on, which in turn helped to keep her dog from getting aroused and upset by another reactive dog!  Genius!

Three-
Teach your dog to nose or paw target a collar with tags, and or to fetch it.
 I use my dead dog's collars  in class to teach this, and while it used to freak me out, I  now love the idea that my beloved dogs are  still with me in spirit helping other dogs.
 It is a fun game to teach a "send" to the collar.  Your dog will become empowered. The goal of changing the association, and lowering stress and arousal  is achieved via a game, and we all know dogs love games.
                                                                Happy Training!

This post was written for my Gooddogz Training reactive dog students.  You are encouraged to share.

Pet Blogger Challenge - Bring it 2014

 

Long time no see there peeps.  I have some free time this morning and I am stopping by to answer the Pet Blogger Questions.  There are a dozen prompts that I am following, but I am leaving out the questions so as not to bore you all to sleep.

***

I started blogging in 1995 for the Portland Press Herald and that morphed into Maine Today.  There is no longer a pet section and everything over there pretty much disappeared into cyber space.  7 years went poof!   But to be honest, it was a bit freeing to move on and not have the time commitment hanging over my head.

The thing I am most proud of on the Gooddogz Blog is I figured out I could upload  photos and blog from my phone.  Yes, I am a simple soul.

While I plan to keep a presence  here, I have vowed to spend less time blogging and more time WRITING A BOOK!  Actually, I am working on two ideas and excited about both of them.  Both are dog centered and pretty damn funny and educational. As the book  gels, I will be posting some snippets on this blog.

This may not be what the blogging community wants to hear, but the lesson I have learned in the last few years of bloggng is that it is easier, and quicker to share my thoughts on the Gooddogz Training Facebook page and write a book that will live long and prosper so to speak, than spend hours and hours on a blog.    When I wrote for the Portland Press Herald, they were owned by a huge corporation and my biz addy would then come up high, if not always first on web searches.  That was a huge incentive to blog.   Blogging to me has become another time suck that I am getting away from in 2014. I will still post photos here and occasional great articles but I am focusing on other things in the coming year.

On the subject of review and give aways, I  have a pile of books to review here that I still have not have had time to read.  There will be a book review with all the books I have coming in the near future.   I LOVE writing dog product reviews and would do that as a full time job if there was such a thing. 

So there you have it. In a nutshell. Blogging less,  Facebooking more  and writing 2 books.  I plan to have a bigger presence on the Gooddogz YouTube Channel this year and   I will be linking to videos on this blog.   Of course that is also while being a single Mom, and a small biz owner and spending lots of time with my two  dogs who don't train  themselves.

Cheers to a productive 2014.