So I’ve been reading this book the last couple of days. And my review is not, yet, totally complete, as I haven’t read the whole book yet. I bought it from Dog Wise, the Kindle version, and I’m about 32% finished now. So far I’m really enjoying it.

Any dog behavior books I read anymore, I read from an obedience perspective. Since obedience is my joy and my nemesis at the same time. I love training for obedience, and it’s been difficult to figure out how to motivate the dogs to work for extended periods without treats.

Anyway, in this book, Kathy Sdao basically analyzes the Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) dog training program that so many dog trainers promote today. I have never followed the NILIF plan. One reason is because I’m lazy, and it would take a strong consistency I lack in my home environment. But mostly I don’t follow NILIF because really I just enjoy being with my dogs and doling out random treats and loves just to make them happy. And to make me happy. I have heard, time and again, that perhaps my daily behavior with my dogs affects my obedience training negatively. But really, I don’t care enough to change. While I do want Jet to qualify someday in obedience, I still want a fun happy relationship with him in my every day life. And our agility is going really well, so I’m glad we have success in agility. Agility is my favorite anyway.

Of course I really like to read books that support my training perspective style, or lack thereof, since Kathy is arguing against the NILIF training method.

Kathy Sdao argues against NILIF because, at the beginning of the book, she basically says that an emotional bond between two creatures should be free with love and interaction, and not dependent upon one of them doing something for attention. As the NILIF program does say that for the dog to get any attention, food, or anything at all, he has to do something first. No hugs without a sit. And if no sit, then the person walks away and there are no hugs or attention. Kathy says this can really break down a relationship, both in humans with humans, and humans with dogs. She states that such a relationship is actually rather passive aggressive on the human’s part. She also says that one point of positive dog training is so the dog feels like he is in control of his environment, as that builds confidence and trust. His actions matter, and get him things he wants and needs. But with NILIF, if the dog asks for attention, and you don’t give it (or only with conditions), then that could be telling the dog that he, actually, has no control over his environment after all.

She gives lots of examples in the book, and she talks about having a good genuine bond with our dogs, which I enjoy very much. That is why I have dogs in the first place. I want the bond, the companionship. The training is secondary. Hopefully I’ll be able to get those obedience legs with the relationship I already have with my dogs. Hopefully, the relationship I have with my dogs actually will increase the probability of qualifying legs. I guess I’ll find out over the years.

Kathy Sdao also talks about how sometimes people hear ideas and just automatically adopt them, without really giving them much thought. She talks about ‘sticky’ ideas and why the permeate society more than others. I think it’s always good to think about what we are doing and why, instead of just subscribing to the training program of someone else automatically. I think, in the dog training world, there are a ton of practices that people follow ‘just because,’ and they do need to be examined by each person to see how they really fit our own training and our own lives.

So perhaps Plenty in Life Is Free, or should be free, to both dogs and humans. I sure hope so. I get way too much enjoyment out of seeing my dogs get excited and happy Just Because of things that are Free.

Anyway dying is neither here nor there. LOL. Back to the training log. I love Google Docs. I use Google Docs for everything. I have tons of spreadsheets in there with various things, tracking the dogs’ weights, their registration numbers, bank account information (nothing that will get you my bank account numbers though lol), packing lists, etc. I love sharing the packing lists with the friend I usually travel with, makes collaborating on packing dog junk a lot easier!

So I’ve been experimenting with Jet’s obedience training lately, and finally decided to keep a training log. So here it is, and it’s on Google Docs, and you can’t edit it, but you can view it. Granted there’s not much in there right now since I’ve only just started it. But here it is:

Jet’s Training Log

I thought about embedding it into a blog post but then though naw, the link should be fine. Of course it’ll only be as useful as I make it, and if I use it, so we’ll see if I can keep using it. I get lots of anxiety associated with doing things on a regular basis, so we’ll see. I’d like to make some charts out of it too but I haven’t figured out how yet.

I’ve been doing some obedience training on my own mainly because when I train with someone else, I tend to shut my brain down and not think on my own. This also goes for other things in my life.. work is one of them. If someone leads me, I’ll just follow and do what I’m told. Sometimes I need to be more aware of what my own actions are, what reinforcers I’m using, and to do that I have to do things on my own. And hopefully this tracking sheet will help me see trends and other things. So Jet and I have been working on various things with toys and play instead of treats, and I’ve gotten some good information about what Jet will work for and what he won’t. I have some video, but I haven’t uploaded it. I get shy about talking about what I’m doing, so sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, and I just haven’t been all to chatty lately.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be changing that spreadsheet over time, but it’s what I have now.

Jet's Third Birthday!

Next week Tatum gets one as her made-up birthday is May 1st.

For now, Jet gets to enjoy his.. well, all the dogs do, since it’s a big pizza and Jet would burst if he ate it all!

Lately I’ve changed hosts. The old host didn’t seem willing to work with me to prevent the hackers and I was getting frustrated. So I’m trying out a new host… and they have a 30 day back money guarantee. So I’m now switched over to this new host and we’ll see how it goes. So far so good, things are running smooth and quickly and the hackers haven’t shown up again. I got a recommendation about this host that they clean up and fight hackers so we’ll see how it goes.

So anyway if you’ve commented in the last four or five days, I apologize but probably your comment got lost in the transfer. I hope you’ll comment again.

As for the dog stuff.. I’ve been working Jet’s obedience regularly and I think he’s doing really well without treats. There’s an obedience ring setup this weekend that I hope to attend on Saturday. Depends on the weather, though. I’ve also been working some of Chase’s obedience and he’s also doing well.

I’m still not sure if I’ll get a boy or a girl.. though I’m leaning toward a particular girl. Though if the breeder wants to keep her, then I’ll probably take a boy from that same litter. So I do hope to bring home that girl that is my first choice. They are only a week old, so there is still time!

I don’t know how the puppies would look under led lighting, maybe black lighting would be better…? I’m mostly looking at some blue merles. I do love the blues, they have always been my favorites.

Jet U-FLI

Earlier this week I received a big manila envelope from the U-FLI flyball organization. I didn’t know what it could be, since we haven’t done flyball since last October. Well, low and behold, it was a certificate for Jet for being the fastest dog of his breed in 2011!

I think this is a bit humorous because Jet is not the fastest Danish-Swedish Farmdog in U-FLI. But, the dogs have to run in singles to get a breed time. So, it appears that Jet was the fastest DSF in 2011 that ran singles. So, we get a certificate!

Flyball is fun and I rather miss it, but I just don’t have the time so it’s taken a back seat lately. Especially since I now have to work 8 hour days five days a week, too. Maybe after I retire I’ll be able to get back into it. One year, three months, 26 days. Not too long now!

Jet U-FLI

Jet U-FLI

Levi's Ramp

Oh well. it’s supposed to snow today anyway, and it’s a good thing to take it easy. I might actually lay low on the obedience with Jet for a while and just be at home and rest and take care of myself. I think I took a break from mourning Levi, too, and last night it crashed back on me again. I really miss him so much. The house is not the same. The house will never be the same again.

So we’ve decided to leave the ramp in the back yard. Mainly because Jet and Chase have this new not-so-fun game where they stare at each other and get all excited and then go flying out the dog door at top speed. And if the ramp wasn’t there, they’d probably crash hard onto the cement. Maybe it’d only take them one or two times to figure it out, but we don’t want them to get hurt. So the ramp is going to stay for a while. Maybe we need something like an elo touch to get them to stop but I’m not sure how that would quite work.

So life goes on, slowly, taking it easy, loving the four dogs that we still have.

Chase

The biggest change I think has been Chase. He’s the oldest now (8.5 years), and he has space issues with dogs he doesn’t know. He will attack without warning when we go out and he’s too close to other dogs. He will still do this. He always hated having foster dogs in our house. So he’s the happiest one of them all that we no longer foster. He’s very relaxed at home now and, strangely enough, he’s becoming our mediator dog. Chase and Levi never got along. Levi would grump at Chase on a regular basis.

But now Chase loves to play with Jet (he did before, but he’s more relaxed about it now). Chase plays with Tatum too, and kinda tolerates Muffit. Muffit barks at Chase when he (Muffit) wants to play, which annoys Chase to no end. But after years, Chase is showing lip and teeth when he gets annoyed. We think that Chase’s warning system was punished out of him before we got him. So he’d just explode without warning. At home he gives warning now (he was giving warning before Levi died too). Chase hasn’t started a fight at home in probably over a year. It’s quite nice.

Jet has been having issues with being unable to stop when he starts fighting. I believe he learned it from Levi. Jet didn’t learn a good way to tell another dog that he’s been hurt or he wants something or needs another dog to stop something. I blame Levi, and myself, of course. Hopefully we’ll work this out. But anyway, a couple weeks ago Jet was going off on Chase, and Chase just stood there in the back yard with Jet latched onto his cheek. This is HUGE for Chase. Before, Chase would have fought back and not have stopped. But now, Chase is like our medium dog that has taken on the role of smoothing everything over. It’s really cool.

Anyone in a multi-dog household understands that dogs fight. It’s what they do. Our dogs have good bite inhibition and don’t break skin. But they sure sound mean. And they don’t fight without reason. People yell at each other, dogs growl and snarl and fight. And our house is kinda small, so the dogs are close together a lot. Maybe we need some wood pergolas to lighten things up, but we can’t afford anything now!

My husband and I aren’t sure who is highest ranking dog anymore. It’s probably Tatum, our only girl. But it could be Muffit, he doesn’t put up with anyone’s crap. It’s not Chase, he’s just the middle ground dog. And I don’t think it’s Jet either, even though he’s intact. Though we think Jet wants to be. It’s one of those flowing easy going packs that just get along. It’s quiet and nice. It’ll be interesting to see how a puppy throws them all for a loop again. Chase will probably have the hardest adjustment, he always does, but hopefully he’ll adjust quickly.