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This last Saturday, we set up at a flea market in York Maine on Ridge Road (towards the strip mall where TD BankNorth is located). Course the wife had dogs boarding, dogs training, dogs boarding and training, so she got out of a full days work (at the flea market LOL, sorry honey). When she came to check on us, Leon and Boris had come along. This is Leon's favorite place for socializing with the humans. He gets a lot of attention.
We were set up next to a couple of nice gentlemen who own The Seacoast SoapCompany. Not only did they have a great product, but they allowed us to borrow two tables and offered a collapsible water dish to our dogs:) Very nice guys, and their products smelled wonderful. We were there to make some extra dough from our junk and not spend it (right then, though I think I saw Robin sneaking online earlier).
Leon and Boris brought along the cuteness factor to help along with our sales. All in all, we made enough for a very nice Sunday breakfast at Merriland Farm in Wells Maine.
All and all a fun weekend that, as usual, included the whole family. PS, you can not sit on the patio with your dogs during breakfast here:( It sure is good breakfast though.
Maine and New Hampshire Dog Training
Mannerly Mutts Blog
Thanks to Jazz, we have investigated several types of Frisbees for large dogs that tend to rip apart anything they are able to (toys wise that is). Here are some pros and cons of our finds.
The Nylabone Frisbee:
I really like these frisbees a lot.
This was the first Frisbee that worked well with Jazz.
There are things that new puppy owners are almost surprised or concerned about. If you haven't owned a puppy for a long while, there are some things you may have blocked from your memory, perhaps with good reason.  of Duck Pond 049.jpg)
Puppies are wonderful, and if you go about raising them the right way, they will seem a little less demonically possessed at times.
- Puppies are great because you are shaping their lives. The flip side of that is that puppies need to be taught EVERYTHING. Some of the below points will referance that.
- All puppies will mouth at some point. This mouthing can be anywhere from mildly annoying to being readily able to imagine your puppy biting off body parts while you are sleeping. This is a normal part of puppyhood, and yes you are going to need a strategy to teach the puppy (so this does not mean in one day) to bite other things rather than you or your human family:)
- To puppies a fair place to eliminate is someplace farther away from you and their sleeping place. They do need consistent and fair housetraining to learn that you want them to eliminate in an area that the human is happy with.
- Owners of puppies should learn about parasite protection for their young ones. I am including mosquitoe and tick strategies here in addition to worms.
- Sometimes a puppy is acquired in a non breeder and non shelter way. Please visit your vet ASAP to take care of vaccination requirements and other health issues.
- Puppies do not know the difference between your shoe, a hairbrush, glasses, wires, crown molding, door jams, antique heirlooms, or an approved dog toy. They need to be supervised or confined all the time.
- Puppies naturally follow you around when they are very young (generally speaking, I am sure there have been instances where this did not quite happen). Please know that training present and future (though techniques and objectives may differ) is necessary to keep that going.
- Puppies, as they grow, will try things to get there way. The strategies that might be emmployed include growling, whining, barking, jumping, and ET. This is normal, but will most likely get worse unless you do proper training.
- Puppies tire easily when they are very young. The long walks and active days will most likely come later.
- In order to be used to and confident around different life noises and activities, puppies need to be exposed to these things. I expose puppies to these things in both training and non training ways. Please remember that socialization does not mean letting your puppy do anything they want OR letting anything/anyone have free reign over your puppy.
- Puppies eat more than adult dogs. Please consult with your vet, and also use the pet food directions on whatever puppy brand you are using. There are different foods for small breed, large breed, and giant puppies generally.
- Puppies poop and pee much more than adult dogs. MUCH MORE. This is just a fact, prepare yourself accordingly to let the little guy/girl have the opportunity to do it in the correct place as much as is humanly possible!
- Puppies that I have had teeth around 15-16 weeks. You may not find these teeth, as puppies tend to swallow them. If you smell blood around them and in their mouth at about this time, teething may be occuring.
- With large breed dogs at least, a puppy isn't considered matured until three and is well within puppyhood until two years old.
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Tether ball anyone?
How about a bike ride instead?
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PORTSMOUTH, NH.
Pass a multiple choice test, start seminars (not too choosey and will give credit), write articles, then write a book. It's a time tested formula, and the reason that many great dog trainers have left the APDT for something a bit more real and ethical.
When my wife started as a trainer, she felt this would be a non-political career LOL. Early on, it was realized that dog training is a career in marketing and politics. I give APDT kudos for coming through with a great marketing strategy, and a way to double speak while maintaining a goal and extremism consistently.
One APDT dog trainer blogged about a seminar that she was putting on. She exclaimed that othes had to tell her how the basics in dog training help with behavior modification. She does not value nor seem to practice dog training, nor does she call her sessions dog training. Yet she has been not only certified by passing a simple multiple choice test, but she is also allowed to give such seminars not only for money but for CEUs for their members. She considers herself an expert on handling fearful dogs, yet has never found the solution for her own dog.
It's one thing to trap one's own dog into a state of fear. It's another to talk "professionally" and tell others that methods won't work for them.
Someday it is our hope that results in standardized performance tests will be required to be a licensed dog trainer. Hopefully the organizations that we value (IACP and NADOI) will also support such legislation when the day comes. My wife will be submitting her case study certification soon to the IACP, and agrees it has only been her fault that it has not been done. However, we value the time and referrals that the IACP requires before certification can even be taken. A panel of judges scores not the multiple choice questions, but the results of the case studies documented in both material presented to the clients, but also what the actual clients have to say:) These are exciting times coming up.
Maine and New Hampshire Dog Trainers
Mannerly Mutts Blog
Leon is on Short Sands public park doing an off leash "Let's Go" after being released to go play. He is such a good boy, and we often take this for granted and don't brag about it. We even have the photo and video proof of it LOL. One thing I regret about Jackie is not bragging about him as much. He accomplished so much in his overly short life. Leon can't do a one minute sit due to his knees, but he has also accomplished a lot and convinced a lot of people that they "want a dog like that".
When people see Leon and want that dog, what they mean is they want a confident, self assured, active (but not hyper unless his tether ball is around or recently frisbee), friendly but not overly so, and obedient dog. Leon is also very loving and devoted to his family. He participates as a demo dog, daycare pal, and dog walking companion.
Here he is without collar, lead or treat coming back to us when asked.
Then we wanted to get a nice picture of him standing on the bench and looking towards us (lighting wasn't working for us though). So we used a "place" and then a "look" command.
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Hey Everyone,
My name is Boris, and I have recently come to live with my family. I was born into a litter of about six puppies. I had a birth defect in my leg, so our breeder contacted Doberman Rescue Unlimited to see if they could place me. Doberman Rescue knew of a couple who had recently lost their much beloved dog. These people had purchased two other rescue dogs from Doberman rescue, who both lived very happy and full lives.
I now have two human owners, a brother named Leon, and countless new friends. Everyday is adventure. This picture was taken with a day out with my dad, can you tell where I am and what I am looking at?
Here I meet a new friend who looks kinda like me but is neither a puppy nor a Doberman? He has short stubby legs though, and was a lot of fun.
Most of my puppy education has been in socializing with dogs, humans, crate training, and going to this "outside" place to pee and poop. I have mastered stairs and getting around, though something seems to have happened to one of my front legs. I woke up one day, and it was gone. Has this happened to anyone else? I get around much better now, so I am not upset by it at all.
More puppy adventures to share soon.
Licks and Love,
Boris
Here at Mannerly Mutts-we love our clients and we love our business. We also like to be able to continue what we love by being paid. That being said, right now is always are least favorite time of the year. This is the time of the year that the impulse purchases made as an Xmas suprise for the family start their training.
Actually what happens most times is when the first lesson fails to deliver a stuffed animal that rarely comes to life (and only when it's wanted to come to life), and normal puppy behavior is the order of the day....
The once joyously greeted puppy is sent uncerimonously back to the rescue. When ideas of having their three year old do all the training with the puppy is not feasible, when it becomes clear that puppies need to be pottied and fed regularly, when it is realized that the five children and two jobs does not provide enough time for puppy care---puppies start re-entering the institutions that they were formerly "rescued" from.
I say every year from February to May it's a fifty fifty shot for first time owned and impulse purchased puppies. It actually takes quite an emotional toll on us, as we would like to save them all. We have a duty to our own dogs and ongoing clients to remain focused and attentive to our responsibilities though. We also lack the financial resources to self fund a non profit venture, though we are considering it to turn out trained and adoptable dogs whose owners fail them.
This time of year is worse than any other time of year due to the shear volume of impulse purchases. Normally, we would screen out these clients right away for our own emotional health. The economy right now though...it doesn't seem wise to turn away business even if there is a slim chance that the owners are going to step up to the plate.
I know my wife would just prefer to take this time off from training rather than try to get through to the impulse purchasing public.
A bad decision made is not one that may affect only your family, which I find extremely sad for the children's and dog's sakes. Your bad decision can affect all sorts of people all the way down the line. Don't purchase living things by impulse.
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