by Grayson Schaffer | on March 9th, 2010 | in Features, Video Clips
Danger contributes some nice camerawork to our ski outing on Friday.
Danger tries his hardest to frame the shot
by Grayson Schaffer | on March 2nd, 2010 | in Features, Training, Video Clips
Last week, Danger and I got to hang out with the Telluride ski patrol and learn a few tricks. One that didn’t go as well as planned was Danger’s attempt to ride the chair lift. . .
Eric and Wylie
by Grayson Schaffer | on February 18th, 2010 | in Features, The Wildrose Way, Training
Here, I’ll use Cooper to demonstrate the stepping stones to a remote sit. Stopping a dog on the whistle is as important for skiing as it is for retrieving. Stopping your dog is the first step toward handling him—sending him left, right, and back like a football receiver.
by Grayson Schaffer | on February 10th, 2010 | in Features, Training
All dogs have the ability to swim underwater, but not all will. Here, we get Danger used to putting his head under in a controlled environment. All you need is a bucket and some jerky.
by Grayson Schaffer | on February 9th, 2010 | in Features, Training
This one is borrowed from horse trainers. Making right-angle inside turns forces your dog to watch your legs and make sure he’s in position to avoid getting stepped on. It’s kind of like a dance step. Practice often and your pup is bound to become a good partner.
Heeling with an inside turn
by Grayson Schaffer | on February 8th, 2010 | in Features
Generally, digging dogs are a nuissance but I thought we should teach Danger to dig on command in case he ever needs to dig me out of an avalanche or help me burrow in for the night. How to do it: Bury some jerky in the snow or soft dirt. Show him where it is. Click him for digging down to it. Simple stuff. Just remember to click the actual paw stroke. I found that Danger would look at me and take one swipe at the dirt to test whether that’s what he was being clicked for. Fun stuff.
Cool-Hand Danger, why are you digging out my hole?
by Grayson Schaffer | on January 26th, 2010 | in Features, The Wildrose Way, Training
Every dog’s got to know his name. That’s how your pup is going to know when it’s really his turn to heel, retrieve, or get on the couch.
by Grayson Schaffer | on January 5th, 2010 | in Features, Training, Video Clips
We’re going to keep harping on this point all winter. Dogs that get close to skis receive gaping lacerations. It’s just that simple. Here are three tips to help ease your mind and your dog’s pain. Nothing keeps me awake at night like the thought of skis cutting doggy tendons. You can see, even in this video clip that Danger and Cooper aren’t perfect. In the heeling part at the end, Danger crosses over my right ski and was very lucky not to have gotten cut.
Next time, we’ll work on positioning—teaching your pup when he should be at your side, when he should be a ski-pole’s length away, and when he should be behind.
Cooper, Grayson, and Danger at Ski Santa Fe
by Grayson Schaffer | on December 21st, 2009 | in Features, Video Clips
Danger gets ready to spin the bottle
by Grayson Schaffer | on December 15th, 2009 | in Features, Swag the Dog, Things Dog People Wear
Nice work, Danger, five greenheads and a drake pintail. Doesn't get any better than that.
Can’t really beat Patagonia’s quilted Again Jacket ($125) as all-purpose undergarment and outerwear. The nylon/wool/poly blend is eminantly soft while the trim styling makes either a nice midlayer for skiing or duck hunting or outer layer for around town.
by Grayson Schaffer | on December 14th, 2009 | in Features, Training
This is another fun one to teach with the clicker. First teach him to drop a glass bottle in the glass bin, just like we did with the cans. Do this only after teaching the can trick—broken glass and dog paws don’t mix. Then have him start by picking up the glass bottle from the can bin and dropping it in the glass bin. Gradually add cans to the mix and only click/treat him when he chooses the bottle.
Danger hits his mark
by Grayson Schaffer | on December 10th, 2009 | in Features, Your Questions
Cooper post cactus encounter. The spines were actually in his leg and flank.
It’s got to be hard to be my dog. There’s snow on the ground, now, but it turns out that cactus still reside under it and so do their spines. Cooper took a digger yesterday and must have skidded right across one. I noticed a few spines after we were done training but didn’t see the fine hair-like spines that were stuck in his leg and belly by the hundred. When I got home last night, poor Cooper looked like a Shar Pei and couldn’t hold down his dinner. I gave him two Bendryl (to bring down the swelling from his alergic reaction) and started plucking out the spines with tweezers. Three hours later, I’d gotten most of the spines out and the swelling had started to go down. This morning, we went to the vet who said more Benadryl and rest. Cooper thanked the nice man by barfing on his floor. Hopefully the little man’s back on his feet by tomorrow.
by Grayson Schaffer | on December 7th, 2009 | in Features, Training
Here’s a classic trick that never gets old: Play dead. Use a clicker to shape this behavior. The click should come right at the moment when the dog has completed the task. Early on, you might click just for him lying down and then for flopping over onto his side a bit. With a dog that’s had some clicker training before and knows that he’s got to offer a behavior to get the click, this should go quickly. You can teach a roll-over the same way.
by Grayson Schaffer | on December 2nd, 2009 | in Features, Media, Time Wasters
This one’s a chain of the first half of a retrieve, a drop it, and a go lie down. Getting him to reliably hit the bin with the can is the only thing that takes some time. To shape that behavior, I used a clicker, put the bin next to him, and clicked any time the can touched the bin. Then click for the can actually landing in the bin. Once he had that skill down, it was just a matter of adding the retrieve and the down to either end.
Danger hits the bin
by Grayson Schaffer | on November 30th, 2009 | in Features, Training, Video Clips
What’s not to love about Ski Santa Fe? The same slopes we were hunting September we’re skiing in November. Cooper was too young to hunt this year, but he’s just the right age to get started on snow. We’re going to spend a lot of time talking about how to ski with your dog this winter. Everyone loves to do it, but few people do it safely. Of the Outside dogs that accompany us on morning hike-up laps, none have escaped a laceration either from a ski edge or a snowmobile. The reason it happens is simple: The owner has no control over the dog when new and exciting distractions are introduced. A few people have told me that I’m no fun for making my dogs heel. But that’s not quite right. The point is: Make sure your dog can heel and will come when called (even when skiers or snowmobiles are zipping by). Then when you release your dog to run and play, you can do so with the confidence that he’s not a danger to himself.
- Cooper gets his intro to snow
by Grayson Schaffer | on November 18th, 2009 | in Swag the Dog, Things Dog People Wear
Gotta hang your whistle on something. Here’s a handsome two-clip braided leather whistle lanyard from Avery. Keeps me from losing whistles so fast. $28
by Grayson Schaffer | on November 12th, 2009 | in Features, Swag the Dog
Kennel covers are great for keeping the icy wind off your dog in the back of your truck in winter and keeping disease-causing mosquitos out of your pup’s crate in the summer. One other reason I like ‘em: When you zip the screens shut, they make it just dark—like stop barking and go to sleep dark. $90.
by Grayson Schaffer | on November 11th, 2009 | in Features, The Wildrose Way
Hmmm, notes of kerosene with a distinct diesel finish
Mike passed along news from Tennessee-based handler Jim Bowers about Cooper’s half-brother Boone’s recent certification in arson detection. Boone is trained to detect some 18 different accelerants, which are often present in arson-caused fires. The dog pinpoints the location of the fuel in the debris, a sample is taken back to the lab and, voila, This was no accident!
Boone was started in scent detection at Wildrose shortly after birth and made the team at only 12 months, which is very young to pass the Canine Accelerant Detection Association’s rigorous test. Currently there are about 200 arson-detection dogs working in the country. Nice job, Boone!
by Grayson Schaffer | on November 3rd, 2009 | in Features, Pampering, Swag the Dog
I got my eye on you, Cooper
Here’s simple yet stylish slip lead from Avery. It’s braided leather and of the style and short length that’s perfect for quick walks where you don’t want your dog straying too far. Note, if your dog doesn’t have a good heel or is prone to pulling out, you’ll know it as soon as you slap this lead on. $30.
by Grayson Schaffer | on October 28th, 2009 | in Features, The Wildrose Way, Training
Three fingers under the chest; pinkie out; thumb out
Puppies are great. Loads of fun. But they squirm a lot and, unlike cats, do not always land on their feet. Here, Mike demonstrates proper technique with my mom’s pup, Gibbs.
How to Hold Your Puppy from Walker Parks on Vimeo.
by Grayson Schaffer | on October 27th, 2009 | in Features, Swag the Dog, Training Equipment
I'm going to go make myself a sandwich. You guys better still be on that stand when I get back.
I’ve recommended having your dog sit on a chair for some of the basic training drills, but here’s a piece of equipment well known to retriever trainers that’s even better. This one is the Avery Ruff Stand and runs $180. Dog stands are typically used to give your pup a lift out of the fridged waters of duck marshes, but they’re also a great way to get him up to eye level for hold conditioning, eye contact, place training, and anything else you’d normally have to crouch down to accomplish. For a young pup, the stand also builds confidence for higher places (make sure there’s no hard landing around the stand if you’ve got a very young dog) and provides a stable surface to teach loading (jump on or into something) and under, which is great if you’re in a public place and you want to keep your dog out of the way.
by Grayson Schaffer | on October 22nd, 2009 | in Features, Training, Video Clips
Safety Note: If you're going to try this with a bottle, make sure your dog's hold is bulletproof.
Some folks were asking whether Danger can do that beer trick from last week’s short movie, “In the Face of Danger,” in one take. Yes, and chances are your dog can too. Training a dog to connect tricks or behaviors end to end is called chaining. Typically, these types of linked behaviors are taught back to front, or what’s called back-chaining. Basically, you start with the last part of the task, train that to proficiency, and then add the next-to-last part. Withhold your reward until the dog completes both of these well-polished tasks end to end. It won’t take him long to figure out that the criteria have been raised and he now has to do two tasks before the reward. Then add a third link in the chain and so on. When you see dogs performing complex, apparently human-like tasks on TV, this is generally how they’re taught.
OK, here’s the video.
How To Teach Your Dog To Fetch A Beer from Walker Parks on Vimeo.
by Grayson Schaffer | on October 20th, 2009 | in Features, Media
Danger and I spent last week with Allison Otto and the Serac Adventure Film School making a movie about Danger’s attempts to become a tracking dog. Here’s Allison’s excellent movie. Please share it with your friends.
by Grayson Schaffer | on October 12th, 2009 | in Features, Training
Nice pick, Cooper!
You never know what your dog will be afraid of. After we’d wrapped up our opening day of duck season, I brought Cooper out of the truck to make a couple of retrieves through the decoys. Just before tossing a duck out into the spread, I gave a few honks on a duck call (ya know, for realism) and Cooper jumped backward. He’s fine around everything else, from guns going off to vacuum cleaners to hair dryers, but for some reason this really set him off. He made some nice retrieves (and one not-so-nice, where he got to shore before I could cut him off) but I learned a valuable lesson. Introduce your dog to all new things slowly. When we got home, I quickly conditioned him to the duck call by blowing it very softly and then giving him food and gradually ratcheted up the volume while continuing to feed him with every quack. I got lucky that this mishap was easy enough to fix, but let this be a lesson for all of your dog’s early athletic endeavors. Make introductions carefully and build up exposures slowly. Once a dog is affraid of bikers or skiers or horses or bearded men or women in fur coats, you’re going to have a hard time breaking that fear. Best not to let it start in the first place.
