Rainy Day Video: Training "Mat"

It's raining and for a change I thought I'd share a training video of me attempting to train my dog. That's right, I'm not great, but we manage. Here we are working on the command "mat" we started by putting the mat some place where he would step on it, and clicked every time he hit the mat. Of course every click gets a treat. Eventually we would only click when he had all four paws on the mat, and after that, only when he would go down on the mat. I found the secret for a more consistent mat command is when he goes down on the mat to: first click, then give two treats, one right after another, then throw a third treat off the mat so that he gets up off the mat. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Beckett also knows the command "up" which I use here, because it's quicker and I only have so much space on my camera. Anyways, its not perfect, I'm not perfect, I have bad timing, and I tend to repeat my commands (which is not helpful when training an animal) but I thought I would share.

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Treats!

These are my favorite dog treats to make. These dog treats are easy and fun. Oh and dogs love them.

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 and a little bit cup peanut butter
1-2 bananas
1/4 -1/2 cup ground flax seed (its just flax seed put into a blender)
2-3 cup oatmeal flour (again, its just rolled oats put into a blender)

Mix together everything from pumpkin to flax seed, let sit for a min while you measure out and blend the oatmeal, then add the oatmeal and mix ! TaDA!

The mixture should feel like play dough, soft but not sticky and it should hold together well. I roll them into little balls and them press them with the bottom of a glass or with a fork like peanut butter cookies.

Bake at 275-300 for 120 min, depending on how dry you want them, you can leave them in the oven with the heat turned off. If you don't mind them being more like cookies, go ahead and bake them at 350 until they are golden brown on top.

Being a human, you may want to add spices like cinnamon or nutmeg. In my less than scientific double not blind study, I found 4 out of 5 dogs prefer the ones without spices, and the the 5th dog apparently ate whatever was closest to its mouth. If you and or your dog have a sweet tooth, you can add a little honey. And if you don't have pumpkin, you can use squash, sweet potato, ect.

Dental Surgery

Yesterday Beckett had dental surgery. We went to the Minnesota University Vet School, where they have a dental program. I dropped off Beckett at 6:30 in the morning. He was cheek puffing nervous and wouldn't go with the technican. It was the end of her shift, but she didn't rush, she waited for Beckett to approach her, then let him take his time getting use to her before bringing him inside.

I left a note asking them to call me before the procedure. I was nervous and wanted to make sure I was making the right decision. Around 8:00am I talked with the dental technician, then I thought up some more questions and called again. I knew I was that crazy women, but I couldn't help myself and I figured I was paying enough - The women answered all of my questions, she wanted me to feel comfortable. She suggested having the vet call me after Beckett is under and they have all the X-rays. Around 9:30 I got a call from Beckett's vet dentist, we went over the results of the X-rays, everything looked like it did on the outside, and we went with the root canal and the filing of the other canine. While he was under he also got his teeth cleaned and polished (like a dental cleaning you or I would get).

Around noon I was called again, the vet updated me on how the surgery went, and noted Beckett was pretty nervous, but doing well so if I wanted to pick him up early it might be for the best. I could get him any time after 2:30. I was there at 2:30. They brought Beckett out and he looked stressed but okay. His two bottom canines were and are now super short, but unlikely to chip or fracture. Everything went exactly by the book, and I even found out that the anesthesiologist was in love with Beckett, always a surprise, Beckett (like me) is someone that usually grows on you in time. Beckett was prescribed some chewable NSAIDS, to help with the pain and inflammation, which we picked up and went on our way home.

Even with the medication, last night he looked pretty uncomfortable, he had a hard time settling down, and was whining quite a bit. Today he seems much more himself. His teeth look good. I can say, I am happy with the procedure, they took utmost care of my pup.

Another Rainy Day

Another rainy day, means another dog toy review. These toys (there are two) are link together, to create various puzzles. The HI.Q. toys are little more annoying to actually fill with kibble then some of the others, but it takes Beckett longer to get the kibble out. His favorite method? Repeatedly slamming it into a corner or wall. Also unlike the other ones, he doesn't seem to care whether its on the carpet or the wooden floor. Usually he pulls them apart pretty quickly, but today he was to lazy.

I like these toys, because the dog doesn't need a lot of space (unlike some of the previous toys which generally are moved along the floor) to get the treats out. I often leave Beckett with the HI.Q. filled up with kibble while he is in the crate. However, like many of these toys, the HI.Q. could never withstand a dog who likes to seriously chew their toys and it might be more of a supervised sort of fun. Still its highly entertaining (at least for me).

Atomic Treat Ball

Another favorite treat dispensing toy, The atomic treat ball. I like the atomic treat ball because it is just different enough from the tricky treat ball (see earlier post) that Beckett can't use the exact same methods. Instead of rolling, he has to put a little more effort into flipping it, but it is similar enough that he still can figure it out. Even though it takes more time for him to flip it over, the treats come out more easily then the tricky treat ball, so overall it takes the same amount of time for him to get all his kibble out.

He has figured out that his method of treat extraction doesn't work on the wooden floors, so he keeps to the carpet.

The Dog Dentist

Today I took Beckett to the veterinary dentist. I bet you might not have even know they exist, they do, rare, but here at the Minnesota veterinary school they have a dental office. Previous to my own adoption, he broke one of his lower canines. Of course it looks like well before that he was a cage chewer. The technician said it occurs a lot with working dogs and Beckett probably developed and honed this particular bad habit back in his track days. Our dentist was amazed about how well behaved Beckett was and did some extra examination that most of the time he could never do.

The broken tooth looks dead, which is good, because it means its not causing him pain. But whether it is dead or not, it is probably infected, but only X-rays will tell how bad. Another issue is that he wore the other K-9 down so thin, that even if he isn't chewing on the crate, it wouldn't take much for that one to snap off. The options for the broken tooth include extracting the broken tooth or having a root canal done. For the other K-9, we can take some preventative measures, including having it filed down, it may or may not also be infected. If it is they will file it down remove some of the pulp and seal it back up. Its a good thing I love my dog, and it is even better that I have saved away some money for any medical interventions he might need.

P.S. On the table is model of the canine mouth including all the teeth.

The Tricky Treat Ball

The cold rain is a perfect time to think outside the dish, Beckett and I love treat dispensing toys, on cold rainy days, he eats all his food this way, at least the food he doesn't have to earn training. He has a couple and I'll try to post videos of all of them, so you can see how they work.