Training Video: Teaching Beckett to Close Cabinet Doors

I'm one of those people. I can't seem to shut a door, it is almost like I was raised on a barn by wolves. Wolves who couldn't figure out that leaving cabinet doors open causes other people to run into them. Instead of changing my life long habit, I thought wouldn't it be nice to teach Beckett to close the cabinet doors for me, thus saving people less observant then myself from eventual knee replacement.

The Plan. First I point to the door and I click for anytime he touches the door with his nose. After he is touching the door repeatedly, I only click for the times he causes the door to move. Every time the door shuts, I will give him a bunch of treats right in a row. Eventually I will only give him treats when he closes the door, but I'll save that for next time.

Dog Treats: Sweet Potato & Cheese Bits

 

I wanted to make some training treats, grain free. Without flour the mixture doesn't really make a cookie shape and it was time consuming to spoon the amorphous lumps it did make onto the cookie sheet. The solution, a plastic bag. I scooped the mixture into the plastic sandwich bag, and then cut a hole in the corner, I then squeezed the bag to make little training treats. These treats dry faster then the cookies, but don't have the same appeal in appearance. Still what self-respecting dog cares about appearance. This is also why I don't make my dog cookies into bone or other shapes.

3/4 cup of nutritional yeast
1/2 cup of flax seed
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup of grated cheese
1 cup sweet potato puree

If your not using sweet potato from a can, (you can buy sweet potato from a can, check out section of your grocery store with pie fillings, don't get the pie filling, just the 100% pure sweet potato) wash and scrub your sweet potatoes, then bake, boil, steam them, cooking them however you would like. Once cooked desposit them into a blender to make a puree.

Mix all the ingredients together.

Let stand for 5-10 minutes, then scoop into a plastic bag, cut the corner off the plastic bag and squeeze out little dots of dough. I use parment paper to line the cookie sheet. Bake at 300 for 30min then 275 for 45-60min then lower the temp 200 for another hour or so, or turn off the oven and leave the door close. If your dog likes softer treats remove the treats out earlier.

Loose leash walking means bringing your hot beverage with you.

It was so nice to be outside on my morning walk with Beckett, it was a little overcast, but it was still nice. Something about just getting outside, stretching my legs, a big cup of tea in my hand. Its so peaceful.

During our walk, we ran into another dog, Ginger, you might ask how I knew her name was Ginger. Is it because I stopped to ask? No, I know her name is Ginger because her owner was using "the voice" (you know the one, the one used when discussing loudly usually with your significant other but it could also be a family member, but not yelling, at least not for another two seconds). Ginger was going for a squirrel, tugging at the end of her leash, exuberant and happy. The owner was holding on for dear life, tugging her collar with hard jerks almost yelling, "Ginger don't you dare!" "Don't even...."

Then Ginger saw us. With the biggest smile, she perked her ears wagged her tail, then she turned on a dime and switched directions - hard. My own shoulder gave tug in sympathy to the owner. Who yelled "Ginger!" and jerked the dog hard once again. The owner looked - stressed. The kind of stress that that raises ones blood pressure. The dog? Actually not so much, she seemed just fine.

Beckett and I calmly walked away, giving Ginger and her owner space. I had a dog cookie out and in my hand gave Beckett a couple pieces in my non-tea holding hand and we just walked on by. I love loose leash walking. It makes my walks fun, calm, enjoyable, and relaxing.

Here is how I did it, maybe not the best way, but it worked for me.

Supplies: One 6ft solid leash (No flexi leads: ever),Three plastic bags, and an Optional harness (something to consider if you have a real puller like ginger).

The best time to start is in the morning, but before dinner will work too. You want your pup hungry. Take his meal and split it into two of the three plastic bags. (1/2 kibble in one) (1/2 kibble in the other). The third bag is for treats which should be kibble sized, so cut, tear, or break them up into small pieces. Put the bag of treats in one pocket, open and ready, the bags of kibble in the other. If your dog has a leash hooked to the collar, from now on (at least until you wean away the kibble) you should be dispensing kibble.

So now you think of yourself as a kibble dispenser, your task is to feed all the dog food to him or her during the walk, piece by piece which means you'll be giving kibble with almost every step. Don't be stingy, give out the food as quickly as possible. Your mission should be to feed ALL the kibble while the dog is by your side.

Your handing out kibble with each step, is your dog by your side? you betcha! Suddenly the pup sniffs something interesting and tugs away from you. Do not let the dog pull! Stand your ground and then a step backward and another, when the dog comes back to your side, start the kibble feeding, and approach where ever he or she wanted to go, when he tugs again, walk backwards again. Eventually you should with a loosh leash be walking to the smelly spot. If its to hard, start from further away from the spot of interest. Let the pup get where s/he wants to go, but don't let him/her get there by pulling.

So now you see a squirrel (actually any big distraction squirrel, other dog, fire truck, whatever) reach into the treat bag instead of the kibble bag. Now start dispensing treats with ever step, when you pass the squirrel or dog, or whatever else, change back to feeding kibble. When you finish your first bag of kibble its time to turn around and walk home using the second bag of kibble. This makes sure you have enough kibble for the entire walk.

As time goes by, you'll use less and less kibble (this takes weeks or even months) slowly increasing the time between the kibble pieces, so that your either taking longer walks, or using less kibble. You can eventually use no kibble at all! Though I keep a few treats in my pocket, because it makes walks more fun.

It would probably go faster with a clicker, but rolling out of bed and putting dog food into two bags is all I'm good for in the mornings.

There is a potential negative side effect with this technique - your dog might not want to leave your side...

Apple Cheese Dog Treats

The problem I have with store bought dog biscuits, is that not only are they expensive, but they are mostly flour. I don't want to pay that much for flour, so all my dog biscuit recipes have flour but they aren't 90% flour, they are much less.

These dog treats are great, the key ingredient is the nutritional yeast. I know yeast? I think you can use brewers yeast too - I just never have. Where to find and buy nutritional yeast? I get mine at the co-op, but on-line is another great resource, its reasonably priced. Nutritional yeast is very cheese like in its taste and smell (for not actually being cheese) and is super healthy for people and dogs!

These treats are healthy and yummy.

1 cup no sugar added applesauce
1 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/4-1/2 cup of finely shredded or graded cheese
2 cups of rice flour (add a little more or less to make sure the dough isn't to sticky)

Mix together the apple sauce and flax seed, let sit for a minute then add the rest of the ingredients roll into balls and smoosh with the bottom of a glass. Bake at 250 for several hours, all these dog cookies cook the same way low heat more time, so if you want to be done sooner, just cook at 300F but they will be more like regular cookies, soft on the inside. I usually cook them at 300F for at least an hour and then leave them in the warm oven over night.

Optionally you can add a TBLS of alpha powder, to make it even healthier (and green).

P.S. The picture above is the nutritional yeast.

Halloween

Beckett and my husband handing out treats. Both Beckett and Andrew had their share of treats, Andrew: candy, Beckett: dog cookies.

Training

So every Sunday we take Beckett to our favorite training class, offered by a great dog now. (By the way, Robin and Jane are amazing.) So a few weeks ago when Robin and Jane asked where do we see our training going? What were our goals? Andrew (my husband) and I answered, "We would like Beckett to jump into the car." Lifting 75 plus lbs is.. well it is heavy. Jumping into the car - Simple right? The thing is, Beckett doesn't really "jump." The concept seems sort of foreign to him. So we've been spending a lot of time, teaching him exercises to get an idea of where his back legs are and how to use them. Where is this going?

Its going to Friday night, where when fast asleep, after a night of watching horror movies, I awake to a figure looming over me! My heart is pounding, adrenaline rushing and in my horror realize.. its Beckett. One minute I'm fast asleep dreaming of fake blood and power tools the next minute I'm awoken at 2am by a 78lb dog staring me in the face. I'm still in my dreamy sleep, but at least my heart attack is narrowly avoided.

I tell Beckett to get "down", he goes right down, but is still on the bed. I tell him to get up, he gets up, I try to push him off, he doesn't seem to understand. He isn't moving off the bed. I say No, No "down." (In my behalf, I'm still half asleep.) Beckett then figures out that what I mean is I don't want you right there and obviously what I have meant is here why don't you move between me and my husband and lie down there. Great, now he is squished between my husband and I. I tell Beckett to get "up", he stands up. Beckett is struck by another epiphany, that I don't want him there either, and there seems to be something softer just a few feet away so he moves to the pillows, which are vacant since my husband and I are trying to get the dog off.

It is so funny, and Andrew and I are laughing so hard its ridiculous, the dog is totally oblivious to the idea that we want him off the bed. Having never been on the bed before. Eventually a little nudging plus some maneuvering and Beckett jumps onto the floor, after which we heap tons of praise onto him. After all we want him to know that getting off the bed is something that gets rewarded. It was hilarious. My husband and I went back to sleep after escorting Beckett back to the dog bed. My husband turned to me proudly stating, "You know I've been working with him on jumping up." To which I reply"Good work?"