Home for the Holiday

    The holiday season is among us and with holidays comes visits from friends and family.  Recently someone asked me what to do about  family coming to stay with them and they had no choice but to bring their dog as all the dog kennels were booked.  She was wondering what to do with her dog as there was some concern that the two may not get along. She didn’t want to spend the holidays separating and isolating the dogs or worse having dog fights resulting in injuries.  Anytime there is a visiting canine friend, it is always important to maintain your house rules at all time. It is never fair to isolate your dog to make room for a visiting dog. So the best way to introduce a new visiting canine companion is to take the two dogs for a structured controlled walk FIRST.  Before you bring the new dog into the house, before you let them meet and sniff. Take your dog out and join the visiting dog in a walk. If there is a lot of tension keep dogs apart (ie dog/person/person/dog) keep walking until the dogs are calming down and not focusing on each other. When they are calm move one dog in (ie dog/person/dog/person) keep walking until you can walk the two dogs together and everyone is calm and relaxed.  The walk does a couple of  things. First and foremost it re-establishes your relationship as pack leader. Secondly it gets rid of excess energy and thirdly it allows the dogs to ‘meet‘ on neutral territory.  Always remember a  controlled walk is one where you walk with calm purpose and the dogs walk beside or slightly behind you.  It gets your dog in the natural frame of mind of following. Something they were born to do. It also helps to calm down the brain which is excited due to the new guests. Moving forward with purpose prevents the dogs from focusing on each other which may build tension between the two of them. Instead the walk gets them working together as a ‘pack‘.  The exercise is also critical to relieve pent up energy especially if your visiting guest has traveled a long way and probably needs to stretch his legs. And finally the worst thing you can do is introduce the new dog into your dogs territory especially if your dog ( or more importantly you) are unsure or apprehensive of the new arrival. During the walk make sure you remain calm and in control. Keep walking till both dogs are calm and there is no longer any tension between them.  When returning home make sure YOU go through the doorway first and the dogs wait patiently until invited in. Maintain routines as usual. Both dogs should wait and be calm before being fed.  All house rules about sleeping arrangements, furniture, dog toys etc  should also be set and controlled. And everyone should be on board with the rules.  Remember it shouldn’t matter that if the dogs aren't the best of buddies,  as long as they both understand that the humans are in charge  at all times. And lastly try to remember to maintain your dogs daily routines especially exercise. Routine  is always important as your dog relies on this structure to find security, safety and over all well being. Have a wonderful Christmas and holiday season.

Walk on

Tracy

Don't Buy From Breeders!!!!

This is a phrase I hear all the time, usually after a sad infomercial featuring dogs behind bars with sad faces looking horrible. Truth be told, those infomercials make me cry. And although I don't normally like to use my blog as an opportunity to stand on my soapbox and preach (oh wait I do that all the time) and I know there are lots of opinions on this subject matter and I am sure I will get a lot of negative feed back but here it goes.

 I am a breeder. There I said it. Do I think you should buy your dogs from a breeder.  Yes if you want a purebred dog absolutely, but from the right breeder. Now before you start typing your rebuttal let me finish my thought here.  I recently started breeding my Newfoundlands. A breed which I fell in love with back in college when I was studying to become a veterinary technologist. I only just recently finally purchased my dogs a little over a year ago and fell in love all over again. What is it about the breed that I love? Everything from the lovable nature, working attitude, family dedication, to their ability to always find me after they have had a drink to wipe their slobber all over my pants. YEP I LOVE THIS BREED. I researched the breed, talked to breeders and eventually settled on a rescue organization to adopt one from, even met the dog and knew he was the one I wanted to adopt. The only problem was they rejected my application. I know right?  I was a little floored about the decision too. How could that be? I was not only a vet tech, dog groomer and canine behaviourist with a dog facility, but I clearly knew my stuff about the breed and could provide a lovely home for him. But they rejected me due to the fact that I have children under the age of 5. And the dog is big and could accidentally knock over the children. (if only they met my children! They live with 10 dogs all different sizes and I guarantee the Jack Russell knocks them down way more than the large dogs!...but I digress) 

Mariah working with the kids

So I went back to one of the breeders I spoke to which is eventually where I bought Mariah and Wellington.  One of the core reasons I choose this particular breeder was because he was breeding for health and temperament. And any of you who have met both Mariah and Wellington can attest to that. Mariah is now my main therapy and training dog and accompanies me in almost all aspects of my Beyond Obedience work.  Wellington is our star dog walker and assists in pack walks with such calm confidence he puts the most fearful dogs at ease. They are truly wonderful dogs. And they produced wonderful puppies which now have fantastic homes.

Now some of you will say I add to the problem of the huge number of dogs being euthanized every year, and all for the profit of dog breeding, cause you wouldn't do it if you didn't make money right? ( I hear this phrase an awful lot too!)

So here is my point of view and although it is the point of view from a "breeder" I think I bring to the table another perspective. I  am also a vet tech. And  in my career as a technician I have been the person on the other side of the needle, pushing the plunger to end a life. Hundreds of lives. I have been the person to hold the life of a beautiful creature in my arms and watch helplessly as the last flicker of energy leaves that body. I have been the one to cry, to yell, to scream at the top of lungs in anger and frustration. I have been the one to ask why? time and time again. And although it never got any easier, the question still remains. How do all these wonderful dogs end up here and why do I have to kill them?

Are dog breeders the cause of this over population of canines? I guess some are. But, I think we should be targeting the right culprits. Just saying don't buy from breeders is a blanket statement and doesn't really help in my opinion.  There are wonderful breeds of dogs out there that have been around for hundreds of years and although they may not serve the same purposes as they did when they were originally created, they still hold a piece of history within themselves that I believe should be maintained. Just watch a working breed in action and you will see the shear brilliance and beauty that is remarkable and amazing.  Take Jake for example. The Australian Shepard who just recently came to stay with us here at Beyond Obedience. His work ethic is unparalleled to any other and the joy of working can be seen on his face as he performs.  But this is just one example there are too many to list for sure. SO  for my side of the story...

I can only speak for myself and a lot  of my breeder friends who are fantastic people. Because  these are the people who truly love  their breed. Their dedication to the breed and their dogs is outstanding. You see most of us breeders, do take painstaking care in finding the right homes for our dogs. My first litter I think the puppies where almost 5 months old by the time they finally went to their new homes. I turned down many. And at the end of the experience I spent way more money than I made. I know that is hard to believe but sometimes we do thing for the love of it , not because it makes us money.  The other part  I think I should mention is that for good breeders out there, our commitment to our dogs is for the life of the dogs. The dogs are to come back to us if there is ever a problem whether it is health or financial  have to move to an apartment, you name it, no questions asked the dogs can always come back. Our dogs are micro chipped and registered to us if they are ever lost, and the owner can not be found. I know of a breeder who has been out of breeding for over a year and just recently got a call from a dog owner in another province.  This breeder is already making arrangement to fly this now adult dog back because the owner can no longer take care of the dog.( all expenses being paid for by the ex-breeder) Another friend of mine, a husky breeder, flew to a city to rescue one of her dogs from a home which was currently having a domestic dispute.  We love our dogs. We love the breed. Many of the good breeders donate money or are part of rescue foundations for the breed they love.  Registered breeders take care in monitoring genetic health issues and registering their pedigrees to maintain good lines.  We are not out their just willie nillie putting unknown dogs together and hoping for the best. There is care and forethought in all decisions. And it is this that you are paying for. When you spend hundreds of dollars for a dog from a breeder you are paying for this dedication. You are paying for the monitoring and registering, you are paying for the care and consideration that goes into each and every dog and most likely you are paying for the love and commitment to not only the breed but the puppy which you are taking home.

Sooooo... here is where I believe the difference lies...

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY are people spending top dollar for MIXED BREED DOGS???????
yep I am shouting! Back in my day these were results of neglecting getting your dog neutered in time and the puppies were "free to good home" and the dogs were fixed the second they could be fixed as pet owners did not want to go through that again. Now a days people are putting cutsie names to it and charging upwards of a thousand freaking dollars for them. Chweenies???? are you freaking kidding me? Puggles,  Chorkies, Morkies????and lets not forget the doodles. Please STOP!!!!! STOP STOP STOP.
Did you know that "labradoodles " were created to give a "hypo allergenic" dog for those suffering from allergies but don't like "poodles" . But here is the thing. First of all these dogs are not shed free. If they have hair, they shed. True they shed significantly less but it is the dander of the dog that cause allergies and all dogs have dander. And ironically (and this is just my own observation from working in the boarding/daycare business) lots of these dogs suffer from ...you guessed it, ALLERGIES.  So although we produced a dog that is suppose to be easier on our human allergy suffers, these dogs end up suffering themselves. Seasonal allergies or  food allergies, lots of doodles I know are on some sort of antihistamine.  Don't get me wrong. I have had the opportunitiy to work with many doodles and I do love them dearly. So I am not hating on the doodles or any other mixed breed for that matter. I am just questioning the accountability of the "breeders " of these dogs.  You see, I have had the opportunity to work in genetics for a while in my technician career. I worked closely with  leading scientists and doctors that have dedicated their lives to trying to study and understand genetics.  If there is one thing I  learned from it was this  : genetics is a crazy game, it is not as simple as if I take one thing with good and bad qualities and mate it with another that has both good and bad qualities I will most likely get a litter of only good qualities.  It takes generations ( at least 20 ) to create a breed and start to see some predictability in your lines and even then genetics will throw you a curve ball. Hence why registered breeders are continuely  keeping track of their pedigrees!

I recently emailed a "breeder" of small dog mixes to question her "breeds" (her website had lots of adorable puppy pictures with hearts and clouds in the background...ahhh cute right?). I wanted to find out more information about her "breeds". She sent me back information about how the puppies births are all documented with baby pictures and such (which you get in an adorable baby photo album when you buy one of her dogs) along with some other cute things like the blanket he/ she was born on and that sort of thing.  Of course her puppies were  cute and adorable ( as most puppies are ) but when I asked about her health issues, she indicated that her puppies were healthy and that sometimes the get a slight skin redness which goes away and also some have slight heart murmurs.... (Ummm Excuse me ? WTF??) but the dogs with the heart murmurs still live to be quite old with no problems. Oh ok well that is well worth the $500.00 she was charging.  This is a problem. I wish people could see this. Ok the puppies are cute but a mixed breed is just that a mixed breed. And let me say it is a MYTH that mixed breeds have less health issues. If you breed a pug with a health problem to a beagle with a health problem you are going to get puggles with ...you guessed it: HEALTH PROBLEMS. And there is no one documenting this. There is nothing holding these people accountable. They are not paying for registrations or health testing or even genetic testing. They are just MAKING MONEY ON THESE DOGS.
We spend all this time hating on puppy mills but just because these people aren't mass producing these dogs to the same extent as puppy mills does not make their contribution to the over population of dogs any less of a concern. 

In my years of having to euthanize dogs, very rarely was I euthanizing a purebred registered dog. That is my experience. That is not to say it doesn't happen, just in my experience it wasn't the norm. However now as I am increasing my behaviour studies there are far more "mix " breed dogs out there with not only health but behaviour issues, and they are going un-documented, and they are becoming a increasing concern. These are the dogs ended up in shelters and these are the dogs that are be re-homed again and again. Stop the madness. Don't buy from BACKYARD BREEDERS. If you want a mixed breed dog, adopt one from a shelter, chance are you will be paying far less and giving a well deserved pet a new start on life.  So I will say it agin:  Adopt when you can, spay and neuter your pets and if you are having behaviour problems with your dog, seek professional help, before surrendering your pet to the shelter.   Lets do our part in keeping our beloved dogs out of the shelters and in our homes and hearts.

Tracy Franken
Vet Tech
Pet Groomer
Dog Behaviourist

and
Breeder of Newfoundlands.

Beyond Obedience's Newest Pack Member

Meet Jake.   A 12 year old Australian Shepard. Jake has a story. A 12 year story.  And the truth is I don't know his whole story. Only Jake knows this. So I am starting his story today, or a few days ago, when I met him. My husband and I drove out to Pakenham, to meet Jake , his current owner and a potential new owner. Jakes current owner wanted to give Jake a better life, and while many of us out there can say, how can you give away a 12 year old dog? it is not my place to judge or critize as it does nothing to help Jake in this transistion, The interested potential new  owner brought her 6 year old Sheltie Bailey to see how the dogs would react. Introductions of dogs can be a tricky thing. It is often not as simple as "let them figure it out" Well let me clarify.. It is that simple when humans are not involved. Dogs are remarkable at figuring it out without much fighting and rarely bloodshed. But add a human into the equation, well that is another story. Quite often we are the cause of much of the fights and disagreements amongst dogs. We think that dogs are acting out of jealously but sadly this is just in our own heads and in my opinion not true. Jealousy is a complex emotion that I believe dogs are too intelligent to suffer from. ( I know many of you will disagree but we can save that debate for another time :)   ) Quite often when a new dogs enters into a pack with another dog and some humans, the original dog takes offence to the new dog because he has his pack of humans well trained and the new dog is going to interfere with all his well laid plans. This would have been the case with Bailey. It was quite clear from the moment I met Bailey that he had his pack under control. The owner admitted this too. Bailey was 'spoiled' and he was quite comfortable in his life. So after a few walks and some talking we brought Jake home with us. 

  Any new dog that enters into the Beyond Obedience pack starts off the same. Structured pack walk. The structure walk allows dogs to "meet" while understanding the relationship and hierarchy here at the facility.  For most dogs this pack walk starts off slightly stressful but soon becomes a method of reassurance to the new dog. Pack migration is natural in the canine mind, and although the pack members may be new, the dynamic of this migration is not. Essentially I am taking the guess work out of it for the new dog.  We are a pack. The humans are in charge. Once that is established, the new dogs' mind is put at ease and tension quickly dissipates. We started Jake out no different. Even though both my husband and I were already soaked and tired from Jake's initial meet in Pakenham, we knew we had to do it again and probably again and then again. We first introduced Jake to Jessie, our older mixed breed female and Wellington, the intact male Newfoundland who has the highest dog ranking here at Beyond Obedience.  As expected Jake's presence set Wellington into a less than cordial greeting as Jake is not  neutered and much older than Wellington. But I disagreed with Wellingtons reaction and we were off. We walk until all dogs settle in and there is no sign of stress or anxious behaviour. This didn't take long and we continue introducing our other dogs in the same fashion. Before long it was plain to see that Jake likes the ladies, but not a fan of the boys. Not unusual for an older intact male for sure, but something we would continue to work on. After the walks and Jake was tired we asked him to rest in a large crate in the house.  Unfortunately Jake has confinement issues from his past and this was made apparent after we successfully got him in the crate and walked away. Jake has the most soulful and one of the saddest howls I have ever heard. But this was something we would also have to work on. Although the sound would break your heart it was important to make sure we didn't  feed into this by talking to him or telling him it is ok. We had to let him be. This is an issue that he needs to face. Instead we started him on a routine of short duration positive confinement  (ie putting him in  the crate) to eat and then when he is quiet and calm let him out and play. This way he learns that confinement isn't a death sentence but instead part of daily life, and nothing to get worried about.

Day 2

   I took Jake out first thing in the morning for his walk with a few of our pack members, later he helped me walk the kids down to the school bus and then went for another walk with different pack members. (we do lots of walking here) He really walks well with the other dogs even if they are not his best friends. We went into the indoor play yard and I wanted to see if he would play. The previous owner mentioned he had a huge play drive and I wanted to see for myself. Jake was more interested in sniffing and marking the area at first but soon I got his attention with a basketball and I got to see the working dog come out. Pretty impressive! He got pretty dirty so   I then decided Jake was overdue for a nice bath and trim.

 He did fabulous in the bath and was a real rock star for the dryer and trimming procedure ( and he looks and smells fantastic).  After the bath we did some more walks and got the kids off the school bus. He was very cheerful and submissive to see the kids off the bus. A very encouraging sign.  That night after final playtime he entered his suite on his own without encouragement but still howled when we left.

Day 3

Pack walks today with guest Yogi. Wasn't love at first site as Yogi is an intense boy, but he walked well and stayed right with us. Mark discovered Jake's love for Frisbees. So much fun!!!! Note to self: buy more Frisbees!!!!  We want to make sure that Jake understands that the kids are pack leaders too. I invited Paisley to play with Jake and she had a good time, and so did Jake!
We continue to work on Jake's confinement issues. Still a sad howl  when left but much better at going into a suite.  Also Jake is obviously feeling more comfortable in the house as he has tried marking some of the furniture. He is easily corrected, and does not take offense.  He has bonded more with us as he always likes to be with or near us.

Day 4 and 5

  Pack walks are going fantastic!  Jake knows what is expected of him and fits in beautifully. He has been going out for group with Jessie, Lincoln, Mariah, and Soda (sometimes Berlin) and doing well. If there is toy he is playing with, he prefers to work alone. Lincoln loves him and although the feeling is not mutual,  Lincoln has not taken offense to this. Jake is good in the house (still have to watch for marking) and always sleeping at my feet. There is an intense bond as he is obviously comforted by my presence.  This is normal when you provide clear structure to a new dog. When a dog is feeling vulnerable, we need to be more confident leaders to help them through the transition and Jake has adjusted really well.

Day 6

  New guest dog pack walk this morning. Tonka was trying to be dominate, and Jake did not approve but looked to me for support. I immediately corrected Tonka, and Jake went back to submissive position. I love it when a dog asks a question!!!

This afternoon I had Jake with me outside while I was moving the outdoor play equipment inside. I noticed Jake trying to help by picking up logs. So I put him to the test and asked him take in the plastic jumps. He did awesome and was so proud of himself! He is a truly amazing dog! He loves to work!!! I love a working dog!!!! He is brilliant!!!! And really coming out of his shell!

Day 7

  Snow! and Jake is having a blast with the kids. Ben loves the fact that Jake will jump in the air to catch his snowballs! Jake is sleeping more soundly now which is a great indicator of his comfort level with us in his new home. We love this boy and are truly blessed to share our lives with him!!!!