The KC Dog Guy

When you work with as many dogs as I do in any given week, you're bound to have a few dog fights here and there. I always try to avoid them when possible and work even a truly aggressive dog slowly towards meeting another dog. However, in the process of re-socializing a shelter dog it can happen.  In most fights a quick sharp sound or simply moving between the dogs and giving a quick Look and Sit command resolves 90% of the snarks that happen. Unfortunately, the remaining 10% requires me to break it up with a bit more force. Those incidents always leave me with feeling bad. I always feel that when a fight like that occurs, I missed something to prevent it, or pushed the training too quickly. A friend of mine found that surprising, but here is my reasoning. Today I had worked with a dog who's dog skills deteriorated a bit since her time in rescue. I introduced her with some minor scuffles and lots of play. While I give little credence to  the whole male/male and fem...

It's been a little over a year with Jade. In that time I've become more involved in Akita rescue, started teaching classes again at Yappy Hour Pet Resort ( www.yappyhouronline.com ), and most recently lost my little man Tazz. Luckily, a constant in all of this has been Wayside Waifs ( www.waysidewaifs.org ) which is always my main cause. If it had not been for my Tazz, I would never have been a dog trainer or Wayside volunteer. When I adopted Jade my goal was to have an "everywhere" dog like I had with Michigan and Tazz. Michigan and Tazz went to schools, parks, Wayside and often both off leash when we could. Michigan was an Akita/St Bernard, but as I look at past picture he was a whole log Akita. I made mistakes with both dogs, Tazz was well trained, but could have been better with other dogs. Michigan, well I can't say he had any issues but he made me look like a much better dog trainer than I really am. One common theme between both dogs were they were both ...

TazzMan Buddy "Pooky" Gilbert 1996-2010 Rest in peace my little man On July 12, 2010  at 14 years, 3 months and 3 weeks my little buddy Tazzman Buddy Pooky King "The Man" BKT Gilbert crossed over the Rainbow Bridge to join his buddy Michigan. Tazz is the first dog my wife and I got shortly after we were married and my very first dog ever. We went to a little place in Kansas and picked him out at 4 weeks.Inhindsight the facility was a puppymill, but we still ended up with a pretty good pup. As a puppy Tazz didn't act like a puppy, he seemed more like a 9 lb dog in a puppy's body. Even though I had not yet began my life as a Wayside volunteer, dog trainer and knew nothing about dogs, I made my Tazz a constant companion. The first week we had him, we drove him down to Stockton lake for the weekend at 9 weeks old. Tazz was a fearless little puppy and enjoyed the lake and the many adventures we had over 14 years. As a puppy we knew he was special when on one eve...

Just a quick blog tonight. I created a YouTube account to be able to post some videos on another dog site. Then I thought why not put some of my best training and dog behavior videos on YouTube for my Wayside peeps, Akita peeps and anyother peep that wants to watch. www.youtube.com/user/kcdogguy I have three videos posted right now. One is a corny video of Jade coming when called at the lake. The other two show two sets of dogs playing in slow mo. If you want to get really good at reading dog behavior watch it at 20-30% of it's normal speed, without the sound. Listen with your eyes, I'll say it again. Listen with your eyes! When I work with people and their dogs, they break up the good play and let the bad behaviors escalate into a fight. My rule of thumb is to stay about 3 feet away from a dog when I first bring them into a playgroup. It's close enough for me to read the b ehavior of the new dog, others in the group and intervene if I have to. This is Jade and Devito p...

Another Milestone with Jade I've been busy with my Wayside Waifs dogs this week, but I did hit some new milestones with Jade this week. It's funny that so many training classes spend a whole day of class on Sit and Stay. In reality a trainer could spend 8 weeks alone on sit and stay. How so you ask? Most classes are happy the dog sits with the owner standing there with a leash, or stay when the owner walks a measly few feet away. Today Jade performed a Stop,Sit and Down and come from 50 feet away in my driveway. She's up to a 5 minute stay, but that's with her in a down or sit stay in my driveway and me in the house. I call that an out-of-sight stay. She also has learned to stay even if I sprint away into the house. I'm usually not a big stay p erson with my dogs, but I know she needs to learn a good solid stay command. On this last lake trip we walked for two hours and I'm not sure she balked at even one come, stop or sit. Jade is becoming quite the dog. Her...

Today was my 4 th trip with Jade to a park and trail setting. The first three were to Smithville Lake in Kansas City. This trip was to Tiffany Springs Park. I used to run my old jeep on the trails until the police started cracking down. It's a series of overgrown trails in a canopy of trees with deer everywhere. Needless to say if your dog runs off, you will spend days finding the dog. Eventually you have to keep challenging your dog and your skills as a dog trainer. This is one of the tougher venues I take my dogs to. The dark area behind Jade is the entrance to the trail. If you want to hike with your dog you need great Stop and Recall control over your dog. If I lost Jade at this park, I would not be writing this blog just 2 hours after hiking with her. Smithville is much more controlled. When I walk the shore, the bluffs act as a natural barrier, but it's a great spot to start with hiking. Before I took Jade to Tiffany Springs we worked on a Recall and Leave it exercise...

It's late, for me, but I wanted to continue my post on Social Enrichment. I was struggling for the words and I found the word- coping. How well does your dog cope to different environments, situations or people? The dog I wrote about a few days ago, was returned to the shelter for growling at the children and not playing nice. Not sure what not playing nice is, but this dog was trained. He knew sit, stay, down, shake and was leashed trained. However, is not safe to be around small boys. When you get a puppy, yes think about training, but get out and let that puppy experience all it can each and every week. Help to teach your canine to cope to a variety of environments, situations and people. Each of these experiences need to be positive, but if the puppy is scared or nervous, help them cope. If you have an adult dog, do the same thing. All you need is a few basic control commands, Come-Sits or Look will do. Visit each new spot a few times and then move on. We need to quit think...