Nova's New Year Resolution

Nova may have made a New Years resolution she didn't tell anyone about.  Or perhaps she just woke up on the right side of the bed on the 1st... and again every day since.  On new years eve she was relaxed and comfortable with strangers in the house, then the next morning she sat inches from Ben gazing lovingly up at him and excitedly wagged her tail when he moved.  

In true Nova fashion she made all of this progress at once, on her own, when I least expected it.  Let me paint a picture of what exactly happened.  We were having three people over for New Years dinner.  As usual with a small number of people who I trust not to engage with her I didn't crate Nova.  I do always make sure when people come over she is wearing a shirt and often I give her some Anxithane- a pretty mild and relatively natural anxiety pill.  On this night fireworks were going off so Copley also got a pill, but Nova seems to care less about fireworks.

When our guests arrived Nova did bark when the door was rung, but then ran over and sat near them.  When a group of us were standing outside the kitchen she sat politely underfoot looking up.  On a few occasions I actually had to tell people not to pet her.  The thing is she did look too nervous for my comfort when people reached for her, so I decided not to let them pet her, but never before has she gotten so close to anyone other than me that they would have the opportunity to pet her.  Later while we were playing a board game in the living room Nova literally frolicked on the couch.  She has been known to joyfully bound around in the very soft throws I put out for Christmas, but only when we are home alone.  A week ago I never would have imagined her doing anything other than worriedly starring at guests from the corner of the room.

In the days since then she has even started doing tricks for Ben, not just me.  All amazing progress and I am so proud of her!  I am also pretty excited that we are going back to basic obedience class tomorrow- not because she did bad the first time per-se, but because it really helped her to go out to a class with other dogs and people.  Since she isn't really in a position to do anything other than a mild version of basic obedience I am just repeating that.  Nothing wrong with sticking to what works.

Dog In The Desert's Guide To Treats- Part 1 Training Treats

Is that bacon in your pocket or did I do something right?

Lately a lot of my friends have been either getting new puppies, starting agility, or doing other things that require treats.  With so many out there (and so many iffy ones on the market) it is a confusing topic that I have been answering many questions about lately.  I thought it might be good to put all my thoughts into one place I'm calling DogInTheDesert's Guide to Treats.  Keep in mind I am very careful about what I feed my dogs, I do not support the major pet food companies and I never would feed treats made in China, so you will not find any of those in this guide.

I'm going to split this up into sections as follows-

1. Training Treats
2. Chew Treats
3. Treats to Occupy Time
4. Biscuits and novelty treats for you to let guests hand out in an effort to stop them from giving your dogs table scraps

Lets start with Training Treats

There are a lot of things to think about when you are looking for training treats.  You need a few things in your arsenal ranging from very high value to just ok, they need to be small (or in the case of chihuahuas tiny) and they need to usually be something that your dog can eat a lot of and not get sick.  For me I also want something that I can put in my pocket or training bag without getting too gross.

Many people make their own training treats.  That is commendable and sometimes I will do that too HOWEVER time is precious.  My dogs eat an entirely home prepared raw diet and that takes a lot of my time.  Rarely do I have the extra desire or ability to spend the day baking and rolling and dehydrating training treats.  If you are the make it yourself type a lot of dogs go crazy for plain ole boiled boneless chicken breast.  Chicken is pretty easy on most tummies, easy to break up and really cheap.  On the home made front another popular training treat is string cheese.  Those are easy to store in your pocket, very high value and if your dog is tolerant of cheese it is a great way to go.  Just be sure to do that in moderation as cheese is both fattening and a little hard on the tummy sometimes.  I used string cheese at agility with Kerri for about 6 months before she started throwing it up in the car on the way home but many use it with total success. 

Moving away from cooking required but sticking with "human food" there are a lot of staples that people go to.  Hot dogs are always an option.  Watch out because there is a lot of salt in hot dogs but many of the natural all beef dogs out there at the health food store are actually better for your dog than many sugar and salt filled soft dog treats out there.  They can be an option if you need something really good and don't use too much of it.  Another popular option with little dogs is plain Cherios.  Cherios are a lot of grain for my taste but they are small, visible on the floor if you are looking to throw them and good sized for littler dogs.

As far as pre-made training treats there is one thing that I recommend above all else.  Stella & Chewy's Carnivore Crunch.  For starters it is typically irresistible to dogs.  I discovered the stuff because a friend at agility class had it and all the dogs went so crazy for it we had to borrow some to get our dogs out on the course.  When I took basic obedience with Nova the same thing happened to me but in reverse and the other owners joked I had bacon in my pockets.  The other great thing about S&C is that they are made from pretty much just ground protein, bone and organ (so exactly what I am feeding the dogs anyway).  For a raw feeder they can even replace a whole meal every once in a while without any stomach upset at all.  For those dogs with sensitivities they come in three different proteins for you to choose from and have no added anything.  The only downside to S&C Carnivore Crunch is that they crumble up pretty bad in your pockets.

Now let's talk semi-soft treats.  For the most part (other than the carnivore crunch) dogs tend to like soft training treats more than hard ones.  This can be tricky because so many of the soft treats out there are full of sugar and other things that can really mess with the tummy in high volume.  I used to love Zukes brand, but since they have been bought by Nestle-Purina I am no longer supporting their products.  Some good semi soft treats would be Cloudstar Tricky Trainers, and ThinkDog Alligator Jerky.  One warning with the jerky though- it smells really bad.  I try to avoid anything with "natural smoke flavoring" in it because it makes me want to puke.  In fact I might have actually had to pull over once after opening some of that Jerky in the car.  If you are not someone like me who is bothered by smells you have a lot more options in the semi-soft treat category.  The important thing is to read the label, don't buy anything made in China, stick to things with named proteins high on the list and avoid a lot of treats high in sugar.  Or at least reserve the sugary treats for when you are looking for a very high value treat.  I am not very brand loyal when it comes to semi-soft treats and while I do keep some in my training bag it is often whatever I picked up that looks good.

There are a few more options I would like to talk about so I'll add those here in no particular order-

• Recently Wellness came out with a line of soft treats for small dogs called Petite Treats and they seem to go over pretty well at our house with all sized dogs.  As a training treat they are actually very well sized for even a larger dog.  Along those lines Wellness Pure Rewards and Just For Puppy treats are great training treats for the slightly bigger dogs.  I get frustrated having to pull them apart into so many pieces for the chihuahuas but for a bigger dog they would be great.  Those are all available at big box pet stores so if you are looking for off the shelf Wellness might be the way to go.
• WholeLife is a company that makes a large variety of quality freeze dried treats.  I always keep their sirloin Burgers in my training bag because they are pretty durable in a pocket, easy to break into small pieces for the chis and are a good higher value treat to add variety to my Stella & Chewys.  For dogs larger than a chihuahua their other treats would be great too depending on what your dogs liked and many are low in fat and calories and would be great for the chubbier dog that is still needing treats for training.  We have tried their sweet potato, liver, cod and cheese treats- Copley has loved them all.  The pickier chihuahuas have preferred some over others- you just have to experiment based on what your dog likes.
• Kibble.  I know- to many raw feeders and people who feed a more natural diet to their dogs kibble is a dirty word but hear me out here.  If you feed kibble (or any other small dried up food like Ziwipeak that may not necessarily be a kibble) then stick some in your training bag!  Particularly for puppies it is great to use part of (or all of) their meal as training treats.  Usually for a kibble fed dog kibble is not very high value but you can always throw in something higher value every so often or just use it for lower intensity training if that's the case.  In our house where we never would actually feed kibble as a meal I will pick up sample bags of premium kibble and use it as treats.  Ziwipeak is great for that, it is a very high quality food that most dogs love and even some raw feeders use it as a backup for the days when dinner is rushed.  Just be careful if you are using kibble as treats because it is very dense, full of carbs and can bulk up a dog really fast if you are not careful.
• Max & Ruffies is a brand that makes all vegan dog treats.  Typically I like to stick with meat based treats for my dogs but these are really a great product.  While I am not in agreement with them that dogs should be fed a vegan diet- their all veggie treats are made with great ingredients that I am happy to feed my dogs.  The mini bites are the perfect size for training treats if your dog likes crunchy things.  I also love that you can just throw them in your pocket if you need to for a walk or therapy visit.  They don't fall apart and you don't end up smelling like meat.

Although over the years a few of these companies have given me free samples I was not in any way compensated for this post.  Having received probably hundreds of bags of treats via this blog I believe I am becoming a bit of an expert on what is on the market.  I decided to share my opinions all in one place and that is precisely what this is- my opinion.

Chihuahua- Pigeon Hunter

WARNING:  We did all we could but this story does not end well for the pigeon.  So pigeon enthusiasts might not want to read.  Everyone else think a good thought for our little friend that hopefully is flying free in pigeon heaven.

I woke up yesterday really early because Ben left early and it woke up Copley. He needed to go out so I drowsily put on a robe, woke up the chis and opened the back door. I just want you to imagine me, contacts still fuzzy, sleepy, stumbling out the back door 3 hours before my typical wake-up time. Suddenly I hear flapping and screeching and look down to see Copley trying to play with a pigeon on the porch. As I am trying to usher the action away from the door and get Copley away from it out of nowhere a chihuahua (still not sure what one but I think it was Kerri) grabs the pigeon and runs into the house with it. This all happened in less than 5 seconds. Barely awake to pigeon in the house is not the way to start your morning.  

So I call Copley over and put him in a down stay.  That I think deserves a little attention, because my dog down stayed with a pigeon freaking out in the living room.  Can I win an award for that? Copley has a great trait where the higher value the item he wants the more willing he is to listen to me.  I somehow managed to convince that dog that in every area of life he is likely to get what he wants by listening to me.  His willingness to accept that truth I am eternally grateful for.

At this point Kerri has the pigeon and Nova is going for the vital parts.  It was like a pack of wolves, tiny, tiny wolves who had no idea what they are doing.  The pigeon gets free and I grab Kerri by the scruff. I'm yelling at the pigeon because I am not really thinking straight and then Nova comes out with her best home defense posture and starts going for the pigeon again.  So I have Kerri by the scruff and Copley is like teetering on the edge of what he can handle in this down stay and Nova is trying to eat it and I finally get a hold of Nova the pigeon titers on it's feet, the thing is not in good shape and takes a moment to right it's self then it calmly walks out the door that I then manage to close. 

First order of business is I empty a treat jar into Copley's mouth because seriously that was like the best down stay I have ever seen in my life.  Hopefully my sheer joy and every treat on the counter made Copley's patience worth it.  If only the chihuahuas would behave like that.

Copley still has to pee and I am still delusional that the pigeon just needs to recover and fly away.  So I send the chihuahuas to the DoggieLawn, because they are not going out there with that pigeon and I put Copley on a leash to pee/scare the pigeon away.  Outside we go and there is the pigeon, looking a little iffy and wandering around the yard.  Copley pees, whines at the pigeon and then I take him inside.  Pigeon can't fly, it is not leaving the yard.  The problem I realize is that the neighbor a ways down is poisoning pigeons.  I have lived in this house for over 4 years, surrounded by pigeons and not once has one let a chihuahua catch it or come close to coming inside the house.  Occasionally one will hit the window and hang out in the yard for a few hours recovering, but they always squawk at the chis to scare them away, or fly off when they come over and they always leave eventually.  I am beginning to suspect that this pigeon has been poisoned.  I call a friend I have who raises baby pigeons every so often and they tell me that it was probably poisoned and there is nothing they can do to help me.

Pigeon is no longer with us.

Moral of the story here- don't poison pigeons!  It just thins the population and they breed more to get the numbers back up anyway.  There are services that will trap them all and put up spikes and other deterrent and guarantee no pigeons on your roof for like 5 years.  Poison just litters the neighborhood with dead/dieing birds and in the end doesn't really do anything at all.  Our walks have turned into dead pigeon spotting adventures, it is gross.

A Nova Update

"I am blossoming into a beautiful flower, and using your plants as beds."

The other night I was at a fundraiser for one of my favorite local organizations Incred-A-Bull and I ran into a lot of people who I had not seen in a while and asked how Nova was doing.  Actually most of them asked about "tire store chihuahua" as she is more commonly known.  If you are a new reader you might want to check out some of my old posts about Nova, but to sum it all up she was a totally feral dog living behind a tire store until she was trapped and I got her.  It is hard to really say how she is doing in a few words of casual conversation, but what I came up with is this.  

"She is very comfortable around the house, very smart and she has taught me a lot."

All that is true, but it is so much more complicated than that.  Nova has come so far in the last year that I can barely believe it but many things are still a big challenge for her.  She has brought challenges to me as a trainer that I had never seen before and more than that she opened my mind to a lot of new ways of doing thing, and proved that what I before would have said "works every time if you do it right" I now realize is just a great place to start.  If nothing else at least every dog that enters my life from this time forward will benefit from the things I learned from Nova and the partnership we have (it truly is a partnership) in navigating the scarey world.

As far as day to day life, Nova is nearly a normal dog around the house with only a few accommodations.  She is potty trained 100% but because she will not ask Ben to open the door we have pee pads inside that she uses if he is the only one home.  She participates in barking that Kerrigan starts, but she is not an excessive barker at the outside world.  When people come over she does hop around nervously and will do some aggressive barking if she feels trapped in a room or needs to get past them for food but mostly is not at hassle to visitors.  She will take food from people, and even sit or touch for food from strangers and visitors.  She has never gone after a person aggressively, and it is obvious she is acting out of fear, but I always lock her up when kids visit.  She has proven that if she is actually cornered and grabbed she rolls over and goes to a submissive scared place, but I don't think I will ever trust that she would never go to an aggressive place.  Because of that I am never going to let her near children loose in the house.

She does do a lot better out in the world.  We have a regular walking route we take and she happily does that with me and Kerrigan.  If people approach us she sits by me as Kerrigan is petted and while on a leash generally looks to me for guidance.  Any change to our route however is a reason for panic the first time or two, then she goes with it like she is an old pro.

A few weeks ago we "graduated" basic obedience class.  She did not participate in everything at class, but was actually excited to go and I did not try to push her too far.  She LOVES her clicker and with it's help she accomplished a lot of things at class.  She walked around with other bigger dogs very close to her, she walked for a short while with someone else (our instructor) holding the leash and she did a lot of her clicker tricks in public.  Also on one day she tried to instigate play with another tiny little dog at class.  The owner was kind enough to let them go for a minute then moved on.  I am so proud of how well she did and I plan to take the class again.  Nova is a very smart dog and while nervous at parts I think she appreciated the challenge of class.

Speaking if smart, Nova has learned a LOT of clicker tricks and is enjoying going through Kyra Sundance's book 101 Dog Tricks and learning even more!  She really gets the idea of the clicker and it is so easy to shape behaviors with her this way.  The unfortunate thing is she will not "perform" for anyone but me!  I am thinking I should get a tripod and video camera then make her a you tube star.  I was thinking of getting her to act out an entire Shakespearean drama or something like that.  I say thinking about it because the odds of me having enough time in my life to actually do that is rather slim, but we can dream.

So in conclusion, Nova is very comfortable around the house, very smart and she has taught me a lot.  She continues to improve in her relations with people every day, she loves Kerrigan and Copley and she is just a joy to clicker train.  Nova may never be a totally normal dog, she certainly is not ever going to run up to strangers like Kerri does but every day she gets a little less scared and figures out a little something more about living with people.  She is a lot of work, and I can't say I recommend adopting a feral dog but for me she has been a joy.

There is a Nova update for everyone!

Basic Obedience Success

I am so incredibly happy with how Nova did at obedience class!  She was better than I expected and that is something.  She stood up straight, engaged with me, responded to the clicker, and showed curious interest in the world around her.  For most of the class I sat on the ground with her between my legs (it was our first class so there was a lot of talking).  Most people in class sit in a chair, but if I sat in a chair I know she was just going to hide under it.  In my lap she was forced to face the world a little bit but also was more comfortable because she was close to me.  That is a win-win I think.  I was pleasantly surprised when she at one point hopped out of my lap and went over to sniff around and look out the window.  What a brave little one right?  The best part was on our way home, she passed out in the crate and I looked over, she looked just like Kerri.  Totally worry-free and sleeping like a baby in there.  I wish I had a picture of that, but I was driving and it seemed a little unsafe to photograph and drive.

Brave, but still tail tucked.

"I see you have treats over there, maybe I could have one????"

I am excited to see how she progresses.  I think that overall it was a good experience and she enjoyed herself, although she was a little worried the whole class.  I will update you next week too!

What's in your training bag?

I always see people (me included) lugging bags full of stuff to training class.  Some people even carry giant toolbox like bags around with them.  So it got me thinking, what does everyone have in those bags?  I am probably a bad example because I 1) loose bags all the time and leave stuff places, so my bags tended to be a bit of a mess and 2) Get  free stuff that is a little bit useful but I would never buy on my own if I didn't have a blog.  However I just got a new bag and packed it up for Nova (she is starting obedience class tomorrow!) and I wanted to share it's contents with the hopes that you guys would share too!  

This will be my third time sending a dog through basic obedience so I like to think I have a little bit of an idea of what I am doing.  My bag for agility or for Copley would be a little different but this is what I thought Nova will be needing.

For starters dog bigger than bag.  I think that is pretty normal, even for the border collie people.  Excuse the blurry picture, Nova is hard to photograph.  

Now here is the contents of the bag.  Nova has a lot of new stuff, mostly because I was so excited that she was finally starting class and I went a little overboard.  Kerri mostly went to class with free stuff out of referral barkboxes and hand me downs from Copley.  Funny how it worked out that I am blogging about the bag that is neat because I haven't used it yet and that I actually put time and money into putting together.  No one wants to see it once I am digging treats out of pockets and Copley has chewed a hole in the corner.  Er... I mean my training bag always looks JUST like this.  Well moving on, here are the contents of the bag...

1. The bag.  A free bag Ben got with his gift membership to the Sierra club from my Mom.  They accidentally sent two so the dogs got one.
2. A bowl.  Ya know, for water.
3. Slip lead.
4. Leash signs.  Probably wont need these for class, but I do use them walking.
5. Folder with shot records and other paperwork.
6. Yellow lanyard (that I made) and yellow ribbon on a leash clip- because Nova is a Yellow Dog!
7. DAP calming pheromone spray.
8. Moist towlettes.  I would just have baby wipes if I hadn't been sent these for free in a subscription box I reviewed.
9. Clicker
10. Treat pouch (I got a washable, silicone one and I am oh so happy about it)
11. Extra collar, cause Nova wears a breakaway and harness.
12. Treats.  Carnivore crunch (aka Dog Crack) and beef treats.
13. Poop bags
14. Licks calming goo stuff.
15. An off brand thundershirt (she has a thundershirt too)
16. A tube thing for the dispensing of liquid treats.  I will be filling it with baby food before we go in the morning.

Of course Nova will also wear some gear to class.  Her breakaway collar, buddy belt harness and a leash.  I got her a new leash to go with a collar she got for Christmas.  It says ""Judge me by my size, do you?" and has a picture of Yoda it.  I hope she channels a lot of Yoda energy at class.

 So what's in YOUR training bag???  Blog about it or just tell me in the comments!  I am actually really curious!