While walking through a Portland neighborhood with a client, who just happens to be a huge muscular Pitbull/Mastiff rescue with a prior history of aggression and abuse, we came upon this dog fence running on an electric fence.

This dog is in FRONT of her fenced in yard. Apparently this family just lets the dog out the front door and the she runs the invisible fence line most of the day.
This is a recipe for disaster. Not only is the dog practicing unwanted OCD behaviors all day, but one of these days I can guarantee she will charge the wrong dog. Dogs out walking do not understand that the other dogs have invisible boundaries. If the dog on the electric fence gets zapped, over time she will make bad associations with approaching dogs and people, and it will lead to aggression. Notice I didn't say can, but in this case, I met a time bomb. Legally I am pretty sure that the dog is on city property and technically breaking the leash law.

To make matters worse, she lives on a corner lot!

Had we approached from the other angle and had that dog come running around the corner at us at full speed, as she always does, there may have been a serious dog fight-and no doubt public sentiment would have been against my client, the Pitty, who was just minding his own business. My client reacted better(or should I say DIDN"T react), than either one of my dogs would have under those circumstances. Thankfully she didn't stick around to meet and greet us and continued on her frenzied way.

I will never understand the need for people to have their electric fences run down to the street. If you feel the need to use electric fences, and no I don't like them, why on earth would anyone allow their unsupervised dog access to the sidewalk and near a road?

When we were walking back home, we were just about to cross the street to avoid the lab's property when she came snarling and growling at us from inside the wooden fence. That did set my client's dog off, but he was easily redirected. That Lab spends all day in a high state of arousal and she is time bomb.
If my client's dog had bit her nose through the fence, whose fault would it have been?

A local vet I know wired the front of his house like half a figure eight. If case the dogs get out the front door, they have a small space in which they can get in to the back yard. That makes quite a bit more sense to me than this!!!

A few years back I had a foster dog here over night. My son was walking her on my street when my neighbors let their 2 dogs out who are both on electric fences. The two dogs barreled around the house and came charging at my foster dog full tilt and a dog fight ensued. I love my neighbors, and their dogs and I still feel really bad about the fight, but technically my dog was on leash minding her own business and she was attacked. The foster dog nearly killed one of the neighbor's dogs with a bite near an artery, and to this day he walks with a limp. The rescue paid the other dog's vet bill, but we could not place the dog due to the fight, and she was returned to the family. I agonized over putting that dog to sleep due to the severe damage she inflicted to my neighbor's dog. Families relinquishing dogs do not always tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and we wil never know if she had a prior history of dog fighting, but in the end, we felt she deserved another chance due to the electric fence circumstances.

Let today's blog serve as a reminder that dogs do not understand that OTHER dogs are behind an invisible barrier and you need to supervise your dogs!

In many ways dogs are like toddlers-left to their own devices, they make bad choices.

Below is the press release for an event at Borders Books on 8/28 that looks to be very interesting. Thanks to the Maine Animal Coalition for emailing it to me.

AUTHOR JACQUELINE SHEEHAN TO DISCUSS NEW NOVEL ABOUT THE HEALING POWER
OF ANIMALS SET IN PORTLAND MAINE

When Rocky finds a dog with a strange handmade arrow sticking out of his
shoulder, she both finds a soulmate, and uncovers the beginnings of a
mystery. With the new friends she meets on the island, Tess, the
synesthete; Melissa, the young anorexic; and Hill, her archery
instructor, whom she is simultaneously suspicious of and attracted to;
Rocky slowly unravels the mystery of Lloyd the dog, the arrow, and his
missing owner. In doing so, she learns that her grief can be displaced,
slowly but surely, by moments of joy.

Last week in Buxton we had the largest animal seizure in Maine's history. These animals need your help.
In addition to donating money, bedding, and toys, directly to either the Animal Refuge League, or Animal Welfare Society there are other things you can do to help.

Have you ever thought about giving your time? Once this blows out of the media, there will still over 250 animals that will need to be fed, watered, cleaned, walked, played with and trained. Please consider donating your precious time. These dogs may be in the state's care for a year!

Two local business have joined the efforts. Planet Dog has donated $5,000 and a carload of dog toys to be split between the two shleters invovled. Planet Dog has pledged to donate 5% of all sales until the end of September. They are also actively looking for businesses to join them in a donation match funding program.

Starting Monday, August 27th, Happy Tails on 130 St John Street is liquidating it's entire inventory of collars, leashes, dog outdoor gear, toys, bowls, treats, etc. for DONATIONS ONLY.

You decide what you want to pay and 100% of donations will be sent to the Planet Dog Foundation to pay for the care of the rescued animals from J'Aime Kennel.

Make a donation and take as many goods as you want!

See you there!

Checks can be mailed to: Animal Refuge League, P.O. Box 336, Westbrook 04098
www.arlgp.org and/or Animal Welfare Society, P.O. Box 43, West Kennebunk, ME 04094, www.animalwelfaresociety.org.

You can earmark your donation direct to the Buxton Breeding Kennel dog expenses.

Bringing up from the comments (thanks Bill)
Ocean Omega Fish Oil is also donating 5% of sales through the month of September. www.oceanomega.com

Ok Bill, you talked to me it.
I will also donate 5 % through the end of September!

My kids and I played around with my Cafe Press store, which by the way, never sells anything, and we cracked ourselves up when we made our very first thong. Yup it's true, anyone can make their own thong.
Go ahead, make a thong. You can put just about anything you want on it to.

Seems like only yesterday the kids uttered their very first words, and took their very first steps, and now another milestone, the very first thong. My oldest son has been toying with designs all his own, but we won't even go there.

At this point I am not sure if it was a "had to be there joke", but we all still think it is kind of funny.
In case your eyes are failing like mine, the small print says:

"Life can be so much better"
Gooddogz Training.com

There is more stuff for sale on my Cafe Press site, but none of it is nearly as good.

UPDATE-These guys got me beat

I love Wieiner dogs

I am pleased to announce that I have joined the writing staff over at Itchmo.com - news for cats, dogs and pet owners. Itchmo is a relatively new site that has grown in leaps and bounds in the wake of the pet food recall, where they did an absolutely incredible job of keeping us all up to date. By adding several more writers to their already top notch staff, they hope to soon have the number one place for pet parents on the web.

In addition to blogging here on a A Dog's Life I will be writing weekly in depth articles on training and behavior for Itchmo.com. My very first article is posted today! Those of you who have trained with me will recognize it as a slightly changed version of your Attention handout.
For the rest of you, if you ever thought about trying clicker training, teaching your dog to love their name, or just wanted a little more attention from your dog, my Attention article is a great place to begin.

Click here to fetch it.

While your over there at Itchmo, be sure to check on the latest pet food recall information. As a reminder, you can sign up with Itchmo to be sent email alerts for all pet food recalls.

In case you were wondering "Itchmo" is pet speak for itch-me- more.

By now many of you have seen the report of the kennel that was shut down in Buxton. Yesterday I fielded lots of inquires from well wishers all asking me what was going on and what kind of help was needed to care for the dogs.

The answer is plenty! This is the largest dog seizure in Maine history and over 250 dogs are invovled.

Sue Britt, director of the Animal Refuge League in Westbrook had the following to say to me.

"Right now, we are in the process of getting dogs inventoried and medical care. This case will be long, with no dogs for adoption for possibly up to a year. Shelters desperately need money to care for these dogs and the huge expenses of such an operation. We also need bedding and stuffed toys that can be thrown away or washed – no bones or marrowbones please. We will likely be getting large shipments of food from some of the animal welfare charities and we are going to try to keep diets the same. Funding is most critical, as this is the largest seizure in Maine history.

More info as it becomes available".

Stop by Animal Refuge League, 449 Stroudwater Street Westbrook, Maine to leave toy and bedding donations.

Checks can be mailed to: Animal Refuge League, P.O. Box 336, Westbrook 04098
www.arlgp.org and/or Animal Welfare Society, P.O. Box 43, West Kennebunk, ME 04094, www.animalwelfaresociety.org.

You can earmark your donation direct to the Buxton Breeding Kennel dog expenses.

Update-story in the Portland Press Herald

Photo of the Heron taken at Evergreen Cemetery direct through (leashed) Charlee's ears.

Finney the dog, Onion the rat, and my son all share a snack on the back porch this morning.

Now that Finney has sniffed Onion's butt, he feels they have finally been formally introduced.

At the risk of prematurely aging myself, I will let you all in on the fact that I used to love watching the Underdog cartoon, and secretly wished for a dog as lovely as Sweet Polly Purebred. Or maybe I wanted to be Sweet Polly Purebred, who can remember that far back. But either way, I gasped out loud in the movie theater when Sweet Polly Purebred, played in the movie version by a sweet lovely Caviler King Charles Spaniel exclaimed to the Beagle Boot Licker, who was actually just Underdog without his little outfit, 'There isn't a hose cold enough that can keep us apart". Now of course I was the only one in the theater who got the joke, and you bet I gasped! Not so much for the raciness of the comment, but the instant image of Polly and Underdog was just to much! Sweet Polly my arse! She said that after their first date!

And come to think of it, even my 5 year old knew that Boot Licker and Underdog were the same dog. Am supposed to believe that a dog, with a sense of smell at least 50 times greater than ours, cannot tell the identity of another dog if they aren't wearing a super hero outfit? Wait, now hold on minute, we are taking about dogs here right?
My daughter loved the movie. She came home and made capes for several of her stuffed doggies, cut up an old dress and made another for herself and they have all been flying all over the house ever since. All I have heard for the last 3 days is "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here", but me, well I was disappointed. My childhood memories crushed.
Sweet Polly Purebred is a dumb slut. Who knew?

In this photo Charlee looks more like a Halloween cat than a dog.

I posted this photo a few days back and asked you all to tell me what Charlee's body language was saying.

The dog is clearly uncomfortable and she has piloerectus. Now you all go wash your brains out with soap! While piloerectus is a funny word, it just means that her that her fur is sticking up. Fur sticking up is not always a sign of aggression, although it sure can be. It is the human equivalent of human skin prickles, but if I didn't know Charlee and came upon her, I would not get close.
Dogs use piloerectus to make themselves appear bigger and therefor more of a threat. Notice her tail is up and over her back like a warning flag. In this photo Charlee has puffed herself up all the way down to the base of her tail, to send a message to Chase the foster dog that she was not comfortable with him and he needs to stay away.

If you looked at the photo and thought Charlee wanted to play, and you own dogs, I strongly suggest you buy your own copy of Brenda Aloff's excellent book CANINE BODY LANGUAGE, A PHOTOGRAPHIC GUIDE

If you took your up to a dog that was presenting a posture like the one Charlee is sporting in the photograph, there is a good chance that a fight would ensue. In this case, the foster dog had attacked her the day before and she was using her body language to clearly tell him to back off.

In this photo taken only 1 week later, Charlee is relaxed.

See the difference?

Follow the progress of Hunter, an 11 month old lab in training to be a Service Dog for a 4 year old Autistic boy.

A big huge YOOOOO HOOOOO!!!! goes out to Dagny and Hunter for passing the AKC Canine Good Citizen test Monday night.
How's that for fast tracking?
Dagny has had him for only 7 weeks and they weren't even in the advanced class. Dagny has been coming to the 6 week basic class that also graduated on Monday, and then she has been staying for all three of my training sessions- mostly on the sidelines just chilling out. This has given us time to talk about our training plans and work on Hunter's all important long down.

Hunter is shown here with both his certificate of graduation from Gooddogz Training, and his Canine Good Citizen certificate from the American Kennel Club earned back to back on the same night.

Mom's head was cut off per Mom's request.

As a graduation gift, Hunter received a Hi Q toy from the inventor who lives in Portland and read my blogs about him. The Hi Q is one on my new favorite dog toys .
Look for a full review of the Hi Q toy on Friday.

Have you seen Sunny and Pepper?

Both cats were last seen when the owners went to Florida to adopt their new baby. Mom (training client of mine for her two dogs) broke my heart with her emails of how hard she is looking for her cats and how bad she feels that she didn't board them or close the pet door.

From Nicole:
"... the cats I have had and loved for 11 years have disappeared. They were my babies before I even met Mark, they mean everything to me.The baby is amazing. We were chosen by the birthmother 7 months ago, we were in the delivery room and cut the cord. She is an angel, 7 pounds 1 ounce, 19 ½ inches, and perfect. We are so in love. With the cats, I think I’ve fallen into the deepest depression I’ve ever had. I can not get over the guilt of leaving them. And the guilt that the dogs were shuffled around. .....This should be a happy time in my life, we finally have our baby, but I can’t stop thinking about my other babies".

The 2 cats have been missing since about 8/5, near Lakehouse Road, Naples. Shy but nice cats, collars with contact info. One orange/white cat and one tortoise shell cat. Probably roaming the woods. Please email sunnypepper22@yahoo.com or add a comment to the comment section with any leads.

Reward offered for their safe return.

They have a humane trap with tuna near the house.

For a very long time I have been meaning to take pictures of Charlee hitting the Staples Easy button. I teach a monthly tricks clinic, and I wanted to add the photo to the Gooddogz Training School for Performing Arfs portion of my web site. Hitting the Easy Button is a trick that everyone loves to learn and it is not that difficult to teach, although a butler bell with a button on top is actually easier because the dogs don't have to touch the bell as hard to make a sound.

I love my new digital camera, but the few second delay can get really annoying and it was quite a bit more difficult to capture Charlee and the Easy button than I thought it would be.
I got lots of really cute pictures like this one of the dog

just after she hit the Easy button in a play bow expectedly awaiting her treats and praise.

Mostly I got a lots of blurry total photo misses, that I won't bore you with, but we did get a few decent shots.

Charlee soon got bored, rolled on her back and played dead to let me know she had just about enough. What we ended up with was (what I find hilarious) pictures that I just submitted to stuffonmymutt.com
Rule number one of trick training. Take what your dog gives you and run with it! Some of the world's best dog tricks were the dog's idea. It is much easier to put a trick on cue that your dog enjoys and offers to you, then to teach something totally foreign.

Now if I can just teach Finney to hit the Easy Button resting on Charlee's belly, we would really have something.

Easy button on my dog.

That was easy!

Anyone care to guess what this body posture means?

Charlee my wing nut dog turns 8 today. For her birthday present this year, she is getting a visit to a homeopathic vet for chiropractic and acupuncture. She has had some weird lameness on and off, and after nearly two years of not knowing what the heck was going on with her, I am now 90 % sure it is located in her neck. She is fine right now, but if I can't get a handle on it, I will officially retire her from agility and maybe even freestyle. Her latest lameness came on while playing tug with me at agility class and she hadn't even been over any obstacles.

I had pretty much decided to retire her from agility years ago, when my 3 kids were just too little for me to even do agility. The day I stopped was the day my baby climbed out of the stroller she was strapped into during class.

For some time I thought that Charlee was having problems with her hips. At her last vet visit, hips were ruled completely ruled out. I started Finney in agility over the winter, and re-caught the agility bug big time. On a whim, I tried Charlee in a private session and she LOVED it and she had been totally sound until very recently. She hadn't forgotten any of her foundation training in nearly 6 years, only this time around, she was smarter and bolder, and we worked much better together as a team, and best of all, she still had tons of speed, drive and enthusiasm. The days of the dog running next to me and spinning because I couldn't keep up, was mostly a thing of a the past, and suddenly I could send her to obstacles. It was exhilarating for me to be so in tune with my dog, and Charlee clearly enjoyed every minute of it. Stay tuned to find out if we retire or finally compete. I am hoping she just needs alignment, but more likely, time is creeping up on her.

I think all in all, Charlee's all time best birthday present was the placement of our foster dog Chase on Tuesday, who she took an instant dislike to.

Happy Life Chase! Charlee says; "hope it works out for you, because I don't want you back". Me and the kids would take Chase back in a heartbeat.

hahahah!

Thanks Pet Connection.

Merrill and Hunter at Walmart
Photo by Dagny

Follow the progress of Hunter, an 11 month old lab in training to be a Service Dog for a 4 year old Autistic boy.

So many of you have asked me what I thought Hunter's chances were of becoming Merrill's service dog.
My answer: he already is!
Dagny (Mom) reported that Merrill was noticeably more anxious and upset when Hunter spent a week training at my house. Even though Hunter had been in their home for less than 1 month, he has already become an integral part of Merrill's day to day routine and especially, the all important bed time ritual.

At bedtime, Merrill drifts off to sleep in a chair. He wakes disoriented after a very short while and goes to the floor, where Hunter is sleeping at his feet. He then he hugs pushes, and handles Hunter quite roughly, then goes straight to his bed.
Hunter, to his credit, loves this.
Now to you and I that may not seem like a lot, but to the family, this new bed time routine, has already brought a huge amount of relief and peace. Bedtimes rituals with young kids can be difficult as it is, but having an autistic child makes it all the harder. Merrill is the youngest of four children and he has another sibling with Asbergers syndrome, another form of autism.

Since my last post about Hunter, the dog has come to class twice and done really well both nights. Dagny stayed for several hours and last week, and Hunter did every thing my advanced class did. But best of all, he is doing incredibly well on just plain chilling out. Hunter is a far stretch far from your typical young lab and I am thankful to his breeder.

This picture was taken in class two weeks ago. You can see the dog is pushing his head on Dagny's lap. We hit on this quite by accident, when he basically was just begging for treats. Dagny had the good sense to start to teach the command "push" on cue. This simple act of Hunter resting his head in the boy's lap will help Merrill to stay focused. How cool is that? The dog to his credit, picked it up in a flash.

Dagny took Merrill and Hunter to Walmart not long ago and she told me that for the first time ever, Merrill didn't overload and she got to finish what she was doing without Merrill having a melt down. Dagny reports that Merrill is doing a great job holding on to the tabs on the service dog vest while walking in public. She told me a remarkable story about how Merrill, when he would start to feel overwhelmed in the store, draped himself over the dog for a few minutes, got grounded and then continued on as if nothing happened. Never before on a trip to Walmart had Merrill remained calm for the entire shop and there have been times, she had to leave before accomplishing what she came for. Dagney told me that when she got to the car she was so grateful for Hunter's help she gave him nearly a whole bag of treats that she had just purchased for him, and cried. She sat in her car hugging the dog and crying and feeding him and telling him how wonderful he is. Hunter is one special dog. We only JUST started to teach to stand and brace, and he doesn't even know it yet, but the dog just stood there with a small boy draped across his back helping the boy to filter out all the overwhelming stimulus he was being bombarded with. The Walmart story of course made me well up with tears. You?
Good Dog Hunter!

Merrill has a blog, Merrills Fund. Check it out and send them a donation! They can sure use it. I have given them a very deep discount because I feel what we are doing is very important, but I am not free,and neither is the day to day expenses of this dog or a special needs child.