Pets at Home to Stop Selling Cesar Millan Books

I opened my facebook this morning to the best news

**ANNOUNCEMENT**

Based on customer feedback, we're removing all Cesar Milan books from our stores and they will no longer make up part of our book range. The transition will take a few weeks, so you may still see these in some stores.

Now I know a lot of people will be confused by this as to why it is a good thing and why there is such dislike for Cesar there are some useful links in the following pages

http://www.dogwelfarecampaign.org/
https://www.4pawsu.com/dogpsychology.htm

I know most people who follow his methods are not cruel to their dogs, they follow the principles in his training that are fairly common to all dog trainers, being consistent and making sure the dog has adequate exercise.
These things are fantastic

Then there is the middle ground of 'not so good but not in itself doing harm' where people hear that just about everything they dont like that their dog does is because he is dominant
and if the rank reduction methods are nothing more than stopping the dog get on the sofa or eating before them then its not really cruel - and to an extent it does work, not because suddenly the dog thinks you are 'Alpha' but because suddenly you are doing some kind of training with your dog, you are giving them some rules to follow

When it starts to become bad is when because you think your dog is dominant  and that is a 'bad thing' that must be stopped you start seeing your dog in a negative light
You assume he should magically 'know' how to walk nicely on a lead, keep off the sofa (that he was once allowed on) and worse still - not ever communicate wants, needs, likes and dislikes.
You are only now looking for the 'bad' in your dog so you can suppress it, you ignore the 20min when he is walking nicely on the lead to focus on the 30s when he lunged at the cat
You ignore the evening lying quietly on his bed to focus on the 2 barks at the door.
This is stressful for YOU to always see your dog in the negative, you are missing many opportunities to teach your dog the things you DO want them to do, and it is very stressful to the dog who suddenly sees you angry all the time and dosent understand why.
Again these methods do seem to 'work' this is because punishments suppress behaviour, they get depressed and give up trying to do things, the most dangerous of these things is punishing a dog for growling. It seems to make total sense - the dog must be challenging you by growling - so you punish it, eventually the dog gives up growling
The problem here is you have dealt with the communication NOT the actual problem
Growling is the dog telling you he really dosent like something, it is a warning
If you punish the warning it will go away - but the dog still dosent like the thing he was warning you about
Now he dosent have the option to communicate, you think he is 'fixed' and keep putting him in the situation that is very stressful for him.
So the best side of that method is he is very stressed - the worst thing is that some dogs will reach their breaking point and knowing growling dosent work then they will move right to the attack - without any warning.

If you see the communication as  'good' and help your dog to like the thing then the growling will go away
 

How I built my Centaur

 I thought some of you might like to see some stages in one of my latest sculptures

The Centaur

I started building a base out of pipe cleaner then creating the shape of the horses body and a start of the mans torso in core wool

 Making a face worried me as I havent really done many human(ish) faces before so I decided to work on this next. I gave him blue glass eyes

Then I worked on his torso
If Im making a man I might as well have a man with a 6 pack :) it was fun trying to figure how muscles would work on a body like this

 Hands were freaking me out so I chickend out and added the colour to his body and spent a very long time making sure he was very firmly felted and balanced on his 3 hooves (it was tough to get him to stand up well)

Finally I built up the guts to try the hands - the scale is so tiny and I wanted his hands to look realistic with 4 fingers and a thumb on each hand

I am quite happy with how they worked out - I came up with a cheety method, I will make a tutorial of that soon

I then worked on his rustic wooden spear and added his hair

The hair looked very wrong to me so adding a little grey brought him more to life (and people say he looks a little like Billy Connely now)





Then a little tidying up and my project that has taken the longest time to date was ready for his photoshoot

I am quite happy how he turned out - not 100% happy, I never am :) but he is similar to the guy I saw in my mind before I started

He is up for sale in my needle felting shop

Recall - can you see what they are thinking about?

Just for a bit of fun I thought I would shoot of a few photos right at the moment I called my dogs from a down stay

It seems pretty clear that the instant Ben is called all he thinks about is grub :D and Mia seems to be trying to check out what he is eating 

Needle felted Japanese Chin

Blue roan Cocker Spaniel

Its like putting a sticking plaster over a compound fracture!

Sadly there is next to no regulation in the dog training industry.
Anyone can call themselves a behaviourist or a 'dog psychologist'

There are some amazing ones out there who have spent years studying, researching and then gaining hands on experience, who also still continue to learn the most up to date methods.
In the UK these people can be found in organisations like the APBC's

Sadly there is another group of people who call themselves dog psychologists.

And they spout some stuff that can sound good - about treating your dog like a dog and things like that.
But
They actually know nothing about psychology - or just enough to be dangerous

Psychology is the scientific study of how the mind works and how that can effect behaviours.

Often a person will go to a 'behaviourist' with aggression issues - dogs barking/lunging or even fighting with other dogs.

An actual behaviourist is interested in finding out what is going on in the dogs mind and then changing the reason for the aggression which in turn makes the aggression go away

A phony behaviourist tries to address the barking and lunging without any thought for what is going on in the dogs mind

It is like going to a doctors with a compound fracture and the doctor putting a sticking plaster on it
You cant see the fracture so it must be fixed right?
It may still hurt like hell - but that dosent matter, its fixed
It may actually heal itself eventually - but that is very much not the best way to deal with the problem.

Lets think of it in terms of the dog

Most aggression is based in fear - if your dog really wanted to kill every other dog in the world he would not shout his intentions, he would be quiet and wait for his chance. Aggression is a warning, the dog is shouting 'get away from me!'

So the dog is most likely very scared

A phony will put the dog into a situation where they start to show aggression and then they punish the dog
They punish the dog harshly enough that the dog learns that barking gets punished and they stop barking

They are still scared of the other dog, they now have no way to tell anyone they are scared
And of course their poor owners dosent know any better and thinks their dog has now been 'fixed' from their 'naughty' behaviour and so they are safe to take everywhere - to be around lots and lots of dogs

So the dogs life has suddenly got lots more stressful.
Nothing is fixed  - it is just hidden

A true behaviourist will try and work to teach the dog that other dogs are good things, they will work at a distance where the dog dosent feel the need to shout at the other dogs
Over time the dog will learn to be happy around other dogs and will not need to bark
He will be able to be taken to lots of new places and he will be happy and calm with other dogs around.

Dont 'fix' the unwanted behaviour, treat the underlying mental issues and the behaviour will go away

The Barnydoodle

A fun trick - How to teach 'Say your prayers'

A couple of people asked me how I train this cute trick
Like anything there are many methods - I quickly filmed two of them.

Method one
Train your dog to target their front paws (there are loads of videos on this) then have them target your arm with either paw then both paws

or
Method Two
With your arm out in position lure the dog up - they will then rest their paws on your arm

Then
Simply feed your dog his treats between his front legs, the more you feed in this position the more the dog will enjoy being in this position and go into it naturally in anticipation of the reward

repeat until you presenting your arms becomes a cue in itself to do the trick

This is a nice cute trick that kids love to see - it is also good for building some muscles being a step towards doing a begging trick

Old Mill Homework - Impulse control - Leave it/puppy zen

Impulse control games are great to help dogs learn not to be a pain :) the 'leave it/puppy zen' is a fab exercise for a dog who mugs your hand or cant focus when you have a treat in your hand
In the video I had only had Mia a short time and she had been a stray so was a bit obsessed with food
This is the first time I tried the exercise with her, she did know the clicker ment she had done the right thing and a treat was coming, she knew how to sit and give a paw.

You dont have to use a clicker for this exercise but I find it helps. If you dont use a clicker make sure and mark the EXACT moment the dog has done what you want (I say 'YES' in a happy tome)

Present the treat in your hand to your dog
As they move towards the treat close your hand over
Let your dog mug your hand (if they are likely to nibble wear gloves) do not move your hand or tell them off or say anything, just wait
The very moment your dog moves even slightly away from your hand click for that and reward (I prefer to reward out of the other hand - but you can reward from the same hand)
Repeat
slowly start waiting for your dog to look at you and reward for that
Once your dog starts looking away as you present your open hand this is the point you can add the word 'leave it' (leave it will mean look away from whatever it was you were looking at eventually)

You can then begin moving your hand slightly - this may mean your dog goes back to mugging your hand, just wait as before and reward when they stop mugging
repeat till they can cope with you moving your hand and dont mug it

move your had to an inch off the floor and drop the treat - if your dog goes for the treat place your hand ontop of it and wait for them to look away. Once they stop chasing the dropped treat you can raise your hand so you are dropping from higher and higher (you can use your foot to cover it if they try going for it)

A walk on the black isle

New camera for Christmas with some fab features - and a stunning afternoon - I have to share the foto