The Weather Outside is Frightful !

Winter is upon us and with it lots and lots of snow !! I don't think I remember a snowier winter. I'm so glad that Trinity is 5 and a half months now and not the tiny pup she was just a few weeks ago. I can't imagine standing outside every hour to make sure my puppy does her business. I am very grateful that she is mostly housebroken. That is not to say that she won't make a mistake now and then over the next few months but for the most part she is well on her way to being reliably housebroken. We facilitate that in several ways, vigilance and setting limits. Puppies this age need really good limit setting and a schedule. A schedule makes life predictable for them and helps them understand what will happen throughout the day. It also makes it easier for them to predict when they will have rest time, playtime and potty breaks. Trinity is far too young to have free access to the house. We allow supervised freedom when we are watching her and are able to redirect any inappropriate behavior. She is a very curious and energetic pup that tends to find trouble when she is left to her own devices. The only way to prevent her from getting into big trouble is to be there to shape her behavior and make sure that anything inappropriate is redirected.

The safest puppy zone in our house is the kitchen. We've proofed it so that she has her toys and can play while we work or cook or do homework with the kids. We keep it to 45 minutes at first and then put her back in her crate before we go off to do other things. By not leaving her out of her crate for too long we regulate her energy level so that when she is out she is active and playful but not naughty. We have found that if left out too long puppies tend to get mouthy and fresh because they are overtired. This is an important part of teaching a dog how to live with people. It's no fun to live with a dog that is out of control and is always getting into trouble. An overtired puppy isn't practicing behavior we want to reinforce and she isn't getting the rest she need to grow and develop properly. We've raised a lot of puppies over the years and this has always worked for us. By keeping a pups time out of the crate short and supervised we've found that we have the energy to teach them what we expect of them and they are calmer dogs overall. They learn what will be acceptable and rewarded and what is off limits.

Having a good daily schedule has helped us raise all of our pups to be calm, well behaved adult dogs without giving us too many gray hairs. We've raised 7 pups in 7 years so we are bit expert on what works. A schedule has given us some measure of sanity over these last few years. We have playtime and rest time rotated all day long, with some outside play, some inside play, training time, playtime with other dogs, a good chew on a bone and of course snuggle time with the family. By the end of the day our pups are good and tired, their needs have been met and they are satisfied. The key to raising a well adjusted dog that knows how to act around people and isn't over the top excited is to give them what they need to be happy and satisfied. Playtime, rest time, a good meal, play with other dogs, a cuddle and something good to chew.

This past few months we have been diligently working on play skills with other dogs. This is a very important part of raising a behaviorally healthy puppy that can go anywhere and do anything. If puppies don't have good social exposure to other dogs on a regular basis they grow up with hang ups around other dogs. Social exposure is a very important part of doing right by a puppy and we take that aspect of their development very seriously. It isn't enough for our pups to just get along with other dogs, they need to know how to negotiate the world of dogs diplomatically and without conflict. We take our dogs to the beach, the lake, the woods, downtown Boston, Main St where we live, parties, carnivals, schools, fairs, hosptials and nursing homes, etc. We need our dogs to be able to ignore other dogs when they are on leash and be able to get along with other dogs when they are off leash. This does not mean that they need to like every dog they meet, in fact chances are most dogs they meet will not have a social skill set nearly as vast as our pups. They need to be able to negotiate conflict without conflict. They need to learn how to deal with dogs that are overly persistent and inappropriate and we work hard at this to give them this very essential skill. Trinity has gone to our dog daycare at least once a week for the last several months, this has allowed us to shape her playstyle by choosing her playmates carefully. We have found her to be a very confident dog that can get a little bossy with puppies that have less of a social skill set than she does. Once we identified this aspect of her personality we immediately went to work finding her playmates that gave her the right kind of feedback and interupted any inappropriate play. For instance as a 14 week old puppy she would tend to get overstimulated easily if the play was rowdy. She would get all excited and pin the other pup down and make alot of noise. She wasn't hurting the other pup but her "play" wasn't appropriate and would get her into trouble later on if she did it to the wrong dog. Rather than let her practice this behavior we would interupt her verbally, praise her for stopping and let her play for a short while longer. If we saw that the length of time that she played was a factor we shortened her playtime to shorter sessions more frequently. If we found that it was her playmate that caused things to go out of control we would switch the groups around so that she would be playing with dogs that were more appropriate, kept the play even and gave better feedback. By regulating her play in this way we have got rid of that behavior completely and she is now playing very nicely with other dogs.
My clients often ask me how to make sure that their pups get good dog socialization and my answer is to ask themselves if the dog their dog is playing with has anything positive to offer their dog. If the play is even and appropriate you can see it. The dogs aren't making a lot of noise when they play and they break apart frequently to go and sniff or explore. Good play is not intense wrestling for hours on end. Wrestling is part of the play repertoire but is mixed in with chasing and being chased, mouthing, playing keep away with toys, sniffing and exploring. A dog that can keep play even like that is a great playmate for your dog.

Socialization adventures have included our towns annual holiday stroll, trips to the beach, the woods and downtown Boston and varioius pet stores and neighborhood walks. We've also taken her to the sledding hill,on leash of course so that everyone was safe. She has seen snowblowers, shovels and people dressed in winter clothes complete with hoods, ski masks and gloves. Recently we went to the public garden for a walk which was great fun for all of us. Trinity got to sniff the duck statues along the frog pond, met several dogs in passing and was petted by lots of people with gloves, hats and scarves. She even got to meet a trumpet player playing the blues for her. She just stood there tilting her head form side to side trying to figure out what it was all about. There was lots of traffic, bicycles and people that day, it was a great experience for her.

Well, it's been a busy few weeks and though we've accomplished a lot I know better than to say we have arrived. We are well on our way to a very well socialized, calm and self assured dog but we are not there yet. Though maybe we don't have to worry about getting a new experience in every week we are still planning to make sure that Trinity goes to new places and has new experiences as often as we can manage. Raising a puppy who is ready for life is an exhausting enterprise but one we know pays off for years to come.

Dog Days of December !

Trinity has been one busy pup this holiday season. She is growing up too quickly but I like the dog she is becoming. She has made leaps and bounds in her development and I am very pleased with the progress she has made.

Thanksgiving was at our house this year and Trinity very much enjoyed herself. She had a few good romps with the other dogs in the yard and chewed on a marrow bone for most of the afternoon. She was nice and quiet in her crate and barely made a peep through all the comings and goings. My niece and nephew visited late in the day and enjoyed getting to cuddle with her a bit.

We spent the rest of the weekend in Maine and she got to go on two long hikes. Our special trip to the stream with Rush and Zuma was a blast for her. She loves chasing the other dogs through the woods and messing around the stream. Despite the cold water she followed everyone else right in and dunked herself. Her leash manners are improving and with the Easy Walk harness even Julia can take a turn walking her without getting pulled down. Trinity continues to amaze me at how sweet she is with kids, she is noticeably more careful and gentle with them. Perhaps she has a calling as a therapy dog at some point.

Her social development is really coming along and the improvement is noticeable. She has so much better self control around other puppies. Previously when she was over excited she would pile on the other dog and make a lot of noise. She was overstimulated and inappropriately over the top in her play. She was easy to interupt and redirect but I wanted her to be able to do this herself. I set out over the last few weeks to expose her to a variety of adult dogs and puppies that would give her better feedback and not get her going so much that she lost control. I also taught her the beginning of the cue "leave it". Right now the beginning of my leave it cue is a whistle to get her attention, then I click her for acknowledging me and leaving the other dog and either follow that up with a treat or a drink from a water bottle I usually carry with me. I was able to achieve a really good amount of reliability for calling her away when I saw the play getting too heated in about a week.

Last week I worked on varying her playmates and started having Paul bring her to our dog daycare to give her a variety of playmates and a place to practice. I am happy to report though it is still a work in progress, she is doing amazingly well. This part of her development is very important. I take my dogs alot of places and though I don't expect them to like every other dog they meet I do expect them to be able to get along with most dogs and ignore others. In order to prepare them for life fully I invest a lot of hours in exposing them to lots of other dogs and supervising their play and interactions so that I can teach them the nuances of getting along with other dogs regardless of their playmates play style. This is an important point in socializing a young dog. Exposing them to other dogs is not enough to insure that they will know what to do with the variety of personalities they will come across in their lifetime. Being able to deal with bullies, out of control dogs, soft dogs, pushy dogs, energetic ones fearful ones, the whole gamit of personalities a young dog needs exposure and experience with behaviorally healthy dogs. Finding behaviorally healthy dogs is harder than it would seem and believe me despite my experience in raising puppies I still fret alot over making sure that we help our pups learn to play appropriately. I love daycare for that reason as I get to hand pick who my puppies play with and make sure that the playmates have something to offer eachother.

Trinity took several trips to our local pet stores this week. She was a little unsettled by the automatic doors so we took our time and worked through it. She wasn't so much frightened by them, she just had to stand there a bit and watch them open and close a few times to figure out what she was suppose to do. She trotted up and down the aisles, investigating the toy and treat aisles carefully and met lots of fellow shoppers. We got a lot of good socialization in including an older woman with a cane, a man in a wheelchair, a guy with amazing cowboy boots who also happened to have a beard (we HAD to say hi to him) ! We saw the fish, the birds,the rabbits, rats and stinky ferrets, overall a very productive venture. Because of her obvious reaction to the automatic doors I wanted to practice so I made sure we went to a few other locations and worked on the same thing. With each experience she got better and better.

This past weekend our town had a big holiday parade and all the businesses had open houses. We saw Santa Claus, Frosty, dancers, the high school marching band and about 1000 people. We were invited to go into several businesses including two of our local pet stores and Trinity had a blast meeting kids, adults and people of all kinds. There was loud music, crowds, dancers, push carts, balloons and lots of weird novel stuff. The commuter rail goes through our town as well and we were able to sit and watch it go by with barely a blink of an eye. Since our training center is along the commuter rail tracks Trinity is use to the train sounds and doesn't seem to even notice them. It's pretty amazing to watch this little puppy stand her ground while the commuter rail blasts by at 70 mph not more than 10 feet from her. The best part of the holiday stroll was that we got to meet so many kind people who took a moment out of their day to kneel down and love our puppy. I heard some happy stories and some sad stoires and watched my little pup wiggle her way into each heart. I love that about raising a puppy.

Well, that's about the extent of the excitement this week. I'm hoping to get a few walks in the neighborhood in this weekend as there are quite a few houses with some new decorative lawn ornaments which will be great exposure for her.

Enjoy your holiday preparations !!

Confidence Comes With Repeated Exposure

Trinity is growing so fast, she is turning into a dog before my eyes. She is becoming more confident and I am noticing less hesitancy in new situations and acclimating to new places much more quickly than before. She was never a chicken mind you, but when pups are young they are more cautious than bold, usually.

This week we walked the lake a bit. It's such a busy place with tons of folks walking, running, biking, and walking dogs it can easily be punishing instead of fun for a dog. I call it the pedestrian highway and for some dogs it can be a bit overwhelming. I went to the back side of the lake today so I could minimize the traffic factor. I find that when I am socializing a puppy they can get quickly overstimulated and shut down if there are too many variables at once. There was plenty to see and explore so it wasn't like it was boring or anything and because the passing cars were minimal she was able to notice all the other cool stuff going on.

The first adventure was a flock of about 100 Canada geese lounging on the lawn of an office building, milling about making a little noise and an ocassional flap of wings. Though she was interested in them she wasn't ballistic which I was thrilled about. She calmly and intently watched them for a few seconds, then went about her way. It took us a while to pass them (it was a large flock) so she had several opportunities to take a good long look at them. She didn't pull or jump or lunge, but she wasn't frightened either, just curious. We moved on and met another puppy that was a few weeks older and they had a nice little sniff and greet than was brief and pleasant. Then we listened and watched the children from the daycare center play on their outdoor playground. They were very loud and at a distance so it was a good unusual experience because she couldn't see them for a bit as we approached and they were making a lot of noise. She got to meet a 5 yr old girl who was fascinated but leary of her and so there was a lot of excited high voice hand flapping going on which Trinity dealt with very nicely. She sat and waited for the little one to calm down and then gave her a few polite licks. Many dogs don't know what to do with kids like this, the messages they send out are so conflicted it is hard for the dog to figure out what they are suppose to do. Many dogs think of this as an aversive experience and want to avoid children like this and who can blame them. I think if you can expose a puppy to lots of kids behaving lots of different ways and teach them to be calm (click for 4 on the floor, give a toy to the pup if they are mouthy) then they will grow to love children and tolerate and even enjoy all interactions with them no matter how bizarre.
Trinity is a natural with children based in no small part to my own kids and the kids she has been exposed to from birth to now.

We didn't get to visit with many people on this walk as most of them were in the middle of a workout. This is important exposure for any puppy but especially a Golden Retriever. Known for their social nature they think that every person they pass has the soul goal in life to pet them. It is important that a puppy learns that not everyone is there to pay attention to you and that walking by people without mugging them is a rewardable behavior. I alternate between clicking and treating for walking by people without soliciting attention and clicking for sitting calmly while people pass by. Plenty of people end up stopping to say hello which also works in our favor. This is an important skill to teach if we are going to spend any time in public. I love a friendly dog as much as the next person but a well mannered friendly dog that likes attention but doesn't demand it is so much more pleasant to be around. If you teach this from the beginning it will be much easier to maintain.

We walked the neighborhood a bit this week as well and I noticed that she is much more confident than she has been. The day we went we saw a million leaf bags on the sidewalks. This weekend is leaf pick up day and so all the neighbors have their bags lined up on the sidewalk. Rows and rows of fat towering paper bags full of leaves can be quite an intimidating sight to a small puppy but after a quick sniff she decided there was nothing to worry about. The fire hyrdant that spooked her on her first walk has become something to look forward to. This week she ran right to it and checked all around it to see if there might be a goodie there for her. Her tail is up and wagging, she is having a very good time in our neighborhood these days.

Our latest adventure was the feed store in Topsfield. This week we went to Essex County Co op to buy a gift for Bode for his 3rd birthday. Dogs are allowed in the feed store and it is an amazing place. They have a large selection of dog toys, treats, collars and beds as well as clothing, hardware, garden stuff and horse supplies. We roamed all over, selecting a nice new collar, some treats, chewies and a stuffed bear for Trinity's big brother Bode. She was a little weirded out by the automatic door at first, between seeing her own reflection and the motion of the door she had to stop and think about it for a minute but quickly decided this was a cool place to explore. The aisles are tight in the store as they pack alot of merchandise into a small area but she was very good about following me and not getting into trouble. I think she was a little nervous at first, not sure what this new place was all about but after seeing a few new people and realizing that the bully sticks were kept on the low shelf she quickly adapted and enjoyed her visit. We stayed about 30 minutes which seemed like just enough time for her to get used to all the sights, smells and sounds of this amazing new place.

Well, we are off to Maine for the weekend. Hoping to go on a hike or two and explore the stream again. It's been so warm we might even be able to get in a swim. We've had some fun wading in the stream and once she fell in at the lake and paddled around in her effort to keep up with the rest of the dogs but the more times we go the better swimmer she will become. The Fall in New England can't be beat, we are really enjoying the season this year. It's hard to believe that next week is Thanksgiving....where does the time go ?

Trinity is 14 wks old !

Trinity has been quite busy lately as we try to take her lots of different places to make sure that she grows up to be a well balanced, well socialized pup. I always find it fascinating to socialize one of my own pups and see just how their personalities develop. Trinity is proving to be quite confident and bold in most situations though I am finding that she is much more daring when she is with another dog from her pack than when she is on her own. Being on her own is an important part of her development so I often take her by herself so that she gets to experience the world without the backup of a pack member.
Trinity is the 5th puppy I have raised in 3 years so I have sort of mastered a strategy that works. The secret of owning 7 dogs and raising so many that are close in age is to develop a personal relationship with each of them. I do this by taking them out alone and bonding with them during this very critical socialization period. I love this getting to know you period, it helps me form a deep bond with each pup that I raise and makes it easier to make sure that each dog gets what they need.

Trinity graduated from one Puppy Kindergarten class and started another. The new class has a new set of dogs to play with some of which are bold and some of which are a little shyer. Such a nice opportunity for Trinity to develop her social skills and work on the nuances of playing with different personalities. After spending the last 3 yrs socializing puppies and watching them develop their play styles I have learned that the more different personalities a puppy meets and plays with the better his play skills will be. Trinity tends to start off the play well enough but she can get overstimulated easily with a playmate that wants to play rough or one that gives in too easily and goes belly up. It is not appropriate for her to pile on these puppies and tell them off so we worked on calling her away when she's thinking about taking advantage of them and within a few repetitions she was running to me to get a treat for breaking away from the pig pile. This is a very important part of proper dog to dog socialization so that she grows up to be a healthy, socially appropriate adult dog that plays well with other dogs.

Early in the week we took Rush and Trinity to the woods for a romp. Watching them run together was so much fun. Seeing Rush with his ears back and tail tucked, a complete look of joy on his face as he ran top speed through the woods with Trinity doing her best to keep up on her little short legs was just amazing. At one point my oldest son Mark asked me what game Rush was playing with Trinity and I told him it was called "lose the baby in the woods". The more we watched Rush's antics and how excited he was getting the funnier it got because it really did look like he was trying to ditch her. She ran for an hour with him and even took a dip in the stream in her attempt to keep up with the kids while they were playing. It was pretty cute to see her try to leap across the stream to be with her Dad and the kids on the other side only to not quite make it and slide back into the water. It was a fun adventure to say the least !

Later in the week we attempted a trip to the beach. The day was bright and sunny but the beach was wild. The tide was coming in and there was hardly any beach ! The waves were wild and though we attmepted to walk down to meet a group of dog people it didn't take long to get swamped twice by the incoming tide. Trinity was a little offended by the fast moving water and quickly learned to scale the rocks in order to avoid getting totally swamped by the incoming waves. I was not so lucky and ended up getting dunked up to my knees in the cold surf. In the brief time we were there we met quite a few people and dogs, we just didn't get alot of running time in.

On the way back home we stopped off at Ipswich River Park in North Reading. Though we had driven by this park several times we had never stopped to explore it. Nothing like a puppy to socialize to have an excuse to explore. This was one cool park and a perfect opportunity to socialize Trinity to lots of unique sights and sounds. This park has a skate board park so we stopped and watched a group of boys ride skate boards and skooters and make all kind of noise. Trinity was fascinated by this and sat and watched them for several minutes. There were quite a few younger kids riding bicycles and skooters along the walkway, a few adult dogs that she had to pass without saying hello, a jogger, an older man walking by talking on a cell phone, 4 little girls screaming puppy, puppy can we say hello to the puppy and running at her added to the chaos. There was a large group of young men sitting at a picnic table sorting their street hockey gear one of which called her over and pet her. There were also two people playing tennis which totally blew her mind. Imagine a ball going back and forth and no dog chasing after it. She met several people as she was heading back to the car as well. There were some wooded trails that we didn't get to explore but since it was getting dark we decided to leave that for another day.

Tonight we held a chiropractic clinic at the training center for dogs. Trinity met quite a few dogs and new people including two huge Newfoundlands which was a great experience for her. She was not all that intimated by their size and they are HUGE ! They were very sweet to her and she was offering them play bows within a few minutes of meeting them. This is one confident little pup !! The chiropractor was able to adjust her and make sure that her neck and spine were all in the right places :). She takes a beating trying to keep up with all the adult dogs and though they are mostly gentle with her they do squish her on occasion.

Training is going well, I am very pleased with her concentration and endurance. She is learning how to learn and that training is a game where she can make stuff happen by offering the right behaviors. Sit and down are on cue now and we have a rudimentary Come cue that we use to get her to check in with us on walks or during play time with other dogs. We have done some remedial handling work on collar, ears, eyes and feet. I like to go back to these areas every few weeks to help puppies learn to not only accept handling and manipulation but actually look forward to and enjoy it.

My little girl is getting bigger everyday and though I haven't weighed her lately I would say she is close to 30lbs. She is having alot of fun and fitting into our family quite nicely. Well, we're off to have more adventures and teach our little girl a little more about the world.

Introducing Trinity

The pups from the Cartoon Litter (Tess/Rush) have all gone to their new homes except for one special pup who has wiggled her way into our family. Ms Wilma whom we now call Trinity is now part of the Pine Springs Pack. Yes, that makes 7 dogs at our house !
She is a sweet puppy with a lot of energy and a little bit of naughty, but she is fitting in nicely. The other pack members seem to be getting use to her and though they occasionally accidently on purpose sit on her, squish her or knock her down there is no real malice in it. I consider this an adjustment period and once everyone reclaims their status they will stop picking on her. Things have mostly settled down this week because Cameo has decided that she likes her and doesn't need to tell her off every second. You know what they say about nana's, once you're the favorite you're a shoe in !!! Since Cameo is the fearless leader of the Pine Springs Pack once she says a new member is good, she's good and you better not argue ! All the rest follow her lead.

Housebreaking is going really well, no accidents in the house so far and only 1 in the crate which was our fault. There was a miscommunication between children and each thought the other had let her out. Thanks to the boys this has been the easiest puppy to housebreak. Mark gets up at the crack of dawn and his job is to walk the dogs, so we can thank him for saving us from that brutal cold early morning trip. The last walk is usually around midnight or after so she is now holding it 5 or 6 hours. She's been a quick study so far. During the day she is getting the hang of going on cue and mostly goes right away when we let her out. We've named it "hurry, hurry" and she's really starting to get it. This is a bit labor intensive at first but she's getting good at it which means by the time it snows I'll be able to just open the door, let her out, tell her to go and let her back in. No more standing outside and freezing ! Raising 7 puppies in 7 years I'm getting good at finding short cuts and making life easier.

Trinity has had 3 trips to Maine and she is really settling in to traveling in the car. We drive a Honda Odyssey and everyone has their own spot. The dogs each have a tie down so that if we stop short no one goes flying. Right now Trinity's spot is on the back seat between Bode and Mark. She seems to like her spot although she does take advantage of Mark when he falls asleep. On one of our trips I looked back to see that she was using him as a step stool to get a better look out the window. She had a big puppy smile on her face and was having the time of her life while Mark snored on ! She also is learning to leave him alone if he has a snack while we are driving, this is tough on her since she is tethered right next to him but Mark is a good trainer and she is a smart pup so she's getting it !

We've started taking her to the woods to walk and run off leash and she is getting the hang of exploring without wandering too far away. She's learning to come to a whistle and checks in with us often. It helps to take along an adult dog or two because she learns to stay with us and copy her pack mates who all have excellent recalls.
On one of our woods walks she even got to swim for the first time. She surprised herself and fell in while in pursuit of Cameo but she ended up liking it after the initial shock wore off and she got the paddle down. Luckily it was a warm day and she wasn't too cold afterwards.
The kids were excited to take her to the stream where we have spent many hours messing around and playing. She loved watching them float sticks, dig leaves and make dams. The water here is shallow but very cold which didn't faze her at all. The adult dogs played tag and raced eachother through the woods and seemed to like having a new kid to show the ropes to. It was comical watching her in hot pursuit, ears flying, little legs pumping to keep up with them. She was one tired pup by the end of our walk.

This week was highlighted by two excellent adventures. The first was a trip to Singing Beach in Manchester,Ma. The surf was wild on the day we went and she got her first dose of ocean waves chasing her which only scared her for a minute. She met quite a few dogs, many of which were toy breeds which was a great experience for her. Many puppies assume small dogs are also puppies and they make alot of mistakes when they attempt to interact with them. It's comical to watch their faces when the little dogs tell them off, the look of bewilderment is priceless. It's an important lesson for a pup to learn though, little dogs hate to be tackled and rolled around and the sooner they learn that the nicer their interactions will be. Trinity learned this quite well that day !

The second adventure was a trip into Boston and a walk around Faneuil Hall. The kids loved showing her all their favorite spots and she got tons upon tons of attention from the hundreds of people milling about. She was fascinated by the pigeons who refused to be impressed by her stalking them. Like well seasoned city dwellers they just ignored her unwanted attention. The traffic, busy sidewalks, noise, smells and general city chaos tired our pup out within an hour and she slept for quite a bit after her adventure. She even learned to use her "hurry, hurry" cue on pavement, an enormous accomplishment to say the least.


Well as they say "a tired pup is a good pup" and I think we are definitely accomplishing that goal. Off to have more adventures...stay tuned !!