What’s the First Thing to Teach Your New Puppy?

Some people think they should wait until a pup is half grown to begin training.  But the time you miss is still training time for puppy.  He’s learning every day: that when you pick up his leash, it means he’s going out, that when you are not looking, he can grab a tasty shoe or have an “accident” on the rug, that “no” means “no,” or that it doesn’t.  He begins his education the moment he comes home, so best if you jump in early and get him started on the right track.  That’s a lot easier than changing his opinion later on.

What’s first?  A “Follow Me” game.  You want your puppy focused on you.  That focus helps create the bond that makes living with a dog not only delicious, but makes training easier and life with your dog more rewarding.  So, take a walk, in your house, and entice your pup to follow.  You will not need to use a leash and pup does not even need to be wearing a collar.  Just walk from room to room (or back and forth if you live in a studio apartment) and see if the puppy follows along.  If not, if he starts and stops, if he gets distracted along the way, no problem.  You can whistle, chirp, call him by name, sing “puppy, puppy, puppy, GOOD puppy.”  You can carry a little squeak toy and give a squeak when something else catches the pup’s attention.  You can move faster.  You can flop to the floor and let puppy catch you for kisses.  All in all, a few minutes is plenty, but try this game a few times a day.  This simple activity will teach the pup to keep his eye on you, a necessity before you teach anything else.

A simple game or teaching one new command, working for five minutes or less at a time at first, may tire out a little pup.  Working his mind will tire him more quickly than working his body and it’s just as important.

To help your new pup become more focused, more bonded to you, easier to train and smarter, a little game of follow the leader will do the trick.

Where do we go from there?  Easy.  I’ve got you covered.

 

 

 

 

Did You Ever Wish…

For a magic pill to train your dog?

Sorry about that.

For a conversation with your dog in which he could speak your language?

Sorry about that.

For a dog that didn’t need exercise?

No matter what you’ve heard, sorry about that.

For a world in which there was no need for animal shelters?

So so sorry about that.

For a comic book that teaches you how to train your dog, not quite a magic pill but close enough, one that surely will help you understand your dog better and help you to understand him better as well, a book that will show you how to get more mileage out of your dog’s exercise and more fun as well, and one so easy to use with methods so gentle and effective that fewer dogs will end up in shelters?

=>)

 

The Art of Training Your Dog

Drawings have a way of getting to the heart of the matter while at the same time, going straight to the reader’s heart.  With a few simple lines, a hint of color and a minimal amount of words, Dog Smart, The Art of Training Your Dog, combines humane, effective dog training with a comic-graphic format that is laugh-out-loud funny, easy-to-use and impossible-to-forget.  With a strong emphasis on good communication as the key to a great relationship between you and your dog, Dog Smart teaches you how to teach your dog to come, sit, stay, lie down, wait, back up, find hidden objects, fetch a tissue when you sneeze, ignore the pizza lying on the sidewalk and much, much more.  You will learn how to prevent and, if necessary, put an end to naughy behavior, make walks more fun for both of you and even how to reinforce good training and teach your dog the meaning of dozens of words while playing fun games.

Dog Smart can help you become the smartest partner a dog could ever have and will help your dog to become the smart dog you deserve.

Available at iTunes, Kindle and Nook for only $4.99.

Vocabulary for a Pet Dog

Even if you never want to take a picture of your dog standing next to a Picasso sculpture, or let him run loose in a dewy meadow when dawn is breaking, or have him play fetch on an uncrowded city sidewalk, you still want him to come when called.  Because even if you never plan to take the risk of having your dog off leash in the wider world away from your home and yard, one day someone may leave the door open.  One day, the leash may slip out of your hand.  One day, he will be loose in the world.  And what then!

So let’s agree to agree that every dog needs to learn how to respond quickly and cheerfully to the word, “come,” no matter what language you say it in.

And let’s also agree that your dog needs to learn a few more words as well.  In fact, let’s agree that the larger your dog’s vocabulary, the safer he will be, the more interesting he will be and the brighter he will be.  There’s no reason not to teach a dog as much as you can and every reason to do just that.

Let’s begin.

Go potty on command.  The choice of language is yours.  We use “Smoke,” as in “Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em.”  A bit retro, but a good command.  Even if they don’t travel by train or go on vacation with you, most dogs will have some times in their lives where the place you walk them doesn’t look – or smell – just right.  A “command” to go potty can be a great relief to both of you.  It says, this may not look like the place, but, trust me, it is.

Sit:  Put your butt on the ground.

Stay:  As you are until you hear otherwise.

Come:  I need you as fast as you can get here.

Down:  Lie down.

Wait:  We’ll get going in just a sec or two.

Out:  Kindly drop what’s in your mouth.

Heel or Walk Nice:  Walk at my side without pulling.

Take it:  Take what’s in my hand or what I just threw.  When it’s something thrown, bringing it back is implied.

Up:  Jump onto something.

Over:  Jump over something.

Under:  Go under something.

Roll it:  A nice alternative to fetching a ball and bringing it to hand.  In this case, the dog rolls it back to you.

Find it:  The basis of many a fun game.

No and OK:  Said calmly, the easiest way to let your dog he’s doing something he shouldn’t be doing, like molesting the cat, or doing something you approve of, like being gentle with a child.

Catch: Catch what I toss.

Good dog:  Mmmmm, mmm, mmm.  You are swell.  Or you just did a good job.  Or I love you to the moon and back.

This is pretty basic and you no doubt have many more words you have taught your dog.  If you like, send some along for a second blog.

No matter what other words you teach your dog – for instance, the name of all his toys – teaching vocabulary will increase his ability to focus, will speed the rate at which he learns and will make him much more fun to play with.  If you are interested in some fresh, new ways to think about communicating with your dog – because there is “vocabulary” beyond words – or some fun ways to teach words without spending any more time than you already do, try my new graphic ebook, available for the iPad, Kindle and Nook.  The feedback is good, so I think you’ll love it, too.

A Dog Book’s Best Friend

What’s a girl to do when the publishing world has been turned upside down by ebooks, when publishers who say they want something fresh and new really want Law and Order, Topeka and when the price of books have gotten so steep despite the bad economy that it feels unfair to the reader?  Self-publish an ebook, that’s what.  With an ebook, I could make the book delicious but keep the price low.  I could reach more readers and make a little dough to keep Sky in bully sticks.  (You have your addiction, she has hers.)

But wait.  I could create what I’ve long wanted to – an all graphic dog training book.  I could keep the training effective, humane, easy-to-do, and, because the book is graphic, memorable.  But Photoshopping, formatting, all that tech stuff?  No way.

So the problem was, how do I find a copacetic epublisher to do all the things that make my eyeballs roll up into my head, someone I could work with who would make great suggestions and listen to my ideas, someone who would feel about the book – and about dogs – the way I do.

No problem.

Larry Block (Manhattan Noir, 8 Million Ways to Die, A Walk Among the Tombstones and about a gazillion other wonderful books) said he was going to self publish a book with Telemachus Press.

Aha.

And that’s how I found Steve and Claudia Jackson, Steve here with one of their rescue dogs, Jackson.  Yup, Jackson Jackson, because Jackson was already his name before they adopted him.  Is that Karma, or what!  And is this?  Steve and Claudia and their staff were professional, warm and attentive and gave my book the superb care they would have given to one of their own.

Dog Smart, The Art of Training Your Dog is now available, for $4.99, at the iTunes store and for the Kindle.  It will soon also be available for the Nook and there will shortly be another version on Amazon that you can buy and download to your PC or Mac if you don’t use an e-reader.  Dog Smart can help you make your dog an even better friend than he is now, showing you how to teach him all the basics, solve your dog problems, communicate more effectively, understand canine body language and learn to play a variety of games and even do some nifty tricks.  And if the writing bug should strike and if you should write the book you’ve always wanted to, the way I did, now you know where to go, to my hardworking publisher at Telemachus Press.

All new Carol Lea Benjamin ebook: Dog Smart, The Art of Training Your Dog

I am so excited, you would think this is my first book.  But it’s not.  It’s my 28th published book, but it’s the first original ebook, it’s the first all graphic book, it’s my first self-published book.

28th?  I can’t believe it myself.

An original ebook?  Probably the way of the future.

All graphic?  You mean a comic book that teaches you how to train your dog?  Well, in a word, yes.  Because your dog doesn’t read and you shouldn’t have to either.

Right now, Dog Smart, The Art of Training Your Dog, is live at the iTunes store and you can buy it (for only $4.99) for your iPad, iPhone or iPod.  In a week or so, it will also be available for the Nook and the Kindle Fire.  The future is now.  Happy Training!

 

Great New Review of Do Border Collies Dream of Sheep?

Check this out.  And, yippee.  Thank you, Christie.  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/03/31/petscol033111.DTL

A Service Dog For Crohn’s Disease?

WordPress tells me what searches got people to my blog.  It seems that one recurrent one is a search for “service dog for Crohn’s disease.”  Herewith, some important information, information that will help anyone with Crohn’s or any other “invisible disablility.”  If you know someone who needs this information, please alert them to this post.  (If you’re a techie and not a dinosaur like me, send them a link.)

Is it legal to use a service dog for Crohn’s disease?  Yes.

Can my dog trained as a service dog by someone else?  Not really since the dog is responding to symptoms of the disease.

Can I use a trainer to help me teach my dog good manners?  Yes, a good trainer can help you with that part but remember that your needing help trumps, for instance, a down stay.  There’s a delicate balance between good basic obedience and good service work for the so-called “invisible disabilities.”

I understand the dog can help with pain.  Is that so?   Yes, yes, yes, yes.

How long does it take for the pain to diminish?  It’s fast.  The longer you work with a dog, the faster it becomes.  It’s amazing.

Would my dog be allowed at the doctor’s office or in the hospital?  By law, yes and yes.  Some few doctors don’t want a dog at the office.  I wouldn’t go to a doctor who didn’t allow me to bring my service dog.

How can I learn more about what it’s like to have a service dog help me with Crohn’s disease?  I wrote (half) the book I wish someone had told me about when I was diagnosed.  It explains how and why the dog chooses to help and how to manage the dog in order to facilitate this.  Plus, it’s two damn good stories of how two pups, littermates, grow up and learn their jobs, one to be a service dog, the other to work sheep the way her parents, her grandparents and all her ancestors before her did. 

Available at www.Amazon.com and www.OutrunPress.com.  Reviews are up at both places.  Sorry I can’t do proper links.  One of these days…   Hey, guys, I’m trying.

Positive Reinforcement

Donald McCaig (Nop’s Trials, Rhett Butler’s People and my personal favorite, Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men) has just reviewed Do Border Collies Dream of Sheep? on the Border Collies Boards (www.bordercollie.org).  Here is the review:

“Lassie Come Home, Adam’s Task, The Plague Dogs, White Fang, Winterdance: classic dog books inhabit a mysterious, magical space where two unalike species love and comprehend one another. Do Border Collies Dream of Sheep? is such a classic.

A pup from a Tennesse farm flies to New York City to become a service dog; its littermate is trained to be a working sheepdog. In alternating chapters, the pups’ owners tell how both worked out.

Carol Benjamin is a New Yorker, through and through. She’s been a pet dog trainer all her life, and among her books is “Mother Knows Best” one of the best selling training books of all time. Denise Wall remembers her grandmother’s farm, where every sheepdog was named “Dolly”. She’s a top sheepdog trainer and handler, head of the ABCA genetics committee, a biochemist and stock farmer. Carol’s amusing cartoons enhance her writing, Denise is an award winning photographer.

At eight weeks, puppy Sky started his new life in busy, noisy, jampacked Greenwich Village. Puppy May remained on Denise’s sheep farm.

They were important pups with real jobs. Sky had to learn to relieve debilitating pain; without May, Denise couldn’t do her stockwork.

In Do Border Collies Dream of Sheep?, City dog and country dog get equal billing:

Carol on Sky: “I couldn’t teach her how to ride on the bus . .unless I had the right to take her onto the bus. So she had her service dog tag early, plus a little red cape that said ‘service dog in training.’ . . .
“The size of the bus and its slow lumbering progress meant that Sky would be less likely to get motion sickness than she would in a car. This was a good thing. But the noises a bus makes and the large number of strangers and tight quarters make the ride difficult. I decided on two things. First, to start, I would carry Sky and keep her on my lap. That was easy because she was so small, almost too small for the cape she was wearing.
Second, though service dogs should not be distracted when they are working, I decided that if I let every kid on the bus pet Sky, she’d think the bus was a fun place to be. So that’s what I did. I got on the bus with her just when school let out and it was filled with kids on the way home . . .”

Denise on May: “. . .May had to learn how to keep the sheep from coming near the feed pans while I was putting the feed in. Naturally, the sheep were very motivated to outsmart her in this task. They would try to get by her, around her, or sometimes even try to jump over her to get to the feed. Since I was busy putting feed out, May had to figure out how to counter each of their attempts to get to the feed before it was time. Luckily, I was able to start her on this new job in the early fall when there was still some grass. The sheep would fight to get to the feed I was putting out, but not as desperately as they would later in the season . . .Consequently, May had some time to hone her new skills and become more confident at her new job as the sheep became more and more creative and insistent on getting to the food.”

Working/training dogs is mind-work and this book makes you privy to the thinking of two skilled humans and two remarkable dogs as they share extraordinarily difficult tasks.

Carol on Sky: “If I had some pain, she’d reach out and put her paw right on it. I was surprised how hot her paw was and how precise she was about finding the place that needed her help.”

Denise on May: “Sheepdogs often need to carry out a number of complicated actions in order to do a job. They don’t work on a simple reward system like one you would use to teach a dog a trick. They need to understand a general goal and be flexible and inventive enough to do whatever it takes to reach that goal. May’s understanding of the job was so complex that if she was doing a job she already understood but doing it incorrectly, I could call her over to me and talk to her a little in a disapproving voice, expecting that she would understand she needed to do better, and she usually would.”

When three years old and trained for their lifes’ work, the littermates Sky and May meet again. I won’t spoil the ending.

Carol Benjamin and Denise Wall have written a beautiful, fascinating book; a book that does full honor to our dogs.”

Positive reinforcement doesn’t get better than this.  Please excuse me while I start writing my next book.

drawing from Do Border Collies Dream of Sheep?

New Carol Lea Benjamin book

I think this is the book I was born to write.  Or write half of.  Co-written with my good friend Denise Wall who bred my dog, Sky, Do Border Collies Dream of Sheep? is the true story of how two littermates grow up in wildly different environments, one, Denise’s May, to be a sheepdog, the other, Sky, to become a service dog.  The chapters alternate between May’s life and education on the farm where she was born and Sky’s life in New York City where, miraculously, she begins to learn the trade that will one day be hers by copying an older service dog, Flash, who is winding down his working career.  As Sky steps up, Flash begins to let go and both find a life of balance – work, play, rest and affection, just as May does on the farm.

Yet this isn’t just the story of these two dogs.  It’s the story, too, of how the wolf became the dog and how the talents all our dogs display came from their wild wolf ancestors.  It’s the story of how work function shapes the dog’s thinking.  And it’s a love story, the story of how our species and their species bonded to each other long, long ago, a story we dog lovers all know well.

The book is available at www.outrunpress.com as well as on Amazon.  There’s a reasonably priced version where the 154 photos and drawings are in black and white and a deluxe edition where everything’s in full color.  Either way, you will never look at dogs in quite the same way again.