TRAVIS, MY NEW BEST FRIEND

I recently visited family in Phoenix and renewed my acquaintance with Travis who is “my new best friend”. Travis is a Boxer Rottie cross with, for the most part, the best qualities of both if that is possible. He’s going on two, probably runs over ninety pounds and is not an ounce overweight. He has a lover’s temperament , he’s kind and gentle, a real gentleman in the house, and gets along great with his buddy Oliver who is a Westie.
So what’s my point?
Well Travis is the classic example of what I encounter so often and his few issues are completely predictable and curable but they could have easily been avoided with a few basic changes as the dog was growing up.
First of all, Travis was not properly socialized. Here’s another of those cases where the Vet advised that “you don’t take your dog out into different environments until he’s had his third shot.” Well the problem with that is most dogs don’t get that shot until approximately their fifteenth week or longer and current thinking says the first eighteen weeks are the most critical time in the development and socializing of our pups. Since socializing involves exposing our puppies to strange things, noises, places, people, and other animals, this remaining two or three weeks doesn’t leave a realistic window of opportunity.
Travis is a classic example of what you get when the dog isn’t exposed to different environments, people, and animals at an early age. Now his walks include lunging, barking, and charging, when faced with most anything out of the ordinary. This can be remedied but it would have been at lot easier when he was between ten and eighteen weeks.
Obviously since he wasn’t taken out and socialized his leash skills also are less than perfect. Again this problem can be remedied but at his age and stage of maturity it’s more difficult to redirect a dog of his size with only lure and reward training.
His Sit and Down are very good which works to our advantage. Since most of his issues occur when he is on leash and during his walks the retraining started while he was getting his morning exercise. There were a few corrections required in order to get his mind refocused onto the other end of the leash but for the most part these were only needed when he got a little overly obnoxious at the sight of approaching groups of young people and a couple of times when we came upon a few other dog walkers.
Here’s where the sit and down worked to our advantage. As soon as I sensed a change in his attitude he was put in a sit and given a generous treat. We stayed in a sit until the person, dog, bicycle, or whatever, had passed. All this time I was encouraging him to focus on me. This is the process of “getting his attention”, “redirecting his attention”, and “rewarding the action”. This whole procedure requires repetition and patience and practice in little bits with increasing difficulty. As you can see much of this is avoided if we include these experiences in the socializing process.
At this stage, time and distance worked to our advantage. We increased our sessions to a solid hour at 6 am, with a break of about forty- five minutes and then we accompanied my Granddaughter to school (not her choice) where we met lots of distractions. In total we probably managed nearly two hours and at least five miles of concentrated schooling. I wouldn’t recommend this in most cases but I only had a week to get the job done and my student was young strong and enthusiastic.
Is Tavis perfect now? Of course not, but he’s well on his way to a new and different way of doing things. The challenge now is for everybody involved in his life to make a few small changes in their expectation of “rules, regulations, and limitations”.
Unfortunately many dog owners make the effort to start their dogs on a pretty good path and then along the way they gradually compromise and it’s like so many other things. If you don’t use it, you lose it, and before long the dog has acquired some aggravating habits. Lucky for Travis, Grandpa came to visit and was itching for a dog to work with. Hence “TRAVIS, MY NEW BEST FRIEND”.

Leashes

"I have a dog and sometimes I'll be the littlest kid with my dog and marvel at his ears and his nose and how he looks at me. If he died, I'd bawl like a baby."
-- Aaron Eckhart

Every time I start a new class I never cease to be amazed at how many different and completely goofy types of leashes people turn up with. Before we get into specifics let's review what should be fairly obvious.
First of all, the leash must fit the dog. A ten pound poodle doesn't need a six foot 3/4 inch leash with a snap large enough to pull your pickup. For certain types of schooling a six footer is preferable but if the dog is small keep the leash soft and light and with a small snap.
The leash is intended for you to give signals and corrections and otherwise to be slack. Thick heavy leashes can do none of these things.
For much of your training a four foot leash is perfect and in some instances the 18 or 24 inch with a snap and loop on the other end, is used when patrolling type protection and guard dogs are working in a crowd.
Many of us come from the old school of six footers and some habits die hard but if you are using positive training with hand and voice signals, I find I really don't need the six foot.
I personally feel that a good quality leather is the best. I never use the 3/4 inch recommended by so many schools. I use 1/2 inch which slims down from that to probably about 3/8 after it gets used for awhile and I always get the small brass snap. I've trained lots of big Rotties and Mastifs and never had one break a snap or break a leash.
Yes I know people will let their dogs chew the leash but that's poor management, not the fault of the leash. If you're jerking and pulling to the extent that you are breaking snaps and leashes you better go to a different school because you're doing something very wrong.
Okay let's look at some you want to avoid.
You can not teach a dog anything if you use a chain or worse yet a plastic covered cable leash. And never tie your dog out with one either. It's a pretty good way for your dog to get tangled and choke and not many people walk around with bolt cutters just to rescue strangling dogs.
If you must buy a nylon leash check, if it is very flat chances are the edges will become very sharp and uncomfortable for the user. If it is a heavier and thicker type it can be stiff and unresponsive to your commands. Try for one that you think will soften somewhat with use.
There are thick round nylon leashes at least 5/8 inch and sometimes 3/4 inch or more, and at the risk of offending the manufacturers and to those people who buy them, I can only say you must have liked the color or something like that because I can't imagine a single instance when they might be the leash of choice, Not only that they invariably come with those snaps that look like something left over from the days of draft horses.
The flat and or small diameter round nylon combination collar/leash that is often given out at groomers and vet clinics can be a good tool if used carefully in gentle hands. They can offer corrections but they do not release and we have to be careful to reach down and occasionally loosen them. Caution, if they hang too loose the dog can back out of them. I like them for those times that we are only using the leash to stop the student from leaving the training area because they are very light and they do not distract the dog during training.
I keep several of these in my vehicle for those times when I have to help with a hurt or loose dog because they're easy to quickly slip over the head instead of struggling with collar rings etc.
I'm not going to comment about leashes used by handlers in the show ring because these people are specialists and different breeds are shown with different types of equipment.
The last leash I'll mention is the extend-a-leash. My personal feeling is there is never a time when they are appropriate. My pet peeve is when people get into public places and allow their dogs to wind themselves around everyone and everything in sight while the owner is blindly ignoring their dogs activities and when they are reminded of the dog's activities they usually comment that the dog is just small and he really can't do any harm plus he just has such a mind of his own that I can't stop him. Well lady it's time you trained that dog or kept him at home. I am not above pulling out my pocket knife and freeing them from the responsibility of Fifi.
So when you go to the store to buy a new leash stop and think of what you plan to do with it. Don't buy the one that looks big enough to outlast the dog or the pretty little rhinestone jobbie that's as stiff as coat hanger wire. Think of the dog and what is in his best interest.
Good luck and enjoy.