Gail Fisher, All Dogs Gym & Inn - The perfect place for pets and their people

N.H. Sunday News - Dog Tracks Column - 1/17/10
By: Gail T. Fisher

The Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) has designated January as National Train Your Dog Month. This past Wednesday, I was thrilled to receive a proclamation from Governor Lynch declaring January Train Your Dog Month in the state of New Hampshire. While many municipalities across the country have adopted TYDM, New Hampshire is the first state to have done so. I’m so proud of us

As Vice President of the Board of APDT, I’ve been doing a lot of work for this month’s event. The free workshop I presented last Thursday on Training and Behavior was a sell-out! (For those who got turned away, I’ll be offering it again in the spring). Of course, as a dog trainer, I believe that any month is the right time to train your dog, and this week I want to write about some different ways to make training fun and varied for both you and your dog.

Most of us have an idea of the behaviors that constitute “basic training,” such as walking on a loose leash, coming when called, and responding to cues such as “sit,” “lie down,” and “stay.” Laying the foundation for these behaviors is simple—but gaining a reliable response takes more practice. Few of us enjoy drilling behaviors repetitively (and dogs don’t love it either), and fortunately, we there are a growing number of sports and activities that provide an opportunity to practice the behaviors that we all want our pets to respond to, without boring drilling.

There are activities for dogs of all ages, sizes, breeds and mixes, offering a wide variety of fun things to do with your dog, to enjoy together, and at the same time, increase your dog’s responsiveness and reliability—a win-win for everyone! Here’s a run-down of just a few activities that are available in many training schools throughout the region and the country:

• Dog Agility—is the first widely-popular dog sport besides “obedience.” In Agility, the dog and handler team negotiate a course with obstacles such as jumps, tunnels, weave poles, and an A-frame. The handler directs the dog off leash to run through, around and over the various obstacles in the course. Clearly dog agility encourages and practices off-leash control—and is great fun for both dog and owner!
• Rally-Obedience—A relatively new dog sport, Rally-O involves the dog and handler team negotiating a course of 12 or more stations. Each station has a sign with a behavior for the team to perform. The behavior may be to simply sit your dog and walk around him in a circle, or more actively send your dog over a jump and then call her to you. With over 60 possible behaviors, Rally-O is always new and different, providing tremendous variety and interest for perfecting the behaviors owners want most.
• Dancing with your dog—also called Canine Musical Freestyle—is a sport where the handler and dog move together in a choreographed routine to music. Even for the rhythmically challenged, this sport provides a fun, interesting, and always varied way to practice fun behaviors such as spin, weave between your legs, move backwards next to your side, stay, come and move together with you—enhancing the partnership and teamwork that we all want with our dogs.
• Canine Good Citizens—Practicing the simple behaviors to take and pass the AKC Good Citizen's test (open to all breeds and mixed breeds) includes socialization and good manner behaviors. Participating in activities such as Therapy Dog or Reading Dog work often requires your dog gaining her CGC title. These philanthropic activities are wonderful for the people your dog interacts with, and they're great for you and your dog, too!
• Using your dog’s instincts—There are loads of activities that provide an outlet for our dogs to do the things that dogs love to do. There is little that is more rewarding than allowing a dog do what he was born to do—race around a lure course, follow a scent trail, participate in water rescue or other water sports, herd, hunt, and the list goes on. These instinctive activities truly are a gift to our dogs. While many of them need a special environment, there’s a brand new instinctive sport that can be done anywhere, indoors and out, in your home or in a training class. It’s called K9 Nose Work, and I’m so excited about this new sport, that we’re offering a free workshop February 9^th to introduce it.

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