Teaching Button to Jump

Poor Button. He's not a terribly confident little puppy. I hear his two littermates are doing well, entering obedience classes and acting like social butterflies. But my boy is a little more developmentally challenged. He's not fond of going new places, and he gets freaked out too easily and loses his little head when he's frightened and wants to just run, run, run away. I'm afraid some days that if I dropped his leash and something scared him, he'd be in Delaware by dinnertime.

I'm not sure why he is the way he is. We did all the things we usually do when we raise puppies--we tried to provide a stimulating home environment and we offered lots of opportunities for socialization. We took him places where he could meet and greet people, other dogs, even cats. We have been very gentle in handling him--no corrections or heavy-handling. Button is being raised with positive reinforcement and negative punishment.

Still, we have a little scaredy on our hands. I know, I know, this outside of the normal realm for an APBT pup. But I can't help but want to give him the chance to really show me what he's made of. So I brought him to see a behaviorist who's got a great reputation in our area and lots of experience in applied animal behavior. She told us some interesting things, including that dogs begin making decisions that inform them about the world while still in utero and things that happen to a pregnant female dog can impact her unborn pups. In other words, stress and anxiety in a mama dog can have an impact on how her pups perceive the world.

There is a window of opportunity after puppies are born during which they learn to generalize their experiences and learn how to piece together the world, and she said that it's during this period that the pup formulates most of its opinions about the world. Most of the opportunity for socialization takes place between birth and 16 weeks, and since we got Button at 12 weeks old--and seriously undersocialized--we were working against time from the beginning.

Well, either way, we have him here now and we're going to do what we can to help him catch up. As a result of his deficiencies, he's no longer available for adoption. He has a program the behaviorist has us working on with him to try to stimulate his senses, get him some passive socialization, and maybe turn him into something of a normal dog with some better coping skills.

In addition to a bunch of environmental enrichment exercises, like challenging him at each feeding by making him work for food and taking him to a puppy kindergarten to see the other puppies interacting with their environments, she suggested that we work on some simple agility-type exercises, which will also help stimulate his brain and help him build confidence.

Which leads me to the interactive portion of this post. Rob and I took him out back and videotaped him learning to jump, and I have to say, for a little puppy with confusion about the Big Bad World, he really had no issue whatsoever working with the obstacle. And since this filming, he's started working on and around ramps and platforms too. I sincerely wish this pup wasn't so squirrely about things, because I'm pretty impressed with his willingness to work with me on these little challenges. I'd make him a little agility bull!

An off-topic post about a cat that needs help

OK, so I haven't posted in a bit, I know. And this one is a bit off topic, but good lord, I saw the photos and read the story about this poor cat, which is right in my area, and there's no way I was going to just ignore this. Plus, the folks who are involved in helping this cat are pit bull lovers. In fact, they've been instrumental in helping form a new coalition of pit bull rescuers who want to make a difference for our breed and how it's perceived in Baltimore. So even though it's off topic, it's topical!

There's a great new program in Baltimore called Spay Maryland, which offers low-cost spays and neuters in our area. Recently that organization has been working with another group called Baltimore Cares About Pets to help a cat named Stewie that was caught in a housefire. His owner was disabled and unable to pay for the vet care the cat needed, so the two groups stepped in and are trying to help.

Here are the details:

On Tuesday, March 11th, a house in Brooklyn Park, Md caught fire. The homeowner, who uses a wheelchair for mobility, was able to escape with his dog but could not find his cat. Luckily, firefighters found the cat, Stewie, and quickly treated him for smoke inhalation. Stewie was taken to a local veterinary hospital for treatment but his owner, who lost everything in the fire except his beloved pets, was unable to pay for the rising costs of Stewie's care. An organization called Baltimore Cares About Pets was contacted about Stewie's case and they contacted our organization to see if we could help. We are now making special accomodations to provide for Stewie's care. Right now, we are looking for donations to help Stewie's owner pay off his remaining balance at the hospital that originally treated Stewie. We are also taking donations to use towards caring for Stewie at our hospital.

Through all of this, Stewie has maintained his sweet personality. He's a very nice young cat (only a year old) and he still purrs at our doctor and technicians as they provide him with care. Baltimore Cares About Pets has made a couple of Craigslist postings about this as well. The first is located here: http://baltimore.craigslist.org/pet/1087628774.html and the second, with pictures, is here:
http://baltimore.craigslist.org/pet/1091562732.html

If you could help us spread the word about Stewie's case I would be very grateful! I know that cats are outside of your normal focus, but as an animal lover I thought you might be able to help us out. Maybe a blog post might help? I'm not sure if there are any good email lists you know of where I could post this, or any other well-trafficked blogs for the area that might be interested in the story, but if you're aware of any please do let me know! We're trying to reach out as much as possible to raise funds for a very deserving little kitty.

If anyone out there has a soft spot for cats, please contact Chris at chris@baltimorecaresaboutpets.org

Looks like Stewie's got some good folks in his corner.

Learning a new jumping technique with Doc

So the one really rough spot for me in Doc's training right now is how he takes the meter jump when doing the retrieve over the wall. In schutzhund, the dogs need to jump a wall that's about a meter tall, retrieve a dumbbell, then carry it back over the wall and come to a sit in front and present the dumbbell.

None of that is a problem for Doc except for the easiest part of the exercise--clearing the jump. To get full points on the exercise (worth 15 points), the dog needs to clear the jump without brushing, touching, or bumping it. Doc, being the kind of dog he is, not only wants to touch the jump--he wants to jump to the top of it, balance on it for a second, then use it to propel himself forward as hard as he can and launch himself over it. Cute, but not correct. And probably not safe, either.

I was at training on Saturday, and one of the women in the club told me about a technique she learned at a seminar that is supposed to teach the dog to do the jump as a non-drive exercise. The dog is brought right up next to the jump, which is lowered so that it's very easily cleared by the dog, and put into a quiet sit. You hold a piece of food (as opposed to a tug or toy) near the ground on the opposite side of the jump, and ask the dog to hopp. As the dog clears the jump (totally clear, with a nice arched back and an arc), you raise the food to lure the dog into a nice, clean sit. It sounds easy when you write it out, but believe me: It was much harder to do in person. When we practiced it on Saturday, it reminded me of being in a high school musical and trying to get my teenage self to coordinate enough to get the dance moves right. Embarrassing!

But after a few reps and successes, it seemed to have an impact--I actually noticed a nice, clean, graceful jump instead of a no-holds-barred, fly at the jump kinda thing he was doing before.

And we just had a practice session in the backyard, where it's much less distracting than at training on the field, and I can already see improvements. I'm hoping that starting the jumping thing from scratch and rebuilding this foundation might make a big difference in our score when we finally get out on that field. At least I hope it will.

One of these days I'll have to ask Rob to come out with a camera and videotape us doing this so we can actually demonstrate the technique . . . and how it works for us!

Great Post From Terrierman's Blog

Check this one out--though it's a few years old, it's definitely worth a read.

Well, his blog is always a great read, but this post in particular addresses pit bulls and the ridiculous trends we see in breeding today.

American pit bull retriever

No, They Don't Just Turn. And Neither Did This One.

This news story from Orlando is almost a week old, but I just saw it posted elsewhere and decided to comment.

In the beginning of the story, they talk about the awful attack and as the story unfolds a few important details come to light. The attack happened in the middle of a dog fight. The woman says she never thought the dog would hurt her, but oh wait--there were these warning signs. Such as, the dog has been acting "off" for a month or so. And recently, he growled at her, lips lifted.

Then the story closes with a quote where she says the dogs "just turn."

Warning growls, dog acts off for a while, dog fight--I can't figure out for the life of me how this situation constitutes "just turning" on someone. This situation has all the elements of potential problems. And, this being Fox news, I'm sure there are more details we don't even hear about.

Woman attacked by pit
bull shares her horror

Last Edited: Friday, 06 Mar 2009, 5:32 PM EST
Created On: Friday, 06 Mar 2009, 5:31 PM EST

DELAND, Fla. - By Elizabeth Alvarez

FOX 35 News

Only on FOX: we're getting answers straight from the local woman who had to pull a gun and kill her own dog when it freaked on her. Melanie Young of Deltona didn't see it coming. “I didn’t believe he would ever hurt me.. ever.”

Her sons pit bull mix that she had been caring for nearly two years attacked her. “That dog slept with me like a husband, he went to car rides with me to the grocery store. We walked every single night like at 11.”

Young is now out of the hospital since Sundays attack in severe pain, physically. ”I could just feel my flesh coming out of my arm. I thought I was going to die. I get flash backs constantly.”

Young says the vicious mauling started when the pit suddenly attacked her other dog - Koda, a Samoyed. “It got so out of hand, so gruesome, she says she grabbed a shot gun and killed the dog. I pulled the shot gun out and shot him, he took his front legs and dragged himself out of my room and collapsed and I shot him again and shot him again.”

Young says the two dogs always got along just fine. But she tells me she now realizes there might have been some recent warning signs that something might not have been right with the pit bull. “For the past month, he’s been acting off… I was at the kitchen sink and I went want are you doing, what are you doing and he went.. this was the first time he lifted his teeth and went grrrr;”

Her message to pit bull owners: “ They do, they turn I don’t care how nice you are one day. It could have been my face or I could be dead.”

Oh, and one more thing: Why is it that in so many of these pit bull attack cases the dog is being cared for some family member who is not the owner? In this case, the dog belonged to the woman's son, but she's taking care of the dog and sleeping with it "like a husband" and taking it to the store with her.

In so many of these situations, somebody's grandma or mom or uncle is taking care of a dog for someone else. I can't help but wonder what the reason is that these dogs aren't being cared for by their "owners."

In other words, a responsible owner keeps his/her own dog, notices when the dog has behavior or health problems, deals with them, and keeps his/her dog out of trouble. A responsible owner gives a dog a stable life where it can thrive and get direction and stability and leadership. They don't leave it with mom to take care of when the dog gets unruly or inconvenient.

Maybe that's neither here nor there, but I'm starting to think that it's not coincidence that so many of these dog-bites-man stories have an absentee owner in them.

Baltimore Sun: Federal Hill resident leaves fortune to animals

Thought this story in today's Baltimore Sun was worth a read. Longtime area resident Kenneth Munzert died last year and apparently left almost a million dollars to animal charities. He donated his house to the Richmond SPCA.

B-More Dog News

Well I couldn't be happier to report that B-More Dog, the organization in Baltimore that a handful of us founded in late 2007 to educate our fellow pit bull owners (and non owners) about the breed, has officially received its 501(c)3 status from the IRS.

That means donations to our organization are now tax deductible, that we can apply for grants from places like Animal Farm Foundation, and we will (hopefully) be viewed as a "legit" nonprofit in the area.

We spent a lot of last year getting the word out about B-More Dog by going to events, handing out educational materials about pit bulls, and organizing Baltimore's first Pit Bull Awareness Day march, which we called Pit Bulls on Parade.

This year, in addition to all of that other stuff, we are putting together two classes. The first, which we plan to launch in May 2009, is called B-More Responsible and it's geared toward people who are not doing what it takes to keep their animals in control: People who have leash-law, nuisance, or neglect violations, people whose neighbors complain about their dogs all the time, people who are dog owners and really don't know what to do to keep their dogs contained, exercised, socialized and happy. We'll be going over all of the details of basic ownership responsibilities, answering questions in a nonjudgmental environment, offering freebies to participants, and in the process, hopefully improving the lives of some dogs, their owners, and their neighbors.

The other class is going to be a Pit Bull 101, geared toward first-time owners, foster families, and anyone who might want to know more about the American pit bull terrier. No start date for that one yet, but our Shelter Outreach Committee is working on it.

And finally, we've just given 50 pit bull education packets to BARCS (the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter), which the shelter can hand out to people interested in adopting pit bulls. Right now, the shelter says that 95 percent of its adoptable dogs on any given day are pit bulls or pit bull mixes. We're hoping to arm the people interested in adopting them with accurate, non-sensational breed information so they know what to expect when they bring a pit bull into their homes.

We're looking at a busy year ahead, but hopefully our hard work makes a small dent in the pit bull "problem" we have in our city.

Baltimore's Funniest Home Videos

OK, maybe not the funniest. But they are funny. And I took them at home. Button has been playing with this teaser ball since I brought him home a couple of months ago. But I guess today was the first day he really noticed that there is a smaller, softer plastic ball trapped inside the hard plastic ball on the outside. And it made him downright furious that he could not get it out. He expressed his frustration and annoyance with the classic pit bull screaming whine, a noise I've never heard come out of him before. I almost fell on the ground laughing when he got really into it. The windup:



And five minutes later, he's still at it. He's muddy, he's screechy, and he's mad.




If there was any doubt in my mind about whether he was a pit bull when he got here looking like a chihuhua, the past couple of weeks have put it to rest. Determined, feisty little thing--there's terrier blood in there somewhere!

I did take the ball away from him before too long. I was afraid the neighbors would think I was feeding the puppy to Doc or something if I let him screech for too long. And I also don't want him to develop any unhealthy obsessions, so the frustrating toy got put up, and so did the puppy!

Button at Five Months Old

He's gotten so big since he got here at the end of January. He's super healthy and very cute, and he still adores his Daddy Tucker, though I can't help but notice those little things that push the boundaries with the other dogs. It's amazing he hasn't had his tiny ass kicked yet by the big dogs, but so far they are extremely tolerant of his puppy nonsense.



Surprisingly, Doc is actually far more tolerant than I had ever imagined he would be. He's way too rough with the puppy, because that's just because it is the way he is--he's extremely physical, pounces on him, bites on his neck, rolls him with his big paws--but he never hurts him. Of course, I'm there to supervise--closely--whenever they interact!

Tucker is more like a put-upon mother figure--he inspects the baby and plays with the baby and shows the baby how to do big dog things, but he is so totally sick of having the baby around. It's pretty funny how much they remind me of a weird little group of people, even though they are dogs.

Chow Kills Baby

Saw this sad story posted up by someone on the Pit Bull Place forum.

A chow-chow killed a two-week-old infant when the mother left the room briefly. Yet, somehow, the newspaper still has to mention pit bulls. Well, a pit bull/chow mix. But still. It's like no one can do any kind of story about a biting dog without somehow dragging a pit bull into the picture.

Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Snow, Nor Wind . . .

Nothing keeps Doc from wanting to play. We got hit with what the weather channels are now calling a Nor'Easter and it pelted us with freezing rain and sleet, then about 5 inches of very pretty, fluffy snow. It's pretty damp and cold out, but that doesn't mean Doc takes a day off. He still wants to get out and play, play, play, work, work, work, go, go, go.

Waiting. Excited. Waiting.



He retrieves . . .



. . . and he's ready for another round. Lather, rinse, repeat 50 or 60 times.