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Keep Eye on Dog. Is One Most Important Thing I Tell You.

Greta Kaplan, CPDT-KA, CDBC

In high school, I played on the varsity squash team.  Squash is not widely played in the United States, so many readers won’t be familiar with it.  It bears some resemblance to handball, though it is several centuries older, and the court has foul zones, so accuracy is required.  Players on the indoor court use racquets the same length as tennis racquets, but with smaller heads.  The ball is small, well under two inches in diameter, and one must have good hand-eye coordination to hit the ball reliably and well.

In the last half-century, a single Pakistani family has supplied numerous top players to the sport.  Hashim Khan, the the most influential of the multitudinous talented Khans, wrote a small booklet about playing squash.  The following advice therefrom is burned into my brain:

“Keep eye on ball.  Is one most important thing I tell you.”

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Educational Brush with Addison’s Disease

Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBCVet examining dog

As part of Companion Animal Solutions, I’m lucky enough to work with Dr. James Ha, Ph.D., CAAB, an ethologist with the University of Washington.  This means I can run tricky or unusual cases by his experienced eyes to see what I might be missing in terms of assessment or treatment.  Occasionally, Jim mentions the cryptic term:  “Addison’s Disease.”  Addison’s has always been on my mental list as one of those diseases that can certainly cause behavioral effects; but, as with so many things in life, it took direct personal experience to really bring this home.

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Flyball Is Not a Ball Game

Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBCiStock_000002032589XSmall

If you’d like to hear Cindy Lewis-Bruckart from Regarding Rover interview me (Greta Kaplan) about the sport of flyball, head over to blogtalkradio to listen. Now, on with the rest of the post…

I teach and coach flyball, a fun dog sport that is not often shown on TV, so most people have not seen it played before they come to class.  Many people hear about the sport, and focus on the name of the game.  Unsurprisingly, they think it is a ball game, and they conclude that because their dog loves balls, this would be a great game for their dog.  It will never happen, but as a coach and instructor, I often wish we could change the name of the sport to remove the word “ball.”  Flyball is not a ball game! [Read more...]

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Dangers of Alpha Rolling

Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBCDog rolling over copy

I read a tragic news article:  “Puppy Owner Pleads Not Guilty for Choking Animal to Death,” Associated Press, February 26, 2010.  According to the article, the owner admitted holding the 10-week old Labrador puppy down for 20 seconds after the puppy bit the owner’s girlfriend on the nose, causing what the Animal Services officer called “a minor scratch.”.  According to the officer, the puppy was taken to an emergency vet where he “couldn’t walk, was breathing poorly and had reddish saliva and blue gums.”  The puppy died. [Read more...]

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Flyball!

Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBCBorder Collie Flyball

When I got Nickel, my oldest dog, I heard about flyball and decided to take him to class.  He seemed to enjoy it, and did all right, and I had fun.  Since I knew little about structure, sports training, or related topics at the time, it took me a while to figure out that Nick actually was not cut out to dedicate his life to performance sports.  He’s plenty smart, but low-key, and his structure isn’t so great, so he’s not that fast or efficient.  He was satisfied after a few minutes and could not see the point in doing it another ten times.  We wanted to adopt a second dog as a companion for him, and so I gave myself a crash course in dog structure and started identifying traits I hoped to find in a dog who would really love to do flyball with me.

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Temperament Testing Dogs at the Entlefest

Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBCEntlebucher Puppy

Our afternoon at the Entlefest involved participating in an experiment:  For the first time, a breed-specific European-style working temperament test was administered to Entlebuchers as part of a three-part breeding fitness exam.  (The other two parts involve structure and movement.)  Because so many owners wanted to participate, we divided the duties.  My wonderful assistant Jett judged the second half of the test, while I judged the first half.  The club committee had set up the test grounds very efficiently and practiced the choreography to move dogs through as quickly as possible.  In the end, about thirty dogs participated (nearly twice the number originally signed up).  We quit right after the sun had disappeared below the California horizon.

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Control Unleashed Presentation at Entlefest

Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBCEnttlebucher

Last week I traveled to Lake Tahoe to give a half-day presentation on Control Unleashed at the Entlefest.  I realize this requires some translation.  The Entlefest is the annual national breed club meeting for the National Entelbucher Mountain Dog Association.  An Entlebucher (Entlebuch Sennenhund) is one of the four Swiss Mountain dog breeds.  Many are familiar with the two bigger members of this group, the Bernese Mountain Dog and the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog.  The smaller members, the Entlebucher and the Appenzeller, are much less common and less well known.  The Entlebucher is rather low slung and powerful, and was specially bred to gently but firmly herd prized Swiss dairy cattle without knocking them off the numerous cliffs.  Entles in the US do not do much herding, but enjoy lives as pets, obedience dogs and sports companions (there are a few very fast flyball Entles).  The question most often answered by Entle owners is, “Is that a Beagle/Rottweiler mix?” [Read more...]

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When Behavior Modification Isn’t the Answer

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Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBC

When we talk to clients about what we’ll do at our initial consultation, we explain that we’ll take some history about the situation, discuss management that needs to be put in place to ease tensions and help the training work better, and then talk about and actually start training your dog to exhibit more desirable behavior.  I imagine that clients are often eager to get to the training part, thinking that that’s the “meat” of what we do.

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What to Look For In A Puppy Class

Puppy KindergartenGreta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBC

I teach puppy classes.  It’s a weird category, and people have different expectations from a class called “puppy class” or “puppy kindergarten.”  If you take my flyball class, you expect to be taught how to do flyball and help teach your dog to do flyball.  If you take a class in competition obedience, you know you’ll be learning, among other things, how to teach your dog to heel, front, finish, sit, stand, down and stay.  What is puppy class for?  Doesn’t your puppy already know how to be a puppy?

Yes – in fact, for many, that’s the problem!  They want help in teaching their puppy to be clean in the house, not bite them with that mouthful of needles, and not play tug with their pants leg.  Also, it would be nice if the pupper didn’t scream when put in his crate.  But at the same time, puppy owners’ last class was often a more traditional obedience class, and perhaps without thinking about it, they expect to do some sits, downs, stays, and heeling. [Read more...]

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Why We Love Three Woofs And A Woo!

Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBCThree Woofs And A Woo

First, we love TWAAW because it is very funny.  Food Lady is just a funny writer and her great photos really give her lots of opportunities for humor.

Second, we love TWAAW because there are lots of great photos of dogs being dogs.  Food Lady does not hide the fact that Piper is, well, a bitch.  We love Mad Teeth ™.  We love the bizarre lip configurations when dogs shake off.  We love the photos of the Woofs interacting with strange dogs, too.

Third, we love TWAAW for a reason that is a little harder to describe.  There are lots of great dog photos (though fantastic quality photos of dogs out just doing their doggie thing are rarer), and there are lots of great writers who tell us truthful things about dogs, and there are lots of people who are very funny about their dogs… but almost no one is all three. [Read more...]

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