Ora the Pit Bull

A lot of people, myself included, find and get drug into the sport of canine disk by a dog with insane drive and energy. As the roles of canines in society have evolved over the centuries and poor breeding practices have taken root these crazy high drive, high energy beasts are not as common as they once were but they do exist and they come in all shapes and sizes. These are the dogs that invariably find their way into shelters and end up euthanized because people find they simply cant handle them and its really a shame because they truly are magical beasts when you learn to “speak their language”.

Whats far more common today is an active dog with decent drive. A lot of people have them and a lot of people can cope, often times just barely, with their dogs drive and activity level. Many will seek out dog sports or try their hand at various forms of obedience etc. Others will simply get by with trips to a dog park or a game of fetch in the back yard. Occasionally these people will make their way into the world of canine disc but more often than not they dont.

There are clubs all over the world dedicated to the sport of canine disc. As a member of such a club, we always hear from folks who have gotten involved but rarely if ever from those who have thought about it but have never taken the first step.

With the above in mind, I have a couple questions for those of you dog owners with dogs who love to play, to run, to chase and to tug…..and even those whose dogs are only mildly interested in those activities.

Have you ever thought about getting involved in canine disc and if so why haven’t you?

Id really love to hear from you on whats holding you back. What are your concerns or fears? Its only with a better understanding of why people dont get involved that we can we make getting involved easier.

Its been a long winter with 2 foster dogs in the house plus 2 of my own but ive managed to make some good headway with Japser and as of last week have officially adopted the little guy. I think he has a great future in disc dogging and we celebrated Japsers adoption by attending a 3 day Disc Dog Seminar hosted by the Minnesota Disc Dog Club and taught by the crew at Pawsitive Vybe. I highly recommend anyone interested in positive sport dog training or Rescue to take advantage of their expertise if they are ever in town.

Some of you may remember Haley from earlier posts, she is one of the dogs that was recovered during the nations largest dog fighting busts in the summer of 2009. After 3 months in a shelter while she awaited her fate we finally got the green light to evaluate some of the dogs seized. Haley was one of the lucky ones who got a second chance at life. Not knowing life as a companion animal she had some quirks and was quite shy so we just let her hang out an learn what its like to be a companion animal and that life wasnt all bad.

As the weeks went by and she romped and played with our other dogs she began to favor her left rear leg. In typical pittie fashion she plays rough so our initial assumption was she just had a muscle pull or the like. We gave her a bit more crate time and would crate and rotate so she wouldnt be enticed to play and rough house with the other dogs. A week later with no progress we took her to the vet for xrays and as luck would have it this little girl had a horribly Luxated Patella. Her knee cap wouldnt even stay on the front of her leg and with her new active lifestyle the aggravation of her knee cap constantly moving around over her leg caused a lot of pain. The prognosis for a surgical repair was good but expensive and for a rescue that is totally nonprofit and operates on the kindness of others this was a bitter pill to swallow.

Friday Feb 5th I dropped Haley off at our awesome veterinary partner Blackberry Vet where they performed the surgery. She was a bit out of it Friday evening when we picked her up but Saturday, in typical pit bull fashion, she wasnt going to let a little thing like knee surgery slow her down. If you would like to be a part of Haleys rescue & recovery and help ARLP pay for Haleys surgery, please think about making a donation on her behalf. You can make donations via the paypal donate button below the video which will take you directly to A Rotta Love Paypal page.

What can I say, Jasper is improving in all ways. With house full of dogs, traveling for work and the holidays I shamefully admit I have not been giving the dogs the attention I would like. Poor little Haley started favoring one of her back legs a couple days ago so she is spending a lot of time in her crate or when out she is out alone with us. She so loves to play with Jasper and Ora that I am afraid one little romp with the other dogs will slow her healing so for now we are trying to keep her calm to see if she just pulled something or if its more serious and we need to take her in.

Jasper on the other hand seems to know its Christmas time and like any kid is bouncing off the walls in anticipation. With the deep snow now and cold temps our outside disc play has come to an end but we still do a little work in the house. Ive primarily been working on his flips, which slowly but surely he seems to be getting more accustomed to. He certainly isnt a natural flipper so its going to take some time. In addition, he is working on some overs and vaults. My timing of throws could use a little work, but with the limited space in the house and the little guys explosiveness I dont always have time to set up for a back vault but we are making do. He is also getting more comfortable contacting my chest so we are making a little headway there as well.

A couple posts ago I introduced this Jasper, a high drive little love bug of a dog. He doesnt seem to have a mean bone in his body and like many high drive dogs he has a huge zest for life and all the fun things in it, which invariably means anything that moves!

Since he has only been with us a couple weeks we are just easing into everything, no heavy demands, just quality play time together but thats not to say we havent been working at all. We have spent a little time on eye contact, targeting, tug of course and all its related behaviors and just the other day have moved over to play a little disc. Here is a little peek…..

I had the opportunity over the last couple days to spend some time chatting with Ron Watson @ pawsitivevybe about various things such as contextual VS conceptual learning/teaching, tug, confidence, shy dogs and a few other topics to boot. I want to publicly thank Ron for the time he takes to talk with fellow dog lovers and more importantly his desire to always advance his own understanding of the human and canine bond and tenaciously endeavor to improve that bond for the benefit of us all.

During our conversation Ron made the comment “Marking and reinforcing small decisions gives them confidence.” and of course he is absolutely right. How many people hear things about handling a dog and just apply it without another thought and how many people have actually pondered what they have read or heard? If there is one thing that I have become increasingly aware of is that people generally dont spend a lot of time (or any time in many cases) pondering things they are told or read. They simply take direction as written or heard and apply it to their situation never giving it a second thought unless for some reason it doesnt provide the desired result. As Ron would likely put it, this is contextual learning, and there is nothing wrong with it but it certainly has its limitations.

For me though, having an answer simply is not enough. If something intrigues me I want to know more than just a step by step instruction on how to accomplish something. I want to know WHY it works not just how to accomplish a task.

With the above in mind I wanted to spend some time looking at confidence, what it means to me and why I think its important. Lets start by looking at the definition of confidence. Websters states the following……

belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance: His lack of confidence defeated him.

Websters own definition eludes to the fact that a lack of confidence can be problematic and I think we can all recall a time when we have seen a person or dog who definitely did not have confidence and that lack of confidence had a direct impact on how the individual was perceived. Not only does a lack of confidence affect ones perception to others but it can cause very real and physical side effects to the individual that is lacking confidence.

For years we have all heard that training a dog builds confidence and I wont disagree with that general principle but I do not feel all training is equal in its ability to build confidence and I think this is exactly what Ron was getting at when he said “Marking and reinforcing small decisions gives them confidence.”. The key word in that phrase is decisions. Let me elaborate…….

Everyone knows that we have rules in society, these rules allow us to live relatively happy and safe lives. On a much smaller scale, as a dog owner we also set rules for our home and what is expected of our dogs. By and large the average dog has very little input regarding the rules, but once learned are generally content to live by them….not that they actually have a choice.

Book after book, web site after web site we are inundated with phrases like “your dog must know your in charge”, “Dont do this or that unless your dog knows your the boss”, “If your dog knows a command and refuses to perform it a physical correction is required”. Im not going to dwell on the specifics of these but simply bring them up to highlight that when it comes to training and life with a dog in general people rarely seem to offer their dogs the freedom to choose without the shadow of negative consequence, the freedom to think and make choices. Please note I am not saying we should allow our dogs to run rampant and do as they wish, when they wish. What I am saying is that there is a lot of power and benefit in allowing your dog the freedom to make its own choices when safe and appropriate.

Lets look at a couple scenarios in human terms, put yourself in these examples and think about them, how they make you feel and what effect they would have on your confidence.

Example 1.
Your boss walks in your office and says she would like you to put together a presentation and she hands you a CD with a bunch of quotes, images and data she would like you to use to create the presentation. You sit down, wade through all the data and arrange it in a pleasing format for the presentation later that day. The presentation goes off without a hitch and your boss tells you “job well done”.

Example 2.
Its Monday morning and your department has its weekly status meeting. On the agenda you see a big client is coming in for a presentation your boss will give at the end of the week. You stay at work late that night and put together a presentation and send it off to your Boss. The next morning your Boss comes into your office and gives you a gift card to Starbucks, thanks you for your dedication and going above and beyond and taking the time to create a presentation for him.

How do these two scenarios differ? In both you created a presentation and for both you received praise and were acknowledged for a job well done but at the heart these are very different. In scenario 1 you had choices, create the presentation or dont create the presentation but there were expectations there as well and along with those expectations there were consequences. What would happen if you refused to do the presentation? Would you be written up and reprimanded? Perhaps fired? At the end of the day you technically did have choices but you also have other responsibilities which rely on income from your job. You dont want to lose your house and car and you have this nasty habit of eating which of course costs money so invariably you comply with what was asked.

Even though you may not have a problem with doing the presentation when asked in scenario one, the undertones of expectation and consequences exist to influence your decision making process and ultimately will also have an impact on how you perceive praise. The praise is always nice of course but after all its still your job, your just doing it as requested and as expected, what was the alternative?

In scenario 2 however you were not asked to create the presentation. It was not expected and therefor the consequences of your decision to do it where totally different. Worse case scenario your boss just wouldnt use your presentation but the chances of being reprimanded or worse yet, fired, were slim to none. On the flip side the potential benefits were palpable. It was an opportunity to show your boss your dedication and perhaps some other skills he didnt know you had. And when the praise came for successfully making the decision to take a chance it meant so much more than just praise for doing your day to day duties.

So how does this apply to dogs or more specifically a dogs confidence? I think most people play the roll of Boss in example 1, they request and expect results. They dish out consequences when results are not realized and on the flip side freely dole out praise when a dog behaves as requested.

At this point you are probably saying whats wrong with that? And to that I reply its not about right or wrong, what works and what doesnt work, its about degrees of success, shades of grey if you will. Its about taking advantage of all the tools in our tool box when and where they apply. Our dogs are always acting as the employee of example 2 but I fear that most people simply miss it or if they do see it often dont take advantage of it and use that opportunity to build your dogs confidence and encourage it to think on its own.

Of course we want to be conscious and careful about how we reward the decisions a dog freely makes so we dont encourage unwanted behavior but thats a conversation for another time.

This little guys name is Jasper. Hes been in the program for some time but is new to my home. Dogs like Jasper have a lot of drive and generally a lot of energy as well. They can be a bit hard to train and work with because they often place a lower value on food rewards than their non driven counterparts. They also often get very excited when toys are present or at least something they perceive as a toy, like a squirrel.

I been working with Jasper for a couple days now with a goal of bonding with him and to help him learn toys are funner when I am involved. It very common for dogs to place a lot of value on possessing something. My goal is to shift the focus away from possession and toward the act of playing itself. I like to downplay the value of the toy while increasing MY value to the dog. This naturally builds a retrieve and reduces toy guarding all while increasing YOUR value to the dog.

Its a sad day when you have a dog this age that is so tentative to play with a human but thats what you get when you take in a bust dog. A dog that has been robbed of its childhood and the joys of life most dogs get to experience. When it comes to bust dogs we often think of the physical conditions, the bites and wounds associated with fighting but the mental abuse can be every bit as traumatic. Dogs by their very nature are generally social animals but those confiscated are often deprived of canine as well as human contact or at least any loving contact.

I took some time today to get some video of Haley during a little play session. My goal was to to help her build a little confidence and help her become a bit more trusting of people.

Im leary to even bring up the name Michael Vick and its hard to articulate my feelings for the man and what he has done. All of that aside he was one of the worst and best things to happen to the pit bull breed. His involvement in the activity of dog fighting single handedly brought the plight of the bit pull to the forefront of media and with the help of some very dedicated people many of his dogs got a chance at a real life. This really helped to show the loving side of the pit bull and their resilience. Dogs like Hector who have every right to be angry at the world show the world that in light of the horrors they have been through they still have an amazing capacity to forgive human and animal alike. Before the Vick case pit bulls where usually euthanized without a second thought, even pups who didnt have their teeth yet, simply because their parents where made to fight. Their fate was decided because of their breed and not because of anything they have done.

Today, we are seeing more and more government agencies that are allowing these dogs to be individually evaluated and judged solely on their own individual merits. After all, isnt that how we would all like to be treated? Proponents of pit bulls and other condemned breeds arent asking for any favoritism, we just want the same freedoms and penalties to apply to all dogs and all dog owners. In early July there was a nationwide bust and once again some heroes stepped up and fought for the dogs involved to be treated as individuals and judged individually. After 3 months in a shelter many are finally starting to trickle out to rescues and homes around the country.

On Sunday we were able to step up and do our part by driving down to IA to pick up a few of the dogs from the July bust. The dogs were being held at Animal Rescue League of Iowa and they couldnt have asked for a more caring and dedicated group to help them. I highly recommend that anyone in the Des Moines area visit their web site and see what they can do to help. To see the news coverage you can visit the KCCI channel 8 web site.

Today marks the first day of the rest of Haleys life. Shes a spunky little girl but clearly a little out of place. She likely has never known a loving home and has a little catching up to do when it comes to learning what most dogs her age already know but we are committed to making her transition a positive one so she can go on to make someone a wonderful pet and show the world what wonderful pets pit bulls can be.

Meet Tank, yeah I know the name is kind of cliche but he knew his name so well when he came to us we havent had the heart to change it. Tank has had a rough go of things starting out life as someone best friend, given up due to financial concerns and ultimately ended up as a junk yard dog guarding someones property, away from human contact. After being picked up multiple times by animal control it was decided that he needed and deserved a more stable and loving home.

We brought Tank home about 5 weeks ago, covered in scabs and not smelling so good. We cleaned him up and got him on some good food. He was a lovable guy but clearly had some trust issues. We eased him into the daily routine, keeping him separate from the other dogs so he could acclimate to us humans first. He proved to be a quick study and eager to please. As the weeks have gone by he has warmed up nicely to all of us and enjoys some rough housing with both Ora and Magnum.

We attended our first adoption day last weekend and as I suspected he was a bit stressed out, but overall did pretty well. Its obvious his overall exposure to the world has been limited but I am confident with a little time and exposure he will gain confidence and become a much more relaxed companion when in busy environments like that.

Tank doesnt do well with cats but he seems to get along with a variety of dogs fine. He is house trained and now crate trained as well and of a moderate energy level. The knowledge we have of his past puts him at about 2.5 – 3 years of age. If you would like to meet Tank in person please check out the A Rotta Love Plus website for more pics of him and upcoming adoption days or fill out an application for him and schedule a private meet and greet.

Its going to be tough to see him go but as is often the case in rescue we need to do whats best for our dogs. Right now that means Tank will be moving on to one of our other foster homes so we can take in a high drive little guy thats need some special attention. In addition to that we will be taking in a dog from America’s Biggest Dog-Fighting Bust. We are going to have a full house for a while but I look forward to working with both of these new dogs.

Stay tuned for updates on our 2 new fosters in the days to come.