6 Essential Skills to Teach Your Dog Before Heading on a Backpacking Trip

A backpacking trip with your four legged friend can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a disaster waiting to happen if you aren’t prepared. Teach your dog these six essential skills to ensure you have the best possible experience in the backcountry.

Wait

A good wait is an extremely versatile cue and is essential to having a safe and fun trip. The “wait cue” should mean stop right where you are and do not move until I tell you to. This behavior allows you to safely navigate a slippery or dangerous obstacle while your dog waits patiently on the other site. It is also prevents your dog from bothering others on the trail, and can be used to allow safe exiting and entering of the tent without the dog bolting. Crate games are an excellent way to teach a wait! If you are unfamiliar with crate games, Susan Garrett has excellent information, as well as a DVD about the topic. Practice having your dog wait before leaving the crate, on stairs, and at doors in your house.

Recall

All dogs should learn to come when they are called! In the woods this skill becomes even more important. If the leash is dropped accidentally or breaks it is important to know that your dog will come back to you. There are also circumstances when it is unsafe to navigate the terrain with your dog on-leash. A good recall means you can take your dog off-leash, navigate the terrain, and then call your dog back to you. Please follow the leash laws of the area where you are backpacking.

Reinforce your dog every time he comes back to you! A whistle recall is extremely helpful in the woods. It’s a unique sound that you can ensure is always associated with good things and can be easily heard in the woods. Start in a place with minimal distractions, blow the whistle, and give your dog a treat. Your dog will quickly begin to run to you every time you blow the whistle. Gradually increase the distance and level of distraction until your dog will run to you through the resident herd of squirrels. Remember to ALWAYS pay your dog well for coming back with delicious treats or his favorite game.

Navigate Difficult Terrain

Teach your dog to navigate any terrain you may come across before the trip. Research the area and figure out what types of terrain you are likely to see. Dogs should be comfortable crossing streams, climbing over and balancing on rocks and logs, walking through mud, and walking through areas where brush may rub against them.  

Train your dog to be comfortable with walking over unfamiliar surfaces and things that move. Start easy, reinforce your dog with a treat every time he walks over a tarp, grate on the sidewalk, or strange surfaced floor. Progress to climbing on benches, walking across walls and going under rails; dog parkour, also known as urban agility, is a great way to teach these skills! The more strange objects your dog is comfortable interacting with, the better off you will be on the trail. Go to the local park and find some streams, logs, and rocks to play on. Keep sessions fun, and always let your dog choose to interact with the objects.

Mat or Tethering Behavior 
Having a dog that will wait patiently for you to take care of the multitudes of things you will need to do while backpacking can be a serious help on the trail. For one thing, it means you won’t have canine “assistance” in meal preparation and consumption or shelter building (their lack of thumbs makes setting up the tent tricky). It also means that when you stop to take a break, your dog isn’t wasting energy chasing down dinner. Even the most energetic dog will start to get tired a few days into a trip and being tired increases the risk of injury dramatically.

Teach your dog to relax comfortably in a down on a mat. The crate games referenced earlier are an excellent way to teach this behavior as well. Simply use a mat instead of a crate. Mats can be made from anything, ideally something you were already bringing on the trip such as a sweatshirt or sleeping pad. Also, use the crate games to teach your dog to relax when you tether him to an object such as a tree or large rock. This way you can be sure your dog is relaxed and won’t accidentally wander off when you are concentrating on boiling that water just so.

Drinking and Eating On Strange Surfaces And Places

When backpacking, it isn’t often that you will want to pack your dog’s water and food bowl as well as carry all the water he will need for the trip. This is just extra weight that you can reduce through some simple training. Once your dog is used to eating and drinking out of a variety of surfaces, you will find you have a plethora of bowls limited only by your imagination. This can include: cups, plastic bags, rocks, collapsible bowls, etc.

This skill isn’t difficult for many dogs to figure out, but it is something you will want to practice before heading on your trip. Start by moving your dog’s normal bowl to different places around the house and yard. Examples include: on the couch, on the stairs, or in the backyard with the neighborhood squirrel. Do the same with the waterbowl including adding some water from a different place such as a jug you filled up from work. Once your dog will reliably do this, get creative with the bowls. Use a plate, a cup, or a grocery bag molded into a marginally bowl-like shape. If you know what you will be using as a bowl on your trip, be sure to practice with that. Eventually your dog will be unfazed if you ask him to eat his dinner off of that bowl shaped rock on the hillside while drinking out of the bag you are pretending is a bowl.

Handling and Picking Up

Your dog should be comfortable being picked up and carried short distances as well as being touched on all body parts. While we would like to convince ourselves that nothing could ever possibly go wrong in the backcountry, the reality is that things can, and do, go wrong. We can best be prepared for these bad things by planning ahead. This way, if something happens to your dog while hiking, you can carry him out, or at least get a good look at that cut on his foot.

For this skill, it is often easiest to have a helper assist you. Start with areas your dog is already comfortable with you touching (such as a shoulder) and pair that with a treat. Gradually move to areas that your dog is less comfortable with (such as feet). If your dog pulls away, let go and move to an easier area. Continue this process until you can get a good look at all parts of your dog. Now that your dog is comfortable with touching slowly begin wrapping your arms around your dog as you would to pick him up. Just like with the touching, only go as fast as your dog is comfortable. Gradually build up to picking your dog up and moving short distances. Remember to always pair this activity with a delicious treat.

Having mastered all of these skills, you and your dog are now well on your way to enjoying your next adventure. Go outside and have a blast!

Dazz Week Two: Urban Agility (Dog Parkour) For Conditioning and Rehab

The last few weeks we’ve been working on leg strength and hind end awareness. Her balance has improved a ton - her hind feet are tracking closely behind her front, to have a narrower stance overall. She’s also had an easier time going up the stairs - I haven’t had to “rescue her” from being stuck halfway up, she’s been able to get up them even slowly or stopping and starting again, not getting stuck without the momentum. Here’s a few exercises we’ve been doing this week:

Walking backward. This requires a lot of strength in the rear. When she gets tired, she’ll back a few steps into a sit, so we’re trying to slowly build strength and endurance at this.

4-paws-on and stepping down in control. We worked on standing with 4 feet on a box and stepping down from it one foot at a time. Her usual method is to hop off front first and let her hind feet do whatever, so we tried to do it in control so she has to balance and keep her feet under her.

Walking along narrow objects. We also worked on walking down a ladder lying on the ground, trying to keep all four feet inside. She had to focus on not tripping on the cross bars as well.

Stepping into/out of things. We've been stepping into a round sled with raised edges as well as a laundry basket. She was able to step one foot at a time into the laundry basket - lifting her back feet up and over the edge! This requires a ton of strength and balance for her, so she was only able to do it a few times, but I was impressed!

Vet Note: Dazz is showing signs of improvement. As mentioned previously, she can often be seen walking with a more normal gait. While her back legs still go into a wide base stance if she is turning or sitting, while she is slowly walking in a straight line, they track right behind her fronts! Although she tires very quickly, she is making significantly more purposeful movements with both of her hind legs.

Article by: Genevieve Abbiss, Abigail Curtis DVM

Training Urban Agility Skills: Long Balance

Skill: Balance: dog walks across narrow curbs, walls, logs or boards

Benefits: Increased proprioception and body awareness, improved confidence, increased ability to work with distractions, and increased core strength.

Sports applications:  Agility-dog walk;  Obedience-heeling, rear end control; Flyball-box turns.

Safety: Always spot your dog, be ready to catch him or provide assistance if needed. Let your dog choose to perform the behavior, and then reward. Be aware and prepared for the fact that some dogs (like some people!) seem to be afraid of heights and might panic and jump off unexpectedly after a certain elevation. Lift your dog down from the wall or find an alternative route down if you’re balancing above your dog’s shoulder height.

How to train:

Find a low, wide wall that your dog can easily get onto. Start with a wall about mid-leg height and at least twice as wide as your dog. Have your dog walk across, reward frequently.   Gradually decrease the width of the wall.  If needed, shape the behavior of four paws on the object and start with a ramp-like object.. Start in a low distraction environment and click and treat for any paw interaction with the object.

Work at low heights when the width is challenging for your dog.  Include a variety of surfaces, such as logs, metal, and concrete walls. Have your dog balance during the day and at night, in  all weather conditions, and at a variety of places.

Separately train balance at higher heights, only working your dog on a wall width that he can consistently balance on at low heights.

Advanced Version: Train your dog to balance on rails. Teach your dog to back up on narrow walls. Balance over your head height (REMEMBER your safety rules!)

Urban Agility (Dog Parkour) For Conditioning and Rehabilitation

As we started to teach our dog parkour classes, we quickly recognized that urban agility (or dog parkour) had the ability to help a population of dogs that was normally overlooked when designing the average dog class. This group are the elderly or injured dogs who are in need of physical rehabilitation and strengthening to become pain free and improve their quality of life.

The structure and goals of a parkour class allows us to tailor each exercise for the individual needs of the dog. This, along with the fact that our classes are joint taught by a veterinarian, allows us to design exercises to increase strength, proprioception, and balance in dogs who are recovering from injury or have limited mobility due to age.  The benefit parkour class has over a more traditional dog sport is we have the ability to ensure there isn’t the impact on joints common in competitive sports.

Many of these dogs’ owners are given exercises by their veterinarians to help improve their mobility and strength but as they often lack creativity or are tedious there is often difficulty in having enough compliance to see improvement. This isn’t really the fault of the owner as we will be the first to admit that leash walks and foot raises can get boring quickly. Parkour has the advantage that it is fun for both handler and dog, so helps to increase owner compliance. It is simply more fun to strengthen your dog’s back legs using a surfboard than with leg raises or walking up the stairs.

Also, as participants are spending at least an hour each week dedicated only to working with their dog, it isn’t long until there are signs of improvement. The group environment at class is very helpful in this respect as both the instructors and the other participants are quick to point out when they notice improvement in any of the dogs. When improvements aren’t being made, the benefit to having both a certified dog trainer and a veterinarian as instructors is that a new plan can quickly be formulated.

It is important to note that physical rehabilitation (including using parkour in this way) is considered to be a medical treatment and as such needs to be done under the guidance of a veterinarian.

In an effort to highlight the improvements that can be made when using parkour for physical rehabilitation, we are going to introduce two different dogs with different injuries and follow them through their rehab process.

DAZZ

Dazz is a 12 year old Doberman diagnosed with Wobblers. It wasn’t very apparent until a hiking injury made clear a lack of hind feet awareness, and caused a loss of overall muscle. She tires easily, and will become stumbly in the front and drag her back feet more than normal. Stairs are a big challenge: going up is a strain on her front legs as she pulls herself up, a long set will sometimes cause her to get “stuck” in a puppy push up, and going down gravity is stronger than Dazz and can cause her to bail and jump to the bottom or lose control and fall down the rest. I would like to be able to confidently take her for walks and off-leash visits to the park without worrying about her trainwrecking in the grass or struggling to get up the stairs to bed afterward.

Vet note: Dazz has been diagnosed with Wobbler Syndrome or cervical spondylomyelopathy (don’t let the scary vet term frighten you!) which means that something in her neck is pressing on her spinal cord. This is a common problem in large breed dogs (particularly dobermans and great danes) and results in a “wobbly” gait. Just as is seen with Dazz, this is usually more noticeable in the hind end, but may progress to front leg signs over time. She has limited to no conscious proprioception in her hind legs and deficits to her conscious proprioception in her front legs. She has an overall reduction in strength and muscle mass, most notably in the hind end. Typical treatment options for wobblers includes both surgery and medical management. As Dazz also has Von Willebrand's disease (which makes her blood not clot appropriately) she is a poor candidate for surgical management. As such, we are attempting to manage her clinical signs and the pain and inflammation in her spinal cord with medications and physical rehabilitation instead. She is currently on 200mg Gabapentin three times a day, 75mg Thyroxine once a day (for previously diagnosed hypothyroid disease), and 1mg DES twice a week (for incontinence). The goal of her rehabilitation is to maintain, if not increase, her conscious proprioception and strength in all four limbs to allow her to continue to maintain or improve her quality of life.

CALEB

Photo Courtesy of Megan Nelson
http://arohaspringer.blogspot.com/

Caleb is a 5 year old, 45 lb mix breed adopted from a shelter at 8 months old. Caleb started training for agility when he was a year old, and took weekly classes for three years.  He stopped taking agility classes in May 2013 because of stress and periodic limping and has been taking obedience classes since this time. Caleb has been diagnosed with luxating patellas and will limp after exercise.  Caleb has been taking fluoxetine since July 2013, and has seen significant improvement with anxiety and dog reactivity.

Vet note: Caleb has luxating patellas (grade I/IV on the left and a grade II/IV on the right). This means that his kneecaps will pop out of place when he moves incorrectly and that his right knee is worse than his right. Often surgery is required to make a definitive fix of this issue. The hope is that by increasing rear end strength and awareness we will delay the time until he needs surgery while keeping him pain free. At this time he is on no medications for pain and only limps after strenuous exercise. His body condition score is a 2.5/5. He was also diagnosed with generalized anxiety and fear reactivity towards unfamiliar dogs and given a treatment plan including behavior modification exercises and 20mg of Fluoxetine once a day.

Authored by: Abigail Curtis DVM, Karin Coyne CPDT- KA, Gennie Abbiss

Dog Camp!

What is Dog Camp?

Awesome

What do we do at camp?

Everything

Who is camp for?

The best kids in the world

Why should we come to camp?

Because it is awesome

But I’m not a teenager and camp sounds fun! Can I come to camp?

Eventually...

Who teaches camp?

Some people who started shovel (our endearing term for all of our projects) collecting at a very young age and haven’t learned their lesson yet…

OH… You wanted REAL ANSWERS?!

What is Dog Camp?

Dog Camp (previously known by its long name: The Ohio 4-H Teen Dog Experience) is an overnight camp where teenagers and their dogs spend three nights and four days having an awesome time while learning about training, leadership, and teaching skills.

What do we do at camp?

The short answer is a little bit of everything. The longer answer is that we do a wide range of dog activities including everything from flyball and agility to nosework and obedience so there is something for every dog and camper and ample opportunity to increase positive reinforcement based training skills. We also have sessions on becoming a more effective teacher or people trainer where campers get to practice teaching in a low stress and positive environment. As if that wasn’t enough stuff already, we also manage to squeeze in more “normal” camp activities with a dog twist including scavenger hunts, cookouts, and crafts.

Who is camp for?

Camp is for the teenage dog enthusiast! We have one camp just for 4-H members, and another camp for any teenager! If spending four days playing with and learning about dogs and dog training sounds like your idea of heaven, you will love camp. It is the perfect place to learn about science-based training, get the opportunity to refine your training skills, and see improvement in your bond with your dog.  Also, we spend time at camp discussing animal based careers and our staff are involved in a wide variety of animal-based activities so it is the perfect place to explore interesting paths your life can take with animals.

Why should we come to camp?

Ask any former camper and they will tell you that you should come to camp because you have to experience it to fully appreciate just how much fun it is! You get the opportunity to meet “dog-crazy” kids from all over the state and spend four days where no one will roll their eyes because you are talking about how adorable your dog is AGAIN. These friendships you form at camp will last long after you have left camp and you will always know you have their support whether or not you get to meet up with them at your next dog event.

But I’m not a teenager and camp sounds fun! Can I come to camp?

Eventually! Right now we only have camp for teenagers, but we are looking into having camps for adults in the future.  Be sure to let us know if you are indeed interested in coming to an adult camp because the more interest we get in having a camp, the faster we are likely to pursue it. In our opinion, camp is WAY more fun than a trial (though we might be a bit biased!)

Who teaches camp?

We aren’t going to hide the truth from you, our directors aren’t experts in competition sports (although one of our instructors has her C-ATCH and another has a highly ranked flyball Golden…) but they are indeed experts in dog training, camps, teaching teenagers, and having fun. Also, everyone who has teaching responsibilities at camp has proven themselves to be a competent and effective teacher by obtaining a TAGteach certification. Our directors are one of only a few Level 2 Certified TAGteachers and all of our staff hold at least a Primary Level certification. They have been running camp for over 7 years, teach a variety of “interesting” classes (everything from parkour to outdoor adventures) and one of them is a licensed veterinarian who works with animals who have behavior problems. Needless to say, if it is a unique dog experience, they have you covered!

Dog Parkour (Urban Agility): What is it and why should we join class?

What is dog parkour (Urban agility)?

Parkour is a physical discipline in which individuals move through their environment and conquer obstacles in their path. It includes climbing, balancing, jumping, running, vaulting, creativity and working past fear. So what is dog parkour? Dog parkour, sometimes known as urban agility, is an activity based on the same principles. It is a challenging but fun physical activity in which the dogs learn to interact with their environment. Just like in the human version, in dog parkour class we work on ways to conquer obstacles, such as climbing, balancing, and jumping.

What do we do?

This class is always different! We meet at different parks every week and focus on different skills depending on the setup of the park.  Skills learned may include balancing on logs, walls, rocks, or benches, jumping over objects, standing or placing two paws on objects that move,  going under, around or climbing on objects. What we do varies each week and is tailored to the needs of the individual dogs in the class.

What dogs and handlers this class best suitable for?

Dogs should have basic obedience skills such as sit, down, walking on leash and something resembling a recall.  Taking at least one basic obedience class before coming to dog parkour is highly recommended. Keep in mind classes are held in a park setting, so there may be other dogs, running children, bikes or other distractions present. This is a great opportunity to work with distractions around, but the environment may be too over stimulating for some dogs.  

Dogs should be in good health and able to perform simple physical skills such as climbing stairs and going on ½ - 1 mile walks. Class is tailored to each dog, so old dogs, young dogs, and dogs with physical limitations are welcome to come play too!

Class moves around a lot, so handlers will need to be able to walk ½ - 1 mile. Some bending and kneeling may be needed in order to teach your dog specific skills (Handlers we can tailor class to your physical needs too! And don’t worry you don’t have to do parkour in this class).

Why will my dog benefit?

You and your dog will have the opportunity to work as a team and have fun in a new and sometimes difficult environment. Interacting with the environment will increase your dog’s confidence, ability to problem solve, and ability to work with distractions present. This class is a great foundation for agility or other dogs sports and is also an excellent way to work on things such as teeter fears outside of agility class. It can be a physically and mentally demanding activity, so is excellent for conditioning (and wearing out!) your dog. It is also a  fun activity to do with your dog without the pressure that comes with some competitive sports.

Who teaches it?

Karin Coyne and Abigail Curtis DVM teach dog parkour. They are the founders of Adventure Unleashed, and the Ohio 4-H Dog Experience, an overnight camp for teens and their dogs. In addition to running dog camp and teaching for seven years they have also both been training for parkour for 2 ½ years, giving them what they like to call “parkour vision,” seeing creative ways to use their environment that they didn’t realize before being introduced to parkour!