5 Great Reasons to Crate Train

1. To housetrain. The easiest, surest way to housetrain your pup is with a well-sized crate. A crate with a divider for large dogs is perfect for puppy's space to grow with him.

2. To give your dog a safe space. Sometimes our household gets stressful for even the most stable dog, and a crate is something that's just his and stays the same no matter what! If you're moving homes, hosting houseguests, going to a dog sports trial, or even just going to a hotel, your dog has his own "room" that he feels safe and relaxed inside.

3. To protect your dog from himself. Even good dogs have bad days. My personal favorite example is my old doberman, Dazz. The best dog ever, loose in the house since she was 2 years old and housebroken, at 13 started needed prednisone. Pred is a steroid and stimulates appetite. You can imagine the destruction a dog can wreak on an apartment in 6 hours when they're absolutely convinced they are starving. She found things even I didn't expect were edible (or even palatable!) Always remember, your dog might be an angel, but even good dogs may have to go on appetite-stimulating drugs!

4. To make the vet less stressful. If this is the only reason you decide to maintain a crate behavior, this will be worth it. In case your dog has to stay overnight at the vet for some reason, being used to a crate will make it way less stressful. There are many other reasons that would require your dog being crated besides the vet, as well - flights and quarantine if you're traveling internationally, evacuations in the event of an emergency, boarding in a kennel etc. Some of these may be worst-case scenarios, but a well-trained crate behavior will make the ordeal much easier on your dog.

5. To train other things. A crate can be a fun exercise to teach behaviors! A few examples: sending your dog into his crate at speed from anywhere in the house, waiting with the door open until you give him the release word, even a good retrieve his toys into his crate. Have fun with crate training!

5 Tips for Surviving Halloween With Your Dog

Halloween is quickly approaching us, and it can be one of the most difficult and scary times for dogs. Here are 5 simple ways you can help prepare your dog for the upcoming holiday.

1. Costumes and Decorations - Halloween comes with a variety of things that dogs can find scary (regardless of if we INTEND them to be scary!) Spend some time leading up to the holiday preparing your dog for what he might encounter. Teach your dog that decorations and people wearing costumes mean great things happen to him by pairing them with delicious treats or his favorite game. Start with less scary things, such as a pumpkin by the door, or a new hat as a costume and gradually build up to more terrifying things. Such as an Abigail in a mask, wig, boots, and cape...

2. Waits at Door - When trick or treaters come to your door, you don’t want to have to be playing the “block the opening” game with your dog while trying to deliver candy to young guests. Teach your dog to wait politely until you tell him he is allowed to go through the door. We go over how to teach this in detail in most of our classes, but the short description is to start by opening the door a tiny crack. If your dog doesn’t attempt to go through the door, give your release word, open the door the rest of the way, and have a party on the other side. If he tries to get through the door, it simply closes and you try again. Over time, you will be able to open the door further and further while your dog waits politely for your release word.

3. Leave it - Candy is tempting for everyone, but it can be especially dangerous for our canine companions. Candy often contains chocolate, lots of sugar, and high fat content. All of which can be dangerous for dogs. Spend some time proofing your dog’s leave it to ensure your dog (and your candy stash!) remains safe.

4. Kids - Kids love halloween, but not all dogs love kids (especially when they are wearing costumes). Ensure that you know how your dog will react around your smallest trick or treaters and that you have the management skills to handle his reaction. If possible, find some polite, well-behaved children who can help you to teach your dog to be calm and relaxed around children before they start arriving at your door demanding treats!

5. Crates and Management - Thinking you might have a lot of work to do and not enough time in which to accomplish it? Then this last tip is for you! The simplest and easiest way to manage your dog is to use your crate when you can’t ensure that your dog is going to behave appropriately. Teach your dog to love going into his crate and how to relax with a delicious food toy. This way, if you know your dog won’t be able to handle a situation, you have an easy way to make sure everyone stays safe and happy!

Dog Parkour Benefits

We just finished our sixth week of outdoor dog parkour classes and are incredibly impressed by the progress all of the dogs have make.  We have seen a lot of other benefits as well. Here are some benefits of dog parkour, with cute pictures of course.

Physically and Mentally Demanding

Sports Foundation

Increased Coordination

Increased Focus

Increased confidence

Increased Strength

Adjustable for dogs of all ages

Improvement of Behavior Problems

Improvement of Obedience Skills

Individually tailored

Increased Problem Solving Skills

FUN!!!!!!

Puppy Socialization!

Here at Adventure Unleashed we are HUGE proponents of socialization of puppies. Which is amusing when you consider that nearly all of our dogs have come to us as adults from rescue. We like to think that we have seen the impact of LACK of socialization and thus want to do everything in our power to ensure that EVERY puppy has the benefit of appropriate socialization before it is too late.

During what scientist call the “socialization window” puppies will quickly and easily learn new things about their environment (whether that be positive or negative associations) and will then hold onto these associations throughout their entire lives. The socialization window in domesticated dogs closes at 16 weeks of age. Once this window is closed, we can no longer socialize a dog, but rather have to use the SIGNIFICANTLY less powerful tools of desensitization and counterconditioning to change a dog’s response to their environment. Thus, it is critically important to your puppy’s long term development that you take socialization seriously (while still having FUN!)

Here are five things to be SURE your puppy is introduced to before reaching 16 weeks of age:

People-  Introduce puppies to things they will see as adults. Make sure they meet people with hats and beards, people using walkers, on scooters, wheelchairs, crutches, kids, strollers, bikes, skateboards and anything else your dog might come across as an adult. Make sure every interaction is positive and on your puppy’s terms; i.e. let your puppy decide to approach the crazy person with a giant hat on, and give him a treat for being so brave! The puppy should learn how to work with his person, and that people make good things happen. Also, for the more enthusiastic puppy, proper greeting behaviors are helpful to learn when small. When your puppy jumps all over someone, have the person ignore him until he sits (or at least has all four paws on the ground) before giving him attention. This is also a great introduction to self control for puppies.

Handling- Teach your puppy to be comfortable with his paws, teeth, ears, and tail being handled, both by his owner and friendly strangers such as your veterinarian. Do this by feeding your puppy delicious treats while handling these areas and moving ONLY as quickly as your puppy is comfortable. If at any time your puppy pulls away, go back to an easier touch (try touching a leg instead of a foot, etc) and gradually build back up to the harder one.

Environment- Teach puppies how to deal with new and unexpected objects and how to work through environmental changes- that just because something is new or different doesn’t make it scary or stressful for your puppy. Work on these skills by teaching puppies to climb on objects, go inside, through, and under them, and balancing on or around them. Interacting with objects builds confidence as well as a foundation for the puppy’s learning skills. Puppies should also safely visit a variety of different dog friendly places, walk over different surfaces, and interact with things that might scare them as adults, such as statues, busy roads, and crowded sidewalks. As always, pay attention to your puppy and make sure everything is a positive experience. If you do move too fast and make your puppy uncomfortable, start over again with fun things and lots of treats.

Dogs and other animals- Puppies should learn to both work with other dogs around, and howto play appropriately with other dogs. Start by asking for a sit (after your puppy knows sit!) when another dog is within sight, but far enough away that your puppy can focus on you. You can work on shortening that distance to build up your puppy’s ability to sit with a giant distraction (another dog) around. Play is important for proper social development, and encourages the puppy to develop proper bite inhibition. Be sure to carefully screen your puppy’s playmates to be sure they play how you want YOUR puppy to play in the future. Puppies should also be introduced to any animals they might come into contact with later in life, such as cats, horses, birds and small animals.

Noises- Puppies should have positive experiences with all sorts of sounds, such as traffic, fireworks, thunderstorms, kids screaming and vacuum cleaners. Be sure to expose them to activity appropriate noises. Field Dogs should hear gunshots at a young age, agility dogs should be exposed to noises that come with trials. Start with quiet noises, and gradually introduce louder ones. It is okay for the puppy should notice the sound, but they should immediately return to whatever they were doing. If they don’t re-engage, back away or do not recover quickly from the noise the noise was too much. Start with a quieter noise and keep it fun!

Socializing a puppy is a lot of work! With just these 5 things, you’ll be busy for quite a while. However, there are a lot of other benefits (we’ll call them side effects) of socialization. Starting with the obvious: new things are good things to a puppy! You’ve worked on introducing half the world to your puppy, and hopefully by the end of it, he not only learns that the things he interacted with are fun, but that new things he hasn’t yet seen will fall into that category as well simply because he’s seen so many things. He’s also learning to work with you; that doing things (sitting, looking at you, etc) can earn him treats.

And guess what else? YOU are also learning! You’re learning how to read your puppy - when does he get frustrated? How can you tell that you’re about to lose his focus? What can you do to mitigate that? What can you do to make your puppy feel comfortable in any situation? You’re learning your dog’s thresholds - for frustration, stress, etc. As you work with him and he matures, they will change, but it’s good to know your starting point. Keep this stuff in mind, too, as you socialize your puppy and learn what he’s like!

Dog Parkour Safety

It is our favorite time of the year again, Outdoor Dog Parkour time! Like any sport or activity Dog Parkour has its risks. These risks can be minimized by following a few basics guidelines.

Harnesses: Proper equipment is key! All dogs in our outdoor classes wear harness that clip on the back. Harnesses help people spot their dog, but they also mean that if a dog ever slips the pressure from the leash is spread throughout the dog’s body instead of just their neck.

Spotting: Always be ready to catch or assist your dog! Before you teach your dog any parkour skills teach him to be comfortable being handled, picked up and helped.

Shoulder Height Rule: Dogs should only be jumping down from objects as high as their shoulders. This is ESPECIALLY important on concrete! Jumping down is a lot of impact on the dogs body and can lead to injuries. Before you ask your dog to jump up on something more than shoulder height, make sure they have a safe way to get down. This may be a shorter drop elsewhere, or you picking him up. Dogs with long backs, young or old dogs, or dogs with predisposition for musculoskeletal injuries should be limited to even smaller drops.

Weather: This isn’t often a huge concern in the spring (although the rain does make surfaces extra slippery) but as the weather starts to warm into summer, be conscious of the heat and sun. Be sure your dog (and you!) remain well hydrated and remember that black or shiny surfaces get hotter MUCH faster than others. If the surface is too hot for you to walk on without shoes, it’s too hot for your dog.

Inspecting obstacles: It is your job to keep your dog safe! Before you ask your dog to do anything, check to make sure it is safe. Look for rust, nails, sharp edges, broken objects, glass or anything that may hurt your dog. Make sure the object you are asking your dog to interact with is sturdy and safe.

Let your Dog Choose: Parkour should ALWAYS be your dogs choice. Encourage your dog, but never force him to do anything. As your dog gets more confident with parkour be sure to teach and allow “intelligent disobedience”. The best trained dog is the one that does everything you ask within his physical limits. Any time your dog evaluates an obstacle and decides he can’t perform it, be sure to reinforce that decision. If you truly believe that it is close to your dog’s limits, come back to the obstacle at a later time and you might find that your dog’s confidence has increased.

With these tips in mind, you and your dog are on your way to SAFELY enjoying outdoor parkour!

Almost Spring!! Dog Parkour Preview

Here at Adventure Unleashed, we are extremely excited that it is almost spring! Spring means more hiking, backpacking trips, outdoor play and perhaps most excitingly, Outdoor Dog Parkour is back!! We decided to celebrate the first hint of nice weather with our Outdoor Dog Parkour Preview, a free class designed to show dogs and humans what Dog Parkour is all about. The dogs learned all about balancing, climbing, going through and under objects and most importantly, working with and having fun with their owners!

Sky practicing balancing and turning on the wall.

Allie climbing between two benches

Ruthie being extremely brave.
Parkour can build confidence in shy and fearful dogs!

Agnes practicing going under.

Brindley weaving through the bike racks.

Magnum balancing on a very tricky rock wall.

Carlos practicing sits on strange surfaces (Remember Carlos!? He was one of our dogs from our shelter workshop)

                          Puppy Parkour graduate, Lucy

                 practicing walking on strange surfaces.

Slip-sliding time!

With it being winter you probably think I am going to write about how you should teach your dog to walk nicely on a leash so that you don’t slip and fall down. Well, you should know a secret about Adventure Unleashed’s dogs. We don’t CARE about teaching our dogs to walk nicely on a leash. We can (and our old, responsible dogs have accidentally learned not to pull unless they are on a harness) but think there are more important things to learn first. Like how to jump and balance on a tiny post or walk across a tiny tree over a river.

So what might I be writing about with that title?

It’s something we have been contemplating, discussing, recontemplating and then rediscussing for a few months over here at Adventure Unleashed.

Let’s start with a story.

When we first started teaching indoor class, we would find an AWESOME new toy at the store, buy it, and our dogs would play on it (ahem, I mean TEST it). Then, we would excitedly introduce the toy in class, only to have people mildly disappointed that their dogs were slipping on the toy. So we started putting grippy things on EVERYTHING. It became our thing. We were experts at cutting the grippy stuff into JUST the right shape and convincing the duct tape to bend to our will around crazy corners.

And we were happy with how much more confident our beginner dogs were to try the objects once it was a grippy surface. But something was missing. We started thinking back to when we first brought the toys home and our dogs would happily play on them with no trouble. What was different about OUR dogs than the dogs at class? Why would they play on these toys when even our more advanced dogs had trouble?

After a decent amount of discussion we figured out that it was because our dogs had learned how to avoid slipping as much as possible and how to recover when they do begin to slip. Suddenly, we had yet another unusual skill that we accidentally taught our dogs and now needed to teach the dogs in class.

Learning to be steady on slippery surfaces seems to be a combination of several skills. First, it requires a good deal of core strength. The dogs need to be able to hold each of their limbs close to their body without bracing them against a sticky surface. You’ve probably seen (and chuckled at) the dog who sits on a tile floor and his front feet start to slide out until he is in a down. A dog with enough core strength to hold his front legs in the proper position won’t have this problem.

Second, the dog needs to be comfortable with falling and being spotted. The fastest way to have a problem slipping is for the dog to begin to get worried about their footing. When this happens, most dog’s first reactions are to dig in with their claws and begin to move in more frantic ways. We noticed when watching our dogs that when they began to slip, they moved in very predictable ways, shifting their weight to more stable feet, in an attempt to correct this. We never saw them attempt to dig in with their nails and if they couldn’t stop the slipping, they simply got off in a controlled manner (what we like to refer to as a controlled bail). By knowing how to shift weight, and how to bail safely, our dogs are able to safely handle the demands of a slippery surface.

We have now started systematically adding slippery surfaces into our classes as dogs become more advanced. We start with textured but slightly slippery surfaces on a low, wide object and progress to higher, smaller, and more slippery surfaces.

Being able to adapt quickly to changing surfaces makes our parkour dogs more resistant to injury and better able to maintain mobility as they age. Since the dogs know where their body is in space, how it moves, how to adapt to sliding, and how to “bail” safely, they become better athletes who are able to maintain a high quality of movement for as long as possible.

So what are your waiting for? Start giving your dog the benefits of “slide training” today!