About humanity and inhumanity of human beings

        This is a dramatic story with a happy end. A starving dog was thrown out from a car... The dying creature could crawl to the entrance of a nearby house where he was found.

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     How cruel one should be to torture a dog and then throw him from the car! It's simply impossible to understand...
     I'm impressed by the great kindness of those people who took care of a dying dog and helped him to return to life!

Alpha & Alpha

     A year and half ago our family got a new member – a two months old malinois. This remarkable event was, of course, highlighted in a post. It was so nice to get a puppy! However, I foresaw some possible troubles as my elder male – strong Alpha Canaan   dog – is very intolerant to any rivals.

    To our great surprise and relief he fully accepted the newcomer. I only slightly taught them how I’d prefer they treat each other. There are some well known methods how to make two male dogs to live together in peace, as it is a big problem for a lot of dog masters. Frankly speaking, we tried to avoid these popular methodic and made an accent on the other side of the “Alphaness” – the strong will of my elder dog to be a leader of a pack means for him to be responsible for his pack.

      He played with the puppy like a loving father, defended him and now even shares with him his favourable mattress!

Jumping - team training

      I fully share the opinion that dog team training can be very effective and much more enjoyable for dogs as well as for men. Particularly it can be useful in exercises where  a dog needs to be brave and sure in his forces. As - for example - in jump training.  

      A lot of young dogs fail to jump over a fence because it is something new for them, however they quite able to jump over the fence physically. In these cases “team jumping” can be a successful method for developing this skill, which is necessary in mondioring, agility and other types of cynological sports. 

Retrieve training of a young malinois. Using positive stimuls

Teaching a dog to take an object.

        

        

        Retrieve or Rapport d’objet lance – this is how the exercise is called in the FCI Rules of Mondioring. However, this skill is considered as necessary in many dogs competitions, tests and exams.  Usually  dog masters, trying to teach a dog this exercise, meet with three main difficulties:  the dog rushes  to catch object the same moment the object is thrown; the dog runs to the object but doesn’t take it; and the dog takes the object and happily runs with him far from the master.

        There are many methodics  how to teach a dog to fulfill the command “apport” and to bring back the thrown object. The most wildly spread mistake is to try to teach a dog to carry out the whole exercise from the very beginning.  It rarely gives fruitful results.

       It seems more effective to divide the exercise into several parts and to help your dog learn it step by step.

      How to teach a dog to take the object? Why he or she will do it?  The dog doesn’t see any  obvious reason for taking it and doesn’t understand why he/she should do it. Many dog owners begin with pushing the object into dog’s mouth and holding the mouth for some time. But usually the dog lets the object fall down the moment his/her owner takes hands away from the mouth as well as the object. Some instructors even fix the dog for not letting him/her run away or turn the head. To my mind the only obvious result is that the dog gets a stress and loses any wish to carry out the exercise.

       It seems much more effective to use positive motivation and increase dog’s interest in the exercise through something that he/she enjoys – tips, playing with a ball, biting a toy, etc. For each dog different stimuls should be chosen.

The key figure of the video is young malinois of working line who likes to bite the toy. So it helped easily to  teach him to take the object. Even showing the toy was a stimul for him to take the object as he knew that he would be awarded and enjoyed the exercise. Do not forget to give command “apport” the moment you suggest your dog to take the object J

What is it - the healthy life of your dog?

     Most of the dog owners answering this question will put on the first place good quality food. Of course, good food with necessary vitamins, and minerals is an important precondition for maintaining health of a dog. A lot of responsible dog owners will be surprised to know that regular quality meals, being of course very important, are not the main thing that keep your dog in good physical form.

     Let’s not forget that dogs, our pets, are predators. And predators  are not always lucky at a hunt. No, I do not think that our pets should starve, for God’s sake! But feeling hunger from time to time will cause them no harm. By the way, a lot  diseases of our pets are provoqued by overeating.

     As experienced dog owners consider that the best formula of dog’s health is the following: good walk and biting once a week.

     

     A good walk doesn’t mean that your dog walk quietly on a leach. A dog should run at least four times more than his owner walk.  The dog should run and  jump   and fight playfully. If there is no space for running  it is possible to play with your dog, for example with disks or balls.

     

      Biting. A lot of people are afraid of dogs’ aggression. However, aggression is a normal instinct of dogs as predators.  Practically every dog irrespective of the breed  becomes aggressive when protect heir food or toy.  It is possible to suppress the aggression but it seems more effective to give the dog possibilities to drop down the aggression. For large breed – shepherd dogs (German shepherd dogs, malinois, herders and a lot of others), dogs, Dobermans etc. - it can be training with a decoy on a training ground, for medium and small breeds – active games when they can bite rubber toys, for example.

     

       These three components – good physical exercises, training or games that increase adrenalin and  help to drop down aggression, quality food – will provide health and energy of your dog.  

     The finish of a healthy day: it seems I'll sleep this night on a mat :))

Malinois: protection of the object – advanced stage

      The goal of the next step of the protection-of-the-object-training is to protect the thing from the decoy who tries to take the object (a bag, chair, etc.).

      The decoy is moving  around the dog at the distance of two meters. The dog bites the decoy  only when he steps inside the circle (remember - the radius of 2 meters?). Once the decoy tries to go away from that distance, the dog should return to the object.

      The most difficult thing in this training  is to teach the dog to come to the object when the decoy is going away with the dog  biting his costume.

Our malinois. Defense training in Belgrade

          When we came to Serbia one of the priority issue we faced was to find a new instructor and decoy for our dogs. It’s not no easy task as mondioring is not very popular in Serbia. However we were lucky to meet a professional instructor and decoy, an owner of a sport dog center “Balkanika”  Dushko Jovanovich. We resumed our training and our mali made the next step in defense education – attack on the arm.

           Mondioring is a very dynamic and exciting kind of cynological sport, which develops many useful skills. Hope  it'll gain popularity in Serbia.

A radio collar: to use it or not to use?

My experience tells me that a rare dog-lover will support using of a radio-collar. The most popular argument: oh, no! It hurts the dog! Few years ago I was also strongly against this instrument of education. However, with my new dog – a strong Alpha Canaan male – I faced the big problem: he was too intolerant towards male dogs and – unfortunately – he picked from the ground. I met with a dilemma: either I had difficulties with other dog masters, or I found some method to make him more civilized. It also necessary to bear in mind that picking from the ground can be rather dangerous for dogs’ health. I bought a simple radio collar, got instructions from my trainer and took my dog for a walk. That collar had seven levels, I never used high ones, only up to the third level. I pushed the button twice to stop picking and three times to stop fights. It was enough!

The next step of my experience with the radio collar was during defense training. I would not say that it was always successful and produced the best results.

Indeed, the effect of training with radio collars can very good, however it depends upon too many factors. It was very effective for some training of my elder dog. As for my younger one – a malinois – it gives rather poor results, and I prefer to use usual collars.

Today I always put on my dogs radio collar while walking in the forest or in the mountains to have an additional instrument to keep them under control. Low levels do not hurt at all but it prevent a lot of troubles if you walk with your dogs in places where there many wild animals, foxes in particular. 

I'll appreciate your view on using radio collars. Please, share your experience.

Are all dogs good students?

     I believe ‘yes’! For many years I work with two-legged students and come to a conclusion that four-legged students are more attentive, have more zeal and, what is very important, follow each other’s better examples.

    This short video shows an element of obedience training (practically, two commands) with three dogs. One of them – a young herder girl – joined our team only recently. She is not good in focusing her attention. This is the reason why I decided to train her with my other dogs. You will see how her attention and interest in the training is growing an she starts to fulfill the command as her companions.

    In the beginning it’s better not to make such a training long and finish it with a pleasant game.

Would you like your dog to protect your bag?

      Protection of an object is an element of defense training, a mondioring exercise and a rather useful skill in  our everyday life. It’s not very difficult to teach your to protect a bag or other thing you left for a few minutes. The very beginning can be trained even with a puppy of, say, six months old, giving him tips. The second step is more  difficult and need special equipment as the dog should bite. The idea is that the dog should stand on the object and keep under control the circle with the radius of about 2 meters. The dog should bite  only when somebody tries to approach the object stepping in the circle and let him go when he goes away. In the video you can see the very process of teaching.  Make the training enjoyable like a game!

Five in the Jeep including three dogs. Our travel to Serbia

Barking. Is it so annoying?

      Barking. What is our attitude towards barking? Of course it depends upon where we live and why we have a dog. If our dog protects the cattle and barks in case of a danger (a wolf is approaching) we treat barking as a useful talent. However, most of us live without any cattle. In a countryside  people are used to various sounds of animals and as a rule do not pay much attention to dog’s barking.  But in a city it is quite another thing. We can not allow our pets to bark as much as they probably would like to.  What to do if your dog is a big barker? 

       Actually  it is rather difficult to make a dog to keep silent  as barking is a natural instinct. My opinion that it is a Sisyphus’s labor  to struggle against what is only natural.

      There are a lot of reasons for barking – protection, anger, joy, invitation to play, etc. Barking is also dependent upon the breed, character of a dog, age, emotional and physical condition  and other reasons.

     One can hardly find a  universal method how to teach a dog not to bark. A lot of trainings can be applied, even a special collar can be used for this purpose.  But still a lot of masters try to stop barking by simply shouting at a dog. 

      It is quite possible to keep this instinct under  control. But for each case of barking  a special method should be selected.

      In this post I’d like to share one of my “anti-barking” experiences.

An enjoyable education of dogs

       It seems everybody who has a dog wants his pet to be well educated and socialized. For this we go to training ground, read publications and see videos about how to train our pets. However, results are not always quite satisfied. Very often a dog who does very well all the exercises “in the class”, do not obey commands while walking. Why? And how to correct this? 

      The trick is that many of us consider a walk with a dog as a relaxing time. I’m afraid it is a delusion. Walking or playing with a dog  it is a proper time to train and teach him or her obedience.  Yes, in some sense you work with your dog constantly.  However, it is not a hard labor, it can be very enjoyable. Just Involve your fantasy and humor J   

How to feed dogs? That is the question!

      How to feed dogs? This is a big question which has no final answer. To be more exact there are a lot of answers. Some masters insist on natural products - meat, riсe, vegetables. Others prefer commercially prepared frozen, dry or canned food. Ones consider that it's better for a dog to eat the same food permanently, others support the idea of a great variety of meals. A lot of publications and internet materials can be found on this dramatic topic (see, for example, http://www.cesarsway.com/dog-care/dog-nutrition/Dishing-Up-Variety).  

     But the trick is the issue of feeding becomes problematic mostly for advanced dog masters. A great number of ordinary people who have dogs do not think deeply about this matter and feed their pets with what they consider suitable. Very often masters share with their beloved four-legged creatures ice-cream, sweets, sweet cookies, even beer, and many other products that are far from being useful for animals. It's too difficult to refuse to give our dogs what we eat ourselves. Our pets are excellent actors and looked into our eyes as they are starving. It seems as an optimum way out to share with them fruits: apples, peaches, persimmmons, even water melons. However, the individual tastes of our pets shoud be taken into account :-))

To be a decoy in mondioring.

      To work as a decoy in mondioring requires to pass a special test (attestation) and to get a certificate. This test includes various exercises which are used in mondioring championship. There are three levels of competition in mondioring. The third one is the most complicated. Only experienced and most skillfull sportmen with their dogs participate in the third level. It is the dog of the third level which is used in the attestation. 

Mondioring - will it be widely popular?

       Mondioring is an exciting sport which requires well trained participants and their dogs (mostly malinois), as well as decoys or helpers of high professional skills: deep knowledge of dog’s behavior, intensive physical training, reaction and – a good sense of humor.

         Mondioring is a young sport. However, it takes its start in late XIX century when soldiers showed – for getting money -  defense skills of their dogs. Step by step some rules were developed and first competitions were organized.  In different countries – mostly in France, Belgium, Germany – very similar trainings were performed. To harmonize the principles and rules of these trainings, to increase their popularity European mondioring  clubs held a meeting. The new term – mondioring (world ring) – and unified rules emerged as a result of this conference. 

        Today the FCI publicized official rules of mondioring and every year two grand championships and a lot of minor competitions are held. A helper, or decoy (homme assistant – in French) should pass special tests (attestation) for working in mondioring. 

         Mondioring is a rather expensive and time-consuming sport. Will it be widely popular or it will be supported by a limited number of clubs?

What the great art would look without dogs?

       In yesterday's post I wrote about Constant Troyon, a French master of great talent. He worked a lot in the Pays-Bas and picked up the rare skill of Dutch painters to draw animals in movement and express their emotions. The idea to write a few words about Troyon was induced by our recent visit to the Moscow Gallery of the European and American art of the XIX and XX centuries. Actually there is  only one canvas of this painter - "The running dogs". 

       However, it made me remember a lot of pictures where we can find figures of dogs. Why artists refer so often to dogs, while there a lot of other animals who live with us, cats, for example? We can find dogs in a great variety of painted scenes. In the Royal palace as on the Velazquez's canvas, or with children who are dragging a heavy cask of water (Perov). A dog quitely lies with a sleeping girl (Deriy), supports silently boy's tricks (Makovskiy), or follows an old warrior till his final hour (Durer). Images of dogs can strengthen the main idea or atmosphere of the picture: loneliness, quietness, despair or  easiness. Quite often a dog is painted as the only true friend - as for young sons of Edward IV, imprisoned in the Tower (Delaroch). 

       Indeed, dogs are always with us, even in most dramatic moments of our life. May be it would be fair to always  remember about it. 

Dogs & Landscapes

Visiting art galleries and exhibitions do you pay any attention to images of dogs on pictures? Figures of dogs can be found on various kinds of canvases: devoted to ancient myths, battles, on family portraits, landscapes,  etc. Artists painted dogs to express a peaceful and quiet atmosphere or dynamic movement and vivid emotions. Constant Troyon, a painter of great talent, was one of those who knew animals, dogs in particular, and had a rare skill of drawing them.

Does your dog warn you about the rain is coming?

        We have two male dogs - a six year old Hanaan dog and a year old malinois. They are as a barometer for us, particularly the elder one. Sometime ago we noticed the a day before coming of a rainy weather he becomes more quiet and sleeps more, while normally he is very active. At first, when we spotted these changes we worried as thought that he was getting ill. However, watching these changes for some time we saw that they are related to weather. Now, right in the morning we can say - practically without a mistake, whether it will be rainy in the evening or next morning.  

       However, we thought that it is a rare thing with dogs and had no idea that it's quite normal unless we read an article by  Ralph Greco, Jr. “Dog Alerts Owner to Bad Weather” on Cesar Millan"s website. Here is an extract from this article:

"It’s less a canine “sixth sense” though, than it is a case of simple science. .A dog is more sensitive to the drop in barometric pressure and the shift in the static electric field that comes prior to climate changes. With severe weather imminent, like the often quick turn-about a tornado brings, or the severe conditions in the wake of an approaching hurricane, a dog will not only feel those acute changes in electricity and air pressure — all that much more acute in severe weather — but beyond warning their households, they have been known to seek shelter themselves." http://www.cesarsway.com

Roller Skating with a dog.

      There are a lot of variants how to enjoy your everyday walking with your four-legged friend. Recently we experimented with roller skates. If a skijoring exists, why roller-skatesjoring can not be tried? So, we tried it with my elder dog. It is very enjoyable! However, it'd be better to practice roller-skatesjoring, as we called it, with an adult well trained dog, who is well balanced and attentive to his master.
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