Well, for once I get to host this with an FP that is really a source of joy: I'm a new puppy mommy!
My FP tonight is crate training and house training. That's the fly in this bowl of cherries. And there are more books on dog training, including the house and crate training issues, than you can shake a stick at. It gets confusing. Throw in a cat having a hissy-pissy fit, and you've really got your hands full.
WYFP is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and share advice, pootie pictures, favorite adult beverages, and anything else that we think might help. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?
My latest fur-bearing bundle of joy is a ten week old Belgian Shepherd, who follows me everywhere with utter adoration and the most tireless efforts to please and entertain. She firmly believes she was destined to be a lapdog. At 11 pounds, I can deal with it. How that will play when she reaches her adult weight range of 50-65 pounds is another story. She is quick to learn, having mastered "Sit", "Go outside", "Go inside", "Go potty", "Come", and "Walk with me" in very short order. "Stay" is proving more problematic -- Belgians are velcro dogs, and they want to be beside you all the time.
I have wanted another dog for years. I have cats, and I adore cats. But I also love dogs, and for different reasons than I love cats. CAts are great snugglers while you sit up in bed reading a paperback novel or curl up on the couch beside you while watching Masterpiece Theater. But it's awfully hard to take your cat for a walk in the neighborhood or the park, or for a hike through the woods. Cats don't do tricks, it's beneath their dignity. Dogs will do any dumb stunt you or they can dream up, just make you laugh and smile at them and toss them a doggie cookie or a chunk of hotdog or string cheese. But I knew that my peripatetic lifestyle really precluded dog stewardship, and besides, have you ever tried to rent an apartment when you own a big dog? So I waited for home ownership. It came, I began researching dog breeds, and here I am with my very own wonder puppy.
For those who tsk-tsk over the idea of choosing purebreds over pound dogs, I need to say this: my first choice was to rescue. I knew which breed had the combination of inherent traits I wanted, and there are rescue groups for it. I kept checking their online boards, looking for a good fit. I never found that fit. The Belgians near me weren't considered safe around cats or small children (I have three cats living with me and a very young niece and nephew who love to visit). The Belgians who were considered safe were fostered on the other side of the country, and I don't approve of air-shipping animals in the hold of an airplane. That's when I decided the best thing to do, given the family situation, was to get a puppy and train from the get-go how to be gentle around young children and cats.
In this process, I started reading Deborah Fleming's book The Complete Belgian Shepherd Dog and checking the website of the Belgian Sheepdog Club of America. I also went on a training manual buying spree -- seven in all (reading list at end of diary). I wanted to get as clear an idea as to what I was getting into as possible. With this breed, I learned, crate-training is a must. These are herder/working dogs, and they hate being bored. If you have to leave them alone for aany legth of time, you need to crate them. They like that: it's their den, nobody can bother them (heh! tell it to the cats), and so they feel safe in there, theoretically speaking. Wellllll... yeah sorta and not really. My puppy -- Violet, BTW, and she has the prettiest face! -- likes the one in the bedroom. It's right by my side of the bed, I spritz the pad with ComfortZone DAP, and toss in a puppy Kong for chewing and big grunting sheep toy for a snuggler. She's very happy to spend the night in there, and I don't have any messes to clean up first thing in the morning.
The downstairs crate is a different matter. This one is bigger, to accommodate her adult size. It has a divider panel to accommodate puppy growth. I put her food bowl in there and have, over the past week, managed to coax her into going in for her meals. But she whines, and if I live the room for even just two minutes, she screams bloody murder! It's heart-rending to listen to this, she sounds like her little puppy world is coming to an end!
Today I found out why. I had run a lengthy errand today, which was okay, since this is the first day of my husband's vacation. He needed quality time with Violet, and I had to get something important done for us. I left her and the cats in his capable hands. I eventually got home, and was greeted by Chandra, our long-haired Siamese mix, at the door. Keep in mind, Chandra was neutered by the rescue group from whom we adopted him almost a year aog now. Everybody else was sacked out for a nap. I picked him up, snuggled him, and carried him into the kitchen. He acted like he wanted down at that point, so I set him down near the crate. That little s.o.b. promptly stalked into Violet's downstairs crate, backed up to the divider panel and sprayed the inside of Violet's crate right beside her food bowl. Oh.My.GAWD!!! No wonder she hates that crate!! She not only loses sight of me, but she also has to put up with the whiff of pissed-off ex-boy cat piss!
I have seven dog training books. I also have a book on cat wrangling. None of them tell me anything about how to deal with a cat who sprays the puppy's crate! I have Feliway diffusers and Feliway spray. I use them. I am giving as much equal time as I can, given that I'm taking the puppy out to "go potty!" every couple of hours at the outside and teaching her house manners and playing with her in between her meals and naps. The two girl kitties aren't this ticked. It's just the boy kitty. This is a girl puppy -- can you imagine what Chandra would be like if I had gotten a boy puppy??? I'd have WW3 on my hands!
But for everything else, the books and websites have largely been very helpful. If you have a dog you need to train, or you are getting a new dog or puppy, you might want to check these out. Here's the list, along with my humble opinion of each volume:
Barbara Woodhouse's No Bad Dogs: the Woodhouse Way. My late mother loved Woodhouse, and followed this method with her Shelties. I read it, talked about it with the Belgian people I know, and every single one of them said "Forget this book." Nobody with sense jerks the slip collar with dogs any more. It's just not kind. With Belgians, it's a disaster, because they are really delicate-boned dogs for their size, and they are often very touch-sensitive. Canine behavioral has changed a lot over the last 20 years. Don't waste your money unless you want a historical point of comparison.
Sarah Hodgson's Puppies for Dummies, 2nd edition. This is pretty good. The best parts were the sections on puppy socialization, nutrition, health, and problem solving. It was also very good at discussing how to recognize serious problem behavior and when to make the determination that a dog is fundamentally psychotic and must be put down. The focus is on positive and correction methods of training. It's worth having for the puppy stage.
Jack and Wendy Volhard's Dog Training for Dummies, 2nd edition. The Volhards have been training dogs for decades, and if you want to get some good basics down while a pup is still getting shots, this is a terrific book to have. They also discuss all the dog sports sponsored by the AKC and other groups, how to evaluate dog trainers, when to walk out of an obedience class, what equipment is available and, most helpfully, what works for which type of dog, what the dog drives are and how to activate them in training. There is also a good section on aggression problems, healthcare options and nutrition. This is well worth the money. Their advice is worth every penny, and if I could only have two dog books, this would be one of the two.
The Monks of New Skete, The Art of Raising a Puppy and How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend. Their puppy book needs to be updated, but is wonderful for discussing gestation and the neonatal period. Nothing else I read had that. Dog's Best Friend is newer, with more emphasis on positive training, but still discusses correction methods. These men raise German Shepherds, which are different temperamentally from Belgians, so I took that into consideration. Here's where I'm torn: I like their newer book very much, I think it's rich in the spiritual aspects of bonding with your dog (and you don't have ot be religious to appreciate that, I'm certainly not), and it's a toss-up for second place.
Second place goes to Peggy Tillman's Clicking with Your Dog. This is based on Karen Pryor's work with animal training. If you haven't tried clicker training your dog, get this book, a clicker and a bag or two of really great dog treats, and go to town. This book is a terrific training manual. I love it. Everything is laid out clearly, simply, concisely. It works on operant theory, and is purely positive. My puppy is responding to it like nothing I've ever seen. If you have older children who need to learn how to manage the family dog, get this book -- they will be able to use it and have good results. It's tied for my second place book.
Lorie Long's A Dog Who's Always Welcome. This is a great socialization practice book that's based on the training for therapy and assistance dogs. Since I'd like to train my new girl for therapy dog certification, I got it. If you have a dog and elderly relatives who live with you or nearby, you might find this book really helpful.
So what's going on with all you lovely people this wet and nasty Saturday evening?
Addendum: thank you all for the recommends. I hope the book list is helpful to some of you!