Keeping Dogs Busy

If you need to leave your dog in a crate or want to keep him busy on a rainy day consider giving your dog a femur bone from your butcher. Ask your butcher to cut the fermur in several pieces. Freeze them to when they are needed. Your dog will be delighted with this treat that will keep him busy for some time. You can also put peanut butter in a kong and freeze that. The frozen peanut butter will keep your dog. Another great toy that will keep your dog busy is a ruuber hydrant that you put treats in. All these are examples of ways to keep your dog from getting bored and busy.

Toys

I have seen a variety of dog toys over the years, including shoes or socks as chew or tug toys. You are sending mixed messages to your dog by letting her play with one of your old shoes or socks. Shoes or other personal items are not appropriate toys for two reasons. First of all a shoe is not made and tested for a dog to chew on. It will fall apart and your dog can ingest materials that can be harmful to her. Second, your scent is on the item and your telling your dog it's alright to chew your things.

There are two types of toys for dogs. Chew toys and interactive toys. Chew toys are made and tested for dogs to chew on. I prefer tough chew toys such as Nylabones and real bones. Rawhide's can be swallowed in large piece and can lodge in your dogs intestines, so I don't give my dogs rawhide's. Interactive toys are toys such as balls, Frisbees, Kongs, tugs, and rubber fireplugs. Interactive toys are just that, meant for you to play with your dog. Dogs should be monitored with the interactive toys. Interactive toys are not meant to be chewed on. Dogs can destroy and chew up interactive toys so once you are finished playing with your dog, put the toy up. A note on tennis balls. I know a lot of handlers who like playing with their dogs with tennis balls. If you let your dog play with tennis balls as an interactive toy you must put the ball up when you're finished and never allow your dog take the tennis ball into her kennel. Many dogs have ingested tennis balls which can cause death. My professional recommendation is to purchase your toys from a pet store and don't take the chance on tennis balls which are made for tennis and not dogs. With any toy you need to periodically inspect it. When its begins to break down it's time to throw it out and purchase your dog a new one.

Cool Dog Friendly Park

If you are ever in the Silver Lake, Penwater, or Bass Lake area of Michigan I have a very nice dog friendly park on Lake Michigan called Summit Township Park. Better yet, go to Bortella's on Lake drive which runs north off of 31 Business in Bass Lake. Their specialty is fish fry, they have a variety to choose from and you take it to go. About 100 feet south of Bortella's is Summit Township Park. Alcohol is not prohibted. When we went the only people there were others from Bortella's having their dinner with a bottle of wine, beer, or whatever your beverage of choice is. We watched the sun set and had a wonderful time. Dogs are allowed, just keep them on leash and pick up after them. One of many of Michigan's gems.

Consistency

Dogs like schedules and consistency if their lives. You ever notice your dog knows when its time to go for a walk or time to eat? It's their internal clock that tells them. Dogs learn rules, boundaries, limitations by consistency. Many times dogs are slow to learn due to inconsistent training by their owners. Every time you feed your dog, he needs to sit and wait when you put the food down until you give him a release command to eat. Everytime the dog goes outside he sits and waits at the door (even when its open) for the ok to go out. Everytime you go for a walk he walks nice on the leash. You can imagine how the dog can become confused and not know what the appropriate behavior is when sometimes he's aloud to pull on the leash when walking, jets out of the door when going out or is permitted to dive into the food dish as soon as it hits the floor. Be consistent with your dog and you well see progress in his learning.

Fake Scent Tracking Dog

Every now and then you read about a wonder dog that can track an 8 day old track down a highway 4 miles and straight to where the suspect lives. Dogs are not magic and these people who handle these dogs are lying. Sure dogs can track scent but you have to provide evidence with certifications and training records that the dog is reliable and credible in his ability to track. Where I work we train our dogs to work up to an hour old track. This is because we never have street tracks older than an hour in fact most of our tracks are 15-20 minutes old. To read more about a fake tracking dog go to the link and read about the guy who spent 22 years in prison due to a fake tracking dog. http://news.aol.com/article/face-scent-tracking-dog-sent-man-to/597931 One way to combat these incredible stories is for police canine associations to police themselves. Attorneys also need to educate themselves and know what kind of questions to ask. In court its important to show that the dog is certified annually with nationally recognized police canine association and that the dog's track was not outside of his level of training.