[Michael D'Abruzzo]

You might want to try on one of the shepherd muzzles if you think the dobie muzzle will be too narrow. I never actually used the Leerburg Dobie muzzle yet, but the fortrainers dobie muzzles are ridiculously narrow and kind of defeat the whole purpose of the basket muzzle. jake and troy who usually one or the other comes around on Saturdays has the Leerburg large shepherd muzzle.

Poor Eddie…

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Wow Malin!

You definitely are caught with some disadvantages. There is a big problem everywhere really with the lack of standards in dog training so laws like that are bound to happen. maybe it can possibly be a good thing if you look at it from another point of view.

For instance, the people who made the law probably dont know how to humanely use the banned training collars so they base their views and law on the actions of others who dont know how to use the equipment who end up being abusive.

Then, what happens is that an advanced trainer is stripped of certain tools that will help with the most difficult cases.

Perhaps if you are able to learn and demo how to use certain equipment to a humane standard you can start a movement to legalize professional equipment to certified trainers of a certain ethical and knowledgable standard.

It seems far fetched and i know what it is like to deal with very close minded people, but worth thinking about.

I mean what’s next? will harnesses be outlawed on horses? will you have to lead them with treats too? will parents not be able to discipline their children? where does it end – although I can understand the premise behind it – but totally banning them is not the answer.

Are you allowed to use halti-style collars? Because we can definitely get on the right track with one of those for some of your ‘weaker’ clients with big dogs. in conjunction with a hand held high pressure citronella spray like “direct stop” for some of the insane moments.

A big trick that I use with the clients and any dog is to make sure the dogs master all the exercises and learn disipline away from the bigger distractions first. Then get all your clients together with similar problems in support group classes to help eachother out with ‘trained’ dogs that just need work around the distractions. Support groups are an awesome thing to have! let me know what you think and we can discuss further..

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Yes, basically comes down to teaching the “leave it” formally. I DO have to put good fottage up on this, but it does follow the same basic principals as everything else. Stitch may know what “leave it” means, but not necessarily that he has to do it, or was taught any formal responsibility behind the command.

This can be equated with a dog that knows what come means, but will only do it if there is something in it for him, or has nothing better to do.

A good “leave it” involves all three phases of training, which will teach the dog what it means, how the rules apply to it, and drills which will reinforce that there is no way around it until it becomes a habit.

I promise this is on the agenda for the vids.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Well, I would say there are two things that you can do off the top of my head.

From a training point of view you can do lots of work desensitizing him to the noise by muffling the sound and pairing it with treats for very short sessions on a daily basis then slowly muffle the sound less or do the drill with the alarm outside and an increased distance, then slowly move the alarm closer.

Or, from a management point of view you can try to figure to the best of your knowledge how long the batteries last in the alarm and change them much before you guestimate they will run low. You can also remove the batteries when they are home by themself if no human is going to be relying on the alarm anyway (as long as you have a good system to remember to put the batteries back in).

You can also do a search for alternative alarms that might use a different sound or warning that communicates a low battery.

Those are my immediate brainstorms at least…

Here’s one alternative:

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Glucosamine without the chrondroitin isnt nearly as effective since they work synergistically together. gycoflex does contain green lipped sea mussles which contains the chondoitin molecule. Not sure what ratio is ideal which is why i just made things easier by using supplements with both in it: glucosamine/chondroiten or glucosamine/green lipped sea muscles.

I have definitely seen differences when switching certain dogs, the supplemets are not all created equal for sure.

I was using prevention plus from http://www.joshuakennels.com. We were calling it Ghetto powder because it looked so home made the containers it came in and such. But some people swear by it and the ingredient list is good. I was using it for one dog at the kennel (Dawson) who was get the squirts when we gave him the agility tabs. his stomach was real sensitive when i first adopted him from the shelter for a couple months – than he magically became normal and i can give him almost anything now – i discovered it by accident when i gae him the wrong supplements and he was fine. Now i can give him treats and all kinds of stuff he couldnt take before. hey, maybe it was the ghetto powder that cured him?… not out of the question. he always did good on the regular life’s abundance food.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

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If I just go by pics I would say maybe a golden/rott mix because of her general shape, rib cage, and color. Possibly lab or pitbull in there too. Thse would all be likely because they all amoungst the most popular breeds around. chow isnt out of the question too, but usually you can tell that in person a lot easier since they generaly act so differently than the other breeds i mentioned. I guess i’ll put my money on golden/rott. final answer. oh wait..paws are looking kind of chowish… feeling less confident with the golden….

I can usually make a better guess when i see how they act. for instance, if she is very vocal with growly play there is strong leaning toward rottie. If she enjoys the spring pole probably pitbull…

Either way, i would say the safe place to start with a game is with good ol tug – one of my favorites and for all those breeds anyway. or do a combination of fetch tug (you throw, when she brings it back play tug, out, then repeat)..

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

I havent personally used them much, but I like it when the back legs can touch the ground once they have a hold (after jumping) so they have the benifit of working out their thighs as they pull.

The frustration and obsession toward the spring pole is a good thing, just like it is when a police dog is obsessed with getting the toy reward during narcotic searches, etc. If the dog can never get quite enough it gives him something to obsess over besides cats, dogs, cars, etc. I used to have a pit bull that would obsess over hanging off this one flexible branch in the park where i walked her – i swear she would hang there all day if i let her, she would totally ignore all other dogs and have tunnel vision through the park until we reached that branch.

The spring pole is an awesome thing to use when training the recalls from a heavy distraction. Good to use in the phase 3 come training exercises. For anyone doing protection training – if the dog does a lighning fast recall off the spring pole, it has an incredible head start on doing the recall of the agitator (or any heavy distraction for that matter). The trick is of course to let the dog go right back most of the time. remember the dog training trinity. I think i have to write up the details of that in the members area still?

Gary’s videos with Tito on the spring pole are a great example. Check these out:

You cant hear gary because of the music, but he is using the foundation style of obedience to teach the recall and using the dog training trinity.

[YOUTUBE]95NCxyKBfPE[/YOUTUBE]

This is the same exercise basically but on the agitator. since the recalls are predicatable and include warning and praise, tito can be comfortable on the bite until he is commanded to release. Tito is the most awesome friendly dog with both people and dogs – lives with another unneutered male pitbull. Besides having strict pack structure placed in his life from an early age, the early obsession with the spring pole helped him from developing unwanted obsessions.

[YOUTUBE]R2inkCUR0N4[/YOUTUBE]

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

It can drive you crazy trying to figure it out. Then again there are dogs that eat kibbles and bits their whole life and they act like Jesus….go figure.

I dont think Toro is all that bad, considering he’s a testosterone filled stud of a gladiator type breed. If you raised him on kibbles and bits he may have killed a village of people instead of just pouncing assertive dogs b-lining right for him. Zero dominance aggression or any aggression toward people really, and nothing really toward non-challenging dogs – especially the more he is around them. I was floored how good he (and all the dogs were) at that bark in the park event we did.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

I would say that they are all decent foods, and if you have a dog that is doing well on them probably no reason to switch. You can drive yourself crazy trying to figure out which is the best one. Variety is good for a dog, so best case scenario is to switch up every once in a while with a different brand or type of food that you pick with your best judgement.
If I were to nit pick between the three you listed I would go with California Natural for sure. There pup formula is probably the best because it uses the chicken fat – not sure why they do it that way, a pup formula and an adult formula when all their formulas are ‘all life stages’. must be for marketing. The only thing really that bick’s products have that the CN doesnt is the probiotics and the extra supplements that you can use along with it. If I had the CN near by I would probably rotate the lamb formula in to my dogs diet. Natural balance not bad, just more fillers in it then the CN. The eagle pack I was never a big fan of just because there were so many varietys and some were pretty good and some not as good – so tricky recommended it to clients when they need an easy choice – but I really havent checked in on their products in a while. All three definitely better than anything you are going to find at the supermarket, thats for sure.

Glycoflex I think is great stuff for connective tissue strength- but Ideally used with a good Glucosamine supplement to cover the rest of the joint health. I have been a fan of the agility supplement by Bick’s because it combined the benifits of glycoflex and a cosequin type supplement, which is what i used to give and I ended up saving money and have seen next to miracles with the stuff. It is the one supplement that will be hard for me to ever give up even if i was feeding a good raw diet to my dogs.

One of the main reasons that I started using the Bick’s products is because I have nothing but a petsmart any where near me. So it is very hard to conveniently get good dog food which I obviously need a lot of with the kennel. the life’s abundance gets delivered and never had a problem feeding it to a single dog. Clients generally stay on it, so also end up making a few bucks if they order it from me too since it is conveniently also a network marketing company.

I have never used the greenies. What was that whole thing that made them get negetive attention in the news about? I never looked into it because i never really used them. I see they make them flexible now. I would like to be filled in myself if anyone knows what the deal was?

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

lol! Those strange barks are sometimes hard to pinpoint the source. The one thing that seems for sure is that whatever it is he seems a little surprised and panicked if it is a high pitched bark and he is staying put- those are generally the kind that are basically calling the rest of the pack for back-up.

Could be that he has good hearing or even the opposite – that it is going and thinks he hears something but is unsure and worried by his inability to confirm what he thinks he might have saw or even felt through vibrations.

I would say the first place to troubleshoot would be health. Take a good look in his ears and if it is really a big concern have his hearing checked.

If he is just having some trouble with impulse control – I would say be sure he is eating high quality proteins and try some fish oil.

But, does sound like a tricky one that might work itself all the way up our troubleshooting model to ‘management’ where a noise maker at night might help drown out the faint sounds. I have one that makes cricket sounds, the ocean, white noise, rain, etc.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Have you tried any dog gods yet?

One of the mildest that I like to start with are the citronella remote training collars. They work good for a lot of dogs – the problem is that some dogs barely notice. Since they can cost a good buck it is always good to see if you know someone who has one first so you can give it a test. I keep one at the kennel for that purpose.

Dog God can be just about anything that the dog doesnt know comes from you and motivates the dog to avoid that behavior. You never want to be connected to these housebreaking connections unless you want a dog that is only good when you are around.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

I havent personally looked into this heavily but i always brushed it off as most likely linked to high amounts of POOR QUALITY protein which would actually make sense.

High amounts of good protein just doesnt make sense at all.

Poor quality protein, like a dog food with a lot of corn based protein for instance, would have more by-products associated with the breakdown, particularly amonia. That I believe affects the brain and has been known to cause aggression.

Also, how could feeding a good quality protein in high amounts cause aggression when it is what is natural to the dog. If that theory held any merit – then all you would have to do is throw a couple of cups of rice in a raw food and that would lower the protein percentage and magically make the dog less aggressive. Just cant find the sense in that.

But, on the other hand, a poor quality protein is a poor quality protein, no matter what the percentage, and the more the worse because of the toxins from the breakdown.

anyone intrigued by this should look up the information about kidney desease and high protein. Its the same sort of thing.

Many veterinarians that are brainwashed by the science diet company will prescribe a low protein diet, when in actuality protein in itself can actually help repair a kidney, it is poor protein – like that found in science diet, iams, etc in the first place that usually causes the problems (since the same toxins from the breakdown).

So of course less of these poor proteins would be better for the kidneys too – but why not just give normal amounts of a good protein?

remember – I AM NOT A VETERINARIAN. so do your own research.

I have always used Life’s Abundance on my aggression cases (with fish oil) and got great results with the training. No bad protein.

Incidently, maybe coincidence, the dogs with the worse impuilse control i dealt with were raised on food like beniful and other purina brands – bad BAD protein.

I would be interested in more in the L-tryptophan. Seems to help with the serotonin levels. My only experience similar is with prozac on one of the client dogs that i was skeptical about at first, but i would definitely say it helps in conjuction with the other training.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Or it could be teaching a dog to take treats gently?… I always teach to aim the treat a little past the front teeth so the dog will learn to back his head a little away to focus on the treat instead of snapping forward…hmmm…..

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Oh, that’s not protection training. He was trying to teach the dog a “sit” using a treat. lol!

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Definitely on the list of things to do. Chipping away aty some literature now on how to pick and raise a dog for the different types of protection work.

I have lots of footage of the dogs in differeent drives to pull from. Already have a bunch of Toro in pure PREY.

I checked out your web site. Toro is like a greek statue! love just looking at him!

Guess which one?

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