Training Continues

We're about half way through Canine Good Citizen training at Hacker's Creek Kennel here in Bloomington. We decided after boarding Binsey there over Christmas that we just had to go there for training beacuse she came back behaving WAY better than when we dropped her off. Jeff is a fantastic trainer and has basically devoted his life to training dogs, particularly labrador retrievers. He sells some of his trained dogs to families, so if you're in the market for a dog and don't have time to deal with all the puppy shenanegans, this is a great option! Since we've been working with him, we've even noticed that Binsey is listening to us more because we've learned how to be better leaders for her.


Sure, we did the PetSmart puppy class, but Binsey is such a strong-willed dog that she needs some extra training (or at least we needed extra training in how to deal with her!). Positive reinforcement only (treat training) is a great way to go if you have a mild-mannered dog, but for a brute like Binsey we needed more variety. Remember that Yuppie Puppy harness I was so excited about? It is not a good solution and I think it just brings out her husky instinct to pull! So we started using a choke chain (I hate that name), but Jeff explained to us how it's actually more humane because it distributes the pressure around their neck rather than just on the front with a regular collar. It's true - she stops pulling and doesn't cough/choke like she did with the regular collar. And now that we can "communicate" with the collar, she's listening to us more even when she doesn't have the chain on.



She's still a work in progress, but she's turning into a real sweetheart who loves to fetch and chew her toys and lie at our feet for belly rubs.

Here she is fetching for Paul (she decided for the past few months that she didn't want to fetch, and then one day she randomly decided she loved it):

Snow's melted

Well, it seems we're free of snow for a while. It's nearly all melted, so on Saturday we took Binsey to McCormick's Creek park down the road from us. The weather was great - in the 50s and sunny! Yes, finally sunny!

The park had some great things for retriever puppies, like sticks


and big leaves (note how suspicious she is of the leaf)


You may also notice that she's got a loose leash in the top picture - an important thing if you've been through any basic dog training. Well, it's not because of training. It's because we got this device for her from Yuppie Puppy. It's a harness that goes over her head with loops attached that go around her legs. If she pulls, the loops tighten and she stops. It is sooo much better than the nose harness we were recommended during the puppy training classes (she'd just freak out and rub her nose all over the ground trying to get it off). So for the park, we attach the Yuppie Puppy to the expandable leash and she can check out all the leaves, etc while still being able to keep her close if other people walk by.

A Domestic Experiment

Today we decided that Binsey is finally old enough that we can comfortably move her crate from our bedroom to the living room downstairs. As she's gotten bigger, there is more of her that smells like a dog and as much as we like her, we'd prefer to have our separate sleeping spaces.

We moved her crate down there late this afternoon and put her in there after dinner. So far, she's been pretty quiet there apart from a few grumbles and some whining. Hopefully tonight will be a quiet one!

Puppy Graduation

Today Binsey graduated from her puppy class at PetSmart. She's really come a long way from jumping/nipping constantly while ripping our clothes to shreds, to now when she can sit nicely to meet new people.

Here's the little trooper (she still has to wear the donut for another week or so):


And here's the whole class - there was just one other dog, a lab/terrier mix the same age as Binsey, named Luna. They became good buddies through the class and I'm sure they'll miss each other!

That's Pants!

You might not be familiar with the phrase "that's pants" since it's used only in the UK. It means "That stinks" or "that's awful". Well, it certainly applies to things around our house right now as Binsey is learning not to jump up on us. We took her to her first puppy kindergarten class this Saturday, and the trainer said she acts just like a normal puppy, but when she jumps up she also tries to bite and tug on our clothes, frequently ripping our pants. Not so much fun. In fact, that's pants!

And related to the puppy class, once again we were the only ones in the course. That sounds like a good thing, but really the classes are important for doggy socialization etiquette so you really want to have other "students". So the trainer gave us a private lesson, but signed us up for a different class that starts next week with at least 3 other puppies. We've already started to notice a difference in her behavior since that lesson, so we feel really good about this trainer!

Puppy Nutrition

You probably can't tell from the pictures, but Binsey barely has any whiskers. We had thought that maybe the guy we got her from had cut them off for some bizarre reason, but we were wrong. It seems that she was so malnourished that not only was her coat rough and dull, but (we think) her whiskers became really brittle and broke off leaving stubby split-ends.


But, we've been feeding Binsey some really good puppy food since we got her. It's called Horizon Legacy, and it's supposed to mimic what they'd eat in the wild. It stinks of fish, and Binsey LOVES it. She loves it so much that she eats her entire bowlful within 5 to 10 seconds no matter how much is in there. So, we're trying the muffin tin approach today, where you divide the food into the muffin tin cups to try to slow her down.

Her whiskers are definitely growing back and the new growth looks a lot thicker. Plus, her coat has gotten all shiny and soft. Amazing what a good diet can do!

Binsey the Huskador

You may be wondering what in the world a huskador is. Well, it's not a real word but it does describe our new lab/husky mix puppy. She comes with a crazy story too. We got her for free out of the back of a pickup truck in a parking lot after we saw an ad for free puppies in the newspaper. The guy told us he had wanted to breed his purebred lab with another lab, but he brought her to his cousin's house where she got pregnant by a husky.

From Binsey

We're calling our new puppy Binsey, which is another Oxford reference. She's about 8 weeks right now (the guy wasn't sure when they were born), and she's very different from Rewley in more than just looks! It could be that we're just better at dog training now that we've been through a course, but she's already pretty darn good with "sit" and "stay", which of course I videotaped.


She's getting totally spoiled by our neighbor's two girls who are just head over heels for her and love to stop by to play with her. And of course we just love having someone else to tire her out and get her used to kids.

Teething Begins

Given that Rewley is a puppy, he's wanted to chew on EVERYTHING from the beginning, and we've been working very hard to make sure he knows what he can and cannot chew on. We thought there would be a clear signal when the teething process began, like incessant chewing on furniture, but today while playing with him, I noticed he had 3 missing teeth already!

In some ways, I'm hoping he has a time with very few teeth, because I'm always having to pull things out of his mouth like bark, leaves, cigarette butts, and whatever other garbage people have left on the ground. I've even pulled out used chewing tobacco pouches from his mouth! (I had no idea what they were, and when Paul told me, I was none to happy to have something in my hand that had been in both a person's and a dog's mouth. Gross!) The worst had to be the toad he tried to eat, but he spit that out on his own.

It's so cute to look back at our first pictures of him, but I am definitely looking forward to having a grown dog who chills out a little more and doesn't feel the need to chew on everything he sees!

Rewley's Graduation

Tonight was Rewley's graduation from puppy kindergarten. Here we all are, diploma in hand.

From Rewley

Here's what he had to do. Walking on a loose leash (in the store - so distracting!).

From Rewley

Sit & Stay (here with the trainer's dog)

From Rewley

Down stay:

From Rewley

And a few other commands, like "watch me" and "leave it".

For his special trick, we had him learn "take a bow". We say "take a bow" every time he stretches after sleeping, so he'll eventually associate it with the command. So far it's working most of the time.

We're so glad we did the training, and I'm impressed with the quality of the training we got at Petco. There was another puppy in the class for a couple weeks, an Italian Greyhound named Lady, but she dropped out. What that means is that we pretty much got private lessons for most of it. Not bad!

All done with puppy shots!

On Monday, Rewley got his final puppy shots, including his rabies shot. He was, and has always been, so good about getting his shots. This time, he barely seemed to notice them. Yay no more shots! (at least until next year's rabies shot) Here he is doing a nice attentive "sit-stay" while showing off his new rabies tag.

From Rewley

We had another great session with Rewley's puppy kindergarten on Tuesday. He is getting better and better at "heel", and we upped the ante with "stay" by having him stand and stay. So far he seems to get it about 80% of the time at home. Next week is our last week of puppy kindergarten, and Rewley's graduation! We're so glad we've been doing the training because he's only getting more and more obedient, which will make him a happier pet.

For homework, we have to teach Rewley a new trick. Not sure what we're going to do yet, but hopefully we'll think of something good! Any puppy owners got suggestions?

Graduating to a Bigger Collar

Well, we thought we could still keep Rewley in a small size collar that fits him nicely. However, today he graduated to the medium. And by graduated I mean that he's gotten so big and strong that the puny plastic clasp on the collar is no match for his pulling when on the leash. Thank goodness he's gotten more used to trucks because he broke it while we were walking on the sidewalk just 20 feet or so from the road, but we were still able to grab him right away. What a scare! So even though he technically shouldn't be in a medium yet based on his neck size, it's much safer for him this way.

Here he is with the new collar, investigating something.

From Rewley

Walking the dog (or not)

One of the things we've been really looking forward to is going on walks with our dog. Especially now, while Paul and I have a lot of time on our hands, walking is one of those free things we can do together that's also fun. But, with Rewley in the picture, we've had so much trouble with his fear of trucks/SUVs/buses that walks have been pathetically short. Coaxing him with treats (as our vet and our trainer recommended) hasn't worked at all.

But, today we had a bit of a breakthrough. We coaxed/carried/played chase to get Rewley across the apartment complex to the sidewalk (which is still about 20 feet away from the street), and once up there he ran into one of his dog friends, a 7 month old lab/golden mix. Seeing the example of another calm dog seemed to have an effect on him, and this evening it was much easier to get him to walk. We got all the way to a big grassy area where he could relax while still hearing the traffic. On the way back, he didn't whimper or freak out at all! Fingers crossed that we'll all be able to go on longer walks more often!

Liver Brownies & Obedience Training

We're trying really hard to get Rewley to go on walks with us. He was great at first, but now since he's developed a fear of trucks and other large vehicles, we have to lure him along with a treat, and the crunchy puppy treats aren't exciting enough to distract him from his fears. So, we found a recipe for "Liver Brownies", which contain liver, corn meal, wheat germ, eggs and a little garlic. They do look like brownies, but thankfully once cooked they smell like popcorn (from the corn meal) and not stinky meat. We tested them out tonight with some obedience commands.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

This morning we rented a boat on Lake Griffy. It's just $6/hour, so we figured that with the dog, an hour would be plenty long enough! We took Rewley for a short walk in the woods first, then we all got on the boat.

Here's Paul using the rowing skills he learned at Oxford (ok, so it's not at all the same kind of rowing, but it involves a boat and water)

From Boat Trip June 9th

Here I am bringing up the rear, or acting as coxswain:


And here's that handsome puppy smile. I'm amazed that we managed to keep him from jumping overboard, considering there were also ducks and geese on the water!


We're going to the vet today for the next round of shots. Training lesson #2 is tonight. Rewley's been doing great except for the "heel" command. I hope she had us learn that in the first lesson because it's really hard and will take all 6 lessons! We've had some setbacks with the neighborhood. With being just off a main road, there's trucks and busses going by, and lately Rewley's been really scared of them and trying to dash away home any time he hears an engine. So, we're using things like cheese to lure him along. Still, we're nowhere near where we want to be, but then again, he's just 11 weeks old.

Rethinking Treat Training

Well, we've been working on our training exercises with Rewley this week. So far he knows "Sit", "come", "watch me", "let's go" and somewhat, "heel". Oh, and of course he knows "dinner time" very well. Now, I had been a big fan of the Monks of New Skete approach of praise-only training. I still think it's a better way to go, but I also realize you probably need to be an experienced dog trainer or have someone instruct you in the techniques. For us, we're not as in-tune to how to get a puppy's attention, and we're working on it. But the treats help.

I can actually relate the treat training to what I learned getting my Psychology degree. Based on the theory of operant conditioning (think Pavlov's dogs), motivation can be thought of as of as being of two kinds: intrinsic and extrinsic. With intrinsic motivation, you want to do something because you enjoy it. Like eating, for a puppy. With extrinsic motivation, you want to do something for another reason, like a prize or reward (positive reinforcement). For a puppy, this could be sitting so as to get a treat. The treat then reinforces the desired behavior (eg, sit), so the puppy will want to do the behavior in the anticipation that he may get a treat. A puppy doesn't find much intrinsic motivation in doing tricks or being obedient, so you need to use some kind of reward. But then shouldn't praise be sufficient? Sure, but for Rewley, we've noticed that he's VERY obedient when he's about to get dinner, and very excited about food, even if he's just eaten.

So the treats win for now, but they won't be used forever.

Griffy Lake & Puppy Kindergarten

Today we checked out the Griffy Lake Nature Preserve, which is about a 5 minute drive away from us. They've got a series of hiking trails around the lake, and you can rent boats or kayaks for $6 per hour. We took Rewley on a woodsy walk there, and he loved it! He didn't pull on his leash too much either, which made the walk a lot more pleasant! We'll definitely be doing more trail walking with the pup in the future.

Tonight we went to puppy kindergarten at Petco. The trainer has 30 years of experience with dog training and has shown dogs competitively. And strangely enough, Rewley was the only student! So we basically will be having private lessons for all 6 weeks. What's even better is that she brought her 12-year old former agility dog along to help with the training. The part we're reluctantly accepting is that it's treat training, but Rewley responded really well to all of it, and so quickly that we're encouraged by it. He's still not quite sure how to take a treat from our hands, sometimes missing it altogether, but he'll pick that part up quickly.

Our trainer confirmed what we'd seen in Rewley - he's very sound sensitive. Trucks and busses seem to startle him the most. We'll have to give him some more "noisy" toys to get him used to loud sounds. Paul recently gave him a guitar concert, and he wasn't sure what to make of it.

From Rewley

We're getting more and more excited about our life with the pup!

Walking on a leash

Today Rewley did an awesome job walking on his leash! He has not been liking his leash for the most part, so when he walked for about 15 minutes straight with little distraction, we were very happy!

Lately we've been watching the Dog Whisperer on television, and we've integrated some of his techniques into our training routine. One thing we do is make sure he sits before going through a door, making sure we go through the door first, and having him sit before he gets his meals. We also realized he's not too receptive to discipline, and he thinks it's a game. So, we are trying to copy what Cesar does on the show, which is pretend like your hand is a mouth and give him a nip when he misbehaves. This seems to work a lot better than a scruff shake or a "no" (these sometimes put him into play mode), and it doesn't hurt him. It actually calms him down and gets him to focus, which is great!

We also got an adjustable nylon collar. It's supposed to be a more gentle version of a choke collar, since it's made of two attached loops where one pulls the other one tighter if he pulls. It doesn't go all the way tight like a choke collar, so he can't hurt himself too much. It really works great on our walks, and he's seeming to notice that when he walks nicely with us he gets a loose collar, praises and happy tail wagging. We're looking forward to when he's big enough to go on longer walks!

And just for fun, here's Rewley doing what we call his "dinner dance". Note the "sit" before dinner is served.

Mad Skillz

So far, it seems like Rewley has learned a few simple commands/actions. The best is that he sits by the doggy gate in the kitchen when he needs to be let out. Whew! And he is becoming a real champ at "go potty", so that's fantastic. He's also got the "sit" command down fairly reliably, as long as he's not distracted by a bug, bird, piece of grass, mulch, cigarette butt, etc. It's the same with walking with us on the leash when we say "let's go", "heel", and "stop". When we've got his attention, he's great. He likes to prance when he's doing something we're happy about, or when he grabs something like a branch and trots off with it. Cute stuff.

The hardest part so far is getting him to calm down at night. Last night before bed he wanted to be let out what seemed like 10 times. We think it's because it's been so hot and humid during the day that he's not thrilled about being outside until it cools off at night. And then the party starts. It gets frustrating because he's so easily distracted and it seems like our neighbors all like to go for night drives between 9PM and 2AM, meaning doors opening and closing, engines starting, brakelights flashing, etc... all things that Rewley loves to watch and wait for.

But, once he comes in and gets in his crate, he goes right to sleep without a peep. We have to keep reminding ourselves that although he's making a lot of progress with basic training, he's still a puppy with a super short attention span.

Today's Anne's last day with us. She seems to have really enjoyed playing with Rewley, which is awesome because we can't go out too much with all the puppy care!

Here's Anne discovering that Rewley really thinks he's a lap dog. We think he's grown already; we had to loosen his collar yesterday!

From Rewley

Anne did a great photo shoot for us with the pup. We dressed him up for the occasion.

This one's our "Hello from the Simaceks in Bloomington" one.

From Rewley

Rewley says "I'm tired and hot, can I go inside and sleep now?"

From Rewley

Exploring with his bandanna on

From Rewley

Trying to cool off with his tongue out

From Rewley

The Puppy Hunt

The puppy hunt is on. Since we've got less than a week left before we move to Bloomington, we're starting to get more serious about our search for a puppy. The Bloomington Animal Shelter usually gets lots and lots of puppies in the summer. The woman I spoke with there even said we'd probably be able to get a golden retriever mix, which is fantastic!

We're also starting to check out breeders of purebred goldens, but most breeders have waiting lists for their puppies months in advance, meaning we'd be looking at puppy availability in July or August. I'm not convinced that for a family pet a breeder is going to give me a puppy all that much better than a pound puppy, so it looks like for a number of reasons we'll probably wind up adopting a puppy from the pound some time this month.

To prepare for a new puppy, we started looking into training books. We bought "The Art of Raising a Puppy" by the Monks of New Skete - yes, they are real monks who raise german shepherds and spend their days studying and training the dogs. They even have a doggie boarding school where for $2000 you can send your dog there for 3-4 weeks for intensive training! You can read about them here. Paul is just finishing up the book, and I'm going to read it next. So far, from the excerpts Paul has read me, it's very helpful in understanding and responding to dog behavior.

In the meantime, we're working on names. So far the winner seems to be "Rewley", after the street we lived on in Oxford. But of course, we'll have to see how the dog responds to the name.

Hopefully the right pup will come along soon!