Nancy told me about her very scary and bizarre experience walking the dogs tonight. It happened when she was walking Milo and Petey around the block in Chicago just before she came to a corner. At that moment a guy walking his Wheaton Terrier came around the corner. So she led Petey and Milo off the sidewalk and over to the curb. Most of the time in the city if you move your dogs off the sidewalk you expect the other dog walker to keep an eye on their dogs and just go past. The really smart people, or those with reactive dogs, will proactively cross to the other side of the street when they see other dogs coming toward them.

Every now and then Milo can get kind of weird when approached by a dog while he is on leash. He'll hit the end of the leash and bark at the dog. We think he does it because he figures a good offense is the best defense. It is pretty rare, say one in a hundred dogs, so we usually drop his leash so he knows he can get away and then he is always fine. If he is concerned he'll move away until he is comfortable and stay out of range of the other dog. If there is anything that is constant about Milo; he's never looking for trouble. So Nancy dropped Milo's leash and he just sat there next to her.

The guy with the Wheaton asks: "Are your dogs friendly?". Nancy replied: "He's leash aggressive". Then the unimaginable happened. The guy reaches down and unclips his dog's leash...!!! Nancy said she was flabbergasted. What in the world was this guy thinking? So his dog, who is pretty friendly looking, races up to Petey and Petey, being the overgrown puppy that he is, thinks "Wow Let's Play!" and hits the end of the leash and tears it out of Nancy's hand. He is one strong little guy. OK this is looking bad.

Of course Nancy was standing by the curb to get out of the guy's way. To make matters worse, Petey and the Wheaton tear off across the street! Fortunately, fortunately, fortunately there was no traffic. Nancy immediately tells Milo to stay and takes off across the street (she said she didn't look either...). She is calling Petey to come but he and the Wheaton are having a good time and the Wheaton keeps positioning himself between Petey and her. Which just incites Petey to play more. The Wheaton's owner is futilely calling his dog, who ignores him. Nancy finally gets Petey's attention and he comes to her. He gets a big hug and a huge jackpot of salmon treats.

Meanwhile, Milo, remember Milo? (sorry a little Alice's Restaurant moment there). Well Milo was just being Milo. He was just noodling around sniffing the grass on his side of the street. Nancy said a lady jogger had stopped and was calling him to her. He was completely unconcerned by the heart stopping, adrenaline rush producing, blind panic, terrifying event that his Mother had just been through. Nancy hustled Milo and Petey off and came back home.

So I might have some of this a little wrong, because I got it over the phone, but I think the essence of the story is correct. As we discussed it we came to the conclusion that when the guy heard "He is leash aggressive" he could only have thought... "Oh I should take my dog's leash off so that dog doesn't attack when he sees the leash"... I still can't believe it, but it is the only explanation.

Now we mostly hang out with other Dog People or at least people who humor Dog People. So had we heard someone say their dog was leash aggressive in a similar situation we would have given them a wide berth and kept a close eye on our dogs, gotten them to focus on us, and moved quickly out of there. Now apparently, saying that isn't a clear enough signal to your average person.

Which reminds me of another incident, many years ago, when I was walking Mr. Peabody and Milo. A lady is pushing her small daughter in a stroller and I see them as we come out of the alley. She asks if they are friendly and I say "Mr. Peabody doesn't like children". So what does she do? She starts coming directly toward us leading with her child in the stroller. I pulled in their leashes and she keeps coming. Finally Mr. P let out a couple big dog barks and she stopped.

As she was telling me this story, Nancy, being the articulate and intelligent one, was trying to come up with reasonable things to tell people in situations like this and I just didn't like any of them. Especially since people don't seem to register what you are saying if they have a plan of action already formulated.

So I think the best solution, other than walking your dogs where you won't run into people with their dogs (which is getting increasingly difficult in the city), is being almost rudely direct. If asked "Is your dog friendly?" my plan is to always reply in an unequivocal manner with "No". If they insist on coming toward us (assuming I can't retreat) I will say "Stop!" and keep repeating "Stop!" and/or "Go away!" with increasing emphasis. Yep it might brand me as the weird or rude guy with the Border Collies, but it might be the only thing that protects us from cluelessness.

Now that won't protect me from the knuckle heads who insist on walking their dogs off leash in the city (they usually have dogs that don't listen to them and have no recall at all) but that is a whole different rant...

Do you have any better ideas for stopping or redirecting the clueless?

Nancy got me a hat with a small built in light a couple months ago and I use it so much this time of year that I thought I'd write up a little review. A year ago I posted some other links for reflective dog apparel to help being seen when walking in the dark winter mornings and nights.

The hat is made by Boss and is called the G2 LED Head-Lite. The light is built into the front of the hat. It is an LED that is powered by a pair of replaceable watch batteries. You turn the light on and off by pressing on the light itself, like a push button. That design means I can leave it off and turn on the light when needed with a single push on the front of the hat. So it only takes one hand to operate the light. The light beam is a cool blue and while not blindingly bright it will illuminate a spot two or three feet across at a distance of about 6 feet.

Even though it is a little "worn" looking I took a picture of my hat in my new Light Box. When you look at the hat the light isn't all that noticeable at first glance; but I don't really care one way or another, I only wear it when I'm walking the dogs. It turns out to be really handy for picking up after the dogs in the dark. It is also helpful for trimming the dog's nails - although a more powerful headlamp works better.

So while there is a bit of a "dork" factor in wearing this hat it is pretty handy on dark morning and night walks.

Like all performance dog parents, every now and then I need to identify one of our dog's bones, ligaments and/or muscles. With some help I've found a wonderful and reasonably priced reference book.

When I started searching for a dog anatomy book I discovered the classic veterinary text: Howard E. Evans' Miller's Anatomy of the Dog. Apparently it is pretty much the definitive text on the subject. Unfortunately, it has a list price of over $ 110. I tried to find a used copy but wasn't successful. So I was pretty much ready to buy a copy when it struck me to ask around for other options.

I was fortunate enough to get a recommendation from Suzanne Clothier for Elliot Goldfinger's Animal Anatomy for Artists. I never would have thought that a book geared toward artists would have the amount of detail for which I was looking. Well I couldn't have been more wrong. But it makes sense that a conscientious artist would want to know exactly how an animal they are painting or drawing moves and how it's bones and muscles are arranged.

Each muscle and ligament is drawn in multiple views and its purpose/action described. The author systematically presents each muscle, ligament and bone and does so for horses, dogs, and oxen. A number of other animals are also depicted. I found the similarities between all the different animals to be very interesting.

This book isn't the kind of book that I plan to read cover to cover, but when I need an anatomy reference it sure will come in handy. This is a very good reference at a reasonable price. So a big "Thank You!" to Suzanne for her knowledge of all things dog related.

Playing fetch with your dog is often recommended as a great way to give your dog exercise. However, many dogs are injured playing fetch in their own backyards. I've experienced this first hand when Meeker got injured playing Frisbee.

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This time of year when I'm walking Meeker early in the morning the air is cool, humid and lately it has been fragrant with lilac and lily of the valley. So it is nice to walk in the cool quiet of the morning. But as we were walking along smelling the smells this morning I was hit with the distinctive smell of chemical fertilizer coming from the lawns in parts of the neighborhood. This smell reminded me of a great dog health tip Nancy told me.

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While I really want the focus of this blog to remain on agility training and not spend too much time on other areas, it seems folks are interested so I'll give an "Itchy Meek" update. First off, thank you all for your comments, encouragement, and for sharing your experiences with dog allergies. I was unaware of how many dogs I know who have some type of allergy or allergy symptoms until Meeker faced this problem.

I decided not to pursue allergy injections or other western medicines for Meeker's itchiness until I got a second opinion. Due to a cancellation I was able to get an earlier appointment with Dr. Share Siwek at Kindred Spirits. Dr. Siwek is a DVM and has trained in holistic veterinary practices. It is always interesting to meet someone who has a different view than traditional western medicine.

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As I mentioned previously, Meeker is quite the itchy pup. He started itching and chewing all over his body at about 18 months, I've heard that is a common age when allergies start to show up. Since neither Mr. Peabody or Milo had any allergies this has become a learning experience for us. So here an update on the itchy Meek saga.

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My quiet little suburban area doesn't have street lights or side walks so I walk Meeker on the edge of the streets (it is pretty safe as we'll only see a couple cars on our walks). This time of year it is dark before and after work so I worry about drivers not being able to see us on our walks. So I thought I would pass along some products I came across.

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Trainers and students often bandy about the terms: luring, bribing, and rewarding. Suzanne Clothier has a good article on her website describing each of these terms and how to effectively reward your dog using timing, intensity, variety and frequency. All trainers use some or all of these techniques when training a dog. It is knowing when and how to use them that makes a trainer successful.

There are trainers, especially Clicker Trainers, who avoid all luring or bribing. They rely on the dog offering an approximation of the behavior at which time they click and reward the dog. They then reward or withhold rewards as the dog's behavior approaches or retreats from the desired end behavior. Training a complex behavior is done through a "divide and conquer" approach where the trainer breaks up the final behavior into very small steps and rewards the dog as the dog approaches and masters each step. Eventually the small steps are joined together into the final behavior chain. This training approach is known as "Shaping". I've heard that dogs comfortable with being trained through Shaping learn new skills faster and retain those skills longer than dogs lured or bribed through the behaviors.

Regardless of your views on luring and bribing, a common thread of all techniques is rewarding the dog for desired behavior. Please allow me to get on my soap box for a moment. I find many trainers are too "stingy" when it comes to rewarding their dogs. Remember a reward doesn't have to be a treat or a toy, it just has to be something the dog finds rewarding (not something you think should be rewarding). It can be the freedom to perform the obstacle they like most or perform their favorite trick. One flyball dog I've seen has a favorite reward of licking peanut butter from the bottom of a metal bucket at the end of the run; whatever it takes and don't be afraid to be creative and experiment.

The most frustrating thing I see during training is the handler who doesn't reward their dog who is struggling with an obstacle or a part of a sequence. After several repeats the dog gets the behavior right and then the handler just moves on to the next obstacle, without rewarding the dog! Reward that dog! I've taken to "pre-cueing" some handlers: when they ask their dog to repeat something a second time, I'll ask them to be ready to reward the dog before they move on. But I've yet to find a foolproof way to reward the handler for rewarding the dog (luring, bribing, and rewarding works for training people too!). One idea I came up with was to have students pay double their class fee and then literally pay the student back with their second half of the fee in cash each time they reward their dog on course. Any leftover cash could be donated to charity. I wonder if that would be enough incentive?

Wouldn't you be happier at your job if you were rewarded periodically? Especially when you do something new or do a particularly good job? Our dogs are no different.

On the days when I don't work at home I have a dog walker come by and give Meeker 30 minutes of exercise around midday. He is a young and energetic dog and I hate the idea of him at home for up to 10 hours without many outlets for his energy. My original dog walker recently hired a new assistant and I realized I should put together a little write up of the rules Meeker lives by so he would have a consistent set of expectations from me and his dog walkers.

When I first showed this to some knowledgable dog trainers they gave me quite a few horror stories about dog walkers: group walks, walks on Flexis, not controlling dog's access to other dogs, children, etc. and even promoting unsafe behaviors. They strongly recommended I just have the dog walker let Meeker out into the backyard and supervise him for the half hour and then bring him inside. That would be safest for Meeker and not give, even well meaning, dog walkers an opportunity to "untrain" or even endanger him. I guess I'm fortunate with my current dog walker.

I should also mention that my neighborhood is a very quiet suburban one with pretty much no car, person or dog traffic, especially at midday. So a lot of the scenarios I mention in my instructions are unlikely to be experienced by the dog walker. I just wanted to outline my approaches in case they really wanted to follow my wishes.

Here is what I plan on giving to his future caretakers:

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