The Schnauzer and the Servant Bell

A few years ago, we bought an ingenious little product called a Pet Chime. The idea is that you put this oversized doorbell button on the floor by the door, and the dog presses the button to alert you that he needs to go out; you take the dog out, and save on carpet cleaning bills.

It was surprisingly easy to train two of the three Mini Schnauzers who let us live with them to use the bell. The third, our "human" dog, Lili, just didn't understand why she should take the time. Her needs are met in every way, so why bother?

We started with teaching the "touch" trick [see previous post - Teaching a Dog to Touch on Command]. This behavior was then fairly easily transferred to touch the bell - go outside. In a week or so, both Ivie and Trooper had this figured out (Lili did easily learn the touch trick, since she wouldn't pass up a chance to get a yummy treat, but she still can't be bothered to ring the bell to go out).

Fast forward a couple of years, and Trooper seems to have discovered a new use for the bell. Now after ringing the bell, instead of standing by the front door, when we come downstairs we'll find him standing by the food bowl (I'm hungry) or standing at the base of the stairs (please open the gate - I'm lonely and want to be upstairs with you), or even standing in the middle of the living room carpet with his favorite toy in his mouth (I'm bored and want you to play with me).

Lately, he's even started a new trick with the bell. We think he rings it when Lili needs to go out. There have been multiple occasions where he will ring the bell, get taken out, and then ring it again just a few minutes later. Yet, when we go downstairs to see what he wants, he runs from the door and curls up on the sofa, but Lili, the one who never bothers to ring the bell (unless there's a treat involved), is sitting patiently by the door waiting to go out. Our little canine companions never cease to amaze us!

"Jeeves, please have the car brought around."
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Teaching a Dog to Touch on Command

From left to right:

Lili, Trooper, and Ivie

Teaching a pup how to "touch" on command is a fairly easy trick to teach. You can use just about any prop at first - we started with a mouse pad. For best results, train new tricks in short sessions (just a few minutes each session), but often. We teach new tricks in the evenings and on weekends, when we can devote about five minutes out of every hour to the pups, over a four to six hour period.

Here are the basic steps that worked well with our Mini Schnauzers:

1. Decide on your first prop; something like a mouse pad, piece of cardboard, book, etc.

2. Put your prop in front of your pup and when he touches it (with paw or nose), mark it with your clicker or training word (ours is "Yes!") and give him a treat.

3. Pick up your prop and put it back down and again treat him when he touches it. After awhile, start saying "touch" when you put the prop down so he starts associating the word with the action.

4. After your pup shows some touch consistency, switch things up a bit by using different props, and move it around so he doesn't associate "touch" with any particular prop or place.

5. Try putting your pup in a sit/stay, and then put your prop down a few feet away from him and point to the prop, telling him to touch. Our kids really liked this game - once we gave the command "touch", they would run and pounce on the prop! [As evidenced in the composite picture above]

6. Once your pup understands touch, put his paw print bell on the floor by the door you go out to walk him. Every time you take him out, tell him to "touch" the bell before opening the door.

It won't be long before he's ringing the bell to let you know he has to go out, and maybe, like our Trooper, to also tell you he's hungry, wants to play, or his sister has to go out!!

November is Pet Cancer Awareness Month

Pet Cancer Early Warning Signs from the
American Veterinary Medical Association:

• Abnormal swellings that persist or continue to grow
• Sores that do not heal
• Weight loss
• Loss of appetite
• Bleeding or discharge from any body opening
• Offensive odor
• Difficulty eating or swallowing
• Hesitation to exercise or loss of stamina
• Persistent lameness or stiffness
• Difficulty breathing, urinating or defecating

Contact your veterinarian if you notice your dog or cat displaying any of these signs. Early detection is vital for successful treatment and recovery of pet cancer.

[Taken from a VPI pet insurance communication. ]
All of our pets are insured with VPI – check it out at http://www.petinsurance.com/
If you join, please let them know we referred you.
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Dog Poop

We don't often think about dog poop. All right - if you have a dog, you know that's a lie. Our dog's poop can tell us a lot. It can let us know if Fido (pseudonym) isn't feeling well, if he ate something he shouldn't have, or if he's doing just fine.

Having three Mini Schnauzers, we pretty much took for granted the small size of their "output". That is, until we came across some poop that looked like it must have come from an elephant! (Okay, we know it actually came out of a canine, but we can't imagine how big it must have been to have created that biscuit).

So, that prompted us to do our newest design - No Poop Walk. Go to Other Stuff - T-Shirts on the left side of our home page to check it out. http://www.dogshirtstore.com/

Here's our PSA for the day:
If you walk your dog in public, please do your neighbors a favor and PICK UP YOUR POOP!!! Well, your dog's poop, anyway. Besides, it's the law! :-)

Just How Smart is Your Dog?

We all think our dog is the smartest pup around, don't we? But, just how smart is your dog? How does he or she compare to the breed standard?

We have three Mini Schnauzers, and if we equate them to people, we have one who we think is "book smart" - she's analytical, one who is "street smart" - she's intuitive, and one who is just a clown (but yes, he is pretty sharp, too!) - he's extremely observant.

According to S. Coren, author of "The Intelligence of Dogs", there are three types of dog intelligence:

Read more »

Summer SAD - Maybe I'm NOT Going Crazy?

Okay, according to most who know me, I probably already am crazy. But I think this may be different - really. I've made no secret of the fact that I'm going through the dreaded menopausal phase of life, and have pretty much blamed every ache, pain, and negative thought on my hormones. However, this summer things became so much worse. I remember it started during our June flyball tournament. All of a sudden, I couldn't stand to be outside in the heat and sun, even to walk our dogs. If I had to be outside longer than a few minutes, it could bring on a full-blown anxiety attack.

I started calling myself a vampire - I hibernated during the day and only went out in the evenings, after the sun went down. I would hate it when the dogs asked to go out when Del, my husband, wasn't home to walk them. Our air conditioning went out one day, and the panic attack wasn't pretty.

Besides our webstore, we also vendor at dog sport events. Although we rely on that income since I lost my full-time job in May (after 13 years of service), we had to cancel several trips because the thought of traveling in the hot sun was just to much to bear - what if we had car trouble and didn't have a/c?

We stopped going to our flyball practices - it was just too hot. I became reclusive. If I had to go out during the day, I would take a cooler of ice, a battery-powered fan, and lots of cold water with me - "just in case". I didn't communicate much with my friends. Hard to explain why I didn't want to meet them for lunch, or go shopping, etc. In my head, it just sounded silly to say I couldn't go out because it was too hot. I was depressed, I was sad, I was anxious, I was frustrated. I also cried a lot.

After getting my hormones tested, it was confirmed - I was in perimenopause. So, I tried researching menopause related anxiety. Not much helpful information, except to take hormones or go on antidepressants. I didn't like either option. Very small doses of Xanax only when things got very bad helped, but still, I really hate having to take anything.

Then, finally, a cool spell for a whole week - the temperatures went below 90 degrees. It was wonderful! I took the dogs out for walks, I practiced flyball with them in the back yard. I sat soaking in the sun and it felt great!

Then the temperatures went back up, and I am staying in the house once again. At this point, I'm watching the forecast and getting excited that this coming week the temperatures will once again be under 90.

That brings us to tonight. Del is a musician (born in Canada) and belongs to a Canadian classic rock email group. He really does glean a lot of useful (and not so useful) information from that group! Tonight, there was a posting about SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) on the list.

Del hadn't heard of it, so he proceeded to look it up. While reading about SAD, he found out there is actually such a thing as REVERSE SAD - an extremely small group of people are actually affected not by winter, but by summer. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information about it, except that it isn't known if it is caused by the sun or the heat, and there isn't really a treatment for it (winter SAD has a few different treatments, one of which is light therapy). Antidepressants have been found helpful in that they can lower your body temperature so that you don't feel as hot, but again, not crazy about taking meds here.

I don't know why this started affecting me this summer, but I guess I can still blame that on hormonal changes. I do feel validated, at least in a small way, just knowing that there may be an explanation other than I'm going crazy.

I would very much appreciate getting feedback from anyone else who has gone through this, especially if you have found anything that could help.

Ilene.