There is nothing like coming home after a trying day and seeing the smile of your best friend.
It changes your attitude, and it puts life back into perspective. 
The Power of a Smile
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Tag Archives: dog
Remembering the Past Part 2
This is a photo of my dog Princess Neka. She was one of my biggest challenges and one of my greatest learning experiences. She came to me as a “frightened of everything” German Shepherd Dog. She had been dumped in the country as a young dog and she had no trust of humans beyond the point of taking food and water. The rescue told me that she would never get along very well with other dogs and she should never be around kids.
I worked with her every moment I could for about 6 months. After just 8 weeks she had 5 new dog friends and was hanging out in my back yard with 3-4 of the neighborhood kids.
Before she passed away she was visiting a Nursing Care Center and she was mentoring several dogs that I was working with that had behavior issues. She was just days away from taking the test for CGC when she passed away of a sudden illness. She was only 6 years old.
Remembering the Past
Paying it Forward – Update
Back in October of 2012 I had a chance to work with two very nice young ladies. They are hungry for knowledge about dogs and I shared quite a bite of it with them. The sisters, then 5 and 10 years old, both love dogs, but the 5 YO was afraid of bigger dogs. Patchs is a bit “high strung” and that didn’t help.
Patchs
UPDATE: Patchs and I spent a few hours per week playing with the girls and the girls got to safety interact with Patchs in a fenced-in area.
I spent most of my time working with the 5 YO because she clearly needed to learn that the dog would not hurt her. I showed her that by just looking at the dog she could see what the dog was thinking and what it was going to do. Then I showed her how to use her voice and her body to control Patchs.
After about one month, she was no longer afraid of Patchs, and in fact, she started to play fetch and even started playing “chase” with her. Everytime we walk in that neighborhood, Patchs would turn into their driveway. Patchs had a new friend! Even better, every time we would see the little girl she asked us if we could stop to play for a few minutes. I get a big “Warm Feeling” in my heart every time when we get ready to leave because, she asks us, “WHEN are going to come back again!”
As I’ve said before, it’s very rewarding to “pay it forward”. Mentor kids about dogs is exciting for me because I get to watch them learn and when they “get it” their eyes get wide and a big smile spreads across their faces. It’s very cool to see that look when they realize that they can communicate with an animal in a completely natural way.
Teaching kids to properly treat animals (with love and respect) at an early age will build good character that will serve them in all areas of later life. We as adults have a responsibility to give the children in our little corner of the world all of the tools they will need to become not only great pet owners, but responsible members of society.
Teaching them to work with nature (not against it) will help a lot.
RIP Neka – 1 Year Ago Today
Neka came to us as a two-year old stray who was living as a shelter dog. No one wanted her because she had some major issues. First, she was a large dog. Next she was a black dog. But her largest issues were that she was moderately dog aggressive and she was very shy around people. In fact, the shelter told me that she could only be placed in a home with NO other pets and no small kids. That worked for me as I didn’t have either! They also said that she would not be able to be around other dogs because she would most likely get into lots of fights.
Despite these issues, there was something about her that I really liked. From the very first moment, she seamed to be drawn to me, and I to her. So I took her home. After lots of work and careful socialization she was able to play (off leash) with all of the neighbor dogs. After still more work, she became comfortable around almost all humans too. And to the amazement of some of the shelter workers, for the last two years of her life she even had a room-mate.
Today marks the one year anniversary of her passing. The atmosphere around here today is slalom and full of memories, both good and bad. The bad memories are on a very short list. They only consist of her suddenly becoming ill and the horror and panic of her final hours fighting for life. The list of good memories is a much longer list. In the almost four years that she spent as a part of our lives she learned to trust and respect humans and learned that other dogs were something to celebrate and enjoy. She found out that they were friends, not enemies. She was even working on her CGC certification and she was visiting a nursing home several times a month.
As we remember her brief life cut short by illness, she will always have a place in our hearts. Here are a few photos that spark good memories for all who knew her!
A shot of Neka "Chillin" on a crisp Winter's Day.
Neka giving me a sad look because I told her we were going back in the house.
Neka loved the cold. She looked forward to going out and laying in the snow.
What Ever Happened to Honesty
In the immortal words of singer Billy Joel,
Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.
While these words are true for humans, but they are also just as true for our four-footed best friends.
Dogs never lie.
Oh they may know how to play on our emotions … and to some degree every dog knows how to manipulate us to get what they want, but they never lie about it.
As dog owners we all need to learn how to “read” our dogs. With a bit of training and some basic knowledge about body language it is very easy to see what our dogs are feeling at any moment of the day.
If you know what to look for, you can tell when your dog is happy, sad, excited, scared or angry. Knowing what to look for can be critical because It can help you avoid some bad situations when you are out in public. Being able to read your dog will also help you read other dogs that you may encounter during your walks or when you are at the dog park.
Being able to read your dog can also help you when working with YOUR dog!
Not only is it important for us to learn to read our dog’s body language, it is also important to realize that dogs can read OUR body language as well. It is important to know that not only do they know some of the words we use, they also understand our vocal tones and feel our emotions (a.k.a. our energy or ora). Because of this we need to be in touch with our feeling and have them under control before we take Fido on a walk, train him or even interact with him.
EXAMPLE: You’ve had a bad day at work, and you are angry and stressed out when you walk thru the door at home. Your dog will immediately sense this and try to avoid it. But as you walk in to the house you want your dog to come to you. So, not thinking, you bark “COME” to your dog! Sensing your bad mood, the dog tries to avoid you and may not come to you right away. Not realizing why your dog is not coming to you, you may get mad at the dog … and the dog suffers your anger for doing something that comes natural to it … and that is avoiding unstable emotions!
On the other hand, if you take a few moments to remove your work related frustrations and stress BEFORE you walk thru the door, your dog will be glad to see you and come running as soon as he hears you put your key in the lock.
There are many other examples I could use, but you get the idea. Right?
Don’t lie to your dog! Tell him how you really feel, not how bad your day was!
Controversy and Conflict in Our Little Corner of the Dog World
Recently it was brought to our attention that one of our blog friends had “called out” a municipal animal shelter in the area for what this “blog friend” heard was going on there.
We have spent a good amount of time looking into it and thinking about it.
While we want to thank the person(s) for contacting us, (multiple times), after all things are considered, it is NOT our policy to put someone down or ridicule them for what they think, or say on their own blog. After all, a blog is meant to be a place to express ones thoughts and opinions and provoke discussion about them. And that’s exactly what this blogger is doing.
Wrong or right, it is our God give right, and our duty as citizens to question the actions of our government and the agencies that spend our tax dollars. Because we at IDT do not have any first hand knowledge about this specific subject, we can not in good conscience comment on the validity or accuracy of any statements made. That is up to the author of that blog.
What is NOT in question here is: the large amount of passion and commitment this blogger has in making sure that all animals are treated with kindness and in a humane way.
2012 Iowa Dog Trust “Pawlitzer Prize” Awards
If you read this blog yesterday you already know that Dog Leader Mysteries gave us a great vote of confidence by awarding us for our work on this blog. We see this as great praise and inspiration. It has inspired us to pass this inspiration on to other bloggers as well.
By doing this we hope to encourage more bloggers to help dog owners around the corner and around the world by offering them quality instruction, information and guidance. We will be calling ours: The “Pawlitzer Prize” Award.
This award will hopefully bring some added attention to some great but, lesser-known blogs too.
The rules for the “Pawlitzer Prize” Award are very simple.
- Nominated Blogs must contain at least 80% dog related content.
- Nominated Blogs must be active and post new items at least once per week.
- Nominated Blogs must have “G” or “PG” content that is acceptable reading for children as well as adults.
- As a way to promote all of the blog sites, we would appreciate it if nominees and winners provide a link back to this blog. It will not only promote each blog, it will also serve to make all of the blog sites more visible to Google, Yahoo and the other major search engines. This will bring more traffic to all of our blogs.
- Copy & paste our award image (above) on your blog with a link back to iowadogtrust.wordpress.com This will insure that your blog will be eligible for our Annual Award Drawing.
You may also want to consider creating a “top five blogs” list of your own. Let people know about blogs that you feel are important or interesting. After you reveal your “top five” picks, let them know about it by leaving a comment on their blog.
Our First Five “Pawlitzer Prize” Award Nominees are:
- http://peopleforanimals2011.wordpress.com/
People For Animals is one of our favorite blogs because each article is designed to educate, update and inform readers (Iowans and non-Iowans alike) on animal laws, stories and events, in hopes to get the ball rolling for tougher legislation to protect our companion animals. Education is the key to getting this problems solved. - http://trainingaservicedog.wordpress.com/
An Excellent blog about the trials and tribulations of training a service dog named Bambi. The owner hopes to someday help veterans train their own dogs but at the moment she is learning and documenting the training of Bambi. - http://www.dogleadermysteries.com/
Deborah Taylor-French writes mysteries for children; full of animal rescue and positive dog leadership. She has taught as a guest artist for California’s Artists in the Schools, led numerous teacher workshops and has raised five adopted dogs. She is also the one who provide the inspiration for this award! - http://iowadogblog.com/
This blog celebrates and discusses all things doggie in Eastern Iowa and the Midwest. It includes Announcements and events about local and regional dog happenings, Stories about her dogs and other dogs she encounters as well as suggestions for places to go (walks or getaways), for people/dogs to see, and dog-related things to check out. - http://waywarddogs.com/
Wayward Dogs is the bloggers attempt to keep track of — and if possible help – the lost and wandering dogs that she encounters. It’s also about a human search for meaning and community. It’s about sniffing around and scoping out the surroundings. It’s about venturing off (and on) trails of conventional living.
Please take a few minutes to visit each of these great blog sites and leave a comment for them.
We will be adding more nominees as the year goes by. So if you have a dog blog, just “Follow” this blog, or “Like” one of our blog posts and you will automatically be added to our list to be considered for future Pawlitzer Prize Nomination. We are also working on some sort of prize giveaway or reward of some kind for our Annual Pawlitzer Prize Award. We’ll announce it at a later date.
Related articles
- Five Animal Blogs I Dig (dogleadermysteries.com)
BOOK REVIEW – What Color is Your Dog? – by Joel Silverman
This is a great book for the beginner dog owner as well as the seasoned owner that may need to be reminded that dog training is not rocket science.
What Color is Your Dog? has nothing to do with the fact that you dog is white w/ black spots, black w/ a white patch, Brindle, Brown or even Tri-colored!
Joel Silverman’s What Color is Your Dog? teaches you the importance of establishing a solid bond between you and the dog before any major training begins.
What Color is Your Dog? teaches how to evaluate and classify your dog’s personality into one of five different categories and then shows you the proper method of training based on that personality.
It goes thru the importance of using the right training tools and shows you how to use them. It shows you how to communicate with your dog without shouting, hitting, or jerking on the leash. In fact, he shows that you don’t even need to raise your voice or get upset when your dog does something wrong! He also deals with overcoming common obsticles that arise during a training session.
About the Author:
Joel has been a professional trainer for 30+ years. He trained Sea Lions, Dolphins, and Killer Whales as well as other marine mammals before becoming a dog and cat trainer for the movie and advertising industry.
Without realizing it, you’ve seen his work in many movies and commercials for over 20 years. This work also includes all of the Iams commercials aired in the past few years.
He has been the host of Animal Planet’s “Good Dog U” (a staple of dog training for the past ten years). He also received the “Trainer Of the Year” award in 2008.
This is a “must have” book for any dog owner!
This Year Make a New Years Resolution You Can Keep
Please Help Me. If not you, Who?
We all do it. It’s really nothing new. We all sit around during the holidays and proclaim that “This coming year it’s going to be different. This year I’m going to ….” and then we go into detail about what we are going to do different and how our life will be different because of it.
But by the end of January the “resolution for change” has been put on the back burner (so to speak) or forgotten completely. But that’s OK. No one got hurt, no one’s life was harmed because of it … it’s just something that never got done. Right?
Well it might not be that simple! Lives might actually be hanging in the balance, be lost, or at the very least, they might be changed for the worst.
I’m not talking about humans here. I’m actually talking about the pets that live in shelters and with rescue groups across our great land. Millions of shelter pets are counting on us to look after them and to provide the much needed resources that they need so that they can live long enough to find great homes.
So this year, why not make a resolution you can easily keep? Resolve to help your local shelters and rescues … and then do it.
It’s actually very easy! Just search Google or Yahoo for “Animal Shelter” or “Animal Rescue” and then put your city or state behind it. When the results page is displayed, simply click on the links and pick the one (or more) groups that you like the best.
Then contact them and give them a few dollars. Any amount will be helpful. You can also take them some old blankets, towels, a few gallons of bleach or some cleaning supplies. Every shelter and group has something that they need. All you need to do is ask. Better yet, why not give them a few minutes of your time once in a while. They can always use an extra hand so help out where ever you can. They will really appreciate it!
If you can’t decide, just drop us an email and we’ll help you figure out which group is the best fit for your assistance.
Remember … Donate Locally or Your Donation will NOT Help Local Pets In Need!
A Better Dog 4U 