CyraX’s lair

Short answer – no

Long answer – definitely not.

Let me explain. I have trained all of my foster dogs (except the first one), to love their crates. I have trained other people’s dogs to love their crates. None of the dogs that I had trained hated their crates. I train the dogs to consider their crates are the best place on Earth, the place to go and rest, the place to go and expect rewards, the place to “hide” when they feel uneasy/frightened.

The crate triggers a den instinct in the mind of a dog. Dogs are relatives of Wolves. Observe the wolves in the wild (Natl Geographic) and you will understand what a den means to these Canines. Everytime a dog wants to sleep, it seeks out a place that has something covering it’s head. The shorter the height, the better the dog feels. Observe where your dog sleeps in the night. Ofcourse not all dogs will sleep under furniture if they find some other place more comfortable. For example: A cooler, soft surface and closer to YOU might be more tempting than a shelter over the head. However, if the dog gets startled (ex: fireworks or lound noises) the first thing it would do is run as far away from the source as possible. Then find shelter under your bed/desk/chair. In my case, I train the dogs to consider their crate to be similar to “Noah’s Ark”. At the same time, a crate is not a holding cell. Your dog needs to get out of the crate at regular intervals for good lengths of time to actually love the crate. Else the dog will consider the crate a “no fun place”.

I never consider the dog’s crate as a place for punishment. It should be the place where the dog sleeps, settles down and enjoys watching everyone in the house go about doing their business. Some people send the dog into the crate as a punishment and this will make the dog resent the crate. Hardly the unexpected reaction from a dog.

If you train your dog to enjoy being in it’s crate you can leave the house without having to worry about your house being destroyed when you return. You need not worry about the dog crying. You need not worry about the dog excreting in the house. You need not worry about two dogs in your house fighting each other. You need not worry about taking the dog out (dog travels in the crate). You need not worry about the dog biting your guests or jumping on them. You need not worry about the dog running away from the house when he/she is afraid. They will run into the crate and cower. Your dog will calm down when it doesn’t have too much room to run. The default reaction for a dog when confined to small spaces is to fall asleep.

So take my word, crate train your dog. Will save you a lot of effort. One of the first thing that helps in training a “bad” dog is to restrict its movement. That’s where a crate becomes extremely useful. Is it inhumane to lower the dog’s excitement in the house? Would you rather be happy to see your favourite furniture chewed up? Would you be happy when your best friend gets knocked over by your loving German Shepherd? Would you be happy when he/she tells you that he/she cannot meet you at your place because he/she is afraid of your dog? Think about it.

Last weekend was awesome. I met Faye and her dog “Goldie”, a 10month old Golden Retriever for the second time. I have been training Goldie for two consecutive weekends now. Goldie is extremely gorgeous. Very intelligent but has a few issues with manners. She is quite curious and has a high prey drive. Extremely good personality and can be quite manipulative. I generally do not fall for “cuteness” but yesterday I fell for it once. I could not reprimand her because she was too cute.

She knows how to behave in front of  people. It all depends on the person whom she meets. If the person pampers her, she will manipulate them. If the person, like me, does not fall for things like cuteness she behaves well.

Yesterday it was extremely hot and humid. When Faye, Goldie and I went for a walk I was extremely exhausted. So was Goldie. Goldie was constantly panting. Fortunately the road was not too hot for her pads and we came back to Faye’s place fast enough. Then Goldie went as slept on the tiled floor because the tiles are extremely cool.

The first time  I met Goldie and Faye, Goldie was quite unruly. Faye knew the important aspects of dog training and did her homework. Faye commits only a few mistakes and all I needed to do was point them out for her. I must say that Faye is a responsible dog owner. Unlike some of the other dog owners Faye did her homework wrt pack structure. Faye did everything 90% right but that last 10% was what troubled her. She is one of the few dog owners who gives enough time for her dog. 2 x 45 mins walk everyday. Goldie is definitely a happy girl with all those regular walks.

So when I went to her place the first time, it took hardly anytime to correct Goldie’s bad habits. Faye could understand the little mistakes that she was committing. When I went to their place yesterday, Goldie was much better. Obviously Faye has been doing something right. I think it has more to do with her instinctive leadership. Goldie would not jump on me and was well behaved on the leash. Yesterday I did not even walk Goldie! I was just telling Faye when she committed a mistake, which btw were very few.

It has been my principle to NOT accept any money for the dog training that I do. Especially with someone like Faye who is responsible with her pet it would be my pleasure to help. Ofcourse she would buy lunch for me How can I turn down an offer to have good food? Yesterday we went to a place called “Dal”, an Indian cuisine restaurant, for lunch. It was nice. Really good food. Faye gave me a couple of books on training and I intend to read them as soon as possible.

Goldie should have understood her place in the pack. What we need to do now is train her to do some of the retriever things like fetching a ball/stick. Since she has a good prey drive this should be easy. We also need to train Goldie to “stay”. With a girl as happy as Goldie, training is quite easy and simple.

I went to the new KAPS shelter in Boeun on Sunday. The place has a nice view and is large enough for @least 200 animals. Cats, I believe, are the luckiest with a lot of space to run around.

I also met some foreigners who attended the opening ceremony.  The best part of it was the dogs. They had four dogs roaming around freely in a fenced area. People could pet them and play with them. The pack consisted one each of :

-  Pyrenean mountain dog aka Great Pyrenees

-  Alaskan Malamute

- Siberian Husky

- some pointer, I do not know the exact breed though.

While the first three were happy to meet people and be pet and played with, the pointer was too nervous and was actually demanding attention. On three occasions the pointer attacked the Pyrenees. I could see it coming right from the moment I entered the pen holding these dogs. I was actually more afraid that the pointer might hurt the kids.  Fortunately nothing really bad happened.

I would actually blame the people who entered the pen without knowing what they were getting into. They would pet the pointer everytime the pointer would nudge them, jump on them, come between them and another dog, show its teeth to them etc;. All this did was to reinforce the idea that the pointer could get what he wanted when he showed aggression/dominance.  I did not pet the pointer and pushed him off of me when he jumped on me, then stared intently into the pointer’s eyes. I think that the pointer got the idea and would avoid me always. I did not have to “sneak” out of the pen. I just walked upto the gate, opened it and closed it behind me.

Also I could not see a collar around any of the dogs. It would have been so nice to have a collar around their neck because I could hold them back very easily. Anyway, all’s well and that ends well.

Some of the pics from yesterday.

http://beta.zooomr.com/photos/cyrax <- from my camera

http://picasaweb.google.com/gordie26/KAPS?authkey=Wc-zh0h57_w  <- From Gordie’s camera