It was a Dog day after all

There was a calm in the clear blue sunny skies in Santa Fe today. With temperatures hovering at the fifty degree mark, humans and canines were out in greater numbers, muscles relaxing, noses revelling in their canine colleagues passing by.

I started off walking one young large Herding dog through his neighborhood, clicker training to impress upon him, the importance of heeling to my left and to discourage the lunge and smell method that a hundred pound dog can so easily demonstrate by destabilizing you! My charge met more neighborhood dogs than he had in recent days as more owners had elected to allow their dogs out into their now warmer front yards. Greetings were fairly cordial with the exception of a boisterous and older chihuahua whose implied vocation was that of serious territorialist! Fort Knox must truly lie within his owners compound based upon the voraciousness of his growls and barks! We wandered round a neighborhood school yard, observed basketballs bantering along the black pavement neighborhood court, walked off to the side as a bicyclist glided by and came within twenty feet to the cutest baby beagle. My canine companion bounded forward to smell more of the pure bred puppy now lying under his enormous muzzle! Not even Snoopie could ever have been this cute!

Beagles it has been empirically noted are sight dogs, in that they respond almost exclusively to visual cues and movement. If you have ever met a beagle owner, they will tell you that beagles have a mind of their own. Certainly they have their agendas, one being a commitment to following the scent, which is why they have been used as hunting dogs for low these many years. Employing body language cues when communicating with a beagle and certainly when introducing a new cue or command is well worth the body motion. The baby beagles owner indicated that she was looking for an obedience class and I encouraged her to do so recommending positive training methods with a trainer commited to employing visual cues.

I left town and headed out to my second client for the day for a one hour hike with the most adorable terrier mix I have had the great privilege to team up with. This terrier prodigy in one months time has gone from nipping at fingers in search of a treat to patiently awaiting the release of a treat, from pulling to heeling, from strutting in his own private Idaho, to consistently looking up at me to gauge his speed and direction. He sits as directed with the passage of traffic and distractions and has now taken to lying completely down in a similar fashion. God love the quick and jolly and intelligent eyes of the terrier!

My last client of the day brought her cream colored canine to meet me in a public parking lot. The young dog has consistently demonstrated strong territorial behavior at home and it was felt a neutral spot would prove the kinder and more civilized approach. And so it was. I was met by an enormously attractive and intelligent female dog. I gave her a moment to smell me and walk round me. Her body registered I had passed the sniff test. So often people do not let dogs assess us. A few minutes of allowing our canine friends the space and time to politely take us in can mean the difference between confrontation and the formation of meaningful bonds between canine and human. I asked her to sit, she did and took my organic low call treat. We walked and dicussed our strategy in Improving upon her quality of life and communication with strangers, friends, and potential challenges. We set out on a hour hour hike, trading leashes and stories, good dog theories, and dog literature, the latest thinking on canine behavior and the very definite differences between dogs and wolfs, pack animals vs. scavenger, canine sense of vision, sound, and scent...which brought us back to the parking lot we had originated from. A calmer canine, tail wagging, treats digesting, and plans for greater walks with more distractions on the horizon.