Arnicadia Farms   

1/22/10 Daily Astorian - In One Ear

Bring out the best in your dog

By Elleda Wilson
Editorial Assistant

"The ASSOCIATION OF PET DOG TRAINERS (www.apdt.com), an educational and professional association for dog trainers, has proclaimed January 'NATIONAL TRAIN YOUR DOG MONTH,'" according to ERICA CURTIS of Arnicadia Farms Dog Training in Cathlamet, Wash. "The goal of this campaign is to promote the importance of training and socialization to all dog owners." The Ear loves their motto, "Bring out the best in your best friend!"

Go to (www.trainyourdogmonth.com), and you will find lots of dog training tips and other resources. "Since January is the time for New Year's resolutions," Curtis added, "it is the perfect time for the dog owners of Astoria, Warrenton and Seaside, and those who may be considering getting a dog, to learn about the importance and impact of training for their pet."

December 2009 Bow Wow Dog News

By Erica Curtis, Arnicadia Farms Dog Training

Whether you’re giving or receiving, one of the best gifts at Christmas is a new puppy. That sweet puppy breath, the excited yipping, the shredded presents, the pee on the carpet, OOOPS! That was a short-lived fantasy! But seriously, now that you’ve got the puppy, what do you do about the mess, the noise, the destruction, and sleepless nights?

Well, let’s back the Christmas Train up a bit.

Choosing Your Puppy -

When looking for a puppy, try to find a breeder close to where you live so you can visit and meet the parents, see the puppies and how they’re kept. If you’re unsure about a breeder, ask your vet to recommend one. You can adopt a puppy or young dog from the shelter. But one place you do not want to purchase your puppy is a pet store or from a breeder who will not allow you to come to their property to see the parents or the litter.

Often, these puppies come from puppy-mills and can have genetic inherited defects. Since they are usually taken from their mothers and littermates way too early, they can be sickly and seriously under-socialized. Buying one of these puppies only supports the puppy mill breeders and prolongs the suffering of the animals they keep for breeding purposes.

Before Puppy Comes Home -

There are the obvious things: buying cute little toys, an adorable little bed, cute puppy leashes and matching collars. But let’s talk about the things that don’t always occur to people when they think about their new puppy.

The first thing that should be on your list is a good book on owning and raising a puppy. I recommend Dr. Ian Dunbar’s book “Before & After Getting Your Puppy”, which outlines everything you need to know to select the right puppy, as well as all the crucial lessons a puppy must be taught during its impressionable early development. These lessons are absolutely important to your dog’s success in our world and in the dog world.

Housetraining -

Housetraining is one of the most important things for a puppy to learn in order to live happily with humans. Dunbar’s chapter on “Errorless Housetraining” explains exactly how to housetrain your puppy and introduce it to appropriate toys that it can chew on, a concept not often thought of by new puppy owners until after the puppy has found an endless supply of inappropriate things to chew around the home.

Puppies learn all their good or bad habits in the first weeks in their new home. By utilizing short- and long-term confinement areas for your puppy while it is learning the rules of living with humans, housetraining will be more enjoyable for you and your pup. I like to call this time the “learn it to earn it” period. Puppies have to learn what we expect of them in the way of housetraining, manners and obedience in order to earn more freedom.

Establish rules, boundaries and limitations for your puppy. In utilizing a crate and having special areas for your puppy to hang out in, we are teaching the pup impulse control; self-soothing and self-confidence; and most importantly, where it is to potty and the most direct route to get there. We don’t allow our human babies to just crawl all over the house and get in to trouble, and we shouldn’t allow our puppies to either.

Socialization –

A puppy needs to experience the world and meet lots of different people in positive ways. The puppy needs to meet and play with size and age-appropriate puppies and older dogs who are friendly to puppies. They also need to learn to allow humans to handle their bodies, right down to the tips of their toenails.

Important Developmental Stages –

All puppies go through critical fear periods, much like human infants and toddlers experience. In pups, these fear periods occur at seven to nine weeks; four to six months; eight to nine months; one year of age; and approximately 14 to 18 months. During these periods, puppies may show fear of things, situations or people with whom they formerly felt safe.

It is very important to be patient with your puppy during these times. Your puppy really is afraid and needs to learn that whatever it is afraid of isn’t something it should fear. It is not a good time to introduce your pup to new situations or people.  

Be very careful how you interact with your puppy. Physical punishment and harsh reprimands are never a good idea. It is a blueprint for disaster with a puppy during these fear periods and you will be laying the ground-work for future aggression problems in your pup. This is a scientifically proven fact, and not just a popular theory.

Nutrition –

Buy high-quality puppy kibble to address the nutritional needs of your puppy. Although it may be more expensive,  because it is more nutritious you will feed less, and there will be less waste, so in the long run it’s actually a better value, and healthier for your puppy.

Read labels carefully. Avoid foods that contain corn in any form as corn can pose an allergy risk to many puppies and dogs. Because canines are carnivores, the first two ingredients should be protein from meat. Common meat sources are chicken, turkey, lamb or beef.

You can find high quality puppy food at your vet’s office, local pet supply stores, and local “feed farm & garden” stores. Generally speaking, supermarket brands are lower quality.

Armed with all this information, you will be well prepared for your little bundle of joy when it arrives!

Merry Christmas!

Erica Curtis is the owner of Arnicadia Farms Dog Training and trains puppies, dogs and their families on the North Coast of Oregon and Southwest Washington. Erica will be offering puppy classes in February 2010. Please watch the January Bow-Wow for times and place. Erica can be reached at 503-791-0100 in Oregon and 360-431-1149 in Washington for pre-puppy counseling and readying your home & family for your pup.

Great dog training links:

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/

http://www.dogstardaily.com

http://www.alphadogtoys.com/creative-dog-toys-alleviate-boredom.html

http://www.aspcabehavior.org/

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/moredogtreatrecipes.htm

http://www.sitstay.com

October 2009 Bow Wow Dog News, pg 3 & 6

Erica Curtis is no fan of Cesar Millan. Curtis, a pet dog trainer from Puget Island, Wash. says the popularity of Millan’s Dog Whisperer show with its emphasis on dominance and ruling with an “iron paw” has been detrimental to many dogs and their relationship with

their owners.

She observes that many dogs who have been trained by this “dominance theory” have basically shut down and are victims of learned helplessness, which she explains as dogs being “unable to offer anything in way of behavior that hasn’t been trained.”

She says, “When you are going to train anything, your dog needs clues. He needs to be shown what you want.” With dominance theory training, she explains, “If the dog guesses wrong, it gets hurt. Pretty soon the dog is afraid to offer anything but learns it won’t get punished for doing nothing.” So basically, she says, you get a robot dog who obeys commands but is afraid to offer other behaviors because it has learned it gets punished for everything that the trainer isn’t asking for.

Curtis has a different approach to training dogs. She is an enthusiastic proponent of positive reinforcement training and a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT), an organization that “promotes caring relationships between dogs and people by educating trainers in canine behavior and emphasizing professionalism and reward-based training.”

She says, “So many trainers in the APDT are not ashamed to say that they started out 20 or 30 years ago with choke chains and jerking and domination and alpha rolls, but they were always uncomfortable with the methods as they could clearly see that the more sensitive dogs were being damaged by the punitive confrontational style.”

Since its formation in 1993, the APDT has actively endorsed positive training while research has shown that positive reinforcement methods get results. “It’s not dominance, it’s leadership,” she says. “We shape behavior by luring behavior, encouraging dogs to try stuff, and then reward it [the desired behavior] the instant it happens. When a dog figures it out for itself, it’s locked and loaded,” she says. “A light bulb goes on.”

When it comes to dog training, she puts it simply, “It should be fun.”

Unfortunately, too many dog trainers still rely on choke chains, prong collars and jerking as their training methods. “What I’ve run into,” says Curtis, “are people who have seen one trainer—consulted with a dominance theory trainer—and left in tears.” One client told her that after attending an obedience class lead by a woman who uses aversive training methods, she left in tears and apologized to her dog all the way home.

“There is never any reason for a so-called professional to slap around a dog, or use choke chains, prong collars or jerking. It is very distressing,” she states.

Curtis says her clients all want one thing: They want their dog to behave. “The two top requests they make are they want their dog to walk on leash nicely and they don’t want them to jump on people,” she reports.

However, she adds, “People have concerns. They want their dog’s behavior to change, but they say, ‘Don’t change my dog’s personality.’” Using positive reinforcement, Curtis says she can teach a dog “leave it ” “sit,” “down,” “stay,” and do a recall.

“People say, ‘My dog won’t sit; he’s too hard-headed or stubborn,’” but she says she can get a dog to learn to sit in five minutes by luring it into position and rewarding its success. “The treats aren’t the thing,” she points out, “it’s about motivating the dog initially, and teaches the dog ‘focus on us’ and impulse control.”

Curtis says her clients are “owners of family members with hair,” and says her job is to train dogs to live happily with their families. “I train dogs,” she says, “I coach the owners.”

Upbeat and energetic, Curtis describes herself as “tenacious” which extends both to her devotion to her clients and her desire to stay current with training philosophies and methods. And she has little patience for dog trainers who are still stuck in training methods dating back to World War II. She says, “With all the scientific information we have on dogs and how they learn and their true social structure (not erroneous theories on wolf-packs), it seems strange to resist learning more about the profession you’ve chosen, and updating your training philosophy and methods to reflect the proven efficacy of positive reinforcement training.”

She suggests that anyone looking for a dog trainer or signing up for an obedience class ask two key questions: What is your training theory, and, do you use positive reinforcement? “If they hem and haw,” she warns, “think twice. If you are uncomfortable with the way any trainer is working with your dog, stop. Ask for an explanation, and leave if you are unhappy.” Curtis prefers to work individually with clients along the Oregon north coast and southwest coast of Washington, offering private in-home lessons and also providing day training, where she goes to the family’s home and works with the dog while the owners are at work.

As for her own training approach, Curtis tells clients, “I will work with you and do my utmost to address concerns you have about you and your dog’s relationship,” adding, “I won’t condone getting mad at the dog because you haven’t conveyed what you want.”

Curtis admits, “I would say my biggest strength is that I am not only a dog-lover, dog-owner, and dog trainer, but I’m also a people-person. I enjoy my clients and their dogs, and I’m finding that dog training may just be the best job I’ve ever had. I pride myself on my knowledge and I have a real commitment to continue to expand on that knowledge, so that my clients and their dogs can benefit.”

Erica Curtis lives with her husband and her 12-year-old Brittany, Kip, at Arnicadia Farms on Puget Island, Wash. www.arnicadiafarms.com, 360-431-1149, 503-791-0100.