AKC Canine Ambassadors:what they do

As an AKC Canine Ambassador, my Airedales, Neisha and Kate, help me teach children to be safe around dogs. We visit schools, camps, Girl Scout troops, and libraries to teach children about being safe around dogs.

In most parts of the country, there are serious problems with loose dogs, and most of the children that I talk to are afraid of dogs. Some have been chased by these dogs and knocked down. I talk to them about how to be safe around dogs, about never approaching a loose dog, about telling an adult about a loose dog so the adult can call for help for the dog, and what to look for before approaching a dog. Using advice from another Canine Ambassador, I tell the children to be sure they can see a collar attached to a leash held by a person, or more briefly Collar - Leash - Person and I get the children to chant those three words so that they will remember to look for the collar, the leash and the person.

I tell the children that when they see a loose dog coming towards them, they need to stand still and “be a tree.” And I tell them not to stare at the dog, but to look to the side or down at the ground. I tell them about a time when I was a child and two St. Bernards loved to chase me when I rode by on my bicycle. I tell them how I learned to stop, be very still and firmly tell the dogs to "go home!". I tell them how that worked for me and helped me get over my fear of dogs that were not mine.

I demonstrate how to ask permission to pet a dog (as long as it has a collar, leash and person) first with a toy stuffed Airedale and then with my dog. I show them how, after asking permission to pet a dog, to determine if the dog seems happy to be petted by the child. I teach them to make a fist, and let the dog sniff their closed fist, and I teach them how to pet the dog under its chin or on its chest.

Then I let them approach my dog one by one. They are always so cute, and at one visit, a child who had been knocked down by a loose dog was one of the first children to approach us. The dog stands quietly, and lets each child approach her, sniffs their fists, and lets them pet her. When a child forgets to pet under her chin and reaches over to pet her head, the dog's nose does just what I had demonstrated with the stuffed Airedale: she follows their hand with her nose making it impossible for them to pet her head because she is so busy sniffing their hand!

When every child has had an opportunity to pet the dog, we relax with her, usually by sitting on the floor around her with one child at a time stroking her, rubbing her belly, giving her a treat, or just talking to her. The dogs love this part of the visit, and often initiate it by lying down so the children can rub their belly. The children love giving Neisha treats because she has a very soft mouth and they never feel her teeth. My job is to make sure they don’t overdo the treats.

All too soon, our visits are over. I give each child two AKC coloring books, one about safety around dogs and the other about responsible dog ownership, and a bookmark with reminders about caring for a dog. Then we pack up and head home..

All together, each session is a great outing and a great experience. The dog that I take to the session seems to enjoy doing this as much as I do.

Train Your Dog Like Competitors Do

The Week of the Airedale (WOTA) 2003 captured the imagination of Airedale lovers worldwide. We thrilled at Airedales tracking, trailing, flushing and retrieving. We enjoyed the dogs in the companion day events. We applauded the rescue Airedales at they paraded by us. We marveled at how uniquely Airedales do obedience and agility. We applauded the Airedale drill team. And we admired the dogs in the conformation ring.

Whether we attended or followed the events in daily reports and pictures on e-lists and websites, many of us promised ourselves we’d be at WOTA 2007. And many of us said we wanted to be there with an Airedales ready to compete.

It takes time to get ready. It takes time to train and build a rapport with our dogs whether we compete or not.

After the last WOTA, in an interview with me, Mary Barker, winner of the most versatile handler award and the owner of the dogs that won most versatile and runner up most versatile Airedales, outlined eight tips for owners who want to compete in WOTA 2007. These tips are good for training any dog at any time in his or her life.

1. Use soft words. Be patient. Always keep your voice pleasant. Never raise your voice. And use corrections that give your dog specific information on how to do a specific exercise. For example, Mary sometimes used a wooden spoon coated with peanut butter to show one of her Airedales exactly how to do something.
2. Keep it simple and visualize what you want your Airedale to do. “Form a mental picture in your mind of what you want your dog to do,” Mary said. “With that picture, you can give corrections in such a way that you help your dog understand what to do.” Not only does Mary visualize her dogs doing an exercise perfectly, she pictures them doing it with a happy attitude and with their tails and ears up.
3. Make training fun. Since Mary competes in obedience, agility and tracking, she keeps training fun by mixing exercises from different sports in each training session. This helps her dogs pay close attention to her and have fun in every session. So mix things up and don’t overdo one thing in any one session.
4. Don’t rush into competition. Like a good teacher, Mary takes her time and makes sure that her students (her Airedales), are ready to do what she wants before she puts them to the test.
5. Plan in advance. Mary attributes her success with her Airedales to her professional experiences as a teacher and an engineer. She focuses on the details and breaks each task down into many small details. When she is training a dog, she works on different parts of an exercise every week. When she and the dogs have learned all the details of a specific exercise, she pulls the whole exercise together. To train for WOTA 2003, she planned every detail, from which events she would show in, how she and her dogs would prepare, what distractions she needed to prepare her dogs for, and more. She broke every exercise into goals and then identified the individual things that she needed to do with each dog and did them.
6. Work every day. No matter how short or long, work your dog in some aspect of their training every single day. Mary and her dogs worked six nights a week for six months to prepare for WOTA 2003. Every night, they did routines and Mary focused on one specific thing in each exercise: heeling, head up, sits, downs, weave poles, etc. until she was satisfied that she and the dog had that part of the exercise down pat.
7. Be ready for anything. Mary says, “It’s the trainer’s responsibility to expose their dog to all the things that they may encounter in the competition.” Because WOTA 2003 was an outdoor event and Mary and her dogs were accustomed to competing indoors, she moved all her training outdoors as soon as the snow was off the ground in Wisconsin. “That only gave me a month,” she said, “but it was enough.” Then when she arrived at Purina farms, she noticed that the grass was longer than AKC regulations permit and the longer grass really bothered one of her dogs. So she took the time to practice with that dog in the longer grass until he ignored it.
8. Find lots of ways to measure your progress. Use fun matches to determine where you and your dog need more work. Ask friends to run you through routines so you can check on how you are doing. Work with your dogs until what you do matches your ideal picture of each routine.

Mary Barker’s approach paid off in 2003. These eight tips about how she prepares renewed my love of training my dogs.

So get started now. Take whatever lessons you need, practice at least one detail every day, participate in matches, and have fun with your dog(s).

*****

How Serious Is Canine Flu?

This article was written in 2005 before there was a canine flu vaccine. Although today there is a vaccine, the same group of dogs that they say need the vaccine today were the dogs that caught the flu back then. It has, however, spread to most parts of the country. The links at the end of the article were updated January 2012.

Canine Influenza, or canine flu, first came to public attention in early 2004. Since then, news broadcasts in different parts of the country have periodically sounded the alarm that this is a deadly threat to pet dogs. What are the facts behind these news stories?

What is canine flu? Canine influenza is a highly contagious respiratory infection of dogs that is caused by a virus that is closely related to the virus that causes equine influenza. This canine virus was first identified in Florida among racing greyhounds in January 2004. From June to August of 2004, outbreaks of canine respiratory disease were reported at 14 racing tracks in six states. Over the next year, outbreaks occurred at 20 tracks in 11 states. Infection has also been confirmed in pet dogs in 16 states from California to Massachusetts and from Oregon to Florida.. Cases of canine flu have occurred in animal shelters, pet stores, boarding kennels, and veterinary clinics.

How are dogs with canine flu treated? Veterinarians use supportive animal care and nutritional practices that assist the dogs in mounting an effective immune response. Depending on the severity of the symptoms, a broad-spectrum bactericidal antimicrobial may be used.

Do I need to be concerned about where I take my dog and what activities we participate in? Dog owners need to be aware that any situation that brings dogs together do increase the risk of spreading communicable infections in general. Canine influenza is easily killed by disinfectants commonly used by vet clinics, boarding facilities, and animal shelters, so as long as good infection control practices are used, owners involved in shows, sports, other dog activities, and owners using boarding and grooming facilities or dog parks and dog care services should not be overly concerned.

What should I do if my dog has a cough or a nasal discharge?

(1) Schedule an appointment with your veterinarian for an exam and evaluation and to recommend an appropriate course of treatment.

(2) Do not allow a dog with symptoms such as coughing or other signs of respiratory disease to participate in activities with other dogs. Canine flu, like kennel cough, is highly contagious, and there is no vaccine available yet against canine flu. [Note 2012: there now is a vaccine available against canine flu].

What are the symptoms of canine flu? There are two forms of the disease: a mild form and a more severe form that is accompanied by pneumonia.

(1) Dogs suffering from the mild form of canine influenza develop a soft, moist cough that persists for 10 to 30 days. Sometimes they have a dry cough that mimics kennel cough. These dogs may also have a thick nasal discharge caused by a secondary bacterial infection.

(2) Dogs that contract the severe form of the disease develop high fevers (104 degreees to 106 degrees) and have clinical symptoms of pneumonia, such as increased respiratory rates. Pneumonia may be due to a secondary bacterial infection

How contagious is canine influenza? Because this is a newly emerging disease and there is no vaccine as yet, almost all dogs, regardless of breed or age, have no immunity and are susceptible to infection. Almost all dogs exposed to canine influenza develop the disease, nearly 80 percent show clinical signs of disease, most affected dogs have the mild form, and the fatality rate is much lower than the news indicates.

Is canine flu fatal? There have been a lot of news reports indicating that canine influenza is a fatal disease, and there was a high fatality incidence in the first major outbreak of the disease in January 2004. However, Dr. Cynda Crawford, a veterinary immunologist at the University of Florida, and experts at the Centers for Disease Control, report that this disease “is not as deadly as people want to make it.” The fatality rate is between one and five percent of serious cases.

Where can I get more information and updates on canine flu (updated January 2012)?

• CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/canine/
  
• AVMA: http://www.avma.org/public_health/influenza/canine_bgnd.asp
  
• VETMED: Canine Influenza Fact Sheet for Veterinarians, 2010, http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts_waddl/dx/K9Influenza.aspx
• American Veterinary Medical Association: (http://www.avma.org/public_health/influenza/default.asp)