We’d shown off our two dogs for visitors before by demonstrating our dogs’ prowess at playing the Go Find It game and their understanding of sign language. We’d even shown our dogs’ love for sliced cheese, which is a joy to behold with their tails wagging furiously as they jostle each other like Laurel and Hardy trying to get through the doorway first. But never before had we put their love of sliced cheese to the ultimate test, let alone in front of witnesses.

The dogs had already gone up to bed, apparently tired of hearing us laugh and carry on over the card game we were playing. There were only four of us but you’d think there was a house full as much noise as we were making.

Once the dogs go to bed, they don’t come back down until morning so for us, this was the ultimate test. My husband wanted to demonstrate how a cheese wrapper could bring the dogs running, even from several rooms away.

The dogs were probably sleeping soundly and I just knew the trick would be a total flop. I figured they were holed up in the office which was the “quiet room” in the house, shielded from many of the downstairs sounds.

I had zero faith that the cheese test would work. No way would the dogs hear the cheese wrapper and even if they did, they were in sleep mode and wouldn’t care enough to come down and investigate. When company comes, they know that food doesn’t involve them.

The moment of truth arrived. He brought out a piece of sliced cheese, removed it from the wrapper, and then crinkled the wrapper. While it’s a distinctive sound, it’s not a very loud sound and I shook my head knowing our guests would go off telling stories of our silliness with this failed dog trick.

Immediately, the sound of two dogs shaking off sleep erupted from upstairs. Every year we add a new rabies tag to the dogs’ collars so when they shake, it’s like Christmastime jingle bells. Both dogs had heard the muffled sound of the cheese wrapper being crinkled and came bounding down the stairs with eyes aglow at the prospect of their favorite treat.

No dog whistle could have been more effective. My husband had successfully demonstrated that our dogs were so in tune to the sound of a cheese wrapper crinkling, that they’d coming running no matter how far away or how sound asleep they were.

The party trick was a hit! Our guests were duly amazed. Undoubtedly they went home laughing at our silliness with the successful dog trick.

If you know someone with a dog who never quite got the hang of potty training, or who thinks the house is a giant chew toy, give them this book. Dakota was a semi-adult shelter dog who was the Queen of Bad Behavior and the Master of Dirty Tricks. Bad Dog to Best Friend takes you from Dakota’s awful beginnings to her amazing transformation, and includes detailed how-to’s for potty training an adult dog and stopping your dog from chewing your house to pieces.

Bad Dog to Best Friend: The Book Paperback, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Audiobook book cover hosted on www.flickr.com

Tags: cheese, cheese wrapper, dog, dog eats cheese, dog likes cheese, dog loves cheese, dog trick, dog tricks, dogs, dogs eat cheese, dogs like cheese, dogs love cheese, party trick, party tricks, trick

Category: Dog Tails of Adventure

We’d gotten a glimpse of what our Catahoula Leopard dog did while home alone when we put a dog collar video camera on her. Now it was time to spy on the reformed bad dog that I’d written a book about.

Dakota’s days of being a bad dog were long over as we’d trained her well, but still we wondered what she did when we weren’t home.

The dogs were predictable in that when we pulled out of the driveway, Sierra the Catahoula Leopard dog watched us leave from the upstairs bedroom window, while Dakota the Australian Cattle Dog/Husky mix looked out from the downstairs kitchen window.

The dog collar spy cam filled in the blanks on what happened once we disappeared out of sight. Dakota, who’d been a rescue dog that was shuffled off from place to place including two stints at the dog shelter during her first few months of life, paced for most of the time that we were gone. Round and round and round she went in a giant figure eight.

Our kitchen has both an eating table and an island, adjoined by a dining room with another table, plus smaller tables in the living room all in an open floor plan. This made for difficulty with dog training but the layout was ideal for a dog who wanted to pace for hours on end.

Dakota laid down a couple of times but even then, her head was up and she looked around as if watching and waiting. Even the windows held little interest and her interactions with our Catahoula dog were brief and uneventful. The two dogs sat side by side looking out the window but Dakota quickly grew bored and went back to her pacing.

She stopped several times to drink water, which did not end up as potty in the house as it would have in the early days, and she chose her resting locations differently than when we were home. Dakota liked to snooze upstairs but the dog collar video camera showed her camping out in the living room or dining room, usually with a bird’s eye view of the door we’d come in. This was a clue as to what she was thinking about – our return home.

The only deviations were to sniff the Christmas presents sitting on the fireplace hearth, sniff a known treat location, and lick a milk jug. We played Find It games with the dogs where we’d hide dog treats for them to search out. This was a fun dog game and sometimes they didn’t find all the treats which made for interesting diversions when we were gone.

Whether Dakota sniffed around the Christmas presents just to see what they were, or whether she was hoping to find a dog treat, I don’t know. We did hide dog treats on and around the hearth for the Find It game and as soon as she was done sniffing the presents she went and sniffed the other treat location hoping to get lucky.

Watching her lick the milk jug was unexpected. When we first adopted her, empty milk jugs had been one of the items we had to train her to leave alone. Now we could leave them sitting on the floor next to the garbage can without worry as she hadn’t bothered a milk jug in years. Perhaps she was remembering those early days when she gave the milk jug a couple of quick licks. She did not attempt to chew it or move it from where it sat.

All in all the impression I got was that Dakota was bored as she wandered aimlessly, pacing and watching the door for us to come home. A conversation I had about the dog video with a girl who I’ll call Lauren turned out to be very enlightening.

Lauren didn’t do well with dogs and her dogs were so awful that nobody wanted to dog sit when she went on vacation. For years I’d listened to her sob stories of bad dogs pottying, chewing, barking, and not listening to her. Of course she considered it the dog’s fault rather than her own for not taking time to train the dogs, which is an all too common problem.

I’d given her a copy of the book Bad Dog to Best Friend in the hopes of guiding Lauren into a more positive relationship with her dogs, but two months later she still hadn’t read the book.

I hoped that telling her about Dakota’s boring dog video would prompt her to get busy reading, and she asked what Dakota did when we were home that was less boring.

I told her we played dog games such as the Find It game, interacted with the dogs both physically and by talking to them, and how even feeding time was turned into a training game. I told her that Bad Dog to Best Friend described some of the games and training exercises.

Lauren replied, “It sounds time consuming.” By the tone of her voice it was obvious that she wasn’t on board with investing time in her bad dogs.

Lauren’s attitude got me thinking about all the people I knew who were happy with their dog’s behavior versus those who were frustrated like Lauren. The happy dog owners all had one thing in common: they spent quality time with their dogs.

That’s when I realized why Lauren hadn’t read Bad Dog to Best Friend. As long as she avoided the subject, she could continue to complain about her bad dogs. She didn’t want to feel obligated to engage in the “time consuming” task that being a good dog owner entailed. Lauren did not want to learn something new that would help both her and the dogs. It was so much easier to complain about her dog’s misdeeds.

Taking time out to interact with your dogs, play games, and train the dogs goes such a long way in improving their behavior. Dakota was willing to be a good dog when we were gone because she got a payout when we came home of spending happy time with us, not to mention having freedom when we were gone versus being in a dog crate.

Take away the fun dog games, head and belly scratches, treats, dog training games, talking to her, and all the little things we did to include her in our human pack and what incentive did Dakota have for being a good dog? None. Dogs need incentives just like people. They need something fun to look forward to, which carries them through a boring day. Otherwise, why be good dogs?

You have the power to redefine your dogs. You can be like Lauren whose dogs are so awful that nobody wants to be around them, including Lauren. Or you can be like me and my husband, whose dog time brings us joy and laughter and happiness. Once you get the hang of how to interact with your dogs, all the dogs in your future will be good dogs.

If you know someone like Lauren who needs a boost in how to interact with their dog, give them this book. Dakota was a semi-adult shelter dog who was the Queen of Bad Behavior and the Master of Dirty Tricks when we adopted her. Bad Dog to Best Friend takes you from Dakota’s awful beginnings to her amazing transformation, and includes detailed how-to’s for potty training an adult dog and stopping your dog from chewing your house to pieces.

Bad Dog to Best Friend: The Book Paperback, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Audiobook book cover hosted on www.flickr.com

Tags: australian cattle dog husky mix, bad dog, bad dog to best friend, bad dogs, camera, cat camera, cat collar camera, catahoula leopard dog, dog, dog camera, dog collar camera, dogs, good dog, good dogs, pet camera, pet collar camera, rescue dog, spy cam, spy camera, video camera

Category: Dog Tails of Adventure

Do you ever wonder what your dog is doing when you’re not home? Or what your dog does when he goes wandering? A dog collar camera will answer all your questions, and it works on cats, too.

Our dogs are incredibly well behaved and we trust them implicitly in the house when we’re not home, but still you wonder. Do the dogs sniff the garbage even though they don’t disturb it? Are they thinking about getting into the garbage? Do they sneak up onto the couch to take a snooze?

Do the dogs eat the houseplants but not enough to leave evidence behind? Do they go crazy at the windows when they see a cat or dog outside? Do they bark a lot?

Do the dogs fuss at each other? Wrestle and play together? Curl up and snooze together like bosom buddies? Neither of our dogs is a breed that loves to hang around in a pack; both are designed to be solo dogs. We have a Catahoula Leopard Dog and an Ausky, which is an Australian Cattle Dog/Husky mix. Both are difficult breeds to train, and we’ve worked super hard to ensure their success as housedogs.

When we adopted Dakota a few years ago, she was the worst dog imaginable. We couldn’t trust her for two seconds out of sight, let alone with full run of the house and us not home. It took a lot of elbow grease to mold her into a really good dog, and today she’s awesome. There’s little left of the bad dog we’d once adopted, but you wonder if she still thinks about dirty deeds.

When we come home there is no evidence to indicate that they’ve done anything amiss, but still it’s possible to do a deed and leave no sign behind. Yesterday, we got our first glimpse into the world of dogs when their people aren’t home.

We put the dog collar camera on Sierra, the Catahoula Leopard Dog, and then left for two hours. Both dogs have full run of the house when we’re not home and the last thing we see as we pull out of the driveway is Sierra’s head looking out the bedroom window, and Dakota’s head looking out the kitchen window. One dog upstairs, one dog downstairs, but then what?

The full movie was one hour and forty minutes which is how long we were gone. Our Catahoula spent the entire time either looking quietly out the bedroom window, or snoozing on her blanket. Once she came halfway down the stairs, perhaps thinking we’d come home, but when she saw there was nothing of interest she went back up to the bedroom.

Every now and again she’d scratch an itch, and one time she gave a low growl when she spotted something outside, but it was brief and over with quickly. At no time did she come in contact with our other dog Dakota, who presumably stayed downstairs which totally surprised us. We thought Dakota preferred being upstairs unless she was with us. Granted, she may have been upstairs but not in the same room as the other dog, and we won’t know her home alone preferences until we put the dog spy camera on her.

As for Sierra, the real activity began when we pulled in the driveway which sent her into high gear. She’d been snoozing on the dog blanket but jumped up and ran to the window when she heard the truck. As soon as she was sure it was us, she ran downstairs to greet us.

If you’re curious about what your dogs do when you go out, invest in a dog collar camera. We used the Eyenimal Petcam, which is advertised as being “the world’s first video cam for pets.” It records sound as well as video, has a rechargeable battery, and connects to both a Mac or a PC computer to download the videos.

If you’d like to read the story of the problem dog that challenged us, Bad Dog to Best Friend shares her dirty deeds, head-strong nature, humorous anecdotes, and some of our tips in retraining her.

If you know someone with a dog who never quite got the hang of potty training, or who thinks the house is a giant chew toy, give them this book. Dakota was a semi-adult shelter dog who was the Queen of Bad Behavior and the Master of Dirty Tricks. Bad Dog to Best Friend takes you from Dakota’s awful beginnings to her amazing transformation, and includes detailed how-to’s for potty training an adult dog and stopping your dog from chewing your house to pieces.

Bad Dog to Best Friend: The Book Paperback, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Audiobook book cover hosted on www.flickr.com

Tags: camera, cat camera, cat collar camera, dog, dog camera, dog collar camera, dogs, pet camera, pet collar camera, spy cam, spy camera, video camera

Category: Dog Tails of Adventure