Carolark ... Letters Page

September 2006

Hi Carolyn,

I just had to tell you these stories. You know how much training I have done with Tillie, to get her to stop being obnoxious with other dogs, standard poodles in particular.

We have been able to walk with a standard poodle at the Bruce Pit, and one at the Stittsville woods, with little or no problem. One time Tillie started to chase the poodle in Stittsville and after one leap changed her mind on her own(!) before I even opened my mouth to say anything to her. She turned around and grinned at me and went and did her own thing in the woods. I was so pleased with her.

Next story - while walking at the Bruce Pit last week, we met a new black standard poodle, who took a liking to Kiko. Tillie took herself away from it all and was poking around in the trees a distance away. The standard poodle was leaping in at Kiko and away, and Kiko yelped one time and came and hid between my legs. As the big poodle darted in, I put my hand down in front of Kiko and discovered that the big poodle was nipping her. As I stood up to ask the owner to call the dog, Kiko ran about 10 feet away, and the big poo aimed for her again. Suddenly Tillie darted between and braced herself right beside Kiko looking at the standard poodle. The "big poo" curved off and left Kiko alone and just went away, even though the owner was still standing there. It was clearly a splitting behaviour but even more than that. (I think). Tillie and Kiko walked down the path together. I really praised Tillie when she did it.

Last story - today while walking in Stittsville with 5 dogs, we met coming toward us a woman with two dogs. One is a large male GR mix, a little too outgoing for many of the dogs we walk with. The male GR mix likes to boss a sweet curly coat retriever that was walking with us. He made one lunge at her, ran past and as he ran at her again Tillie split them! Tillie split but stood beside the curly coat and the male dog left them completely alone. What is so interesting is that this curly coat is a dog that Tillie has chased a couple of times and has learned to leave alone. Here she was protecting that dog. I am so proud of her! I tend to joke about it and say that Tillie is protecting her 'chew toys'.

I find dog behaviour so fascinating - I never would have recognized it as splitting behaviour* without my involvement at Carolark.

Thank you for letting me be part of the Carolark family.

Lynn

* link to Calming Signals pages

Hi Carolyn,

I wanted to let you know how amazingly well the Parallel walking with Echo and my friend's reactive Toller went.

We walked about a half hour yesterday going from 15' to 5' apart by the end. With handlers between dogs. To-day we could start with the dogs closest together, and after 15 minutes they were 2' apart and perfectly happy. We then added the 2 dogs left at the house and walked off leash in the woods. Everyone had a very good time.

We are thinking of starting a local Parallel walking club. It certainly helped Echo relax and accept relatively unknown dogs.

Alison

Clicker training and its power was introduced to me by Carolyn Clark in Ottawa. I watched a day seminar our club hosted and watched her Cocker Spaniel Penny do all these fun tricks. Dogs thinking, hmmm. Clicker, hmmm. I confess, I thought they were only for dolphins, Flipper species. But I slowly changed.

It came time to teach Bob, my five year old to retrieve. I had taught a few other dogs to retrieve, but not with a clicker. So I really didnt know how to start. I read an article by Suzanne Clouthier and saw its potential. I then booked some private lessons with Carolyn Clark and away we went. I highly recommend being video taped, its amazing what you will see, missed timing, perfect timing,
dogs reactions. Its well worth having someone tape you when you are training. Hmm, I havent been video taped for awhile .... <snip>

Thanks to all and to Carolyn Clark for getting me started.

Michelle Armitage

Carolyn,

I just wanted to forward this video clip of a former Carolark student, Corkey the Chesapeake Bay Retriever. The challenge to fetch a hotdog has been met. He learned this trick in five minutes thanks to the training foundation we received at your school.

Thanks for everything.
Sandy Macpherson

link to "Smart Dog" video clip

(this video clip may not run in some versions of Netscape)

Carolyn and Crew.

It has been close to a year since we started our puppy training (see photos) at Carolark. As you can see from the attached picture, he now has his CD. Scored 192.5 twice and a 192 along with a 188.5 this weekend at the Bytown match. Although we did not continue with Carolark, not because of the quality of training, I give credit to the excellent foundation we received in the two sessions we did go through. It taught me how emphasizing the positive really works and we do still do use the clicker.

Just thought we should share this and show our recognition of the contribution to the effort from the school. We are now looking forward to getting on to more of the fun stuff with Open and continuing in our current training for Agility trials.

Thanks again and will keep in touch.

Bill & Blaze
May 2003



e-mail Carolark 600 Eagleson Rd Kanata, Ontario K2M 1H4 Phone: (613) 591-3277 Fax: (613) 591-0419 Toll Free: 1-877-763-6664 e-mail: carolark@igs.net updated Sept. 2006		home page \| more about us \| contact us \| site map \| e-mail September 2006 Hi Carolyn, I just had to tell you these stories. You know how much training I have done with Tillie, to get her to stop being obnoxious with other dogs, standard poodles in particular. We have been able to walk with a standard poodle at the Bruce Pit, and one at the Stittsville woods, with little or no problem. One time Tillie started to chase the poodle in Stittsville and after one leap changed her mind on her own(!) before I even opened my mouth to say anything to her. She turned around and grinned at me and went and did her own thing in the woods. I was so pleased with her. Next story - while walking at the Bruce Pit last week, we met a new black standard poodle, who took a liking to Kiko. Tillie took herself away from it all and was poking around in the trees a distance away. The standard poodle was leaping in at Kiko and away, and Kiko yelped one time and came and hid between my legs. As the big poodle darted in, I put my hand down in front of Kiko and discovered that the big poodle was nipping her. As I stood up to ask the owner to call the dog, Kiko ran about 10 feet away, and the big poo aimed for her again. Suddenly Tillie darted between and braced herself right beside Kiko looking at the standard poodle. The "big poo" curved off and left Kiko alone and just went away, even though the owner was still standing there. It was clearly a splitting behaviour but even more than that. (I think). Tillie and Kiko walked down the path together. I really praised Tillie when she did it. Last story - today while walking in Stittsville with 5 dogs, we met coming toward us a woman with two dogs. One is a large male GR mix, a little too outgoing for many of the dogs we walk with. The male GR mix likes to boss a sweet curly coat retriever that was walking with us. He made one lunge at her, ran past and as he ran at her again Tillie split them! Tillie split but stood beside the curly coat and the male dog left them completely alone. What is so interesting is that this curly coat is a dog that Tillie has chased a couple of times and has learned to leave alone. Here she was protecting that dog. I am so proud of her! I tend to joke about it and say that Tillie is protecting her 'chew toys'. I find dog behaviour so fascinating - I never would have recognized it as splitting behaviour* without my involvement at Carolark. Thank you for letting me be part of the Carolark family. Lynn * link to Calming Signals pages Hi Carolyn, I wanted to let you know how amazingly well the Parallel walking with Echo and my friend's reactive Toller went. We walked about a half hour yesterday going from 15' to 5' apart by the end. With handlers between dogs. To-day we could start with the dogs closest together, and after 15 minutes they were 2' apart and perfectly happy. We then added the 2 dogs left at the house and walked off leash in the woods. Everyone had a very good time. We are thinking of starting a local Parallel walking club. It certainly helped Echo relax and accept relatively unknown dogs. Alison Clicker training and its power was introduced to me by Carolyn Clark in Ottawa. I watched a day seminar our club hosted and watched her Cocker Spaniel Penny do all these fun tricks. Dogs thinking, hmmm. Clicker, hmmm. I confess, I thought they were only for dolphins, Flipper species. But I slowly changed. It came time to teach Bob, my five year old to retrieve. I had taught a few other dogs to retrieve, but not with a clicker. So I really didnt know how to start. I read an article by Suzanne Clouthier and saw its potential. I then booked some private lessons with Carolyn Clark and away we went. I highly recommend being video taped, its amazing what you will see, missed timing, perfect timing, dogs reactions. Its well worth having someone tape you when you are training. Hmm, I havent been video taped for awhile .... <snip> Thanks to all and to Carolyn Clark for getting me started. Michelle Armitage Carolyn, I just wanted to forward this video clip of a former Carolark student, Corkey the Chesapeake Bay Retriever. The challenge to fetch a hotdog has been met. He learned this trick in five minutes thanks to the training foundation we received at your school. Thanks for everything. Sandy Macpherson link to "Smart Dog" video clip (this video clip may not run in some versions of Netscape) Carolyn and Crew. It has been close to a year since we started our puppy training (see photos) at Carolark. As you can see from the attached picture, he now has his CD. Scored 192.5 twice and a 192 along with a 188.5 this weekend at the Bytown match. Although we did not continue with Carolark, not because of the quality of training, I give credit to the excellent foundation we received in the two sessions we did go through. It taught me how emphasizing the positive really works and we do still do use the clicker. Just thought we should share this and show our recognition of the contribution to the effort from the school. We are now looking forward to getting on to more of the fun stuff with Open and continuing in our current training for Agility trials. Thanks again and will keep in touch. Bill & Blaze May 2003 Hi Carolyn - (snip) .... I just thought I'd pass this along ... I've found another use for the "Bang!" command (although I use an entirely different hand signal ...). Just before Christmas Robbie had surgery requiring a rather large abdominal incision, which had to be checked periodically. I wanted to have a look at it a few times a day, but didn't want to be poking at him that frequently. So, I've been giving him the signal for our version of "Bang!" and have been able to check things out completely and easily, and without a lot of stress for either of us. I never thought it would come in this handy! Robbie's recovering nicely, and seems to have treated the whole surgery as a minor inconvenience! Cheers! Roxe Murray Dear Boomer, Uh-oh. I'm in the doghouse. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Literally as well, I suppose. It seems that I've lost some of my walking privileges. Now, I must stay home and wait for Alpha in the doghouse when he goes up to the pup kennel in the afternoons to see the Pup. This pup kennel is different from the one we visited each weekday last year. It's further away, which makes for a nicer walk. But it's also much bigger and noisier. There are hundreds of humanoid pups clamouring about. There are noisy buzzers. But worst of all the sight lines are bad. Last year, we took the pup to a very modest kennel on a quiet street. Alpha would tie me to the fence under the tree, and he would take the Pup into the yard to play tag with his friends. Then the Alpha would stand and talk to the other parents until the pups lined up to go inside the building. He was never more than 50 yards away, and I could always see him. But this new pup kennel is something else entirely. It's built on a hillside, so there are retaining walls. When Alpha ties me to the fence, I can end up below a wall, and I can't see what he is doing when he goes into the play yard. I worry, of course. What if he or the Pup get hurt? What if he walks away at the other end of the play yard and forgets about me? It's hard to be a dog in the city. And in the midst of all these worries, there's the swarming of pups. I'm sure they're all very nice when you meet them one on one. I'm sure we would all get along very well in Windsor Park, where they could all throw balls for me. At Windsor Park, I'd be able to see where Alpha was. I would be free to walk away from pups if I don't feel like playing anymore. But there's no such freedom at the big pup kennel. And, when so many pups scramble around me, trying to be my friend, I feel a compelling need to restore order and re-establish boundaries. And so, I confess, I forgot myself. I misbehaved. It was only a little nip. Just the slightest of snaps of my teeth to let someone know they should back off. The kind of thing we do in the park all the time with other dogs to establish a pecking order. That's how I saw it. But humanoids are different. They don't know how to read the signs, and now I'm in the doghouse. I do feel very contrite. The girl I nipped at was a very nice humanoid. I can tell that she likes dogs, and she probably understands how dogs feel when too many young pups are trying to pet them while they are tied up. I wish that there was some other way to tell her that I'm sorry. But Alpha won't take me to the big pup kennel anymore. Maybe I'll have an opportunity to make my apologies if we ever see each other in Windsor Park or outside the coffee shop. Yours in the doggie confessional, Zoscha first printed in "The Windsor Chronicles" reprinted with permission (back to the Training page )
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