Foundations: Running Contacts

I finally have time to report on the progress I've been making with Hokey's agility foundation training. In fact, I have so much material, I'm going to have to split it into more than one post. This post will be dedicated to our attempts to develop solid running contact behaviors for both the A-frame and the dog walk. 

But first, let me report that we all survived "Superstorm Sandy" (I still prefer the pre-storm moniker "Frankenstorm") without any hardship. However, Hokey begs to differ with that assessment. She was convinced she'd melt by getting rain in her face. Is this not the most pathetic sight ever?

Hokey "suffering" the effects of Superstorm Sandy

So back to running contact training starting with the A-frame. I have introduced Hokey to the PVC box. The introductory step involved me sitting in a chair while shaping her moment into the box (i.e. first moving toward it, then a foot in, two feet in, etc) by building value for it with lots of tossed treats. She moved through those steps very quickly. Then I ran into some trouble at what would ordinarily be the next couple of steps - me still sitting in a chair off to the side of the box with her moving straight through without looking at me while getting a nice pounce into the box then bouncing straight out. Because of her deafness, I had trouble imparting this concept to her and actually ended up jumping ahead a couple of steps. The main problem is that I have yet to come up with a good alternative marker to use in lieu of a clicker.  Such a marker would need to be visual, yet not require her to look at me for information (i.e. some remote device that she would look at to get her information regardless of my position relative to her). It would also have to have very little delay so that the feedback would be virtually instantaneous. I've experimented with a couple of things, but none of them have worked out quite to my specifications. SO, I decided to jump ahead and see how she would respond to me working the 3 positions around either side of the box (front corner, side, back corner) with me tossing a treat or toy to keep her focused on driving forward. Being a bouncy jack, she naturally picked up on the one bounce into the box with a bounce straight out. She really gets some nice pouncing action, as seen in this still from the video that follows:

Hokey "pouncing" into the PVC box

And here is the video of us working the 3 positions around the box at full speed followed by half speed:

We've also started to work on the foundation for a running dog walk contact. I want to try to train this and see how it goes. So far, it's proving to be challenging and sometimes frustrating. I may need to rethink how I go about certain things, but I figure if it doesn't work out, I can always switch to a 2o/2o instead. I think it would be an easier transition to retrain a running to a 2o/2o contact behavior than the other way around. Currently I am using interlocking foam tiles as a portable substitute for a plank. They are 12" x 12", so 12 tiles represents a DW ramp and the last 3 tiles are equal to the USDAA contact zone specifications.

One of the interlocking foam tiles

When training a running DW contact, you want to teach your dog to drive forward with speed while remaining completely independent of handler motion. Therefore, in these early stages of training, I remain stationary and position myself at either end of the "plank". I have a remote controlled treat dispenser placed several feet from the end of the plank that acts as the "goal" for Hokey to drive to. I've also used a tug toy stuffed with hot dogs placed or thrown at the contact end of the plank. However, if I use the toy, I give up the control of rewarding her for a correct vs. incorrect performance since she's often driving forward far ahead of me. In other words, the toy reward is indiscriminate; it rewards her for performing both correct and incorrect contact behaviors. Therefore, I prefer to use the treat dispenser so that I can reward her only when she runs all the way across the plank without leaping off the end or stepping off the side. The downside to using the remote dispenser is that it has a little bit of a delay, so that sometimes in my eagerness to deliver the reward to her at the correct moment, I anticipate her performing correct behavior and instead end up rewarding her for an undesirable behavior.

Remote controlled treat dispenser

Unfortunately, as mentioned before, I haven't come up with a good clicker substitute with which to provide her with instant feedback for performing the correct behavior without her having to look at me, so, right now, Hokey is stuck with the imprecision of trying to learn what gets her a reward and what doesn't and trying to tease out what she did right from the wide range of possible behaviors. This is a currently source of frustration for the both of us and something I need to give more thought to in order to come up with a better solution.

Below are video examples of our hits and misses.

In this clip, I stand stationary at the "contact" end of of the plank near the treat dispenser and release her toward me:

I have found that she tends to show a little more speed and drive if I am at the opposite end with her and do a restrained release, sending her across the plank toward the dispenser, as shown here:

As I mentioned before, Hokey is a bouncy jack russell and has a tendency to add an occasional leap amid her strides as she runs. Sometimes these leaps carry her right into the contact zone, such as here:

However, this is not the most desirable behavior as it can easily turn into a leap that has her sailing completely over the contact zone:

A frequent problem I'm having with her is that she has a tendency to run off the side of the plank as she's heading toward the treat dispenser.

This is happening more often lately and I need to fix it now before it drifts into habit. My thought is that I either need to take some steps back and build high value for staying on the plank before running the entire length at full speed OR get a helper so that one person can be available to give some sort of visual "click" for the desired behavior. Or maybe some kind of combination of the two.

Like I said, it's a work in progress with some kinks to be worked out. We'll see how it goes as we move forward.

Another post on our progress focusing on other skills should be up within the next few days. Stay tuned!

Welcome to Hokey's Place

Another stressful week with little time to write any posts. However, the training goes on despite my lack of time to sit down and write anything about it. Here is a post on a behavior I'm introducing into Hokey's repertoire: "go to your place". This is a very convenient behavior to have if you are busy doing something and want your dog to stay out of the way, especially if you don't happen to have a crate handy.

The most common tool used to teach this is some sort of mat, but a towel, small blanket or even a dog bed, which is what I use for Poppy, works fine. It just should be something reasonably portable and easily recognized by your dog as "their" object. Every dog in the household should have their own designated "place". I bought Hokey a small cheap utility mat with non-slip backing for this purpose.

I am primarily training this through shaping and am currently in the middle of training the full behavior. It started with me laying out the rug in the middle of the living room and hand-flashing (my "clicker" since Hokey is deaf) her for interacting with it, eventually working up to reinforcing her for standing with all 4 feet on the mat. This actually turned out to be a speedy process as she was already used to putting all 4 feet on an object lying in the middle of the floor due to the shaping work we've been doing with the frisbee. From there, I gradually shaped her to sit and maintain good eye contact with me.

 

Next, I taught her to lie down on the mat. This was the only time I did not use pure shaping. This is because down is not a very natural behavior for Hokey to perform while we are interacting and was, in fact, the hardest of the basic obedience commands for me to train her to do. I felt trying to completely shape a down on the mat would take a long time and might try the limits of patience for both of us. Therefore, I did spend some time giving her the hand signal for down and reinforcing the resulting behavior on the mat. 

The end behavior that I'm working toward is for Hokey to respond to a hand signal telling her to "go to your place" by going to the mat and lying down and staying there until I release her. For example, this could mean when I'm ready to sit down at the table to eat dinner, I would be able to signal her to "go to your place" and she would make a bee-line to wherever I've laid her mat down and she would then lie down and remain there until I've finished eating and have given her a release signal. I could also bring the mat on the road with us - say to visit a friend or hang out at an agility trial. I could set the mat on the floor and she would have her own space to hang out. In such situations involving unfamiliar surroundings, having a default behavior such as this while making use of a familiar object (i.e. the mat) offers some security to a dog. 

As of today, my training of this has progressed to the point where Hokey is offering a sit with eye contact on the mat and going "down" on my signal. Eventually, I want her to recognize that when the mat is out and I'm busy doing something, she should be going to it and offering a default behavior. Right now, that default behavior is a sit, but I am working on turning it into a down and today I took steps to begin to shape that. 

I decided to get the mat out and place it on the floor right next to where I was sitting and working on a jigsaw puzzle. I made sure I had LOTS of treats close at hand to reinforce any desired behavior. Since this is new to Hokey, at first I reinforced her a few times for getting on the mat of her own accord and sitting. She was free to move about and I gave her no information about what to do other than to reinforce her when she got on the mat and sat down. 

Next, I gave her a short refresher on going down while on the mat by giving her the down signal a handful of times and rewarding her for responding correctly. 

Then I stopped giving her any information to see what she would do. She spent quite a bit of time standing or sitting on the mat and staring at me waiting for information that just wasn't coming. A couple of times she wandered off the mat, but she kept returning. She wanted to find out how to earn those treats! Then slowly the light bulb started to go off. You can see her working it out in her head in the following video.

Slowly she started to get the idea of what she was supposed to do. 

 

As Hokey gains confidence, her speed should improve. I did want to make sure I don't let her get into the bad habit of constantly getting up to repeat the behavior - i.e. I do not want her getting into a pattern of lying down, getting reinforced with a treat, then getting up and repeating the behavior in order to receive a constant stream of treats. The goal behavior is to have her down/stay on the mat for a period of time, so it is important to build duration in. Normally I build duration into a behavior very gradually, but as she was already showing some signs of falling into the habit of repeating the behavior for extra treats, I decided to mix it up a bit by randomly and generously rewarding her for staying in the down position and, every so often, not reward her immediately upon her going into the down position. This seemed to help her hold the down position. Also, it is important to make sure the delivery of the treat is given in such a way that it does not encourage the dog to rise from the down position. Give it quickly and just below the nose while they are in a down position. If the dog starts to rise in anticipation of getting the treat, make sure they go back down into position before releasing the treat.

Hokey and I will continue to work on this and before long she should be heading to her mat to relax and chill out while the world buzzes around her.

Shaping Up(date) & Bonus Trick

This past week was not my best (to put it mildly). And it was a busy one at that. I have lots of ideas for new blog posts, but the chaotic nature of my life is getting in the way of bringing them to fruition.

Finally taking a break from the chaos of this past week. As always, my dogs are there to lend support.

In the meantime, I thought I'd write a brief update on Hokey's progress with shaping. Last month, I recorded Hokey's first free shaping session and wrote a blog entry about it. In that session, I was shaping her to simply put two front feet inside an upside-down frisbee. Since then, we've progressed to 3, then 4, feet in the frisbee. Here is a demonstration of us working through the process. Again, since she is deaf, I use a hand flash as my "clicker". I have to be fast and try very hard to make sure she sees it. Here, I start by hand flashing for putting her back feet on the frisbee. Next I reinforce for movement of one of her front feet backwards so that eventually there are 3 feet in the frisbee. Finally, the fourth foot moves back - the goal - and she is generously rewarded.

As usual, Hokey catches on to the game quickly and offers the behavior consistently and repeatedly as shown in the following clip.

Soon I will be moving to a smaller frisbee.

In the meantime, I am teaching Hokey a TON of other things, including some tricks. Here she is learning to roll over. I teach this by putting her in a down then using a treat to lure her into the behavior by letting her nose follow the treat I'm holding as I slowly move it over her back. As soon as she completes the behavior, I release the treat.

And yes, I talk to her a lot even though she's deaf. It's part of the bonding process for me and I'm sure she can "hear" me, or at least recognize my intent, in her own special way.

Pieces of the Puzzle

I love puzzles. All kinds of puzzles. Jigsaw, logic, word puzzles, sudoku. You name it, I love to try to solve it.

Just a portion of my jigsaw puzzle collection

I also love keeping my dogs active both physically AND mentally. There are many "dog puzzles" out there that stimulate the canine mind and help develop the dog's ability to think through problems.

A couple of years ago I invested in one of the crown jewels of canine puzzles. This is but one of several varieties of puzzles put out by Nina Ottosson of Sweden. These puzzles are NOT cheap, but I like them because they are durable - my dogs can be hard on a toy - and because they offer variety of potential problems to solve, from simple to more complex, in just one puzzle. I selected the one called "Dog Brick" especially because of the different possibilities it offers.

It consists of a wooden board with sliding plastic panels under which treats can be hidden. The dog needs to slide these panels (2 per groove) out of the way to get its reward.

Basic board showing black plastic sliding panels

It also comes with two different types of pegs that can add difficulty to the puzzle once the dog has mastered the basic board. There are two large wooden pegs that can fit in any empty space except the two in the very center of the board. There are also 2 small, relatively flat, pegs that only fit in the two center spaces.

The two plastic pegs (top) and the two wooden pegs (bottom)

 

Board showing the insertion of  a wooden peg and a plastic peg

You can modify these pegs to make the task simpler by putting a knot in a thin rope and threading it up through the center hole in the peg so the dog has something easier to grip in order to pull it out. Because of the shape of his mouth, Ollie has a very difficult time getting a grip on and pulling out the plastic pegs. Ideally, I would need to modify them for his use.

So, as you can see, there is a range of possibilities for both board set up and levels of difficulty. I've been using the board with Ollie and Poppy for awhile now. Poppy isn't very refined. The strategy most often employed by her is to pull out all the pegs and slide the panels, eventually finding the reward. Sometimes she gets lucky and finds it right away, as in this clip:

At other times, it takes a few flying pegs before she finds what she's looking for:

Ollie usually rips out both wooden pegs first, then starts scratching at the panels until he happens to find the treat.

However, I see both Poppy and Ollie using their noses to better effect since I've been training them in nosework. Their "attacks" on the puzzle do seem to be a little less random than they previously had been.

Only a few days ago, I started working Hokey on the board once a day by feeding her her dinner, a little at a time, underneath the sliding panels. The first session was pretty much relegated to her learning how to slide the panels in order to get to the food. Once she got that concept down however, she was on a roll. So far, she seems to work the board in a more deliberate fashion than Poppy or Ollie. I am in the early stages of training all 3 dogs in nosework and all 3 love it and are good at it, but Hokey is showing herself to possess a superior raw talent. I wonder if this is because her sense of smell is a little more refined due to her deafness. When she works the board, she generally tends to home in on the odor first and then starts to slide the panels in that general area until she locates the reward.

She doesn't always get the right panel on the very first try, but she rarely seems to slide the panels that are far from where the food is hidden. Here you can see the difference between her searching around the board for odor clues, slightly sliding some tiles and tapping others in the process, compared to when she picks up on the area of highest odor concentration and goes into "I found it" mode.

I had not used any of the pegs with Hokey up until now. I thought it would be interesting to document their introduction into the game to see how she would respond. First, I thought it would be useful if I somehow helped her figure out that the pegs are objects meant to be removed from the board. To do this, I put treats directly inside a wooden peg and inserted it into the board.

Underside of a wooden peg. It is hollow inside, so can be filled with treats and then inserted into an empty space on the board

Here is a clip of her first attempt. At first, she looks around the board for where the treats might be hidden under the sliding panels. Then she catches the scent of them under the peg, sizes up the situation, and removes it. What a smart girl!

She picked up the concept WAY too fast. Here is our second attempt. Obviously, she gets the object of this step of the game.

So now on to the final challenge. I've hidden treats underneath a sliding panel and then inserted a wooden peg into the empty slot next to it in such a way that the peg needs to be removed in order for her to slide the panel to get her reward. Can she figure this one out??

Wow! What an awesome job. As you can see, Hokey doesn't just immediately head for the peg and pull it out like Ollie and Poppy do. She actually sniffs around and finds the area of greatest odor concentration first, then, realizing the peg is in that area, she pulls it out. Seeing that there is no food hidden underneath the peg this time, she immediately chooses the correct panel by using her nose and slides it open to reap the rewards of all that hard work.

Puzzles. They aren't just for humans. Let your dog give them a try and get those synapses firing!

Shaping Up - The First Session

Hokey had her very first shaping session today. I particularly love to incorporate the use of shaping into my overall training for two reasons:

1. The dog learns to think through situations and problem-solve. It is allowed to make choices and subsequently learn, through trial-and-error, which ones result in a reward and which don't. I love watching the wheels turn inside my dogs' heads as they try to figure out and work through what it is I want them to do. And it is especially rewarding when the light bulb goes off and the dog starts consistently repeating the desired behavior - you can see them bursting with pride and pure joy.

2. It's FUN! The dogs and I have a blast together when we do shaping exercises. It's a big game where we both win. My dogs can barely contain their excitement and I get so much enjoyment out of watching them experiment and experience a-ha moments. The process helps to cement our bond and makes us better working partners.

That said, I am not a free-shaping purist. I may have an abundance of patience, but still, not quite enough to use shaping as a method to train every little behavior.  I use positive reinforcement lure training in combination with shaping - especially for basic commands such as sit and down.

What I really like to use shaping for best is to help my dogs develop body awareness, to help them learn to interact with objects (i.e. more independence/less handler focus), and to teach new tricks.

Although I've incorporated some shaping into Hokey's basic training, today was our very first session of true shaping for the sole purpose of shaping's sake. Because of her deafness, she tends to be a little more handler-dependent and handler-focused than the average dog. Looking ahead to potentially training her for agility, I want to begin to shift her focus off of me a bit so she can 1) start to build value for interacting with objects/obstacles and 2) develop some independence. Additionally, I want to start building her body awareness.

Normally, when beginning shaping sessions with a dog, I would start by using a box as the object with which they are to interact, as in 101 Things to Do with a Box. However, since I recently started nosework training with Hokey, which involves the use of cardboard boxes, I decided I should try something else as not to confuse her. Since she is small, I felt a plastic frisbee would do the trick. 

Unfortunately, I did not capture the very first steps of her shaping session on video. These involved her getting rewarded for any interaction with the frisbee: nose touch, paw touch, etc. Any kind of acknowledgment. She is a smart cookie and flew through those steps rather quickly, so I decided she was ready to take the plunge and actually learn a new behavior. I wanted to keep it VERY simple, so the behavior I chose was for her to stand with both front feet on the frisbee. Here is a video of our first attempts:

She caught on right away! I let Hokey think things through and never lured. That is the point of the game. Sometimes if one of my dogs gets really stuck while I'm waiting them out, I might move around the room to help "unstick" them, but never in a way that would result in them being lured into the desired position.

After a short break, we were back at it. At first, I was preferably delivering my rewards while she was still in the desired position. However, once she "got" the game, she showed some reluctance to put much distance between herself and the frisbee between repetitions, so I decided it was time to start throwing the treat away from the frisbee to move her off.

With Ollie and Poppy, I either use a clicker or my substitute clicker word, "Yes!". Obviously, with Hokey's deafness, neither of those is an option. Instead I use a hand flash. I may also give her an "OK" sign AFTER the hand flash and treat reward, to let her know how pleased I am. Of course, I want to try to deliver my hand flash, followed by the reward, the split second she performs the behavior (i.e. as soon as both front feet are on the frisbee). This is where there might be a slight disadvantage with her deafness in that,  if she doesn't happen to be looking at me, I am unable to get the timing correct and, therefore, this may result in a delay between the behavior and the hand flash, as shown in the following clip (slowed down) where she is sniffing the carpet as she performs the behavior before she looks up at me.

But, overall, she caught on to the game and I consider it a successful first session.

BTW - I don't know what that silly little move of her putting her head upside-down between her front legs is all about, but I love all my dogs' funny little quirks.

Deaf Dogs Do Bark - Part 1

Recently I've had the pleasure of experiencing what it is like to become a foster failure. I had just signed on as a volunteer with Mid-Atlantic Jack Rescue when a urgent cry went out about a deaf jack in a shelter needing a temporary foster home for a few days over the Memorial Day weekend. Without an available place to go, the dog would not be able to be rescued. Her time was up. The shelter was full. With trepidation, due to Ollie's reactivity to other dogs and Poppy being so high-maintenance in general, I decided to answer the call. She had no place else to go and here was a life I could make the difference in saving. A small thing in the big scheme of things, but a huge impact on this little dog - and now on me. 

Her name is Hocus Pocus - I call her Hokey for short. She was found with her owner's body about 2 days after her owner had died and then taken to a shelter. The shelter attempted to contact family members to come get this poor frightened and confused little dog, but no one ever returned any phone calls. Being at the shelter must have been a traumatic situation for her - to be yanked out of her place of warmth and security, away from the one who loved and cared for her and placed in a cage where she got very little attention. Suddenly, she found herself in a strange place full of strange smells, strange vibrations, with unfamiliar sights and routines. A stressful and scary experience to say the least.

Hokey when she was at the shelter

And precarious - in a world where thousands of dogs get put down every day just for no other reason than not having a place to call home, very few people are willing to adopt a dog that is labeled as "special needs" or somehow seen as being more work than the average dog. Not to mention the lingering myths perpetuated even by some professional trainers and vets about deaf dogs - that they are unpredictable time-bombs, they all turn into biters, they can't be trained, etc. You can read more about these myths here:  Deaf Dog Myths. Cute as she is, Hokey's chances of being adopted before her time was up at the shelter were slim to none.

Then MAJR found her and put out the call. I answered. I welcomed this little dog into my home on a temporary basis. Then decided to stay on as her longer-term foster. Then, because I love her personality and because I love new experiences that allow me to stretch myself as a trainer, I decided to become a foster failure and adopt her myself.

My mind has never been weighted down by preconceived notions of what a deaf dog can and can't do. I've never believed the myths. Having trained several dogs with normal hearing, I know the primary means used for us to communicate is not based on what I tell them through use of my voice or other sound, but rather on them picking up cues from my body language. Years and years ago, when I trained my schipperke in obedience work, I often put him through his paces using nothing more than hand signals. Ollie is able to navigate an entire agility course without me ever opening my mouth. Sound is just another tool; it is not a necessary one.

The title of this entry is "Deaf Dogs Do Bark" because one of the most common questions I get from people is "does she bark?". The answer is a resounding yes! She barks when she wants attention from me. She sometimes barks when she's in her crate and wants to be out. She barks at Poppy when they are running around the yard. She barks at certain sights out the window or through the fence. She sometimes barks when she notices the other dogs barking, but, not always understanding what she's supposed to be barking at, she might point herself in the opposite direction from what they are barking at. When she first came to live with me, she would try to solicit food from me by barking at me every time I ate in front of her. I suspect it was bad habit that had been reinforced in her former home. I quickly and easily put an end to the behavior and now she either is in a down/stay or curled up on the sofa while I'm at the table eating. She also quickly learned that the kitchen is forbidden territory during any food prep activity.

The point that I'm trying to make with this entry is not to say "yes, deaf dogs bark". It is to say, a dog is a dog is a dog. Deaf or not. Hokey is a normal dog in every way. I'm able to communicate with her and train her, just as I would any other dog. She barks. She likes to play fetch with balls and other toys.

She likes to play tug. She likes to harass Poppy and/or engage her in a game of chase and wrestle in the yard. She loves food and treats and is eager to work for a reward. She loves nothing more than to curl up in my lap - in fact, that's where she is now as I type this. She is sometimes naughty. And true to her breed, she can be stubborn and sometimes, albeit not often, downright defiant. In other words, she is a normal Jack Russell Terrier. Her deafness is only one component of who she is as an individual, but it does not define her.

In Part 2, I will discuss special considerations that are specific to her training.

Why I Have Rescue Dogs

I originally posted this on 7/7/12, but decided to scrap that blog and redo it with a new focus, so restoring this post as the first here.

Originally, I was going to dedicate this first "real" post to introducing my dogs. In a sense, I suppose this will still accomplish that goal, but in a very different way that I originally imagined. I watched this short video last night before hitting the hay and it brought me to tears:
http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2012/07/the-way-home-rescue-shelter-walking/

AND it got me thinking and waxing philosophical.
First of all, this hit very close to home. I recognize this. The place is slightly different, but the situation is nearly the same. Nearly 10 years ago I was head veterinary technician at a clinic within an animal shelter in Massachusetts. The shelter had partnerships with a rescue group in Puerto Rico and a high kill shelter in southern rural Virginia. The Kentucky shelter in this video and the faces of the dogs shown especially remind me of the situation of that VA shelter. Countless dogs, mostly whole litters of puppies, passed through my hands on their way to better lives. They were dogs that would otherwise would have been euthanized - most before they had the opportunity to truly live as most were puppies between 8 - 14 weeks old. But almost none of them would have ever gotten that opportunity had the partnership with the shelter not been in place to bring them northward toward loving homes where they would become wanted companions. They were the lucky ones that got the opportunity to live and blossom. A multitude of dogs - all worthy of living a full life and experiencing the love and companionship offered by a home and giving back all the love and devotion a dog could possibly offer in return. No less worthy than any purebred destined for the show ring or performance sport or even house pet - although, for some reason, society seems to deem them less worthy. Why? They are just as capable of loving, learning, and demonstrating devotion to their owners as any other dog. The purity of love cannot be, and SHOULD NOT be, determined by the purity of bloodline.

I now have three rescue dogs:

Ollie, my oldest dog, came to me through a program similar to the one shown in the video. He originally ended up in a high kill shelter in WV after being picked up as a stray. He was one of the fortunate ones as he was selected to be brought north to the rescue I eventually adopted him from and has gone on to become a multiple champion in the sport of dog agility. Who would have thought this little hillbilly dog, once in danger of ending up as a casualty of an over-crowded shelter, was capable of shining so brightly? But shine he has!

Poppy. What can I say about this dog I have grown to love so much my heart can't begin to contain it? I have no doubt had I not taken her when I did, she would no longer be here on earth. When I adopted her from the shelter at 6 months of age, she's already been through several homes and shelter situations. She was more than difficult to live with - severe separation anxiety and barrier anxiety, extremely high energy, no clue about being housebroken, constant and annoying attention seeking behaviors. In other words, NOT a dog for the average pet home. That first year living with her was beyond difficult. Yet we both survived and came through with a tight bond. Although she has enormous potential for agility, her ring stress, noise sensitivity and her worry about being "wrong" has proven to be a serious barrier to her reaching her true potential. It does not matter to me. My bond with her looks beyond all my hopes for her agility career. Her greatness lies with who she is as an individual: her crazy personality, the way she can make me laugh like no other dog, and her complete and utter devotion to me. She does everything with intensity - including love. That is far more rewarding than any 50 cent ribbon or acronym appearing after her name.

And then there is my latest edition - Hocus Pocus - who I am still getting to know, but who I've already begun to form a good working bond with. "Hokey" is considered a special needs dog because she is deaf. Breeders often euthanize deaf puppies and deafies are usually at the top of the euthanasia list when they end up in shelters because their "disability" makes them less adoptable. There are a lot of myths out there about deaf dogs - they can't be trained, they are dangerous because they are too easily startled and turn into biters, etc. If people would simply understand how ridiculous that is. Are deaf people unable to learn? Are they inherently dangerous? No. They are simply people like any other. Hokey is no less of a dog than any other just because she can't hear. She acts like any other dog. She is just as capable of being trained, forming a bond, showing love and devotion than any dog that can hear. She is a dog first and foremost. Most people would not realize she is deaf if I didn't tell them. Here is a video I made of us working on training together:
Hokey Training
Why should a dog like this, absolutely capable of achieving great things and, most importantly, being a devoted companion, not be as worthy of life as any other dog?

Three wonderful dogs. But only three. Three out of thousands and thousands of dogs on any particular day who need homes and are in danger of dying merely because they happen to be classified as "unwanted". Too many dogs never get past the "unwanted" category. They never get their chance to shine. The never get to be loved or show all the love they have to offer. That is a real tragedy. I can't understand why people continue to breed dogs and purchase dogs while others go wanting and end up dying simply because there are too many and/or they are not the right "kind". I can't, in good conscious, do that. That is why I have rescue dogs and why I volunteer. Not because of any great feeling of satisfaction I get; it has nothing to do with my ego. It is because the eyes of too many beautiful, wanting, hopeful-until-the-end dogs haunt me and I feel I need to do what little I can to help to give them the opportunity to know what it is to be loved and wanted. It is my wish that you will too.