Why do they do what they do? The Fire is out of control!

If I could truly answer the question of "why do dogs do what they do", I would be rich. There are plenty of books on the subject, but for every book and every reason an expert gives, there is a dog who defies that reason! Today Fire is one of them.



Rewind...Fire has become a wonderful house dog. In spite of being a high energy intelligent dog, his house manners at 1 yr of age are nearly impeccable. Rarely steals, never chews anything other than his toys, never has a bathroom mishap, and is quiet in his crate all night. Nearly a week ago, I was basking in the "job well done" feeling of having a young dog who was showing promise of being 100% reliable in the house and readiness to challenge that reliability with even more freedom. (left alone unsupervised) In spite of his energy levels, he has days where he's mellow and content just being a couch potato like most of my Dobermans before him. The other day I couldn't get motivated, I used every excuse to curl up and watch movies. In spite of it being Fires most active time of the day (morning after a long nights sleep), he curled up on his dog bed beside me and slept. He was calm all day, sleeping most of it.



Today, I have a different dog sbeside me. As much as I couldn't explain his extra level of calm the other day, today I can't explain his extra level of energy! But he's been Crazed since the minute he woke up! Counter surfing, running through the house, jumping on my bed, whining when I closed him in the bedroom with me, and the final straw...He Leaped over the couch!Something he's Never done, although when he was younger he did often leap onto the couch to sit beside us. (*he is no longer allowed on the couch) I finally put him in his crate. It's raining out, and I don't have time to put him through some indoor exercise. If I had a new chew toy on hand I might have opted for it. I don't feel crating is an option for manic energy but today it was the only option I could cope with. I'll make up for it later. He's going with me while I run errands, might be watching the football game with me if it's not raining too hard, and then has his private training with me before I teach class tonight. However had this been a day when he would be required to stay home for hours, I would need to address the manic energy now!



As I often hear from dog owners dealing with similar situations, I thought I'd share some options. I do feel that sometimes the dog who runs wildly around without focus, only becomes crazier if allowed to engage in that behavior. This isn't a proven fact that I'm aware of, just an opinion I have based on my own experience. That said, a dog who wants to run (or jump, or bark) is doing so IMO to release pent up Stress. Not Energy, Stress! (same with the dog who chews excessively) My first choice of assistance for these types of behavior is exercise for the body and mind. Lets first release the stress by engaging in an activity similar to how the dog reacts on it's own. Rather than allowing the reaction, the activity is Directed by you and becomes an Action. If the dog jumps wildly on you or over furniture, teach it to jump on command and direct it over some makeshift jumps! If your dog runs in wild circles (my first Doberman did this); Take it jogging, train it to run beside your bike, hire a runner for it, or train it to lunge on a line in circles around you (like horses are trained to do). If your dog likes to bark, teach it to bark on command and tell it to bark! After 10-20 min. of rousing, stress releasing exercise engage the dog in some exercise for it's mind. Obedience commands work well if they've been taught in a positive way. Tricks are a good substite, or hide and seek (toys or food), or anyone of the numerous puzzle toys now on the market. Finally, present the dog with a toy to occupy it and further allow it to release it's stress if it so desires. This is where a chew toy or food toy comes in. Kibble Nibble, Buster Cube, or Kong work well. Natural bones/beef bones are a second option. Compressed Rawhide only if your dog doesn't ingest too much of it. If you've followed through with the stress releasing exercise, the mind engaging exercise, and the additional choice of a chew/food toy and your dog goes back to wild behavior follow through with time outs if you can do them without turning them into a frustrating session of "catch the dog". When the dog is relaxed and calm And entertaining itself it's allowed to remain out with you. If the dog engages in wild behaviour or attention seeking, it's taken to it's time out area (dog proofed room, or crate) until it settles. It is important to allow the dog back in main area with you when it relaxes in order for it to learn to remain relaxed when free in the house with you.



Hopefully the next day Fire decides to be crazy...I'll have time to follow through with this program myself. It does work, and is the reason why Fire in general is free in the house whenever I'm home. But dogs like humans are not perfect and the young ones will have days when you just don't understand their behavior! :-)

As Fire grows...

Most of the litter went to their new homes by 12 weeks of age. Due to his leg issue,Fire remained by my side. My heart was attached, and my head had accepted that this dog didn't have to achieve anything in his life. He was pet quality, long term soundness was in question. No future goals of a championship, agility titles, or even a CD existed. Fire's only purpose in life was to be my companion.

In spite of this, I made a few attempts to train him. His puppy aptitude test did indicate that he had the highest aptitude for obedience training/work of the entire litter. I was pretty sure the evaluator was wrong though, once I actually tried training him! I would sit in the living room, as I had with Twist, Tuisku, Georgia, and others through the years...clicker in hand and treats on the crate waiting for a behavior to reinforce. Try as I might, I couldn't shape much. We did get a weak hand touch with shaping. But for the most part Fire just looked at me as if he simply wasn't capable of figuring it out. He couldn't even find the treats when I dropped them on the floor! I resorted to lure/reward and taught him sit and down. But even that wasn't great. He did a good old fashioned "rocked sit" rather than the "tucked sit" I now strive for and teach all of my students to develop. His down was perched as if he would spring back up at any minute. Since he still had problems with his right leg, I left it alone. Afterall Fire would never have to step into an obedience ring! I did have a break through when I taught him "spin" and "here", which were partly lured and partly shaped. But in general his learning rate was slow as was his progression. I eventually stopped working him at home. However during this time I was being asked to fill in for Kaye ( kayeames.com ) in her puppy classes quite often and since Fire was always with me, I naturally started using him as my demo dog.


Fast foreward a few months and somewhere along the way Fire changed. He now catches onto behavior shaping super fast! In fact if I'm not quick enough he'll offer additional behaviors or resort to his favorite default behavior Down! (Down used to be difficult for him) I truly have no idea what switch I flipped or if I am even responsible for the change. I just know I stopped caring about the results and simply took him everywhere with me and asked only for good manners. We had no set training times, but simply worked on reinforcing attention and good manners. In class I would ask him to do things, always reminding my class that he "was not trained". And somewhere along the way he became just that..."Trained"! (as trained as I expect a young Doberman to be) Now he amazes me with his uniqueness. I can be working with him one day and he simply isn't "getting it". I'll try it again the next day and the behavior is there as if trained with much effort and focus. It's been an interesting journey with Fire. His learning style and mental capabilities are very different from any other dog I've had the pleasure of working with. The moral of this post, no matter how many dogs you've worked with...the next one may be very different. They are here to teach us if we are open to learning.

Welcome to "Playing with Fire"!

I decided I need a record of my training for accountability and who knows...maybe others can find some inspiration or at least a few good laughs from it!

Fire is now 13 mos. old and training him has been quite the adventure so far. But then his life has been quite the adventure in 13 short months! I'll start this blog at the beginning. For those of you who don't know his story, Fire had a rough start in life. He was the second smallest in his litter and "Not much to look at" when born. I was rather unimpressed with the little scrawny red male and didn't pay him much attention. However a trip to the vets with the little red female for failure to thrive and dehydration on day two also led to the fact that the little red male was suffering the same fate. Subcutaneous fluids began for both as well as supplemental feedings, and I was up round the clock to make sure the three smallest puppies were nursing in addition to the fluids and supplemental feedings. Unfortunately we lost the red female on Day 3. On Day 4 we weren't sure about Fire. I had taken him and his small black sister in to have their tails docked (the rest were done on day 3) and the vet didn't feel Fire was strong enough. On day five he seemed a little better. However, supplemental feedings continued round the clock for the next two weeks and his weight gain was slow. I was still not attached to him. I was pleased however when he was the first to stand and the first to walk. This signaled a turn around in his health to me. Unfortunately I was wrong there! A few days later, a day before their 3 week birthday we heard a loud yelping sound coming from the family room. My son, who was on the computer in that room came running upstairs to report that the little red male was on three legs. We found him unwilling to straighten his front right leg. Upon closer exam I was pretty sure this wasn't something to play around with so off to the emergency clinic! I'm not much of a worrier, but I started to worry about the little red puppy. What was wrong, would he survive? It turns out that his humerous was broken, and although it healed beautifully without surgery ...the wrapping and advice given by the emergency clinic unfortunately set Fire up for months of problems with that leg unrelated to the break. (they wrapped too tight for too long and it caused strictures) The entire tale would fill this blog. But to make a long story short the broken leg resulted in Fire needing to be removed from the litter. I tried to have his dam nurse him seperately but she was uncooperative. Sitting with him in the whelping area while she nursed the entire litter was hard on me and so within a few days I ended up weaning him early @ 3.5 weeks. (some breeders wean at 3-4 weeks...I personally believe in a more natural process which doesn't result in seperation of the dam/puppies till 6-7 weeks)

Fire became my constant companion and went everywhere with me. He slept by my side in a box until he outgrew the box @ 7 weeks of age. I quickly became attached without realizing it. When he wasn't with me, I worried about him constantly. (this was not a healthy attachment!) As puppy homes started to visit, all inquired about the "poor little red male". While initially I wasn't sure I could find him a home (His front leg still not working properly) I soon realized he would be easy to place due to the "pity factor". But each time someone asked who was going to take him I felt my heart collapse. I think I put on a strong front, smiling and confidently saying someone would take him and nothing "bad" would happen to him...but internally I hated the thought of him leaving my home. I had four dogs including our very special Georgia who was only a year old, and my special Border Collie Doodle who desired more of my time than she got. And I had a family who thought four dogs was four too many! The last thing I needed was a fifth dog! But somewhere along the way my husband informed me that he was well aware he couldn't seperate Fire from me (more like seperate me from Fire) and he was ok with my keeping him. Was it a smart move letting my husband name him? At 3.5 weeks of age, as Fire lay in our bed with his leg wrapped my husband tried to think of "fight" names for him. Rocky, Tyson, and finally "Fire Fighter". Ok that was a bit silly, but the Fire part stuck! Later on I paired it with "Money to Burn" for the obvious reason that he was one expensive puppy at that point in time, and so Joyton's Money to Burn Wescot became a permanent fixture here!