Caygeon Canines

11/12/2024

This is a fantastic video about how to read your dog and when to apply corrections. This is a very challenging dog.

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10/20/2024

It was a beautiful fall day today. I had an errand in Newmarket so I took the dogs with me for a walk while we were there, to Fairy Lakes Park. I had walked there before with Tipsy, Justin and Scarlet (Ralph & Wendy Stanley's girl) while Tam was having his dentistry in Beaverton a couple years ago. That was in the winter. It was pretty deserted. Today it was packed with people enjoying the weather - kids, adults, scooters, skateboards, cyclists, and plenty of other dogs. I am so grateful to have two such well behaved dogs (Tipsy and Goose) that I can walk on leash with one hand while I use my walking pole with the other hand. The majority of the other dogs were wearing harnesses and were dragging their owners everywhere. It doesn't have to be like that!! Tipsy and Goose know that they are not allowed to just run up to every person or dog that they see. Lots of dogs are not friendly and lots of people don't want to interact with dogs. So the two of them just politely walk past everything unless I give them permission to interact. If you are struggling with walking your dog in public places or distracting situations I can help you!

10/20/2024

Our longtime amazing dog training class friend in Lindsay retired last year and lots of people have been asking who I recommend now. I have another friend at Ontario Canine Wellness Center almost in Warsaw (which is about a 45 minute drive from me). If that's too far for local people (especially in the winter), a new trainer opened up in Fenelon Falls this summer. I didn't want to recommend him until I had an idea what training methods he uses and how he runs his classes. So Goose (who has not been to any obedience class training yet) and I signed up for just a basic level class at Zero to Hero in Fenelon. We just finished up that session and Goose got a funny grad picture and I am very happy to recommend anyone looking for a trainer to check Guy out.

10/14/2024

All true!

🐾❤ ❤ ❤ 🐾

Thinking of adopting a puppy...take this test ! :)

Best taken in the autumn or mid winter. ❄ 🌧

1. Buy a lead and tie it to a big stone, walk around dragging the stone behind you. 🪨

2. Get up at 5am (or sometimes earlier), go out in the pouring rain and walk up and down a muddy path, repeating good girl/boy, wee wees...poo poos, quickly please 😴 ⏰️

3. Stuff your pockets with plastic bags and pick up all the poo you can find, obviously not your dogs as you have not bought it yet 😊 💩

4. Start wearing your shoes indoors, especially during muddy times 👞

5. Collect leaves off the ground and spread them on the floor. Bonus points if they are wet & muddy! 🍂

6. Carry sticks and branches indoors and chop them up on your carpet 🌲

7. Pour cold apple juice on the rug and floor....walk barefooted over it in the dark 💧

8. Drop some chocolate pudding on your carpet in the morning and then try to clean it in the evening

9. Wear socks to which you have made holes using a blender

10. Jump out of your favourite chair just before the movie ends and run to open back door 🪑

11. Cover all your best clothes with dog hair, dark clothes with blond hairs and light clothes with dark hairs

12. Tip all just ironed clothes on the floor 🧺

13. Make little pin holes in all your furniture,
especially chair and table legs

14. When doing dishes, splash water all over the place and don't wipe it. 💧

15. Spread toilet paper all over the house when you leave the house and tidy up when you get back home 🚽

16. Forget any impulse holidays and/or breaks ⛔️

17. Always go home straight after work or school

18. Go walkies no matter what the weather, and inspect every dirty paper, chewing gum and dead fly you might find 🚶‍♂️ 🚶‍♀️

19. Wake up at 3am. ⏰️ Place a correct size bag of flour on top of yourself and try to sleep, whilst wiping your face with a dishcloth, which you have left next your bed in a bowl last week.

Repeat everyday over 6 months and if you still think getting puppy sounds like a good idea...

CONGRATULATIONS, you might be ready to get your puppy. 🥳 🎉 🐾

And if you are, then be prepared to meet the absolute live of your life ! ❤️



P.s adorable photo is of one of our adopted puppies 🐶 😍

10/11/2024

This hurts my heart....

“What's the bravest thing you ever said?” asked the boy. “Help”… Amanda Johnston needs your support for Help 4yr Declan’s Fight to Recover from Dog Attack

10/07/2024

We have had a lot of inquiries in the past couple of weeks about teach dogs to come when they are called.

You asked, we listened! We are running a Rapid Recall workshop THIS Saturday October 12th 9am-11am.

For more information and to register: https://bookwhen.com/ontariocaninewellness/e/ev-s9he-20241012090000

09/28/2024

Dog professionals (vets, groomers, etc) are talking a lot about this these days.

Having been a veterinarian for almost 3 decades, I have seen the tide of how animals are treated change drastically. When I graduated dogs were dogs, now dogs are considered to be higher ranking than people. In our crazy world, people love their dogs more than they love their own families and they treat their dogs better than they treat other humans and I am sorry to say that we are destroying our dogs mental health because of it.

It is increasingly common to go into an exam room and have a dog that is growling at me and trying to bite and the owner is petting it telling it that it is a good dog. It is NOT being a good dog and it should not be rewarded for growling and trying to bite. It is important that we train our dogs properly and we use right language with them. Never is it ok for a dog to growl and try and bite in an exam room where nothing horrible is happening to them and feeding into that behavior does not make it better for your dog, it trains them that their fear is a good thing and it is not.

Mental disorders are exponentially increasing in our dogs and it is us owners fault. Please stop treating your dog like it is some fragile child and start treating it like it is a dog. TRAIN them and teach them commands and correct them when they are wrong and stop thinking you are going to hurt their feelings if you do. Dogs are dogs, not small humans. They need training and proper instructions or it leads to horrible anxiety issues in them and I can assure that that behavior is going to hurt your feelings way more than being an adult and training your dog to be a good dog instead of a spoiled child.

The following are a few copied excerpts from an article that I read this morning from a dog trainer. I feel like there are a good reminder for all of us on exactly what are dogs are and what they need.

"Your dog is a dog, not a human child. Constant unearned affection is a killer and creates an unhealthy addiction for both dog and owner. Your dog will love you unconditionally but will never respect you unless you give it reason to.

The most basic of basics, your dog must learn how to be still in any situation. If your dog can’t be still around any distraction, you will never have control.
Recall
Sit
Down
Walk nicely on leash
Out, meaning release anything in your mouth

You MUST have a language dedicated to your dog that your dog can learn by you being consistent and applying meaning to the words you use. Your dog MUST know what yes means, but also MUST know what NO means. If nothing comes after those words, yes equals reward for good, no equals correction for bad, your dog will never give meaning to either. Your dog’s name is not a command, or correction. NO should not be your dog’s middle name.

The training starts the second you bring the dog home."

09/16/2024

I was just discussing this with someone the other day. Why are we seeing so many aggressive dogs these days? Because we are mostly not grooming "dogs" anymore, we are grooming "furbabies." Dogs are not babies, they are apex predators who will take advantage of weakness in the blink of an eye. This dog is not afraid. It is angry and willing to bite this girl to get her stop doing whatever it doesn't like, which seems to be pretty much everything. My dogs are absolutely beloved and cherished members of my family, but they are not my babies. They have rules and structure in their lives and as a result they live wonderful lives with plenty of freedom and inclusion.

09/11/2024

08/26/2024

I was just cruising around Tractor Supply for some dog treats and toys and came across this. I wanted to post an important PSA about the dangers of using a laser pointer with your dog.

The movement of a laser pointer triggers a dog's prey drive, prompting them to chase it. However, unlike chasing a physical toy or food, the laser beam is elusive and cannot be caught. This results in an unending game with no resolution for the dog.

Even after the laser pointer is turned off, many dogs continue searching for the light. This can confuse and frustrate them, as the "prey" has simply vanished. This game can lead to obsessive-compulsive tendencies, including searching for the light, fixating on the last spot where it was seen, or reacting to other light reflections, like a watch face or a tablet screen glare, also known as “light chasing.” These behaviors often stem from confusion and anxiety, leaving your dog stressed and disoriented.

Instead of picking one of these up, try one of my favorite toys, a flirt pole. That’s a long stick with a line on it with a toy at the end (like a XL cat chaser toy.) It’s always important to play safe with our dogs instead of doing things that can cause serious damage to our dogs behavior. I don’t support this toy being sold and marketed towards dog owners.

08/25/2024

So many problems can be avoided by following this advice from when you first get a puppy, but it will also help with older dogs.

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08/12/2024

Here is the Potty/Crate Training schedule we use for puppies and recommend for our puppy families. This schedule helps make potty training a breeze.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/08/4d/9c/084d9ccde275106a5df5c52b18fc705f.jpg

08/03/2024

Friday FUNNY

06/28/2024

So well written!

There isn't a day that goes by where someone isn't making a comment somewhere on the internet about dog collars. What should be used, what shouldn't be used, why one is better than the other, etcetera.

You would think that one's proximity to heaven is hinged on one's beliefs about collars. I find it pretty odd that the folks condemning a particular collar's use do so not out of any real experience, but by clinging to the mantras of a loud but incredibly ignorant sect of folks who have repeated the shibboleths so many times, they lost the courage to discover the truth for themselves.

A collar is a tool, just like a leash, a crate, a dog bowl, or any other device we use. The collar itself isn't really the problem. The perception of the collar as 'cruel' or 'inhumane' is.

There isn't a device out there I haven't used. There are some I prefer, and even of those, some I use only occasionally. I am thankful I have them in my arsenal of tools.

My selection process starts with using the most 'basic' tool and judge from there. Decisions are always based on the animal in front of me, the goal, and the conditions under which the dog will be expected to perform when handled by someone not *me*.

This becomes an important distinction. Especially when the owner is a tiny woman or senior who happens to own a young dog that promises to achieve a certain size or a large dog that has grown up thinking it was the Emperor of the Universe.

I work with people of all ages and abilities, and what becomes exceedingly apparent is the necessity of helping them (the owners, not the internet experts) effectively control their dogs with maximum efficiency and authority.

I am not above putting a Starmark collar on an enthusiastic puppy or a micro-prong on a toy dog. I will counsel an owner to consider an e-collar for quite a few different scenarios, especially if there are dexterity and ambulation issues.

The tool itself isn't the problem. If people would smarten up, start their dogs' training earlier, and not wait for undesirable behaviors to emerge and strengthen, we wouldn't have half the tools we currently have. I wouldn't spend a ton of time Frankensteining a couple collars and cludging together something for a specific client to help them with application and control.

Many folks disregard the *owner's* need, fixating only on their misguided interpretation that a given device is 'cruel' when in fact, the vast majority of collars were originally designed to make training ~less~ confrontational.

Humans' misuse doesn't make the device less effective, regardless of how it's design is interpreted by folks who can only see the forest, and not the variety of trees within it.

The human equation is the unknown quantity, with their petulance and infantile lack of emotional control, and their dimwitted willingness to blame the dog's 'stubbornness' instead of their own ham-handed insistence that the dog perform to some exceedingly lofty expectation after a repetition or two of any given exercise.

Humans are the ones that made that dog that way. They continually justify their smug superiority with unreasonable physical handicaps and call it preservation breeding. They pursue unnatural aesthetics while disregarding temperament and trainability (both influenced genetically, regardless of what pseudo-science is saying), and leave the mystified owner in a cesspool of nonsense and conflict.

They have no place to turn. The information they find is contradictory and full of half-witted nonsense that leaves them confused and uncertain.

Owners are blamed for their dog's behavior, but aren't offered solutions that would remediate that issue clearly, quickly, and without fallout. They are made to feel shame for their choices, when all they wanted to do was get help.

Cruelty is everywhere. The human that chooses to kick, beat or slam a dog against a concrete floor didn't use a tool. He used his arms, hands, and feet. The girl that bludgeoned several dogs to death didn't do it with a collar. She did it with a blunt instrument.

Having the latitude to help people is the grand design of every tool known to man; to facilitate convenience, or to create additional control without having to expend additional effort.

Any of us over a certain age should remember what it was like driving some tank of a car without power steering and power brakes. Many of us recall the 'mom arm' because shoulder restraint sat belts hadn't been invented yet.

Every thing out there is a derivative of some other thing, and dog training tools are no exception. Some form of slip-type training collar has existed since Xenophon or before. Prong or pinch type collars have existed for over a hundred years, and electronics have been around since the 50's

Tools are and can be innovative. They are a gift that helps us communicate with our dogs in a succinct and graceful way. Learning about them requires more than an opinion on social media.

I deplore intellectual laziness as much as I deplore cruelty. Tools aren't the enemy. Ignorance is.

06/19/2024

Exactly.

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06/14/2024

Excellent post

Let's talk about this photo. It's cute, except it's not. I see a dog who cannot get up without telling the child to get off. How do you think a dog is going to do that?

The 7 Golden Toddler Dog Rules:
#1: If a dog walks away from you, you DO NOT FOLLOW.
#2: Always leave room for the dog to walk away from you.
---that right there is 90+% of dog bites eliminated---
#3: We do not climb on the dog.
#4: We do not grab or pull on the dog.
#5: We do not hit or throw anything at the dog.
#6: We do not touch the dog's food.
#7: We do not go into the dog's kennel.

I promise these are not overly difficult concepts for littles, nor will they rob a kid of their bond with the family dog. It will deepen that bond, while keeping everyone safe.

"Oh, it looks like Moose is walking away from you. She is saying she wants a break. Let's play with this instead!"

"It's Moose's dinner time! Let's give her space to enjoy her yummies."

"That is Moose's room(kennel) and only she is allowed to go in there."

"If Moose wanted a break, could she walk away from you right now? No she really couldn't. Let's move away from the play house. You can keep playing but now she can leave when she wants a break."

In conclusion, ***parent your child or your dog will do it for you, and you will not like how they do it.***