Andrews Farm Dog Training

02/13/2025

One of the most powerful steps you can take as a trainer is to change your mindset from,
‘How can I get my dog to do it’ to
‘How can I get my dog to Want to do it’—

Stress for dogs, often comes from the teacher, not the task.
For some dogs, the resentment for the phase of work that was forced upon them, stays with them and could have been avoided if the handler had changed their approach.
For example, if you make a new concept difficult, even inadvertently, such as,
having expectations of how quickly your dog should learn, how proficient he should be, the wrong set-up
or if you try to force behavior, it could be that you are creating the stress that your dog then associates with that task.
—At the onset of training, it’s extremely important to differentiate, is the training issue one you can change VS. is it a genetic predisposition, that you can improve and manage but not organically alter.

Trying to force a dog to ‘push through’ an issue that stems from their genetics (ie too much eye, inherently wide, inherently fearful etc) is almost always to the detriment of the dog.
Instead, this is when you need knowledge and experience to help your dog or the self awareness to seek help from an expert.

Just like people, dogs can get bored when you do the same thing too often,
frustrated when it’s too arduous or disheartened when too often being told ‘you’re wrong’.

Instead of trying to accelerate your dogs training timeline, focus on your consistency, development and improvement as a teacher.
It's your continuous effort to adjust to your dogs response and body language that will help your dog become the best he can be.
Handlers sometimes find themselves waiting...for the day when they, win the competition, succeed at “X” , are acknowledged by their peers, or other.
Don’t let the pursuit of tomorrow diminish the joy of today, for you or your dog.
macraeway.com

01/16/2025

This should be dog training gospel.

When training isn’t going well, the first instinct is often to try to change your dog.
But the answer is more often found in changing yourself—

Blame is easy.
And handlers often assign responsibility to the wrong source. They may rationalize:
it's limited time (frequency/duration of training sessions)
the sheep
something that happened off the training field
their dog’s innate ability
temperament, or other.
The cause they attribute (often unconsciously), eliminates their accountability.
This includes, “It’s me”, if said with resignation.

Change can be hard.
It can feel frustrating, counterintuitive, messy and almost always requires admitting you’ve made mistakes and need to alter course.
It’s uncomfortable.
But when you’re humble enough to evaluate your mindset, your training method
your commitment to continue learning
and be accountable,
you’ll find the answer is within yourself.

One way to get started is to revisit the challenges you are facing. Evaluate how you can develop to become a better, more intuitive teacher.
View training obstacles as a catalyst to gain knowledge, develop skills, and grow.
Reframe frustration and fear of failure; instead of “I have to change” embrace the opportunity, “I get to change”.

If self discipline is difficult, you need motivation or if a training issue is outside your experience level, recruit help.
With technology, even when you’re unable to travel, you have access to experts and can immerse yourself in knowledge.

When I understood it was my responsibility to honestly assess my dog and change my teaching approach to best match his individual characteristics (including amount and type of eye, excitability, maturity, temperament, self confidence, etc.)
it was a game changer.
Instead of expecting him to figure it out or adapt to my style, I needed to learn how to adjust to him.
While the principles stay the same, the individuality is paramount; for both training and for partnership.
The more I work on myself, the more my dogs improve.
macraeway.com

01/16/2025

12/30/2024

In Texas

While at the Texas Pet Sitters Conference recently, we had the chance to hear from Dr. Roy Madigan, a veterinarian, and the principal scientist in the Canine Chagas Treatment Study.

We felt it imperative to share with our clients, and our community, the surprising information we learned.

Chagas disease is a parastic disease that is spread by kissing bugs. Similar to heartworm disease, animals can become infected with Chagas if they're bitten by, or ingest, a kissing bug.

The symptoms of Chagas can show up in a variety of ways. For less severe cases, lethargy, decreased appetite and weight loss may present. In more severe cases, you may see fluid in the abdomen, heart failure, vomiting, and unfortunately, sudden death.

Dr. Madigan estimates that up to 23% of companion dogs in Texas currently are positive for Chagas (compared to about 3.3% that are heartworm positive).

Chagas tends to attack the heart tissue, and is a progressive disease. The most common symptom seen when this happens is arrhythmia. It is also known to attack the brain.

Testing for Chagas is not common. The pet owner usually has to seek it out. There is currently a reliable test called "ELISA" that costs around $120.00. Dr. Madigan tells us that by next year, a new version will be available that will cost around $35.00 and will include a heartworm test. It will be readily available to all veterinary practices. They are currently awaiting approval from the FDA.

The treatment for Chagas is in a pill form and lasts for 12 months. Dr. Madigan reports that while it is 100% effective, it does not fix the harm that has already been done to the body by the parasite.

Our best defense against Chagas is preventative action. Pyrethroid insecticides will kill kissing bugs. Oral flea and tick medicine will kill Chagas.

If you see your pet with a kissing bug, do not squish the bug. Use a plastic baggie to capture it (don't touch it!) and contact https://kissingbug.tamu.edu/contact/ for instructions on how to submit it for testing.

It takes up to three weeks for a pet to test positive after exposure to Chagas, so don't immediately get your pet tested.

It is not only dogs who get Chagas. Cats also are affected. Chagas is the number one cause of seizures in cats.

Humans can also get Chagas. If your pet tests positive, every pet in the house should be tested, as well as all humans.

Antibodies are not effective at preventing reinfection, so a vaccine is not an option. Researchers are currently working to develop a slow-release injectible to protect pets.

Our takeaways:

*Chagas is impacting more pets than most people know. If your pet is showing unusual symptoms, ask your veterinarian to test them for Chagas. The sooner it is detected, the better off your pet will fare.

*Chagas is a treatable disease.

*Be aware of your enviroment. Keep your yard clean. Turn off outdoor lighting. Bring pets inside at night. Remove piles of rocks, leaves or wood near your home. Keep vegetation trimmed regularly. If you find a kissing bug, submit it for testing.

*If your pet tests positive for Chagas, test ALL your pets. Also, test all humans in the house.

For more information, please visit https://kissingbug.tamu.edu and www.vidapharmacal.com

12/07/2024

11/24/2024

11/21/2024

Or dog training, or any training!

"Advanced training is just the basics done really well." - Ken Ramirez
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"Training often fails because people expect way too much of the animal and way too little of themselves." - Bob Bailey
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"Please just do your homework." - Fred

11/13/2024

Due to unfortunate messaging over the years, coupled with a lack of knowledge, and compounded by the human tendency for denial/delusion, what should be obvious and commonly accepted is anything but.

A few of the messages:
-There are no bad dogs, only bad owners. Wrong.
-Any dog can be “fixed” if you’ll get your energy right. Wrong.
-Every dog should be saved. Wrong.

The knowledge gap:
-We have a chaotic house, with lots of kids running all over, and we adopted a highly nervous but “sweet” herding breed. Bad.
-My dog challenges everyone in our family, and has bitten us all, but is great with my trainer. Bad.
-We got a guarding/working breed so it can protect the family, even though we’ve never had a dog before. Bad.

A bit of denial:
-He only bites us when we kiss/dance/move too fast/leave the house/vacuum because he had a traumatic early life. Delusion.
-She’s guards her spot on the couch, her toys, and her food, and will bite us if we get too close, but it’s only because she never had things of her own before. Delusion.
-He always growls at or bites my husband, but I’m sure he was abused by a man before I adopted him. Delusion.

Can people improve? Absolutely. Can dogs improve? Almost always. Does that mean that all fits can be made healthy and happy, or are wise? Nope. People and dogs come in many flavors, and many of these flavors work wonderfully well together, some work with certain other flavors, and some (human and dog) don’t work well at all. It’s a sad reality, but a reality nonetheless. We should be choosing the dogs we share our lives with based on an honest and informed assessment of who we are, what our lives look like, and what dog—both breed and individual personality—fits that reality best.

Ignore the silly messages, do your homework, and lose the denial.

Fairytales in dog land often end up as nightmares.

10/31/2024

The good thing about training a dog for work is that he doesn’t need to be perfect.
Shepherds used to train their dogs for work, and the trials were secondary; dogs would be polished up so they could compete with excellence, but work was the priority.
Today, most train for trials first, and the work is an afterthought.
When a dog is doing practical work, he can make mistakes and learn through experience with guidance from the handler, until he understands the task. This allows the dog to develop without a lot of pressure before he’s mentally able to handle it.
With most people now training for trialing, some make the mistake of striving for perfection, rather than excellence.

“Perfection” doesn't allow room for dogs to make mistakes and work things out on their own.
Those who strive for excellence understand that mistakes are inevitable and part of the path to learning and improvement, while perfectionists tend to see mistakes as failures.
Excellence we can reach for with effort, practice, and persistence. But pursuing perfection sets an impossibly high standard, not only for us but also for our dogs.

Some ideas perfectionists pursue is for their dogs to: work at the perfect distance off sheep, drill them for the perfect walk, make sure every flank is perfectly square, to name a few.
The problem with this, is assuming it is the same for all dogs- instead of making adjustments for a dogs individual type and amount of ‘eye’, directness, presence, excitability, temperament, etc.
Often these handlers have young dogs that “never really got keen enough to train” (when it was the initial over training that caused it) or an open dog that flanks rather than walks up, lacks enthusiasm for shedding, stopping running sheep, enjoying turning back, or other.

If you require perfection you can diminish your dogs spirit and their ultimate potential.
Perfectionists may sometimes gain 2-6 months at the start of their young dogs career, but often lose years at the end of it.

Dogs, and trainers alike, learn from being allowed to make mistakes, and, in turn, learning from those mistakes will pave the way for excellence.

macraeway.com

Patricia Alasdair MacRae

10/27/2024

One more reason we do not use or recommend the "gentle leader or other harnesses that come across the dogs face.

Here is the vascular system in a canine head. This highlights the enormous amount of blood flow in the dogs nose. This blood flow serves many purposes, fuels the scent chambers, aids in temperature regulation, allows dogs to effectively track, but this also makes the dogs nose incredibly sensitive to touch. This is the main reason you should not use face harnesses. There are plenty of tools designed to communicate with dogs that do not put pressure on one of their most sensitive features. I Credit this post to Grant Teeboon AKA the PawMan

10/25/2024