BatesnPenny2020

21/06/2025

16/06/2025

28/05/2025

17/04/2025

Reasonable management

13/04/2025

Every day skills

09/10/2024

💔

Negan is a 6-year-old German Shepherd cadaver dog sent to Buncombe County from Missouri to assist in the search for our missing community members. Both Negan and Jakob, of Storm K9 Solutions, came to North Carolina with a team of four dogs and three people.

As teams continue to search for survivors, specialty K9s like Negan are scouring for answers in all directions through dirt, dust, and debris. While our community hurts, members (including furry ones) from across the United States gather to support us in so many ways. Thank you Storm K9 Solutions for being one of the many teams playing a part in Buncombe County's recovery.

30/09/2024

We are cleaning up after Helene. We are some of the lucky few who now have power and nothing major was damaged. Humans and animals are fine thank goodness.
Now for the dog training part :)
Put the time in up front to train your dog, it pays off exponentially.
Friday morning after the winds died down, Penny and I walked around to survey the damage and check on neighbors. I didn't need to leash her once. She walked towards a downed power line, I simply said "no, stay over here" and she did. Chainsaws came out, she listened and understood, and most importantly trusted my directions and followed them. Wherever I got held up clearing and cutting she waited patiently. She was never a nuisance, always a welcome companion. She gravitated towards the kids who could use a cute dog moment after all this.
Then we had to travel to find gas, groceries and a place to shower and recharge electronics. She travels beautifully in the car, doesn't stress. She settles perfectly in a motel room, behaves unobtrusively in restaurants (outside patio), most people didn't even realize there was a dog at our table.
This is the joy of owning a dog who you have put time into. It's a lot of work on the front end, but a couple years up front vs. 12 or more years payoff is more than worth the investment.

15/09/2024

I'm not sure why we are comparing a tool used to extinguish a behavior with a tool used to create a behavior.
Do ecollars work? Yup. Do treats and rewards work? Also yes.
But "work" to do what? Are you trying to create a behavior? That happens with reinforcement, things the dog likes. Are you trying to stop a behavior? That happens with punishers, things the dog doesn't like.
Both punishers and reinforcers are highly dependent on the dog's relationship with the handler. If I tell my dog "no" she cares about my opinion and she generally stops whatever she's doing. And yes, if "no" stops a behavior, that is indeed a punisher. If I hand my dog a treat and she doesn't like me, or feel good around me, that treat isn't going to function as a reward.
Dog training is so much more than the tools we use or the methods we lean towards. Relationships matter, and if you can't build a strong relationship with your dog, no tool will solve that for you. If you do have a strong relationship with your dog, you'll know what tools will work and which ones won't.

25/08/2024

Inspired by Denise Fenzi post about Morgan 😍
This is Penny. This is at a cross country meet on our home turf so I was more relaxed about Penny being loose. She's good about hanging out close to our team's tent. I keep an eye on her but in general I trust her to make good choices, and I trust the team who knows her to have her back too. I lost sight of her for a moment only to look over and see this. This is one of our runner's younger siblings. He had just met Penny today and was smitten. Penny was happy to oblige while keeping a close eye on me.
What this picture doesn't show is that Penny was not always like this. In fact if I were to tell you the extent of her issues you probably wouldn't believe me. She really was a trainwreck.
Four years later, she has a few glitches but in general, this is her.
Genetics account for a lot of where she is now. The other part is training. I am incredibly fortunate to have resources in the way of amazing trainers like The Puppy Nanny and Horizon Dog Behavior to work with, and I had an irreplaceable mentor dog who helped too. But this... this was created.
Pet dog trainers really need to focus on the kind of skills a pet dog is going to need. And sit, stay, and place aren't it. Resilience, recovery, and relationship are. These are all skills you and your dog can develop. Your dog may not have the genetics to get to the point that they'll happily sit in some random kid's lap, and you may not ever want that from your dog, I get that! But you can always move the needle more in that direction. Because the more kids who fall in love with a sweet dog they encounter at a cross country meet, the better the future for dogs and dog ownership.

25/08/2024

If you learn only methods, you'll be tied to your methods, but if you learn principles you can devise your own methods. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

24/08/2024

Her place & stay cue need work 🙄😂
In other news, I’d say her eyes are much better!

17/08/2024

Most dogs aren't being trained at all. Not even a puppy class.
Most dog owners aren't interested one iota in dog training.
And they're certainly not going to pay anyone to give them training advice or take their dog to a class.

Can you imagine if one of these average dog owners stumbled across the current social media mess going on? Major divides and arguments, one group trying to unify everyone, another group saying those trying to unify don't care about dog welfare, the pettiness, the name calling, the drama? They would think we're all insane! And they would not be wrong!

My dog has no titles. None. She has no pedigree. I'm not a successful, well-known dog trainer, I'm not even a dog trainer at all, I'm a dog owner hobbyist trainer.

My dog spends 4 days a week helping me coach teenage runners in the sport of cross country. She enjoys chasing them, the runners enjoy being chased, and when I call, Penny comes back. When I say no, don't chase, she doesn't (sometimes with verbal protests, but she listens). She knows cute tricks and the kids enjoy getting her to do tricks for a treat. She jumps on their backs when they're doing stretches, they randomly pick her up which she tolerates, she seems to know which kids need extra attention.

Some of these kids will one day be dog owners.
I hope they will remember Penny and that I used treats to reward good behavior. I hope they will remember the body language cues I taught them when she's had enough or needs a break. I hope they remember that Penny also went to dog training classes. I really hope they remember that I always picked her p**p up! But most of all I hope they remember what a joy a trained dog is to be around and that they seek out classes and professional guidance for their own dogs.

And when that happens, I hope the dog training world is a little bit less of a drama fest and a lot more unified and supportive of each other.

At the end of the day more dogs need to be trained. They need an owner who cares enough to train - ANY training, any ethos. A dog who's owner takes the time and spends the money to attend a class or one-on-one sessions is a lucky dog.
Let's promote training dogs. However that makes sense to you, just train your dog and show the world how much fun a trained dog is to own.