Divinity Poodles

06/09/2024

Knives earned his RATS title (Senior) at the Fraser Valley Ratters Labour Day Weekend trial. This was a last minute decision to attend and David did a fantastic job running him since Megan didn't come with us. Knives got a HIC and was the only dog to pass his first run and in the second run only 3 dogs passed and were separated in time by hundredths of a second. This dog loves to work and you can see it in his face 😄

Divinity's Delicious Creamsicle RATI RATS CRN CA NS 🐩🐀

Thank you to Laurie, Erin and all the volunteers and judges for a fantastic trial.
Thank you Emily Weeks for the lovely photos.

06/09/2024

Hopefully this helps.

Adolescence occurs between six months and 18 months of age—a time when guardians typically struggle the most with their dogs. Some guardians are so overwhelmed and underprepared for this developmental stage of their dog’s life, they choose to surrender the dog to a local shelter or rescue group. In a recent study published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science found that the majority of the surrendered dogs (47.7 percent) ) were between 5 months and 3 years of age (M.D. Salman,John G. New, Jr.,Janet M. Scarlett,Philip H. Kass,Rebecca Ruch-Gallie &Suzanne Hetts, 2010)

The neurobiology of adolescence is fascinating, with some key events that alter both the structure and function of the brain.

During canine adolescence, changing s*x hormones effect the animals stress responses. Adolescent dogs have a decreased ability to process information they are receiving from the environment including the presence of dogs, vehicles, people, or really anything around them. They behave in ways that might feel frustrating or upsetting for the dog’s person.

The connectivity between the frontal cortex (responsible for decision making) and amygdala (responsible for emotional processing) decreases, resulting in less behavioral control. We see increased risk taking and more sensitivity to fear.

So what does this mean? This could mean that what was once no big deal to the dog now feels scary; what was once easy to do is now stressful; what once made sense is now confusing. At times, the world can feel like ‘too much’ for the adolescent dog.

As your puppy undergoes this transition into adulthood their inner world is intense, even chaotic. Many pet owners experience an increase in undesirable behavior and find themselves becoming increasingly frustrated. In turn, our own frustration and impatience can cause us to act unpredictably. This adds to our puppy’s inner turmoil. When the inside and the outside are both unpredictable it can be difficult for our dogs to adjust.

If you have an adolescent dog, what can you do? You can give your dog the time and space to observe what is going on around them when on leash at a distance away from the activity when possible. You can give your dog long walks to sniff and explore in nature, giving their brain time to decompress. You can offer your dog a quiet space to sleep so that they can consolidate memories effectively. You can continue training various skills, breaking them down into easier steps that can be generously reinforced.

By understanding what our adolescent dog is experiencing we gain greater compassion and understanding. When we approach adolescence with patience we create a world that is predictable and gentle so our puppies grow up to be their best adult selves.

27/08/2024

As some of you know my ability to train and trial with my dogs changed drastically when I got Long Covid. I am not able to anything close to what I used to do with them and really, really miss it. I do sometimes save up my spoons and take a class here and there and this is one of them.

Mantrailing is a type of nosework where the dog is to track down a target person after being shown a scent item (something that the person has worn or purposely added their scent to) and is to do that by both tracking and air scenting.

This video shows Rain at her 3rd class. She is shown the scent item and she then starts tracking her target. In this instance the trainer also walked alongside the target person to lay a 'decoy trail' and was also the person that Rain watched walk away with her bowl of rewards (treats). Rain did not watch either her target person or the trainer actually lay the trail. At this stage the trail is also only a few minutes old.
When she gets to the playground she sees the trainer and is air scenting before ignoring the trainer and going to her target.

She did very, very good work!

Mantrailing is a type of nosework where the dog is to track down a target person after being shown a scent item (something that the person has worn or purpos...

29/07/2024

This is cool to know 😎

The next time you’re in your dog’s mouth (you do brush his or her teeth, right?) notice the bump on the roof of his mouth just behind the two front middle teeth? It’s called the ‘incisive papilla,” and near the center of it is a hole that leads to a duct that leads to the “Jacobson’s organ.” The Jacobson’s organ is a very cool thing. Put in “See Spot Run” terms, it allows your dog to literally taste the air by combining taste and smell.

Dogs use their Jacobson’s organ to experience s*xual markers (pheromones) left behind by other dogs via urine, or when coming across the scent of a bitch in season. While dogs don’t have a Flehmen response seen in many other animals (throwing back the head, and raising or curling the upper lip which helps open the entry slits into Jacobson’s Organ), dogs will “chatter their teeth” instead. A dog might hold his mouth in a quasi-open position that looks a little like a grin, or he might even lick the air. And you thought he was just happy to see you.

One theory holds that the Jacobson’s Organ could account for a dog’s ability to identify and recognize other animals and people. It’s also believed that it’s this organ that enhances a newborn’s ability to find its mother.

07/07/2024

Happy 7th Birthday to the Autumn & Chaos litter!
Cello, Ivy, Nora, Jett and Rain
It's been a wild ride so far!

19/06/2024

I wish there was a less harsh way to think and say this but this is the absolute truth.

A woman once contacted me looking for a puppy. But she kept saying she was hesitant because the borzoi has such a short life span. I’ve had a few who have lived to be over 14 and a more recent one who died at under five months. I felt that she was not connected to reality and was probably not someone I needed to get involved with because there would always be some problem. The problem is that when people pay you for a puppy, they act like they are buying a designer handbag or something. Authenticity, exclusivity, and that it will last forever and be in the Met. The reality is that it is a living, breathing being and it does not come with spare parts, any real guarantee as to what will happen to it or how long it will last. There is no expiration date.
Like all things with dogs, it is a gamble. You go to a show, it is a gamble. You breed a litter, it is a gamble. You place a puppy, it is a gamble. There is no way to know what will happen along the way.

I placed a puppy in a home I took a chance on. There wasn’t enough yard there but there was a huge park nearby and she went to work with her owner everyday. Never did we see a fungal infection in her future.

I placed a puppy in a home in Mexico at the beach. Perfect. Never in a million years did we think she could escape and while harassing pelicans on the cliff, it would give way and she would fall to her death.

How did that dog eat an entire box of fire starter cubes? What is really in those that blood was shooting out his butt? And then he was gone.

Not being a man and never having had male children, I had no idea testicles could torsion. Had I not shaved D’Argo down and got all that hair off of him I would have never noticed that giant shiny black ball under his tail.

I’ve always known how dangerous foxtails are. But you just don’t think about them all the time. Until your dog crashes and they show you the track on X-ray of that “foreign body” heading for his kidney.

I’m sure no one ever thinks about them smacking into each other. Or missing a turn and hitting a fence post. Pneumothorax or simply a broken neck.

And whatever had caused that intussusception was never found but it took out his whole gut all the same.

There are also the freak accidents. The coyote that ran across the trail and the dog who je**ed out of his owner’s hands. The driver just missed hitting the coyote and while watching it, he slammed right into the borzoi. Then there was the silly borzoi who ran out to do his borzoi dance in the middle of the busy street. He didn’t make it to the vet either. And then there was the borzoi I bred that took off through the only open gate at their local high school and their other borzoi ran after her. Again, the car just missed the first one, slammed right into the second one.

So when breeders offer you the chic # of their dog as if it is some sort of bulletproof guarantee that your little puppy is going to make it to 14 and still be able to hike and p*e and p**p on its own, please realize, that testing covers such a teeny tiny little piece of all the possible problems you might face along the way. We spend hundreds of dollars testing for stuff, less on structural analysis, but none of it will prepare you for the myriad ways the universe can take that puppy out.

As a breeder, I deal with up to ten times the number of deaths an individual will face. I have my own dogs and I have all of yours. I have all the ones someone else bred where my dog was used at stud. Each and every death I absorb. Each heartbreak of yours I carry with me. Each litter that doesn’t happen, hopes dashed. Each neonate that doesn’t make it. I have a deep well of sadness. It is so deep I can no longer see the bottom.

What they die from and when, we cannot possibly know that. And if all this testing proved something, it would be that it doesn’t mean what you think because we have to keep testing. It is a way to track trends over time. It is no guarantee for your puppy. And really, since we have yet for one to die of thyroid or heart issues or be born blind or lose their eyesight, of fall down at four or five from degenerative disease, I’m not sure that I can make you any guarantee other than this is a living breathing bundle of love and you will have it for as long as you have it and not a second more. -Bunny Kelly

15/06/2024

This is something that anyone considering getting a high drive/ high energy dog should learn about.

Yesterday I saw a video from a well-known trainer on social media that discussed how there is no such thing as “too much exercise” for dogs. This discussion was accompanied by b roll of dogs fetching balls in a variety of places.
I don’t usually get involved in trainer arguments but I need to say something about this.
There ABSOLUTELY is such a thing as too much high-arousal exercise. And you probably don’t want to find out for yourself what happens next.
Activities that tend to *physically* wear dogs out the fastest are also the ones that create the highest excitement levels. Fetching balls. Playing frisbee. Racing around at the dog park. Chasing water from the garden hose. Running next to a bike.
All of these are physical exercise, but they also create intense arousal states. And if you put your dog into high-arousal states repeatedly you better know how to train around this, too.
I have a lot of students who fell into this trap. They got a high-energy dog (a GSD, a herding breed mix of some sort, a retriever etc.).
They figured out that the fastest way to make the dog physically really tired (the tongue-hanging-to-the-floor-kind-of-tired) was by playing chuck-it for half an hour. Or by taking the dog to the dog park every day for a wild romp.
The dog started to crave these arousal states (as programmed in their DNA).
But at the same time, no impulse control training happened. So now we have a dog who knows the fun of adrenaline and who seeks it, without having been taught to listen and regulate when in a state of high excitement.
This dog will start to show other problems. They might get frustrated to the point of redirecting when they cannot access fun immediately. They might be vocalizing or unable to settle and then I get messages that say “My dog just cannot be normal in public”.
If your dog gets to enjoy a high-arousal activity every time they leave the house, they will start to expect (and eventually demand) a high-arousal activity every time.
And this is not fun.
Your dog needs a balance of high-arousal and low-arousal activities. Furthermore, the more high-arousal activities your dog has, the more you have to balance these with impulse control training. It’s not fair to make our dogs crazy without teaching them the skills to un-crazy ;)
“Exercise” can have four quadrants:
- Low-arousal, not physically demanding (sniff walks)
- Low-arousal, physically demanding (hiking)
- High-arousal, not physically demanding (excited waiting while another dog works)
- High-arousal, physically demanding (fetching)

Make sure you are aware which type of exercise you are providing for your dog, and try to reach a balance that works for your dog.
If you are unhappy with your dog’s arousal level or impulse control in daily life, look at whether this is amplified by the type of exercise you are providing.

22/04/2024

I have not been able to do much training in the last 2+ years thanks to Long Covid which is really disappointing. I decided to save up some spoons and take a Lost Item Recovery workshop with Westcoast Sport Dogs this weekend with Rain.
She has done one nosework class and LOVES to use her nose to track.
The idea behind lost item recovery is to teach your dog to find your lost items as well as teaching her to match a scent to an item in order to find another person's lost item. Super useful in real life as well as a fun dog sport lol.
The first video is of her finding my keys which was the second search she did. She's such a funny nut when she's working, always looks like she's just doing her own thing then casually just locates whatever she's been sent for. Only time that changes is when she's tracking downed game - then you need to get out of her way 🤣
Just a note I stood where I was since it was a very small space and I just let her line out rather than try to manoeuvre around the furniture in the room. I did call her off the stuffies as she would have chosen one for herself lol.
The second video is finding the other person's item. In this case the trainer's remote. She was given her match odour outside the room and first alerted on the trainer (Danica) herself and then when she wasn't told that was it she moved on to continue her search. Again, super laid back and looks like she just randomly came across it but I promise she's working 😉

14/04/2024

This is an extremely important concept.

02/04/2024

There are very few instances where a ‘working dog’ does not need to be able to live the life of a pet (think LGD).
Please remember that.

Dear future "working home,"

While I know you have dreams of podiums when you bring your little working line puppy home, you have a much bigger responsibility to this little puppy I'm trusting to you.

That's great that you've researched pedigrees, have a club and maybe even a solid mentor. That's amazing that you have all the latest tug toys and a custom wide agitation collar with his name embroidered on it. And I'm really stoked that you already have his instagram loaded with fire emoji's detailing his daily puppy training sessions.

But over and over, my puppies are FAILED by their working home owners. Owners who look amazing on paper. Owners who have all the goals and dreams for their little puppy. And it's not just MY working home owners. I know other breeders who feel this same pain as they send their little ones out into this world. Knowing that these puppies who could excel at so many things are going to be set up for failure by the first people who have their hands on them.

How are they being failed?

By s**t advice. S**t advice from the clubs that are mentoring them. S**t advice from the internet. S**t advice from those around them.

I'll scream it from the roof tops ....

Stop taking these working prospects and shoving them in crates, only to come out for "work" in the name of drive building. If they need full deprivation to "work" then the genetics aren't there in the first place.

Stop taking these working prospects and controlling every single morsel of food to the point of deprivation, over long periods of time. If the food drive is that bad, the genetics aren't there in the first place.

Stop taking these working prospects and never letting anyone touch your puppy. "He should treat people like furniture." Yeah ... solid advice for some puppies but I know when you wash this dog in 18 months, I now have a full size adult intact male Rottweiler who's never been handled by strangers. Great, thanks.

Stop taking these working prospects and never letting them interact with another dog or animal. "He should be neutral to dogs." Yeah ... great ... now you wash this dog in 12 months and I have a full size intact male Rottweiler who doesn't know how he feels about his own species.

Stop taking these working prospects and never telling them "no" because you want them to be strong on the field. Great....now when you return King Kong to me, he isn't really going to know what to do with those big feelings when that's not how the world works.

Stop depriving your working line puppies of a solid start in life ... because when you wash that dog from sport for an issue YOU created .... now I have to clean up the mess.

Raise your puppy for sport however you want, but at the end of the day if that dog doesn't pan out for sport you are giving them a death sentence if you haven't also raised them with a pet dog life in mind.

Sincerely,
A Working Dog Breeder

29/03/2024

If I die while I have a pet, let my animal see my dead body. Let them see my dead body please. They understand death and seeing me dead will allow them to mourn, but if I just never show up one day they’ll think I abandoned them. I know what it feels like to be abandoned and I never want anyone to feel that way, especially my dog...

09/03/2024

The Broken Heart Dog

Most of us know what a heart dog is: that special dog that we connect with on a deeper level. The dog that we know and that knows us forwards and backwards. Our four legged other half and in some ways, one of the great loves of our lives. These dogs are talked about often, placed on a pedestal against which future dogs are judged and revered by their owners for the lifetime of the human lucky enough to have spent their time with them. Some people are lucky to find that one heart dog. Some are blessed enough to have two or even several in a lifetime. Some people will describe them differently. Referring to a heart dog, a soul dog, a spirit dog, etc. All are just as important as the first and all can change the life of the person fortunate enough to have found them. Praise and honor is given to these dogs on a daily basis and today will be no different for many, but today I want to take a few minutes to talk about a different type of heart dog. The broken heart dog.

These are the dogs that follow our heart dogs. Maybe they survive them in this life or maybe they find us after we have suffered that profound loss of that “once in a lifetime” dog. It doesn’t matter how they arrive in our lives or why, it just matters that they do. They are there. They are there at our worst and they stay at our sides until we find that new version of ourselves. They help us discover our new normal and they never ask to take over the place of the dog before them. When we are broken, they are the guardians of the pieces. When we are whole again they are elated to be there and experience that with us too. As we move on in the world and we no longer need them to plug the leaks and fill the cracks, they are honored to still be by our sides as we grow and face new challenges. These dogs are irreplaceable in their own right and equally deserving of recognition and celebration.

I’m sure you can think of who this dog (or dogs) are in your life. Some of them may have grown to become heart dogs in their own right. Others may have quietly done their job of support and regrowth, quietly and with dedication that allowed us to change and grow without seeming to realize it. It’s hard not to be reminded of your past, of your history and what you lost with the passing of time. Our history is what formed us and shaped us into who we are now, heart dogs and broken heart dogs included. Our history will repeat itself because such is the nature of the beast. I think what we need to remember, with these broken heart dogs, is that sometimes the most important history, is the history that we are making today. Because of these dogs we find ourselves ready to take those steps and make that history. Their accomplishment in that moment and in that victory is not to be overlooked. They remind us who we are and why we love the things that we did with those heart dogs.

So here’s to the dogs that clean up the messes that this life makes of us. The dogs that may not be the best looking, the most talented or the ones that catch everyone's eye. These dogs are the therapists, the mechanics and the keepers of the soul. Their value known only to the one person fortunate enough to have found them through chance or sheer desperation. Maybe they are great dogs, known to the masses and legends in their own right. Maybe they are a little tall, a little too shaggy, a little too leggy or they have a crooked ear. It doesn't matter. This is the perfect work that can be done by dogs both imperfect and otherwise. The mending of a broken heart that requires the love of a heart so pure that it can repair, rebuild and cleanse the scraps that it finds itself responsible for. I see you and the work you do. We all do. This is your day to shine for the beautiful work you do, even if you do your job in the shadows. Today is your day for the pedestal.

Written by Jen Rainey, CPhT