My wife and I spent a good amount of our Labor Day weekend puppy-proofing the house. It’s been a while since we have had to deal with a very curious animal sticking his nose into everything, and trying to chew…everything!

Cesar Millan, aka The Dog Whisperer, has some very effective training techniques that we have been trying to take to heart, one of which is limiting access to the entire house.

Especially when you’re trying to keep your new dog from peeing everywhere, it’s important to provide a safe, secure area from which to interact with the family. This could be a crate, or a designated area of a room. So far, this has been working great with our new puppy, Rudy.

Rudy’s a pretty laid back guy, with a much different energy than our previous dog, Rocky. Whereas a Jack Russell Terrier likes to run full-blast from point A to point B, fearlessly looking around each new corner, ready for anything, Rudy is pretty trepidatious about trying anything new. At first he really hated the leash and collar, and would rather lie down on the ground and chew it than go out for a walk with us. He’s doing great now, but Rocky by contrast was fine with a leash from the start, and would even pull me on my skateboard down the street at full speed! (In retrospect, that probably wasn’t the best way to train a JRT….)

Certainly we aren’t dog training experts, but we have learned quite a bit from Cesar, the SPCA, and our own personal experiences (i.e. mistakes along the way).

Here is our Demay Top 5 Dog Training Tips, if you are thinking about bringing home a new doggie to your house:

1) Give your dog a designated area to spend his time in each room. Whether it’s a dog bed, a crate, or a blanket, let him know that the house is yours, and he needs permssion to go outside of his territory. This is great for both owner and dog, since it allows you to keep an eye on him while you’re home, and it sets limits for your dog, establishing you as leader of the pack.

2) Always lead your dog. When you leave a room, or go out a door, always go first. When he’s on the leash, keep him walking at your side, and slightly behind. (This is easier said than done with terriers!) If you always let a dog go first, you are making him believe he is the leader of the pack. To most dogs, this is a pressure-situation, and they don’t like it. Excitable, yipping dogs pulling hard on the leash don’t respect you, and think it’s up to them to make decisions for the pack. It makes them nervous, and nearly impossible to train. They’d much rather follow you, and let you look out for them, so always lead.

3) Dogs are a mirror of you. If you’re nervous and excited around them, you’re going to get a nervous and excited dog. Likewise, if your dog runs around and jumps up on you, and you pet that dog or say his name at that moment, you are telling him it’s OK to run around and jump up on people! Whatever attention you give a dog, positive or negative, reinforces that behavior of the dog at that minute.

4) Ignorance is Bliss. Dogs always live in the moment. Their memories are very poor. If you want to discourage bad behavior, turn your back on a dog when he’s doing something you don’t like. Don’t even make eye contact at that time. Wait until he settles down and is acting the way you want him to act before acknowledging him, and giving him praise. This reinforces only the good behavior.

5) Crate-training is a very good thing. It’s hard for people to understand at first that confining a dog to a kennel or crate is actually soothing to him. Humans don’t like to be put in cages. Dogs, on the other hand, really appreciate not having to always watch their backs. A crate, as long as it’s large enough to stand up and turn around in, is a safe, secure place where a dog can relax. Plus, they won’t pee where they sleep. So if you keep your animal in a crate for a good part of the day, immediately lead them out the door to pee the minute you come home. This reinforces that peeing is an outside activity only, and makes the house a nice place to be for both dog and owner.

That’s our Top 5, do you have any tips to share? Would love your comments!

–Brian

Many of you already know that our family dog Rocky passed away last week. To all my friends and acquaintances who expressed their condolences, I thank you. It means more to me than you know.

While Rocky’s death was “expected,” I don’t think anyone is ever really ready for it. The finality of death, and in Rocky’s case the quickness of his decline, took us all completely by surprise. After nearly 14 years, the shock of suddenly not having him around was quite profound; not just for me, but for my wife and children too.

Rocky pre-dated both of my kids. We brought him home as a puppy shortly after buying our first house in 1997, and his claws clicked on the floors of that house, and two others since, until last week.

I think what struck me most about this experience was how universal grief truly is. As a child I remember being terribly sad when the family dog died, but this was different. I would say it’s no less difficult dealing with the loss of a cherished family pet than it is mourning the passing of an elderly relative: grief is grief.

Before we buried Rocky underneath his favorite tree in our backyard, we stood and remembered things about him that made us smile:

One morning I had Rocky in the station truck with me. I left something in the house, so I ran in to get it, leaving the truck running. When I got back, Rocky had locked himself in the truck (and me out of it), and had his paws on the steering wheel, seemingly ready to drive off without me. I had to have someone from the station drive out to my house with a spare set of keys so I could make it into work that day.

We lived near a mountain lake in our first house in Virginia, and would often let Rocky loose at the tail end of his walk to run free. He really looked forward to being let loose from the leash, and would run faster than I have ever seen any dog run. We learned later that his parents were both award-winning Jack Russell Terrier racers.

But probably the memory that sticks out most is when I took his squeaky toy and put it on our refrigerator, because I couldn’t take the squeaking anymore. Rocky looked at that squeaky toy, paced around the floor, and decided to go for it. For at least 30 minutes he took running leaps, getting higher and higher, until he finally grabbed the squeaky toy from off the fridge, and victoriously ran off with it. I have never seen any dog that determined, and certainly never saw any dog jump that high.

Rest in peace, Rocky. You are, and will be, sorely missed.

–Brian

Star 102.5’s most-visited blog for the last few weeks, by far, has been Rob’s.  Like you, I have been looking at pictures of his new puppy, and reading about he and Linda’s first foray into pet parenthood. My only question to those two is, what took you so long?

Meanwhile, my 13 old Jack Russell Terrier, Rocky, is having a rough time. He was just diagnosed with Cushing’s Disease, which is basically an extreme imbalance between his adrenal and pituitary glands, and pretty common in older dogs. We noticed several months ago that he wasn’t himself. He’s been extraordinarily thirsty, lethargic, and unable to control his bladder for any reasonable length of time. He’s also developing a pot belly, which for an energetic dog like Rocky is unacceptable! He mopes around the house like he doesn’t know where he is half the time, and only seems able to relax by lying down on our cool ceramic tile.

There are two drugs normally prescribed for Cushing’s Disease. One has a decent track record, and no side effects, so our vet suggested we try it first. So far we’re having mixed results. A week into it he’s perked up somewhat, but his extreme thirst hasn’t gone away (he’d drink a gallon at a time if we let him), and now he has a sore on his side that won’t heal; another symptom of Cushing’s.

If this drug strikes out, the only alternative is a type of chemo, which I’m leery about because if we don’t get the dosage right, he could crash. Since Heather and I both work during the day, it’s not going to be easy to monitor his progress.

Regular readers of my blog know that Rocky’s been completely blind since 2006, having suffered from a severe case of glaucoma in both eyes. Up until now, he’s been incredibly resilient, amazing the vet with his ability to get around, up and down stairs, in and out of doorways, without sight. To have this happen on top of his blindness breaks my heart.

Anyway, reading about Rob’s new puppy brought back a lot of memories, as I try to keep my poor old dog comfortable in his final year of life. Hard to believe it’s been 13 years since we brought our own little fuzzball home for the first time.

–Brian

10 years ago Rocky bounded home with us, nothing but white fluff, energy, and fun. Seeing him sacked out on the couch most days, I find it difficult to believe he’s the same puppy that routinely leaped to the top of our refrigerator door to retrieve a squeaky toy I stashed there as a challenge. Nothing could stand between Rocky and his quarry back in the 90s.

Now with both eyes gone, he still paces excitedly when he hears something, anything that might indicate someone’s going outside. I don’t even need to say the word outside anymore – he’s keen to subtle nuances in my voice and stands ready at the door, heeding the call of wide open spaces.

I don’t necessarily miss his nervous pacing around the room, or his running from one side of the house to the other at top speed – a Jack Russell trademark – but it’s a little sad to see him constantly lying on the couch. So I have resolved to run him around more than I have, and maybe even take him to work with me now and then. The old guy deserves more than being the canine equivalent of a human couch potato.

Maybe we’ll both see you soon!

–Brian

Dad started me reading “The Classics” at an early age. I was too young to truly understand the deeper meaning in Hemingway’s The Old Man And The Sea, but I distinctly remember doing a book report on it in 3rd grade, and seeing Mrs. Schmidt’s puzzled expression when I turned it in. “You read ‘The Old Man And The Sea’ by Hemingway?” she asked. Yes, I replied, giving her a brief synopsis of the plot, which to Hemingway’s credit wasn’t too hard for a 3rd grader to follow, symbolism be damned; an old man caught a big fish!

Before I head out to another “Operation Santa Claus” remote, gathering toys for area kids, I thought I’d give you a little update.

• The SPCA Radiothon was a tremendous success. I really don’t know how we’re going to top it next year! Records were set for money raised ($170,000) and adoptions (100). I was in the process of putting together some pictures and a rundown of everything, but the SPCA did such a great job, I’ll just link to it here:
  
  http://www.yourspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=RADIOTHON_General_Info

  Darcy and Connor came to pet the doggies on the last day, and once again my daughter appears to be drawn to the mic.

• Being On Stage At Shea’s is a much different experience than being in the audience. I did some announcements before a Free Family Film that Star sponsored, and was amazed at how close everyone seems looking out – but when you’re in the audience, the stage seems far far removed. It was a very interesting experience.
• Billy Idol has a Christmas album? That can’t be right……

As I shake my head in disbelief, please have a very Merry Christmas! And make this 2007 Resolution: stay in touch!

–Brian

Round two of pics from Gina Browning and I performing at the UNYTS TRANSFORMATIONS event.

Ok Ok…I know it has been almost 45 days since I have posted here. I promise there are some big things coming up though. I’ve had a lot of requests (ok…at least three) to post the pics of Gina Browning and I singing at the UNYTS TRANSFORMATIONS event. Well here they are. Please refrain from copying, cutting, and pasting them, adding photos of sheep, stupid captions, etc, and sending them to your neighbors. I hope they come out big enough to show our performance in all it’s glory.