Starmark Student

Well it has been a VERY long time since my last post and has taken what seemed like an eternity to make it to Starmark but here I am! Two months into the program and still going strong! I am so excited to share the details and updates! Free time is very limited here right now but I am making a promise to myself to get back in the swing of things! I will be updating info and details about my experience, my two new loves Aspen and Luna and answering any questions that come my way! Stay tuned folks! I’m gonna be a dog trainer!

Treat Crack

Since my training ego has taken hit after hit of unsuccessful sessions I opted to switch things up because I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty hard up for a good ego stroking. I decided to work with Smokey. He is a bull headed, ornery, stinker. Really. He is stubborn, listens when he wants and just plain spoiled rotten. It’s not his fault, he’s “spoiled”. It’s just all the things my parents have let him get away with catching up to them. Now don’t let all those negative adjectives fool ya. Smokey is also endearing, sweet, gentle, a straight up snuggle bug, outgoing and not to mention easy on the eyes! Pretty boy! He is also VERY smart! And I was about to figure that out, real quick!

Now, human food/treats to Smokey is like dog crack. He goes crazy for it, he will do ANYTHING for it, he just wants it sooooooo bad! Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme!!!! I can hear him SCREAMING this at me when we start training. Or screaming, I RUUUUVVVVV YOOOOU, in that funny husky howl he can do when he REALLY gets a craving. So after a few frustrating training sessions with Coco (my tough nut to crack) and Willa (my sweet but oblivious goober) I needed something “easier”. My plan was to start Smokey out small. Shake. Yes, shake. Again. But this time I’m armed with knowledge and a dog who is VERY EAGER to please for those little nibblets of heaven!

I take Smoke to the bedroom and closed the door to all distractions. Now this is where it gets a bit weird. I think Smokey knew I was needing a pick me up. (Maybe not, but I like thinking it.) I like to think he could tell I was in a rut and just needed a miracle! Because I asked him to sit, and just to see what would happen, stuck my hand with a little piece of hot dog stuck in my fist out and the VERY first thing Smokey does is put his paw on it. It happened so fast I didn’t have time to click because I was busy picking my jaw up off the floor. He didn’t lick or sniff. He just reached up and said gimme! I know for a fact this dog has never shook a paw a day in his life. See! He knew just what I needed! We did this over and over without one hiccup. He performed flawlessly! I’m not kidding. Smoke learned shake in less than five minutes. Cue and all! Pushing my luck I brought Smoke to the living room where distractions are HIGH. I sat him down in the living room right in front of my mom and four very curious dogs and stuck my hand out and said shake. I had a paw in my hand before I could finish the word! I was euphoric. I couldn’t stop. Smoke and I shook hands about a hundred times that day and about eight hundred times this week!

Now a week and a half later Smokey has learned shake, down, bow, sit pretty, go to your mat and he is currently learning roll over! SAY WHAT!!!! Yup! I did that! Feels pretty good! I’m so proud of Smokey. But, there is always a but (when it comes to learning training) Smokey is going a little too crazy for his treats. I’m telling you, they are like dog crack for him. He sits and before I can even collect my bearings he has already, sat, attempts shake about three times, bows, sits pretty, lays down and shakes again, maybe adds another bow in there. In the span of 20 seconds. Now it makes my heart sing to see him doing all these but I’m not asking. I’m not wanting him to bombard me with his paws (when he is this excited his claws scratch a little too deep when he tries to shake at me) and he isn’t listening. He’s guessing. He is taking the reigns and saying, I’m doing all this now where’s my friggin treat! GIVE IT TO ME NOW! So it’s back to the witch box. I’m googling fixes for his “addiction”. I’m at a bit of a stand still. There are a TON of people who say, stop using treats. Well, Smokey has NO interest in balls, tug ropes or anything squeaky. I’m pretty sure Smokey thinks toys are dumb. Rewarding with affection is great, AFTER they learn the trick, (that’s what I think) so that won’t work either, it’s just not motivating enough for him. I found a site that had some good tips. Hide your treats, stop talking and wait, turn away when they act excited or just stop the session all together. I’m confident Smokey is smart enough to figure out after a few sessions of me simply not giving treats during his “crack head” fits and walking away that he will stop and listen. So starting tomorrow I’m taking those reigns back and regaining control of training sessions! I’m so happy with his progress though! Folks, let me tell you, I had NO idea it was this rewarding! It has it’s days where it gets me down and frustrated but the moments you see progress taking shape! Well, it just feels so stinkin good! I cannot wait for these next nine months to pass and start at Starmark Academy. My future is headed in the right direction.

Not So “Paws”itive…

Well today’s a day of highs and lows. For the last three weeks I have been pouring over a lot of training advice on the ole witch box, collectively trying to get as much advice and tips for teaching my “borrowed” friends (AKA Moms dogs) some manners. My Mom has five dogs all unique in their personalities and breeds. I’ll be posting information on them under “My Borrowed Friends” in the menu. Cocos (who this post is about) was just posted today. Anyway, I have been working with Coco to get her comfort levels with me boosted since she is so shy. It started off and continued to be a challenge finding treats that she likes as she seems pretty uninterested in anything I had offer, from chicken gizzards, cheese, summer sausage, chicken, chops, then BAM, beef jerky and hot dogs seemed to work pretty good. Now we can get started!

“Comfort” training as I like to call it has been going GREAT! !  I was having some hang ups about how to approach this but found a technique that FINALLY worked for me and Coco! I started off training her inside and realized that Coco actually does MUCH better outside. She was so much more at ease with me and interested since she really loves to be outdoors more than being inside. Once I realized this and took her out for training, progress really took off. I would just sit next to her, about 3-5 ft away, clicker and treats in hand and just wait her out. It started slow. I gave her some treats as a warm up and moved away and tried my hardest to seem “uninterested”. I sat with my back to her and waited…. waited… waited… waited…I waited so long I started singing just to kill time. Poor Coco, I cant decide if she just wanted me to shut up or thought I was dying (yup, I sing THAT bad), she crawled up to me, very slowly and put her nose in my open hand as if saying “are you okay?!!” It took every inch of effort to not jump up and down and start hootin and hollerin! If we would have been inside you would have been scraping me off the ceiling! I calmly clicked, treated and repeated. Fast forward a few days and insert problem one: Coco started coming to me while I would sit there signing and waiting, put her little nose in my target hand, I would click, treat, and Coco just snatches the treat and tucks tail and moves away from me, no reward pets allowed or wanted from her. She seemed afraid of my hands again, out of nowhere. I still run into problems with Coco taking a treat and tucking tail. It only happens from time to time now and I have no idea how to help her stop. When this starts happening I stop training her and try again later.

Since Coco started getting comfortable with me over the last few days (it’s only taken the better part of three weeks) I wanted to start introducing a command. Come. Cocos siblings all know come pretty well. So I’m surprised that she hasn’t picked up on it’s meaning at all. She hears the word and sees her sisters and brother come several times a day. I thought that most dogs learned some simple commands from watching their “sibs”. I know our dogs ALL learned “sic em” (bark like crazy at whatever I’m pointing at) and several other tricks from watching our weenie dog Abby. When Maggie, Annie and Jetta were adopted they all learned a lot from Abby. Their personal favorite was sic em! Annie, Maggie and Abby are all waiting for us just past rainbow bridge now. So with Coco, come could mean lay there and look at me like I’ve lost my marbles. On day one Coco really seemed to get the hang of it! I stood in our yard and would wait for her to come, C&T. She was doing so good I introduced the command after our second, short session. Day two was today. She started off strong, then all of the sudden she is tucking tail and squirming away as soon as I treat, okay break time. Three hours later we try again and she wanted NOTHING to do with me. I tried running with her, playing and petting to get her pumped up and sitting and waiting calmly, eventually she just walked away and pretended like I didn’t exist and when I called to her she got nervous and tucked tail. I was heated. Why the heck does she not like me today? Why are we taking ten steps back? Why are we right back to square one. As I was walking out the gate here she comes! Following me she runs up and sticks her little nose in my hand. OH NO YOU DONT. You see what it feels like to be ignored, hurt and just plain bummed! I didn’t acknowledge her little touch as I normally would, I just kept moping my way to the house leaving her there staring after me. Now as I write this I feel like an ass. I told my mom about today’s progress in a heated, what for tone and how it ended and my mom said something that made me feel stupid. Mom said something along the lines that Coco had no clue I was mad, hurt and upset. She can’t associate feelings like I can and being ignored as a “dose of her own medicine”. This is the first time since I started training I really felt defeated. Only took a month. It scared me a little and that’s why I was so mad. Sitting there with Coco today made me question everything I have been planning for my future and I started thinking I’m not cut out for this, what if I’m not going to be good enough?

Chin up. Tomorrow is going to be better. Baby steps, Ten forward, five back. I know this is how it’s going to be with Coco while we BOTH learn together. Hiccups will happen and I cannot let today, one hard day make me question everything. I told Coco I was sorry and gave her lots of kisses and told her how great she is doing and how proud I am of her, no matter what. We will try again tomorrow, and the day after that and the weeks ahead. I’m not giving up on her.

Looking For My Own Training Classes

“Dog Training, it can’t be that hard right?!” These were the first words I thought when I decided I wanted to make it a career. WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. There is a TON of information on Training dogs. A lot. Maybe more than rearing a child. Okay, MAYBE that’s a stretch, but when you start getting into breed types, temperaments, training styles, theories, puppy imprinting, kennel management, behavior modifications, group training, obedience, agility and a whole slew of other information, it’s enough to make your head start spinning. So, I’m going to dog training school. It’s not necessary to go to school if you want to be a trainer, just a personal choice. I want to know EVERYTHING! I want to be the very best trainer I could possibly be!

Google; Professional Dog Training Schools.
Ohhhhhhhhh. Uuummmmm….
Okay, there are more D.T. Schools out there than I thought. Here is a list of some I have looked into and my OWN personal opinion of them.

• ABC – Animal Behavioral College
Let me say, this was the first one I came across and YIKES. I signed up for information and received my FIRST phone call within an hour and my FIRST email within seconds. These people seemed desperate to get me to attend their school. I REALLY started digging into their program and felt a little skeptical about online courses and their general methods. So, I did my favorite thing in the whole world! I googled reviews on their business. (I’m a review JUNKIE) Turns out people who attended their school were not pleased at all. No hands on training, the methods of training were unethical and the certificate was pretty much unrecognized and held no value and it’s about $3500! Sounds like a waste of my hard-earned money! Lots of people felt this way, time to ditch this idea and fast. However, ABC had different plans. I think I have totaled about 15 e-mails and 15 calls since signing up. Desperate is not attractive ABC! Move on, it’s over.

• TRS – Tom Rose School
This was the school my mom found online. It’s based outside of St. Louis, Mo., roughly 6 hours from my house and the second school I looked into attending. Once I had watched their video, read their course overview and received their e-mail pamphlet I was pretty much hooked. This was the WINNER! Hands on training, you have to get two dogs while your there to train, dorm rooms, option to go to masters course (after graduation). It all seemed perfect! A bit expensive, $13,475. Yikes! I had scheduled a campus visit after my return home from Montana and re-requested a new information DVD from them since the one they sent me was blank. The lady scheduled my appt., told me they made a NEW training DVD and they would send me a copy. She was really quite helpful and polite! I had a great feeling about this place! After a couple of weeks still no DVD. Oh well! I have this tour to look forward to! Not. I called to confirm my appt. a few days before arrival and was redirected to voice mail, left message. No call back. Called again, left another message. They finally called me back the day of my scheduled appointment, and wanted to schedule an appointment with me. They didn’t even remember me setting one up. Hummmm… Now that’s playing hard to get! Yeesh! I tried to find any reviews of this school and pulled up zilch. Almost no information at all. Hummm. Now, I was so excited about this place I guess I was a bit “blind” when I looked at their videos and information. Since I couldn’t find any information I started going over their site with a fine tooth comb. When I finally opened my mind and eyes I was not at all excited about what I saw. Shock Collars being used with prong collars at the same time on most dogs and shock collars on puppies and pretty much every dog for that matter. Oh boy, I am open to learning different training methods but this seems harsh. I just cannot bring myself to ever consider using these methods in such extremes. Also their Facebook page (The Dog House/training classes for dogs) had a TON of people complaining about pictures of puppies with the shock collars and dogs wearing both prong and shock. A LOT of people. I decided with this bad publicity and because of my own personal feeling towards this, it’s no shocker, I’m gonna have to choke out. 😦

• Karen Pryor Academy
I was pretty interested in KPA! Looked like a great program but I’m not to big on the “online” schools. We all have our own learning styles and mine is visual\tactile, I need a classroom and an instructor and motivation. I’m not the best at teaching myself so to speak. They also do four, two-day work shops in St. Louis. That kind of eased my fears of the online portion of it all. I wasn’t just going to rule this one out though. I had been following one of their graduates/teaching staffs blog for a while and loved her approach on training. She just made sense! I shot her an email and received a very nice reply giving me the skinny on things to look into and ideas on where to start. She had such great things to say about KPA that I just couldn’t dismiss it yet. The cost of the program is $5,300. The price is much more manageable. All in all it looked really great but I just couldn’t get excited about it. Only because I’m nervous it’s not going to match my own personal learning style. Plus I’m not to big on having to drive to St. Louis four different times in the span of 5 months. I haven’t found one bad review of the place or see any treatment I don’t like. It’s all positive reinforcement training (clicker training). That is a big plus for me! I love the whole concept of this program! Just wish it was classroom style. They do offer you a preview of the online courses (free) so you can test drive before you buy. The set up is great and user-friendly. It’s really better than I thought it would be. Maybe I will need to get my clicker ready, could this be the one?

• Starmark Academy
I was digging deeper into researching schools when I randomly came across this site about a week ago. I had an idea of what kind of school I was looking for and when this fell in my lap I gotta say, I was pretty excited. Starmark is located in Austin, Tx. Roughly 8 hours from my house. I’m not thrilled with the location, I’m a sissy when it comes to heat. But this place is EXACTLY what I was looking for. The campus has dorms, huge indoor training facility, outdoor training grounds, 2mi wooded hiking trail with obstacles, doggy swimming pool, lakes, looooots of land to train on and 200 kennel boarding facility. Why 200 kennels? Well, not only do the board dogs (as a business) but they foster homeless dogs that students get assigned to train to make them more likely to get a home! Now remember me saying how I wanted to work with homeless/neglected animals?! BAM!!! Perfect fit! Their training styles are humane and diverse. You also work with the kennel to get training on how to own and operate one if you have the desire to do so. Their class schedule is intense and jam-packed but that’s exactly what I was looking for! They also host a lot of shows, expos and workshops on the weekends that students are encouraged to attend. You are 100% immersed into all things dogs and it looks awesome! There are a lot of requirements for enrolling, FBI Background Check (12 week waiting period) you have to acquire yourself. I’m going to the local police department this week to get a copy of my fingerprints to send off. Copies of your high school transcripts, two letters of recommendation, an essay you need to write and an on phone interview before you can be accepted. It’s nice to know they don’t just take just anyone there. I will be surrounded by people who truly do have the same passion as me! Neat! They are a little pricey $9,795 dollars plus $1,560-$1,860 for housing and $300-$500 for supplies. Once you factor in living expenses I’m guessing it’s gonna run me about $15,000. :0 woah! I’m not phased, you get what you pay for and I’m sure this is going to be great! Time to start pinching penny’s and start saving every penny I make. They also offer student loans through SallyMae but I don’t want to start my path towards my career in debt, so it’s gonna be lots of ramen noodles for this girl! Classes start July 20, 2015. That’s plenty of time to save and prepare. Now, I need to get started on my application and paperwork. Fingers and paws crossed I get accepted. I’ll keep you posted on all the 411 along the way.