Life on the Leash

Your dog has an upset stomach. The vet tells you to feed him a bland chicken and rice diet until he stabilizes.

“No problem,” you think. “I can do that.”

Then breakfast time rolls around on the second day and you realize that you gave your dog the last of the mixture you’d made for his dinner the night before, and now you have to whip up some rice at 6 in the morning, and oops – you ran out of chicken!

(And by “you” in the above story I totally mean “me.”)

Someone out there wants to help! People Food for Dogs got in touch and sent me a few samples of their products, the most interesting being a prepared chicken and rice dinner, perfect for those times when Sumner’s stomach is popping and hissing. Now I can just defrost the container and we’re good to go!

Our first tasting was the Chicken, Sweet Potato and Oatmeal:

Sum was ready before I’d even opened the package:

(I just wanted to get a shot of him sniffing it but he had other ideas.)

The presentation was lovely and the consistency was great. It looked and felt “clean,” if that makes sense:

I spooned about a quarter cup into his dinner ration and the guy was in heaven. He loved it! I caught him going back to his bowl and licking it clean for a second time, just in case he missed a morsel.

People Food for Dogs is a supplement, not a complete meal package like some of the other prepared foods on the market. It would probably be great for dogs who like a little somethin’-somethin’ with their regular kibble now and then, or perhaps to coax a reluctant eater – yes, they exist – to finish his meal. (And it’s a heck of a lot healthier than those gravy supplements you can buy at the grocery store!)

I thought of another use for it that Sum loved:

Super healthy Kong stuffer!

We have a few other options to try out, including “chicken, sweet potato and white potato,” and “chicken, rice and veggies.”

Sum is digging his role as a product tester. (That is, until we have to try out nail clippers or rectal thermometers.)

I was a guest on the “My Buddy Butch” internet radio show last night … meet Butch:

Be still my heart! That face. That eye. What a star. Unfortunately, Butch didn’t have much to say to me during the interview. His person Jeff picked up the slack.

I’m still refining my radio interview skills … I’m very LOUD, and I tend to steponthehost’squestions. Oh – and then there was my lingering cough. Listen carefully during the first commercial break. Yup, that’s me, hacking away in the background. Nice.

But Jeff was a generous host and I had a great time!

Gigi the Morkie gave me the cold shoulder at our first lesson.

Here she is saying, “I’m going this way, thank you.”

Everything seemed fine when I first arrived at her house, but then I pulled out a squeaky toy. Gigi wasn’t having it. Too loud, too scary.

She was more than happy to sit on her person’s lap and shoot me looks.

(Yikes! Grumpy face!)

Maybe next week she’ll figure out that I’m nice? The bag of hot dogs might help.

Clicker training is the best thing to happen to leash training. It’s effective, it’s dog-friendly, and it works. That said, there is a challenging aspect to it … you need to look like this in order to effectively juggle the leash, the clicker, the treats and the occasional poop bag. There’s definitely some choreography to leash walking!

No longer. Check out what showed up in my mailbox a few weeks ago:

How clever – it’s a leash with the clicker embedded in it!

Sum was more than willing to help me test it out:

Now, anyone who has trained with me will see a red light behavior right out of the gate. Can you spot it? Yup, the leash is a straight line with no curve in it. Sumner is a half-step away from a pull. I always use a 6-foot leash for walking. I’ve found that anything shorter than 6-feet results in the leash going tight every time the dog wants to find the perfect potty spot or go sniff something, and a tight leash is the ultimate leash walking no-no.  The Clicker Leash was about 3-feet, and though I wasn’t in love with the length, I kept an open mind and gave it a shot.

Before we got started, I clicked the clicker to see how Sum would react (because it sounds different than our normal box clicker). Here’s what he did when he heard it:

“I know that sound! Pay me!” So I did.

We set off and had a lovely walk despite the shorter leash length. I enjoyed the comfortable handle, although I held it with an ounce of guilt … I’ve been very vocal about my dislike for flexi-leashes and the handle felt suspiciously like one!

Sum did a ridiculously phenomenal job on that walk – maybe he knew we were testing a product and he wanted to give it a “paws up” review, but hot damn, he walked like a champ!

When we came home I played around with the clasp and discovered that I could take the short leash off and attach the handle to one of my own:

Ahhh, much better. There’s that gentle curve in the leash!

So what’s my take on the Clicker Leash? I’m a fan. I loved the merging of the clicker and the handle. No more juggling! I can see how it will make the initial steps of the training process much easier for people who feel like they have two left feet and two left hands when attempting leash walking with a clicker.

I spoke with the President of the Clicker Leash Company about my leash length concern and she assured me that new lengths are coming out soon. Hooray! The only drawback I noticed was that the sound of the click was softer than the box clicker that I use. I found that I had to click a few times when Sumner was reacting to something, whereas one click of the box clicker usually does the trick. (To be completely honest, I use a verbal marker with him now when we’re walking, not a clicker.)

In my book I actually addressed the easiest way to juggle the leash, clicker and treats (and included a photo showing how to do it!) … the Clicker Leash solves the problem in one elegant package!

Shimmy the five-month old Yorkie/Silky mix has an awesome back story to his name.

When Shimmy’s person introduced me to the sweet pup I put down my bag, said “You mean this?” and did a few shoulder shakes, not sure if I’d head the name correctly. (Yes, there’s a frustrated dancer trapped within this dog trainer!)

Turns out Shimmy’s person is a very accomplished belly dance instructor!

Are we going to teach Shimmy to shimmy? Maybe, it we can straighten out the housetraining issues first!

Did you watch yesterday?

Super, super cute, right?

This was my third Puppy Bowl with Animal Planet, and the fifth year in production. At this point we’re a well-oiled machine. Would you believe that it takes an incredible amount of planning and people-power to pull off that two-hour puppy extravaganza? You’d be amazed.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the set (check out how small the room is):

The camera mounted on the horizontal ladder in front of the glass was a new innovation this year thanks to the Director of Photography, Rob. (Rob also shot my puppy training DVD. He’s the reason I got the Puppy Bowl gig! Rob came up with the famous “water bowl cam,” and I think that he applied that same sort of creativity when we shot my DVD.) In years past we had a camera guy on a wheely chair rolling back and forth trying to capture the action. The ladder made for smoother filming, but Rob got a workout!

Here’s my buddy Phil on set, getting up close and personal with the players.

Phil and I have spent a good part of the past two Puppy Bowls camped out side-by-side on the field, coaching the players for their introductory “starting line-up” shots. I was in charge of getting the pups to run toward Phil’s camera, which you might have noticed didn’t always happen! We never knew what to expect with those shots … some pups ran on to the field as if they did it every day, and others got stage fright in the tunnel.

Did you see the “streaker”? American Humane Rep Sandi and I snagged a photo with another naked pup:

Here’s Andrew the ref calling “unsportsmanlike conduct” on Griffey:

Though all of the pups were adorable, I did have a favorite:

Schroeder! My love!

Sure, Waltzing Mathilda won M.V.P., but I think Schroeder stole the show:

Who was your favorite?