Dog spinning in circles - what does that mean?

I have occasionally met dogs that have habitually chased their own tails. They would spin in circles. I was curious as to what causes this so I tried to look it up. Some people and dog trainers put it down to dogs that are raised in kennels and don't get out often enough. They assume that the dog learns to spin in circles as a way to combat boredom. Unfortunately that does not explain the dogs I have known to spin - they never saw the inside of a kennel or even a dog carrier. I do have another theory.

I have a dog that I have to put on a tie out cable when the electric company comes out to read our meter. She is on the tie out for about 1-2 hours on the date of the visit. She is not fond of the meter reader since she doesn't like people snooping around "her" house without her owners around. One day she had to go outside to poop and I put her on the tie out, just in case the meter reader showed up. Sure enough the meter reader was there about 5 minutes later and I saw my dog spinning on the end of the cable. The meter reader got back in his truck and left and then my dog got loose! She only followed the truck to our property line but I then had to fix the cable tie out. I had a set of small hoist rings and used one of them as a temporary ring. It was then that I realized that maybe the dogs that spin had been on a tie out at one time in their lives and learned to spin to break the chain or the connectors. If that is the case then those dogs are pretty smart.

Dog tricks you can teach your dog

This post is not how to teach your dog 100's of tricks, no, it is going to show you a dog in action, on video that can do many tricks. The video is below and it will give you some ideas for working with your own dog. Enjoy:

Destructive chewing

Getting a new dog or puppy in the family means 2 things - learning how much a dog knows and teaching correct house manners to the dog or puppy. This often entails housebreaking or re-enforcement of housebreaking habit and finding out if the dog or puppy has any destructive tendencies.

I don't know why, but I manage to adopt dogs that have a chewing habit. This is not something related to teething or being a puppy, no this is in older dogs. I have had a dog who loved to chew plastic. Another dog that loved to chew carpet and yet another who would go into the dirty laundry hamper and find dirty under pants and chew a hole where the stains use to be. All of that was very destructive but not as destructive as a Beagle that my friend owned. That dog would chew on her shoes as soon as she left the house. She got to the point of locking up the shoes and the dog almost chewed a hole in the closet door. She almost got rid of the dog when he destroyed a pair of expensive riding boots. When she saw what the dog did to her equestrian boots she almost called the local rescue to find him another home. Then I talked to her and had her buy the dog a few pairs of used shoes from Goodwill. I told her to leave them out for him to chew on and he would leave her shoes alone. To her surprise - it worked.

Protect your dog from electrocution

Some adult dogs love to chew, almost every puppy does, so keep them safe if they do. Most of the time they pick on your favorite shoes to rip to shreds but occasionally they pick something that could be very dangerous, electric cords.

Do your best to hide or prevent access to cables and wires that have a live electric current in them. Use cable covers or keep the cable or cord up and out of the reach of your dog/pup. Once they have grown out of the chewing stage of their lives they will usually ignore cords, cables and wire within their reach.

So you want to be a dog trainer

You have thought long and hard about what you want to do as a career and you want to be a dog trainer. Before you invest your time and money on that career choice you should know that not all dog training teaching schools are the same. Unlike other career choices, dog training is mostly unregulated. That means almost anyone can claim to be a dog trainer. The schools that offer teaching degrees in dog training can vary from worthless to a full rounded curriculum.

What you will need to do is thoroughly investigate the school you plan on attending to become a dog trainer. I have also seen individual dog trainers offering dog trainer certification programs ranging from several hundreds of dollars to several thousand. This is where it gets tricky, you are paying for the trainer's reputation as much as the teaching fees. Depending on the trainer, the price can either be reasonable or outrageous. Either way you must find out if the program has any successful graduates and contact them for their opinion of the program.

Another way to become a dog trainer is to get hired at Petco or Petsmart as part of their in house dog trainer program. Both stores have their own training program. Mostly you will be selling something to your dog owning students as part of your "career" at the pet stores. You will be expected to push for more dog training as well as pushing products.

The world of dog training is a case or tread carefully and beware of rip-offs.

Service dogs

We all know that dogs have helped those who are handicapped. From the Guide Dogs for the Blind to the service dogs for those with mental disabilities, dogs are invaluable to those that need their help.

Something that I have often wondered is if a specially trained dog is covered as health insurance expense like durable medical equipment or does disability insurance cover the expense of a service dog?

If you have a service dog I would like to know if your health insurance covered the cost or not. Leave a comment.

Dogs on your iPhone

Did you know that Apple has doggy apps for your iPhone? If you are a savvy iPhone user you already knew that. There are apps to find a vet, a doggy day care and even apps on training tips. The iPhone is becoming the new computer. They are also expensive little gadgets too. Some of my friends have even gotten an extended iphone warranty for them. I can't wait until they get away from just having them used on certain cell phone providers and have them as a pay as you go system. Until then I'll just put those apps on my iPod....which I still can.

Prisons and dog rehab

Those people who have gone through some type of rehabilitation program themselves are the most likely to work with others to help them over come their problems. That theory also applies to human and dog interaction. In Washington state, the Department of Corrections has a program where women prisoners in the system take dogs from local shelters and train them to become service dogs. The program is called the Prisoner Pet Partnership Program aka the PPPP.

The women prisoners have more than likely gone through drug rehab or other type of rehab program. They then spend 2 years in the program to learn all the aspects of training. It takes 8 months for a dog to be fully trained from a shelter dog to being placed as a service dog. Out of 15 dogs taken from the shelter only one will make it to becoming a service dog. Not all dogs are suitable or have the knack for the job.Those dogs that do not make the grade are better qualified to find better homes since they have undergone basic training.

The program helps the prisoners find better employment once they leave the system and the dogs find better homes. It seems to be that it is one prisoner (the human kind) helping another prisoner (the shelter dog) get a better life.

Dog training

There is a wide variety of dog trainers out there that want your money. Petco has a dog training section which I discovered are only trained to sign you up for more training. In fact Petco does not want people that have any experience with formal dog training, they want people they can train their way, even if the training methods are faulty.

The experiences I have had with professional dog trainers has been very positive. I was fortunate to attend a 8 week course at an AKC sanctioned training club. The trainers both had trained dogs to their championships in obedience class. The credentials that those dog trainers had were in no way a comparison to a Petco dog trainer. They did not have a location next door to circuit city like the Petco had. Their location was in a huge warehouse in the industrial section of town. The space inside the building was great for off leash training and obstical courses. On the other hand the Petco store was way too small for having a proper dog training area.

Flyball, a fast dog sport

Flyball is not a new sport for dogs, just a lesser known one. The sport originated in California in the 1970's. The object of the sport is to have a team of dogs, in relay fashion, complete a hurdle course, catch a ball shot out of flyball box and race back over the hurdles to the finish line. The sport is fast and is a fat burner for the dogs.

Most dogs that compete in this sport are from the working or herding dog groups. The herding dogs tend to be faster and have more energy than the working dogs do. Border Collies and Australian Shepherds seem to dominate the sport. Other breeds also compete like the min pin in the photo above.

Dog cancer

Having a beloved dog die of cancer just 6 months ago, I was rather interested in the news story about a dog owner and their dog trying to raise money for research into dog cancer. The video news below shows Tula practicing for the competition she will be in to raise money for the cause.

Playing with your dog to help with training

I have always preferred to train a dog the fun way - by playing with them. The video below shows you how to can use a simple game like "hide and seek" to train your dog to come when called.

Your dog and water

Is your dog safe around lakes, swimming pools and other deep areas of water? Contrary to popular belief not all dogs can swim. Some dogs even panic when tossed into the family swimming pool. If your dog is out of shape, swimming could lead to their drowning.

Introduce your dog to swimming slowly. Play fetch over a body of water to encourage the dog to enter the water and play in it. If you plan on taking your dog out with you on your boat either get a life jacket or rent one for the day. One place near us called Outer Banks rentals not only rents out boats on the lake for the day but life jackets for humans and dogs.

Of course there are dogs that simply do not like water at all. I had a Labrador Retriever that would not go near water. She even stayed away from our swimming pool. After having her I know that the love of water is not breed specific but up to the individual dog.

Teaching your dog to shake hands

Here is a video on how to teach your dog to shake hands. The large mop of a dog is entertaining to watch.

Destructive chewing

You remember a few years back when a dog was in the news for destroying some New York Yankees tickets? I also remember another dog in the news for chewing up a Super Bowl ticket. Now I wonder how those dogs managed to get on the news when I am sure that there are many dog owners that have had an expensive item destroyed by their dog. We have a dog that when she was an older puppy found out where the tool shed was at an promptly destroyed several expensive tools by chewing on the handles. Of course she was not on the nightly news because of it.

Destructive chewing is not always caused by boredom in dogs. Some dogs just like to chew, that is why there is a whole industry devoted to dog chew toys and rawhide chew products.

Don't beat yourself up because your dog destroyed your item, just get them something to chew on other then your stuff and keep your stuff out of their reach.

Destructive chewing

Destructive chewing in dogs starts when they are cutting their first set of teeth and will often continue until their second set of teeth are fully in. Dogs being dogs will chew on anything left within their reach. Plastic bottle caps that have fallen on the floor to that table leg that you forgot to shut the door to the room it was in. We can go around and pick up everything in sight and give the do it's own chew toy but be careful what type of toy you give the dog. If you give the dog a small stuffed dog toy and you have children that have stuffed animal toys you might find that the dog will not know the difference from chewing it's own toy to chewing on you daughter's favorite teddy bear.

Chewing and digging up parts of your rugs is a matter more of smell than chewing. The dog finds an interesting smell in the rug or carpet and wants to find out more about it. Very often the rug destroying act is a one time only deal since we often get so upset with the result the dog can tell from our tone and attitude not to do it again.

The only way to prevent destructive chewing and destruction of your items in your home is by training and not leaving the dog alone in the home.

Very light reading

Do you need a chuckle? Like short books? How about a short humorous book on dog behavior? The book is called How to Handle Living with Your Dog, written by Winkie Spiers. With a name like Winkie Spiers for the author the book has some promise there. Of course it is written in England so some of the terms might not be as funny to those who don't understand the English humor. The book is published by Short Stack Publishing and they are home of the How to Handle Series of books. They are also looking for some authors for their How to Handle books. The website at Short Stack gives one the impression that they just have humorous books on serious subjects. That's just what we need today, more humor.

Puppy training

I have always considered the 2 basic dog training obstacles to overcome is - housebreaking the new dog or puppy and training a dog not to chew everything in sight.

I have trained dogs that have been cat killers into cat lovers and shown Chow Chows in obedience classes at major dog shows and I still don't like housebreaking puppies or young dogs. I have had 2 dogs that were impossible to housebreak. They would be fine for weeks on end and I thought that they were finally trained not to pee in the house. Then it would be one day out of the blue that they would just squat down in front of my sight and pee on the carpet. I didn't know if it was a sign of defiance or what else might be going on in their heads. I actually gave up on both of them and they had to live outside. They were quite happy as outdoor dogs since they now had the run of the property.

That brings me to the conclusion that there are dogs that are perfectly content being house dogs and there are others that prefer to be outside all the time. If my theory is correct then no amount of dog obedience training is going to change that dog. We, as their owners must strive to find out more about a dog and try to learn why a dog is doing what they are doing before trying to change them. If more people did that less dogs would end up at the local animal shelter because the owner could no longer handle the dog.

Flyball, a sport for you and your dog

Flyball is an interesting sport. I think it must have been developed with overcoming boredom in mind. The concept is fairly easy - you have a device that you place a ball into it and the device then throws the ball straight up in the air, the dog then catches it. Simple really until the darn thing caught on and now they have competitions, yes flyball competitions. The sport developed from just a simple catch the ball into a race course with jumps and a team of dogs. There are even websites and blogs devoted to the sport. I came across this blog called The Flyball Blog and it does go into great detail on the sport but it does lack photos. I don't know about you but a blog about a sport is hard to visualize without photos or even a Youtube video. The best web page I found for a good explanation of the sport with photos can be found at Bunch of pants flyball web page.