Dr. Ian Dunbar – New York

Adolescent Dogs

Friday 21st – Sunday 23rd May 2010

$270 Early-Bird 3-Day Registration

This seminar has been approved for 18 CEUs

DoubleTree Tarrytown
455 South Broadway,

Tarrytown NY 10591

Friday (9:30am–5:00pm): Biting — Dog-Human Aggression
Saturday (9:30am–5:00pm): Teaching Puppy Classes & Adult Classes
Sunday (9:30am–5:00pm): Home Games, Class Games and the K9 GAMES®

Registration:
$270 Early-Bird 3-Day (on or before 21st April 2010)
$360 Late-Bird 3-Day (after 21st April 2010)
$145 Single Day (on a space-available basis)
Lunch is not included

Accommodation
We have reserved a limited block of guest rooms at the DoubleTree Tarrytown for seminar registrants on a first-come/first-served basis. Rooms are $119.00 plus taxes per night for single or double occupancy. The number of rooms is limited and these special rates are only available until 21st April 2010. To book your room, call 800 474–4260 and ask for the Dog Seminar room block.


Friday: Biting – Dog-Human Aggression

Three Measures to Prevent Dog Bites
1. Teach dogs to enjoy the presence, actions, and antics of all people, first the family and then friends and strangers, especially children and men. Adult dogs tend to feel most uneasy around children and men, especially around little boys. A dog’s antipathy toward children and men is more likely to develop if the puppy grows up with few or no children or men around, and if the puppy’s social contacts with children and men have been unpleasant or scary.

2. Teach dogs to enjoy being hugged and handled (restrained and examined) by people, especially by children, veterinarians, and groomers. Specifically, teach dogs to enjoy being touched and handled in a variety of “hot spots,” namely, around its collar, ears, paws, muzzle, tail, and rear end.

3. Teach dogs to enjoy giving up valued objects when requested, especially its food bowl, bones, balls, chewtoys, garbage, and paper tissues.

Bite Inhibition — To Prevent Damage From Dog Bites
Puppies bite — and thank goodness they do. Puppy biting is a normal, natural, and necessary puppy behavior. Puppy play-biting is the means by which dogs develop bite inhibition and a soft mouth. The more your puppy bites and receives appropriate feedback, the safer its jaws will be in adulthood. It is the puppy which does not mouth and bite as a youngster whose adult bites are more likely to cause serious damage.

The puppy’s penchant for biting results in numerous play-bites. Although its needle-sharp teeth make them painful, its weak jaws seldom cause serious harm. The developing puppy should learn that its bites can hurt long before it develops jaws strong enough to inflict injury. The greater the pup’s opportunity to play-bite with people, other dogs, and other animals, the better its bite inhibition will be as an adult. For puppies that do not grow up with the benefit of regular interaction with other dogs and other animals, the responsibility of teaching bite-inhibition lies with the owner.

After all the above puppy socialization and handling exercises, your dog will be unlikely to want to bite — because it likes people. However, should your dog snap or bite because it has been frightened or hurt, one hopes that it causes little if any damage because it developed good bite inhibition during puppyhood. Whereas it is difficult to socialize a dog and prepare it for every potentially scary eventuality, it is easy to ensure that as a puppy it develops reliable bite inhibition.

Even when provoked to bite, a dog with well established bite inhibition seldom breaks the skin. As long as a dog’s bite causes little or no damage, behavioral rehabilitation is comparatively easy. But when, as an adult, your dog inflicts deep puncture wounds, rehabilitation is much more complicated, time-consuming, and potentially dangerous.

Without a doubt, good bite inhibition is the single most important quality of any companion dog. Moreover, a dog must develop bite inhibition during puppyhood, before it is four and a half months old.

Assessment of the Severity of Biting Problems Based on an Objective Evaluation of Wound Pathology:
1. Obnoxious or aggressive behavior but no skin-contact by teeth.
2. Skin-contact by teeth but no skin-puncture. However, may be skin nicks (less than one tenth of an inch deep) and slight bleeding caused by forward or lateral movement of teeth against skin, but no vertical punctures.
3. One to four punctures from a single bite with no puncture deeper than half the length of the dog’s canine teeth. Maybe lacerations in a single direction, caused by victim pulling hand away, owner pulling dog away, or gravity (little dog jumps, bites and drops to floor)
4. One to four punctures from a single bite with at least one puncture deeper than half the length of the dog’s canine teeth. May also have deep bruising around the wound (dog held on for x seconds and bore down) or lacerations in both directions (dog held on and shook its head from side to side)
5. Multiple-bite incident with at least two Level 4 bites
6. Victim dead

The above list concerns unpleasant behavior and so, to add perspective:
Levels 1 & 2 comprise well over 99% of dog incidents, and
Each year in the United States, approximately 20 people are killed by dogs, half of them are children.
However, each year in the United States, approximately 2000 children are killed by their parents!

Topics Include:
Misleading breed biting statistics and unrepresentative and sensational media coverage.
Hypothetical and practical behavioral models for the causes of dog bites, including instincts, drives, traits, interactive traits, situational behavior, subliminal bite stimuli, superstitious bite stimuli, and provocation.
Behavior vs. Temperament
Reasons why dogs bite
The relative danger of four types of dog based on whether or not they are socialized and whether or not they have well-developed bite-inhibition
Four stages of bite-inhibition training during early development
Easy and effective methods for prevention and treatment


Saturday: Teaching Puppy Classes & Adult Classes

Puppy Classes
A puppy can learn so much from a six-week puppy class. The puppy can learn good bite inhibition, confidence and social savvy for interacting with other dogs and people, to enjoy being handled by strangers (especially veterinarians and groomers), and to respond quickly and reliably to verbal commands to come, sit, lie down, stand and stay in the midst of heavy distractions and without the reliance of training aids. Alternatively, a six-week puppy class can teach puppies not much at all. And yet again, an off-leash puppy class can teach puppies to be fearful and afraid of other dogs, or to be hyperactive social loons who ignore all commands when distracted by other dogs. It all depends on the puppy class.

When I developed and taught the world’s very first off-leash puppy socialization and training classes in 1981, it caused quite a stir in the dog training community. Until that time, you had to wait until your dog was six-months- to a year- old before attending class, wherein only one handler per dog would practice repetitive on-leash obedience drills. Instead, puppy classes were fun for the whole family and the syllabus encompassed all aspects of behavior modification and temperament training as well as teaching basic off-leash manners. The SIRIUS® Puppy Training video changed dog training. All around the world, many dog trainers adopted and adapted the new puppy training format, thus creating a brand new field of family dog training.

To make the video though, the Director changed the class format to facilitate filming — owners were seated in chairs with their puppies on-leash to provide an attractive backdrop while I worked with one owner and puppy at a time. The SIRIUS® video was a “how to train your puppy” video for pet owners, it was not intended as a “how to teach puppy classes” video for dog trainers*. Unfortunately, many trainers religiously copied our filming-format and are still teaching classes in that fashion today. Of course, puppy classes should not be taught that way.

The three most important reasons for puppy classes are: 1. Teaching bite inhibition — hence the puppy play sessions and dog-dog socialization; 2. Teaching puppies to enjoy interacting with and being handled by people, especially children, men and strangers — hence the people-dog socialization; and 3. To teach reliable off-leash obedience (dogs are off-leash at home), so that the puppies promptly and willing respond to verbal commands even when distracted — hence the many training interludes integrated into puppy play sessions.

Puppy classes should be taught off-leash for the entire session, except, of course, when pups are learning to walk on leash. Puppies need as much time as possible to play with other dogs (and so acquire solid bite inhibition and develop soft mouths) and to interact with every person in the room, especially men, children and strangers. They cannot do this if they are on-leash. Sitting and listening to a trainer talk is wasting precious play and training time. All the information that owners need to train their puppies is available for free from the Digital Dog Training Textbook at www.dogstardaily.com.

The ongoing 55-minute play session should be frequently interrupted by numerous short training interludes, so that the puppy learns to respond quickly, reliably and happily to their owners’ requests. Every time the play session is interrupted, e.g., by a Sit-Stand-Sit sequence, or a five-second Down Stay, the puppy may be told “Go Play” as a reward. Thus, playing-with-other-dogs may be used over and over as a reward for training, rather than becoming a distraction that works against training. On the other hand if the play session is uninterrupted and separate from the training session, the puppy will soon learn to prefer play to training. Puppies will ignore owners’ requests, the play session will become out of control, and some pups will become scaredy-cats or bullies.
Integrating frequent short training interludes into the play session is essential for owners to learn how to calm down, control and get their puppies to pay attention at times when they are distracted and excited. Being able to calm and re-focus out-of-control puppies is a major reason why owners come to class. Calming and controlling energized puppies cannot be taught if training is restricted to a calm and controlled training session. Training must be integrated into an active play session.

Any signs of fearfulness or “bullying” must be resolved during the very first session, otherwise the problems will quickly become worse as each week goes by. Fearfulness may be resolved during a handling session, by leaving only the fearful dog and just one other slow-moving (non-threatening) dog to find and play with each other. Bullies require a non-stop running binary feedback (feedback every second) of differential praise and differential reprimand indicating the levels of appropriateness or inappropriateness of each and every behavior. Bullying cannot be resolved by ill-timed and lengthy time-outs — a waste of precious training time.

Classes should include puppies of all sizes and all play-styles. Small dogs need to develop confidence and learn how to act around larger and more active dogs, and larger, more active dogs must learn to be gentle around smaller and less active dogs. Sessions with only large and active dogs produce over-the-top play styles and dogs that are likely to annoy or bully other dogs in the real world. Sessions limited to small dogs only are a potential disaster. Certainly, small puppies may quickly gain confidence around other small dogs, but some small dogs quickly become too big for their boots and none of them are given the opportunity to develop confidence around larger dogs. In the real world, small bossy dogs may get into trouble and small fearful dogs are attack-bait for marginally socialized dogs.

Recently, we filmed SIRIUS® Puppy Training Redux so that dog trainers may see the natural flow of a SIRIUS® off-leash puppy socialization and training class.

Puppy I off-leash classes are for puppies between 10 and 18 weeks of age. Unlike adult classes, the puppy class curriculum is huge and comprises all aspects of socialization and behavior, temperament, and basic manners training. Puppy classes Class priorities are teaching bite inhibition (so your puppy develops a soft mouth), socializing your puppy to people (especially children, men, and strangers) and other dogs, and teaching basic manners.

Between 12 and 18 weeks of age, puppies may be flooded with social stimuli. Trainers should not waste this opportunity to quickly socialize pups to people, and desensitize them to all potentially frightening stimuli. Also, puppies of this age may safely be allowed to play together off-leash. Trainers should capitalize on this narrow time-window of opportunity and puppy classes should be taught entirely off-leash, with the only exception of teaching leash-work.

A puppytraining syllabus should be based on behavior and training issues that are important, urgent and/or potentially dangerous.

Cardinal Rules For Puppy Classes
• #1 priority—bite inhibition
• #2 priority—socialization with people
• Off-leash for entire class, unless teaching on-leash walking/heeling
• Training must be integrated into play session, i.e., puppy play must be interrupted with a training exercise at least every 15 seconds.

Protocols For Constructing A Class Syllabus
• Which dog behavior and training problems are common and predictable
• Which dog behavior and training issues are urgent
• Which dog behavior and training problems are serious (potentially dangerous)
• Which training techniques are easy/expedient or difficult for owners

Most Common Training Mistakes Made by Owners
(‘91 California Puppy Training Workshop N=65)
1. Aggression Ignored/Encouraged
2. Fearfulness Ignored/Encouraged
3. No Control when Owner Absent – dog allowed to run free
4. No Attempt to Train — “Yes, but…”
5. No Rewards – embarrassed, incapable, taking good behavior for granted
6. Punish Dog for Coming — after crime, to confine, to stop play
7. No Control when Owner Present — no attention from dog because none from owner
8. Repeating and Escalating Commands — desensitization
9. Eager to Punish — without dog having proven comprehension of instructions
10. Too Much Food — food not phased out
11. Dog Kept Outside from Start
12. No Warning Prior to Punishment
13. No Follow Up after Warnings
14. Adjusting to Dog —when heeling (backwards, circles, recalls)
15. No, or Yo-yo handsignals — for positions or stays
16. Dog Worries at Lure

Top 20 Topics For Puppy Class

(Ian Dunbar, Berkeley 1981, Rev. 2006)
1. Bite inhibition
2. Socialization, handling and training by people (especially children and men)
3. Housetraining, chewtoy-training, settle-and-shush for home alone
4. Following off-leash
5. Lure/reward training—come, sit, down, stand, roll over, and stays
6. Socialization and play with other dogs (for bite inhibition)
7. Collar grabs and emergency distant sits (four levels)
8. Proofing bomb-proof stays
9. Jazz-up and settle down
10. “Off,” “Take it” and “Thank you” (valued objects)
11. The walk—integrated training and socialization in many environments.
12. All-or-none reward training loose-leash walking and automatic “sits”
13. All-or-none reward training and troubleshooting “polite greetings” (sit)
14. Alternating lure/reward heeling with walking on-leash
15. “Woof” and “Shush” on cue
16. All-or-none reward training—time-sampling for “good behaviors”
17. Interactive mental games (sar with cookie, kong, person, or dog, howl, etc.,)
18. Interactive physical games (tug o’ war, tag, football, play-fighting, bubbles)
19. Just plain fun stuff—tricks (shake, beg, bow, back-up, twirl, hug, etc.,)
20. Vocabulary building exercises—discriminations, e.g., “go to…” and “fetch…”


Adolescent/Adult Dog Classes
1. Jazz-up and Settle Down
In order to repeatedly practice and effectively master “Settle Down,” the dog’s rambunctious and rumbustious behavior (noise and activity) must be put on cue. “Meet the Beast” — deal with the most pressing problem (noise & hyperactivity) right away.
• TROUBLESHOOT (repeat exercise over and over)
• QUANTIFY (time the number of seconds it takes for the dog to settle down on cue)

2. Classical Conditioning
Many trainers rush adult classes. Dog must be given a chance to relax and get used to the environment. Offer kibble.
• Offer kibble as a temperament test to check that the dog is at ease. (If the dog refuses kibble from the owner, he is probably anxious about the environment—give him time. However, if the dog accepts kibble from his owner but not from you—the trainer—the dog probably feels ill at ease with you. Proceed slowly.
• Offer kibble so that the dog may form positive associations with the class setting, the trainer, and other owners.

3. All-or-None Reward Train Good Behavior
from Level One of Open Paw’s Four Levels Training www.openpaw.org
Instructions to Owner: “Take your time to observe your dogs. Specifically, time-sample your dog’s behavior every five seconds: Ignore unwanted behavior, but reward your dog for desirable behavior, such as:
• Not barking, not growling, and not lunging
• Stopping barking/growling/lunging
• Stopping jumping (“Four on the Floor”)
• Rhythmic movement—repetitive weight-shifting between front paws, or butt-wagging
• Protrusion of tongue and bent elbows (pawing, paw-raises and play-bows)
• High-amplitude/high-frequency tail wags
• Sitting
• Lying down
• Paying attention to owner
• Looking irresistibly cute”
• QUANTIFY # of good behaviors per one-minute period
• GAMES prize for owner with most # of “Good Dogs”

4. All-or-None Reward Train Attention
Generally, reward training is usually better than luring with distracted adolescent and adult dogs.
Instructions to Owner: “Ignore everything the dog does until he glances at you. Praise and reward with kibble. Rotate away from the dog to intentionally break his gaze and repeat. After a couple of reinforced glances, up the ante in terms time of attention required for a reward—first one second, then two, three, five, eight, and so on. Count out the time of attention in “good dogs”—Good dog one. Good dog two. Good dog three, etc. Once the dog is paying attention for 20 or 30 seconds, you will notice that he is also in a sit-stay. Move backwards and serpentine to train moving-attention a la Suzanne Clothier”
• QUANTIFY time of attention with a stopwatch
• QUANTIFY time of attention plus distractions

5. All-or-None Reward Train Sit-Stay and Walk On-Leash
Instructions to Owner: “Stand still, with the leash in one hand and kibble in the other (both hands held high up and close to the body, i.e., using the kibble as a distraction as well as a reward. Ignore everything the dog does until he sits and then praise and reward with kibble. Take one large step and rotate (clockwise or counter clockwise) through 90, 180, or 270 degrees and stand still and wait for the dog to sit again. Once the dog sits immediately after the one step, try taking two steps before standing still, and then three, five, eight, and so on. Now you’ll find that the dog walks calmly on a loose leash, looks up at you when you slow down, and sits automatically when you stop walking. Occasionally, stand still for longer periods and praise the sit-stay in “good dogs”—Good dog one. Good dog two. Good dog three, etc.”
• QUANTIFY number of successive successful one-step and “Sit” sequences
• QUANTIFY the maximum number of steps per sequence (with a loose leash)
Important to teach "Steady" (slow) and "Hustle" (quickly) for Recalls and Heeling.

6. All-or-None Reward Train “Off” and “Take it”
Instructions to Owner: “Hold a piece of kibble in a clenched fist in front of the dog’s nose. Ignore everything the dog does (licking, nibbling, or pawing your hand) but immediately praise the dog when he ceases contact with your hand and then say “Take it” and open your fist so the dog may take the kibble from the palm of your hand. Repeat the sequence several times until the dog immediately pulls his muzzle away when you present the kibble in your fist. On subsequent trials, say, “Off” or “Leave it” before presenting your fist, count out the period of non-contact in “good dogs,” and say, “Take it” before presenting the kibble on the palm of your hand. You will notice the dog is in a sit-stay.”
• QUANTIFY how many trials are required before the dog performs successfully five trials in a row
• QUANTIFY the maximum length of non-contact with a stopwatch
• QUANTIFY the maximum length of sit-stay with a stopwatch

7. Lure/Reward Position Changes and Stays
Lure/Reward training is the fastest and most expedient pet dog training technique to teach body positions. Owners must always work with a minimum of three commands so that dog cannot anticipate the next command (as often happens when training for obedience competition).
Starting with the dog standing, sit-down-sit-stand-down-stand is a test sequence of six position changes when teaching the three basic body positions (sit, down, and stand). An infinite number of body position changes are required to teach a single position command, e.g., a reliable emergency “Sit” or “Down.” The dog discriminates according to where he is, what he is doing, the level of distractions, who is training, and what the trainer is doing. Body position changes must work when the dog is off leash and at a distance, (e.g., at home, or in the park) — main reason why physical prompting is never used to teach positions or recall. Body position changes must be AT LEAST 95% RELIABLE
Also, teach other body positions, such as, Down on-side, Supine-Down, Sit-up and Beg, Play Bow, Creep, etc.
• QUANTIFY time for five consecutive “sit-down-sit-stand-down-stand” sequences
• INSTRUCT owners to repeat body position change sequence 100 times during a walk (to proof in different settings with different distractions) and calculate percentage reliability or COMMAND:RESPONSE RATIOS for each position change
• GAMES number of puppy push-ups (sit-downs) in 30 seconds
• GAMES all owners on Joe Pup course (position changes and STAYS)
Distance Position Changes
A reliable distance “Sit” or “Down” is better for emergency control than a recall. Also, it is important to teach distant position changes before teaching distant stays. Taught by:
• progressive distance method (with dog on stairs, or in a crate)
• sit-stay -> down-stay method
• or off-leash play method (as with puppies)
Always, 1. Distal Command -> 2. Proximal Command
• QUANTIFY longest distance
• GAMES “sit-down-sit-stand-down-stand” sequence at progressive distances

8. Stays
Teach stays by delaying giving the food reward after a position change and counting out time in “good dogs”—“good dog one, good dog two, good dog three etc.”
Proofing stays comprises: increasing DURATION, increasing DISTANCE, and increasing complexity of DISTRACTIONS. Proof stays by:
• alternating instructive feedback ("Good Sit Stay Rover") with silent appreciation
• immediately using an instructive reprimand ("Rover Sit!") whenever dog breaks stay
• returning to "toe-to-toe" position and praising dog after each short proofing episode
Increase DISTANCE and DISTRACTIONS gradually and progressively — the cumulative DURATION will increase dramatically.
• QUANTIFY time length of stays with a stop watch
• GAMES longest sit, down and stand stays (with and without distractions)

9. Lure/Reward Heel On-Leash
Using food and toys to lure heel with the left hand and sit with the right hand.
Turn in place with long straightaways before turning in motion
Alternate Heeling On-Leash (formal and precise) and Walking On-Leash (informal and relaxed—sniffing and peeing allowed)

10. Woof/Grrrrr and Shush
1. Say “Speak”
2. Lure dog to bark or growl
3. Praise dog for barking or growling
4. Say “Shush”
5. Lure dog to shush by waggling food in front of his nose
6. Praise dog for shushing (when he sniffs food) and offer food as a reward
Dog may be lured to bark or growl by owners doing likewise, by playing tug-of-war, or by having doorbells in classroom.


Sunday: Home Games, Class Games & The K9 Games®

Playing Games for:
• Accelerated Learning
• Motivation of Dogs and Owners
• Owner Compliance (for following instructions)
• Objective Assessment of Performance Reliability and Precision
Learning tricks and playing games rapidly accelerates the speed of learning. Not only do tricks and games motivate both dogs and owners to give their very best performances (quantitatively and qualitatively) but also, tricks and games motivate owners to practice. For some owners, heeling and sit-stay homework is not very exciting, but many will stay up to the wee hours to practice for Musical Chairs or Doggy Dancing. Games motivate dogs and owners to perform better, and to have fun doing it. Playing games generally brings out the best performances in both people and dogs. Owners don’t over-think training when playing games, they just do it and usually, do it very well indeed. Playing training games with lot and lots of rules is the very best way to get owners to follow instructions and succeed.

All tricks/games are designed to improve the quality of the relationship between dogs and their people and each individual game, (including musical chairs, doggy-dashes, retrieval races, woof relays and of course, doggy dancing), is specifically designed to fine-tune essential ingredients of your dog’s training repertoire. For example, with tricks as simple as Biscuit Balance and Playing Possum, you end up with fantastic Sit-Stays and Down-Stays.

In addition, playing games is an enjoyable and non-threatening way to objectively quantify the reliability, precision and quality of performance. For example, there will be only one fastest recall, only one longest sit stay and only one most appealing Dance routine. However, regardless of comparative rank of performance (compared with other competitors), the most worthwhile reason to play games is for owners to establish personal bests, setting personal goals, and above all, striving to progressively better their bests from week to week.

This seminar will describe all sorts of home, class and event games to quantify and fine-tune some basic obedience skills, including attention, position changes, stays, following, heeling, and precision work. Some are listed below.

Home Games
Put Toys in Toy Basket
Differential Retrieves to find car keys/remote control/wallet
Indoor Following Courses
Furry Doorbell & Burglar Alarm
Bubbles
Tug o’ War
Tag
Round-Robin Relay
Round-Robin “Go To’s” — Urban SAR
Cookie/toy SAR
Doggy Dancing
Fetch a Beer

Class Games
The People Training Game with six different types of binary feedback
Individual timed Following Courses,
Group Following Races
Heeling with glass of Wine (or kibble on spoon) in leash hand,
Backwards Heeling Course
Two dogs and one treat for Fastest Recall
Slow Recall “Race”
Number of Puppy Push-Ups (down-sit) in 30 seconds
Bang! (fewest number of “bullets”, slowest “death” or longest time playing possum)
Biscuit Balance (sit stay, down stay, or heeling)
Longest Sit Stay with other-owner distractions,
Timed Attention without lures
Sit-Down-Stand Position Change Competition -> Final 8 best dogs
The Sit Test
Original Joe Pup Par Course
Creeping Race (with limbo hurdles)
Roll Over Race
Walking Backwards Race.
Jazz up and Settle Down
Blindfold Group Recall
Snake Relays (trees, logs and tunnels)
Toy Canasta (first dog to collect three of a kind)
Dueling Dogs

K9 GAMES® — The Ultimate Doggy Event!
http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/k9-games®
The K9 GAMES® is a dog show with a difference. The K9 GAMES® showcases dog-friendly dog training. First performed in San Francisco in 1995, the K9 GAMES have been held in Los Angeles, Washington DC, London, for several years in the Toronto SkyDome and since 2005, and now as annual events in France and Japan.

The K9 GAMES® brings back some sparkle, some excitement, and some razzle-dazzle to pet dog training. The K9 GAMES® is simply the most exciting, exhilarating, captivating, action-packed, doggy sports event. Spectators have a great time watching the many different breeds compete against each other and learn how to train their dogs using dog-friendly dog training methods.

People love to laugh. People love fun, action, athleticism, competition, excitement and family events. People are seduced by game shows and sports. People even enjoy watching the variety of different breeds at dog shows. The K9 GAMES® offers all of these and much, much more.

The K9 GAMES® is a fun-filled and fast-moving, team competition. However, for K9 GAMES® competitors, winning is just one reason for taking part. Much more important is to put on a show for spectators, so that everybody can see just how easy and enjoyable dog training can be. However, the primary reason for competition, and the essential spirit of The K9 GAMES®, is to have a good time with dogs — for people to have fun with their dogs and dogs to have fun with their people.

The eight teams (each with nine dogs and nine handlers) have fun competing in nine different games: Doggy Dash, Musical Chairs, Kong Retrieve, Take & Drop, Distance Catch, Recall Relay, Woof Relay, Joe Pup Relay, and the K9 GAMES signature event — Waltzes with Dogs (doggy dancing). All nine games are designed to improve the quality of the relationship between dogs and their people. Each individual game is specifically designed to fine-tune essential ingredients of a pet dog’s training repertoire.

The Doggy Dash http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/doggy-dash is an elimination event to determine the fastest dog in the competition. Pairs of dogs race against each other and the fastest dog goes through to the next round. Both dogs are held at the Start Line and the first dog to sit across the Finish Line wins.

In the Recall Relay, http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/recall-relay teams of four dogs race against each other. In both recall events, all dogs must be super-friendly and confident around people, because they are held by K9 GAMES Stewards (strangers) at the Start Line. In the recall races, fast and reliable recalls are pretty much taken for granted. Usually, the dog that sits the quickest wins the race. The recall races are all about teaching a quick sit — an invaluable command for pet dogs. And in the real world, a quick and reliable sit pretty much resolves almost any behavior or training problem. For example, if the dog jumps up when greeting people, tries to dash out of the front door, or bounces up and down in the back of your car, simply say, “Sit!” and that’s the end of the problem.

Musical Chairs http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/musical-chairs is another elimination game. Handlers and dogs walk around a rectangle to music. When the music stops, the handlers instruct their dogs to sit (without touching them) and rush to sit on an empty chair in the center of the rectangle. However, there are always fewer chairs than handlers. If a handler cannot find an empty chair, she may act silly to try to get the other dogs to break their sit-stays. The dogs must remain in sit-stays outside of the rectangle. If a dog breaks his sit-stay, the handler must vacate the chair and leave the rectangle to re-sit the dog. Musical Chairs teaches dogs two of the most useful pet dog skills—a lightning-quick sit plus a rock-solid stay. When dogs have mastered Musical Chairs, they are simply so much more enjoyable to live with.

Similarly, the secret to Distance Catch http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/distance-catch is a solid sit-stay, so that the dog doesn’t move from the position where the handler wants him to catch the object.

In the Kong Retrieve http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/kong-cup-challenge dogs have just one minute to retrieve as many Kongs as possible. Different colored Kongs have different point values. Retrieving a Bonus Kitty (stuffed animal) doubles the dog’s score. Whereas retrieving a Penalty Bone halves the dog’s score. The dog with the highest score wins. The Kong retrieve is one of the most exciting and fast-paced games. The dogs are taught discriminated retrieves in the same way that you would teach your dog to find your lost keys, or the remote control for the television. Also, they are taught not even to touch, let alone pick up, forbidden articles (Penalty Bones).

The Woof Relay http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/recall-relay is a timed event. There are five dogs to a team and in succession, each dog has to woof three times and then shush. The team with the shortest total time for 15 woofs wins. The World Record is 7.11 seconds.

Dogs that compete in Kong Retrieve seldom become destructive chewers or excessive barkers when left at home alone, because they are absolutely Kong crazy and would much rather lie down and chew their food-stuffed Kongs than destroy the house or bark all day. Similarly, dogs that compete in the Woof Relay seldom become problem barkers, because they have learned to “Speak” and “Shush” on cue.

In the Joe Pup Relay http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/joe-pup-relay two dogs race at a time, and each dog has to run from one person to another, performing a different obedience routine with each of the four people. The Joe Pup Relay is a wonderful pet dog training game, because the dog has to be taught to follow instructions from people in addition to his owner. Playing this game really helps owners learn how to teach family and friends to work with the dog that they have already trained.

Take & Drop http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/take-and-drop is by far the most difficult event in the K9 GAMES because the dog’s performance has to be so precise. Consequently, there is a big cash prize for the first-placed dog. The dog has to take an article from his handler and drop it as close as possible to a marker thirty feet away. The dog has to follow directions from the handler and drop the object precisely on cue. A dog that competes successfully in Take & Drop is simply an extremely well-trained dog — an advertisement for a really good dog owner.

Waltzes With Dogs http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/waltzes-dogs is the signature event of the K9 GAMES. Each owner performs a unique choreography set to music. The various routines are scored according to Technical Merit and Artistic Impression by a panel of five celebrity judges. Owners come up with the most creative and captivating routines, often moving, sometimes quite bizarre, but always a joy to watch. Waltzes with Dogs is all about a close and special relationship between a dog and owner, who both thrill in having a good time together and entertaining spectators.

Laughter and giggles, and woofs and wiggles are the hallmark of the K9 GAMES®