Saturday, April 23, 2011

Spring has Sprung!

Any Spring Craziness going on with you and yours? Coming soon, a library of training articles that will be available at no charge if you would like to share any of my training articles on your own website. For now, check out a few at wwww.knowingdogs.com. From there, you can click on the Knowing Dogs blog for even more articles.

Wishing you and your family, human and canine, a lovely Easter! It is time to be grateful for family and friends, but most importantly, for Christ who rose again so that we all might live!

Many thanks to Chris L'Abbe for this fun photograph of her Poodles running on the beach. Look for another fun beach photo of the L'Abbe Poodles on the rotating header of the Knowing Dogs blog site.

Melanie

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Poodles of all colors...Spring is here, time for landscaping!

Sydney Dunlap, who says she wears the safety glasses not only for eye protection, but as an attempt to disguise her movie star good looks so fans don't interrupt her work when she is too busy for autographs.
It's been awhile since I have hung out with any Poodle show breeders, but back in the days when I lived in North Carolina, I did visit with some of my show friends every now and then, particularly two ladies from whom I had gotten dogs. I especially loved to visit when they had a litter of curly Standard Poodle babies. It was such fun to watch them run and play.

But there were two topics that we often discussed, which never failed to spark heated debates!  Those topics revolved around my desire to live long enough to see the Poodle Club of America change the standard to allow Poodles to be shown in more normal clips, and also that they allow all colors. Presently only solid colored dogs may compete in the show ring for AKC championships, although any color may be AKC registered and compete in performance events. Very interesting photographs and historical information about parti-colored Poodles can be found on this link of  Poodle fancier Charlene Dunlap's Canine Horizon's website: http://caninehorizons.com/_Parti_Color_Poodles.html

Whoops, I'm off the topic of my article.  Calling all Poodles, of all sizes and colors...Spring is here and it is time to help your human friends get the yard in order! Hope you enjoy these photos of two of my all-time favorite Poodle friends--Sydney and Jyah Dunlap. Even though these doggies are both hard working movie stars, they still take time out from their busy schedules to help their parents in the yard occasionally.
Jyah Dunlap operating the Bobcat at Canine Horizons.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Moments of Insight


Moment of Insight...Protection?

It happened at the lake, some years ago. I was recovering from surgery. During my healing process my husband rented a house at Smith Mountain lake. He wanted to give me some time away from the stress of running a pet care facility. Bed & Biscuit was a great love of mine, especially then. But a large boarding kennel is not easy to manage when you are not feeling well. I had been struggling, and needed a break.

It had been a peaceful week...time for reading and reflection. I missed my dogs though, as the rental agency had no "pet friendly" homes available that week. Yet there was also something freeing about having a week with no living creatures depending on me every moment of the day.

On the day of our departure I walked down to the lake for a few last glimpses of the mountain and the water lapping quietly at the rocks. Like many, the rented cottage sat on a hill, and one had to walk down an incline to the dock. Walking back up proved a bit difficult, as I was not totally healed from abdominal surgery. I spotted a good sized flat rock and decided to sit for a moment...resting before climbing the last thirty feet or so back to where the packed car was waiting.

As I was catching my breath, I suddenly saw, coming through the trees to my right, a large black dog. Despite his graying muzzle, this older Labrador came trooping through the woods, along with a younger Basset Hound...the two were a picture of joy on that early day of autumn.

Obviously well cared-for, the dogs' tags attested that they belonged to a nearby neighbor. After greeting me with sloppy dog kisses, they settled right in as if they were my own. The older Lab fellow walked a couple of feet away and lay down in a watchful post, while the female Basset sat leaning against my leg.

As I looked at the lovely old Retriever, I felt comforted, as he seemed to be protecting me in some way. As his sweet dark eyes glanced back at me, however, I received a totally different thought. I heard a quiet, Fatherly voice say "Melanie, dogs are not given to protect, instead they are a gift to be protected by you, just like children are gifts to be protected."

This was a defining moment for me as a dog trainer and behavioral consultant. I knew that many people, even those who did not own guardian type breeds, looked to their dogs to protect them. We have all read stories of dogs offering their owners physical protection in the face of danger. Some of us have even experienced this on occasion. And of course we know that our dogs are great sound alert systems. But 99% of the time, our dogs need us to protect them, not vice versa.
Relationships with dogs are complex. But I am sure the voice I heard was true. Dogs are a gift. And we are not only protected, but we must give them our protection...always.