Breed Profile - Puggle

Puggles have been quite popular lately at Pet U, so I couldn't think of a better breed for our 2nd Breed Profile. If you didn't pick it up from the name, a Puggle is a mix between a Pug and a Beagle.

As the Puggle is not yet officially recognized as a breed, there is no uniformity among the dogs.

Puggle puppies can have any combination of the parent’s characteristics, and even puppies within the same litter can have completely different appearances and temperaments.

In general, they have a slightly less wrinkly face than a Pug, and a slightly stockier body than a Beagle. They often keep the beagle howl, and share the easy-going friendly attitude of both breeds.

Puggles make ideal apartment dogs because of their low to moderate activity levels. A quick brush once a week is enough to keep their coat clean, although be aware that they do shed a lot. They are smart dogs, but both Pugs and Beagles are known for being stubborn, so most likely your Puggle will be too.

Here in daycare, we have 4 Puggles: Barkley, Stosh, Chazz and Dee. They are all are great with the other dogs, and very friendly. They are among the first daycare dogs to run out of energy, and then enjoy a great cuddle session to round out the day. Chazz and Dee, the tan and black dogs on the bench, are brother and sister. They spend the day together and have a great time racing around and wrestling!

Weekly Awards

Most Photogenic - Tigger

Daintiest - Lola

Best Puppy Eyes - Izzie & Bodie

Best Puppy Kiss - Ivy

Most Striking - Kane

Class Couple - Kara & Coach

Happy Holidays from Pet U!

We can't thank all of you enough. We've been so lucky to have been showered with gifts throughout the past week! We really do have the best clients!

As a cute, funny way to show you how much we appreciate all of you and to give a giant THANK YOU for all of your kindness, we came up with this:

Dressing your dogs up in our reindeer antlers and making them work (look cute) for treats.

What do you think?

Ruka, freshly bathed and smelling great!

        

Lexi

                                         

Sterling

                             

Izzie

                                  

Miss Kitty

                                

Happy Holidays!

Weekly Awards

Best Expression - Ziva (picture by Amy)

Most Likely To Think Outside The Box - Nakota

Most Likely To Leave Daycare Behind And Become a Model - Rex

Grumpiest While Spreading Holiday Cheer - Annie (picture by Amy)

Sweetest Puppy Eyes - Toeby

Puppies at Work 3: Bite Work Progression

Over the last two posts in this series, here and here, we've showed you various stages in beginning bite work. We showed you the 3 month old puppies playing tug-of-war, and then the 6 month old puppies increasing their confidence and prey drive. We use lots of games, lots of treats, and lots of praise to increase their excitement and drive to work. This week, we’re focusing on 2 dogs from our litter born last January, Broc and Pepper. Broc has been learning bite work since he was 2 months old, but Pepper started when he was 6 months old. They are both in very different training stages, which makes them an excellent example for this post.

Broc during daycare

The video below was put together by our own Kate, who is in charge of our media. She did a phenomenal job, so let’s take a look at how we progress with bite work techniques.

There are several techniques that we worked on in this video. As you watch, keep an eye out for the following.

With Pepper:

• We are working to increase his drive - by making him chase the tug, he has to fight for it, which makes him want it more. grab and bite without thinking

• We begin working more with the bite wedge and sleeve, rather than a rag or tug - this teaches him to focus on the person, rather than just to chase a rag around. playing tug, We had difficulty with this aspect with Broc at first. If the bite sleeve was on the ground Broc would ignore the decoy and bark at the sleeve on the ground. We had to teach him that the sleeve and the person went together.

• We take him out into new environments - will he still perform well if we are outside on the sidewalk, versus inside the daycare?

• We teach him how to turn his drive on and off - GSD’s are phenomenal family dogs when properly trained, because they turn on their drive when they are working or notice a threat, and then immediately turn it off when they’re done.

• In his last clip, Pepper is seeing the bite jacket for the first time. Since Pepper is so new to bite work, he still treats it as a game. For that reason, we want to assimilate him to as many of our training items as possible, so that later on everything is familiar when we begin to progress with training. For his first time, he does a fantastic job!

With Broc:

• We are teaching him to ‘bark and hold’ - Broc is learning not to attack until given the signal, but to maintain his position and warn the assailant to back off.
• We are teaching him to learn tolerance for physical pressure - an assailant won’t just stand there while the dog attacking them, so they need to be accustomed to the feeling of being rolled around on the ground and thrown around.

During this stage in training there are two very important aspects that mold the dog's attack behavior:

1. The handler and the decoy (person accepting the bite) can never switch roles - The dog learns to respond to their handler and to focus all their drive at the decoy, and so if you both handle and act as a decoy, the dog will begin to have trouble distinguishing which person you are at any given moment.
2. It is also important to have different people acting as the decoy during this stage. We don’t want to have the dog only associate having to bite with one person

Stay tuned for the next, and possibly final post in this series, featuring Alline. She is the mother of both Broc and Pepper, and is a competition-winning protection dog.

Our Christmas Present To You

Christmas has come early to Pet U! 

The dogs love them, the owners love the videos of the dogs playing with them, you just can't go wrong with a new jolly ball for Christmas! 

We have them on sale for only $22, so come and get them while the last! 

(Different colors and flavors available.)

Breed Profile - Brazilian Mastiff

This is a new series focusing on the many daycare dogs that come through our doors, from the unusual breeds to those that we all know and love. This is a chance to meet our dogs one by one, and maybe learn a little something along the way. Kicking off the series is Miss Kitty, a Fila Brasiliero, or Brazilian Mastiff. She is the largest dog that we have at Pet U, and she’s only 1 year old!

The Fila is a natural guard dog, and will make an extremely loyal and loving member of your family. With that said, they need an experienced owner who is able to assert himself as the pack leader. They stand between 23.5 and 29.5 inches at the shoulder, and weigh 110 - 160 pounds, with females being slightly smaller than the males. As a puppy they require lots of socialization, but even then they will still be wary around strangers. This is NOT a dog for the average owner; as they require lots of skill and hard work to be raised properly!

Miss Kitty has won over all of our hearts, and luckily we’ve won over hers as well. She has a blast whenever she’s her for boarding! She’s very playful, but then runs out of steam after just a few hours. She loves to take long naps, and to cuddle up whenever possible. Once in a while she gets a burst of energy and leads all of the other dogs on a massive game of chase through the back yard. It’s fun to watch her in an all-out sprint!

Pet U Weekly Awards

Most Accomplished - Sarah

Sarah (the Black Lab) lives on the road with her owner, who is a truck driver. On days that

her owner is working in a city, Sarah gets to spend the day in daycare! This is 

her 63rd daycare this year!

Best Accessory - Jakara

Best Cold Weather Pup - Nakota

Best Action Face - Oliver

Most Likely To Spend The Morning With Her Head In The Snow - Bristol

3 Ways You Might Be Sabotaging The Recall Command

Everybody has done it: you just noticed your dog chewing on your shoes and you angrily say “Jack! Come here! Bad dog!” You’ve just made him associate ‘come’ with a negative reaction, so the next time you call him he is less likely to respond. 

Dogs learn from everything. When the two of you are together, whether it is intentional or not, he is learning. So, the next time you call your dog to you, follow these guidelines to make sure you are not unintentionally teaching him to stay away from you.

1. Dogs have a very short window for connecting a behavior to a reward or punishment. Never follow the come command with a negative correction. By the time your dog reaches you, the window is over. He now has no idea why you’re mad at him, other than that he just came up to you and you punished him for it.

Instead, be happy when he returns to you, and reward him appropriately! Leave the punishment for another time, when you can correct him within his window.

2. Until your dog is 100% guaranteed to return to you every single time you call him, don’t let him off leash. Each time you call him and he doesn't respond, that confirms for him that he really doesn't have to listen to you after all.

Instead, if you are letting him loose in the dog park or at the beach, attach a long leash. When you go to call him, grab the end of the leash and give a correction if he doesn't listen.

3. If you call for your pup and he doesn't respond, don’t chase after him. By chasing after him, you are making it a game, which has now rewarded him for not coming when called.

Instead, ignore him. That way, you are reinforcing the idea that attention and rewards come when he finally comes back to you.

A few weeks ago I talked about focus work as a way to build the bond between you and your dog. This is a terrific game to reinforce the ‘come’ command. Focus work teaches your pup that there is nothing better in the world than being with you, and once your dog understands this, he will come running every time you call.

These Pet U pups both look happy to see me!

Awww, Baby!

A collection of the sweetest moments we've captured over the last couple of months. 

All the photos are mine, unless noted otherwise.

Enjoy! :)

                  

                            




                         

Photos by Amy: