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Training crazy dogs from over-the-top to under-control book cover, dogs in action.

Please welcome the revised edition(s)!

    I am very pleased to announce that Fired Up, Frantic, and Freaked Out has a new revised version!

    It has somehow been ten years since the first publication of Fired Up, and the book has gone further than I had ever dreamed. A lot can change in ten years, however–not the basic theory of reinforcing good behavior, and not the concepts for teaching coping skills before they’re needed under duress, no, but other things. Many links to resources were outdated, as organizations reorganized their websites or took materials offline, for example.

    Doberman Undómiel chews on pumpkin

    Enrichment (Productivity, Sanity) in a Time of Social Distancing

      woman seated in chair head wrapped in silicone and plaster, with black Labrador puppy leaning into her lap and soliciting petting
      No worries! This was during a bodycasting session and she’s fine. Penny was unfazed by the weird faceless human. #socialization

      As many of you know, Clicker Expo was cancelled at the last minute last weekend. While we were all, attendees and faculty, disappointed (to put it mildly), I absolutely support the decision. I’m not going to talk about the math and what should have been done here before now, because that’s readily available. Today I want to talk about best behavioral practices in a time of increased isolation and even quarantine.

      Let’s talk about behavior and enrichment in both people and pets.

      Podcasts about Books & Training!

        Active woman training service dog outdoors, promoting canine training and assistance.

        I had the opportunity to chat with Melinda Schiller on her fantastic Elite Pets Podcast, in two episodes themed around my training books. We had some great questions about training and problem-solving and problem-prevention.

        (Also there’s a bit of news hidden in the Fired Up talk!)

        You can catch each of the episodes online:

        Sir Didymus and Ambrosius, from The Labyrinth

        Working Service Dogs at DragonCon

          My friend Emilia sent me photos of this great PSA at Dragon Con this year. Dragon Con is an enormous pop culture convention annually in Atlanta, GA, with attendance of about 80,000 guests. They have a lot of service dogs working at the convention.

          Because many people still don’t know how to let service dogs do their job without interference, Dragon Con posted a PSA on their internal feeds so that attendees with service dogs could enjoy the event as much as everyone else.

          Social, Civil, and Savvy: Training & Socializing Puppies to Become the Best Possible Dogs

          A Little Announcement

            So I’ve been working very hard, and I’ve dropped a few hints, and I’m finally ready to reveal it.

            I have a new training and behavior book coming out soon!

            Doberman puppy on trampoline

            Puppy Socialization: the Physical

              I have been a terrible pet parent, and I have not been spamming the blog with puppy photos and puppy stories. I apologize, I’ve been crazy busy, and in the end it’s more important to spend those extra minutes with the puppy rather than writing about her.

              But today I’m going to officially spam about the puppy.

              Meet Undómiel, who is 12 weeks old now and already gi-normous. Her paws are dinner plates. She’s going to be bigger than Laev.

              I went to Denmark to pick her up, so she could fly home in the cabin with me.

              Assistance Dog Blog Carnival – a Call for Posts

                Assistance Dog Blog Carnival graphic. A square graphic, with a lavender background. A leggy purple dog of unidentifiable breed, with floppy ears and a curly tail, in silhouette, is in the center. Words are in dark blue in a perky typeface. I’ve been given the opportunity to host the Assistance Dog Blog Carnival, a collection of relevant blog posts on the topic of service dogs and their people.

                This edition of the ADBC will go live on December 16, 2014. This round’s theme is:

                Perceive.

                This is an official call for posts! If you’d like to participate, write a post on service dogs, interpreting the theme “perceive” in any way you like.

                Training & Gaming at Gen Con

                  Mindy joined me at Gen Con this year. Because you can’t buy that kind of socialization experience. What is Gen Con, you may ask? Well, “Gen Con, LLC produces the largest consumer hobby, fantasy, science fiction and adventure game convention in North America. Gen Con, The Best Four Days In Gaming!™”

                  (Actually, I think it’s the world’s largest?)

                  A girl in a wheelchair is accompanied by a Golden Retriever wearing a service vest and carrying a plushed terrier on his back, dressed as Sir Didymus from the film Labyrinth.
                  Mindy wasn’t the only service dog at Gen Con. Here’s an assistance dog appearing as Sir Didymus (from Labyrinth).

                  It’s a gaming (and SFF, miniatures, film, etc.) convention which takes over much of Indianapolis each year. I posted on Facebook that Mindy wasn’t impressed by the 60,000 people, but that was an exaggeration; this year’s actual count was 56, 614 attendees. But of course, most of those people came more than one day, so turnstile attendance was 184,699. The con runs five days, but Mindy attended only three, including the two busiest. And she was a rock star. Rock star, I tell you.