Fun Activities by Wendy Nan Rees

This is from my dear friend Pet Lifestyle Adviser, best selling author of pet cook books and pet radio host Wendy Nan Reese.

This article from Wendy Nan Rees fit so well with what we are teaching here at Family Disaster Dogs that we wanted to share her sound advise for all our followers and trainees.

This article also appears on Wendy's blogs, A Dog's Voyage Around the World and Wendy's Animal Talk . Be sure and subscribe to Wendy Nan Rees, Expert Pet Lifestyle Adviser for more pet tips. Thanks Wendy xo

Prepare Dogs for Earthquakes and TornadoesWith the increase in tornados and earthquakes around the world this year we thought it would be a good idea to post some fun activities to do with your dog from Wendy Nan Rees that can lead to your dog being your helper during an earthquake or tornado and in the event that a loved one is missing.


FUN ACTIVITIES TO DO WITH YOUR DOG

By Wendy Nan Rees

It is often stated that the more you play with your dog the more likely you both will stay together.
Just like a marriage or a dating relationship it’s up to us to make it a Friendship. Everything in our life is worth having and you have to be willing to put work into it to get what you want out of it!

I am asked every single day now that I have a new Puppy in training to become by personal service dog did you buy him this way or are you doing the work yourself?

My answer is, I am doing the work!

Why do I want another person to train my dog, if I am able to train him myself and I’m able to gain the bonding experiences?

Play also offers the bonding of the training and the mental triple threat to help tucker out Fido and to insure your both happiness. Exercise is as important for dogs as it is for people. It helps them stay healthy and helps prevent them from gaining weight. Well-exercised dogs are better behaved and less likely to test their limits indoors by chewing on furniture or releasing pent up energy.

Usually, those “bad” behaviors are a sign that your dog is antsy and needs a good play session or a long walk. Fortunately, exercise can be easily incorporated into your dog’s routine. Here are some ideas

As often as you can, take your dog for a walk instead of just letting him out into the yard to do his business. It’s great exercise for both of you!

• If you jog or run and your dog can keep up, take her along.
• Do you enjoy Frisbee? Let your dog play with you.

Try dancing with your dog, staircase sprints, tether ball, or monkey in the middle!

Today, they have an activity which now has a real name and many groups of people are enjoying this sport.

I personally have not tried this. I see groups of 3-4 people exercising with their dogs all the time. This fun activity it is called “Bikejoring “ and this is where you ride a bike and then Fido also pulls you along.

Now this I would love and gives me ride ideas.

Another growing sport is called “canicross” this is where you and your dog are doing a cross country course on a bike and attached by the waist using a harness that has the ability to also absorb shock.

And, a sport that is now growing again called “ Carting” this is where your dog pulls you and a very light weight cart. In some cases you race others as a group of carters out for a day of pleasure carting. This is something you can join classes to learn from beginning all the way up.

The wonderful sport of the “flying disk” and Fido catching it has kept on growing from the 70’s and today they have contests all over the world where you can learn and join in on many different levels.

Another interesting thing I learned is that there is even a sport type drink for your dog that is made to look just like our Gator Aide®. It is called Rehydrate Sports Drink for your Dog®..

Hunting and doing the field trials you do not have to kill to be involved in this sport as today they can and do use the dummy which has the scent of a bird and then you teach your dog to go fetch or point. Many of the different breeds offer different styles of how they retrieve.

Teaching Fido how to track a scent is one in particular that grabbed my interest and led to meeting Amber Higgins, founder of Family Disaster Dogs, who has since joined our team as my producer with her retired Bloodhound, Daisy.



Wrinkledpups Daisy Mayham
Expert Bloodhound


I did a little research and here is a sneak peak of what I found and suggestions for creating your own “Sent Hunt” at home.

If you are interested in learning more about scent training, I found that that there is not a standardized common name for “Scent Hunt Classes”, but rather they fall under some of the names listed below.
1. Nose Work Class
2. DOG TRAINING Utility Class – Scent Discrimination
3. Scent Tracking Classes- Dog
4. Practical Dog scent training
5. Bring the Scent Hound Out in Every Dog Classes
6. Getting Started Tracking Classes
7. Scenting with a purpose (my personal favorite)
8. K9 Nose Work Classes
9. The Dog Nose
10. Cold Nose College
11. Family Disaster Dogs

The wonderful thing about Scent work is that your dog is able to do what he loves and is naturally born to do. This is not only great exercise but also a bonding experience and gives your dog a mental as well as physical work out.

Here are a few common terms and resources you should familiarize yourself with if you’d like to start your own “scent hunt.”

SCENTING – this is actually the term for the sport and you may even choose to go onto competing against other dogs if your dog shows the interest and talent.

BOOKS-SCENT - K-9‘s Reason for being “, by Detective Steven White. It is an excellent resource that I recommend highly.

Cabela.com: A website that sells food and animal scents as well as hunting supplies.

BEGINNING LEVEL ONE STARTING OUT FOR FUN
In terms of introducing your dog to “scents”, the type of scent you use is very important and you need to consult with an expert to learn how to introduce the scents to your dog.

The best way to begin teaching a dog to scent for fun and exercise is usually with a food scents and the most commonly used ones are Anise and Birch as well as clove. They are all in the form of essential oils. Some apply the scents on cotton some others use leather straps and some use linen stripes. They are then concealed in a of box or card board.

note: If your dog is doing serious scent work like search dog work, refrain from using food scents in training. Learn More

LEVEL TWO
And now, you’re ready for your mock hunt. The Idea of the game is for your canine friends to find the hidden scent. As your dog improves their skills, they can move outside and step up to hunting a scented ball or a dummy and then, once he’s mastered the skill and honed in on his nose, you can even add an obstacle course.

When your neighbors and their dogs are ready, it’s time to compete and this is where the fun begins. Give your judges a badge, a pad of paper and a timer, and let the games begin. The team that finds the mock fox or bird first wins!!!!

LEVEL THREE
Now you move into advance obedience and the start of basic agility work to get really to start compete, remember this is open to any type of breed from my Chihuahua and my Yorkie. I have personally chosen to keep Senny home, my trained Bird lab.

LEVEL FOUR
The Cost run from $ 50.00 dollars to $ 100.00 per class / Serious for training

When it comes to completion each one has its own entry fee that you will have to see with each show. For more info please go to the National Association of Canine Scent Work

The web Site is at www.nacsw.net

Search-and-Rescue Dog Jobs

SAR dogs are trained to specialize in certain search and rescue techniques, much like people choose a major course of study in college.

Air Scent Dogs: track by smelling shed human skin cells that float in the air

Trailing (Tracking) Dogs: search by smelling the ground for a missing person’s scent.

Water Search Dogs: work along shorelines and on boats with search teams.

Human Remains Detection (Cadaver) Dogs: find dead bodies by detecting scents rising from the soil, similar to how dogs find buried bones.

A game of fetch may bore a human after a few rounds of, “Go get it!” and, “Drop it!” Golden retrievers are tireless fetchers, as are Border Collies and German Shepherds.

For some dogs, there’s nothing better than racing after a flying ball or Frisbee, capturing it, and bouncing back to the owner, who really plays the role of a human catapult.

Your dog isn’t shy about requesting a game of fetch. Usually, the “please” comes in the form of him producing his favorite ball and dropping it by your foot or in your lap.

In our Family Cappy & Senny just go wild for any kind of Ball! So we do the ball in water to help them swim and “retrieve” at the sometime it is just by chance that Capp’s Love for the ball have over ridden his normal what should I say?

Non swimming nature to make him a great Yorkie swimmer with our labs, Go Figure- it is a sight you really have to see one that draws its own crowd at the beach especially when I add a Chula into this mix.

Why do dogs go crazy for a game of fetch?

The fetch instinct is part of dogs’ DNA. In a pack, the top dog would go out hunting with other senior dogs to collect food for the entire group. He would chase after prey, fetch and retrieve food, then return home with the bounty to share. Fetch sparks dogs’ evolutionary prey instinct to find the most basic need: food. Today, dogs get all they can eat at home and fetch is playful and a way of pleasing their owners.

Now, about those dogs who love to fetch, but have no interest in dropping the ball or Frisbee? “Drop it” is a command you must teach to your dog. Again, dating back to dog instincts of the olden days, the top dog as the “hunter” got first refusal on the meat he retrieved for the pack. The one who fetched got first pick. Since your dog is fetching one item, you as the “pack member” get what’s left.

Train your dog to fetch by teaching “Go get it!” or “Go fetch!” and “Drop it,” so the game doesn’t turn into tug-of-war.


Cheers, Wendy Nan Rees




A note from Amber and Family Disaster Dogs,

First off we want to thank you for reading these great pet tips from Wendy!

I would like to add that any dog and owner who learn to do any of these fun activities can use these play sessions to prepare for an emergency event like an earthquake, tornado, flood and the worst, a missing loved one.

To learn how to incorporate these tips into a disaster plan for your home and to learn how to teach your dog to find your family members or friends if they are lost you can read the lessons online at Family Disaster Dogs.

Here is What to pack in your pet's Go-Bag, Evacuation Gear

We wish you all Happy Trails,
Barking Bar Productions

Updates

Updates for Family Disaster Dogs 


Hey Everybody, 


We've had a busy start to the year and wanted to update everyone to all the great news.


We wanted to let you know of some great websites we recently found and added to Family Disaster Dogs. Be sure and check out the pages for Emergency links and Dog Websites for good sites we recommend. If you would like to be added to the link pages, email us.


As you can see by the changes to the site, we are updating the whole site's looks as well as adding new items that can be helpful during a disaster with your pets. 

More news.......Founding Family Disaster Dog Director and author Amber Higgins is excited to announce she recently became a producer for Barking Bar Productions and Wendy Nan Rees, "Pet Lifestyle Advisor".  




Wendy is well known for her 2 minute pet tips on Wendy's Animal Talk Radio Show and as an author of 6 pet books.


Her Movie "A Dog's Voyage around the World" will be released later this year. 



Wendy’s previous successes have led to numerous television appearances, and newspaper/magazine articles. She was the “Pet Lifestyle Advisor™” on Animal Planet’s Petsburgh, USA and was featured on The Home Shopping Network. Wendy also wrote a monthly column called “In the Kitchen with Wendy” for Your Pet Magazine.

Coming up in the next lesson: 

Teach your dog to "Refind" or return to you after they make a find.

Coming soon the complete lesson package for download.

The full Edition Book which Family Disaster Dogs is based on will be available in print and download this summer.

Thank you everyone for all the great support and encouragement since our beginnings last fall. Feel free to share and pass around our posts so others may live. 

Have a great spring everyone!


Be Safe-Stay Prepared 

Teach your dog to Rescue you! 

Advanced Alert to Danger

Advance or Follow up Lesson

 Teaching your Dog to Alert you to Danger

In Search Dog terms "Alert" and "Indicate" have the same meaning.

Moses finds man in water

This lesson is a follow up to the two previous lessons that teach your dog how to alert you to danger, such as fire or smoke, an earthquake and when the emergency warning sirens sound off. In the previous lessons we went over how to teach your dog to wake you and other family members whether they were sleeping in bed or unconscious under pretend rubble.

In this lesson you'll learn how to teach your dog to "Alert" you when you are awake and how to continue improving these skills and use these lessons with other disaster or survival dog skills.

After you have read lessons 26 - 27 and  followed the instructions you will continue to work with your dog whenever possible and in different settings or locations. With each different setting change the material you use to make the training set-up look like a disaster scene or rubble pile. 

Get creative, bury yourself under cardboard boxes or let your children make forts out boxes when your dog is sleeping or outdoors then let your dog in to find you or the children. Use the garage next time or a friend's house. Each time you play these games it teaches you and your dog new skills and scenarios.

Encourage your dog to paw and wake up the pretending to be unconscious person in different locations and times of the day.  When your dog does respond in a way that attempts to move or nudge the person, praise them to do it again.

Use your dog's toy and treats to get them motivated and looking for the person. After your dog is looking and has the idea then gradually use the toy or treat less and less until your dog no longer uses the toy or treat to find the person or you.

Replace the toy or treat reward with talking and petting your dog when they do this incredible feat. Always trust your dog and guide them without punishment and with praise.

Teaching your dog to alert you to different odors and items is the same as teaching them to find a person, except you use the odor as the scent article and the odor in a container as the hidden item in training.  You can read the lessons here at Family Disaster Dogs about training your dog to trail and track or area search for a lost person for further details.

When you are working with your dog to find the hidden person or odor, you can teach your dog to go ahead of you and look for what you seek then return to you when they find the scent by teaching them "Refind" which will be covered in the next lesson. This is like sending a scout ahead of you.

You can also teach your dog that you will be following them to the missing person on or off a leash by going along with your dog each time. If your dog moves to fast or slow then talk to your dog to slow them down or speed them up and develop a speed of working which is more comfortable for you as a team.

With each lesson you and your dog will find a pace that is comfortable for both of you. When you reach this point in training you will feel a great satisfaction in knowing your communicating with your four legged best friend.

This feeling is the bonding you often hear of search and rescue dogs sharing with their handlers. It's a natural teamwork sense of confidence that comes with practice. Practice makes perfect.

Once your dog is going to a person and pawing them or waking them, then you do the same lesson but you are the person hiding so your dog learns to alert you to danger by waking you up.

After your dog is waking and alerting a sleeping person then your dog is easier to teach how to to alert a person who is awake by simply asking your dog to go to the person and paw or bark or sit at that person to alert you of the person. Again this is similar to your dog finding the person but the dog makes sure to "alert" you with pawing, nudging the person or barking to "Indicate" which search dogs also do.

By using the person's name the dog learns to go and alert on that person only. 

This is helpful in case the person is somebody you know who is buried under rubble or missing.

To teach your dog to alert you when you are awake and not in rubble or a dangerous situation but pending danger you will ask your dog to alert by coming to you and barking,pawing,rubbing on you or however your dog likes to get your attention. Some dogs will come and sit to look at us, this is the dog's "alert" to you.

Learn to "Read" your dog to find how they naturally alert you to what is going on. Many dog's nudge us with a nose to get us to notice something they see. Use this as an indication or an alert by encouraging the behavior when the warning sirens sound or when the weather turns dangerous and whenever you can do a fire drill with your pets and family.

When you feel danger or get the chance to practice this, then you'll include your dog running to you by you calling "come" and say "alert" or "speak" or "give me your paw"..whatever..then praise your dog and go together to do the evacuation plan that is in place. 

By doing this over and over you'll teach your family dog to do this for you when the time comes.

Good Luck and Be Safe!

Lesson 27: Alert to Danger-Part 2

Alert to Danger

Fire,Earthquake,Tornado

Dig up or Wake a Person

Part 2 of 2

Go to Part 1

Teaching your dog to Alert You to danger

The hidden person pretends to be asleep or unconscious which encourages the dog to wake them or get them to move because to the dog, the person is not acting normal either.

Once your dog learns to associate alerting you when the scene looks abnormal or the warning siren sounds your dog will use its natural instincts and love for you as a member of the pack when they feel danger coming or find you and others in a bad position.

To make a mock earthquake or mudslide, house moving situation alert, the surface your dog stands on must move. To make this happen, one person can hide behind a large chair while the other person pretends to sleep on a bed or in the chair, under a blanket with a toy or treat the dog will want.

When the warning systems sounds the person under the blanket makes a noise with the toy to get the dog’s attention and make the dog dig or try to wake them to get at the toy.

At the same time the other person shakes the chair or table like an earthquake would, this might at first scare the dog so be aware of how hard you move the chair until you see how the dog reacts. It is best to startle the dog slightly so they notice the pretend earthquake.

If you have training courses indoors or outside with space, you can hang a piece of 4 x 8 plywood by chains on each corner to make a floating floor a few inches off the ground. The dog stands on this and a person can move it slightly to give the dog motion.

Be careful using a floating floor because by doing this to much the dog learns how to balance and stand on surfaces that move in usual ways. This is meant to teach a dog to balance and shift its weight but we can use it as a mock earthquake with a little planning.

The floating floor is excellent for agility and rubble working dogs to know but in training them to alert to an earthquake or ground shaking we have to make sure it feels like an earthquake or danger instead of something they are accustom to. 

A little suspense and drama added to the session creates urgency like a real life danger but in a safe way. 

Once the training session is set up you will place your dog in another room where you go to act normal for a few minutes.

When the warning system sounds or you are ready then walk out with your dog loose off leash.

As preplanned, when you and the dog walk out together the person who is hidden squeaks the dog’s toy or calls the dog’s name which gets the dog looking for them as soon as the warning system sounds. Or, when the dog hears its toy or name then can not see the person they realize something is different.

At first let your dog find the person who is under the blankets without you telling the dog a command. You can see by the photo below Willie takes off to look for his toy he heard make noise.

  And he finds the Blankets with a person hidden in the photo below.

Willie asking me what to do next?

Your dog will start looking for the toy or where its name came from, encourage your dog to find the person and get the toy or treat when they reach the hidden person under the blanket. Praise your dog but do not have the person speak to your dog, they should be pretending to be unconscious.

Willie gets his Toy

After your dog “wakes” them up and finds them then they can praise your dog.

Daisy crawls under the covers to the person

Repeating this weekly for a month and then practicing monthly would teach your dog to alert you when they feel danger coming. Always go with your dog to the injured person then your dog learns to take you.

To reinforce your dog's actions to get you and wake you can pretend to be sleeping at the start of a few sessions to allow your dog to wake you. 

Open the door of the room and let your dog out, then lay down like you are sleeping or fell. Let your dog go to the noise of its toy or name to the other person.

When your dog realizes you are not with them like before, and the person they find is not giving them the toy or moving, they will come back to get you. 

Depending on the dog, the person might tell the dog to go get you first and then act injured or sleep again. 

Give your dog a reason to wonder what is going on and they will come back to get you to find out. When they come back to you then get up like they saved you and go save the other person, praise your dog for doing such a great job!

Job well Done!  Daisy gets the Blankets!

Remember the person who is playing injured or under cover makes noise to get the dog to investigate to get a toy or treat but hold back on giving the toy or treat until the dog accomplishes rutting under the covers, digging or alerting to the hidden person.

When your dog digs or paws at the person use a command such as, “dig them out” so if you or another is ever buried in real life you can tell your dog to dig them or you out.

Use different material and locations each time to make a rubble scene or disaster area to train in or your dog will get bored with this game. 

When your dog comes to get you or when you walk out to find the person with your dog ask your dog to “Show You”, get them to bark or paw, nudge or get you up out of bed so they alert you to the danger ahead. 

Always use the commands to associate which action you want. Get your dog to alert you by pretending to sleep and making a toy noise or call their name but do not move until the dog makes you by barking or waking you up. Then say “Good dog, Show me” give them a bit of treat or shake the toy as the warning system goes off or the other hidden person makes a noise. 

Using “Show me” as the command and follow your dog to the other person. Once found then ask your dog to “alert or to dig them out”. 

They can alert when you are awake by sitting down when they take you to a buried person but if you are not with the dog then they will return to you as explained above.

Use the person’s name and hide several people or family members at once to find at the same time. Take your dog to each person and repeat the lesson as you get everybody in the house to wake up and get out.

By using each person in the family’s name your dog learns to go between you and them. You can send your dog from one person to another by name and the dog gets rewarded every time motivating them to act if this happens when you are asleep.

Make this a fun game for the whole family, children can hide in great places that often look like a disaster hit. Take advantage of the opportunity to play hide and seek with your dog and children then in a real emergency the whole family knows what to do.

Teaching your dog to alert to fire and other dangerous odors is done by having the dog come to you when a fire or odor is happening. The fire can be in a large tin can on the patio where you show the dog the fire and have the dog go to another family member when you show them the fire.  You can ask your dog to bark or paw, or sit when they see and smell the fire or any other odor you want to be alerted to.

Again, use every opportunity when there is a fire or the odor present to ask your dog to show you or go get another person. Think up safe ways to have the situation present for mock fire drills or tornado type drills so your dog can associate the two incidents and warn you when they feel danger coming.

Get your dog ready to evacuate click here

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