Seventeen Border Collie Pups and Counting!

Honestly Folks, I can't make up stuff like this.
About a year ago I had the pleasure of meeting a client who I will call "Horace".
About a week prior a frantic email came in and stated a lady I will call "Maddie" had recently bought, a few Border collies.

 She had scoured the states and found beautiful Border Collies.
She was basking in the love of them when she realized the deal on the ranch she was trying to purchase as their home fell through!
 She still wasn't giving up she was still looking for her dream ranch, but she was really upset.

 She had envisioned a huge property where her beauties could run and play.
The best of intentions was hers (however unrealistic)  but now she was at a unpredicted impasse.
Maddie was living in a two bedroom condo with her love Horace, it had the smallest of postage stamps as a yard.

I thought she meant three or tops four pups when she said a few so when she told me she had paid top dollar for seventeen Border collie pups and two pregnant females, I nearly fell off my chair!
"Oh you say seventeen?". I said "Interesting". "How can I help you?" She said that she wanted them all trained." Oh", I said, "I can only take in 2 right now".

 I only take in tops, four dogs at any given time anyway and half the time only three.

She was really disappointed and kept trying to make me take in at least nine!
But I couldn't, so I suggested she bring in two and then we would see how that goes and then two more.
I knew of course that I could train them and I wanted to train them but my concern was they would regress under the conditions at her home.
So I told her when they got home they would become part of the pack of seventeen plus and being she had no room to practice what they were being trained to do, she might be wasting her money.

I knew this might stop her from hiring me and she may have sent them all to a huge kennel type of training facility that would take them all with no questions asked,  but I have to be honest so I told her again " only two".
Because of the huge pack conditions in her small condo, if they were going to regress they would still regress and much faster if she sent them to a huge facility as I always continue to back up my training when each dog goes home but this is not so with less personal trainers and facilities.

 I must say to my reader that there are lots of really honest and reputable gentle trainers out there but make sure to ask the right questions about their philosophies on dog training and their experiences before you hire anyone.

Maddie said she wanted her pups to have my training, and so it was we made an appointment for her to drop of the first two pups.

 About a week later the doorbell rang and they were here, two very beautiful Border Collies wearing diapers, a brother and a sister and Horace, Maddie's boyfriend, a very nice man in his late forties.
He was looking a bit stressed out, I'd say.
I wrote up our agreement and Horace left.
 I took the diapers off both pups and went outside with them, trying to get them to relax and to get to know me better.

I really do not like when people put diapers on young and healthy dogs as I think it hinders their natural sense of cleanliness. they don't learn that the action of going pee pee or poop has a result, such as a wet spot or a feces there on the ground where they did it. They don't learn to associate it all together.

I started the training and I must say it was going well but there were some hiccups as these pups were not use to outside or most important they were not use to being without their huge pack.
They were very frightened at first but I understood their mind set and took it from there getting them use to all types of stimulation a little at a time trying to build their confidence and not scare them at all.

When after 3 weeks Horace came to pick them up and bring the next two they had had lots of training and behavior modification but I told Horace he did need to practice.
He was overwhelmed and told me he did not know why Maddie bought all these pups.
He said " Maddie's daughter can't visit us anymore and neither can anyone else, because all the dogs bark at once as they become very defensive trying to protect each other and us".

I kept up training their dogs and the pregnant dogs had their pups but for poor Maddie and Horace, I don't think life will ever be the same!

The last thing Horace told me was that they appreciated all my help but he and Maddie can't go out together anymore or invite company as their dogs don't like being left "alone".
Can I do some separation anxiety behavior modification next, but this time at their house with all the dogs at once?
That sounded like a oxymoron so I said "you will be wasting your money for sure on that one, there are too many"!
No, I didn't do it, it wouldn't have worked! All it would take is one dog, one in the 29 pack starting them all up for it to snowball into a choir of barking!

I did tell them though that if they ever sold any I would help the new owners for free with the training so they will get the full benefit of all my work.

My heart will always go out to, two nice folks and 29 Border Collies in a 2 bedroom condo!

I do hope they finally got their ranch!

He Fired The Poodle!

Back in New York in the early 80's I was enjoying my life as a full time mother of two small girls and as a professional dog trainer!
 I started to board and train the dogs and puppies I trained and I took in four at a time so I can do my dream job and still have my dream life of being home with my kids!
 Every couple of weeks four more dogs came got trained and went home. It was mostly the same type of training, obedience, potty training and behavior modification to stop whatever bad habits the dogs or pups had.
By this time more and more people knew of me and I was blessed with a fairly steady flow of dogs.
Here and there a really different case came in and I felt good as I helped another dog heal from whatever issues or traumas it had.
Till one day I got a call from a casting agent saying " Hello are you Joie the dog trainer?" I said "Yes, how can I help you?" He told me they needed a dog for a movie and asked if I was interested. I said yes.
 He told me he had trouble with the trainer he had originally hired and he had to fire the Poodle!
I was a bit amused. I never expected something like this. I was also a bit excited!
Then he let the whole cat out of the bag right after I said I would do it...  "okay be here tomorrow with a dog that can speak on command because he has to let his movie owners know there is a ghost in the house! And one more thing "the dog has to keep silent when we need him to be!"
I was surprised but not deterred. I really did not have a dog who was trained to do what he wanted but I had the confidence or craziness to believe I could get it done. 
Less than 24 hours. Hmmm? What dog to use??
I had a instinct I could use a dog named Abraham, a very large Great Pyrenees, German Shepherd mix. A dog that was shaped like a Great Pyrenees and just as large but with the colors of a German Shepherd.
I called his owner who happened to be my sister and asked if I could work with her dog so he could be in a movie that was filming the next day. She said yes but reminded me he was never trained for anything. I said that would be fine.
 My thinking was it would take more time if I used a dog I had trained as there was paperwork involved that I would have to run around getting signed saying I had permission to use their dog in the film. Since my sister Michele lived only 4 blocks away, Abraham it was.
I actually only spent a couple of hours training him that night and about one in the morning and off we went!
He barked on cue and he kept quiet when I told him to. I had a lot of fun and the dog seemed very pleased with himself.
They used his footage and a star was born!
All and all it was a amazing 24 hours, from the time I found out they fired the poodle all the way till that night when I gave myself a reward, a special Italian pastry and I gave Abraham a delicious hamburger he seemed to really enjoy.
The next day we were both back to our simple but happy lives.
He in his favorite backyard and me at my favorite pass time, playing with my kids and training the other dogs and pups that needed to be trained.
Back to normal life, the best life of all. With a little flair of course!

Mr. Dillinger

In 1978 I first started my own dog training company, called Love and Protection Dog training. I was the new person on the dog training totem pole. I waited and waited for my phone to ring but it barely ever did.
 In fact the only time it rang was with people who needed a trainer bad, real bad. 
They did not call me first but all the more established dog trainers rejected the dogs these people owned!
 The dogs were too tough, too brazen, too out of control. So needing a income and itchy to train something, I accepted these people's dogs as my students.
The first one was a dog named Dillinger. Over the phone I was told that Dillinger was a German Shepherd who needed a little work because his owner wanted him to become a protection dog.
So I drove from Queens N.Y. to Brooklyn and went to the second floor of a two family house and met the family. The man of the house took me into the next room and there was Dillinger. He was in the corner peeing on himself and shaking uncontrollably.
Wow, poor dog.
 I asked what happened to him. The owner claimed he only had him a short while and he didn't know what was wrong with him.
It would have been a training task just to stop this poor dog from being so frightened but this man only wanted my training if I could make his dog protect him! Brooklyn back then was a little scary, so I understood his need.
He said if I couldn't do it he had no need for this dog. Even back then I was a rescuer of animals big and small, so I needed to give this situation some pondering.
Within five minutes I had an idea. Since I didn't know I could train Dillinger to actually do anything, I couldn't take any money upfront as it was customary to do, plus I really was counting on this money to live on for a couple of weeks. So I told my new client not to pay me unless I bring Dillinger back trained in a few weeks.
I took the frightened German Shepherd home to start my work.
The next day I took him out in the "field" in my grandmother's back yard, and I hired a friend of mine to be the agitator. I told him his job was to come into the yard and if Dillinger even so much as looked at him or even looked near him, he was to run away! Run fast like he had never been so scared in his life!
My friend Paul did a good job. Dillinger just looked up a little and Paul ran away really fast.
Next day the same thing over and over again. I noticed every day Dill's head got higher and higher and now I was using other agitators and Dill actually started barking when he saw one. His barking went from meek and sheepish to loud with a growl!
Then came the day, after I gave him many obedience lessons, for him to do his bite work and his equally if not more important "let go" lessons.
Well he bit, he let go, he obeyed and he was full of a newly found confidence so I called his owner and I had a couple of friends follow me over to Brooklyn. I met the owner on the street and Dillinger greeted him as a friend. Dill was taught most people are friends but to watch out for certain weird or aggressive behaviors. 
I told the owner to just stand by and watch.
My friends were told to walk across the street and act up a bit. They did and Dillinger went crazy barking so bravely warning me and the owner. Then one came up and tried to hit me and Dill grabbed his arm! I told him to let go and he did.
His owner was so amazed he even paid me a tip! I told him he didn't have to but he insisted.
I called from time to time and Dillinger had a happy rest of his life!
I was happy for him as I came to love him as I come to love all the dogs I train.
This was just the beginning of my career as the trainer of some of the toughest and most scared dogs in New York.

Many times, in fact too often, I have been given the opportunity of working with dogs that have been emotionally compromised. Too often it is by the trainer their well meaning owners have previously hired!
Dog training should at no time be a reckless money making ruse with dogs as a quick and easy means to a paycheck.
Of course I am not saying dog trainers should not be paid, but that any money made should never have any dog's well being destroyed to make it!
This is to be taken very seriously.
I am talking about trainers who pit their ego against whatever dog or puppy they are training and worse the use of electronic collars to get the job done! Is this really training or is it scaring and brutalizing? Does this require any talent?
Quite the opposite!
Yes dogs need a 'pack leader" but being a leader does not mean being a mean leader.
Wolves do live in a socially structured pack but it is not run with cruelty!
 Leadership is much less effective when it is mean or scary and when any wild wolf is in any way physically forceful to any wolf in his or her pack more than a little that member will leave the pack for good! This is their instinct!
Do we want our dogs wanting to leave our "pack"? 
I personally want a happy well adjusted dog. Yes one who obeys not out of fear, but
because of good training, love and respect.
I have been professionally training dogs for over 35 years.
I feel it is my responsibility to instill confidence in the dogs I train and at the same time stop their unwanted behaviors and have them obey their owners!
 I want to leave their lives better because of my training and I want to leave their people happy too. Both with their dog and my training!