My new logo is HERE!!

It is located on the top right on the sidebar. Isnt it fabulous?? It was designed by me and created by Rebecca Aube of http://www.pawsink.com/ My original used the akita outline (that I drew) but was plain. I wanted a puzzle effect and she did a great job with my concept. I am very excited at how it turned out! Now I just need to order new cards, new window decals, and get some shirts made up. I am planning on using this company: http://www.seastreetgraphics.com/ They are earth friendly AND local. I will be sure to keep you posted on my progress. Now I have to decide how I want the shirt to look! Do I want the logo on the back or front? Color of the shirt? Color of the logo on the shirt? Decisions, decisions!!!

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Lets See Here

So, Im trying to figure out how to open this blog up to multiple authors, and it turns out I can grant you permission to create new posts, or you can just comment on mine. Im not sure how that will look, so Im waiting for one of you to give it a try.

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Im still here!

Wow, that may be the longest non-blogging stretch of mine on record. I AM still here! I have just been busy or pre-occupied to blog. Not to mention blogger changed the layout and I HATE change so I was resistant to jump back in. But that isnt fair to my regular readers. (If they are still out there!)
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Things to know: You might see me driving around wearing a surgical mask.

Do not be alarmed, I am not contagious, just fighting an allergy. I have to go see a pulmonary specialist at the end of the month to figure out exactly what the problem is and to see if there are any medications that can help. Currently the only thing that helps is a cough medicine that is strong so I can only take a partial dose if I have to drive or function. If I take a full dose at night then I cant sleep. Not really helpful I know. The mask cuts down on my coughing DRASTICALLY so I wear it to give myself some relief. I am aware it looks ridiculous. Even more so today since a worker at a local cafe in Rockland chose to burst out laughing when she saw me yesterday. Gee thanks. 

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I have lost weight. No I am not "sick" like some have been speculating. If you are interested you can read about my weight loss journey here on my food blog: http://ifanantwonteatit.blogspot.com  I have lost 20lbs since changing my diet and adding some exercise. 

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On another note my new t-shirts are in!!!

This is the one I will be wearing when I walk my dogs in public. I am my own billboard! They came out great. A shout out to KDK Designs for doing the shirts for me and Paws & Ink for helping me flesh out my fancy new logo. Next I will be getting a jacket embroidered from KDK for fall. 

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Zola is doing fabulous. I was worried because she has reached the point where I need to make her food into a slurry now so she can eat. I thought maybe the growth was getting large fast. It seems to have slowed down lately though. She feels great and is a the proverbial naughty puppy. Its a good thing my other dogs will play with her. Her energy level would be wearing me out otherwise. Here she is pushing her way into Jennys photoshoot for her new thundershirt. Jenny has a fear of things that make sizzling noises when they are cooking so I thought I would try it. Of course we havent cooked anything that qualified so I dont have feedback for you yet.

The thundershirt has been working for one of our prison dogs Violet. She has pretty severe noise phobias and the shirt has been helping. Thanks to the Loyal Biscuit for the donation of the shirt to the program. Violet is ready to find her new home by the way. I would like to see her go where she has another stable dog to play with. She really does well with a confident dog around to take cues from. She also plays with the other dog over there, Abby, regularly. She will be making day trips to the Humane Society of Knox County on Wednesdays so people interested can go meet her. She lived her life at the end of a chain and is fearful of new things but has come a long way on the program. I would not put her in a home with young children because of her fear of new things and noises for safety. (tho she will chose to run than fight) Contact the shelter for more information. Our programs facebook page is: http://www.facebook.com/K9Corrections where you can read updates about the dogs currently there. 

Jack is very happy that we got a new picnic table for him to lay on. We even added an umbrella this year for his majestys comfort. Such a spoiled boy. He deserves it though. 

In the early evenings I have been spending time reading or doing fiber stuff in the yard while the dogs play. (Fiber stuff = knitting or spinning yarn) 

I tried to get a good photo of all of them together and this was the best I got. Yeah I need to work on that. 

I finally read the Rin Tin Tin book. I found it to be fabulous. The writing is wonderful and it tells many stories, not just about the successive Rin Tin Tins. It was also about Lee Duncan, the man who found and trained Rinty, as well as how dog training got started in this country. There was a lot of information about old Hollywood as well and other people who kept the Rin Tin Tin legend alive. I also loved how the author added her feelings to the story. It is an amazing book and I was sad to see it end. 

So that catches you up on a lot of what has been happening here. If you want to stay current with my shenanigans be sure to check out my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/K9SolutionsDogTraining  I am much better at keeping that up to date since it is a bit more user friendly. I hope everyone is having a great summer!

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Here are a few reasons why one shouldn’t use Positive Punishment

Positive Punishment is defined as adding anything that will decrease a behavior (this could mean anything from saying “no!”, “eh eh”, or using physical Positive Punishment- choking, shocking, kicking, smacking etc)

Here are a few reasons why one shouldn’t use Positive Punishment:


1- Without perfect timing, intensity and consistency, the intended positive punishment actually becomes abuse.
2- The dog learns to avoid the punisher in order to do undesirable behavior.
3- It can cause irreversible emotional damage to the dog or human, even irreversible changes in the brain.
4- Positive Punishment is scientifically proven to increase stress hormones, arousal and aggression.
5- Animals habituate to positive punishment – meaning the intensity will have to keep increasing.
6- You cannot make children, dogs or anything for that matter reinforcing for a dog using Positive Punishment, you can only suppress the behaviors punished.
7- Positive Punishment causes dogs to hide their warning signs before a bite.
8- Dogs trained with punishment feel trapped when with owners, as leaving a ‘stay’ or leaving the owners side to escape from a child can cause punishment. Dogs that feel they have no escape tend to bite rather than move away.
9- Intended punishment can actually INCREASE the behavior you wished to extinguish. As attention was provided.
10- - The punisher becomes less reinforcing to be around for the dog. If you use punishment with your dog, there is no way to compete with the reinforcement value of other things in the environment. Your dog will find other stimuli in the environment more reinforcing than you because the dog has a history of punishment with being near you.
11- Dogs who are punished do not offer behaviors as readily, so they are harder to teach new obedience behaviors, sports or tricks.
12- People who use positive punishment will punish more readily in the future as it is positively reinforcing to use. Using punishment causes ones own behavior patterns to change towards dogs and people. Some people will find that they cannot stop using positive punishment even if they want to, and will need to seek help to change their behavior.

-Emily Larlham

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