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Originally uploaded by Laura & the pack.

Sam gave me a cool ice-cream maker for Christmas last year. I thought great I can burn calories making it to justify eating it. Then I decided to train the dogs to make it for me instead. Which would explain why they are fit and I am not! This illustrates the philosophy that obedience training is about communicating with your dog. The goal is not to win a title, the goal is to be able to enjoy your pet as a member of the family. Chewy by the way expected and got a fair portion of the finished product.

The TRICKS class starting in Hampstead in Early January 2010 usually starts with practicing handler skills, by shaping the dogs behavior to make ice cream for us.  Lets hope for a warm spell in the middle of winter.  call to register for our upcoming tricks class or email Laura at lauratotis@gmailcom

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Originally uploaded by Laura & the pack.

Willie the kitten is a foster at Lucky Stars for Pet Rescue of Md. The Kitten Socializing Class took him and his brother Beanie on as a project. Both kittens were enthusiastic participants in the class. They are training here for the cat agility contest at the pet expo last winter (Unfortunately the pet expo cancelled the cat agility program on the boys.) The kitten socializing class focuses on helping kittens develop their confidence skills. Participants learn some basic communication and teaching principles that can be applied to any animal – yes even our independent cats. Our goal is to make life more interesting and less stressful for house cats. They learn riding in a crate is does not always end up at the veterinarian office. They learn early that handling by the owner and a stranger is not a bad thing. Skills are taught to aid in routine grooming, basic health care, and visits to the veterinarian. We know that a cat is a cat is a cat, and that is OK our goal is to encourage them to use their feline minds, while respecting their individual personalities.

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Originally uploaded by Laura & the pack.

No the dogs are not allowed in the Clicks for Cats Class. Sam Connley and her cat Storm joined the advanced dog obedience class on their Canine Good Citizen test night. He is a remarkable cat aside from spending Thursday evenings with his owner Sam practicing cat agility (No we don’t teach cats to be agile we let them play at it and provide life enriching time with the owner.) Even more important the clicks for cats program introduces cat owners to basic trainng principles that can be used to help get their cats comfortable with travel in a cat carrier, veterinary visits, good hygiene care.  The time to start is when you have a little kitten.  Storm also hides to help train pet detection dogs, he just spent a week in Michigan at the Lost a Pet Training Camp.
The Clicks for Cats class teaches communication skills so we can tell our cats when they are doing something right. It is based primarily on free shaping techniques and operant conditioning principles.  The clicks for cats program is available as a seminar available as a weekend seminar.

The Canine Good Citizen class is usually filled with dogs that want to practice obedience skills in a practical context.  It is intended to help students prepare for the american kennel club good citizen test.  But it is really about being able to control your dog in the public so that you can do fun things with your dog.

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Originally uploaded by Laura & the pack.

Snifferdog is a sport designed just for fun, while it does teach dogs and people some useful skills. One of the students dogs helped her find their pet cat when she was lost. Buck helped a friend look for her lost cell phone. The ultimate goal for snifferdog participants is to develop family fun days where the article search is combined with a clue treasure hunt map and/or GPS coordinates to find the search areas and locate various articles, followed by meeting for a nice picnic lunch. By the way back to the phone, we did not find it, as it turns out some nefarious character picked up the phone and proceeded to make unauthorized calls until the service was turned off. Our take home message if you loose your cell phone call the phone company first even before you call for the snifferdog!