The Bog A novel about the legend of man's best friend

Friends: I have decided to share with you My Life With Dogs. These Blogs taken from my book, 14000 Dogs Later, may be one page at a time, or more. I don’t want to dump too much on you at a time. I hope you enjoy. Feel free to make comments here, or on Face Book or Twitter. Best, John

FB: http://www.facebook.com/thebogthelegend
Twitter: @prestonbooks The following is the continuation of last week’s blog:

“The precursor to training however is to understand some very basic differences between dog and man.”

SIGHT
There is no absolute scientific study of which I am aware indicating that dogs see color. Their world is black and white, and maybe shades of grey; therefore they see better than humans in dimly lit space. It is interesting that dogs recognize
movement at a much greater distance than humans, yet the human eye maintains focus at a much greater distance then dogs. Depending on the breed, some dogs see further than others and some discern moving objects better than others. Many dogs respond as well to signals as verbal commands.

(On many occasions I have noticed my dogs’ blank stare into the fields where deer roamed. It was only by a concentrated effort that I could distinguish the movement that he so easily recognized.)

TOUCH
Touch appears to be most important during the socialization period of dogs. Once grown, however, dogs may or may not respond to petting, caressing, or fondling. (My son, as an example, has a rat terrier that could care less about petting, and in fact, will back away from such attempts.) Many obedience dogs, however, will work extremely hard for a simple pat on the head. And…dogs seem to respond to physical pain to the same extent as humans.

HEARING
This is a great training tool for us because voice inflection and the use of single words enhance his understanding of what we want of him. The words we use and how they are pronounced can encourage, discourage, excite, or demoralize. Dogs hear sounds of a much higher pitch than humans, more importantly they hear faint sounds that human hearing cannot detect. (We’ve all experienced dogs barking a welcome or warning of a coming automobile well before that sound reaches our ears.)
SMELL
This is where the world of dogs and the world of humans separate. Rather than describing glandular secretions, nasal cavities, mucous membranes, and olfactory nerves, I will give you examples. If I set out a glass with 99 parts of water and one part urine…you would drink it. Your dog would recognize not only the urine, but whether it came from a dog or bitch, if the dog were new to the neighborhood or if the bitch were in heat, or if the urine came from his canine friends in the same household.

Their sense of smell is beyond understanding. Imagine a wolf on the trail of a wounded Caribou. The hunted animal might attempt to hide its scent by running through other herds of Caribou hours ahead of the wolves…but the wolves will hunt her down even while passing up easier kills as they pass through the herds. Imagine a hound on the heels of a killer. He may be following shoe traces left on plants and dirt. It may be raining, or snowing and the track may be two days old. Maybe hundreds of people and other animals have contaminated the original traces.

Yet, the dog persists, never tiring, never quitting, until he finds the culprit. It is now believed that a dog can track both an airborne scent and a ground scent at the same time and that his scent ability is more than 40 times stronger than humans. Can a dog sense that a person’s death is forthcoming? A dog has an uncanny ability to sense chemical changes all around…in the air, on the ground, and on your body. They do not know that your death approaches, they do sense the chemical changes your body gives off whenever you have a significant mental, emotional, or physical alteration.

TASTE
Because his taste buds, dogs are one of the easiest animals to kill. And, believe it or not, there are people that will kill your dog on purpose…maybe your dog barks too much, maybe it’s a thief that wants in your house, maybe it’s a neighbor who has kids and he’s afraid of your pit bull. Through the years I have poison-proofed more than 30 dogs. It’s an easy process that works wonders…overnight. Secondly, many dogs eat trash, antifreeze, or toxic foods that may poison them…another good reason to consider protecting your dog.

There are two methods of poison proofing. One is by using a verbal or leash correction when your dog approaches any food that is not in his bowl. The trainer puts food near the dog’s crate, where he exercises, on the floor in the kitchen, etc. and makes corrections when the dog approaches any tidbit that is not in his bowl.

The second method is by using an electric collar. The electric collar has been used for training many types of dogs for many years. Its use, however, should be under the direction of someone with experience.
If you feel your dog is at risk and you want him poison-proofed you must read about the process thoroughly before proceeding…or better, enlist the services of a professional trainer.

What I’ve Learned: Knowing and understanding how a dog perceives the world through his senses of sight, touch, sound, smell and taste, without question will make you a better owner, handler, and trainer.

So, until next time, remember, everybody needs a dog, and

every dog needs somebody.

Friends: I have decided to share with you My Life With Dogs. These Blogs taken from my book, 14000 Dogs Later, may be one page at a time, or more. I don’t want to dump too much on you at a time. I hope you enjoy. Feel free to make comments here, or on my Face Book or Twitter ACCOUNT . Best, John
Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/johnprestonsmith Twitter: @PrestonBooks

“Even the tiniest poodle is lionhearted, ready to do anything to defend home, master, and mistress.” Louis Sabin

In 1963 I joined the Army. I was having difficulty at Wheeling College, the youngest Jesuit school in the United States, and to this day believe it was a great two years of education. But, I was not of the caliber of my brother Bob, who had graduated in ’61. So, with grades below the threshold that Dad had demanded, class assignments beyond my capabilities, I enlisted in the United States Army.

At first it sounded pretty good. My friend and I signed up on the Buddy System, meaning we would stay together through basic and advanced individual training. And, through a program called Choice not Chance, we could choose the advanced training that best fit our abilities. The trade-off would be three years of our lives for Uncle Sam.
Pretty good, so far.

We were due to be sworn in on a Friday in Fairmont, WV. However, being 60’s kind of guys, we really didn’t see the rush and decided to party for a couple more nights and postpone our induction until the following Monday.
The United States Army did not approve.

On Friday night at 10 PM two MP’s appeared at our hotel wanting to take us to the brig. Turns out, once you receive orders, they gottcha, even before you are sworn in. So they processed us the next morning…Saturday morning…they seldom worked on Saturday mornings. Man, were they upset.

After basic at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and advanced training at Fort Slocum, New York, I was sent to Fort Lesley J. McNair, in Washington, DC. As an information specialist, I wrote for the Pentagram, the Military District of Washington newspaper. It was a nine-to-five job and after settling in I realized that I had a load of free time on my hands and very little spending money in my pocket. The newspaper want-ads beckoned. And there it was…as if by wishful intervention. “Dog trainer needed. Apply in person at Canine T-V Trainers.”

I had already tried selling pots, pans, and china door to door. And the only set of china I sold was the set I bought for my mom. Dogs can’t slam the door in your face. I knew this was the part-time job for me.

My day job as an Information Specialist was just off base in what were called Tempo Buildings. These were “temporary” structures built during the Second World War. Made of steel they were hot in the summer and cold in the winter…not up-to-date for the only military facility in DC.

I scheduled an appointment with the pet store manager.

After work I walked the two-mile stretch from the military base to downtown DC, found Canine TV Trainers on 14th Street, and entered the captivating world of pet shops. The store measured twenty-five by forty-five feet with more animals per square foot than un-adopted puppies in New York City. Squawking birds, barking dogs, and screaming monkeys drowned all human conversation. There were cages everywhere; jammed on shelves, stacked in corners, hanging from the ceiling. Ten to fifteen birds dive-bombed customers who thought it was a sales gimmick. A mynah bird slung sunflower seed at the cat cages; a boa constrictor’s dinner still withered in his stomach, and one of the employees chased the loosed squirrel-monkey that had freed the birds.

“Can I help you?” the attractive blond lady asked, or yelled, I should say. “I’m the manager. Carol Burns.” She extended a perfectly manicured hand. Odd, I thought, for a pet store manager.

“I’m here for the interview,” I yelled back, her soft hand still holding mine. The hook set; the reeling began.

“When can you start,” the yelling continued.

Noting my stunned look, “Follow me,” she said.

The office was large enough for a small desk, an upright chair, and for two people to stand nose to nose. Personal space be damned. Her perfume was something out of Cosmopolitan.

“There was a small mistake in the ad,” she smiled.

“Oh,” I said, captivated by her beauty.

“They left out a few words. Three to be exact.”

“Oh,” I said, again.

“And cleanup boy. It was supposed to read dog trainer and cleanup boy needed.”

Fresh out of college, half of it anyway, and fresh out of basic and advanced training in the United States Army, and standing nose to nose with this beautiful lady in the backroom of a pet store in downtown DC, I was trapped.

Fortunately, they didn’t need a dog trainer for a couple of days. So I spent the next two evenings cleaning every kind of animal poop imaginable and those same nights studying how to train dogs by reading books from the public library. I had learned from Mom and Dad that taking care of animals was more important than playing with them. Dogs malnourished, chained, and kicked around had always bothered me, and the books I read enlightened me regarding the powers dogs possess and the place they’ve served in our history. And so I studied and studied every book I could find about dogs, training, and their history. When Monday morning arrived I planned being as good a trainer as possible, having little real idea about what I’d do if the dog on the ass-end of the leash didn’t see things my way.

Friends: Thanks for reading, The second part of this story will appear next week...and remember, everybody needs a dog, and every dog needs somebody.