Dear Jerry Brown,
Greetings, and welcome to the club! I would not go so far as to say we are an exclusive bunch, but it definitely takes a certain sort to appreciate some of the quirkier traits that make up our beloved breed: The lack of leg, the horrendous appetite, the desire to herd anything that moves. We definitely do not get confused for lab owners, let me tell you. 'What is THAT?!?' is a common question from the uninitiated. Side note: I prefer to answer: 'Royalty. Now, bow'.
As you are new to the club, let me clear up a common New Corgi Owner misconception for you right now: You do not 'own a corgi'. You convert to Corgianity.
I know it may be hard to accept at first. You have a crusty image to uphold, after all. But between you and me, we both know that the madness spreading. Sutter already has a twitter account, and a facebook page. You have already forgotten what the carpet looks like, underneath all that corgi fur, admit it. Come to think of it, you like it better this way.
We understand. You are one of us now.
But there is one way you are not like the rest of us, Governor Brown. You have a platform. It is a platform covered in fur, but it is a platform nonetheless. And we need you. We need you to get up on that platform, lint roller the dog fur off of your suit pants, and ADVOCATE FOR THE BREED.
Because while popularity is the name of the game in politics, it wreaks havoc on dog breeds. The last thing we want is for the corgi to become the next 'it' dog. Backyard breeders look to capitalize on exactly this sort of publicity. While we can all agree that corgis are indeed the world's best dogs, they are not for everyone. They have needs and personality traits that go far beyond long naps in the office and leisurely jaunts through town. These dogs need to work. If they are not given a job, they will find one on their own, and it will probably be one that results in a one way trip to the shelter if their owners...ahem converts...do not learn about the needs of the breed before they make a hasty decision to find a corgi of their own because they saw Sutter on tv or follow his tweets. There aren't many corgis in shelters in CA. We are proud of that. We want it to stay that way. You need to help us do it. Keep the adorable corgi photos coming, but in the name of all that is good and furry, educate the masses while you are doing it.
The corgis (and their converts) thank you.
Sincerely,
Julie and Caleb
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Unleash the Madness
Caleb and I finally started our Unleash the Madness class last night! I hemmed and hawed over this class for a long time because I was afraid putting Caleb in a class with a whole bunch of reactive / frustrated would lead to him becoming MORE reactive and frustrated, but I am very pleased to report that after I saw how the first class is run, I can see how this can help our situation.
Dogs are brought in one at a time and set up in corners of the room. Your corner consists of three or four barriers made out of pvc pipe and sheets. You go to your corner with your dog, arrange the barriers so that the dogs can not see out, and get them settled. This was the first lesson yesterday. Some dogs were so stressed out from just being in a new room and knowing that there were dogs somewhere that you could hear them panting and whining from their corners. Caleb just gave me his typical 'concerned face'. They taught us a few tricks to help settle the dogs, but I knew them all. Which is totally ok, because it gave me the chance to practice them in a situation where I could get instructor feedback, and feedback is always good. I was surprised to see that Caleb remembered 'Place' (As in go to your mat and stay there, please), because we haven't done much crate work the past few months.
Once the anxiety level in the room got down to manageable levels, we started practicing 'Look'. The idea behind Look is to have the dog look at what has got them worked up, but then look back to you for a treat. Some dogs don't know what to do when they see something they don't know what to do with, so this gives them that thing to do. I should note here that there is an instructor and a helper in this class. The helper had a neutral dog, meaning one that doesn't get all worked up if your dog gets all worked up, that they use for various exercises, like this one. The instructor walks to each person's corner and pulls back the sheet enough so the dog can see out into the center of the room, while the helper brings her dog out and just has her stand in the middle of the room. Once your dog looks at the other dog, you say Look and then lure your dog back to looking at you. Caleb looked a little too long, but not long enough that he started to get worked up, actually he even kept his down during the whole thing.
Then we all took turns practicing emergency u turns, which Caleb did ok on, except he was much more interested in cataloging the new environment rather than following my lure. But I expected as much. Caleb tends to shut down in new locations, unless he has something to focus on (hence the Nose Work classes). Actually the instructor told me that Caleb seemed pretty calm throughout the whole class, but I explained that 1: He shuts down in new locations, so his tolerance for things that would usually rile him actually goes up a bit, and 2: His problem is not with hearing or being around other dogs without seeing them, he is a herder so it's the moving doggies that get him worked up. My instructor said: "Just wait, we have all sorts of things planned for future classes to deal with that specifically."
Over all, I am pretty excited about this class. All the dogs were kept under threshold for the full class, and I certainly do not think that Caleb is worse of for having attended. He was definitely concerned about the new environment in his stoic corgi way, but I think as class progresses, he will get over the environment and get focused on modifying his responses to other dogs. I am already prepared to sign up to take this class a second time if need be, because I want to make sure we get to a point where we are working on the problem behaviors, not just staying shut down due to the new environment.
Dogs are brought in one at a time and set up in corners of the room. Your corner consists of three or four barriers made out of pvc pipe and sheets. You go to your corner with your dog, arrange the barriers so that the dogs can not see out, and get them settled. This was the first lesson yesterday. Some dogs were so stressed out from just being in a new room and knowing that there were dogs somewhere that you could hear them panting and whining from their corners. Caleb just gave me his typical 'concerned face'. They taught us a few tricks to help settle the dogs, but I knew them all. Which is totally ok, because it gave me the chance to practice them in a situation where I could get instructor feedback, and feedback is always good. I was surprised to see that Caleb remembered 'Place' (As in go to your mat and stay there, please), because we haven't done much crate work the past few months.
Once the anxiety level in the room got down to manageable levels, we started practicing 'Look'. The idea behind Look is to have the dog look at what has got them worked up, but then look back to you for a treat. Some dogs don't know what to do when they see something they don't know what to do with, so this gives them that thing to do. I should note here that there is an instructor and a helper in this class. The helper had a neutral dog, meaning one that doesn't get all worked up if your dog gets all worked up, that they use for various exercises, like this one. The instructor walks to each person's corner and pulls back the sheet enough so the dog can see out into the center of the room, while the helper brings her dog out and just has her stand in the middle of the room. Once your dog looks at the other dog, you say Look and then lure your dog back to looking at you. Caleb looked a little too long, but not long enough that he started to get worked up, actually he even kept his down during the whole thing.
Then we all took turns practicing emergency u turns, which Caleb did ok on, except he was much more interested in cataloging the new environment rather than following my lure. But I expected as much. Caleb tends to shut down in new locations, unless he has something to focus on (hence the Nose Work classes). Actually the instructor told me that Caleb seemed pretty calm throughout the whole class, but I explained that 1: He shuts down in new locations, so his tolerance for things that would usually rile him actually goes up a bit, and 2: His problem is not with hearing or being around other dogs without seeing them, he is a herder so it's the moving doggies that get him worked up. My instructor said: "Just wait, we have all sorts of things planned for future classes to deal with that specifically."
Over all, I am pretty excited about this class. All the dogs were kept under threshold for the full class, and I certainly do not think that Caleb is worse of for having attended. He was definitely concerned about the new environment in his stoic corgi way, but I think as class progresses, he will get over the environment and get focused on modifying his responses to other dogs. I am already prepared to sign up to take this class a second time if need be, because I want to make sure we get to a point where we are working on the problem behaviors, not just staying shut down due to the new environment.
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