2016 January Pawprint

Pawprint
December 2015
Official Publication of The Lakes Region Kennel Club-NH
AKC Member Club
Editor
Ken Polakowski
33 Hackberry Lane
Laconia, NH93246
973-735-3174
polakowski@att.net
Deadline 15th of each month
OFFICERS
________________________
President
Linda Heath
bordertaussie@gmail.com
________________________
Vice President
Corina Alexander
corina@kianasiberians.com
________________________
Recording Secretary
Deborah Mardin
d_mardin@plymouth.edu
________________________
Corresponding Secretary
Susan Blake
sblakemisawa@mac.com
____________
Treasurer
Barbara Champaigne
bjc3552@yahoo.com
________________________
AKC Delegate
Crecia Closson
520-648-7432
crannog@earthlink.net
_____________________
B.O.D.
Debbie Cost 2016
366-4083
ransox@metrocast.net
Nancy Large 2017
ravenwds75@gmail.com
Cathy Barber 2015
968-3735
Cathy_barber@sprintblackberry.net
_______________________
www.lakesregionkennelclub.org
Next Meeting
January 4th
Meredith Center Fire Station
6:00 PM Board Meeting
6:30 PM General Meeting
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Happy New Year!
This edition of the Pawprint was to big to upload to the
web site. I have edited it to allow upload. If you want a
complete version e-mail me at: polakowski@att.net
We’re looking for pictures and brags about your
dogs along with interesting articles to share with
our community. Excellent ones later in this issue.
Send them to polakowski@att.net
Meeting Minutes
Member Meeting
Holderness Fire Department
Holderness NH
December 7, 2015
Meeting Called to Order: 6:28
Members Present: Linda Heath, Deb Mardin, Barb Champaigne, Corina Alexander, Cathy Barber, Mike Tierney,
Heather Tierney, Lori Davis, Ken Polakowski, Susan Blake
Guest: Christy Barber, Karen Kearney, Barbara Rayno, Jacob Alexander, Lucas Alexander
Motion made by Susan Blake to accept the November 2015 meeting minutes with corrections. Seconded and passed
Presidents Report: Thank you for the flowers on my father’s passing.
Recording Secretary Report: No Report
Corresponding Secretary Report: The clubs Rally-O trial has been closed and the AKC club fees are due.
Treasurer Report: Motion made by Deb Mardin to accept the treasures report subject to review. Seconded and passed
Committees Reports:
Barn Hunt: Application was submitted to the Sandwich Fair Grounds for a trial on June 25-26. A request was put in to the
person that sells the hay for 50 bales, if we do tow rings we will need more hay. The local horse 4H has asked if we
would like to have a concessions booth that weekend. Camping will be $25 a night, there might be an extra charge if
people want to dump their waste before leaving the grounds. Susan is currently looking into portable bathroom pricing.
Handling, Obedience, Performance Classes: Classes begin March 1st. There will be three sessions and will end in July. The
first session will include the following classes; STAR Puppy, Basic Manners, Rally, Novice open obedience.
Spring Match: Currently looking for judge suggestions. Please contact Linda Heath if you have someone that you know
who might like to judge at the match.
Meeting adjourned at: 6:43
Respectfully submitted, Deborah Mardin, Recording Secretary
Next meeting: January 4, 2015 at the Meredith Center Fire Department
January 2016
The calendar lists LRKC events and a sampling of AKC sanctioned events in New England.
A complete listing of AKC events can be found at: https://www.apps.akc.org/events/
Sun
3
Mon
4 LRKC Meeting
Tue
5
Wed
6
Thu
7
Fri
Sat
1
2
8
9 Merrimack Valley
Meredith Center Fire
Station
Kennel Club, Inc.
Springfield, MA
6 Board MTG
Agility Club of New
Hampshire, Amherst
NH
6:30 General MTG
10 Merrimack Val-
11
12
13
14
15
ley Kennel Club, Inc.
Springfield, MA
16 Middlesex County Kennel Club, Amherst NH
Agility Club of New
Hampshire, Amherst
NH
17 Middlesex Coun- 18
19
20
21
ty Kennel Club, Amherst NH
22 American Chesa- 23 Greater Lowell
peake Club, Inc ,
Hamden CT
Kennel Club, Inc.,
Wilmington, MA
American Bullmastiff
Association, Inc. ,
Amherst NH
24 Greater Lowell
Kennel Club, Inc.,
Wilmington, MA
American Bullmastiff
Association, Inc. ,
Amherst NH
31 Agility Club of
New Hampshire,
Amherst NH
25
26
27
28
29
30 Agility Club of
New Hampshire,
Amherst NH
Linda Heath Would Like to Express Her Thanks to the
Club in Honoring Her Dad’s Passing
Lakes Region Kennel Club
Member Brags
Congratulations Honey (Corina M. & Scott A. Alexander breeder/
owners)
Honey "Kiana's Lil Bit O Honey CGC, RN" finished her Rally Novice title in style with first place at the
LRKC trial. Honey is our 23rd dog that we have personally put a Rally Novice title on.
A Holiday Reminder From
Meredith Place Veterinary Emergency
8 Maple St. Meredith, NH 03253-5849
Dear Lakes Region Kennel Club,
We thank you for your patronage and trust in our services, and to ensure that your holidays are
happy, here are 5 of our very best holiday tips for your pet:
1 Holiday Stress Can Happen for Fido and Fluffy. (Not just you!)
Celebrations, champagne popping, loud music and fireworks are just some holiday noises that
can cause pets extra stress. Car trips, kenneling or extended periods of alone time can also
cause unexpected anxiety. Speak to your family veterinarian if you think your pet may be susceptible to holiday stress as they have medications that can help!
2 More Visitors Mean a Greater Chance of Escape.
With holiday parties, visitors and carolers knocking at your door, pets can sometimes escape. Every pet should be micro-chipped, and this is a quick, affordable service that is provided by most family veterinarians.
3 Your Favorite Holiday Foods Could Cause Harm.
Please be sure to avoid: chocolate, products with Xylitol such as sugar free candy, fatty or
spicy foods, bones, alcohol, dough, macadamia nuts, grapes and raisins, caffeinated beverages,
onions and garlic.
4 Holiday Decorations Look Delicious.
Pets tend to ingest ribbons, bows and other wrapping supplies around the holidays, so keep
them out of reach. Plants such as peace lilies, holly and mistletoe can also make pets extremely
ill, so use artificial plants if needed. In addition, candles can be appealing to some pets, which
puts the pet at risk for burns or the candle being knocked over. Finally, ornaments, holiday lighting, tinsel, snow globes and confetti are just a few of the dangers you may not notice
as direct hazards. Veterinary emergency rooms see a large increase of visits due to foreign
body ingestion around the holidays, so please be aware.
5 Time for a "Time Out."
Pets can benefit from exercise before and after holidays events so they are tired when guests
arrive or when you leave for the evening. They can also be put in a quiet room with a new toy
and some soft music if at any time they find your holiday celebrations too hectic or if there are
too many harmful foods or decorations out for a get together.
Please feel free to reach out to us at any time. We're here to help!
Thank you,
Meredith Place Veterinary Emergency
FROM
Giusi Barbiani/
Dogs show signs of self-consciousness in new 'sniff test'
We knew it!
BEC CREW 10 DEC 2015
Self-awareness might seem like the most basic part of life to us humans, but it's a surprisingly rare concept when it comes
to other animals. While great apes, dolphins, orcas, rhesus macaques, Eurasian magpies, and a single Asiatic elephant
have all passed the self-recognition test, everything from pandas and pigeons to sea lions, gorillas, and several species of
monkey have failed to show signs of consciousness.
Dogs were also on that list of failures - until now. Traditionally, self-consciousness is evaluated via the 'mirror
test' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test). If an animal uses its own reflection to examine or touch a red mark
that's been applied to its body without its knowledge, scientists can confirm that they possess some sense of self. But
what if the animal isn’t that visually oriented?
"I believed that because dogs are much less sensitive to visual stimuli with respect to what, for example, humans and
many apes are, it is likely that the failure of this and of other species in the mirror test is mainly due to the sensory modality chosen by the investigator to test the self-awareness and not, necessarily, to the absence of this latter," says evolutionary biologist Roberto Cazzolla Gatti from Tomsk State University in Russia.
Gatti was prompted into this line of thinking by the fact that in past mirror tests, dogs have shown no interest in looking
at their reflection in the mirror, but they will go ahead and sniff the area an possibly even urinate around it. While this got
them a big old "fail" in previous studies, Gatti thought the behaviour warranted a closer look.
Back in 2001, renowned animal behaviour expert, Marc Bekoff, investigated the 'mirror sniffing' phenomenon via an experiment dubbed the 'yellow snow test'. Yep it's exactly what it sounds like. Over a five-year period, Bekoff took his dog
Jethro on walks during the winter months, and timed how long he would sniff clumps of snow soaked in his own or other
dogs' urine.
The AnimalWise blog explains: (http://animalwise.org/2011/08/16/the-yellow-snow-test-for-self-recognition/)
"Bekoff would wait until Jethro or other known female and male dogs urinated on snow, and then scoop up the clump of
yellow snow as soon as Jethro was elsewhere and did not see him pick it up or move it (Bekoff used clean gloves each
time and took other precautions to minimise odour and visual cues). Bekoff then moved the yellow snow varying distances down the path so that Jethro would run across the displaced urine: (i) within about 10 seconds, (ii) between 10 and
120 seconds later, or (iii) between 120 and 300 seconds later. After Jethro arrived, Bekoff recorded how long he sniffed at
the yellow snow, whether he urinated over it using the typical male raised-leg posture, and whether urination immediately followed the sniffing ('scent marking’)."
Not surprisingly, Jethro paid a lot less attention to his own urine than he did to that of other dogs, so Bekoff concluded
that his pet had to have some sense of self to be able to distinguish between scents. But with a sample size of one, the
experiment wasn’t exactly going to set the scientific community on fire.
Gatti decided to come up with something a little more convincing. Called the Sniff Test of Self-Recognition (STSR), the experiment involved collecting urine samples from four stray dogs and systematically exposing them to the scents. He repeated this four times a year at the beginning of every season.
"I placed within a fence five urine samples containing the scent of each of the four dogs and a 'blank sample', filled only
with cotton wool odourless," he says. "The containers were then opened and each dog was individually introduced to the
inside of the cage and allowed to freely move for 5 minutes. The time taken by each dog to sniff each sample was recorded."
Just like Jethro, each dog spent way more time smelling the urine samples of other dogs than their own, which supports
the hypothesis that they know their own scent and aren't that interested in it. The result was stronger the older the dog,
which suggests that self-awareness develops with age.
It might seem obvious that dogs would know their own scent, but if you've ever seen a dog bark at its own reflection, or
completely ignore it - totally unaware of its own appearance and movements - you can see the significance.
"I demonstrated that even when applying it to multiple individuals living in groups and with different ages and sexes, this
test provides significant evidence of self-awareness in dogs and can play a crucial role in showing that this capacity is not
a specific feature of only great apes, humans, and a few other animals, but it depends on the way in which researchers try
to verify it," says Gatti.
The findings are published in the journal Ethology, Ecology and Evolution . (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/
abs/10.1080/03949370.2015.1102777?journalCode=teee20&)
Now, I know what you're thinking: that sample size of four is pretty crap. And yep, it is, so we can't really call this an official "pass" just yet. But the fact that we may well need to rethink the mirror test and figure out how to better align it with
how certain species see the world is certainly worthy of a proper investigation. Certain behaviours such as empathy have
been linked to self-awareness, and thanks to the 'yawn test', there's evidence that dogs feel empathy towards their owners. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130808-yawning-dogs-contagious-animals-empathy-science/)
We'll just have to wait and see if scientists are prepared to conduct a giant yellow snow test to put this conundrum to bed
once and for all. In the meantime, here's dolphins passing the mirror test adorably:
https://youtu.be/YBYU1eayaXs
FROM
Your Dog Agility Training Success
Lies in the Reward
Posted on November 25, 2015 by Agility Fusion
Reward based training has become synonymous with dog
agility for many reasons, but the most prevalent is because
this is a game we are playing and a game should be fun!
However, don’t think for a moment that reward based training will always come easy. There are some important guidelines you need to follow to be sure your rewards are effective in your training.
Before you can start using rewards for your training you have to find out what rewards motivate your dog. Food, toys,
play and praise can all be incorporated into your training with a little research to find out which ones to use where. Never
assume what your dog wants as far as treats, praise and play. Watch your dog and get to know how they play, what foods
they LOVE and if they are “rough” or “soft” praise/play dogs. Remember, your dog has to be a motivated by your reward,
motivated enough to repeat an action under distraction.
So how do you decide what motivator is best for your dog? Try them in low distraction areas first, if your dog becomes
bored or quits trying for the reward you are offering, try a different one. Then try them under different distractions. If
your dog is uninterested in food under distraction but goes crazy for a squeaky ball every time, then buy a case of those
squeaky balls. You won’t know til you try, so get some of each and start your research.
1. If possible, take your dog to the pet store and let your dog choose the toy. Try everything, rubber, plastic, rope, furry
2.
3.
4.
(unless you have kids who have stuffed animals), squeaky, crunchy, hard or soft, big or small (keeping in mind choking hazards). A big hit with many dogs is an empty plastic bottle. Just be sure to remove the lid and collar and never
leave them unattended during play.
Your praise MUST be sincere. You cannot lie to a dog, you have to sell them on you. It is all about your dog, so lose
yourself in the moment and block out everything else. Keep in mind, praise is not for all dogs. If your dog shows
avoidance to these gestures especially under stress, praise is not a desirable reward for your dog. Try food, play or
toys. On the flip side, some dogs thrive on rough love, it is up to you to find what your dog enjoys.
If you are endowed with a four legged vacuum cleaner, your job will be relatively easy when it comes to treats. For all
other dogs you will need to do some testing. Smells are very important to dogs so sometimes it takes a nasty smelling
treat to lock a dog’s attention. Kibble being the lowest on the totem pole, as distractions go up so does the value of
the treat. Ham, cheese, chicken, soft dog food chubs, liver, tuna treats, boiled intestines… Don’t start with your tastiest treat for low distractions, learn to build value as distractions go up leaving the tastiest treats for the highest distractions.
Find your dog’s favorite game. Watch your dog play with other dogs: do they play rough or soft, do they like tug or
keep away, then follow suit. Have rules for your games like on/off commands and keep the toy your dog loves to play
with designated only for your training play times. Like other rewards, try playing in different surroundings and different distractions before using it as a reward so you aren’t caught unprepared if your dog needs a higher value reward
in higher stress situations.
When you find the rewards that have value to your dog, the next important aspect is delivery of said reward. It is imperative your dog receive the reward as close to the correct behavior as possible and preferably while they are performing the
desired behavior in order to get the clearest message to your dog. If your reward is late you will undoubtedly be rewarding a completely different behavior. For example, if you ask for a sit and you reward when the dog gets up, you are rewarding the stand. Don’t let anything distract you from the reward, your consistence is paramount to your dog’s success.
Everything else can wait, EVERYTHING. You want consistency and focus from your dog? Then you have to give it to your
dog first.
And be prepared with your rewards. It is ok to use different rewards in different environments so do your homework. If
your dog becomes uninterested in play have some tasty treats and visa versa. Know how the reward is going to be delivered before starting the lesson. If you are going to treat, have treats ready before asking for the behavior. Will you need
an assistant to hold the dog throw a toy. Knowing these details before starting your trainin will help insure you reward in
a timely manner.