Your Questions About Dog Training Denver

admin answers:

I once attended an event for people fostering puppies for a school that trained assistance dogs. While they had many Labs, Goldens, and a standard Poodle, they also had a Pug, some Chahuahuas, a Cavalier King Charles, and maybe some other smaller breeds. The ADA has no breed restrictions. Denver includes service dogs in their Pit Bull ban. I think they lose in court on that.

You must first be diagnosed as disabled. From there, you may either train your own dog, or as I recommend, contact a program that trains dogs. Good links to more information are http://www.ada.gov/svcabrs3.pdf www.iaadp.org and www.psychdog

admin answers:

I don’t know where you are in Colorado so it’s hard to give specific questions. Let me give you two generic answers:

1. Go to www.agilityevents.net and find an agility trial near you. Go observe and ask exhibitors (ie: the participants) “Who would you recommend?” or “where do you take lessons/classes from?” and that is your best option. That’s because most agility clubs and instructors don’t have websites or advertise in the phone book.

2. You can also go to Clean Run’s website and check under clubs and classes. The list is out of date and in-complete but it’s better than nothing.

3. Here are a couple of options I know about:
–Liz Blasio is in Greeley, has an agility school and her URL is: http://www.progressiveschoolfordogs.com/
–I know there used to be a Colorado agility listserv with yahoo groups–you can check under “colorado agility”
–Sharon Bradshaw in Grand Junction at aussiehike@aol.com
–Lynne Fickett in Durango with Durango Agility Dogs at lynnef@frontier.net
–Melanie Platt in Lafayette with Front Range Agility Dogs at mhplatt@mho.com or http://www.frontrangeagility.com/
–Katie or Kathi (can’t remember which) Dvorak with “Mile High Agility”
–Front Range Agility Team in Denver at www.coloradofrat.com

Basically, there’s just a ton of resources for agility in Colorado, all over the State. And if you’re on the border, I’m sure you’ll find resources in neighboring states that are close by.

Getting started in agility recs….
1. There is a really good starter book by Joe and Ali Canova “Agility Training for you and your dog.” For my money it’s the best one out there. Books by Laurie Leach and Margaret Bonham aren’t bad ones either. But be warned–trying to learn agility by book is like trying to learn how to dance or do martial arts by book.
2. Learn how to use a clicker. A lot of old-school and traditional folks often push back on the idea of using a clicker, like it’s some kind of gimmick or it’s a fad or what worked for granddad and his dogs is good enough for me. I trained 15 dogs without a clicker (grew up on a farm, all of our dogs were working dogs). For #16 I used a clicker. I have no idea how you can train agility without a clicker. Stuff like back-chaining, targeting–I’m sure it’s doable without a clicker (which is really about operant conditioning) but I don’t know how you’d do it. The clicker is really just a tool that works as part of operant conditioning. And that is what ALL serious animal trainers (including the US Navy with the dolphins they train to spot mines, SeaWorld with killer whales, tricks trainers in Hollywood) use operant conditoning.
2. Get obedience down. Even if you don’t compete seriously in agility you’ll need a dog that can focus, heel off-leash reliably. You’ll need a good sit, down, stay and recall.
3. Get into tricks. They’re good warmups for your dog, you learn how your dog learns, you improve teamwork, your dog learns you’re fun. Think of tricks as mini-agility: you get all the same things from agility except in bigger amounts so doing trick work is a prelude to agility. Plus, tricks are great things to work on indoors and when you’ve got a couple of feet of snow on the ground.
4. Practice behavior shaping. You need to be clicker competent to do this. Shirley Chong (www.shirleychong.com) has more detail on this. See the game “101 uses for a box” for an example.

Last of all, prepare to become addicted. Getting into agility is the smartest thing I ever did for my dog, we both have a blast. It’s his job. If my marriage would survive it, I’d do agility every weekend.

admin answers:

The only place in the U.S. That I am for sure of is Denver, Colorado.

I know that they are illegal in the UK as well.

And its a good thing people are standing up for the breed, though, I feel not enough people are 🙁
There are plenty of responsible APBT owners out there who deserve their dogs…but there are also one’s that are not fit to own this breed but still do.

BSL does nothing for the public but bring heartbreak and confusion. Nothing is being done about the real problem…people. As time goes by, supporters for this ridiculous band-aid approach are getting laws passed left and right and noone is doing anything about it.

BSL is a flawed concept from the moment it was concieved. In most cases, the dogs are targeted leaving the owner, the resposible rational thinking party, out of it.
Some impose fines along with their laws and are often not enforced, so the owner gets away with a slap on the wrist.
Dogs are not the problem and BSL does not recognize this. People are the problem and until we start punishing stupid people for their neglectful actions which allow these dogs to become ill-mannered we will never stop the problem.

First problem is..take one breed away, these people will find another breed to replace it.
Since the APBT bans, the Rottweiler is now on the rise as the most popular breed.
BSL can compare to gender or racial profiling. Simply because a dog appears to be a dog on the restricted list, it is treated as such. So beware all you American Staffy owners.

What if you were driving down the street and the police picked you up, took you to jail, sentenced you, and put you on death row just for looking like a certain ethnic group. BSL does exactly that to dogs.

So why is BSL implemmented daily? God forbid people have to take responisbility for their irresponisble actions, and BSL supports these people by not placing punishments on them.

We Have to Fight!!!

Fighting BSL is the only way to keep all breeds safe. Soon BSL will encompass any breed of dog that can bite (which is ALL of them) so where does that leave the dog lover??

There is NO evidence that BSL even works!!!!

In Short, BSL has nothing to offer the US public but confusion and loss. BSL is NOT and will NEVER be a practical means of regulating vicious dogs and attacks. Until law makers see the fact of life we will be faced will more BSL laws all over the U.S