All the Creatures

If you have ever had an injured horse that needed to be stall bound then you would know that the horse can also get a little stir crazy when let out for hand walking. I had a mare that was injured years ago and I needed to keep her calm while she had a week’s worth of stall rest. Rather than put her on a sedative, I looked into herbs and vitamins. I asked fellow horse owners if they knew of the best multivitamin for mental calmness. None of them did, until I talked to someone who trained racehorses. He told be about adding vitamin B-1 to their daily diet. It seems that horses that are undergoing stress use up B-1 at a tremendous rate and then when they are not getting enough, stress out even more.

So I got some vitamin B-1 crumbles and added it to her diet. Boy, did I see a change overnight! She was no longer stressed out. I had another horse that would always get real vocal after we got to a horse show or got ready for a trail ride (after trailering to the spot). A few hours before the ride in the trailer I gave him some vitamin B-1 and when we arrived he was calm and not vocal!

I found my miracle drug for keeping a horse calm for trailering, stressful training and rehab…….a simple vitamin….vitamin B-1.

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You’ve seen them, the ads for the dog nail trimmer. They show the dog calmly having its nails trimmed and enjoying it. I remember at the time thinking “what idiot would buy one of those things?” Well look no further because I am now one of those idiots. I happen to see one on sale at my local Grocery Outlet for only $5 so I said to myself, what the heck, and bought it.

Got my new find home and got my little min pin on my lap and turned it on. Of course dogs are sensitive to motor noises and he looked at it with a “get that thing away from me,” look. So being the tactful pet owner that I am, I spent about an hour getting him use to the object and it being turned on and off. I thought we were doing pretty good until I got the bright idea to actually put one of his nails in the opening to trim it. At that point he tries to bite the trimmer and growl at me. This went on for another 10 minutes until I went back to just getting him use to the trimmer. After about 2 hours of this both me and my dog gave up on it. I put it on a shelf where my husband found it several days later and asked me, “what’s this?”, at which point I told him that it was a training device that so far has not worked out.

If you have the time to train your dog or cat to use the trimmer then go for it, but be warned that it will take time. Puppies and kittens will be easier to train and handle so if you start them off early you will not have such a struggle as I did.

I am unsure if I will try to use it again or not. Right now it sits collecting dust on the shelf until I have another 2 hours of training time free.

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There are so many scams involving dog training and how to become a dog trainer on the internet that I thought I might give my readers a good shove in the right direction.

Dog training is mostly an unregulated business. There is no one place that dog trainers go to, to become certified or licensed. In fact most dog trainers have no such paper credentials. So how do you locate a good dog trainer? There are 2 methods. One is to ask friends or get recommendations from local dog breeders or animal shelters, the other is to contact the American Kennel Club to ask about local dog training clubs in your area. The dog training clubs are a good source of dog training information.

What if you want to become a dog trainer? The number one place to stay away from is those websites that claim for lots of $$$$$ they will put you through a program that in 12 weeks or less you can become a certified dog trainer. Don’t fall for that sales pitch. Dog trainers have had years of experience with dogs before they can call themselves a dog trainer. If you want to become a dog trainer the best way is to earn that title with your own dog or dogs in obedience classes at dog shows. Getting those ribbons and points for your dogs will give you the experience and contacts you need to further your career. The dog trainers that I worked with in the past were all affiliated with the American Kennel Club. They had all won awards for their work as trainers and each one of them owned a top awarded dog. Those are the types of dog trainers that have no problem with mentoring younger, future dog trainers and handlers.

You can also take college courses at your local community college in biology, animal nutrition, animal genetics and business management. All of those courses will help you round out your future as a dog trainer.

Lastly, stay away from those big pet store chain dog training classes. Number one, they take place in the store which is one of the worst places to train a dog. Those trainers are told to push products on to their students as part of their “sales pitch.” Find a dog training facility that is both comfortable temperature wise for you and your dog as well as large enough that the trainers and you can do sit-stay commands out of sight of the dogs. The legitimate dog trainers will not allow dogs under 6 months old in group classes. The main reason is the fact that dogs under 6 months old have not had all of their vaccines and are likely to end up with catching a disease should they be exposed to the virus. It does not cost hundreds of $$$ for your dog to be trained. Most AKC affiliated training clubs charge low rates for group classes.

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