![]() "Dammit, Oscar," Mom called from the driving chair. I was standing in a bog the size of a parking spot. I looked for somewhere to put my cleanish paw while I shook out the others, but it was no use. I shook my paw until globs plunked from my toes. I was standing ankle-deep in a lake of mud. The suspense was unbearable! When Mom opened the door, I took a flying dismount and landed with a splat. We halted in front of a gate and the car-house hummed while Mom hmmmed. I snorted for a hint of what flavor they were, leaving a skid mark across the window. There were trees the next time the car-house pulled off the highway without the Witch's blessing. "Like I said, keep driving, you dingbat," the Witch scolded. It could just as well go forever or end at a cell tower behind those rocks." Mom turned her back on adventure and opened the car-house door. It doesn't tell me anything about where this trail might go. ![]() "A map like this is only useful for birds and astronauts. Now that we know we're in Utah, we can't get lost." "You said you keep getting lost because you know where you're going but but not where you are. ![]() When it got boring trying to look thoughtful I asked, "What does it say?" It was probably too big to fit in my mouth. While Mom examined the ripples on the map, I stood next to her and thoughtfully studied the curling lines in the sign's wooden stalk. The grass was too scratchy to roll in and too flimsy to chase. "Oh boy, oh boy! I hope there are sticks."Ī trail-guarding sign with a map on its breastplate stood in some scraggly grass. Nancy shares her life with her husband and two canine alumni of the NWSPCA, mixed-breed Otto (whose adorably fuzzy visage was incorporated into WDJ’s masthead some years ago) and Pit/Lab-mix Woody."Do you think there will be sticks?" I wagged. As a regular volunteer for her local animal shelter, the Northwest SPCA in Oroville, CA, she fosters large litters of puppies and helps train wayward adolescent dogs in order to increase their chances of adoption. To stay on top of industry developments, she also attends pet industry trade shows such as Global Pet and SuperZoo, educational conferences of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association and Pet Food Industry’s Pet Food Forum. ![]() The founding editor of Whole Dog Journal in 1998, Nancy regularly attends cutting-edge dog-training conferences including those for the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, Pet Professional Guild, Association of Professional Dog Trainers, and Clicker Expo. ![]() Nancy Kerns has edited horse and dog magazines since graduating the San Francisco State University Journalism program in 1990. Special Needs Training: Training Dogs with Hand Signals How to Train Hearing Impaired Dogs Using Hand Signals and Simple Gestures Here are just a few of the many articles we’ve done on teaching hand signals for your cues: Again, thank goodness he knows that one, because it’s one of the few things I can do now to make his “concentrating” expression soften and his tail wag.ĭon’t wait until it’s too late to teach your dog hand signals – if for no other reason than as a hedge for his or her old age. He’s always a good boy, and I give him the “thumbs up” and a big smile many times a day. I’m so grateful that I taught him that alternative to ”Yes!” because, basically, in my eyes, he can’t do anything “wrong” anymore. I’ve long used a “thumbs up” gesture as an alternative to a click or “Yes!” to mark the moment he does a behavior I’ve cued or, to be honest, anything else that I like. He didn’t DO anything, he just gets treats for showing up when the other dogs are asked to do stuff. ![]()
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