Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Rescue Dogs Morning Routine - Joey

We start our day off pretty early. Alarm goes off for us around 5:30am every day (even on the weekends).  We don't mind getting up at this time esp in the summer months because it is light out and letting the sun into our home gets everyone up and ready.  During winter months we have to wake up the rescue dogs even after the alarm goes off.

After we get ourselves squared away and the coffee is on we take all the dog out for a short morning walk for them to relieve themselves and back to the house we go. We start our routine with our longest resident  which at this time is Joey.  When Joey gets his breakfast we ask him to work for it with the nothing is free (< click to see video) routine.

After he finishes his breakfast we take him for a 30 - 45 minute hike around our local woods to get some extra morning energy out. The quiet one on one time allows him to focus on us while we work on some basic commands. (Look, sit, come, down and "walk nice" or heal).


After our morning walk we head back to the truck, load up and set off for the downtown area towards several destinations to expose Joey to different people and sound situations (no other animals for our morning outings - that will be another time).  We aim for busy places with people of all ages, places that are surrounded with cars and trucks coming and going and just about anything or any place we can expose Joey to that will be positive.

Where are we going today??
The trick with all of these places is to make sure EVERY interaction is a positive one, so bring a pocket full of your pups favorite treats as a reward for staying calm and accepting people in a friendly manner. When you are out n about by this time you should know your dog, you should know what will set him or her off.  Make sure you take in all of your surrounding so you can see things coming before your dog does.

For example Joey gets upset over big rig trucks so we keep an extra eye out for them, when we see one coming we quickly get Joeys attention and start working him in the opposite direction. . .LOOK, sit, down, sit, walk nice...the trick it to keep him moving and focused on US until the truck passes. If we see him getting over stimulated because he hears or sees the truck we move faster and don't give him a chance to even think about the truck. In no time it's gone and he gets extra treats and love for dealing with it so well and staying focused "ON US".

The best part of our outing and Joeys FAVORITE thing is when people "want" to meet him. He LOVES the attention and everyone he has met so far has been so wonderful with him, giving him a great experience which in turn sets him up for the next person he comes across.

Joey meets the guys of AxelRad an awesome print shop in Kingston Pa
The guys from AxelRad Screen Printing allowed Joey to come into their shop, meet the crew and check out the machines that were making funny noises and sounds he has never herd before.  We were not sure how he would handle the loud noises but Joey did very well. YAY JOEY!!


Since Joey was staying nice calm so we left the shop on a good note and off to the next place.  The next place is one of our favorites because the people are so awesome with our dogs.  The place is Starbucks in Wilkes-Barre  where we held our Zombie PinUps and Pooches Event and always load up on Vanilla Chai Latte with Soy milk. YUM




Joey loves the ladies of  Starbucks and took in all that was going on around him.  The SB Wilkes-Barre location is extremely busy with all different kids of motor vehicles and people.. Some of the people walked by and just smiled, some walked by and stared and a few even stopped to say hi for a quick second before they went in for their coffee. Over all Joey had a great morning and all the experiences were POSITIVE so back to the mk9 home for some Kong Wobbler Time ;)

Get those pups out n about and remember if your can not control your dog. . .control your atmosphere.
Socialization is SO VERY IMPORTANT. If you ca not do this every day aim for every other day or even set aside one FULL day for nothing but socialization. Not only does it help your dog but it shows people that you are a responsible pit bull owner and your dog... which is a pit bull ... is AWESOME!!!!
Happy socializing all!!
Much love all.

PS:
Fun tip. . dress your dogs up in cute or funny things some people that may not be sure about a pit bull will definitely pass a smile if they are wearing wings, flower lays or a funny hat. ;)




2 comments:

  1. love seeing all of Joeys adventures..he is looking like one happy, confident boy these days..who couldn't love this guy <3

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  2. :) We hope someone takes notice to how far he has come and would like to add him to their family. He is a wonderful dog. We just love big Joe :D

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