Ann Gafke’s Teacher’s Pet, 325 E. Dripping Springs Rd, Columbia, MO 65202
Phone: (573) 443-0716 or Email: Contact Us
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The scent discrimination work at our school begins in Levels 3 and 4 with dog’s finding treats inside identical metal boxes. Later the dogs identify boxes their owners have touched among the other boxes. Later the training moves to metal, wood, leather and cotton items.
Ann Gafke’s Teacher’s Pet, 325 E. Dripping Springs Rd, Columbia, MO 65202
Phone: (573) 443-0716 or Email: Contact Us
Register Online
To find the hard-to-find, dogs are increasingly assigned that task in conservation projects around the world. That is the conclusion of a study published in the Methods in Ecology and Evolution – by the British Ecological Society. https://bit.ly/3sd2Y6h
While you and your dog may never be asked to search for an elusive lizard or the like, you can have fun putting your dog’s nose to work in the search exercises we teach. https://bit.ly/3sbS14T
Researchers examined reports of 2,464 search cases, most of them (1,840) scientific projects.
They found “WDD (wildlife detection dogs) usually worked more effectively than other monitoring methods. For each species group, regardless of breed, detection dogs were better than other methods in 88.71% of all cases and only worse in 0.98%.”
Canine tasks vary widely from locating seedlings of invasive plants, the scat of endangered species or animal parts the product of poaching. See Working Dogs for Conservation, a non-profit organization with headquarters in Missoula, MT https://wd4c.org/about-us
Ann Gafke’s Teacher’s Pet, 325 E. Dripping Springs Rd, Columbia, MO 65202
Phone: (573) 443-0716 or Email: Contact Us
Register Online
This story from the Victoria, British Columbia, newspaper describes the insistent barking of the family’s dog one evening. When the owner, finally did open the door to see what was prompting the barks, she found her elderly mother on the sidewalk near the home unable to get up. The 80-year-old had tripped. The story reports the mother has recovered after a few days in the hospital.
The lesson for us – pay attention; read your dog. The dog may well have important information for you.
Helping humans ‘read’ their dogs is an important part of the training throughout the classes in our school.
Ann Gafke’s Teacher’s Pet, 325 E. Dripping Springs Rd, Columbia, MO 65202
Phone: (573) 443-0716 or Email: Contact Us
Register Online
Researchers at the University of Helsinki think so. At least their preliminary research suggests that can happen. Researchers taught the dog’s to differentiate urine samples of ill and non-ill persons. The sniffer dogs are now employed at the Helsinki airport to identify illness among passengers. This article describes the more complex research agenda to test this early success. https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/life-science-news/the-sharp-noses-of-covid-dogs-are-utilized-at-the-helsinki-vantaa-airport
The scent discrimination work at our school begins in Levels 3 and 4 with dog’s finding treats inside identical metal boxes. Later the dogs identify boxes their owners have touched among the other boxes. Later the training moves to metal, wood, leather and cotton items.
Ann Gafke’s Teacher’s Pet, 325 E. Dripping Springs Rd, Columbia, MO 65202
Phone: (573) 443-0716 or Email: Contact Us
Register Online
Our Puppy Kindergarten prepares your puppy for the first certificate exam in our school. It also qualifies your puppy to earn the American Kennel Club’s Star Puppy Recognition and to begin work on the AKC Canine Good Citizenship Certification (CGC).
Ann Gafke’s Teacher’s Pet, 325 E. Dripping Springs Rd, Columbia, MO 65202
Phone: (573) 443-0716 or Email: Contact Us
Register Online
Those of us with therapy dogs would say “No way a robot could replace the benefits my therapy dog brings to people we serve.”
But this research study published on the web portal, Big Think, suggests the answer may be – Yes in some situations. Researchers at the University of Portsmouth in England observed children interacting with live dogs and robotic dogs. The children ages 11 and 12 interacted with the robot more.
The researchers suggested robotic dogs might be useful in situations where live animals are not appropriate – for example, with allergy sufferers and in places were live animals are not permitted. The researchers also speculated that the robotic dogs might have service roles too – suggesting it would be easier to bring one’s robotic emotional support creature onboard an airplane.
https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/emotional-support-robots?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1
Ann Gafke’s Teacher’s Pet, 325 E. Dripping Springs Rd, Columbia, MO 65202
Phone: (573) 443-0716 or Email: Contact Us
Register Online
In week’s edition, Newsweek publishes a list of the 63 smartest dog breeds. The article ranks them from 63rd to first – An interesting read.
The rankings come from the primary book on the subject, The Intelligence of Dogs, my Professor Stanley Coren. Coren based his ranking on obedience, working and adaptive intelligences. He described adaptive intelligence as a dog’s ability to problem-solve on its own. His research included surveys among dog owners, rankings from obedience trail judges and collaboration with the American and Canadian Kennel Clubs.
The article has pictures of breed representatives and brief descriptions. It provides an estimate of how many repetitions it takes for a dog to learn a command and what percent of the time the dog complies with a command given the first time.
https://www.newsweek.com/these-are-63-smartest-dog-breeds-1554265
These are the dogs and handlers for the December show. Come join the team, Register for January classes
Telling the dog to ‘leave it’ can be an essential household lesson – there are so many things in one’s house for the dog to leave alone. One can begin to teach the dog to leave things as a part of the primary lesson to ‘get it.’ One must leave it before one can get it – so to speak. The ‘leave it’ assignment is part of the Puppy Kindergarten class in week 4 and the Level 1 class in week 5.
Take advantage of the dog’s prey instinct – to chase. We encourage the dog to chase as a game with the dog eagerly coming back to us for more. We want that eagerness on the dog’s part as an essential element of coming when called. This ‘get it’ game is part of the motivation lesson in week 4 of Puppy Kindergarten and week five in Level 1.