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Rock Solid Dog Training, Chaska, MN (2025)

06/22/2025

What Constitutes a Good Dog?

I have been using AI quite a bit for work related stuff. It is impressive for the things I use it for. Apparently I use AI like an old person. I ask it questions about syntax of programming type statements, I will check factual accuracy of something which is probably 70% accurate in AI in most cases. I will put lines of programming code into it that have errors and it will tell me where the error is. When I am looking at someone else's code and it is not apparent what the code does (some people write really convoluted code) it will tell me what it does and sometimes how it could be used.

I see stories about others using AI to write business letters, touch up their resume's and all kinds of other stuff. I have not delved into any of that stuff but there are a lot of possibilities.

In general, AI has become useful and I find myself using it quite a bit for more and more things each day.

So this week I asked AI to tell me what constituted a "good dog". I did this mainly because we always tell Thor that he is a good boy and I wanted to make sure that was accurate. I am interested to hear what you have to say about what constitutes a good dog in your life and how does it compare to what is written below.

What Constitutes a Good Dog
A “good dog” is a phrase that stirs warm feelings in dog lovers everywhere, yet what makes a dog “good” can vary depending on who’s asked. For some, it’s a loyal protector; for others, it’s a calm presence beside the couch. While dog behavior can be shaped by training and environment, the essence of a good dog typically includes traits such as loyalty, trainability, temperament, and compatibility with a human lifestyle.

Loyalty and Companionship
At the heart of any good dog is loyalty. Dogs have been companions to humans for thousands of years, and one of the defining characteristics of their goodness is their unwavering devotion. Whether it’s a Labrador retriever who never leaves your side or a rescue mutt who greets you like royalty each time you walk through the door, a good dog builds a bond that feels more like friendship than ownership.

Temperament and Behavior
A good dog generally possesses a gentle and predictable temperament. This doesn’t mean a dog must be calm at all times, but rather that it reacts to situations in a stable and appropriate way. A good dog doesn’t bite without provocation, doesn’t bark excessively, and isn’t aggressive toward people or other animals. Instead, it is alert, affectionate, and confident, yet also capable of calming down when needed.

Trainability and Obedience
Another key trait of a good dog is trainability. Dogs don’t need to perform circus tricks to be “good,” but they should understand basic commands like “sit,” “stay,” “come,” and “leave it.” A trainable dog shows a willingness to listen and adapt, making them easier to integrate into family life and public spaces. This trait is not solely based on intelligence, but also on temperament and a dog’s desire to please.

Compatibility with Lifestyle
A good dog is one that fits well into its owner’s lifestyle. A herding dog may be considered “bad” in a small apartment but “good” on a farm where it can work. A low-energy lapdog may be perfect for an elderly person but frustratingly sedentary for a marathon runner. Thus, a good dog isn’t necessarily the most obedient or the friendliest—it’s the one that meshes with its human’s needs and routines.

Health and Care
Physical and emotional health also play a role in what makes a dog good. A well-cared-for dog with access to proper nutrition, exercise, and medical attention is more likely to thrive and show positive behavior. Sometimes, dogs with medical or behavioral issues are labeled as “bad” when they’re simply misunderstood or under-supported. In this sense, a good dog is often a reflection of a good owner.

Conclusion
In the end, a good dog is not defined by breed or pedigree but by a combination of loyalty, temperament, trainability, and fit with its environment. A dog doesn’t have to be perfect to be good—it simply has to be loving, manageable, and a positive presence in the lives of those around it. Like people, dogs come in many shapes, sizes, and personalities, and finding what makes a dog “good” is as much about understanding and patience as it is about training or genetics. The best dogs are the ones who, in their own way, make our lives better just by being part of them.

-Dave
[Photo today is of Thor, of course]

06/15/2025

So Many Choices

Choices are everywhere in our lives. The last couple of weeks I made the choice not to write. It is sort of that time of year when stuff is going on and weeks seem longer than usual. By the time I normally would sit down to write for the weekend there just wasn't enough of me left to do that, so, things may be a bit more sporadic here for the summer.

This week a lot of my discussions have revolved around choices. It is a topic I have written about multiple times mainly because it is a favorite and it really impacts our everyday lives. Just watching the news these days you see a lot of poor choices being made with the people making them saying they had no choice but to behave in that way. So that choice isn't on them.

Hate to tell you, but, yeah it is completely on you. There may have been circumstances that influenced their choices but in the end, they could have done something different and likely attained a different result.

After we went through a bankruptcy many years ago where I worked, my boss talked about the choices we would now get to make. In bankruptcy you basically only spend what you absolutely need to and you need seven levels of approval to do it. As my boss said, you make the best choice out of multiple really crappy choices. On the other side of bankruptcy with a new owner in place, you are able to make the best choice out of far better choices and choice becomes easier.

Choice has everything to do with pretty much everything in life. What you choose to eat affects your health and your weight. How you drive to work every morning affects how safely you will arrive each day. Where you work affects your mental health and the choice to leave a bad job is one that very few people take lightly.

There are very few things that choice doesn't affect. Health in a lot of ways, not all cancer is caused by something else (lung cancer and smoking go together but things like leukemia seem to just hit folks). The only choices you have here is how you deal with it when you are diagnosed.

I guess in a lot of ways the choice in your life is all about choosing to deal with something in a positive way or choosing to send yourself down into a deep hole of depression. Well, many times depression really isn't a choice but a result of your brain doing things you can't control. The only choice in it is staying out of those thought processes in the first place which isn't always easy.

What I have generally found is staying ahead of choices has been a helpful way of dealing with them.

When Abby was diagnosed with larpar the road forward was really pretty simple, have the tieback surgery and she would be healthier again. It wasn't perfect but it really made a huge difference in her situation.

I remember talking to my boss at the time about it. He asked how old she was. "13". Then he said something I will never forget, "why would you ever waste money on a surgery for a 13 year old dog?"

The choice at the time was either punching him in the face, which in hindsight I didn't lend enough weight to, or just stay away from this rotten human being. I did choose option B but never forgot that moment and never trusted him again.

We had an idea what was going on with Abby so we were prepared to make the choices that needed to be made for her well-being. I regret none of it as she lived another four years, and they were four good quality years. The only thing I regret is running a bunch of extra tests on her that stressed her out and didn't really affect our decision. We had a vet that convinced us to do those things. However knowing that the surgery was her only chance, there was absolutely zero chance the results would have changed our mind.

Dogs also have choices and sometimes they choose wisely and sometimes not so much. Kara has had struggles since she was young actually listening to being called into the house after going outside. She really enjoys being out in the yard talking to the bunnies and squirrels. She is very silent outside, never barks at anything out there (in the house barking at ghosts, a different story) and is very respectful of her Invisible Fence. However about two weeks ago her choice to blow me off finally struck a nerve.

I went out and got her and we practices some short distance "come when called" exercises. One time, about three minutes worth and her choices changed going forward. To be fair, I try to give her a little extra time outside to check all her spots. I will catch her checking in and will call her then. She will turn away, take one more look and race into the house. She has updated her choice matrix to prioritize being called over wandering the yard aimlessly when people are calling her.

Murphy and I had similar discussions when he was about the same age. I got tired of chasing him at top speed on the four-wheeler at the farm. It was dangerous for both of us and it was time to come to an understanding. Murphy had a white stripe down his nose so you could see when he turned to look at you from quite a distance. When we started you never saw the white streak and hardly ever saw him.

We started working on a long line with an electronic collar. I would call or whistle and give a tug on the line. If he responded I would tell him "good boy, good look" if he didn't he would get pulled all the way back in and made to sit next to me. A couple days in he started to check in by looking back at me and which direction I was going so he could keep moving. After a few days I involved the collar and when he ran too long without checking in (looking back) where would be a little correction until he did. Pretty soon he was able to get out 50 yards (our agreed upon limit for him) and he would pattern back and forth, checking in often enough to know if I was still moving in his direction. Oh yeah, I would sometimes randomly change direction to make sure he was paying attention and yes there was a correction if he didn't notice. Murphy started making better choices everyday and hanging out with him became much more pleasant. It very much changed our relationship and we did a lot together afterwards but that was not a real fun time.

Everyone makes choices. Sometimes it is making the best of the crappy choices but often times it is things we can anticipate and prepare for but the bottom line is that those choices are ours and if we wish to grow we need to own them. Blaming others for them is really silly. You have to deal with the consequences so just learn from them and move on. Change your choice matrix like Kara did!

-Dave

[Today's photo is of Abby right after her surgery. Her choice was for you to stay out of her way, she was busy.]

05/25/2025

Context

Context sensitive help was a thing when I first started as a programmer. The idea was a simple yet powerful one, whatever you are doing if you hit the F1 key something would pop up and explain what the program was expecting. Pretty cool, right?

Shockingly it was a new concept at that time and it has evolved over the years to just having to hovering your mouse above something and having a popup line of text to give you an idea of what to do. As a programmer it is not something that I think about early on when building something. I see the screens hundreds of times before handing it off to a user so it is very obvious to me what it is looking for. I no longer required context as I understood what needed to be done.

Murphy was our most context sensitive dog. When the scenery changed he got confused as to what he was supposed to be doing. It was as simple as if you had been doing an exercise in one direction, changing to the other end of the ring and doing the exercise again. He often would have a very puzzled look on his face much like he had never done the exercise before. To him, he had not.

Over the years I have had a couple of different thoughts on why this happened.

First is that he was context sensitive. It made sense. When we went somewhere new, he struggled. Well, truthfully, I struggled also. I worried about a lot of things with him as he was somewhat sensitive to outside influences. My energy may have had something to do with his loss of context. Truthfully we weren't that connected though and my emotional state never seemed to affect him one way or another. He was doing a repetitive task and it looked weird.

I think with Murphy the bigger difference was a lack of focus on me. He paid attention but not overly well. He wasn't locked in by any means to what we were doing together. He seemed to enjoy entertaining people, sucking up to the judge and just having a good time. I was there as a driver and valet.

We did well together but I think we did it based on repetition and not connection. Thor is much like this. I am convenient to him, he likes going for a ride to training classes, he likes flirting with the girls in the class and just wants to have some guy time. Fair enough. We will see what happens when we change context.

Now Penny was a different story. She is heavily connected to me and we were very dependent on each other when we went to training and to events. She was locked in with me and new places really didn't bother her.

To be fair, Penny walks into every room like she owns it (for those of you that have met Penny you will understand this better than others). She is very confident of herself and what she is doing. Most of the time she is there to compete with you, other times she is there to embarrass you and let you know that you were not ready to do this. For Penny this was an on/off switch, not an edge she was sitting on. She was going to kill it or blow it up, either way she would do it looking you in the eye.

After covid I wanted to just try her out at an event. We walked in and I felt a little uneasy about what she was going to do. She took that personally and met the challenge. I think she failed six out of six exercises that day. As Amy described it "whoooo who" Penny showed up that day. It was quite embarrassing to say the least but I did understand the work we had ahead of us. She truly was not that far off, but I was in my brain. She was not yet focused on me and hence focused on everything else.

She wasn't far away from qualifying we just needed to buckle in for a bit of work and building of teamwork again. It had been a few years since we had been in the ring together and we were out of practice.

Penny could care less about context. First time we went to a show at a new place on the east side of the Twin Cities, she qualified 2 days in a row. We had never been there together (it was a place where Murphy failed his first day and then ran off a couple of qualifications). It is an older building with wood paneling all over, pretty dirty matts and an overall old building smell.

She walked in like she owned it and then did. This was the first place we learned about her bumping me when I was doing something dumb and scratching her neck until her head went straight up in the air. These were our magic reset buttons to get us back in sync.

Because she was focused on me and not the strange building it was pretty easy for her to just follow instructions. She knew when we did a certain thing, this is what was expected of her. I became her context for the exercise and it had nothing to do with the building. As long as she trusted me and I trusted her, things would be just fine and they were.

It was pretty amazing having this connection and making the discovery about context. The handlers that I watch that I respect the most seem to have this relationship with their dogs. Each has the others back and are not surprised by much. They are amazing to watch.

To Penny's credit she also likes to mess with me but is quite context sensitive about that. If we are doing a demo or the like she knows that she can mess with me. She also loved doing it during private lessons we were taking. I think she liked getting our instructor laughing at me. I think she is also one of our instructors favorites just for this reason.

So when you are having issues, consider if you have worked in that context previously. Also consider if you have your dogs full attention or if their minds are wandering. It will be interesting to hear about your experiences with this.

-Dave

[Today's photos are of Penny and Murphy]

05/18/2025

Normal Signs of Aging

On a commercial the other day I heard the expression "normal signs of aging". I thought, wow, I need to do some more research into this in order to understand if I am indeed normal, because I am indeed aging.

The first sign of aging is that when you hang out with your friends you spend a good majority of the conversation discussing your latest surgery/ache or pain. Did you get vaccinated for the flu of the week or monkey pox? You have very in depth conversations about their knee or shoulder surgery or the prep for a colonoscopy. It isn't just that you are talking about it but you are interested so you have some understanding of it if/whenit happens to you.

I was asked about my kidney surgery just about two years ago now. "How did they find it?" I answered that stuff was abnormal. To which they asked a very direct and fairly gross question which didn't phase me and I answered in the same set of gross terms. Neither of us was phased or thought twice about it and just continued the conversation.

It made me think back to the stuff that my dad went through and how little he spoke about it. We knew because we talked to the doctors but dad never talked about it to my brother or I. I am guessing we were not yet old enough to handle the conversation and be very frank with it. I would agree with that thought for myself at that age. Just tell me what you need done and let me work on that. I don't need gory details.

The other discussion is comparing meds. Are you on this for high blood pressure? Oh yeah, this diabetes med works great and made things so much better. Pretty soon you are on your smart phones comparing lists of drugs you take everyday and their side effects.

But there I was sitting at a downtown bar in a small town in Minnesota talking about health, surgery and a little bit of politics all conversations I never thought I would be old enough to normalize in my life. It was just a normal Thursday night in Buhl MN.

I often wonder if Penny talks with her older friends about her health ailments. "Went to the chiropractor last week, man when she adjusted my atlas it was awesome but made me squeak." "I have to take these pills everyday but after I spit them out everyday for a week they now wrap it in ham and it is delicious. Sometimes I will still spit it out just to get something different to go with my pill. I won the bet with Taylor that I could get them to give me pizza crusts with the pill to get me to take it."

I know Abby had conversations with Taylor when she came home to us. Abby was 11ish when Taylor came home. Abby set her straight about two days in that she was putting up with nothing. If you want a chew toy talk to Penny. Fortunately Penny obliged and she and Taylor would wrestle and play. Abby was still in good shape with some typical stiffness but Taylor was a lot and Abby did not share similar interests with Taylor.

On the other hand Abby was very kind to Thor and Thor in turn was very kind to Abby. Thor did everything he could to not run into or hurt Abby. He was so sweet around her it was very cool. Thor was getting put out on a chain when he came here to live. He wasn't old enough for the Invisible Fence and he had been a free range puppy where he came from, not a great combo with an old dog in the house.

So he would be on the chain and we could try to put him out last so the chain didn't catch Abby. One of the first times out he cut her legs out from under her and she went to the ground with a thud. She got up with her crabby little face and huffed off. This left an impression on Thor and he did his best to keep from having this happen again. He wasn't perfect but he sure tried hard to be good with her. I am sure they had many conversations in their short time together with Abby offering her wisdom to him.

Around the house he was really careful around her however his housemates were not all the careful and sometimes Thor the puppy came out and banged into her. She was close to 17 at the time and seemed to enjoy having him around as he had good energy but wasn't excited about playing puppy pinball.

Thor was much more mature than Murphy was when he came. We had Jessie at the time Murphy showed up and she was probably 14 or so. Jessie was never one that interacted with the other dogs much. She did her thing, found her spots where she would be left alone and raised hell every chance she got. She was much more of a solo "bad dog" than a pack criminal. As a pack member she was just kind of there, even after she ascended to the top of the pack when Maggie died and Charles advocated the leadership position to her she ruled her kingdom from afar.

When Murphy arrived I think Jessie reminded him of his mom. (She was also a brown dog.) Murphy took to her. He loved messing with her to the point she would trap him behind the reclining chair and pop him in the nose when he peaked out. Eventually he would start crying and we would have to rescue him from himself.

Murphy injected life into Jessie and she very much enjoyed him. She had back problems as she grew older and would frequently get acupuncture and/or chiropractic. It made her feel so much better. She was able to run productively in the field until she was fifteen and a half. The other dogs respected her in the area and would leave her be as she was still finding birds and they got to retrieve them. They were fine with that.

Her conversations with us about health were mostly of the "a little help here" variety. She would run herself to the point of being to tired to fight through her back pain and stand up. She DID NOT want to go back to the van, she just needed a hand up so she could start moving again and she would be fine. She was a tough little bu**er for sure.

As Jessie got older she started to exhibit signs of dementia. She never seemed unhappy but she would be confused at times. You would wake up to her smiling face on the edge of the bed saying "GOOD MORNING, ITS GOING TO BE A GREAT DAY, RIGHT… RIGHT… RIGHT?" It never left her unhappy and in fact she seemed just fine with it. The rest of the pack helped her along and would come get us if she got stuck somewhere.

As Penny has aged it has been a little tougher on her. In her younger years she didn't particularly protect herself when she was doing her sports. She flung her body all over the place and would never stop running no matter how bad it hurt.

She blew out both her front shoulders at one point and went through a year long rehab on them. She had her eyeball pop it's lens and had to have surgery to repair it. She is mostly deaf now, has minimal sight in her repaired eye, is starting to have cataracts in the other eye. She is no longer able to wear any kind of collar and has to be on a harness because of the pressure on her eye (the collar causes pressures into the neck which are bad for her eye). She is pretty beat up but again, you wouldn't know it. She gets regular chiropractic care which helps her a lot (until her stupid brother and sisters bang into her after an adjustment). She is still able to go to the occasional obedience class just because she likes going. I can imagine her sitting at a table in a bar drinking water and eating beef jerky telling her friends about her eyesight and the sore muscle in her front leg. When they wanted to go and do something stupid, she would be right there leading the pack.

I can say I have adjusted to my age and the conversations that come along with it. It's all fine and in fact very good. I worry more about the dogs and making sure they are taken care of and comfortable. Sometimes it is harder to tell than others. With dogs like Penny and Jessie doing whatever they want to do is a priority over their own health. They would be sitting in the bar telling their friends about their adventures as well as their aches and pains. Abby was a bit more reserved. She would hold back when hurt or if there was a possibility of it. She always played within the lines and she would not lower herself to sit in a bar or talk about how solid the morning poo was.

I have no idea what "normal signs of aging" look like but I think our pack proves that they look slightly different for everyone and are perceived differently by everyone. They all adopt and adjust to whatever is happening and are happy where they are at.

-Dave

[Today's photo is of Jessie aka the Brown Dog. She is sitting on the big recliner to get away from Puppy Murphy.]

05/11/2025

Never Again

"Never again" was what a person told me about getting another dog after they had lost their old dog at 13.

Now don't get me wrong, there are owners I would fully welcome hearing this from. Some folks really shouldn't have dogs, it doesn't suit their lifestyles nor are they any type of focus in their lives. In some cases it almost feels like they can't wait for their dogs to pass and "help them along" when they show their first signs of age.

Let me unpack that a little bit. Legitimately there are people who shouldn't have dogs. My brother was one of those people and to his credit, he never did. He didn't like them and didn't want them around. While I don't understand that I do respect that you never subject an animal to an unhappy home.

Dogs are expensive (not as much as children mind you) with vet costs, food and all the things that go along with them. For some people that is really difficult to accept. They don't perceive getting enough joy out of them to pay their bills. I talk to these folks a lot when they come and ask me what I would do about a certain medical situation and the expense of it. I get it, dogs are expensive but they are a commitment that you made and you are now responsible for. People do have financial limitations and I do get that but if you are asking me the "right" thing to do that does not play into it.

The President of a company I worked for told me that I was wasting my money on Abby, my 13 year old at the time, when she needed surgery for laryngeal paralysis. He heard she was 13 and what the surgery would cost and just said "what a waste of money". No I did not punch him but I stopped listening to anything he said going forward.

The facts were that Abby was a very young 13. She was in very good shape beyond this issue and the surgery was a miracle in how it helped her. After watching her almost choke to death 3 times in the previous week, her recovery was amazing and she lived an additional 4 years which were quality years.

Some folks feel like they are free from a responsibility after their pet passes. While this is true that does not make up for the emptiness that you feel. It is one of the reasons we always have multiples so that we all always have each other.

The other "never again" people are those that talk about how it just hurts too bad and they simply can't live through that again.

First, if that is the case, you did it right! Losing a friend does hurt, it hurts a lot. I have written many times that if it does suck (losing a pet) you didn't do it right.

I wrote about seeing shadows everywhere a couple years ago. With Murphy I still see his shadow places and sometimes I see it in Thor who looks quite a bit like him (no relation), often I see it in the middle of the night when I come back to bed after a bathroom stop. Murphy and I had this thing where when I came back to bed he would get up from his corner bed and come over to get pets. I was never sure who was comforting who but we both gained a lot from those times.

I see his shadow in Taylor, his daughter. She has some of his qualities and has a vibe to her that reminds me lot of him. It is comforting having her here.

The holes that they leave are large and I understand not wanting to go through it again but I would like to offer another thought on this.

Your previous dogs have spent their lives preparing you for what's next. They have taught you to read signals about going outside, they have taught you how they want to be treated, when they need to be fed and when it is time for bed. They have taught you about unconditional love and about sharing a connection that is like no other. They have spent their entire life preparing you for what is next just as you have spent your live giving them the best life possible. It is the deal that we make with whatever supreme being you may or may not believe in. We get a short time with them where they give us everything in exchange to for being loved and taken care of.

I often think about how disappointed Sam would have been in us if she was the last one in line. If I hadn't continued on with obedience with Murphy and Penny, we hadn't hunted anymore and we had not been there for another group of dogs that were meant for us. Moreso, about all of our "dog friends" who we see at shows and events. The hours of enjoyment hanging out at training or just working on things together. I would never have started teaching or doing private consults had it not been for Sam.

Nothing prepares you for losing your pups whether they are 3 or 17, it is still a gut punch. But that punch subsides and the question you need to ask yourself is "was it worth it". Was it worth a few days/weeks/months of sadness and pain for years of joy and happiness? I would say you don't need to be a math major to figure out how that equation works out.

I have written in the past that Kara may be our last "puppy". Everyone but Charles came to us before they were 14 weeks old. Some were great puppies (Thor, Sam, Penny) others have been great adults/mentors (Sam, Penny, Abby) while others (Jessie) were complete pains in the butt as puppies but turned into good dogs as they aged a bit. The age of one entering the pack really doesn't matter, just the pack matters. My goal going forward would be to get older/senior dogs who need a place to be and enjoy their lives. Seniors are harder to place specifically for the reasons mentioned above. It is hard for people to get on board for a year or two years and then see them leave.

I said that to a co-worker and they just looked at me in disbelief. "How can you do that? You will only have them for a couple of years." Yeah, but what a great couple of years it will be.

It is hard losing a dog but it is far harder to never have had them. The math on this one is pretty simple, even for a couple of years it is so worth it!

-Dave

[Today's photos are of some of our seniors through the years]

Rock Solid Dog Training

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