Repellent for Pets

For pets, add 1 cup of water to a spray bottle, followed by 2 cups of distilled white vinegar. Ticks hate the smell and taste of vinegar, and will be easily be repelled by this ingredient alone. Then, add two spoonfuls of vegetable or almond oil, which both contain sulfur (another natural tick repellent). To make a repellent that will also deter fleas, mix in a few spoonfuls of lemon juice, citrus oil, or peppermint oil,
They do not like tea tree oil either!

Stella and Rosco!

You have seen pictures of Stella and Rosco in training but here they are with Therapy Dogs International doing therapy work after the tornadoes in Granbury! Thanks for what you do.

Congratulations to Phyllis and Bentley!

Talk about teamwork! A huge congratulations to Phyllis and Bentley, a Saluki for passing their service dog evaluation today! What a great accomplishment! We are very proud of you at Taming the Wild Side! Thank you Sandy Wittliffe Of Angel Paws for evaluating!

Lets Talk Recall!

Everyone wants their puppy or their dog to come when called! It is for their safety and let's face it, we feel great when they come running to us! We almost expect our dogs to automatically know that they should come when we call them, I mean we play with them, we feed, take care and provide for them. Why shouldn't they come? However, when we call them and they look at us or just sit there and then turn away, it brings about feelings of disappointment, frustration and can even be a little hurtful! Suddenly, we decide that the dog or pup needs to be punished. We either walk up to them and scold them, spank them or worse yet get close enough to get their attention and then call them and they do come only to get reprimanded for not coming the first time they were called and you had to walk part of the way to get them. Well yelling, scolding and spankings are a sure way to get your dog or pup to never come to you. Why should they? There is nothing positive about coming up to you or you coming up to them attached to the word "come." As a matter of fact, especially with a young pup that you are helping to mold their opinion of the world, you have just taught that you are unpredictable, a source of pain and something to be nervous and anxious around. This will later domino to people in general. You are now opening a can of worms for many other behavior issues. Now let's talk about how to do it right!! When you call your dog, put some value on the word that you are using. If it is "come" then just stand there NEXT to your dog and say "come" and then deliver a nice tasty treat! Repeat this several times. Next back away just a bit, get excited call your dog and when they come again deliver that tasty treat or if they like toys pull out the ball or any other toy they like and play. If you use a ball and they fetch it, when they are coming back to you say "come" and throw the ball/toy again! Play hide and seek games! Hide very easily at first, call your dog and when they find you deliver a reward! These are all fun ways to make a recall fun and positive. Use lots of praise when they get to you. I always use a high value treat when I call my dog to come to me and they ALWAYS get some sort of reward for coming to me! Even if I am in the backyard and call them. when they come I say, "good dogs, lets go get a cookie!" Sometimes I call them to the backdoor and release them again to go and play instead of coming in as their reinforcer! Establishing a history of high reinforcers is the road to a good recall. When you call your dog, they should believe a party is about to happen! Let's talk about distractions! When you call your dog you need to be sure that they are not around a distraction that you suspect or know you are competing for their attention. You must build your recall from no/low to high distractions. If you know that your dog will not come to you when he is outside around squirrels then you need to GO AND GET THEM! Sorry having a large yard is no excuse! The more you call and give them the opportunity to not come when called the more you will unravel your recall! Before you decide to call your dog, check out what he is doing or what is around him. Be patient and work through your distraction areas! Recalls are not trained overnight, they are a reflection of your relationship with your dog so you need some history behind a good one! Dogs have a mind of their own and are not robots, I believe even the best recall may only be about 98% perfect!! My best advice is to get with a positive based trainer that can teach you many games and ways to help build that great recall!!

Agility!

We had another great night at Cowtown Dog Sports! Dixie working with Jeep at agility! We are working on rear crosses, she is doing better than I am!

Buffalo Boogie 2013!

Taming the Wild Side went to the Buffalo Boogie with friends, clients and their dogs! We had a great time, nice walk , plenty of shade and water! All of the dogs did great, good manners and a big thank you for training your dogs! We will plan on doing this one again next year!

Chad advising this way to the Buffalo Boogie!!

We saw Karen with Meggie! Meggie and Karen have done some training with Taming the Wild Side and they were doing great this morning!

My Dodger showing off his new bandana!!

Haha Dixie says, "oh how far are we walking!"

Susanne and Emmy!!

Mary Beth and Jeep!!

These cute pups had a ride!

We are off!!

The dogs did great today! Lots of people and dogs!

Dixie needed her 5 minute break!

Still breaking!

Time for a little water!

Taking care of our dogs!

We are off again!

Robert, we are going this way!

Entertainment along the way!

A great group today!!

Friends from way back!

Had to get our picture around the finish line! Three miles walk today and all the dogs did great! Lots of little legs and some senior dogs that were real troopers!

Robin and Bully with Cowtown Dog Sports! Dixie's and Jeeps agility trainer!

Time for more shade, water and rest! Susan and Denali are chilling out!

"You are such a good dog!"

SWEET!

Something for everyone!

Tired pups today!

Nice medal today!

Bully!!

Robert and Britt enjoying their day!

Dixie on the way home! So tired!

A Rescue Dogs True Cost!

Great chart showing the cost to rescue one HEALTHY dog! These costs are without medical care. It is so important to support our rescue organizations!

New Agility Class!

New Agility Foundation 1 class is starting this Tuesday at Cowtown Dog Sports! Dixie and I are having a blast in this class! 

 We still have some spots available in our Foundation for Agility 1 class that starts on Tuesday, May 14 at 7PM. Our goal is to enhance the relationship between you and your dog while learning body awareness exercises and other skills that pertain to the sport of dog agility. 

 Class will be held in a shaded, safe, enclosed area and pools will be available for the dogs to cool off. We are located just 20 minutes west of downtown Fort Worth. 

 If you are interested, either leave a message here or visit us at www.cowtowndogsports.com and either click on the 'Contact Us' tab and leave an Email or click on the 'Registration' tab and fill out a registration form. Hope to see you there!

Wow check this out!

 Is your dog scratching up your back door or barking when he wants to come in, pounding on the window, trouble fitting through the doggie door? Here is a great solution!

WooHoo!

Emily's dvd's are out!! As you know with Emily she breaks everything down into easy to train steps!! This also has some great footage of Dixie, my Basset Hound, that I have not shown before!! A great dvd!

New DVD release "Harnessing the Hunter: Building you relationship and reliability with a hunting dog" by Emily Larlham. Just click here for more info!