PS- We need to POTTY ON COMMAND ON A LEASH for a drive across the country......

I'm going up to visit my sister and Angela next week and I'm making a list of things to discuss with them regarding the trip.

- Arrange and reserve hotels for the trip. Some hotels will take dogs but not over a certain weight.
- Water from home to avoid upset stomach from strange water.
- Tags with Ang's cell phone and my parent's number.
- Enough food to last for a few weeks until she can see what's available up there.

I've tried googling dog trainers and there is really not much up there but I'll keep looking.

Anything other suggestions?

I just traveled from the Yukon to Hungary via Vancouver. A lot of the hotels have a weight limit (in fact I couldn't find a single one who said above 50 lbs) and I have 2 dogs 65 & 75 lbs, plus my friend who had her 65lb dog. When we called we asked if they would make an exception as it was just for one night, they did. So something to ask when the hotels are booked.

Also, might be impossible with a completely untrained dog, but we muzzle trained the dogs before we left (law in HU), but it helped because we could bring them places in Vancouver that we normally couldn't as long as they wore their muzzle.

Also, I don't know any obedience trainers from there, but there is an agility trainer coming to Whitehorse next week, Gay Kennedy with Rruff Diamonds Dog Agility club, based out of Yellowknife, it would be worth contacting her to see if there is anyone teaching obedience there.

Let me know if you get in contact with her, if not, I can talk to her next week. I will also ask around town to see if anyone knows of obedience trainers they would recommend over there.

ETA: Forgot to say, I assume Yellowknife gets most of the same dog food we do, so TOTW, Honest Kitchen, Acana, Orijen etc. We get some good food, just have to go to the feed store and other private retailers.

Thanks for the great information Niomi. I'll pass it along to my niece and sister.

Rruff Diamonds was the only thing that came up when I did a google search for Dog Trainers in Yellowknife. Any further info regarding trainers in Yellowknife would be greatly appreciated.

I'm hoping I can finally get through to my neice how important training is for this dog.

ETA - The trip is planned for August 7th so there is still some time to do some training and planning.

Edited by Debbie Martin (06/24/2013 11:01 PM)
Edit reason: add ETA

Maybe if your niece has a "fun" experince with training, she will be more into it.

Some people just are lazy and don't want to do it, some people just never discovered the joy of working with their dog, and when they do, they are hooked.

Especially with your niece moving to a new place and needing to make friends, maybe a dog club could help with that too!

Just wanted to add to the hotel thing, if you tell them the dog is crate trained and is never left in the hotel unattended (which means ordering room service to eat), they are much more forgiving of size.

 Quote: Niomi Smith

Maybe if your niece has a "fun" experince with training, she will be more into it.

Some people just are lazy and don't want to do it, some people just never discovered the joy of working with their dog, and when they do, they are hooked.

Especially with your niece moving to a new place and needing to make friends, maybe a dog club could help with that too!

Just wanted to add to the hotel thing, if you tell them the dog is crate trained and is never left in the hotel unattended (which means ordering room service to eat), they are much more forgiving of size.

Good points!

OK so I talked to Gay Kennedy today about obedience trainers in Yellowknife.

So Stephanie VanDyke is a Brad Pattinson type trainer there, then there is the owner of Artistic Hounds pet store, who does clicker training, however her classes are always VERY full, so she should register before moving there, if at all possible.

Gay also said that her agility club is very used to dealing with untrained dogs, as not many owners train their dogs in Yellowknife. So she said that they teach basics as well as agility through her club (marker training).

So not many options, but a few. Hopefully these help!

Thank you so much for your help Niomi.

My sister used a Brad P trainer for her previous dog and was not happy with him at all. She (and I) thought he was being way too rough on a young dog. I don't think my neice will want another Brad P trainer but I'll forward both of the trainer's info to her and let her decide.

Sad story, but my neice was at home with their 9-week old pup and the puppy choked on a piece of kibble and died. Totally not her fault but she blames herself for the puppy dying. Because of this, she refuses to use any treats in training. She's worried she'll "kill another dog". She may be more open to if it is under the supervision of a good trainer and now that her dog is amost a year old.

That's so sad. I'm sorry for her.

Better (more positive) reactions going forward might be to use tiny soft training treats like http://leerburg.com/1078.htm and http://leerburg.com/1141.htm and to learn CPR, perhaps printing out a simple set of instructions (I have this taped to my fridge), and read it regularly. It's so useful to have it memorized so the rote part of the brain can take over in a moment of panic.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-to-do-when-your-dog-is-choking.html

The Heimlich maneuver is included in this diagram of canine CPR, too:
http://www.kandlkidz.com/Logo/dogCPR.jpg




There's a short clip (video) here:
http://www.petplace.com/dogs/heimlich-for-your-dog/page1.aspx

We had Brad Pattinson here last year, I didn't take his training, but had training partners who did.

They quite liked him for the adult dogs, who had gone through the positive reinforcement training and needed a bit of proofing and/or the owner needed to learn how to put boundaries on their dog.

However, for the puppies/dogs without that base it is WAY overboard.

So if it were me, I would try to get into the Artistic Hounds classes, then the Brad Pattinson one if the dog needed it. then some Agility for fun!!