News - CB'S Dog School

Flint River Ranch is All Natural, Made with no preservatives, all ingredients directly from the United States, USDA approved, Grade A food, Not effected (and never will be) by the pet food recall. Made from 100% fresh human grade food!

I used to be a distributer of a great dog food fifteen years ago, it was excellent than and still is turns out I was able to renew my distributorship and can again promote this dog food which has not in anyway been effected by the recall. It is called Flint River Ranch the number is 1-800-354-6858 if you would like to order Please use my distributor # P851 when you order. They also have cat food! Please feel free to give out this information to anyone who wants help with feeding their pets. Cindy

The latest twist in the pet food recall involves foods that contain contaminated ingredients – ingredients that don’t appear on the list of ingredients that are listed by law on the product label. We’re frustrated, given that we’ve spent 10 years telling our subscribers to read product labels – and make purchasing decisions based on the ingredients that are on the labels. Now, it seems to be developing that “what’s in the bag” (or can or pouch) is accurately described by the product labels only sometimes. The industry owes consumers some solutions; how can we ever trust that what’s in the package is what the label says it is?

In October of 2004 we published an article (“When Foods Go Bad”) that discussed how owners could protect their pets from serious harm from contaminated or toxin-adulterated pet food. It outlined the lessons learned from the three previous commercial pet food disasters: the 1995 event involving vomitoxin in Nature’s Recipe dry foods; the 1998 aflatoxin event involving dry dog foods made by Doane Products; and the still-unidentified problem that sickened and killed dogs who ate certain lots of Go! Natural dry food in 2003.

Those of us who feed our dogs a raw diet that includes bones believe that this is the healthiest, most natural diet dogs can eat. But not everyone is comfortable feeding such a diet to their dogs. You may worry about bacteria or parasites in raw meat, or about feeding your dog bones, or you may have a dog who doesn’t enjoy or do well on a raw dog food diet.

If you prefer to feed your dog a cooked diet, or a diet that includes raw meat but no bones, that’s fine. Your dog will still benefit from a variety of fresh foods in proper proportions, regardless of how they’re prepared.. read the rest [pdf]

Great News: We got the Boalsburg Military Museum for agility class. We will be running a fun six-week session starting September 10, 2007 from 6-8PM. Parking and Restrooms available. Bring a chair to relax, a dog with energy, sneakers to run in, fast chewable bait, and plenty of water for you and your dog.

There is something new brewing on the dog performance stage. It is a combination of obedience and agility. It is not without its critics and its enthusiastic supporters. Some people say that obedience is too formal and serious. Rally obedience is out to change that. Rally obedience is similar to agility in that a judge sets up a pattern in advance and handlers get to walk the course before they go into the ring. The difference is the course isn't made up of obstacles, but exercises. After the judges forward command the dog handler team moves from station to station on its own completing each exercise. Praise, double commands and lots of encouragement are allowed.

Rally obedience is usually timed. There are two levels. Level one is on lead and level two is off with more stations, including at least one jump. The course time is decided by the judge based on a slow walk through of the course with three seconds added for every sit, down, front, finish or stand. Competitors are scored using the time it takes them to complete the course. Any faults add seconds to the run time. A missed or incorrectly performed station can add ten seconds. Three seconds are added each time you retry a station, touch the dog, leash correct, knock over a cone, lose control or have a behavior problem.

Rally obedience can also be non-timed and is scored like obedience, with points deducted from an out of 200. Some obedience people have reservations about the sport. They feel there is too much dog-handler interaction and all the talking and extra commands can confuse a young dog that hasn't matured in the obedience ring. Most handlers love it because it has challenges of its own, including no mental breaks as you progress through the course. Dogs need to have a solid attention span and focus and enough stamina to get through the course. Well-heeled obedience dogs will have a hoot.

What Is A Tracking Test?
"The purpose of a tracking test is to demonstrate the dog’s ability to recognize and follow human scent, a skill that is useful in the service of mankind.” (AKC Tracking Regulations) All dogs regardless of their size can track because they come with the natural equipment to track—a nose. A dog has 220 million olfactory cells versus 5 million for humans.
"Tracking by nature is a vigorous, noncompetitive outdoor sport. Tracking tests demonstrate the willingness and enjoyment of the dog in its work, and should always represent the best in sportsmanship and camaraderie by the people involved.” (AKC Tracking Regulations) This is a sport where the dog is in charge and the handler has to place his trust in the dog. The talented one is the one with 4 legs at the end of the lead. Tracking is a true team sport with handler and dog working together. Tracking tests are open to any breed that is registered with the American Kennel Club, that is 6 months of age or older, and that has previously passed a certification test given by an AKC tracking judge. Pre-registration for the tracking test is necessary.Because of the scarcity of tracking test there are often more entries than fields available for tracking. In such a case a drawing is held to decide what dogs participate in the test and which ones are alternates.
On the day before the test a track for each dog is plotted by placing flags in the ground at the start, turns and the finish. On the day of the test handlers draw a number to signify which track their dog will run. A tracklayer will walk the already plotted track and remove all the flags except the start flags. The handler with his dog in a tracking harness with a long line attached approach the first flag. From here the dog’s nose takes over and hopefully leads the handler through turns and across fields to find an article (usually a glove) dropped at the end of the track by the tracklayer. Two AKC qualified tracking judges officiate. There is no set time limit as long as the dog is working. Each track is 440 to 500 yards in length and can contain 3 to 5 turns. The track is aged from 30 minutes to 2 hours. The camaraderie is exemplified by the cheering and applause that breaks out when the dog successfully completes the track and finds the glove.

Alumni Refresher Course
All Alumni are welcome to keep their dogs obedience refreshed by joining us in our weekly begginer obedience class weeks 2-8. The cost is $5 evening, for more information and class times call 814.355.1612.