A good way to start the week with an adorable pup doing downward-facing dog and so much more. Stretch along with this charming duo!

Unleashing our inner farm dog
Tap into rural pleasures (just-picked pears, clucking chickens, muddy boots) during a pet-friendly farm stay. Well-behaved dogs are welcome at the aptly named Dog Mountain Farm in Carnation, Wash., where organic orchards, vineyards and gardens supply scrumptious scenery and farm dinners. And in the East Coast, there’s the 200-acre Champlain Valley Alpacas farm in bucolic Bridport, Vt. — milk goats, learn to spin — good dogs and horses too are welcomed.
dogmtnfarm.com
champlainvalleyalpacas.com

Houseboat vacations
Get a few of your dog park friends together, or for a family reunion, rent dogfriendly houseboats on many of America’s loveliest lakes. From western-state lakes like Mead, Oroville and Trinity to Texas’ Lake Armistad or Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks, check out the rates and locations on foreverresorts.com or houseboating.org.

Trailer Life Lite
Renting a camper trailer — a vintage Airstream or a family-sized model with all the homey comforts — is easy and affordable. Plus you can have your “accommodations” delivered to a choice campground. Many trailer rental companies do all the work — towing, hook ups and taking it away. Best way to find one is to search online for a company in your vacation spot area.

Al fresco film
Drive-in movie lots, such as the historic Raleigh Road Outdoor Theatre on US Route 1 in North Carolina, are a crackerjack option for movie buffs who don’t want to leave their canine cineastes at home. But we really love skipping the car and lolling under the stars on picnic blankets. A couple faves include the oldest continuously running drive-in located in Orefield, Pennsylvania (since 1934), and the Fremont Outdoor Cinema in Seattle, where beanbag chairs are de rigueur.

Scouting antlers
Deer and elk antlers have become our dogs’ favorite chew — and lots of folks these days are training their dogs to find these naturally shed “organic treats.” Once your dog retrieves one from your countryside walk, you can saw it into smaller pieces (removing the sharper ends). Any dog who likes to fetch can be taught how. Check out antler scouting and training tips: Minnesota.publicradio.org

TIP: Do not wash the antlers, just dry-scrub off any dirt or plant material. Water might cause mold.

Community dog wash
Get the neighorhood kids together and hold a dog wash for your favorite shelter. Ask your local pet store to donate tearless shampoo, too.

Hospitable backcountry
Most national parks aren’t all that dog friendly. So skip Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Yosemite — where canines are limited to pavement and campsites — and discover welcoming trails through jaw-dropping wilderness in most national forests and National Recreation Areas, such as, Delaware Water Gap, Hells Canyon, Chattahochee River, and Santa Monica Mountains.
petfriendlytravel.com
hikewithyourdog.com

TIP: Tick season is here, so check your dog thoroughly for signs of ticks — and remove them properly and immediately. If a tick is attached for more than 48 hours, it might infect your dog with Lyme disease. Bring along a tick removing device on hikes.

Lounge lizards
Whether in the pool or on the lake, this is a float made just for pooches who want to cool off this summer. It is tear-resistant, can be used both in the water or as an outdoor bed, and comes in three sizes. Ultrafloats.com

Not far into Mr. and Mrs. Dog, Donald McCaig says of himself and his talented “Blockhead” of a Border Collie, Luke, the male of the title: “I’ve never done as well with Luke as a better handler might have, but Luke adores me. When I go out at 2 a.m. to check lambing ewes, Luke comes too. When I wake with the night sweats, Luke wakes. He thinks I am a better man than I am.  If I sold him, his earnest doggy heart would break.”

It is a tribute to McCaig’s capacity for self-reflection and humor that he is willing to admit his own failures as an occasionally over anxious sheepdog handler. He knows that dogs are not machines and we are not infallible. Ultimately all you can do is the best you can do under sometimes disastrous circumstances.

Upon reaching 68 years of age half a decade ago and finding himself with two quality border collies in their prime, McCaig decided the time had come to launch a campaign to fulfill his dream of the worlds. 

Traveling 34,000 miles in his twenty-year-old car, McCaig, Luke, and June (Mrs. Dog) compete in sheepdog trials around the country hoping to compile enough points to secure invitations to join the American team in Wales.  At the last minute, June garners the invitation, and Luke gets to compete as McCaig’s second dog.

If his best-selling Nop’s Trials is McCaig’s contribution to “lost dog” literature—think of Jack London’s Call of the Wild and White Fang—Mr. and Mrs. Dog: Our Travels, Trials, Adventures, and Epiphanies is his homage to an equally venerable tradition, the “the dog road trip,” of which John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley is perhaps most famous. McCaig is on the road not only to qualify for the worlds but also to broaden his dogs’ experience of different sheep and environments—in a fundamental sense to educate them so they will be better able to cope with situations and varieties of sheep they have not seen before.

Although June pulled them through on cumulative points for the year, her most memorable performance came at a trial in West Texas when she decided to forego herding sheep and goats in favor of far bigger game--a huge, ground-thumping oil exploration seismograph truck. “June wanted, nay NEEDED to fetch that big thumping, flickering weirdness,” McCaig writes, “and nothing I said—neither my shouts nor redirects—swayed June from her goal.”

Once abreast of the thumper, June realized she had not a clue what to do with it and returned to McCaig, but there were no longer any goats to fetch.  Her assault on the seismograph thumper had disqualified her.

Hoping to further his own education, McCaig periodically detours from the sheepdog circuit to visit trainers known for their skill in training methods they have developed or adapted. Along the way, he correctly points out that the battle between practitioners of what we might call punishment-based training and those who prefer awards-and rewards-directed training is now more than 100 years old.

For much of that time it appears that punishment has ruled—aversive training, as it were. McCaig himself is something of a follower of William Koehler, the Disney animal trainer from the mid-twentieth century, who developed a method of obedience training relying on long lines and various chain collars and leashes.  Even today, most people attending obedience classes probably follow some version of Koehler’s method. 

McCaig is looking for training epiphanies; bright moments of understanding or enlightenment that will help him better train and manage his dogs. He meets animal behaviorist Nicholas Dodman, and attends sessions given by trainers using the dog’s ‘innate’ drives, rewards, the Koehler method, and shock collars, which so engage him that he adopts the industry’s terminology and calls them e-collars.

Over the years, McCaig and I have agreed to disagree about shock collars, and in future postings, I hope to examine different approaches to training. For now, I’ll just say that people searching for a blanket endorsement of shock collars or other training devices or methods will not find them here—with the possible exception of the thirty-foot long line, which need not deployed in punitive fashion.

McCaig’s book arrived shortly after I had visited my favorite trainer, Lourdes Edlin.  She is one of those gifted people who will have a dog literally eating out of her hand within minutes of meeting it. She understands that to train a dog, she must learn what motivates it—food treats in many cases, but in others a ball or Kong® or simply praise. 

Edlin said that she was growing tired of teaching people basic obedience—sit, stay, heel, come—and becoming more focused on “teaching people how to do things with their dogs.” The basics would follow from that.

I was reminded of Edlin’s comments when I read McCaig’s reflections on his forays into the world of training. “Though each trainer believes his or her method is best, I don’t think it matters which method the pet owner adopts so long as that owner finds a capable mentor and sticks with the training,” he writes. ”Eventually you will learn to see your dog and when that happens the richness of your and your dog’s lives will tell you what to do next.

“Neither Luke nor June was ever trained to ‘heel’ nor ‘sit’ nor ‘stand for examination.’ They have never retrieved a ball or dumbbell. They rarely play with each other and never play with other dogs. Yet they would be mannerly in any human environment. Not because they were ‘trained’ for good manners, but because they were properly socialized, exercised daily, and have a job—stock work. Mannerliness is a by product of that training.”

A few paragraphs later, he concludes, “Have the highest expectations, do the work, and your dog can walk at your side anywhere on earth. He’ll become the dog you’ve empowered to change your life. As Luke and June have changed mine.”

McCaig’s account of the trio’s trip to Wales is informative, amusing, and somewhat sad.  The two males manage to win a local Welsh competition, the South Wales Sheepdog Trials Hafod Bridge, where McCaig penned his sheep brandishing his Stetson® hat instead if the traditional shepherd’s crook.  A revolution was doubtless averted when McCaig confessed that he simply had deemed his crook too difficult to manage on the flight across the pond and he had neglected to obtain one.  Clearly a telescoping shepherd’s crook is in order.

Luke, June, and McCaig washed out in the first round of the big show.  McCaig blames himself for failing to meet his expectations, but he should not.

He’s written a fine book and made a most excellent life with Mr. and Mrs. Dog. Moreover, they have had many an excellent adventure. What  more  could a dog or human want?

This blog originally appeared on Psychology Today. Reposted with permission.

Jake's visits to the dog park ended when he bit off part of a Bulldog's ear. Jake, a black Lab-Pit Bull mix, belonged to a first-time dog-owner who reacted to his frequent aggressive behavior by saying, “Oh, Jakey, we don't do those things” in a high, sing-song voice. Jake's owner paid the $1000-plus bill for the Bulldog's surgery but the incident reflected the biggest problem with dog parks-and it isn't the dogs.

In 2010, the city of Cambridge, Mass. built a state-of-the-art fenced dog park close to our house. It has running water and bowls for the dogs, free biodegradable waste bag dispensers, and awning-covered benches for the owners. There are two smaller fenced areas, one for puppies and one marked “Time Out.” 

At first, it was nirvana for dog-owning city-dwellers.  

But as the number of visitors increased, the “Dog Park Rules” posted at the entrance were supplanted by the unwritten code “My Way Rules.” Some examples:

1.  You must accommodate my dog's peccadilloes.
“Who does that brown dog belong to?” snarled a middle-aged woman who had been throwing a ball for her yellow Doodle.  I identified myself as the owner of the 8-month-old chocolate Lab, so she unleashed her fury on me.
“My dog is possessive about his ball, so can you keep your dog away?” demanded the Doodle's owner. My dog hadn't actually picked up the ball; she simply chased it. After all, she's a Lab, and it was a ball.  How could she ignore it?
The Doodle's owner was so belligerent that it didn't seem worth arguing with her about the meaning of the words “public park.” I simply headed home, leaving her to harass the owners of any other dogs who might dare to infringe on her dog's sole right to play.  

2.  My dog is sick. Deal with it.
Another afternoon, hacking and choking noises mingled with the barking of a dozen dogs as a new dog entered the gate. None of the dogs had swallowed a stick or ball;  the sound was unmistakable.
“That sounds like kennel cough. Have you thought of taking him to the vet?” someone asked the dog's owner.  The newcomer replied, “When I'm not feeling well, I usually go outside because it makes me feel better, so I thought it might help him, too.”  The owner didn't leave, so everyone else did.

3. My dog is a studly guy.  It's an honor for him to hump your dog. Or how about the owner who chuckled as she commented on the libido of her young 110-pound Bernese Mountain Dog while he relentlessly mounted much smaller dogs.  Observers mentioned that his behavior was a sign of dominance, not sexual prowess.  She looked annoyed and half-heartedly reprimanded him, without physically removing him from his victims. One of the objects of his supposed “affection” was a smaller dog whose rear legs collapsed under the weight of the young goliath.

4.  I've got mail. I've got to check the Red Sox scores. Dog? What dog?
Knowing that their dogs couldn't escape, owners began to focus on their cell phones, newspapers or iPads, paying no attention to what their canine buddies did. There were more biting episodes. Some owners put Animal Control on speed dial. And despite the free bag dispensers, people began to refer to the park-and not fondly-as “the poop pit.”

After avoiding the dog park for the past year, I recently walked my leashed dog on the paved path near its perimeter fence. I watched as a Weimaraner assumed “the position” near a knot of seven preoccupied owners and left a pile that could not be missed if anyone had been paying attention. Not a single person moved to clean it up.

Dog parks have become popular in urban and suburban areas, and they can be a wonderful resource if people are considerate.  Some tips for making the experience pleasant for everyone:
1.  PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR DOG-don't text, and don't read a newspaper, your tablet, or your email unless you're expecting your spouse to go into labor any minute.
2.  Clean up after your dog.
3.  Remember:  the dog park is not for your private use, so act accordingly.  If your dog is not a fan of sharing, don't bring his toys.
4.  Don't take a sick dog to a dog park. If you aren't sure whether your dog's ailment is contagious, see your vet.
5.  Don't allow your dog to hump other dogs.
6.  Remove your dog at the first sign of aggressive behavior.
7.  Don't use a dog park to try to socialize your dog if he has already displayed aggressive behavior. Get training first, then expose him gradually.

Linda Handman is a long-time dog owner, writer, lawyer, and business owner living in Cambridge, Mass.