Elbie, Hoover, Dodge & Friends!

[KumaAkita]

Mwaaaahhh ha ha ha. That's awesome. Elbie is just adorable

[MavericksMission]

:D

Elbie's Music Video is Awesome!!

[koalathebear]

Thanks! It was fun to use the software. I am running low in Elbie videos for source material so if anyone wants a video made of their fur kid, then let me know :D Just need to give me the video clips and a preferred song

[koalathebear]

Last week, SecretKei posted about how topbuy had soft crates on sale. Elbie has way too much Stuff and my husband's always laughing at how I keep buying him stuff (although HE always buys him stuff, too!) but I couldn't resist and so bought a soft crate for Elbie ... just because ... no idea what we're actually going to use it for

It arrived while I wasn't home so my husband emailed me and said that he was impressed that it comes with a soft mat, and also has built-in zippered pouches and folds up into an easy-to-carry version. It's pretty big and apparently Elbie didn't hesitate to go inside - he fits inside with no problems.

The large crate:

Elbie looking comfy with in his new crate - the fat toy at the front is his squeaky sheep toy that sounds like an asthmatic walrus.

Elbie being posed for a photo - his demented fixed look is probably because he's staring at a piece of devon

His teeth are apparently slightly bared here because he seemed to think that "Touch" meant "Teeth" or somethi8ng

Edited August 30, 2010 by koalathebear

[koalathebear]

Elbie's willpower being tested by

.

It took all of tonight's dinner kibble but tonight, Elbie learned how to

.

Here's an

. Edited September 3, 2010 by koalathebear

[koalathebear]

Some more pictures of Elbie and his new crate. He really likes it. It's like a playroom. Then again, everything's a playroom to Elbie

Edited September 4, 2010 by koalathebear

[koalathebear]

Peeking Elbie pretending to be cute

Since Elbie no longer has a puppy's snubby nose, my husband has taken to calling him wedge-head in honour of his triangular head with its long snout. Here is wedgehead.

Wedgehead waiting for permission to eat his treat

Wedgehead wondering why I'm hiding behind the kitchen bench

We've been working on teaching Elbie to put his toys into a box. We've also been teaching him more patience with his food - waiting for his kibble as it's scattered around his head and also telling him to get his food but then making him sit once or twice.

It all comes together in

[MavericksMission]

:dancingelephant:

[wuffles]

:dancingelephant: I love how he keeps dropping the ball/toy JUST before it gets in the box, then seems confused about why it's not in the box.

[koalathebear]

:dancingelephant: I love how he keeps dropping the ball/toy JUST before it gets in the box, then seems confused about why it's not in the box.

What can I say? He's spethal.

[lilli_star]

He might be a wedgehead, but he still has those cute ears! :D

Love the video KTB. Got sucked in to watching a few of your others after that too- go Leafs!

[koalathebear]

He might be a wedgehead, but he still has those cute ears!

Love the video KTB. Got sucked in to watching a few of your others after that too- go Leafs!

Haha. Our poor wedgehead If docking his snout doesn't work, we could try sanding it down to puppy snubbiness :D

Ah the leafs game ... that a good match - I love ice hockey, although it's not something we get to see much of down here. My husband's Canadian so when I went to Toronto to visit his family a bit back, we got to see a hockey game

You asked about the 16 squeaker pig mat ... it's actually a pretty inoffensive squeak in the scheme of things. If you want to know what annoying is, try

- his cow and sheep squeakers are way more annoying. You have no idea how embarrassing it is to be on the telephone sometimes trying to have a 'serious' conversation and Elbie's in the background going *squeak* *squeak* *squeak* *squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak*

Some people like my brother will go: "Oh - that's Elbie." Other people are probably just thinking WTF

Edited September 4, 2010 by koalathebear

[lilli_star]

I just watched that video KTB, and it immediately woke up Ruby who was asleep in her crate. It sounds just like her purple bowling pin squeaky toy (named Squeaker of course). She jumped up and was all like "Squeaker? Where's Squeaker?!" I paused it pretty quickly after that. :D Squeaker is an outside toy, but she has a couple of others that have a less obnoxious squeak that stay inside. I'm still not sure about a toy with 16 squeakers though...

[spottychick]

I played that darn squeaker vid too - ended up with two very irate dalmatians barking their heads off and trying to get outside to "save' whatever it was that was being murdered somewhere LMAO

I also watched the music vid. OMG! He is brilliant. I am so impressed, how did you train him? Are you using TOT?

He is still cute I tells ya!

[koalathebear]

lilli_star and spottychick: so sorry about the squeakerama Elbie does that, too - goes bonkers when he hears squeakers on youtube etc.

To be honest, the pig mat squeakers really aren't that bad compared to his other squeakers.

is a comparative video of Elbie's various squeaky toys. See what I mean? Also - I will warn you that there is squeakage in the video ...

spottychick: Thanks! There's still a long way to go for him but we're really happy with his progress. Elbie has done ToT. He is very motivated so we train him with treats (VERY food motivated), tug and toys. Sometimes we train him by clicker-training him the behaviour we want, sometimes we show him how to do it For instance, he learned to 'wave' because I held my hand up to him in a wave position and he copied me Depends on the trick - we tackle the training with different methods.

*

Also, to keep this post updated,

is Elbie playing fetch. He is reluctant to drop the toy right at my feet because he knows we're going to throw it again.

[Max#1]

Just found this - and had to go through from the first page to the last! Wow he's growing up to be so handsome! And I actually find the 'wedgehead' (I can relate, with issues relating to lablips!) quite regal-looking. I will also be regularly checking to see how the ear-saga ends - we have one of our own. Our concerns relate to different rates of ear growth... we've had 'a single' bat ear (like a sail flailing in the wind), but also a flat lab ear (luckily not at the same time), but it may just be a perception thing (this is also an issue with head:body:legs growth proportions - so its hard to tell!).

And the 'play dead' trick. We've been working on that the past week. I like the dramatic inflections Elbie adds. Mine will 'backchat', if things are not quite clear or if we're taking too long - as this is a new trick, the backchatting is frequent, so a 'backchatting', dying, puppy, is quite remarkable. I *will* get it on camera!

In the meantime - back to those ears!

[koalathebear]

Just found this - and had to go through from the first page to the last! Wow he's growing up to be so handsome! And I actually find the 'wedgehead' (I can relate, with issues relating to lablips!) quite regal-looking.

Thanks. My brother commented when Elbie was little that all puppies are cute and Elbie wouldn't be as cute when he grew up but it wouldn't matter because he would have grown up 'with' us and we'd love him even if he was ugly. _{For a while, I felt like my facebook was filled with photos of ugly babies whose parents were convinced that they were gorgeous and I even took to muttering sotto voce to my husband when I saw an ugly baby on the street that that was a "facebook baby" and then we fretted about whether or not parenthood made one blind to the ugliness of one's own baby. Yes I know that's mean, please don't think that I am a terrible person - and to be fair, very young babies are usually kind of ugly and a lot of the ugly babies have grown up to be very cute toddlers and I do have a lot of cute babies posted to my facebook, too. My husband has warned me that the same 'blindness' may occur in relation to dogs and that while I am cooing over my dog and thinking he's still cute, we might have become one of Those Dog Owners that inflicts photo after photo of an ugly dog on the world while under the deluded misapprehension that one's dog is still cute ...}

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that we still love our dog to bits even though we realise he's not the cute little dewey eyed, snub-nosed wee puppy he used to be and more important, we love the personality that is unfolding. I'm sure you're enjoying finding out all the new facets of Max's personality, too I really want to see his photos. Fret not about the ear - I think it lends character. Also, after I read A Letter to a Kelpie, I resolved to cherish Elbie for his wonky, mismatched ears

And the 'play dead' trick. We've been working on that the past week. I like the dramatic inflections Elbie adds. Mine will 'backchat', if things are not quite clear or if we're taking too long - as this is a new trick, the backchatting is frequent, so a 'backchatting', dying, puppy, is quite remarkable. I *will* get it on camera!

Hee hee. Elbie is a real theatrical doggy sometimes. I can't wait to see Max's version. Have you seen Niques' lab James do 'dead'? It's gorgeous.

Edited September 5, 2010 by koalathebear

[Max#1]

Okay here it is.

Again not quite the honk - but I'm very proud to present the result of our 'training' efforts over the past 9 days. This one has taken awhile - particularly to differentiate from down and rollover. Don't you love the legs sticking out - while the head stays up? The little guy doesn't want to miss a thing!

I hope you don't mind me adding it on here KTB! I'm busting to share!

[koalathebear]

Okay here it is.

Again not quite the honk - but I'm very proud to present the result of our 'training' efforts over the past 9 days. This one has taken awhile - particularly to differentiate from down and rollover. Don't you love the legs sticking out - while the head stays up? The little guy doesn't want to miss a thing!

I hope you don't mind me adding it on here KTB! I'm busting to share!

Oh - Max is absolutely adorable. That is so clever of him to be able to do 'dead' already. That attentive expression on his face is extremely familiar to me. I really can't wait to see more videos of him - he's almost quivering with anticipation

[Max#1]

And I think I'm going to have a lot of fun making more videos!

Its really addictive isn't it?!

Anyway - after all the video's and photos I've been watching of Elbie, its only fair to share some back! And I've just been shown Wuffle's you tube channel - its great watching both your dogs! A real pleasure!