Elbie, Hoover, Dodge & Friends!

[koalathebear]

I love doggy excitement so much. Every morning when we open Hoover's crate, he comes wiggling out with so much happiness and enthusiasm it makes us laugh. He does the whole body wiggle, he's looking around, he approaches with extreme concentration: "I shall be cuddled!" is the expression on his little face. Also whenever we get home in the car, the dogs come running to the gate and there are two paving stones near the gate and Hoover always puts his two front paws up there as if to rise majestically against the sky and greet us with grandeur. Then he gives us a very happy wiggle greeting.

Elbie is learning that he must sit for pats but it is so funny because he will plonk his butt on the ground but he puts his ears back and you can almost see him imploding from the strain of not leaping about as he sits there and tries not to wriggle too much. I look down at my little agonised seal with his piteous 'pat me' eyes and it's a bit hilarious. He's still at the point where he will sit for only so long and then *boing* he'll be up in the air again ;)

"Stand" is one of those deceptively easy but incredibly difficult things to teach - well for us anyway. For a while, we were wondering if we'd ever get Elbie to stand on command because his default position is always to sit – especially if someone is going to pat him. We also had difficulty with his stands because he'd take a step forward. He is now at the point where he stands on the spot and can mostly stand for pats and his stand is quite nice-looking. It was such a lot of hard work, particularly for OH who has run through stand with him over and over and over again.

Also, one interesting thing that Elbie's Sunday obedience instructor said was that given that Elbie likes tricks so much and is so good at them, we should try to make heeling a 'trick' for him. He gets lots of praise/reaction for getting tricks right and we should make a big fuss about him getting heeling right, too. Last week, the class started with heeling and Elbie's focus was all over the place so if we can find a way for him to find heeling engaging, he might like it more. His loose-leash walking during class around the obstacle course is good and he ignores the distractions so we're hopeful he'll do well in that for assessment on Thursday.

Like Ava, our two are always hungry but Elbie is initially very distracted during the early parts of obedience class and gets very distracted at the start of walks. So far, Hoover seems to have very good focus. The only time Hoover's focus is 'bad' is when Elbie is there so I have been working at calling them when they're at play and rewarding them when they come. Weirdly enough, recall is almost 100% perfect for the OTHER dog i.e. if I call Hoover, Elbie comes and vice versa!!!! I can't help thinking they're just nosy and wondering what I want with the other dog.

As for the urban LLW – OH and I love walking and we'd love our dogs to be able to share this experience with us so as soon as the pulling behaviour stops, they'll be able to do heaps more walks.

wuffles, you do realise that we now MUST see a video of the reclusive yet incredibly famous Satch … ;) Including go to your mat, drop and roll over!

ETA: Wow - this thread is now 37 pages! :p

Edited November 23, 2010 by koalathebear

[wuffles]

wuffles, you do realise that we now MUST see a video of the reclusive yet incredibly famous Satch … :p Including go to your mat, drop and roll over!

He doesn't do any of these things, except drop when you get really tough with him

[koalathebear]

wuffles, you do realise that we now MUST see a video of the reclusive yet incredibly famous Satch … :p Including go to your mat, drop and roll over!

He doesn't do any of these things, except drop when you get really tough with him

I think that would make for a great comedy video Especially with a baffled Ava in the background

[Max#1]

The problem with rewarding with 'play' is its not as easy as rewarding with food, and I'm just not sure if I'm doing it right. And with changing the reward, does that mean we have to start everything from scratch?

Somehow I think I would benefit from some one-on-one training instruction, especially as Max goes through the supposed 'terror' months!

I second the call for a Satch-video!

[koalathebear]

The problem with rewarding with 'play' is its not as easy as rewarding with food, and I'm just not sure if I'm doing it right. And with changing the reward, does that mean we have to start everything from scratch?Somehow I think I would benefit from some one-on-one training instruction, especially as Max goes through the supposed 'terror' months!

I second the call for a Satch-video!

you definitely don't have to start from scratch. It's always good to mix up rewards anyway. We mostly reward with food but we also reward our two with toys – hold them up and make them do their thing and when they do them they get the toys. We reward Elbie with tug. Elbie would even work for his hot water bottle. Food is the most powerful motivator for our dogs but they will definitely work for other things, too. If you like I can ask HH our behaviourist if she will do a 'distance' consult i.e . you take videos and describe behaviours and talk on the phone. It's not the same as being there in person but it's probably ok in the interim and as you mentioned, you might even be making it to Canberra at some point :p

[Max#1]

That's a nice offer! But maybe I'd be better to see it done. I'm a 'watch and learn' kind of person, rather than a 'read and learn'. This guy with the golden retriever - all his actions were so smooth. The dog would do something, then out of nowhere was a tug toy, then that game was over and the dog was heeling, then it would take off to retrieve a toy... I don't even know where these toys were coming from! He must've had 35 pockets!

ETA: and thinking about it, by the time I make videos and put together questions, it could take months - ha!

Edited November 23, 2010 by Max#1

[KumaAkita]

Hello All! Sorry, been AWOL for a little while... things go sooo busy all of a sudden!

I haven't had a chance to read everything, so will comment on what I remember and will come back in detail later (slacker, i know!)

So... LLW, in our house it is achieved with the use of a black dog infin8 collar. Cheating I know, but when it's 47Kg of dog versus lone woman, dog will win every time. He's mostly good, I'd say loose about 95% of the time. It's the 5% that he's a total nutbag and I have to maintain control and found that this can only be done with a harness. When he starts pulling I say "uh uh" and he slows. If he starts pulling too much, I stop make him sit and give eye contact. Wait until he's calm and move on. This takes a few times to stop him. i found the reversing thing didn't work for me... Kuma likes movement - any kind of movement. Stopping means no movement. He's funny, if he starts looking behind us when walking I say "forward" and he turns around and looks/walks in a straight line. I'm also starting with Left and Right. But slowly slowly.

Good luck to those who are working on LLW without Harness.

Hmmm... I remember some cute photos... I haven't had a chance to look at any videos... I'll comment more later!

My little boy is in solitary confinement. We started planting in our yard on the weekend (Yay!) and Kuma decided that he didn't like where we'd planted a few of our trees and decided to move them himself. We rigged up a temporary fence yesterday, but he managed to sail over the low retaining wall. He hadn't worked it out until this morning, so we hadn't worried. So for the time being he is in the house until such time that we can manage to rig up a better fence. The OH went home at lunch and let him out to pee. I think it was a wee bit hot, coz he was straight back at the front door. As soon as he was let in he went back to the cool floor in the hallway. I had also left the fan on for him, so undoubtably it is way cooler in the house!

Anyhoo, trust all are well. Look out for news on Kuma and Ava's party in the near future (sorry Non-Canberrans!)

Edited November 23, 2010 by KumaAkita

[wuffles]

I'd say there would be some good Youtube videos about rewarding with toys/play, I'll have a look when I get home!

I will admit that in my experience so far I have had to do a lot more learning than Ava In our Bronze classes I was getting in trouble for confusing her with my feet and hands. I didn't know how to hold the leash and treat at the same time. I would step off on the wrong foot, then not know what to do next. I was a bit of a mess really! I'm still not perfect, but it takes a lot of practice and trial and error to work out how to do all this stuff. I'm still trying to decide what hand I should signal with

I've done some work on teaching Ava that her rewards don't always come from my body like from a treat bag. I've been using little containers of food which I spread around our house or the oval. Then we do an exercise, I mark the right behaviour, then run with her to one of the containers and let her eat the food in it. She thinks this is sooooo exciting :p So you could probably do some of these kinds of exercises if you don't want to carry toys around everywhere, even putting him in a stay with a toy in sight, mark and release to go get the toy?

Our "trialling" classes are all about the handlers really... as all the dogs know all the exercises. We get a lot of one-on-one advice about our handling which is what we all really need. If only you were in Canberra, Max#1...

Edited November 23, 2010 by wuffles

[betsy]

Completely OT but I found it a bit cute

It has been hot here the past few days, so I have made a frozen block with carrots and kabana. Plus have now a great new hose (I was proud of the self assembly that it took).

I came home from work and gave Ziggy the iceblock - which he loved! I then made a start with the hose on re-filling the clam shell, and letting him drink from the end of the hose, plus giving him the occasional spray to cool him down.

A bit of time passes, and I walked down the side of the house. There are a few holes there, not too big. Well Ziggy rushed to one to retrieve what I thought must have been a bone, but in fact was the remaining piece of the ice block!

[Clastic]

Hrm.. loose leash walking.. Mars seems to do OK with it now, even out on walks if I call his name or ask him to 'look' he will. Pepper.. not so much, she gets very distracted when she starts moving so we use the Black Dog halter on walks, but a harness during classes (as the instructor OH had didn't like the use of the halter so much...)

Hope the weather holds for the party on Saturday! I am waiting for the pressies to be delivered.. hope they will get here in time!

[minxy]

I tried my first LLW with Kyojin the other day. He walked really well, considering OH's normally the one holding the leash. I can't have it completely hanging though, need to lift it just the slightest with my left hand (still slack, just lifted) otherwise it hangs right in front of my knee which drives me insane.

[lilli_star]

Anyhoo, trust all are well. Look out for news on Kuma and Ava's party in the near future (sorry Non-Canberrans!)

*Mutters about living 3 hours away...*

[KumaAkita]

Anyhoo, trust all are well. Look out for news on Kuma and Ava's party in the near future (sorry Non-Canberrans!)

*Mutters about living 3 hours away...*

Starts at midday on Saturday. You can leave at 8:30 and get here with plenty of time to spare. Stay the night in Canberra (we have a spare room and plenty of room for Roo to run around) and be home by oh, say midday on Sunday. Easy!

[Clastic]

Anyhoo, trust all are well. Look out for news on Kuma and Ava's party in the near future (sorry Non-Canberrans!)

*Mutters about living 3 hours away...*

Starts at midday on Saturday. You can leave at 8:30 and get here with plenty of time to spare. Stay the night in Canberra (we have a spare room and plenty of room for Roo to run around) and be home by oh, say midday on Sunday. Easy!

[lilli_star]

Anyhoo, trust all are well. Look out for news on Kuma and Ava's party in the near future (sorry Non-Canberrans!)

*Mutters about living 3 hours away...*

Starts at midday on Saturday. You can leave at 8:30 and get here with plenty of time to spare. Stay the night in Canberra (we have a spare room and plenty of room for Roo to run around) and be home by oh, say midday on Sunday. Easy!

Awww, that's so nice of you. If it wasn't the craziest time of the year for teachers (i.e. when reports have to be written), I would seriously consider it. You guys will have a great time- I look forward to seeing the pics (and hopefully videos).

Roo is a funny thing- I bought her a couple of deer antlers (to keep her occupied after having the op) and I was a bit disappointed because she didn't show much interest after the first day. I got one out for her a little while ago to see if she had changed her mind, and she's right into it! Hmmm, well, she was. Attention-span-of-an-ant girl has now moved on to see if the cat has left any biscuits on the floor

Edited November 23, 2010 by lilli_star

[koalathebear]

Ah, what a pity you can't attend. :'( Another time perhaps ... We also have a spare room.

ETA: Although, I just saw this photo of a Canberran spider.

Also, this

. A 10 plus minute Japanese short film about a girl Mika and her dog Marimo. It comes from the compilation of short films named All About My Dog (2005). It's a little repetitive but it's quite touching. Edited November 23, 2010 by koalathebear

[ravenau1]

Also, this

. A 10 plus minute Japanese short film about a girl Mika and her dog Marimo. It comes from the compilation of short films named All About My Dog (2005). It's a little repetitive but it's quite touching.

Awwww

It was very difficult for me to decide to get another dog. I still cry when I think about my Malamute, and he passed away in 2003. I worried about losing another dog, and my ability to cope with the loss. But then, finally I remembered this, I have it in a book (that was given to me by my Grandparents in 1979!) but I found it online, don't know if you've all read it or not.

The Last Will and Testament of An Extremely Distinguished Dog

http://www.eoneill.com/texts/blemie/contents.htm

And this bit

One last request I earnestly make. I have heard my Mistress say, "When Blemie dies we must never have another dog. I love him so much I could never love another one." Now I would ask her, for love of me, to have another. It would be a poor tribute to my memory never to have a dog again. What I would like to feel is that, having once had me in the family, now she cannot live without a dog!

[Clastic]

ETA: Although, I just saw this photo of a Canberran spider.

:D

I really dislike spiders..! When I was younger there was a huntsman sitting above the door frame.. I was so freaked out it might jump on me when I walked out the door (I know, huntsman can't jump.. but still!) that I went out the back door and jumped the fence to get to school! (Mum's house doesn't have a gate

I've told OH like a million times that when we move into the new house the first thing that is happening is I will have the pest control around to spray the whole house to eliminate any creepy crawlies and also to prevent them from stepping foot in the house.

[Max#1]

Clastic - I'm with you on the spiders. Oh I just hate them. So much so, I actually encourage a daddy long legs in every room of the house. I strategically make sure there's at least one in every corner - cause they keep the others away!!!!! When we moved out of our rental, I had to clear them all away - fair enough. Two days later I came back to let the carpet cleaners in and there was this massive spider (I have no idea what it was) on the wall. That was proof enough to me. I had to pay the carpet cleaners $20 extra to get rid of it!

Flyball training again last night. Again an awesome time! There's something about that training that is exciting enough for Max, that he's just responding so so so well. So. I start incorporate our obedience training into flyball! ha! I'm focusing on sit and drop, and maintaining those despite distractions. This is what we've been told we need for 'basic 1'. (As well as LLW of course...).

This morning more LLW to the park. He's really clicked that he needs to be beside me, and volunteered to come back beside me every time I stopped walking (because he was pulling). Yay yay yay!!!!! Now for the next bit. After three to four steps he still goes to the end of his lead!!! I tried the suggestions that KTB put up from the other thread about walking backwards - though the duffa is quite content for us to make our gradual way to the park by going forward and backwards....hmmm.....

[KumaAkita]

Morning All! Trust all's well...

Ravenau: that made me :'( .... so did many of the other stories about losing pets. We lost our Lab Daisy when I was in yr12. That was a sad day. She managed to run out on the road and got hit by a car. She died in mum's arms on the way to the vet (45Km away...) Worst part was that we lived in the QUIETEST street known to man. One car a day, tops. She managed to find the only one. Silly sausage. We did call her the dumb blonde coz she would always overshoot her exit through the door and skid into the door frame!

I can't bare the thought of losing Kuma so I choose not too think about it (for the time being anyway)

I have no fear of spiders, I'm tough

What does everyone define as LLW? I define it as no pulling on the lead. Kuma has free reign to the end of the leash and the minute he pulls he gets a correction. I pull him in close if we pass someone, but other than that he is free to range. What about everyone else? Is LLW to you loosely at your immediate side (kinda like an informal heel, I guess) or do you allow for some freedom?

Ohh... Kuma has learned Left! We were walking this morning and we went a different way home. As we were approaching our street, I said Left and he turned. For now I count that as a win (till he ignores me next time...)

Little turd did more excavating last night. Luckily the OH bought more chicken wire, so now our trees are fenced in. We'll see how that goes today, we let him outside.

Edited November 24, 2010 by KumaAkita