Elbie, Hoover, Dodge & Friends!

[betsy]

Glad to hear everyones' kids are back at school and it wasn't too bad

Hoover is looking adorable!

Lilli_star - well done on dislodging the bone!

I took Ziggy to the beach this evening, and ran into a lovely 5mo aussie pup. The dogs had a ball and I was chatting to her owners. Ziggy played beautifully, rough, but not too rough, and she certainly wasn't being shy! This is a fairly new beach to us but so far it has been a very positive experience!

We are supposed to be back at school Thur night. I am on call for work so may not make it. I can only imagine how excited my boy will be. He will be pulling a lot!!

A Q for you all - what do you use for training treats at dog school? I normally use kabana/cheese but it does upset Ziggy's bowels . I just bought the 4Paws roll and am going to try cutting that up...

(Sorry if too much information )

Edited February 6, 2011 by betsy

[Clastic]

lilli_star - Glad to hear that you've had a great weekend! Silly Roo, but am happy to hear that she is OK.

betsy - Mars gets frankfurts, sausages, chicken, lambs fry and chicken liver for training. I'm sure I spend more time preparing his training treats than feeding myself.

[koalathebear]

A Q for you all - what do you use for training treats at dog school? I normally use kabana/cheese but it does upset Ziggy's bowels . I just bought the 4Paws roll and am going to try cutting that up...

(Sorry if too much information )

Our two are cheap so we use Royal Canin kibble - they will do a lot of work for one piece of kibble. To make it more interesting, we also sometimes give them the following (not all at once :

- apple

- devon from Aldi meant for humans

- chopped up fried chicken

- low fat Aldi cheese

They also like a few of the Schmackos products:

Popcorn is great, OH likes the Stix and the Strips because you can divvy them up. The Stix seem a bit better because the Strips sometimes make our two farty ... They also love the marrowbones but each one is pretty huge so we can only bring about 4 each class.

They also sometimes get some of the Delibones Dog Biscuits. These are biggish and can be broken up into little pieces. Delibones are supposed to be better quality i.e. no fillers and all the ingredients are supposed to be human-grade ingredients. We also buy the dog chocolate from Woolworths which they love and various other dog biscuits. The bulk is Royal Canin though

On Dog School days, they get less breakfast and dinner given how many goodies they get during class!

ETA: Lamb Lickables are also a bit favourite and can be broken into tiny pieces. Unfortunately we can no longer give them to Hoover because he is a greedy guts, gulps them without swallowing and then we have to hear gagging noises afterwards

Edited February 6, 2011 by koalathebear

[lilli_star]

For the most spoilt Labrador in the world, I use a combination of (but not all at once!) cabanossi, cheese, cocktail frankfurts (cooked in microwave to be 'smellier'), shredded ham, BBQ chicken, liver treats, devon and those 4 Legs brand balls. Not Chunkers though- stinky!

God knows what the girl at the deli counter at the supermarket here thought!

Needless to say, Miss Roo would not be given much other food on dog school days

Edited February 6, 2011 by lilli_star

[wuffles]

Sigh, my internet connection dropped and I lost my reply ;)

For Satch, who is not particularly food motivated, I bring out the big guns. Usually BBQ chicken or leftover sausages or steak. For assessments I used to use raw meat which yes, was messy, but at least it held his attention for more than 10 seconds

For Ava the Garbage Guts I generally use kibble She loves cheap supermarket kibble (don't worry, she gets better stuff for brekkie/dinner) so I use that. Sometimes I use devon/chicken/Natures Gift treats or whatever I can find that morning but she works just as well for kibble.

betsy: I warn you that 4Paws roll STINKS after a few days, even if you freeze it and defrost

Edited February 6, 2011 by wuffles

[lilli_star]

ETA: Yoicks, lilli_star - just read your post about the bone. You must have posted the same time I did. I'm glad you were able to dislodge it. My old family dog Kitt had a similar issue and I also had to reach in and dislodge it. A lot of people get bitten when they do this but clearly we were lucky!! glad Roo is ok.

To be honest, I wasn't thinking about getting bitten, and unlike the mouse episode a few months ago (when Ruby ate a dead mouse and I tried to get her to throw it up bc I wasn't sure if it had been poisoned or not. It hadn't, but I couldn't make her throw up and my hand got chewed on enough to hurt! Ahh the joys of visiting my brother's farm...), she didn't try to bite down on my hand. I guess she knew I was helping her. I'm just glad I was around when it happened. Makes me glad I don't leave any bits of bone laying around and I watch Roo when she has a shank bone. Can't do much about it though when you're at someone else's house though

[koalathebear]

betsy: I warn you that 4Paws roll STINKS after a few days, even if you freeze it and defrost

I haven't tried 4paws but the Aldi devon rolls are huge so I cut those up and freeze it and they seem fine. OH, because of his Canadian-ness had never heard of devon before but sniffed it and pronounced it to be hot dog meat

Also, once he bought them Puppy Roll and I think that he was almost as excited about it as they were! He also got them some meatballs which they LOVED. I swear he buys more dog prezzies than I do!!

lilli-star - have you tried lamb flaps? They're quite soft and seem safer - it just takes ages to cut off all the fat. So gross. Also, after my two eat bones/lamb flaps, they get chalky white poo, which is really weird.

Edited February 6, 2011 by koalathebear

[betsy]

Thanks for all the suggestions (and warnings wuffles ). I am a tad worried now because the 4paws roll is really big, there is no way that it will be eaten in a few days (I need to get another dog haha).

Might try the devon/ham. I tried to use leftover chicken once but found it a bit messy. I do also use the natures gift dried treats just to break it up. Will have to put up with the side effects of the night of training. (I can use kibble/dried natures gift at home for rewards)

Edited February 6, 2011 by betsy

[lilli_star]

I have tried lamb flaps, but there seems to be more fat than meat, which is why I prefer to give her lamb shanks. The bone dilemma is ongoing I'd like to give her other types, but not sure what to try. The bags of "dog bones" at the supermarket are expensive ($9 for scraps essentially) and a bit of a lucky dip MDTL sent her home last week with a bone she'd been munching on- it had enough meat to keep her interested, but was big enough that she couldn't actually break any off and be left alone with it. Will have to email her and ask.

I also give Roo turkey wings which she loves (the 'drumstick' end).

Edited February 6, 2011 by lilli_star

[minxy]

Kyojin will eat anything. I normally give him frankies cut up into semi-circles. He loves those. I hate the sliminess of digging into my treat bag to give them to him though

[KumaAkita]

And in other news, I saw KA's new haircut

In the _fleshhair??? KA - were you lurking around BDOC today without telling any of us?

The people you run into wandering around Gungahlin town centre! hmm... my hair is very red today, going to take some time to get used to it!

Seems a few interesting weekends were had!

Lilli_star: on the bone thing! Wow... good work getting it dislodged... musta been scary

KTB: at the tunnel. It looks like Hoover has put his paw out of the tunnel wanting a treat!

For training treats, Kuma's like Satch... I have to mix it up to get him to work. We use the nature's gift training treats, cheese, cabanossi, frankies, chicken, I've also used the 4Paws balls - chicken and pasta ones. He liked those but they were gross to dispense...

In other news, Kuma is now just eating plain ol' kibble all on its own at meal time. No need for wet food or other additivies. YAY! We are going to move him to adult food once this bag of puppy is done. He'll be about 18mths old by then.

[koalathebear]

lilli_star: I really, REALLY feel your pain with the whole bone dilemma because I've asked around, tried different things and still haven't quite got the bone thing right.

For a while we bought marrow bones which Elbie LOVED so much but everyone on DOL was telling me how bad they were because of the marrow (the dogs could get pancreatitis) and they are too hard (the dogs could break their teeth) so we stopped getting those. I think roo tails are sort of ok although some dogs have choked on them. I was frightened off lamb shanks because a girl at work's dog swallowed an overly large piece of lamb shank. It tore open his insides, the vets were able to save him through surgery but it was extremely agonising for him and then he died two weeks later from heart failure because the pain and surgery were just too much for him in the end. The poor girl was absolutely devastated and kept making me promise I'd never feed lamb shanks to my dogs Lamb flaps are too fatty and I spend ages and ages cutting off the fat … :| There isn't much meat on them but our main purpose for feeding the dogs anything bone-esque is:

1. health of teeth – apparently it's great for their teeth

2. makes them happy to gnaw on a bone

Sometimes there's a little bit of meat so that's a bonus but mostly the bones are just for the teeth rather than the eating of meat. Some people say that you absolutely have to give your dogs bones to keep them healthy. This person made bones sound like a scary nightmare...

Like all things Dogly, we have to find what works best for us and if you follow what's on DOL, you'd never feed your dogs ANYTHING or give them any toys to play. For instance, LOTS of people are fine with kongs but ever since I read that horrific tale of the dog that choked on a kong ball, I put our kong ball away. Then I read the tale of the

dog that got its jaw stuck in a kong, so I put ours away – mainly because when Elbie was little he did get a kong stuck on his face and we were able to get it off but it made me realise that the DOLer wasn't being alarmist. So these days we scatter kibble and leave juice bottles, ice cubes, tug toys and other things out there that hopefully aren't going to imperil our doggies. We still keep our dogs in collars even when we're not home because we worry about if they get free of the yard etc but I know a DOLer who ever puts collars on her dogs because she read the DOL posts about dogs that have choked/hanged themselves on their collars .… So hard to know what is right!

At present, I think we have what's right for our two. They seem healthy and safe… In the mornings, they are so happy as they barrel down the hall towards us, jostling for cuddles and pats. They really bring us so much enjoyment and happiness – putting a smile on our face every morning. They have no idea how much we worry about them

KA - yay for Kuma. Glad he is liking kibble - makes life a lot easier! We are swtiching our two to adult once our current bag of royal canin is finished. OH weighed the two last night. They're both around 18kg but Hoover is a smidgin heavier than Elbie! Elbie's almost 1 year old - I'm wondering if he's now fully grown or not. If so, it's possible that Hoover is going to be quite a chunky monkey by comparison given that he's 18kg at only 9 months!

[wuffles]

Oops, sorry KTB, I didn't mean to confuse Hoover! He and Mars both did very well today. All the dogs were a bit overstimulated today, being first class back.

Wuffles, Ava, was looking good today. Her heeling is lovely, and I'm sure you'll do well when you give trialling a go.

I missed this post! Thanks, but her heeling was pretty appalling I was just feeling a bit down because we have been working on heeling and she will do a whole pattern beautifully at times, but sometimes (like yesterday) she loses focus at the start and I can't get her back. I have no idea how to stop that happening and am scared it will happen in a trial.

When I got home I set up some chairs and did some figure of 8 stuff... of course she was perfect. At least I got some good advice for my own body language so got to work on that a bit I think I've only ever done figure of 8 once in class before so it was a bit confronting to have a new instructor who didn't know that I'm a beginner who is working out a lot of stuff for myself

KTB: Funny how we all do things differently I don't leave collars on mine but I do leave them with Kongs. I feed bones but mainly chicken and always supervised.

Anyway... my wedding is in less than 3 weeks. OMG. I still have so much to organise

Edited February 7, 2011 by wuffles

[KumaAkita]

Well I'm a bad doggy mamma then...

Kuma gets bones - unsupervised - soft lamb flaps only, but he doesn't chew them. He sucks the meat off and leaves them to rot in the yard.

I always leave his collar on when I'm not at home... his new one has velcro, so I reckon that if he gets caught on something that'll release before he chokes... plus, there's not much you get into trouble with when you sleep all day!

He had his kong around the yard, but it was always ignored, so it was gifted to a colleague at work who as a Lab and a Bull Arab. They love it!

Oh well, I hang my head in shame and the appalling way I treat my dog!

Wuffles: Deep breath lady! Your wedding will be just perfect And I'm sure Miss Ava's heeling was not as bad as you make out. I am always disappointed with Kuma, but have had people tell me how good he does!

[wuffles]

Wuffles: Deep breath lady! Your wedding will be just perfect And I'm sure Miss Ava's heeling was not as bad as you make out. I am always disappointed with Kuma, but have had people tell me how good he does!

Hehe don't worry, I'm not really stressed. If I was I would actually be organising things instead of procrastinating You're right, Ava's heeling wasn't terrible. And her stays were awesome. I was just whinging

[koalathebear]

I was eying wuffles and Ava enviously as they crossed the BDOC field - Ava was walking very beautifully on a loose leash and checking back with wuffles regularly whereas our two were pulling madly - I think they think that they're plough horses or something. Then again, even plough horses seem quite placid

I am a bad dog owner because our two don't get a walk every day, we feed them kibble instead of barf/raw (it would make my brain explode if I had to do all the food preparation and calculations necessary to ensure a balanced diet on raw) and we leave them in collars. So far they haven't strangled themselves. OH and I are more concerned that one of them is going to get a tooth in the eye during bitey face.

Last night they were very cute - they both went into a soft crate together and shared the crate. Normally Elbie will leave after a time when Hoover the Brat follows him to a dog bed or crate but last night Hoover was in the crate first and Elbie joined him. We went awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww ....

[KumaAkita]

Don't ask me why, but I was just thinking about our first Sunday at Obedience, the class that was For Humans and No Dogs Allowed. The chick giving the lecture owns BCs (her dogs are Pepper?? Rosie?? something like that...) and she was talking about clicker training. Anyway, the video they played made it look really easy, and she did some IRL demos with her dog who picked it up soooo quickly (in true BC fashion). There was a couple sitting next to us and they turned to each other and said "we need one of those clickers, that will solve everything!" - they dropped out of beginners because they couldn't get their little doggy to "down"...

I'm still there, battling on with a dog that is Pretty But Stupid.

[wuffles]

Well I am helping out in a beginners class this session so the pressure is on, don't worry, I definitely know that not all dogs behaved the same as BCs Satch may not be fun to train, but he has taught me an awful lot.

I have some videos I took a while back that I will see if I can find and post. Basically it was a shaping exercise where you place a box on the floor and see what behaviours your dog offers, then shape something from that. I tried it with both of mine. Satch looked at the box a few times, got a click&treat. Then he just sat there. I pointed at the box, touched the box, moved the box, he just sat there. He came over and nuzzled my hand for treats. He wandered around, sniffed the ground. He lay down. Five minutes and no box-related behaviours later... Satchmo 1, wuffles 0.

Ava looked at the box, C&T. She pawed at the box, C&T. She put her front paws in the box, C&T. She put all 4 paws in the box, C&T. I wonder why people choose working breeds for obedience

[koalathebear]

KA -

Haha – yes Rosie and Pepper are like wonder dogs… OH and I were very impressed that Sunday as well. We also went out and got clickers. My problem is that I am horribly unco so cannot handle leash, treats, dog AND clicker at the same time. It means that I click at the wrong time, forget to click at all, drop something … I made the situation worse when I decided to buy a target stick and tried to bring that along to training sessions as well OH says that his (and Elbie's) silver instructor has been converted to The Power of the Clicker over the break so said with a touch of resignation that he'll have to bring a clicker along to next week's class.

they dropped out of beginners because they couldn't get their little doggy to "down"... I'm still there, battling on with a dog that is Pretty But Stupid.

Haha. Isn't the spitz thing more like:

Handler: "Down!"

Akita: "My ancestors were the Matagi dog, one of the oldest of Japan's native dogs. The Matagi's quarry included elk, antelope, boar, and Asian black bear. You haven't made out a convincing case for me why an intelligent and venerable breed such as myself needs to perform for you, human, like a monkey."

Contrast with the thought bubble of my two monsters: "Kibble! Give me more kibble! *drool* *drool* Will do anything for kibble!"

That being said, I do have a lot of sympathy … I always feel bad for the owners that have to almost beg their dogs to go to the mat and during puppy classes, there was a stubborn boxer who just would not go into a drop no matter what anyone did. Three vet nurses, one with leg stuck out and the other wielding treats was unable to make Lloyd drop … Then again, our two look biddable during class but you've seen how frenzied and hyperactive they are before and after class … Yoicks :D

Edited February 7, 2011 by koalathebear

[KumaAkita]

KTB you can read my dog's thoughts can't you? I say "stand", he rolls over and gives me a look that says "yeah, make me. I dare you"

I have often contemplated shaping exercises with Kuma, given Wuffles' results with Satch, I'm pretty sure that it will be a bust too! I am doing more "on your mat" exercises with Kuma. He does it once, then wanders away. Oh well, more work, more work.

I think we all have coordination issues with clicker, leash, treat, command, footwork. It's something that comes with practice (at least I hope it is). Tell Mr KTB not to worry too much about clicker stuff. I sent Mr KumaAkita went off on the LLW Course the other night with treats/clicker/dog on lead... I asked how he went with the clicker, get it sorted? Nup, didn't use it.

But yes, those BCs were incredibly quick witted and picked up the commands so quickly. Noone stands a chance when comparing to an animal like that! It was just so funny, this couple thought that Magical Clicker was all they needed!

Oh and KTB - is the dalmation in your class Louis?