Elbie, Hoover, Dodge & Friends!

[Guest]

well from this sweett innocent face

to this cheeky rascal lol

[Clastic]

Awwww Ike still has that sweet innocent face!

[Guest]

haha dont let that fool you

[KumaAkita]

wow thats alot of leads/ collard.. ill have a look into it tonight when i get home... im currently using a maga..(something something) collar that i got from pet barn, but im always cautious that he's going to back out of it at anytime

Ah, you see there is method in my madness. I have a few leads in the house, but find the Ezydog Soft trainer is great, it's got a padded neoprene handle which is soft on my little fingies

His Ezydog Neo Collar is also padded with neoprene so won't rub off his gorgeous ruff. Plus it has a quick release buckle and velcro, so I can get it off him quickly, or it will come off if he gets it caught - very much a relief when I leave it on him all day when he's home alone.

I walk him with the Ezydog checkmate because it's a limited slip collar and he's a ninja when it comes to backing out of collars - little shit has run down the road after slipping a flat collar, scared the crap out of me. It's not something I would leave on him all day, fear of it getting caught, etc. I use the Blackdog Infin8 Head harness so he doesn't pull like a train. He is awesome at LLW about 90% of the time, but for piece of mind for that last 10% I use a harness. I like to take the harness off him as a reward for good behaviour when out walking, but only when I can be assured he won't be an ass and lunge at people/ducks/bugs/fresh air...

It's all about finding the tools that work for you! (oh and the animal of course )

Ike is looking fab! So cute.

lilli_star: I'd rather run than do math too

Me too. Maths was never my favourite subject. In fact, I was kicked out of every maths class in year 12 because I talked too much and distracted other students. No huge loss

Astrids is looking lovely She and her PWD friend look like they had an unbelievably good time playing. I especially like the "stacks on" photo - Astrid's feet akimbo!

*

We have training tonight - it's going to be muddy at BDOC! Here's hoping our trainer turns up and we have a productive class this time. Unfortunately Mr KumaAkita's boss is in town, so they're going out for dinner and that means I'm solo at training tonight. Oh well... I knew it would happen sooner or later :laugh

Oh, and for those who are interested in Thread Watch... there's a corker in General at the moment regarding the benefits of buying a pedigree. Interesting reading.

[betsy]

Just had a rather average training session with a feral dog

My shoulder hurts from all the lungeing and pulling

Then I had to sort out my tax because I am off to the accountant tomorrow.

It calls for wine and chocolate I think.

[Guest]

KA- yeah my partner came home last night after getting ike's nails clipped with a Haulter collar... the lady at the vet said to give it a try and see how it goes, so that's going to be our little mission for tonights walk

[minxy]

We had week two of our LLW class on Wednesday first. First class was all theory, so the dogs stayed at home. I was so impressed with how Kyojin went. We've got a different trainer for this class, the lady that owns the company. She commented on how focused Kyojin was which made me pretty happy It's actually a really interesting class. I was really only doing it as Wednesday nights are the only nights we can really do training, and it was the only option available. But turns out there's a lot more to it then just walking our dogs around for an hour each week

[koalathebear]

foxyboi: Ike is super cute. Can't wait to meet him in person – are you going visit BDOC this Sunday to see what you think of the grounds and classes? We could have a meet and greet – there's another Shiba at BDOC who might love to say hi to Ike. How is Ike going – is he fully recovered from his injury yet? Poor little thing.

betsy: sorry about the average training session. Those times are inevitable, I fear. I know that there are some dogs that seem to be consistently placid and well-behaved but I know with my two that sometimes they're angels and sometimes they are so distracted and crazy. One week, there was a lot of construction work going on near the dog club and a lot of the dogs were distracted. There is also something very painful about how strong a dog's lunge can be when you're not expecting it. Ouch. Hope your shoulder is recovered. OH received a leash burn across his hand the other day when one the dogs lunged and he was holding the longer recall leash – I think it injured his thumb or something.

Last night for no reason, I started looking at a video on youtube about how to 'stack' your dog. The dog in the video was as placid as a table and the handler was moving his legs all over the place and the dog wasn't budging. I headed into the kitchen and OH said: "Elbie! Quick! Run away! She's going to try to stack you!"

Elbie was VERY puzzled by what I was doing – I got him into a stand, moved his legs but the problem was he had his head twisted around to stare at me with an accusing: "WTF – what are you doing?" look on his face. I don't think I will ever be able to stack him because his head will be moving around too much as he tries to keep an eye on everything that's happening.

Toxic thread for the day is here. I hope the dog in question is all right.

[Guest]

ike is totally fine, you can definitly count ike and i in for a meet n greet on sunday.. what time should i head down?

[koalathebear]

How about 9.45am on Sunday? Then you can see classes in action, the mix of dogs, how many per class and even chat to teachers if you like. You'll definitely see Clastic & Mars, Hoover & Elbie - not sure who else will be there Sunday though.

[Guest]

it's a done deal! ill be there with my little terror lol

[minxy]

Yay, my boy got his stitches out this morning Now I can give the smelly little thing a bath!

[KumaAkita]

Kuma and I may come down on Sunday, depends on a few things tho... we will see

We had a great night at training last night. He was really focussed on me for the first time since he was a pup. I used frankfurts and cheese left over from last weeks training, so they'd been in the fridge for a week getting all nice and smelly. He was jumping and skipping trying to get the treat We did some good heeling, walked nicely LLW and is starting to drop from a stand (something he flatly refused to do before!)

Scared instructor guy wasn't as scared, and even came in for a pat Hopefully our original trainer will be back next week and we can go back to small classes.

As a reward for awesome behavour (and because I was famished) we had maccas after training. Kuma likes mcnuggets

Don't worry Betsy - as you can see from my last few weeks of training, we all have good days and bad days. Kuma is 15 months old and has only just started paying attention to me in class. Before that, he'd stand staring out at the other dogs and ignoring me completely. Hope your next training session is better. (oh and I agree, crap training session + tax = wine and chocolate)

@ KTB stacking Elbie. I can totally imagine him wondering what in god's name you're doing...

HOOOOORRRRAAAAAAYYYY for Fridays!

[Lja1302]

Elbie's our new puppy. He is 3/4 kelpie and 1/4 border collie.

He starts puppy classes next week and obedience classes in June.

Oh my goodness puppy Elbie was adorable!! How did you ever say no to those eyes?

[betsy]

Welcome Lja- Oliver is very cute!

Thanks KA and all for words of support in regard to random poor dog behaviour.

Well, after my rant about Ziggy at dog school yesterday, he was perfect at LLW on Friday. I still had a sore shoulder, so was less tolerant and a bit stricter, so I think that worked

I have just been at my friends house, who has doggies that Ziggy knows well. I was cuddling the smaller one and have just had a very big sniff-over from Ziggy when I got home. ;)

_{Oh, in other sad news, I have heard from a number of people this weekend that they have purchased DD Oodles, from Pet Shops . I was lost for words pretty much.}

[Max#1]

Afternoon!

Well a hectic few days. New job looks good - hours will be quite variable - so good news for Max. Some long days sure, but also some shorter days too! Yay!

Betsy - yay for LLW! But I find the inconsistency so infuriating!

Hope you're all enjoying your morning of training! Of course, still under quarantine, still can't go. Only one more week....

ETA: oh Oliver is so so so cute. More photos! How old?

Edited February 20, 2011 by Max#1

[koalathebear]

Thanks Lja - he was a cute pup. He isn't cute like that anymore though although he still has his cute moments :rolleyes:

foxyboi: it was good to finally meet up. As you can see the club has a wide mix of breeds and our two love going to dog school so much. Here are the photos of Ike with Nugget, the other Shiba

Nugget is on the left, Ike is on the right, with the redder fur. The photobomber is Champ, a Lab x Golden Retriever cross

OH was very happy with Elbie - said he behaved perfectly in class today. Hoover had his moments - he was for the most part good but he was absolutely appalling during loose leash walking/heelwork. He wanted to sniff the grass, the air, the clouds, the dirt ... most of all, he wanted to stare at the other dogs and actually started whimpering during class - I think because he wanted to go and play. I'm going to have to work with him more during the week. The doggies were very happy though, they ran and played for almost 2 hours in the off-leash area and in the main paddock. OH has rather intense sunburn as a result but the doggies were very happy. I heard one of the puppy class students asking an instructor if she should take her dog to a dog park and the instructor said: "No - dog parks are just for people who are unable to control their dogs." ;) That being said, we never take our dogs to the dog park unless it's empty or it's populated with people and dogs we know ...

Also, Hoover's recall is very good - Elbie's has becoming shocking when there are other dogs around. We're going to have to work on it.

Here is the little menace himself being a lap dog

Hoover being cute in his soft crate. He has some very cute looks sometimes

It's been a busy weekend for us, with lots of errands to run and family matters to attend to. We always stop at the cemetery after dog school to put some flowers on Papa Koala's grave - takes about 5 minutes and we usually leave the dogs in the car. Today we parked in the shade but there were a lot of cars there and I had horrible visions of angry, self-righteous DOLers coming to smash our windows and liberate our dogs so OH stayed with the dogs and the car while I went to put the flowers on the grave.

[Clastic]

Cute pics KTB!

You saw Mars and I with LLW today.. gosh we were terrible!! Our heelwork doesn't exist either.

Great meeting you today foxyboi!! Ike sure looked like he had a lot of fun running around, did he end up sleeping when he got home or was he still a ball of energy?

ravenau1 - I just realised I hadn't replied as to how I got the kiddies to 'bow'. I started luring them into a drop and marked when they put their front legs down, but just before they got into a full drop. I just kept marking the 'bow' which I wanted and they were quite happy to do it when asked, I've also made sure that I have a totally different hand signal to 'drop' so that they don't get confused between the 2.

Here are a few pics of the kidlets this arvo..

What Pepper loves doing best, keeping an eye on the neighbours..

Using Mars to elevate her legs...

Pepper sleeping with her mouth open..

[betsy]

Using Mars to elevate her legs...

;)

What is it with LLW? Is there a global dog conspiracy to make owners feel like such failures?????

My boy has had a lovely run off lead at the beach, followed by a bath. I used special 'know knots' conditioner so hoping he is a bit easier to brush when he dries ;) .

He has also been 'helping' me in the garden

[koalathebear]

clastic: Those photos are adorable and that upside down photo of Pepper is extremely cute - I am also admiring her extremely nice teeth I always notice dog teeth since I see a lot of them when my two bare them when playing biting face ;)

I was hoping that they would be totally exhausted from all the offleash running but when they got home they zoomed around a lot more, snoozed for a bit and now they're playing zoomie chasies in the backyard again.

betsy: I think that heeling and loose-leash walking are two of the most challenging, least fun parts of obedience and dog ownership Still, I was looking at some old videos of Elbie when he wouldn't even let us put a collar on him and he got snotty when we tried to put a harness on him and these days he'll sit/stand there very placidly while he's being strapped in so I guess with all things dogly, it's a matter of perseverance. Elbie took an incredibly long time to learn 'stand' but now he does it on voice command from a sit or a drop and will hold the stand ... so when I get a bit disheartened, I remember Elbie and 'stand'.

I was looking at some Kelpie photos and said to OH: "This red and tan Kelpie looks like Hoover when he's concentrating - especially the stripy fur on the neck."

OH was a little horrified that I might get Hoover mixed up with another red and tan Kelpie so has pointed out that the above red and tan's Batman 'mask' is much more 'pointy' than Hoover's. On closer inspection, Hoover's 'Batman Mask' is certainly differently shaped - it kind of curves rather than ending on a spike.

I'm not very good at remembering patterns though.

Edited February 20, 2011 by koalathebear