minxy Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 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. This is our definition of LLW (or at least, we are happy enough with this. Not sure if we're doing it exactly right or not, but we've only just started) OH and Kyojin LLW (Ignore OH's ramblings at the end) And this is me walking him "LL" for the first time Clicky Note: I can't drop the leash completely. I do at the very end, and you can see that the leash sits right in front of my knee, which pisses me off, so I lift it up a bit just to get it out of the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuffles Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 (edited) .... I set up my laptop to film the pergola area today so I may have some interesting footage to show later. That is if I'm not too upset about their barking or general idiocy once I go through it They've been a bit hyperactive and vocal lately so I want to check they're not annoying the neighbours more than usual... To me LLW is no pulling, I don't care if they sniff or pee as long as they don't pull. Satch walks at the end of the leash which I have no problems with. Ava is getting better but still pulls a fair bit. Edit: Kyojin's LLW looks beautiful!! Unfortunately walking that slowly is just NOT an option for lots of the working breeds I meet, including Ava Edited November 24, 2010 by wuffles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KumaAkita Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 (edited) We started like that with Kuma. He does spend most of his time just a few paces in front of us with a slack lead. He will always look back for reassurance and when get starts to get tired, the closer he comes He is a cutie (think my colleagues are wondering what the hell I'm doing, had to turn my head to watch the second Vid ) ETA: Just saw wuffles post. We also started out that slow too, but the pace will build - trust me! I think that most of Kuma's pulling is a cue for me to walk faster! He doesn't drop his pace, but I'm sure I do! Edited November 24, 2010 by KumaAkita Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minxy Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Oh wow, I can't believe I'm only just noticing that the vid of me is sideways Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max#1 Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Minxy - if Max walked like that I'd be over the moon! (I could only watch the first few seconds as I am, afterall, erhm erhm, at work.... ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minxy Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Haha, today is my day off Kyojin's not entirely impressed about being outside at the moment while I'm in here. But it's kind of impossible to clean up all the dirt/hair from these animals if they're still running around in here at the same time! I almost completely forgot that we have puppy school tonight, whoops! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KumaAkita Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 (edited) New photos from me! Kuma in one of his favourite spots - at the end of the hall on the cool tiles You may recall my photos of Kuma as foreman, well we've started the project. The walls have been built and the trees planted (with additional excavation done by Kuma). We now need to render the walls, lay turf, plant more little shrubs... the list is endless! We were told a the nursery other day that we should spend 10% of our house value on the garden. I think the OH nearly fainted ETA: Don'tcha just love our chicken wire fence?? Edited November 24, 2010 by KumaAkita Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilli_star Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 (edited) Hmmm....spiders don't really bother me either- if there is a Huntsman in the house, I'll do the old cup and piece of paper trick and let it go outside. I do a unit on spiders with my class every year and hire a box from the Australian Museum in Sydney that has spider specimens in it for the kids to look at close up (they're in thick glass) plus books and stuff. The kids love it! The first year I taught it though (when I was out west), one of the boys in my class flushed out a Trapdoor spider with a hose and caught it in a jar and brought it in for news! He told his mum I'd said they had to! :D Uhhhh, no! I was wondering about what people class as LLW too, KA. Ruby doesn't pull much now, and sometimes I can wrap most of the lead up, but then she's back down at the end. I walked her on her harness for the first time around my neighbourhood yesterday, and she was dreadful! She stopped to sniff everything! Truly worse than just on a normal leash. ;) This morning I used the normal leash and she was okay except when she grabbed it. Grrrr. I probably did the wrong thing, but I just kept walking, and she stopped after about 10 steps. Standing still doesn't work- it just riles her up to play tug with the leash. No walk this afternoon though- Roo had a shank bone while I mowed the front lawn. Backyard tomorrow ;) I need some sheep Kuma looks like such a lovely doglet :D I love the photo that shows his pink paw pads He looks pensive though- not his usual smiley face. He was obviously contemplating something highly philosophical :D Edited November 24, 2010 by lilli_star Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KumaAkita Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Hmmm....spiders don't really bother me either- if there is a Hunstman in the house, I'll do the old cup and piece of paper trick and let it go outside. I do a unit on spiders with my class every year and hire a box from the Australian Museum in Sydney that has spider specimens in it for the kids to look at close up (they're in thick glass) plus books and stuff. The kids love it! The first year I taught it though (when I was out west), one of the boys in my class flushed out a Trapdoor spider with a hose and caught it in a jar and brought it in for news! :D He told his mum I'd said they had to! ;) Uhhhh, no!I was wondering about what people class as LLW too, KA. Ruby doesn't pull much now, and sometimes I can wrap most of the lead up, but then she's back down at the end. I walked her on her harness for the first time around my neighbourhood yesterday, and she was dreadful! She stopped to sniff everything! Truly worse than just on a normal leash. ;) This morning I used the normal leash and she was okay except when she grabbed it. Grrrr. I probably did the wrong thing, but I just kept walking, and she stopped after about 10 steps. Standing still doesn't work- it just riles her up to play tug with the leash. No walk this afternoon though- Roo had a shank bone while I mowed the front lawn. Backyard tomorrow :D I need some sheep Kuma looks like such a lovely doglet I love the photo that shows his pink paw pads :p He looks pensive though- not his usual smiley face. He was obviously contemplating something highly philosphical :D He's thinking "man I'm hot!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max#1 Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Kuma - the garden looks great. And you guys are doing that yourself? Well done! But a quarter of house worth?..... So. I have just been practicing play as a reward. It has resulted in a few hand chomps, I can tell you. We've been practicing on lead and off lead. Inside and outside. Some things don't work so good (the tricks), some things work really well (the 'obedience' commands - sit, drop, stay, off, come, etc). Its a concentration thing. So of course here's the video to demonstrate. I tried not to make it too long, as I don't have the patience for the you tube upload, so its more of a snapshot - just sit and drop - we're slowly increasing the amount of time Max can hold it for - with the end result me being able to walk around him without him budging. And of course the video is set in my favourite 'viewing room', the kitchen. I like it. Max likes it. I just need to work on my technique. So for example, I've been working on getting him to drop the rope. I'm not sure how long to play with him before its enough for a reward. And I'll ask our instructor on Sunday what she thinks. This will get me fit I can tell you. Still uploading.... Hmm what else? LLW is improving every day I'm happy to say. As long as I'm consistent......! Wuffles - I'm going to make LLW about walking to my left. And, as I'm told is the final outcome, I'm to only hold the lead in my right hand (which means I hold my right hand quite high, cause otherwise the lead dangles down in an obstructive way). At this point, I think its too confusing to have one walk that's okay for down the street, and one walk that's okay for across the obedience grounds. I've never walked so many circles! Still uploading.... Oh yeah! I saw the thread about the party on the weekend. Have fun guys! And big happy birthdays from us! Okay here it is (and I know my technique is not perfect - its a very useful exercise to video yourself!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betsy Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 we have thunderstorms here in Vic, so a bit of cooler weather may be headed your way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted November 24, 2010 Author Share Posted November 24, 2010 (edited) The original post in this thread with its bizarre conclusion makes me Peevish. About loose-lead walking ... if I had a Big Dog like an Akita, I'd definitely be using a harness. Elbie's not that big but when he lunges, I feel like he's ripping my arm off and he's definitely injured OH's hand a few times when he wasn't expecting a lunge :D I'm not too fussed about Elbie walking directly on my left. I'm a really slow walker and it's not at all fair on him to have to walk on my left the whole duration of a walk. Our Saturday teacher has told us many times that working dogs like Elbie want to walk quickly and you have to walk quickly, too. I'm happy for him to walk at the end of the leash as long as he's not pulling and there's still some slack. For instance, for most of today's walk he was pretty good and I was able to hold the leash with just a finger - just an example. I wouldn't be walking around just holding the leash by my finger in case there was a Sudden Lunge. As usual, he was a bit pull-ey walking to the oval, once we got there, I got his focus and he walked at my side very nicely and on a loose leash very nicely. On the way back, he trotted at my side looking up for treats as if he was a very obedient dog. When we first set out though, I couldn't get him to look at me, listen to me anything! Still, we're making progress, albeit slow progress! OH and Hoover were sitting out the front of the house when I came back with Elbie today and he was very impressed with Elbie at my left looking so docile. Elbie's teeth were scraping against my hand when he was taking treats, though. Ouch! He's normally quite gentle but when you're walking at the same time, I guess it's hard for him to be gentle. KA: the photos of Kuma are so cute and that first one - he is so puppy-eyed there. In the close-up, his eyes look human. Your yard looks great!!! We should hire you to help us out ... OH and I have black thumbs so we're having to engage a landscaper to fix up our horrible, horrible front yard which all the neighbours are commenting about. He came around today and gave us a quote Ah well. The new oven and stove were expensive enough and now the yard. Meep! Also, OH saw some flat weeds in the yard yesterday and thought that the hot weather had made them wilt. Then he looked out the window and discovered why the weeds were flattened. From memory, Niques posted a similar photo of foliage that was flattened by a doggie. Also, I wish I could get one of my doggies to smile like . Edited November 24, 2010 by koalathebear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuffles Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 (edited) Awww, Kuma is such a handsome man. Ava likes to lie on the tiles too, but Satch won't even walk across them let alone lie on them. He's a big woosy. The video looked great, Max#1! It definitely takes a while to sort yourself out I managed to break Ava's drops lately with silly body language so have been working on getting them back. No video from us today. Turns out the dogs didn't do much at all that we could see. I could only find two woofs on the whole video (although it's 9 hours long and kind of hard to find stuff) and no chasies or anything KTB, Aussies are known smilers! Ava doesn't, but it looks like she's about to sometimes. She turns her little mouth up at the edge and... well, it never gets to a smile. I think that one of The Ark's girls smiles Edited November 24, 2010 by wuffles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clastic Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 We were told a the nursery other day that we should spend 10% of our house value on the garden. I think the OH nearly fainted 10% of the house value..!?!? Our garden will be a patch of dirt for a long long while.. we haven't even gotten anything organised for the curtins/blinds yet. The plan is to just have fabric until we do........ classy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilli_star Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 We were told a the nursery other day that we should spend 10% of our house value on the garden. I think the OH nearly fainted 10% of the house value..!?!? Our garden will be a patch of dirt for a long long while.. we haven't even gotten anything organised for the curtins/blinds yet. The plan is to just have fabric until we do........ classy. Ditto two fold. I have a bathroom to fix up, a front fence to put in and eventually put on an extension for a new kitchen (mine is the size of a shoe box- and I'm really only slightly exaggerating)/dining room and a deck. Sigh. I really need a husband... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuffles Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Ditto two fold. I have a bathroom to fix up, a front fence to put in and eventually put on an extension for a new kitchen (mine is the size of a shoe box- and I'm really only slightly exaggerating)/dining room and a deck. Sigh. I really need a husband... A husband? What use would that be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clastic Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Ditto two fold. I have a bathroom to fix up, a front fence to put in and eventually put on an extension for a new kitchen (mine is the size of a shoe box- and I'm really only slightly exaggerating)/dining room and a deck. Sigh. I really need a husband... A husband? What use would that be? Your hubby seems to be a good gardener. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilli_star Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Ditto two fold. I have a bathroom to fix up, a front fence to put in and eventually put on an extension for a new kitchen (mine is the size of a shoe box- and I'm really only slightly exaggerating)/dining room and a deck. Sigh. I really need a husband... A husband? What use would that be? Weeelll, he could start by mowing the lawn.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuffles Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 (edited) Yes, I will admit lawn mowing is a good use of the male species. He'll also vacuum because he likes seeing all the disgusting stuff get sucked up in the Dyson. But aside from that... And Clastic... he was definitely only gardening that day because the inlaws were mean to him Speaking of husbands, I just spend an hour writing out addresses on our Save the Dates and I RAN OUT OF ENVELOPES. Gah! So much to organise. Edited November 24, 2010 by wuffles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clastic Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Ah yes the lawn.. I have already dedicated that job to my OH when we eventually have a patch of grass. His first job when we move in is for him to get rid of all the Paterson's Curse from the backyard. Not long now wuffles!! You've got all the main things sorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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