What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

[MPbandmom]

Meanwhile, Chetan appears to be blowing her coat - I mean like her entire undercoat. That's NOT a good thing in December in Alaska. ...

I never thought of that as a issue with the timing of a breeding. Dude, my girls always went nekked after puppies. ......as in TOTAL coat blow.

The sammies do this too. Once the puppies are weaned, mom goes for naked. My first introduction to this phenomenon was a St. Patrick's Day Parade where a B who had recently weaned her litter was wearing a long sleeved human sweater in an attempt to stay somewhat warm, because the poor girl had no fur left.

[Nettle]

Not all of mine have done this but some certainly did - a dog-shaped outline of hair wherever she went


Lots of human mothers lose hair at this time too. Hormones have a lot to answer for.

[gwd]

Hormones have a lot to answer for.

Truth. Or even lack of........ wow, did it just get really hot in here? I'm hot, is anyone else feeling hot? No? Just me? Could someone PLEASE open a window. It's stifling in here!

[Swanny1790]

Human sweather? Now why didn't I think of that? I'll bet Chetan could wear one of Trish's old sweaters, though it might be suicidal for me to bring it up. Maybe a trip to the thrift store (second hand store) is in order.

[Nettle]

Hormones have a lot to answer for.

Truth. Or even lack of........ wow, did it just get really hot in here? I'm hot, is anyone else feeling hot? No? Just me? Could someone PLEASE open a window. It's stifling in here!

Mr. Nettle said a few weeks ago that the forecast was for a mild winter, and he said 'thank goodness' at the same time as I said 'oh dear'!

Swanny I think a Fair Isle sweater with a roll neck would look just right on Chetan - and I am one of those people that hates to see dogs in clothes.....

Do NOT use Trish's cashmere sweater. She WILL notice and it will take a lot of apologising for

[JudyN]

Mr. Nettle said a few weeks ago that the forecast was for a mild winter, and he said 'thank goodness' at the same time as I said 'oh dear'!

Have you ever tried buying a short strappy nightie at this time of year? Apart from the sort that husbands buy for their wives at Christmas, of course, but I wouldn't want to risk bumping into my sons on the landing at night in one of those

[Erica]

We had our first snow of the season this morning. I bet Swanny would scoff at what we call snow - it fell for about half an hour, barely showed on leaves, and melted before it even hit asphalt...but it was snow for us! Delta didn't seem to care. Maybe if we get a couple inches he'll be more intrigued, but that's not in the cards today.

[DianeLDL]

Hi all,

I know it has been a few weeks since I have been on. Very interesting discussion going right now with hormones, sweaters, and winter.

I dont need to worry about hormones anymore. I agree, Swanny, do not use Trish's sweater. And as to predicted mild winters? Two days after we left Maine, our house received over a foot of snow (on Nov. 1st) and hase receive a few more feet since.

Since Wednesday (going back to Albuquerque home, tomorrow, Sunday) we have been in Las Cruces in southen New
Mexico USA (near El Paso. Texas). We were suppose to visit Flagstaff, but when we heard thatt we would be driving through a major snow storm, quickly changed plans.

And, today, we are not only celebating Chanukah, but it is Sandy's 5th Birthday (and 4 years since he became a member of our family)!
Thanks to everyone here on the forum, we have survived all the trials and tribulations.

Hugs to all of you,
Diane and Sandy

[delladooo]

Laufey's a bit off today. I'm not worried as it's not the first time he's had a day like this but I just wish he could tell me why. He's not really interested in playing, just wants to nibble his pompom and lie with me. In the meantime MiMi wants his pompom, never mind that she also has one. It's going to be a funny sort of day

[bendog]

Pop and Charlie got a rabbit the other day, bit of a joint effort, but not going to help Poppys habit of sodding off hunting in the evenings *sigh*
My own fault, she shouldn't have been off lead, but I feel so bad about most of their walks being in the dark at this time of year that I prefer to run the risk of letting them off sometimes for a good run.

Then yesterday they got hardly any walk at all because we went out for a few hours to the cinema with my Dad, and I had chores to do in the morning - and boy it showed! Half an hour walk in morning and half an hour in evening, plus a kong, and a lamb bone that took a good 20 minutes chewing, but very little mental stimulation and no off lead run and Poppy was being an attention seeking brat all evening, sounds daft but I didn't have the mental energy left to do any clicker training with her (mostly because it involves giving all of the others a kong or something to do whilst I train one) but managed to screw together the last of my physical reserves and took them for another 40 minute pavement walk which did the trick.

Days like that I do get a hankering for a little shih tzu, or something instead!

Of course other days I wouldn't change them for the world! They are not bad dogs really, and just this morning Pops has come downstairs, seen Sash is on the sofa next to me, and so taken herself off to her bed instead. Rather than jump up anyway and get snarked at by Sash and cause a fight.

Today the plan is a long beach walk this morning, wrap all my Xmas presents (I am sure the dogs will help ) and hopefully get to do 10-15 minutes each of FUN training with them.

Most of our training lately has been geared towards the baby - so Pops now has a very rapid (most of the time) "on your bed" command from anywhere in the room, and staying there whilst I eat and even whilst I put a plate down to go into the kitchen to grab a drink, we are working with all of them on getting "off" the sofa when asked, Charlie is learning to go to his bed, but so far has got better at just giving us more space whilst we eat by sitting in the far corner, even though not actually on his bed yet most of the time, and we are also working on "outside" meaning go outside in the garden, "go through" meaning go straight through the baby gate into the living room. They already had a good wait at the front door, and one thing that I've kind of trained without intending to is that they will wait until they are called to get their leads on for a walk, so if I go in the hall and pick up a lead, they will wait in living room watching me hopefully but not moving until I say their name, or if it's all of them I say "who's coming" and they run to the door! This mostly happened due to my job, because I quite often take Poppy and Charlie and Ben on different walks with different groups during the day, as well as at least one walk all together.

The dogs of course don't care what we learn as long as they are rewarded, but I find it boring, and the duration stuff like staying on their beds, they find pretty boring. We've developed a fun game with Poppy where I direct her around the room really quickly from one place to another e.g. On the sofa, on your bed, come here, touch target disc, on your bed, on the sofa, off the sofa, etc so she is dashing around full pelt and finds it really fun - she likes really quickfire games like that and I get faster responses. Charlie needs more time to think and figure out what I've asked. But today I think we will try doing some silly trick stuff to lighten it up for all of us

[JudyN]

Pops now has a very rapid (most of the time) "on your bed" command from anywhere in the room...We've developed a fun game with Poppy where I direct her around the room really quickly from one place to another e.g. On the sofa, on your bed, come here, touch target disc, on your bed, on the sofa, off the sofa, etc so she is dashing around full pelt and finds it really fun - she likes really quickfire games like that and I get faster responses.

How have you trained that, Amy? I'd like to get Jasper to move around the room & go to his bed, for those moments he's not happy about me getting off the sofa when he's sprawled in front of it. He understands 'bed', but takes a few askings - he doesn't see it as a game, but as a request from me to settle down and shut up, and if he's meant to do that he doesn't see why he shouldn't choose where to settle. Of course, I don't expect to get quickfire responses, being his type he always has to think about whatever I ask.

Hi Diane, good to see you!

[DianeLDL]

Pops now has a very rapid (most of the time) "on your bed" command from anywhere in the room...We've developed a fun game with Poppy where I direct her around the room really quickly from one place to another e.g. On the sofa, on your bed, come here, touch target disc, on your bed, on the sofa, off the sofa, etc so she is dashing around full pelt and finds it really fun - she likes really quickfire games like that and I get faster responses.

How have you trained that, Amy? I'd like to get Jasper to move around the room & go to his bed, for those moments he's not happy about me getting off the sofa when he's sprawled in front of it. He understands 'bed', but takes a few askings - he doesn't see it as a game, but as a request from me to settle down and shut up, and if he's meant to do that he doesn't see why he shouldn't choose where to settle. Of course, I don't expect to get quickfire responses, being his type he always has to think about whatever I ask.

Hi Diane, good to see you!

Good to see all of you, too. I have missed all of you. With all our traveling, it has been hard to keeo up.

The only way to get Sandy to run around is to give him his toy fabric bone and then chase him around the room, asking "where's the bone?" In this case, guess who also gets some exercise? Me or OH.

The command foe go to bed for Sandy is "Go night night" and at least he responds. Wherever his blankets are on his recliner ir a chair or sofa in a hotel room, he knows it. I think we would confuse Sandy since he doesn't have a real bed. He did but he didnt sleep in it and would use it to hump on so we took it away.
So, I guess to Sandy bed is where his blankets are. And that meqns "night night"

But, then, Jasper does have a very special bed, so why would he want to leave it?
Diane

[Swanny1790]

Happy Solstice Sunday, everyone. I'm feeling a bit under the weather and the trails are in horrible condition, so Trish and I decided to start teaching the puppies how to run up a ramp to load themselves into the dog truck. I posted more details and pics on the Positive Puppies thread, at https://positively.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 82#p143782.

[delladooo]

Well Laufey was definitely a poorly boy yesterday; he was sick (white foam with the little bit of grass he ate. You could tell he was poorly as he didn't have his usual big grass salad) and then slept most of the day. He then pooped in the night which is unusual for him and then has peed in the kitchen this morning which is also unusual for him especially seeing as it's usually slightly later that he's been going for morning pees, my only explanation is that it's because MiMi is running around full of beans making him play with her. Laufey seems much better in himself today though and I'm thinking I'm going to take him to the big park for a good run later and leave MiMi at home. There's no way her little legs could get her all the way around the park and I'd rather not attempt having both dogs on my own when he needs a good run so will be on his long line and try to carry her, I have very bad visions of that.
The paracord came so we now have a long line for the baby girl too as well as enough to make her another line / collar / harness / whatever mum fancies. I've also got more of his paracord to make him a longer line but there's not enough space in the house so it'll have to wait for after Christmas to get done outside in the daylight so that should be fun

I can envision it being a looooong day from MiMi's antics this early in the day, and to think I wanted a nice quiet day too.

[bendog]

Pops now has a very rapid (most of the time) "on your bed" command from anywhere in the room...We've developed a fun game with Poppy where I direct her around the room really quickly from one place to another e.g. On the sofa, on your bed, come here, touch target disc, on your bed, on the sofa, off the sofa, etc so she is dashing around full pelt and finds it really fun - she likes really quickfire games like that and I get faster responses.

How have you trained that, Amy? I'd like to get Jasper to move around the room & go to his bed, for those moments he's not happy about me getting off the sofa when he's sprawled in front of it. He understands 'bed', but takes a few askings - he doesn't see it as a game, but as a request from me to settle down and shut up, and if he's meant to do that he doesn't see why he shouldn't choose where to settle. Of course, I don't expect to get quickfire responses, being his type he always has to think about whatever I ask.

Hi Diane, good to see you!

I shaped the "on your bed" part Judy - I'm lucky that she's a training ninja, so it didn't take long. Then I just added duration, and also added it in as an extra "trick"

When we do the quick fire game it isn't exactly a relaxed settle because she's watching for what I'm going to ask next, but it does help associate the bed with being a good place to be - and if I pause in giving commands quite often she'll go back onto her bed as a "base" sort of like platform or stationing training. And I can now leave her on her bed and leave the room briefly with the treats, or a plate of food within reach but not too temptingly close (i.e. I leave it on the arm of the sofa not on the floor!) and she'll stay on her bed until I come back (literally only ever for a minute though e.g to get a drink, wouldn't trust her for longer!)

I also randomly rewarded her for choosing to lie on it, e.g. after walks, or in the evenings when she is sleepy. As well as asking her to go to her bed when I have a meal, and rewarding her regularly and she has just started doing that as a default now if I sit down with a plate of food, and sitting and staring at me no longer works, she'll try going to her bed instead so I just reward that.

This is the game - http://youtu.be/qOQDL2FTcdM Although she's not quite as fired up for it as she usually is, because it was first thing in the morning and I don't think she was awake yet! I throw in some door densensitisation too - she used to go ballistic at the sound of the letter box - she still does go mental if there is actually someone at the door (she knows the difference when it is just me pretending!) but we are making progress! Ignore the others whinging because they are shut in the kitchen! And excuse OH's washing everywhere - he is SUPPOSED to take his own washing upstairs when it is dry!

Charlie doesn't really have a "bed" command yet - it's on my list of things to do! BUT I can lure him onto his bed (duvet) and he will pretty much stay there whilst I eat or whatever as long as I reward often.

The main idea of all this is A) so I can eat in peace without noses an inch from my plate and B) so if I want to let baby play on the floor, or put him on floor for a nappy change I can (hopefully!) ask the dogs to stay on their beds out of the way if it's only for a few minutes and C) so that if visitors come I can get the dogs to go to their beds when the door goes instead of jumping all over them (this one may be pushing it though!)

Should add I've not really tried to move her off the sofa onto her bed yet when she's really sleepy and comfortable - which is when she is most likely to get growly about it. But the hand touch does work well to move her most of the time no matter how tired she is as long as she can smell good rewards! If that fails then a whistle recall from the kitchen brings her running.