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

[Ari_RR]

Was a long day yesterday, and I fell asleep on the sofa downstairs early... And didn't take Ari for his evening walk.

But he is not the one to be cheated out of a walk. Woke me up at 3 am, all full of energy and ready to go, threatening to start barking and wake up my dearest wife.

It's now 5 am. We just got back. I was a bit slow taking shoes off, so to add insult to injury he beat me to the sofa, grabbed half of it, and turned into an immovable snoring object. There is no way I'll be able go back to sleep now.

Good news - the walk itself was a total pleasure. Bad news - just about everything else.

And if while getting out and back in we managed to wake up dearest wife - the worst is still to come!

[Nettle]

You are a lovely Ari-Dad, you know!

[JudyN]

My little monster can be such a good-mannered boy sometimes...

We've had a mini-heatwave here and we were getting warm by the end of the walk, even though he'd had a few dunks in ponds along the way. At one point he looked down a side path that led back over the heath and looked at me, asking. I said no, because we needed to get home (and we're not meant to go far off piste on the heath when ground-nesting birds could be disturbed). But then I thought he might be asking to go in the bit of muddy water (too big to be called a puddle, too small for a pond) not more than 15 feet away so took a step in that direction. Yes, that was what he wanted. It was so close to the path, but he still felt the need to ask for permission and I don't really know why

This is the sort of muddy wallow I often hear people shrieking 'NOOOOOO!!!!' to their spaniels and labs as they throw themselves into it, ignoring their owners, and of course it has to be near to the end of the walk. No worries... my carpets didn't suffer too much when we got home, mainly because he went to dry himself off on our bed

I often struggle to put into words Jasper's level of grumpiness when we meet other dogs he doesn't like. I realised today, as he did his best to ignore a persistent little JRT/Staffie (best guess) cross, that the 'pre-growl' he was making was the equivalent of someone clearing their throat. 'Ahem, old chap, would you be so good as to remove your nose from my posterior, please?'

[MPbandmom]

Day 6 post noticing of the swelling on Sky's leg. We went back to the vet for a recheck. Two other vets also took a look. They are now calling it a mass, but after 3 needle biopsies still have found only normal cells. They are wondering if it has been there for quite some time and I have missed it. It is entirely possible as the inside of her back leg is not an area where I generally handle her. She does lay on her back quite a bit, but often well back in her crate, so not really visible. We are to observe for another two weeks and if still no change a possible biopsy is recommended.

Sirius worked at avoiding the area where we were doing some digging and axing to remove a couple of tree stumps today and that was a perfect occupation for her all things considered. Once Sky returned home, she decided that since her people were out in the yard, they must throw the ball for her. So she was a bit harder to work around.

Two stumps removed and the first of two raised planting beds set up. It is a cool dreary day here. Hopefully the rain will hold off and our bodies will hold up long enough to get the dogs out to some park for a walk.

[MPbandmom]

Exciting day for the dogs today. Oldest came by with Fiance to take Sky with them for a walk. When they returned they messaged me that the dogs had been walked. I asked if Sirius had made a good case that she should go along too. Oldest said when they started pulling out the harness for Sky both dogs started dancing, so they decided to take both. Not wanting to load both dogs into the big truck, they walked them from the house to the park behind the house. Oldest reported that Sky whined they whole way. That they weren't walking fast enough or something. I suggested that it could be that she was at the park with the dog park and wasn't playing fetch. I think Oldest was afraid to have her play fetch as he had initially thought she was still under house arrest due to her leg. He allowed as how she had also whined about not going to the dog park. Sirius apparently had a wonderful walk. They only saw one other person and dog and they were apparently well away from the area where my two were walking.

Then this evening, we took the dogs to the battlefield to one of our new favorite fairly quiet parts of the battlefield to walk in. Both dogs are now crashed in their beds.

[Erica]

Glad to hear Sky is feeling well. I hope her leg is good! And it sounds like they had a good day.

Something I found amusing...Delta is 100% comfortable with nail clippers, but hates the dremel with a passion. Opal is 100% comfortable with the dremel, but hates the nail clippers with a passion.

Life's been pretty uneventful for the past while. I'm thinking of signing up for either a "field trips" class with our familiar trainer, or trying out the "polite greetings" class at the local dog swimming pool thing. They also have sessions on Saturday mornings where they put a bunch of obstacles on their indoor track and you can go and walk your dog with all the stuff. Sadly 95% of Saturday mornings I'm busy. :/ It sounds like fun.

[JudyN]

Jasper found a new playmate, Pepper, today She looked like a Catahoula leopard dog but they're very uncommon in the UK. So I'm thinking collie cross, though apparently she has some doberman in her. He had joined in with her and her owner's other dogs chasing sticks (yes, I know...) on the field, but got a bit frustrated at not being able to pick them up with his muzzle so I called him away (and the whole group game to me for treats ). Soon after he tried to burn off his energy by getting someone to chase him by running past the pack like a spacerocket taking a slingshot round a planet She was a bit awed by his speed and size so didn't know whether to play, snark, or hide. He wanted her to chase him and after a while she went to chase him away - he ran on in glee, and then she realised that this was the game to play with him. Cue much belting through the trees, coming back for playbows, and setting off again.

Eventually Jasper was exhausted, but she didn't want to stop! There was an interesting tableau - her in a playbow in front of him, him stock still, head slightly turned away from her. They were like that for ages as we walked on and as he normally follows me everywhere I realised that he didn't want to move because he'd set her off again I was just going back to rescue him but her owner said she's follow her soon, which she did, and she then left Jasper in peace. He practically staggered back to the car!

it's always interesting seeing how differences in personality and size can result in totally different sorts of interactions between dogs, and fascinating watching them work it out - while trying to work out when its time to intervene before someone gets hurt or scared.

[Erica]

'Scuse me while I bang my head against the wall for a bit...

Delta has never really liked putting his harness on, especially when it goes over his head. I always tried to lure him through, and give him a treat once it was around his neck, but he obviously still wasn't happy about it. Today it got to the point where he would only lick at one of his favorite treats and I went "Wellll that's not good." So I took a few steps back, tried getting him to approach the harness while I was holding it. He only moved away.

Threw the harness on the floor, and he was like "Uhhh what" and went to check it out, mark/throw treat a few feet away, repeat repeat repeat. After a while I picked it up, and he moved away, then looked at the harness...mark/reward. He sometimes only looked at the harness, sometimes would approach it, always got a reward, and soon he was confidently sniffing at it/poking it with his nose. We'll do another session later tonight, and hopefully in the morning have him put his head through the loop...

Moral of the story is give the dog a choice. Lesson learned.

[MPbandmom]

Moral of the story is give the dog a choice. Lesson learned.

We have something of this issue as well. Sky is always a little uncertain about putting her harness on. I hold it out for her to put her head in, and she often backs away intitially. So, I just go and have Sirius put her harness on and by then Sky is usually ready to put hers on. Oh takes exception to this concept though and will often quickly become exasperated that Sky is backing away from the harness and will then hang it back up and declare that Sky isn't going because she doesn't want to put her harness on. I usually then take the harness back down and by then Sirius has been harnessed and Sky is ready to be harnessed. Every now and then Sky is the first one harnessed and eagerly approaches the harness right off the bat. But it is pretty unusual.

[delladooo]

I have this sometimes with Laufey - I always lure him though and he was happy with this but then I was trying to fade the lure and he decided that nope that wasn't happening and now sometimes takes forever to lure through it. I just wait him out and he gets there eventually but I think it needs some more work. Interestingly, MiMi hated having either her roman or vest harness on but I've been working on desensitising her to the roman and she will happily shove her head through for a treat now (I should really work on the vest too but I don't like that as much so am less inclined to use it). The issue with MiMi is that she was doing okay having the roman on for me but not for mum which declined to hating it so I need to work with mum on getting it on her.

[Nettle]

Can you chaps with harness-haters get them up on a higher surface so you are not bending over them?

[JudyN]

The harness is one area where having taught Jasper to focus on a treat just beyond his nose, which he knows he'll get when I've finished doing what he doesn't want me to do, has really helped.

[MPbandmom]

Can you chaps with harness-haters get them up on a higher surface so you are not bending over them?

I don't have a way to elevate her. Things I have noticed though. She doesn't like it when I have two harnesses in my hands. Dropping one and lowering me to her level sometimes works. Just having one and lowering myself sometimes works. For Sky I think it is almost as if she is so excited about the prospect of going out that it takes her a little while to settle down to be ready to stand still to be harnessed. She does much the same thing with having the leash put on her harness. She often initially backs away. I haven't tried lowering myself on leashing though. Sirius is usually standing right against the door, so I clip her up first and then wait for Sky to decide she is ready for the leash. She usually makes the decision within a few seconds, so it isn't like I am waiting an extended period of time for her to settle down so that we can head out of the door.

Today we had a nice walk with the Samoyed club. I learned that I am a lame behavior excusing owner when I should be apologizing to someone that my dog just bit them. Self revelation isn't always pleasant. That may be the last club walk that I take both dogs on together even with OH to handle one. Club walks are mainly focused on showing off the samoyeds and taking pictures of the samoyeds. Which is fine if one has fluffy friendly samoyeds, but unfortunately I do not and the settings that are good for showing off fluffy white samoyeds and taking pictures of fluffy white samoyeds are not the best settings to have either of by dogs out in.

[delladooo]

Can you chaps with harness-haters get them up on a higher surface so you are not bending over them?

I'm usually sat on the floor instead of lifting him BUT I think you might have given me an explanation for why MiMi got to hating her harness in the first place

I'm sorry to hear that MPB, I know you like going out with the sammys so I'm sure that's a blow for you

[jacksdad]

Got a reminder this last weekend in puppy class the power of rapid reinforcement. I normally have pretty high value food on me which really gets the pups attention. But this weekend I only had some dry boring treats.....but with rapid reinforcement that didn't matter. I couldn't sake the little pup once she found she could get "lots" of food rapidly for doing some beautiful sits one after the other.

Then the lesson in patience working at the pace of the dog in front of you was again demonstrated with a 7 month old pitty. last week he could not focus or shift his attention from the rest of the class back to me or his owner. this week some amazing look around his environment, then turn make eye contact with me was happening.