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

[Nettle]

Good as always to hear from you, Swanny, and life is more important than the Internet kettle is always on for when you do get time to drop in.

[MPbandmom]

Thanks for the video Swanny. If we keep getting snow around here, I may have to find some way to take up sledding. We got 3 inches (as measured by a neighbor) this week and have another 5 to 8 inches due to come tomorrow. 3 inches would normally be gone by now, but our highs have been in the teens and the temp this morning was 0. That is 0 Fahrenheit, not Celsius. Wind chills are in the negatives. Those a couple of states to the north have posted some lovely pictures of their sledding adventures. I hear almost daily trail conditions communications. Trails seem either good for sledding or good for nothing. These are all trails at least a two hour drive away though. On our local(ish) canal towpath there have been a couple of brave souls who have gone out with dogs and wheels. The pictures I saw of their outing left me thinking they were rather more daring than I.

The dogs are clearly getting bored out of their minds, yet they think it is cold outside too and don't want to stay out very long. The big van is finally back from the shop, but I will need to move Sirius' crate back into the big van from OH's van, which is covered in snow and backed up to the fence. The crate is in the back.The quiet park across town has been closed for several days, although that hasn't stopped people from parking outside of the gate and all along the roadway. My guess is that these people are taking advantage of the hills in the park for sledding. (people sledding, not dog powered sledding) The fence blew down at the dog park in the storm, so even a quick outing there is not possible. I've got to come up with something for tomorrow morning before the snow starts that is forecast for the afternoon.

[DianeLDL]

Hi all,

Like Swanny, I have also been absent from the forum.

We are traveling again and are currently in Jacksdad's area visiting my elderly parents, but, tomorrow, we will be up just north of Half Moon Bay visiting my niece, her husband and their baby (born as a preeming Oct. 30th.
I have been busy making a baby quilt for them.

We are staying in Mt. View at the Navy Lodge. Things were great until last night when a group of army reservists checked in along with several other dogs. It seems many people are traveling with dogs these days.

Our kitchen has a door that connects with the room next to us. And, they person who checked in at 9pm last night left their yapping dog alone. (I assume the poor dog was having separation anxiety. And Sandy barking back probably didnt help the poor dog.)
So, of course, Sandy had to respond.
Finally, a half hour later the owner returned. Thankfully, the dog stopped barking.

So, I found that putting a chair against the door seemed to calm Sandy down. I guess he must have been worried the other dog would come throught the kitchen door, which makes sense since whoever is there kept opening and closing their side of the door. I finally banged on the door to let them know we were there. Of course, after hearing Sandy barking back at their dog, they knew we are here.

Thankfully, so far things are quiet. We definitely need a good nights sleep.

Hopefully, I will be able to keep in touch better. We will be back in Albuquerque Sunday, March 1st.
Diane

[delladooo]

Sounds like you're having fun Diane I don't envy you your barking neighbours and just hope that if I end up staying anywhere on our travels this summer we don't end up in a similar situation as I don't know how Laufey would react.

For Christmas I got a book called 101 dog tricks and whilst I don't always agree with the written words (there's some stuff about if you can't lure the dog then manipulate it and some pack leader stuff) but it's excellent for ideas of things to do and it does give you instructions on how to lure the trick first. Anyway, this morning I decided I was going to teach Laufey to balance things in his nose. This lasted for all of 30 seconds when I knew he wouldn't let me hold his face and I was not getting the treat on his nose so I decided to teach him to walk through my legs which lasted about the same amount of time because MiMi was having none of being left out so what I actually taught this morning was a down to MiMi because a conversation with mum the other day essentially went "she's 6 months old and only knows how to sit" which is mostly true so I figured I should try and do something about that seeing as mum isn't. I've also slowly been teaching a leave it but we haven't generalised that to anything outside of a short training session. In teaching MiMi anything I'm also trying to improve Laufey's general control and it seems to be helping. It also doesn't seem to hinder MiMi unless he gets slightly impatient and a little close so I'm hoping to accidently teach her that he's not stealing her treats which seems to be slowly helping too as he can be much closer without her deciding he's too close.

Really I'm meant to be doing uni work as I have a lot of it this week but never mind

Edit: it just occurred to me that we taught her to climb steps onto the sofa so we're not lifting her too we only have one set though so she can only get on one sofa

[JudyN]

Edit: it just occurred to me that we taught her to climb steps onto the sofa so we're not lifting her too we only have one set though so she can only get on one sofa

Train Laufey to be a mobile step

I have the same book, and I know what you mean - I think in one place it advises that if the dog 'gets it wrong', bop him on the nose

[delladooo]

Train Laufey to be a mobile step [\quote]

ahahah that is an excellent idea! Hmm, I wonder if I could get him in a down and then still enough for her to climb on him (she can't reach when he's stood up, she's tried) and if she would then be high enough to get on the sofa or if we'd have to work on him then standing

I have the same book, and I know what you mean - I think in one place it advises that if the dog 'gets it wrong', bop him on the nose

yep, I read that this morning, something about hand mugging. It has some handy pictures of the luring bits though so I just tend to ignore what I don't like. I also tend to ignore some of the tricks because they're not something Laufey could do; put a dirty tissue in a bin?! He'd just eat it

[MPbandmom]

After the shoveling was done and I had recovered a bit. I loaded the dogs into the big van and we headed over to the park behind my house. It was the only park in the area that I could be certain would be open and have clear roads to get to. When we arrived there was a sibe and another dog in the small dog area of the dog park. I honestly hadn't planned on spending any time in the dog park as I thought it was closed. My tow seem to get along with the sibe, but the small dog that lives with the sibe is a barkey one so we stayed well away. We took a loop around the park and when we returned we had bags to put into the trash cans in the dog park and as it was empty at that point in time, I took the dogs in and they had a little off leash run time. Sky was very disappointed that I didn't have a ball and she couldn't find one in the snow. After we left the dog park, we took another loop around the park and then headed home.

Today was rather warm, but tomorrow the temperature is due to plummet again although not nearly as badly as last week. I am thinking that perhaps I could acclimate to a colder climate. It seems like the longer I have these dogs, the more I prefer the cooler weather.

[Erica]

Della, if he doesn't like you holding his face I'd teach a "chin rest" first - it's one of the tricks we did in puppy class, actually, haha. What worked for Delta was having him in a down, putting my left hand out flat in front of his face, then having a treat in my other hand to lure his face forward until his chin was in my hand. Eventually I had to change the hand signal as he was getting it confused with "shake," but that exercise would probably get him more comfortable with you holding his head still!

Delta got a half-bath today to get his legs cleaned off. His legs are so fluffy and soft now! He didn't mind it nearly as much as he did the first time I bathed him - this time he just stood and accepted his fate, whereas the first time he tried to escape a couple times. but now it's not a big deal to him, because he gets a bath or partial bath every couple weeks because of the whole stinking pees-on-his-legs thing. It's probably a good thing to have a poodle who doesn't mind a bath!

And I have to say, trimming the nails of a dog who accepts paw handling is SO EASY. I only do a few nails at a time, and I trim a little bit each night, but Delta's a lot easier to trim than Opal.

Last week's class was cancelled because of the weather, so I can't wait for class tomorrow! Delta and I have worked hard on the tricks for the class hehe. He loves training as much as I do, so we tend to do a bit more than half an hour each night, swapping between subjects quickly.

I'm glad you're acclimating, MP! My brother's up in Virginia and keeps sending us pictures of all the snow he's getting. Ours mostly melted today.

[delladooo]

Ahhh I didn't think of that Erica! He does like to lean his chin on you so that could be an easy thing to teach him.
I'm jealous about Delta's nails too. Laufey doesn't mind me touching his legs and feet and I can play with them but as soon as clippers come out he is less than impressed. We're working on it, slowly.

MP there is no way I would ever be able to cope where you are - I hate snow and ice so much. That said I also hate summer and the heat so I can't really win in any situation

[bendog]

They say a picture says a 1000 words, but a picture can also lie



Here is my little demon dog merrily ignoring all the ducks and looking like butter wouldn't melt!

You wouldn't believe that she had killed 2 ducks before she was a year old (and that total would be higher if I had let her off lead near them, both times the ducks were hiding in the bushes and not somewhere I expected ducks to be!)

Or that if a duck came within tasting distance, or she was off lead, she would still gladly help herself to one for dinner!

[JudyN]

I don't think the picture lies at all, Amy - the expression on her face clearly says 'Must not look. Must not kill. Must not look. Must not kill. Must not look. Must not kill....'

We had a lovely walk in the woods this morning, but Jasper was on and off lead every minute or so as I don't trust him 100% with other dogs. At one point we were with a dog-walking friend and her crossbreed, and met someone with a lovely young male inuit-type. They looked like they were going to be find together and the other dog wanted to play, so I let Jasper off. He got a little bit OTT though so I walked briskly away, whistling for him. When she caught up, my friend said she had told the other owners, 'You don't need to worry about Jasper, he's so obedient.' Feeling smug

[jacksdad]

We are staying in Mt. View at the Navy Lodge.

*looks through binoculars out back off office window*

yep, I thought that was little sandy

I used to be able to see those big hangers at the air field until they started building around us some rather large/tall buildings.

have fun in half moon bay. I used to occasional ride horses on the beach back in the day there.

[delladooo]

That's a brilliant picture Amy, although I can see the "if I turn around I'm off" on her face

Today Laufey, MiMi, mum and I went to the big park and had a good afternoon out. We were only there about an hour (MiMi gets very tired) but they had fun. We had some excellent doggie interactions from "the kids" and one dog that was getting a bit too friendly with my pocket Then we came home, the kids napped a bit and I tried to do some uni work. When they woke up again I realised we are in desperate need of some new hooves so I've ordered us some hooves, another brush to try MiMi with and a new harness (roman style) for her. This evening I've been cutting up more food for them and sliced my finger - it was bound to happen at some point and I was surprised it's taken me this long.

Overall, it's been very productive if you ignore the fact my uni work is lacking

[DianeLDL]

We are staying in Mt. View at the Navy Lodge.

*looks through binoculars out back off office window*

yep, I thought that was little sandy

I used to be able to see those big hangers at the air field until they started building around us some rather large/tall buildings.

have fun in half moon bay. I used to occasional ride horses on the beach back in the day there.

Yes, they have horse rides for kids these days, though. But, it is mainly surfers in the wet suits on the beach.
Traffic was horrendous. It was almost like summer. The temperatures were in the upper 60s.

The weather was so nice, it was bumper to bumper going south from Pacifica to Half Moon Bay. This was the first time I had been in the new tunnel avoiding Devil's Slide. (For those who don't know, the famous highway 1 that goes from San Francisco and north to Oregon or south to Los Angeles, usde to twist around the mountains above the beach from Pacofica which is south of San Francisco to Half Moon Bay. During heavy storms rocks would slide down and close the road. One winter, the road was closed for months until the rocks could be removed. For years, there were heated arguments as to whether or not to build the tunnel through the mountain to avoid the Devil's slide. Now they have completed the tunnel, but construction is on hold until the end of the mating season for some rare species in the area. So, traffic was backed up With people trying to cut in.)

Sad they way Moffett Naval Air Station was dismantled. NASA Ames has taken it over. The big hangers were originally for Blimps that were used as submarine hunters during earlier times.
Jacksdad, did you ever attend air shows there? They would use the hangers for indoor displays. It is sad to see.

Sandy did well and now we are in the valley south of Fresno at Lemoore NAS where they are remodeling and so we have a dog across the hall from us. We havent seen the dog, but yesterday, it was left alone all day in the room and barked almost constantly. So, once again, Sandy had to chime in and back back. We saw an active dury woman going into the room yesterday.

That is one of the reasons that some of the bases such as Air Force bases, it is nearly impossible to get dog/pet friendly lodging. So many active duty military have dogs these days. And it isnt just the disabled military and veterans. It seems that so many have dogs these days. It is great that so many have become dog owners, but I really hate to see the dogs kept in crates all day while they are on duty. It isn't as if the dogs are in their own home all day among familiar surroundings. It also makes it more difficult for maid service.

And, of course, it makes it harder for retirees to get dog friendly lodging.
We are due to be home in Albuquerque by Sunday.
Diane

[jacksdad]

now we are in the valley south of Fresno at Lemoore NAS

back when I worked for a garage door manufacture, I did a delivery out to Lemoore area. one of the most peaceful moments living in CA. little to no noise...except nature and the occasional jet from the naval air station. felt like I was in one of those end of the world as we know it movies.