The dog musing/vent thread

[straw]

Why do people expect 6 week old puppies to be housebroken???? Crate trained? Potty pad trained? They are *babies*. The fact that they keep their kennel clean and poop and pee in their litter is a good enough foundation. If you want a trained dog, get a *dog*, not a puppy. You are going to, you know. Crate train and house break a puppy when you bring it home at 7 weeks. They don't come with bladder control and an understanding of being alone.

Ugh the worst. I feel for you. "Um, you told me he was good when left alone. He chewed my TV cord and peed on my bed. I think he was acting out."

I said he was good alone when CRATED.

 

[Slick]

Leo got to experience his first ever thunderstorm today (we just don't get them in California, practically ever).

He was completely unfazed.
Until it started pouring. And then he was slightly unhappy, because he hates the rain. But yay for no noise phobia.

 

[pinkspore]

I was worried we were going to get rained out at Bark at the Park in Lancaster, but after a brief shower it's back to sunny as usual. We don't really get prolonged rain. Or thunderstorms. Or much rain at all.

 

[lancerandrara]

I became frustrated about being possibly blown off too early- the nose work trainer replied to my email last night and told us that we could come in to test out the class this morning! SO WE WENT. :hail:

Lancer was his shy/stiff self at first, but abruptly loved it by the 2nd round! It was an indoor location, one room, and many boxes. The class had only three other people at various levels of NW. I also learned a lot about nose work handling and both what to do and what not to do from the mistakes/successes of the other handlers. And Lancer very quickly got the gist of it and enjoyed it all very much + lots of high-pitched sounds while working.

Lancer's still using treats obviously, but Nicole (the trainer) thinks he can move into odors very soon... hopefully the next class in two weeks.

The class was indeed very conscious of reactive dogs. All the dogs waited in their cars as each dog took turns entering the room. A+++ environment for Lancer. I shouldn't start talking about NW trials this early, but Lancer is sharp at this game!

Nicole was very knowledgeable, and explained a lot of useful info and answered questions between each round of dogs. Her malinois is her search and rescue dog, and then she has a shar pei.

 

[SoCrafty]

Training a bouncing, hopping, bitey face dog to walk nicely on a leash...well, bites, frankly. I am getting fed up. I am going to give it one more week, and then I will give up and let her be her and just do nosework with her. Breaks my heart but she just does not want to listen to me. She listens in the house, outside in the yard mostly, but apparently walking on a leash is just one giant game. It's like she becomes deaf. We can't praise her because then she gets super bouncy and happy and wants to tug.

I read that I should exercise her before a walk, but she had the energy of the energizer bunny. For as smart as she is, she can NOT understand walking nicely.

 

[Torch]

Of course there's AKC lure coursing an hour from my house the day after my due date! And naturally my dog only needs one run for his first AKC coursing title.

Maybe the baby will come early or maybe I can convince my husband that this would be a good way to go into labor.

#dogmomproblems

 

[stardogs]

Of course there's AKC lure coursing an hour from my house the day after my due date! And naturally my dog only needs one run for his first AKC coursing title.

Maybe the baby will come early or maybe I can convince my husband that this would be a good way to go into labor.

#dogmomproblems

I'm contemplating an obedience trial less than 2 weeks before my EDD.

I say go for it! Lurecoursing is so much less intense than other sports and the run itself will take hardly any time.

 

[pinkspore]

Training a bouncing, hopping, bitey face dog to walk nicely on a leash...well, bites, frankly. I am getting fed up. I am going to give it one more week, and then I will give up and let her be her and just do nosework with her. Breaks my heart but she just does not want to listen to me. She listens in the house, outside in the yard mostly, but apparently walking on a leash is just one giant game. It's like she becomes deaf. We can't praise her because then she gets super bouncy and happy and wants to tug.

I read that I should exercise her before a walk, but she had the energy of the energizer bunny. For as smart as she is, she can NOT understand walking nicely.

Did you see the recent thread on loose leash walking? I like to use a clicker and click for leash tension, which usually gets me an engaged dog that is highly aware of how much leash they have left.

 

[SoCrafty]

No, I didn't see it but am going to have to look. I tried a clicker this morning, and then a clicker and treat. DH had more success than I did. The second "good" or "good girl" is said, she gets so incredibly happy and bounces and loses focus. So maybe we should stick with tbe clicker. We can't even do the turn and call her method because she thinks it is a game. We still have 5 weeks left of obedience class to get it right, but if tomorrow doesn't go well, I am going to have to pull her from it and skip the foundation agility. I don't want her to hate obedience, and she needs basic to move on to agility. We can try again when she is older and calmer.

I wish we had started earlier, but it was so dang hot out and she does not handle heat at all. So, it's my fault that she doesn't know this yet.

Thanks for telling me about that thread!

 

[StompinT]

SoCrafty, how long have you been at it?

It took 1 year of daily work on loose leash walking, and then a switch to a head halter to allow my Bouvier to really get it. At times things were pretty good, then pretty bad, then terrible, but we've gotten there (for the time being, at least). It wasn't until I used a head halter and had complete control of his head that things changed in a big way. And he gets so excited when he sees the head halter come out now. Can't wait to jam his nose through it

The other thing that helped us turn the corner was me changing my criteria for what was allowed while on leash. I started off believing that I didn't care where he walked, or what he did as long as the leash didn't get taught.

Once I changed the criteria to having to start in the traditional heel position that things improved. I release him from that position frequently with a "go sniff" command, but require him to eventually get back in to heel. At the beginning of our new changed leash experience (in August), I required a heel about 90% of the walk, and 10% sniffing time. Now I would say we're at about 50% heeling and 50% sniffing, though it was a gradual change.

And I also often bike for 5-10 minutes with him before any training or attempted loose leash walking, just to take the edge off.

 

[Samsonyte!]

What pinkspore and stompinT said. I used a combination of those two methods to get Wilson to walk on a loose leash. Pinkspore's method of clicking and stepping back actually worked just fine, but what I found is that if he's in heel position he is way more engaged with me vs the environment, which is really important for a fear-reactive dog like him. I do let him "go sniff" a lot like stompinT said, but having him at heel really worked well for us.

 

[Beanie]

If telling her "good girl" gets her excited a clicker will probably do the same. I wouldn't use a clicker in that kind of situation and I would be very selective of the word I used, too. Try to pick one you haven't reinforced a lot already - "nice" is a possibility.

How exactly is the trainer having you teach it? And when you say she's good in the house and outside do you mean she can heel in those places?

 

[Paviche]

Stitch discovered how to play fetch tonight and he loves it.

He also (finally) learned how to catch things. Lots of things. With all four feet off of the ground. Springing into the air like a weird, spindly kangaroo.

I think some disc might be in our future.

 

[k9krazee]

Training a bouncing, hopping, bitey face dog to walk nicely on a leash...well, bites, frankly. I am getting fed up. I am going to give it one more week, and then I will give up and let her be her and just do nosework with her. Breaks my heart but she just does not want to listen to me. She listens in the house, outside in the yard mostly, but apparently walking on a leash is just one giant game. It's like she becomes deaf. We can't praise her because then she gets super bouncy and happy and wants to tug.

I read that I should exercise her before a walk, but she had the energy of the energizer bunny. For as smart as she is, she can NOT understand walking nicely.

Don't give up! A dog does not need to LLW to do or be good at agility. Power through the class and get to the fun stuff!!!!

She can and will understand it, you just need to explore other methods.

 

[SoCrafty]

She is 10 months old now. She went through puppy class at 5 months, and that covered basic leash walking, "watch me", sit, lay down, and some other things. Then she did three nosework classes, where in between turns she would have to be in the other room and we would practice (usually she got three turns, before having to rest in her crate until the next set of three turns). We have not been able to do long walks from about June through August/most of September. It was too hot here, and unless there was shade, she didn't want to be out. But we did try to practice it when we could.
TLDR; about 5 months.

The clicker makes her engaged inside. She loves that instant click gratification. She will usually get more focused. So, she usually does MUCH better inside, but keeps looking at us and not where she is going.

The trainers are about positivity but still use the leash pop. I know this trainer/group well now, and was very surprised to see it. The first class she shut down afterwards. I had to ask the trainer for alternate methods, which she gave us and she will probably go over in class. That is the new method I have been trying.

And they told us we needed to have some basic obedience before we could do foundation agility.

 

[StompinT]

She is 10 months old now. She went through puppy class at 5 months, and that covered basic leash walking, "watch me", sit, lay down, and some other things. Then she did three nosework classes, where in between turns she would have to be in the other room and we would practice (usually she got three turns, before having to rest in her crate until the next set of three turns). We have not been able to do long walks from about June through August/most of September. It was too hot here, and unless there was shade, she didn't want to be out. But we did try to practice it when we could.
TLDR; about 5 months.

The clicker makes her engaged inside. She loves that instant click gratification. She will usually get more focused. So, she usually does MUCH better inside, but keeps looking at us and not where she is going.

The trainers are about positivity but still use the leash pop. I know this trainer/group well now, and was very surprised to see it. The first class she shut down afterwards. I had to ask the trainer for alternate methods, which she gave us and she will probably go over in class. That is the new method I have been trying.

And they told us we needed to have some basic obedience before we could do foundation agility.

Ooh, she's only 10 months. Don't don't don't give up! She can totally do this, and if she's focused and responsive when using the clicker, all the better!

I personally don't think it's a problem at all if she's watching you while heeling. I click and reward often for that. Once she has the position part of heeling down pat, you can eventually change criteria and tell her to "go sniff" out front for several seconds before asking her to get back in for heel.

So it sounds to me like she can end up to be an excellent sports dog for you, if you just work on control. From my own (limited, to be sure) experience, I probably wouldn't actually worry too much about agility foundations at this point, and would work a LOT on control exercises. There are several good resources for this.

The first book I'd recommend is a very easy and quick read, and I think would inspire you a lot and leave you quite optimistic about your future agility with your pup. It's called "Shaping Success" by Susan Garrett. It's truly as easy read, with excellent games to play with your dog to help build control and focus.

As for the leash pop, well, I don't see that being very effective for you (sounds like you agree). If you can work on control in various ways with your dog, I suspect your heeling / LLW will improve drastically.

 

[Dogs6]

Fudge must have run into the electric fence either at work or where I'm staying. He now refuses to leave my car at work and when he comes over to us during breaks he shakes and pants constantly until I send him back to the car. And where I'm staying has a field where I've been exercising him. Now he refuses to go near it and runs off if I go in and call him.

 

[Bruschnazzy]

I'm just all up in dog drama on Facebook lately.

 

[Torch]

I'm contemplating an obedience trial less than 2 weeks before my EDD.

I say go for it! Lurecoursing is so much less intense than other sports and the run itself will take hardly any time.

I'm sure I could email the trial secretary and be put first in the run order. I was signed up to course at another trial a couple of weeks ago with this particular club and had to back out the week before because Rhys injured his toe. A refund was discussed back and forth, but I've never gotten confirmation on that. So technically, I say this run is already paid for lol!

If we could get there and run first we would probably only be gone from home for 3 hours, travel time and all. That's nothing if I'm not in labor. And my husband (or dad, if hubby is working) could do everything, handling-wise and physically, as long as I'm there to direct them (neither have been to a trial before).

 

[Julee]

Just registered Em with BHA.