Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Dogs Helping Dogs

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Last Saturday Delilah and I got to spend the afternoon with my friend Jo-Anne and her dog Achilles.  Achilles is (to the best of my knowledge) a White German Shepherd/Husky mix.

I’ve always found Achilles to be friendly and affectionate, in fact sometimes he freaks me out a little because he will just stare into your eyes.  I often wonder if he’s trying to tell me something.

Something like, I’m really a prince stuck in this body, kiss me and I’ll make all your dreams come true.

It’s a good thing I can’t read his mind because he’s probably really thinking, move a little closer I want to hump your leg.

Jo-Anne rescued Achilles just before we rescued Delilah, in fact Jo-Anne’s rescue of Achilles is what inspired me to rescue Delilah.

Now that I’m thinking about it,  I don’t know if I should thank her or curse her.

Anyhoo…Jo-Anne sent me an e-mail about 10 days ago asking if Delilah and I could help her with a little problem Achilles was having.  Apparently while Lily and Achilles get along just fine, Achilles is having some confusion about the proper way to react and play with other dogs.

Jo-Anne’s new trainer, Marcus asked her if she could find someone with a female dog, that was either a husky mix or a lab.

Enter Delilah.

Marcus asked us to find a neutral place that was fenced in.  I knew of a baseball field at one of the elementary schools that would be perfect.  When we got to the designated spot, there was a young man walking a German Shepherd back and forth.  I was a little anxious because Delilah can sometimes go a bit ballistic when she’s in the car and sees another dog outside.

Great first impression right?  You pull up and your dog loses her stuff.

But it didn’t happen like that.

Turns out the guy walking the dog was Marcus’ brother Thomas, walking Marcus’ dog Tye.  Marcus has been using Tye (who has some dog aggression issues) to help Achilles with his issues.

The first thing we did was take the dogs out of the car.  Marcus came over to introduce himself to Delilah and she turned her back on him and sat down.

Marcus was tickled.

He asked me if he could introduce Delilah to Achilles, I said, “Yes, as long as you don’t hurt my dog.”

Ballsy, I know.

He introduced them and after a second or so, Achilles got a little snarky and Delilah set him straight.

Listen here mister, don’t take that tone with me!

 

I told Marcus, “Don’t worry, she can handle him.”

Once all the dogs had been introduced we started some walking exercises.

Marcus wanted Achilles to get used to walking without reacting to other dogs.

Thomas and Tye, Jo-Anne and Achilles, Marcus and Delilah.

 

We realized there was a lot of glass in the parking area, so we moved the dogs onto one of the side streets.

We were probably about 5 to 6 feet apart.

 

Tye went home and Marcus had Jo-Anne have Achilles sit in the parking lot while Delilah and I walked around them.  The goal was to get Achilles to focus on Jo-Anne and not on Delilah.

Every time Achilles looked at Jo-Anne, he got a treat.

That’s right Achilles, look at your mama.

 

After this we went back to Jo-Anne’s house.  Marcus and Tye, Delilah and I sat on the patio while Jo-Anne worked Achilles in the yard.  The reasoning for this was to help Achilles learn to focus while there were distractions.

After about 15 minutes or so, Marcus said Delilah and I could leave.  He asked me if I could put Delilah in the car before I said good-bye to Jo-Anne.

When I got back to the yard he said he was going to have Jo-Anne hand me a treat for Achilles and I could give it to him when he was sitting properly.

I took the treat and then approached Jo-Anne and Achilles, with my hand out like a stop sign.  Just as I got up to him, Achilles got up, so I turned around and walked away, waited a few seconds and approached Achilles again. This time he stayed sitting.

Success!!

Marcus said Delilah was the perfect dog to work with Achilles because she is calm and exhibits the proper signals to other dogs.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she can hold her own. 🙂

I know many of you have used or trained therapy dogs, but have you ever heard of a dog working with other dogs?  What would you call that?  Would you do it with your own pup?

Sunday Discovery

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Yesterday we had an impromptu, hastily planned, small family gathering.

I knew the mental stimulation and the activity of people coming and going meant I could get away with a short walk for the pups.

Hubby was mowing the lawn and so that left me.  I thought it might be a good time to walk them individually.

It made sense to take Delilah first, honestly she can be very destructive when she’s ticked off.  I knew Sampson would just sit at the top of the stairs and pout while he waited for our return.

I put on her harness, clipped on the six-foot leash and off we went.

I’ve heard that a harness can make a dog with a tendency to pull, pull harder, but that is not the case with Delilah.  The harness actually helps her to stop pulling me.  While we’re walking if she starts to get too far ahead or the leash starts to get too tight I make a noise that sounds like, “ent.”

It is just enough of a verbal correction to make her slow down and back off the tension.

We went to the end of the street, turned around and came back.

I decided I’d try Sampson on the harness.  I put Delilah’s harness on him, made a couple of small adjustments and off we went.

Honestly, this was the most enjoyable leash walk I’ve had with Sampson since he was a puppy!  We had absolutely no pulling from him either and he too was corrected with a gentle “ent.”

As I approached our house at the end of our walk I thought, “Wow, I actually enjoy walking the dogs this way.”

What I discovered yesterday, as with any training tool if you are simply using the tool and not training the dog, you’re spinning your wheels.  The harness combined with a simple correction was more than enough to make our walk very enjoyable.

Do you have a dog that pulls?  Have you ever used a harness?  Would you use a harness?

My big dog walking by MY SIDE!! (Excuse the blurry, it was on my cell phone while we were walking.)

One On One

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Having Sampson on the D.L. has added a whole new dynamic to our exercise routine.

There are some nights when Hubby can be convinced to walk with us.  His biggest complaint is the leashes are a pain in the butt.  I agree, most days I feel like I’m playing Chinese jump rope, but hey…you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have…the facts of life.  (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself, blame Pupfan for putting up tv theme songs video.) 😉

(It’s stuck in your head now too, huh?)

There have been a couple of nights where Hubby just didn’t want to go, but I won’t let that stop me.

Monday night I put both dogs on the long leash and off we went.

Okay, you got me. It’s an old photo, you really don’t expect me to juggle two dogs and a camera do you?

 

Yes, there were many, many times where I ducked, twisted and cussed dealing with two dogs on long leashes, each with their own agendas.

The more interesting walk though, happened on Tuesday night.  It was raining pretty hard when I got home.

Hubby checked the weather and it looked like we were going to get a break, but not until later.

I decided I’d take the dogs for a quick walk, but I’d take them individually.

I put Sampson on the long leash and out the door we went.  I was amused when he went directly to the car and looked at me as if to say, well go ahead, open the door.

Nope, sorry buddy, we’re hoofing it today.

We walked up the hill and into the woods, up the wide yellow path for a very short time and turned around to head home.

I was so impressed with Sampson on the long leash. Normally he pulls me, but not on the long leash and not without Delilah there, competing with him.

After a brief walk of maybe 15 minutes, I brought Sampson home, put Delilah’s harness on her and headed off.

She was marvelous too!

The beauty of walking the dogs in the rain was, there weren’t any other dogs out.  The squirrels and chipmunks however, didn’t get that memo.

Delilah and I had a very tense moment with a squirrel, where I got very close to her, (in case I had to grab her) but eventually she was convinced to leave it and the squirrel made himself scarce.  Delilah and I continued our walk.

I’ve noticed on previous walks that each dog wants to be ahead of the other one, which can cause huge challenges when walking two dogs on leash, which is also why, I like them off-leash!

Don’t mind us, we’re just checking our pee-mail.

 

It was nice to get them out and walk them individually.  Except for getting soaked to the skin, I really enjoyed our one-on-one leash time.

Do you have more than one dog?  Do you walk them together or separately?  Do you prefer one over the other?

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