Heart Like a Dog

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

Check In

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I recently finished reading, “Bonding with Your Dog: A Trainer’s Secrets for Building a Better Relationship” by Victoria Schade.

I’ve been feeling like Delilah and I are not bonded, hence her tendency to ignore me on off-leash hikes.  As with any thought I have, it could of course be wrong.  But I’m going with it for the sake of this post.

This book was suggested to me by Pamela, at Something Wagging in one of my comments a while back.  I downloaded the book on my Kindle and then took my time reading it.

Why?  Well two reasons really.

1) When I read a training book, I want to take notes.  I want to highlight areas of interest and I find that I don’t do that with my Kindle.

My bad.

Yes I know it’s easily rectified with the highlighting option on the Kindle, but then there’s the pesky matter of trying to find it.

2) Most dog training books I’ve read give LOTS of stories, emphasizing the lesson.

I want the lesson.

Quick and dirty.  Give me the story later.  I’m trying to bond with my dog here. :-0

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good book, BUT I got so caught up in the stories that I sometimes forgot the lesson.

Ok, maybe it’s just me and my menopausal mind.

ANYHOOO, I’m not going to give you all her tips here (that would spoil the book for you) but I will say one of her suggestions was talking to your dog while walking.  After reading the book I realized, I already do that and quite frequently.

I also realized I could be sending Delilah mixed messages.

Delilah’s command for returning to me is HERE.   Sampson’s is COME.  Don’t ask me why because I couldn’t tell you if I had to.

Since I talk to them while we’re walking I noticed I say Come on, Over Here,  and This Way when we’re walking.  So how is Delilah supposed to know when I say Here that it means, get your butt back pronto?

As humans we are capable of understanding how words are used in different contexts, but dogs aren’t.  They haven’t as yet developed that skill….notice my use of the word yet.  (I have high hopes for my dogs.)

I started working on a new command with Delilah.  When we’re walking and I see her turn and look at me, or she starts running toward me I sing (and yes, it really sounds like I’m singing) Check In.  As soon as she reaches me I give her a treat and tell her good check in.

Once she’s checked in, I can very easily (and sometimes do) give her another command, or play a quick game of kibble catch.

For Delilah the only thing Check In means is she is getting a treat.  That’s it.

So many times with our dogs we will call them to us, and clip a leash on them or something else that in their eyes equates to my fun is done.  Why would a dog like Delilah want to return to someone who’s putting the kibash on her fun?

Yeah, I don’t know either.

Oh, you just want to give me a treat? Sure I’ll take it.

Another Year Gone By

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Last night was Delilah’s yearly exam.  As is the case with most vet visits we bring both dogs.  We like to says it’s for moral support but really we hate to leave one home alone.

We also like the opportunity to pop the dogs on the scale, to see how their diet and exercise routine is going.  Our vet’s office will let us pop in anytime and put them on the scale but we are usually too busy, so we do it on the formal appointments.

At Sampson’s last check-up in October he weighed 86.5 pounds while Delilah weighed 72.4, when they hopped on the scale Sampson had gained six pounds and Delilah has gained 1.6.

I’m slightly puzzled by the weight gain, especially in Sampson.  He runs a lot when he is off leash on our walks and he gets minimal treats.  Delilah on the other hand is on leash so she doesn’t get a lot of running in, plus she gets LOTS of treats.

For breakfast they get chicken necks.  The number of necks vary depending upon their size.  Delilah usually gets one more than Sampson.  I give them a couple squirts of Salmon Oil on the necks for the Omega 3’s.  After their necks, they get about a 1/4 cup of pumpkin, which is low in fat, high in fiber and it helps them feel full.

I had increased their raw food at their evening meal slightly and by that I mean Sampson is supposed to get 12.8 and I usually give him 13.50 and Delilah is supposed to get 10.6 and she usually gets 11.30.  They get a small drizzle of olive oil on the food, because sometimes their poop is very dry and I worry it will be too hard for them to pass.  They also get about a quarter cup of non/low-fat yogurt after their raw food, to help keep good bacteria in their intestines.

Sandy our food guru said that since Delilah had really gotten down to her ideal weight, I should add a little bit more to see how she would maintain it, which is why she gets one more neck than Sampson.

Today I went back to our original measurements, and I cut back that extra neck for Delilah.

The dilemma is really their treats.  Before the great Chinese Chicken debacle, I used to use the little dried disks of chicken, which I think work great for the raw diet.  While I do try to buy grain free treats, most of the treats I’m buying do have some type of flour in them.  Which is where I think the problem lies. If I could cut out some of the carbs, I think it would really help.  My goals are to get Sampson down to 80 – 82 pounds and Delilah down to about 70.

I am now in the market for some good protein treats, any suggestions?

Oh and the rest of her check up went well.  They drew blood to check her thyroid and to check for heartworm, I remembered to bring in a stool sample so they checked that.  I got a call from the vet today that the thyroid was perfect and the stool sample was negative.  Now we are just waiting for the results of the heartworm/tick borne test.

She wasn’t due for rabies, and my vet doesn’t feel she needs Parvo or Distemper, so the only vaccine she got was Leptospirosis.

Our vet said probably in the next year or two she will need a teeth cleaning, she has a little tartar on the back teeth but it hasn’t gotten down to the gum line.  She suggested large bully sticks for chewing which should help and brushing her teeth.  That should be interesting because we’ve never gotten into a routine of brushing.

Our vet was very pleased with her over-all appearance and demeanor, and keeps complimenting us how the work we’ve done to get them in shape.

Tomorrow is follow-up Friday, but Saturday I am planning (unless something unforeseen happens) to do a post on the command I’ve been teaching Delilah on our walks.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions for low-fat/low carb treats that would work good for training, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

Have a wonderful evening.

We're At 50%

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Yesterday I posted about Hubby and Sampson’s close encounter with the tree branch after our Friday night walk.   BTTB (Before the tree branch) I had intended on posting about a really good recall Delilah had.

I knew Hubby was heading our way so I was trying to keep the dogs busy on the trail to give him the time to reach us.  We had just reached the top of one of the trails and I was planning on doubling back through, when I heard Tia (the GSD) and her moms approaching.

I tried to hustle the dogs along before they reached us, but Tia had spotted Sampson and came running at him to greet him.  Delilah and I had stopped and turned and when Tia saw Delilah she came running at her.  She wasn’t being aggressive in the least, but given Delilah’s past experience of being a bit leash reactive, I didn’t want her to feel she was trapped.  So I dropped the leash.

After a few seconds of greeting, Tia ran back to one of her moms.  Without panicking I sang out, “Delilah come on, here!”  She came running back to me and I rewarded her with treats, praise and pets.  I was so very proud of her!

The very next night we were cresting the top of the trail where the other entrance to the park is, and Brady and one of his moms were just getting ready to head in with their friend Kodak.  I dropped the leash so Delilah could run over and greet them and she ran right past them and out into Tia’s yard.

Luckily for me, one of Tia’s moms stepped on the leash which stopped her progress.  Tia was in the yard having a rousing game of fetch with her other mom and I’m glad Delilah didn’t approach her in her own yard.  You never know what the outcome will be.

So right now, her recall is at 50%.  When her recall gets to be about 95%, I will consider taking her off leash.  In the meantime I’ve just finished reading “Bonding With Your Dog” by Victoria Schade and am practicing some of her methods.

I also started a new command with her, which I intend on blogging about one day this week.

Sunday isn’t over yet, but I’m calling it a good one!  I hope you had a great weekend and I hope you rock your week. 🙂

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