Heart Like a Dog

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

Seeing is Believing

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We have a beautiful soccer field at the top of our street.  One side of the field has a path leading to the street, one side has wooded trails leading down into a larger park and the other two sides have wooded trails with houses bordering them.

A lot of people walk their dogs up in the woods an many of them walk their dogs off-leash.  Many times I’ve walked Sampson and Delilah up there.  Off-leash.

Sampson is usually pretty good off-leash, although since his surgery I haven’t let him walk the trail off-leash, call it over-protective, but I want to make sure any encounters with dogs will be safe.

Delilah on the other hand is a crap shoot.  She will go for months and months sticking close beside me and then POOF!  one day she will run off on me. 

The worse part of her running off is she goes to people’s houses scrounging for food.  One time she actually went into someone’s open garage.  

The last time she did it, it was like she was in a zone.  I could see her and I called and called, but she was munching on something in the yard and just could hear me.

It freaks me out because I worry that someone could hurt her, so since the last time (March 2013) she hasn’t been off-leash at the park.

I’ve been working with her on sticking close to me, and even though she’s on leash, I call her to me a couple of times during our walk and reward her for returning.

I’ve also let her off leash as we are returning from our walks and making our way into the yard, working hard at keeping her attention focused on me and rewarding her for doing a great job.

Saturday I decided to take a risk and see how she did in the field off-leash.  

Look at that! She has to be at least 20 feet away from me. Good thing you can't tell how badly I'm freaking out.

Look at that! She has to be at least 20 feet away from me. Good thing you can’t tell how badly I’m freaking out.

I didn’t let her get too far.  I called her back to me three or four times and after a couple of successful minutes, I clipped her back up.

This photo, this makes my heart happy.

This photo, this makes my heart happy.

Will I ever let her run off-leash as we walk thru the woods?  I doubt it.  But there is hope that she can be trusted for short periods of time.

I Could Use Your Help

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Calling all positive trainers!!  I need your help and I need it fast.

How do you deal with a dog that is so treat motivated that the thought of a treat drives her lab shit crazy?

Of course I’m speaking about Delilah.

Delilah typically walks on the left side of me and the treat bag is clipped to my right side.  The moment I reach for the treat, she spins around and shoves her nose at my hand/the bag.

Don't listen to her, she likes to tell tales.

Don’t listen to her, she likes to tell tales.

Yesterday we were walking past two dogs in their yard and I reached for the treat bag, Delilah whipped around and plowed into me, knocking the treat out of my hand and practically knocked me on my ass.  This was all after I’d already pulled a few treats out in preparation.

Here’s what I’ve tried:

  • Pulling my hand away when she reaches for the treat bag and telling her no. (She keeps doing it.)
  • Turning my body away from her. (She follows me.)
  • Treating Sampson first. (She will shove her face between Sampson and my hand.)

As you can see, none of these options work.  

Last night after I regained my senses I thought about how I could possibly work her using the clicker but I drew a blank.

You see, I could really use your help.  Please, please,  give me your best ideas for working with a dog that’s lab shit crazy.  Oh and while you’re at it, any thoughts to keeping her from chomping on my fingers?

That Works!

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Morning walks are typically very relaxing around our neighborhood.  Sure we run into the occasional fox, chipmunk or deer but more often than not, I’m right on top of those things and can quickly avoid or redirect.  What I can’t anticipate is the dog owner that let’s their dog(s) out into the e-fence without checking to see if anyone else is around.

Which is how I found myself wrestling Sampson and Delilah last Sunday morning, while the woman in question gingerly made her way up her driveway in her pajamas and bare feet in an attempt to get her dogs under control.

Both of us apologizing as we dealt with our dogs.

I may have mentioned these dogs in a previous post .

I am the peeper, a sweet chocolate seeker.

I am The Peeper, a sweet chocolate seeker.

One dog is very docile (I call this one The Peeper)  (s)he just looks, then runs to a different spot in the yard to see if there is a better vantage point.  The other dog  (I shall call The Speaker) because she is a barker. She will run to a safe distance and start causing a ruckus.

Delilah, my darling sweet chocolate, can be reactive with other dogs.  Mostly I’m aware of what sets her off and work hard to either avoid the situation or work her with treats to help her through it.

I'm a dogbassador, it's my job to make friends!

I’m providing a public service.  You know they want to pet me.

Sampson is reactive in the total opposite way.  (These dogs are literally night and day in terms of personalities.)  Sampson is very social and sees all people and dogs as potential friends.  I’ve also been working him with treats when we approach other dogs and people.

Except this time I didn’t see it coming and I didn’t have my treats ready.  It ended up being a frustrating experience and not a happy way to start the day.

Flash forward to a week later.

I slept in a bit so our walk was around 10:00 am which means more people are out and about.  As we approached the house with the dogs I saw their garage door was open and the woman was outside working in the yard.  This led me to believe her dogs were out there with her and sure enough they were.

But I was ready!  I had my hand in the treat bag and I was doling out Jones Natural Chews lamb lungs as fast as I could.  Both Sampson and Delilah had their attention focused on me.  Our walk past the house was somewhat slow, BUT there was no wrestling involved.  Neither one of my dogs paid any attention to what her dogs were doing.

My attention was on my dogs and making sure Delilah did not remove one of my fingers, but the woman and I managed a brief exchange.

“Hello.”

“Hi, how are you?”

“Good, how are you?”

“Good.”

As we passed the house I heard her say, “That works!”

Yes, yes it does.  I’m hoping Sampson, Delilah and I are setting a good example for our neighborhood peeps and showing them there is a positive way to train your dogs.

Do you have a reactive dog?  How do manage on your walks?

Yesterday I added 175 words to my book, bringing my word total to 44,664.

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