Heart Like a Dog

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

Zoned Out

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Delilah has been doing super on our walks.

I keep her on leash in certain areas and in other areas she’s allowed to be off.  The majority of the time she returns immediately upon being called.  On those rare occasions when she doesn’t respond, if I run in the opposite direction or loudly reward Sampson she zips right over.

Until Saturday.

We’d been walking for about 45 minutes and were heading out of the field.   At this stage, she’s responded to every call.

Then she entered the woods at the edge of the field.

And she kept going.

Sampson  wasn’t too far away and I called him over, raising my voice and showering him with treats.

Sometimes when Delilah appears to be blowing off a recall, she’s actually running a great big circle and will come at me from the front.

Not this time.

I continued calling her as we made our way out of the park.

Fine, she can go to the pound, I said to Sampson.

But I couldn’t do that.  I couldn’t just leave her out there, and take a chance that she’d get hit by a car or come in contact with some unscrupulous character.

As Sampson and I walked back to the car I looked over and could see her grazing in someone’s yard.

Damn it!

At this point, I wasn’t really sure how this was going to go. By the time I could get to her, would she have moved on?  Would she run when she saw me coming?  I couldn’t chase her through the neighborhood with Sampson in tow, so I took him to the car.  I cracked one window about 2 inches and locked the door.  I figured if it took longer than 10 minutes I would call Hubby and ask him to come and get Sampson.

I can’t tell you accurately what the distance was.  Let’s just say it’s not the gingerbread house and there’s no trail of crumbs leading to it.  I had to forge my own trail and honestly I did not count my footsteps as I stomped through the woods, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s at least 100 yards.

Path See the patch of white through the trees?

Lightening Yup, she was grazing in the yard.

The whole time I was Sasquatching it through the woods, I was calling, clapping and whistling, yet Delilah never  raised her head from her grazing.

Not once.

In fact, it wasn’t until I was about ten feet away from her that she actually looked up.  To me it seemed like it took her a few seconds before she realized it was me.

Who is she kidding Oh hey mom, were you looking for me?

Does that make sense?

I’m not a dog trainer, expert or behaviorist yet I’ve heard stories of dogs in survival mode that don’t recognize their owners immediately.

I can’t see how she’d be in survival mode, but it was like she was in a zone somewhere.

As I thought about it after and discussed it with Hubby, it seemed to me she wasn’t just blowing off her recall.  There was something more to it.

Then I recalled how in one post I’d written about something destructive that Delilah had done and 2 Brown Dawgs had said, didn’t she do that at the same time last year?  And when I looked back at the posts, she was right!

I went back through my posts to Defeated and Lost Parts One and Two and OMD, it was March of last year, although to be fair, it was the beginning of March.

So here are the thoughts racing through my gray matter:

Is there something in the air (birds that leave droppings) or ground with a strong scent that is prevalent this time of year that makes her lose her mind?

She came to us in May of 2007, at that time she was in a high kill shelter but we don’t know why.  Had she been picked up as a stray, scavenging for her food for a couple of months and this time of year is like an acid flashback?

Is there just something in the spring that makes this bitch feel her wild oats?

Will she EVER be reliable off-leash or will I have to trip over this dog the rest of my life?

Am I too neurotic to own pets?

Let Me Take You Down….To Funky Town

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Today we join our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs blog for This ‘N That Thursday.

“This ‘N That Thursday is for those times when you want to post about unrelated topics or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post.  It can be anything you want, so feel free to grab the button and join us!”

Many thanks to 2 Brown Dawgs for This ‘N That Thursday.

Nosework Class

Okay, so there’s a lot of waiting around in a Nosework class.  We get that.  At our very first class last week our instructor, Ariane told us, probably the hardest thing we will do is find ways to keep our dogs occupied.

I’ve observed other participants and most of them are either working, playing or interacting with their dogs.  Except for this gal.

IMG_4492 She’s on her freaking phone!

IMG_4493 After her dog jumped around and whined, she said, “Okay Shelby” and she put her phone away.

Paparazzi could really sneak up on this one, I hope she’s not sunbathing topless somewhere.

Last week our dogs were allowed to watch what Ariane was doing, but this week our job was to distract them so they didn’t see which box she was putting the treat in, she also added some obstacles, just to throw them off.

I thought for sure that Delilah would be the dog that went through the tunnel, but she wasn’t!

IMG_4496 Here we have Oakley who remembers which box is used and goes right for it.

I used our down time to work Delilah with her Fronts, Downs, About Turns, Catch and Peek-a-Boos.  My goal was to challenge her mentally to help wear her out, since it’s not a very active class.

IMG_4498 This is what a tired Delilah looks like.  Normally she curls up tighter and opens her eyes the instant the camera turns on.

Down in the Dumps

I’m feeling a little down in the dumps today.  I wish BlogPaws was closer, I need them to inject me with a little bit of enthusiasm because right now I feel like this blog is going nowhere.  And that makes me super sad.

I really want to start sharing some wellness tips with you and along with that I want to give away some of the products I’m currently using.  I’ve contacted three different companies and haven’t even received a no thank you.

I feel overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done and I can’t find my motivation anywhere.   If you’ve seen it, please tell it I miss it and send it back.

This morning I actually thought about deleting the blog.  And never writing another word. Ever.

Maybe it’s just the winter blues?  What do you do when your down in the dumps?  How do you shake off the funk?

Gotta make a move to a town that’s right for me
Town to keep me movin’
Keep me groovin’ with some energy.
(Steve Greenberg)

Nosy Girl

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Delilah’s nosework class started last night.

I was anxious, as I always am going into a new class.  There is a whole new dynamic of dogs to get used to, not to mention their owners.

Truthfully most dog owners I’ve taken classes with are pretty clueless. 

The first clue I had that there might be trouble was the three people with their dogs standing smack in the middle of the path to the entrance.

I’m pretty sure I rolled my eyes and took the long route around. By the time I got to my destination, two of them had moved into the building.

One of them, took a seat right in front of the door.  With her slightly excited Goldendoodle. (Okay, I’m guessing it was a Goldendoodle, I’m not really sure, I do know she was excited though.)

Ariane was near the door and I said to her, I can’t get by that dog.

Thankfully Ariane asked the woman to step aside for a minute so I could get inside.

Boxes There was about six boxes in the center of the room

Sprite Sprite (the Goldendoodle) was first up.

Since this was the first week, we used the same box for each dog, because we didn’t want all the boxes to smell like food and confuse the dogs.  Yes, in the beginning we are using food because we know that dogs like food and they are self rewarded when they find it.

Shelby Shelby was very shy around the box, but did much better her second turn, with a little coaching from her handler.

Oakley This is Oakley, he’s a Rhodesian Ridgeback, he’s been in two of our other classes.

Ready We’re supposed to psyche the dogs up, ready? ready? ready?  Find!

Good Girl Delilah doesn’t need to be psyched up and she’s not shy.  She’s a lab, she knows when there’s food around.

The harder part is hanging around waiting for our turn and keeping her interested in me.

The second turn we had, all I said was ready?  And she lunged for the boxes. Thankfully I’m still hanging on to my winter fat which prevented me from turning into a kite.

Dee I think this will be a fun class, when we aren’t sitting around waiting.

Oakley’s companion uses the down time to work Oakley on his other commands.  She reinforces front, spin, around, peek-a-boo.  I think it’s a great idea, so I started doing that with Delilah too.  I really want to teach her peek-a-boo, it’s so cute when Oakley does it.

If you’re interested in learning more about nosework, Donna and the Dogs had a nice post up not too long ago that explained it pretty well, Nosing Around.

This is an easy game to teach your dog providing (s)he is food motivated.  It is also very tiring, so on those days when the weather doesn’t cooperate and you need to find a way to tire out your dog, this is your go to game.

  • To teach it, start with about 5 boxes of varying sizes.
  • The first couple of times you can let your dog watch you place the food, after that, they should be in another room, or distracted by someone else.
  • Rev your dog up using an excited voice…..”Are you ready, you ready to go” whatever you use when you are getting your dog excited.
  • Then give the cue, I use FIND.  You can use whatever makes sense to you.
  • Don’t lead your dog, the goal is to let your dog use their nose.  Of course, if she veers totally off course, you may want to stroll towards the box, but don’t point to it.
  • Once your dog finds the correct box, praise and drop some more treats in there.  You want them to really get the idea of what they’re supposed to be doing.

A couple of other tips:

Use one of the boxes strictly for the food, that way the scents don’t get all muddied up and confuse your dog.  If you want to make it easier on yourself, mark it food.  Your dog can’t read, right?

I’m actually going to put a plate in my box, because of Delilah’s tendency to lick everything.

Keep your dog on leash the first few times, just until they understand the game.

Vary the rooms you use to play this in, you want them to use their nose, not their memory.

Have you ever played this game with your pup? Do you think mental stimulation is as tiring as physical?

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