Heart Like a Dog

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

This ‘N That Thursday

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Today we’re joining our friends over at 2 Brown Dawgs Blog on This ‘N That Thursday.  As 2 Brown Dawgs says, This ‘N That Thursday is for 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!

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

Tuesday Night Tricks Class

You may remember last week I showed a picture of Delilah balancing a banana chip on her nose.  There is a second part to this trick, it’s having your dog catch the treat, once you’ve given the release command.

Her eyes are focused on that treat!

Her eyes are focused on that treat!

 

The way you teach this is to throw treats at your dog and tell them ‘catch.’ This is supposed to be pretty easy to teach as the reward is instantaneous.

Delilah does catch fairly well (if my toss is good) and she has managed to balance the treat on her nose 9 out of 10 times.

But she doesn’t quite understand the dynamics of the two tricks together.  If I put the chip on her nose and don’t hold another treat in front of her, instructing her to wait, she will snap at the treat almost instantly.

If I tell her to wait long enough so I can get my fingers out of harm’s way, she sits there with the treat on her nose and doesn’t understand that I want her to catch the treat.

We’ll keep working on this. 🙂

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that we were working with a hula hoop.  When I went into my camera to find the video of the treat, I realized I had a video of her and the hoop. It’s not the greatest, but you will get the general idea.

The ultimate goal would be to have her jump through the hoop at different heights.

Dogs of Blogville Calendar

Just a quick update.  I ordered the calendars last night, they will be printed after the proof is approved (which should be sometime today,) as of right now it doesn’t look like the calendars will be here in time for Christmas. 🙁

I will do my best though, I intend to get all the labels ready this weekend, so when the calendars do arrive, I can get them out the next day.

I of course will keep you posted and let you know as soon as they ship. I did go into the ordering post and took the order form out, because I cannot accept any more orders at this time.

I also have to tell you that they are simply GORGEOUS and it is all due to the amazing and extremely talented Julie Melfi.  Julie did the entire design, from adding the print to the photos, selecting the design, the arrangement and the upload (and probably a whole bunch more stuff that I have no idea of.)

This calendar could NOT have happened without Julie Melfi.

I highly recommend Julie for any of your website or graphic design needs.  She is truly amazing.

Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU JULIE MELFI.

I cannot wait for you to see the calendars, they are better than I ever dreamed they could be.

You Want Me To WHAT?

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Yesterday was Tuesday, you know what that means.

Yup, Tuesday night tricks class.

We were a little bit late and Ariane was handing out hula hoops.

 

I don’t know about you, but hula hoops aren’t my thing.  Don’t get me wrong, I can do a mean impression on the Wii balance board, but put a real hoop around my hips and all bets are off. (You might want a video camera handy though, it would probably be very amusing.)

Thankfully the hoops were for the dogs, not for the people.

This is super easy!  I don’t know why YOU can’t do it.

 

No my sweet, they are for jumping through.

What?  You’re asking me to jump through hoops? WTF is that about?

Well that’s how it would have gone down if Delilah could talk.

Thankfully she cannot.

I don’t have any other pictures of her using the hoop, but try to visualize it.  Stand the hoop up, slide just a bit of the hoop between your legs and hold hit there.  This frees up your hands.

Then using a treat lure your dog through the hoop, and toss the treat away from you.  In this manner the dog understands that you want them to go totally through the hoop.

You can call it whatever you like, I’m using “HOOP.”

Boring.

No comments from the peanut gallery Delilah.

Once your dog is comfortable going through the hoop you can raise it slightly if you’d like.  For Delilah I had to throw the treat quite a distance, because if I didn’t she didn’t pick up her feet properly.

Ariane says it is because she is focused on the treat, so it makes sense to toss the treat.

 

I also used the hoop to lasso her, when she got away from me once. 🙂

Another trick we learned is Peek-a-Boo.  This is when you lure you dog around your right side and they come to a sit between your legs.

I hope to get a couple of videos together maybe this weekend so I can show you how it looks.  The key to this trick especially with a dog the size of Delilah (or if you have super short arms)  is to use two treats.  With one treat you lure her around your right side.

(No, that is not flabby stomach hanging out of my shirt, it is the design of the shirt, it’s got patches of flesh color on it. Which isn’t to say that I DON’T have flabby stomach flesh, it’s just not hanging out of the shirt.  give me some credit, I have a little class.)

Timing is key. When she reaches my side, I should  step to my left with my left foot and reach between my legs with my left hand, thereby luring her through to complete the trick.

If I’ve done it right, she will be sitting between my legs.

I’m hoping the finished product will look way more polished than this when we’re done.

Tuesday Night Tricks Class

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Tuesday evening Delilah and I headed to our tricks class.  What I really love about this class is there is no pressure.  If you don’t do your homework, you don’t get in trouble. 🙂

Tuesday night we began learning Sit Pretty (some people refer to this as Beg,) Over, Target (or Touch) and Balancing a treat on the nose.

Delilah has the basics of Touch, and Over is a given for her, since that’s what I say to her in Agility Class.

Ariane (our instructor) said some of the bigger dogs have a problem with Sit Pretty because of their size, it requires some good strength in their back legs (and a bit of balance too.)

I’ve seen her sit pretty, (I actually thinks it looks the way those trained bears sit from the circus) but I’ve never known how to teach it.

You hold the treat over their head and raise your hand up and back, hoping they will lift their front feet off the floor.  You reward and treat even if they only come up a little.  Don’t worry you will eventually work them so they get farther and farther off the floor.

Does it work?

The proof (as they say) is in the photo.

 

Sit pretty my love. Yes Mama, as long as you give me that banana chip.

 

I knew balancing a treat on the nose was going to be a challenge.  We’ve tried this trick at home.  Sampson can balance the treat and when he is given the okay, can catch it in his mouth.

When we tried this with Delilah you have to move your hand very quickly or it will get caught in a snap.

She. Just. Can’t. Wait.

With a little instruction from Ariane, I worked it this way.  I held a treat in my left hand with it directly in front of her nose.  I used my right hand to place a treat and told her to leave it.

Leave it.

 

In this photo my left hand had dropped slightly and truthfully it sounded more like, leave it, leave it, leave it, leave it.  Whatever, it was definitely easier at home!

Anyhoo, when I showed the trick to Hubby, she actually sat there with the banana chip on her nose for a good 5 to 10 seconds, that may not sound like a lot to you, but believe me, that was amazing for her.

At this point I’m not letting her flip the treat and catch it, I’m actually removing it from her nose and giving her the treat from my left hand.

So ladies and gentlemen (is there a gentlemen that reads this blog?) without further ado…

I’m so freaking proud of her!!

 

I told you she shines in the classroom.

Do you find it easier to train the tricks by having someone show you (like me) or can you figure this stuff out on your own?

Don’t forget to order your calendars!!!

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