Heart Like a Dog

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

Emergency Recalls…WHAT?

By

As often happens someone leaves a comment that really gets me thinking.  On Thursday’s post when I made a complaint about Delilah’s recall, Carol said, “Why not use “READY” as your emergency recall?”

And 2 Brown Dawgs said, “I have discovered a new recall with Storm. I have been saying “cookie time” when it is time for her gigantic cookies. Even if she is distracted in the yard she comes a running. That did not take long….lol….2 days I think.”

Both of these comments have been rolling around in my head for the last couple of days.

Maybe I’ve missed the whole point of recalls.  As I learned it, a recall was for my dog to stop whatever they were doing and come sit in front of me.

Here’s a show stopper, I stopped asking them to sit in front of me a long time ago.  I figured what’s the fun on a walk if you have to stop whatever you were doing to go sit in front of someone.

BORING.

Besides I hate asking my dogs to sit in dirt or puddles if that’s what happens to be in front of me.  I mean they are sitting on their tuchas and well, it’s a delicate spot after all.

No, when I want my dogs to come sit in front of me I say, “FRONT.”

As you know I have a lovely area for walking the dogs off-leash.  I also have Delilah who has run off on me a few times.

IMG_1696

I’ve said this before, I think I sometimes confuse myself and in turn the dogs, with my commands. Sampson’s recall is “Come,” so when I first started working with Delilah I chose “Here” thinking there might be times when I only wanted one dog, but as it turns out they both respond to both commands.

Reinforcement is the best way to train so I recall my dogs frequently when we walk, by saying “Here” or “Come,” but if I pay attention to what I’m doing I notice I also talk to them.

A LOT.

I talk to them like they are people and capable of understanding what I’m saying.  I do this because I know that most of the time they DO know what I’m saying.

I’d like to go this way.  Wait up, big guy.  Stop.  Come on pretty girl.  Hey…hey…hey.  Wait a minute, I have to pick up this poop.

And when I see that I’m losing Delilah, they all come out.  Every. Single. One.

Well not the wait a minute I have to pick up this poop, (although with Delilah that might actually work) but you get the point, I panic.  Blind panic.

Surprised?  I didn’t think so.

So it’s more about training me than them, isn’t it?  I mean they already know what all those words mean. I know this because they RESPOND to them.

So what’s been rolling around in my head?

The words EMERGENCY RECALL.

Does this mean you have more than one recall?

Like your regular every day “hey come on over here” recall and then your “holy shit I need you here five minutes ago” recall?

I’m rolling around the idea of “Cookie Time” in my head.  Like randomly out in the yard or in the house singing out “Cookie Time” and then giving them something really yummy, that they don’t get on their walks.  Like dehydrated turkey hearts.

Then testing it on a walk.

What do you think?  Do you have more than one recall or do you strictly adhere to one?  What rewards do you give your dogs when they return to you?  I ask this because my dogs don’t care much for tugging, or toys which is why I use food.

 

Nosy Girl

By

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?

Over the River

By

Sung to the tune of Over the River and Through the Woods

Over the river and through the field
Across the snow we fly
Our feet lead the way
We’re happy and gay
While mom and dad just sigh

Over the river and through the field
A fresh sniffing place we spy
Hurrah for the fun, it feels good to run
Hurrah for the bright blue sky

Yup, Hubby and I took Sampson and Delilah for a nice walk in the woods on New Year’s day.  Just as we turned to make the pass down along the field, Sampson and Delilah took off at a run.

By the time we reached the crest, they were long gone.

We could just make them out way on the other side of the field.

We could just make them out way on the other side of the field.

Since  we could still see them we shouted for them.

They kept running.

Hubby whistled for them.

They ran into the woods.

I won’t tell you what I said, but you can be sure the F word was involved.

We made our way down the rocks and crossed the little stream to take the short cut to the field, calling for them all the while.

Stream

That little fluff of snow you see in the middle. I thought it was a branch. Turns out it was two branches and did not make a very good bridge.

There was nothing for it.  I had to break a path across the field through about 9 inches of fluffy snow.  I kept calling.  Sampson was the first to appear, he met me about half-way across the field.

Snow

This picture was taken a few days before, but you get a sense of how deep it is.

Delilah must have run the length of the field and circled around because she came at me from a different direction.

It always takes me by surprise, because she does SO well and then BOOM she runs off.  The rarity is that Sampson goes with her.

The silver lining is, that she did come back and I learned a new area I have to be cautious of.

Dogs, they’re always full of surprises, no?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...