Heart Like a Dog

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

The Power of Positive Reinforcement…Day Two Hundred, Eighty One

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Today Hubby came with us on our walk, I was a bit nervous because he tends to be very critical of my training methods. Hubby doesn’t believe the dogs should have treats every time they come up to me.  I feel if they get a treat every time they come to me, it reinforces that good things happen when they are around me.

I’m still not really sure if I should give them treats if they come to me on their own accord, but that’s what I’ve been doing and it seems to be working.  The thing I’m finding about using positive reinforcement during our hikes is there are certain food items that are more valuable than others.

So far I’ve used a bunch of different treats, People Crackers, Hot Dogs, Roast Beef, Freeze-Dried Salmon, Ground Beef and Duck that looks like a really long, really fat Slim Jim.  By far the treat that works best for Delilah is Roast or Ground Beef.  She would get about 50 feet away from me, turn around to look at me and if I gave her the slightest bit of encouragement, back she came.   Every time.

I still have her on the check cord which also seems to be working well for her.  Today we walked close by the area she is prone to taking off in.  She turned and took a few steps in the wrong direction and we called her back and she came!

Our walk was cut short because it started raining really hard, but I wanted to reward her for being such a good girl (and also help tire her out a bit) so we had a quick came of fetch in the field.

Wet but happy.

This is a blogpaws blog hop, you can get your code here http://www.blogpaws.com/2011/09/wordless-wednesday-some-reasons-to-get-your-2012-blogpaws-ticket-early.html

Doggie Daycare…Day Two Hundred, Eighty

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Today was the big day; our training center opened and Sampson and Delilah went back to daycare!

It amazes me that we can be out of the habit for so long, but as soon as I grabbed the dog’s collars this morning they jumped at the chance for adventure.  Sampson has a habit of wanting me to pet him in the car, he stands in the back with his head between the two front seats and swats me with his big paw, until I pet him.

As we approached daycare I said, “We’re here” and he ran to the back and stuck his head eagerly out the window.

Puppy friends greeted them at the gate and I left them running and playing, happy barks following me out the door.

Besides running, wrestling and playing the order of business for today was putting in the dog friendly floor.  I have it on good authority that the dogs were a big help. 😉

That's Chuck by the back door.

When I went to pick the dogs up, I heard all about their day.  Apparently someone spent a lot of time napping.

Sara said the dogs were all running around and there was Sampson laid out in the middle of the floor snoring away!

I meant to take a picture of the front area, where the grooming is done and where the store will be, but I ran into my friend Dave and forgot. 🙁

I did snap some pictures with my cell phone of the dogs with their last burst of energy.

You know the day has been a success when the dogs are tired.

Delilah was flat-out in the car, Hubby always says when Delilah is laying flat, you know she is tired. 🙂

All in all, it was a good day.

Happy Labor Day….Day Two Hundred, Seventy Nine

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Today is Labor Day, which means we had a three-day weekend.  Whooo Hoooo!  It turned out to be pretty good.

Since Delilah ran off on me a couple of times last week, I’ve had her on the thirty foot leash.  This made me hesitant to take them hiking in the woods, I was a bit nervous she would run off and snag herself on something.  So early Saturday morning I took Sampson and Delilah up to the field to play with a bumper.

Delilah was so cute, she took the bumper and it was almost as if she were flirting with Sampson, she ran up to him and pushed the bumper at him then ran away, but she looked over her shoulder at him.  I got my phone out in enough time to get a quick video.

After our walk, my daughters and I took my grandchildren to the local Farm Day, where my grandson got to do a lot of bouncing in the bounce houses.  Then my daughter, niece and a bunch of friends went to NYC to see the Harry Potter Exhibition.  After the exhibit we went to dinner at Hard Rock Cafe and then caught the 10:20 train back to CT.  After dropping everyone off, I got home about 1:45 am.  The dogs didn’t care, they were still up at 6:00 am yesterday.

Yesterday was tough, I finally got my butt off the couch and went grocery shopping, then called my walking bud to see if she and Brady were free.  As luck would have it, she also had Kodak and so the six of us set out walking; in the woods.

Delilah did amazing!  It is almost like she likes having the leash attached.  Even my WB said she’s like a different dog, much calmer and more relaxed.  She did get stuck one time, but we were right there and I untangled her.  She never went too far from us, and a couple of times she looked like she wanted to go, but she returned to us every time we called her.

After our wood hike we went to the field to let them run and play a little.  Two interesting things happened here.  1) While I was giving all the dogs a bit of roast beef, Sampson snapped at Kodak.  This took me completely by surprise, because he has never been a dog that had food issues.  My WB seems to think that Kodak is a dominant dog and Sampson was putting him in his place but it did give me a little concern.  It happened with Kodak and roast beef again today; so I’m wondering if she might be right because so far it only seems to happen with Kodak.

The second interesting thing that happened yesterday was while Delilah, Brady and Kodak were playing in the stream.  Sampson was hanging with WB and me watching the dogs play.  Kodak was trying to mount Delilah and she was doing a mighty fine job of letting him know it wasn’t happening; when all of a sudden Sampson took off after them and chased Kodak off!  He has never done that before either, and I’m not really sure what that was about but it made think that he does care about her (in whatever way dogs care about each other) and wants to protect her.

Today was another day I felt very lazy but I did manage to get some vacuuming and laundry done and the dogs and I got another walk in, we cut through the woods on a deer path and Brady found a tree that is formed so water is caught in it.

Doesn’t it look like his head is stuck?

But the best thing of all happened early this afternoon.  I got a text from Sara letting me know the training center is opening TOMORROW!  So Sampson and Delilah are back at daycare tomorrow.  I know they will be so excited to go.

So how was your weekend?  Did you do anything fun?

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