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

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I Dropped the Blogging Ball and Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers Day 4

December 4, 2013 By Jodi

December 4th already!  Where does the time go?

Are you finished with your Christmas shopping yet?  Here’s a surprise, I’ve barely started mine and I currently have no time to get it done!   Before I give you the skinny on today’s Advent Calender promotion, I’m going to fill you in a bit on what’s been going on behind the scenes here at Heart Like a Dog.

My mom (who lives in an in-law unit in our basement) has been ill.  She has been in congestive heart failure and was hospitalized on the 21st of November.  On the 22nd of November she developed pneumonia and was moved to Intensive Care.

Life got super hectic for me.

Walking the dogs on my lunch and then heading to the hospital after work left me feeling very rushed and frazzled.  To top it off there was a holiday added in there.  Thankfully mom is a tough old bird and has turned the corner.  We moved her on Saturday to a rehabilitation center where she will heal more and get stronger.  I have high hopes she need only be in there two weeks or so.

I tell you this so you will understand why today’s post is so late.  No, no, I know it’s not late, I mean since I’ve been working on this Advent Calendar my posts have been scheduled earlier than they have ever been and if I’m being honest (which I always try to, siriously, who can remember the lies?) I like it.

But that’s not what this is about.  This is about a calendar give-away I promised you two weeks ago.

Do you remember the post, “Which Way Do We Go?” And this picture?

What?  You've never heard the tale of the two stubborn labs?

What? You’ve never heard the tale of the two stubborn labs?

 

I asked you to tell me which dog turned back to me first and which path we ended up taking.  In exchange for your thoughts I offered to give away a Dogs of Blogville Calendar in a random drawing and I promised I would share the winner and the the answer in the special Thanksgiving This ‘N That Thursday blog hop.

December - Benny and Lily - Two French Bulldogs

You remember these guys right?  They grace our calendar for December of 2014.

 

Except life got in the way and I totally forgot.

Well the answer to the question is this.

The dogs turned almost simultaneously, BUT if I had to say which dog turned first, it would have been Sampson and because Sampson turned first, we took the path to the left.

Well that’s the first part done!  Check that off. 

Now for the giveaway, I had 27 comments on that post and I plugged it into Random.org and came up with the number 10.  As I was counting down the comments, a big smile came across my face because I was pretty sure I knew who the number ten commenter was.

Here’s her comment, “Ooooh, I hope I win. I’d love to get a calendar. Last year, I gave each of the ones I ordered away and didn’t keep one for myself. This year, my timing was off.  Anyway, because she’s full of surprises, I’d guess Delilah came back to you before you got bifurcated by the sapling.”

Congratulations Pamela, your calendar is on it’s way. 😀

Have you been enjoying the Advent Calendar giveaways?  I cannot enter any of the drawings but I can tell you I’m finding lots of cool ideas and new products and companies that I’m loving.

I’m super excited for today’s giveaway, are you ready?

Win a beautiful lamp work beaded I Love My Dog necklace from For Love of a Dog in the Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers Giveaway Event It’s time for the Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers hosted by Kol’s Notes, Heart Like a Dog, My Brown Newfies, My GBGV Life & Bringing up Bella! 24 giveaways in 24 days, plus a grand prize worth more than $800 – who wants to win? Today’s giveaway is sponsored by For Love of a Dog. You could win a beautiful lamp work beaded “I Love My Dog” necklace. Click here to check out the Advent Calendar and enter today’s giveaway!

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Filed Under: Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers, Dogs of Blogville, Dogs of Blogville Calendar Contest, Heart Like A Dog Tagged With: Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers

Off-Leash Behavior and Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers: Day Two

December 2, 2013 By Jodi

Day two of the Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers is here.  Don’t worry, I’m going to give you all the information you need for a chance to win another awesome prize, but first I wanted to chat a bit about Delilah’s off-leash behavior in last week’s Nosework Class and some insights I received from our trainer, Arianne.

Free to be me

So you may recall, Delilah loves the nosework game, and she’s very good at it.  Typically I drop the leash when I release her, but seeing as there was only one other team in class last Tuesday I decided to un-clip her leash.  And in that moment, my lovely dog who typically shines in the classroom setting, took off for my trainer’s treat bag.  I called and coaxed and was totally ignored.  So I went to her, clipped her and brought her back to our spot.

Arianne said, “Interesting.”

We decided we will try it again.  And we got the same result.

Arianne said, “Let’s try it with a check cord.”

I revved her up, dropped the cord and off she ran to Arianne’s treats again.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The next time it was our turn, Arianne suggested I keep hold of the check cord and drop it, IF and ONLY IF Delilah took a step towards the hide.  If Delilah made like she was heading to the treats, I was to step towards the hide, if Delilah responded, I could drop the line.  If Delilah did not, I was not to release her.

This time as she made to head towards Arianne’s treats, I took a step towards the hide and she followed, so I dropped the line.

On our next turn, we removed the check cord and replaced it with what basically amounts to a leash handle.  Just a clip and the handle.  Same deal, if she moves towards the hide I can release her.  This time, she went for the hide.

On our last turn, I removed the leash and kept a hold of her by her collar.  As soon as she indicated she was going for the search, I released her.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It’s a simple answer.

That was a brief summary of what we did in our class last week.  Are you confused?  Are you wondering just what the connection between Delilah and the un-clipping of the leash is?

It’s the connection.

Simply put, when Delilah is on the leash, she feels like she must engage with me, when I un-clip the leash, in her mind she’s a free dog and no longer “HAS” to engage with me.  Basically the leash keeps us connected and once that connection is lost, Delilah thinks she can do what she wants.

Delilah forgets who her Mama is and how much her Mama likes a challenge.

Arianne and I will continue working on this, and I have hopes that at some point I will indeed be able to trust Delilah off-leash.  Until then, I’m perfectly content to keep her on leash.

Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers

Win custom printed dog themed wrapping paper from Gift Skinz in the Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers Giveaway Event It’s time for the Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers hosted by Kol’s Notes, Heart Like a Dog, My Brown Newfies, My GBGV Life & Terrier Torrent! 24 giveaways in 24 days, plus a grand prize worth more than $800 – who wants to win? Today’s giveaway is sponsored by artist Gift Skins. You could win custom printed wrapping paper featuring your favourite furball. Click here to check out the Advent Calendar and enter today’s giveaway!

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Filed Under: Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers, Delilah, Dog Training, Nosework, Training Tagged With: Advent Calendar for Dog Lovers, Delilah, dog training

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About Jodi

jodiHi, my name is Jodi. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog! I have all kinds of fun writing about my two crazy pups, Sampson and Delilah. Find out more!

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Heart Like A Dog by Jodi E. Stone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.heartlikeadog.com.

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