Heart Like a Dog

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

Dog Training….Delilah Style

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After last week’s fiasco where Delilah took off on me I vowed to find another way and I promised to share that with you.  Well here goes!

Many of you, so very many of you rallied to my support and offered suggestions and ideas for working with her.  There were so many awesome suggestions that I couldn’t pick just one….or two…or three.   Here’s what I came up with.

I really think Delilah is a very smart girl and as such I need to keep her interested.  I need to vary her walks and keep them interesting to her, so interesting that she can’t possibly leave me, because she might miss something.

In other words, our walks are going to be like going to Disney World….for dogs.

I put her on a 15 foot leash so she isn’t too far away from me.

I’m sure all of you positive dog trainers know the name for this game, but I’m calling it, “Oh you caught me.”

I play it this way, I wait until I have a loose leash (this can be a while because she is almost always at the end of her leash) and I place a few pieces of whatever is in my treat bag on a flat rock.  Most times she turns around and catches me in the act and I say, “Oh you caught me,” or “My you are quicker than I am.”

Sometimes I have to wait a minute and pretend that I’m just placing it, because she isn’t really paying attention. 🙂

Currently I have some ‘diet’ Blackwood chicken kibble and some beef jerky from Trader Joe’s in my treat bag.  I have to be sure and place the treats on a flat rock that doesn’t have moss, sticks, or rocks on it or for sure that crazy girl would inhale it all.

Sometimes I can’t get her to leave my side.  Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

I’ve been playing the “You caught me game” since last Saturday and decided yesterday to incorporate some other ideas into our walk.

First I had her sit while Sampson and I walked away from her.  My goal was to recall her to me, but as I walked out of her sight she came running to me.  I was actually excited by this, but since she didn’t ‘stay’ I brought her back and re-sat her and then walked away again and this time she did awesome.

I also played a little game of Kibble Catch with her.

I think the best thing would be for Delilah to have a job, and will be looking for some kind of training or class that she and I can participate in together, to help cement our bond.  I also intend on Thursday obedience class to be our thing, Hubby and Sampson will need to find something else to do.

I intend to get a harness for her and a doggie backpack, one day she can wear a harness, one day she can walk on long leash, one day she will wear a pack.  The key for Delilah is to not get too comfortable with any given thing.

When I first put her on the 30 foot leash, she became a model walker.  She rarely left the trails and stayed very close to me.  Once she became comfortable, she started exploring farther and farther away, and eventually started running off.

Oh and Dr. McConnell’s dvd came the other day, I hope to check that out this weekend. 🙂

Changing the topic really quickly, Mel Freer of No Dog About It Blog is a strong warrior fighting a battle against puppy mills.  Mel lives in Minnesota and you may or may not be aware but a bill is prepping for a house vote and Mel needs your support.  If you live in Minnesota, please visit Mel’s blog and follow the link to sign the petition.

If you don’t live in Minnesota, please visit Mel’s blog and re-post it on facebook, tweet it, stumble it, or consider adding a link to your blog.

Together we really can make a difference!!

Book update: My book has 19,083 words.

Sharing Knowledge

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A couple of months ago I wrote a post about a dog named Murphy.

To date I haven’t seen Murphy or either one of her parents at obedience class.

This morning though, I stopped by The Mellow Mutt to drop off a crate I had borrowed from Sara, for our Paws To The Rescue run, and there behind the gate sat poor Murphy, panting.

Yes, Murphy was panting just sitting there. I think she’s gotten even bigger since the last time I saw her.

Sue said, “It makes me sad to look at her.”  I agree.

Then Sue said, “She’s also got some disposition issues.”

No doubt she does.

I’m carrying a few extra pounds myself and I know how cranky and unhappy I feel.

Once upon a time I had a philosophy about Sampson, that it was ok if he was a little over-weight as long as he was happy.

Naturally that attitude has changed.

Why you ask?

Besides the obvious health reasons of less stress on his heart and less stress on his bones, it’s really the change I’ve seen in him.

Since Sampson’s lost weight, I’ve seen how much happier he really is.  How he enjoys the simple things, like running as fast as his legs will carry him up the hill to the field, or play bowing before jumping up and wrestling with Delilah on the bed.

The last time I discussed Murphy’s weight with her, Murphy’s mom (K) said, “How can you deny your dog treats, when they look at you and you know they want a treat?”

I explained that Sampson and Delilah get treats, they just get a low-calorie treat like carrots.  Heck, I will reward my dog for a good down, with a pea.

Oh. Yes. I.  Would.

Somewhere in all of my rambling blog posts I wrote how I would love to take people’s dogs home with me, feed them a good quality food, work them for three weeks and then have the person join us for the last week so they could 1) see the improvement in their dog(s) 2) learn how to train their dogs.

But that was back when I thought I wanted to be a dog trainer. 🙂

Still I have one really well-behaved and one reasonably (most of the time) behaved dog, they have both lost a lot of weight in the last two years, look and feel great.  We are constantly getting compliments regarding Delilah’s coat.

Why wouldn’t someone want their dog to look and feel great?

Our vet has said we have given Sampson and Delilah a couple of extra years to their lives, which makes me extremely happy.

So how do I impart this knowledge to someone with an over-weight dog, who is probably rushing full speed down the road to bad health? Who probably doesn’t want to hear it?

And how, pray tell does their vet not say something to them about this poor dog’s weight?

Paws To The Rescue

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Have you ever wanted to get involved in rescuing or helping animals, but you’re not sure where to start or you don’t have a lot of time to spare?

I know I’ve spoken of my desire to help and I’ve started working with a couple of different rescues offering some limited services.

Last Saturday at the Marion County Animal Shelter in Mullins, South Carolina a few cats and a number of dogs/puppies, totaling 28 in all were loaded into crates by volunteers.  This group of volunteers goes by PTTR or “Paws To The Rescue.”

Their destinations were rescues and Humane Societies along the east coast.  Every hour or hour and a half, after a quick leg stretch, potty/drink break these animals were transferred from the vehicle of one volunteer to the vehicle of another volunteer.

Some of them arrived at their receiving shelters sometime on Saturday.  Some of them spent the night at a host shelter and continued their journey on Sunday.

By the time the human chain  reached Vernon, CT it was down to six of the “P” pups; Paige, Paisley, Patton, Perry, Patsy and Peony.

We expected they would be restless and cranky, but that was far from the case.  These sweet little fur babies were so loving it was hard not to pick them up and cuddle them.  But it is strictly forbidden.

Due to the risk of Parvo, you are only allowed to pick them up wearing disposable gloves, and you should change gloves after handling each dog, unless they belong to the same litter, which these guys did.  There are a number of other precautions you must take, such as bleaching all crates and any towels or blankets you used.   We also had a bleach solution in a spray bottle just in case.

Once we had them loaded in the car Hubby said, “Let’s just go home.”  But we were on a schedule and had to have the pups in Worcester, MA by a certain time.

There was a little excitement when we first started.  Somebody pooped in the crate and somebody (not sure if it was the same somebody or not, decided they were hungry.)  This was accompanied by me screaming, “No puppy no!  Pull over, pull over,” and me jumping out on the side of the highway to remove the dirty towel.  (I put it in a garbage bag and threw it away.)

We got back on the road and then one of the puppies decided they would chew on the paper tag from the towel, which resulted in me trying to jam my hand through the bars of the crate and finger/paw wrestle the puppy for the tag.  Eventually I won and the puppies settled in for their ride.

Not one peep, out of any of these guys.  They were so good and so cute.

These little guys came in jammies.

 

Please can I come out and play?

 

Are we almost there yet?

 

This little guy kept looking up every time I snapped a picture.

 

How much longer?

 

What is that flash I keep seeing?

 

Finally, a picture of them all snuggled up.

 

This was the tiniest one and so, so sweet.

All too soon we were in Worcester and it was time to say goodbye.

Thank you sweet puppies for letting us share just a small part of your journey to your forever homes.

We hope you have the best of everything that life has to offer.  xoxo

I have to thank PupFan for this experience, I saw her post on facebook a few weeks ago, I sent an e-mail and it was that easy.  Because of my busy schedule I can’t do this every weekend, but when I can I intend on participating.

If you live on the east coast, close to Interstate 95 and Interstate 91 and would be interested in helping with the transportation of any of the precious fur babies, PTTR does this run every weekend.  You can check out the available legs on their blog post.

Together we really can make a difference.

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