Heart Like a Dog

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

Class Clown

By

I recently mentioned that Delilah and I had once again started scent training.  This is something we do for fun, to challenge Delilah and keep her brain busy.

Our first class was called Beginning Nosework.  In this class we used only food for our ‘finds.’  It worked like this.  Our instructor Arianne, placed about 10 empty boxes on the floor.  One box was the food or ‘find’ box.  (It’s important to always use the same box for food as eventually the box will begin to smell like food.)  While we distract our dogs she hides the food and then we psyche our dogs up to go and find it.

It’s like Hide ‘N Seek for dogs. Sort of.

This time around we are taking Advanced Nosework.  This means our dogs already know the ‘game’ and now we are going to begin transitioning them from food to other scents.  The first scent we are working with is birch, we use birch because it has a very strong, distinct odor.   I have a half a q-tip with a drop of birch on it and I placed this inside a 4 oz jelly jar.  I had Hubby punch a bunch of holes in the lid.  Most people use small tins to hold the q-tip, but I like the jelly jar for right now as it’s too big for Delilah to eat.

I can’t imagine how much it would cost to remove a tin from her stomach.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA You can see the container in the upper left section of the bicycle wheel.

We are in our third week of a six week course and right now we are still pairing the food with the birch.  Arianne will take the birch container and place a couple bits of our food on it.  She hides them together and we encourage our dogs to find it. When they do, we reward them with more food.

Typically when we work we stand on the side of the room and when it’s our turn, I ask Delilah if she’s ready and then I tell her to find it.  I will then drop the leash and she will make a bee-line for boxes.

She knows how and loves to play this game.

Last night there were only two of us in class.  The other handler has great control over her dog.  He’s a beautiful Rhodesian Ridgeback named Oakley.  When he’s ready to work she removes his leash and he runs right over to start his search.

I figured it was a small class so I’d try un-clipping Delilah.

You see where this is going right?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Our find was somewhere in this mix of obstacles.  You will notice I say obstacles because as the dog becomes more comfortable with boxes, other items (as well as height) are added.

Delilah is sitting in front of me like an angel dog.  I say, are you ready?  Go find it!  And I un-clip her leash.

Like an runner dashing off the line when the starter’s pistol signals, Delilah is off.   Instead of running for the search course, she runs directly over to Arianne’s box of goodies.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Hmmm, there’s a lot of high value treats in here.  A lot better than that stuff she’s feeding me from Trader Joe’s.

I call her.  And call her.  And call her some more.  She ignores me.  I go up to her and clip her leash on and lead her back to our place on the side and we try again.

Right back to the treats!

This really had Arianne interested.  She was determined to figure out why Delilah reacts this way off-leash.

Luckily for me, Arianne had a few tricks up her sleeve, which I will share in another post as this one is getting quite long.

I shall just assure you that by the last search of the night, I was indeed un-clipping Delilah’s leash and she was running directly to the search area.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Do you have a Delilah?  A Dog that dances to her own tune?  It’s one of the many things I love about this dog.

Sampson’s Puzzled – This ‘N That Thursday

By

Today we join our friends at 2 Brown Dawgs along with their co-host Ruckus the Eskie for This ‘N That Thursday.  2 Brown Dawgs says it’s a little of this and a little of that and anything in between!

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

Delilah and I are back in Nosework class again!!  

Tuesday night Delilah and I started Advanced Nosework.  For those unfamiliar with this sport, Donna from Donna and the Dogs has a small series running on her blog that explains this sport.

In our beginner class our hunts/finds were strictly food.  This time around we are introducing birch.  I’ll have a full post on how we’re doing that coming up soon.

In the meantime, here’s Delilah back in the classroom setting.  She’s just like her Mama, she loves to learn!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Why are you making me wait?  I see the boxes in the middle of the room, let’s work!

 Then there were two.

Two weeks ago as I was taking my grandson home Hubby warned me of a dead deer in the road.  I don’t know about you but seeing any animal lifeless on the side of the road, just about breaks my heart.  It is so sad.

I worry about the deer.  The herd is getting smaller and smaller.  When we first moved to our home seven years ago there was a herd of about eight deer.  The last time I saw deer running in the woods there were three.

Last week the dogs were going ballistic and I looked out the window.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Looks like the herd is down to two.

Jigsaw Puzzles

Do you like jigsaw puzzles?  I recently got into jigsaw puzzles on my iPad.  Sadly the one I loved didn’t update their app for the new operating system Apple came out with so I’m still in the market.  If any of you have a jigsaw app for your phone or iPad that you love, would you please share it?

In the meantime, I found this picture of Sampson standing on a trail of leaves and thought, that might make a pretty challenging puzzle.  What do you think?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Puzzle? You’ve got me puzzled with that thought Mama.

Follow-Up Friday

For those of you participating in tomorrow’s blog hop, my co-hostess is once again, the only Flea you wouldn’t mind hanging around your dog.  Yes, it’s Flea from Jones Natural Chews!

Join us tomorrow as we answer questions, highlight reader’s comments and wrap up our week!

Many thanks to 2 Brown Dawgs and Ruckus the Eskie.

He’s Different on Leash

By

Despite challenging weather and sometimes being bombarded by bugs, I enjoy walking with my dogs.

Most of the time.

Ideally for me, both dogs are off-leash, sticking close by me and responding when I give them a command, more specifically when I recall them.

And my dogs always come when they are called.

Siriusly, you didn’t buy that did you?  Because if you did, please contact me privately, I’m sure I have something very special that is one of a kind that I can sell you, for a large amount of money.

Delilah has proven time and time again that she is not reliable off-leash.  So now Delilah walks on a 15 foot leash, I also have one the same length for the times I need to leash Sampson as well.  No point having one dog on a six footer while the other leads the charge.

I carry treats, plain old treats and I also carry beef hearts.  The plain old treats are for when I say, “This way” or “No” or “Leave it.”  The beef hearts are for when I say “HERE!”

I try and use HERE at least once or twice per walk, because I want to reinforce that I have good treats and when you come when called, you get the goods.

My biggest struggles are when we encounter people or other dogs.  Last Sunday for instance, I had let Delilah off-leash in the deep part of the forest to practice her off-leash.  The first time she’d been off-leash in six months.  She was doing great and then she spotted some people.

Here did not work and both my dogs ran up to a woman with two children and a small dog.  Thankfully the small dog was super good with other dogs, so there was some sniffing but no barking or growling.  My dogs are not typically jump up on you dogs, so I think the kids (who seemed to be in the 7 to 10 year of age range) were mostly startled to see two large dogs charging at them.

Naturally I apologized profusely and leashed both my dogs.

And here is where my walks become stressful.  While it’s true, Delilah on a long leash can be a pain in the bum, for the most part we manage well.

When Sampson gets on a leash, he turns into a different dog.  If you don’t believe me, here are the pictures to prove it.

9-25-13 010 Sampson off-leash; notice how he’s ahead of Delilah, enjoying his walk.

9-25-13 003 Now add the leash.  As you can see he’s crossed her more than once and tangled his leash up.

9-25-13 006 You may have also noticed how close he is to me.

9-25-13 008 I can’t get him to move out of the way.

That and his leash drags on the ground, which means I’m either jumping leash or stepping on it.  Neither of which is very fun, not to mention all the crap that the leash picks up from dragging on the ground.

This has a tendency to turn my nice, relaxing walk, into a frustrating, stressful experience.

I’d love your suggestions for ways to handle this.  I’ve tried so many of the recall methods, but nothing I have in my pockets can compete with other dogs or people.  And in Delilah’s case, I can’t figure out what she’s hunting when she runs off into people’s yards.

AND for those of you who walk more than one dog on leash, how do you manage?

P.S. Have you seen the Dogs of Blogville Calendar?  Julie has the entire calendar up on her blog so you can check it out.  Remember ordering is finishing up today!!  Be sure you don’t miss out on this opportunity to have this one of a kind calendar.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...