Heart Like a Dog

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

Let’s Talk Turkey

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Last week I mentioned how Maggie from Oh My Dog suggested I work Sampson and Delilah on the “Look” command to help us when we encounter dogs on our walks.  By the way, her training book is called “Clicker Dog Training: The Better Path to a Well-Behaved Pup.”  It’s available on iTunes.

Both my dogs have a decent response to “Look.”  It’s more getting me to remember what I should be saying and doing 

When Delilah and I were taking training classes, “Look” was our go to command, it kept Delilah focused on me and helped her to not focus on what other dogs were doing.

After I chatted with Maggie, I started incorporating “Look” a couple of times on each of our walks.  I don’t reward as often as Maggie suggests, but I do reward.

With my dogs, and I’m fairly sure yours are the same, you can definitely tell when they see something of interest.  The head snaps up, the ears stand up, their posture changes and they walk differently.  It’s the perfect time for the “Look” command.  It helps snap that focus.

Saturday on our early morning walk,  we encountered a distraction.

Can you see them?

Can you see them?

Thankfully, I kept my wits about me and said, “Look!”  This distracted the dogs and diffused the situation.

We took a couple of steps closer, and the dogs started reacting again.  Again I said, “Look,” and again they both stopped.

This was a huge flock of turkeys, I'd say there had to be close to 20 of them.

This was a huge flock of turkeys, I’d say there had to be close to 20 of them.

This particular house also has a dog, and the dog was barking, SO the owner opened the window and shoo’d the turkeys off.   Once they had crossed the road, we were free to continue our walk.

This is the best shot I could get from the distance we were at.

This is the best shot I could get from the distance we were at.

I know for this to be my “go to” command, I have to use it more, but I can already see the benefit of using the command.

Saturday night, we encountered the same dog we encountered last week, (you remember, that was the one that didn’t end well.)  This time we were a bit further away, which definitely helped,  and I used “Look” which once again diffused the situation.    

The dog was standing with it’s owners and they were talking to a couple of neighbors.  (The woman did recognize me and said, hello, but I did not have a card to give her and didn’t want to get the dogs too close.) Sampson and I have stopped and chatted with one of these neighbors before and when I stopped to treat the dogs for the “Look” command, the neighbor started walking towards us.  So while the dog and it’s owners were chatting with one neighbor, Sampson and Delilah were getting lovies from the other neighbor, while she and I chatted.

It made our walk a lot less tense.  

What is your “go to” command, the one you use to redirect your dogs?

 

Do I Have Dirt in my Ear? – Thursday’s Barks and Bytes

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Do I have dirt in my ear?

So like you know how dogs like to kick stuff over their ‘business’ once they’ve done it?

I thought it was only after they had pooped, but sometimes my dogs do it after they pee.

It's not polite to leave your business uncovered.

It’s not polite to leave your business uncovered.

Sampson will pee and then kick his legs, Delilah however is one of those dogs that walk away, sometimes like 15 feet away before she kicks.  Yes, she is one of those dogs.

Considering all the conflicts we’ve had on our evening walks, I decided to change things up and whenever possible go home on my lunch and walk the dogs.  I started this Tuesday afternoon.  I took the dogs up to the field. Delilah decided to do her pooping business and walk away.  As I bent over to pick it up she kicked.  Now she’s done this to me before, but usually it just lands on my pants or in my shoes.  Sometimes Sampson is in the way and has to make a quick maneuver to avoid it.

Well this time, dirt and grass went flying and something landed in my ear.  It was dirt.

You know how you’re NOT supposed to stick your finger in your ear?  And you know that your ear while not wet, it’s kind of got that waxy thing going on?  Right.

Well now I have dirt in my ear and I’m afraid to put my finger there because I’m afraid I’ll push it in further, but what if there’s a bug in it?  I know, right. 

Ever so carefully I worked at it and I did get it out, but then I kept having that feeling that something was in my ear. 🙁

Dog Collars

I’m super excited.  We won a reflective collar from a giveaway on Emma’s blog.  Did I mention it’s a collar that has the dog’s information right on the collar, no tag needed?  One would think this would be an easy choice, no?  Well picking out the color and the font is not the issue, here’s what I want your thoughts on.

Whose name should I put on the collar?  Delilah’s or mine.  You’d think that would be an easy decision?  I thought so too, until I recently read a discussion on a lab rescue page.  Considering all the dog stealing that has been going on recently, do you think it’s wise to put Delilah’s name on the collar?  I mean, I’m pretty sure anyone that picked up Delilah would be more than willing to return her, once they had her in their home for an hour or so, but is it in her best interest to have her name emblazoned for all to see?  I’m afraid some nefarious person could perhaps coax her away?  I’m torn and that is holding me up from ordering the collar.

Last by not least a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom.  Love you!!

Happy Birthday Grandma, don't do something I wouldn't do!

Happy Birthday Grandma, don’t do something I wouldn’t do!

Heart Like a Dog

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dogs and Heart Like a Dog.

The Barks and Bytes hop is for anything at all and all bloggers are welcome. You don’t have to be a dog blog to join.

For new blog hoppers, a blog hop is list of links that is shared on multiple blogs. In order to be fair to all participants we ask you to please use the linky list. If your blog does not support a linky list, please link back to your hosts.

Please Don’t Hit Him

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Saturday evening I was walking Sampson and Delilah.  As always I was on high alert watching for potential triggers.  

As we rounded a corner I saw it, a little Jack Russell on the other side of the street.  I recognized the dog at once, as one we usually pass in his yard.  He always barks at us and is usually jumping and biting at the fence.  

We were about 30 feet away when the woman walking him had him sit.

I have a big problem with my dogs walking past other dogs.  Typically if the other dog is in their yard I can coax my dogs off with a cookie.   If the other dog is on leash, it’s a whole different story!

Sampson is typically worse than Delilah.  He wants, no he NEEDS to meet that other dog.  He starts jumping and bucking like a freaking bronco. One of course feeds off the other, so then Delilah starts in.  She usually lunges and barks.  

This is how I found myself literally wrestling my dogs up the street.  I had Sampson by his harness in my left hand and Delilah somehow managed to squeeze herself between my legs, so I had her harness in my right hand.  

I could hear the woman speaking to her dog, it didn’t sound good but I had my hands full and couldn’t really look.

We got past the dog but I knew we had a bigger problem.  I knew where the other dog lived, and I knew we were going to pass the dog again.  I practiced calling the dogs back to me and giving them cookies.  I got a handful of cookies ready thinking maybe if I threw the cookies in the road, the dogs would concentrate on that and leave the other dog.

Sure enough we turned the corner for home and there they were.  She downed her dog and I threw a treat in the road and my dogs exploded.  Sampson bucked like a bull with a rider on and Delilah lunged.  As I tried wrestling the dogs past her, I said “We have to get better at this.”

She responded, “He’s aggressive with other dogs.”

Oh and he was on a retractable leash, but I didn’t realize that until she accidentally dropped it.  Suddenly the game had changed.

Here he came creeping at my dogs.  So I dropped my leashes.  

The woman was upset and I said, “It’s okay.”  And it was for the first few seconds and then her dog snarked at Delilah and Delilah gave it right back.

I had managed to find my way across the street and called Delilah, who came right back to me.  Sampson was a bit harder but eventually he came.  It was over in less than a minute.

My dogs were now standing docilely by my side.  The woman’s dog was in a down and then she bent over, she had her palm raised as if she was going to hit him and she said, “Bad boy!”

“Please don’t hit him,” I begged.

She looked up at me and said, “I took him to a trainer who told me to shake this in his face when he does that.”  She opened her palm to show me a small chain, similar to what you would use when chaining a dog outside.  “I don’t actually hit him.”  She finished almost sheepishly.

I was horrified.  Here this woman reached out for help with her dog and she was given advice that was traumatizing her dog even more.  I tried to explain as best I could how I felt it was not the right thing to do for this issue.  That her dog was probably frightened and didn’t understand why she was punishing him.  I told her I use lots of treats and I thought a positive trainer would be able to help her and her dog.  I finished by giving the the name of a positive training center not too far from us.

I’ve given lots of thought to this incident since it happened.  How I could work my dogs better, how I could get them to react differently.  I’ve thought about going to her house (minus my dogs of course) and giving her my card and asking her to e-mail me so I can forward some blog posts that might help her understand what’s going on with her dog.

I also considered seeing if she wants to practice walking our dogs past each other, maybe help each other out.

So many dogs, so little time.

So many dogs, so little time.

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