An Understanding

You Have dog treats, I'm a dog...what's the hold up?

Can an old dog learn new tricks? To be sure, but not without much patient understanding on the part of the owner. Right now we're teaching Bubbles to "Stay" something she will do, only at the door. Its a slow process to be sure, unlike teaching Texas who picks up things quickly, Bubbles requires multiple sessions going over the same thing.

One of these day's she'll get it.

Happy New Year!

Four days late, into the new year, and we've already had our first furry visitor, and a new one at that! 


This is Snowy, whose breed and age we have no clue about. The original plan was to feed & care for her at their house, as
I'd just arrived home from a trip, two days ago, and wanted to give Bubbles and Tex a chance to settle back in at home. (They stayed with a friend's house while I was gone.) 


I was feeling confident in my decision to let her hang out on her own turf, after it took me thirty minutes to convince her, I wasn't a dog-eating-human. However the weather had other plans. During the night, it snowed, maybe a half an inch, no big deal right? 


Wrong. 


While the road's by my house were clear, the roads leading to Snowy's abode, where coated with snow, and ice. Now you have to understand, in order to get to the N********'s Family Home, you must drive up and over two hills, across a bridge, and around a steep turn, that has a huuuuge drop off, and once you make it past that, you must drive down another hill, filled with curves, drop off's and what not. By the time I made it around the first steep turn (with the drop off) I knew I wasn't about to attempt, going downhill in my little car. So I turned around and CREPT back to "safety" only to find, I was in between two hills. Two hills that did not want my car to climb it. 

After several attempts I pulled into a subdivision, parked my car, and did what any child would do. Called my dad. 

However as we were talking, I watched car after car attempt the hills. Some made it on the first try, while others had to back up, gather their courage and gun it again. After about twenty minutes, with no check in's from my father, I decided to try it again. The fifth time is the charm apparently, though my wills spun, I kept my foot steady on the accelerator and we made it over the hill. Never have I been so happy to get out of a place. 


So I went home, took a nap, and then with the sun shining I went back, and decided that Snowy was going to come home with me. Now for the fun part. Introducing the dogs. 

There are a lot of awesome tips when it comes to introducing strange dogs into your home, some include: "Make sure both dogs are on a leash" or " Take the dogs on a walk “together” – single file" - great suggestion if you have another person readily available. 


I don't. 

So I have to come up with alternative ways of introducing the dogs, ideally If I know there is a point in time, where I MAY watch someone else's dog, I'll ask to meet at a park or something. 

To date, this has never happened, but it's a good idea! :) 

Lately I've divided my single wide into half, double gating my dogs away from the new dog, they can see and hear each other, but the distance is too great to encourage things like fence fighting. Which SOMEONE is apt to do.

I walked Snowy in the front door of my house, hopped the gates, and let my dogs out the back door; giving her about thirty minutes to adjust to the house sans dogs. Then I brought my dogs back in, and immediately began watching for behavior out of Texas I could reward. Aka him quietly looking through the gate. 

Though he did do quite a bit of barking, I was able to reward him several times, for simply looking through the gate and looking back at me. 

Yesss! 

After about an hour of separation, I occupied Texas in his crate with a Kong, and let Bubbles into the second gated area to meet the new dog. Bubbles is normally the best "meet & greeter" and SOMETIMES can help set the tone for Texas. I'd forgotten that Snowy's owner's have watched her in the past, so they basically could have cared-less about the other. This having gone well, I decided to release Snowy into area #2. After filling my pockets with treats, I went and released Texas into area #1, leaving the gate between him and Snowy. 

He saw Snowy.

Treats rained down from heaven.

He sniffed at Snowy.

More treats rained. 

He looked at Snowy. 

More treats. 

No growls, barks, or snarls. 

I removed the gate. 

Snowy sniffed Him.

He stood quietly.

More treats. 

After this, I put on Snowy's leash and we all walked around the cul-de-sac a bit before, returning to the house. This is only the second time, I've done this sort of thing, to introduce Texas to a new (bigger) dog, and I must say, I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before! Its obvious if I want him to change his behavior, I need to REWARD what I like. It has gone so much better than, constantly pulling him off the other dog. 

Seeing success in this area, just encourages me as we work towards our other goals with him! :) 

But back to Snowy, by that evening, Miss Snowy had settled in, and was making herself at home. There were a couple snarky moments, as Snowy has an interesting play style, that consists of smacking her paws into her playmates face. Something Texas did NOT appreciate. But over all, she's doing fine. 

I think we may see more of Snowy in the future. :) 

2012 Goals

Another year is almost behind us, and what a year it was! We faced circumstances that we'd never faced before, but we made it through! If you couldn't tell by the major lack of posts, this year was all about the Guide Dog Puppies; Rob was such a handful, that the majority of my focus was on him and his news verses being split between the three dogs.

Having been puppy-less over the last couple of months has made me realize, just how important it is that "MY" dogs have good foundational skills, and the importance of taking the time to interact with them everyday.

One of my goals during 2012 is to work on some of the "problem" areas I have identified in my dachshund's. I have decided to limit myself to at least twelve goals, one goal a month, to give me the best possible chance of actually succeeding. Procrastination is my middle name. Yes. Most of the goals are for Texas, at 12 (or 10 I still can't figure out which) Bubbles is pretty much set in her ways, or... more so "I'm" set in her ways. We've worked recently on her "wait" command, but that's about it, she knows "Sit", Her Name, and Comes. She's not destructive, is potty trained, and sleeps all day. What more could I ask for?

Goals for 2012 

1. Work on Texas's Dog-to-Dog re-activity (the above picture shouldn't happen again). Put a barrier between Texas and other dog and "its on".  
2. Work on the Relaxation Protocol all the way to the end. 
3. Texas: Be able to be crated quietly around distractions. 
4. Be able to have people to my home more often. (This doesn't happen well now, as Texas though comfortable being kenneled, screams bloody murder if he can hear other people in the house besides me.
5. Work on basic agility with Texas. 
6. Read Control Unleashed & When Pigs Fly 
7. Find toys Texas will play with consistently 
8. Handle Texas from Head to Toe daily (You'd be surprised, but apparently handling your dog OCCASIONALLY over three years, leads to them becoming adverse to it. O_o) 
9. Be able to put a sweater on him without him shutting down. (We actually started working on that this week) 
10. Door Manners 
11. Only use dog bowls for water.

Seriously Mom? What a lotta work!

So I didn't make it to 12, which is probably a good thing, as some of those things are going to be a doozy to work through. However, I"m hoping by putting it on my public blog, I'll feel some pressure to work on them more. :)

What about you guys, do you have any goals for you and your dogs this year?

Struttin My Stuffs

Soo mom thought she would save herself sometime, and just link to the video from Facebook, but FAIL if you aren't on Facebook apparently you can't watch it, so her had to upload it too YouTube like she should have done in the firsts place! Get ready to be be-dazzled!

Training Tuesday

April 4-11

Texas

Old Cues:

Sit

Down

High Five

Spin

Roll Over

Done  (Training/playtime over) 

Hand Signal is Palms Facing outward and putting everything away.

New Tricks:

• Playing Dead: Having a one eyed dog presents some interesting challenges, especially when he knows Roll over (rolling completely over) and wants to do it, every time I try to lure him into the "playing dead" position. I think we may have to scrap this idea at the moment.
• Retrieving Objects: Dachshund's are NOT retrievers, and since the last time we'd worked on this command, I was marking every-time he touched the object, he thought that was what he was supposed to do. I was able to get him to grab the object with his mouth about 10 times, before we called it quits. Next session we'll work on picking up the object. Update: We did work on him picking it up, but now he'll pick it up and throw it in the air. lol. He is succcch a goof ball. 
• 
  

Comments:
Its been a while since Texas and I have sat down and worked together and it shows. He's soo excited when he sees me get out the clicker that he goes a little bonkers..aka barking and "throwing" behaviors at me to see if he can get a click. So I started out loading the clicker just to help him settle, and realize yes he was going to get something.

Once he calmed down a little bit, we started working on the duration of our sits and downs, because well, they needed work. For this session five seconds was the max I could get him to chill for, and that's ok. We're rusty. 

Being a reactive dog, I want him to learn to relax regardless of where we are, and I want to use it to keep him in position, as his attention span is actually shorter than Robs...though we've been working on this with Rob longer, so yeah duh Erin.

Rob

Sit - Verbal only 

Up-Sit - verbal and physical cue

Down - Verbal command only 

Leave it 

Take it

Out

Off

OK

Forward 

Come

Comments:
Started to set the timer, for our five minute training session, so I don't wind up pushing him too far. In public, he's doing great. When we enter my classroom on Tuesday and Wednesday's, he immediately assumes the "down" position, and calmly looks up at me or other class mates. This is a huge improvement for him, as getting him so young, I actually had to teach him to relax. Fun fun!


Woohoo! I reached my goal of 60 dogs for my survey! THANKS SO MUCH EVERYONE!!

Do's instead of Don'ts.

Its been over a week since I last posted, and boy what it week it has been. Rob is helping me renew my commitment to my personal dogs training as well as his. I'll admit that I've been slacking with Bubbles and Texas, after all they are "just pets". Right?

Wrong. 

Texas, covered in cobwebs from an excursion who-knows-where

Over the last 4 years and 10 months I have been involved with the service dog/dog training I have un-wittingly placed my personal companions training as less important than the training of my service dog pups. While yes the SD pups will have a more "important" job, I still have to live with my pups, and their.............. quirks.

Heh.

So this weeks, as I was making my rounds through training blogs such like, I came across a webinar offered by Susan Garrett, helping you towards creating your dogs brilliant recall. Unfortunately to get the ENTIRE series it's about $300...which if I had the money to blow I would in a heart beat, but the first three videos are definitely eye opening and thought provoking. GO HERE TO SEE THEM.

One of the things that was brought up was, its harder to teach a dog not to do something, than it is to DO something. I have to lower my head in shame as I realize that I've been doing a lot of "don'ts" with Bubbles and Texas. School has played a part, as well as having a service dog that *does* need training, however I don't think that justifies my lack of communication towards my other pups.

Don't Dash out the door as soon as I open it.
Don't bark at random things outside the house.
Don't react to my roommate coming home.
Don't react to random people who show up.
Don't dive into your food bowl Until I tell you..
Don't whine at the gate when I'm just on the other side...
Don't dig in the garbage
Don't ignore me when I call you.

Ouch.I didn't realize how negative I was being with my dogs no wonder they ignore me for the most part. So this week, instead of constantly "getting onto" my dogs..I need can give them something can "do"...by verbalizing it. I think the following list was my intention all along, but sometimes you just "expect" the dog to "know" these things by know...when really they still need that CLEAR communication from me. Not an assumption.

Do sit/stay until I release you to go outside.
Do come and sit when I call you.
Do "go to your bed"
Do sit/stay when its time to eat.
Do "go to your bed"
Do "look" at mom and "come" and receive something *more* rewarding. (as if there is something more rewarding than garbage! Ha! - Texas)
Do (practice with your dogs and get them back to responding to their names) lol.

That, of course, is just off the top of my head, I'm sure I'll get more creative the more we work on this. Feel free to chime in with ideas if you have some! :) Though the barking will be challenging, as Texas figures if he barks more he'll earn a treat when I quiet him and he gets quiet. Still haven't figured out that one! :)

I am doing the same thing with Rob as well, instead of just "reacting" in frustration towards the mis-behaviors I am seeing out of my dogs, I can give them something to do that they just may be rewarded for doing.

Today was our second puppy meeting with Mr.Rob and my game plan was to 1.) focus and reward his good behavior ignoring the "bad" and 2.) keep his leash loose. That is all. And I'm happy to say we surpassed both of those. Our leash pulling was "iffy" but not a surprise as we were in the most distracting environment we have been in to date. I carried him a while as I wanted to encourage as little pulling as possible; even though he did want to play with the other dogs, the time we've spent working on him responding to his name paid off....but you can read more about that on his blog. :)

However I must sign off, At the moment my hands are full attempt to keep Texas and Bubbles from tearing the heating vent out of my floor. There is no "do's" or "don'ts" in this situation. Just a putting of them out and closing the doors.


Which they can push open. unfor.
Sigh.

Erin

How NOT To Greet A Dog

Hey Guys, 
So mom found dis, great poster on the intranet and said she just "had" ta spread it around so that lots of people could see dis. A lots of people thinks, cause I'm little dat they can pet me, but NEWS FLASH I don't even like my own mom doin much pettin other than a belly rubs. 

Howevers, mom does want to say dat, if started early you can teach a dog to  tolerate or even like the first six "bad" ways,  (dat would be Pompei) but especially with us little guys, its very scary for a big human to lean over us like dis!!! (Me an Bubbles don't like it, Bubbles will just pee and..me.. well I grab dat big fatty thing that sticks outta dare face and dat teaches them)

Ok mom says not to tell people dat cause I never have done THAT spasific thing. 

Phooey.

BUTT I would if they wouldn't even move their heads back fast enough.

Tuesday Training

Too Much Too fast.
Since taking Texas out to parks and such like, can be a difficult affair by myself, when a friend of mine brought over their dog, I decided what a great time to work on Texas's "On Leash" reactivity.
I was sadly mistaken.
I should have stopped while I was ahead, but I really wanted to work this as we hadn't had this opportunity, with a strange dog, that wasn't going to live with me.


First mistake, Pompeii and Bubbles had been out interacting with the dog earlier, Pompei was enamored and was following said dog all over the yard. So as I was getting Texas geared up (treats, clicker, harness...) they were also getting geared up. To bolt. And as soon as Texas and I attempted to leave the house, the both dash out as fast as possible. Now Bubbles and Texas feed off of each other, and while Bubbles doesn't have the same "issues as Texas", she does like to hear herself bark. So her barking set Texas off much as faster then had he been by himself. And before I knew it there was a tangled mess of dogs, and humans running every which way.


Once I corralled Bubbles and Pompeii, and got Texas back out, it was pretty hopeless. Even walking two yards (literal peoples yards) away was still too close. This part of the "reactivity" is much harder to work with, as I don't have many people with dogs that are willing to work with this. I'm beginning to think i need to start making friends with some local trainers. :)) 
Oh well. 
Back to the Drawing board.

REACTIONS

All dachshund owners will tell you, that owning a dachshund is a noisy affair. So when we brought Texas home, hearing him bark at everything walking past our house, strangers in our yard, people in our house was all part of the "joys" of dachshund ownership. Or so week thought.

It wasn't long before, we realized what we were seeing, was not your typical dachshund behavior.

• First was watching him tear from the back of our (at the time) half acre yard, too chase some kids walking past our house. When they asked if he would bite was when some flags were raised in my mind. But I knew Bubbles had done the same thing in younger years, with no intention of harming anyone..but this...something was different. 
• Next was at work. At the time I was working at a doggie daycare and in the evening we'd let the "staff dogs" into the office while we waited for the remaining few to be picked up. Texas was quickly banned from the office during this time, for shrieking at new customers and snapping at people who were trying to pet him. (Though why anyone continues to try and pet a barking dog is beyond me.)
• Then in the car, we noticed that he would continually bark and snarl at people "approaching" my car. On the weekends, my job gave us a two hour break so Texas and I would go grab some lunch and sit in my car for a while. I soon began to leave him crated in the building as he was so stressed and overwrought with sitting in the car with me.

This behavior had me completely mystified, as he was only a 4-5 month old puppy! Why is this dog reacting like this at this age?! I tried to talk to my boss, who was a "trainer" but she had absolutely no advice for me. So I kind of let it drop as me just overacting, but for the life of me I could never remember Bubbles acting this badly.

Life went on, we moved to TN, I got a job working service dogs, and began to enter deeper the wide world of dog training.  I began to learn more about the positive methods of dog training and realizing what I was doing was not working (dominating etc..), and we started to see a little bit of progress, in Texas...as he had other issues as well.  I started clicker training with Texas and soon realized how smart he really was. Alas it wasn't until he actually did bite someone before we started realizing how serious his behavior was. 

But when I mentioned it, a lot people had many anecdotal stories about their dachshunds doing the same etc..that Did NOT help me, but just sunk me into a funk, of trying to figure out if Texas was really a dog I should keep, could keep or even could work with. 


Thankfully I follow a ton of trainers on Twitter, and when I posted my panicked "OMG MY DOG JUST BIT SOMEONE" message, they responded with lots of helpful advice. I began studying up on aggressive dogs, causes of aggression, and  soon realized that's not what he was, but "reactive". 

A reactive dog, is a dog that reacts in a fearfully defensive or "aggressive" manner, when faced with certain triggers.  
Looks like: Barking, Growling, Lunging, Snapping, Snarling, wants trigger to go away generally. 
Triggers: Other dogs, strangers, situations and prey

I quickly realized that Texas reacts fearfully in any situation where he feels he can't escape. Examples include: Behind a door, or fence, on leash on in my car.When he'd get in the "zone" there was not stopping him, unless he was removed from the situation completely. The bite occurred, at the door...when he slipped out behind me, and nipped the first foot he saw.

Once I realized this all of his outings stopped. He did not leave my property. He spent a lot of time inside, unless I was positive there was no one outside. Our yard maintenance guys  were also HUGE triggers, and I had to wait until they'd been gone for at least 30 minutes before going outside with him. Let's not even bring in strange loose dogs. Dogs that we intro'd in a controlled situations were fine, but random dogs? No so much.It was tough, he had to be crated when I had strangers in my home, and my stress levels were extremely heighten if we decided to venture out to a park or somewhere.


Between YouTube and Twitter I found some great resources and began working with Texas to help change his emotional reaction to these "fearful" things. We learned how to introduce Texas to new people; He doesn't feel threatened if he's allowed to approach the situation, rather than someone approaching him. I also learned to teach people a "new" way of approaching dogs. "No Touch, No Talk, No Eye Contact." This was quite difficult since people have it ingrained in their heads, that you must "make friends" with the dog, by sticking your hand in their face.


But Like this, Texas was able to make many new friends, and realize the world was not such a "scary" place after all.

Now you can understand a little bit more, why we had such a hard time, during the 4th of July Holiday. Basically Texas we were in the worst situation possible, for a reactive dog, but we all made it out alive, and un scarred. But I think my family will now believe me when I tell them why I don't take Texas out of town.

So anyway I said all of that to intro you into today's situation. Today was our annual church clean up, and we had people all over the place for about 7-8 hours. The dogs were of course in the house as they would have just been in the way, and I wouldn't have gotten anything done.

Last year, I really couldn't have let Texas outside period, until EVERYONE was gone. He wouldn't have been able to focus on doing anything but letting the "intruders" know they needed to be gone. 

Today this is what we get:  

Video Description: Texas, Bubbles, Pompei and Lacy are in the "left side" of my yard, across the parking lot are people, cars, kids on bikes roaming around. Texas is wandering around the yard sniffing, his body language is very relaxed. He does bark as one child whizzes by on a bike, but is quickly redirected by me.






To all of you, this is normal dog behavior, for me this is hUGe...as I keep saying in the video. We've made a lot of progress, but still have a very. long.way to go still. But at this point any progress is awesome. Will he ever be "completely" normal? I don't know, I have my doubts but we're working hard to make his day to day life as pleasant and stress free as possible.

Erin &


P.S. (What I want everyone to take away from this is: SOCIALIZE, SOCIALIZE, and SOCIALIZE.  As early as possible. Your dog will thank you, and so will everyone who comes in contact with him.)

Tuesday Training Diaries

I completely forgot about my commit to post this this week. I keep telling my dad I'm slightly ADD but he doesn't believe me. :)

This week we have: 
Zipper has come so far in the last two weeks, I amaze myself sometimes. I'm going WOW I just taught her how to do that! look at me! And then other days I'm scratching my head going how in the world can I teach her not to: _________________!?!?! While this pup is growing on me, I am ready for her to move on to a new home, and get my life back. :)

• Name Recognition - WOW this dog picks up things superbly fast, once session just clicking and treating for her name, and you say she's in your lap, and so proud of herself. 
• Off Leash Recall - We haven't used the word "come" just yet since her name recall is so good. 
• Potty Training: Improving daily, I think we only used the puppy pads once today!!! 
• Door Manners: Working on stage, she will still bolt if she gets the chance, but is responding the verbal and phsycial cue "stay".

But here's the most important part of this monologue. (Is it called a monologue if its writing?)
Adoption Status:: PENDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The family just needs to get an appointment...*the ADD monster strikes again* to do a home visit and have an appointment made to have her spayed!! *happy happy happy dance*  I posted an album of her on Facebook within hours I had people calling me and emailing me about her! 

Texas - Since Zipper has arrived I've notice him starting to revert back into old behaviors, such as insessant barking, and marking indoors. Not good. This week I started teaching a new trick of walking on my feet, unfortunately he doesn't really like standing between my legs, with me leaning over him, so its not working out too well.

Pompei - Still very much in love with Miss Zipper and I'm constantly having to seperate them so I can have a moment of quiet, because its play, play, play and bark, bark, bark ALL THE TIME!!! Driving me over the edge a little bit. But lately we've been working on him not dashing out the door whenever it is opened. This is something that could be problematic for his future blind person, as they won't know that he's not a runner. So i want to make their new life together as easy as possible.

What about Bubbles you ask? Well......um.... OH SnAp!?!
Did I give her dinner?
Yikes.

*dashes off to feed her "poor starving dog"

Tuesday's Training Diary

Here's to hoping this will become a weekly feature around here!

Anyway I have to admit that there are times I get into a rut, in my dog training; Especially with the dogs that I have permanently or am raising for a year. When I worked with Wilderwood Service Dogs,I was bringing in a new dog monthly which kept me on my toes constantly. I was doing everything from re-teaching basic commands, potty training, loose leash walking to the "fun" commands, such as teaching them to close doors and etc..

However with the Guide Dog Foundation, we have a list of basic commands we teach them, and that's all. At 3 months Pompeii had 75% of those commands down, and now I knows all of them. So there is no "fun" per se in running through his commands, nothing to mix it up, or challenge him. Bubbles is confident with her "comes", "go potty", "lets eat", and "sit" commands and has no use for doing actual WORK for her food.Texas on the other hand lloooveeeeessssssss training. Except that his mom has run out of ideas..had run out of ideas. However having Zipper has cranked up my creative training juices and we're pulling out the ol" clicker and dusting it off.

Why Food or Clicker Train?
Why do I use a clicker you ask? Well all it does is MARK the BEHAVIOR (sit, down, stay, etc) we want the dog to do, lets him/her know it was GOOD and there is a reward coming. I use the clicker to teach the dog the behavior and then fade it out quickly once the dog knows the cue word.

I know many people want to shy away from clicker/food training due to the fact: "I don't want to have to carry treats around allll the time."Who said you did? Once the dog has the behavior down pat, we do what we call random rewards. You call the dog, they come. you pay them with a treat.
Next time, you call your dog, you pay them with praise, the next time with a toy, the next time with a treat. We all know this works extremely well for dogs, because once they get something good for a certain action, they will always TRY and see if it will work again. (Hence why pulling, garbage digging, counter surfing are such hard behaviors to break.)

Here's how I see. Raise your hand if you would continue to go to work, if your boss only paid you the first three weeks of your time, and then never paid you again. Yet this is what a lot of people are expecting out their dogs...

We introduced Zip to the clicker last week and she's loves it. Next we're working on default leave its. Here it is demonstrated by a favorite trainer of mine, and then we'll do our best to mimic it.



Our Turn! I think we got the jist of it...Please ignore the random commentary!



Next Up - Leave it On Cue...or the name game, cause she really doesn't know her name....

STAY TUNED!

Dear Diary: Leash Walking

Dear Diary,
You know dat thing the humans are always walking us around on like we're a horse or sometin? Well it kinda looked like fun so I tried to walk Texas on it. But it was hard cause he wouldn't even walk where I wanted him to go and he just kept pulling and pulling!!!!!
I don't even know why he did dat, so I decided that walking is not much fun, and mom can do it all by herself. With me.



BAYL!

Thoughtful Thursday

{Pompei Laying in the floor with his head half wedged under a computer chair}

This is what good guide puppies are SUPPOSED to do while attending class with their humans. The challenge is  teaching them to be calm and quiet during this  time when they'd rather play. As my area coordinator likes to say..."If they were perfect, we wouldn't have them." 

:)

Guess Who??

My three-dog household, has once again been pushed back up to four, with the welcome "re" edition of Ben....now known as Buddy.

Buddy needed some extra loose leash work, so I'll have him (until further notice...remember the whole write it in pencil thing? yeah.) probably until September. Daniel will move onto another trainer and learn skills that he will need when working with his autistic child.

Ben..er..Buddy is ONE of my favs, so we're happy to see him again. Today we dropped into Target to see what we had to work on, and he did beautifully; you really wouldn't know that he hadn't been training for this all of his life.

{Shopping is boooring in his opinion}

I do wish I could keep Daniel as well, as these two are more of the same energy level, and makes them easy to manage together. Ah well, he'll move on Monday afternoon.

And we'll be back down to three dogs.....for a little while at least. I am going to need a bigger house I think!

P.S. (Ben's name was changed because he happens to share it with his new little ...well buddy! :)

Training the Dachshund

The question was posed to me a couple of days ago, about teaching a dachshund the "down" command.

Sounds like you have the command down,(no pun intended) but you want to lengthen her response time? To do that, what I do, especially with pups that have short attention spans, once I get them into the down position, I'll put down a hand full of treats. This keeps them in the down position a little bit longer than giving a tiny treat.

I did a video of Texas doing going through some of the behaviors I've taught him. And each time I have him "down" I put down three or four treats, which, as you'll see keep him the position longer.


This will also roll over into the "wait" or "stay" command. Putting down a handful of treats, walking away while the pup eats them, and coming back right as they are finished.

"Good pup!"

I'll let an expert demo that one!



I Hope this helps!

Sam's Club

Today I finally got up the nerve to haul my camera into a store, and take photos of the dog while in there. I know silly that I wouldn't want to but, I feel weird hauling out a DSLR in a store.
Anyways Daniel, accompanied me through Sam's Club to get some new tires on my car; We spent a lot of our time, talking to people...."What's IS HE?!?!" " Oh I thought you had a stuffed animal in here" (I love that one. Seriously people!?) and doing some training.

I am currently working on the "behind" command. This is where the dog walks directly behind you, so you can get through, narrow spaces. I have tried several different ways to work with this command, and am working on something else.

So we worked on that, and "Up" command, and sitting to visit....lots and lots of that. You meet all kinds of interesting people, one lady had 10 dachshunds....all under 1, a GSD, and an Australian Shepherd.

I had to mention to her that, that was crazy. Which she admitted.

After balancing all my purchases in one arm,(shopping cart? Why?) we checked out, and sat on the patio furniture, while waiting for my vehicle to be released.

And waited...and waited....and waited. 1 hour later, one of the guys recognized me, gasps "Oh uh, Ma'am your cars ready".

Really.

Thanks for telling me.

But anyways, it was a smooth ride home.

From Gideon

Dear Mom and Dad,

Hiya! Gideon here, thought I'd drop you guys a note, and let you know how I'm doing. Well ok, it was Erin's idea, but I at least acted on it! That counts for something right?

So anyways, I'm having fun here, if I'm not play with Daniel or Texas, I'm probably sleeping. I've already picked my favorite spots in the hosue. One is the bathroom floor. Aaaah, and the other is the big wire crate in Erin's room.

Well it was until Daniel came and took it. Something about him being bigger than I am. Whatever he is just a hog. But we do have a lot of fun together. Most everyday we get to go outside OFF LEASH and run, and play, and explore all over ever we want too!

Well as long as we don't go under the barbed wire fence in back. Than we get in trouble and have to go STRAIGHT HOME. So I do my best.. though I'll admit its mostly Erin keeping me close to here, and don't go over there.In the house, Me, and Bubbles and Daniel and Texas like to bark at things passing the house, its great fun! Don't know why I never tried it before?!

Other than that, I'm learning lots, and trying to be on my bestest behavior ever!! Miss You!

Gideon

One Week

Gideon has officially been with us for a week now!

This week has been kind of hectic for both of us, with me starting a new job and all, and him getting "thrown" into a new home; but I think we're reaching a point of normalcy.

On Thursday we went to a restaurant, and he did alright, his nickname will be my ADD dog, as laying STILL with all that food around was VERY hard for him.

So today we "practiced" long down-stay's while I practiced the piano, I "suited him up" and put him on Tie-Down next to me.

At first he was up & down, but once he realized that he couldn't go anywhere, he laid down, and went to sleep.

Now whenever he laid down, I would drop a treat in between his paws, just as a reminder that that's what I wanted him to do.

And I practiced for a good 45 minutes, before I called it quits.

I always stop while were ahead :D .

Gideon is used to using a dog door at his foster families house, and so he has assumed, because he can push the screen door open....he can go out whenever he wants too.If I lived further back from the road, that would be...annoying but ok; as he's not a runner.

But twice today, he's let himself out to potty, and then went on a tour-de-knoxvul; thankfully I was able to track him down quickly both times, buttttt we're going to have to...work on that.

*woooooo*

Settling IN

Gideon is still getting settled in, and I normally don't start any major training the first couple of days, besides just establishing house rules.

He's a little unsure of his new surroundings, and doing the normal pace-n-pant (as I call it); but he and Texas started to play a little bit tonight, so that's good.

Busy Monday

As I've stated on my personal blog, life has moved into the left lane, and we are cruising along around 75 MPH!

Yesterday, started the trend......our church has a Vacation Bible School every summer, so we are starting to get stuff ready for that. So the first three hours of my day cutting rectangles. I was going stir crazy after a while, so as soon as I could, I left and went to check on my dogs.

Veda has really matured since I got him a month ago, and I felt comfortable leaving him and the dachshunds loose in the house. The proved themselves good...despite the tissues roll in the floor...untouched though!!

I put the dogs on their lines, to go potty, and all of the sudden, my porch was swarming with kids... :D So I took that time to teach them the basics of grooming a dog.

::Veda gets a brush down by Autumn and Brooklyn::

Now as I've mention, Texas has a tendency to be very territorial, but with a few corrections, he didn't growl/bark at any of the kids...even going as far as letting them walk him!

::Texas climbing on my sisters lap....he knows her, so which is why he's willing to climb in her lap::

After that, the kids wanted to walk the dogs....so....I said why not, and hooked them up and sent them out.

::I have no clue what was going on here::

After that, I had to get ready for a training consultation, so they walked them back to the house.
Veda and I then loaded up, and went to pick up this guy.
Meet Eden...he's a 7 month old Goldendoodle, who is training as a Autism Service Dog.

It took Him and Veda a couple minutes to figure out the seating arrangement....but they looked quite comfy in the end.

We were evaluating some things with Mr.Eden that thankfully were'nt as bad as we were thinking. so it was a successful trip.

Eden and Veda made themselves very comfortable on the way home.