So uh.... I was a little over-zealous and trying too hard in my last post about this.
I toned it down... let him just sniff the bag o' food... let him lick it.... moved it a little on the ground so he moved toward it....
Last night in our agility class he bit the bag and was TUGGING it! Hooray!
Who knew I could get so happy over a dog tugging on a mesh bag full o' hot dogs?
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
I survived
Yes, I actually survived the three year old's birthday party complete with many little ones so jacked up on sugar there were nuclear meltdowns happening all around me in tiny human form.
Since my niece is the only child in our family she gets a MOUNTAIN and I mean MOUNTAIN of toys. So many that it's overwhelming to me and I would imagine to a three year old as well.
Tho' I did see one of her tiny friends go running thru the backyard waving the primitive gourd rattle in one hand while simultaneously blowing the slide whistle and I had to smile. Little kids LOVE running and LOVE making noise.
I think my niece and her five or six friends had a good time and were adequately sugared up. Isn't that what birthdays are all about when you are tiny?
I was pretty glad to come home to the peace and quiet of our little house in Northern CO... I sat in the sky chairs and breathed in the peace. Ahhhhhh.
Since my niece is the only child in our family she gets a MOUNTAIN and I mean MOUNTAIN of toys. So many that it's overwhelming to me and I would imagine to a three year old as well.
Tho' I did see one of her tiny friends go running thru the backyard waving the primitive gourd rattle in one hand while simultaneously blowing the slide whistle and I had to smile. Little kids LOVE running and LOVE making noise.
I think my niece and her five or six friends had a good time and were adequately sugared up. Isn't that what birthdays are all about when you are tiny?
I was pretty glad to come home to the peace and quiet of our little house in Northern CO... I sat in the sky chairs and breathed in the peace. Ahhhhhh.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Revenge is sweet....
My 3yr old neice's birthday party is this weekend.
I bought a lovely wooden slide whistle and a gourd rattle from a store that brings in things from other countries and pays back a % of the profit to the locals who made them.
I bought a lovely wooden slide whistle and a gourd rattle from a store that brings in things from other countries and pays back a % of the profit to the locals who made them.
They are both really loud. Really. Loud.
evil grin.
I thought about giving Niece a nice package of colored Sharpie permanent markers.... thought that might be going a little too far.
Picked Sister up some earrings while I was there.... and a couple fancy chocolate bars for each of them.
A sugar high will improve Niece's slide whistle, gourd rattlin', one woman band performance for sure.
The Evil Aunt strikes again....
Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Thursday, July 7, 2011
The funny pages....
I know it sounds odd - and yet - our subscription to the Denver paper is mostly because of the comics.
Who wants to read about murders, domestic violence, child abuse, animal abuse, who is taking what drugs and shooting people or crashing cars or causing fatal accidents on highways or in bars. Which actor is sleeping with which politician or vice versa. Which politicians are making shady deals or sending pictures of the bulge in their underwear to underage girls....
It's depressing.
Then you move to the comics pages and there are (or were) FOUR whole pages devoted to making you smile. Clever artwork, puns, humor, characters and the comic artists come up with something new every single day. Amazing when you really think about it.
Furry Husband and I ease into each morning sitting at the kitchen table with mugs of steaming hot coffee - mine doctored up with plenty o' fresh goat milk from the girls - and we read the funny pages together.
Then one day, The Rocky Mountain News closed shop and merged with The Denver Post. For a couple of months I was in heaven because they kept ALL the comics... from both papers!
They cut a bunch of comics after taking a poll ... I protested in writing and with a call to the comics editor when they took some of the comics I enjoyed. Nothing changed, the comics I missed weren't brought back....I figured compromises had to be made.
They recently cut another bunch of comics. No warning. No reason given.
Sigh.
We didn't renew our subscription and let them know it was due to the further comic page cuts. I wrote to the comics editor again and I don't have much hope they'll bring anything back.
I don't want the paper for all the violent news... we have local news channels and news radio.
I subscribed online to DailyINK for some of our favorite comics like Bizzaro and Rhymes with Orange. The rest are found at GoComics. Really not the same tho'. Our giant black cat Mojo can't dive under the paper to play.... the easy morning rustle of newspaper pages.... the smell of newspaper and ink....
Give me back my funny pages!
Who wants to read about murders, domestic violence, child abuse, animal abuse, who is taking what drugs and shooting people or crashing cars or causing fatal accidents on highways or in bars. Which actor is sleeping with which politician or vice versa. Which politicians are making shady deals or sending pictures of the bulge in their underwear to underage girls....
It's depressing.
Then you move to the comics pages and there are (or were) FOUR whole pages devoted to making you smile. Clever artwork, puns, humor, characters and the comic artists come up with something new every single day. Amazing when you really think about it.
Furry Husband and I ease into each morning sitting at the kitchen table with mugs of steaming hot coffee - mine doctored up with plenty o' fresh goat milk from the girls - and we read the funny pages together.
Then one day, The Rocky Mountain News closed shop and merged with The Denver Post. For a couple of months I was in heaven because they kept ALL the comics... from both papers!
They cut a bunch of comics after taking a poll ... I protested in writing and with a call to the comics editor when they took some of the comics I enjoyed. Nothing changed, the comics I missed weren't brought back....I figured compromises had to be made.
They recently cut another bunch of comics. No warning. No reason given.
Sigh.
We didn't renew our subscription and let them know it was due to the further comic page cuts. I wrote to the comics editor again and I don't have much hope they'll bring anything back.
I don't want the paper for all the violent news... we have local news channels and news radio.
I subscribed online to DailyINK for some of our favorite comics like Bizzaro and Rhymes with Orange. The rest are found at GoComics. Really not the same tho'. Our giant black cat Mojo can't dive under the paper to play.... the easy morning rustle of newspaper pages.... the smell of newspaper and ink....
Give me back my funny pages!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The phone call....
We call Furry Husbands Mom on Sundays usually. Every once and a while tho' we get so busy running around and with chores that by the time we get inside it's 9pm or later and Mom-in-Law lives in a time zone one hour later than ours. We can't call an 84 yr old woman at 10pm her time....
We were fixing dinner last night and I grabbed the phone to give her a call.
She answered the phone, flummoxed that we would call her on a Tuesday night. She asked if we were trying to confuse her and that she felt like the Monty Python skit called, "Confuse the Cat."
We really weren't trying to confuse her but that had me laughing... confuse the cat.
HA!
We were fixing dinner last night and I grabbed the phone to give her a call.
She answered the phone, flummoxed that we would call her on a Tuesday night. She asked if we were trying to confuse her and that she felt like the Monty Python skit called, "Confuse the Cat."
We really weren't trying to confuse her but that had me laughing... confuse the cat.
HA!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
New way?
Waaaay back in the day I thought it would be really cool to take a dog and train him up through the Utility level. I went to a giant dog show held at the Western Stock Show Complex in Denver with a friend from college back when I was 18 I think.... watched a Utility class and it was so cool to see dogs that tuned in to their owners.
I had a dog but he was a mix breed (Bloodhound X Aussie Shepherd - people always asked me if he was a Catahoula dog) and at that time you couldn't compete with your mix breed dog in "real" events. You could go to fun shows or practice shows but it just wasn't real in my mind. Where I got this idea to compete I don't really know.... I worked with him enough so that he was a very nice obedient dog, had a great time with him, loved him immensely but obedience competition never really went anywhere.
When he died, Furry Husband was in the picture. We met with the woman who taught the basic obedience classes I went to with my first dog and brought some different breed profiles we were thinking of. She worked with dogs and taught dogs - we figured she'd have some good insight and I wanted to go purebred so I could show in AKC obedience.
We discussed pros and cons of the breeds we picked out and decided on the Gordon Setter.
I took Booker everywhere but was told not to do very much obedience work with him because I would "break his spirit" for the conformation ring. Booker was a wild man. Oh, he absolutely LOVED everyone and everything but he was a wild man. Not a mean bone in his body. He really thought he was the mayor of Denver and wanted to shake every one's hand and kiss every baby.
We did conformation and it just wasn't my thing. He was nice enough to win occasionally - he was middle of the pack - nothing spectacular but certainly not horrible either. I didn't want to keep going with it. shrug. It just wasn't my cup of tea tho' I do enjoy watching conformation from the sidelines and we always tune in to Westminster Kennel Club every year.
We began obedience work and we were the number one Gordon Setter in the US for Novice obedience published in Front and Finish obedience magazine. (probably not a whole heck of a lot of Gordon's doing obedience work - they aren't generally great obedience working dogs) People would tell me what a nice working dog he was and how it was great to see such a happy dog in the show ring after we went. I won a prize in one of my competitions - it was a decorated 8x10 mirror which I keep in my cubicle at work to this day so I can check my teeth for spinach particles.
We moved on to Open obedience and it was a lot harder. The training methods got a lot tougher. I didn't know I had options. I thought this was the way it had to be. I started to feel like each lesson I was beating my dog into submission (no I didn't really beat him) and the instructor was beating me.... he wasn't having any fun and I certainly wasn't having any fun. We got one qualifying score in Open and I quit. Just about that time my Dad got really sick and it was a pretty intense emotional time. I couldn't focus on the obedience work, I wasn't having fun and there were too many things going on that were pretty un-fun in my life. I took a break from the un-fun things I could control and the break became permanent.
Decided after a while that I didn't mind not having all that pressure and someone yelling at me all the time and I sure didn't miss forcing my dog, in sometimes pretty hard ways, of doing things. I loved him and decided I didn't need a dog that obedient if that is what it took. I just let him be our dog. He was well loved and still goofy, happy and wonderful. He was a really good boy.
When Booker died, I wanted another happy, go-lucky companion I could take anywhere. I truly appreciated Booker's optimistic nature, tho' I wanted a smaller dog. Booker thought he was a lap dog but at 75lbs... I'm pretty sure my bruised uterus and ovaries from his paws/elbows in my gut gave a big sigh of relief when I started looking at smaller dogs.
I really wanted an English Cocker Spaniel. Seemed like some Gordon Setter people also had English Cockers.... the English Cockers were still a gun dog, active, not too small but not too big... they had merry temperaments - not frail - I was already used to grooming a long haired dog. I'd met two in an obedience class with my first mix breed dog so long ago and always thought they were lovely dogs.
Enter Toe.
Dog training changed a lot in 10yrs. It's all about the clicker now. There are a bunch of 100% positive only methods.
I read a book about dog training 100% positive. Oh my. That author wanted you to change your life in ways you wouldn't believe in order to keep the dog 100% happy 24/7 no matter what the dog did. It was unsettling and very odd. If your dog wants to bite you, let him and be sure to give him your other hand to keep him interested and happy - don't mind the disfigurement cuz it's all about the dog and his happiness. That wasn't gonna work for me and really turned me off looking at other 100% positive training methods... but I didn't know what would work.
I decided this time around I'd explore different doggie avenues vs. obedience only. I tried Tracking...Rally.... I thought I knew enough and could do the Novice obedience on my own without paying for classes or lessons.
That didn't turn out so well... we got our Novice title but no one was coming up to compliment us on our work in the ring. I didn't want to go back to the previous methods and didn't want to go the 100% positive route either. Thought I could do it on my own. Turns out I didn't do so great left to my own devices.
Feeling pretty lost about knowing anything in dog training right about now actually.
I started reading this book called Control Unleashed. It's geared more for Agility.... but there are some really interesting concepts in this book. There are more positive methods and they work... so far.
I started with something simple - something I knew from way back. Only this was a new way to teach it. It worked faster that the old school method and so well it's sort of blowing my mind. I'm really excited to try some of the other exercises - I see the practical applications of them and the theory behind the methods makes sense to me.
I'm messing around with the exercises in it with both Toe (supposed to help with focus in the ring) and with Keenan. This book was recommended to me after Keenan's Cujo moment for dogs teetering toward aggression because of fear... I'll keep you posted. Really different but interesting exercises. I'm all geeked about it and it's sort of nice to feel excited and hopeful vs. clueless and frustrated.
I had a dog but he was a mix breed (Bloodhound X Aussie Shepherd - people always asked me if he was a Catahoula dog) and at that time you couldn't compete with your mix breed dog in "real" events. You could go to fun shows or practice shows but it just wasn't real in my mind. Where I got this idea to compete I don't really know.... I worked with him enough so that he was a very nice obedient dog, had a great time with him, loved him immensely but obedience competition never really went anywhere.
When he died, Furry Husband was in the picture. We met with the woman who taught the basic obedience classes I went to with my first dog and brought some different breed profiles we were thinking of. She worked with dogs and taught dogs - we figured she'd have some good insight and I wanted to go purebred so I could show in AKC obedience.
We discussed pros and cons of the breeds we picked out and decided on the Gordon Setter.
I took Booker everywhere but was told not to do very much obedience work with him because I would "break his spirit" for the conformation ring. Booker was a wild man. Oh, he absolutely LOVED everyone and everything but he was a wild man. Not a mean bone in his body. He really thought he was the mayor of Denver and wanted to shake every one's hand and kiss every baby.
We did conformation and it just wasn't my thing. He was nice enough to win occasionally - he was middle of the pack - nothing spectacular but certainly not horrible either. I didn't want to keep going with it. shrug. It just wasn't my cup of tea tho' I do enjoy watching conformation from the sidelines and we always tune in to Westminster Kennel Club every year.
We began obedience work and we were the number one Gordon Setter in the US for Novice obedience published in Front and Finish obedience magazine. (probably not a whole heck of a lot of Gordon's doing obedience work - they aren't generally great obedience working dogs) People would tell me what a nice working dog he was and how it was great to see such a happy dog in the show ring after we went. I won a prize in one of my competitions - it was a decorated 8x10 mirror which I keep in my cubicle at work to this day so I can check my teeth for spinach particles.
We moved on to Open obedience and it was a lot harder. The training methods got a lot tougher. I didn't know I had options. I thought this was the way it had to be. I started to feel like each lesson I was beating my dog into submission (no I didn't really beat him) and the instructor was beating me.... he wasn't having any fun and I certainly wasn't having any fun. We got one qualifying score in Open and I quit. Just about that time my Dad got really sick and it was a pretty intense emotional time. I couldn't focus on the obedience work, I wasn't having fun and there were too many things going on that were pretty un-fun in my life. I took a break from the un-fun things I could control and the break became permanent.
Decided after a while that I didn't mind not having all that pressure and someone yelling at me all the time and I sure didn't miss forcing my dog, in sometimes pretty hard ways, of doing things. I loved him and decided I didn't need a dog that obedient if that is what it took. I just let him be our dog. He was well loved and still goofy, happy and wonderful. He was a really good boy.
When Booker died, I wanted another happy, go-lucky companion I could take anywhere. I truly appreciated Booker's optimistic nature, tho' I wanted a smaller dog. Booker thought he was a lap dog but at 75lbs... I'm pretty sure my bruised uterus and ovaries from his paws/elbows in my gut gave a big sigh of relief when I started looking at smaller dogs.
I really wanted an English Cocker Spaniel. Seemed like some Gordon Setter people also had English Cockers.... the English Cockers were still a gun dog, active, not too small but not too big... they had merry temperaments - not frail - I was already used to grooming a long haired dog. I'd met two in an obedience class with my first mix breed dog so long ago and always thought they were lovely dogs.
Enter Toe.
Dog training changed a lot in 10yrs. It's all about the clicker now. There are a bunch of 100% positive only methods.
I read a book about dog training 100% positive. Oh my. That author wanted you to change your life in ways you wouldn't believe in order to keep the dog 100% happy 24/7 no matter what the dog did. It was unsettling and very odd. If your dog wants to bite you, let him and be sure to give him your other hand to keep him interested and happy - don't mind the disfigurement cuz it's all about the dog and his happiness. That wasn't gonna work for me and really turned me off looking at other 100% positive training methods... but I didn't know what would work.
I decided this time around I'd explore different doggie avenues vs. obedience only. I tried Tracking...Rally.... I thought I knew enough and could do the Novice obedience on my own without paying for classes or lessons.
That didn't turn out so well... we got our Novice title but no one was coming up to compliment us on our work in the ring. I didn't want to go back to the previous methods and didn't want to go the 100% positive route either. Thought I could do it on my own. Turns out I didn't do so great left to my own devices.
Feeling pretty lost about knowing anything in dog training right about now actually.
I started reading this book called Control Unleashed. It's geared more for Agility.... but there are some really interesting concepts in this book. There are more positive methods and they work... so far.
I started with something simple - something I knew from way back. Only this was a new way to teach it. It worked faster that the old school method and so well it's sort of blowing my mind. I'm really excited to try some of the other exercises - I see the practical applications of them and the theory behind the methods makes sense to me.
I'm messing around with the exercises in it with both Toe (supposed to help with focus in the ring) and with Keenan. This book was recommended to me after Keenan's Cujo moment for dogs teetering toward aggression because of fear... I'll keep you posted. Really different but interesting exercises. I'm all geeked about it and it's sort of nice to feel excited and hopeful vs. clueless and frustrated.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Tug
I'm taking this agility class right?
We discussed using "tug" as a motivator vs. food. You can play to reward your dog vs. feeding him... a different motivator to get him pumped up and excited.
That's great. Cept' Toe doesn't tug.
There is a mesh bag you can buy online at http://www.tug_it.com/ to teach your dog how to tug. Put some sort of softer food in the bag with the idea that when the dog bites the bag, the food squishes out the mesh holes, he's rewarded and the lightbulb will go on for the tug game.
The agility instructor tells me to play with Toe every day for 5 minutes. Even if he doesn't play back, be happy and playful and pretend like he is playing back with me. She assures me this will work and Toe will become a dog who loves to tug.
Every day I take my mesh bag of squished hotdogs outside with Toe. I squeeze the bag so the inside of the hotdog is coming out of the mesh. And yes!, it is just as disgusting as it sounds.
Toe stands there... stump slowly wagging... looking at me dubiously like "What in the...." and I proceed to dance around like Muhammad Ali... float like a butterfly...sting like a bee.... waving the mesh bag of smooshed hotdogs in Toe's face.... lightly hitting him with the bag seeing if he'll bite or go after the bag. "get it, get it, get it, get it" I squeal as I dance around my little dog with the bag of hotdogs.
It's not working.
He's beginning to run away from the crazy lady dancing around him, talking in high pitched excited words and hitting him about the mouth, chest, neck and head with a mesh bag full of smooshed hotdogs.
We discussed using "tug" as a motivator vs. food. You can play to reward your dog vs. feeding him... a different motivator to get him pumped up and excited.
That's great. Cept' Toe doesn't tug.
There is a mesh bag you can buy online at http://www.tug_it.com/ to teach your dog how to tug. Put some sort of softer food in the bag with the idea that when the dog bites the bag, the food squishes out the mesh holes, he's rewarded and the lightbulb will go on for the tug game.
The agility instructor tells me to play with Toe every day for 5 minutes. Even if he doesn't play back, be happy and playful and pretend like he is playing back with me. She assures me this will work and Toe will become a dog who loves to tug.
Every day I take my mesh bag of squished hotdogs outside with Toe. I squeeze the bag so the inside of the hotdog is coming out of the mesh. And yes!, it is just as disgusting as it sounds.
Toe stands there... stump slowly wagging... looking at me dubiously like "What in the...." and I proceed to dance around like Muhammad Ali... float like a butterfly...sting like a bee.... waving the mesh bag of smooshed hotdogs in Toe's face.... lightly hitting him with the bag seeing if he'll bite or go after the bag. "get it, get it, get it, get it" I squeal as I dance around my little dog with the bag of hotdogs.
It's not working.
He's beginning to run away from the crazy lady dancing around him, talking in high pitched excited words and hitting him about the mouth, chest, neck and head with a mesh bag full of smooshed hotdogs.
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