Here Here!

Since I’m back to work I’ve got to either 1) walk the dogs on lunch or 2) walk them after work.  I really do prefer to walk them on lunch, but when it’s this hot, I opt for after work.

It was still hot yesterday but thank God the humidity broke.  There’s nothing like walking in 90 degree heat with 90% humidity.  It feels like you went swimming with all your clothes on and you’re just waiting for them to dry.

My pants seem to have a mind of their own and that’s to sag as far down as they possibly can.  I seriously considered putting a pair of boxers on so they could hang over the top.

You don’t believe that do you?

Good because I would never consider that.

Where was I?  Oh yes, the walk.

I normally let Sampson and Delilah pick our walk, I figure it’s their walk too so why shouldn’t they go where they want?  I keep a pretty good eye on them and if it looks like one of them has really committed to a certain path, I gently encourage the other one to go in the same direction.

What really surprises me is how frequently they go to the same trails, all kinds of possibilities yet they still follow the same paths.  I think they are checking their pee mail and waiting to see if they will run into some friends.

We were getting on towards the end of our walk last night when I saw what I thought was a deer running through the trees off to my left.  It caught everyone’s attention and I shouted to Sampson, “No, don’t do it.”  Thankfully he followed instructions and stopped what he was doing.

When I looked up, Bruno (who the dogs know well) was standing staring at us from about 25 yards away.

I shortened Delilah’s leash and told Sampson NO.

He took off after Bruno.

Delilah whined and pulled but I held fast.

Bruno is a big dog, but he’s also a big baby.  As soon as Sampson took off after him, Bruno took off too.

Sampson chased Bruno around a really large rock and I saw Delilah gear up to go and I knew I was a gonner.  So I dropped the leash.

I figured it’s better to chase her through the woods, than get pulled along the trail…on my face.

The dogs all converged at the rock, sniffing each other and I clapped my hands and called, Here, Here, come on let’s go.

What do you suppose happened?

Yup, she came right back to me.  I did the happy dance, gave her some yummy liverwurst, praised and petted her and we finished our walk.

I don’t think I am ready to take her off-leash but it’s nice to know I can give her a small bit of freedom.

Rally Thursday

Rally is an AKC dog sport, it is basically an obedience sport, but the ‘commands’ are located at little stations throughout the Rally ring.   It  is also the sport I stewarded at last November.

There are three Rally divisions, Novice, Advanced and Excellent.  It is possible for a dog to title in all three divisions and your dog does NOT have to be a pure-bred in order to compete.

Ribbons are awarded to the top three dogs.  The highest score is 100, but the dogs are also timed.  In case of two dogs achieving the same score, the time is factored in to determine the winner.  Any dog who achieves a score of 70 or better  achieves a ‘leg’ once the dog has three ‘legs’ the dog has titled in that particular Rally division.

At an AKC Rally match, there is only one dog in the ring at a time, unless there is an ‘honor’ dog.

In the advanced Rally ring,  a ‘Honor Dog’ is expected to lie at the edge of the ring and not move until the dog working the course has finished and the Steward in charge advises it is safe to release the dog.   Normally the honor dog, is the dog who was in the ring before the current dog.  If a dog is honoring, their score is not complete until the steward advises the scorekeeper that the dog passed or failed.  The dog working the course is ‘scored’ based upon their performance in the ring.

Stewarding an advanced AKC Rally match is one of the more difficult rings to run, especially if there is an honor dog.  Not only are the Stewards required to insure all jumps are the correct height for each dog, the Stewards are also responsible for making sure each competitor is up and ready to go when their number is called.

When I Stewarded there were three of us. Besides the official scorekeeper, there was my friend Ann who made sure competitors were up and ready to go, and held their leash while they were in the ring.  I ran the stop watch and monitored the Honor Dog.   In between dogs we had to check that the jumps were the correct height and in some instances we had to make adjustments.

I can tell you it was a lot of work, and you see some crazy people with their dogs.

I like the idea of the Rally and have actually considered working Delilah toward a title.

If you would like to learn more about Rally, you can check out the AKC  link here.

Hubby and I have been on vacation all week.  Even though I’ve been walking the dogs every morning I couldn’t help but perk my ears up when Sara mentioned she was going to have a drop-in Rally class on Thursday evening.

Normally on a night that Delilah and I have training class I force gently encourage Hubby to take Sampson for a walk.  Thursday night I asked if he and Sampson would like to check out the Rally Class.

Not quite as sophisticated as the AKC commands, but it got the job done!

Sampson doesn’t really care for obedience or agility classes but I think it’s good to keep him on his ‘game.’  Of course Hubby didn’t want a little baggy full of treats, so someone kept going right back to mommy when he was done.

There was eight dogs in the class, Sara had one person start at station one, then once they were at station three, the next person started.  In this manner we got all dogs thru fairly quickly.  After two runs thru, Sara changed the course.

Sampson and his dad.

Sampson kept looking over to me as if to say,  please help me mom, you know I don’t like these classes.

I want to say we did about four different courses, it was a nice way to work on our obedience without being in a traditional classroom setting.

After class was over, Sara cut Sampson and Delilah’s nails.

Stop fighting it Sampson.

Both Sampson and Delilah are so laid back when they get their nails clipped that Hubby joked, take it easy Sampson don’t get so stressed out.

Delilah is not so fond of lying down and leaving herself vulnerable.

Have you ever tried a competitive sport with your dog?  Would you?

How Do You Train Two Dogs?

Part of the new training program Delilah and I are taking is to practice at home what we learned in class.

Here’s the problem I’m having.

Every time I pull out the treat bag, both dogs run over and sit in front of me.

I say, Delilah wait and walk about six feet away.

I look at Delilah and say front.

Both dogs run and sit in front of me.

You called?

I say yes and give the treat to Delilah.

I say Sampson wait and walk about six feet away.

I look at Sampson and say front.

Both dogs run and sit in front of me.

How do people with multiple dogs train?

I had this post all planned out and then….

I saw a video by Pamela at Something Wagging This Way Comes.  It seems Pamela is always helping me out with something!

Pamela was working with Honey while Cherie stood on the sidelines cheering them on.

Suddenly it all made sense!  Separate the dogs!

Why didn’t I think of this?

My house is fairly open, so I can’t gate one-off, but I can put one in the bedroom while I work the other or leave one in the house and work the other outside.

Thanks Pamela, once again you’re a lifesaver.

Of course when we are out on the trail and both dogs respond you won’t hear me complaining.

A Really Good Recall

As you know, I’ve really been struggling with Delilah and her recall.

I think for the most part it is my fault, I think I have sullied the word.

For whatever reason Sampson’s recall is come, Delilah’s is here, but they respond to many things.  Number one being their names which I think is good,  but a lot of times when we are walking I say this way or et eh.

I’ve had some success with getting her to return with the front command, which I think is perfectly acceptable for a recall.

I’ve really been working her lately with the here command.  Of course she is still on the 15 foot lead so she doesn’t have much opportunity to get too far away.  I try to call her back to me at least once every five minutes or so.  I also say it very loud with a slight hint of panic in my voice.  I figure if she ever gets too far away, my recall will be consistent.

I’m really good at the 15 foot on leash recall.

Last night I found a sure-fire recall.

We were in the back part of the woods on one of the steeper trails.  For some reason the spiders back here love to create little tight ropes between trees.  Maybe they like to have parties at night, I’m not really too sure.

I am sure that I would like them to make their little tight ropes a wee bit higher.

I’m sick of catching them across my face.

Every once in a while one of those little suckers gets really industrious and builds a web across the trail.

I don’t mind that so much as long as they aren’t occupying it when I cross it.

Yeah, I don’t like spiders.

At. All.

Last night there was a web, right across my path.

And it was occupied.

The spider was pretty small, but that doesn’t really matter to me.

I still don’t want it crawling on me.

Did I mention I don’t like spiders?

In my shock, I dropped the leash and prepared myself to do battle.  Oh and I also screamed a little Ahhhh Ahhhh.

Wouldn’t you know it, Delilah came running right back to me?

Then I used the end of her leash to smack that tight rope out of my way, while the spider grabbed his prey and ran.

You don’t have to run little spider, I don’t want your nasty old bug.

The things I endure, all for the sake of my dogs.

Follow-Up Friday

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Please feel free to grab the badge and join me in recapping or wrapping up your week.   It doesn’t matter if you do it every week or just once in  a while.

Another Post About Poop – Update

Delilah’s little peeper hasn’t shown itself again.  All subsequent poops have been normal.  I guess it was me, just being…..well me.

Tasty Tuesday – Author’s Note

Sampson and Delilah get a snack every single night.  A long time ago it used to be a rawhide twist.

I’ve heard some people say it’s bad and others say it isn’t.  I don’t really know, what I do know is that using the rawhide was

1) Expensive and

2) Well let’s just say you wouldn’t want to be around Delilah as she’s trying to swallow a 4 inch x 4 inch strip of rawhide.  Once she got it stuck and if she hadn’t been smart enough to use her paw to dislodge it….I was just getting ready to reach in there and remove it.

I decided switching to stuffed Kongs was a little more work on my part, but better for them in the long run.  I can stuff it with whatever I want and both dogs enjoy it.

Since they get one every night, I like to try to think of new and different things to add to the Kongs, or different ways to change it up.  Hence the occasional white bone.

W.T.F./Whoo Hoo Wednesday – Author’s Note

I’m completely outraged at this story, I can’t believe people can be so disrespectful and hurtful to others.  I do hope United checks into this and I do hope they take the appropriate action.

There are too many choices and too many media outlets for disgruntled customers to express their displeasure.  I think if I ran a company in this day and age my focus would be on customer service.

Training Tidbits - Author’s Note

I do agree with those of you who pointed out that you don’t always want to use treats with your dogs.  I totally get that and I hope at some point to begin weaning Delilah off the treats.   When you are beginning to train/teach/shape a behavior you tend to reward for every small success, but as your dog gets better and quicker at responding you begin to treat less.

As for Jersey’s dad, well I have no idea what his training methods with her are.  I have no idea if he has been training her for a long time or has just decided to take part in her training recently.

It’s really not fair for me to judge him without knowing all the facts, but it did provide my inner bitch with some amusement and thought it would be nice to share.

While I will be weaning Delilah off the treats, I may never wean her from treats on a recall.  Honestly if giving her a treat when she comes back to me keeps her coming back, then I will treat her each and every time. 

Lastly before I wrap this up I want to let you know I’m very behind in responding to your comments.  I do like to respond to as many as possible but you also may have noticed I’ve changed the scheduling of my blog posts.

I’m still working on getting into the rhythm of the new schedule so I ask you to please bear with me.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Training Tidbits

Delilah and I got to class a bit early on Tuesday so I’d have the opportunity to discuss her reactivity with our instructor, Jackie.

Jackie’s suggestion is to practice the look command.  Some people call it watch, others use look; it really is just a matter of preference.

To train look you put a tiny treat between your thumb and middle finger, then with your pointer finger extended bring your finger up to your nose and say look.  When the dog looks directly into your eyes, YES and reward.

Unless you are using the clicker, yes is always the marker.  Not good girl, yes.

Once you have your dog looking at your when you say look, you will want to add distractions.

We started the distractions like this.  Grab two large, yummy treats one in each hand and place your hands straight down against your legs.  Now raise your arms out like you are making a ‘T’ and say look.  It may take a few minutes for your dog to get it, that’s okay, once your dog looks you in the eyes, yes (or click if you are using the clicker) and treat.

You will begin to increase your distractions the longer you train.  This will become so ingrained in your dog that if a squirrel darts in front of you, you should be able to say look and refocus your dog on you.   Now that I’ve written that, I would say you could also use focus.

Jackie said that I really need to watch Delilah’s body language and it’s true, I can usually tell when she is going to react by the way she stiffens her body.   The thing is I can never tell which dog she will react to!

While Jackie and I were standing talking, two dogs came in and nothing.  The next dog, BAM.  I quickly said Delilah look and she spun around to me!

Yay success!!  Except I wasn’t supposed to use her name.

Since Jackie had Delilah and I working on look, she thought the rest of the class should work on it as well.   Some of them have trained previously with her so they were allowed to go straight to trying the distraction portion.  Delilah and I just worked on look.

This class has about eight dogs in it and all the owners are women.

I don’t know all the breeds of dogs but I am slowly learning their names.  Jersey is a little black pit bull type dog, who in the previous two weeks came only with her mom.  Tuesday night her mom AND dad came to class.

Jersey’s dad said, she won’t look at me, all she does is bark.

Jackie said, you may have to lure her with a treat.

To which he replied, I don’t want to use treats, I want her to look at me because I asked her to.

My inner bitch silently screamed, that is such a male attitude!  You must do what I say because I am the man and I am the alpha and dominate being.

I almost said it out loud, but I somehow restrained myself.

Jackie then said well if that’s the case, then you should leave the room when she barks at you and only come back in when she is calm.

He spent the rest of the night going in and out the door.

My inner bitch was laughing herself silly.

With about 10 minutes to go we went outside to work on recalls, using a long check cord.  Jackie wanted us outside so we could spread out.

I kept Delilah in the parking lot while everyone else found spots on the grass.

I surreptitiously took a few pictures.  They aren’t great shots and you’ll have to excuse the dumpsters, but I wanted a picture of Jersey’s dad for this post.

Jersey’s dad, noticed the crossed arms.  He’s not open to this type of training.

This is Milo and his mom working on his recall with the check cord.

And here is my pretty girl, tired after doing so much work.

Would you stop flashing that? You keep jerking the wheel and I’m trying to sleep!

I’m excited to be working with Delilah on look.  I think this is going to be a great tool for us.

Oh we also got our clickers last night and started teaching touch.  But that’s for another post.

What do you think?  Have you ever used this command with a reactive dog and did you have success or not?

Tasty Tuesday

When I went grocery shopping last week I picked up a jar of unsweetened applesauce.  I thought it might be a nice change for the dogs in their nightly treats.

I decided to use white bones, just for a change of pace.

You know the ones you picked up filled with processed cheese?

I frosted one end with pumpkin in the morning before I left for work and let is sit in the freezer all day long.

Canned pumpkin is perfect for this purpose, because it is really thick and won’t run out of the bone into your freezer.

When I got home I filled the rest of the bone with applesauce and stood it up in a bowl for about 2 1/2 hours.  It was just long enough for the applesauce to freeze.

At snack time I handed them off to Sampson and Delilah.

Sampson began working happily on his.

Delilah wasn’t quite sure what to do.

Hubby and I heard her in the living room barking at it.  Apparently she thought if she barked at it, she could turn it into her Kong.

Hubby said, get a video of it.

Of course, as soon as I turned the video on, she figured out how to attack it.

Here’s what you need:

One empty bone

About a tablespoon of canned pumpkin and about 1/4 cup of applesauce (depending upon the size of the bone.)

Smear the pumpkin on one end of the bone and place in the freezer for a couple of hours.  Remove from freezer and fill the remainder of the bone with applesauce.

Place the bone pumpkin side down in a glass and place back in the freezer for a couple of hours.

When the applesauce is frozen, remove and serve.

The whole treat is probably less than 75 calories and it should last your dog (depending on how aggressively they lick it) a good 15 to 20 minutes.

Easy right?

Yes it is.  It’s also The Tasty Tuesday blog hop hosted by Kol’s Notes and Sugar the Golden Retriever.  You can get your linky code at either one of the hosts.

Hop on.

Another Post About Poop

It’s been great being on vacation this week, even though I didn’t get nearly enough accomplished with this blog.  What I did enjoy quite frequently was early morning walks.  You know, before it got too stinkin hot out.

Yesterday as we were making our way across the field I could tell Delilah had to poop.  It’s just a skill I was born with I guess.

When she stopped to drop, I noticed something really red around her (what the hell do you call it?)  I’m calling it her bung hole.

Look I know it’s gross but she is always in front of me on a long leash so most times when she poops I’m staring at her bung hole.

Anyway, it was really red, almost like blood and so I took a couple of steps closer and reached down to lift her tail for a good look.

Stop it, I know it’s gross.

Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?

It kind of looked like a purple shiny thing was sticking out, similar to what I thought a hemorrhoid might look like.

I called the vet.  They were busy so I left a message.

When we got home I had Hubby look at it.  It wasn’t as obvious as when I saw it but he did see something and agreed we should have it checked.

The vet’s office returned my call and said they could see Delilah at 5:20.

We were scheduled to see Dr. Ulery, someone we had never seen before.

When Dr. Ulery came in my dog was gaga.  I’m not kidding, I have never seen her smile SO much, she leaned into Dr. Ulery with a big smile on her face and Dr. Ulery loved on her.

Truthfully, I was a little jealous, I think she might have actually liked the Dr. more than she likes me.

Then the fun stopped and the sirius part of the exam began.  I asked if Dr. Ulery would mind me taking pictures for my blog.  I suppose I might have asked Delilah but since she couldn’t answer me anyway, I didn’t.

I forbid you to put this picture on the blog mom! It’s humiliating.

Dr. Ulery gave her a thorough exam, she did notice that one of her glands was full so she expressed that for her, but besides that she couldn’t find any signs of an infection or a hemorrhoid.

This is Ali, the vet tech loving on my girl.

I tried to explain what I had seen and my best description was it looks like a red-rimmed eye.  Dr. Ulery said that is actually what their butt looks like when they poop.

Then she asked if it would be okay if she called me on Monday or Tuesday to see how Delilah was doing.  Are you kidding I wanted to say, shoot me your cell phone number I’ll let you know how she’s doing every single day.

I thanked her for not thinking I was nuts for bringing my dog in because I thought I saw something, and told her I would much rather bring my dog in and have them tell me it was nothing, then bring my dog in too late.

She said she was glad I had that attitude and wished that more of her patients had the same attitude.

As for Delilah, well she got treaties from Ali, rubbies from Dr. Ulery and had a normal poop this morning.

How about you, have you ever gone to the vet and been told it was nothing?

Follow-Up Friday

You may have noticed a new badge on my side-bar.  Since I really lack creativity in the designing department I struggled with this, but finally decided on a simple theme for Follow-Up Friday.  Please feel free to grab the badge and join me in recapping or wrapping up your week.   It doesn’t matter if you do it every week or just once in  a while.

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

2012 Goals – Check Point – Author’s Note

You were so kind in your comments and I really appreciate that, I am however extremely critical of myself and while I reviewed these goals I realized I have a tremendous amount of work left to do in the last half of the year.

I think Bob Harper might be out of the question as no amount of tweeting, or facebooking has even garnered a I’m sorry I don’t follow fans from him.

Really, who needs someone like that following them?  I can concede defeat on this goal and I shall do it gracefully, without adding Bob Harper to WTF Wednesday.

For the rest of the goals, I really need to step up my game.

Bloggers Unite For Dog Rescue – Author’s Note

Rescue is near and dear to my heart as you all know.  My dear sweet sometimes trying Delilah came to me via rescue.  This was not the BTC that I had planned, but I do so want to shine the light on these sweet dogs who through no fault of their own end up in shelters.  If I can help save one dog, that would be incredible.

Monday Mischief – Update

This mischief was totally my fault.  I could leave a plate of food on the floor and tell Sampson to leave it, but that is not the case with Delilah.  I need to make sure anything that might even resemble food to her, is put away.

The Correct Way – Author’s Note

Most of you knew the correct way to hold a leash.  Why were you holding out on me?

Julie said, I think I need you to take a picture . . I’m a visual person.  I’m with you in that boat Julie.  So here it is.

The loop of the leash goes around your thumb like so.

Begin gathering the leash.

A gathered (accordion) leash gives you better control.

As of the writing of this post I am still sitting in my pajamas (don’t you love vacations) so I cannot show you how the other arm helps control your dog.  I promise to get a picture of that later.

W.T.F./Whoo Hoo Wednesday – Author’s Note

Unless the Arizona officer was like Jim Belushi’s character in K-9, I’m fairly certain he didn’t deliberately leave the dog in the car.  I still however question his ability to remain calm and cool in stressful situations.

As for the Whoo Hoo portion, well I think Officer W serves as a wonderful example of what we as dog owners SHOULD expect from our law enforcement.

Thoughts From A Walk – Author’s Note

I can’t say with any certainty that is what the dogs are thinking, but you can be sure my thoughts are accurate.

That’s it for me, I’m off to walk the dogs.  It is currently raining and cool so I’m hoping there will be no bugs and no sweat on this walk.

Any takers and thoughts on the Follow-Up Friday badge?  I’m open to any suggestions from you very creative types.

Thoughts From A Walk

Most days I use my walking time to plan blog posts or think about plot lines for my book.  The other day as we were walking I started wondering just exactly what was running through each of our minds as we walk.

I took a stab at it tonight.

We pull up to the park.

Sampson with his head out the window – I know I saw a deer just up there on the trail, where is it?

Delilah – Mom hurry up and open the door, I’ve got to pee.

Me – Sampson pull your big punkin head in the window, I want to walk.

As we get to the entrance to the field:

Sampson – Let me check the field, there’s usually someone in the field.

Delilah – Oooh, there’s a nice smelly spot in the field, I hope mom lets me roll in it.

Me – Dang it’s buggy out, what do they eat when I’m not here?

We turn right and head up the hill, Sampson is running ahead searching for deer, people or dogs.  Delilah and I trudge steadily along behind him.

Sampson stopping for a quick sniff – It smells like Brady’s been here once today.

Delilah – Why does mom keeping making me stop while she swats at me.

Me – Why haven’t I replaced that electric bug zapper, I could kill all these stinkin’ flies and stop them from biting Delilah.

We reach the opposite entrance to the park.

Sampson – Let’s run over to Brady’s and see if he’s out.

Delilah – I wish mom would drop this leash, I love running in this neighborhood.

Me – Ok, if we go around one more time, then head down the yellow and back up the orange, we should reach the car with about a half hour’s walk.

We take a left and head deeper into the woods, Sampson runs off looking for a place to pop a squat.

Sampson – Springing like a deer across the path, I pooped, I pooped.

Delilah – Hmmm someone pooped here, I think I’ll just pee on it.

Me kicking at some poop – Who the hell let’s their dog crap right in the middle of the path and doesn’t even bother to kick it off to the side.

We approach the field, this time from the opposite direction.

Sampson – Maybe someone’s in the field now, I better run ahead and see.

Delilah – I’ve got to poop, don’t worry mom I’ll cover it up.

Me – Holy smack that was close, she almost kicked dirt in my face!

We make our final turn and head down the orange trail towards the car.

Sampson nudging up beside me – Look mom I came back to you, give me a treat please.

Delilah turning around and pushing between me and Sampson – Hey that’s not fair, I want a treat too.

Me – Hang in there girl, just a few more minutes, you can do it.

We get back to the car and load up for home.

Sampson – I can’t wait to get home, the first thing I’m going to do is climb into the pool and cool myself down.

Delilah – Is it dinner time yet?

Me – My God I’m hot, I think my sweat has sweat.  I need a nice cold margarita.

What do you think about when you’re walking your dog?