Guy, my new fashion advisor!

This weekend, I debuted my dog Quinn at the Seward County Kennel Club Rally trial.
Friday night, I'd planned out what I was going to wear on Saturday. Saturday night I went to bed early and I didn't plan for Sunday. So this morning I'm running around trying to decide what to wear, what shoes to wear, etc. I finally got dressed except for my shoes. I had let the dogs out back to play and when I let them back in, Guy took off. I assumed he was looking for the cats, but who knows with dogs.
Not even a minute later here he comes with one of my shoes. I asked him what he had, and he was a little hesitant, but he came over to me. Instead of taking the shoe, I told him to bring it along and we walked into the living room where I'd left this particular pair of shoes. He looked so happy, he just pranced. When I held out my hand he placed the shoe in it and willingly let me have it. What a good dog!
Now I'm pretty good about keeping dirty laundry picked up, but my biggest flaw is taking off my shoes where ever and leaving them lay around. Since Guy has a strong opinion on what shoes I should be wearing I guess I'll let him be my fashion coordinator.
I hope he doesn't bring me heels tomorrow--it's going to be a busy day.

Guy meets the cats

Guy finally figured out I have cats. Overall I don't 'introduce' the dogs to the cats. The cats, Briseaus and Ronin, are very dog savvy and chose low arousal moments to make appearances and introduce themselves.
Unfortunately, Guy decided that the cats were obviously prey and needed to be not only chased, but possibly eaten. His major mistake (and the cats' saving) was to bark instead of run. The cats made their escape and went where Guy could not reach them. Since his first meeting with the cats, he's cornered Ronin under my vanity, which was an incredibly stupid place for Ronin to hide. Later he barked at Briseaus as she sat on the dining room table. He had been off his tether, but now he's back to being attached to me. When the cats are upstairs I make sure to put up the gate so they have some peace. He's not constantly looking for them, so if they're in the cat play house or on their shelf Guy doesn't usually bother them.
I have no idea if he'd really harm them, and in all seriousness, I'm more concerned that Danny or Quinn (the cat's Daddy and Mommy) would try to hurt Guy in an attempt to protect their babies.

Playing in the backyard

The dogs are bored, it's kind of warm and muggy--just a taste of what's to come, so I took all the dogs out back to play. I started throwing toys for various dogs, but Guy couldn't stand the fact Missy kept grabbing the toy and he started chasing her. This is something Missy loves and she was then no longer interested in the toy. Danny on the other hand ignored them and happily retrieved the tennis ball. I turned on the hose to clean off my outdoor furniture when I discovered that Guy has the same passion that Lacey, the Aussie, does--trying to catch the water coming out of the hose.
This is a new hobby for Danny, he's never before been interested in it, but this spring he's done it a couple of times. Guy though is a close up and personal kind of dog. He wants to grab the full blast that comes right out of the handle. Now Lacey will grab the handle (and the hand attached to it) Guy isn't that bad. He did get quite wet and looked extremely happy and tired. I'll give him some extra kibble tonight, he worked hard today.

Guy goes to class

I took Guy to the Thursday night drop in class. It was small, only one other dog. I mostly worked on him focusing on me as a new handler. He remembered what he'd learned pretty quickly and did some nice heeling and recalls. He moves nicely to the left but not to the right, so I'm working on that. He's got most of the basic obedience stuff down, so to entertain him, I'm working on retrieve. When I presented the dumbbell he touched it with his nose at first. I did get him to open his mouth and start to take it, but then shied away as if he got scared before he actually took it. I don't know what made him back off, but he went back to nose touches. I ended on a success and we went home. I've tried it again just once and we didn't get as far (that may have been because Danny was screaming obscenities in his crate in the office).

Guy meets the pack!

We took Takki home, he missed Lyda badly and she missed him. I now have Guy (pronounced Gee) a beautiful Terv and Bazz is back at my sisters. When Danny and Guy first met on leash, Danny had some difficulty handling it, he lunged and chested Guy and overall acted like an idiot. They rode home together, Bazz and Guy in crates and Danny seatbelted in the backseat. Danny growled a little at first, but settled down just fine.When I got home, I just threw all of my dogs (and Guy) out in the back yard.Danny was fine with him in the yard and Guy fell madly in love with Missy.I don't know what it is, that fuzzy white tail over her back or her little brown eyes in all that white fur, but the boy's do fall head over heels for her. He couldn't stop chasing her and positively bouncing (think Pepe lePew). Poor Quinn who thinks Missy's his girl, kept splitting them apart.He didn't go after Guy, just tried to get Missy to pay attention to him.When I called the dogs in, Guy ran off to a corner of the yard. I did shoo him and after a lap or two he decided to come when called. I haven't had a problem outside with him not coming when called. Guy is being tethered tome for a while inside; we're still having a bit of a problem with recalls inside.

A Long Awaited Update

Okay, so I've fallen off the posting wagon. I really need to get back into the swing of posting every other day. I'll break this up into several posts.

First Meeting

We took Takki home, he missed Lyda badly and she missed him. I now have Guy
(pronounce Gee) a beautiful Terv and Bazz is back at my sisters. When Danny
and Guy first met on leash, Danny had some difficulty handling it, he lunged
and chested Guy and overall acted like an idiot.
The rode home together, Bazz and Guy in crates and Danny seatbelted in the
backseat. Danny growled a little at first, but settled down just fine.
When I got home, I just threw all of my dogs (and Guy) out in the back yard.
Danny was fine with him in the yard and Guy fell madly in love with Missy.
I don't know what it is, that fuzzy white tail over her back or her little
brown eyes in all that white fur, but the boy's do fall head over heels for
her. He couldn't stop chasing her and positively bouncing (think Pepe le
Pew). Poor Quinn who thinks Missy's his girl, kept splitting them apart.
He didn't go after Guy, just tried to get Missy to pay attention to him.
When I called the dogs in, Guy ran off to a corner of the yard. I did shoo
him and after a lap or two he decided to come when called. I haven't had a
problem outside with him not coming when called. Guy is being tethered to
me for a while inside. we're still having a bit of a problem with recalls
inside.

An long awaited update

Okay, so I've fallen off the posting wagon. I really need to get back into
the swing of posting every other day. I'll break this up into several
posts.

Bazz and the door

Today I was at a training seminar in Omaha, so I decided I had to do some serious dog training tonight. I started with Bazz.
Several years ago, while at a camp at Shirley's, she showed us a great way to teach the dogs not to go out the door without permission. The idea is you make it seem so horrible to be outside without you that the dogs don't charge through an open door. I've done this training with Gita and Danny (at my sister's house and mine) but Quinn and Missy have never done it anywhere.
I hooked Bazz up to a thick nylon leash (it was my GSD's leash and it's a lovely rose color). I opened my side door, that leads out to the driveway, and Bazz dashed out. I let him go, and just closed the screen door on the leash. He had about a foot of leash to stand there on the porch next to the door. I waited 15 seconds, I then let him in and told him how sorry I was, and how scary it must have been and how brave he was. I checked him over as if he was in a horrible accident.
I then took him to the door and opened it again. Again he dashed out. I closed the door. Waited 30 seconds. Let him back inside and went through the whole sad procedure. Back to the door, I opened it. He hesitated, I clicked, he got a treat. I opened the door again, and he dashed out. Now it's one minute, I noticed he could see me through the screen door, so I pushed the inner door to. I let him back inside and went through my routine on what a horrible experience he had.
Back to the door, back outside he went. After two minutes, I let him back inside and went through my routine. When we went back to the door, he didn't dash out, C/T.
I opened the door again, he didn't move --C/T.
I then went back into the kitchen, closed the inner door. We circled around and did it again, he didn't go out. I stepped out, he sat down--C/T. I went back in and closed the door, I opened it again, and again he didn't dash out--C/T.
Tomorrow the front door!

Switching dogs

Takki went to stay with my sister last week and I now have Bazz. I've heard that Bazz is not a well behaved dog, but so far I really haven't seen it. He's much more respectful of Danny than Takki was. The first time he was let out in the yard off lead, he didn't want to come in. We did one lap in the backyard and suddenly coming inside is far more important than anything else the backyard has to offer. He's met my dogs, but I haven't allowed a lot of contact with them. Tonight though I let Quinn and Bazz out together. It's been raining and the backyard is a mud pit. The boys loved it. They ran and wrestled and overall had a grand time. When I stepped out to call them, the came running! He's not gone through any food issues with me, but I've been hand feeding him. Each time he gets a handful of food, I take a hold of his collar. Siberians are very good at dodging the reaching hand (bad monkey!) and/or slipping collars and Bazz and Takki are no different. We're also working on Down-stays. Stays are my dogs weakest exercise, so poor Bazz keeps getting caught up in the 'stay vortex'. IMHO Takki seems more dominant and 'harder' than Bazz including being much less cuddly.

Takki takes a walk

Poor Takki, usually he gets several little walks a day to go potty, but we stay in my yard. Today we went for a walk. We went about 1 1/2 miles through out the local university grounds. I kept the leash short did a lot of about turns and overall didn't let him pull or mark. He was a very unhappy Siberian. Each time I did an about turn, he'd have to catch up to me. When he did, he got a treat. He soon learned that walking next to me was much better than pulling out ahead.

One thing I do want to point out is most of what I'm working on with Takki, is teaching him humans are relevant. Takki does Agility at home and has been trained, but he also thinks that the other dogs are far more important than people. He's testing his limits with me and he's also very upset that a. Danny doesn't play with him. b. Danny won't let him play with Missy or Quinn. Danny and Quinn are both Aussies and control freaks, as far as they are concerned Takki is a giant puppy that needs to be taught manners.

We did have a little setback with eating. He's decided that if the other dogs are out of their crates, that he doesn't have time to eat. I'm sure he'll figure it out, my chore will be to keep Danny or Missy from stealing his food.