A late post after a crazy busy week! Here is our fabulous, sassy Gertrude! Her owners listened to feedback and may have given her the fresh princess of bel air look! ๐ ๐ We LOVE it! One might argue it's a Mohawk, it was hard not to want to grab the hair gel for this week's walk haha. As always, she is an impeccable dog, and incredibly well behaved!
Here we're practicing 'come'. To do this, you try and get the dogs to first 'stay' a little distance from you. Then say 'come!' in a happy and excited voice. When they come to you, the expectation is for them to lock eye contact with you and sit a metre in front of you calmly. You can eventually work towards turning around and facing another direction, or increasing the distance. This is a great one for safety and recall. Check how far your dog can stay before coming to you without distractions, then try with distractions. Expect that those distances will be very different. If they do a crappy recall, still reward it! Make sure you do not scold them for listening to you (as slow as they were). If they aren't coming to you, you can entice them by running slowly backwards in an exciting manner. They will likely come due to their prey drive.
In the second part of this, we are practicing sit. The boys have been working hard all week on sitting and it is aying off! If you notice, I'm trying to slowly reduce the food treats to only every second sit, whilst subbing in a verbal treat (well done scruffy/Albie)! This is so they don't get crazy fat from all these yummy treats, but also, start to realise that they must listen, even if you don't have a treat on you.
Albie and Scruffy are practicing their 'stay' in this one. At the moment I have them in a 'sit' position to help reduce their impulsivity, before asking them to stay. We have a one metre distance before both boys pop out of their stay position.
Tip 1/ Watch the distance that your dog is able to stay when there's no distractions before they pop out of position. You and your pooch can work on that. You can eventually get a dog to stay and run away from them, to them, jump around them, but they will know they must not move away from where you asked them to stay.
Tip 2/ Keep calm. It's really easy to get frustrated when they follow you instead of staying. This is instinctual for dogs. They like you, you have treats, you're interesting. They'll naturally follow you. Take a deep breath, reset.
Tip 3/ Don't freak out about them getting confused with how they're meant to stay. It is okay for a dog to sit, lay down, or stand in the 'stay' position. As long as they don't come off the mark. I don't use a bed here, as getting them to 'go to bed' is a very different request. You won't always have a bed for them to stay at. Sometimes you'll need to ask them to stay in a car, stay whilst you go to a toilet, stay whilst a dog at the beach runs close by and you don't want them running after them.
SO proud of these two boys! We've been practicing 'wait' for their lunchtime feeds. This one is really fun and really helps with impulse control practice. It also is perhaps one of the fastest ones for doggos to learn as it's pretty intuitive.
1/ I like to get the dog into a 'sit' first. They tend to understand that they're about to do some work when you tell them this.
2/As you lower the food bowl, say the dogs name and say 'wait'. If they pop up out of the sit, raise the bowl calmly and gently back off the ground. I tend to make a 'uh uh' noise, or a 'no' or my 'tsh' followed by another verbal reminder to sit.
3/ Once they're back into sitting position, go slowly to drop the bowl to the ground. If it takes you 10-15 shots before they get it right, then that's A-okay. Be patient! It's hard! Also for them too! With these guys I'm just looking for them to respect my space and my resource before ki share it with them. I want them to wait before I give them the all clear to eat.
4/ This one is very similar to 'leave it', but also works for when you need a dog to literally 'wait' for you to direct them, like when you need them to wait before you get them out of the car so they don't get run over. Or to wait and give space when you open the door to a stranger, so they don't rush. It teaches them that good things happen if they pause and listen.
Why do this? This helps with general impulse control. You can work up to:
- delaying the wait for even longer
- waiting until the dog fully makes eye contact with you before giving the A-okay
- giving your dog a very special (weird/uncommon) word prior to eating. You can slowly train them not to eat unless you've said this word. This can help if you live in a neighbourhood where dog baiting can occur and could save your dog's life. Unfortunately, there's soulless monsters out there that put ratsak sedation meds into meat and throw it over fences to sedate/kill dogs so they can rob your house, or get rid of your dog.
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Learning is hard. Learning can be frustrating. Sometimes it helps to see how hard our pets have to work at training to finally get a trick right. This was perhaps the fourth or fifth attempt for each dog before we got it right. It takes perseverance and patience for both us and our dogs. Here is Mr Albie and Mr Scruffy practicing how to 'leave' the treats. A really good one for safety in case you ever drop medicines around the home, for elderly people, or have kids and need extra space when they're feeding. ๐ ๐พ
Gertrude was super excited to meet one of our kids today. She had no idea what to do with her body when meeting a little toddler and did a ton of happy jumps!
Today was a beach walk for Gerty girl โฑ๏ธ๐ฆ๐ ๐ ๐ She loves running along the water, but not so much in the water past her knees!
A little adventure today! We picked up Albie and Scruff in the car for a nice and early for a little walk with my two kids and husband Chris. It was very exciting for them, maybe a little too exciting ๐ We tried to get all the way to the beach, but it was a little too hot for Mr Albie so we had to turn around. Lots of new and interesting smells in this neighbourhood which has them all tuckered out back at home now
So today I was an innocent bystander in a love triangle ๐๐คฃโบ๏ธ I brought my husband Chris with me and it was love at first sight (for him and Gertrude that is). She was all over him like a rash and just wanted lots of scratches and play ๐๐๐
Energy was high today at the Albie and Scrufferoo house, so we changed it up a little today! We went for a what I had intended to be a gentle walk, but it ended up being mostly Mr Albie rolling around the mangoes trees like a pig in mud! I could watch him on repeat forever lol. Such a big weirdo, love it. No running for this Frenchie though, as it was too hot for him. Mr Scruffy loved getting tagged by the hose, but Mr Albie had none of that funny business! We did some quiet cool down afterwards and lots of cuddles. Despite a serious aversion to liquid water, Albie is very, very keen on his solid water (ice) in his water bowl and smashed it all down.
I had the privilege of walking the very regal and proud poodle, Gertrude today! ๐พ She has that showgirl spring in her step as she runs! Gerty girl loved the beach and boy does she enjoy running! ๐ ๐ ๐ I'm so lucky to meet such wonderful dogs (and their wonderful owners who trust me with them).
Summer in CQ tips! Hints and tips for when you are away at work, or on holidays!
- Pop those ice cubes into your ets water bowl. They're free from your freezer, and they're an awesome treat ๐๐โ๏ธ
- Close those blinds to bring your house temp down
- Pop that aircon on. Doesn't need to be absolutely blasting, just a little goes a long way.
- Pop that telly on! Great for summer storms (thunder), fireworks and great background noise for anxious pets
- Whip those fans on! Cheap and efficient to run, and your pets will love it!
Mr Scruffy and Mr Alby and I had some fun training indoors today!
We practiced:
- 'Bed' - direct the dog to go to their bed with your hand, the moment they touch it, treat and praise! Eventually you can delay the treat until they've learned to sit or drop down on their bed. '
- 'Leave it' - hold a treat in your hand, let them sniff it, but don't let them have it. The moment they break eye contact with it, treat! Even better if they make eye contact with you, or shift their body away when you push the treat towards them. You can work towards leaving a larger, more delicious human food treat to make it even harder work, or pop it on their paw for a great party trick! This is a great safety trick to teach, in case you ever drop medicines on the floor, or food that is not safe for your dogs to eat/have.
- Loose leash walking - Calm and gentle for this one. Scruffy was very adept at this considering he is only a young puppy. Let the dog walk almost to the end of the leash, then apply gentle pressure on the leash with your free hand (about shin height). The hard part is gently waiting until they give in. You can work on this with praise, or continue their line of walking when they return to you by throwing a treat on the floor in the new direction. Eventually you can build this one up to 'heel' with them walking on your left hand side (for the Aussies) so that on footpaths, they are out of the way when you pass others. You can also practice this with a long leash too, as that allows them to sniff.
- 'Find/Sniff' - just a fun way for them to explore on a mini treasure hunt. The mental work for finding treats and getting to treats in more difficult places is a bit draining for them too. A personal fav!
Some very happy boys today! These guys are super cute and love their cuddles and tug of war!
#dog #frenchbulldog #poodle
Too hot to walk the dogs outside? No problem! Today I had the privilege of playing with French Bullie and Poodle Albie and Scruffy. We practice some 'sit', 'leave [the treat]' and 'find'. You can hide treats, toys or even their normal kibble around the house. I love dropping a couple on their bed, under a mat or two, on staircases, down hallways or under chairs.
*TIP 1* keep track of how many treats you put out in case they miss any. You don't want to find them later, smelling up your house, or let your toddlers find them ๐๐
*TIP 2* Try and keep it as minimal input from you as possible, so that your dog 'works' for it. You can end up transitioning this trick to finding people, or other pets, scents etc. for games of hide and seek. It's great for mentally tiring them out.
*TIP 3* I don't recommend this on carpet. When dogs get excited, they can wee. Also, you might not want your carpets smelling like liver treats or jerky ๐. Tiles or floating floorboards, cement are all easy to clean and wipe after!
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Today we tried for something different and brought all of the collies together at the dog park. Miss Cola loved getting her beef liver treats from my toddler, and Mr RJ, Miss Maple and Miss Zeva had quite literally, a ball of a time! We finished off sitting in the doggy trough as it was incredibly hot, even for CQ. ๐พ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ฅต ๐ฅ
When you realise it's time for the beach! ๐ โฑ๏ธ ๐ ๐
Some love for our old man Merlin cat ๐ป๐ป๐ป We try and brush him at least once a month to soothe his itchy skin, loosen dirt, spread those good oils out, and remove that annoying, itchy and hot half shed undercoat. Our silicon brush does a fantastic job, is nice and flexible and as you can see, removes a tonne of fur! Merlin loves this one way more than our metal fur brush as it's way gentler and less stimulating.
Giving our old fish tank a much needed refresh! We culled our snail population down from 68 down to 4 ๐ข. There was just too many. Ignatius the snail will stay as our original snail as he's a fighter! ๐ ๐ ๐๐ Pictured are my 2 tetras, 2 gold fish and my 4 water snails. ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ I don't normally bother sitting them in their fish bag to adjust to new water, as these fish and snails are super resilient and easy to keep. โค๏ธโค๏ธโค๏ธ