Dog Care Archives - Page 7 of 20

On May 3, 2014

So we didn’t really do very well with the Back up trick in the last post. But we’re slightly better at it this week.

But before I get started on that, I have to say that I recently read on a blog somewhere that groomers, vets, etc have every opportunity to make the grooming, vet experience less scary for the dog but this doesn’t seem to happen that much. Not in action and not in the posters, etc that these establishments have on the wall.

But as people with blogs, we have every opportunity to do that. So yah, here’s a picture of me treating Donna for stepping backwards ;) because rewarding is part of making the training a positive and fun experience for the dog! :D

dog learning to step backwards

That’s bits of cooked chicken she is taken from my hand.

I admit, I didn’t really have photos of me treating her for the previous training posts. In fact, Kyla demanded to see the treat to make sure that Donna is not cheated of it! LOL

We’re still not very good with backing up. And unfortunately, I am right-handed, and that means I favour working with Donna on my right side. The result, of course, is that she is responding to walking backwards on my right side, and has some difficulty doing the same on the left. My fault. But that’s ok, we’ll just continue to work on the left side.

In any case, nowadays we seem to be doing some sort of cha-cha to get her to walk backwards. Observe:

walking backwards (Enhanced) from weliveinaflat on Vimeo.
Don’t you love her wagging tail???
A lot of lip licking anticipating the fresh cooked chicken bits I’m giving her :P
Where’s the Cha-cha music? And why are you in your PJs, human???!!
Video by Mr P on his Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

While she no longer sits as much, she hasn’t really grasped that “Back” = take step(s) backwards. So if I were stationary and then walk back, she may try to turn around and sit and stare at me. So I keep having to step front and step back and somehow she follows my motion. I guess, I’m hoping that when we do that enough times, she’ll start associating “Back” with stepping back and not step forward and step back. Haha. We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve stopped luring her with a treat, unless she doesn’t respond since I don’t really want her to take steps backwards with her nose following the treat. This makes her either turn to the side towards the treat and making a U-turn rather than walking backwards, or walking backwards awkwardly with her nose pointing to the floor. Either way, I’m not sure how she could build the association to the action if she was so overly fixated on the treat all the time. So once, she starts to respond to visual cues, I faded the lure and only show her the treat when she does the action correctly instead. Does that make sense?

So now, we’re basically trying to correct the following:

dog walking backwards on the left too
dog walking backwards in a straight line and not having the butt curving in and tripping the human
dog walking backwards from being stationary, rather than no response
maybe dog dancing to cha-cha music, haha!

So we started on this next trick to build her rear end awareness – Stepping up and Pivoting. Stepping up is not a problem for Donna, she easily got this in one session. But the pivoting is quite impossible at the moment so I guess this dog has absolutely no rear-end awareness, huh? So I’ll just have to keep trying to lure her to pivot. Hah!

dog stepping on box

Do dogs choose who they play with?

On May 1, 2014

Now and then we bring Donna to a dog cafe to give her more chances to socialise with other dogs outside of walks and the dog run.

III cafe

But perhaps on this day, Donna was already tired out from all that excitement at the Pet Expo, so she chose to chill out under our table at III Cafe instead as we had our lunch. (Incidentally, this month’s Pets magazine has a picture of Donna as one of the dogs in the background attending the Pets Expo agility trial lesson!! It’s tiny but we’re there! LOL)

III cafe

At least, that was what I thought at first. But she did seem happy to move around and check out any new dogs that come into the cafe.

III cafe

But pretty soon, she goes back to laying in the middle of the cafe floor like she is the queen of the place.

III cafe

Sure, she takes note of all the activity around, but that’s about it. Seems pretty boring to me :P

One of the cafe patrons was so impressed by her being such a good, fuss-free dog she had to take a picture of her.

III cafe

And still she laid there.

Finally up she goes to check out another dog which turns out unfruitful.

III cafe

She finally turns to check out the little dogs milling around her that she has been ignoring the whole time!! And then turns to me as if to say, “I tried, but they all ignore me!”

III cafe

Seems like same as for humans, it can be hard for dogs to make new friends, huh?

It seems like some people like to congregate around dog cafes with other humans with the same dogs. But for Donna, she doesn’t seem to be particular about just meeting other mongrels.

Rather Donna sometimes seem to be more excited about approaching dog breeds that she had a great time playing with before such as Westies. But more than that, I am starting to think that she has a size preference when it comes to making friends. Donna seems to like to approach dogs that are closer to her size, such as Shiba Inus, Huskies, Golden Retrievers and other mongrels.

Does that make sense? Do your dogs choose who they rather play with? And do you know why?
I would love to hear!

Back up or Walking backwards

On April 26, 2014

So 1stworlddog learnt to walk backwards sometime back, and we thought we’ll try to learn that too. It was kind of hard trying to lure Donna to take a step back with food. Mel from 1stworlddog suggested that we line up against the wall so that Donna learns to back up along it. That sounded like a great idea since when Donna does back up on occasion, she doesn’t back up in a straight line but curves around instead like in the picture below.

But for a while there, it was a little bit of a struggle to get Donna lined up against the wall to practice walking backwards.

Luckily, we found the positive training blog hop and one of the topics covered was hand targeting or Touching Nose to Hand and that was a handy trick to get Donna to line up against the wall for this exercise.

The next challenge I had was Donna’s habit of just sitting for treats whenever she struggled to figure out what she is supposed to do.

Tilting her head back as if to ask, what are you waiting for human? Treat.

And then she hears Mr P coming home and she rushes off to welcome him home instead.

Obviously not too impressed with learning the new trick huh? :P *rueful*

There must be something I am doing wrong because she is always either stopping and sitting or craning her backwards on one side trying to reach the treat. Having a visual reference and having a good feel of the end goal is always helpful for me, so here are two videos that gave me a better idea of what exactly I should be trying to achieve with Donna when it comes to the Backward Heel.

Two videos for teaching the dog to walk backwards
– http://youtu.be/k4LoPU1g310
– http://youtu.be/XKmy0Q1Otqc

And since 1stWorldDog also been going on about rear-end awareness, this is the next trick we are going to learn – http://youtu.be/xEqQDw8Jo9M

You are a pain in the nose, human!

On April 24, 2014

Three facts about your dog’s nose

Dog nose prints are unique like human finger prints!

But unlike human fingerprints, dog nose prints aren’t really used for dog identification as much as the microchip or the dog tag.

Still that hasn’t stopped pet lovers from trying their hand on DIY projects that help them capture this unique part of their fur buddy. There are some webpages that suggest dog nose print projects that can be fun for kids and the dog lover.

But our dog here would likely not take it kindly to have food colouring or china ink painted over her nose and then have a piece of paper pushed into her face to make a unique nose print project.

Nope, those tensed up pinned back ears and that tilt in the head to avoid the human and her camera says it all. You’re being a pain, human!

But even without that wet ink to make a nose print, my dog’s nose is typically wet and cold.

Why do dogs have wet noses and what use do they have?

Because they have wet tongues that lick their noses! Hahaha. Common sense, huh?

Although sometimes, when a dog is not feeling well, he/she may not lick the nose as much so it becomes dry. However, in this Q&A with a Monterey vet, the vet also makes it clear that a dry nose may sometimes be a symptom of illness but that is not always the case.

Brachycephalic breeds with short, high noses like the Pug and the Boston Terrier are also more likely to have dry noses since their noses are set too high and their tongues couldn’t reach them! This also means that such dogs have a higher tendency to suffer from noses that are cracked and dry on top.

Eat your hearts out, snorties! *Now that is just rude, Donna!*

But back to the wet nose, it actually helps the dog to (1) cool down (rather than overheat) and (2) to smell better. No, I don’t mean it makes Donna sweet smelling. (Wouldn’t mind if that were the case.) The wet stuff on the nose is mucus that collects chemicals present in the environment which the dog can lick to aid her in her mission to sniff and process all the different smells she is exposed to on walks, etc.

So yah, high five to the wet nose! *thumbs up*

The nose is to the dog, what eyes are to the human
(but sighthounds need not apply, I think :P)

Speaking of sniffing, there’s no looking down on Brachycephalic breeds even if they have to suffer from their funny faces and shorter noses due to humans breeding them to look cute. According to this dummies article, even flat nose dogs ~~smell better~~ ‘detect scents far better than humans’!

It’s kind of debatable if it’s the human’s loss or gain, I mean, considering I am picking up dog poo everyday… maybe not having such superhuman sense of smell is not a bad thing. :P

So stop with that sticking your nose high in the air, Donna!

And yes, I’ll get out of your face now, poor thing. (She’s persisting sitting there looking grumpy rather than walking away because she wants to eat the forbidden ice cream waffle.)

with 2 Brown Dawgs
and Heart Like a Dog.

References

Sit Pretty

On April 20, 2014

sit pretty dog trick

Here’s another trick that’s maybe not so practical, but can be pretty cute.

Sit Pretty

The Sit Pretty trick may not be that practical but I thought it was something to do now and then to continue to expand Donna’s repertoire of cute tricks.

Some benefits of the trick when correctly done include:

Better balance
Build muscles that help Donna to sit on her back legs while supporting a straight back

I read that Sit Pretty is easy for small dogs to learn but can be harder for bigger dogs with longer backs who will find it harder to balance. (Did I mention that somebody at the Pet Expo actually mistook Donna for a dachshund??) So our kind-of-long dog here definitely needs a lot of physical support for this trick.

sit pretty dog trick

At this point in time, Donna may be able to Sit Pretty a couple of times on her own for 1 second (just lift up and then 4 paws on the ground again). We’ve been practising this, not consistently, on and off for perhaps a couple of months.

sit pretty dog trick

Being able to rest her weight on my arm definitely helps her to balance better while she takes the treat out of my hand.

sit pretty dog trick
I am the mystic palm reader!

Shhh… studying your destiny mapped out in the lines of your palm. Do not disturb!

Palm ~~licking~~ reading is serious business!

That’s it! Hold it up against the light.

Treat Delivery

There’s quite a lot of videos on Youtube, and they may show you different ways to deliver the treat as a lure to get the dog into a Sit Pretty position.

sit pretty dog trick

When I hold out the treat downwards, Donna appears to be more likely to jump up to try to get the treat out from my fingers.

sit pretty dog trick No longer sitting on hind legs.

She has a very soft mouth, so I don’t worry about her nipping or biting my fingers. But it can hurt if that were not the case.

So to create more instances where she sits, rather than tries to stand up on her hind legs, I try to deliver the treat on my palm instead of holding it downwards.

Today I watched the Kikopup video for this trick and found that she lifts her palm upwards for the hand signal, and that looked pretty smooth. I like that it should not be difficult to transition the treat on the palm to that hand signal later on.

But meanwhile, we’re just taking it easy so that Donna has the time to slowly develop the muscles necessary for Sitting Pretty for a longer duration of time. I need to make sure there’s more cushion under her to lessen the impact on her joints when we do this at home though!!

happy dog

This training video explains the trick and how to make it safe for the dog – http://youtu.be/IQUerO0woqw

Dog meets ice cream waffle – an unrequited love

On April 18, 2014

dog begs for waffle

Arghh! She said “Leave it.”

dog begs for waffle

Alright, alright, no poking my nose into the human food. Do I get some if I wait for it?

dog begs for waffle

…. ….

dog begs for waffle

This is more tragic than a Shakespearean tragedy!

dog begs for waffle

I don’t like this, human!

The last photo is interesting for me. I’m not sure yet, how upset or unhappy she is when she turns away her head like that.

with 2 Brown Dawgs
and Heart Like a Dog.

Life gets stressful sometimes…

On April 13, 2014

Donna has spent most afternoons this week tense and worrying about the possibility of rain and thunder in the afternoons. I said “possibility” because sometimes she stands shivering, with her tail tucked even when it is bright and sunny outside and 2 hours before it actually starts to rain. Does the air pressure change as early as 2 to 3 hours before it rains? Anyway, that’s Donna guarding the bedroom door in case the rain comes in down the hallway. Life gets stressful for this dog sometimes.

Evening tug games to alleviate the stress.

More relaxed.

Most relaxed.

Let’s not rush out the door

On April 12, 2014