Lawn bombs

Well, the weather was very nice today so took off as soon as I was done working and got home and took Miller and Deuce for a walk on the track. I really thought there would be more people out walking with the nice weather but the track was empty. I decided to let Deuce walk without his gentle leader today. He walks great with it on but take it off and he is balls to the wall. I fear we may have to use it for a very, very long time. Miller has been acting very hyper here lately so he isn't helping the situation. Usually he is very laid back and nothing phases him but on our last two walks, when we have walked past a dog in a yard and the dog is barking, he has started barking back. Very weird for him and of course that send Deuce over the edge because if Miller is doing it, so should he. Now, every time we walk past any yard, if it has a fence, even if there is no dog in that fence, he gets very excited. Looks like we are going to have to take the clicker out and try and mark good behaviors with clicks and treats to try and increase those behaviors versus the bad, barking and lunging behavior. Thanks alot big brother Miller!


I decided also since the weather was so nice, I would go ahead and clean up lawn bombs. Much to my dismay, the yard was fairly clean meaning that Deuce is eating ALOT of poop. Looks like he isn't eating his own thank goodness but everyone else's. I am wondering if maybe I cut him back on food too soon? I have no clue what drives a dog to eat poop? The only time he is out in the yard is in the am for about 45 minutes. He and harley are both out together so maybe harley is also eating it? I did notice harley had something in his mouth and I yelled at him and ran over and it was a poop log. YUCK! Maybe I will try some type of remedy with them even though I have never had any luck with any of the remedies in the past. Am also wondering what to do with all of this poop. I wonder if I could compost it and not use it for anything but just compost it to get rid of it. I hate just putting it in garbage bags and leaving it for the garbage man.

On another note, which might be a good thing, we are probably going to have to stop letting the dogs out in the backyard anyway. Half of our yard is shaded thus no grass grows so half is mud and half is grass. Well, due to the extreme amount of snow we have gotten this year, the usually grassy side has turned into mud as well. I fear that it might not recover and we may have a huge yard of nothing but mud this year. I went ahead and took all of the equipment off of it today to try and give it all the sun it can get. I am hoping with the warmer temps, maybe we might get some drying action. I really need to at least go and get some straw to try and at least make the really muddy side a little bit better. We have pretty much had snow all year on the ground so the ground is super saturated:( So the up side or down side however you look at it is that the dogs may not get any play time in the fenced yard anymore or at least till it dries out. This will help with the boy's poop eating habit but won't help them get rid of excess energy. I am going to have to get my butt out of bed and walk deuce and harley in the morning instead of nestling down in the bed and putting them out in the yard:(

Poop, literally

I have been having a heck of a time with Deuce and his stomach. We first thought he had a food allergy but the allergy food made him worse. I stopped giving him any treats other than his own kibble and started giving him rice, probiotics, and no sugar added plain yogurt. Nothing seemed to be working and although he doesn't act sick, the amount of loose stool that comes out of him is amazing. We have had him checked for every parasite possible and have de-wormed him for every worm possible just in case, even though he is on HW treatment year around. He also seems to always have poopy butt so I have scissored and clipped till i can't anymore without just shaving his whole butt down to the skin. No matter what I do, he always has loose stool and it is always all around his little butt hole and hair surrounding it. He also pretty much always smells like poop because of it. I take wet wipes with me everywhere we go so I can clean his little butt. I really don't know what else to do for him.

We have caught him a couple of times eating poop in the backyard and even though I try to keep the backyard picked up, it quickly becomes a problem in a couple of days. Our backyard isn't huge but it isn't small either but for whatever reason, he thinks poop is good. I had a foster dog that did this and we tried every product on the market and nothing worked. Tried pinapple, distaste, potty mouth, pumpkin, and some other home remedies. Nothing worked, sent the dog to live with a single dog family that had to walk him on a leash. Now, I do think this is part of the problem, but this just started to happen. I am wondering if this started because of something going on in his stomach or with his digestion? None of the aids we have tried really have helped him so I am at a loss as to what to do with him. Harley has a sensitive stomach but it seems like at 7, he finally is starting to calm down stomach-wise. I hope we don't have to wait till Deuce is 6 or 7 for his stomach to settle down!!!! I can't tell you how many times we had to take harley out at shows and wash his butt off with a hose and then towel him off and go run him inside due to his stomach issues. I don't want to have to worry about this with deuce too!

I jinxed myself

I wrote in my other blog that I would jinx myself if I bragged on Deuce. Well, sure enough, I came home to massive diarrhea in his crate and boy did it stink. I had to take him to my vet's office to bathe him because it was so bad. YUCK! I should have known better!!!!!

Oh boy!

Finally got to do some training last night out at the all-star field. We haven't really done anything out there since probably December so I was excited to see what kind of work I could get out of deuce. I arrived before anyone else so decided to do some basic work with Deuce first. He was very distracted at first and very excited, running around and sniffing. I let him get all of that out and then started doing some flat work to get his brain warmed up. We also worked on some waits in front of very fun obstacles like tunnels and very low baby jumps. If he was a good boy, he got a cookie and then a release to that obstacle. I was very interested to see how he would treat the tunnel because it was the darker tunnel, with the dark inside and it was in a dark corner. I really expected him to refuse it, but he didn't. We haven't been doing much tunnel work because I have been too lazy to drag it out for him and I don't want a tunnel sucking dog anyway.

Lori had the field set up for working on her running dog walk contact with a lowered dog walk, so i took advantage of getting him on a full dog walk to see what we could do. I had him stay, then released him to a tunnel and then called him to the dog walk at a full run. The first few times, I said nothing, just let him run. I could tell he was a little cautious the first few times as he hasn't really been on a raised dog walk, but once the light bulb went off, he was running full speed. After I got some speed, I started asking for toes at the end. He wasn't 100% but for his first time, I was very pleased. He nailed a couple, blew through a couple, and blew through a couple and then corrected himself immediately. If he held toes, he got a reward in position and then a release to another obstacle (either the tunnel or the jump on the other end). I was really pleased to see the little wheels in his brain whirling. We also did some table work with me counting out loud and then rewarding for staying in position. Again, if he held position, he was rewarded by getting release to another obstacle. I tried to keep all repetitions short and fun. To end the first training session, I introduced the tire jump with the tire on the ground basically, and then linked it to the teeter since they were in sequence together. Lori had the teeter lowered too and I was excited to see him driving to the end into position. I need to lower my teeter too and work on getting speed into position. I also worked doing front crosses off of the end of the teeter and him holding position. Of course all of this was done with no one else on the field so distraction was at 0.

I let deuce take a break and worked miller on some stuff, including some short sequences and some weave entries. I just jumped him at 16 inches and kept his session short. I did warm him up with some fun run and jumps and then took a walk with him to cool him out. I don't want to push him right now but I sure do need to get him in condition so that i don't have to worry so much about injury.

Barb showed up and Lori came out so after they had worked for a while, I pulled deuce back out to work on distractions. He was of course very excited to see his friends but as soon as I put the gentle leader on him, he started offering me downs and sits. He would whine and tremble while the other dogs were working but stare at me and offer behaviors. So funny! Just got to figure out how I am going to work through this at AKC shows since I can't have my gentle leader. He doesn't really care about the dogs in the ring but he loves his friends or anyone he perceives as friends! I had Barb do some work with Chloe while I did the dog walk with Deuce a and he was super. He held his position no matter what barb was doing so i think we can up the anty next time we work on the dog walk. He did take off once when Solei was working and it took me forever to get him back but these are things we are just going to have to work through. He is such a social butterfly! I kind of like having a dog that is happy with everyone and every dog but it is going to present some new challenges for me to get over. Time will tell!

I did weigh deuce on Wednesday and he is up to 45 lbs! He doesn't seem to be getting any taller, just wider. We did decide to start cutting him back on food since he is laying down a bit of fat. I need him to be lean and mean for his agility training! He is also doing very well in his crate without his litter box. I had been leaving it in even though he wasn't using it, but about a month ago, I took it out and he hasn't had any accidents yet (knock on wood, probably just jinxed myself). We are also leaving him out with the other dogs for longer periods of time when we aren't there and so far (again knock on wood), he has been doing great. We have had a few minor casualties, mainly out of the recycle bin and some shoe strings, but overall, he plays with his toys and seems to have a sense of what is acceptable and what is not. I hope this trend continues! I am still don't think he is ready to be out 8 hours a day while we are gone but maybe soon he will be.

USDAA weekend-Thanks Go-Dogs Omaha crew

This was my first weekend using the gentle leader with Deuce. Thanks to Dana for suggesting it because it worked like a charm. If you remember my last post, I was very sore from deuce lunging at every person and dog as if they all wanted him. He will sit and wait but boy when you say okay, he is like a bat out of hell. I came back from the last show very sore from his antics! Well, in AKC, we can't use any type of head collar or pinch collar so I won't be able to use it at the usual shows but boy did it help this weekend. The Go-Dogs crew (Dana, Ami and of course Melissa!) really stepped up and helped me learn how to use it properly and made sure it fit correctly. We even worked some downs and waits with distractions and gave me some great clues on how to put "go see" on command. I do feel like he is gaining some impulse control and I am so sure it will get better the older he gets. I do feel 100% more comfortable using the gentle leader and would recommend it to others. It is a really nice, gentle way of controlling their lunging and pulling behavior. Not sure how we are going to work on this at the AKC show since we can't use any thing like that. I did get to get him out more and work some behaviors ring side and he did great. He is such a clicker whore, he will offer every behavior he knows if you don't let him know what you want. I like this so much because it means he gives me great attention. He did get to play with Ami's aussie Taser for a little bit and boy do they play the same. All feet and wrestling!

Deuce didn't do as well in the hotel room this time for some reason. We stayed thursday night and friday night and he was real restless both nights. He slept by the door mainly and had to go out multiple times friday night. Probably was my fault due to the rawhides I gave him so i could sleep in a little on friday morning. The show didn't start till 12 so I wanted to sleep as long as I could and he kept on waking me up every 2 hours from 5:30 on. Every 2 hours I would throw him another rawhide and he would quiet down. He has started a new trend of barking when Miller runs but harley does the same thing. We are probably going to have to forever crate deuce and harley in metal crates, since they both get way too amped up when Miller runs. I could hear him when I ran in the ring closest to where he was crated. Other than that, he stayed quiet and just slept when I didn't have him out. He is so easy to deal with at shows, just content to sleep in his crate rather than be out. He is so good about just relaxing at the shows, unlike Harley. We have another show this weekend and may stay overnight saturday night so should be interested to see how he does. I do feel like leaving him in the hotel room when we aren't there is not an option because he barks at noises so he will have to stay crated in the car. Harley does too so that is normal for us.

Well, time for bed! Need to get some sleep!

Dog Walk work day 4

Here is day 4 training of my plank work. Today, clicker was used and I mainly ran with as this seems to be the most comfortable for him at this point. We tried about 10 reps and I tried to only click for the behavior I wanted. I would say out of 10 reps, 6 were the behavior I wanted (drive to end of board into 2 on 2 off position), 2 were complete misses (just kept going with the momma), and 2 were run to the end, stop, take a step into position (one of which I clicked for and shouldn't have). I am very pleased at how quickly he is getting the point of this exercise. He is so clicker savy that i should have known bringing out the clicker would help him. Tony is suppose to be building me a middle plank this weekend so that we can raise the boards up a bit more and have an up, middle and down plank for him to run on. Concerns right now are am i going to keep that speed with three planks? Am I going to still get "toes" as the height goes up? At this point, I would like to continue working the boards on the ground and very, very slowly move them up. I know this isn't the accepted way to train a dog walk (train drive first then get contact criteria second), but the clicker trainer in me wants to do it this way. Is it right? We shall see! I am not claiming I know where this is going to go and I know we will have good days and bad days but I am in this for the ride and am having a great time so far. I know that he won't generalize this behavior so after we get the dog walk full height here, we will need to take our show on the road and get on as many other people's dog walks as possible. Right now, I am keeping the reps short, maybe 10 or 12 per session, and I am working in his comfort zone, which oddly enough seems to be me running with. I did try once with me doing a restrained recall and he stopped about half way down the board, turned around and looked at me, like "why are you standing there doing nothing mom?" I also will need to work distance away from the plank as well but that is in the distant future (haha, pun intended).

Plank Work Day 3

Taking the info I got from the first couple of days of plank work, I decided to try some new things last night. I decided to keep the food tube in my pocket, so he wouldn't be pouncing on anything and I decided to use the clicker to reward correct position. Unfortunately, I couldn't video because it was too dark. I put deuce on a sit stay and then released and ran with and asked for "toes". Much to my surprise, he stuck all of his "toes" with him driving to the end of the board and popping into position. I was very happy with his performance. He got clicks for driving to the end of the board and sticking his two on two off, even when I kept running past. I am so proud of this dog! I really thought I was going to have a huge problem on my hands with his pouncing and it may come back, but I was tickled pink that he stuck every single time I asked for "toes" last night. Now, I need to work more on different criteria (very slowly of course) including what If I am behind him or way ahead of him or a distance away. I would like to refrain from using targets since that does shift their weight forward and I want his weight back and off of his front end. He seems to respond very nicely to the clicker so I am going to continue using it with the dog walk. I am glad I shaped so many behaviors in the beginning cause he gets so excited when I pull out the clicker and responds so nicely to it. I hope to get home earlier tonight and maybe get some video of his progress. Tony went this last weekend and bought some more lumber so we can make another plank since the kids broke my middle ramp. I am sure as the angles change of the ramps, I will get different behaviors but I am happy that we are starting out nicely. Now, if I could just get him to build me an a-frame!