Pictures

Here is a couple of new pictures of Vivre. I think she might actually look like a dog now.

Vivre meets Darren

Last night Vivre and I headed up to Lexington to work with Brydon and her helper, Darren. I am very grateful that Brydon set this up since my club basically shut down when the T.D started a new job. As a result Vivre hasn't done any bitework in about a year. I like Darren, he talked to her the whole time he was working with her and he has a very playful manner with the dogs. Vivre definitely enjoyed herself and I love being around dog people. Around here when I start talking about dog stuff people get this glazed over look in their eyes.

I also got to see Brydon's boys while I was there. You can tell that Vivre and Wicked are related, they share a lot of traits especially behaviorally. Wicked is surprisingly not that much bigger than Vivre though he has a lot more fur than she does and of course has filled out more.

I had to swing by petsmart and pick up some crickets for my aunt's frog, so Vivre also had her first trip to a pet store. She has gone to the feed store with me in the past, but last night made it clear that I haven't take Vivre out to work in new places lately. That last couple of weeks it was because she was in heat, but even before that we had been mostly working around the mountain. I couldn't even get her to heel from the car to the door of the pet store. Pathetic.

The seminar with Denise is in a couple of weeks. So I need to get her out working in new places again or she will be totally worthless at the seminar. I am also going to try and pretend to be an organized individual and make a list of things I have to work on, train, or fix. Off the top of my head...

Front - I accidentally trained a wonky orientation. She doesn't want to sit directly in front of me but canted to the side.

Impulse Control- I have done a fair amount of impulse control with the tug and am usually glad that I live alone when I do. I would hate to have to explain to somebody why I am bouncing on the bed, singing (badly) and swinging the tug around my head like a lasso. What I haven't worked on is impulse control when I throw things (like a dumbbell)

Duration and Distance- I need more duration on the down, if it is apparent that we are actively working she holds the down, but I haven't built the duration that I need, especially if I am not looking at her. I also need more distance than the down and sit out of motion.

Tracking- I really, really need to start tracking. We have done only a handful of tracks.

Revier- We have had a couple of shaping sessions teaching her to go around buckets, but I haven't gotten it solid and we will need that behavior for the blind search.

Stand- This is just stupid on my part. I totally forget about stand. I am putting this on a fairly high priority because I don't want to get a lot of reps of sits and downs out of motion then try to add stand later.

Retrieve- I have started back chaining the retrieves but the retrieves make up a lot of points in a schutzhund trial that I am a little paranoid about messing it up.

I need to fine tune my heeling, especially right about turns where she gets a little wide or occasionally forward. Now I remember why I don't like to make lists. I start thinking about everything I need to get done and think... well I won't use that kind of language here. Of course if I made lists then I might be more organized and more likely to get things done. Stands, Fronts, and added distance and duration on downs are the top three things on the list. I also need to get a jump so I can start training that as well. I might take a shot at building it. I will need to build the a frame so the jump might be good practice for me. Of course watching me attempt to hammer anything is amusing, but I figure that is why they invented drills.

Still Growing

I had all kinds of great plans for this month. I am trying to get training sessions scheduled with Brydon and Wicked. I had planned to take Vivre to the beach and get some lovely fall photo hikes in. I also just got bought some floating rope as well as a floating frisbee and a bumper. And now she has gone in to her second heat cycle and blown all my plans. Now I remember why I tend toward males.

I might have to break down and order her little heat panties, but I am holding out until I can find some that aren't humiliating. All of them are either pink or have little ruffles. Or, brace yourself for the horror, are pink polka dotted with ruffles. Vivre would bite me and with good reason. (Note: I hate the color pink. For most people the regular pink might not be too bad, but I just can't look at pink.)

So she has just started her second heat, and now I am really having to get in to the spay or not to spay mode. I really have no intention of breeding her since I can't imagine trying to find homes for a whole litter of little Vivres. Just the thought causes me to be in awe of Denise. But I don't want to spay her until she is finished growing, plus there are the new studies that show spaying to increase various health problems.

I am at least going to wait until November. I'll let Denise look at her and see if she thinks she is finally finished growing. Vivre has actually grown about 1/2 inch since July. Putting her at 20.5 inches in height. She is still so small and delicate looking.

I'm trying to fix my wonky fronts. I goofed up badly when training heel. I started by having her place her front feet on a target and then clicked for hip movement. However I focused on hip movement and didn't notice that she had decided that she had to be at an angle to me when in front of me. Her heel is fine, but she wants to front at an angle. I have gone back to basics and back to the foot target and started clicking hip movement that only moves her toward straight. But if anybody has any other ideas I would be glad to hear them. I have to get up early tomorrow. I hate getting up early.

More Hiking

So went hiked back out to dog slaughter yesterday. It was a beautiful day and since it had rained the first part of the day I figured that nobody would be on the trail. Thankfully I got an earlier start than last time so I wasn't racing the sunset. I didn't really get to notice how pretty the trail was before. Which I suppose became really obvious when about 3/4 of the way down the trail I looked around and realized I didn't recognize anything. I actually thought I was lost and turned around before I finally realized I hadn't been lost at all.

Once we got to the to falls I turned her loose and she had a blast running around and playing. I also discovered that Vivre isn't a great swimmer. So that is something to work on. I may head out to the lake and let her get some swim practice in. I don't want to take the hike back from dog slaughter completely soaked if I get in to help her. I didn't get any great shots of her, so I ordered a new lens this morning. It is an old manual prime, so even though it won't auto focus it is faster than what I am using now and should let me shoot some distance shots in low light.

Here is a couple of the shots of Vivre "swimming," I doubt you will see much more than the water, but it will give you an idea.

Offering Behaviors

I haven't posted much about what Vivre and I have been doing. There have been a couple of times I was thinking "Oh I have to blog about this," only to get busy and forget. The last week or so I have started working on having her either lay calmly on her side. I want to work her through the relaxation protocol and start the mat work from CU. We have done several of the other games in CU, but not the mat work. I opted against using her regular down because it has such a strong reinforcement history I don't think she will relax in that position. Instead she will be ready to keep working. So now she knows that if she lays on her side she will get petting and puppy massage. (Rubbing circles on her jaw just knocks her right out.) And a position that I hope to condition to mean "this is calm time."

Since it is so easy to let her roll all the way over on her back from that position I have also rewarded her rolling over with all four feet in the air. What she usually does is roll over first and bat at me with one of her paws then when I start petting her she rolls back and lays on her side. So it has become a way to solicited calm petting time. (She either nose bumps me or drops a ball at my feet if she wants to work)

I absolutely cracked up last night. Apollo, my golden mix, doesn't really care for Vivre and will mostly completely ignore her. After calling her away from him after repeated pestering attempts I watched her go right over to Apollo, look at him for a second and then lay right down in front of him and roll over then start batting at his face with her paw. The exact same behavior she uses to solicit attention from me.

I don't really do puppies. The house training and the teething and the complete lack of a decent night's sleep (and this is just a few weeks, I can't imagine parenthood.) But having a dog that has learned from the start how to trade behavior to get what she wants is just great. She is such a hoot.

What We Can Learn From This....

There has been a lot of news around town about Bugsy's death. I have heard several comments and reports blasting animal control. The fault in this situation lies not with Wayne, who tried for four days to catch that dog, and finally had to make a hard decision, but with the dog's owner. Bugsy's owner failed his dog in many ways. The most obvious by not keeping him confined safely in his yard and then by not coming to get Bugsy when he broke his chain. But his irresponsibility goes much further than that.

Before I go any further I would like to say that while I personally have no problem blasting this individual that isn't the purpose of this post. I want people to look at the mistakes made in this situation and learn from them.

The owner (who hasn't yet been named) picked a breed with a tendency to roam even though he didn't have any way to properly confine the dog. Please do your research when choosing a dog breed. (If you go to the shelter to pick mix it can be difficult to narrow down breeds, but these dogs are usually full grown and hopefully the shelter staff can give you an idea of the dogs personality and temperament.)

Puppy Socialization is very important. Dog's have a finite period of socialization during that time they need to be properly introduced to a number of different people, places, and situations. Dog's with protective tendencies (such as Great Pyrs) require extensive socialization and that shouldn't be forgotten. Puppy socialization is an important and extensive subject beyond the scope of this post. However because it is so important Dr. Ian Dunbar has made his books Before You Get Your Puppy and After You Get Your Puppy available for free online. Socialization is a big thing for me, it needs to be done and it needs to be done well. As a vet Dr. Dunbar is concerned with balancing the socialization needs with the need to keep the dog safe from disease. Personally I would avoid public dog parks and similar places, but consider lack of socialization a far more dangerous disease than parvo since it kills so many more dogs.

Socializations isn't all there is, genetics and temperament also play a huge role in personality and can limit how friendly the dog will be with strangers. As live stock guardian breed he was never going to be an outgoing loves everybody kind of dog. According to the AKC the Great Pry should be "strong willed, independent, and somewhat reserved, yet attentive, fearless, and loyal to his charges -- both human and animal." From the descriptions this didn't describe Bugsy. As time went on I heard more about how it took time before he would come to the people trying to feed him and his timid personality. This was likely a combination of poor socialization and genetics.

Picking a breeder and a puppy is a very important part of getting a puppy. A dog with good genetics can over come a lack of socialization. It is important to note that a good temperament genetically can come from a crappy breeder. My aunt has a puppy mill poodle who spent the first several years of his life in a small crate full of his own filth and now is very friendly with strangers. (Though he has still bitten in fear.)

If you don't have the time or the experience to put in to a dog that will require more training and/or socialization then either pick a breed and a breeder who will give you a dog that is naturally more inclined to be friendly or go to a rescue and get an adult dog that will fit your needs.

The "Come Game" is a wonderful tool for teaching both puppies and adult dogs to come to people. Directions can be found here. If you have a puppy or adult dog that seems to be reactive to strangers the best resource I can suggest is Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt. The book is worth at least twice its weight in gold.

Please learn from this tragedy and do what you can to make sure that your dogs and Wayne never have to go through anything like this again.

Crazy

Years ago my mother and I were at the hospital answering medical history questions since my great grandmother was about to go in to surgery. When they asked if there was a history of insanity in our family, our reply "You Betcha." I am only now realizes how true that was.