September Beach Fun and Troubles

We had a lovely summer of camping with the dogs and topped it off with a last trip to Tofino to play with the dogs on the beach in September. 

Unfortunately Riley has been struggling off and on with his poor body since summer and things got worse on this trip.  One day while walking on the beach he ended up with spasms in his hind end.  The vet chiropractor later explained it as the area where his rib cage meets the hip joints was greatly out of line and would be compressing the nerves causing something similar to sciatica in humans.  We fixed that up and have made progress but it has been slow and other neurological difficulties are also suspected (possible scar tissue from his surgery two years ago pressing on the spinal cord or maybe even bulging discs).  The only real way to know would be an MRI but for now we are trying conservative management and hoping things settle down.  He is happy, still crazy and keeping comfortable but has very limited stamina before he shows signs of weakness so our walks are short.  Please send healing vibes for my wonderful boy.

One Year Later

One year ago today I took a huge leap of faith and dropped Riley off for his major surgery.  I was scared to death that I wasn't making a good decision but equally terrified that if I didn't do it his quality of life would continue to deteriorate.  Some readers might not know that Riley had a hemilaminectomy procedure to remove a cyst pressing on your spinal cord.  Today Riley still has some lingering after effects of his condition (mild ataxia) and a bit of a wonky hip but for the most part he is healthy, happy and pain free. I am forever thankful that the surgery and recovery went well.  Past blogs on the subject can be found here.

It is also the USA thanksgiving and because I missed the Canadian version in blogging I also want to share some other things I am grateful for.

- my wonderful husband for supporting me on my crazy dog adventures 
- my dogs for bringing much laughter, fun and challenges to my life
- my cats for all the cuddles.  They are the finishing touch to make a house a home.
- my friends who are always there for me.
- my mother, brothers, sister and various niece, nephews, aunts and uncles.
- health for myself and all those (human and animal) I love and care about.

There is so much tragedy and challenges all around us that sometimes it is important to count the good stuff.

Morning after surgery

48 hours post-surgery

Spring 2013

The Journey

This is my 100th blog post and so I am taking a few moments to reflect on my dog training journey to date.

I did some basic puppy stuff with Lucy but it wasn't until Riley began to develop some issues as a two year old dog that I began to get interested in training.  We had already done the basics but registered with a trainer to address the problems we were having.  We "fixed" the issues in what I thought was a positive way but with my knowledge today I regret some of the choices.  I am lucky that he is your typical hard-headed labrador with high tolerance and a very forgiving personality.  I try not to dwell on past mistakes and I am thankful that this was the start of wanting to learn more about behaviour and training.

My first step was purchasing a few books to read.  Lucky for me I picked two from authors that I still think are amazing.  Patricia McConnell "Other End of The Leash" and Suzanne Clothier "Bones Would Rain from the Sky".  I have now seen both those authors at seminars and they are just as wonderful as the books they have written.  I also stumbled upon Susan Garrett and her very first online Recallers Course and she introduced me to a new approach to joyful training.

Lots more reading followed and I decided I wanted to do some more training with Riley.  The dog gods led me to working with a local Karen Pryor Academy trainer who introduced me to rally obedience and encouraged me to try competing.  I really enjoying the work with Riley and could feel how different our connection was with these methods.  My trainer has now become a good friend and we often travel together to seminars and competitions.  A strange twist on "small world" is when I discussed getting a vizsla puppy and the breeders I was considering it turned out she knew Stella's breeder and agreed to vouch for me.

My conversion really kicked in when my trainer dragged me to my first Clicker Expo.  I was now fully hooked on learning about dogs and how to apply all this wonderful positive knowledge to both Riley and puppy Stella.   I jokingly said to my trainer/friend the other day that I must be driving her crazy because I should be taking better advantage of all her knowledge on how to train our way to obedience titles but because of the world she helped me see I really want to explore things in my own way.  With Riley I was happy to follow instructions on how to train the exercises but I want to inject more of my own "style" with Stella.  I'm still figuring out that "style" so I'm not totally stupid and will take advantage of her knowledge and experience but will also have fun figuring things out.  Thankfully I know she is there to help fix my mistakes!

I will not pursue more obedience stuff with Riley as it is to hard for his body but there are other roads we will travel.  Stella is only two and we have a long way to go and will enjoy the journey getting there.

Here are a few pics from our most recent camping trip.  All this training stuff is great but really just enjoying life with these wonderful dogs is what is important.

Such good friends!

Sunshine + beach + ball = Riley Heaven

How do you like my boots?

Campground cavelleti work

Beach patrol

Training Technology

I am writing  this as I am killing time at the airport waiting to fly home from an amazing seminar with Suzanne Clothier.  Her book “Bones Would Rain from the Sky” was one of the first books I read that started me down the road to positive training and understanding the power of relationship with our dogs.  I had talked myself into being responsible and not spending more money as I had already booked another seminar this month.  That all went to hell a few weeks ago when I had a frustrating weekend showing conformation with Stella.   That is a whole other blog post but I decided to soothe myself with this seminar.  Luck was on my side as there was a spot available, my brother lives close to the seminar site and I could fly using airmiles.  Teehee, I can justify anything if I try hard enough!

Anyway, this has led to me to thinking about how technology is changing the world of dog training.    Many wonderful trainers world wide have developed on-line courses.  I first did Susan Garrett’s Recallers Course online about four years ago and since then there has been an explosion of on-line options.   Most courses are structured with a small number of active participants that video their “assignments” and  the instructor reviews the video and provides recommendations and lectures.  There are also audit and/or observer spots which get to see all of the lecture material, video footage and interaction with the instructors.  There are many variations on that theme as well as lots of course options that are more learning theory/classroom based.

I wonder what effect this will have on seminars?   Many “famous” trainers have produced DVDs of their seminar presentations but I personally find sitting down and watching hours of a seminar not nearly as great as actually being there.   One of the biggest problems with seminars (besides travel and costs) is that often there is not enough working time for those attending with dogs.   On-line working spots have that direct interaction plus when our dogs do that “thing” that we need to fix but the dog won’t do it in front of the trainer we hopefully have video proof that it happens.  Seminars can be very stressful for both handlers and dogs so this is a particularly useful tool for people that have situations that don't present well in a seminar setting.   It also lets those people who are still fighting old-school methods in their area have another option for training. 

I am lucky to live in an area that has good training options and usually a few good seminars in a year.  I really enjoy the atmosphere of seminars and how the dedicated immersion into the dog training world with similar minded people can inspire me to continue learning and working with my dogs.  I also value the online stuff and see that I will likely be doing more of that in the future.  There are a few courses coming up offered by Denise Fenzi's new online academy that interest me.  The online courses are also another "hit me over the head" reminder of the importance of video recording and reviewing training sessions.  Video is an amazing technology learning tool that I need to use more!

Naughty Dogs

The past month since Riley has been granted more exercise privileges I have driven the dogs the short distance from home to access our local trails where they can run off leash.  Riley's recovery is now allowing longer time and distances so this past week we returned to walking from the house to the local trails and then back home which meant the dogs actually had to walk on leash along the roads.

Isn't it amazing how quickly leash manners can disappear!!!

My criteria for on leash walking is actually pretty basic.  I don't care if my dogs walk in front of me but I don't want to be pulled down the street.  I expect them to walk politely at my side for a short distance (crossing street, oncoming dogs or people etc) when asked.  I also don't want to stop every two paces for them to sniff or munch grass.  That first day I had dogs going in different directions to check out whatever caught their interest and either ignoring me or just pulling me along with them.

Arghhh!  I really wasn't amused but I suppose it was a message I needed to hear.  Riley is getting stronger every day and the rules have been pretty relaxed over the last several months.  I have said in the past that he was a dog that needs to be worked/trained and apparently that is something he has yet to outgrow as he approaches seven years of age.

A little bit of harness adjustments (front attachment versus back attachment) and a few days of walking with rules and reinforcement was all that was needed to slip back to our "normal" walking routine.  I will settle on an activity for Riley in the next while so that we have the needed working time together to keep us "in tune" with each other.   I might go back and do some rally with him or possibly tracking.  We also tried an introduction to nosework seminar last week which could be a fun option.

There are no couch potato dogs in this household!  Some days I wish for nice lazy breeds .... but they are good for me and I wouldn't change them for anything.

Happy

My heart is happy these days because of this .......

Crappy picture but you can still see the joy.  A few weeks ago I decided to take Riley to see our vet chiro/accupuncture that specializes in dog lameness and for whose opinion I have a ton of respect.  We figured with all the surgery it would probably be a good idea to have him looked over and adjusted to help the healing.  The vet evaluated him and did some minor adjustments and then told me I wasn't challenging him enough.  He said that he was fully healed with regards to the surgery and now we need to challenge his muscles and neuro pathways to improve. 

The veterinary teaching hospital gave very generic instructions for return to activity that honestly I was already pushing because they didn't make a lot of sense to me.   They wanted confinement and very minimal activity (potty breaks) for the first six weeks and then a gradual on leash return to regular activity levels over the next two months.  I was supposed to avoid stairs and jumping for six months minimum and preferably for his lifetime.  Riley's hemilaminectomy did not involve any surgery to the discs so we were told that I could give him a bit more freedom compared to most dogs but still I needed to be very, very careful.   I had started using the extendable leash after the original six week period as I thought that pace changes and ability to move differently were important.   We were both getting very bored with those short on leash walks!  

The vet here gave us permission to let Riley run off leash (Woohoo!!!!!).  Obviously we still need to exercise common sense but he wants us to hike trails that have lots of rocks, stumps and uneven ground.  Walking just on the streets means Riley can be lazy with his hind end but the varied terrain will force him to have to pick up his limbs and be aware of how to place them.  We are also doing other rehab exercises such as rear end pivots on a perch and walking over poles.  We are keeping things to about 30-45 minutes and so far things are going very well. I did an outdoor obedience drop in class last weekend that involved a lot of sits and hind end work which he started to show some sorenesss.  He was fine the next day and it was a good reminder that his muscles are still recovering.  He has a much tighter sit compared to before the surgery so different muscles are being used.  I also continue to swim him for now one day a week which is good to stretch out and relax all those back and neck muscles.

Watching my dogs run and play on hikes is one my top ten list of things I love to do.  The first day I got to see them run together after all these months it felt like a bit of my world finally came right side up again.  There are a lot of unknowns about how his recovery will continue.  He still has some ataxia especially in the right rear and his gait is a little unusual but he is a happy dog to be running the trails again.  He may or may not ever be able to handle long hikes or some other activities but he is way more comfortable than he was prior to surgery.  Neuro improvements can take many months so I am hopeful that things will only get better!

Year in Review

Another year draws to a close today and as I look back upon my goals for 2012 I am pretty happy with the outcome.  My goal for puppy Stella was "I need to improve my shaping skills and she needs to learn how to work through frustration".  My goals for Riley were "I also want to get Riley's rally excellent at trials in march/april" .

I have really enjoyed working with both dogs this year.  I believe my shaping and handling skills have improved a lot.  Stella still can get frustrated easily but she has improved and I have discovered how valuable play is in our working relationship.  I did not have any real 2012 trial goals in mind for Stella other than gettiing her CGN but we had quite a successful year.  She started with her Canine Good Neighbour (CGN) and then we added a CKC Rally Novice title (RN), CKC Pre-Novice Obedience (PCD) and a CARO Rally Novice Magna Cum Laude (CRN-MCL) to the mix.  We have also dabbled at conformation showing and currently have three points towards her Championship title.   Stella is only 19 months old and I am thrilled with my relationship with this wonderful little girl and look forward to lots more adventures in the year ahead.

Riley completed his CKC Rally Excellent (RE) in spring as well as his CKC Pre-Novice Obedience (PCD).  We had planned to try for our Novice Obedience title but things started going really wrong for him physically so I stopped training and trialing with him in May.  We did xrays in june and that started us down the path that ended with his recent surgery.  He is doing awesome now and is feeling pretty energetic.  Two more weeks of major restrictions and then we get to start increasing his activity levels slowly.  I'm not sure what our training challenges will be in 2013 but I am thinking of aiming for a tracking title and starting nosework with him.  A lot will depend on how the next few months work out physically for him. 

It was a wonderful year of learning for me.  I started with Clicker Expo and also attended wonderful weekend seminars from Michelle Pouliot and Denise Fenzi.  Now I'm hooked on seminars!  I feel that I am really starting to find my "style" but I can also see that learning will never end!

I am happy with our successes this year but the titles really aren't all that important to me except as a way of setting goals and working towards them.  Those goals help me figure out my path and keep some of the procrastination in check :).  I am blessed to have a supportive husband and good friends who understand this strange fascination I have with all things dog.  I truly treasure the "family" vacations and daily adventures with my dogs (and cats!).  That point has been driven home this year with Riley's problems and surgery and I hope for health and happiness for many years ahead. 

Happy New Year!

Here is a video of me skiing this week with Sam (my mother's dog) and Stella.  Watch to the end to see my crazy little wigglebum Stella being her happy self.

Lost and Found

It has been an emotional few weeks for many local dogs and the owners that love them.  Tonight a vizsla that has been missing on Vancouver Island for seventeen days was finally reunited with her family.  Closer to home in the hiking trails of the north shore mountains there have been other lost dogs.  I know the family of one dog lost and helped hike some trails with Stella this week to search.  That dog was actually lost while helping to track another missing dog.  Thankfully both the original missing dog plus the one I know were both found safe thanks to a ton of volunteers and lots of long, cold and scary days and nights for both the dogs and the searchers.  In our same North Vancouver mountains a flat coated retriever was just found after being lost for 6.5 months and a Bernese Mountain Dog needed a search and rescue team with helicopter to be rescued in dangerous snowy mountain terrain after going missing for 13 days while snowshoeing with its owners.

We live in a large city but are lucky enough to be a short ten minute walk to the wonderful trails of the North Shore mountains.  My dogs enjoy lots of off leash freedom on these trails and we generally stick to fairly easy trails.  Both dogs have very good recall and are very attentive about checking in with me but this has gotten me thinking.  It is a risk-reward tradeoff with off leash hiking and it would be my worst nightmare to lose one of my dogs.  My dogs LOVE to run and romp through the woods and I would hate to let my fear of losing them prevent us from enjoying those wonderful hikes we do daily.    I practice and reward recalls heavily but have decided to also start training a whistle recall.  A whistle carries much further than my voice and doesn't get tired or emotional like a human voice can.   Hopefully we will never have a situation where it would be necessary but I feel it is a good tool to have just in case.  I also make sure that both dogs gets to meet all sorts of people regularly so they are very comfortable with strangers.   

Meanwhile Riley has been recovering nicely from surgery.  We went through a variety of xpen configurations before settling on a location that makes him happy.  We had the staples removed last week and had my vet check out a possible seroma (fluid swelling) that was at one end of the incision.  We ended up putting him on a course of antibiotics just in case the fluid was from an infection.  The incision is now a normal size with just a small bit of scar tissue and he is getting stronger every day.  He wasn't happy when he couldn't romp in the snow this week but we are now almost three weeks post op and hope to start swim therapy next week so things are looking up for him :).  Stella is now nearing the end of her heat cycle and is feeling much more like her regular bouncy, happy self.  Her cycle makes her quite sleepy and more nervous/jumpy than normal so we haven't done much (any!) training this month but hope to get some stuff in over the holidays.

Hopefully we will soon be back to these sorts of scenes.

One year later

September 13 is the one year anniversary of my first blog post.   It has been a fun year of sharing my life with these two amazing dogs.  This year really opened up my interest in training methods and dog sports.  I had started on that path with Riley and the addition of puppy Stella made things much clearer to me about the way I want to proceed with fun, positive training techniques.   This year my wonderful trainer Heather Lawson, CPDT-KSA, KPA-CTP took me to my first clicker expo which I found very inspirational.  I also got to see some great training seminars this year.

Riley's training and trialing has been on hold since early June while we wait for the decision about doing hip replacement surgery.  The surgeon we want has been away and is due back in September.  If she is unable to return then I will be moving on to another recommendation as I am defering a bunch of financial decisions until I know what will happen.  We have worked out a new "normal" for him to keep him active but he is mostly on leash and we keep the crazy stuff under control.  He does overdo now and then and is sore for a few days but we are managing with pain medications and supplements.

Stella is a happy, bouncy girl and has been a joy to work and train in her first year.  She is a much softer dog than Riley and doesn't handle frustration (hers or mine) well which has been a good learning experience for me.   I have come a long way with my skills the last few years but I am still a novice.  Dogs have a way of reminding us just how long this journey really is and how much more there is to know.   I am very pleased with Stella's progress and am thrilled to have already completed her Rally Novice title, CGN and her CKC Pre-Novice.  Next week we will be attempting a few rounds of Caro Novice Rally which seems quite a bit tougher than the CKC standards.

We have had lots of fun non-training time together this past year and labour day weekend marked the anniversary of Stella's first camping trip with us.  We once again headed back up to Summerland to camp and visit with family in the area.   There is a fabulous dog beach there where the dogs get to romp and swim.  We discovered that Stella can now swim faster than Riley which he was definately not thrilled with and screamed about the whole time he chased her in the water.  He can beat her with long leaps during takeoff but once they swim she is much faster and efficient in the water.  Lucky for him she is not super ball focused and is happy to give up her treasures.   We ended up distracting her away from him with a throw in the other direction so he wouldn't push himself to hard trying to beat her.  The two dogs get along better than I could ever have hoped for and it makes me happy to see them enjoying each other.

I look forward to another year of dog adventures and hopefully will have some interesting blog posts along the way.  I want to send a big thanks to my wonderful husband who happily indulges my "hobby" and my sometimes over-the-top care of the animals.  I also want to thank my trainer Heather Lawson for opening new doors to me and for being a friend at all the trials and seminars this past year.  Lastly a big thanks to Stella's breeder Sylvia Dorosh (Varazs Vizslas) for my beautiful girl.

I have also set up a Life With Riley & Stella page on facebook for anyone who is interested.  Please follow the link to like us Facebook - LifeWithRileyStellla.

Here are some pictures of last years labour day weekend trip to Summerland when Stella was approx three months old.

  

Vacation Part 1

Hubby, the dogs and I headed off a few weeks ago to beautiful Oregon with our trailer for some summer camping fun.  First week was LaPine State Park near Bend, Oregon.  This is a great area that would likely be classified as high mountain desert.  The Deschutes River winds through the campsite and the Newberry National Volcanic Monument Park is close by with wonderful sights, lakes and hiking. 

We had a very relaxing, mellow trip.  Riley is okay with shorter (1-1.5 hours) hikes so we did some exploring and took advantage of swimming opportunities.  Stella ate some grass that irritated her throat badly on the first day which then caused her to want to eat lots more grass to throw up and repeat in a vicious cycle.    This resulted in a few miserable days for her where she had an upset gastro-intestinal system (vomiting and a few diarhea poops) and a sore throat area.  Through all of that she still was mostly her happy, bouncy self and everything got sorted out and settled down after a few days.   Both my dogs munch on grass often here with no problems other than the occasional stringy grass poop but this stuff was just longer, dry stuff with sharper edges.  She is also low to the ground and darn sneaky so it was very hard to keep it away from her unless she was tied up on a short rope in the campsite.  Luckily once she felt better it was much less attractive to her.  We still managed to have lots of fun and the warm weather was perfect for dog swimming.

  Stella swimming in Paulina Lake



Riley swimming in Deschutes River



Friends exploring the trails

We also met a fun three month old female vizsla pup in the campground.  Stella had a blast playing with puppy Olive who actually lives fairly close to us here in Vancouver.  It was funny to meet them when we are both so far from home!

Stella playing with Olive

Campsite





 

Miss Mighty Hunter

Note to self .... Make sure to pack some benadryl for camping trips!

Stella has strong birding instincts which is true to her breed and also to her bloodlines.  Both her parents are accomplished dogs in the field.  I may in the future look into field trials but it is very hard to find positive based training methods in that area of dog sports.   For now we have lots to work on with rally and obedience and possibly agility in the future.

Her hunting instincts are not limited to birds.  She loves to hunt, stalk, chase anything she can which includes bugs, flies and the cats when they want to participate.  When we have been camping she amuses herself in the campground by playing with any of the bugs or flies she can find.  She stalks, pounces, repeats until eventually she catches her prey.  I'm sure that this is eventually going to result in her being bitten by something so hence the benadryl comment above.  If there is a spider or fly in the house she and the cats compete to chase it down. 

She loves to chase the cats which I stop as much as possible.  The cats know that she isn't going to hurt them but they still provide her with some chase opportunities.  Desi will just jump up on to the nearest higher ground to end the chase.  Fred almost enjoys the games and runs for a minute and then just stops and looks at her which brings her to to a screeching halt where she waits wagging her tail hoping for the game to start again.  Desi tends to mostly ignore the dogs but Fred is quite comfortable with them around.  Stella cracks me up offering all sorts of play bows to Fred but her best play moves just cause him to flick his tail and walk away from her.  She hasn't given up hope yet that he will someday romp and wrestle with her. 

Here is a picture of her pointing a bird in a bush on a recent hike.

The Boss

I was walking along the street the other day with the dogs when a woman complimented me on my beautiful dogs.  I said thanks and then she asked how they got along.  I replied they got along wonderfully.  She then commented well but of course one of them has to be the boss and wanted to know which one was.  I replied that I suppose Riley was the "boss" but really there is no conflict between them.  She then replied on how important it was that everyone understood where they stood and was making alpha referances.  I just smiled at this point and moved on.

It seemed obvious to me that she was a firm believer in the "pack mentality" where someone is the alpha leader etc. that controls everything. I am not a personal subscriber to that theory.  I suppose if pushed I would say that Riley is the current "boss" dog in the house.  When Lucy was alive she was the "boss".  In both of those situations I have been lucky enough to never have dogs in conflict.  Is that just good temperment or is there more to the situation?  I do believe in leadership but more from me than from my dogs.  I don't expect one dog to discipline the other.   When we were dog sitting recently the other dog tried to bully Stella out of the coveted cuddle spot next to me and I just let it be known gently that was unacceptable and resulted in nobody having the spot.  She tried that twice and figured out there was no benefit to her behaviour and not an issue for the rest of her visit.  There has been extremely few corrections between my dogs and they have always been very fair so I have not interfered.   Instead I want to provide a comfortable situation where everyone respects the ground rules and each other.    I know that is really oversimplifying things and lots of people have awful dog-dog problems that are not treatable and are very difficult to live with.  My heart goes out to those people because I can't imagine how hard it would be to need to rehome or even crate/rotate between dogs.

I am a fan of opposite sex dogs when possible.  When we were looking to add Riley to our home I knew that I wanted a male because Lucy generally preferred male dogs and if she was gonna have any issues it was usually with another female. When we looked at adding Stella I wanted a female because we often have my mother's dog Sam here and the boys are super competitive but were always good with Lucy.

I also knew not to rush introductions or push for a connection between them.  Lucy was ten and hated puppies so that one had us worried.  She refused to make any eye contact with Riley for three days and then she pinned him when he tried to rush past her out the door.   She didn't leave a mark on him but from that moment on he respected her and within the next week she had fully accepted him.  The only issues we really every had were if she grumped at another dog he would jump in to defend her.

When we added Stella I didn't have any worries because Riley is very good with puppies and small dogs.  Things went well from the start but I was still very careful to give him extra time and space away from the obnoxious puppy who loved to hang on his jowls.   There were lots of moments her prefered to be on the non-puppy side of the baby gate :o).   It actually was good for all of us because it gave him breathing space and also kept her from getting too focused and attached to him before she properly bonded and got focus with me.

Today I am counting my blessings to have harmony in our home without worrying that every move my dogs make is a plot to be the  "ultimate leader in charge".

Puppy Stella snuck in close for a cuddle when Riley was sleeping.

                                                         Lucy and Riley

Rules

We have had a series of dogs staying with us since our return from our ski trip in February.  We had a friend's small dog, another Vizsla puppy and currently Sam (Riley's littermate) is visiting.   They are all wonderful dogs that are welcome to visit or stay with us anytime but having other people's dogs stay with me brought up a few thoughts to me about what behaviours that I think are important to live with.  Behaviours that are super important to me might not bother other people at all and vice-versa.

Each new fur member of our family seems to relax more rules more than the one before.  Kinda like families with lots of kids that wear down the parents :o).  Bud was my first cat and Lucy was our first dog.  Cats aren't easy animals to have rules with but it was understood that cats were not welcome on tables or countertops.  Bud is no longer with us and we now have two other cats that frequent the tables and countertops of our home pretty much whenever they want.  I don't want them surfing the counters to help "clean" any dirty dishes and they definately aren't allowed there when we are cooking but otherwise they pretty much do what they want.  We can directly blame that one on puppy Riley as the cats would often jump up onto tables or countertops to escape a huge puppy that wanted to chase or play with them. 

When Lucy first joined us we had lots of rules.  Real life happened and that smart little monster seemed to figure out lots of ways to bend us to her set of rules instead.  I also learned so much more about natural health and positive dog training so by the time Riley came along a lot of things just weren't important anymore.  Stella has successfully eliminated our no dogs on the couch rule although thankfully Riley shows zero interest in claiming his spot.  I don't allow free reign on the couch and expect her to sit and wait for permission before jumping up but she is rarely denied permission.

So that brings up the question as to what are the important rules I expect for my dogs?  The main rules are no jumping up on people, polite food behaviours and barking only in context.  I don't mind dogs that are barking for a reason (squirrel in yard etc.) but hate it when dogs bark at every little thing or just to hear themselves.  Stella barks more than I would like but we are working on it gradually.  She is much more environmentally aware than Riley and has been more naturally barky since she was a young puppy but she is learning to turn it off when asked.

What rules are important to you?

Friends

It was a crazy, busy week last week.  I have several friends going through family sickness and deaths which has once again reminded me to count my blessings and enjoy life while we can.  I am so very lucky to have a wonderful husband and family, awesome pets and some of the greatest friends anyone could hope for. 

Patricia McConnell is one of my favourite dog authors/experts and she recently wrote a blog http://www.theotherendoftheleash.com/youve-got-a-friend responding to the question of can dogs be friends.  This gets into all sorts of discussions related to the definaition of friendship and how humans keep trying to assign our emotions to our animals (anthromorphism).  I am in the camp of believing that dogs can be friends and that is based entirely on my own experiences.  When Lucy was a pup we often met up with other puppy owners in the area and years later those dogs would light up to greet each other even long after the crazy play times were over.  Riley and Lucy were definitely what I would call friends.  They never really played much together as Lucy was slowing down a lot by the time Riley came along.  They were however very compatible and happy to see each other and just be together.    Riley and Sam are littermates and I would consider them friends but there is also a crazy littermate vibe that seems different compared to what I would consider friends.

Riley and Stella have developed a wonderful friendship and I am super thrilled with how they interact together.  I have found it fascinating to watch the two of them develop a play style that works for both of them.  Riley is a rough and tumble play style and Stella is a zoom and chase player.  They have developed a play that is in between both their styles and obviously enjoy each other a lot.  I’m glad that this has developed over time instead of being an instant always crazy playing when we brought her home.  It has made it easier for me to train and work with both of them because they are not totally always wrapped up in each other.  I have seen people with multiple dogs that become so focused with always playing with other dogs that they then have a difficult time convincing the dogs that the person is also fun to train and play with.

I also find it very interesting that both Riley and Stella revert back to their regular play styles with other dogs.   Stella has beautiful dog body language and she has been taking a role as a “puppy ambassador” in training classes to meet the young puppies as she is very appropriate and non-threatening.  We are transitioning out of puppy classes now towards more regular obedience handling but it’s fun to get to play a bit with the puppies.

A huge thank you to http://www.donnaandthedogsblog.com/ for sharing the Versatile Blogger Award with me.  She has a wonderful blog about her three dogs with include a lab and a vizsla.

The rules for the Versatile Blogger Award are as follows:
1. Thank the award giver and link back in your post. (See above)
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass this award along to as many as 15 blogs you enjoy reading and let them know about the award!

I will hopefully get to passing this award on this week as well as one other I have received.   

This week we are on a winter holiday with the dogs so lots of snowshoeing, cross country skiing adventures and playing in the snow.  Expect lots of very cold looking pictures soon! 

Hide n Seek

I am lucky enough to be able to walk with my dogs daily on wonderful trails where they romp off leash.   Both dogs check in frequently and have good recall (except when Riley finds a golf ball but that's another story).   I have noticed recently as the dogs have enjoyed more playing together that they aren't checking in quite so much and occasionally they just start running together and zoom down the trail around corners out of sight.  This is not acceptable behaviour for safety reasons.

Saturday we were hiking and they did this so I ducked off to the side of the trail out of sight.  When they came back to check in they found me quickly.  The next time I made a point to duck into a spot where I could hide quite well.  Stella came back first as usual and ran by a few times before stopping and heading straight to me.  The little miss definately has a good nose on her.  I then held her with me and Riley came zooming back to look for us and ran by.  He also has an amazing sense of smell but relies less on it when he is excitable so it is harder for him to seek me out.  I let him run up and down the trail for a few minutes looking for us before I called him to my position.    I did this one other time that day when they again got to far ahead.  After the third time both dogs were careful to keep a much better eye on my location. 

It might seem a bit mean to stress them out this way but it is important to me that they remember to stick close.  I think having the time to romp off leash and be dogs is a good trade off for this.  When we walked yesterday I only got one little chance to hide on them and they caught me before I could get into position.  I would say that means the message is being received :o).

Chill Out

I took Stella for a visit to a client’s office this week.  We had not been there for quite some time and she was beautifully behaved.  My client was very impressed with her as she greeted appropriately with her feet on the floor and happily ran through some of her tricks.  We got a lot of “I can’t believe how good she is” etc. and comparisons to another young “out of control” dog that is owned by an office in the same complex.

I am very lucky to be able to take my dogs to various clients occasionally while I work.  It makes scheduling busy days easier when I need to go to dog classes or other dog related appointments.  Both dogs have done this since a young age so have learned to just chill out while I am working.  Stella is still a pup so I usually tether her to me or my desk to keep her from getting into trouble but she has learned to mostly just curl up and sleep or entertain herself with a chew.  Calm behaviours and a good "off switch" are super important life skills that a lot of people underestimate.  Dogs and especially puppies need to learn that although there is lots of time for fun there are also times to chill out.  It's not fancy fun training stuff but it sure can make life a lot easier.

My dogs aren’t perfect and I am far from a perfect dog owner but generally my dogs have good people and environmental social skills.  I have also gained a bit of wisdom and make some better choices about when to just leave them home.   I know that is not always an easy task when people have fearful or otherwise challenging dogs.  We dog owners face many “dog haters” and rules and regulations in today’s world and if we provide well behaved dog citizens then perhaps we might prevent even more of those awful restrictions.

Here is a little video of Stella working on some of the fun training stuff :o).

I am headed to clicker expo this weekend.  So excited!

Improving

I discovered something interesting last night at dog class.  I was working Riley with my trainer on some heelwork and things we will need to compete for our novice obedience title later this year.  While working with him I noticed that I am handling him better than I used too.  I think that working with Stella has taught me how to be clearer in my body language and how to read his reactions better.  Both dogs move very different from each other and I think working the combination has taught me to be more aware of my body position as well as their positions.  It really is true that almost everything a dog does "wrong" is a result of handler error.

It's not that I didn't have a good working bond with Riley but I had gotten used to the "feel" of working with him and perhaps that caused me to become lazy with my criteria and making excuses like his size etc.   I also believe that working on more shaping has probably taught me to be a bit more patient and wait for the response that I want instead of fixing the response that I get.

Stella was supposed to attend class last night as well but she was sick on sunday so I opted to leave her home.  I ended up assisting my trainer with one of the new puppy families in her class.  It was fun and it was a bit of an ego boost for me to realize that I actually had good answers for their questions.  Each animal that comes into our lives has so much to teach us.  I still have so much to learn but it was nice to take a moment and recognize how far I have come.

We've had snow here this week which is unusual for us but the dogs have had a blast playing.

In the moment

One of the best things about dogs is the joy they have for life.  This week was an anniversary of when my dad died and I was feeling sad and missing him a lot.  That same day I took the dogs walking and as I watched them zoom around and play I couldn't help but smile and laugh.  Stella's latest favourite game is to steal Riley's ball and have him chase her to get it back.  He is faster on the flats but she can out maneuver him with her quick twists and turns.  If he gives up then she just comes closer and almost stuffs the ball in his mouth to taunt him back to the game.  I had worried that he might not be thrilled to share his precious ball but he seems to enjoy the game as much as she does.   Our daily walks bring balance to my life and I love watching them enjoying life so much.  Dogs have such appreciation for the moment and they are a good reminder to appreciate the little things.  Life really is pretty good!

 Can I have your stick Riley?

 Tug, tug, tug

 Is this the ball you want Riley?

 Nanananabooboo, I've got the ball .....

   Wrestlemania

Snow play day

Today we packed up the dogs and drove the 1.5 hour trip to Whistler Olympic Park (WOP) for a cross country skiing adventure.  WOP designates approx ten kilometres of it's trails as dog-friendly as well some dog-friendly snowshoe trails.  We opted to ski with the dogs today.  This was Stella's first snow experience and she had a blast.  Riley has lots of experience with skiing and it ranks on the list of his favourite things.  I wasn't sure if Stella would be a fan of the cold snow but the temperature was sitting close to zero and she had a coat on and didn't mind the snow at all.  She even often ventured off the groomed trails to bounce through the deeper snow areas. 

Stella figured out pretty quickly how to stay out of the way of the skiers although she tried to "herd" me on some of the downhill sections until I convinced her that wasn't a very good idea.  I am not a fast skier so the pace is very suitable for the dogs to play and have lots of fun.  I occasionally get up some good speed on the downhill areas and the dogs seem to almost cheer as they escort me along with joyfull bounces and big grins. 

There were lots of other dogs out on the trail so Stella had fun playing with them.  I think Riley was grateful to have her attention diverted for a while although he occasionally joined in with the play.  He is generally happy to greet other dogs for a quick sniff and then moves on to his next item of interest.    Stella is still a puppy so likes to play with other dogs but is always watching us and is happy to leave them to stay with us.  She especially had a great time playing with a Burmese Mountain Dog who's owner was skiing around the same pace as me.   We all had a great afternoon and the dogs were asleep almost before we left the parking lot.

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.   Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season. 

This celebrating stuff is exhausting 

Crazy glowing eyes to match the christmas lights 

Stella's first Christmas 

Is that Santa I hear?