Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Dogcula

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I spent some time on youtube last night looking for some positive training methods of teaching a dog to take a treat gently.

Honestly you’d think after five years of screaming in pain every time we give Delilah a treat, one of us would learn.

Either we would figure out how to teach her in a way that she’d remember, we’d learn to tell her easy or she would learn how not to amputate fingers when she took a treat.

It is one of the harder aspects of using positive reinforcements for me.

Yes it’s true.

Delilah is Dogcula.

I am constantly cursing because she’s bitten my finger.  Last winter I couldn’t figure out why my middle finger kept hurting.  (While it’s true I do use that finger frequently, it’s not being used in a manner to cause pain…for me.)

Last night when giving her a treat, she drew blood.

Granted it was a small puncture, but it bled none-the-less.  After treating it with antibiotic cream, I spent some time on youtube looking for some positive methods to teach a dog to take a treat gently.

None of the videos I watched really taught me much (okay, you caught me, I only watched two, but neither one was very helpful.)

I gave up on youtube pretty quickly because I’m just lazy I’d much rather turn to my friends and see how they manage their dogs.

What’s a few fingers when I’m so stinkin’ cute?

 

So tell me, do you have Dogcula’s living in your house, or have you taught them to take treats gently?  If so, how did you do it?

I thank you and my hands thank you.

Dogs Can’t Add

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On our walk this morning I was formulating a lovely post about recalls and what Delilah and I have learned and applied in the last eight weeks.

The Key Lies in Repetition

It is naive to think your dog will come back to you from an enticing situation if you only recall occasionally.  I have been working Delilah constantly.  In the course of a 30 minute walk I probably recall her at least 30 times.

I reward her each time she returns to me with a piece of liverwurst.   I even reward her when she comes to me without being called.  Sometimes it is with a piece of liverwurst, sometimes with a lesser food reward and sometimes I give her a rub on the head and tell her what a good girl she is.

Our recall word is HERE.  I say it loudly and clearly.  When she turns toward me I say, YES in an excited voice, sometimes I encourage her, come on, you’re such a good girl.

On the rare occasion she doesn’t respond immediately, I’ve found if I say YES and continue to chatter while rewarding Sampson, curiosity will compel her to come and see what Sampson is getting.

Know Your Dog And His/Her Limitations

With Delilah, I know there are areas where the lure of what else is out there, is greater than the lure of what is in my treat bag.  When I am approaching these areas, I will call her to me and either leash her, or I will hold a treat in my hand down by my side and keep her in a heel position.

Once we have passed that danger zone, I will release her again.

Sometimes Even With All We’ve Learned, We Fail Our Dogs

In the last week I have been giving her a lot more freedom, in fact about 98% of her walks have been off-leash.  She’s done spectacularly…..until today.

Let me be clear, it is I who failed, not Delilah.

I gave her too much freedom in an area that is far too tempting for her.  Today as we approached a danger zone I recalled her, but I failed to secure her on leash or use a heel treat.  She ran out into a neighborhood and investigated Tia’s yard.

I tried to recall her, but the lure of the yard was far more interesting than what I had in my pouch.  Sampson and I had to go out and get her.

Yes, she spent the rest of the walk (about 40 minutes) on leash.

2 Plus 2 Do Not Equal Four To Delilah

At first I was angry with Delilah, she did not respond to my call and I’m ashamed to say when I finally got her back I called her a dumb dog.

I stewed about it for a while on the walk, but then I realized that Delilah does not know how to add, she does not understand, I ran off so I got put back on leash.

Back To Square One

I know she’s capable of learning.  Whenever she is on leash and we approach a steep downhill area, I say easy Delilah, easy.  She’s gotten to the point that even when she is off leash, she walks slowly down these hills.

If I continue to request a heel from her in the danger zones, before long she will automatically heel and stay close even if she is off leash.

Right?

It was lovely while it lasted.

Tick Tick BOOM

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Thursday night Delilah and I popped into the drop-in agility class at The Mellow Mutt.

We were a few minutes early so I started my treat shopping, with Delilah’s help of course.

I was checking out the grain-free treats while Delilah tried to steal checked out a pig’s ear.  Sara’s dog, Chuck came over, whether it was to say hello to me or to tell Delilah to back off the treats, I’m not sure.  But before I knew it, they were snapping at each other.

What the BEEP?

I mean it’s Chuck, our buddy, the guy we play with ALL the time.

Chuckers went to sulk in the other room, Delilah and I finished our shopping and then we walked into the agility room.  I looked around and only saw one dog I knew, Brisco a really high-energy little guy.

I walked to the farthest corner of the room.

Dude.  I won’t lie.  That altercation with Chuck really threw me.

So there we are in our corner, Brisco is in one corner, there is a German Shepherd mix in one corner, an Akita named Boots against the wall and this couple walks into the last remaining corner with two Labs, one yellow and one black.

I thought Brisco had a lot of energy, but these two labs had way more and their mom said they’d been swimming and running earlier.  I thanked God right then and there that neither one of my dogs are that energetic.

We were up first and I wish I’d had a video, it was a great run.   All our future runs were mediocre as Delilah was now on the hunt for the treats left behind by the Labs.  In fact, when Sara took the chute up, Delilah spent a bit of time in there cleaning it up.

You can see the little brown treat between her legs, she could smell it but had the hardest time finding it.

During her first attempt at a run the black lab decided to rush headlong into our corner.

That didn’t work well.  She got a face full of chocolate lab.

Thankfully I remembered to scream LOOK, at which point Delilah’s head whipped around and the mom moved her dog out of the line of fire.

After the fiasco with the black lab I tried to keep Delilah distracted with treats.

The A-Frame was set up so when the dogs came over in one direction they could in fact run straight into our corner.

Unfortunately the GSD did not get the memo telling him to avoid the chocolate lab eating treats in the corner.

Yup, he was the next dog that got a face full of chocolate.

By the time we got to our fourth run, Delilah was exhausted and had more interest in cleaning up the leftover treats than she had in running the course again, and I was totally on edge, so we declined a fifth go.

I didn’t get a video of our run, however I did manage to record Brisco’s with his dad.

Up until a few months ago his parent’s were working agility with treats, but he loves the squeaker ball,  so Sara suggested using that instead which works a little better for him.

He doesn’t have the best form but his enthusiasm and energy makes him a joy to watch.  (Mental note to self, don’t hit the stop button quite so soon.)

The Tick Tick BOOM has absolutely nothing to do with this post, it’s a saying I heard on a show and I thought it sounded cool. 😉

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