Puppy class

1/13/2010

Tau was in his first puppy class when this wonderful trainer, Krisi, came over and introduced herself. She teaches conformation. After class, Kristi showed us how "easy" it would be to get Tau ready to show. I'm not sure I'm convinced he's ready for prime time!

Tau is only 4 months old (look how tall he is on her leg!). He's a bit clumsy at 75 pounds and he's teething like crazy, and that left ear isn't always up yet.

Tau wasn't so keen on heeling with Kristi while I watched, but he's still a baby and she was a stranger. I love that when she tries to stack Tau, he keeps kissing her!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40108634@N03/4271601009/

The other pups in the class (all but one are older) are learning to walk on a lead, but he's a shiloh , so he's already mastered sit, down, wait, leave it and here. Heel is a work in progress. He's not understanding stack, and keeps trying to offer a sit, which is the funniest part of this video. I hope it loads....Tau is learning obedience, and I'm learning computers!

Leave it?

11/14/2009

Ok, so I'm trying to teach the puppy "leave it". The most obvious example has been the house plants; Tau loves to pull on the leaves and any roots that show (no poisonous plants at my home). Galen has been pulling roots out for Tau's enjoyment, so he's been getting a lesson in "leave it" as well.

Yesterday I noticed one of my larger plants was at a weird angle in the pot. I went over to check.....and the plant had no roots, and was just sitting on top of the dirt. leaning on the wall. Obviously, "someone who will remain unnamed" pulled the plant out, allowed the puppy to chew on the tender roots, and then tried to PLACE THE PLANT BACK IN THE POT SO I WOULDN'T NOTICE! WHAT DOG DOES THAT?

So, my first thought was that I should place large rocks in the dirt around the surviving plants (I have lots) to make the plants less accessible, and maybe sprinkle some tabasco sauce on the rocks? Part of me says this is animal cruelty, and part of me says this is good training. It is clear the dogs understand they aren't supposed to be in these pots, they are trying to cover their tracks!

Any suggestions besides Tabasco?

Sit/stay under duress

3/24/2010

http://farm5.static.flickr.com...59984_024d851fd4.jpg


Tau is 7 months old this week...105 pounds and 29". He loved playing with the bunny ears...but wearing them? Waaaaay beneath his dignity!

The smallest things

When we're out playing, and it's time to come in for the day, I'll say "Ok, let's go inside now". The dogs are always happy when I'll say "let's go outside and play" or "let's go outside for a walk". I've never thought they understood the words, just saw the direction I was traveling and knew what came next.

Today a neighbor had come over to see the new floors and we were drinking a cup of coffee in my kitchen. We watched a squirrel run along the side fence with a walnut in his mouth through my glass french doors. Tau jumped up and headed for the doggie door. I said, conversationally, "You know Tau, if you are going to go chase squirrels, you should probably just stay inside".

Tau looked at me, looked at our neighbor, harrumphed loudly and lay down.

My neighbor about choked on his coffee, he was laughing so hard. He is now sure Tau understands conversational English!

So I showed him the new trick I'm teaching Tau. When I say the word "Chloe" (he's got a crush on the Skoor's beautiful Shiloh) I've taught Tau to moan. He's about 60%, but he did it for the neighbor. "Tau, are you thinking about Chloe?" "hmmmmmmmhhhhh!!!!!" My neighbor will be grinning all day.

These dogs are sooo much fun!

Welcoming Kaiko

5/2/2010

I'll have to figure out how to spell this so folks know how to pronounce it! 氣 isn't likely to be helpful. The drive home from Canada was uneventful, Kai was in the crate and was quiet as a mouse. It took a few hours of working with Kai and Tau to get them to be BFF's, mostly because Kai was overwhelmed and scared. Today they are running, playing, kissing and carrying on like they've known each other forever.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com...232_8678941163_b.jpg

Kai is much smaller than Tau (maybe 3" at the wither, maybe more, and skinny), and we're going to have him at the vet first thing tomorrow for a complete physical. Hard to believe these brothers were nearly identical at the LER. In this shot, Kai is in the background, smaller than my Golden!

http://farm5.static.flickr.com...163_757e8668c0_b.jpg

We look forward to getting Kai adjusted to his home, and fattened up a bit.

Houdini X2

10/30/2009 I'm pondering how to contain my pups while I am away from home. When Alicia and I are only to be gone a few hours, Tau is in his crate sleeping. Tau goes into his crate happily when requested, and I didn't want to strain that by leaving him in there for longer than a few hours at a time (except at night, of course). My fear is that 8 hours in a crate would destroy his willingness to be in a crate at all. In the past, I've been able to just baby gate off a room, and a puppy was happy to be able to see/hear the other dogs, but I knew the pup was safe, and no rough housing by the other dogs would be a problem.

Galen has changed all that. Every single day we have gated off a room (or even shut a door), we have come home to find the puppy happily snoozing in a cuddle with Galen. No exceptions. Galen has busted Tau out of the bathroom, the bedroom, the laundry room, the kitchen.

Tau can already open one crate (turns out the tooth that Tau BROKE opening the crate is called a canine). The only options I might have would be the outside kennel for Galen, but it's so cold outside even during the day right now. The other option is 8 hours in Tau's big overnight crate (twice a week), which I know he cannot open because the grate is too small for his jaw to get to. It's a compression opener, so I could probably post bets as to how long it would take Galen to figure it out. I have tried keeping the two dogs in completely separate areas of the house, with multiple doors between, even though I don't like the puppy feeling completely alone. The dogs are always together when we get home, and act as though everything is normal. "Oh joy, the humans are home! BTW, you forgot to leave the puppy with us. I fixed that for you."

So. Two questions. First, how old should a puppy be before he can take care of himself with adult dogs and no supervision (IE: how long does this battle go on)?

This has just never come up for me before! I am not worried about Galen hurting the pup on purpose, but accidents do happen, and the older dogs do rough house. Second, how DO you contain dogs that do not understand the virtues of being separated? I already know I'm NEVER going to attempt to have an "in heat" female around Galen without a serious security investment! It would be a battle of wits and I would LOSE!

How you do all you folks who have breeding males and females keep them separate while you are at work?

Tau chillin' at the youth center

4/3/2010

I’m a psychotherapist, a child mental health specialist. God has been very good to me in my private practice, and I try to tithe service in my field. Right now I volunteer as clinical supervisor at a youth drop in center for very high risk teens. I love my work there, and love the kids, but they can be a rough crowd (you have no idea). Last night I decided that Tau needed more time with me, so I took him with me. He was at first wary of the loud noises, crowds, and odd smells (these non profit start ups are often renting really, really old funky buildings… this one is no exception. Tau was probably smelling carpets from the’50’s).

Tau didn’t have fear, exactly, but at first he was wary and careful. When I asked him to make friends with someone, he would approach, sniff, and make friends. A crisis case arose, and I was forced to go into session with a recently traumatized youth brought in by friends. I left Tau with an older boy I know well, who loves dogs. The other facilitators all knew to watch out for him.

I heard a scream, and excused myself to find a sweet woman (who happens to be a criminal working off some jail time doing community service for us) all aflutter. Tau had opened his mouth, she had seen all those teeth, and she had started a perhaps overly dramatic show of fear. I took Tau over, had him roll over to show his tummy, and let her approach. She leaned down, and he licked her nose. According to the lady, they are now best friends. She showed me pictures of her Chihuahua, we talked about how similar sweet dogs of any size are, and I went back and finished the work I needed to do. 10 minutes later I went out to find my pupster lying on the couch cuddling with several youth, looking like the cat in the cream (he’s not allowed on the furniture at home….ever). The kids were so thrilled….he was getting petted by sometimes 5 hands at once! When I took Tau out for a walk to make sure he wasn’t overwhelmed, he looked around the parking lot, then went over and tapped the doorknob with his nose (his way of asking for the door to be opened). He was ready to go back in and play with a big group of noisy teens. Tau may be my therapy dog!

I realized for confidentiality I cannot include pics of the kids, as cute as they are, so this one of Tau alone on the couch is the only one I can include…and yes, he’s huge for 7 months, isn’t he? He’s already taller than Galen. :-P


http://farm5.static.flickr.com...525_d3677855b7_o.jpg

Tau breaks out of daycare!

1/29/2010

Alicia returned to college last week (the surgery and recovery that had her home last semester went well), and I decided that Tau might enjoy some time to play with other pups besides Galen. The two boys spend so much time together on my work days, I wanted Tau to experience playing with...normal?...dogs.

Tau loves this daycare. First he was given a temperament test with the director, who was initially hesitant (Tau weighs over 80 pounds at 5 months old), but wound up bragging on him to the rest of the staff as they introduced new dogs to him. Tau now has permission to play with the small dogs too, since he plays so well and behaves, responding easily to verbal commands.

They introduce the dogs one at a time, and I watched to make sure Tau wasn't overwhelmed with the large adult males (several dogs, a GSD, a Boxer and a Labradoodle, who tended to want to be dominant). Tau just looked bored with their posturing, and played with the friendlier dogs.

Tau left after the first visit tired, happy, and pleased with the experience. The staff raved about how mellow Tau is, without being a couch potato. They said in the vet center next door, there is a flat screen showing the daycare, and several staff saw him on the screen, and came over to meet Tau and ask about him. He's a cutie! He was happy to meet the new people, and showed good social skills. Shilohs are so confident!

Today I had meetings all afternoon, so left Tau there 6 hours. When I went to pick him up, he looked exhausted! He kept waiting for the girl to figure out the time machine, so I could pay and take him. There was a wall, with Tau on the office side and me on the waiting room side.

Tau finally had had enough of patiently waiting. He walked back through the length of the daycare, and disappeared into the employee bathroom. Then he was gone.

Turns out he opened an adjoining door (remember me saying he needed to spend less time with Galen? ) into a long hallway the daycare shares with the veterinary center. He walked down the dark hallway in the vet center, which was closed, walking the entire length of the building. He then pushed open a door into the daycare bathroom, then another into the waiting room, walked over to me, and fell hard on my feet, tired and wanting to cuddle.

The staff freaked out! They have had the facility 5 years, and have never had a dog "break out". They seemed upset that Tau had even opened the first door, let alone figured out the building floor plan on just his second visit. There were lots of other doors he could have gone through, leaving him in the large facility next door.

I reassured them I doubted he would have tried to leave if I hadn't been there. He just wanted to be back with me! Tau probably had heard staff go down the hallway, and didn't understand the path wasn't for him. The staff was so surprised, we didn't really even tell him he had broken the rules.

The staff said my "Houdini" could still come back, but they will now note on his chart to lock all the shared doors when he is there. Why is this not surprising to me?

They asked if Shilohs were all this intelligent. I thought of Galen and had to laugh. Yes, as far as I can tell, yes they are.

Tau meets Roxy

12/22/2009

Tau is doing so well with a house full of strangers (new to him); and even a new dog that has come for Christmas as well!

Tau has made friends with each person separately, and has taken to following one around for awhile, then napping, then following around another. He's quite the host, putting everyone at ease!

Roxy was rescued from a kill shelter by an organization that takes in as many dogs as they can whose "day has come". It's sobering to think this well behaved little ball of energy was on death row!

Roxy had been in foster care for only a day when Heather met her on the street and fell in love. The vet's guess is she's about a year old. We were told she was a beagle/shepherd/pug mix of some sort, but she's dwarfed by four month old Tau.

Tau kept getting down on the rug and trying to look small, wagging his tail and asking to play. Once Roxy decided this giant puppy was gentle and wished her no harm, she got so excited!

I hope I've figured out how to post this short video. It's iPhone camera, so not great quality. Crossing my fingers that it works!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq-86dVn2qU

Tau trees the yard guy!

5/6/2010

The title sort of gives it all away, doesn't it?

I hired a yard service this year, since the yard takes 5 hours a week, minimum. 5 hours I would rather spend at the river! The deal was, the yard guys would call 30 minutes before they arrived, so I could make sure the dogs were securely inside, and ready for a few hours indoors or somewhere else. Since all the gates are open while they mow, the dogs could easily get out. I also don't want flying debris from a trimmer to hit a dog. So that's the deal, they call first.

They usually come on Thursday mornings at 8:30-9, my paperwork morning, so I'm always home. The first few weeks all went as planned.

Today, at 6:50 am, I'm asleep but dreaming about lawn tractors. I startle awake to realize they are mowing my lawn! It's going to be hot today, maybe they got an early start? The dogs are loose, meaning they have the run of the house/yard. 6:50 am? I sit there and shake my head, thinking I must be imagining this! Too early! But no. And there are no dogs in my room. Not good.

I reach the kitchen and look out in the back yard, and Tau is standing at alert in front of a lawn tractor. Standing at full attention (beautiful pose, really), staring down the yard guy. No bark, no growl, just a clear message that the guy was not authorized to move. Stare down. The guy is standing on the seat of his tractor, with his cell phone to his ear. Somehow I think he got a reminder to call me!

The other dogs are basically behaving themselves. I realize this is Tau's first season for both lawn and sprinkler services, he came to us in October when the season was over, so he's never seen lawn tractors before. When the lawn guys were here before, all the dogs were inside or at the park, because they had CALLED FIRST!

Now the good part. Not only is my hair totally bed-head, I'm in jammies, and really marginal jammies. An orange T-shirt of my daughter's (her high school colors were orange and black, so we have a few of these still hanging around). And some "on sale" orange and pink plaid yoga pants that really, anyone with any self respect at all would not be seen dead in. My lucky day.

I take a deep breath, step onto the porch, and the yard guy starts gesturing wildly, in case I didn't notice why he is standing on top of his lawn tractor.

Tau is like a statue, keeping eye contact with this guy. At 9 months old, Tau is easily 115 pounds, and probably 31". His adult coat is coming in, thick enough that he actually looks bigger than 115 pounds. He's going to be one huge Shiloh. The guy standing on the lawn tractor is looking like he's going to wet himself any second. Seriously.

I call Tau, just once. He backs away from the lawn guy, keeping eye contact for a few steps, then trots up and does a perfect "front". I am beyond impressed. No sound at all. These dogs are amazing.

The guy starts to get off his tractor, rethinks his decision, and just starts up the mower and goes back to work. Whew! Don't want to talk to anyone in these jammies!

The dogs come inside, and I go find my toothbrush. If this is the start, it should be an interesting day.

I'm wondering if I should look for a new lawn service. This could have been a disaster.

On the other hand, my guess is whether they start work early or not, the yard guys will be calling in advance from now on. What do you think? Is this grounds for firing these bozos?