Practice Makes Perfect

I read on another blog, I think it was That Mutt but I could be wrong, that you shouldn’t try to avoid situations that your dog has issues with but should try to confront those situations and work through them. I’m paraphrasing obviously.

I sometimes don’t like walking Trooper because when we encounter other dogs he gets rowdy. Timber is the same way. But I realize that the more I walk Trooper and encounter dogs in various states of excitement the better he gets in his reactions.

If a dog is lunging (excited or aggressive) Trooper still wants to react toward that dog but with the choke chain and the sharp command “leave it” or “No” he isn’t trying to pull me off my feet anymore. Of course, an aggressive dog makes him get protective but he’s getting better at that too.

Timber, meanwhile, is also making gains in walking properly with his mama. I took him to daycare on Friday and for about 20 minutes went back and forth from my car to the door trying to get him to not pull on me. Finally the owner took pity on me and in 2 minutes had that dog healing and looking up at her in total submission.

I was very jealous. What was I doing wrong? I was being too nice!!! =) Which is funny since I’m the “mean” one of the family (mean as in strict). But I wasn’t being mean enough.

So more practice is necessary. My goal is to be able to someday walk both boys together. Without being pulled over. In the meantime I’ll be happy walking them separately without having a shoulder dislocated.

Happy Pups

Yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and take Timber and Trooper for a walk. Separately. I keep telling hubby that he needs to work with Timber more often but the laziness factor seems to keep that from happening.

Don’t get me wrong, hubby LOVES his dogs and plays with them a lot (wrestling, ball, tug of war) but walks seem to elude his vocabulary.

And I’m tired of Timber practically pulling me down when I take him to daycare. He needs to NOT pull.

So around the neighborhood I went with Timber not sure exactly why mommy was with him instead of papa. But he did very good. Several times I had to use the choke chain and jerk in the opposite direction to make him stop pulling hard but that should decrease the more we work.

One of my neighbors was walking out to get his mail and I asked him if we could train a bit with him. I made Timber sit and stay and the neighbor walked towards us. Timber freaked out and got all excited and started jumping up and waging his tail and barking. So the neighbor stopped (he knew what he was doing) while I calmed pup down and made him sit again.

It took a little over 5 minutes for the guy to actually be able to get close enough to us with Timber being calm before I’d let Timber approach the man. He tried jumping up once but I was ready for it and the guy was too. It’s good to have neighbors who know how to handle dogs. Plus he’s a total dog lover.

We only went around the neighborhood once but that was enough for Timber, who seemed wiped out…with all the switching directions we probably actually walked the equivalent of two times around.

Trooper is a breeze after wild man. But I was a little more strict with him last night because I want to take him with me in public to an outdoor craft show on Saturday. So for the most part I kept him right by my side, something I don’t always do on regular walks. And I only let him leave my side if I said “OK” and gave him extra leash so he could sniff and mark. He did really well. When I stopped to chat to someone he just sat down nicely. He’s such a good boy.

Daddy doesn’t want me to take Trooper out in public. He’s worried about liability, which I can totally understand after the incident. But he’ll be on leash, on a choke chain actually, and with me the whole time. At no point will he be off leash or out of my sight. If I see a small dog (and my eyes will be peeled) I will tighten up my hold and be extremely careful.

If I don’t ever take him out he’ll never learn how to behave. One of these days I’d like hubby and I to be able to take Trooper and Timber with us for long walks in public places but right now that isn’t realistic.

Anyway…both Trooper and Timber were very happy and tired last night.

What about Quinn and Kodiak? Well, their walk times have diminished drastically since Kodiak’s last surgery. Quinn can only make it once around the neighborhood and that’s pushing it. Kodiak loves to walk but ends up very sore afterward so we don’t walk him that often…maybe once a week. They’re both old enough that they like to sleep most of the day.

It’s the two young boys who keep us on our toes.

Potty Training Doesn't Have to be Hard - Part Two

Writing about crate training Trooper was very timely. As you might remember, Trooper’s breeder just recently had a new litter and one of the new Malamute mom’s had a question about her new one and the tantrums of being in a crate. I laughed with sympathy and forwarded my post to her.

So now part two.

The number one thing I can recommend while potty training - PAY ATTENTION. Puppies are really pretty obvious (usually) when they have to go. And the second thing…use treats.

If your puppy is loose and walking around the house watch them like a hawk. Puppies usually give some very clear clues that they need to go potty…though every puppy is different.

If you are worried about your puppy not being within your line of sight at all times, use a leash. Attach it to your belt or waist and that puppy will stay with you no matter where you go (obviously don’t drag them around *grin*). If you’re sitting on the couch, make him stay within your line of site. If you’re in the kitchen (and you’re going to allow them in the kitchen) have her by your side.

This helps with two different things. First it gives you the opportunity to watch them like a hawk. The second is that it gives the dog the message that they do not have free roam. They can’t go anywhere they want and need to have your permission. Plus it’s a great bonding tool.

Trooper hated it at first but he got used to it (I think it helped us establish our Alpha role as well). We didn’t do this with Kodiak and we had a LOT more puppy potty accidents in the house. We just didn’t watch him closely enough.

Kodiak gave us plenty of signals, but since he was our first puppy we didn’t always recognize them right away.

Sniffing around or moving in a circle was one of his key alert behaviors. Of course, sniffing is common for puppies because there is a lot of new stuff to smell. But there should be a certain kind of sniffing and moving that your dog does before they go potty.

If we didn’t grab Kodiak and head outside fast enough, sure enough after a few circles he’d be squatting on the floor and doing his business.

If you see your puppy start to squat - grab them quick and run outside. Don’t yell. Don’t punish. They don’t know any better and haven’t learned where they should do their business yet. It is NOT their fault!

We had many interesting trips running from the apartment with our dog upside down in our arms…usually with a stream of pee shooting up! I’m sure our neighbors loved us.

Trooper wasn’t nearly so obvious. He liked to stare. That’s about the only hint he gave. No whining. No barking. He would stare at us for a few minutes or go stand at the back door (once he realized that is where he needed to go) and sit there. If we didn’t realize he was there he’d go right on the rug. It was not fun.

Finally we tied a bell to the back door. Every time we took him out to potty we lifted his paw for him and rang the bell. Pretty soon he got the idea and would ring the bell himself to go outside. Such a smart boy!

He still doesn’t bark or whine (he’ll be 3 in July). He will stare at you deeply (it’s a little unnerving) or just sit by the door. But thankfully he has more control now and doesn’t have accidents in the house. We usually get the message if he stares long enough.

I think most puppies go through a couple of training stages. The first one is when they can’t really control themselves. They’re too young to hold it for very long and if not given the appropriate opportunity to relieve themselves will go wherever they are.

The second stage is when they are a little older, 3-4 months, and do have more control but still don’t “get it” 100%. When they have to go potty they kind of know they’re supposed to go outside but just aren’t sure how to go from A to B.

Encourage your puppy when they go potty outside. My mom thought I was a complete nutter. When Trooper went potty, I’d say over and over again “Good boy go potty” … as he was going. And then he’d immediately get a treat. Going potty outside is FUN!

This encouragement really does help get you to stage three. A little bit older and wiser and able to hold their bladder longer, your puppy KNOWS that it is supposed to go outside and should know how to tell you. But if you ignore the signs too long or if he is left home alone he may have no choice but to go inside.

I think that stage three might be the hardest phase to get over - especially if your dog has to be by themselves for long periods of time. By around six months old Trooper could hold his bladder for at least 6 hours but if we slept in or left him in his crate for longer than that he had accidents.

Again, NOT his fault. Don’t punish or yell because they won’t know why. Just clean up the mess and start over again.

I know that some people use potty training pads but we found those just encouraged the dogs to go in the house (we use them now for Quinn but she is a different situation).

Do you have some good potty training tips? Was it hard to potty train your puppy?

Potty Training Doesn't Have to be Hard

One of the bloggers I started reading just got a new puppy and expressed a little trepidation about potty training. I left a long comment on her blog but then thought I should formulate my experience here.

Trooper was our last potty training experience. Quinn was an adult when we got her and only peed once in the house - on her first night - so we chalk that up to nerves. Timber has never had an accident in the house since we brought him in (thank goodness!). All I remember from Kodiak is running with him in my arms (up side down like a baby) and having pee flying up in the air!

We brought Trooper home when he was 8 weeks old. Just a pile of fur. But already full of personality and spunk. He knew what he wanted and what he did not want. And he did NOT want to be in a crate.

That was just too bad for him because we were crate training and that’s all there was to it. I was the strong one. Trooper screamed…not just howled or barked…but screamed at night for at least 30-45 minutes every night for two weeks. I am not exaggerating. He would work himself up into such a dither that he’d try to bite his way through the plastic crate holes with his tiny little jaws…and end up getting his little jaws stuck. Imagine a squealing little pig with lots of fur. And yes, we did get up at that point to ‘unstick’ him (it was really obvious when it happened). We are talking full out tantrum.

Hubby constantly said, “can’t we just take him out for a few minutes” but I would immediately veto that idea. He has to learn. We have to win this battle of wills because he would learn how to get his way if we weren’t stronger willed.

Every night we had the same routine. All the dogs would go outside to “potty”. Then we would go into the bedroom. Trooper learned very quickly that if he went into his kennel he got a treat…so getting him in was no problem. A good thing too, since he’s now 85 pounds of muscle and I’d never be able to force him into a kennel.

But for two weeks he complained every night. He also did not go potty in his crate. He was young so we took him out to potty every few hours the first few weeks we had him. As he got older he started sleeping longer and longer. And he stopped complaining. His kennel became his home and his bed. He loved it!

As we would start getting ready for bed he would run to his kennel and stare at you “where’s my treat?” and sometimes we’d find him in there just for no reason (not just at bedtime).

Crating him was the very best thing we did for him and for us. When we went somewhere, he went into his crate and didn’t wake the neighbors up. It was his home. And he didn’t have accidents in his crate (well, he did but it was a stomach issue not his fault…and we worked through that). The few times we had to leave him for multiple hours he did good.

We would have had way more major issues with Trooper if we hadn’t crate trained him. Ignoring the tantrums was hard but temporary. It also established our “alpha” position with him as much as anything else.

Next post will be about how we potty trained when we were home and awake.

Is It Over Already?

I cannot tell you how much fun I had this weekend. Of course, I also had a completely exhausting weekend.

Trooper and I left in the truck early Saturday morning … I wasn’t sure where the event was and I get nervous driving new places. It’s a very good thing I left so early because we did end up lost! I copied the instructions down wrong - I missed a line of direction and missed a turn.

Thankfully I had my trainer’s and another participant’s phone number and was able to turn around and make it to the Ranch.

Unfortunately I’d forgotten my registration information, but it was okay because they had our details at check in. Thank goodness!

Things got started off a little later than normal - the judges had to be woken up! hahaha Silly judges. It wasn’t until after 9 a.m. when the runs started and our first run wasn’t until around 10:30 or 11 a.m. I wasn’t all that nervous for our first run. It was a Standard run and I had plenty of time to walk it and memorize the course.

I didn’t explain to my helper how to use my camera so he only got about half of the run but at least you can see Trooper pretty well. We ended up Qualifying and getting SECOND place in our very first trial run!!! I was ecstatic!!!

Trooper did SO good … he did growl at one dog when we first got there - the ONLY dog bigger than him. hee hee hee

But otherwise the entire weekend was wonderful. Our second run was Gamblers - I had to send him on to a tunnel and then he was supposed to take a jump that was a ways away from me. It didn’t work out so well but except for that and a tire issue he did wonderful. We didn’t qualify because you have to complete the gamble successfully in order to Q. I think the tunnel angle was a little unfair for us noobies but who am I to complain?

I run like a girl.

The last run of our first day was called Snookers. *grin* It was fun and we ended up qualifying.

That was probably our best run in terms of clean and put together, except I did notice my baby shaking his head a bit. That usually means he has an ear issue. But he did awesome.

I think we tied for third in Snookers, with another student from the same class which is neat. There were a ton of Fido Farm’s students and instructors there. It was incredible to have such support and camaraderie.

The first day lasted FOREVER! They were so far behind and there were so many dogs to run on Saturday that my level didn’t go until after 9 p.m. and we didn’t get home until after 10 p.m. I barely got six hours of sleep before I had to get up and go back up to the Trial.

Trooper was so tired! On our way back he slept the whole way and did not move a muscle. He will normally sit up and get interested when we turn into our development, but he did not wake up until I put the truck in park. He had this look on his face like “are we there yet?” with a dopey expression and his fur all matted on one side. Doggy bed head. LOL

Day two started and I didn’t get lost this time. Trooper was excited to get going even though we hardly had any sleep. Our first run of the day was another Standard one and he did alright. I never realized how slow he goes … although I swear in class he moves faster than he did at the Trial.

He has an amazing sit and stay. We had to wait for almost 30 seconds before we got the green light to go.

Doesn’t he look handsome from behind? *grin* You can hear one of my trainers saying to reward him but I couldn’t hear her. Not only that, if I had moved back toward him he would have broken his sit stay since I couldn’t give him a cookie. He got LOTS of cookies this weekend.

When he went over the A-Frame he actually went quicker than normal. It was quite a coordinated descent too. lol I was quite proud. Normally he slides down kind of sloppily but always cute. I got in his way for the next two jumps and then he didn’t really want to go into the weave poles but he did.

We qualified in this run too so now we have two standard qualifications. We need one more before we can move up. ALREADY!!! It’s a little too frightening to think about.

The next event was Pairs. I paired up with the wonderful Gracie and her ‘momma’ who are in the same class as me and Trooper. I was SO excited for how good they did. Trooper and I didn’t do nearly so well in this one. He did not want to work the weave poles, but he just gets tired of them after only doing them two or three times. He’d already done them once that day.

We took too long and did not qualify but it was hella fun!

Our last run of the tournament was Jumpers. I think we could have done better. I asked my instructor what I did wrong or could have done better but she said I did okay. Trooper was tired. He just didn’t get all the jumps in fast enough so we didn’t qualify. But I also think I could have run it a little differently to help him.

All in all it was an entirely amazing weekend and I can’t wait to do it again!!! We got three Qs, two 2nd places, 1 third place, and 1 fourth place. I’m already looking forward to class on Thursday.

Nerves of Jello

It’s almost time. Tomorrow morning I won’t be sleeping in as usual. I’ll be up bright eyed and bushy tailed at oh five hundred. Get three dogs in their kennel with blankets and towels and water and get Trooper and I in the truck and on the road.

We had our last Agility practice before the trial last night. He did amazing. I was a little concerned because we took all four dogs into the field beforehand to play and he played hard. But he was focused and ran really well. And it was hellishly difficult course. The instructor assured me that none of the set ups at the trial will be nearly so difficult.

My goal is to have fun and not let Trooper run off the course. If it goes really amazingly well we will get something called a “Q” … which I really don’t yet understand. Some of the terminology of this agility stuff is still new to me. Apparently if you do things the “right” way you get a Qualifying score. Get enough “Q”s and I think you move up … to what I don’t know. lol

Something that I do worry about is my nerves. I’m not super nervous yet but I will be tomorrow morning. And when I’m nervous or worried, Trooper does not respond as well to me as normal. When I am confident and alert, he is too. Isn’t that weird? He’s very in tune with me.

I’m hoping to have videos and photos to share next week, if I remember to charge my camera and can find someone to take them while we run. Even if we do horribly I’ll still like watching them … watching Trooper run is such a joy.

Making Progress

Timber is really making progress and I couldn’t be more pleased. I took him with Trooper and me to our agility practice yesterday. He stayed in the truck and when we were done I worked with him on leash. It took a little less time than last Sunday - only 15 minutes as opposed to 25 minutes. *grin*

The choke chain is working well - hubby and I are learning better how to use it effectively. We had an official hour long training on Thursday. It’s clear that hubby is a big ol’ softy and Timber knows it. Hubby has a very hard time getting Timber’s attention.

On our walk today I had Trooper and hubby had Timber but only a few minutes into it hubby asked me to take Timber. He is clearly getting frustrated by his lack of control … he would let Timber pull for a few seconds and wouldn’t correct him until I said something. But I don’t know that he’s totally doing it correctly. So I think he may need to go back and work with the trainer more.

When I took him we only had to walk for a few minutes before he was heeling!!! I was SO excited. This really is HUGE progress for our boy. The first time I took him out on a leash he threw himself down to the ground because he’d never been on a leash before. That was when? September? October? Not that long ago.

But I still feel bad for hubby. He’s not a weak person but he lets these dogs walk all over him. Considering his line of duty it’s almost funny. But I don’t like it when he tries to tell the dogs to do something and they just sort of look at him. *sigh*

We’ve already established that Trooper is “my” dog (who will do almost anything I say) and it upsets hubby.

Any advice? How do you help someone who has no “hand” (random Seinfeld reference!) to get “hand” when it comes to dogs?

Throw a Blanket Over Them

Last night I was making copies of some rebate forms in the office (it’s not like an “office” … more of a spare room with a desk) and all of a sudden I hear screaming and the sound of dogs trying to maul each other.

I dropped everything and ran out to the living room (our house isn’t big…it wasn’t much of a trip) to find my husband in the middle of a violent dog fight between Trooper and Timber.

I head toward the couch and grab a blanket and throw it over the dogs. This stops the fight immediately.

It probably didn’t last more than 30 seconds, and the dogs had no injuries, but unfortunately hubby was a casualty. He has three large puncture wounds on his arm and they bled pretty good. He was still complaining this morning about the pain.

Could this have been avoided? I’m sure. I have no doubt that it started because of a toy. They’re both young males and I think Trooper has felt less secure since we got our foster dog in September and now have our new member Timber. Since September he’s been quicker to lash out and growls much more than I’d ever seen him before.

Trooper and Timber get along really well normally. They play together roughly and chase each other around the yard. They even play tug of war in a playful manner. But twice now they’ve had these major blow ups with each other.

It just reminds me that we can’t let our guard down, even for a minute. Hubby was playing a video game and surely not paying attention to the two monsters who were right next to him on the floor. Should he have gotten in between them? Probably not but that is our first instinct…to break it up.

Thankfully, I remembered the advice we received when we adopted Quinn. She was our second dog and we asked the lady at the rescue what to do if there was a fight. We had no idea how Kodiak would respond and Quinn was a complete stranger to us so we were concerned.

The woman at the shelter said that the best thing to do in a dog fight situation is to throw something over the dogs - a towel, blanket, coat, something. This will generally break it up. Thankfully it worked this time.

Both dogs were taken down … I laid across Timber and hubby held down Trooper until they both relaxed and submitted fully. This is also an important part of calming things down…getting both dogs to submit and realize that they are not in control.

Trooper and Timber are both at daycare today…together. Both have no doubt forgotten all about their little scuffle last night. But hubby and I won’t soon forget.

Very Bad Malamute!

When Trooper was around 9 months old or so … plenty strong enough to knock me on my feet if he’d chosen … we took all three doggies to a local park for a nice long hike. So Kodiak and Trooper go in the back of the truck, Quinn goes in front with us. It’s not always easy to get the dogs out of the truck (at least it was a lot harder then…Trooper now “knows” how to sit and stay before I let him out … sometimes) and as hubby is lowering the truck bed door Trooper jumps OVER my shoulder, hits the ground, and starts to run…

TOWARDS THE FREEWAY!!!

Complete and total panic with no rational thought is the first reaction when this happens. I don’t even know what we did with the other two dogs while we both ran after Trooper. Finally I had a coherent thought and realized that chasing him was the exact opposite thing I needed to do so I started calling his name and running the other way. Thank GOD he followed … we grabbed him by the neck scruff and got his leash on and that has never happened again.

Until yesterday.

I pull into the driveway at agility (it’s a very rocky, pot holed driveway) and start looking for a place to park. As I glance back in my side mirror I see this blur of fur outside the car.

Yeah…Trooper JUMPED OUT OF THE f*&()&() CAR!!!

At first I thought that I’d hit him but he kept going to I threw the car into a space, rolled up the windows (I had Bullet with me too and she’d have followed), got out of the car and started screaming like a banshee.

I was so flippin’ scared and angry. I am not a cussing type of person but I was letting the expletives fly. He hadn’t just run off and was sniffing around the parking area looking all innocent. I knew that he knew I was pissed though because as I’m yelling at him to come to me RIGHT NOW he’s slinking toward me with his head down and ears back … “Uh Oh…Mama is MAD” look on his face.

When he got to me I grabbed his leash (he almost always has a leash on when we drive anywhere) and drag him back to the car where I FORCE him back in (yes…forced…he did not want to get back inside but I AM alpha and he WILL do my bidding!).

He had to sit and wait until I said “ok” before he got out of the car.

I *think* that is when I started breathing again. It took me about 10 minutes to really calm down. One of the trainers told me that if I couldn’t calm down I might as well go home…which is true. He had already forgotten what happened and was excited to work so I had to take some deep breaths and switch my mindset.

But dear Lord in heaven above I was scared. I never in a million years thought he’d do that.

And from now on the windows will only be open a crack!

Making Progress

Trooper and I are doing fairly good in our agility training…at least in my opinion. I’ve gained confidence in the last few weeks with my handling and I think that Trooper has really started to get it - watching me to know where he needs to go and recognizing word commands.

He had been doing the Weave Poles perfectly two weeks ago but now he will do half of them and then think he’s done and stop weaving. The goof ball. So it’s more practice doing the weave pole dance (this involves lots of treats and specific placement of my feet and hands) until he can do it perfectly again.

The table and A-frame are his favorites…probably because he gets so many treats on both of those exercises. We’re working on touches when he comes down on A Frame. He’s so big that he can jump off and out of the proper area in one stride (the dogs have to stay on the various objects down to the bottom or end and get docked if they jump over or off).

On the other hand I am having a hard time visualizing when and where to do front and rear crosses. Simple ones I can figure out but when the instructor asks where we’d put a cross I go completely blank! It’s really frustrating. And confuses Trooper when I am trying to move quickly and guide him at the same time.

We have another agility demo coming up this Saturday and I hope I do a better job than I did last time. I also hope the course is a little larger too.

Apparently when I run I stick my butt out. Ha! Which is funny because I used to run with a straight back. I need to work on that.

Yesterday’s class went really well. There were SO many dogs that we were split up into mini groups within our groups and one of the trainers asked me to watch over my group. It was scary but kind of cool that she’d ask me to do that. Not that my group needed watching over…it was the more advanced group.

I really am kind of hoping that they’ll move me up soon to the more advanced class. I think that Trooper can handle more difficult tasks and I hope that I’m up to learning new things.

When Cute Isn't Good

When you enter the house does your dog go a little nuts? Or does your dog go bananas?

Our dogs get really excited, but usually Quinn is just excited to be let outside to relieve her old lady bladder. Other than running to the back door to let her out I don’t greet my dogs in any exceptional way (usually). If they are acting extremely hyper I ignore them completely…not even saying hi until they calm down.

When I have to let them out of their kennel in the back yard they start jumping up and down (they seem to think they’re bunnies and not dogs) and yelping or howling. But until they sit down quietly they don’t get let out. I don’t say a word. I just stand there and look at them until they quite down.

My aunt was telling me about her dog, Lacey, and how cute it was that she misses her mommy so much. It turns out that Lacey was keeping my uncle up until all hours of the morning because my aunt was out late at an event. And when she finally got home Lacey followed her all around the house and wouldn’t let her out of her sight.

Cute? Maybe. But also unhealthy. The level of anxiety that Lacey felt was bad for her and bad for my uncle who had to get up at 5 a.m.

Of course, when my aunt got home she gave Lacey instant attention - petting and coddling her and reinforcing Lacey’s anxiety. And anxious dogs can become destructive dogs.

Being the quiet and shy person I am, I of course told my aunt that she should ignore Lacey when she gets home until Lacey is quiet and calm. We’ll see if that happens. Sometimes people LIKE the anxious attention their dogs give, thinking it’s cute and mistaking it for love. It’s actually quite unhealthy.

Giving our dogs (and cats) love sometimes means being tough. My mother in law thinks I’m mean when I make Trooper wait for his food…but he knows I love him and he knows that I am in charge. When I take him down (which I had to do the other day) when he growls at his brother at meal prep time I don’t do it to be mean. I do it to enforce my role as alpha and to express to him that he is NOT allowed to behave in that way.

I know that Trooper adores me and that I’m his “mommy” even though I am often strict with him. Sometimes it is kinder to be tough than to let dogs get away with things - and it helps their mental health as well as ours.

Quinn is Doing Better - and Trooper Rocks!

Just a quick update…Quinn is doing much better. She’s still crying but I seriously think she’s doing it to get what she wants at this point. That whole positive reinforcement thing is so evident. =D She cries, she gets attention … ahhh…2+2 really does equal 4 doesn’t it? So she cries more. The little manipulator. *grin*

Does are smart like that.

Speaking of smart…Trooper continues to amaze me in Agility class and at home. He’s a wild Malamute with lots of energy but he seems to have started really using that noggin of his for good. On Saturday I took him to a new place!!! I loaded up on chicken and hot dogs first because I was a little nervous. It was a baseball game at a local college field and boy was it a brand new experience for him.

All the new sounds and smells … I could tell he was overwhelmed but he did so good. He’s so food oriented that every time I said his name he looked at me, which is excellent. He sat, laid down, and ignored other dogs when I asked him to. There was a 7 month old puppy lab who was very intent on meeting Trooper and that went well. There were also two small dogs and we met one of them. I always worry about Troop with small dogs as they are so…well, squirrel / cat like (no offense to small dog owners…I would LOVE to have a small dog but it’s not going to happen right now) and he has such a strong prey drive.

At one point I sat down on the last row of the bleachers and made him lay down and stay. That’s all…just stay and be a good boy. And he DID it!!! Anytime he tried to get up I’d say no and he’d lay back down. There were balls flying and being hit, announcers yelling over the speakers, people clapping and “woohooing” (including me!) … all of which at first made his ears go back and he head swivel around like a top … but after awhile he just got used to it and wanted his treats.

Of course, after 45 minutes the security guard came over and said we had to leave. They have a new rule that no dogs are allowed on the college property - which is SO lame. But I understand. They could be held liable if one dog attacks another. And we were ready to go anyway. We had a GREAT time and I was so proud of my boy. It was a totally new experience for him and he did great!

He’s going to have to get used to the clapping and large crowds if we ever do agility events. =)

Up to Twenty Inches!

Last night was agility training and I was really excited to get going. It seems like a long time from Sunday to Thursday and thankfully not so long between Thursday and Sunday. I knew Trooper was excited to get going too. Besides the fact that he was starving!

My mother in law thinks it’s doggy abuse. I feed the other two pups but Trooper is denied his dinner on Agility evenings. And his breakfast on Agility mornings.

It’s for his own good. A hungry dog is a motivated dog. Even with a meal in his belly Trooper is highly food motivated and always will take a treat from our hands. However when trying to get him to learn new things and focus on working, if he’s not hungry he is much less likely to obey.

Trust me when I tell you that he gets a LOT of goodies during agility training classes. I used to take one chicken breast (boiled) with kibble but discovered that he LOVES hot dogs. SO now I bring three hot dogs cut up, one boiled chicken breast (also cut up) and kibble.

So yesterday he was a highly motivated (aka hungry) dog and on his very first run he did it flawlessly!!! And it wasn’t a straight run either. It was 5 jumps set up in a square. I was so proud of him, but even more proud on our third run when the instructor announced that she was going to raise the jump height to 20 inches!!! I looked at her, my eyes wide and my mouth opened. He’s never done 20 inches before I stuttered.

She smiled. They know what a wimp I am in class.

And what do you know? He sailed over them, hardly even blinking!!! I started jumping up and down like a crazy person. I was so happy and proud of him. It’s such a simple and small thing but you could tell that he was proud of himself too. And he got a big piece of chicken as a reward. Woohoo! *happy dance*

I’m really looking forward to Sunday’s class.

Paying Attention - Agility Creates a Bond

I can’t explain the feeling I get when Trooper and I run through exercises at Agility class and do it correctly. I get so excited and I can tell that he is happy - besides just getting a lump of yummy food. He gets lots of love and ‘good boy’ and “yay”. =D

When he doesn’t do it right it’s rarely his fault as I keep learning. Learning my body language and how it affects his behavior is fascinating. I am forced to really get in tune with exactly how I move and what I do with every part of my body, from feet to hands to head. When I step even one foot in the wrong direction it can give him the wrong message and cause him to go off course.

At our last class we worked very hard - mostly me trying to control my habits. I tend to talk a lot and I’m supposed to be quiet - for each jump I tend to say “jump” or make kissy noises. Bad human! I am only supposed to show him, guide him, with my hand movement and body language.

We went through jumps over and over and over again. Three jumps in a 180 degree turn. And the instructor kept moving out the middle jump so he had to move further and further away from me. Boy was it hard. I love that Trooper was so focused and didn’t get bored. Of course the hot dogs help.

And even as we were working so hard he wanted to go on the baby teeter again and again!

Of course he’s not supposed to be looking at me, he’s supposed to have his head down and looking ahead. But again, it’s my fault. I’m supposed to say get it and put the food on the get it plate. Trooper focuses on my hands because he knows I’m going for a treat. Again, my fault.

But we got to graduate to the big boy teeter!!! It’s much different than the baby teeter and makes a louder noise. We started off slowly - a table is placed under the teeter so it doesn’t go down all the way and Trooper can get used to the noise. He did really good!

Looking at the photos my mother in law took is so much fun. I get to see how he’s moving and where he’s looking. I love seeing him looking at me for direction. Malamutes are so independent and stubborn that it thrills me to pieces that my boy looks to me and wants to work. I can’t thank That Mutt enough for mentioning agility training on her blog one day. It’s given me an entirely new relationship with my dog and that is beyond valuable.

Not to mention the fact that he is plum wore out when we get home!