Beckett is a purebred Lagoto, which is sort of like an Italian (rather that Portuguese) water dog, and she is just a couple of months older than Faegan. She and Fae play really well together, and she has even come over for a long playdate.

Recently, I have been working on loose-leash walking with Faegan and with Beckett. I learned a new teaching technique at the shelter, and it has been working like magic! Before this, I had been doing a lot of the “tree” technique where you just stop when the dog pulls, and then keep walking or maybe click and treat or maybe treat when the dog is walking the right way. I am all for clicking and treating, but my issue with this method is that I was never entirely sure what I was clicking and treating FOR – what was the behavior I wanted? “Loose leash walking” is hard to measure and hard to define in an exact way. Anyway, new methods are going well, and here’s the video I made for Beckett’s moms! It has music but you can watch it on mute, too.

What are your magical training hurdles? Anything that it has taken you awhile to figure out, but then it clicked?

(personal photo)

Oh, hang on a minute, I just woke up. Vacation week means MORE TIME TO DO ALL THE THINGS. Like, you know, work, and prepare for the classes I don’t actually have to attend this week. In fact, I’m late for work as we speak!

So I leave you with a photo of what came in the mail this weekend. Fun times.

mah belleh is so nekkid! (that's right, fae doesn't know how to spell)

luckily i got this kickass hoodie to keep me warm.

Daphne hates wearing clothes, thus no adorable pictures of her from this weekend… but here’s a sad, sad picture from three years ago, when I happily ignored her desire to curl up and die of embarrassment.

the torture!

remarkably tolerant

Whose day isn’t made better by photos of dogs in clothes? okay, usually mine. But not today! Happy Tuesday everyone!

Today, Faegan turns 9 months old! Happy sort of birthday, Faegan!

brand new puppy, ~4 months old, just 2 days after we got her

Much less gangly, more solid puppy, last Sunday, almost 9 months old!

Nine months is an important measuring stick for me, because that’s how old Daphne was when I adopted her. Okay, the real comparisons will come in two weeks, because Daph was exactly 9.5 months old when I brought her home, but 9 months still feels like a milestone. When I adopted Daphne, she had some normal puppy issues: she barked through the night for several nights in a row; she had accidents in the house; she was afraid of other dogs and didn’t know how to play with them; she was terrified of strangers and I didn’t know how to handle that.

Now, Daphne knows which dogs she wants to play with and how to play well with them; the rest, she ignores. She sleeps through the night and has even graciously donated her crate to Faegan (it’s so roomy!), and for all we know, she sleeps happily on her bed in the living room (though we admit that not seeing her on the couch doesn’t mean she wasn’t sleeping on the couch).  She has never had an accident in our last three homes, and she only barks to protect us all. She’s very good at protecting us all. Also? We can have almost all visitors petting her within half an hour of their arrival. Major progress.

Daphne on the day she came home

With all of that in mind, Fae is not doing too badly.** All of her “problem” behaviors are things we can work on: chasing cats, building a reliable recall. Yup, those are pretty much her only issues. We’ve been working on her leash walking and she is a *rockstar* (plus I’m an amazing trainer, duh. Slash she loves liver and will do anything for it, take your pick of which of those answers seems more feasible.). We changed the stuff that’s in her crate and she’s not destroying it nearly as much (ahem, or we just don’t care and she already pulled all the stuffing out, so there’s no more to pull out? Again, take your pick.).

Anyway, we’re all settling in to this two dog household thing, and both dogs remind me to appreciate certain qualities in the other one. I’m pretty happy where we are. Thanks, dogs.

Do you compare your beasts? Are they similar or different, and do you appreciate or resent those differences?

**Okay, maybe I am comparing puppies. Oh well. I find them both satisfactory.

Generally, I would not admit to these mistakes on the internet. I would keep the image the internet has of me: the internet thinks I’m perfect and I wouldn’t want to ruin that image of me. Sadly, maybe we have reached that point in our relationship. The honeymoon goggles are coming off.

A week or so ago, we received a beautiful bouquet of flowers. They lit up the room; they smelled amazing. They made us smile when we thought of the friends who had given them to us. Yes, we noticed there were lilies in the bouquet, but we put them up high where the dogs can’t get to them, and the cats are no longer coming downstairs since we have the puppy. Therefore, this bouquet was safe for us to have.

If you read that last paragraph and are totally confused about why I would be concerned, it’s because lilies are super duper toxic to animals, especially to cats. When I worked at the cat hospital, we had a client come in who had sniffed a lily, and they were sent immediately to the emergency hospital for intravanous fluids and bloodwork. The vet I worked with had seen a cat die from the owners not taking the lily thing seriously; 12 hours later, it was too late.

Funny story for us? I had to take Fae back to the vet to get her eye rechecked.

waiting for the vet, tail wagging like crazy

When I got home five hours later, we found the baby gate to the cats was open, the vase was on the floor, and pieces were taken out of the lilies. We called three vets and the animal poison control line, and every single one of them said TAKE THEM IN RIGHT NOW. More funny (if funny=not funny at all)? We didn’t know which cat it was. So we had to take both of them.

You guys, it turns out lilies are really super duper toxic, even just the pollen. Really, the people we talked to said that if they got it on their paws and then licked it, that could kill them. By the time you start to see symptoms in your pet, it’s already too late. The toxins attack their kidneys and you don’t see anything on the outside until they are in organ failure. It’s scary! And of course the other frustrating side of it is that they seem to be fine until they’re not.

From Animal Poison Control Website: click for link

So here’s my lesson to you: don’t keep lilies in your house. Lots of dollars later, our cats are fine; maybe they would have been without the weekend in the hospital or all of that money, but maybe they wouldn’t have been – and we could have prevented it. Also, maybe don’t trust that your cats stay where you want them to. Herding cats? That’s a thing that no one is good at doing.

Anyone else with some good veterinary horror stories? I should add that Faegan is all better. No more cone! Lots more playing. I hope the amount of time I have spent at the vet in the past two weeks means I’m all set for the year.

]]> http://queerskiesahead.com/2012/02/my-what-a-small-brain-you-have/feed/ 16 http://queerskiesahead.com/2012/02/wordless-wednesday-bliss/ http://queerskiesahead.com/2012/02/wordless-wednesday-bliss/#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:34:46 +0000 TheQueerBird http://queerskiesahead.com/?p=3706

(Okay, so I suck at actually wordlessness. This was taken during my few minutes of non “workworkwork” last Sunday. Post-hike in the woods, the three of us settled down in the one patch of sun in the living room.  Love.)

We commented a couple of times about how tired she looked, but didn’t think much of it beyond that. And then on Sunday, her right eye was still red… and her left eye was completely swollen shut.

Luckily, we have a vet who is open on Sundays, and even more luckily (for all of our stress levels), Fae loves the vet. I would say we’re lucky (and we are!) but I think it’s also karma for all the times we’ve had to take a miserable Daphne to the vet. Fae did not love the treatment or having her eyes stained, but she still loved the vet and all the staff after they did the treatment. Relief.

So the vet said she has conjunctivitis, and “it’s probably fine, but we’ll just do a quick stain to make sure the cornea is okay.” As the stain appeared, we saw that it really wasn’t fine: she has an ulcer covering about a third of her cornea. Ouch. And thus, conehead was born:

It sounds like, as long as we are good about giving her the eye meds four times a day (!), she will be fine; if we’re not, she could lose the eye. As one friend put it, we already have enough one-eyed animals in this house! As cute as a one-eyed pittie is, we would prefer for her to have all her eyes.

the reigning one-eyed wonder

In the meantime, conehead means no more dog park visits. This means mild stress for all involved. Not only is the puppy not getting her energy out with other dogs every day, I am not going for a daily hike! Sad! Stressful! Or at least not stress-relieving. I love the idea of going running with her, but frankly, I am not a runner, and as one of the shelter folks put it, “Someone with two legs attached to a four legged dog is never going to tire that dog out.” While I think there are some exceptions to this, it’s true that no matter how fast I run, she could be running faster. Solution?

Okay, so this is a fancy scooter from the shelter, and I can’t take it home with me. BUT I do know how to teach a dog to run with a scooter, so I bought the only Razor scooter left at a local toystore, and this adventure was born:

We have now been out scooting twice: the first day for just 10 minutes, the second for around 25. Fae wears a harness and trots/runs alongside me. I was surprised at how much of a workout this is for me! Maybe that means I’m crazy out of shape, or maybe trying to tire out an 8.5 month old pit bull puppy is just exhausting whether you’re on foot or on wheels or on a strange combination of the two. Either way, when we get home, she goes right to sleep. Success!

I’m hoping that this will be a first step to teaching her to run alongside my bicycle safely, and that someday we’ll do all kinds of fun dog sports together! I can’t do this stuff with Daphne because she is so reactive; the only concern with Fae is that she wants to go meet everyone we pass. Daph would want to go eat everyone we pass.

In the meantime, I am also doing a ton of training with Fae. Keep those brain cells working!

Do you have any creative methods of wearing out a dog? Has anyone successfully taught their pup to run alongside a bicycle?

When we first got Faegan (whose name may or may not be changed soon), she really was perfect. I wrote this email to the shelter:

Faegan’s doing *awesome* in her crate. We had an hour long playtime when we got home to ensure that she would pass out in it, and she did! She and Daphne are best friends already, and she’s doing a great job going out on leash. One accident so far, but it was overnight: 6 hours is officially too long to hold it, so we’ll work from there. We are so happy with her!

Cue laughter. How long did we really believe all of that would last?

she's only good when she's not awake*

The worst things she does (ranked so because of how much general stress they cause) are: destroy stuff; scream in her crate; pull on the leash; and try to eat our cats.

You guys? Puppies are really, really hard. None of this is strange dog stuff; not one of those things should make anyone go, “Wow, I had no idea that puppies did that!” Puppies do those things. Dogs do those things. As much as these animals are our family, they are not human, and it’s not fair to expect them to act like humans. That said, SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP YOU STUPID PUPPY.

I am coming clean today because finally, I have a plan. It seems that the puppy’s worst offense is wanting to eat the cats. This is a pretty bad offense. It’s not really a “Hey, what are those fun toys?” but more of a “I WANT TO KILL THAT THING LET ME GET IT PLEASE.” If she hears the cats, she screams. If she hears the cats and screams and is in her crate and we don’t let her out, she destroys everything she can get to in her crate. Basically, all of the problems we experience stem from her attempts at interacting with the cats. Charming, I’m sure.

notice the fluff from her bed ON TOP OF HER CRATE.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been searching desperately for information on how to teach a dog to be better around cats. I don’t need information on “introductions” – trust me, they have been introduced. I need to work on resetting the whole situation… and today I came up with a plan. Step one is complete, and it’s going well so far. I’m pretty sure the details will bore you, but if it goes well, I will write it up and put it on the internet so that other people who are crazy enough to talk their awesome wives into letting them get a new puppy can keep their marriage intact.

So, what have you guys been up to lately? Have I convinced you that you do not want a puppy? Please go adopt a five year old dog from your local shelter, stat.

the good dog (who turns 5 this year!)

*this is only a slight exaggeration

**Note: I knew what I was getting into, but I don’t think I knew how much stress this would cause for the other human & animals I live with. Marriage: you’re not on your own anymore.

Well, folks, today the chaos begins! After the APW reading last night (!) a bunch of us went out for drinks and talking and we all stayed up way past our bedtimes. More than three people said to me, “Aw, we’re old. It’s totally past our bedtime.” When do we accept that if we’re all saying it, we’re all old, and we can just be sad that we’re not in our pajamas without mentioning our ages at all? Maybe I should admit that it was around 9pm that this refrain was going around.

Anyway, what better day to start the chaos of a “full time” (unpaid) job than the morning after a night of revelry with sane, practical folk? No better way, my friends. No better way. It may be chaotic, but that’s how I like it. I think Daphne’s face here is a pretty accurate representation of how I am feeling.

So here we go! Have a wonderful day, I will be off playing with dogs and yelling at rowers. Happy Thursday!

Okay, I know they should be well-behaved; they are, after all, the dogs of a dog trainer who trains for fun. But they are also each uniquely, ahem, challenged. I believe that Daph’s challenges stem from 1. her lack of socialization as a puppy, and 2. being really smart; and Faegan’s challenges stem from 1. still being a puppy, and 2. being kind of dumb.

smart puppy asking nicely

Most mornings, I open the door and yell, “Dogs!” Usually, Faegan comes running in, full speed, and often slips/trips/slams into something because omg something superawesome must be happening inside! This is her lack of brain at work. In the meantime, Daphne is doing the opposite and actually using her brain: she maybe looks at me, considers the presence or lack of treats in my hand, and decides whether or not it is worth her precious time to saunter over to me.

But today? I called them, and they both happily came right in. Not slowly, not fast enough to hurt themselves or anyone else; just right, quickly but safely. And then? Then they sat down in front of me and waited politely for their treats. And then they practiced sitting, lying down, “crawling,” and “asking nicely,” and they nailed every single one. Adorable. Faegan even took her treats politely and without biting my hand off – victory!

does this face look smart to you?

And now they’re in their crates with no chance to get into trouble, so hooray! I have well-behaved dogs at least for the morning.*

*It is important to record that this actually happens, especially when with a puppy, you are alternately yelling, “OMG this puppy is THE BEST,” and “Shit, puppies are THE WORST.” Let me tell you, my wife is dissatisfied with our general living situation when I am the one complaining that we have too many dogs.