Raven

Raven

Kong-o-rama and Raven’s Complex Mind

Today I stuffed Kongs for a while. OK, a long while. Through three NPR shows. I used macaroni, cheese, shredded apple, pine nuts, marshmallows, bananas, and peanut butter. I now have a chest freezer full of stuffed Kongs waiting for next week. Now that the storm, Fay, passed us, I feel safer doing that. I didn’t want to risk the electricity going out last week and having to pull out loads of melting Kongs and saying, “OK everybody, eat! Eat! Eat!” Especially if in the dark. Not that anyone would mind. The FDSP would go for a good stuffed Kong anytime of day or night.

Raven’s signed up for Agility class basics. The class starts in September. Tonight I tried something new with the little temper-tantrum throwing beast. As usual, as I was serving dinners, she spat and barked and drooled and barked all over her crate. She calms herself down and huffs and puffs when I’m delivering dinners to dogs close to her, but as soon as I move into another area, she throws a bigger fit. She hasn’t learned patience yet. No, she hasn’t. That’s why she usually gets her dinner last. By the time I’m done, and standing nearby, she can hold it in long enough for me to give in and feed her.

But tonight, after everyone else got fed, and she was still blowing off steam, I opened her crate door. She wouldn’t come out. She stared at me with that “Well, serve me my dinner” look. Uh huh. I surprised her with a leash hooked onto her collar. I walked her out of the crate and brought her to the room where her bowl was waiting for her. Full and smelling good. It was on one side of the room across from the entrance where we were standing.

I put the little beast on a sit stay, and Lord Almighty, she was PERFECT! She sat and stayed and looked so saintly just waiting for me to give the OK and unleash her, so she could dive into her meal. Wow! And did she ever. She’s definitely as passionate about eating as she is about playing.

She’s also an enigma in fur.

Raven

Bulk Trash Day & Training & Olympic Sun-Tanning

Yesterday was bulk trash day, and the trash men gave me a hard time about the two piles of green refuse that my tree guys left in the swale. They were saying it was too much blah blah blah. The bottom line is if the professional tree guys would have put all that in one pile, then we would have been all right. But because there were two piles, the trash men had attitude. Besides the fact that I hardly ever leave out bulk trash, there was not much going on with bulk trash on my block. It was another city worker pushing around his policy power. He finally did take both piles, but it was not a pleasant experience. However, being that they took the first pile and left a pamphlet on my door and left, and I came home to this half-done job at lunch, I was very happy that it turned out the way it did.

After I got the pamphlet, I drove down the street to where I saw a bulk trash man picking up debris. He was very nice and I will say that trash man went out of his way to help me by phoning in the problem – half my bulk trash was left behind – and getting the message they will be back for the second pile, but had left because their truck had been filled. I called into the trash company to give kudos to this man for going above and beyond. It was the fact that the pamphlet and attitude wasn’t enough from the leaf trash man that got me riled up. He had to knock on my door and give me a lecture over the entire thing before he picked up the second pile. Then he tried to turn it into a personal conversation while the clock was ticking away on my precious lunch break. I’d much rather have been spending it with my dogs than being lectured to or chit-chatting. Eeegads!

Let me just say that I’m glad that whole tree business is done. Now I’m facing a very hairy front yard and swale, which needs some mowing. This weekend will be mowing weekend. Call me a dud, but I’m not looking forward to that.

In between running back and forth to talk with the trash men, I was watching the flight of the Dragon Flies in my back yard. I had taken a few pictures of them, but not enough due to time constraints. I’d never seen such a swarm of Dragon Flies enjoying the day before. It was quite an event. The FDSP didn’t notice them being they flew a few too many feet above their heads for noticing. A good thing.

I worked more on Raven’s sit staying Tuesday night, but last night I let it slide. She is also learning to pay attention to the dumbbell. Her favorite part of all this is getting treats.

I’d also worked a little with Bunny Butt on her sit stay Tuesday night. She’s got such a spastic behind that getting 10 seconds of it staying planted on the floor was next to impossible. So we worked on half that time.

Luigi worked on scent discrimination. He had been practicing on the FDSP Budha Dog. We are both learning this process of scent discrimination exercises using clicker training – me how to teach it that way and him how to learn it that way. Anytime he doesn’t get it, it’s my fault. He and I both determined that. I found a how-to article on training scent discrimination on line. It’s written by Morgan Spector.

He also wrote an entire book on obedience training using the clicker. It’s very good, and if you’d like to order it, CLICK HERE.

I see some of his ideas on the process of training scent using clicker have changed. Mainly in the book he makes comment about people who put the scent articles they want to be cold in the fridge over night. He thought it un-necessary. But the article, which is newer, mentions to do both:

“There are various ways to make sure that there is a clear difference between the “hot” and “cold” articles when you practice with your dog. You can put the “unscented” articles in a refrigerator before practice; the cold will essentially neutralize scent and will retard incidental scenting. You can put the “hot” article in a Ziploc bag, which will intensify your scent.”

Growth is a good thing, and I highly recommend the book. It’s a great price and teaches the trainer a humane and fun-for-the dog way to learn the commands to compete in obedience and get those titles!

Meanwhile, last night Uigi and I by-passed working scent till I could get my brain and the theory and my actions to coincide with the right process, but we did work on the go-out and touch-the-pole exercise. Well, basically, Uigi brought me his red Cuz ball, and I wouldn’t throw it till he touched the pole. He gets so excited about the game, he thinks he has to grab the pole in his mouth, and I’m sure he’d pull it out of the ground if he didn’t get his click fast enough. But so far, I am fast enough, and I throw the ball, he gets it and we start all over again. He’s a brainiac, my boy is.

Meanwhile, Bouchard and Ollie have very nice sun tans. They work hard on maintaining that sun-tanned look daily. If sun bathing were an Olympic event, you could count Bouchard and Oliver in as a prize-winning team.

The synchronized sun bathing team!

Bouchard, Luigi, Ollie, Raven, Taylor, Trees and Plants

Training, Trees, and Other Goings-On

Tonight I started working on Raven’s sit stays more seriously. She and I are signed up for that beginning agility class in September, and I suppose it’s time to settle some manners into the Raven. So we worked sit stays where she did very well, staring at me for 10-second intervals between clicks and treats. We ended on a 15-minute sit stay and she got a jack pot. Then we did a handful of treats worth of touch the dumbbell on the floor. What a doosie of a pup!

Meanwhile, there is something about that look of hers that I often wonder about. Of course, this picture was taken when she had a right to give me such a look. OK, so I had to remove some of the temp fencing around my vegetable garden yesterday and replace it. I use a brick to pound in the new stakes, and I used to have a beat-up towel that I put between brick and stake when pounding. I looked around for something to use that was well-worn and I thought this old Wubba cover was it! Uh huh. I pounded a few times, and something called me away. As soon as I moved off, Raven snatched back her Wubba cover, and this was the resulting look. I guess I deserved it. I decided to pound without a cover, and it worked fine.

This morning, thank God, the tree men came back and removed all those tree pieces and chunks of trees from behind the hedge of the yard and put them into the swale for bulk trash pick-up Wednesday. I was so happy that was done! Whilst the two younger men worked, the leader pointed out all the work that he could do in my yard. Yep. I know. But I’m a do-it-yourselfer where I can be due to thriftiness, and taking down 40-foot pines or 25-foot traveler’s palms was not examples of those times. Hence why he got that work.

The FDSP had oatmeal and peanut butter for Sunday breakfast. It was intended to be a treat; however, Baby (the Queen Mother) didn’t like hers. She walked around checking in everyone’s bowl to see if they had the same thing as she did. She was disappointed to find it was so. Ginger loved her breakfast, as did the rest of the FDSP. She has a hobby of picking up stray toys and non-chalantly strolling back to her den with them. That’s why no one has any Nylabones to munch on!

Luigi had a good time eating his breakfast, too. I get the feeling he may have irritated the DoberDiva, though. She is good at spitting especially when she has a mouth full of food that she’s not particularly fond of.

This evening, Luigi and I worked in the kitchen on scent discrimination. I brought out a second metal dumbbell and he and I clicked and treated our way through his selecting the right one each time. However, he has no clue yet, why I click on the one with my scent on it. But he will. He’s Luigi. Bright as they come. He also is in the beginning stages of learning to walk backwards. The light bulb dimly came on for him and me on learning/training walking backwards. For most of our tries, he would step back and as I was clicking, he would be sitting. That is one of the habits we need to correct. I’d like him to tuck sit instead. However, at the end of the session, he stayed standing instead of going into a sit when I clicked his steps backwards.

Now both Raven and Luigi are resting and quietly thinking about what went on with our training tonight, so all that knowledge will be stored in their Dober memory banks.

Baby and Bunny Butt absorbed lessons from the Peace Stone this weekend, and Ollie found an old favorite ball to prance around with. Ollie is one to find a toy that everyone else wants and hog it till either he gets bored, or somehow another dog snatches it away from him. He’s no fun for playing fetch because of that, but he’s good for keeping other family members occupied when the real Queen Mother wants a break from having a Cuz ball or other toy shoved at her.

By the way, Raven has a new elegantly Dobermann look about her. She does. (It startled me at first.) OK, it’s occasional, but that look has arrived since the Peace Stone fell from the sky and her maturity started kicking in. She’s by no means mature, but she is getting there. She still barks hysterically in her crate when she wants immediate results, but heeds my warnings and closes the yap for 10-15 seconds intervals. Hmmm, that’s the same amount of time she can concentrate on a sit-stay. Maybe we have something there!

It was a fine weekend. I even got further along with building the high jump until the rains kicked in and the instructions got a tad confusing on Saturday. I needed a couple more PVC poles as well, being there was a piece to the construction puzzle I failed to recognize. PVC poles were purchased today, and next weekend, I should be able to complete that high jump. The bar jump will be the last of the set. Alleluia!

Baby, Ginger, Luigi, Ollie, Raven, Taylor, Training

Sunbathing Dobies

Dobies love the sun. Yes, they do. Here we have the south Florida Dobie midday sun bathing ritual. Being we hardly have any trees in the back yard anymore, this ritual has become a very easy acitivity to take part in no matter where you plop down to relax.

This lovely girl is doing the “I am a swan worshiping the sun” stance. It’s a yoga type move in the sunshine. This gal loves her rays even though her name is Luna.

And this is Raven. She’s not shy about mouthing off, and obviously not shy about anything else. Yep.

Luna, Ollie, Pippin, Raven