Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Pet related posts
One of the problems you run into when training dogs (especially ones that are highly motivated) is that they start offering behaviours they’ve previously learned (and usually not the ones you want) in order to get the treat.
Hannah’s does this all the time. When she first came, the main focus was to get her to enjoy being in the crate. Lots of treats thrown into the crate to get her in, lots of praise when she went in and a few more treats. She also gets fed in the crate.
Now the problem I’m having is that a few treats into the training session, she’ll dive into her crate thinking if she stays there she’ll get even more treats.
I can close the door, but she still runs over to the crate to try to get in.
Then I have to wait until she figures out she’s not going to get anything, and then start all over again until she dives back into the crate again (or tries to).
Kind of breaks the flow of the training. Guess I just have to be more persistent than she is. It is kind of entertaining though.
Not having too many problems with Hannah now. Just having problems with the neighbourhood strays that have become extremely interested in checking Hannah out. I’ve got four dogs practically camped out in my yard during the day waiting for me to bring Hannah out.
Since Hannah hasn’t been spayed yet, I’m not letting her anywhere near the other dogs, so that means I’m spending my time fending them off while waiting for Hannah to do her business outside. Forget about doing any training in the yard either.
Sheesh. This fostering thing is turning out to be harder than I thought.
Caught Simba playing with Hannah today the same way he plays with Nala. Yay! He’s finally accepted Hannah into the pack! No more growling when she comes near. This is a big milestone.
Her training is coming along quite nicely. She’ll sit on command now, almost has down down pat and goes into her crate willingly. Need to work on wait and stay and getting a good recall going. Now I can start taking her other places to work on commands too.
Now that Hannah’s starting to settle in a little more, I’m beginning to see some more of her personality come out.
She’s a really sweet girl, loves to be around her people, eats like there’s no tomorrow and totally food motivated. Training her has been pretty easy so far. She’s got a lot of energy, gets really excited (especially if there’s food involved) and seems like she’d get along pretty well with other dogs. I’ll have to give her a try at the dog park soon to check that out.
She walks pretty well on leash, but will definitely take off if she sees something interesting. She’s the kind of dog that needs a structured and disciplined (ordered) house to live in. If you let her have her way, she’ll take it and more. All she needs is consistency, a nice long walk by your side, a comfy spot to lay at your feet and she’ll be your best friend.
I think she’s still got a little more time to spend with me before she’s ready to go to a permanent home, but in the meantime I’m working hard to get her ship-shape and fattened up so that she’ll be a very well-behaved dog where ever she ends up going.
Anybody out there have room in their life for this sweetie?