Learning to walk among distractions

Guinness is a B student at school. He does better than many dogs and worse than others. Here he is doing a “Let’s Go” exercise of walking among the distractions of his classmates on “Down Stay’s.”

http://www.vsocial.com/video/?d=9519

Straw Yard

The precipitation this winter is rain, not snow. The temperatures are warm, but not warm enough to evaporate our water soaked lawn. I have spread two bales of straw over the mushy and muddy areas to prevent dirty pawprints from entering our house. Yesterday, I ran out with Guinness in the rain, skidded on the soggy grass, and slid to a resupine position in the muck. I had to strip at the washing machine right down to my undies!


Guinness has discovered, in his adolescence, that he has choices to make when given a command. He is making the wrong decisions forcing us to keep him on leash. That is annoying for both handler and dog, plus he cannot run and play. I pulled out our cable, which was useful last summer before he learned the boundaries of our yard, and tethered it to a tree. Our longest leather leash is too skinny to be a satisfactory training leash, but it is perfect to usher him outside and attach as an extension to the cable. We can even play games of fetch!

The Goofball

Guinness is 40 weeks old and growing into a strong, strapping fella.

We were curious to know how much he weighs, so I made an appointment to have his nails trimmed. He is soooo excited to see people that he is uncontrollable. He knows the vet’s office when we arrive, and is wild to enter the building. I strung him up on his leash a couple of times while approaching the building to try to gain control. No effect. Inside, he was bonkers. One of the technicians joined us in the exam room with the scale. He was doggedly intent to play with her and be petted. It was impossible to obtain a scale reading with him bouncing. Two more staff members came in to help, escalating the fracas. It was hopeless. I said, “If you three leave, he will settle for me.” Within seconds, I called out to them, “He weighs 67.2 pounds!” While he was having his pedicure, one of them suggested obedience school. Ha! A vet stuck her head out and said, “He is in Grade 2?!” LOL

What were we thinking?

Having an adult dog is a wonderful thing. They know how to behave; they are companions who ask for nothing except food, bathroom time, exercise, and love. You can leave them at home alone for hours with no worry. They are happy to remain in the car for long stretches, as long as the weather is temperate. But having a puppy is a nightmare! Actually it is worse! You awaken from a bad dream, realize that the world is still turning, and life goes on. A puppy nightmare does not end for months, maybe years. The training process seems to be neverending. Once you think they have conquered a command, they prove that they have minds of their own and disobey. The excitement of running in the house and grabbing whatever tickles their fancy is sure to grate on an owner’s calm demeanor. The only reprieve is crate time. Common sense tells you that a dog will never be trained to behave if confined to a crate permanently. Crates are for humans, allowing us to collect our senses.

Currently, Guinness is learning to remain on a Down/Stay during our dinnertime. Our teachers suggest that we reward good behavior by saying “Good Stay” and treating the dog periodically. We place a dish of treats on our dining table to have readily available to reinforce good behavior. A couple of days ago, Guinness thought he was being very good and that I was being slow in delivering the expected compliment. He jumped up and bit my forearm. That landed him in his crate sans treat faster then he knew his mother could move. Today the bruise is probably looking its worst, so I photographed it to obtain sympathy.


My day is consumed with the puppy. I have to rise in time to serve him his breakfast at the expected hour. When not in his crate, he has to be in the same room as I am. That means, even when concentrating, I must still pay attention to whether he might be chewing on a chair leg, licking a piece or furniture ruining the finish, pawing at the carpet to pull up a thread, getting into the trash or something else which is supposed to be off-limits to him. We are grateful that he does tell us when it is potty time, though a 65 pound dog persistently jumping on you when you are talking on the phone is not always convenient.

Thus, the question: What were we thinking? When he was a tiny puppy in the summer, it was fun and relaxing to play with him outside multiple times per day. Otherwise, he was in his crate. Practicing our obedience school homework was not a problem in good weather. Now that it is wintertime and he is too large to spend long stretches of time in his crate (we do not have room for a larger crate), we must endure his antics inside. Our little home is not large enough for most homework exercises, thus we probably are wasting our education funds by registering for winter classes.

When this cute little beastie comes to you with big brown eyes, nuzzles against your leg wanting TLC and melts your heart, then you know why you have a puppy.

Hershey, who was the worst puppy on the face of this earth, magically became the perfect dog at 10 months when we moved to San Diego. Guinness has one month to become transformed. Stay tuned…

Guinness loves Kevin

Karin insisted that we watch the Christmas video she had taken when everyone was at our house, or she would never bother to make a DVD for us again. We turned it on and were enjoying Kevin’s antics when Guinness walked up to the television, placed his front paws on the furniture holding the TV, and put his face into Kevin’s! I didn’t grab my camera fast enough, but a few minutes later, he did the same thing! This time I captured the act!

Guinness loved Kevin when he was here, but he was overly excited. We did not dare to let go of him, as we feared he would trample Kevin and possibly scratch him (or worse) in his excitement to play with this darling child.

Get ready, Kevin! Guinness wants to play!

Guard Dog

A couple of weeks ago, Guinness noted that he could see out the windows! He began taking great interest in watching what was happening outside. Now he sits and stares out the window at woods, squirrels, birds, and the highway for long stretches a few times every day. This morning, he saw a man walking down the highway ramp and began barking. Then he started jumping on me which means he wants to go outside. I suspected that it was not potty time, but that he wanted to check out that man. I was right. He ran to the front fence and diligently searched for the man who was not to be seen. Then he turned and looked at the back fence, over which he had spotted the man from inside, obviously wondering where he had gone. It is good to know that he is protecting our property.

Grocery Trip

Guinness enjoys sticking his nose in the kitchen trash when the opportunity arises. Usually, he is immediately banned with no opportunity of retrieving some tidbit. A couple of times, he has pulled out an appealing banana peel or tempting paper towel.

Guinness has earned the privilege of running errands with me. He is very good alone in the car except he, unlike Hershey, loudly whines as I leave him. Then he jumps into the front while I am away and stands on the center console, thus turning on the four-way flashers. Today we made a grocery run. Like Hershey, when the bags are placed in the back of the vehicle, he has to sniff them, yet, like Hershey, leaves them alone. As I walked around the to the driver’s door, I glanced at him through the window to discover that he had a bunch of bananas in his mouth. With no regard to the people around who might hear me, I screamed while running to the back, “Guinness! Drop it! Drop It!” Of course, he didn’t. I opened the rear, removed the bananas from his mouth, placed them in the bag and took it with me to the front seat. As I turned my head to the right to switch off the flashers, I noted that the two women parked beside me were in stitiches. I rolled down my window to relate, “It’s just a good thing he’s cute!”

Foiled

There are no Christmas stuffed animals on the staircase for Guinness to steal, ensuing a game “You Can’t Catch Me.” To replace that fun sport, he swipes one of my boots at the deck door and hightails it to the dining room where he cannot be cornered as he runs back and forth on the opposite side of the table from me. It reminds me of playing Checkers when one player moves to the two-space corner, moving back and forth without consequence and no end to the game in sight. With Grant assisting, we might be able to block him, though he usually is too swift and too strong to be caught. He knows it is easier to run through my blockade than Grant’s. The normal ending to the game is for Guinness to make a misstep and corner himself. Today I had no patience to wait for his gaffe. He is too smart to obey the commands of “Come” or “Drop it” when in play mode. His aim is to entice me to “Come” to him, and he certainly has no intention of relinquishing it. I finally used my noggin. This dog is attending obedience school. Duh… “Settle!” Little response. “Sit.” He sat! “Drop it.” Voila! He won excessive praise and treats!

Caught Red-Handed

When we started letting Guinness wander the den, that included having access to the bathroom where his food and water are. Since there are interesting items to be found in a bathroom, particularly the toilet brush, I place such things in the tub to keep them out of his reach. Recently, he has proven that he can grasp items near the side of the tub, so I moved them to the far side. This morning, I heard strange sounds from the bathroom. He was IN the tub with a soap dish in his mouth. He had a taste of the soap long ago. We have never had a dog jump into a bathtub, but, after he was in and out of it several times today, I realized why. He is learning to jump barricades in school! The side of the tub is an easy barricade to surmount. Now when I find him in the tub, I only need to give the command “Jump” and he jumps. Too bad husbands aren’t trained that well.