Pets

Doggie School – Day 3. Plus, first vet visit

/ hsoi

Today was a busy day for our “poo-vasz”. Yes… our new nickname for her is “poo-vasz” (or “poovasz”, however you want to spell it) since our little Kuvasz seems to think the cat litter box is the dessert tray. 😉

School

Started the day at doggie school. Brought her bed with us so she could start to learn “place”. We started on the basics of introducing the “place” to her last week, but today we wanted to put the command with the bed. We also worked on “sit” and “down”. While Sasha knows these commands already, she needs more discipline with them. For instance, I should be able to say “sit” and leave the room, come back 5 minutes later and she’s still sitting. We’re a ways from that… I can get her to sit, she’ll stay there, but if I get too far away she will want to get up. So we’re working on things.

We also worked on getting the trainer closer to us. He kept throwing food down on the ground, letting her know that he’s a source of good things. Eventually she was sitting on my left, Abel would come up on my right and shake my hand. We’d chat for a moment, good dog, and life was good. Sasha was pretty well-behaved, even with lots of other people and dogs working in the same building/room.

We also received a complement from Abel, that we’re one of his best clients. Why? Because it’s obvious we’re working with the dog. We do work with her every day, a couple of times a day. I mean, why wouldn’t we? We’re paying money for this. We want the dog to be well-mannered. Why would you NOT work with the dog? Why would you NOT do your homework? But I guess most people don’t. Geez.. I’d love to have money and time to waste like they have….

Anyways, I’m pleased with her progress. We’ll be working more on “place”, “sit”, “down”, and introductions with people in the coming week.

But the interesting thing is how well-timed this session was because….

The Vet

….Sasha needed her first trip to our veterinarian.

We’ve had this vet for many years, taken care of all our cats. We didn’t want to go the moment we got home because well… we knew she was a handful and the vet would have to do things like touch her. We just didn’t want to deal with it. But the goal was to have the visit done before the end of the month. So here we are, mission accomplished.

The trip went amazingly smooth. She was cool and mellow for the most part. Alert sure, but didn’t get all crazy or anything. New place, new people, a few other animals, but no big deal. She didn’t want to get on the scale, but I used the technique for introducing her to the “place” and found out she’s gained some weight (good!) and is at 71 lbs.

The first odd sign? When the assistant was moving around getting us into the exam room, she had to walk right by Sasha, even brushed up against her. Sasha didn’t flinch. Awesome! Now, I figure part of that is due to being on neutral ground (no need to protect the area), but still… before she would have had a fit. When the vet came in, she almost took food from his hand.. didn’t like his biscuits.

Here’s the impressive thing. We needed to do a blood draw. Took her in the back, put a muzzle on her to be safe. I’m holding her so Doc can take her front leg and do a blood draw. I’m watching and I see the needle go in, Doc pops a few things off the syringe, then suddenly Sasha jumped. Doc’s eyes were wide open… but not because he got bit or hurt or was afraid. No, he was impressed. You see, when I thought he had stuck her? He hadn’t yet. When she jumped? That’s when he stuck her. What impressed him was her reaction time. He said that in his 40+ years of being a vet, he has seen few dogs with reaction time like that. He was impressed. 🙂

Anyways, we got the blood draw, we got her microchipped. Talked about a few other things with the vet. During the final talk, Sasha did unleash towards one of the assistants. She came into the room quickly, reached over her head towards me to hand me something. Sasha didn’t like that, but the reason is simple: fast, swift, towards me… she was defending me. Good girl. 🙂  You could even see her reaction time there… instant on.

All in all, it was a good trip. Yes, expectation was that it was going to be a difficult visit. But I just kept using all the stuff we’ve been learning at Triple Crown. I had my treat pouch, I used the techniques, I kept the positive reinforcement flowing. It went very well!

We’ll get test results tomorrow.

Sasha is doing well. 🙂

Doggie School – Day Two

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

Sasha had her second dog training class today.

Every day I realize more and more that this is not about training the dog, it’s about training the humans… and the dog kinda gets something along the way. 🙂

We started out reviewing what we did last week, which was basic walking and sitting. Issuing commands, issuing corrections. Being consistent. That’s really the key is consistency. Getting the set down to something simple and everyone sticking with it. For instance, you don’t really need sit, stay, quiet, etc. because implied in sit is to stay and be quiet. But it was evident to Abel that we’ve been working with Sasha — he saw a world of difference compared to last week.

We worked in a slightly different location on the grounds, taking Sasha into new places, new noises, new things, new distractions. She was certainly nervous, but we were able to manage it and she did OK. It’s interesting that she does not eat when she’s nervous enough. Both the trainer and a friend who came with his dog to watch us commented that was odd. But that’s how she is. Once she calms down, she’ll take the treats again.

Then we started to work on “place”. Moving her onto the place, getting her to understand the place. Wife struggled with it a bit because while Wife was working on it, Sasha didn’t get fully onto the stand, Wife moved her leg onto it, the stand creaked, Sasha jumped, and Wife didn’t react immediately to correct things. Plus, Wife isn’t as big or strong as me, so Sasha quickly realized that a physical strength fight against Wife is one she could win. So, there was some struggle there, but they were able to overcome it. I think it was good for Wife too, as it’s helping her gain more confidence in her ability to handle Sasha.

Our homework is to continue working on walking, sit, consistency and simplification of commands (gotta watch what comes out of our mouths, e.g. “sit” not “Sasha sit”, “No” not “Sasha No” or “NoSit”). But now we’re going to add working on the “place”. No command yet, just getting her used to the physical thing.

We needed to get home, but before I go to bed tonight I need to buy her a “place”. I have guidelines… just need to figure out what’s going to work for her. Plus… where in the world are we going to put the thing?? That’s really the big question. 🙂

All in all, she’s improving. There is a LOT of work still ahead. I admit, I’m tired. It’s very mentally and emotionally consuming and thus draining. But we’ll hang in there, for I believe the investment is worth it.

Dog-strong

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I’m getting quite the crash-course in being a good dog owner.

Before owning a dog I could generally tell who was a good down owner and who wasn’t… it was evident in how the dog behaved and how the owner treated the dog. But now I see more subtle things, and one very interesting thing.

Read this article.

 

The number one biggest mistake dog owners can make with their dogs is to treat them like humans. The human race is such a kind, compassionate species that we tend to look at our canine companions as little humans. When in reality, they are canines and have a very different thought process. This is what differentiates mankind from other species in pack societies; there must be a specific order, from the leader on down to the last follower. Everyone has a place. The leaders are the strength of the pack. The followers need the leader to guide them. This primal instinct keeps the pack secure and happy.

 

 

And oh, do we treat our dogs like little humans.

We must think like a dog and must treat the dog… like a dog. Of course, in human society, to treat someone like a dog means to treat them in a sub-human and poor manner. If towards your dog you act in a manner that humans see as strong and compassionate, your dog will see it as you being weak. If towards your dog you act in a manner that the dog sees as strong, then humans are going to see you being an incompassionate asshole to your dog.

What to do?

Be viewed as an incompassionate asshole.

Treat the dog like a dog. That doesn’t mean treat them badly, that means treat them as they need to be treated — like a dog. Dog groks dog, and our human behavior passes through their dog-filter and gets interpreted in dog ways. In any communication, what’s more important is the message received by the receiver. Make sure your dog receives the right messages.

 

Doggie School – First Day

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Today was Sasha’s first day of doggie school. We’re going to Triple Crown Dog Academy, which is the best school in the area.

I’m pretty impressed with the facility and our trainer, Abel. Looks like they run a good ship, and Abel has the knowledge and experience. He’s never worked with a Kuvasz before, but he was reading up on them before we arrived.

We started out with me being interviewed about our situation, what we wanted out of training, and so on. We then took Sasha out of the car and brought her over to the potty area. Abel observed and as expected Sasha was excited and nervous and reacted as such. We switched her collar to one of their StarMark collars, and boy, that made a difference. She was MUCH more responsive to corrections.

We worked on basics of walking on a loose leash and “sit”. How to work in correction, how to work in praise. The interesting thing? Some of the immediate “how do we deal with these problem situations?” are going to be addressable by this. For instance, when sitting, dog should sit, quietly, waiting for us to “free” them; distractions shouldn’t distract, they are to do nothing but sit (if you will). So let’s say there’s something outside she doesn’t like and she runs up to the window and starts barking. I don’t mind if she alerts us to the situation, so that bark is OK, but continued barking? No go. But do we need to issue other commands, like “quiet”? Well, perhaps later, but not right now. Right now we just work to distract and have her work on “sit”, since that works out the “be quiet” part as well. Of course, we must be a human Pez dispenser with the treats to keep the positive reinforcement going. But for now for the next week, this is where we want to go. Also our walks and teaching her how to walk on a loose leash help out with distractions, keeping focused, and so on.

By the end of the hour? She was approaching Abel and ate out of his hand but then something spooked her and she barked and ran back to Momma. But it was a big change from how she was an hour prior. Furthermore, she was getting pretty good at keeping a watch on us as we walked; able to go further and further without problem.

So, the trainer felt the progress was good. We were all pleased with the results. Yes again we’re behind the curve so there’s work to be done. But so far, so good.

We’ll continue doing private lessons like this for a few weeks, working on the basic obedience and manners. Once she’s got things down, we’ll continue to up the ante, further training, group classes, and so on.

I’m just happy to see progress, both in her, and in us.

Sasha progresses

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These first few days at home with Sasha have been a challenge.

First, we have to make a big paradigm adjustment to “dog think”. Wife and I have been neglecting many other things in our lives (including each other), instead spending our time devouring all that we can about dog think, training, behavior, etc.. Who said training is for the dog? It’s for the owner. 🙂

There is no question Sasha loves and submits to us. We go away and come back, she explodes with joy and excitement at the sight of us. We can cuddle her, brush every part of her, manipulate her head and teeth, you name it, and all the kids can do it too. No doubt, girl has said “This is my family. I love them, I will protect them.”

It’s that last part that’s been hard to deal with.

We don’t know if Sasha has baggage. I spoke with the breeder about this a couple of days ago, and their feeling is Sasha is adjusting. New family, which is strongly claims, then everything else around her is new as well. So, family is good, everything else is unfamiliar thus a potential threat. Thus, much barking, almost impossible to have other people in the house. It’s been a challenge. Wife was rather dejected on Sunday evening. Even the discussions with a friend of mine were a bit on the negative side and had me a little concerned and beat down, like did I get myself into a bad situation?

But I’ll say this.

Sasha is improving.

I’ve been working on the basics: sit, stay, down, come; she knows them, but isn’t 100% with them (especially if there’s a distraction like a perceived threat, which could just be someone outside walking down the sidewalk). She’s good at “drop it” and “leave it”. She knows her name.

I’ve been working on her with “quiet”. I’ve been working on her about going to her “room” (crate). I’ve also been working on loose leash walking. I see progress, but also a lot of work ahead.

This morning, I took her out for a walk. The past few days I haven’t done a neighborhood walk, instead we’ve been in the yard working on loose leash walking technique. But later today Sasha will have her first visit to “doggie school“, so I didn’t want to do any training work, just morning poop and a walk to get a little exercise. I expected the walk to be like prior walks: her talking me out for a controlled drag (I will not let the dog control the situation, but certainly past “walks” have been a massive tug-o-war). But to my (welcome) surprise, the walk was not like that! Oh sure, it wasn’t a picture perfect “at my side” walk, but I could tell she was getting it with regards to proper walk. I’d say the leash was loose 70% of the walk. Oh sure she’d get a little behind me to sniff something, but I’d keep walking and merely the pop of the leash tightening when I got far enough away was enough to tell her to get back to me. Or she’d get in front of me, perhaps slight tension on the leash, but never a strong pull that I had to fight. A few cars drove by, she got alert but no problem. We had to stop on the sidewalk as a car was backing out of a driveway, I had her sit, no problems. Someone was in the shadows of their driveway, coming out to get their newspaper, and that did excite her more than anything else on the walk so I did have to give a few explicit pops, but there was no barking or overt “must fend off the threat!” behavior.

Much praise was lavished on Sasha throughout the walk. 🙂

The Kuvasz has their nature, and that’s part of why we chose this breed. I do not want to turn her into something she’s not, I do not want to suppress her nature, only help us live in better harmony. She needs to allow our friends to come over to our house and allow herself to get to know them — they are extended flock. So, we just have to keep working on things.

She’s not a lost cause. She just needs work, but then, don’t we all?

Getting to know Sasha

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Now that Sasha’s been at the house a few days, there’s been a lot of learning.

I mean, a LOT.

And mostly, it’s us learning, not her. 🙂

It IS exactly like having a child. Well not exactly. Dogs can come with instruction manuals, kids don’t.

I’m wondering what sort of baggage Sasha has. Been talking things over with a friend of mine and I’m coming to the conclusion that something from her previous owner wasn’t right. I don’t know. Did they neglect her? Did they not give her the attention, socialization, and training that a Kuvasz needs (especially as a puppy)? I mean, I know for a fact when she went back to the breeder that her coat was not where it should be, and we need to continue the rebuilding of it. So that’s an indicator of something not right, that the original owner didn’t do (some) things right. But to what extent? just what specifically? No way to know.

Bottom line: girl has baggage.

*sigh*

But she’s not a lost cause. I mean, that our family has been accepted? That’s a good sign. There’s no question from how she behaves that she loves us and adores us and knows we’re her flock to protect. I know that we have “alpha” over her since I can fully manipulate her, we can brush her, I stuck my fingers in her mouth today to remove a rock she picked up (wasn’t going to struggle with “drop” commands, just had to remove it) and I didn’t get bit. I exert alpha when she needs it, and she submits. So I suspect we’ll be able to make this work, but it’s going to take time.

She knows commands like sit, stay, down, come, drop it, leave it, and a few other things. But she isn’t perfect in obeying. Why? I’m not sure. Sometimes I suspect she’s intentionally disobeying because she’s decided working is more important (e.g. she’s guarding the kids and my telling her to “come” would require her to leave her tactically superior position, and she’s decided she can’t do that for whatever reason). Sometimes I think she’s trying to find our boundaries. And sometimes I think she’s just not conditioned to say “how high?” when I say “jump”, each time, every time, all the time. So, I’m starting to work with her on all the basic commands…  let’s go back to remedial work and establish the ground rules. I’m seeing progress, because she’s responding to “come” and “sit” much better this evening than she did before. We’re up to 10 seconds on stay and I betcha I could do more, but baby steps at this point. When I took her outside today, I’d have her got potty then start to work on “loose leash” walking. That’s going to take more work.

Just have to work on it every day. Just have to schedule in time for work and practice every day, at least twice a day.

But apart from all this work and baggage? She’s a sweet girl. Very loving, and has shown a silly, clown side too. I do adore her. I have no regrets (yet?) about this. It’s a lot of work, and it’s likely going to be more work than normal because we’re going to have things to undo and/or reestablish. But you know… the things you do for love. 🙂

Welcome home, Sasha

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Permit me to introduce you to Sasha:

Sasha is an 8 month old Kuvasz puppy. From AKC’s entry:

 

Bold, courageous and fearless, the Kuvasz is an unparalleled livestock guard, able to act at just the right moment without instruction and cover rough terrain for long periods of time. One of the larger working breeds, he is well-muscled and agile. His double coat features a coarse guard hair that protects a soft, fine undercoat. The hair ranges from straight to quite wavy, but must always be white.

[…]

 

Temperament

A spirited dog of keen intelligence, determination, courage and curiosity. Very sensitive to praise and blame. Primarily a one-family dog. Devoted, gentle and patient without being overly demonstrative. Always ready to protect loved ones even to the point of self-sacrifice. Extremely strong instinct to protect children. Polite to accepted strangers, but rather suspicious and very discriminating in making new friends. Unexcelled guard, possessing ability to act on his own initiative at just the right moment without instruction. Bold, courageous and fearless. Untiring ability to work and cover rough terrain for long periods of time. Has good scent and has been used to hunt game.

 

 

And… she’s the latest member of our household. 🙂

She’s 65 lbs and growing. She’s a big dog. She’s just what we wanted.

Background

Wife might be a cat person, but she grew up surrounded by dogs. Me, I had some dogs as a kid but I wouldn’t say I was ever a dog person — without a doubt, I’m a cat person. I have not wanted a dog. Wife has wanted us to get a dog since the day we got married, but I’ve always said no. A few years ago I finally gave in and approved getting a dog, but it had to be a useful dog.

You see, I don’t care for most dogs, or to be honest, most dog owners. I don’t like dogs that aren’t well-behaved, and that’s typically the fault of the dog owner. If I’m going to have a dog, it’s going to be well-behaved. I also don’t like drool, “dog smell” (be it the dog or the house smelling like dog), or a dog that views every random stranger as a friend. Thus, just going to the pound was not an option: any old random dog wasn’t going to work. Plus we had to get a puppy because we have cats and don’t need them to become a snack. Furthermore, the dog has to be substantial, because if you can drop kick it, it’s not a dog. 😉   So I gave Wife my criteria and she set about researching breeds.

Oh, one key criterion? Protection and guarding. People say any dog can provide this, but I’ve experienced far too many dogs that are rather useless in this situation. I want a dog that truly groks the notion of protection and guarding.

Wife spent about the past 3 years researching. It’d be a combination of her researching, finding something, floating the idea by me, I’d critique, then we’d get sidetracked by something in life and couldn’t act on it. But I think that all worked out well because if we acted on some of the breeds we considered in the past, I think we’d be unhappy.

Choosing the Kuvasz

A few weeks ago I was looking at the Crazy K Farm’s website (due to muscovy duck information) and found their link to a website about livestock guardian dogs. That sounded good to me, the sort of dog we’d like. I told Wife about the website and she read up on them (some for the second time). The Kuvasz breed seemed to fit exactly what we wanted, so Wife presented the breed to me and I agreed it sounded just right. So we started contacting breeders — it’s not a common breed, so there are only so many breeders. The first breeders we contacted were going to have litters but it wouldn’t be for 18 months. That didn’t thrill us, but we kept looking around and eventually found a breeder with a unique situation!

A puppy had been adopted by a family, but that puppy wasn’t working out with that family. The family already had an elderly dog and the Kuvasz pup was strong-willed and dominating the elderly one… that wasn’t a workable solution for them, so the Kuvasz puppy was returned to the breeder at about 6 months of age. So the breeder was looking for a good home for the girl. We spoke with the breeder at length about this particular puppy and she seemed to be exactly what we wanted. The breed itself has the temperament and characteristics we want, and this particular girl seemed to have all that we wanted. Plus that she was 8 months old gave a few advantages, like she’s already housetrained, crate trained, and hey… she’s big! She’s already a formidable force. But she’s still very much a puppy.

This, of course, is Sasha.

By the way, we didn’t name her. Sasha is the name given to her by her first owners, but we’re keeping it. She responds to the name, and gosh if it doesn’t just fit her well.

Bringing Sasha Home

So, opportunity presented itself. We did NOT plan on this. I had just come back from California and now had to turn around and drive to Georgia to get a dog.

Yes.

We drove.

2000 mile round trip. 18 hours straight there, 19 hours back (pit stops lasted a little longer on the way home). We drove out, met with her and the breeder for a few hours in the evening. Stayed at a hotel that night, then went back the next morning for another meeting, paperwork, and driving home. So, a lot of driving in a little time.

But it’s been so worth it.

At first, she was in guard mode. She didn’t know us, so she properly kicked in as we expected her too. But after a little time she warmed up to us, but was still wary. While the drive home was long, I think that helped her accept us. She was well-behaved the entire drive back. We would talk to her, pet her through the bars of the crate, and just lavish as much love on her as we could. I am working to establish myself as Alpha, and so far that seems to be setting in. Good thing too, as she’s wicked strong.

We let her trot around the house, on a leash, to explore and get to know her new home. After about an hour we introduced the cats. They aren’t sure what to make of her, other than it’s a big thing with teeth. But they do seem curious of her, just well… understandably on edge. 🙂  Sasha tho, she just wants to play with them. One of the cats got cornered and got very defensive, and Sasha took that as an offer to play. Cat wanted nothing to do with it, but seeing Sasha act as she did I take as a good sign.

As of now? I think she’s accepted us as family. We’ve received kisses. She watches everything we do: when I walked into the kitchen, she kept her eye on me. Movement outside? She was right at the window. I’m sitting on the couch with my MacBook Pro in my lap to type this, and Sasha is resting on the floor at my feet.

I think she likes us. 🙂

She’s receptive to our commands. She has a huge tail wag when she sees “Momma” (Wife). We’re able to hug her, pet her tummy. I also think she’s got a special protection mode going for the kids: when they move about she watches them, and when they come back to her she expects a little hand sniff to say “OK, we’re all fine”. It’s all very good. Even the cats are starting to mellow out in the same room (tho at a safe distance).

I know some people will look at us as crazy for going about things as we did. Picking a particular breed and settling for nothing less than our criteria. Using a breeder (tho this wasn’t like typical breeder purchase… it’s more like a rescue). Driving 2000 miles in 54 hours. But you know what?

You do crazy things when you’re in love. 🙂

Yes… I admit. I’m in love. Maybe I wasn’t a dog person, but Sasha… she’s changed me.

Now, we need to go to PetSmart. Got a few supplies to pick up.

This is my box

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Wife went to Costco yesterday, which means lots of cardboard boxes, which means heaven for one of our cats. This cat is obsessed with cardboard boxes.

This morning while I was walking to the kitchen, I saw one cat managed to get a box flipped over on top of her. Cardboard-obsessed cat was nearby, waiting. I flipped the box over to release trapped kitty, and within an instant of the box hitting the floor, cardboard-obsessed cat sprang into the box claiming it for herself. Upon landing in the box, her body language was such that the first thing that went through my head was:

This is my box.

There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My box is my best friend.

It is my life.

I must master it as I master my life.

My box, without me, is useless.

Without my box, I am useless.

With apologies to the US Marine Corps. 🙂

New Kitteh update

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On Friday, Wife noticed new kitteh has worms. This morning was the first time we could get to our vet.

She got her checkup, shots, de-wormer, the whole treatment. She’s quite fine and healthy.

The big news?

She’s only about 9-10 weeks old. So much for our Internet armchair kitten aging technique. We’re about a month off.

Wow.

So she’s quite young, which changes things a little bit. Not much, but a little feeding and other care differences to do. Plus, it does mean that spaying will be further off (maybe late Fall, early Winter time), which is just fine… one less expense to deal with right now.

Random grossness

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Actually… I have two random bits of grossness.

Random gross #1

The other day when I came home from the indoor range, I put a tissue up my nose to clean things out. When I pull the tissue out, there’s black on the tissue. Eh? I do a bit more cleaning in and around both nostrils and find more black. I am not 100% sure what it is, but I can only deduce it’s from the indoor range… all the smoke, especially given the guy shooting the muzzleloader in the bay next to me. Who knows what else I inhaled. This is just another reason why indoor ranges aren’t the greatest thing… or that Red’s needs to massively improve ventilation. Rather gross, and unsettling as to what I took into my body.

Random gross #2

The new kitty? She has the most god-awful farts, and has them rather frequently. Or at least, it seems the cause-effect is pick up kitty, get a nasty fart for your troubles.

Joy. 😕