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Thursday, October 30, 2014

How time flies

Well, it's been awhile and a lot has happened in the past three months.

Rogue went into heat at 9 months old which was a shock to me.  We weren't expecting THAT for another few months at least.   So it was quarantine for four weeks which meant she didn't get to play with the handsome young cattle dog mix that spent the night at our house and she had to miss the big disc dog competition.

I won't go wandering off with any un neutered males... honest.

We survived that and then Ruby, our other female Aussie started having seizures.  Epilepsy is not uncommon in dogs and it normally shows up between ages 2-6.  Ruby is three and a half.   It was a challenge keeping her safe while she was seizing and keeping the other dogs from interfering.  They seemed more concerned and confused than anything else and Ruby doesn't remember anything after it's over.  It's much scarier for the humans.

In good news, Rogue has earned some freedoms.   She no longer has to be tethered to the toy when she swims as she no longer swims off and sticks around the other dogs.  She will come back when called and will pretty much follow us back to the house even if we don't call her.  

She has also earned off leash privileges in very specific circumstances.  We tested her at a local fenced dog park and were surprised to discover that she stuck with us instead of running off to investigate everything.   A little bit of roast beef and some puppy ping pong and we had some really good recall work.  She is also allowed off leash at a local dog friendly forest preserve where she runs  gleefully with Steel and Ruby and the only time she goes out of sight of us is if she's with one of the other dogs and her recall has improved tremendously.  She's still a bit of a brat for the first five or ten minutes, but after that, she's great.


Here I come!!!!!

Wheee!

Right now, the biggest challenge is getting her to stop jumping.  Yes, still.  She is still getting rewarded for putting her paws on people and I'm so tired of the "Oh, it's okay," response, I could scream.  It's not okay.  She needs to stop that.  So, we're working on her default down and I'm trying to get people to pet her in that position.  When my mom came to visit, she was very strict about the no jumping policy and Rogue quickly got it.  

Who taught Gramma the rules?  No fair!

So we keep trying.   I know she'll get it eventually, but until she stops, we won't be able to get her tested for her CGC.  I think she's going to make an awesome therapy dog and it's a job in which her deafness can actually be a benefit.   I've seen her take a full volume toddler squeal to the face with no reaction.   I can'\t even do that.  

She's learning rules and boundaries.  She's learning routine, but she's still a bit of a spoiled princess.  She still will have the occasional tantrum when she's not getting her way.  Much of our difficulty with her has nothing to do with her deafness but with her personality.  She has her own way of doing things and is not terribly receptive to alternatives.  There are days when we wonder if we did the right thing with taking her and then we think about what would have happened to her in a home that wasn't as Aussie savvy as we are or as educated in behavior.

I'm innocent.  I swear!

Still, she's such a little snuggle muffin, there's not much we can't forgive.  She is maturing and she is improving even though we aren't happy with the speed at which we're progressing.   We've also realized that we were expecting her to be like Steel since we got him as a puppy.  She is not Steel.  She has very different ideas about what she wants to do and while Steel loves an audience and will do what you want him to do just for the attention (and food, of course), she isn't so easily enticed.   At one point, Curt had her in a down stay during one of his classes and she got up, walked to her crate, laid down and deliberately turned away from him.  She was done and not interested in being his demo dog any longer. 


In less than a month, she'll be a year old.   It's been quite a journey and it's only just begun.



Sunday, July 20, 2014

More interesting than dirt.

I don't recall where my hubby said he heard it but the quote was "To train your dog, you have to be more interesting than dirt."  We, as humans have finally graduated to more interesting than dirt.  Overcoming Rogue's attachment to the other dogs has been a struggle for us.  We let her spend too much time playing with them and not enough playing with us.   We've changed that and been rewarded by a lot better behavior.

We've come a long way with some of her very dangerous behaviors.   Door darting is almost a thing of the past.   Every time I leave for work, I send her up to her favorite spot by the window so she can watch me leave.  This also works with guests.   What a huge relief to not have to worry about the fastest puppy I have ever seen darting out when a door to the outside is open.  She really loves watching people out the window so this was an easy trick to teach.

Don't forget to bring me home dog treats.

Out of the house, she's practically perfect.   Curt takes her to work and uses her as a demo dog especially when he has other deaf dogs in his class.  He's starting to have a reputation for training them now and several local rescues recommend him for all dogs, not just the deaf ones.  She's delightfully social but still very jumpy.   I don't know how we're ever going to get her over that particular fault when she is constantly being rewarded for it by the people she jumps on.  The usual response is, "Oh, that's okay, they have a dog at home." 

But that's NOT okay.  It's not okay with me that you are encouraging my dog into bad behavior.  It's like telling someone else's child that they can have candy if they take off their shoes and run around barefoot because you'd let them do it at your house.  So we work and we struggle and we praise the heck out of anyone who actually makes her sit before petting her. 

She just turned 8 months old and no, we haven't had her spayed yet.  The amount of research around the spay/neuter debate is staggering, but we've always felt it's a very personal decision and people should choose when or if to spay/neuter their pets by what's best for them.   We want Rogue to come into a full heat so we know she's fully mature and then we're going to talk to our vet about just removing the uterus and leaving the ovaries for the hormones they provide.  I'll have more info on that as we get closer to that time.

And now it's summer, and we are eternally grateful for the pond in the back of our house.  It means that no matter how hot it is, we have a great and safe way to exercise the dogs.  It turns out Rogue loves to swim, not just to jump in and get a toy and bring it back but just to swim around in the water and occasionally chase the ducks.

Now, while the pond is separated from our street by a fence, across the way, there is no fence, so how do you keep the deaf dog from swimming to the other side and going running off?   You can't recall her if she's not looking at you.  And so, after several versions of this idea, here's a video of what we eventually went to.  


I was a little concerned about the longline in the water and the dogs getting tangled in it, especially since we  often have four dogs in the water at once, but they do very well and are never swimming unsupervised.  We occasionally have to get Rogue untangled from obstacles on land, but so far, thankfully, this works.  She gets to swim as much as she wants and we know that we don't have to worry about her getting too far for us to get her.

Rogue loves water of all kinds.   She loves 'helping' Grandpa with his chores and playing with the hose.

Swimming is great exercise for growing puppies because it's no impact.  It also burns off a lot of energy and helps their endurance and strength.  Thirty minutes to an hour of swimming and we get a relaxed happy, snugly puppy.



It's nice to finally be getting more enjoyment than frustration out of her.  She's clearly maturing and we're getting our communications with her down.  She still wants to play the chase me game any time we want to get a harness on her for walks or for swimming but it's no longer that she doesn't want us touching her, it's that she wants HER game before we go.  Yeah, we're working on that, but it's a lot easier to manage.  

Seems like such a short time ago we got our first picture of her at two days old and that frantic call from the breeder.  We've got a long way to go but at least, for the moment, we seem to be doing things right.








Monday, June 2, 2014

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

No, this isn't the book by Judith Vorst but I think the title is appropriate.   First of all, let me assure you that Rogue is fine, but she gave us a scare that we won't soon forget and a very harsh lesson about the perils of living with a deaf dog.

Curt came home at night and forgot to close the garage door before opening the door to the house.  Rogue darted out the door and proceeded to gleefully romp around our very dark neighborhood.  She was hit by a pickup truck.  Due to soft puppy bones and physics, she emerged remarkably unscathed and barked her fool head off at the truck as my traumatized husband rushed her into the house to make sure she was okay.  The guy in the truck had to pull over because he was so upset.

Rogue is not just deaf.  She's a door darter and a car chaser.  She's an independent, fearless little girl who is currently in the you're-not-the-boss-of-me teenage stage.  It's a dangerous combination that almost ended in tragedy... but it didn't.

So, what are we doing about it.  Well, we bought a vibrating collar.  It has shock setting that we have no intention of using, but it was one of the better ones we could find.  It's the Dogtra Hunter and was recommended by some friends.  We're currently working on conditioning her to the vibration as a signal for eye contact.

Next, we are working on border training and rock sitting.  What's rock sitting?  Here's a little video my husband did of her in her rock sitting.  It's quicker to teach than the border training and is a stop gap until the border training is complete.  Because we'd already done a lot of work on pedestals, she was happy to go up on the rock to get treats.  Note the tether.

If you're interested in learning more on boarder training, Kikopup has an awesome video of it here.

On a more positive note, she's now six months old and still stubbornly hovering under the 30lb mark.  If she gets to thirty, i suspect that's where she'll stay.  She's starting to look much more like a dog now.
 Tiny baby puppy
Not so tiny puppy

She went to a fundraiser with her Aussie siblings where we got this picture.


She's been to her first disc dog competition and gone lure coursing.   She loves swimming in our pond and chasing the ducks who have realized she can't swim as fast as they can so they no longer feel the need to fly away from her when swimming will do.  She's really so much like a normal puppy, that we forget that she isn't.

She's old enough now that Curt takes her to work with him as his demo dog.  She is not in the least bit bothered by any barking dogs in his class and amused one of his classes by snoring.  In a couple of weeks, she and Curt will attend one of Ron Watson's Pawsitive Vybe camps and I can't wait to see what they'll learn.

Swimming has been a blessing because it keeps her tired and a tired puppy doesn't have enough energy to get into (much) trouble.  We do have to keep reminding ourselves that she IS still a puppy and she still needs her nap time.

Do you mind?  I was sleeping?

By the time she's three years old, she'll be an awesome, mature, well trained dog.   If only we can survive the next two and a half years.  I don't think either of us will be looking to be adding another puppy to the family for awhile, but I wouldn't trade this headstrong, intelligent, sweet girl for anything.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Keepin it Pawsitive.

So, Rogue, Ruby and I (and a couple of friends and their dogs) spent four days with Ron and Apryl of Pawsitive Vybe.  We were there mostly for disc dog work but since Rogue decided to lose all of her baby teeth at once, she wasn't really in the mood to bite or play tug with anything so we worked on other stuff.
Being tethered is hard work.

We've had a lot of trouble with Rogue getting into things and working dogs need down time.  While we were working with other dogs, Rogue needed to know that she was okay being quite and watching and that downtime was to be expected.   I spent a lot of time trying to learn how to throw treats TO her from across the room (Still haven't really got the hang of it) but while she certainly would prefer not being tethered and wandering around wreaking havoc, she accepted tethering without a lot of complaints, unlike Ruby.   
 
 Look into my eyes.  You WILL give me that treat.

Another important thing we learned was eye contact. With a deaf dog, you can't tell them what to do if they're not looking at you and making eye contact a positive thing is a mustAFter our visit, Rogue was offering eye contact even in the middle of play with other dogs.   That's a huge deal for us.   I'm still rewarding her for it and for coming to me when I 'call'.  But it means I have to have her flicker and treats available all the time  It's something I've been bad at and something I've really had to work hard at fixing.   It's made a huge difference in Rogue's and my relationship already. 
 
Anything Roo can do I can do better.

Ruby makes it look easy

We did a lot of proper jumping practice to make sure the dogs know how to jump correctly.  This saves on vet and chiropractor bills.  We're also working the beginning of a trick where you make your arms into a hoop and the dog goes through it.   Since this is a very low jump, Rogue was able to show off how smart she is and figured it out almost as quickly as Ruby.   She's a very good student and loves cookies.  

Ruby was not nearly as sure of the yoga ball as her baby sister.

We also worked a lot of balance and core work.   We played the pedestal game where the dogs got up on various items (chairs stools, BoSu and yoga balls)  This is so good for confidence and core strength.   You start them on the easy stuff to build their confidence and eventually, you can get them balancing on a yoga ball.   Rogue was an eager learner and wasn't afraid of any of the things we asked her to get up on.  I had her get up on a reclining office chair and she would slam her front paws against the back of it to make it rock.   Fearless.   Completely fearless.

If only he could see her again...

And Rogue continued her love of Australian Cattle dogs by capturing the heart of Wyatt, one of her classmates.  Wyatt was a little unsure of people, but he and Rogue romped and played as if they'd been buddies for life.   I love my well socialized girl.  

Polknado   
And every girl needs a nemesis.  Rogue's was a Baussie her age named Polka.   They had a good time romping together and trying to one up each other.   In Polka's house, the other dogs let her believe she runs the show.  Rogue was having none of that much to the Polknado's annoyance but it was a good experience for both pups.

The whole gang:  Jessica, Apryl (with Polka) Ron, Tracey and me.
I can't thank the folks at Pawsitive Vybe enough for the excellent positive training we got over the weekend.   Four dogs at different levels and everyone learned a lot.   Even without being able to do anything with a disc, Rogue was still able to learn some new skills that will help her when she does finally get her teeth back.  And, of course, my brain was completely full by the end of the weekend.   

Ron and Apryl have experience with deaf dogs and with the help of the flicker, we were able to accomplish a lot.  I recommend them if you have the time and are able to make the trip.  It was more than worth it.
After Pawsitive Vybe


My little hellion turns six months old in two weeks.  Where has the time gone?

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Safety

As we are getting prepared for a major cross country trip for us and the dogs, I started thinking about safety.  Last year, we had several high profile dog sports folk lose one of their beloved family members post auto accident and then the 2011 study came out  showing (graphically with dog crash test dummies) how all of the (at the time) commercially available dog seat belts performed in a 35mph crash test.
http://centerforpetsafety.org/research/

I also had a little personal incident where a slightly more aggressive tap on the breaks sent my own dog crashing into the dashboard.  Yipe.   What's a dog owner to do?

Note:  There is no advertising on my page so everything I show that I own, I bought.  Nobody is paying me to advertise their stuff.

The good thing about the above test is that it was only a matter of time before someone did create a seatbelt that was crash tested.   The one we own is the Sleepypod Clickit, a three point harness that attaches to your LATCH system like a child safety seat.  I have to say, the customer service at Sleepy pod is also awesome.

  













Correctly fitting Sleepy Pod harnesses



                                                                                                             Not so correctly fitting harness

Eventually, Rogue will fit into that harness, but until she does, it's not safe for her to use.

Pre-harness, we used and still do use crates.  Our smallest car actually perfectly fits one of our two soft sided crates.  It fits so snugly, that there's no way that thing is going to move even if we have an accident.   We can fit two crates in our larger car.

Which crates to use?  I admit, I use the soft sided crates.  They're easy to put up and take down and easy to carry.  Other options are the metal or hard plastic ones.  

 Our three crates by (left to right) Nature's Miracle, Top Paw and Noz2Noz

I couldn't find any type of research to support one type of crate over another as far as dog safety in the car.  The only one I know of that has been tested and is designed specifically for dog safety in the car is the Variocage.   I'd have one if they weren't so expensive Don't get me wrong, if I was a hard core dog sport player who spent more weekends than not with my dog in the car traveling hundreds of miles, I think I'd probably invest in one.



 How do I want thee?  Let me count the dogs.

But how is Rogue doing?  Her UTI is pretty much gone (pending test results) and the number of accidents in the house has plummeted.  A future blog is going to bemoan the fact that she's tall enough to get her paws on things and how we're handling it.

And she's still growing.  These two pictures are ten weeks apart. Where is my puppy going?



 















I can't believe she was ever this small?                                                            No, I don't love this puppy at all.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Big brother is watching

I have to say I don't know what I'd do without him.  Our 3 and a half year old male Aussie, Steel has been the marvelous big brother a puppy could want and when that puppy is deaf, he's priceless to the humans in the equation.

Steel:  He really is all that.

Now, getting a second dog will make more work for you, not less, no matter what anyone tries to tell you, however, having an adult dog when you are getting a puppy can actually help.  It's still more work than just one dog, but a well socialized adult dog can teach your puppy things faster than you can.  Now, when that dog is a smart herding breed, not only can he teach her things (some of which you didn't want her learning),  but he can also provide some crowd control as well.

For example, we Rogue is not allowed off leash anywhere other than our fully fenced back yard and the house.  Her recall just isn't good enough and she's really fond of the come chase me game.  Our other three will happily go from house to car and car to house pretty directly but we have to let them out in a specific order or Ruby will get in the car first and then prevent anyone else from getting in.  So, I let Steel out first and zoom, out goes Rogue with him.  Panicking, I run into the house to grab a really good treat and start to hear Steel barking.  I look out the door and he's darting back and forth in front of the garage, preventing Rogue from leaving it.

Of course, as soon as he saw me heading toward them, he decided that it must be all right and let her go.  Thankfully, she adores her big brother and with only a brief thought about seeing if I would play the chase game, she followed him into the car.  (whew!)

Even a puppy who can hear can be a problem when they don't have solid recall, but often, if your adults recall, the puppy will follow.  I don't recommend you depend on this but in an emergency, it can be a literal life saver.

Best... big brother... ever.
 I mentioned Rogue's current fondness for the chase me game.  This is especially fun when she has something she knows she shouldn't.  Unlike a hearing dog, you can't giver her a verbal correction and we don't quite have drop it down with her yet so what do you do?  Unless it's something dangerous to the puppy, don't chase them, even if you're sure you can corner them and get them.  Why?  Because then they know they can get you to play the game with them and they love that game. 
 
So what do you do?   I have two methods that I switch between depending on the situation.  If Steel is around, I call Steel.  Rogue will see him heading for something fun and usually trot along behind him to see what's fun thing is going on.  Steel's recall is damn near perfect so this works really well when he's around.  If he's not around, I run, if possible, and walk if not AWAY from the puppy.

I know, this goes against every must-keep-the-puppy safe instinct.  Go away from the puppy who is running away from you?  Go further instead of closer?  It's INSANE!!!.  The puppy wants to play, so you play, but you play chase the human.  With herding dogs, this is particularly useful because they like to control the situation and they need to know where you are.  They're perfectly willing to play the chase game if you're the the one being chased.   I can't tell you how many times this totally non instinctive reaction to one of my dogs running from me has brought them running back.

These are not things to rely on though.  These are for that emergency when the puppy gets out or slips her collar.  A good, solid recall is the single best safety precaution for your dog.  If they come to you before they get to the street, they won't get hit by a car... and neither will you.

With a deaf puppy, they have to have a solid recall and a solid check in.  If they aren't looking at you, you can't tell them what to do.  So rewarding your deaf dog/puppy when they look at you is important.  They need to want to look at you for direction.  

But teaching check in and recall in a high distraction environment isn't easy and how do you know when you can trust that puppy off leash?  That is where big brother gets to help me again.   My hubby has started teaching Steel to 'Fetch the baby".  Steel loves to fetch so he started with a small tug toy.  Then he tied the tug toy to the handle of a leash and had him fetch that for awhile.  The final stage, of course, is to put the leash on the puppy and have Steel fetch the leash and bring him the puppy.

Excuse the condition of the basement in the video, but I DO have a puppy.  :)
As for the rest of us, Rogue had her first rabies shot on Thursday and had a mild adverse reaction to it.   The vet is aware and we'll see what we can do next year to prevent it.   This is why she never gets more than one shot in a visit.  Had she gotten them all at the same time, we wouldn't know which one caused her to react.  Thankfully, she enjoys the vet and had fun 'riding' the examination table up and down.  Of course, we'd spent our time waiting for the vet in training go to your mat while the table was in the down position.  
Come on, one more time?  Please?
She's getting so big.  She's over 20lbs now and today is her four month birthday.  It seems like such a short time ago that she was 8 pounds of cuteness I could pick up and snuggle at will.  Now, she's a heavy hellion and I'm going to put my back out picking her up these days. 


 
 Thankfully, Rogue has her big brother when she can't get the humans to play with her.


Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Why yes, all that practice does help

So, accidents in the house have plummeted since we taught Rogue to ring the bell to go out.  She picked it up in a day.  Now, she will ring the bell if she just wants to go out and play in addition to when she has to potty, but that's okay. 

And really, who wouldn't want to go play?

She and our adult Aussies are enjoying each other's company and Steel will even go out of his way to get her to play with him.  
 
One of the problems with teaching your dog shaping is that your smart dogs will figure out pretty quickly  that they have some control over their environment and you can get a kind of terrible twos stage as they decide that no, they don't want to do that, thank you very much.  This is your puppy trying to figure out what they can do to get you to do what they want.  All dogs do this, but it varies how early and how well.   
 
Currently, Curt is working on getting her to walk beside him on leash and we're both working hard at solving the jumping problem.  She doesn't jump on us because we don't allow it but she's so cute that anywhere we take her, people love on her when she jumps on them and she's now big enough to knock small children down.  And she loves kids.
 
Kids are actually easier to teach this to as they are so thrilled at the idea that they can make the dog sit, they aren't petting her while they're giving her the hand signal.  Adults, usually reply, "Oh, I don't mind."  Well maybe, but I do.  She has learned now that some people won't allow her to jump on them so she will try it a couple of times to make sure they're not going to pet her until she sits and then sit.  

We did finally teach her a negative marker.  No, I don't mean any type of punishment but a sign for no.   We had to in order to deal with her being in hell puppy mode which is the only time she still tries to grab out pants and such.  Redirecting helps, but at some point, we had to reinforce that certain things just aren't acceptable.

Now, I managed to stop the licking the dishes in the dishwasher behavior without resorting to no.   I just reinforced something I'd started with Steel and Ruby which was laying down in a certain area of the kitchen while I'm cooking and added Rogue to the mix.   She will stay in that spot reliably for 5 and ten minutes at a time with regular food reinforcement right now as long as one or both of the other dogs is there with her.   If she's alone, I am still reinforcing every 15 seconds or so to get her to resist temptation.  

The go to your mat command is so very versatile.  I might need a bigger mat.
 
When Ruby isn't shaking that small rug to vent her anxiety, I can pretty much put it down anywhere in the house and have all three dogs sit or lay on it.    I am going to try to use this the next time we take her to another house to see if that will make her relax.   She's fine in her crate in the car.  She still protests a little crated at night but she will howl like she's being murdered if we crate her anywhere else unless she's sharing the crate with Steel.
 
She has two doggie friends that she sees semi regularly.  There's Evie who's an adult terrier mix.  Every time we go over there, they romp and play, but the hard part is getting them to settle down.  Rogue has a really hard time if there's ANYTHING going on because she's so visually distractable and since she refuses to be quiet in the crate....  It's something we can work on but when hanging out with friends, how long do you really want to let the puppy scream in the crate?  It's a work in progress as we try different things to get her to calm down and sleep because an overtired puppy is just as bad if not worse than an overtired toddler.

Rogue's other friend is Staley an Australian Cattle Dog puppy who is 2 weeks older than she is.  Watching the two of them play is like watching professional wrestling.  They launch each other off furniture, jump on each other form above and dive under chairs and tables.  I'm getting video the next playdate because it's hysterical.  And not only that...  tired puppy.

Staley, after Rogue has been over to visit.
 
I can't stress enough the value of a tired puppy.  I get all kinds of things done when she's worn out and just wants to chill and nap and maybe snuggle a bit.   I will not miss her hell puppy days one bit.
 
And it's another reason why early socialization is so important.  Steel and Ruby taught Rogue that different dogs have different play styles so she alters her play to match her playmate.  But it's also important to  know when they're getting overtired so the happy playmate doesn't become the evil worst enemy because someone looked at someone wrong and they were both tired and the fight started in earnest.   We watch the puppies carefully because as intense as their play gets, it can get over intense and we need to stop it before it goes too far.  

Right now, we really need to work recall.  We've been spending too much time picking Rogue up to do things she doesn't want (like go into her crate) and so she is avoiding us partly for that reason and partly because she really likes the chase game and thinks it's fun to make us chase her even though we don't.  We know better.   But we need to work recall a lot more than we are.  Until her recall is solid, we won't dare to try anything off leash without a fence, even with Steel and Ruby to play puppy goalies.   

And now, she's in puppy snuggle mode so I'm going to go and snuggle my puppy.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

The tintinabulation of the bells, bells, bells...

So we continue to struggle with potty training, mostly due to our own laziness and the hubby's variable schedule which makes getting the pup on a schedule a challenge.  Another thing that contributes to our laziness and thus, our difficulties getting Rogue potty trained is the dog door.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Why blame the dog door?  Because it's lazy . We just assume that because the puppy goes potty outside and because she can easily go in and out the dog door that she will potty train herself.  Well, she doesn't. In fact, she'll go out there and romp her little heart out with Steel and Ruby and come running back in and pee on the floor.   Why?  Because she was having fun outside and didn't think about going potty until she came in and then, well she hasn't really been rewarded for pottying outside nor has she been punished for pottying inside so hey, anyplace convenient will do.

Bad dog parents.  Bad, bad bad.  No cookie.  The dog door makes it easier for us to be lazy and trust me, after one or the other of us has been at work all day, the last thing we want to do is stop whatever we happen to be doing to relax and let the puppy out.  So, potty issues continue to plague us at home.

Interestingly, when we're elsewhere, if Rogue has to potty, she will go and stand next to whatever door we came in and look at us to let her out.  Any place, any door.  That's generalization and that means she's a pretty clever girl which makes us even more lazy asses for the fact that we haven't gotten her potty trained at home.

Interestingly, when I asked my husband to pose for me holding a sign that said, "I'm a dog trainer and haven't house trained my puppy and she's already 3 months old" he refused.  Can't imagine why.
 Thankfully, I know how to improvise.

  
I can train my dog to jump over my arm but I can't potty train my puppy.
And thankfully, my husband has a good sense of humor.

So, even more frustrating is the fact that when I am in the kitchen, Rogue will stand by the door and look up at me when she wants to go out.  So she does at least have an idea of what we want so what's the disconnect (besides the lazy dog door)?

Well, Rogue is deaf which means that she doesn't know how to communicate with someone she can't see.  She doesn't know what sound is.   She knows what it feels like to bark, and whine and make those adorable crooning noises but she has no idea what it sounds like or that it can be heard outside her range of  vision.   Now, she has some concept of that because her crate is completely covered at night and she still knows that if she barks and whines, we will come and get her out.  

What does this mean?  Well, it means expecting to teach her to bark to be let out will require us to teach her to bark on command and then get her to do it before we let her out.  Did I mention we're a little lazy?   Yeah, so the husband bought bells for the door.

I have no idea how much he paid for this but I could have made it for $2 with stuff from a craft store.

Now some of you may be wondering why bells.  After all, the dog is deaf, how does she hear the bells?  She doesn't have to.  All she has to know is that if she paws at them, we will come and let her out.  Easy peasy.  We used bells with Steel after we had the same problem for the same reason (dog door and lazy asses)  We stopped using it after Steel started using them as a summon human spell.

Stay tuned to see how this works.

Rogue continues to grow and has more than doubled her size since we got her.  She continues to fear nothing and love people.   People love her too but I wish they'd stop petting her when she jumps up on them because now we have a jumping puppy problem.  (grrrrrr)

Honest, she's just as cute with all four paws on the floor.


Keeping everyone busy the past week has been hard since a heavy rain turned our back yard into an ice rink and we don't want any torn ACLs.  So there's been a lot of ball and toy chasing in the house.  Rogue isn't really fetching because Steel always gets to the toy first so she just waits for him to head back and then gnaws on him until it's time to throw the toy again.   He's a very patient older brother.

So, I leave you with two pictures of the evil little imp taken 6 weeks apart.  Wow!

Look at that itty bitty puppy                                                                  She's getting so big!!
  
  Teh end
 
 

Thursday, February 20, 2014

What happened to my perfect puppy?

She was doing so well.  We had default sits going all the time.  She was checking in regularly and her recall was bang on.   What happened?  Why is she backing away when I try to recall her?  Why won't she come anymore?   Is there something wrong with my puppy?

Grab a glass of wine, we need to talk.
 
The problem, of course, is not the puppy.  The problem is the people.  Yep.  We got lazy.   When we first got the puppy, we were working with her multiple times a day.  The husband had her out socializing at every pet store within a 10 mile radius and we worked the training over and over and over and then life happened.  She was so good, we stopped training.   She stopped getting rewarded for recall and so stopped leaving whatever fun thing she was doing to come to the human who was not going to let her go back to the fun thing she'd been doing.

Public enemies 1 and 2.
 
Now, the only problem above that is mostly a deaf dog issue is the recall.   Since she currently does not have a drop it or leave it command, we have resorted to recall to get her out of dangerous (as far as we're concerned, fun as far as she's concerned) situations because she was so good at it so she started associating recall with that thing she does that ends whatever fun she was having.  Can't say I'd blame her for not coming.   The fact that we'd stopped using treat rewards, didn't help the situation either.
 
All is not lost, of course.  We go back to the beginning, rewarding all those great behaviors and trying not to use recall to get her out of trouble unless we have something fun to reward her with when she does it.  It doesn't have to be food.  I've used recall when she was trying to get on the bed to torment her big brother who was teasing her and then when she came, I picked her up and plopped her on the bed where she could annoy him to her heart's content.  
 
Laugh it up, human.  Your slippers are toast.
 
But all jokes aside, there is a lot of going back to the basics for us.   We know better.  We did this same thing with Steel when he was a puppy and we swore we weren't going to do it with her.  I guess old habits die harder than we thought.  
 
We also came to the rather startling realization that she doesn't know how to go potty on leash.  We've never leashed her for potty because she was always in a fenced yard or the xpen in the garage.  So now that we're taking her on longer trips and she's bold enough that putting her down unleashed is not an option, we've realized that if she's on leash, she has no idea what she's supposed to be doing.  Wow, total training fail.  We should have followed more of Sofia Yin's book.
 
The point of this is that what's happening with us isn't unusual and we don't suck because we got lazy.   Especially with intelligent dogs, it's easy to say, they've got it so you don't have to work on it anymore.   The solution is simple.  Get back to basics and do what you started and don't stop before you're really done.  
 
Rogue is over 16lbs now and all legs.  She has never met a human she doesn't like and finally has good dog greeting manners.  I was even able to take her with me to evaluate a dog for rescue.  She was a champ.
 
She has a temper.  You can always tell when she isn't getting something she wants because she has a very frustrated bark.  She has a ton of unusual vocalizations because she can't hear the sounds other dogs are making to imitate them.  She knows what making sound feels like even if she can't hear it and she knows that certain physiological activities get her specific results.  She doesn't realize she's making a sound because she has no concept of what a sound is but she does know cause and effect.  She has an adorable little croon we want to try to get a recording of.
 
Seriously, she's a giant puff ball of evil.
 
Still, she is a very sweet puppy and loves to snuggle.  She has never met a human she didn't like and people are constantly stopping us to ask if they can pet her.  I can let someone she doesn't know hold her with no real fear of her doing anything more than giving them a good licking and maybe a nibble on the nose.   I guess we'll keep her.