Hello From Argentina

[Pawbla]

Hello! My name is Paula and this is Winston Smith on my picture . I am graduating in a month as a dog instructor. I own three dogs although only he lives with me - although I'm not sure if this year I'll have to leave him at my mom's because I had some problems with the apartment.

Here's my beauty. He's 3 years old, I found him as a stray when he was 7 months old. He's some sort of collie mix and he has an incredibly soft hair. I don't bathe him regularly, though, so he's always kind of dirty, haha! He's about the size of a brittany spaniel and he's being trained for therapy. He's a bit too smart for me but he lacks initiative. I made a post about it in General Dog Training. He's my "cuddle buddy", we sleep together!

Here is Herr Hosen (Mr. Pants if I'm not mistaken), a Siberian Husky x GSD mix. He's a mix, but he's like 90% Sibe - the only thing similar to a GSD is his face and markings! I found him as a stray when he was about a year old, and he's about 3 and a half right now . He's a "smart enough" kind of dog - smart enough so as to learn quickly every trick, not smart enough to be a step ahead of you! xD. Best kind of dog, in my opinion! Really stubborn, but I love that. His only fault is that he pulls a lot wheen we go for a walks - I've been trying to train that but I only live 3 months with him. So I'm getting him a copy of a Walk Your Dog With Love harness as importation is banned. I want to get the original if I can, though.

This one is Flor, she's 12 years old. I adopted her when she was 7 months old. She's getting a bit old so she can't see and hear as well as she used to but she behaves pretty good and she's obedient so there's no point in bothering her at the golden age! We just enjoy her company and she enjoys ours, or so I hope. I wanted to take her with me but she can't climb stair anymore and I live in a second floor, no elevator .

Sorry for the bunch of pics - I tried to keep them small, at least! Haha.

 

[tigerlily46514]

WELCOME!!!
If you are into training dogs, you will love it here on DogTrickAcademy.


ALSO, I LOVE LOVE LOVE THAT YOU 'RESCUE' DOGS IN NEED!! YAY!!!



AWESOME DOGGIE FAMILY you have there!!!
All these dogs look so sweet!!

Re: the instructions you wish to acquire to help you train not to pull, I found it hard to teach my dog, too, maybe "not pulling" was THE hardest thing i've ever taught my dog, really. I had to really stick with the training, and i found, stopping, and asking my dog to return to me, every time he pulled, (asking HIM to participate in this training)
really helped him. I had to be consistent, and do that evvvvvvvvvery time he pulled. The video below shows how to do that.

Until you get that book you want, maybe you can try these tips free, on youtube, on how to teach a dog not to pull: BOTH OF THESE VIDEOS ARE ONLY A FEW MINUTES LONG to watch...but i had to watch them, over and over and over, to stay inspired to continue on with my efforts to teach my dog to stop pulling.

and this one, too:

 

[tigerlily46514]

By the way, about your older dog,
i think older dogs LOVE learning new things.
Old age is no reason to not train a dog to do some tricks which his older body IS able to do. (maybe not jumping through hoops, but something less physically demanding i mean).

I think ALLL dogs love learning tricks, love getting a chance to use their own minds, LOVE the attention and praise, LOVE the stimulation to ward off the number one complaint of most dogs--"boredom".

Maybe you can look over allll the tricks around here, and find one that your older dog will enjoy learning. It might really perk him up to have something new and interesting to do....i even think learning tricks helps a dog feel useful and proud.

 

[Pawbla]

My older dog knows the basic tricks but she also has a damaged hind leg which makes her unable to do most tricks. She'll do a sit, and down. We refresh them when I do "group classes" with my three dogs, haha! I'll check if there are any new tricks she could learn but I'm not sure about the kind of tricks that would suit her.

On the pulling, I watched the videos actually a few days ago but Sibes are veeeeeery stubborn. I've been training him like that every day since I came back to my parent's, in November, and he still pulls. A little bit less, though. But I had forgotten my clicker at home so I had some timing issues with rewards, my boyfriend brought it back not long ago. I just want to have my parents be able to take him for a short walk so I think the harness will solve the issue quicker and we can go back to no pulling training when I get back; then I don't have to deal again with a dog that has been confined for about a year. It'll be easier next year if I can get my parents to take him out once a week at least.

 

[tigerlily46514]

Oh, there are many many tricks a dog with a damaged hind leg, or only 3 legs,
can do.

"show me your good side"
"smile"<----maybe my all time FAVORITE trick of all
"look at me"
"Are you shy?" <---that one does require front paw movements, if the dog has arthritis?
"Stacking bowls"
"Pick out a toy by name" (toys lined up in front of sedentary dog)
I could probably list 50 tricks that a dog can do while sitting still.....................just tons and tons of tricks for dogs sitting still. If you are interested, i'll find some links on any of those tricks.


Yes, i hear you, Paula, oh i hear you, teaching "no pull" is hard to do, and it sounds like you also have other ppl walking your dog, too.
Sometimes, the other ppl walking your dog might not be doing what YOU would do, and that CAN slow up the progress.
I had same problem, my guy walked my dog, and HE allowed my dog to pull.
so THAT made it harder for my dog to get the hang of loose-leash walking.


so, this dog only gets one walk a week, is that right?

 

[tigerlily46514]

Maybe, if your parents are not walking the dog,
because the dog pulls,
mayyyyyyyyyyybe you would want to try a Gentle Leader head halter???

it is NOT that easy to get every dog to "like" his head halter. I had a lot of trouble, getting my dog to "like" his head halter.

But very very very few dogs can pull in a head halter....like THIS: http://www.gentleleader.com/

IT'S IS VERY IMPORTANT,
IF YOU DO GIVE YOUR PARENTS A HEAD-HALTER
THAT YOU INSTRUCT THEM THEY CAN NEVER EVER EVER NEVER YANK ON THE DOG IF HE IS WEARING A HEAD-HALTER,
NOT EVER EVER AGAIN.
Only GENTLY lead the dog where they want, no yanking, or they could hurt the dogs neck

 

[Pawbla]

I don't think she has arthritis but she doesn't look like she can do the "are you shy" movement. I'll check the rest since I'm not so sure what they're exactly about. Thanks!

He gets daily walks right now and I'm the only one walking him. But when I leave he'll get one or two walks a day at most (or if he's really gentle and my sis can walk him, he'll get more walks a week).

I tried a halti, because we don't have gentle leaders here, and he still pulled. He still pulled and it looked like it was going to seriously injure his neck... I didn't yank or pull or anything, but he still kept pulling and thrashing his head - it totally scared me. I did it gradually, first walking at home and that, and while at home it was "working" (well, he does heel at home, so it's not a big indicator), when we started doing it outside (first with leash not attached to the halti, then leash hanging, etc, etc) and I started using the leash connected to the halti, he went totally crazy. I tried a few times, rewarding when he didn't pull and accepted the halti, etc, but it looked seriously dangerous so no. The rest of my dogs did just fine with the halti, I tried with them first. I guess it's not the ideal tool for some dogs, but I think it is for most.

I'm trying this one: http://www.walkyourdogwithlove.com/
Well, actually a copy of it because, again, importation bans. But seems pretty nice and it's worth a try, I guess.

 

[tigerlily46514]

Well, it sounds like you are doing a lot of things right, in trying to get your dog to use a halti, i failed to ever get my dog to really enjoy wearing it, so we very rarely use it.

I hope the harness does help out. I still supect, since your parents walk the dog, that there *might* be a possibility, that your parents might not be as interested in dog training as YOU are, and so, maybe, your parents are allowing the dog to pull.
If so, that is really a big problem for teaching the dog to never pull.

Here is a link to maybe my ALL TIME favorite dog trick ever, i jsut LOVE this one, and even a dog with no legs at all could do it:
"smile"
It is so easy, it is just a matter of "capturing" a smile,
and CLICK/TREAT.

I found out, my dog smiles at me if i run around, so, i did run around, soon as he smiled, CLICK/TREAT.
SIMPLE.

Anyway, i love the trick. I can turn to my dog and say "smile!" and he will smile. Plus, ANYTHING we reward our dogs for doing, is a chance that behavior will be done more often.....my dog DOES smile more now.
http://www.dogtrickacademy.com/members/forums/threads/when-youre-smiling-the-whole-world-smiles-with-you.3555/#post-24504

 

[Anneke]

Hi Paula, welcome to DTA!
Lovely dogs you have!!
First thing I thought when I saw the picture of Winston was... Is that a Kooiker all the way over in Argentina???
A Kooiker is a Dutch dog, that isn't well known in the rest of the world. Here is a link to a picture of a Kooiker. Sorry the site is in dutch as I couldn't find an english site.
http://www.google.nl/imgres?q=kooiker&hl=nl&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=699&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=GIgs70taEgBsPM:&imgrefurl=http://nieko.home.xs4all.nl/kooi.htm&docid=k5haeoFbr1Hm6M&imgurl=http://nieko.home.xs4all.nl/KOOIKER2.JPG&w=420&h=319&ei=b9Y-T-mzCInssgaAn53eBA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=829&vpy=245&dur=1932&hovh=196&hovw=258&tx=167&ty=102&sig=110311889639362750584&page=1&tbnh=144&tbnw=197&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=0CGYQrQMwCA

 

[Pawbla]

I hope the harness does help out. I still supect, since your parents walk the dog, that there *might* be a possibility, that your parents might not be as interested in dog training as YOU are, and so, maybe, your parents are allowing the dog to pull.
If so, that is really a big problem for teaching the dog to never pull.

Yes.. right now they are not walking him so we could train, but after I leave it will be impossible to tell them to keep training because I know they will not. And, after all, what I'm going for is the well-being of the dog, so as long as he's not confined I'm happy either way. If the harness works, awesome! If not I'll have to do it the hard way, haha.

I'm on my way to the smile thing! She does smile. It's often in fear situations but I guess I can catch enough non-fear smiles . I wouldn't want to reward for fear, haha.

@Anneke I have been told a lot of times about the strange resemblance! The first time I showed a Kooiker picture to my boyfriend he said "What is Winston doing in the snow?" haha! There are some that are even more similar to him, if it wasn't such a rare breed I'd think he had at least a Kooiker parent! But I've never seen one in real life so I guess it's not likely.

 

[Dogster]

Welcome to DTA!!!! This is a great website to learn how to teach your dogs tricks (and brag about it afterwards) LOL!!!! Your dogs are BEAUTIFUL!!! SOO GLAD you rescued them!!!!

 

[Pawbla]

Thanks a lot Dogster! I've rescued many in the past but these one were the ones that sort of stuck, for one reason or another. Nobody wanted poor Hosen at first because of his behaviour problems and size, but then when they were solved we were just too fond of him to let him go. Behavioural modification therapy, when in hands of a good instructor, usually makes the bond of the dog and owner grow stronger! Our instructor was pretty awesome I guess.

 

[Dogster]

It's GREAT that you found a good instructor for your dogs!!!! Most people don't want to help out dogs with "problems", it's great that you saved some of these dogs!!!!