What To Do First!?!

[reveuse]

Update :

Whisper has been veryyyyyyyyyyyyy busy. She has mostly mastered watch/touch/sit and the idea of crate/go home. She's working on Down/leave it/wait and when not in freaked out mode has a very nice set of walking skills. We conquered her fear of shopping carts a couple days ago and she no longer dive bombs behind me at the sight of one and tolerates them rolling gently past her. She will say hi to a couple of people and my friend with the lab even gets a special excited woof out of her when we see her. She and Ro play mostly nicely together and she has taken to napping more often on my couch and a bit less often in the corner where nobody can see her (i'd say we are up to 50/50 now or a bit more of her being on the couch and out of hiding). Shes also getting better at going to camp - has played with a few of the dogs - but still isn't really thrilled about the check-in process . Food wise she has improved but is still picky --- Ro lets her eat in peace in her crate for breakfast and I usually give her dinner as a training session of some sort.

She does totally lose it when she freaks out tho.......tries to literally drag me out of the store or wherever we may be. I'm also going to have to take up jogging/running (something I HATE! ) as I decided to try a little sprint with her last night and she just loved it! *SIGH*

off to work...... more later!

 

[sara]

Check out the Thundershirt... helps with anxiety. I also found with Zoe that if she went into panic mode, the only thing that would help her out of it was to let her get away... no amount of trying to calm her in the presence of what set off the panic attack would help, she just needed to get away. dont dispare, Zoe hasn't had a panic attack for a couple of years now. The frequency of her attacks deteriorated fairly rapidly, once I learned to let her get away, and not try to make her accept the thing she was afraid of. Zoe is proof why flooding (a technique commonly used by Cesar) is extremely unacceptable.

 

[tx_cowgirl]

Glad to hear she's doing well!!
Lol funny how our dogs give us new hobbies. ^^ Better go get some new running shoes!

I've done the same with Zeke. If he really needs to get away, I just let him. I don't force him into anything new. He knows he always has the option to leave if he needs to. He is mostly comfortable walking around stores in public, but it's up to him if he wants to greet someone or not, check out a scary object or not, etc. He's the decision maker.

 

[reveuse]

I let her get away also, I just try to get her (when possible) to do it without dragging me like a stuffed toy. *clarification*

 

[reveuse]

UPDATE : Whisper graduated her beginners class on Sat. By far the best in her class (and it's not me bragging !)... She knows sit, down, come, leave it, say hi, shake, stay (all the class requirements) and then wait, crate, go home, go pee, touch, wave , and beg (tho i haven't given it a verbal yet). Also working on adding distance to bed and also starting distance on stay...... She's much less shy and extremely sweet as well as a total copycat (she copied him doing a puzzle and also working the half set of weave poles I had in the house last week)
today I took her and Ro to the new Zoom Room that opened nearby. I mostly let her wander around while I worked on different sequences with Ro......... But to my great surprise I tried to see if i could get her to put a paw on the A frame and within a few clicks/chickens she was running across it on her own , following Ro,.....

So proud of my baby girl....... she starts Intermediate class on the 14th but she's already way ahead of them for the most part rofl.......

 

[Liam Crowe]

When you bring your new puppy into the home, you must continue to teach him how to control his biting, because it is much easier for a dog to cause injury to a human as compared to another canine.

Here is how to stop a puppy from biting:
You need to establish the amount of mouthing you are willing to accept while playing with your pup and stick to that threshold. Are you ok with your dog touching your hand with his teeth so long as he doesn’t exert any pressure, or do you want to make it clear to him that you will not tolerate any tooth-skin contact?
When your puppy goes above the threshold that you’ve set, you must yelp loudly as if you’re truly in pain and turn your whole body so that you are no longer facing him.
Get up and walk away, remembering to keep your eyes and face turned away from him.
Do not speak to or touch your puppy. Your main goal is to make your pup feel socially isolated for approximately 30 seconds. This is enough time for him to learn that his behavior caused your negative reaction. If too much time passes, the lesson may not sink in because he may become distracted and forget that your response was elicited by his behavior.
If there are other people in the same room as you and your dog, they must act like you. That is, they cannot give your pup mixed messages by playing with or showering him with attention because, if they do, all of your efforts will go down the drain.

 

[mewzard]

Oh gosh Samantha I've only just spotted the photo's of Whisper and she is absolutely stunning!! She sounds like she is doing soo soo well!!

When you bring your new puppy into the home, you must continue to teach him how to control his biting, because it is much easier for a dog to cause injury to a human as compared to another canine

Sorry Liam Crowe but...."other canines"? don't know many people keeping foxes/wolves/and jackals in thier home; who would be more likely to bite in reflex than a puppy. Also ... the dog in question is 7months old+ and as far as we are aware has no mouthing issues.
Please stick to giving advice where it is asked for...

 

[Dodge]

If there are other people in the same room as you and your dog, they must act like you. That is, they cannot give your pup mixed messages by playing with or showering him with attention because, if they do, all of your efforts will go down the drain.

Call me stupid,but I think it would be better if they would do the yelping (if you can do it,I never managed to do the high pitched yelp nore did my teenage boys or hubby) and ignore for 30 secs rather than ignore when somebody else has done the yelp ))??(( else the pup wouldnt really understand that its the biting behaviour.So if there are more people in the room (done it,but with us removing ourselfs) the person that has been hurt would yelp and ignore,not everybody in the room,forgive me if I m completely wrong,but it worked for us and he understood

Anyway,just wanted to add this

 

[reveuse]

I have something to show off. Will post it from my computer at work in a few hours.....

 

[reveuse]

ummmmmm OK - STUPID BRUNETTE MOMENT! ....... I was going to post a video of a MAJOR moment we had the other night... but the video is on my phone and I forgot to bring my memory card thingy/usb thingy so i could put it from m phone to computer to upload it while i have internet *bangs head into wall* .......
so instead ill just post an update to my update

 

[reveuse]

The Whisper Files - Week 9 (well come tuesday so really week 8 1/2) :

She completed week 3 of intermediate class today. Still top of the class by a vast margin - all the other pet parents are jealous - lol. Seriously tho they all keep telling me "oh shes sooooooooooooo good" . LOL. She heeled absolutely perfectly today , at all speeds and turning in both directions. It is of course something we still need lots of practice on but I was so happy I nearly fell over (as left turns until today have proved a bit challenging ) .

I've been trying to work on Roll Over , she is even more resistant to it than Romeo was (and he took about four months to actually do it). However as a result she now flops to her side on cue with one front leg bent slightly and either holds her head up in a pose or puts it down in a very nice Bang! (i'm going to get both versions solid and then add verbals to them)

She's gone out to several coffees , dinners , and even girls night last night and with each trip she becomes more used to the action. She has excellent manners for the most part . Lies down nicely and just hangs out, says hi when I let her, tho she did actually jump ONTO the couch when we first got to this outside bar / restaurant / hotel last night. I died of laughter for a few seconds and then told her "off" ....

Shes now tried every agility obstacle except the hoop and the teeter (she went to zoom room a second time the week before last and I left ro home) and even took two jumps (10 " and 12" ) together with someone else directing her. I plan to take her on a solo outing again sometime this week.

Also Miss Whisper is definetly not as aptly named as I thought. Because tho she is quiet and much of the time I almost don't know she's present , when she barks she is NOISY! ...... A deep throaty menacing play bark that seriously seems to freak out half the neighbors ...... Its soooooooo funny. Im constantly saying " she just wants to say hi/ play ... its the little one you have to worry about" . She has a wide vocabulary too - a very faint cry when she sees something she can't have (dog far away, person she cant get to, etc) , a special woo-woo-woo howl reserved for my neighbor/friend , and the intense bark that means she wants to play.

I'm sure i've gone on long enough but I have three more major developments that are brag worthy.

First off I'm happy to report that after an intesive week and a half mission to get her to play with toys - and at last some indoor success with a piece of multi stranded frayed rope (which is ironically Ro's new favorite obsession) and a fantastically cool spotted purple stuffed octopus (that now resides on the top of the bookcase in the living room) THURSDAY was a MAJOR event! We went out with Willow (ro's yellow lab girlfriend) to the volleyball court where I live and after watching Willow chase her frisbee around for a few minutes Whis decided she wanted to play !!!!! She ran after frisbee , jumped for it (while I was holding it) , and then after flitting in circles with it she started rolling around and making what I can only describe as doggie sand angels.... AMAZING! She is big into the sand because she also rolled around in the clay on the baseball fields yesterday........ so next up for her is a trip to the beach , once I can find one where I won't get a big ticket for taking her.... Goes without saying that I went out and bought her an identical frisbee and we played with it yesterday for a few min (success!) , can't wait to try it again a bit tomorrow.

Her off leash recall is super - called her off of wanting to say hi to someone outside (when we on the aforementioned vball court that same day) 15 ft from her when I was at least 40 feet away from her myself and she came flying! Starting to work on more off leash stuff slowly now that I'm fairly confident she won't run off.

and Lastly (PROMISE!) i'm considering starting an advanced class with her this thursday (depending on how she does with distance practice the next few days). If not there is another one starting the 24th that we will definetly do. But the fact that she is allowed into it if I want to is pretty darn cool LOL. Also she is definetly going to do a tricks class starting on the 11th or 18th (i can't remember which).......

Ok. I'm sure i've rambled on quite a bit but I'm bored at work and so so in love with my girl its rediculous!

 

[reveuse]

ps - promise to upload the frisbee play video as soon as humanly possible. it really is awesome

 

[sara]

You, my friend, have done WONDERS with her! Great Job!!!

Ollie had a breakthrough last night too... I was beyond happy!

 

[reveuse]

What did ollie do? Running to find your post now.

 

[jackienmutts]

Aww, she - and you - and Ro - sound like the perfect family now. I think she hit the jackpot and is flourishing now, and you sound like the proud mommie!! And ain't that FUN???? You're doing a fabulous job with both pups, and have given Whisper a whole new life. Hooray!!!

 

[reveuse]

Frisbee video To go with wk 9 update is on my utube .... Still posting from my phone..... User id - morkieness....

 

[Isi Havanese]

She is adorable! Congratulations, I am so happy you are having so much fun. Both of your kids are georgeous!