![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnForgot to give dogs their melatonin this morning again. Both of them flew off the handle lunging, barking and swearing at a pair of deerhounds and a Vizsla, drattit.
On the evening walk I did give them their melatonin pills before hand, and they were MUCH better with other dogs we met.Of course, it could be that they were more mellow in the evening because not so worked up from recent frantic playing, and also, I dragged Pp out with me so we had one handler per dog in the evening, AND we had a bag full of cheese and sausages, and also more space. Jury still out on this melatonin stuff I think.
This morning, I decided it was too risky to let Perdy run with the longline, she is too fast, I was sure she was going to get it knotted around a leg and hurt either herself or Brythen. So I let her run without it. Brythen was DELIGHTED.
So was Perdy.
Despite the size difference, I felt quite happy that it was Perdy that needed the muzzle, and not Brythen. Perdy plays rough!
It's a very lightweight muzzle, she found she could nibble rabbit droppings through it. Interesting that my two were off at this point checking out all the rabbit warrens, whereas Perdy came back every time I called, and was entirely interested in playing, rolling and just a little scouting for rabbit droppings. No sign of excessive prey drive or wanting to run off. Fingers very firmly crossed this behaviour continues.
Perdy fells a running Brythen.
But he got away and she had to hunt him some more. Check out his smug expression.
When Perdy has had enough running, she goes upside down. Brythen got surprised ears the first time she did this.
The 'Dying Fly'
... and they're off again. Hmm. Can Perdy really be 8 years old...?
Up to this point, Rosie had stayed out of it, and spent her time searching for bunnies, but suddenly she decided she wanted to join in.
Problem is, Rosie does not read Perdy's signals very well, and cannot handle any roughness being returned to her. Brythen handles this by backing off politely as soon as Rosie starts to lose her hold on reality, but Perdy is less careful. They all stopped running.
In this photo, Brythen is so obviously saying 'Now now dear, it was just a bit of fun' and Rosie is SO not impressed. I had to dump the camera in a hurry and dive in to put Rosie back on lead, and I'm glad both bitches had muzzles on at this point because there was a certain amount of GRRRING. Normally they get on fine, and they walked back together on lead with no problems, it was the noisy fast playing that Rosie couldn't cope with. I do not like the way she is staring intently at Perdy here, with her face over Perdy's back.
I think I'll have to keep Rosie on lead if Brythen and Perdy are playing. It's a bit sad really. Rosie and Brythen do play sometimes, but Rosie doesn't want to play anything like as much as Brythen does. I think Rosie worries that Brythen will bump into her and hurt her.
Whereas Perdy seems to be happy to play with him for ages, and they clearly understand each other so much more easily than poor slightly-autistic Rosie does.
I was rather pleased with the photo below, because I didn't have to crop it at all. Eventually, the dogs are bound to arrange themselves in a good composition when I have the camera pointed the right way!
Pp discovered that Perdy loves this football. I bought it for Brythen ages ago, to try to teach him basic Treiball skills, but he has always been a bit scared of it. You can see he's not wanting to get too close.
Evening walk went well, Perdy very focussed on handler and bag of cheese, only barked once at a dog because I took her too close and didn't throw enough cheese at her, I think. Possibly I was also a bit tense, expecting her to react. Very hard not to do that. Rosie also not reacting to dogs, although we kept her more at a distance.
It's SO much harder to get Rosie to focus than it is Perdy. Perdy on day 5 will focus on her handler with laser-like intensity as long as you don't ask too much in terms of piles of noisy cats or dogs right near her - Rosie after well over a year still looks at me with that vague, superior face that suggests she's about to say 'And what do you do my good woman?'. Sigh. But Rosie is more comical, and incredibly endearing when she hasn't forgotten who I am. And when she IS good, then she's very good indeed...
Have to admit it's very hard work having two of them that need work and worry when I'm walking them together on my own. Thank goodness for nice easy Brythen.
Not much progress on cats. Perdy still barking if she hears a cat mew, although she is definitely more able to focus around them and more interested in food, less in cats, than when she arrived. Tomorrow I must make more effort to take her in regularly to feed sausages near them.
On the evening walk I did give them their melatonin pills before hand, and they were MUCH better with other dogs we met.Of course, it could be that they were more mellow in the evening because not so worked up from recent frantic playing, and also, I dragged Pp out with me so we had one handler per dog in the evening, AND we had a bag full of cheese and sausages, and also more space. Jury still out on this melatonin stuff I think.
This morning, I decided it was too risky to let Perdy run with the longline, she is too fast, I was sure she was going to get it knotted around a leg and hurt either herself or Brythen. So I let her run without it. Brythen was DELIGHTED.
So was Perdy.
Despite the size difference, I felt quite happy that it was Perdy that needed the muzzle, and not Brythen. Perdy plays rough!
It's a very lightweight muzzle, she found she could nibble rabbit droppings through it. Interesting that my two were off at this point checking out all the rabbit warrens, whereas Perdy came back every time I called, and was entirely interested in playing, rolling and just a little scouting for rabbit droppings. No sign of excessive prey drive or wanting to run off. Fingers very firmly crossed this behaviour continues.
Perdy fells a running Brythen.
But he got away and she had to hunt him some more. Check out his smug expression.
When Perdy has had enough running, she goes upside down. Brythen got surprised ears the first time she did this.
The 'Dying Fly'
... and they're off again. Hmm. Can Perdy really be 8 years old...?
Up to this point, Rosie had stayed out of it, and spent her time searching for bunnies, but suddenly she decided she wanted to join in.
Problem is, Rosie does not read Perdy's signals very well, and cannot handle any roughness being returned to her. Brythen handles this by backing off politely as soon as Rosie starts to lose her hold on reality, but Perdy is less careful. They all stopped running.
In this photo, Brythen is so obviously saying 'Now now dear, it was just a bit of fun' and Rosie is SO not impressed. I had to dump the camera in a hurry and dive in to put Rosie back on lead, and I'm glad both bitches had muzzles on at this point because there was a certain amount of GRRRING. Normally they get on fine, and they walked back together on lead with no problems, it was the noisy fast playing that Rosie couldn't cope with. I do not like the way she is staring intently at Perdy here, with her face over Perdy's back.
I think I'll have to keep Rosie on lead if Brythen and Perdy are playing. It's a bit sad really. Rosie and Brythen do play sometimes, but Rosie doesn't want to play anything like as much as Brythen does. I think Rosie worries that Brythen will bump into her and hurt her.
Whereas Perdy seems to be happy to play with him for ages, and they clearly understand each other so much more easily than poor slightly-autistic Rosie does.
I was rather pleased with the photo below, because I didn't have to crop it at all. Eventually, the dogs are bound to arrange themselves in a good composition when I have the camera pointed the right way!
Pp discovered that Perdy loves this football. I bought it for Brythen ages ago, to try to teach him basic Treiball skills, but he has always been a bit scared of it. You can see he's not wanting to get too close.
Evening walk went well, Perdy very focussed on handler and bag of cheese, only barked once at a dog because I took her too close and didn't throw enough cheese at her, I think. Possibly I was also a bit tense, expecting her to react. Very hard not to do that. Rosie also not reacting to dogs, although we kept her more at a distance.
It's SO much harder to get Rosie to focus than it is Perdy. Perdy on day 5 will focus on her handler with laser-like intensity as long as you don't ask too much in terms of piles of noisy cats or dogs right near her - Rosie after well over a year still looks at me with that vague, superior face that suggests she's about to say 'And what do you do my good woman?'. Sigh. But Rosie is more comical, and incredibly endearing when she hasn't forgotten who I am. And when she IS good, then she's very good indeed...
Have to admit it's very hard work having two of them that need work and worry when I'm walking them together on my own. Thank goodness for nice easy Brythen.
Not much progress on cats. Perdy still barking if she hears a cat mew, although she is definitely more able to focus around them and more interested in food, less in cats, than when she arrived. Tomorrow I must make more effort to take her in regularly to feed sausages near them.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-02-10 11:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-10 05:06 pm (UTC)In that last one, where Perdy has the ball, I think I see some terrier in the mix!
no subject
Date: 2015-02-10 10:45 pm (UTC)