bunn

The 7-day challenge is over, so I'm going to try keeping weekly notes instead of daily ones and just update this as I go along. 

Wednesday : an offlead wander along the gravelly pebbles and storm-washed seaweed of the Pembroke river shore under iron-grey skies while the wind whipped past.  No other dogs about.  We practiced 'close in' and 'middle' and 'touch' pretty successfully, on the whole.  At one point Theo did whiz off up the cliff to investigate something, but he came back after about 20 seconds. 

In the evening I tried to get him excited about playing with his rabbitskin flirt toy, but although he liked the idea to start with and we had a game of tug, he was definitely more interested in the dried chicken treats. Tried vaguely to play proximity games (best food available nearest the human) but this does require a particular level of organisation from the human. 

Thursday :  A walk around Pembroke Dock, with a brief offlead section on the little beach by Front Street: no recall issues at all.  Theo met Frodo the fat ancient mastiff, and was polite to him. 

Friday : we went over to the field by the Cleddau Bridge, and wandered around it sniffing.  At one point a sheltie popped out bouncing towards us and barked.  Theo was off the lead at this point, but he came straight to me for a treat.  I had hoped there might be other dogs about, but it was a grey rainy day and the other dogs had apparently stayed home, so we wandered down to the site of the old Cleddau ferry, and gave Theo a quick run on the river-shore there.   

We played proximity games: turkey for coming close in or standing in the middle between my legs, kibble for returning at a distance.  But soon it started to rain in earnest, so we stopped and hurried back to the car. 

Here's Theo discovering an old water-pump from the days before the mains water. 

 I seem to have missed a day! 

Sunday, we went for a wander around Pembroke Dock, and went to Wilko to buy some dog treats, much to the delight of the Wilko staff 'It makes our day at work better when people bring dogs!' one person told me hugging Theo enthusiastically.  Another shopper said: 'I couldn't bring my dog in here, he would pee on everything'. 

Thankfully, this isn't a problem I have with either hound. I do have to be a little careful to make sure Rosie goes out regularly, particularly if it's raining since she tends to be in denial about her need to go outside till suddenly she does, but neither of them is at all likely to pee in a shop.



We saw some dogs at a distance and did some distraction - mark-treat exercises.  Many of the cars in the Wilko car park had barking dogs in them, so we skirted them at a distance and used them for practice.  It was a bit of a quieter day, since Saturday had been full of dogs.  I don't think Theo barked at anything. 

Then on Monday, the exercise of the day was 'middle' - ie, stand between my legs.   I had already been teaching 'close in' - ie, stand next to one of my legs touching it - and at the moment he's a bit confused about when to middle and when to close in.  We'll keep working on it. 

Anyway, we probably should have done more distraction-mark-treat on that day's walk, but I wimped out and went to a very quiet wood instead, where we didn't see a single dog.  I had Rosie (who has finally aged into the status of 'sensible dog' off the lead all the way around, and practiced coming when called and jumping on things with Theo. 

He was pretty good until he caught a scent - a fox, I suspect, given where it went  - and took off baying after it, but he didn't go far and came back pretty quickly, very pleased with himself.  I then realised this was probably not what he should be practicing and we lead walked the rest of the way, which he did very nicely on a loose lead.  

Again, no barking, except for one small growl at Rosie, I think probably she stood on his foot in the car.  And there's no question that he adores Rosie, so I think that was just a grumble. 

Then in the evening Pp and I did a bit of a recall session in the garden for both dogs with their evening meal as rewards, and to my ASTONISHMENT, not only did Theo eat all his food that way, but so did Rosie, wagging enthusiastically!  Which given Rosie's usually very sceptical and pessimistic approach to life, really surprised me.   Theo was most excited to be being fed by Pp, who doesn't normally get much involved, and therefore has rarity value, and was also dispensing food in handfuls. I had some difficulty convincing Theo that he should come away from Suddenly Generous Pp. 

Oh, and I got my covid and flu vaccinations on the way back from the walk, from a tiny pharmacy where there was no queue at all, so it was good to get that sorted. Slightly achey this morning but it could be worse. 

 We walked back in time today, from the nineteenth century Brunel Quay along to medieval St Tudwal's church in Llanstadwell on the north bank of the Cleddau river. 

I have bought a couple of easy to clean silicone treat pouches, and the mixture of Theo's breakfast with a couple of chopped cocktail sausages and small chunks of cheese was very enthusiastically received.  We kept stopping on the way to practice moving from one side to another, and doing the occasional twirl. 

1) There were a couple of dogs playing ball by the car park as we set off, and Theo did show interest in them and pulled a bit, but didn't bark. I think he would have liked to play with them. 

2) we passed a labrador, a very energetic-looking golden retriever, and a pair of (I think) kelpies or similar, with no barking even though the road was narrow. 

3) at one point Theo began enthusiastically investigating a gate, which proved to have a very elderly border collie behind it.  Theo wagged at him hopefully, but he was probably at least 5 years past being interested in foolish young hounds, and gave us a weary look. 

4) we watched the seagulls and swans for a bit calmly. 

5) Theo jumped on and off a lot of benches, walls, and other raised objects.  He does love to go up and down, and doing it *for a reward* was even better. 

6) on the way back, we ventured onto the beach and I let Theo have an offlead run, which went well, with some enthusiastic sea-weed sniffing, though there were no other dogs in sight at that point. 

7) A very bouncy long-legged black dog -maybe a pointer - barked at us and was successfully ignored. 

8) Theo wanted to explore one of the long mooring pontoons that are put out in the river for the summer season.  He got about half way along, then realised that the waves were rather loud and the moored boats were moving in a suspicious manner, and gave in to a fit of barking.  But he did come back to me when I called him.   I think I should probalbly have taken him back to the car as soon as he began barking, he was a bit excited by the time we got back to land and I had to sit and stroke him for a while before we could go back to the car park. Still, all in all, a win. 

I've signed up for a seven-day online workshop thingy with Theo Harehound, partly because a friend was running it and I wanted to support her, and partly because Theo is being a pain about meeting dogs onlead and maybe I'll learn things that might help.  One of the exercises is noting down all the things he does RIGHT so I thought I might as well do that here:

1) He passed a border collie on this morning's walk very nicely when the owner called it back and put it on lead. 
2) He sat quietly  in the car and only got out of it when I told him to.
3) He is learning 'middle' and is very good when I give the command when he's behind me. 
4) he did work out how to go in the middle twice this morning even though he was in front. 
5) I took him to the vet, and he was very good about saying hello to the receptionist, her daughter and visiting small granddaughter. 
6) he did actually let the vet check one ear before it All Became Too Much. 
7) He's been quietly asleep ever since.
8) I tried the 'redirection game' suggested by the course and he redirected very nicely, though I keep forgetting to mark the moment when he turns. 

 Yesterday I was a bit worried because Theo reacted to several dogs we saw. Lockdown fever again.  He's still getting walks, but because of the need to stay very close to home, the walks are not so varied at the mometand have fewer dog and people encounters, so when he does meet a dog he wants to fling himself at it yapping joyfully, which looks terrifying, so I have to haul him away, which leaves him even more frustrated.  Then we get home and he's all mournful and bored and whiney.

Anyway, I decided this wouldn't do, so I have signed him up for Online Dog School, and decided to make an effort to walk further, while still sticking to the immediate area. 
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Still no news on house move, which still seems to be tangled in an immoveable knot of paperwork and solicitors, though at least the knot is showing some signs of wishing to eventually become untied now.

In the meanwhile, our dishwasher has given up the ghost and can't be repaired, which is annoying, since it will have to be replaced to sell the place, and dishwashers are currently like hen's teeth due to 'supply issues' so we had to buy a new and reasonably good one because there are no cheap ones.  Oh well. Perhaps someone will buy the house for its dishwasher. 

...Lurcher stands awkwardly in background. Poor Rosie.  She didn't want to play with him today. I should get my old manual lenses out. The autofocus lens can't cope with puppy heading towards it at top speed.  At the moment, recall training is going swimmingly, since Theo is still at the age where a sliver of cheese or a biscuit is SUPER EXCITING.  I shall have to be careful not to rely too much on this once he is a bit older and starts testing limits.

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It's all right, she came back!

Rosie Roo has actually been very good for a long while now.  It's almost like having a normal dog! 

Brythen had a very very exciting morning, with a lot of squirrels in it.  The squirrels were fifty feet or so up, but that didn't stop them being very exciting.  And now Brythen is rather sore and sorry for himself, and has a swollen bit behind one of his front legs.  I think we will have to take it easy for a few days.
 This was him coming back from the Land of Squirrels:
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At some point recently, Rosie Roo got to the point where she would no longer flee in terror if you dropped a pen, pencil, mouse, etc etc.  This was very welcome.

We have now progressed to the next stage, where Rosie Roo is no longer really scared of much at all.  This stage involves a lot of bouncing, increasing amounts of toy-flinging, and, should I do something she disapproves of, such as eating toast without giving her some, she stares at me, barking randomly, and  progresses through barking, to bouncing and yodelling into full Saluki Song.

Obviously it is impossible to stop this, since a dog that demands toast, cuddles, kisses on her pink nosy and endless supplies of dried black pudding sticks through the medium of interpretative dance and song is vastly preferable to a dog that is randomly terrified of falling cushions. So we have opted to join in.   Life in our house at the moment seems to involve a lot of sing-a-longa-Roo.

I am hoping the progress may eventually lead to her actually coming when called reliably, but I'm not counting on it.   At the moment, I'm trying to make a point of only letting her offlead if it's not a problem if it takes several hours to get her back again.  Right now, I feel quite positive about things, because she has not taken off or done anything random and chaotic for several weeks.  But we've been here before on a number of occasions....