bunn: (Rosie Down Hole)
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....
bunn: (Rosie Runs)
On Friday I took the hounds for a walk in the woods.  Rosie decided that my choice of route was not the same as hers.  And she looked at me down her long nose, ignored me calling and just *went*.   I don't think she was even chasing anything.  She'd just decided that my company was uncongenial.   And she vanished.   After I'd searched for an hour, I met a family walking their dog who said they had seen her in Latchley.   So I walked to Latchley, but there was no sign of her.  In the end I picked up the car and went home for reinforcements, only to find that she had arrived there about 3 minutes before me, having taken her own route home.   She was delighted to see me and bounced all over the place!   And she was still wearing her muzzle, and no sheep along the way appear to have been bothered, so I got away with it.  But this Really Will Not Do.

This sort of thing is exactly the reason that some years ago I concluded that although Salukis are very attractive dogs, I didn't really want to own one.  And now I have... well OK, not really two.    And thank heavens, Brythen (now he has grown up!) has turned out to be just the kind of gentle reliable dog I thought he was going to be.  Thank goodness he is only 1/4 saluki.



You'd think butter wouldn't melt, wouldn't you?

I've made some liver treats, and we are back to working harder on practicing recall training again.
Positive reinforcement is supposed to work on all organisms.   Even Salukis, eventually...
bunn: (Baying)
 Well, having carefully documented the first Six Days of Perdy, the experiment has been derailed by my managing to find a mug generous sighthound lover who has no cats, who was prepared to take Perdy in as a foster dog.
Read more... )
bunn: (dog knotwork)
It was a grey old day, very glum and misty, so did not bother with camera. I did remember to give Perdy and Rosie their melatonin (yay!) although was rather disheartened when Perdy then almost immediately had a wild barking fit at a couple of spaniels across the car park. Still, onwards and upwards.
Read more... )
bunn: (Brythen)
Forgot 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.Read more... )
bunn: (dog knotwork)
Read more... )

Pp's foster dog review is typically short and uncomplimentary: 'klaxon on legs' he says. 
bunn: (dog knotwork)
I always forget to take photos / video of the process of introducing dogs to cats, and then wish I had later. Sod's law says that this will be the dog where the process doesn't actually work, but I've taken photos anyway.  Need to read manual to find out how to get video off the new camera, as it seems non-intuitive.

Read more... )
bunn: (Baying)
We have a new foster lurcher. She's an 8 year old lurcher called Perdy, who has been with Oldies Club on and off for about nine months, after being handed in by owners who were working long hours and felt she shouldn't be left home alone all day. She's had several foster homes and has been adopted, but quickly returned, and then her fosterer got ill, so she was in kennels. So she's had rather a run of bad luck.  It seemed like a nice well run kennels, and she very clearly liked the kennel staff.  In fact, she was not at all keen to leave, and was panting rather a lot from stress when I put her in the car.   But she has bashed her nose and cut it on the kennel wire.   I think that is very hard to prevent.  And I'm fairly sure she'd rather be in a house than a kennel in this weather, nice kennel or not.Read more... )
ETA : yay: just took her downstairs to pop into garden for a pee and there was no barking at the cats at all!  

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