Let's Give Him Something To Bark About

Who sang that song, Bonnie Raitt or someone?

Yes.  I just googled it.  I'm not sure why I know that.

Anyway, this whole training the dog to not bark is difficult.

Unlike the way I was raised to keep my emotions internalized, my dog likes to try to express his emotions as best he can.

So, if he is feeling protective or insecure when someone comes near us, he barks.  I've been trying to ideally use "leave it" before he barks, and "no" and a chain jerk if he is barking.  But, in the heat of the moment (heat of the moment, telling you what your heart meant - Asia) I might get them mixed up, making for not the best trainer and confusing him.

But I'm trying.

Anyhoo, I've been bugging the FP about taking Rudy out to a bar and see how he does.  I mean, there has to be a first time if it can ever become a regular thing, right?  So, we did.  We took him to Jimbo's Sandbar.  It's this cool tiki hut dive bar on the intracoastal with tons of outdoor space.  So, we thought we could take Rudy to a corner of the place and try it out.   It was kind of away from everyone else.  But there was this big tall monster truck parked in the lot next to the table.  I feared that it was a little too close to us, and that the guy (I assumed a guy owned it) who owned it would walk right by us, and that if he left when we were there it would be so loud it would scare the shit out of Rudy.

Rudy was anxious on the drive there.  He didn't know where we were going.  We should have walked him around the neighborhood before we took him to the bar.

He was ok at first.  He wanted to go walk around and familiarize, but he was confined to the table area.  He was just looking.  I had a bagful of treats to divert his attention from barking... he was doing ok.

Then this shirtless redneck guy standing at the bar with his back to us started dancing.  And Rudy started barking at him all the way across the place.  So, I had to calm him down with a treat.  Then, later, the bartender was dancing a little when she was walking to a table, and Rudy started barking.  Then he started barking at every person that walked in his field of vision.  I was just feeding him nibble of treat after treat.  I had brought these duck jerky treats that were formed with a "skin" to look like a slim jim, but they were dry dehydrated flaky meat inside.  There was meat dust everywhere on the table.  And water too.  It reminded me of when people take their kids out to a restaurant, and the table is a mess by the end of the meal.

Then, my biggest fear happened.  The guy who owned the obnoxious monster truck was going to his car.  Rudy just went nuts barking like crazy.  I mean crazy!  The guy looked at him menacingly and rather than ignore him and walk away, he got closer.  Then he wanted to engage Rudy, and Rudy wanted no part of it, just a part of him in his mouth.  The guy insisted that once Rudy smelled his hand (which is what you do with dogs, hoping they won't decide to bite, of course) he would be fine.  Rudy quieted when the man offered his hand, then he started barking again.  The guy insisted again, that Rudy wanted to play, but that he was just protective.  He could tell that Rudy wanted to play because his tail was wagging.

Can I just tell you, a wagging tail does not automatically mean playtime!!!!!

I thought that was something that people who know about dogs know.  But this guy allegedly raised "racing dogs" - I think that was a euphemism for fighting dogs, but raising racing dogs is not admirable either.

Anyway, he was totally antagonizing Rudy, and Rudy was very unhappy.  He stepped on my pinky toe trying to get away from the guy, and it broke the skin.  Finally, the FP had the common sense to take Rudy and go for a walk.  But even then, the guy wanted to follow them and try to interact with Rudy.  But he kept barking.  He barked so much that he started to foam at the mouth.

We were embarrassed.  And crestfallen.  We had had such a great walk that morning by the beach.  He didn't bark at anyone, he was happy, and we jogged most of the way.  And now this.

We got the check and we bared through it as he tried to bark every time a server came back to the table.  I ran out of treats in my ziploc bag, so I had to go to the car to get more.  And then he ate all of that.   The FP was very generous with the small tab and tipped like 100% so that they would welcome us back, even though they were very nice about all the commotion that Rudy caused.  Some people at the bar even told the FP that Rudy was a good judge of character, because that guy who riled Rudy up was an asshole.

I was going to have to rethink my going -to- the- bar -with -Rudy treat selection.  Maybe a more chewy dense treat - a jerky type thing, or pig ear or something.  Not rawhide of course, because he goes beserk with rawhide and likes to chew those in private.  I stopped giving him those because he almost bit me when I gave him one.  He also thought he was boss and wanted to chew the rawhide on the bed, where he knows he is not allowed.  We would also have to scrutinize our table selection, and figure out how to handle Rudy while someone came up to the table to take our order or deliver a beer or something.

Anyway, that was Rudy's first trip to the bar.  Hopefully it will get better but not too painfully, right?!?!

Waterboy

So, let's clear up about last night.  I felt like shit.  Probably had something to do with the junk food dinner I had... That's why I didn't blog.

Today I have something good to blog about!

Rudy finally jumped into the pool for the first time today!!!

So, he has been going in to the first step, no problem.  But that's as far as he can go very willingly.  If he goes any farther, he does a nosedive in the water.  So, he has gone out past the first step a handful of times.  Most of the time though, the FP "coaxes" or drags him deeper.  Once he gets swimming, it looks pretty graceful and effortless.  The difficult part is just getting him in the water.

So, we have been trying to lure him in with treats and toys, but most of the time he just barks desperately on the side because he can't reach the treat or toy.  So, then, maybe the FP will lead him into the water, and he can retrieve the toy or treat and swim back to the steps.

But today, after a while, he finally kind of jumped off the first step into the water to retrieve a soggy dog treat.  Then after that, he realized that it was easier to get in the water than he thought, so he slowly kept going in to retrieve the blue frisbee that the treat was on the first time.

And he went in several times.  Of course, the FP was being a typical father figure, trying to push him to go in the pool one time right after the other.  Rudy liked to have a few minutes in between to chew on the frisbee before going back in.  I thought Rudy looked like he was getting tired, so the FP let him take a breather.  But then after a little while, he was ready to go in again.

We just need him to figure out how to jump from the edge of the pool now.  It will come.  Then he will be ready for Bark Park dog swim.  There is a manmade lake there, with a nice drop off where people can throw tennis balls and dogs can jump off and swim to retrieve the ball.  Some of these dogs can jump really far.

Rudy should be able to jump too.  After all, he is a retriever!

We were such proud parents!  And in this day and age, no video of it.  But maybe tomorrow, or Saturday.

Adolescent Phase?

Should I be worried that all of a sudden Rudy is barking a lot at people, sometimes growling, and that he almost attacked Stinksy last night?  Or is this normal 5 1/2 month puppy behavior?

He's become posessive so that sometimes if we are just on the couch and one of the cats jumps on the couch, he starts barking at the cat.  And then last night we were eating dinner on the couch.  He was sniffing around and stuff.  Then, Stinksy walked into the room, not even near us, and Rudy started barking and went after Stinksy.  Stinksy jumped up on the shelves.  I grabbed Rudy, but I just couldn't help wondering what would have happened if Stinksy didn't get to the shelves on time?  Would Rudy have tried to bite him with his big huge pearly white teeth?  I hate to think of that.

Then a while after I got home today, for no reason, Rudy started to bark at Stinksy again.  And then he turned the aggression on me and started to bite me and bared his teeth at me.  And a couple times after, he was going into bark mode, but we nipped it in the bud before he started.

We don't plan on leaving him roaming around the house when we aren't home, but it's worrying.  Why is he getting worse?  I mean probably because we have been working a lot and not taking enough time to train him after work.  But it's scary because he's bigger.  And our big fear was having a big dog that was scary.

Well, we are due for another training session - it's been several weeks since our last because of work, and going to Michigan and 4th of July, etc.  We gotta get her back to whip him back into shape!

I don't want to have a big scary dog.

Leave IT!

Rudy failed.  But really, his failure is my failure, isn't it?

I put a dog treat on the coffee table.  He looked at it.  He laid down in front of it and stared at it intensely.  Then he acted like he was over.  Several minutes later, when I was distracted on the computer, he went straight for it.  He already had it in his mouth and was chewing when I said "Leave It!" and jerked the chain.

Lil fucker.

So, I'm giving him a second chance.  This time it's easier though, because he's tired and just lying on his bed.

He's so good at training when he knows he's being tested.  As soon as he thinks the session is over and we aren't paying attention, he fucks up.

He's a greedy little thing.  I was reading this ebook about Labrador Retrievers, and it said, "Labrador Retrievers are a greedy breed."  LOL!  That is so true.  I know dogs in general are greedy.  But this guy's main purpose in life is to search out objects (edible or inedible) to put in his mouth.  Often, he eats the inedible as well as the edible.  I'm pretty sure he will probably meet his demise because of something he eats.  I'm not saying I advocate him picking up everything in sight, it's just, sometimes he sneaks things.

Hold on, there's a knock on the door... Oh Shit, I think it's the SPCA!

Fried Brains

I've been out of school for a long time.  The last class I took was the San Diego Community College "Starting A Business" class.  It was a free continuing ed class.  Before that... it's been a loooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnng time.

Tonight I had private training from K9 Advisors.

I had a refresher course in:
No
Leave It
walkies
jumping up on people

I started learning:
Come
Leave It with distractions
not taking no-nos that weren't offered

It was a little embarrassing, because I thought these were commands I was supposed to obey, but then I realized it was for Rudy, not me.  So, I guess I'm still allowed to jump up on people!

The thing that sucks about training a puppy (or dog) is that you have to keep the training up every day... sometimes we're just too tired for that.

It's just a few lessons, but it's a lot of info to digest.  It would be easier if I could print the notes I've been keeping, but our shitty printer is almost out of cyan ink, and it won't let me print a black ink document.  That's what I get for buying the cheaper Epson printer that was smaller and black and looked cool.  There are so many different models of similar printers, and I picked the shitty one.  So, now, I gotta decide.  Do I buy the colored ink cartridges and keep using the printer that only seems to work with my computer?  Or do I suck it up and buy a new more Mac/wifi friendly computer....I could try to sell the other piece of shit on craigslist, I guess......

Seasick

So, Rudy went to the beach legally for the first time today.  They are pretty strict with the dog beaches around here.  You can only go Friday thru Sunday on this tiny stretch of beach, between like 3 - 8 pm.  It's not like San Diego where there's a dog beach every few beaches that is open all the time.

Anyway, it had just stormed, so there were just a few dogs on the beach, which was probably a good introduction.  In good weather I imagine there are usually tons of dogs there.  So, he totally loved frolicking on the sand, and the dogs there were mostly good dogs for him to socialize with, active dogs that like to play fetch and swim in the water.

Usually, it's $5 per dog, but I guess since it rained and no one was really out, he didn't charge us.  The 6 month pass is just like $30 though, so, it's totally worth it.

So, that was great.  He did keep trying to drink the seawater though.  It was like he liked the taste of it.  He kept trying to lap it up.  By the time we left, his mouth was all foamy.  I got him to drink water, and he was very very thirsty.

On the way home, we went to get dinner, so the FP waited in the car with Rudy while I ordered our gourmet dinner at Hunan Wok and I went into Publix to get "green drink" - that juice that is green and has fruits and vegetables and spirulina and stuff.

When I got back in the car, the FP said that Rudy had been wimpering, which is unusual.  It's not like he is very attached to me.  He must have been ready to go home.  So, when we were driving home, he wanted to hang out the window.  So I rolled it down, and he was hanging way out.  Way way out.  Like he was going to jump out.

I had to hold his leash.  We were at a stoplight, and half his body was out the window.  He really was trying to jump out.  And he had this low whine.  So we had to comfort him and tell him that we were almost home, "we're almost there buddy, it's okay!"  But he was not happy.

As soon as we got home, the FP got out, and there was Rudy trying to get out his door.  As soon as he was on the ground, he ran to the grass crouching and out shot a brown waterfall.  Poor buddy got sick from all the seawater he drank, and also probably from the sponge he was gnawing on too.

So, we went inside, and he went right for the water bowl and drank a shitload (no pun intended) of water.  So, we fed him.  We put some water in the food.  He ate slower than usual, and then he drank lots more water.

Then he went out back and crouched in the grass and clear brownish water shot out of his ass.

So, the FP googled "my dog drank seawater."  What he found was that we probably shouldn't have fed him and give him lots of water and he could have a teaspoon of Pepto.  So, I tried to give him the pink bismuth out of a spoon and he didn't like it.  So, we dunked a doggie biscuit in it, and he ate it.

He seems better now, he hasn't pooed water again, and he did pee once.  He is quiet, which, while I don't like him feeling bad, it's nice to sit quietly with him.

Hopefully he will be all ship shape before bedtime!

updates

So... here's how my hands are healing:

Yeah, I guess it looks gross, but they feel way better than they did even a couple days ago.  The skin on the ring finger feels like jerky.

So, also, today was Rudy's second training session with his personal trainer.  She remarked how big he had gotten in a week.  He really has grown.  His neck and chest are getting thicker and more muscular, and he's taller too.

So, I didn't do so hot with the leash training, but Rudy did fine.  He had been very mellow all day, and he got pooped really before our session was over.  That is unlike him.  He always has had more stamina than us, and all of a sudden he doesn't have that anymore.  Of course, he got crazy right after the trainer left.  The FP and Rudy played tug of war with the new monkey toy that I just bought several hours ago, and Rudy killed the monkey.  He tore the squeaker out and killed the squeaker.  Here he is earlier today when he went into his crate to nap.  I was washing his blanket and some of his toys, so don't get all preachy about how he has to lay on the plastic with no toys... he willingly went in there.

 He looks huge.  He looks like a full grown dog in this last picture.


Here he is, violating the corpse of the short lived monkey toy, while poor honey bunny can only watch, paralyzed with fear.

Anyone want a vicious puppy before I put him up on craigslist?

Puppy Playground

So, today was the big day.  The day we were all waiting for.  The day that Rudy was allowed inside a dog park.

And his daddy took him while I was at work.  It seems fitting somehow.  You know, man's best friend and all... And he did great.  At first there were about 10 dogs, and by the time that they left there were about 25 dogs.  And he wanted to meet every single person and dog in the park.  Such a social butterfly.  His best pal was this big old pitt bull named Princess.  She showed him the ropes.

He's so much like his daddy.  So unlike me!

It went so well, that we decided we would take him to the park tonight.  Of course, though, there were storm clouds looming, so we didn't know if it would be too stormy or not.  But we drove out to the park anyway to see if it was going to let up or not.  It was lightly raining when we got there.  And there were a few dogs out.

So we did get out after a few minutes.  As we got out, we passed a few dogs that were leaving, but there were still 2 dogs in the park.  One was four year old beagle german shepard mix - although she looked to have no german shepard in her.  The other was a big old lab rottweiler mix - about 130 pounds!  He was the boss, but he just laid there because he didn't need to assert anything.

After a bit, Lady got restless or something and she started barking at the big old chief.  He just laid there.  So then Rudy tried to play with her, but she got him upside down and was over him and he did not like that at all.  He is a little whiney guy, so he made it sound worse than it was.  At one point, the big old dog got up and intervened.  He told Lady to back off.  It worked for just a bit.  And then she started dominating Rudy.  She was a closet dominatrix, I guess.  And Rudy is an out in the open submissive - except for when it comes to us.  So this went on for a bit.  The owners were trying to apologize, but Lady really hadn't done anything inappropriate, but they were just barking a lot, so it sounded worse than it was, I think.

So, we took him to run around the park.  There are some obstacles, so we tried to get him to go over them or thru them.  There was a low ramp that he had no problem going across, and there was like a tire jump that he went in also.  It wasn't nearly as exciting as the dog park this morning, but maybe a more valuable lesson was learned on this visit?

I wish I could say that he hasn't jumped on us or bit us or barked since we've been back from the park.
Oh, how I wish I could say that.  But I will just hope for being able to say it one day.  Hope is good.

Puppy Kisses

So, the FP was surprised yesterday that my burns trumped blogging about the little monster.

But, alas, this blog was originally started so I could yammer on about myself, since I don't really have friends that I talk to on a daily basis!

Anyhoo, today I can talk about Rudy. So, he's got his rabies shot, hooray!  That means he can go to the dog park and get put in his place by other dogs.  Oh, and we can have fun at the park too....

Here's some recent pics of him:  Look how big he's getting.

Here's Rudy and TFP outside of the vet clinic where he got snipped.  I wish this clinic was not 45 minutes to 1 and a half hours away!  

Here he is with his kong toy

Here he is sporting his new rabies tag!

So, everyone with three kids has a rotating problem child, right?  Well, right now, the rotation has stalled.  But, as with parents with problem children, what do you do?  You consult a specialist, right?

So, that's what we are doing.  I contacted this company called K9 Advisors.  So, we had our initial session last night, blistered hand and all.  It still was searing a little during the session, but I worked through the pain and listened attentively.

This first appointment was about an hour and 20 minutes.  Very helpful.  Lots of stuff to process for both us and the little monster.  It was great, because he was already getting riled up before the trainer arrived, so she got to experience his pretty natural self early on.

So, here's just some of the things that we do wrong are as follows:

-When giving commands, we give him too many chances to not follow orders.  We should give one chance, if he doesn't follow through, say no, try again, until he gets it.

- We were holding the leash wrong.  This is a whole thing that we have to practice with each other before trying it out on the puppy.  This is something we never understood by reading it online, and it totally helped to see someone demonstrate it with us and practice it.

- We need to praise him when he follows a correction.  It sounds confusing and like giving mixed signals, but he seemed to respond to it well.

- We shouldn't call his name when scolding.  I kind of figured this out, because he doesn't always come when called.  We also shouldn't call his name or call a command like come if we are doubtful that he will follow through.  Instead we should coax him with nicknames or kissy kissy sounds or something similar.

- We should keep a leash on him for training in the house and when we have guests until he learns to behave properly.  I always thought this would annoy puppies and they wouldn't go for it, but less than 24 hours later and he doesn't seem to mind it much.  It's way easier to pull him off the counter, away from us and away from objects he shouldn't be getting into.

-  We shouldn't use the command down for getting him off us, off furniture, etc.  Each command word should have one specific function.  So, "off" is more appropriate for get off me, and down is more appropriate for lay down.  Maybe that's why he snaps at me when I'm working with obedience training and I say "down".

- We literally have to treat him like a special kid and praise him a lot when he is NOT doing something wrong!  It sounds silly and sarcastic coming out of my mouth, but I have to go against my nature if I want to have a good dog and have a nice relationship with him.



Is it expensive?  Well, yes, of course.  Is it worth it?  Well, yes, of course.  If your kid was accepted to the best school for him or her, wouldn't you want to do everything in your power to have the funds to send the kid to the school?  I mean, what we want is to raise happy, healthy, confident, pleasant beings that are a joy to interact with other beings, right?

Oh, and we also don't want to get sued when our dog bites someone else.....

All Hope Is Lost

Ok, not really.  But those times when Rudy is on a full tear and attacking me relentlessly, I do feel hopeless.  It's like what I always picked a rabid dog to be like.

And as cute as he is, when he's got all those teeth out, it is anything but cute.  It's scary as fuck.

But, he's my scary as fuck puppy and I love him, so all I can do is figure out what works with him and what doesn't without being abusive and hopefully without using negative reinforcement.

All I know, is that I'm worn out, and so is he.  But he ate dinner a while ago, so he will have to go out to go poo poo pee pee soon... so it's just a waiting game now.

It's a Walk In The Park

So, our precious little angel puppy was being a little frisky.  He was biting and nipping and following and barking at the cat.  So, we thought it would be good to take him to the park.

He was restless when we were trying to get him in the car, which is nothing new.

But when we got to the park, that was a different story.  So, he always gets stuck at the first patch of dirt or grass next to the parking lot.  I'm sure there are a lot of smells, right.  And it's always a few inches thick with leaves, so it's hard for him to walk on.  But today, he was like a blood hound on a scent.  He had his nose to the ground intently following a trail.  And he picked up a twig and was gnawing hungrily on it.  Gnawing crazily.  Like it was a bone.  Because it was a bone.

When we realized it, we tried to get it away from him.  And that's when he growled.  And then he some more, and then he snapped.  This was the FP's first experience with this, and he didn't like it.  Eventually, he somehow dropped the bone when he was growling or something, and we dragged him away from it.  But then he kept finding more bones.

I think eating of pork ribs and chicken on the bone should be banned from state parks.  There were bones everywhere.  So, we were trying to drag him away from a bone, he was growling and snapping, and we were running across the paved walkway to get to the lake.

And then I slid in wet, smooth, light brown shit.  In my flip flop.  I scraped as much as I could on the walkway (sorry pedestrians!)  and I ran down to the lake and stuck my foot in with my flip flop on.  It was terrible.

What a horrible walk in the park.

But we had to turn it around.  We walked around the lake (and woke up in the rain) and then we tried to get him to get back on the walkway.  A woman with a little dog was approaching.  Rudy was excited and bounded ahead to meet the dog.  When Rudy got close, the other dog turned and trotted off to get away from him.  The dog could sense his crazy energy and wanted nothing to do with him.

Up until that moment, every dog that he encountered wanted to play with him!  This was an outing with lots of firsts.

Finally we got him on the walkway running.  And we ran him.  And ran him.  We might have ran him more than you should run a puppy.  But we needed to shed his bad energy.  And it seemed to be working.  He focused on running with us.  But, then, we got back to the leaf pile by the car, and he was sniffing.  And sniffing.  But, we got him back in the car and headed home.

He wasn't much settled down.  But what would he have been like if we had not taken him to the park?  Maybe better?  Maybe worse?  Who knows.

Anyway, now he's safe and sound in his crate.  Not before a big crazy chase.  I know that being freaked out by my  puppy feeds his crazy energy, but when he's chasing me and biting with those sharp little teeth, I can't help it!

But, he's asleep for now.

I realize there's a lot going on with him:
We had house guests for the first time this weekend.
We didn't keep to his schedule.
I bought him a rawhide that he goes crazy for and is very possessive of, and he probably has too much access to use whenever he wants.
We bought a new bag of puppy food, and I got a different kind.

Tomorrow I will try better show him that he's crossing the boundary when he bites and barks.  Let's see how much watching the Dog Whisperer and googling stuff will help me!

Regression

I know that you need to have structure and routine when training a new puppy.
I know that you need to monitor him and not let him have too much free reign.
I know that no matter how good and intelligent a puppy is, he's still a puppy.

We took several steps back today.
He stayed up late last night.
He slept the whole night through and got up late.
We took him to the beach before breakfast.
We gave him breakfast when we got home and it wasn't enough food.
He slept for several hours this morning in the house while we were out back.
We let him go in and out of the house all day.

As soon as my sister left, he pissed in the house 3 times, and he shat in the lanai.

He was unruly and cranky.
When I fed him dinner, he ate it fast like always, and then he was kind of crying for some more.

Back to the basics.
And also puppy school!