Sleepy dogz

So tonight, knock on wood, we've got Oz an Radar sleeping peacefully on the giant dog bed. We bought the bed for Oz. I way over estimated the size. It's twice as big as it really needs to be. So there's plenty of room for them both.

They're not playing their little game with hoarding the bones. One will grab the other's bone and take it to some spot. Then when that one walks away the other one runs in and snags the bone back. Ultimately Radar ends up getting both bones. He hunkers down and Oz, who weighs Radar x 9, sits there whimpering at Radar to get the bone back. Meanwhile Radar is chewing on the bone with his ass in Oz's face.

Bad Radar!

Hey Dad! I got an A on my test!

So last week we decided to have Oz go back to Happy Hounds for a little doggie socialization. Today was the day. I dropped him off with Tom, his trainer, at 10:00. Oz looked back at me as he was walking across the street with Tom like, "hey man, don't leave me here". Even though I knew he was in good hands I felt sad like I was abandoning him.

We went back at 5:00 to pick him up. The girl at the front went back to get him. She came back, no Oz. She told us Tom would bring him up. I'm thinking bad sign. Then we saw Tom walking briskly around the back of the little dog play area. The stopped at the gate. Oz sat nicely. They both came walking toward us looking happy.

Long story short, Oz was in with five other dogs for at least an hour, and did well. He even got barked down by one dog when he apparently went sniffing around where he should not have been. No fights. He just backed down. This is all way better than Winston ever did.

Good job Oz.

This morning began with skunk hunting. There's a skunk next door and we think it's used to coming and going via these holes in the bottom of our fence. We've tried to plug them but either Oz is moving the rocks or the skunk is or both. I hosed him down two or three times. Yes with the hose. It took a good soaking before he backed off enough to do his business.

After that he was minding okay, not great getting up the stairs and while I was getting him hitched up with the pinch collar and the shock collar. He was ampy, which is typical. Actually he does that little routine better than either Britta or Winston. They never needed a shock collar though.

The walk went pretty good. I gave him no leash. He was on the short loop the whole way. One block. Up Coolidge, across Alida, down Rhoda, across Carmel & home. He got corrections every time he started to pull. By mid way he was beginning to actually heel properly. I am introducing "heel" again. I have no other voice command for that now. Someday I want the shock collar to go away. My thinking is that the voice commands will replace that. I might be smokin' crack on that one.

Upon returning home and explaining the skunk hunt and dog watering to Teri, she says, "oh, that explains why the floor is a mess." At which point I look down. Yep, looks pretty much like a pack of 10 year old boys tramped through right out of the creek. Oh well. At least that cleans up.

He is totally in hunting mode. There are skunks and possum around. The raccoons will probably be coming down off the hill soon too. Let's not forget cats. I suspect that's a powerful instinct. It's going to take some work to get it under control. Hmmm. Maybe we need to look at how hunting dogs are trained. Too many books, not enough time.

He continues to eat food off the table. Last night he artfully swiped one scoop of ice cream out of my bowl. He ate half of Teri's sandwich at lunch. I offered him more ice cream and the squirt bottle in the face. He eventually got the hint and the rest of the evening he stayed away from food on the table.

Day two of early morning walks. This is maybe his 4th or 5th walk total. All around the full block. Today I went one block over to Laguna.

We saw another dog this morning and he was very hard to control with the pinch collar and the shock collar turned up into the 80s. He was up on his hind legs and pulling. I had to basically drag him across the street. He was whinning. He didn't seem angry and his hair wasn't up or anything. I think he just wanted to play.

He also got a smell of something behind a fence, maybe a cat, and was very stubborn. No jumping on that one. Again the shock collar was only marginally effective.

As a result I have a nice blister on my hand from gripping the leash when he took off.

All this was in the last block of the walk. I thought I was home free! Not. :-(

He was a little more "pully" this morning. Still very heads up and smelling the air. More heads down than yesterday. I used the shock collar more this morning than yesterday morning.

I think the collar is either not working right or losing power. When I put it in my hand I can't even feel it until it's up to 18 or 20. At the highest I had it today I could feel his muscles reacting through the leash. So it's working, just not on the low settings.

The walk went good this morning. He's acting like Winston did when we first got to Shattuck. He's very heads up. Very nose in the air. Very distracted. To the point where we walked right by a cat and he didn't even know it. He's younger and more active than Winston so it looks different, but I think it's pretty much the same.

He pulls a little, but honestly not that much. He sits on command. He's turning on command. We practiced that once.

I used the collar a few times in the first block, especially by that poop spot he went after the other day. The poop was gone, but he remembered exactly where it was. He seems to remember where he's seen dogs before and looks for them again.

The pager function absolutely works on him better than the electrical stimulation. After we headed back up Moraga(?) after Carmel I didn't have to use the collar much.

He got very interested in the Asian guy who is always out at that time walking up Coolidge. No whining or barking or pulling, but he was very interested. I used the pager to try to correct that. Not much good. He stayed "locked on" even when we got in the house.

Tomorrow I'm going to take him up Lincoln and see if we can get up to the temple and back.

Luckily I did not see any other dogs.

I am going to start using that head lamp. Some of these houses with the big trees are really dark. A flashlight and the controller are just too much shit to deal with.

Oh, I don't think that collar has as much power as the one we initially tested at Happy Hounds. Holding it in my hand, I don't even feel anything until 18 - 20. Dunno. They might not be very well calibrated and they might be very inconsistent from collar to collar. They might also be very inconsistent based on fur density, where it's placed, etc. Which I'm not sure I like as I'm saying this.

I may need to put it on my big scope and see what the hell it's doing ...