Category Archives: Training

Shih Tzu Day 54: That Horrible Leash Again

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Average Morning

Flower and Dottie aren't sure what it means when we put the leash on them.John woke up with one of his headaches this morning, before the 5:00 a.m. shih tzu visitation, and went downstairs. A little while later, I heard the jingle signalling I would soon have company. Right after that, Dottie and Flower scratched at the bed. He would have passed her when he went downstairs, but she sometimes gets confused. She acted disappointed that he wasn’t there — for her to antagonize, I think.

When he came back up, she started barking. I think she just thinks it’s a game. She seems like she enjoys it, but then after he gets up and goes downstairs, she’s afraid of him again (if anyone can solve this puzzle for me, I’d appreciate it!).

I didn’t have any cottage cheese for their dry food, so I decided to give them a little bit of applesauce. They all sniffed it and then walked away, but Flower came back a few times, and then finally licked it. All three of them eventually ate a little bit of it.

Leash Phobia

Flower did a Houdini act and escaped her pink harness after we tried to get her to walk around the yard.I have a very strong to desire to get one of the dogs walking on a leash by the end of John’s vacation next week. Since I want to record our progress, and since I think he is probably better at being firm, John attempted to train Flower, while I worked the camcorder. She fought like crazy. I admit that it looked like torture, but all he did was stand there holding it, while she thrashed around. A few minutes later, Houdini slipped out of her harness and ran. After a few attempts to hook the leash back to her collar, we gave up and let her go inside. Cesar would say that we shouldn’t have let her walk away on her terms, but sometimes it’s just too much work to get our way.

We had put leashes on Dottie and Candy, so they were up next. Dottie and Candy “sort of” walked around, talking a few steps and then stopping, a few steps and then stopping. After several minutes, John took both of their leashes and coaxed them around the backyard, with them doing the same thing. No one would call it an actual “walk,” but it’s a few steps in the right direction.

John offered Dottie and Candy hot dog pieces for rewards after our session was over. He sat down by them on the porch, and each of them came up and took them from his hand. Flower kept her distance, watching the goings-on.

The girls all kept their distance for a while. Since John is the bad man with the leash, they waited until he was out of the living room to once again be approachable.

That makes me sad, because I know he wants to be close to them, and I think he is approaching them in the right way. If anyone has any suggestions regarding getting these little ones to walk on a leash, I’d love to hear from you.

Shih Tzu Day 53: Happy Birthday, Dad

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Swim Day with Grandpa J

If I sit really still, the visitors will think I'm a shoe and leave me alone. Dottie, Flower and Candy The dogs were home alone a lot today. It is John’s birthday, and instead of a typical birthday present, I gathered coupons for free birthday meals. We started out the day by going to IHOP for breakfast. We came home and spent a few hours with the girls before going back out for lunch at Noodles.

While we were at lunch, Leticia and her children and Gabe, Crystal and Avi arrived at the community pool. We told them we’d come by later with our camera, because I wanted to get pool pics of all the kids. We had a pool party for John’s birthday last year, but then, we both swam. We didn’t feel like getting wet this year.

Do we really have to have visitors?I knew that Flower, Dottie and Candy wouldn’t like the grandchildren to raid their house after the pool party, so I told everyone we would set up the ping pong table outside and visit out there. However, they wanted to come inside and say hi to the dogs. As soon as they came in, Candy ran upstairs to hide.I found her later hiding in John’s side of the closet. She must have thought she’d look like a shoe and would go unnoticed. It reminded me of a famous scene from “ET,” where ET hides in the closet. As for Flower and Dottie, they stayed in their corner, growling their unwelcome.

Is he going to pull another treat out of that bag or not?After everyone left, we gave the girls some privacy. I had one more phase left of my birthday present to John, which was dinner out at Macaroni Grill. When we came home, we took the girls outside for their nighttime treat and romp in the grass, before settling down on the couch, with Dottie beside me, to watch a few episodes of The Dog Whisperer.

Shih Tzu Day 51: Practice, Practice, Practice

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Practice Makes Perfect

This isn't bad, but we like our old beds.Flower spends increasingly more time on John’s side of the bed than mine when the girls come up in the morning. They play their little game where she tries to nip at him and he constantly moves his hand. That seems to be the highlight of her day.

Later this morning, I put her up on the grooming table for another practice session. I used the clippers to trim her a little and did a little scissor work. She was very patient. I’m sure I could have done more, but I am still uncomfortable and I need to re-watch the videos. I showed her a treat before, and although she didn’t want it then, after I was done practicing and sat her down on the floor, she came back looking for her treats.

Wee Wee On Target Trainer

I took Mom shopping today. While we were out, I bought a Wee Wee On Target Trainer. It’s a plastic contraption that has three sides.You put a training pad down in it, and the three sides are supposed to keep the dog in place, hence “targeting their stream” to the middle of the pad. First, of course, you have to talk the dog into getting on it.

I would have loved to try it, but the two plastic bottom pieces wouldn’t snap together. It will be going back to the store. I guess I will just get one of the trays that you simply set the training pad on. The main thing is that I need to get the dogs to start using the training pads again, instead of playing with or on them.

Now this is cozy!I also bought a plush dog bed home from Costco for the girls. I thought it was cute because it reminded me of a miniature couch. The dogs did try to lie down in it. However, if only one dog got on it, that dog always went to one corner, making the bed lopsided, and it looked pretty uncomfortable. The bed itself also seems a little lopsided, even when they aren’t in it. I think they only tried it because I put it in the corner where one of the beds from BFF Rescue usually is. The new bed will be going back to Costco.

Why Do Dogs Do That

For the second day in a row, I’ve looked up from my work late in the afternoon because of a commotion in front of me. Candy has been at the center of it. She gets in a playful mood with Flower, but I don’t understand her mode of play, which, for the second day in a row, appears to be of a sexual nature. If anyone can help me understand this, I’d love to hear from you.

Shih Tzu Day 48: My Dog, Einstein

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Flower Shows Her Possessive Side

Flower was the first one to pounce on the plastic firemen.Every time I look at Flower, I think of Einstein. She is looking rather wild.I took Lia’s advice and cut up some hot dogs to bribe Flower while I am attempting to trim her. She didn’t eat any of the pieces when she was up on my makeshift grooming table (a buffet by the kitchen door), but she came back to get them when she got down. I also made an appointment with Lia for John and I to go into Gentle Groomer next week while he is on vacation so he can practice clipping on her dog.

Flower soon claimed all the firemen as her own.Flower has exhibited her possessive side today. She collected all of the Big Blast treats from the carpet and the various places they put them and took them to the communal dog bed. Then, she collected all four plastic firemen I bought for them at the Dollar Store and put them with the Big Blasts. She didn’t seem to know what to do when Candy came and took one of the firemen back. Her attention soon went back to biting the fireman’s legs and chewing on his head. I thought it was hard enough plastic that it could keep her attention but that she wouldn’t be able to shred it, but I was wrong. It took her quite a while, but she disassembled two of them this afternoon.

She also seems to be ignoring me. She hasn’t been coming up and visiting me on the couch and she is back to running when I get near her. I wonder if it is because of the grooming I have been doing on her here and there. I managed to catch and hold her today. For some reason, I just kept repeating, “I love my little, difficult puppy.” She is difficult, but I definitely do love her.

Candy’s New Play and Sleep Station

Candy chose a comfy spot, the training pad, to play with the new toy.While Flower was chewing on her firemen, Candy decided to take a nap on the training pad. I thought those pads were supposed to have some type of scent that made them want to do their business on them, not play on them, like she did yesterday, or sleep on them. She lay down right in the middle of it. It would be great if they had that good of aim when they peed, since it seems to be hit or miss. I think it’s usually accidental for Candy and Dottie when they partially miss the pad, but I wonder with Flower sometimes.

Dear Ole Dottie

There isn’t much new to say about dear, devoted Dottie. Each morning, she continues to run up the stairs and try to get me up. If I don’t get up, she sits by the bed quietly and waits. However, If I try to put her up on the bed with me, she dances away. During the day, off and on, she comes and lies next to me while I work. She is also the only one who follows me around the house. Granted, she is usually wondering if I am going to produce food.

 

 

 

Shih Tzu Day 45: Foster Dog Difficulties

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our foster dog

I am still waiting for my forever home. We have been talking to Delores for a while about BFF Rescue finding Shiloh a more suitable dog foster home. I think that he would make someone a wonderful foster dog or “regular” dog. I don’t, however, think that we’re a good fit as dog foster parents for him.

Anyone who has come to visit over the three and a half weeks that Shiloh has been here has liked our foster dog. Everybody loves the fact that he is so playful. I like that he is playful, too, although I don’t like that the playfulness causes lots of scratches on my legs and arms.

This foster dog loves attention, and it is hard for me to divide my attention between the shih tzus and him. He also loves to ride in the car with me, but pet-friendly places are out, since he barks aggressively at other dogs. I like the fact that he wants to sleep with us, since the shih tzus haven’t shown that desire, but it does make for tension in the morning when I am trying to play with the shih tzus when they come upstairs and he jumps into the middle in his clumsy and playful way.

Delores agrees that the girls have waited for a good forever home for a while, and that things might be better without a foster dog around. She suggested we take him and another BFF Rescue foster dog, Oliver, to the farmers market in Golden and walk around, with the foster dogs in their “adopt me” harnesses, to see if anyone might be interested in adopting one of the rescue dogs.

It was a good idea, but Shiloh was the wrong foster dog to bring. He exhibited dog aggression, barking at random dogs. Delores suggested he might be barking at non-neutered dogs, and it did seem like that was mostly the case, although not all the time. We decided our foster dog wasn’t making many friends and ended up putting him in the car for a while. I think Lia is right in that Shiloh could benefit from discipline classes. Oliver, on the other hand, displayed a sweet disposition, and a few people stopped to inquire about him.

Dotty fights the leash again

Being at the farmers market and seeing all of the amiable dogs wandering around made me more determined to teach the shih tzus to walk on a leash. I brought Dottie out back and put the leash on her. She did go a few steps, in her attempt to get away from me, and then fought me. Candy was next. She actually ran around the yard a little, again, trying to escape, but making me believe that she might be the first leash dog. If it had been cooler out, I would have tried a little more, but I thought that was enough practice for the day.

Since Candy was nicely groomed and all ready on her leash, I picked her up and carried her next door, where the neighbors were having a post-wedding party. I didn’t set her down on the ground while we were there, but I did keep her there for about ten minutes. She didn’t seem to be nervous or afraid. I set her down when we got ready to leave, and she trotted back home behind us. Too bad I didn’t have my camcorder or camera handy.

When we came back home, I noticed that we had a call. Delores had talked to another foster parent and she was willing to take Shiloh in for a while. She came by and picked him up at 6. She asked if she could take the safety gate back that we had taken from Barbara’s. We had hooked it to ours to keep the dogs from climbing up the landscaped area in back and getting out of the yard, but we realized that Shiloh was the only one who could or would try. We unhooked it and rearranged the fencing

When Delores left, John cooked up the rest of the steak from last night’s dinner and used it for quesadillas. We shared a little of it with Candy and Dottie. For some reason, Flower wouldn’t come to get any. She is acting afraid of John again. When he called them, they ran right to him; she ran out of their safe zone with them, but ran right past, and then turned around and ran back to Shih Tzu Central. Some times I wonder if she’s just a little bit off — in a very cute way, though.