Posts by jules817

Original Post by agana:

Original Post by jules817:

Original Post by rosencrantz12:

Being the jerk on the flight or in the movie that keeps coughing.

Also, coughing when I get up, coughing when I get out of the shower, coughing in the car, coughing at work, coughing in the grocery store, coughing while watching tv, coughing on my walk, coughing at night... I'm so effing sick of this.

i was super sick on my way back from Ireland when we went. coughing non stop. guess what the in flight movie was? Contagion.

 

That is so weird.  When my bf came back from his trip to Ireland last year he was so sick.  He gave me friggin whooping cough, and I didn't even get to go on the trip to make it worth it!!!!!

ugh that sucks! i literally started feeling sick when we landed and was sick the entire 8 days we were there. still a great trip, just wish i'd felt better.

Original Post by purespark:

Original Post by jules817:

so i may or may not have called out of work today, just cause :P

yay playing hooky!

Woo!  Doing anything fun?

relaxing, drinking coffee and watching crap tv. a little cleaning. took Murph for a walk. went and got a b-day cake for patrick. not too shabby :)

Original Post by kevinatthebrook:

I'm going to assume invasion by Canada is not considered a natural risk.

I'm not sure there are any threats on the scale of tornadoes in but on the New England Coast I'd say:

Blizzards

Hurricanes

we've also had an earthquake and a tornado in the past few years! mild ones, but still! i never expected to feel an earthquake in downtown Boston.

Original Post by kelrantymus:

*points to journal* Only I would manage to get hurt watching a race, lol!

Morning, all!

i think something happened to the photo link in your journal...that or my CC has gone crazy!

Original Post by chunkymel:

Original Post by jules817:

Original Post by lysistrata:

Original Post by chunkymel:

Original Post by jules817:

this is why i usually caution people against bringing puppies to dog parks. they need to be socialized, but dog parks tended to be filled with lots of dogs who have no business being in dog parks and owners who don't know what normal play looks like and don't know when their dog is being an a-hole. a few really bad experiences can be really scarring during the development of a puppy.  

puppy kingertgartens and supervised playgroups are awesome. not only are they great for the puppies, but who doesn't enjoy standing around watching a pack of puppies playing?

for older dogs the best thing is to start them slow, with a dog you know that has a history of being really mellow and well mannered with other dogs. it creates positive associations.  

What does normal play look like? How can you tell if dog are being a-holes?

You need to learn their body language.  Normal play might be vocal and might include some snapping and chopping and jumping on each other, but you'll see tails up, back fur down, play bows, and other signals dogs send each other to say that they're just playing.  If you see back hair up, tall aggressive postures (sometimes a dog will try to put his chin on top  of another dog - that is a very aggressive stance), tails tucked, or persistent snapping or snarling (meaning, continuing after the other dog has backed away), then the dogs are getting nervous and you should intervene before things escalate.

this is a great post.

teeth and growling don't always mean aggression. they can be part of normal play. i see people at dog parks so often scold their dogs or break up normal play because they think a dog is being aggressive.

in normal play you'll also notice their bodies just seem...soft. when things start looking rigid and stiff, keep an eye out.

your puppy is so young he needs to learn proper manners, and the best way for him to do that is to play with other puppies around his age, and older dogs you KNOW are good with puppies.

Most of the dogs I know have terrible manners. He hasn't been around other dogs since we got him... except passing a few during 'walks'. Hopefully when we start puppy classes he can find some pups to play with.

a good puppy "kindergarten" will devote at least a 1/4 if not more of the class to just letting the puppies play. socialization from 3 months to a year is SO important. you should check around your area, where i live there are quite a few "puppy play groups" held at daycares and training facilites. your trainer should be able to recommend some.

also, once he has all his shots, get him out and socialize him with people. big and small. old and young. people in hats. people with canes. the mail man. the garbage man. take him to a park and just let people pet him and interact with him. just make sure you tell them ahead of time that if he gets nippy they need to stand up and walk away.

when you have a puppy, people will approach you and want to pet him. if you get them "in on" the training thing by saying "you can definitely pet him! but can you help me with his training? if he nips, just stand. if he jumps, just turn away." most people get kind of excited to help. bring treats and let people feed them to him when his paws are on the ground and he isn't nippy.   

Original Post by theviewfromhere:

no need to praise. you are the alpha dog. you don't have to ingratiate yourself to your puppy. you take the food because it's your food. you give it back because you're finished with it.

i disagree with this because i don't buy into the whole "alpha dog" pack leader thing. dogs know we aren't dogs. that's why they don't interact with us the same way they interact with other dogs. i don't believe that they see us as a leader of their "pack" because we aren't actually part of the pack. and the reasons to prevent guarding go way beyond how our dog acts towards us. if you teach them not to guard, if the neighbors kid comes along and tries to take his bone, he isn't going to react badly.

you don't need to reward him when he lets you take the food, the reward is you returning the food to him after taking it. you just want him to know that hands in his bowl aren't a bad thing and are nothing to worry about.

it really isn't about "mine vs. yours" at all.

Original Post by lysistrata:

Original Post by kevinatthebrook:

Original Post by agana:

Original Post by kathygator:

I think it's her submissiveness I'd like to cure. She wiggles with new humans, submissive pees on the floor when one of the boys shows up, and on the leash gets really submissive near other dogs. In the yard, she's a territorial barking machine at anyone that walks by.

I guess my primary concern is that simply taking her to the local dog park is going to end up in a dog fight.

I was afraid of this too except my dog usually started the fight.  Any squabbles I saw at the dog park were quickly taken care of.  I never have seen a dog actually hurt.  I was terrified the first time I went but now we both enjoy it a lot.

When I was 12 we had a small dog with an aggression problem. Tiki constantly started fights. He was nearly killed by a Dalmatian one winter. The next Spring I heard him yelping in the back yard and ended up chasing a dog throwing rocks at him until he finally dropped my dog from his mouth and ran off.

Tiki died from his wounds.

He was my favorite dog ever.

Wally has had aggression issues.  I attribute some of them to early experiences at the dog park.  The problem is that once dogs learn to interact with each other in a certain way, it is hard to teach them new methods.  Wally got bullied a lot, and early, by the bigger dogs at the dog park.  He now does not trust bigger dogs, especially bigger male dogs, and so will sometimes attack one that he perceives as challenging him at all.

The fact that the dog park is a confined space and often involves a large pack doesn't help much either because they are not able to avoid confrontation.  Wally is much, much better out on the off-leash trails where he can just keep moving.  He's been getting lots of good reinforcement as he learns how to "leave the a**hole dog alone."  :)

this is why i usually caution people against bringing puppies to dog parks. they need to be socialized, but dog parks tended to be filled with lots of dogs who have no business being in dog parks and owners who don't know what normal play looks like and don't know when their dog is being an a-hole. a few really bad experiences can be really scarring during the development of a puppy.  

puppy kingertgartens and supervised playgroups are awesome. not only are they great for the puppies, but who doesn't enjoy standing around watching a pack of puppies playing?

for older dogs the best thing is to start them slow, with a dog you know that has a history of being really mellow and well mannered with other dogs. it creates positive associations.  

Original Post by chunkymel:

Original Post by jules817:

Original Post by chunkymel:

I actually have looked into puppy classes, but I can't bring him until he's had all of his shots (he didn't get any shots until he came to us at 10 weeks old so he's a little behind).

I do understand that he doesn't know what I want him to do and that he doesn't speak english, I'm just not sure how to help him understand what I'm asking him to do. With the clicker training, will it confuse him if I start now?

I appreciate everyone sharing their experience and honestly didn't mean for this to become an argument about anything.

i don't want it to become an argument either, i really just want to help.

a puppy kindergarten is a great way to start. they will show you how to teach him, and he'll get to socialize with other puppies. it's pretty much the cutest thing on the planet. he won't learn much in the actual class, but YOU will learn how to train him at home.

clicker training can be started at any age. it's really easy, and it's really fun. not only does it work for obedience stuff, you can also use it to teach them fun tricks and stuff. i'm a big fan of pit bulls who know how to do silly things, because it helps with the stigma the breed faces. mine will sit and wave at people when i ask him. he also dances on cue and gives high fives (with either paw). people walk away with a positive experience, and hopefully tell other people "well i met a pit bull who was so sweet and he gave me a high five!"

Me too :) Mine will sit and shake hands before I put his food bowl down.

I'm definetly going to look into clicker training, hopefully if I can teach him how to walk while he's young I won't have any troubles once he's full grown.

I really think I may have over-researched. I second guess myself all the time: am I giving him too much attention, do I hurt his feeling when I ignore him and make him play by himself (do puppies have 'feelings'?) Am I being a bully or teaching rules?

 

awesome!

puppies and dogs have "feelings" but not like we do. he isn't going to get "hurt feelings" if you ignore him. he's going to try to figure out how to get you to not ignore him. like if you ignore him when he jumps on you, every single time, then he's going to stop jumping on you because it doesn't work for him.  

one very important thing to remember is that your attention is a reward to him. don't give it to him unless he is doing something you want to reward. if he's nipping and you yell and push him off, he got attention. he doesn't care if it's negative because he doesn't know what "these are my new pants you jerk!" means. it's all attention. if you stand up and walk away with your arms crossed, he'll learn that nipping takes away all the attention, good or bad.

Original Post by chunkymel:

I actually have looked into puppy classes, but I can't bring him until he's had all of his shots (he didn't get any shots until he came to us at 10 weeks old so he's a little behind).

I do understand that he doesn't know what I want him to do and that he doesn't speak english, I'm just not sure how to help him understand what I'm asking him to do. With the clicker training, will it confuse him if I start now?

I appreciate everyone sharing their experience and honestly didn't mean for this to become an argument about anything.

i don't want it to become an argument either, i really just want to help.

a puppy kindergarten is a great way to start. they will show you how to teach him, and he'll get to socialize with other puppies. it's pretty much the cutest thing on the planet. he won't learn much in the actual class (it's like trying to ask a little kid to work on his homework at disney land), but YOU will learn how to train him at home.

clicker training can be started at any age. it's really easy, and it's really fun. not only does it work for obedience stuff, you can also use it to teach them fun tricks and stuff. i'm a big fan of pit bulls who know how to do silly things, because it helps with the stigma the breed faces. mine will sit and wave at people when i ask him. he also dances on cue and gives high fives (with either paw). people walk away with a positive experience, and hopefully tell other people "well i met a pit bull who was so sweet and he gave me a high five!"

Original Post by lysistrata:

Original Post by rain_bows:

Original Post by chunkymel:

Do any of you have dogs that will walk next to you on a leash and not pull? How'd you do it?

If you really don't know what you are doing I would suggest going to a dog trainer for an hour and having them show you how to do it.

The pup will be walking on the leash before the hour lesson is done.

Ha ha ha!  At sixteen weeks, Wally had the trainer cursing under her breath.  ;D

yes, i'm wondering where i can find this magical wizard trainer myself.