New toys

Very excited appreciation of the lovely shakeable Petstages Toss and Shake:
Damn! I paid too much for that at Pets at Home. Oh well.

And the Orka Tube:

Windshack cafe, Minnis Bay

This morning we took a walk down the opposite end of the coast we normally go to. We walked from Minnis Bay along the grassy path, which gives Grey lots to scent and is more his natural habitat than the beach and tarmac. I though he could do with a good run after the funday yesterday and the long car journey. The tide was out so on the way back we did the beach route and ended up at the Windshack cafe. Which to our pleasant surprise is super dog friendly, with other dog walkers there enjoying a breezy windswept coffee and the dogs get a biscuit from the owner Dougle (who knows all the dogs' names!). Definitely a recommended dog friendly place.

This reminded me to register a group on Flickr for dog friendly UK places.

Back from the Slovak fun day

Had a fab day at the Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer Club fun day in Aughton near York. Grey was really good on the 6 hour journey up north. He slept for all of it. Was great to meet lots of other slovaks in one place. Grey even won a prize! Amazingly, he came first in the scurry and he was the only pup. Bless him, he jumped over bales of hay to get the stuffed toy and bring it back to hand. Not sure that he meant to bring it back to hand, but rather misjudged his usual drive by swoop.

We had an intro to ground scenting (not sure if that's what it's called) by Denise who owns the lovely Fuzy (Ansona Brigadier). Grey managed to follow the trail of food out into the field to then find and pick up an object. So, I think he'd really enjoy doing more of this kind of activity in the future.

Unfortunately, I only managed to take a few pics as most of the time I was handling a very sociable Grey on his lead and then I was too distracted to take more.

I think we got kind of an idea what kind of adult Grey will turn into. Ian and Lynne Ware's Ted, seems to be the nearest in type and build. Ted is lovely. All the dogs seemed to show that the slovak temperament is really good. No disagreements all day.

Pics from the day:

Ted

Ian and his bird. Sorry, Ian, I can't remember the name or breed!

Freya (Stormdancer pup 10 days older than Grey)

A weim getting an intro to working trials with Denise

Wee wee wee!

Grey stood on his hind legs, propped himself up on the chaise with his front paws and had a wee on the corner of it while looking at the cat. Huh? And I thought toilet training was going better the last week.

In other news, we took a trip to the vets again. He's had a bit of a cough and I wanted to have them look at his new teeth. The cough is nothing to worry about and is probably caused by his op to have his teeth out. We're supposed to give him Benylin. His teeth are still not through enough to comment on or plan what to do next. The vet suggested we cut his eye lashes down to see if that helps clear up his sometimes gunky eyes. He does have ridiculously long eye lashes.

Nothing else hugely eventful other than to report he now weighs 22.6KG!

This evening we walked in the opposite direction along the seafront to normal as L took the car. A jack russell had a little snap at him from a safe distance. How rude!

New kid coming to town

Just heard that another slovak will be coming to town. He's a month younger than Grey and by the looks of it is a lovely handsome boy. We'd met his then prospective owner outside the chip shop a month ago and had a long chat about Grey and the breed. Very much looking forward to meeting him in person. So, C, if you read this, some and visit soon!

Gummy chops

Grey's lost most of his baby teeth now. He's ever so gummy, bless him. No idea where they've all gone to, perhaps he's eaten them! Now we need to monitor how the adult teeth come through and see if any further action needs to be taken.

We went to puppy class last night and we got a 'well done!' card and I got a chocolate. Grey got an extra bit of sausage. He did the down stay while I lay on the floor which was fun practicing this week in the park. He was much calmer in class in general and mostly sat or lay watching me rather than the other dogs. He managed to 'leave' of sausage on the floor for 15 secs and also a down stay of 20 secs in class too. So amazingly well done for a young pup.

I had been thinking of starting him with puppy gundog training, but might think again on it, as some friends have said they think he's too young for all that yet. They're right, there's a whole life of time for that kind of training and we can just carry on working on the basics and enjoying him being a pup.

He's also been much much better on the lead the last few days. I think having the back up of the gentle leader head collar has been brilliant. Just to get through those explosive 5 minutes where not even roast chicken can stop him from dragging me down the street. After he'd calmed down and got used to the idea of not being way up front, I took it off and just did the usual leash training on his flat collar. Not had to go back to the Gentle Leader in days.

Grey meets Gunner

I'd tracked down one the owner of one of Grey's litter mates. His brother, Gunner. Who it turns out is even bigger than Grey! Now there's a first. He lives about an hour from where we live which is brilliant. It was so very strange to see two slovaks together. Two youngsters the same age expecially. I'm so used to being the only slovak in the village. I suppose if the breed takes off then this might happen more often, but it's still rare. I don't even come across many HPR (hunt point and retrieve) breeds at all. In the last few months I've seen about three weims, one viszla, one spinone pup and that's it.

Anyway, Gunner is lovely. Less hairy than Grey, but then Grey is possibly too hairy at this stage. He's taller than Grey. Both have lovely temperaments, which is great to see. I'd love to know if there is some kind of residual recognition from when they were pups. They only lived together until they were seven weeks. They had a lovely play on the beach and for once I managed to get some great pictures.

Gunner is going to start gun dog level one training soon. I've begun enquiries about finding an HPR course for Grey too. I think half his leash issues are from him naturally quartering. Certainly don't have a problem sending him away from me to hunt. It's getting him to walk by my side that's a pain.

Here are some more pics from the big get together:

Back to basics leash training

After being pulled down the street by a 21kg crazy hound dog in Hythe on the weekend, it seems like time to go up the ante on leash training. Just in time, the Kumfi Juster training lead arrived in the post. So up and down the hallway we went. CT for loose leash which he does really nice inside. So it seems to be when he's out and about that the crazy hound sniffer dog appears.


Tonight it's puppy class again. Not had much time to work on wait because of the extra leash training I've been doing. No prizes for guessing who's going to be pulled into the hall with the most distracted dog in the group.

Naughty moment of the day was when he decided to pull the dog bed across the floor with the cat sat on it. Cat wasn't amused.

Sue Ailsby Levels videos

A selection of videos based on Sue Ailsby's levels.

Growing up

Grey cocked his leg for the first time today. The event was all the less momentous for the fact that he'd first started to pee while in the basement of the house chatting to a friend. So quick rush to the outside after stopping him mid-flow and there it was, like the monolith in Kubrik's 2001. The leg was well and truly cocked. Thankfully, he's back to the girlie squat since then. While I'm happy for the boy to grow up, I was kind of hoping he might turn out to be one of those dogs that never gets the whole leg cocking business.

Noticed also yesterday that his adult lower canines are peeping through. Will have to keep an eye on them from now on to see how they come through in relation to his upper jaw. Fingers crossed.

Had a lovely walk with Nelly yesterday evening. Funny how different they are together when there are no other dogs around whipping it all up. Nelly swims a lot. So far, Grey hasn't caught on to the idea. He paddles out halfway and waits for her to come back with the ball.

End of a long day at the office

Busy day yesterday. Training in the park, visit to the shopping centre for the mission XXL dog bed, romp on the beach with Nel, zoom to puppy class, home to dinner and trying out the new duvet with Seal.

Crazy that things for humans are so much cheaper than things for pets. The duvet is from Tesco at £8. If that had been in a pet shop it would be well over £20. Now just to get the actual bed. Probably better to get him his own 1 bed flat looking at the size of his paws.

Puppy class was funny. I was a baaaaaad handler. Grey very distracted about the other dogs. Not in a barky way, but in a 'what? you want me to walk up and down here? There are dogs over there! Are you mad?' He did manage a lovely sit and wait while crowded round with other dogs. There was only one humping incident.

Adventures in a hatchback

We had our first mini-camping trip on Saturday. I took L to the airport for his kickboxing trip and brought Grey along with me. We drove to London and arrived in Hackney, where we have just moved from, at 6am. It was really funny to be there, the place where I lived for ten years and no dog, to suddenly have a glimpse of what my life would be like there with Grey. We had a misty run round London Fields park in the early morning. Just me, him and the birds. Back to the car for a sleep. I parked up in the old industrial estate. Grey and I both crashed out till 9. I reckon if everything went belly up, we could camp out in the car!

Then off to have breakfast with M before returning home to the seaside.

We are family

Had some exciting news the other day. I've been in touch with one of Grey's litter mates. His brother. And even more exciting is that he lives not too far from us so we shall soon have a get together. So excited not only to see another slovak dog, but same age and his brother. So I nearly chose him! I had 3 to choose from. One was big and hairy (Grey), one was little and the other was big and not so hairy (this fella). No idea which of these pups is the one we'll meet. Grey was the puppy on top of the pile. Typical Grey. If in doubt, sit on it.

Little steps forwards

After the last session of capturing went all weird in the bathroom, a few people advised trying him in an environment he's more used to and for me to try to be more normal rather than still and silent. So we went back to the kitchen. You know that tiled waterproof place where Grey has never ever ever had a wee or a poo?

Well, the same thing happened again when I tried waiting for him to offer a sit or a down so I could click and treat him. He went into slow and staring mode, like he thought this was a challenge to do the world's longest watch while standing. So after a while and the poor pup was drooling waiting for a treat, I switched to teaching 'target' getting him to gently bop my hand with the end of his nose. This cheered him up and we were back to happy eager training pup again. So I will carry on with that one and see if I can sharpen up his down without retraining it as a capture. His 'touch' was up to about 2 metres away, so good boy!

Couple of pictures from a nice walk in Bekesbourne. Grey still won't go in the little stream. Shame because it looks perfect for dogs.

Little steps backwards

I thought I would re-teach Grey the cues 'sit' and 'down'. When I first taught his at 7.5 weeks, I lured him into position before click treating. I have always had a doubt that he doesn't fully get 'down' as he often needed repeat cues. I'd since had advice that it might be better to teach 'sit' and 'down' through capturing, i.e. CT when the pup does the action all by himself rather than luring with food which would then mean having to fade the treat.

So off into the smallest room in the house, the bathroom. Here I was told that a puppy might do all manner of things, but eventually will either sit or lie down. And at that point you can CT and the game begins. No verbalising or signalling anything. Just let the pup work it out for himself and when he does the action again, food rains from the sky. How cool is that?

I expected Grey to get this quickly. He's been clicker trained since little, so he knows that click = food/toy/belly rub etc. What was surprising is his energy levels went really low and he took to just staring at me. He did work through a series of say ten 'downs' but he didn't seem happy. He kept looking at me like I was crazy! i.e. 'what are we doing here in this room?'

Ah, well. Might have just been an off day.

Did I mention he had lost some baby teeth all on his own? He's growing up. Oh and he weighed in at 20.2kg!!! At 19 weeks he's now 1kg over his previous progress. He was always the same kg in weight in as many weeks.