Comments policy

It's great that people take the time to post comments on the blog. Most of the time, I'm sure no one reads it except me! But as a rule, it's not cool to post private emails from other people to other people on a public website where they are named in full. It's not just not cool, it's a breach of privacy. It's even worse if the poster of the comments is also anonymous. How uncool is that! So if you would like to post comments, please do so. Keep it legal! It would be a shame to have to introduce comment moderation. It's not the spirit of the blog.

I've removed the offending comments for now from public access.

All that matters in this case is that Gunner is now hopefully on the mend following his course of anti-biotics for his infected vertebrae. I.e. not a dislocation.

Grey's castration one week on

People who know Grey have commented on what a changed dog he is lately. I think it's too soon after the op to put it all down to the castration. He had also started to change in his behaviour in the weeks running up to the op too. So I reckon it's a combination of things coming at the same time. Grey seems to have turned a corner in hi behaviour and energy levels. He no longer greets people at home by jumping rudely up at them or me. He does a new move of sitting in front, turning round so he's sitting backwards and puts his chin up to gaze lovingly at them eliciting chin rubs and he leans into their legs and if it goes really well he might end up sliding down to the floor for a belly rub!

I think my own behaviour and body language towards him has also changed, so as a consequence his general behaviour has modified. He's generally a very much calmer dog and has since the op developed into a real cuddle monster. We have a lot of people staying at the house at the moment including a baby. He's taken it all in his stride and has coped with all the new noises and activity. We moved a sofa into the dining room where we spend a lot of time now and he's taken up residence on there with a fleecey blanket and likes nothing more than to lie squished up next to someone on it.

If this is the sign of the new manageable Grey I feel really positive and proud of him.

His wound is healing up nicely. He's not had a buster collar on and didn't lick his wound much at all. His scrtoum is shrinking away nicely. It doesn't look that attractive at the moment! But then who's looking!?

Yesterday we took him up to London in the car to visit a few shops in Islington. He was allowed in all the shops and he was so well behaved and managed brilliantly. His fear period seems to have come to an end, thank god. He was on the halti and more or less walks nicely on it. It's no great love affair with the head collar, but he's manageable. We're awaiting delivery of the Dogmatic which should be sturdyier and fit him better under the eyes.

He's been on strict lead walks only all week, which I think have also done him good. It's broken the link that a walk means pull until you get to the free offlead romp. I'm going to take him for a free running bit this morning. Tomorrow we have a first training session with Charlie. Looking forward to his opinion.

Gunner is home!

We just heard that Grey's brother, Gunner, is now home at last. He was sent home on morphine patches to manage his pain and the vet thinks he has diskospondylitis (also spelt discopondylitis). I don't know much about this condition yet, just starting to look into it now. I found a pdf paper on it. On wikipedia it refers to it being linked to Brucellosis in dogs that can be screened for in a breeding programme. I'll post more as I dig more out.

More info: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2105&aid=269

Grey losing his nik naks

No way to put it sensitively. Grey has gone to the vets to be CASTRATED. Sorry if that makes the boys wince, but time had come for the operation. Hopefully, we'll see an improvement in behaviour towards other dogs where he will stop humping so much. It's no replacement for training and managing his behaviour, but even if we look at the state of his teeth, the world doesn't need any puppies with teeth like Grey's.

I'll be picking him up tonight. They leave his purse but he'll have no change so to speak.

Sorry, Grey. Not your idea of a great birthday present, I know.

Happy birthday Grey

Today you are one year old, monkey boy. I wouldn't be without you.

Grey's brother is really poorly

I've just heard that Grey's littermate is really poorly again with the mystery pain problem in his neck and shoulder and that pain killers hadn't worked and he's in the vets on morphine. I'm so sad for him and his owner. He has been ill since he was 9 months old and this latest flare up is really serious. This is the 3rd pain issue I've heard of from people with slovaks. All young dogs under a year old. I chatted with a breeder about it who had suggested it could be linked to previous GI infections when young and these stay somehow in the system causing reactive arthritis. In humans it's called Reiters Syndrome. No idea if this is what Grey's brother has. His vet thinks it might be something to do with the vertebrae. Obviously we're really worried in case something could also happen to Grey, but primarily sending healing thoughts to his brother. It's not fair for such a young dog.

Out and about

We've been more out and about the last few days. Just mooching around the old town and through the park. He had a bit of a play with a GSD. But mostly he's got used to not always being offlead in the park. So we've walked round it and through it.

It's been easter weekend and I was on gallery duty. We also had visitors stay at the house, which is always a new training opportunity. I decided not to go to the cricket ground for training in case there were other people there. I wanted to get away from the car chasing for a couple of days. Grey was on the long line at the gallery for a little while at lunch one day and he was super good. Didn't bark at anyone coming into the space. I left him to sleep at home rather than stress him with the car and people approaching all the time.

We had a surprise visit from the new slovak on the block, Obi. Very nice to see him. Everyone commented on how trim Grey is looking. Which is great because he was a fatty when they last saw him!

Other than that we worked on target mat at home, doing his own nails on the doggy nail file I built him. Lots of nice rewards for passing traffic, people and prams. So a busy few days.

Jean Donaldson's 10 myths about dogs

Really nice list, which as a new dog owner having to field training classes etc is really useful to refer back to.

http://www.dogsincanada.com/fairy-tales-the-top-10-dog-behaviour-myths

Chasing

Excellent article on dealing with chase mode in dogs. Working on building on turning the chase onto a toy.

Training, Thursday 9th April 2009

This morning we headed out to the cricket field at 7.30a.m. The traffic was building but not super busy. Grey started to react to the cars again so I went straight into relxation circuits round bollards. I think I must have kept it up for 10 mins. By the end I was able to go into the centre of the field and release him with him not running back to chase the traffic.

We had a good session of voluntary check ins, long line and toy play.

We did filming today for a TV show and the director said he'd never seen such a mad dog when they wanted to film him with us on the beach. He was relatively well behaved as well. I thin what gets people is that he's like a young pup in a grown up dog body. He really has difficulty containing himself, which of course, what we're working on.

This evening I decided to take him up to Botany Bay to see some other dogs. I started some relaxation circuits as he was really excited. It calmed him a bit. We worked voluntary check ins. Then threw the toy. He ran in to another dog who was on a flexi and I wasn't able to catch him in time. Really sorry about that as he started to hump the other dog. I gathered him up, aplogised profusely and took him back to the car thinking I have to really work out how to deal with his running in to other dogs thing. Wonder if the neutering would help this.

chasing mode

Tonight we had a mishap where I accidentally let him slip free while getting out of the car. His lead slipped underneath my foot in the car park at the training field. He charged off chasing cars along the boundary fence. Very hair raising how fast he does that. Managed to get him back and calmed him down. Tried some relaxation walking and it seemed to work. You circle towards and then away from the distraction.

I decided to not let him off again as some people had arrived for a meeting at the club. It just felt a bit busy. So I worked on name recognition and calm to the passing traffic.

This afternoon I did 20 mins relaxation walking at home with no fussing.

Grey the art buff

I'm running a photographic show at a local gallery for a couple of weeks, so rather than leave Grey at home I thought I would give it a try taking him with me. The gallery is on a pier at the harbour, so I can park my car with the hatchback open right next to the gallery doors. We had little mooches up and down the pier with bits of training for passing cars coming to park, people on bicycles etc. He has calmed down spending time in his crate in the back and has had chews and frequent trips out to keep him occuppied. We then had a couple of nice runs on the beach where he got to kick up his heels. He's still a bit barky at some people arriving, but he did imprive lots the more he got used to it.

Relaxation walking

I did my first session on my own today of the relaxation walk where we have to walk in circles at a slow pace round an obstacle. I set up two chairs in the back yard and walked round, sometimes changing direction. We walked for 20 mins at a slow and steady pace. I had expected him to react to this as he had at Thursday's training session. But he didn't and we plodded round with no ground sniffing, no lead biting etc. I'm supposed to do this 3 times a week as a minimum, but everyday if I can.

We finished off with a little round of his known cues like: touch, sit, down, go round etc.

I need to think of 2 new behaviours to teach him that I can add into this.