Monday, August 13th

I was off work today, as usual.  I decided to work on teaching Re that sometimes we go back to bed and sleep longer than 7 or 7:30.  He was fine with that idea, had his breakfast in his crate, played with his toys and was pretty happy until about 8:30 when I started getting ready to get up.  The heat and humidity has been really hard for me to deal with so we have been hanging out indoors a lot!  I had a Dr appointment today, which meant Re had to stay home with the big dogs.  I heard him barking as I walked out to the car, but was quiet when I got home.  I really need to make a point of leaving him home everyday or so to make sure he doesn't develop separation anxiety since he is so attached to me.   Early this evening we drove over to Carol's house to practice leash walking on her street because it's quieter than mine.  Re had a hard time paying attention to me when we first started walking but, on the way back he did much better- able to look up at me for more than one or two seconds, taking treats from my hand, and staying close to me instead of at the end of his leash.  Things were going fine, we met two of Carol's neighbors, they both seemed very nice until one of them told me that "I need to put a different collar on him if I wanted to train him right."  I asked, "do you mean a pinch collar?"  "Yes," he replied.  Long story short, I thanked him for his unsolicited advice and said that I don't use pain to train my dogs.  ("Well, it really doesn't hurt them."  "Then why do they yelp when they get to the end of the leash?")  I should take Ry for a walk over there, excellent leash manners without having used a pinch collar.

I was trying to walk and photograph Ry walking close to me with eye contact.

Close walking on left side without eye contact.

Anyway, on to tonight.  Ryan and I took a walk in the neighborhood where we live.  We were happily walking down the busy street when I saw the cars slow down and stop in both directions, then I saw a very scared dog running between the sides of the road.  I was hoping she would get close enough to Ry and me so that maybe I could lure her to the side of the road and keep her there.  Unfortunately that is not what happened, someone (I'm assuming her owner or a family friend.) jumped out of a pick up truck and chased her into a driveway.  Well, that was a terrible idea since she ran away more scared than before.  I dropped down into a squat to see if I could encourage her to come closer.  Ry was pretty focused on her, which may have kept her at a distance to me.  The poor girl was so frightened.

The reason why I'm posting this on my blog is to remind people to NEVER CHASE A FRIGHTENED DOG!!  Actually, never chase a friendly one either, especially if you want to get closer to it.  If you need to get your dog to come closer to you, jog the opposite direction of where he is.  If you have a puppy, teach it to come when called in a variety of situations using positive reinforcement techniques including food rewards and play.  When Ry was a puppy I started running towards him when I called him and then rewarded him heavily when we reached each other, just in case we were separated and someone else was trying to get him.

August 1st, 2012

Life with Remus is a ton of fun.  He is growing up so fast, it seems like it wasn't that long ago when I brought home that little 10 pound pup (okay, it was only the end of June).  He is growing "like a weed," weighs about 22 pounds and has gotten pretty tall.  I know, pups grow and that the time it takes is pretty short in comparison to other species.  He is still acting like a pup which is the way it's going to be for the next 18 months or so.  Vizsla's seem to take a long time to grow up, at least that was my experience with Ry (and what Patsy has told me), so it's what I am expecting with Remus.  Ry didn't really settle down until last year or so.  Now, he is AWESOME- very reliable with responding to his commands, behaves consistently- I know what to expect from him in a variety of situations and he is able to fall asleep before we actually go to bed (he's asleep on the couch next to me.  And, yes he is allowed on the couch and can also sleep on my bed- and no, he is not asserting any dominance over me with the privileges I have offered him).

I have been continuing with Remus' ongoing socialization experiences- I have brought him to 2 parks for off leash runs, he has gone swimming (sort of, he was retrieving a stick and happened to swim a little) and we are venturing further on our walks when we go to the waterfront.

We are practicing our obedience cues, I am constantly finding that there are not enough hours in the day.  Work has been incredibly busy; it is increasingly more difficult to get 20 to 30 minutes to myself to play and work with Remus.  Today, for example, I only had 15 minutes to eat lunch and had to go immediately back to work.  He only had outings to go potty.  Poor little guy was CRAZY, I'm exaggerating, when we left for home.

Today is the 9th of August, my computer has been down which is why I haven't had a chance to finish this post.  We went to Plymouth last Sunday morning which turned into an outing I had to salvage.  Remus was having a fearful day, he was nervous of my sister which was unusual, when we got to Plymouth he was super distracted, tail down and sniffing like he had never smelled anything before.  We walked for a few minutes (longer than I would have liked to once I realized he was having a problem), caught up to Gary and Carol- much to my surprise, she doesn't normally get up early, and let them know we had to go back.  Remus was pulling on the leash, sniffing, yawning and doing full body "wet dog" shakes.  (Someone was staring at us as we tried to walk along to go back to the car.)

All has been well since then, this morning we walked at the bogs prior to going to work.  That was one of my smartest ideas that I've had in a long time, LOL!  Remus slept all day at work unless he needed to go outside.

Remus watching Uncle Ry in the grass in front of him.

Yep, looks like he's biting a cigar, LOL.  Nope, no smokers here!

Remus swimming for the first time, fetching a stick!!