Less than 24 hours with my new foster dog and the whole "he's totally blind" thing is really fascinating. Tibor is very good at being blind, but I have a LOT to learn about being a seeing-eye-human! Like with Toby, I think the learning curve will be steep but will be a good experience that will help me be a better dog mum (foster or my own). And get this - he "marks" his own food! Yes, pees right into his bowl and on his chewy toys. I've never heard of a dog that did that! He and I are already having a discussion about this and so far we do not agree. I'll give him his own thread soon, just thought I'd post a little here first!
We started slowly, beginning with shaping to stand 4 paws on a plank to our left. Then moved into leg wraps (which coincidentally I trained Quinn to do just last week). Dogs comes around the leg and naturally in a heel position. We worked on drive by walking backwards and click/treat as they keep pace and moved into dog on our left with treat in hand to position as keep focus on the human. We did some come wraps and dogs come back to the side they were sent from. Did walking with click and treat and built up amount of steps between treats. I think all the dogs in the class have completed quite a bit of training prior, as all could already do the plank/cone wraps/leg wraps. Our trainer is working with her own dog (she does rally and agility with her dogs) and offered a 3 class workshop for ppl to train with along with them.
Thanks for this. Are leg wraps the same as a pivot? Molly pivots well and comes into a heel position well, from any position, but when moving forward her head drops after about three paces.
Leg wrap is the dog goes between your legs from the front and turns around the outside of your leg to face forward (but looking up at you) into heel position. I see one trainer online calls it "under"... Pivot was used for the dog moving around the outside of us to get into heel position (we only covered the basics of this - some front end and back end awareness using a disc).
Kind of a rough morning in doggie foster land. Tibor's first quiet and happy night in his crate turned into a second night whine fest where neither of us got much sleep. And this morning I was (barely) able to keep him from weeing in his food, but as I was carrying his food bowl back to the kitchen sink he contented himself to wee in his water instead. Oh, and he's growling at me when I put his harness on for a walk. I'm tired, grumpy and definitely having that sinking, "Oh what have I done taking this dog?" feeling. Trying to bolster myself with the memory that I feel this way in early days with nearly all of them. And then cry buckets when they leave.
Yesterday, we visited an agility club. It's about an hour's drive away, so not exactly local, but we're hopefully going to be starting lessons there in September, twice a week. It's a really well-thought-out set-up, with robust fencing around each training area, and "lobby" areas coming out of each, which is important for Shadow, so he's not going to be leaving the ring straight into a pile of other dogs. There is loads of space for keeping distance from the other dogs, too, so it should be really valuable for him. And Willow, of course!
There was a lady in our class with a giant breed (not sure what he is, but HUGE) and she was able to do it. I think she had to raise her leg a bit! I think the move is beginner towards some rally-o move, but am way too inexperienced to know!
I don't know about sass, but he sure does have a lot of wee. And I know you need your photographic evidence...this isn't great but you get the idea. He's actually more handsome than this photo, I'll try again when he's settled a bit more.
Oh, he's not what I was expecting at all! No idea why, but I had a sort of wire-haired terrier sort in my head. He's cute
He looks like a erm...character @Emily_BabbelHund. Do his eyes normally look like that? A bit bulgy? I was wondering if it might be easier not to use a bowl, but chuck the kibble on the ground, or use kongs instead, possibly even hand feed him. Might be worth a try if the habit is somehow entrenched in a cycle of anxiety of his food being taken away?
Nope, pretty sure he's 90% border collie. And he acts like one. The herding me around my apartment is starting to drive me a bit wacky. He's blind and he needs to have that right (in the photo) eye removed in the next couple weeks. It's full of blood. He looks like he is perpetually surprised. And possessed. Good ideas. Food on the ground wouldn't work as he can't see it and if he thinks that he's dropped any he immediately wees in the area. But I did a Kong today in an effort to bring some good memories to the devil crate and I could try hand feeding. Though his bite inhibition is poor so I may have to wear a gauntlet or lose a thumb.
I met a nine week old Guide Dog pup today, Frankie. He's a GS/GR cross. He's very calm and easy going. I think his ears may go up, but they may not, his legs are not unlike a tabby cat's
