Leia doesn't seem to be blowing her coat yet so ever since I posted the article on brushing GSDs I have been doing the " two-minute misting-back brushing" method every night. She doesn't seem to care at all which way I brush her as long as there are MilkBone halves involved! Yippee! I mist her with an organic spray I found at Petsense that doesn't make her smell like anything in particular, it just seems to cancel out doggy odor. Thank goodness because I don't think I could take her seriously if she smelled like Chanel. Anyways, I brush her all over making all her hair stand up temporarily since it's short hair. I skip the toweling step because I don't have a chamois towel yet. She seriously doesn't seem to even know that I am back brushing and I was a bit nervous because everyone seems to post about how all their dogs hate back brushing. What a cool dog I have!
Next we brush the chompers. One MilkBone broken into three (a little trickier to do, lol) gets us to teeth brushing time. 1/3 for sniffing the opened doggy toothpaste and finger brush so she knows what we're about to do. Next I brush the left side top and bottom teeth. That earns the next 1/3 MilkBone piece. Right side complete and the last 1/3 is earned. Then she is free to leave the bathroom all minty fresh and pretty as a picture.
Speaking of pictures, I haven't posted any because my iPhone4 has been acting it's age and not syncing with my iTunes so I can dump the old pics onto the laptop. My tech geek hubby just helped me out last night and I think I am in the clear to empty my photo memory on my phone and begin shutter-buggin' again.
Stay tuned, this site is about to turn into Leia-palooza as it was meant to be. It will be with the shots I have been wanting to take and will show the activities we do everyday to entertain ourselves.
Peace and Puppies!
Shan
Monday, April 8, 2013
A Family Meeting
A question for the experienced pup parents out there:
My mom and two small siblings (Juli, 6 and Justice, 3) are driving right now to visit me for three days. They have never met Leia and they'll arrive in about four hours. Should I meet them at a park for introductions or keep Leia in her crate until she calms down? I did the crate thing for our first visitor to the house and she barked and barked for about 30 mins. We all stayed in the room with her talking and ignoring her. Once she calmed down I gave cheddar pieces through the crate bars to reward her quietness. Once I let her out she was her normal self. This was for two adult buddies. Would I do the same for kid visitors? Please comment below :)
BTW Leia is asleep next to me on my couch right now and is nearly running in her sleep! HA!
My mom and two small siblings (Juli, 6 and Justice, 3) are driving right now to visit me for three days. They have never met Leia and they'll arrive in about four hours. Should I meet them at a park for introductions or keep Leia in her crate until she calms down? I did the crate thing for our first visitor to the house and she barked and barked for about 30 mins. We all stayed in the room with her talking and ignoring her. Once she calmed down I gave cheddar pieces through the crate bars to reward her quietness. Once I let her out she was her normal self. This was for two adult buddies. Would I do the same for kid visitors? Please comment below :)
BTW Leia is asleep next to me on my couch right now and is nearly running in her sleep! HA!
Saturday, April 6, 2013
PetSmart evaluation day - which level of obedience does Leia qualify for?
It has been one month and four days since I adopted my 70 pound shadow from CPR. Today I took Leia, formerly known as Lessie, to PetSmart to be evaluated by a trainer that I spoke to on the phone. Thanks to Kathy Ivey Cagle,John Echols, Becky Elmore McLellan and all the other staff and volunteers that I may never meet in person at Canine Pet Rescue, Leia is officially skipping "Beginner Obedience" and jumping right into the six-week "Intermediate Obedience" on April 27th!!! She also showed off some more commands that aren't even introduced until midway through the course! To help with her leash pulling I purchased a "Gentle Leader" and Leia was loose-leash walking like a real champ throughout the store for 40minutes or so as I let her sniff and sniff to celebrate. For those of you who didn't know, she was already loose leash running from day one. Now we can really enjoy our time at the parks and trails when we slow down the pace.
I say all of this as a humongous "thank you" for all the long hours, rainy day walks, poop scooping, ball tossing, play-nipped fingers, ruined shoes, ruined vacuums, all of it...just thank you! Leia is really on her way to Advance Obedience really soon and a Canine Good Citizen Title. Hopefully we can find a Therapy Dog instructor soon so we can spread the love :) God bless and good night.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Rainy Morning Miscommunication
I have allergies year round that are especially bad during season changes. This past week I have not been getting much good sleep due to congestion that wakes me every few hours. My thoughtful, sensitive husband has been giving Leia her morning sprints for me so that I can lie in bed a little longer. He runs much faster than I and so Leia is quite tired after just 20 minutes. I normally run intervals with her for an hour with a weighted doggy backpack since my running pace is much slower.
Last night it was stormy and this morning it was still drizzling hard. Ryan left the bed at some point this morning and when I awoke I figured he was out running with Leia as usual since she was gone too. She came back to the room later on with no collar or leash and I got a little irritated because before bed, and throughout the afternoon, I was reminding Ryan to leave her leash on for me because she has an 8:00 A.M, appointment at the vet. Getting her leash on can sometimes take a while with her excitement to go outside.
I asked him how his run went. He says he didn't run with her because of the rain and he wasn't feeling well...I got a little more than irritated because he was in the next room for the last hour reading internet articles and didn't even follow our indoor rainy day plan for exercising Leia. He didn't wake me and tell me probably because he knows I wasn't feeling well yesterday and again today either. A sweet gesture, but I was still annoyed at that the moment.
It was a really rough start to my day. Since I couldn't change it and 8:00am was fast approaching, I got Leia into her downstairs crate and calmly put her collar and leash on and left her there in a "sit-stay" while I got my coat and wallet together. Of course, it takes another ten minutes to get her to calmly exit the front door after me, calm down to "sit-stay" while I lock the door. Then finally "sit-stay" while I unlock the Jeep and release her to enter.
We get to the clinic first, but I wanted to let her relieve herself before we entered. As I was walking Leia towards the grass I stepped in some muddy dog poo. Great. This morning is getting better by the minute. After nearly sanding down the sole of my poor sneaker, I hustle her to the front door for another "sit-stay" while I enter before her. Phew, only one other dog in the waiting room and it's a lap dog, no fuss for Leia thank goodness. But, I relaxed too soon. Next, was an elderly yellow lab and Leia starts lunging, barking her head off, hackles up, totally on the defense because the presence of another dog agitates her. I already have her backed into a corner of the seating area because it is there that she is forced into a "sit" with her back to the wall. A golden retriever enters and her barking escalates to maniacal as the other dog totally ignores her. Then a baby boxer enters and another golden retriever. We are in a small waiting room full of hyper dogs and Leia is about to jump out of her skin. They call our name and we work our way to the door and as Leia tries to lunge through the entryway I pull her back to let me enter first. Her focus shifts back onto one of the retrievers standing nearby with the owner. Leia reaches out and licks or nips the other pup on the muzzle. Other pup looks fine, owner looks mortified, I apologize, my vet calls us in again to try to control the mayhem, I'm so embarrassed..
We go to the exam room and she is still worked up. Leia is jumping and pacing, whining and circling. We are here because a little over two weeks ago we had her rear dew claws removed because they were the dangling type, and with my love for hiking I was worried that she might snag it on some brush. This was a follow-up visit to see how her ankle was healing since the bandages were removed last week. She hasn't been licking it much and so we do not need an Elizabethan Collar today, phew. I didn't think I could take her seriously if she had one of those on! The first smile I cracked all morning.
We leave the building and standing in the drizzle I have Leia and I pause, and just be still while I calm myself down from the morning that was moving too fast for me. There was the waiting room circus blunder, the lack of communication from my husband earlier, and how her NOT being tired from exercise before the vet visit contributed to her out-of-this-world hyperactive state. I also lamented the fact that the dog trainer from the Petsense five minutes away from my house never returned my email inquiry about her Saturday classes, and how the dog trainer from Westgate Vet Clinic had to keep canceling his sessions on account of weather the last two weeks. I wanted to observe them both and haven't had a chance to do so yet. I badly want to be trained to understand Leia better and for her to communicate better with me as well.
As soon as we got home I further decompressed with a fitness magazine while she was crated in the same room. I was out of sight on the couches and to help her adjust I left the door open and relied on her obedience that she'd "stay" in her crate. She only left once, But she stayed mostly and that was my second smile this morning. I ate breakfast and then poured her kibble. It was time for her to earn her meal. I grabbed a handful of her kibble into my pocket and threw the tennis ball down my stairs for about 20minutes to wear her out with fetch. Each throw is earned by a "sit" or "down" command. This is the "solo-human rainy day exercise plan". If Ryan were home one of us would be upstairs and the other downstairs. She's earn her throw across a hallway and then Ryan would holler to me that it's my turn. Then I'd call her and up, or down the stairs, and she sprints with a ball in tow ready to earn another toss. This wears her out very quickly and so I like this activity the best for rainy days.
After my pocket kibble was depleted I had her meet me in the bedroom for a "sit-down-wait" then she got her whole bowl of food.
Third smile of the day? Seeing Leia have fun and not stressed out.
Last night it was stormy and this morning it was still drizzling hard. Ryan left the bed at some point this morning and when I awoke I figured he was out running with Leia as usual since she was gone too. She came back to the room later on with no collar or leash and I got a little irritated because before bed, and throughout the afternoon, I was reminding Ryan to leave her leash on for me because she has an 8:00 A.M, appointment at the vet. Getting her leash on can sometimes take a while with her excitement to go outside.
I asked him how his run went. He says he didn't run with her because of the rain and he wasn't feeling well...I got a little more than irritated because he was in the next room for the last hour reading internet articles and didn't even follow our indoor rainy day plan for exercising Leia. He didn't wake me and tell me probably because he knows I wasn't feeling well yesterday and again today either. A sweet gesture, but I was still annoyed at that the moment.
It was a really rough start to my day. Since I couldn't change it and 8:00am was fast approaching, I got Leia into her downstairs crate and calmly put her collar and leash on and left her there in a "sit-stay" while I got my coat and wallet together. Of course, it takes another ten minutes to get her to calmly exit the front door after me, calm down to "sit-stay" while I lock the door. Then finally "sit-stay" while I unlock the Jeep and release her to enter.
We get to the clinic first, but I wanted to let her relieve herself before we entered. As I was walking Leia towards the grass I stepped in some muddy dog poo. Great. This morning is getting better by the minute. After nearly sanding down the sole of my poor sneaker, I hustle her to the front door for another "sit-stay" while I enter before her. Phew, only one other dog in the waiting room and it's a lap dog, no fuss for Leia thank goodness. But, I relaxed too soon. Next, was an elderly yellow lab and Leia starts lunging, barking her head off, hackles up, totally on the defense because the presence of another dog agitates her. I already have her backed into a corner of the seating area because it is there that she is forced into a "sit" with her back to the wall. A golden retriever enters and her barking escalates to maniacal as the other dog totally ignores her. Then a baby boxer enters and another golden retriever. We are in a small waiting room full of hyper dogs and Leia is about to jump out of her skin. They call our name and we work our way to the door and as Leia tries to lunge through the entryway I pull her back to let me enter first. Her focus shifts back onto one of the retrievers standing nearby with the owner. Leia reaches out and licks or nips the other pup on the muzzle. Other pup looks fine, owner looks mortified, I apologize, my vet calls us in again to try to control the mayhem, I'm so embarrassed..
We go to the exam room and she is still worked up. Leia is jumping and pacing, whining and circling. We are here because a little over two weeks ago we had her rear dew claws removed because they were the dangling type, and with my love for hiking I was worried that she might snag it on some brush. This was a follow-up visit to see how her ankle was healing since the bandages were removed last week. She hasn't been licking it much and so we do not need an Elizabethan Collar today, phew. I didn't think I could take her seriously if she had one of those on! The first smile I cracked all morning.
We leave the building and standing in the drizzle I have Leia and I pause, and just be still while I calm myself down from the morning that was moving too fast for me. There was the waiting room circus blunder, the lack of communication from my husband earlier, and how her NOT being tired from exercise before the vet visit contributed to her out-of-this-world hyperactive state. I also lamented the fact that the dog trainer from the Petsense five minutes away from my house never returned my email inquiry about her Saturday classes, and how the dog trainer from Westgate Vet Clinic had to keep canceling his sessions on account of weather the last two weeks. I wanted to observe them both and haven't had a chance to do so yet. I badly want to be trained to understand Leia better and for her to communicate better with me as well.
As soon as we got home I further decompressed with a fitness magazine while she was crated in the same room. I was out of sight on the couches and to help her adjust I left the door open and relied on her obedience that she'd "stay" in her crate. She only left once, But she stayed mostly and that was my second smile this morning. I ate breakfast and then poured her kibble. It was time for her to earn her meal. I grabbed a handful of her kibble into my pocket and threw the tennis ball down my stairs for about 20minutes to wear her out with fetch. Each throw is earned by a "sit" or "down" command. This is the "solo-human rainy day exercise plan". If Ryan were home one of us would be upstairs and the other downstairs. She's earn her throw across a hallway and then Ryan would holler to me that it's my turn. Then I'd call her and up, or down the stairs, and she sprints with a ball in tow ready to earn another toss. This wears her out very quickly and so I like this activity the best for rainy days.
After my pocket kibble was depleted I had her meet me in the bedroom for a "sit-down-wait" then she got her whole bowl of food.
Third smile of the day? Seeing Leia have fun and not stressed out.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Brushing the resident GSD
I came across this article on dogchannel.com this morning and it made me rethink the way I perform my daily GSD coat brushings.
The following is an excerpt from the Popular Puppies Series magabook German Shepherd Puppies/ The publisher is: BowTie magazines, a division of BowTie Inc.
"For a German Shepherd puppy:
1. Lightly mist your German Shepherd Dog with water from a spray bottle to eliminate static and dampen the undercoat.
2. Brush your puppy’s coat in the direction in which it grows, using a brush with flexible bristles. Use gentle strokes to get him comfortable with the process.
3. Next, brush your German Shepherd’s coat backward, going against the natural direction. This is called back brushing. Back brushing is important for several reasons: It fluffs the dog’s entire coat, aerates the undercoat, releases trapped moisture and lifts away dirt and dead hair. It also helps eliminate odors and prevents hot spots (painful skin infections).
4. Approximately 15 minutes after back brushing, your German Shepherd’s coat will return to its normal state – just shinier and cleaner. If you brush the dog’s coat only in the direction in which it grows, you will trap the dirt and moisture, which causes that unpleasant dog odor.
5. Starting with your GSD puppy’s paws, brush up from his paws to the tops of his legs. Brush his tail from the tip to his hips, then do the same on his back, brushing from your dog’s hips to his shoulders and in the same direction on his sides. Finally, brush your German Shepherd’s chest from bottom to top.
6. End the session by rubbing your German Shepherd puppy with a soft towel. Don’t smooth out his hair; leave it fluffed up to aerate and invigorate the undercoat. Give your little German Shepherd lots of praise for his cooperation.
“Within a week of repeated brushings, your GSD puppy will get excited to see you coming with the misting bottle and will be anxious for you to start the back brushing,” says American Kennel Club Judge and German Shepherd Dog expert Dr. Carmen Battaglia.
At this point, you’re ready to move on to a simpler daily German Shepherd Dog brushing routine, which can be accomplished in less than two minutes.
1. Lightly mist your German Shepherd’s coat.
2. Back brush your dog all over with a soft brush.
3. Rub him with a soft towel.
4. Leave the coat standing up.
In the spring and fall, your GSD’s coat will replace itself. This is known as shedding or “blowing the coat.” You’ll need a more aggressive daily brushing plan during these seasons. Try the following:
1. Brush your German Shepherd’s coat with a grooming rake (a brush with a series of curved, metal tines designed to remove loose undercoat). Start at your dog’s head, and rake in the direction in which the coat grows. Rake down your GSD’s neck, down his front side to his paws, under his body, along his back to his hind legs, and finish at his tail. Repeat this two or three times.
2. Mist your dog’s coat.
3. Use the back-brushing technique.
4. Rub your dog with a clean, plush towel.
Brushing your GSD in this way during his shedding period will aid in the shedding cycle. If you don’t use a rake during this period, the shedding process might take as long as three or four weeks."
Sooooo
My assignment will be to convince this girl, Leia, that backbrushing, tho it feels strange, is actually awesome...can you say "yogurt-dipped milkbones"?
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Background for dog companion desire Part 1
Today we are crate training and I am the treat fairy.
Leia has been with me and my husband since March 2nd, 2013, a little over three weeks. I have been proof-reading my writings all this time and got tired of writing without posting so here is a post finally :)
She is a great fit and a lovely pup, but she does have separation issues. I want to be able to leave her alone for four-to-eight hours in a day without her dissolving into her yelping-howl crying she does whenever I lock the door behind me to go to church Sunday mornings. See, I am currently on a flexible schedule for employment and taking online classes so I am home most of the day for now. This is a perfect time for intensive crate training, I thought. Leia is testing my fortitude with this one. We have to move quite slowly with this one. She will take a nap with the crate shut as long as I am in the room. That's most of my work already done, thanks to Canine Pet Rescue and Miss Kathy, Leia's former foster mom. I have been gradually increasing the amount of time I am out of Leia's direct sight. So far I can leave my living room, go upstairs, leave my drink in my bedroom, and return right away. That is about 40 seconds and she is nervously licking her lips as she cranes her head to see through the crate holes for my approach. No panting, whoop whoop! I stretched it to two minutes one time and the whistling truck-brakes whining began. So I did research and decided to dial it back to a time frame in which she is still mostly calm and then I would reappear repeatedly which is every 40seconds now. She gets nice Kraft cheese for good crate behavior, sometimes I let her lick a dollop of peanut butter off a spoon through the bars.
I have to get better at NOT celebrating when I release her from her crate. The best way I found is to start a chore while she is in the crate, like washing dishes. Her crate faces the open kitchen and so she sees us while clearly through the entry door of her crate while we cook and clean. So, while dish washing, at some random quiet moment I release her and then go back to washing. I understand that if I make a fuss over her release it'll be as the rainstorm jailbreak success scene in Shawshank Redemption. I don't want her to think of cratetime as prison so the "breakout" is not partytime. In fact, it's no big deal to get outta the crate because the crate IS the partybox. She only gets certain toys stuffed with the BEST treats during crate time. So getting out is hopefully a neutral affair. She even goes in at will to try to elicit a treat!
My main motivation for working hard on her crate training is that I want her to meet my family in Atlanta and if I am visiting family there are bound to be times they wanna go places that aren't pet-friendly like the movies, a waterpark, restaurants, etc. If it were up to me we'd ONLY go to dog-friendly locales. I Looooove my new shadow and I love that she likes to follow me everywhere. I just want to hang out with her as much as she wants to hang out with me.
My mother lives four hours away in Atlanta with three siblings and a stepdad. My father is also four hours away in south Atlanta with two more siblings and a stepmom. Bottom line, I want to take frequent road trips with Leia to visit them all and she needs to be comfortable in staying in her crate for a few hours when we go on any people-only outings like restaurants, waterparks, . I have not lived this close to my family in about eight years since I was a combat medic in the Army moving around for seven years (four years Active Duty, three years Army Reserves) plus I attended college in Kansas as a living situation compromise with my husband. I am BESIDE MYSELF to be living close to family again. My three siblings are 21 year old sister Sharece, 6 year old sister Juli, and 3 year old little bro Justice. I only had time and money to see them annually and every other Christmas all these years. Now I am happy to drive four hours monthly. My two step-siblings living with my dad are Tierra and Gregory. I love them all madly and cannot wait for Leia to meet them.
Leia, the prettiest GSD (German Shepherd Dog) I have ever seen. Sable never looked so good to me til now. She is one of those that grows prettier as the days go by. I try not to let her catch me staring at her because if we make eye-contact I am thrust into a mandatory game of fetch even if it's just two throws, haha. She is very polite about it if I don't want to play any longer. She just lies down and chews the ball until it rolls out of her paws. That is how we know she has fallen back to sleep, seeing the bubbly drool-soaked tennis ball tiptoe back to safety just out of her reach.
I wuv her. Thank God for GSDs
Do you have a dog with separation anxiety? How did you work through it with him/her? Do you have a dog with insane ball drive? What dog sports/activities did you get involved in? Let's hear all about it in the comments below!
Leia has been with me and my husband since March 2nd, 2013, a little over three weeks. I have been proof-reading my writings all this time and got tired of writing without posting so here is a post finally :)
She is a great fit and a lovely pup, but she does have separation issues. I want to be able to leave her alone for four-to-eight hours in a day without her dissolving into her yelping-howl crying she does whenever I lock the door behind me to go to church Sunday mornings. See, I am currently on a flexible schedule for employment and taking online classes so I am home most of the day for now. This is a perfect time for intensive crate training, I thought. Leia is testing my fortitude with this one. We have to move quite slowly with this one. She will take a nap with the crate shut as long as I am in the room. That's most of my work already done, thanks to Canine Pet Rescue and Miss Kathy, Leia's former foster mom. I have been gradually increasing the amount of time I am out of Leia's direct sight. So far I can leave my living room, go upstairs, leave my drink in my bedroom, and return right away. That is about 40 seconds and she is nervously licking her lips as she cranes her head to see through the crate holes for my approach. No panting, whoop whoop! I stretched it to two minutes one time and the whistling truck-brakes whining began. So I did research and decided to dial it back to a time frame in which she is still mostly calm and then I would reappear repeatedly which is every 40seconds now. She gets nice Kraft cheese for good crate behavior, sometimes I let her lick a dollop of peanut butter off a spoon through the bars.
I have to get better at NOT celebrating when I release her from her crate. The best way I found is to start a chore while she is in the crate, like washing dishes. Her crate faces the open kitchen and so she sees us while clearly through the entry door of her crate while we cook and clean. So, while dish washing, at some random quiet moment I release her and then go back to washing. I understand that if I make a fuss over her release it'll be as the rainstorm jailbreak success scene in Shawshank Redemption. I don't want her to think of cratetime as prison so the "breakout" is not partytime. In fact, it's no big deal to get outta the crate because the crate IS the partybox. She only gets certain toys stuffed with the BEST treats during crate time. So getting out is hopefully a neutral affair. She even goes in at will to try to elicit a treat!
My main motivation for working hard on her crate training is that I want her to meet my family in Atlanta and if I am visiting family there are bound to be times they wanna go places that aren't pet-friendly like the movies, a waterpark, restaurants, etc. If it were up to me we'd ONLY go to dog-friendly locales. I Looooove my new shadow and I love that she likes to follow me everywhere. I just want to hang out with her as much as she wants to hang out with me.
My mother lives four hours away in Atlanta with three siblings and a stepdad. My father is also four hours away in south Atlanta with two more siblings and a stepmom. Bottom line, I want to take frequent road trips with Leia to visit them all and she needs to be comfortable in staying in her crate for a few hours when we go on any people-only outings like restaurants, waterparks, . I have not lived this close to my family in about eight years since I was a combat medic in the Army moving around for seven years (four years Active Duty, three years Army Reserves) plus I attended college in Kansas as a living situation compromise with my husband. I am BESIDE MYSELF to be living close to family again. My three siblings are 21 year old sister Sharece, 6 year old sister Juli, and 3 year old little bro Justice. I only had time and money to see them annually and every other Christmas all these years. Now I am happy to drive four hours monthly. My two step-siblings living with my dad are Tierra and Gregory. I love them all madly and cannot wait for Leia to meet them.
Leia, the prettiest GSD (German Shepherd Dog) I have ever seen. Sable never looked so good to me til now. She is one of those that grows prettier as the days go by. I try not to let her catch me staring at her because if we make eye-contact I am thrust into a mandatory game of fetch even if it's just two throws, haha. She is very polite about it if I don't want to play any longer. She just lies down and chews the ball until it rolls out of her paws. That is how we know she has fallen back to sleep, seeing the bubbly drool-soaked tennis ball tiptoe back to safety just out of her reach.
I wuv her. Thank God for GSDs
Do you have a dog with separation anxiety? How did you work through it with him/her? Do you have a dog with insane ball drive? What dog sports/activities did you get involved in? Let's hear all about it in the comments below!
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