Don't tell my dog that I'm a mess

I started this blog as an attempt to organize, collect and process knowledge that I've gained as well as to  keep track of our progress in a consecutive and, I don't know, logical way? It turns out I don't have the writing skill, patience or detail-oriented nature to follow up on any of my last posts or even formulate any semblance of a plan. I realized, when glancing back at some of my older posts, that I glossed over a whole lot. I did end up bringing Pierre to a long-term care facility where I work a number of times. He is a soothing being and during his visits, he developed some really heart-warming relationships. One woman in particular, enjoyed walking around the facility with her hand on his back. Her mind was succumbing to dementia very quickly while the rest of her body was healthy and it was very frustrating and upsetting for her. Time with Pierre cheered her right up and allowed her to focus on something light and therapeutic. She would follow him around and ...

We're taking care of the family dog, Oliver, for a couple of weeks. It's been lovely because I grew up with Oliver, raised him, and appreciate being able to spend some good time with him now that he's a ten year old. Oliver is an example of a dog that thrives under positive reinforcement training and will never need corrections. He was well socialized as a young dog and has a great genetic disposition. Any minor tension on Oliver's leash is met with an immediate response, typically of moving towards the handler. His only little thing that I have to manage while he's here is that he gets SO excited when he meets new dogs, so much so that he often tries to mount them; this is because in his adulthood, socializing with other dogs isn't a part of his routine. Oliver and Pierre are vastly different in terms of energy levels due to their age and breed difference. Pierre is a pretty high energy dog who needs a lot of exercise and mental stimulation whereas Oliver is ex...

A wonderful pal expressed that they appreciate my Pierre posts, and it was just so surprising and uplifting to hear. Here I am attempting to stream-line and organize my constant, ever-changing theories, observations and often straight mindless chattering. To hear that people* find it interesting and even helpful is just, the most heart-warming and validating thing. Overall, Pierre is doing great. I'm still often a questionable leader, and he knows it, but we've made a significant amount of progress. I intend to write a post about our journey in navigating leash reactivity eventually but I've decided to focus on our "obedience" practice at the moment. If you could even call it that. General Obedience  I have been practicing his “ sit ”, “ down ” and “ don’t move ” (stay) in public places more readily. Not consistently but I figure every little bit helps. " Heel " is something I barely work on, but let's ignore that for now, I will work on ...

The Ruffwear front-range that I bought I had been contemplating getting a good harness to take Pierre on longer hikes, which I want to do more of. I don't know why but I just felt like it was a thing you get for hikes. I bought one that I had been looking at for a while. One that has two clip options, including the front clip to "prevent pulling".  There were a ton of great reviews. People who "tried everything to stop pulling and this one was magical". Great marketing. I'm all in. I picked it up yesterday and put it on for our afternoon walk to the nearby school field, to test it out, even though my plan was to only use it on hikes. My partner, Tim, who is in a constant state of eye-rolling in regards to my dog musings, poked fun at me for buying a harness that was so similar to the ones I frequently complain about. [As we know, Pierre's last adopters tried using an easy-walk harness on him and his reactivity was a nightmare.]  Tim asked why I ...

Training is a long and arduous process for both of us but it's nice to see the improvement and how quickly he bounces back into normal after a routine switch up. For example, he's now really good with his "on your spot" and I can get him to stay there a lot longer. A few days ago, I had him go on his spot and then I filled up his bowl (on the other side of the room) and put it down and he didn't move a muscle until I released him, it was awesome! Though I have always known that it's important to make paying attention to me fun and rewarding, I have gone through phases this year of being lazy and not working hard enough to make sure that there's more rewards for behaving than confusing resistance on the leash or active corrections. I got a new treat pouch a couple months ago and I've been prioritizing having a few tasty treats on every walk instead of brushing it off as a minor part of training. I've learned that having exciting rewards isn'...

It's been a busy year and apart from genuinely not having any extra capacity to process any new things about dog behaviour, hilariously, the more I learn about dog training and dog reactivity, the more insecure and inconsistent I have become as a dog handler. I regularly google weird dog-training questions, about prong collar use especially, because I find it extremely hard to stick to my personal choices and training goals while there are alternative ideas and opinions circling around me or even directed at me. I have stopped using the prong collar, for brief periods of time, probably 3 or 4 times this past year. I contemplated getting a no-pull harness probably 100 times before coming to the exact same conclusion that it is definitely not a suitable option for Pierre (it's been tried before). I've read sensational, questionable "articles" about how all dog collars irreversibly damage dog tracheas, etc, etc. Wading through information spewed by breed snobs, ...