ASKBLACKJACKMy Mom and I have been answering lots of qwestions for people of late, so we thought Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3
Jesse starts obedience next month. Due to a rotten bout with the flu, I had to put off enrolling Jesse in obedience class, so we're a little behind in her socialization (-she's now
signed up for the beginning of next month). In the meantime, Jesse's finished all her puppy shots, so we've begun talking walks around the neighborhood. Dj and Jesse, Boy, my mom is laughing right now. She says I'm just like this, and keeps telling me how it's NOT fun for the mommie? We had our first obedience class last nite, and boy was mommy tired when we got home. I don't understand why. I had LOTS of fun! I did the 360 at least 5 times if not more. Mommy didn't like it. She kept telling me to heel. She says it's why I'm IN this class, to learn to play "nice" with other doggies and people. Bummer,,, I think it's lots more fun to go spastic. But, here is what mommy does with me! She finds a fwiend who likes doggies. She has that fwiend walk by and say "oh what a sweet doggie" in a weal high pitched voice. The fwiend starts of by saying this way far away. Mommy keeps my attention with tweats. Oh yeah, I love tweats! So I forget about the fwiend! After I make it with the fwiend being weal far away, mommy has the fwiend come closer, saying "oh,, what a cute little boy!" Mommy says "watch me" and shows me the tweat... man it's hard, but I think the tweat is better than the fwiend. It takes a long time, but before long, I should be ok to let people come by without doing my little 360 spin. Mommy says the obedience class will help alot too. But not to push you too much, that the fwiend should come only as close as you can handle the first few times, so you can succeed. I like to succeed, I get more tweats that way! How to teach "Watch Me" command. Have Jesse sit beside you. Take a treat in your hand. Put the treat in front of Jesse's nose, then bring up
to momma's chest, and say "Watch me". When your her pretty little eyes look up, say "GOOD watch me" and give the treat. Keep Practicing this off and on all day! Before long, Jesse will quit looking at the treat,
and look at momma. Then when momma knows those people are going to go crazy over the cute puppy, she can say "watch me" before hand. It will keep puppy's attention on momma instead of the person! We rescued a red male 1.5 yr old doxie from the streets. Have no information other than he was wondering in the rain..Of course we posted notes in news papers, etc. So we sorta
inherited him. Never had a male dog before. Presently we have an 11 yr old Dobie, Queen of the house. Surprise they get along so well we couldn't believe it. However, this male doxie wets on everything even the 4 yr old. He knows to go out the
doggie dog in a 2000 sq foot yard and pottie. He just picks up his leg and pees on the kitchen floor, furniture, the other dogs bedding, living room carpet, just anywhere he can. He is not fixed.. He even pees on his and in his food
dish..EVERYWHERE. How in the world do I fix that problem. He is fast making everyone in the house mad at him all the time from doing this. He wets on everything he can reach no matter what we do. Vickie, It sounds like your boy is "marking" his territory. Not unusual for a male dog. Male dogs will OFTEN mark their property, including their "children". First, neutering can help this, but will not completely STOP it. You should clean all "potty" areas with vinegar and water, or some other odor killing product like Odo Ban. Next, there is a product, I'm not sure of the name of it, it's like putting a waist band on the doggie. You put it around his waist and over his little penis. Then, when he tries to go potty, it's like a diaper, it gets HIM wet. He won't like that, and will have to quit marking. Of course, this means you will have to REMOVE it when it's time to go potty. This will take alot of committment on your part to remember to go outside with him, just like a little puppy. I understand it doesn't take long for this to work. ~ Blackjack Blackjack, Katey, Up above I give instwuctions on how to teach "Watch Me". This will help with your attention, at least on leash. As for obeying commands, you have to be extra consistent with her. Put her in sort of "boot camp", where you are VEWY stwict with her! Don't let her get away with ANYTHING! In the house, if you tell her to sit, MAKE her sit after only saying it once. Fwom what I wemember, Gwacie is alweady twained some, so this is the time to MAKE her pay attention and do what you say. Make her EARN stuff, instead of just petting her. If it's cuddle time, make her sit, then down, then sit again and shake hands, THEN cuddle. No more Fwee Lunch for Gwacie. At least, for a little while! You have to be extra consistent to get her to listen ALL The time! ~Blackjack Dear BlackJack~ Whistlin' Mama. Boy, you made me have to do some research. Sort of like your mom telling ya to "look it up" when you were a kid. LOL. Seems like when you teach whistle training, it's similar to how you teach hand signals. You can give the verbal command, AND the whistle command. You have to be consistent of course with the whistles, and what they mean. Like, one long toot for come. You would start out giving the verbal command the dog knows, then the whistle command. After the dog seems to understand, switch to the whistle first, then the verbal, then eliminate the verbal all together. I couldn't find anything that told me what signals MOST hunters use, but you can check out Working Retriever Central and perhaps they can help better. Also, if you see your baby DO something you want a command for, whistle it as they do it. This takes alot of supervision to do that, but it would be easier than having to give the verbal AND whistle command. After the whistle, you can say "good left turn" or whatever. Mom says she wemembews weading about whistle commands some time ago, but doesn't wemembew what book it was. It might be one of Momma's "Wecommended Weading" with some hunting books, but most of them are older than my big sister Lisa! You can take a look if you like. ~Blackjack Hi Blackjack, Hey Winger. Good to hear fwom you again! I like little girls that are close to my age. And you are SOOO Cute!!! Even cuter than the widdle girl I saw in obedience class today. She was a yellow labby and about 6 months old. She was kinda sweet too. Anyway, eating poop is a wierd habit I know. There are alot of "thoughts" on why we doggies do this sometimes, but with today's doggie food, it usually tastes as good as the doggie food! We have such GOOD food that it tastes just as good BOTH times! What you should do is have Dad put meat tenderizer (salt free type) on your food. Just sprinkle it on. Tastes weally good... so you won't mind it at all. Only thing is, it tastes BAD when it comes out the other end... so you won't WANT to eat it. Yucko! Also, if Dad watches you VEWY closely, and gets all UPSET when you twy to eat it (acts like it's as dangerous as a wall socket) EVEWY time, then you will wealize it's not so good, and will stay away. Wemember to tell Dad it's ok to act upset, just don't get weally mad... faking it works much better. ~Blackjack Dear BlackJack, Maggie Mae, Yeah, those fingers always seem to taste SO YUMMY. Sometimes it's just not fair all the yummy things our mommies won't let us have. BUT, my mommies says it HURTS to chew on her fingers, so I had to learn to stop too. But it's harder to learn not to chew on friends fingers. Friends are so nice,,, they think evewything we do is cute, so they let us do it. So what your mommy has to do is have a "doggie party". I don't mean invite doggies over (though that would be weally fun), but to invite some fwiends over, telling them she has to twain her doggie. So they know to be weady. Start with one person, and put some bitter apple on their hands as they awive. Then when you twy to chew on them, it's yucky! As each pewson awwives, they get the bitter apple. Eeewweee! After a day of that, mommie shouldn't have to wowwy so much about it. Just wemember, EVEWBODY who comes over has to have bitter apple until you get used to the idea that it tastes bad to eat their fingers! Another possibility is just to have the fwinds TELL ON YOU, but that can be hard, because they ARE Fwiends, after all, and they don't wanna get you in no twouble. So this isn't as "weliable" as making them wear the bitter apple on their hands. As for widdle yellow girls, you bet!!! There's one in our doggie class, and if you are as pwetty as her, Wowsa!!!! ~ Blackjack
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