Training Blue Bear

Pitbull Mommy evolves into Training Blue Bear

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 12:54:00 +0000

In my last post I knew I had to get back to training, but I wasn't ready to sign up for dog school. Guess what? We took Blue Bear for an evaluation because things were not getting better using only positive training; I'm not saying it won't work for you, but as the Dog Whisperer teaches, we owners need to be trained ... and that was the case with us.

We are 9 weeks into the off-leash training program and I am seeing and believing things about Blue Bear that I never would have thought possible ten weeks ago. He does sit/stays and down stays between two other dogs and handlers. He walks with a pack of dogs. This morning as I was walking him, he saw a cat in a yard and all it took was an Aht from me and he turned his head away from the cat and kept moving.

Last night we took Blue Bear to a park with a pond and made him sit/stay for 7 minutes before walking him around the pond. Later BB went swimming for the first time in the pond --- I wish we had had the video camera --- it was pretty funny. He was standing on his hind legs in the water trying to get fish that were moving around him.

Things are going well; of course there are regressions, but I feel we now have or will have a dog that we can enjoy, and it has been worth every penny and hour of travel and work. I don't think we could have accomplished this on our own; we needed the expertise and advice of a trainer who has been training dogs (and police dogs) for over twenty years. Book knowledge only took me so far in the work of dog training.

Training Day ... and other musings

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:42:00 +0000

It's back to boot camp for us ... it was brought to my attention that I've been slack with training. I met some Newfie owners at the soccer field; they had a dog who used to be a lot like BB, pulling them across the parking lot to get to the field etc. But they made the commitment to train and travel about 1 hour every Saturday to dog school (after their dog learned the basics one on one). I was impressed with Newfie's behavior; BB was less so as he hysterically barked his high pitch bark through the fence. The woman kept asking me, "Is he in training?, Is he in training?" and that was my epiphany ... we've slacked, except for having BB sit before food and before going out.

I was tempted to sign BB up at the dog school --- but it is not positive training, it is more classical --- the Newfie owners used a small link prong collar. After some deliberation; oh do I want instant success; I realized that perhaps my positive training isn't working because I have not committed my fifteen minutes a day to training BB --- sans distractions. I've been making excuses: it's too hard with three dogs, I'm working more, yada yada.

The next week I wrote down goals --- to work on "Let Go and Give" of his toys, to work on getting in and out of the car (we practice not going anywhere), and a little bit of Recall. Amazing --- I see progress already on all three goals. We're still having mucho problems on loose leash walking, and that is where BB vs. the environment (he almost caught a cat this a.m., and dragged me ten feet in the chase. Sigh. Can't space out for a minute!)

BBs name in lights?

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 01:00:00 +0000

Thinking about Christmas cards, and this year being the Year of the Dog for us, I will try to get them to pose. It will be a major feat because Daisy is a techno-phobe and runs from the room if I bring out a camera. Blue Bear can't sit still, and Max, well I think he is a little ham. I would like to combine the vintage aluminum highway letters I sell on e-bay to add some quirkiness. Now I just need a photographer's assistant with a lot of patience. Patience seems to be the key to most things in life.

Looks (and acts) like Scooby Doo!

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:09:00 +0000

kamikaze cocker spaniel

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:18:00 +0000

Today one of my fears came upon me. I was walking Blue Bear and when we passed our neighbor's house, neighbor man was getting out of his car with his little black cocker spaniel (off leash) and the cocker spaniel noticed us near his territory (I guess) and made a beeline for Blue Bear. I screamed NOOOOOOOOOO and turned my head from what I thought would be the end of that dog. I think Blue Bear thought he was coming to play, so he didn't go into fight mode at once, and when the cocker spaniel figured out what type of dog he was messing with he retreated and was scooped up by his owner. I just yelled at the man "This is a pitbull," and the man answered, "I know!" I was shaken up and had to pull Blue Bear by walking backwards a few doors down to our home. I saw the cocker spaniel later, and he was fine. I hope this never happens again, but there are so many dogs in our small city, that meeting an unleashed one is almost inevitable. I'll just pray it is not another pitbull.

BB looks like a convict here ...

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 01:01:00 +0000

Speak to me you handsome pup

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 01:40:00 +0000

What a cutie

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 23:29:00 +0000

Blue Bear's Sister & Brother

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 01:56:00 +0000

Blue Bear at 5 weeks

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 23:02:00 +0000

In the beginning ...

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:45:00 +0000

This is one of the early pictures of the pups. I am backtracking, tracing my steps of how I became a pitbull mommy --- taking on a job and dog I never sought.

Did it begin with The Dog Whisperer? I started watching the TV show about six months before this pitbull incident, and I felt empowered and encouraged with every episode. My empowerment and encouragement didn't have much to do with dogs; Daisy and Max were still as untrained as ever. I appreciated The Dog Whisperer more as a teacher and communicator because he had a simple message and was able to help most people he encountered. But through osmosis I did absorb some principles of being a pack leader and understanding dogs' needs of exercise, discipline and affection. I really thought about those needs in relation to my teenage sons (16 and 20). Parenthood had not been easy in the teen years (as my husband says, "I suck at it"); we tended to be impulsive and lacked calmness and consistency when dealing with our sons.

I became mommy of a breed doomed to destruction ...

noreply@blogger.com (mrs. robinson) — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:49:00 +0000

In the beginning there were Daisy and Max. Daisy was a mixed breed "senior" of 8 or 9 years, and Max was a dominant dachshund of 3 years. Then in early December 2006, three pitbull puppies were dropped on my son Rob; they were about 2 1/2 weeks old and were sick from aspirating formula (bottle fed incorrectly). Rob was living in a farmhouse with a friend who owned two male yellow labs, and although he did his best to care for the pit pups, after three sleepless nights he brought them to me. I was unaware that pups so young could survive without their mother --- ah, their mother; it's a sad story; we'll leave it for another post.

We took the pups to the vet and they kept the two weakest ones for a day --- the black/white male and the grey male--- and gave them IVs for dehydration. They x-rayed them both using one plate and stated that the grey one had the most fluid on his lungs, slimming his chances of survival. Later in the afternoon I picked up the pups and the vet tech instructed me how to tube feed them since they were too weak to bottle feed. We were giving them 10cc s of puppy formula every couple of hours. All three pups sounded very congested.