Orion the Crested

This weekend and agility?

2008-04-29T17:01:00.002-05:00

Orion, Tara and I were in MA this weekend for a Kathy Sdao seminar. I think we all had a good time. Orion can't handle being stationary around so many other dogs, so much of his weekend was spent crated. I did walk him through the seminar space once and walked him around outside with lots of dogs milling about. He only had one real "outburst" when we were inside gemini and I paused near some friends. There wasn't even a dog he was looking at, it was weird. There were definitely dogs around, but there were none in his line of sight when he had his little meltdown. He's a spaz. We avoided outbursts outdoors though, and he cried to greet any smallish dog. He's so funny. He grinned at all different people, he assumes that everyone is there for him I think. He got lots of compliments on how cute he is. He knows it. : ) Anyway, he was actually quite good at performing some obedience with me in the parking lot. His sits have gotten super-fast, his left finish is fantastic (something he used to hate doing when we were in L2 those 3 times!), his right finish is better, and when we walk he is more focused on me than he's ever been. I'm very impressed with his progress.

I've been watching a lot of crested agility on youtube and feel really sad that we aren't actively doing agility at this point. We took classes for 1.5yrs+ while we were in MA, but have done little agility training since moving to ME. That is going to change. I busted out the weaves today and Orion remembered the drill and was eager to participate. For once I ended on a high note, after an excellent brief training session. Orion was basically begging for more training when I was done. Yay! Hopefully he'll have fun weaving for his dinner as well, cause that's the plan from now on! That and other agility skills. He's really come a long way. It'd be nice to try to really get something accomplished with him. He's so speedy and takes direction so much better than he used to. I don't think I want to do group classes with him though, as he's still quite reactive in a training setting. He's not especially reactive at shows. I feel like I can work with him one-on-one primarily and make much better progress with him. We'll see how it goes. I would love to compete with him, but I will respect his limitations. I'm really hoping its something we can work up to. He also needs a lot of work on the teeter. I'm going to have my friend Mitch build me one shortly, so we can start working on that out in the yard.

Orion brag

2008-03-30T12:06:00.004-05:00

I know it's not a competition brag or anything, but I can tell you its been a long time coming. : ) Orion has always kind of had an issue with his nails being trimmed. I could always do it, but he wasn't happy about it. I believe he has always been afraid. Well, I can proudly say those days are over. After almost 2 yrs of work, I got out the nail clippers and treats today, like I always do every week or so, and he came and sat right in front of me, eager to earn his treats. : ) This is the first time he has come to me for a nail trim, I always have to go to him. What a breakthrough. It's nice to not worry about him pulling away while I'm trimming or having him stress out. He's happy and eager to have the process start now. I'm so proud. : ) What a good boy!

Orion and cardboard

2008-03-08T17:57:00.003-05:00

Orion videos

2007-10-09T22:25:00.000-05:00

Orion competing?

2007-09-22T11:48:00.000-05:00

I've started working with Orion again after a long-ish break. I'm planning on entering him in the APDT rally trial at Gemini the end of Oct. Now THAT should be interesting. Orion competing, it's such a joke. : ) We'll give it a go though, I've just got to convince him that it's fun to do rally, lol. Really it is! He's not so into the repetition of things and I'm sad to say that after over 2yrs of living with me he still can't walk well on a loose-lead unless we're 15mins or so into a walk, and all bets are off if something he deems interesting should appear. I can call Tara off deer, I couldn't call orion off anything if i tried. Which is why he's ALWAYS on leash. He's not trust-worthy with distractions at all. Oh well, we'll have the smart, ribbon-winning title-achieving Tara, and then we'll have Orion. At least we'll make people smile! He loves to put on a show. He's such a goof-ball. Anyway, I'm going out in the yard to play with the dogs, and enjoy the day.

Recent Pics

2007-04-27T17:33:00.000-05:00

Orion stuck in our April snow. I had to go help him.
Tugging
More tug
snowballs in april, poor Orion needed a bath to get good and cleaned up after this!
Chewing on a stick.
downing
standing
Orion digging at the beach on 4/14 with his sister Tara. He loves to dig!
Orion wearing a belly band with boarding dog Hebie. See he can get along with big, black dogs! :P
Orion and our rabbit Risi. : ) Orion likes to take care of him. He's super gentle with him.

Orion's having surgery tomorrow

2007-03-05T21:54:00.000-05:00

He has a dead tooth beside his left top front canine that's getting removed tomorrow. Wish poor Orion well, dental surgery sucks! : (

Some pics

2007-02-08T15:16:00.000-05:00

We have had a couple crested visitors!

2007-01-11T17:22:00.000-05:00

I rescued a little crested puppy from a horrible situation last week, she was here only 2 days before heading off to her new home where she is living with another adopted crested and will be a much loved pet!We then brought home another crested boy to foster, named Lucky. Here are some pics of him from Save A Dog's website. He needs a grooming (which I've been working on) so I haven't taken any pics of him here yet, but I hope to before he goes!
We got some good news about him too, he's got an adoptive home that he will be going to this weekend! So yay for cresteds getting a new home. Orions loves other cresteds so this has been a very fun week for him.

Orion will get to start weaving to earn his dinner once our new weave poles get here in the next wk or two, hopefully this will help him to figure out the weave poles once and for all. Now we just need to get a teeter and we'll have his two "problem" pieces of equipment here. We just need alot of practice with those two things, and then we'll be golden! (And we need to work on our contacts on the A-frame and dog-walk a little too!)

Orion's goals for 2007

2007-01-01T14:17:00.000-05:00

Orion would like to get started competing in agility this year, and continue to work on his reactivity, although he is much, much better. Maybe get our CGC? Maybe find a crested sister? :) Most of all though, have fun and stay healthy!

Agility has been going really well

2006-11-10T16:30:00.000-05:00

I really think Orion's reactivity is getting a lot more manageable. Usually his only outbursts are when dogs really go flying through tunnels or over the dog walk or A-frame. I think most of it really has to do with noise too, it doesn't matter whether he can see the dogs doing it or not. If it's loud he flips out. But even that is getting better. Pretty much he always greets dogs well now, I make sure its a quick greeting though, so now one thinks to turn it into not so friendly of a greeting. His course running and obstacles are all improving too, and I think even my handling is improving some too. His recalls have also been better latelty, I'm assuming because I'm practicing them in more situations and rewarding him for coming.

Orion also had his first Rally run-thru on Monday, and that went pretty well too, he wasn't the most compliant, but he didn't have any outbursts, he was just very alert, which is a huge change from the last time we went to a rally run-thru. So yeah for progress.

: )

2006-10-17T22:56:00.000-05:00

Orion started his new agility class for feisty fido's last week and he did very well as long as he was doing something. He did horribly when other dogs were running their courses though. The thing that seemed to settle him down the most was me walking away from him when he was flipping out and leaving him with Carolyn. He chilled out then because he can't deal with me being gone. Hopefully he'll do better tomorrow night.

Orion has also been playing with lots of dogs, for a while, when I added Tara I wasn't so good about making sure he got to play with friends of his own, but I've been trying to have more fun situations for him. : ) Tonight he got to play with Fenway, a Boston Terrier, and Winston, a shihtzu who are boarding here at GEmini. He knew both of them already and they had a real good time flying around the big training room. Of course Tara had a fit, but her brother is allowed to have fun time with out her sometimes, so she has to deal. : ) She gets plently of play time.

Orion also did very well with my friends Sarah's dogs over the weekend. He was snarky with her two dobies to begin with, but was better with them the longer they stayed. It was definitely a good experience for him and hopefully we will do it again soon. : )

Orion loves tomatoes!

2006-09-26T22:13:00.000-05:00

I wish I had a photo of him digging under the garden fence trying to get to the tomato on the ground. We helped him and he happily carried it off to lick it repeatedly and eventually made a fairly good dent in it, before he lost interest. He looked pretty funny with it in his mouth though. Silly pup. He also did superwell when we worked on heeling outside of gemini tonight in the dark while I was waiting for Tara's class. Really well, made me want to consider trying him at Rally, but I really dont think he'd like it. We'll see, maybe I'll practice some with him at home and if it goes well we'll try the class.

Orion and Tara's weekend at the beach

2006-09-18T20:48:00.000-05:00

Some handsome Orion photos

2006-09-09T19:58:00.000-05:00

I'm really proud of Orion

2006-09-09T17:40:00.000-05:00

Orion's agility skills and sequences are really coming along. I think he might finally be figuring out what weave poles are all about, something that has been a long time coming. It's so much fun to watch him fly through the obstacles. He does great when I direct him properly, it's mainly me that needs the most work! So yeah Orion, always progressing. He's also happy his hair is starting to grow back, I don't really think he likes being naked. Today he went to a dog show and was grinning for anyone that would pay attention to him, he was a great pup and did a really good job being very cool at the show. : )

Orion's naked again!

2006-08-05T22:11:00.000-05:00

And clearly unhappy!! LOL! He looks like a different dog. (see before and after pics above) My clippers broke months ago, so I finally went out and bought a new cheap pair, and buzzed him down. So he got a bath and a clip and he's not happy. We think he feels self-conscious all naked (there's about a 1/4 inch left!) :O. Oh well, it'll grow back soon enough. In other news, :) I really feel like we have reached a new level of trust with one another. He's doing so well in L2 this time around, and actually having fun. I think the trick is interspersing fun tricks that he likes in between practicing the boring stays and stuff he doesn't like. This past Wed. I put his standing on his hind legs on cue, eventually I want to turn it into him walking and spinning on his hind legs, maybe that will be our trick (we are supposed to teach a trick for graduation night) at the end of class. He was so excited to learn that. I used to say when I first got him that he spent as much time on his back legs as he did on all 4, and now we can do it on cue, yeah! I really think he was thinking that it was about time I put that behavior on cue, because I think he really likes to do it. Silly pup. He also did very well at agility on Wed. I'm very happy with him and so glad to think back and see the huge amount of progress he has made in the almost 18months I have had him. He is a great dog and exactly what I want. I love you Orion! (sorry for the sappy moment - it won't happen again! lol)

A good day

2006-07-26T22:18:00.000-05:00

So Orion started his 3rd L2 class last week and he kinda was a poop all through class last wk, actually almost convincing me that he wasn't feeling well. Haha he fooled me, after class he was tearing around and playing and totally normal. Brat. So I told him I wasn't falling for that crap tonight. : ) And he overall did very well. I actually got him to go from a down into a sit for the first time ever! Woohoo something we need to work on for the table in agility and for when we start rally, although, I guess they don't actually have to do that until Rally 2, but still. He also did super well in agility class today with very little reactivity (none at all in his L2!), and also did well with the sequences, and when I sent him out farther than I usually do after a rear cross to a pinwheel (i think thats what its called) he did all 3 jumps a fairly good distance away from me. He was very good. No sign of the little limp that bothered him last week in class on the A-frame and dogwalk. I think the problem with obedience and him is that its just not fun! In agility he gets to run around and play with toys, etc and thats really fun. I think rally's also going to be a problem for him. We'll see when we get there. I stopped in on the rally class on Mon. night with him just to classically condition him, and he was super reactive, especially to a keeshond in the class and the great dane of course. So, I'm just going to try to get in there every Monday with him and feed him. Things should get better, they did in all of our other classes. There was a lot more ovement of dogs and people in the Rally class than I expected (I guess I don't know what I expected!). But we'll work through it, we've got nothing but time. : ) Good boy Orion.

Orion's been great lately

2006-07-17T12:49:00.000-05:00

I really think he's adjusted to having Tara as his sister. He's taken to being her protector even though I keep telling him, eventually I hope she'll be his protector. I really don't think she's going to need a protector. : ) He did very well with agility class last week, and I think I did pretty okay too. This week he starts taking L2 for the 3rd time (we waited a long time in between this time, and I think he's markedly better than the last time we took the class). I want to do it again, cause he can always use the work around other dogs, and because I'm going to start doing rally classes with him every other mon. night and I want him to get used to going to non-agility classes again. So yeah. we'll see how it goes. This time its a little dog L2 so hopefully that will help him to remain calm, and I'll try to go into it with a calm and relaxed attitude althouhg as I type this I'm a little nervous myself. The last group class we did was a cgc prep class and he didn't like the cocker in the class, so that clearly had nothing to do with size (he was okay with him by the end thouhg) so we'll see. I can't wait to get started in Rally though, I think it'll be fun. Hopefully Orion will see it as fun too.

Orion's been having a fun time

2006-07-04T12:57:00.000-05:00

We all went to a new playgroup last Sunday in MA and he did wonderfully, he got to play with two dachsunds and a puggle which are new breeds for him, and his sister of course. On Tuesday we went to EFP and he got to pick out some nice new treats and practice good behavior. In agility on Wednesday he was excellent. He was hardly reactive at all even though the class participants have changed recently. He was excellent at this sequences too. Kim, who I am assisting under, our dogs are both pretty much at the same agility level, talked about how we really can't wait til we can start competing. I can't wait. I'm hoping by Jan. 07 or so to be able to enter at least the courses that don't have weaves in them, the ones that are just jumps and tunnels and stuff, I forget what those courses are called. We'll have been training in agility for a year in November I believe. Anyway, Orion has had a fun weekend, we have Mea, Slate, Tupelo and Sage all visiting. Orion loves Mea, they are a really good team. We're bringing them all home tonight though and we will return to some normalcy.

Orion gained a pound!

2006-06-22T17:32:00.000-05:00

Which is a lot when you've weighed 9.7lbs the last two times we went to the vet. Now he weighs 10.8 and feels very healthy and strong to me. Must be muscling up from agility and playing with his sister all the time! Also, our yard is now fenced in and he's decided the most important place to hang out is right near our fieldstone foundation searching for chipmunks. Silly pup! And although Orion started out super reactive at our agility class yesterday because we had two new dogs and a third that had only been there a week, when we did our sequences he was fantastic and on the first one which had a rear-cross in it that i had messed up previously, i didnt even screw up, so hooray for that. We might try for his CGC on 7/6, we'll see!

Check out Tara's Blog

2006-06-16T10:35:00.000-05:00

for some super cute crazy play pics of Orion and his sister, like this one:

Click here.

Right now Orion is lying next to me multi-tasking -- he's licking is left front leg and itching his right ear with his right rear leg. Silly pup!

We've been doing better!

2006-06-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

Tara and Orion have been getting along much better the past couple of days. There haven't been any random snapping at the puppy for no reason incidents, so hopefully things will stay this way. Right now they are sleeping side by side on a bed together. I wish I had my camera at times like these! Lots and lots of play lately though, they are both getting pooped. We also went for multiple walks yesterday and Orion was very good as he was today, lots of attention. :) good puppy.

I think he knows

2006-06-10T17:40:00.000-05:00

that Tara isn't going anywhere, and I don't think he's thrilled. But he is still playing with her alot its just that a few times since last night he has really snapped at her for no reason, like flying off the couch to really yell at her. He really got angry with her near his bully stick last night too, and made her cry and run away. Of course he doesn't even touch her, but he makes a big stink! I do have to say he works better for me for the most part when she is around, i think because of the competition and he's actually been somewhat better about pulling on walks that we are taking just the two of us too, so hopefully im not imagining these improvements, and hopefully they are lasting improvements! It's been hard to not get frustrated with him for being a bossy jerk but I guess I've been lucky it's been so peaceful for so long. We also are seriously considering belly banding him as he is still intermittently marking in the house. Today it was our bed -- not fun at all. Oh well, he still gets plenty of happy time privately with us and if anything he gets more training time now that what he was because I want to make sure that I'm working with them equally, and I've been working with her alot. He also sleeps in the bedroom with us and she sleeps downstairs and that's the way it will stay. He'll adjust. He's mostly! a good boy still. lol. c ya

Orion went through the chute!

2006-05-31T14:51:00.000-05:00

He did it all by himself for the first time today. He usually needs Carolyn to hold it open an inch or two so he can see the light, but not today! He just ran right through! Yeah Orion! He also protected his sister from my mom's dog Frosty today. LOL. Good job. C-ya later!

Orion's doing well with his new sister

2006-05-29T21:19:00.000-05:00

so far....

He's spent alot of time playing with her, he's been a little out of joint, not too bad. He actually seems more willing to train with me and be productive because of the competition, I'll take that as a nice added side-effect to acquiring a second dog. If you click on the link on the right to Tara's blog you can see pics of them playing together this past week. The only negative side-effect so far has been that he has started marking, which he has never done in our house, and usually only does in the presence of other male dogs, so that is annoying, and since he has been doing while we are sleeping (some of it anyway) he is being crated at night. He doesn't mind being crated and it stops the problem! So I'm sure I'll update more with what goes on in the future. By the way, Orion did very well on his first and second ferry rides! There were other dogs on the boat, and I would have to say he was by far the most comfortable. He just rode in my lap. What a good boy!

Silly pup

2006-05-13T13:14:00.000-05:00

Orion goes on his first ferry ride tomorrow

2006-05-12T14:47:00.000-05:00

We'll see how that goes. I don't think it should be a problem. We are going to Monhegan Island, ME for a week so he should have fun there, except its supposed to rain quite a bit which he doesnt like -- he gets cold and shivery. Maybe it won't rain as much as they're expecting. Will update upon return. His collie sister, Tara, arrives the day after we get back to -- life will never be the same again. I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about their relationship too!

Even more pics

2006-04-14T19:13:00.000-05:00

Overdue Update...

2006-04-14T19:06:00.000-05:00

Wow have I slacked off at keeping this updated with Orion's progress!! : ) He's doing very well and we have been doing agilty for about 4 months now. He's great at it, he absolutely loves the tunnel!!! He doesn't like the noise the tunnel makes when other dogs are running through it, be boy does he love to run through it. He also tries to hide his football in there. He just likes to hang out in there. He's not crazy about the A-frame and some days he is more comfortable with going up and down it then others. But we're getting there. He really loves running and jumping and is super fast. He'll do anything for his squeaky football (see pics below!). Carolyn our instructor, finally saw how fast he was a few weeks ago and told me that I better start running or get a treadmill if I wanted to keep up with him. I was so excited that I have a speedy little agility dog. I really think we are going to be able to get serious about agility. I really think he's enjoying himself and I think he's good at it and will be better at in the future with more practice. He loves our new house and he dug in our back yard for the first time the other day which is something I have never seen him do before. For a little 10 lb dog he can make a hole! I told him we'll have to get him a digging box and he can dig as much as he wants in there. So I guess now that we are more settled and have completely finished moving into our wonderful Maine home, I will try to keep this updated more. : )

Some new pics...

2006-04-14T19:02:00.000-05:00

Wish us luck!

2005-12-07T00:32:00.000-05:00

Orion and I start agility tomorrow!

Some new pics!

2005-12-06T17:57:00.000-05:00

Orion graduated L2 again! (and T-day Cluster)

2005-12-05T17:14:00.000-05:00

So I guess I haven't updated Orion's blog in a while and I should've a number of times! : ) Orion graduated from L2 for the second time, and since there were two less dogs in the class, due to it being the night before Thanksgiving, Orion was calmer and easier to work with. He had no outbursts and we only left the room for recall practicing, because that really gets him going. We even sat in the room when we were split up doing heeling, which was a first for this L2 session. At the end of class we got to show off our trick! Everyone loved Orion's! He SMILED!! On cue!! For the whole class!! He was great and everyone really thought it was a great trick! Smiling is a very cool trick!

So last weekend? or I guess the weekend before, the one after Thanksgiving, Orion, Oen (my boyfriend) and I went to a big dog show. A huge dog show actually, about 3000 dogs were there. Agility, obedience, rally and confirmation. Very much fun. I went there to meet a breeder for the collie puppy I am hopefully getting next summer. But anyway, the point about going to the show was that I brought Orion in and walked him around in all the buildings, and...... : ) he didn't snap at any dogs, he was very friendly and wonderful. I specifically didn't have any food on my person because I think that makes him be a jerk. So... I was very proud of him. :)

Also, as a side note, I was on a dogwalk with Orion and this pug Norman, and Orion locked onto a squirrel, stalked out to the end of his flexi-leash, and that was all that existed for him. I had Solid Gold cookies in my pocket, so I decided to push it, I know, I know, not a good idea usually, so I called him, "Orion! come!" And guess what!? He came!! Yeah Orion! What a wonderful dog he's really turning out to be. Not that he wasn't to begin with, but he's just getting better all the time!

2nd to last 2nd L2 Class!

2005-11-17T14:30:00.000-05:00

So we had class last nite. Orion did pretty well, only a few outbursts. He was pretty rough on heeling, the dogs that weren't heeling were too much of a distraction. On the upside, when the JRT we were heeling with broke her heel and came running over to him, he was perfect with her, wasn't a jerk, and almost gave me more attention it seemed, because of it. I rewarded him with many pieces of hotdog! :) He did allright with his sit stays, but refused to go from sit stay into a down. We've done it before, but he was having none of that last nite. He did offer me downs though when I didn't ask for them!? Crazy dog. I kind of feel like he's using his "let me bark at another dog and quickly turn and look at mom to get a reward!" as an excuse to bark. So, I was inconsistently rewarding that behavior and instead asked for things like "leave it" (when barking) or sit (after he had returned to me), and then clicked and rewarded. I'm thinking that it's a good thing to mix it up a little, so he doesn't get too used to a certain way of me doing things. We worked on targeting in the room, not in the hall, and he did excellent at the "touch" command, and okay when I asked for a touch and then a sit, while he was still at the target. I think most of the time though his non-compliance really has to do with him paying attention to everything but me, and not his actual knowledge. I think he really knows all the behaviors we do in class, sometimes he opts to do them, sometimes not. Obviously we need practice, and practice we will get. I plan on doing L2 with Orion until he has all the exercises down cold. Next week is our graduation, and the following Thurs. we start our CGC Prep class. We'll see how that goes! Hopefully in January I will have a dog with a CGC, but if not, we'll keep working until we get there. Hey, no one ever said a Chinese Crested Dog is supposed to be a good obedience dog. We'll just keep working, and we will get there! :) It's all just a matter of time. As long as we are making progress I feel like we are doing something right.

Places we have trained

2005-11-15T16:52:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to make a list of the different locations in which we've trained. I was told that if your dog can do a behavior in 50 (approx. i'm sure) different locations, then they really know the behavior.

1) Oen's studion
2)M apt.
3)Current apt.
4)Mom's house
5)Gemini
6)Rest Stop in Montreal
7)Rest Stop in VT
8)W Tennis Courts
9)H Tennis Courts
10) Back Yard
11)Current Neighborhood
12)Playgroup
13)Petco
14)Shirley's House
15)Sandy's House

Smile

2005-11-15T16:48:00.000-05:00

So for the past two days I've been working on smile with him, and he gets it pretty good. I've kinda been luring it most of the time, but he does offer it without the lure, after a few times. Someone suggested that dogs sometimes smile right before they take a piece of food. So I started with offering him small pieces of treats and clicking for the front lip lift. Now his smiles are a little bigger, I'm being choosier about rewarding only the bigger tooth displays, and I don't have to lure right in front of his face, I can do it for a much greater distance. He's doing well though, maybe I'll starting adding "smile" as a cue tomorrow. :)

Training Saturday

2005-11-15T16:42:00.000-05:00

We went to a local tennis court Saturday night. It was only in the 40's!! Brrr!! Orion did very well considering how cold and dark it was out. We went about 5 PM. I was trying goat cheese as a treat, and he definitely likes hot dogs and cheese better. Oh well. :) We worked on stays first. And not thinking I was asking him for downs!! Yikes! Awful cold for him to being downs. He did the first couple, and then some sits, and then get more hesitant about lying down. That's when it dawned on me how cold it was! Of course he wouldn't want to down on the cold ground! I wouldn't either. His stays were decent, I would get almost 20 ft. away and walk back. He kept breaking right before I got back to him. I'm assuming this was happening mostly because he was cold. I wouldn't feed him until he returned to the position I had clicked him for. After our stays we played for while with a squeaky toy and practiced "drop it"'s. Then I worked briefly on choose to heel, before decided it was too cold to really accomplish anything, and we left. He did well on choosing to heel. We did a couple of recalls in the parking lot, and he did well with that too. :) Pretty good for freezing cold!

Orion had a great class tonite!

2005-11-09T22:11:00.000-05:00

Orion was overall very good at class tonite! We started off with heeling, which he was okay with. He could've been better, but it did seem like the other two dogs/owners we were heeling with were exceptional crazy. Next we did stays, in a row, next to Sheila the standard poodle that Orion isn't crazy over, especially when she barks. But tonite!!! tonite!!!! he decided it was perfectly acceptable to sit and stay quietly next to her. Yeah! He did it at least half a dozen times. I was able to move back about 6-8 ft, 10 ft. on some. Woo-hoo! Staying in a doggie line-up! Wonderful job Orion! He also did well waiting in doorways. Then targeting went alright, we worked in the hall, cause he usually has outbursts with lots of moving dogs. His first two recalls weren't great, but his third was good. Overall very few outbursts! Yeah I would give him an 8 out of 10 for him! After class we went downstairs with Jan and he ran and ran and ran all around. A very nice night! :)

Funny

2005-11-07T00:42:00.000-05:00

So I just took Orion for his last walk for the evening....

We were playing with his squeaky hamburger before I asked him if he wanted to go out. So I put his leash on, and he wouldn't drop his toy! So I debated about whether this was a battle I wanted to fight -- who really cares if he carries his toy? So we went out with the burger, and he did a nice long pee (with the toy in his mouth!) and immediately wanted to go back toward the house... I don't think so -- we're getting in a full walk! So I continued on with him dragging behind. He kept stopping to look back at the house. But we went a reasonable distance (no more pees though! he usually pees multiple times) and then returned home. He was much more eager on the way back! So we got back and he ran in with the toy still in his mouth... He never dropped it once!!! He's not usually so determined! He usually drops his toy as soon as I ask him if he wants to go for a walk!!!

Gemini 's Howl-O-Ween Festival Today

2005-11-06T23:28:00.000-05:00

So I meant to take pics, and I forgot... oh well, Orion wasn't wearing a costume anyway. Overall the day went very well, we played silly dog games and Orion had the fastest down and the fastest recall!!! Yeah Orion!! way to go in a very distracting environment. I think in the 2 hrs we were there we probably saw around 35 dogs. Most large, and Orion was good with most of them. He didn't like the malamute, or the berner we met. Those two were the ones he was the worst with. When we were playing the dog games though, he decided it was okay to snap at anything that moved, but hey, overall he didnt do too badly. He had positive experiences with a couple of Berner puppies, which is awesome, because Bernese Mountain Dogs are his least favorite breed as far as i can tell. He also went outside with a few labs, and he interacted fine with them, too. All in all, a mostly positive experience, and definitely a tiring stimulating experience.

Training Update

2005-11-04T21:10:00.000-05:00

So... let's see...

Orion had class again Wed. night. It started off very poorly, lots of barking and freaking out about everyone being too close. But I think I managed it pretty well. He seemed to come around. We stepped out into the hall a number of times during the night, but were in the training room for more of the class than last time. He heeled pretty well, and I gave him more of a choice about it than I usually do (more leash slack), and he did choose to heel, most of the time! He did very well, there were more frequent tense moments than last time, but overall I think we got in more behaviors. More responses I think is an improvement. Yeah! So all improvement is wonderful. I should've written more about the class right after it happened, but, I didn't get motivated enough until now.

Tonight I taught him to slap my hand with his foot in a quick clicker session, in which I rewarded him with his squeaky hamburger, his absolute favorite toy. Then we just played for a while and then he offered a new behavior of diggin on a pillow on the couch, which I was thrilled with, because he hardly ever offers new behaviors!!! So digging earned him the hamburger too. The next time he touched the pillow really hard with his nose and I rewarded that too. Again, new and different. I really want to see more creativity from him, and I'm glad for anything he offers. The next time he jumped into my lap, which is something he never does!! So that earned him the toy, too. I want him to eventually learn to jump up into my arms, but he has to learn to jump into my lap first!!! So yeah, I'll try to write again sooner next time... details slip my mind the longer I wait...

Orion pics from playgroup

2005-11-04T20:59:00.000-05:00

Some pics from our playgroup today!!!

Orion's 2nd 2nd L2 class

2005-10-27T14:40:00.000-05:00

This Pic is on Orion's adoption day, 2/20/05 in Tampa, FL.
Yes, I do mean 2nd 2nd. We are in week 2 of our second go round of L2 Obedience at Gemini Dog Training, in Littleton, MA. We aren't doing the class again because Orion is slow, we are doing it again to get more practice and to get better working around large dogs. Orion is afraid of a lot of large dogs (especially in the training environment for some reason!), and he pre-emptively tells them to back up. Yes, I do mean that he snaps at them, especially the closer they get, especially when training, especially at Gemini. He has some large dog friends that he's fine with, and most dogs that he meets he's perfectly fine with. I think he has actually improved alot, cause I can remember when I first got him, I still had my collie and he was snappy with him, and other lg. dogs. So overall I think we have made leaps and bounds toward changing what big dogs mean to him. We've used alot of classical conditioning to do this and clicker training. It seems that Orion especially gets worked up at class when other dogs are barking, panting, playing or being really rewarded and praised. He also doesn't usually do well heeling in a group, but last nite I think he was awesome!!! Just last night at class we were working next to a very nice, young, smart, but barky black standard poodle, and everytime the dog barked, I fed Orion a piece of hotdog. I want him to associate barking (something that he currently isn't comfortable with) with rewards and wonderful things happening. So after doing this for a few mins. , everytime the dog barked, or any dog barked he would look at me to get his treat, instead of me having to just practically put it in his mouth. He started offering me the "look" behavior all on his own, which was a very nice choice, compared to some other choices he could have made, like snapping or exploding with barks in the direction of the offending barking dog. :) So progress comes in little steps all the time. :) I know that every choice he makes on his own, that is not a defensive/fearful display, helps him build his confidence. So we keep at it. He keeps improving and we keep going. We will work through his little issues, we already have made progress, and keep getting to move onto to more fun, self-confidence building activities. So yeah!! Overall, I was very proud of how Orion handled himself last nite. He was markedly better than last week. This second L2 is more crowded than our first, 6 dogs including us (st. poodle, choc. lab, lab/shep mix, pit mix, jrt), last time it was only 4 dogs (berner, greyhound and german shepherd). So next week will hopefully be better, next week I will regulate my hot dog pieces better (he was full with 15-0 mins left in class nite, last week he was full with 30 mins to go), which is hard cause there are so many things that I need to reward him for, it's like I feed him non-stop for an hr. so I can hopefully change his view of the environment and dogs to a positive one. It's hard to cut up the right size pieces, they have to big enough to be a good reward, but have to be small enough so that a 10 lb dog isn't full before the hr.'s up!!! *sigh* It must be so much easier to train dogs that don't get full!!! I better get me a bigger dog. :) Okay, thanks for listening, I think this is enough writing for my first real training entry. I'll include more me and Orion background later, and get more specific with my training details later too. Thanks for reading. :)

My first entry

2005-10-26T22:45:00.000-05:00

Yeah, now I'm even more like everyone else, cause i have a blog -- woo-hoo! Here's Orion!