Category Archives: Dog Training

July Pupdates

It’s official at 10 months Bouncy Bessie Sprout Stubborn Puppy Alligator Jaws otherwise known as Bess is bigger than Bonnie and Belle and it’s taking some getting used to. When she walks away from me she reminds me of the Slinky Dog toy of Toy Story fame, she has at least 4 different sways at the same time.

Bess is starting to look so grownup that when she acts like the puppy she is she sometimes catches us off guard.

Bess

She and Linus have declared a truce and occasionally will sit quietly close to each other, however now Bess is having to be reminded that Lucy Kitty is completely off limits.

Bess is doing much better sleeping until closer to 5 am. She now starts to wake me up around 4:50am which is doable. Now if I could just get her to sleep in until at least 6:00am on weekends we would have it made!

Bonnie and Belle have finally convinced her that slowing down long enough to snuggle is a good thing. I think she is starting to like it.

Bess snuggling

We’ve been still practicing polite greeting when folks come over to visit. A big thank you to Gerry and Carolyn for their help last Saturday.

Gerry and Belle practice polite greeting

Carolyn and Bonnie practicing polite greeting

Lucy who usually hides when folks come over decided to come out for a visit. I can’t tell you how rare this is.

Lucy gets some loving

Linus decided to not visit that day but wanted me to show his latest photo. He loves hiding behind curtains.

Linus peeking out from behind the curtain

Thanks to thunder parties we pretty much conquered our fear of thunderstorms, we are now moving on to fly swatter parties. I’m thinking a conga line might be in order. Da, da, da, da, da, swat. Da, da, da, da, da, swat…..

Posted by Margret Abbott. Categories: Dog Training, Golden Retrievers. Tags: dog training, Golden Retrievers. 1 Comment

Jun. ’15

Belle’s First Car Show

We enjoy going to classic car shows. We decided to go to one tonight and in an effort to help Belle become comfortable in new situations we took her with us.

Some of her new experiences included walking across railroad tracks, walking into a crowd of people of all ages. She heard an ambulance siren and loud music. She had a Great Dane come up and try to say hi and was petted and greeted by Bob a good friend of ours.

Overall she did well but about 20 minutes into the event she was starting to get anxious so Greg decided that we had stayed long enough for Belle’s first time. We finished the night off with ice cream from Johnny K’s which Belle totally loved.

Belle the co-pilot

A tired out Belle

Posted by Margret Abbott. Categories: Dog Training, Golden Retrievers. Tags: anxiety, dog training, Golden Retrievers. 1 Comment

May. ’15

Bouncy Bess’s Mother’s Day Walk

So on Mother’s Day I had this “brilliant” idea that Greg and I should take Bess 8 1/2 months old for a walk to a local park. No problem except I forgot the part where our bouncy Bess doesn’t really know how to go for a leash walk. Of course we practiced it during our puppy classes but in the busyness of life right now I forgot that you have to keep practicing to really master a task.

Bouncy Bess and her Greg at the park.

Bess kept getting Greg tangled up in the leash and she was just all over the place trying to take in all the sights and smells especially the smells of the park. So we cut that walk short and headed home where first we took her on leash for a walk down one of the country roads by our house to help get the bouncy wiggles out.

Getting the bouncy wiggles out

Then we headed home to our long lane and treats to work on leash walking and yes we forgot to take treats to the park so that just added to the experience.

Starting out in a sit.

Getting ready to head out

Walking together

I would love to say we mastered calm leash walking but you all know better, what was mastered was 15 feet of calm leash walking and we consider that a win!

Bess was one worn out pup

Posted by Margret Abbott. Categories: British Cream Golden Retrievers, Dog Training, leash walking. Tags: british cream golden retrievers, dog training, Leash walking. 4 Comments

Apr. ’15

Bonnie and the CGC Test

It dawned on me that I never let you folks know how Bonnie pup did with the CGC Test earlier this week.

After several weeks of class and practice she did much better than I could have ever imagined. Our Bonnie is a tad bit stubborn and thoughtfully thinks about the commands she is given. She tends to subscribe to the “what’s in it for me” theory and I mistakenly waited until we were too close to the test to practice the commands without treats. And for my Bonnie pup an excited “That’s my girl” hugs and loves doesn’t quite have the same effect as awesome yummy treats. Yet another lesson learned.

There were several tasks on the test that I knew Bonnie wouldn’t have a problem with but the thing that amazed me was the fact that she passed the polite greeting task. Meaning that when I was greeted and she was greeted she did not jump up on the person. People who know us and our pups understand that is huge and to be honest when she didn’t jump and a bit later sat without a treat I looked at her with a “are you sure you are my dog” look. Thankfully she didn’t notice.

Bonnie came close but did not pass the test. We know what we need to work on and hope to retake the test sometime in the not too distant future. Bonnie pup I’m very proud of you, you did good!

Bonnie

Posted by Margret Abbott. Categories: CGC classes, Dog Training, Friendship, Golden Retrievers. Tags: CGC classes, dog training, Friendship, Golden Retrievers. 4 Comments

Mar. ’15

Belle

Last night was Belle’s first time at the current sessions of Canine Good Citizen test classes and she….had a total meltdown.

Belle is our alpha dog, she is the sturdy, “I’ll take care of it”, serious (well as serious as a Golden Retriever who is 2 -1/2 years old can be), and is second in command to Lucy kitty for the title of family Matriarch and the job of keeping this crew in line. So it broke my heart to have her be so scared. I was working with Bonnie and Greg is working with Belle, and Greg pretty much spent most of the class walking Belle outside where she would be fine only to come in the room where we were having class to try again.

We stayed after class to talk to Lora, our trainer, to do some brainstorming to try and figure out what is going on with our pup. We came to the conclusion that it might be anxiety over being with the other dogs as wonderful as they were and came up with several ways to help Belle. Next week we are going to try some of those suggestions and see if it makes a difference for Belle.

It’s amazing how quickly goals can change. We started these classes as you all know as a step towards the pups becoming therapy dogs. Now although it would be great if the pups pass the CGC test and we are still working towards that goal, the focus for Belle right now has become to help her through this anxiety so she feels comfortable and secure.

Belle and Greg working on Sit/Stay

Belle and her Greg

Posted by Margret Abbott. Categories: Anxiety, Dog Training, Golden Retrievers. Tags: CGC classes, Golden Retrievers, training. 3 Comments

Three Pups and a Couple of Kitties

Follow the antics of our loveable crew