SUMMARY: Comparing 2002 to now.
I've saved emails about my life with my dogs since 1994, and occasionally I go back and post them to this blog, dated as they actually occurred (you can do that in Blogger; very cool) and flagged with "Backfill" and the date I really posted it.
Just posted a couple from the first few weeks I had Tika.
Here's a good one for comparison from February 2002.
How are things 7 years later? Tika definitely does NOT sit quietly and wait for her leash to be put on before going out for a walk. She leaps, shouts, runs in circles, jumps, shrieks...
I used the gentle leader with her for a long time but started getting worried about how much pressure it was putting on her neck every time she pulled on it--which was often--so a year or two back (after I had spent the $$$ to get one for Boost, too) I just stopped using them. Tika now has a nonpull harness that works very well. It's not perfect but I think it works better than the gentle leader (AKA haltie)--made by the same company.
And we have NOT fixed the screeching and barking and leaping and yanking when on leash and she sees other dogs. We have times where I think I'm making progress, and times when I realize that I'll never fix it.
And as for those "Down" commands--which we taught the dogs in two different ways to put their front ends down first because it makes for a faster, more direct down? I've noticed that, recently, Tika is always sitting first before going down. I never taught that or encouraged that; never! Funny.
Tricks--she Shakes just fine, with either paw, and does a high 5, too. Never continued teaching her the Crawl. And she can catch treats tossed to her fairly well; her main failing here is that she always leaps and snaps at it in a frenzy and often it just bounces off her nose or teeth and ricochets into some odd place where we have to hunt for it.
And, of course, I gave up within a year on the idea of having her sleep on the floor and only the old dogs sleep on the bed. Tried it with Boost, too, but noooo--all dogs sleep on the bed with mom. Sigh. Dog hair central.
And that was then, and this is now.
Didn't know that you could back-date your posts, that's useful.
ReplyDeleteLOL, "dog hair central." I can just imagine! I wouldn't be surprised if in a year's time my Wall-e is sleeping in the bed.
~Nat
To back-date, there's a Post Options link near the bottom; click that and it shows you several random and possibly useful options including the date--you can back-date it, or you can give it a future date and time and when you click "post" it'll wait to post it until then.
ReplyDeleteDogs on beds--I swear it's mind control. This is four dogs straight that I have vowed would not sleep on my bed THIS TIME DAGNABBIT.
I love having the dogs and cats sleep on the bed. For about a year of having two dogs and three cats somehow we all managed to sleep on a twin. The upgrade to queen sure was a welcome luxury!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed that "then and now" perspective. Very neat, like the part about her having forgotten what she had learned at her first agility lessons, and look at her now, oodles of titles to her name.
I share your concern about the halti - your description of Tika could have been written about Walter. Is your no-pull harness the one that attaches to the leash at the front, near the chest bone? I bought one of those a while ago and must say they're quite effective at preventing the dog from constantly straining against the leash.
Anyway, it's been fun catching up on all your blog posts from this week.
Yup, that's the one. Must say I haven't been able to adjust it the way they describe in the brochure, and it slips anyway (buckles loosen). But it's quite effective anyway.
ReplyDelete