Had a great time in the yard tonight... well, until Sasha and Gaea decided to have a tiff that left me running around the dog yard after Sasha trying catch her to put her in her place...It was a very minor scuffle but those two girls growl up a storm, in the dark I wasn't sure how serious it was. Here at the kennel we take ALL fights serious and nip things in the butt before anyone can develop any bad habits, grudges or feelings of insecurity.
I'm not sure who started it but since Sasha is still fairly new she gets the short end of the stick and was removed from the yard, forfeiting her free run privileges for the night. She also needed to learn to be caught regardless of her loosing freedom or not and was definitely loosing free time because of the huge effort she put me through chasing her around. That is one thing I never give up on is chasing a dog down, especially if they are new. If they are easily caught the 'punishment' isn't nearly as bad, if they let me catch them easily they get off with a warning instead of completely loosing free time but if they are hard to catch they definitely get sent to a pen or back on their chain.
And its not just the dog who is being chased who learns the lesson. ALL the other dogs watch and observe. You would be surprised how much they pick up, just like human children watching their parents at home. I have found that by disciplining another dog that all the dogs around them watch, learn and take the lesson to heart even if they aren't the one offending.
Since Sasha gave me a good run around she definitely lost her freedom and was escorted from the dog yard entirely. Still she made out well since Gaea snuck a bone in from the yard while I wasn't looking and I made her drop it at the stairs, no stinky bones are allowed in the house. Sasha enjoyed that very much since she is still staked out at our porch and took advantage of it being so close.
Thani continues his rein of the yard keeping his top dog position while his best buddy Boreas is clinging to me like glue. I don't think he knows what to do now that his best bud has suddenly grown so serious, too serious for puppy games anymore. Poor Boreas... maybe Thani will soften again over time. The two still love each other but Thani doesn't seem to have much time for puppy games any more.And Bonnie, Nita's big pup Ive been training, has been fitting in here well. She is VERY responsive to training, very smart and if I keep my eye on her I can train her to some very good habits even from a distance... if I take my eyes off her for too long she starts getting into buckets, escorting lids around the yard and nipping poor old Maude in the back of the leg when shes not looking.
Seems to be mostly puppy stuff but its very good to enforce basic structure while shes still young and learning. It will help her carry good behavior over into adulthood.
Shes been running with the team these last two times out (we managed to get out three times last week) and shes been doing fabulous. Ive also been working on her to come when shes called or at least to slow down and let me catch her when I seriously call her. Serious only being a change in the tone of my voice, different from when I invite her over when she runs by in a much lighter tone, more of an invitation but not a serious command.
There are quite a lot of subtleties here in the yard and don't think for the second that the dogs don't know all of them. They are very quick to pick up on every little thing and its not just my clan, your stay at home lap dog is pretty smart too...
I'm working on many more jobs mixed in with our team training runs. Should have updates soon on logo artwork for clients and a commission that was completed last week. Its been hard to get caught up on updates at this time but I will try to sneak in one or two into the next blog postings.
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