Fresh bison bone

I have been battling a headache for 2 days now. I think it's a sinus headache. It almost feels like a migraine is coming on. I mention all this to say that I haven't done much with Harley today. I'm glad I got that walk in earlier with him. He's been a very good puppy today. I don't think it's a coincidence that on days that I'm not feeling well Harley behaves so well. He is definitely in tune with me. He was home alone for a while this afternoon while we went to Walgreens for David to get his flu shot and gas up my car. I left Harley home with David while I took the Jeep to get an oil change and the tires rotated. I'm glad I found a place that can do the oil change and stuff in less than a half an hour. I can't sit over at Brakes Plus for 2 or 3 hours now that I have Harley. And it really is a great waste of time just sitting over there waiting. But I've found a good place now (Valvoline Instant Oil Change) and I don't have to leave Harley for the whole day.

Harley has been chewing on a bison bone all evening. I just took it out of the freezer tonight so it's fresh. He loves him some fresh bison bone. I'm glad my appointment tomorrow has been moved back to 2pm so that Harley won't have to be alone too long.

This headache is getting worse and I've already taken some Tylenol and Benadryl. I think it's going to be an early night for me and Harley.

He did great!

I went out and did all my errands this morning. I was gone for about 3 hours. Harley was wonderful and waited until I got home and let him out to do his business. He was pretty excited to have me home. I took him for a walk around the cul de sac and that got the pent up energy out of him. He's been just fine since then. As usual, he's chewing on a bison bone. I missed him while I was out this morning. I had to go get blood work done, stop at Wal-Mart, get the oil changed and the tires rotated in the Taurus, get my hair cut, get my flu shot, stop at the credit union and then finish up the grocery shopping at Target. Whew! And all that was done before noon! I didn't like leaving Harley for that long but I had to get all that stuff done today. I knew he would be okay. It's nice to know that I can leave him for a while so I can go out and get things done. I'll have to leave him tomorrow while I go to my appointment with Marianne. He should only be alone for about an hour and a half since David will be home by 3pm.

It's really windy out today and Harley has spent a lot of time looking out the sliding door at everything blowing around. When I took him on his walk, he was chasing leaves that blew past him on the ground. It was fun to watch. I can't believe how big he is getting. It amazes me that he is growing so fast. Before I know it he'll be full sized. Wow! I think I'm going to work on my online course since he's being so good. More later.

Quiet Day

I've been battling a headache all day so staring at the computer has been difficult. Anyway, we had a nice quiet day today. Harley has been a wonderful puppy. I got an email back from Christine and she let me know how much the Intermediate Class will be (very affordable!). She also suggested that we wait on doing an individual class with Harley until after the Intermediate Class is done. I'll go with her suggestion because I trust her training skills and abilities. Because of the headache I didn't do any real training with Harley, just little things here and there. He's chewing on a bison bone right now. My head is really hurting so I'm going to go for tonight.

Waiting

I started out the morning by letting Harley out of his kennel. I went out to the dining room and got his Kibble Nibble filled with his breakfast. Before he ate he went outside and did his business. Then he came in and pushed the Kibble Nibble around until all the food had been eaten. Then Harley started playing with his toys. I could see all the times that I could have made him wait for things but I wasn't thinking. I did make him wait for some things but not as many as I could have. So I sent an email to Christine asking about an individual session for Harley to work on the impulse control exercises. I hope to hear back from her sometime today. I also asked her about the cost for an individual session and the intermediate class.

I can see that Harley and I have the same problem - impulse control. Mine is with eating and spending; his is with everything. lol Seriously though, I can see that I don't always control my impulses and so I don't think to teach Harley to control his impulses. I think this will be one of those things that not only benefits Harley but will benefit me too.

I have a noon appointment with Marianne today so I need to get him out there walking a couple of times before I go out. I also need to get some Kongs in the freezer for him to have while I am gone. I have some grocery shopping to do today but that will have to wait until David is home this afternoon. I don't want to leave Harley longer than I have to.

He's on the living room floor right now chewing on one of his many bison bones. They really do keep him busy and keep him chewing on appropriate things. I'm glad that he enjoys his chew toys so much and that he doesn't destroy our stuff.

I need to start writing down all the things that he does that I need help with to get him to stop (jumping up on me, jumping on the tables, trying to get things off the tables, getting my clothes, especially socks, and running around the house trying to play keep away with them). I just don't know exactly what to do to get the behaviors that I want. For example, how do I get him to wait at the door even if the door is open? That's just one thing, but there are many more. That's why I need to write them down.

I guess I should get dressed and take him out for a walk. He really needs the exercise today and so do I!

Impulse Control

Okay, so in class today we did a little bit of everything - sit, down, leave it, wait, loose leash work and mat work. I had left his mat at class last week. Thankfully Christine set it aside for me. I told Christine about sitting in at Innovative K9. She didn't seem surprised at what I told her. I asked her about intermediate class and she said that it would start on November 1st. For October she's letting us go to the two scheduled classes (the 11th and the 18th) without paying any more for those two classes. We will of course have to pay for the intermediate class. So we're all set to keep training with Harley.

Christine said we really need to work on impulse control with Harley. Basically impulse control is getting him to wait on things (food, going in and out the door, petting). He does it a little bit but I need to work with him a lot more than I have to this point. I'm thinking of asking Christine if we can do one individual session for the impulse control stuff so I can write stuff down and videotape the exercises. I'll have to email her and ask if that would be possible. I'd like to go at a slower pace and focus on what we need to do to help Harley become a well behaved dog.

I think it would also benefit us so David and I can be on the same page with training. There is a lot we need to do to help Harley out and getting some individual training could really benefit all of us. I also want Christine to know that I'm really serious about helping Harley become a Canine Good Citizen.

Speaking of Harley, he's laying down in his kennel. He is really pooped from today's class. Star and Smokey were in class today. Rocky was there for a little while also. Christine had her GSP there for half the class. His name is Junior. Then Junior went home with her mom and Ginger joined us. The bigger dogs put Harley in his place and set boundaries with him. Actually even the smaller dogs set boundaries with him. Harley gets so out of control when he's around other dogs. He wants to play and he's kind of rough and frantic. I want to have him meet other dogs but he just plays too rough right now. I'm sure he'll get calmer as he gets older.

I was looking up impulse control stuff for dogs online. There's quite a bit of information out there. There were also some suggestions for exercises I could add to what Christine has given me. Now that I'm aware of the work we need to do regarding impulse control, I can see in almost every situation how I could make him wait on something (door, food, petting) and work on impulse control. I think it all just boils down to me spending a lot more focused time with Harley and making everything we do every day a learning opportunity.

It's nice that Harley got a certificate for finishing up his six classes but I really don't feel he's graduated yet. He still has a lot to learn. Or should I say, I have a lot more to learn. ;)

Graduation Day!!

Harley had his sixth class today and graduated from Puppy Kindergarten! Contratulations, Harley!

Ouch!

Harley finally got to biting us tonight. He bit David twice and me once. Harley's teeth are just so sharp. I can't wait until he gets his adult teeth. I'm going to talk to Christine about what we can do about the biting. It just comes out of nowhere. He'll just jump up and bite. I'm not sure if he's teething yet or not. He sure is going crazy on his bison bone though. Better the bison bone than us.

It'll all work out

Okay, I'm over it now. I have a new found appreciation and respect for Christine that I did not have before today. I mean, I appreciate and respect her but now it is at a totally different level than before I went to sit in on the classes today (actually stayed for two classes because I just couldn't believe that the first class was for real). All I can do is pray that we can continue training with Christine. Harley has really learned so much in just 6 weeks time with Christine guiding us. I know what it's like to have older dogs who aren't trained so I'm not judging the owners but I do judge the trainer for not doing a very good job. She sat in a chair the whole time and just told people what to do. She never showed them anything herself. She just talked at everyone. For at least half the class the dogs were just sitting learning how to be patient. Not that being patient is a bad thing but come on there's got to be more to keep the dogs entertained and focused than just walking and sitting. They say they only use positive reinforcement there but I saw a lot negative stuff being done. I don't know much about training (obviously) but I can tell when training isn't positive and today it wasn't. I really didn't know how to tell the lady that I was basically appalled by their training methods so I just left it as "I'll give you a call". Actually I'll probably send her an email to let her know that I'm not interested. I won't just leave them hanging. Now I'm really looking forward to all the hard work we will be doing in class tomorrow. Christine is gone the next week so I'm not sure when we'll get back to training. Hopefully it will be the following week.

Harley is thrilled that I'm home since I've been gone so much today. And I have to say that I am thrilled to be home with him. I really appreciate him after seeing older puppies who are out of control. I know what it's like and I don't want to live through it again. It really makes me realize that I need to be very committed to Harley's training. I want him to be well behaved but that's not going to happen on it's own. It will take an investment on my part for it to happen.

So I'm psyched for class tomorrow but I'm also sad not knowing what will happen after this weekend. I'm sure it will all work out.

Just NO!

Innovative K9. Um, NO! I won't even go into it, but NO!

Sitting in on class today

I went over to Lisa's this morning for scones and David stayed home and watched Harley. I was gone for a few hours. David took Harley out for a drive, did some training with him and played with him. David couldn't say enough about how good Harley was while I was gone. I'm so glad that he's such a good puppy. He's laying down by my chair right now taking a nap. I'm going to be leaving in about 35 minutes to sit in on a puppy class over at Innovative K9. I'll be talking to Christine tomorrow to see what she has to offer next before I make any decisions. Oh, I thought he was near my chair, he's in his kennel. He goes in there all on his own to lay down. I'm looking forward to going to this class today to see if there's anything different that they do. I guess I'm wanting a more holistic approach to training (if that's even available). I want to understand Harley and I want him to understand us. At this point I don't always know how to handle situations (like Harley jumping up on stuff) and it would be good to learn what I can do. I love just looking at him when he's sleeping. He's such a good looking dog. I sure am glad that we found each other.

Day # 48 with Harley

I took Harley out for a walk about an hour ago. The first 3 loops around the cul de sac he kept biting his leash. The next 2 loops he walked just fine (loose leash). He definitely needed a walk. He's in his kennel right now though because he's biting and David is aggravated with him. When David gets aggravated with Harley, I'd rather that Harley be in his kennel so he doesn't get into any trouble. We really had a good day today but he started acting up this afternoon, probably because I hadn't walked him. He's settled in his kennel right now napping. He'll have to be in there later too because it's the premiere night of this season's Ghost Whisperer. It's too hard for me to watch him while I try to watch my show. It's the only show that I purposely watch. I'll take him out half way through the show for a few minutes so he can stretch and run around.

Harley at 16 weeks

I am feeling so grateful today because I have Harley. I look at him and I can't imagine not having him. I don't take on responsibility or commitment easily but for some reason it's easy with Harley. I also didn't think about the future too much but now I look forward to it knowing that Harley will be growing and changing every day. He's been wonderful today, very laid back. He's kept himself entertained or has been napping. I haven't taken him out for a walk yet either. He's been outside quite a bit today. He's played with Zeus, Freckles and Stephanie. There was hardly any barking from the other dogs. Harley barked once when he was playing with Stephanie. I really enjoy lazy days with Harley.

Sunday is our last class for Puppy Pre-school. Harley and I have learned quite a bit through the class. Now I want to start to work on his behavior. I really want him to be able to take the AKC Canine Good Citizen test and pass it. I know that with continued work with him that he'll get there. I'm committed to working with him so he will succeed. I want him to be a happy, well behaved dog. right now he's still too aggressive with other dogs (like that pit puppy). He plays rough. Although it must not be too rough if the other dog isn't giving him boundaries. When we arrived at class last Sunday one of the kids said that Harley was hyper (and he was). I don't want people to say that about my dog. I want him to be mellow and friendly. I don't quite know what to expect since he's just 16 weeks old today. I'm sure he's doing okay for his age. The more he and I work together the better off he'll be.

Harley is 16 weeks old today and we've had him for 48 days!

Class canceled

I got over to Innovative K9 only to find out that tonight's class had been canceled. Betty forgot to call me. Oh well. She's going to call me tomorrow to set up something for this weekend. I'll have to schedule around going to Lisa's Saturday morning and Harley's class on Sunday. Betty was very nice and apologized for not calling me. It wasn't a big deal though, slight inconvenience but I didn't really mind. So I'm home now and Harley is playing in the living room with his duck and other toys. I'm glad to be home with him. David can't watch Harley the way I do (there's a lot of getting up and down) so I like being home with Harley. Now he's chewing on his bison bone. I'm going to relax and enjoy being home with him. I'm looking forward to taking him out for a walk in the morning.

Third walk today

I took Harley out for another walk tonight. He did really well. The only real problem is that he is always trying to pick up sticks on the ground. He chews them and then spits them out as we walk. I'm sure there is something I should be doing different but I don't really know what it is. I'm leaving in about 10 minutes for the class at Innovative K9. It's raining out so I won't get another walk in with Harley before I go. He's in his kennel sleeping anyway. David will watch him while I go to the class. He looks pooped out, literally and figuratively. I don't know if I'll stay for the whole class or not. I'll have to see how it goes. I'm going to get ready to leave now. More later about the class.

Completed 2nd Walk

We just completed our second walk of the day. We walked for about 15 minutes. He was much better behaved this time around. He's back in his kennel napping. Again, he went in there on his own. While he's napping I'm going to take a shower. I may take him for one more walk before I leave the house. I've got to set up some Kongs for him to play with while I'm gone. I'll fill them with kibble and seal them with peanut butter and cream cheese. I'm sure he'll enjoy playing with them. It helps to relieve any anxiety he has about me leaving him. I'll be out until at least 3:30pm but David should be home by 3pm so Harley will only be alone about an hour and a half.

Walking Harley sure does make a huge difference in his behavior. I can't believe how much more calm he is today than he was just yesterday. Walking him makes the day better for both of us. I feel better because I don't have to worry about going a long distance from home. We can just repeat the circle of the cul de sac. My concern about the long walk right now is that we'd get out there and he wouldn't want to walk or would start biting or trying to run off and I'd be so far from the car or house that it would make it a miserable time for both of us. So I'm going to stick to walking around the cul de sac and to the mailbox for now.

I've been thinking a lot about Harley's behavior or I guess I should say what I want his behavior to be. I really want him to be a calm dog. I want him to be happy too not frustrated because that only leads to problems. So, not only do I need to keep walking him but I also need to become the boss. He won't do anything I ask of him if he thinks he is the boss. And right now I think that Harley sees himself as the boss. I want to be able to sit on the floor with him and not have him attack my head so he can bite my hair. I want to be able to bend over and pick something up off of the floor without him going after me. I want him to stop biting and jumping up on me. I understand that he's just a 16 week old puppy and he will do some of those things, but right now I don't have a handle on his behavior. Don't get me wrong, he's a smart and good puppy but he has to have rules, limitations and boundaries.

Okay it's 12:45pm so I better hop in the shower so I can maybe walk him one more time before I go. The clouds have moved in but I hope it doesn't rain right away. He definitely needs another walk.

Walking is wonderful

We did it! Harley and I went out for a walk. We walked for 15 or 20 minutes (closer to 20 I think) around the cul de sac. I didn't want to take him on a long walk distance wise but a long walk time wise. He was all over the place the first 10 minutes. He was biting at the leash, trying to run and doing circles around me. After about 10 minutes though he started settling down. One thing that helped was that I kept him on the street. I didn't let him go up on the grass or near the bushes because he tends to go insane when he goes there. I'm going to take him out again at 12pm. I want him to be tired before I leave for my appointment today.

He went into his kennel on his own and he is laying down. Wow!

I just talked to Betty at Innovative K9 and I'm going to sit in on a class tonight at 7pm so I can check out how they train dogs. They use positive reinforcement and focus more on communication between the owner and the dog. Their goal is for the owner to establish a leader role over the dog. That's exactly what I need. Harley is smart and can do obedience stuff, but if I can't get him under control, who cares whether he can sit or not. It's fun doing the tricks with him (like high five) but I want him to be well behaved and I want him to listen to me at all times. Anyway, I'm just checking it out. We'll see what happens.

Walking him is key to having him be a well behaved dog. If I don't take him out there and walk him, he's going to get into trouble trying to find ways to use up his energy. It's so nice to see him settled down on his own instead of me having to put him in his kennel and close it to settle him down. His kennel door is open and he can come and go as he pleases but he's quite content napping right now.

Harley has really been doing well sleeping through the night. He doesn't need to get up until about 7am or after to go to the bathroom. It's nice that he sleeps through the night. I've tried to let him out of his kennel at night to go to the bathroom and he doesn't even want to come out. So I've stopped doing that and I let him sleep through until the morning. He doesn't rush out when he gets up either. He takes his time and dawdles and stretches before he finally goes out.

While I was walking him he pooped twice and peed once. I of course cleaned everything up. It's trash day so I was able to just pop the bags in the can on our walk around the cul de sac. When we were done with our walk I brought him in and then let him out into the back yard. While he was playing and sniffing the dogs behind us, I picked up the yard. I'm so glad that I'm able to keep up with the yard. There was quite a bit to clean up because I didn't clean it yesterday because of the rain all day. But today it is finally sunny again so I could get out there and take care of things. The clouds are moving in though. I hope they hold off until noon so we can get another walk in.

I'm tired too from walking. Maybe I'll take an half an hour or so and nap too. Then I can take him for his next walk. Just walking him around the cul de sac works out great because I'm never far from home. It makes it so much easier than going a long distance right now. We'll get to that eventually but he needs to behave better on the leash before we start adding in distance. We're just working on duration at this point.

Okay, time for a quick, power nap.

Making this work

I'm having a very difficult day today. I can't get motivated to do anything (read: take Harley for a walk). Thankfully he's keeping himself busy chewing on a bison bone but I've got to get him out there for a walk while it's nice out. I have an appointment with Marianne at 2pm so he has to get walked before I leave him in his kennel. He's jumping up on the 2 living room tables which means that my printer, the remotes and my laptop are always in danger. I think he's only doing it because I haven't been walking him. I'll get dressed in a few minutes and force myself to take him for a walk. It will do me some good to get out and walk. Having a puppy while dealing with depression is not an easy thing but I'm committed to Harley and to making this work. Maybe I'll take him on a bunch of short walks today instead of trying to deal with him on one long walk. That might be a more effective and productive thing to do. I really don't like feeling like this and I especially dont' like the way it's effecting Harley. It's up to me to give him what he needs as a dog and that means walking him. Okay, I'm going to get up now and take him for a walk over to the mailboxes.

Can't believe it

Tonight Harley put himself to bed. He walked down the hallway and went into his kennel all by himself. David had gone to bed a few minutes earlier so Harley knew it was bedtime. I love this puppy!

Not walking = Not good

Well, today I emailed another training place just in case the intermediate class doesn't work out with Christine. I feel bad for checking with someone else but I need to make sure that Harley stays in training. I emailed Innovative K9 because they were recommended by a friend of David's. I need to email them back and ask if I can watch a class before I bring Harley in for an evaluation (the eval costs $35). I want to make sure it's a training style that I would be okay with. I'll make a decision as soon as I have all the information I need. (I sent the email to Innovative K9. Just have to wait for a response now.)

We left Harley for a while when we went out for dinner tonight. He was barking when I got home because he had to pee REALLY bad. But he was great and waited until I let him out. Then he had dinner in the Kibble Nibble and went out to do his business. I gave him a new bison bone and he's been chewing on that all night. He was just laying on his side, sucking the marrow out of the bone. It's keeping him busy and letting him get some energy out.

I found a rain coat and some long underwear in the house today so I'll be able to go walking tomorrow no matter what the weather is doing. Harley has to get out and walk. Me too.

I just tried to do some training with him and he came at me trying to get the treat so I put him in his kennel with his bone. He seems okay. Not walking him is having a very negative effect.

Yucky weather

It's been rainy, windy, snowing and cold all day today. Really crummy weather. Harley has slept most of the day. He goes in his kennel on his own and just chills out. He's a great puppy. I'm sure he'll be full of energy later though. We'll have to play a lot of retrieve so he can use up the energy. I'm glad that nicer, warmer weather is on the way. I'm not ready yet for this kind of weather. He looks so cute when he's in his kennel sleeping. I just adore him. He'll be up soon though because it's about time for David to get home. Harley is always happy to see David.

I've decided not to go to bible study this time around because I'm already out on Monday and Thursday each week. That's just too much time for Harley to spend alone. Next time around he'll be old enough that I can leave him and not have to worry about him.

He's trying to wake up but he's just too tired. lol Sounds good to me. Think I'll take a nap after David gets home.

A handful

Yesterday I got a response to my email from Preppy Pet regarding doggy daycare. I had forgot that the first time you bring the dog in the daycare is free! After that it will be about $15-$20 depending on how long he stays for the day. That is definitely doable.

It's another cold and windy day today. It was snowing earlier. I'm hoping the wind will die down and the sun will warm things up so we can go for a walk. Harley's been out quite a few times already this morning so I don't think the weather bothers him too much.

He'll be 16 weeks old on Friday. He's becoming quite a handful. He's going after stuff on the tables (in particular, the remotes), biting and jumping up on us. He got my cell's bluetooth headset but thankfully he didn't damage it. He's being a typical puppy. He's in his kennel right now napping. I can use the break for a few minutes. He's energy level has really gone up and not walking isn't helping matters any. I've got to get all my winter stuff out so I can be ready for walks on days like this. I don't know why I keep waiting to do that. It's only making things more difficult for me because Harley doesn't have any way to get all his energy out.

He's such a good boy when he's sleeping. lol

Doggy daycare?

The cleaning lady is here today which means Harley is spending way too much time in his kennel. She's doing an awesome job cleaning the house though. He'll get out as soon as she is done and then he can play to his hearts content. I'll do some training with him too. I may be able to take him over to the mailbox this afternoon as long as it's not raining. It's cold out but I can wear my fleece and a hat and gloves to keep warm. I'll need to plan ahead for when Maria is here next time so I can have Harley out of the house and out of his kennel. I should check to see how much Preppy Pet is charging these days. I could bring him over there and have some time to myself to run errands. I'll have to think on that. I just sent an email to Tom and Ella asking them for the current doggy daycare rates. They are pretty good about getting back to me quickly so I should know something today. It would be great socialization for Harley and he's have fun being there. I hope I can work it out.

I'm going to look for some winter attire that would enable me to get out and walk even on cold days. Right now I don't have what I need. I don't have a rain jacket either. I'm going to go look at Goodwill and The Salvation Army stores and see if I can find anything. I may have to look online for a large size poncho. I have Skooter's old dog coat that I might be able to use on Harley to keep him warm too. I'll have to see if it fits him.

I just gave Harley one of the bison bones out of the freezer. He really needs something to keep him busy. That's why doggy daycare would be such a good thing for him on cleaning days. There are other doggy daycares but Preppy Pet is closer and I really like Tom and Ella and their staff. Harley could really use the time with other dogs and other people. Now, if only I can afford it.

I definitely need to do training with Harley today. I don't think I did much training at all yesterday. David worked with him a couple of times yesterday though so Harley did get some training. I think I'll send an email to Christine and ask if she has enough students to do an intermediate class. I'd rather have Harley around more dogs since he spends so much time alone. He loves to play with Zeus and Freckles but that's with a fence in between them, which isn't all that much fun. Although, Harley really does get rowdy and he runs all over the yard. He has such a good time. But I'd like him to have fun one-on-one with other dogs. He needs to have limits set for him by other dogs otherwise he'll end up being a bully. And I sure don't want that.

Okay time for me to get up and do something. I've been sitting around too long myself. The Adventures of Harley will continue later.

Day # 44 with Harley

Today has been another quiet day. It's been raining and snowing all day and it's windy and cold. We haven't gone out for a walk because of the weather. Instead I've played with him inside today. We've played retrieve quite a few times today where he runs down the hallway and back. It must have been enough exercise for him because he's in his kennel napping right now. I'm going to work with him later on obedience stuff and loose leash walking (in the house).

I can't believe I've had Harley for 44 days. It seems like I've always had him. He has fit into my life so well.

Responsible pet ownership

Are you a responsible pet owner? Check out this pdf document from the AKC.

Puppy Pre-school #5

Puppy class was great today. It was what Harley needed. He was rambunctious when we got there and stayed that way through play time. I had to hold him a few times to settle him down. He gets excited playing with the pit puppy. All but one puppy (Kaboose) left after play time, so it was just Harley and Kaboose for training. We did all the regular stuff plus loose leash walking. I feel like there is so much to work on now. I'm going to have to be extremely diligent with Harley's training from this point on. I did learn quite a bit today that I think will make things easier for us (how to get him to drop the retrieved object, getting him to do loose leash walking). It's just little stuff but the details are very important when it comes to training.

I think he's finally collapsed for a while. I'm sure he's just as tired as I am today (if not more).

Next week is our last class for the puppy/beginner sessions. I'm not sure what's going to happen as far as an intermediate class. I'll just play it by ear. I want to keep Harley in training though. Although, taking a little time off to keep practicing what we've already learned wouldn't be a bad thing either. I think that in the intermediate class we would work more off leash and with more distractions. I'll have to make a conscious effort to work with him outside and at PetsMart.

I sure do love Harley. As much work as he is, it is worth every second that I put into him. I'm too tired to think right now so I'll write more later when I get my brain function back.

Difficult day

It's been an interesting morning with Harley. He's jumping up and biting a lot today. I'm glad we have puppy class later so he can get some of the energy out with the other puppies. I'm sure he'll be all over the place today. David did work with him on sit, down, paw, high five, up, leave it and a new trick, sitting up on his hind paws. He looks like a meerkat when he does it. He's in his kennel right now napping because he couldn't settle down outside of the kennel. I'm going to let him out in just a few minutes but first I need to switch the laundry around. I know the reason Harley is having a difficult day is because I haven't been walking him every day. I will walk him at least 2 times a day starting tomorrow. I'll walk him in the morning before breakfast and then again in the afternoon to go get the mail. If I'm able to do a third walk in the evening, I'll do that too. I need to be walking as much as Harley does. Harley is such a good puppy and he's so smart. He's a joy to have, even on a difficult day.

cheese

Well, it wasn't the long day that I thought it would be. Harley has been busy chewing on a bison bone for the last 2 hours. He loves those bison bones. We took a nap earlier today and Harley took a nap too. He's so cute when he's on his back with his belly showing. I'll be going to bed soon so Harley will go into his kennel for the night. He's really good about sleeping through the night. I'm grateful for that.

I'm having problems with David being consistent with Harley. I asked David to not give Harley people food from his chair and he went ahead and did that tonight. Then when Harley started begging David got mad. Harley was jumping on David hoping to get more cheese. David shoved him down. I am mad that he did that. It's not Harley's fault, it's David's fault for giving him the cheese.

Puppy class tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. I need to remind Christine to show us some leash work. I need to get Harley out there walking but it's not fun when he's biting his leash, trying to run off or pulling me. I'm sure he'll do better once I know exactly what to do.

Full of energy

Harley is just full of energy this morning. He keeps jumping up on us, something he doesn't usually do. It's probably time for him to take a nap. He often gets really rambunctious just before he naps. I got up a couple of times with him this morning (around 4am and 7:30am) but didn't stay up until after 10am. That's probably why he has so much energy - he's been in his kennel too long today. I know that I need to take him out for a walk but I'm just not up to it right now. My allergies are so bad today. He'll just have to wait until the allergy meds kick in. He bit one of the "toes" off of his pheasant. I'm kind of surprised because he's had his duck for over a month and he hasn't chewed the toes off of it. I'll have to keep an eye on him when he has his pheasant. He's laying down in his kennel now. Finally, he's settled down a bit. I think it's going to be a long day today not because Harley is full of energy but because I'm not. lol

Calculating age

Calculating how old Harley is today: 105 days

105 days can be converted to one of these units:

• 9,072,000 seconds
• 151,200 minutes
• 2520 hours
• 15 weeks
• 3 months, 14 days
  

Napping

Harley is finally napping. It looks like he'll be sleeping for a while. I should try to take a nap too while he's napping. I could just nap in my chair. I don't want to have to bring him into the bedroom since he's already sleeping. I'm glad his vet visit went well. It's good to have him up to date on all of his puppy shots. Now I'll feel better about taking him up to Palmer Park. We've got to get back to going up there. I need to start longer walks with him too. He's getting bigger and needs to get more energy out. Of course, he doesn't have much energy at the moment because of getting his shots. But I'm sure he'll have tons of energy later on today. I can't believe the weekend is already here. Two days until puppy class. I need to work with him later today on the stay command. He's getting it somewhat but he needs a lot more training on it. David had him do high five for the neighbor yesterday. She thought that was so cute. I'd like to start recording some of his training. I could post it on youtube and the Dog Blog. I want to be able to look back and see how far he has come. I'll have to see if I can get David to shoot some video while I do the training. That would be fun. Boy, he sure is out like a light. Guess I should get to napping myself. Later.

Shots up to date and nails trimmed

I took Harley to the vets this morning so he could get his shots. Since he's 15 weeks old today, Dr. McKenney gave him all of his shots, including rabies and the canine flu booster. So, he won't need any more shots until next year. Dr. McKenney said that we could bring him in sometime next month to get him neutered and chipped. I want to get that done as soon as possible so he doesn't start spraying or marking territory. He did really well at the vets today. He didn't fuss at all when she gave him the shots (there were 3 injections). I weighed him today and he weighs 27.2 pounds! He's 10 pounds heavier than when we first brought him in. He is indeed growing. He got lots of treats at the vets, so he was a very happy puppy. Total vet visit was $54.00.

After the vets I took him to Tailored Tails pet groomer to get his nails trimmed. We were able to walk in and get it done since he has just had his rabies shot. Now that they are short we should be able to keep up with them. We really need to get him to the point that getting his nails trimmed isn't a big deal. It was only $10 to get his nails trimmed. For the most part we'll be doing that but they were really long today and I needed to get them all trimmed at the same time. Here's Tailored Tails information:


Tailored Tails
4027 Tutt Blvd.
Colorado Springs, CO 80922
719-596-TAIL (8245)
tailoredtailsgrooming@gmail.com

I was very impressed with how quickly they got Harley in and how fast they trimmed his nails. It's a really nice, clean looking shop. The people there are very friendly and they of course gave Harley treats too. He liked that. I think I will take him there to get groomed once he's ready for that. I want to be able to shampoo him at home but a complete grooming (including getting his teeth brushed) is always nice.

I thought that maybe he'd come home and go right to sleep but he's been playing since we got home. Maybe he'll nap later. I could use a nap myself. lol I'll have to get David to put Harley's rabies tag on his collar later. Once he gets neutered I'll get his dog license and we'll have to add that to the collar too. Then there will also be the microchip tag. Whew! Hopefully he can carry all that around without his head dragging on the ground. He's playing with his pheasant right now. He sure does love that thing. I'm glad I got it for him.

Harley is 15 weeks old today. We've had him for 41 days and I've loved every day of it. I still can't believe that he weighs over 27 pounds! He's going to be a big dog.

The pheasant has landed

We took Harley for a ride over to Garden of the Gods. As usual he slept most of the drive. The replacement tray arrived today and I've already put it in his kennel. His pheasant got here today too. He loves it. He's been playing with it since we got home. It honks better than the duck does. I'm glad he likes it. It's his new favorite toy. LOL These are the best pictures I could get of him with the pheasant because he wouldn't stop playing.

Day # 40 with Harley

I forgot to add in the last post that today is Day # 40 with Harley and that tomorrow he will be 15 weeks old. He's almost 4 months old! He still sleeps quite a bit so he's not difficult to deal with. I would assume that as he gets older the amount of energy he has will increase somewhat. I know that he's using all of his energy right now to grow. And he sure is growing!

Harley, Harley

For some reason Harley decided to bark this morning while David was in the shower and I was in bed. I had to go get him from the dining room kennel and put him in the bedroom kennel. He didn't bother the carpet and I was able to get a little bit more sleep. He's been busy this morning and so have I. In between playing with him I've been doing laundry, dishes, straightening up the house, updating YNAB and taking a shower. While I was taking my shower he was in his kennel and he was whining and barking even though I was still in the house. I don't respond to him when he does that. I ignore him. He's out of his kennel now but he'll have to go back in there in about 50 minutes because I have an appointment to go to. I already have 3 Kongs in the freezer for him while I am out. David will be home by 3:00pm so Harley will only be alone for about an hour and a half. He'll be in his bigger kennel since the replacement tray still hasn't arrived. I hope it gets here today. I also hope his pheasant gets here today. This is what the pheasant looks like:

Since he likes his duck so much, I thought that getting him the pheasant would be a good idea. David put some pheasant scent on the duck and Harley really liked that. I'm sure David will put some scent on the pheasant too.

Now Harley is out on the deck laying in the sun. He likes doing that. I don't have to be out there with him when he's on the deck. When he goes out into the yard though, I keep an eye on him. He looks so cute out there. I'll let him stay out for as long as he likes since he's going to have to be in his kennel for a while this afternoon. His toys are scattered all over the living room and dining room. He plays with so many of his toys. I'm glad he can entertain himself most of the time.

Tomorrow I'll take Harley to the vet to get his second set of shots. I may stop in at the grooming place near there and have them trim his nails. It's too expensive at the vets ($22.00!!). Or maybe David and I can do them all tonight. They have to be clipped though. They are way too long and he cuts me when he jumps up on me (mostly my right arm). I want him to get used to us trimming his nails so he won't be afraid to have them clipped. David put him in the tub the other night. He didnt' wash him, he just put him in the tub to get him used to it. He didn't like it all that much but stayed in there for a few minutes. David had wet the tub down so Harley would know what the wet tub would feel like.

Sunday is our 5th puppy class. There are still so many things to work on. I want to continue the training so that Harley will be well behaved as he gets older. He's back in the house now laying by my chair. Hopefully the Kongs will keep him busy this afternoon since they are frozen and he'll do fine while I'm gone.

Up for a few minutes at 4:30am

It's 4:30 in the morning and I'm up (but not for long). I got up to go to the bathroom and when I was walking back to the bedroom I heard Harley's tags clinking on his collar. So, I went and checked on him and he was awake. I opened his kennel door and he came out. I could tell he was still very sleepy. I walked him over to the door and opened the slider. He poked his nose out, figured out how cold and damp it is out and just sat at the door, inside. I closed the door and went to sit in my chair. Within a minute or so he went back into his kennel on his own and laid down. He's all curled up and falling back to sleep. I'll head back to bed in a few minutes myself.

Today is trash day so I need to clean up the yard. It was raining yesterday so I didn't clean up after Harley. It's got to be done this morning though, rain or shine. I'm still keeping up with the yard which takes a lot of pressure off of me. I don't want the yard to look bad or smell bad. So far, so good.

Well, I think he's fallen back asleep so I'm going to go back to bed too.

Another wonderful day

Well it was another wonderful day with Harley. We played retrieve quite a bit and did our mat work. He's doing really well with both. He's also doing high five pretty good. It rained most of the day but he still went outside. I'm glad he's not put off by the rain. The replacement tray probably won't get here until tomorrow so he'll sleep in the big kennel again tonight. He's fine with that though. He went in there on his own tonight and is sleeping right now. I'm off to bed myself. Goodnight!

Bison bones are here

It's been a quiet morning. We took our walk to the mailbox earlier today. Harley got rambunctious on the way back as usual but we were able to finish our walk. I've been on the laptop and he's been sleeping most of the morning. We did play and do some training. I'm teaching him a couple of new behaviors - high five, crawl and speak. He's got high five down. He's doing crawl a little bit. He doesn't get speak yet. I'll have to see if there's a video out there on how to teach him to do that (there's a video for everything isn't there?).

His bison bones just arrived. They're not like the Buff Bites, they are raw bones. There are a couple of small ones and then 3 huge ones. It'll be interesting to see how he handles them. They should last a while though. I found a place online that sells the Buff Bites for $6.99 but I don't know what their shipping costs are. I'll keeping looking around for them though but in the mean time he seems to like these bison bones just fine. Still waiting on the pheasant and the replacement tray.

It's another overcast day today and it just started raining. I'm not enjoying this fall weather very much. It's already Wednesday. Where are the days going? Now that I have Harley every day seems to fly by. I have to spend so much time focused on him each day that before I know it bedtime arrives. Speaking of which, he slept in the kennel out in the dining room again last night. He slept through and woke me up with a single bark. He's been out of his kennel every since then. I want to get some kind of container for his toys but I'm not sure what I should get. They are ALL OVER the place right now. I want him to have access to them but I don't want them strewn about like they are. I was thinking of using the laundry basket and getting a bigger laundry basket for doing laundry. I could check out Goodwill or the Salvation Army and see if I can get one over there. Or maybe they'll have some other kind of container that I could use.

I'm having trouble keeping up with the house, laundry and dishes. I have to keep everything up off the floor so Harley can't chew on it so there's lots of stuff on the counters. I'll have to pick up the house later so I won't feel so overwhelmed by it. But I definitely would rather that the house be a mess than to miss out on time with Harley. He's only going to be a puppy once and it won't last near as long as I think it will. He's getting so much bigger every day. He needs another collar adjustment. I'll ask David to take care of that this afternoon.

He sure is going to town ont the new bison bone. I'm glad that he likes it.


I'm not trying to encourage him to get or stay on the couch so this picture isn't very good but I wanted to show you what he's doing:


You can barely make him out on there. Thankfully his eyes are glowing. lol

I've really got to get going on the house. It's so much fun watching him though. Plus I need to keep an eye on him to make sure that he's safe. The good thing about these new bison bones is that he can get to the marrow. I thinking he's really liking that. Okay, I need to get up and start doing something. Or take a nap. LOL

Toys, toys and more toys

Harley is playing with the Buster Cube again. He seems to really be challenged playing with it. I think the Tug-a-Jug is a little too hard for him to figure out right now but I know he'll get it going forward. I went over to Target to get stuff for dinner and picked up a tube of tennis balls for Harley. We put all three out but he got overwhelmed so we only have one out now. Presently he is up on the couch again. Treats don't lure him off of it. I'm not sure what the correct course of action is so once again I'll have to do some research. He's just going from toy to toy tonight. I'm going to put up most of his toys so that he only has a few to play with at a time. I don't want to barrage him with choices. The only things left to be delivered are the AKC Pheasant and the bison bones. He'll be all set for quite a while then.

He's outside right now and so are the dogs behind us. He's at the fence trying to play with them. I hope he does his business while he's out there. He's had a lot to eat today since I was introducing new toys. I want to make sure that he's going to the bathroom regularly.

I was thinking the last few days how I really loved the breed, GSP's, but I really don't care about the breed of Retrievers. I just love Harley for who he is. I think that has made all the difference.

New toys have arrived

Three things came in the mail today - the Buster Cube (it's blue), the Tug-a-Jug and the diner. He's afraid of the diner so far but I guess he'll figure it out if he gets thirsty. I may even feed him his dinner in the diner tonight. He loves the Tug-a-Jug! He's trying to figure out how to get the treats out of it. It's so cute. I can't get the Buster Cube open yet so he hasn't played with that. I'll keep trying to open it so I can see how he likes it. He's whipping the Tug-a-Jug around and hitting himself in the back let. Too funny. They made a major improvement to the Tug-a-Jug - instead of a nylon rope coming out of the top it's now a plastic rope like thing. It's a great improvement. I got the Buster Cube filled but he prefers the Tug-a-Jug right now. He just ate a few treats out of the diner and took a drink too. He's still a little skittish about it but he'll get over that. Now he's playing with the Buster Cube. I think he's figuring that out. The Tug-a-Jug is harder to do so I put some dried liver treats, kibble and Zukes in it so that something will fall out.

Morning walk - check!

We went for our morning walk over to the mailbox. Harley did really well on the way there but on the way back he was pulling more. He knows when we're headed home and he wants to start galloping. Overall he was a pleasure to walk. I've got the laundry going. I put him in his kennel while I sorted. He whined a bit but I just ignored him. I didn't let him out to go for a walk until he was quiet. Then I made him wait until he settled down at the door. He likes to play with the leash before we go out and I'm trying to get him to stop doing that.

He's learned that if he sits at the door I'll come and let him out so now he's trying to get me to let him out all the time. I only want to be letting him out when he has to do his business or we're going out to play. I don't want to become a doggie doorman again. I can usually tell when he has to go but he's happy sitting by the door a lot now. But no going out until I'm ready to let him out.

He's playing with one of his bison bones right now. I like to see him entertaining himself with the toys and chews I leave out for him. He really seems to like getting his breakfast in the Kibble Nibble. The Buster Cube and Tug-a-Jug will arrive this week and I'm anxious to see how he does with those toys. I'm not sure that I'll feed him his meals from them or not. It depends on how quickly he figures them out. I don't want it to be too difficult for him to get his meals. Then again, he is a dog and dogs do have to work for their food.

He's laying down now. He must have used up some energy on our walk. That's a good thing. A tired puppy is a happy puppy!

We slept in

Harley and I slept until 8am! I feel much better now. He didn't bark or whine or howl while he was in his kennel and I was way down at the other end of the house in my bed. I am very grateful for that. It's Tuesday and there's nothing on the calendar today so that must mean I need to do dishes and laundry. lol I have to put Harley in his kennel while I sort laundry or he runs off with socks. Then I have to wait for him to come to me, drop the sock and then I give him a treat. At that rate I don't get any laundry done.

He's already gone out and peed and pooped. All systems are working normally (needed the check after the carpet incident yesterday). I'm going to take him out for a walk so he can use up some energy.

Early morning games

Harley stayed in his kennel until 4:30am when I let him out to go do his business but the sprinklers were on so he came back in the house. I put him back in his kennel and went back to bed. At about 5am he woke me up barking or whining (I was asleep so I'm not sure which it was). After he quieted down I went out and let him out of his kennel. It's 5:30am now and he's been playing for the last half hour. We played retrieve the duck, exchange (a piece of hot dog for my flip flop) and belly rub (I rubbed his belly with my foot). Now he has his bison bone and he's happily chewing away on it. In his exuberance he did bite me once. He got me on a place that was scabbing up so it's open again. Those baby teeth are just too sharp!

One of the reasons we play the belly rub game is to get him used to feet being on and around his body for a good reason so he doesn't continue to see feet as something to attack. He's pretty good about not going after our feet (unless there are shoe laces involved) but any extra work we do with him will benefit us all in the long run. I'd like to put him back in his kennel (so I can go back to bed) but I'm not sure I'm up to listening to him howl. I really should do it though so he learns to be away from me. The world doesn't end when I go away and I always come back. I want him to really know that to be true.

Okay, so I'm going to put him back in the kennel and see what happens. Hopefully I can get a few more hours of sleep.

Still up

It's 1:30am and I'm still up. Harley has slept the whole time. I just don't want to leave him alone. I'm so silly. He'll be fine and if he isn't I'll hear from him about it. I'm truly tired now and plan to go to bed in a few minutes.

Water boy

Well, it's just after 10pm and Harley is in the kennel in the dining room sleeping. I've stayed out here until he fell asleep. I think he'll do okay as long as he sleeps. He may whine if he wakes up and discovers that he's alone. I think he's almost outgrown the other kennel anyway (as you can see in the picture above). It will probably last another month and that's about it. I think he's enjoying sleeping in the big kennel because he has more room. I'll be selling the other kennel on craigslist before I know it.

We did mat work tonight. I tossed the mat away from me onto the floor and motioned for him to lay down from a distance. He went to the mat right away each time and followed my signal to lay down. I am very proud of him. He did bite me tonight by accident when we were playing. It isn't too bad. It looks more like a scratch. He's also been doing well with retrieve. We throw his duck down the hall or out into the kitchen and he runs to get it and brings it back. He's still not dropping it but he's almost there. It's fun playing with him.

Tonight I started using little pieces of hot dogs to get him to come in from outside. So far, so good. He comes running to come in now that he thinks he's getting a piece of hot dog. That may be our high value treat. We'll have to see. I'm only going to use the hot dogs to get him in the house if he's digging or dawdling at the fence.

We have to start our day with a walk tomorrow morning. It was rainy tonight so we didn't get out for our second walk. I'm going to take him for a walk before he eats, make him work for his food. I should put a little sign on him that says "Will work for food!". lol

He's laying on his back in his kennel. He seems like he's fine in there. I don't really want him to be so far away from me at night but there's nothing I can do until that tray gets here. I don't want him to tear up the rug any more than he already has. I'm afraid he'll eat something he shouldn't. Today it looked like he just tore it up. I'll have to watch when he does his business to make sure everything is okay. I know - TMI! lol



I'm going to have to sneak out of here in a few minutes and see if he'll sleep okay in the dining room. He's just the best. I really enjoy having Harley. Training him is fun. The only thing I need to work on is getting more walks in. Oh, and the impulse control stuff. An example of impulse control is when I'm putting his bowl down that he continues to sit and doesn't move until I tell him to move. We're just at the beginning of working on that. Besides the carpet incident today, he's been awesome. I wasn't mad at him at all for tearing up the carpet. I wish he hadn't but if I had done my job as his caretaker it probably wouldn't have happened.

He seems to be sound asleep now so I should probably go to bed. I'll miss having him in the bedroom with me. Almost forgot - he's able to jump up on the couch now. He looks so cute when he gets up there and lays down. I have to run to get a treat to get him off as quick as I can but he gets pretty comfy right away. I don't let him know I think it's cute though because I don't want him up on the furniture. All I have to do is just walk toward the treat container and he jumps off. I try to say 'off' so he'll associate getting off with that word. He did look cute though curled up on the couch (my bad).

Here's a picture of him carrying his water bowl. Hopefully the new set up will deter him from continuing to do that. Again, cute but not a wanted behavior. It's a ceramic bowl so I'm kind of surprised that he picks it up. I tried using the real big ceramic bowl but he can move that one too. We may have to anchor something down so he can't pick up the water bowl. What a little cutie.

Replacement tray ordered

I went out and looked for a replacement tray and neither of the pet stores had them. I'll have to keep looking. Never thought to call the other PetsMarts in town to see if maybe they have them.

Called the other PetsMarts and they don't carry them either. I found one online that I can get by the end of the week so I ordered it. He'll have to sleep in his big kennel until the tray gets here. Maybe that will help some with the separation anxiety he gets when I leave the house.

David worked with him while I was gone on sit, down, stay and retrieve. He said that Harley didn't really well. It's raining and hailing out so we won't be going for a walk this evening (unless it stops before it gets dark). I feel terrible about not giving him enough to keep him busy today. I know if I had given him so Kongs and a bison bone he probably would have been okay. No problem though. The carpet through the entire house needs to be replaced because of the previous pets we had. It'll be a while though before we can do that. He's still too little for us to get new carpeting. I guess I can live with a hole in the carpet (especially since his kennel will be covering the hole lol).


I will work with Harley later this evening on his mat work and some of the impulse control stuff. Right now he is completely khacked out in his kennel and I won't be disturbing him.

Uh oh!

I didn't walk Harley this morning because I slept in. I had to be out of the house for 2 hours for my appointment with Marianne. He got bored. Now I need to get the tray that fits in the bottom of the smaller kennel so this won't happen again. Totally my fault for not walking him before I went out. I think that tearing the rug apart got him so excited that when I got home he could barely contain himself. I took him for a walk right away. Now he's napping in the kitchen. It just didn't occur to me that he would tear at the rug under his bed. Oh well. Lesson learned. He'll have to go out for a couple more walks today to get all the pent up energy out. I'm going over to the pet store when David gets home to see if I can find a tray to fit in that kennel. I don't want to leave Harley alone again today. I should have given him more things to chew on in his kennel when I left too. Again, not Harley's fault. He was bored and tearing at the rug was the only thing he had to do (the one toy I left in there didn't keep him occupied). We're going to be replacing all the carpeting in the house eventually anyway. Better that he did it to the old carpet than to new carpet.

I emailed Christine and she sent me two pictures and a video! I am so excited! Christine was kind enough to share the photos and video that she took.

This is a picture Christine took of Harley, Ike and the pit puppy (I don't remember her name).


This is a picture Christine took of Ike and the pit puppy playing, Ginger and Harley checking things out.


And here's the video Christine took of Harley and the pit puppy playing. Ike comes into the video at the end.



Just want to add Christine's information again since we are having such a great time in class.

K9 to 5 Learning Center
Christine Kelly
1722 Brookwood
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
719-238-8118
ckelly@k9to5.us

Christine is a certified trainer. Check out her website K9 to 5

Consistency

We just did some training with Harley. We worked on sit, down, leave it and having him come by calling his name. He's figuring out that when I call his name that he'll get a treat. He's in his kennel right now chilling out. He's still tired from class today. We tried trimming his nails but he was too wound up to do that. We'll try again tomorrow. Because his nails are black it's hard to tell where the quick begins. I may check with the vet on Friday to see if they can trim them so I'll know how far back we can go. Oh, we also did some work on stay with Harley. The only problem we're having is being consistent with him (like giving him a treat EVERY time that he comes when we call his name). He gets what we're trying to do but at times we confuse him by not being consistent with treats or commands. I don't want to frustrate him by being inconsistent.

I can't believe that the weekend is pretty much over. Tomorrow's Monday and I have my noon appointment with Marianne. Harley will have to stay home. He's still not ready to sit for an hour in the office. Soon though he'll be able to do that. I look forward to those days. I'm enjoying my time with him now too. He's so smart and such a wonderful puppy. It was nice in class today because one other person is dealing with resource guarding and both of the others are dealing with their dogs biting and scratching like Harley is doing. Misery loves company I guess. lol

Puppy Pre-school #4

We did a lot today! I am tired and so is Harley.

When we got there we let Harley go play with the other puppies and boy did he play. Ike was there along with Kaboose, Cody and a pit puppy (can't remember her name). She was only there for play time as was Ike. So there were only 3 of us there for class which was kind of nice. It wasn't as chaotic today, it was more laid back. We still worked really hard though. First we did our sets of 5 sits and 5 downs. Harley was great with both. We worked on a bunch of stuff today: stay, leave it, mat work, impulse control work and I can't remember what else right now. lol The impulse control is to get him to stay sitting when I give him his bowl of food or water. Also to keep him sitting when I have food in my hand. It really was a lot today but in a good way. He peed in the room every time he had to go though. The door was closed and he didn't know to go to that door and sit. He also was excited or scared and peed because of that. Lots of clean up on Aisle 2 today. lol

I also asked Christine about Harley running along the fence with Zeus and she doesn't think that's a good idea. She wants me to work on calling him away from the fence using a high value treat (such as hot dogs). I definitely need to do more work with him on calling him by his name to get him to come to me. Although he did do better today coming to me but there weren't quite as many distractions as there usually are. Overall he did really well with everything.

We have 2 more puppy classes and then the week of October 4th Christine will be away. I guess we will start another class after that. I'm not sure that other folks will be staying with the class or not so I'll have to see what will happen. I definitely want to keep Harley in classes though.

Christine took more pictures today. I need to send her an email and ask if she would send some of them to me. I'm so busy during class that I don't have time to take pictures. And I didn't take the camera or my cell phone today anyway.

I think I figured out some things that I need to do differently in training. Doing the mat work I need to be further away from the mat. I need to toss it down and then motion him to go down from a distance, then treat him. With leave it I need to add the floor component to the exercise. I also need to treat him every time I call him by name and he comes to me. It's the little things that I need to add in, the details. I can see that I'm starting to have some issues with Harley because I'm not doing the training the way I need to or as much as I should. I'm also not walking him enough. That has to change.

He'll probably sleep for about an hour or so then he'll be full of energy again. I didn't feed him any lunch because he gets about that much in treats. He'll get dinner though. I'll practice some of the stuff that Christine showed me when it comes time to feed him tonight. Okay, time for me to relax.

Retrieve

David played retrieve with Harley tonight using Harley's duck. He's bringing the duck back but doesn't want to drop it yet. David did get Harley to give it up and sit before he would throw it again. He even had him doing down in between retrieves. Harley had a lot of fun. He's sleeping right now. It's way past our bedtime but I forgot to put his bed in the dryer so it's in there now. It'll be a little while before I can go to bed. His mat is drying too. I need that for class tomorrow. I'm tired so I'm going to get ready for bed so as soon as his bed is dry we can turn in for the night.

Digging

I did some training with Harley earlier this evening. We did mat work and he did just fine. He's chewing on his bison bone right now. He was out earlier and the dogs out back were out too. He and Zeus chased each other along the fence. The older lady that lives over there doesn't like it if the dogs bark and brings them in right away and poor Harley doesn't have anyone to play with. Her daughter lets them work things out and and play. It's been raining all day today so we haven't gone out to walk (except when we went on our morning ride). He'll have an opportunity to play his little heart out tomorrow at puppy class. I wonder if we'll learn anything new tomorrow or just continue working on the things we've already learned. Tomorrow will be our 4th class. I'll have to see what we'll be doing after this class. The other folks should be moving on too so maybe there will be a basic obedience class after this.

Harley is wanting to go outside a lot now and it's not so he can do his business. It's so he can hang out by the fence and dig. David just let him out and that's exactly what Harley did. I'm going to have to figure out how to keep him from digging. And instead of coming in he ran under the deck so I had to lure him in with a few pieces of kibble in the measuring cup. He hears the clinking and comes running. He's got a bit too much energy though and so he's settling down in his kennel. He always seems to get the burst of energy just before he needs to settle down and take a nap. He bit a small hole in my sweatpants. Oh well.

I'm washing his bed and the mat so it will be clean for tomorrow's class. His bed needs to be washed at least once a week since he sleeps on it. I have some other laundry to do but I might wait and do it tomorrow morning or after class. Well, he's sleeping now so all is well.

A new bison bone

David, Harley and I just went for a ride over to Garden of the Gods. Harley slept most of the way there and back. We stopped at the natural pet market on the way home so I could get him a bison bone. The two he has don't have much left on them. Before I went into the store I took Harley out to pee and he did. He wasn't too anxious to get out of the car when we got home until I showed him that I had his bison bone. He has it in the dining room right now and he's really enjoying it. That will keep him busy for a while.

First training done

We've done our first training session of the day including mat work. He really gets that he needs to return to the mat and lay down to get a treat. We need to work on 'leave it' though. He's not quite getting that. He knows to touch my hand and back off but he's not getting the duration part of it. He's an instant gratifier. lol David is handling him right now, feeling his ears and mouth and tummy etc. Harley does really well with being touched.

Ready to go

Harley and I got up at 7am today. He's eating breakfast from his Kibble Nibble. He's already been outside and peed and pooped. He just got frustrated because his Kibble Nibble got stuck in the kitchen (he growled). He just finished though and is laying at my feet. Okay, he just got up and is sniffing around for more food. Nope, he took a trip down to the bedroom to get something out of the laundry basket. Door is now closed and he can't get to that stuff so he's playing with his Kong Tails. Boy, he's busy this morning. I can't leave his water bowl on the floor for too long because he picks it up in his mouth and carries it around often running behind the couch with it. I don't want him to break it so I remove it once he's done drinking.

The bison bones won't be shipped until Monday and should get here by Wednesday or Thursday. I sure hope he likes them. He's playing with one of his old bison bones right now. He loves chewing on them. He has his paws wrapped around it holding it. He's so cute.

I'll do mat work with him later this morning. I still need time to wake up. ;)

Totally off topic

I think I've figured out why I'm having anxiety tonight. For the first time in 3 months I drank a soda tonight. I think that between the carbonation and the caffeine I set myself up to feel bad. I wont' be doing that again.

Anxious night (nothing to do with Harley)

I can't sleep tonight. I got up at about 1:30am and let Harley out. He went out and did his business and came right back in. I think he was cold. There's a cold front moving in and you can sure feel it tonight. I would have liked to keep Harley up with me but I don't want him to get used to getting up every night. While he's a puppy I'll still let him out during the night but once he's able to hold it overnight, he'll be sleeping the night through even if I don't. I'm not sure what's going on with me tonight. I was cold even though I had a blanket on and I kept feeling anxiety that woke me up. It's a real weird feeling that I could do without. I guess I should head back to bed and try to get back to sleep. I hope Harley is able to get back to sleep too.

Day # 34 with Harley

We did some more mat work tonight and Harley did a wonderful job. He really seems to understand that he needs to get on the mat and lay down to get a treat. We also worked a little bit on the other stuff but mostly the mat work. He's in his kennel right now because David is eating some deli meat and cheese. I don't want Harley begging for food. I did give him a small piece of cheese to see if he would eat it and he did. I'll only use that for a VERY special treat. Tomorrow I need to take him for a couple of walks and over to PetsMart. We didn't walk today because of the wind. I know that I need to walk him every day but I haven't been. I'm not quite sure what I'm waiting for to get going with a routine but I'm not going to beat myself up about it. He seems to be getting enough physical energy out each day by playing outside and running the fence when the other dogs are out. He loves doing that.

I keep thinking about the change Harley has made in my life and how I'm so grateful that I found him. He's been so good for me. It's a challenge sometimes but it's not anything that I can't handle. There are a few moments when I feel overwhelmed but I think it has more to do with me than it does with Harley. It's usually a day when other things are getting to me and anything Harley (or David for that matter) does overwhelms me. Thankfully there are only moments now and then that feel that way. Mostly Harley is a bundle of joy.

I ordered some bison bones online tonight. They are way cheaper than getting them here in town and the shipping was free. I'm not sure what they will be like so I only got one bag (about 5 pounds or approximately 4 bones). I hope Harley likes them. I should be getting the other stuff I ordered pretty soon (the diner, pheasant, Tug-a-Jug and Buster Cube). I can't wait to see how Harley does with the Buster Cube. Here are two pictures of Huxley and Blitz playing with their Buster Cube (I'm not sure what happened to it).



I can imagine that Harley will figure it out quickly and we'll have to choose the difficult setting for him after a short time at the easy setting. Huxley and Blitz always liked the Buster Cube and it was fun watching them play with it.

I put Harley in his kennel again because he was biting. He's playing with his bison bone. It's old and he's pretty much eaten everything off of it but he seems to find a piece here or there to chew on. I'd keep getting them here in town if they weren't so expensive (from the natural pet market).

Well, it's almost bedtime. I'm grateful that Harley goes to bed without any fuss. I hope that doesn't change. He doesn't seem to mind being in his kennel in the bedroom when we are in there sleeping or napping. I think as he gets older it will be easy to get him to sleep on the floor on his bed. He's not ready for that yet though. I couldn't trust him not to chew things during the middle of the night. He's safer and happier in his kennel. I'm happier too not having to worry about him and being able to sleep.

September 11, 2009

Harley is eating dinner from his Busy Buddy Kibble Nibble. Well, that was quick. He's already done. I just put some more kibble in a Kong for him. Dinner needs to take a lot longer than it is at this point. It's taking longer than it was when he was eating out of a bowl though, so that's good. He's learning that he can jump up and put his front paws on the counters. This is really starting to get fun! ;) I'm going to have to really work on 'off' now too.

We worked with the mat tonight. He did really well. He's getting the hand signals for sit, down and paw. He's figuring out that he needs to go on the mat and lay down in order to get a treat. I'll practice it again with him later. We also need to work on leave it. I'm not doing so well teaching him that command and I really need to get him to do it. That will help with the resource guarding I believe.

Now he's laying down playing with his duck. I can't wait until his pheasant gets here. I'm sure he's smart enough to figure out the Tug-a-Jug but it's not easy at first. It will be fun seeing him figure it out.

As a side note, today is 9-11. Eight years ago today. Please never forget.

Resource guarding

I did some research on resource guarding and found some interesting suggestions. Basically you let the dog know that you're not going to steal his stuff, that you'll trade for it instead. He needs to know that good things will happen when you do need to take something from him (or more to the point when you make him give you something). We'll have to work on that with Harley. I'm working more with him on hand signals for sit, down, up and paw. He's doing okay so far. I'll just keep working with him until he gets it. Oh yeah, working on the hand signal for roll over too. I haven't done any mat work with him this week. I'll have the rest of today and tomorrow to work with him. Sunday morning too but I don't want to wear him out before class starts by training too much on training day.

I'll still talk to Christine on Sunday about the resource guarding and see what her take is on it.

A blustery day

It is VERY windy out today. Harley didn't want to go out at first because of the wind but he eventually went out and did his business. He's been pretty quiet today. There are a couple of things he did today that concern me. The first one is that he is growling and biting when I go to reach for something he has in his mouth, especially a food dispensing toy. The second thing is that when I try to pick something up off of the floor he goes after me. I'll have to do some research on those things and also talk to Christine on Sunday. I'm sure it's something we can remedy pretty quickly as long as we nip it in the bud.

Harley went outside earlier and I noticed that the poop bucket has been blown out into the yard. The bag was still in it but whipping around. Harley was afraid of it. He stayed on the porch. When I brought the bucket up onto the porch so it wouldn't blow away again he got scared and peed on the porch (he was going out to pee anyway). I don't want him to be afraid of things so I've left the bucket on the porch so he can check it out (which he just did when I let him out again).

He's keeping himself pretty busy today playing with his toys. I'd like to take him out for a walk but the wind is really whipping. Hopefully it will settle down and I can take him out later today.

2nd walk of the day

Harley and I did another walk around the cul de sac. He did really well. He did a lot of running around and playing in the house too so he's sleeping right now. He bit his leash on the way out and on the way back in but not during the walk. I'm not sure if I'll get another walk in tonight or not. I do need to practice for class on Sunday though. We've got to do the mat work and leave it. I haven't spent enough time with him on either of those behaviors. I don't think it will take much work to make him play dead when I say bang. That will be so cute. I'm going to try to get a few things done while he's sleeping.

Adventure at PetsMart

Harley and I went over to PetsMart. I walked him up and down every aisle. I made him do sit and down at the end of each aisle. I even had him do paw. Even with all the distractions (sights, smells, tastes and noises) he was able to do his commands. He's pooped out now and sleeping on the kitchen floor. He didn't go after his leash at all. I also made him do sit and down outside of PetsMart and he was able to do it there too. I took him out as soon as we got home but got impatient and brought him in before he did his business. Needless to say, I'm washing his bed right now. I was able to get him out to finish peeing outside though. My fault for not waiting for him to go. He had water in the car and when he got home so I should have known better. It's all good though. The bed washes really well. I need to check his other bed and make sure he hasn't had any accidents in there. He didn't seem real anxious to go out this morning. I don't want him to get in the habit of peeing in his kennel. That would be a bad thing. Now he's laying down over by my chair. He likes being near me and I like having him near.

I'm waiting for one final box of pet supplies. It's the raised diner, the AKC Pheasant, the Buster Cube and the Tug-A-Jug. I want him to have different ways to get his meals each day. I don't want him to get bored. I want to keep his mind working. A tired puppy is a happy puppy (which makes for a happy owner!).

I'll take him out for another short walk around the cul de sac before he has lunch. Then I'll feed him his food in his Busy Buddy Kibble Nibble. It dispenses the food slowly as he pushes it around. He seems to like it.


Boy he's wiped out from all the activity we've had this morning. I'll have to leave him for a couple of hours this afternoon while I go to my appointment with Marianne. I'm going to leave him in his big kennel without the bed in it in case he has another accident. I'll give him his Everlasting Treat Ball. That will keep him busy. Here's what it looks like. There are two flying saucer shaped hard treats that fit in each end of the ball.


He has lots of chew toys and he is pretty good about not chewing on other things. I've had to spray a few things with Bitter Apple and Phooey but not much (pieces of the carpet that are coming up, the recycle bag and my sneakers). He's not chewing on wires or furniture at this point. I hope that holds up.

I think I may go take a nap while he's in the mood for a nap. I have time before my appointment.

A little victory

We did our walk this morning. Lots of red light/green light but we did it. He was biting the leash when we were in the house but when we got outside he stopped biting it (for the most part). Every time he pulled, I stopped and he sat. Then when there was slack in the leash we would walk a few more steps. It felt great to get him out there for a walk. We made it around the cul de sac. That's progress (before we were barely getting out of the driveway). He's been playing since we got back. We tried retrieve a few times. I throw a toy, he gets it and comes back to me but doesn't want to give up the toy. He will at some point. I just have to keep working with him.

There's a piece of the carpet, by the sliding door, that is loose and he's always trying to get at it. I've sprayed it with Phooey and that seems to keep him away for a least awhile.

I just went and made sure the yard is picked up because it is trash day. Not much to pick up thankfully. I'm glad that I'm able to keep up with my little pooping machine.

I think I'll take him over to PetsMart this morning and working on our commands while we are there. He has to be able to do the commands no matter where we are. I'll try them outside of PetsMart too. He definitely needs to get out though. It's already Thursday and class is coming up pretty quickly. We have lots of work to do though.

a piece of Heaven

We've had Harley for 33 days now. It's only 3:30am so this 33rd day has really started yet. Harley is in his kennel sleeping. Something woke me up so here I am. I'll be heading back to bed in just a few minutes. I'm making a commitment to walk Harley at least 2x each day even if he's giving me a hard time (pulling, biting the leash, throwing himself on the ground, etc.). I'm going to dictate the walk. I haven't been calm and assertive, I've been fearful that he would give me a hard time again. I'm going to use visualization and see Harley and me walking together without incident. I have to project the image in my mind of what I want in reality. I know he can do this and I know that I can do this too. I really am determined to do my best with Harley.

I think I've been nervous about sharing Harley with my friends because I'm afraid that he'll go all puppy on us. He's a puppy and they are older dogs, more laid back dogs. Harley is full throttle even when he's sleeping, he sleeps hard. He puts his whole being into whatever he is doing at the time whether it's playing, relaxing or sleeping. I love that he is committed to himself. I need to be just as committed and not be nervous because that transfers to Harley. He definitely feels what is going on with me. If I'm nervous about him meeting my friends and their dogs then Harley will be nervous meeting them too. I don't want that for Harley.

I just realized that I haven't taken Harley out much in the last couple of days. I think it's because he's been having such difficulty with the leash. I need to get him out there later today. I'll take him over to PetsMart and just walk around with him. I'll just walk up and down the aisles with him. I'd like to bring him up to the trail but it takes way longer to get there and back than it does to be there. I love bringing him up there though. I think I've been quitting too soon with Harley. I know he is capable of so much more than I'm getting out of him right now. I need to rededicate myself to him.

An interesting thought just ran through my mind. Harley is like a little piece of Jesus. What I'm giving to Harley I am learning to give not only to others but to myself. I can rededicate myself to Jesus by doing the same with Harley. Jesus always talks about 'doing for the least of these' is like doing for him. I can see that with my relationship with Harley. I'm not trying to get all profound here but I want to keep this blog real and show the true picture of life with Harley.

So it's day number 33 with Harley. He's learned a lot in one month's time. I think the next trick I'm going to work on with him is to play dead when I say 'bang'. He's already got sit, down and over so I think he could learn to do it all on command (than command being 'bang'). He needs to know how to do a lot of tricks to keep his mind working. Anyway, back to day #33. I'm grateful that I have very little time where I feel like I'm not a good enough owner for Harley. I felt like that all the time with the GSP's. I know I'm the right owner for Harley and I see having him for the rest of his life (or mine, whichever comes first). I am committed to Harley. I am responsible for Harley. He is my dog. I need to put in the time with him. If I don't I'll pay for it later with a misbehaving dog and I don't want that to happen. He's too smart and willing to please me. I need to take advantage of that fact.

I opened Harley's kennel but he had no interest in getting out. I'm surprised that he didn't want to go out to do his business. I'll check his bed in the morning to make sure he didn't pee in his kennel. I wouldn't want him to start doing that especially since he's so good about letting me know when he needs to go out. I rarely think about him having an accident in the house. If he did it would be because I wasn't paying attention to his cues.

I love Harley. I love the changes he is making in my life and I love the changes I'm making in his. He's my little piece of Heaven.