December 2011
48 posts
Christmas morning he was really interested not in presents but in
sniffing the champagne and orange juice, so we tied him up with HIS
present (giant rawhide bone) and he was terrific. That evening we went
to Jenn’s aunt’s house and he was kind of amazing? We brought his mat
for him to have a Chompsky Space and he lay on it with a stuffed Kong
and his dinner and was good! ...
The past two nights he’s slept outside the crate he’s barked at 12:00
am, waking us both up. It’s his “I heard something THIS IS AN
EMERGENCY” bark, which is super annoying. The first time I put him in
his crate but didn’t close the door; this time I put him in his crate
and locked him there. He’s quiet once he gets in his crate. There was...
The past couple nights we’ve been putting Chompsky to bed with the door
unlocked, in case he wanted to leave, but he’s never tried it - maybe
he’s got elephant genes and now assumes the door is invincible? But
tonight he was in his crate for 6 hours as I went to my holiday party,
so when we got home for the first time we didn’t put him in his crate at
night: I put...
So this morning Chompsky starts crying in my office and I think “maybe
he wants to go out?” - so that’s what we do, but he doesn’t pee in our
usual spot, so after a few minutes we go in. Again he’s crying in my
office and I think maybe he wants to be somewhere else, so I let him out
and he goes downstairs and barks. Again: no pee. We go back in and
he’s...
Spent the afternoon with Victor while we went to a Christmas party and
was good for him, and went to bed without complaint when he was supposed
to! This morning he spent more time alone in the crate (it’s going to
be 4 days in a row come Monday) but he’s been good and he got two dog
park visits today: one to the usual one and one to the beach, where
there was nobody else around...
Jenn dropped food on his mat as he lay on it and I rang the doorbell,
and he remained seated! Then I rang the doorbell while she stood nearby
him with food and he was also good at that, only getting up once and
never barking. Nice!
We went to the dog park and normally when a dog is playing too rough he
barks and runs away. This time I held him, which was a mistake, as the
other dogs then...
WatchYesterday at the very rainy tennis court (dog park was empty!) Chompsky played with a wee dog
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What Ryan didn’t mention is that when we were at his parents, Chompsky would get very upset (whining, barking) when people would leave the room. Especially if Ryan left. Because we had to have him on-leash due to his bad behaviour, when people left he REALLY wanted to follow and ended up crying over it.
Distraction worked to some degree but not always. I think it’s a matter of him...
ALSO when we got to the dog park today someone I’ve never met said “Is that
Chompsky? He’s very popular here.”
He’s got a distinctive look but I didn’t know he had fans!!
Okay so updates!
At my parents place he was off-leash and not great (counter surfing,
wandering around) but not awful, and he calmed down while on leash. Dad’s
computer was on the edge of a table and he caught himself in the cables.
He fell through the ice on a walk (!) But saved himself and wanted to go
back, so clearly it was all one giant adventure! Was good in car and on ...
Chompsky knocked over my dad’s laptop and broke it >:(
OH! Also he’s been learning “BANG” play-dead with the gun hand gesture
trick and will do it for dad right away (?) but has only done it
perfectly for me a few times. Still - he’s learning it really quickly!
He shifts from “down” into “BANG” sometimes without asking, but if that
continues we’ll just be quick on the clicker doing down so...
Did more skateboarding on Thursday to and from the dog park, which he
was great at. We drove down to Kingston and he was terrific in the car,
as usual. This is his first time being non-leashed at my parent’s house
and he’s had a little trouble with that: getting excited, and then we
calm him down by giving him something to do: tricks for us, etc. Got
some burrs on his face...
Had a great meeting with Caryn last night! Chompsky LOVED SEEING HER.
We’ve got a new trick to try with doorbells (cheese spoon in yo’ FACE),
the beginnings of play dead and roll over, a new way to sit and some
other tricks I’m excited to try out (mirroring my feet movements and
left/right). Hooray!
He’s been bad about letting us clean his paws (but we can touch...
1 tag
So far today FedEx, Canada Post, and Express Post have all come by and rang
the bell. Not the best for “the doorbell means nothing!” training!
Did more “on your mat” doorbell training tonight and he was better than
last night but still not great. He would get worked up by the doorbell,
even if he wouldn’t bark, and then wanted to show me how he could
wrestle his mat instead of lying on it whenever he had a spare moment.
We’ll keep doing the doorbell “be cool” exercises.
He didn’t pee this...
Did Relaxation Protocol LEVEL 11 and there’s a part where you ring the
doorbell. He flipped out and started barking, so we paused for about 10
minutes while we rang the bell over and over, treating when he didn’t
bark. Then we showed him there was nobody outside while the doorbell
rang, and eventually had him not barking and staying lying down when he
was within eyesight...
Was pretty good over the weekend! I spent a night at Victors (you
already saw the pictures of that) and he was good, BUT, when he was
briefly off-leash he wandered around looking for things to chew / grab
on, so I tied him up again. But he was good and chewed his bone when tied!
We spent a day with friends and their small children, and he was good
with them too. He was on-leash again but...
Chompsky was really good at the office today: lying down and crying a
little, but there was none of the restlessness of two weeks ago when we
were last there. I could’ve stayed indefinitely!
Last night Relaxation Protocol LEVEL 9 was engaged and completed
successfully. Did some crate training which he was great at, and for
the first time stayed in his crate when I opened the door, which I
rewarded heavily. Still some whining when he’s in the crate for bed
without coverings, so I’m going to cover it up half-way tonight and hope
that helps. Was good at the park and...