February 2012
49 posts
Went to the office with a rawhide bone for Chompsky this time and he was really much better! Barked only once (when James came in and he really wanted to say hi) but after James came by to say hi he was cool. He was on his leash the whole time, but was content to stay on his mat and chew. We stayed for about an hour and a half and then walked home!
For dinner we did recall training up and down...
Yesterday I brought him to the office late so he could explore and get used to the space. The first bit he stayed close to me (I was feeding him dinner, so it made sense) but then he started exploring and found a granola bar on the counter (ARGH COUNTER SURFING REWARDING AGAIN) and a few other things that were in this non-Chompsky-proofed space. Next time I’ll check before letting him off...
Chompsky cut in front of the board while doing Skateboard Dog and I bailed
to avoid hitting him. He was fine but I got a few scrapes! Lesson is to
pay attention while doing Skateboard Dog.
He puked a little this morning but seems totally fine and ate his breakfast
afterwards like normal.
At the beach on Sunday Chompsky was TERRIFIC, coming every time we called and staying close - I think this is payoff for previously calling him when he got a little too far (instead of calling him when he was way way far) and rewarding him every single time. He had a great time too, though he didn’t go swimming!
Victor and Sonja dogsat him Sunday afternoon / evening and he was apparently...
Victor and Sonja came over and Chompsky was not terrible but not great.
He didn’t submissively urinate and wasn’t too bad with hopping up
initially, but after the last visit when Sonja let him hug her and lick
her face while she sat, that was ALL HE WANTED TO DO this time. I put
him on leash and he’d settle down, I’d let him off and before long he’d
be trying...
At the office he whined quietly for most of it, but eventually calmed
down. I let him off-leash and he explored without being bad for about
20 minutes, then we went to the dog park and then home. As soon as he
was home he ran upstairs to where he knew his food was and gobbled it,
which was nice to see!
Puked twice outside (which was expected, he was eating grass) and then
cuddled up on his mat to sleep. He hasn’t eaten his breakfast but I’ve
left it out for him in case he changes his mind.
Puked again last night and wasn’t interested in breakfast this morning.
Yesterday he was fine and ran through all his tricks over dinner, so -
morning sickness, I guess? He seems fine now, just not hungry and a
little more affectionate than usual (we’ve noticed that when he’s sick
he becomes a total suck)
Went to the office today, but went to the dog park first and then met
Isabelle and Mally outside and we walked back to the office together.
The idea was to give the dogs a chance to say hi and get used to each
other outdoors and it - kinda worked really well? They walked well
together and then for the 2 hours I was at the office Chompsky whined a
tiny bit but mostly slept, even with Mally...
He’s been better at recall lately: over the weekend we went to the beach
twice and while he wasn’t PERFECT at coming when we called, he was a lot
better and always came in the end. One time he ran off in our general
direction and only focused on us once he got closer, which seemed to
imply he was so far away he couldn’t see us. We’ll work on calling him
to us before...
The night at Heather and Pooch seemed to go well! Heather said he had
improved since last time and only cried in his crate for about 5
minutes, which was nice! After I picked him up we went to the beach
where he was better at staying close (abandoning him overnight works
well for that!) and had a great time playing with the other dogs. Then
we went to Canadian Tire and if I had a...
I left some butter on the counter SUPER BRIEFLY while making lunch and
Chompsky hopped up and grabbed it. THREE WEEKS START AGAIN :(
He’s going to Heather and Pooch tonight for a one-night boarding that’ll
hopefully help him learn that boarding sometimes is just for a short
time! He’s been to the dog park AND for a walk just now, so he
hopefully will be calm.
This week I’ve been stepping outside for a few seconds and closing the
door when I get the mail and he’s always been fine with me being alone.
Today I gave him a chew stick and left for 30 seconds and he was fine,
and later I gave him his dinner in his “roll it around and food comes
out” toy, made sure his chew toys were on his mat, put up the
first-floor barrier and...
Rained today so no dog park visit, instead we thought we’d take him for
a walk! To the new pet store that opened up nearby! On an empty stomach!
So clearly this was not super well-thought out and Chompsky was REALLY
easily distracted by all the food smells at the store. He’d do tricks
for us (sit, lie down) but as soon as he WASN’T doing a trick he was
trying to sniff...
This was supposed to go up on Saturday morning but didn’t post! So
imagine it’s Saturday morning all of a sudden:
Last night Shyla and Josh did combination housesitting and dogsitting
with Chompsky. We forgot to warn him about his counter surfing so he
managed to get a whole slice of pizza (the first time he’s ever gotten a
counter-surfing jackpot like that), and was...
Yesterday Chompsky met Steve and Leslie and Tory and Kean and was pretty good! He was less excited to see Emily than his usual freakout (which is good) but still excited enough to lose his mind a little bit (taking a few tries to remember where his mat was for “on your mat”; hopping up on the couch to mirror Emily’s position of sitting backwards on the couch leaning over...
Walking into the office I was stopped twice: once by a woman with a dog
who loved Chompsky’s look and once by a streetcar driver who literally
stopped his car in the middle of the road while turning and shouted out
“Excuse me! I hope I’m not bothering you. What breed is that?”
Everyone loves Chompsky!
Except Mally!
At the office the other dog, Mally, tried to eat...
Was good on Jenn’s sick day yesterday: had a great time at the dog park
(Miles showed up! YAY) and wasn’t too bad while I was away. We ran
through his tricks for dinner, focusing on “bow”. He’s been sleeping
out of his crate (with the door open if he wants to go in) most nights
and I haven’t mentioned it here because he hasn’t been barking! But...
Had a great meeting with Caryn last night. We’re going to start on leaving him alone outside of his crate (exciting!) and got some tips for recall. Chompsky’s “drop it” is pretty good and we reward him every time to keep it good, but he’ll pick stuff in the house and bring it to show us, dropping it sometimes even before we tell him to. He knows how to get treats! So we’ll be introducing a...
So I’ve been trying really hard to keep everything clean on the counters.
Today Chompsky tried to one-up me by stealing my phone off the counter. Not
cool. 500 dollar toy?
So as quickly as he got sick (went to bed fine, woke up sick) Chompsky
has made a recovery? When Jenn got home around 6 he barked at the door
noises (first time he’d really moved quickly all day) and by the time
dinner was prepared he was feeling good enough to pop his head up on the
counter and look around. Currently he’s going wild chasing an empty 2L
pop bottle around the...
Chompsky has decided he doesn’t really want to go up and down stairs (he
hovered at the top of the at lunch, and didn’t want to follow me back up
afterwards) so I’m working on the main floor with him. He seems a bit
restless, moving around and finding different places to snooze.
Finally had a little bit of water at noon. He threw up again at 1:30 :(
Slept quietly out of his crate last night!
This morning he wasn’t eating his breakfast (never done that before!)
and whining a bit, so I took him outside early. He gobbled grass, and
it seemed like he wanted to puke, so I let him do that. Sure enough he
puked a few minutes later: just bile and grass. When I brought him in
he was a super suck to Jenn, going in for all the snuggles,...