Chasing Dogs

Had a very frustrating morning at the park. I am now resolved to bring the long line every time we go play fetch. Abby was in full chase mode the whole time, and was especially focused on one dog who isn't usually there in the morning, who was waiting for another dog to get up and play. Abby can always tell when a dog is waiting for something really exciting, and those are the ones that get her going. Today it took quite a bit of effort to call her away from the dog. First I tried 'putting pressure' on her by walking towards her and telling her "enough", but she started her new behaviour (as of 2 weeks ago or so) of racing in circles just outside of me and the dog she is fixated on. When she does that she looks exactly like border collies starting out at herding, with the handler standing with the sheep inside the circle that the dog is making. But...this wasn't sheep, and I was very VERY frustrated that I couldn't get her to stop (she wouldn't down, sit..anything). So I walked away and called her (had to jump around, act all excited, and use all the "something exciting is about to happen words" like "ready?? get your Frisbee!!"), then let her tug and grab a few close, fast throws of the Frisbee as a reward.

I'm just so pessimistic about the long line really making a difference. Right now me saying "NO leave it" obviously has no effect on her when she's set on chasing. I almost always get the 'no' in early enough, and sometimes it does deter her. If the other dog is really excited, though, it's like she doesn't even hear me. So I'm worried that the long line will only work when it's on her, and she'll just keep chasing dogs when I don't attach her to it. She gets so out of her mind frantic that it's hard to see anything working. I guess I should start out by being consistent and using the long line every time so that she never gets to chase anymore.

I guess I should be thankful that she is focused on her ball/Frisbee 90% of the time, otherwise I wouldn't even be able to let her run at all. This chasing really does have to stop, though. Today it had escalated to her running in and nipping at the dog's shoulders. The more I tried to get her to stop, the more frantic she got. That should be telling me that what I'm doing is not working. Maybe I'll also bring the whistle that she responds really well to. I talk to her way too much, so I'm sure my voice becomes background noise. Maybe the whistle will snap her out of it? I don't want to 'ruin' the whistle though by having her not respond to it at the park...

Hopefully my roommate's next foster dog will be a fetch maniac and I'll be able to work on desensitization a lot more easily.

Border/Jack?

How's this for scary?

I found this picture on a flyball team site. The resemblance is a little scary actually. The fact
that the dog is a Border/Jack is even scarier.




















Ok, so I know that no matter what her (lack of) breed is, she's still the same dog...but for the love of God, not a Border/Jack!




And as if this could get any scarier, this is Abby's brother (the blurry photo), and the above Border/Jack's brother:

One week down, one more to go

Another night of studying...sigh.

Can we please play now?

Happy with a bully stick (it lasted for the crucial crunch time before 3 exams)
In her self imposed torture position, under my desk
Pouting under the bed

It's been one week of exams and I'm happy to report that Abby knows no new tricks! She does now have a music video though...

Abby's music video

She has been one bored puppy this week, and has taken to making pitiful whining noises while staring at me from behind my doorway curtain. The only thing that seems to stop her is making her leave the room whenever she starts whining (it got un-cute reallly fast, about 2 hours into studying for microbi). We've been going to the field every morning for at least 45 minutes of frisbee, so that gets her tired enough to sleep for the next couple of hours. We have a short lunchtime play session, and then a half hour evening walk and some training games. She seems very confused as to why I'm home all the time. All morning she expects me to leave for class, and jumps up and runs into her crate at every one of the "signs" - if I close my laptop, brush my teeth, get dressed...It's hard to convince her that I'm not leaving.

It's funny that she still runs into her crate when she knows I'm leaving, since she never gets locked in there anymore. My roommates say that she comes out a couple of minutes after I leave, but as I'm leaving, she is always curled up all the way at the back. She won't come out, doesn't want me to touch her. She is most definitely pouting. When I'm gone she sleeps on my bed and will only come out of my room if coaxed. Such a mama's girl! She won't even play with anyone if I'm not home, especially now that Tryp is gone. He was able to get her to play even when I wasn't home.

Abby's doing pretty well with strangers/dogs while on leash right now, but a lot of that is that I have much better management. She has started looking at me automatically when we see people. I still have to convince her to look at me when there are other dogs. She hasn't lunged at anyone since moving here in September. There was one incident on the field where a man started racing around suddenly to try and get his dog to play, and Abby noticed before I did. She ran after him and jumped on him.

Here's where we are right now with the common triggers/issues:
-people walking past us: she'll automatically look at me most of the time; looks really nervous when it's dark out and people come towards us
-dogs while on leash: we do a detour of at least 15 ft and I can get her to look at me; dogs barking at her will get a reaction from her 50% of the time
-dogs playing fetch: she can be called off the less hyper/enthusiastic ones, but still having a lot of trouble if the dog plays ball Abby-style (ie. super hyped up and excited)
-skateboards: haven't been around one in awhile, but last time we were too close and she screamed and spun
-squirrels: no hope whatsoever of getting her to look at me if they're close, but she will sit while staring at the squirrel

On a side note, Abby is quite good with puppies (off leash only, on leash with other dogs has been a disaster almost every time). There are three yellow lab puppies that go to the field and she is very tolerant of them (much more tolerant than I'd expect her to be). An adorable 10 week old border collie puppy visited yesterday, and she was very gentle with him (except when she smacked him on the head for jumping on me, then play bowed to him...weirdo).
She is much less tolerant with 'teenage' dogs, around 5-9 months. She tells them off constantly. She has been good with other dogs on the field lately, as long as we only go when there aren't big groups of dogs (we went when there was a big group during the snow, which was a mistake. One dog went for Abby after Abby was bossy, and Abby in turn went for every dog within reach, one at a time).

One last thing: She will finally play tug with her leash (funny that I tried so hard to teach her when I tried for years to un-teach Sam). She'll only do it on the 'tug' command though, and it's handy for when I want to play with her but didn't bring a toy. We went to a field tonight and I ran around with her and practiced having her not jump on me (a lot of 'off's, stopping, turning into her...and a couple of accidental leg lifts as she was starting to jump). We alternated running with leash tugging, which she really enjoys.

Trick Videos

Here are some videos of the tricks Abby learned today and during midterms:

Get me a drink

Get your collar and leash

Open/close the door

The Exams Begin

Well, it's day one of the exam period and Abby can now find and bring me her collar and leash. By the end of these three weeks I'll either have a genius dog, or a very bored dog...and my guess is that the number of new tricks that Abby learns will be inversely proportional to how well I do on my exams. During midterms she learned to open the back door to let herself in and close it behind her, and also to get me a drink out of the mini-fridge. Let's just say that midterms didn't go so well :D