I Promise We Didn’t Fall Off the Face of the Planet

By katie, on January 21st, 2011%

I feel bad I have been missing in action around here lately. I promise we are all still alive and well. I hope to get caught up around the blogosphere tomorrow.

I have exciting training news, (okay, not that exciting but still news) but really want to save it for it’s own post. Just to peak your curiosity it is Training Levels news at last!

Maizey News
In other day to day goings on Maizey’s eyes seem to be doing okay. She is on an antibiotic and ointment for the eye infection. She has a recheck with the ophthalmologist in two weeks or so, hopefully it is cleared up by then.

In the mean time we have been working on shaping her to take her antibiotic instead of bribing her by slathering it in peanut butter. I feel bad for her having to take something so icky so we are using very high value treats to erase the yucky taste from her memory.

Since she may have a long run of antibiotics or allergy pills ahead of her I thought we would should see if she can learn to take it without the bribing. I would love any suggestions if anyone else has experience with daily pill giving.

Magnus News
In Magnus news, he and I are headed to the vet to find out when he can get his extra set of teeth pulled. I really, really, really did not want him to be put under anesthetic just for baby teeth removal, but it’s pretty obvious they aren’t going to come out on their own before they ruin his bite. So I guess we will up the pet budget this month, bite the bullet and get it done.

2Legged News
In real life news, Meusbandy started a new job. This is good news, but since it’s a completely new line of work if has meant many changes. We are now in a green business of hauling and recycling cardboard!

It has been a time and energy consuming process to for both of us to learn new things, as I will be doing all of the record keeping for us. I forgot how much time even the little things like business licenses, cards, insurances, etc. etc. etc. take to get set up.

Thankfully I think we are coming ’round the bend with that and I will be able to spend more time on what really matters-the dogs! They are feeling very neglected with Crazymomlady and Moneybagsdad working so much. They are used to me having much more time for games than I have this week.

In a last bit of news I am attending a K9 First Aid seminar at CAD’s on Sunday. I am excited to have the opportunity and will report back how it goes.

Walking Challenge News
Until then I would love to hear everyones progress on the Walking Challenge. You are all whooping my busy behind and I want to keep up to date. Plus then I will have that much more motivation to get out there and march!

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17 comments   4legged health or the lack thereof, day to day doings, walking challenges   , , ,   Copyright © 2011 Lessons From and For 4 Legs - All Rights Reserved

Training Challenge Week 2: Meeka’s Challenge and CGC is Hard For Social Butterflies

By katie, on August 15th, 2010%

Meeka joins our challenge this week with “first time in a seat belt harness” substituting for something out of her comfort zone.

"Check me out, I'm wearin' read!"

Mehusbandy was wondering what Meeka was doing for Ricky’s Training Challenge. I told him Meeka didn’t really qualify for this challenge because there really isn’t anything our of her comfort zone! She is my solid, stable girl. Her 4legged lesson to me is always:

"be comfortable in your skin crazymomlady and don't worry!"

I always think of the CGC (Canine Good Citizenship) and in my naivety I think, “oh, she (whichever girl) could do that. . . or that. . . or. . .” well you get the idea. And Meeka could, no doubt about it. But when I started breaking it down I was surprised how many things there were that Maizey would find challenging.

I feel strongly that a dog who passes the CGC should really be able to pass with flying colors. There is nothing worse that a pup, or a child, or an adult, that says they qualify for something but end up being not such a shining example.

So with Maizey I really want her to be solid with the skills. Obviously Test 8: Reaction to another dog is not passable at this stage but I decided I was focusing too much on that as a problem area. While I don’t think that was really affecting Maizey negatively,it was affecting my motivation negatively.

So I decided to keeping doing what we are doing with reactivity and refocus on ALL her skills. Out of the ten items on the CGC test I see only two others that may pose a significant challenge. One is Test 1: Accepting a friendly stranger and the other is Test 10: Supervised separation.

With test item 1 the problem is that she is too accepting of friendly strangers. She pretty much thinks every human in the world wants smothered by Maizey ‘face hugs’. Since she is too little to reach their face she settles with jumping all over them. Not that we allow this, but she thinks we fixed her knees to restore her position as resident spring of our house.

The CGC test rules state: “The evaluator and handler shake hands and exchange pleasantries. The dog . . . must not break position or try to go to the evaluator.” So meet and greets of the 2legged variety has moved to the top of the Maizey Lessons Priority list.

(Due to the sheer volume of her challenges this post has been split for easier management by all readers. So do you need a break before learning how many 2legged friends Maizey smothered on CGC Prep Training Challenge? Take a breather and then dive in to see if any survived!)

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6 comments   CGC, training challenges   , , ,   Copyright © 2011 Lessons From and For 4 Legs - All Rights Reserved

Feet From 4Legs and Feet From 2Legs

By katie, on July 28th, 2010%

Recently commented about the crazymomlady on a family site:

“katie loves feet pictures”

I guess they were right!

Whose feet are bigger?

Whose feet are bigger now?

The 4Legged lesson: photos should be for what brings you joy.

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2 comments   pictures photos and memories   ,   Copyright © 2011 Lessons From and For 4 Legs - All Rights Reserved