All About Your Dog - Mani

This was a video that was first started by haylz27 on YouTube. The original video is of her dog Indi. Do a video for your dog and post a video response to her video.

Mani:



Mani Video!

Pictures of Mani in Savannah

I have made a post on my Picture Blog of my Savannah Trip.

There are some Mani pictures there as well.

Crate Training . . . What's Next?

When I got Mani he was already crate trained, spending all night in his crate. He was not allowed to sleep with me because he was not fully housetrained yet. He was 8mo and not completely reliable. After I could trust him I started expanding the crate training to mean more to him and more reliable for me. The first thing I did was get him to be able to stay in his crate throughout the night with the crate door open. Not a big deal. The next thing was for him to use the crate as a default. If I don’t ask him up on the bed with me, or I tell him to get off. He is to sleep in his crate without me needing to tell him.

This was very different from my other dog, a Teacup Poodle. She automatically would go into her dog bed and sleep. If I asked her to sleep in the bed with me she would. But in the middle of the night she might jump off to sleep in her bed. She was in no way crate trained. She would scream if we left her alone. If I put her in a crate and left she would scream. But she was okay with the crate. If she knew I was right with her.



It has been getting hot, so I did not want him to have to sleep in his crate if he does not want to. So we got him a dog bed. Another one. I added a release cue to this one, the same way I crate trained duration. From there I had him sleep on a mat, then just on the floor. About a week ago, he spent his first full night on the floor with no verbal command or hand signal telling him what to do. He did it all on his own.



My goals for Mani in his next crate training is to build up drive and distance to his crate.

Right now we are working on distance with going into his crate. If his crate is highly visible to him, I can be across the room and tell him to get in. I am hoping to get to the point where I can be in a different room and know that he will go into his crate. We are almost there.

I also want to build up his drive to go into his crate. I want him to see his crate as the best thing, and want to run full speed to go to and also go inside and turn around. If I am standing right next to him I can send him in very fast, but I want to build distance for the drive. If I am not ‘running’ with him into his crate or am not standing next to his crate, he will take his time getting to it and going in.

We are working on it.

Pit Bulls

Also shared by ManyMuddyPaws in her post Pitbulls and DreamEyce in her post Pit Bull Blues.

I love Pit Bulls. I have never met one who was not an immediate friend. I have met meaner Chihuahuas, Shih Tzus and Golden Retrievers. I would own one in a heartbeat if the chance came up. I hate how people are afraid of every Pit Bull that they see. It is not the breed that is bad, it is bad owners. Pit Bulls are not a bad breed. People just don’t understand them. The media has it all wrong. There are more dog bites from Alaskan Malamutes than Pit Bulls. But the news can't say that a cute little Malamute bit his owner, it has to be a Pit Bull. A dangerous breed. Pit Bulls are used in Police K-9 Training. If there were such a dangerous breed, would the government really use them to sniff out drugs? All of Michael Vick's dogs that people were able to rescue, even the fighters, are now Therapy Dogs. They work in hospitals and care facilities. No dog attacks there! I am planning on owning a Doberman Pinscher in the future. If a breed ban is presented, it is just a matter of time before another breed takes the place of the Pit Bull.

There are no bad dogs, only bad owners.

Pit Bull Blues



Dogmantics Dog Training TV Episode 2: Pitbulls

Evil Burs

Back from Savannah. We got back Thursday, but we have been so busy, I haven’t had any time to write. Mani is still really good. On our last day in Savannah we went to Tybee Island to relax on the beach and do some sightseeing. We went up to the lighthouse while my sister stayed down and watched the dog. She let him run around and play in the tall grass, thinking nothing of it. Mani really enjoyed running around in the grass.

When we got back in the car, I found this awful, prickly, spiny (and very sharp) bur on him. My fingers were bleeding from pulling it out. I thought he had only one bur on him, so I didn't check for others.

We went to the beach after seeing the Lighthouse. Since dogs were not allowed on the beach (bummer) due to nesting turtles, half of us went to the dog park while the others stayed on the beach. Mani normally loves the dog park and loves playing with other dogs. But when we got to the park, he did not want to play. I soon noticed that he was limping. Immediately I grabbed him to see what the problem was. It was more of those evil burs that had embedded themselves into his foot and were inside of his paw pads. Just touching them made him scream.

I started carefully pulling them out with some tweezers, blood was everywhere. He had three in one foot and two in another and one in the last. When I pulled them out, they all bled. They were that deep. My mom poured bottled water over the paws as I pulled the burs out. It was horrible. He hated it. After cleaning it for about 20min, I carried him to the car and put him on a clean towel, he went right to sleep. I did not let him walk anywhere the rest of the day. Did not want anything to get infected.

Now I am glad he was not allowed on the beach because all the sand would have shoved the burs deeper and possibly gotten it infected.

He is fine now. Those were some evil burs. They left my fingers bloody from pulling them out. For the past two days I have been checking him for more; haven’t found any. Hopefully, that was the end of those evil burs!

Chillaxin in Savannah

Blogging from cell phone

Mani is good, going ghost hunting tonight!

Hehe!

Plans.....

At the party on Saturday night, Mani did amazingly. For his very first time doing agility with other people and dogs around him. He only ran away from me during a course twice. The first was when we were starting and I tried a lead out he did the first jump then bolted to the nearest person to say hi. The second time we were starting the course again, the first two jumps were heading in the direction toward people and dogs. He did both jumps saw his friend Lucy in here crate and bolted towards her and jumped on her owners lap giving kisses and everything. Both times were his faults. I had nothing to do with it. I usually blame myself for what he did wrong but those two times were not handler errors. Other than that he and I did great. We did three very hard courses. He did his first 12 pole weaves.

On Sunday we went dock diving, well Mani did not. We went with a friend to her class; the class was pretty much empty so Mani got a chance to swim a little bit. After that we did a little walking and agility. Mani was so tired and so hot but he did whatever I asked him to do.

I am not going to be able to blog too much in the next few weeks. I have family in from California. They all want to go sightseeing and exploring. We are going to Savannah this week. We are going to see ghost and haunting. Hehe! Mani is going with us. I really wish I could have found a kennel to board him at. Oh well. He is just going to have to tuff it.

More Agility

Wow, busy week. I have family coming into town to stay with us. Saturday Mani and I are staying with our agility instructor again. We just love her! She is having an agility party Sat night. We might go dock diving on Sat, but I don't want Mani to be tired, so probably not. I really want to work on Mani's focus on me. Since there are going to be other dogs there, dogs he does not know, he is not even going to know I am there. I am hoping he will not be that bad, but he might be. I have been working on his recall, and I can finally say that in a grassy area with just scent distractions and only me and him he will come when called about 85% of the time. Yay! I know he will probably not be that good with dog distractions. At the most he will come when called, 22% of the time if there is a dog in sight. I just hope he can focus enough to get through a run at the party and stay near me until I can grab him. Keep those fingers crossed.


Mani's new favorite agility obstacle is a pin wheel. He loves them. The first time we did it he went around the pin wheel then up the dog walk, then away from me to the pin wheel again. Don't understand him. Just hoping he will perform in Saturday night.


OH! I forgot to tell the results of my run at the trial. I did horrible. Hehe! Roxy, the Bichon Frise that I was running, would not follow my direction. At the start line she did not want to come with me, then she went the wrong way over a wrong jump (that might have been more my fault) then at the end she missed a jump and finished big! Everyone was very encouraging. But another way to look at it, I did not do any warm up with her before we went on. She knew I did not have any food and she did not understand that I was going to run her. And we did the serpentine perfectly! My very first time. Anyway, it wasn't all bad. I guess.

Mani and I were working on some of his tricks recently. We worked on his suitcase trick. Trying to build distance and better drive. We also worked on some others. I just had to see the videos again.

Clean Dog! . . . . Poor Dog!

I gave Mani a bath today so he can be nice and clean for the trial this weekend; we are going to be meeting lots of people, so he has to look handsome. I also trimmed his feet. I actually gave him a full groom. Like, professional. Anyway he looks so good and actually smells nice too. He might even get a chance to sleep with me tonight.

Click to enlarge!

Decisions... decisions... decisions...

So Mani and I are spending the weekend with our agility trainer. We are going to an agility trial on Saturday and Sunday. Well, maybe Sunday. She had a dock diving class with her dog on Sunday that was cancelled. So we can either go back to the agility trial or go take the dogs swimming together. She also mentioned that if we go back to the agility, I can try running her dog that day.

I have been asking around to see what I should do, and people seem to think that it is a no-brainer. Go to the trial and run her dog! I am very nervous, because I have only met her dog twice. The first time was through a baby gate, the second was when I was running her to practice my front crosses. (Video below).