November Tricks
Poor Vito, he is not feeling so hot. While Vito may not be the fastest eater on earth averaging 10 minutes for just under 1 cup of food (2/3c + 1/4c to be exact, I'm a stickler!), not eating at all isn't a good sign for him. First he didn't want breakfast, so I put it away. He came with me to work for a few hours and was eager to perform some tricks for me in my downtime, but still spit out all kibble. He finally did decide to eat breakfast but then thew up bile at 5 and now doesn't want dinner.
Still doesn't want to miss out on training though! His always excited attitude still ran through our practice and even wanted to do some shaping. After every click he would excitedly sprint to my waiting hand, but then not take the offered piece of food. I'm not really worried about him, yet, I just hope he feels better tomorrow!
For my November trick goal I settled on the very basic jump though my arms. So far Lance has gone through his avoidance issue that he does anytime I want him doing something new while interacting with a part of my body but it was much better this time and I think we are done with that nonsense now. I don't need a target or lure anymore and he has even added a cute little twist where he weaves through my legs right after the jump :)
Vito took a bit on convincing that I do NOT want him to pray on my arms! Even when set up at a distance, he would run up, screech to a halt and pray. Then he moved on to trying to blast through my arms, just like a video game character who meets a wall and keeps trying to go forward! But now he's happily going through nicely.
Since it looks like I need a new trick I decided to reattempt the paw on nose trick. This is one trick that I just can't get! I can get my dogs pawing at their nose, even without any aids, but I can not get them to hold it there for even a microsecond! I suppose I could call it "got an itch?" because that is all I have ever gotten them to do! So far I am not doing any better than my previous experiences.
And on a side note, I was thinking about how long it takes Vito to actually chew every piece of kibble and calculated that Lance could happily inhale 20 cups of food in the time it takes Vito to eat 1 cup! That would be one happy, and very sick, corgi!
Poor Vito! Hope he's feeling better soon. Is he drinking, at least?
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Jack@PDB
dog beds and more
Is Vito feeling any better today?
Kind've feeling better. Ate breakfast but only ate half of dinner. Still wants to play a lot.
I hope Vito feels better soon. No doubt you'll be using your poop detective skills to look for foreign bodies.
Mango Momma
Yeah, I have a few tricks like that with Honey that never seem to progress much or go anywhere and so I often get bored and stop trying! :-) She isn't good on the 'paw on nose' trick either - although I don't know if that's partly her anatomy - coz her legs are so long relative to her body and her elbow is so high up near her chest, she seems to find it difficult to bend it enough to hold it on her nose comfortably...
The other trick we keep struggling is the "cross your legs" trick - again, she just can't seem to make the crossover easily - she'll put one paw on top of the other but not really make an "X" like I see smaller dogs do. These tricks seem to physically uncomfortable and unenjoyable for her to do that I often just give up trying to make her do them, so we never seem to improve...
Hey - sorry I was late with the trick suggestions - having a manic time at the moment with work deadlines & other projects and getting ready for our big move (again!) so very behind with reading blogs - but I was doing ask if you'd taught that reverse through legs trick? That's a very popular dancing move. I think both Lance & Vito can reverse quite well, can't they? See if you can get them face you and back away from you - quite a distance eventually - and then turn 180 degrees and reverse back, until they go through your legs backwards. Very cool trick if you can pull it off! I can't do it, obviously, coz Honey can barely crawl through my legs going forwards never mind backwards but I've seen other 'dancing doggies' do this trick and am always so impressed!
Hsin-Yi
ps. will have to save your Ian Dunbar Pt 2 for another time when I have more time to read & comment properly!
It took Lance forever to learn to cross his paws! He kept making excuses for his stubby paws but then he finally got it and teaching the other way went pretty fast. Why does it have to be an X? Vito crosses in an awkward goofy way that is no where near a pretty X but it works :)
I have taught my boys reverse through my legs. Lance sometimes cheats and comes sideways to me if he's too far out. But really the harder part of that trick for us is the initial backing up away from me. We have a hard time getting past 8ft.
Maybe you can teach Honey do reverse towards you but then go into a backward circle instead of going between your legs!
I hope Vito feels better now :)
I'm having a giveaway on my blog http://justatibetanpup.blogspot.com
I hope you enter!
Maybe a prize will make him feel better
Hey, thanks for your advice about the agility course! I did front between 2 and 3, but didn't think further than that. I stayed on the left side of the tunnel (the tunnel on my right) and tried to front again when she came out of the tunnel. It was a fun course though; I plan on using it in a practice since I have so many ring rentals, and I'll work on the layering. Thanks again!!