Sunday, August 8, 2010

I am no longer puppyless; all is well!

After a fun week in San Diego, I am back and have my puppy again! With the Give a Day, Get a Disney Day program, my family and I got free tickets to Disneyland for volunteering with Guide Dogs :) It was a fun vacation, though it felt really weird going places without a dog. The other day I wore my "Ask Me About My Puppy" shirt from Fun Day, and then I realized I had no puppy with me! One guy said, "so, what about your puppy??" oops.

Don was at the GD kennels for the later half of the week, so we went to the puppysitters house first to pick up his stuff, then headed to GDB. Don did really well at the puppysitters. Of course, he had his Don moments (eating tanbark in the yard) but I was glad to hear that he played well with their career change dog Bente, and they said he was super on outings! And they said he was very quiet, good on tie-down and crate. He really loves dogs, they said he had a blast playing with Bente and that they got along well.

A question for you- how do you stop your dog from picking up tanbark, grass, etc. in the yard? I usually don't let him in the yard, only on-leash when practicing his "come". But, they said he was picking up stuff in their yard, so now I am wondering if I should let him out in the yard more often and work on not picking stuff up. Any suggestions?

Without a puppy, I had lots of time to work on my club's website. Below is the logo I've been working on. I think it's finished now!


Don was really happy to see me :) He had his "happy ears" on. Unfortunately, Don is having some diarrhea trouble since I picked him up. I am hoping it'll be better tomorrow, if not I think I'll put him on the bland diet.
I'm glad to have my puppy back! Don got a bath, so now he smells like Mango Tango shampoo. He's had a fun time with his new Kong, and is exhausted now. With only one more week of summer left, I'm hoping that Don and I will go on lots of great outings!



10 comments:

  1. To stop them from picking things up, I just correct..over and over. Joel's really into picking up rocks, sticks, etc. so I just take it out of his mouth, and then give him a more appropriate option like a nylabone. It's a pain to keep up, but it's worked with my last two pups. Good luck! (I love your website logo,by the way!)

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  2. Cabana used to constantly pick up tanbark in our yard and on walks, too, but at some point, she just stopped. Like Emily said, I would try to correct when she was going for the bark--but if I was too late, I would follow through by sticking my fingers in Cabana's mouth to extract the object. I wanted her to know that she wasn't getting away with it.

    Now, Cabana leaves everything alone--EXCEPT CAT POOP. She zooms in on it wherever we are. Now I can read the signs that she's gotten a whiff of cat poop and is about to bolt over to it. But if I'm too late, I still stick my hand in her mouth and try to grab the cat poop before she can swallow it. It's DISGUSTING, but if I let her eat it, I know she'll never stop going after it.

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  3. For eating stuff I play the trade game. "if you pick something up and bring it to me I will trade your for something better." retrievers are bred to be oral creatures, they were bred to retrieve birds. I gave up fighting with puppies about it and just impliment constant trade programs. Then as they get older they have learned rather than eat things to bring them to me if they find something and about then I stop trading and just say "thank you" and usually by that time they've grown up some and aren't as mouthy so really the amount of stuff they pick up decreases significantly and it becomes a non issue.

    I really really like your logo!! That came out awesome!

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  4. Also I don't know if you want to know this but you have comment CAPTCHA enabled and so people with visual disabilities cannot comment on your blog easily or even at all in some cases. Most people if they are worried about spam comments and still want their blog to be accessible will institude comment moderation. Just an FYI.

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  5. Hey, and you did a fabulous job on the logo! I like how you even gradated the color on the yellow lab puppy. Really awesome, even more so since I know you were limited by the software.

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  6. I got this really long (I think it's like 12ft) tie down at a yar supply store. When Rocco was little I wouldn't let him out in the yard for play time unless he was on it. So whenever he started to pick something up I would give correction. If had already got something I would drag him toward me and take from his mouth and let him play. I don't know if I would do the "tade game" with him. GDB doesn't like us to teach them to "fetch" and it sounds pretty similar. But do a version of it like let him play around a little while after the thing is out of his mouth then give him a toy. That way he doesn't associate picking up bad things with playing. He might learn that you're happy when he picks something up the other way. If he picks up something don't chase him. That makes it a game and he'll continue to pick things up. Also, don't make it seem like a big deal. If the dogs think that it's important for you, they'll want to pick it up all the more. That's my 2 cents and I hope it helps.

    Love the logo! It looks great!

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  7. I agree with Katrin, and no its not fetching something because that would entail you sending the dog to get it, or throwing it for the dog. :)

    Also had I known I could have just put down myself as a volunteer to get that Disney day we could have saved ourselves some work! LOL!!

    Oh well, we got tickets as well and hope to use them later on this year!

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  8. Love the logo -- impressive!

    That was funny about the t-shirt. :)

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  9. Thank you so much to everyone for giving me such great advice! I am so grateful to all you guys, the blogging world is a great place to get help! Thank you.

    Katrin, thanks for letting me know about the CAPTCHA. So sorry about that, I find them annoying myself! I think I fixed it, but please let me know if it's still there.

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  10. Welcome home! I can just see Don's happy ears -- love that description.

    The logo is really good. I can't wait to see the site live.

    Thanks to all your followers for their comments. Silky isn't picking up bark because we don't take her to the bark area anymore ;) She will dive after acorns, little pebbles and leaves blowing by.

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