The dog musing/vent thread

Holy cheese nips. I need to get some spray or something, because I just found another bloody tick on my dog.

Lone Star tick this time, actually. SOOO gross. Tick Keys are frickin' awesome, though.

Also awesome having a dog with a coat that makes it easy to see ticks a mile away either before they attach or not long after they attach.

It humors me that Addie has applied her "lay down no touch" rule about our Cockatiels, to the neighbors chickens outside. She sees either, she lays down and just watches from a distance. atta girl!

How much is crate games? I'm thinking it would be super useful to me with every dog I bring home. Book or video?

It's $30 on Clean Run. That's for the DVD; I don't know if there is a book version or not.

Gambit caught a bird at work today. Instead of eating it, he presented it to Glitch as a gift. Is it sick that I was more pleased that he's accepting the puppy then grossed out about the bird?

BTW- I didn't let Glitch partake

There isn't a book for Crate Games. I do recommend the DVD and I think there's a lot of good info in it. Even at agility trials (Payton Crack Dealerships) P will absolutely not get out of his crate until a) he is wearing a leash and b) he gets his release word. At home it's on release word only, at a trial he knows even the release word doesn't count if the leash isn't on. He is only good at a very few little things.

For me Crate Games is about more than being chill in the crate (obviously.) It's about a method to start teaching impulse control in general. As to if I think Crate Games actually teaches a dog to LOVE their crate - not really. P was awesome at playing Crate Games while he was having his massive crate temper tantrums, the two things weren't related and continuing to play Crate Games wasn't addressing the real issue.

Yeah, she's about 43 lbs. I wouldn't necessarily say that she's heavy on her feet, just that she's not used to the whole idea of perching on an unstable surface. And it was tough because I didn't have a partner to help me keep her from falling and tell me if I was bending over enough. So a lot of the time I ended up bending over with a very angled back and she would jump up and try to latch on with her nails and then slide off. And the bruises are mainly from the rebounds that she was doing off of my back, which hurt like heck.

Well at least that experience made me really crack down on her nails. And that's basically what happened with Fable. She's kind of an awkward shape though (long body, deep chest, short-ish legs), which makes it that much more difficult for her.

No, I don't care that people recommend it. I bought the video, took notes, followed the instructions to a T, and for a while really liked it. But, then I realized it created so much drive and anticipation for this game that my dog was playing, that he was in an aroused state of mind for the entirety of his confinement in the crate, waiting to fire off at any moment out of frustration. It created a dog that would happily go into the crate, but could not calm down inside it once I was actually gone and he didn't have direction, and the excitement of me returning (on top of this aroused state of mind) created many displacement behaviors that I am not happy with.

Other than separation anxiety in my first dog, I've never had a problem crate training a dog before or since. What is that, 10 or 15 dogs? I have convinced myself that this was the only thing I did different and it set him up to fail. I have been using my own crate methods since he was about 7 or 8 months, and have been undoing all of those things I taught and arousal I built. He is finally, at 20 months old, to the point where I can open the car on a good day, and find him laying down quietly waiting. In the house it is still a work in progress.

Ordered a 33 pound bag of Fromm off of Chewy because Wilson was doing really well on it and of course not even two weeks since it's gotten here and he decided he doesn't want to eat it anymore and gets a grumbly tummy every time he does :/

Thank you <3

This is really good info, good and bad. I think I actually will get it. It sounds like it could be an awesome tool.

Thay's a really good point, thanks for sharing.

I did a lot of work on leaving, and coming back when he was young, gradually making the time i was gone longer and longer (like when I was at my folks I would get in the truck, go down and get the mail and come back) and he was cool with that ... UNTIL I started GOING places with him. I SWEAR the smarty pants figured out that going places was FUN and he learned, somehow when I was leaving and going out ... without him, so when I leave he doesnt want to go in, he will however, go in during the day, and at meal times (he doesnt stay in there at night anymore) if he wants to.

Silly dog.

And I never did crate games, either, it just never clicked with us.

Our vent today is poor Lincoln started sneezing A LOT yesterday, so I checked his nose for something like a foxtail, but there was nothing in there, and he could breathe out of both nostrils, so no obstruction. He was fine all day until he started playing with Josefina, so I dont know if that was coincidental, or if she rolled in some pollen or something.

He isnt the only one, OH and I are both sneezing, too -_-

I have never ever used crate games and I have to say, this is precisely what I was afraid of. Kastle already has issues with appropriate outlets for arousal, let alone if I let him think that the crate was a game...

You're very welcome. I still keep it in my toolbox, and have recommended it for some clients. But in general, there is rage towards it. lol


Yeeeap. I think for sensitive dogs, low energy or low drive dogs, ie- the right dog, it could be perfect and great.. For high energy, high drive dogs... I don't think it's a good idea and caution people to tread lightly.

See I kind of just picked pieces of crate games while I was crate training and that is really one of the few places my dog does settle well.

I did not do the racing to/from the crate part. I did the intro part with getting leashed up/waiting to be released and the manners part with chilling quietly inside the crate.

That's exactly what I did because I was trying to get him to chill in the crate, so I had no desire to have him sprint in and out. I also used middle level rewards, not top tier. I can totally see how lots of it would be counterintuitive to relaxing, especially with a gigh drive dog.

Gusto definitely falls on the "sensitive" end of the spectrum, so that may be why I liked it so much, up to and including the race to the crate/bolt out when released part.

He settles amazingly in the crate, and is perfectly content to lay quietly and either watch or fall asleep while crazy dogs are running agility in his line of sight from the crate, and doesn't even react when dogs run at his crate. He's silent and generally lying down until I put my hand on the latch. But he was also a dog who could settle in the crate before we started crate games. I wouldn't personally skip crate games with any future pup, but it does make me wonder if waiting until they crate quietly first might not be a bad idea. I'll have to ask some people I know who have nicely crating, high drive dogs who also have crate game history which came first. It's certainly possible that they were already quiet craters prior to working on that.

I hate prednisone and I am sincerely glad that we are in the "weaning off" stage. My dog has been a freaking crack addict the whole time she's been on it. She's been a pooping, garbage digging (because APPARENTLY it's made her starving) constantly panting, anxious, always underfoot nuisance and I will be SO GLAD when this weekend is over and we're DONE with it! HATE, HATE, HATE!!!

Also hate allergies that caused the dog to need said prednisone to begin with. WHY?!

Just came back from the vet because Oz's face swelled right up. I thought it was a bee sting. Nope, dog bite.

So we just finished week 2 of crate rest for Rigby. She's in a soft crate in my room, and very happy to go back there after she's gone outside.
I found out that my parents, feeling bad for her, have been leaving my bedroom door open when I'm not around.

Rigby doesn't like when other dogs come too close to her crate when she's locked in (totally fine if the crate is open). For the past 2 weeks Oz has been testing the waters getting closer and closer while she snarls and barks at him (which is why I kept my bedroom door closed).
The other day while I was at work, I guess Oz decided to test the waters again but this time stick his head into her crate as it was partially undone on one side apparently. And Rig bit him.
Just one puncture, but it abscessed and blew up.
Had people left the freaking door closed like I had asked, this wouldn't have happened But no, Rigby is the bad dog in this situation because "Oz deserves to be safe in his own house"

And now they're discussing how bad of an idea it is for me to get a puppy while Rigby is still around. They don't seem to realize that when I get a pup, THEY wont be around to screw up the plans laid out to keep everyone happy and safe.

"And he would have been if you'd closed my door like I asked you to!"