go backJanuary trips and visitors
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31.01.2006
Beti is still trying to get to the cupboard. There has been some progress after 3-4 sessions. Beti now takes a rope in her mouth and pulls gently! I tried to do this exercise in other circumstances and Beti recognizes the situation. She tries to do the right thing in order to get a treat.:)
29.01.2006
Bydgoszcz has almost become our second home,;) There is Amber’s „son” and Beti’s „sister” so it is a great place for family reunions. And we do have family meetings! But I will write about it later…
Our trips give me the possibility to introduce the elements of training that I need, but which I am not able to do on my own.
I mean two things. Leaving Beti with strangers – we practice this element every time we are there (actually Beti practices on her own;)) I leave Beti when she is relaxed, for example plays – this is completely natural. But I also leave her when nothing is going on and she can see me go.;)
Another thing is reacting on commands given by strangers. It is quite difficult and I completely didn’t do this with Amber. Now that I spend time with so many dog lovers every few weeks there is no problem finding people willing to practice with Beti. I must say it goes pretty well! Yesterday Beti showed the whole set of her tricks. She did everything right including an exercise that I have just introduced – indicating a person’s stomach with her nose…
Beti has always been quiet at our trips. Of course she always has time to run with other dogs, but I generally work to calm her down and focus her attention. I can see the same kind of behavior I noticed in Amber. If it is play time we play until the dogs have enough, but if it is time to focus there is no problem at all. If the dogs are supposed to be quiet they simply go to sleep, that’s it.;)
After three days of sleeping ;) we visited Basta (Beti’s sister). This time the ladies recognized each other right away and started their games; biting, and running when we went for a walk.:) they didn’t even look at Amber, who either watched and separated them or provoked them to play with him. They were both very happy! Oh yes, we like the Wolfdog walks together!
After almost three months together I know that there is no shrew in Beti any more. This is why I have changed the title and purpose of my journal.
24.01.2006
We practice all tricks that we have learnt so far every day, sometimes even a couple of times a day. A few treats and just a minute is enough to practice.:) For Beti even dog food is fine, she would do anything to get it.:)))
I am introducing two new tricks: indicating a person’s stomach and opening a cupboard. It’s easy to teach her the firs one. It’s the same as indicating a hand or a knee. It’s more difficult with opening a cupboard. Of course, a lot of people will smile and say that many Wolfdogs can open cupboards without learning! But I want to teach Beti to do this on command. It is a complex exercise and I don’t know how long it will take us to learn it, but here we go, let’s start.:) I work with a clicker. It makes teaching tricks much easier and faster.
I begin the exercise with tying a piece of rope to the cupboard’s handle on the level of the dog’s head. Then I show Beti that I put something interesting and delicious inside. Then I sit down and wait.;) Beti does all kinds of tricks and waits for a reward. At first I reward her every time she turns to the cupboard, then every time she touches the cupboard with her nose, and finally every time she touches the rope with her nose. This is the level we reached so far. I am still amazed with the intelligence and memory of Wolfdogs. The next day after only one session Beti begins from the level we stopped at.:) I can only sit by the cupboard and she starts touching the rope with her nose!!!
22.01.2006
The first little crisis challenged.:) my dog is good and quiet again. Of course I keep observing her.;) Only two or three walks and the leash is not needed any more.
I am trying to do all exercises in several different situations – when children play or dogs run around, in a classroom and by the sleigh slope. It is freezing cold in Poznań just as it is in the other areas of Poland so we are not able to train too much. But we keep working. Beti can already change positions from “sit” into “lie down” even if I am a meter away from her. She doesn’t even try to come closer! We are also working on heeling (she already knows “come” well). We make our first steps in going through obstacles. Since Beti is still a little puppy she shouldn’t jump. So we only practice on lying trees. I want her to learn the command and jump back and forth. Beti’s “stay” keeps getting better. But we left retrieving behind...and she really doesn’t do it well.:(((
As far as Beti’s social life is concerned at the recent obedience class almost the whole group was absent because of the extremely low temperature. Beti was only able to make friends with the few brave ones – Azir and Dreks. Azir has already had some experience as a Wolfdog nanny so he was able to make Beti play with him very fast.
Beti bites Amber and trains martial arts with him on a daily basis. But he got really serious and it is not so easy to provoke him…
17.01.2006
Beti is almost four months old. The puppy age when a dog is dependent from the pack is now coming to an end. She is beginning to show independence. The first sign that indicates that is her “selective deafness”.;) Of course Beti usually comes when I call her…So I took the long leash again and I don’t try to avoid difficult situations, on the contrary, I want them to appear. It’s worth going through this difficult time. You cannot use your emotions and still make the dog come. If you behave wisely the difficult age will pass and the dog will come again every time you call it. This is how I do it. When we meet a dog Beti is on a long leash. I don’t hold it, but let her run. I give her some time to play and then call her. If she doesn’t react I reach for the leash and pull gently calling her again. It is usually enough because the dog knows that despite the distance between you and it there is no full freedom and decides to come. If it still ignores you make the leash shorter and repeat the whole procedure.
Beti now begins to have her own opinion in certain situations. For example she sometimes growls at Amon or even at Aster! Only Amber keeps his unquestionable position.;)
16.01.2006
Three Wolfdogs make a small pack. But it is not a good number of dogs for playing. Usually two of them bite and chase each other and run and the third one only looks at them lonely… But they still have me.;) We all played a ball. Great thing to watch. Three dogs chasing a little ball. Then, I played with each of them separately. Amber is crazy about a ball in the garden. Beti is still able to find some more interesting activities. What about Amon? He is a real devil when he sees a ball. He goes completely crazy! I have no idea what he used to play with before. He simply exceeded my expectations. He got stuck to the ball and didn’t even see other dogs. His ball passion, energy and Doberman-like over excitability plus his constant hunger are a huge potential!
14-15.01.2006
We went back to school. Beti is still a little puppy, really cute and lovely, but still a dummy puppy.;) Amon also goes to school with us. He interrupts Beti and doesn’t let her focus on anything.;) Our trainer says Beti is a good student. He can see her progress and gives us new tasks. We tried “stay” when the handler is out of the dog’s sight. Beti surprised me. She lied down when I was not visible!
In the evenings we visit friends or friends visit us.:) On Sunday Beti bravely played with two Golden Retrievers. She stole their ball and tried to make them play with her. They ended up taking strategic positions under the table…
13.01.2006
My little lady is in love! It’s not hard to believe if you have such a handsome guy at home! Amon is Beti’s absolute best. They run together, play together and frolic together. When it’s too much Amber walks in, he calms the two devils down and reminds them what good manners are. Now I can see he has grown up and became a fantastic leader of his pack. Beti only runs between the paws of the two big guys and flirts with them shaking her bud.
We couldn’t get around with Beti’s socialization. After the two older dogs are tired Beti and I go for walks alone. Yesterday we went for a downtown Poznań tour. At first the new smells were the most important for Beti. We practiced a little at a tram stop in order to focus her attention. Trains are nothing new for her. When we were going back Beti kept an eye contact all the time and heeled nicely.:)
Finally a weekend at home so we want to visit everybody we didn’t have a chance to see for such a long time. We go visit my friends and their dogs.;) Today we were at a young Labrador’s Ciacho who is a fantastic therapeutic dog of children and Beti’s great friend. There was also one more dog “the dog of the north”. Getting used to the big one took some time, but games with Ciacho were great.
09-10.01.2006
There is less and less time for writing, but more and more Wolfdogs in Jantarowa Wataha.;) Beti finally has a buddy to play with. Amon came for winter break.:))) The buddy is pretty big (he is 7 months old and is as high and as heavy as Amber!). But they are at the same psychological level.;) Their games in the garden are crazy and mini training…tripled. Beti is on cloud nine!
06-08.01.2006
This weekend in Bydgoszcz was full of new experience as every weekend there. It was interesting, useful and...fantastic! contacts with many dogs at classes are usual. There usually are new dogs so we socialize and play until we are too tired. This time there were mainly Labradors to play with. I guess this will be Beti’s favorite breed.;)
Our group visited a dormitory for blind children. Beti got to know the children and the area. I am happy that it is so natural for her to be at school!
I take her to the bathroom and many other places, wherever I can so that she sees as much as possible. Sometimes she stays in a room without me and she
also doesn’t mind it. She lay down next to a child, let it touch her paws and stomach (the child was not really delicate) and ate of the child’s hand. The first meeting went great!
When we went to visit the family she was completely crazy! Despite the ritual feeding there also was some training. Children gave commands to Amber and Beti and the dogs raced which one will react first. After the meal it’s time to relax – the dogs are combed. The children got brushes, the dogs were commanded to lie down and the evening cosmetic procedures begun.;) Beti went to sleep since she was the youngest one, but Amber, Grześ and Tomek had a Great Football Match.;) The most interesting events took place on Sunday. We visited BAST – Beti’s sister who lives in Bydgoszcz! The girls got on well and when they started to play they didn’t want to stop and leave… There was so much rolling, biting, chasing and hiding… Sometimes it turned too dangerous. Amber came and made order…just for a few seconds.:) Thank you Ania and Bast for the beautiful winter walk. I hope we will see each other soon!
05.01.2006
Being quiet is not natural for Wolfdogs, especially the young ones so it didn’t last long until I noticed that something was wrong…
It’s almost over so we slowly go back to frolicking and learning. I stopped for a while because Beti started to confuse some similar commands, but she also has her favorite ones. Barking is probably the absolute favorite.:) Beti does it faster and more eagerly than Amber. He has to think first and then starts barking.;) Thanks to Amber Beti learnt a „hop” command which means jumping up. This is our favorite one, but I do not use it to often not to load down Beti’s joints. Beti is very sensitive. I practically stopped scolding her. Firstly, because there are no reasons to, secondly, even one angryt word is a big punishment to her. It is very easy to discourage her and make her worry. It’s enough to look at her or say “no” or “bad” firmly. Beti’s character is really great. She is not stubborn and we almost always get in well. The whole family is impressed because they still remember little Amber who could show his bad mood. There are no such problems with Beti…I could even cope with five more dogs if they were so nice.;)))
Avoiding conflict situations is a basic thing in relationships with Wolfdogs. Why should you scold your dog or try who is stronger if you can simply avoid creating conflict? A Wolfdog will, sooner or later, react aggressively for your aggression. It is really not nice. You always loose in this kind of confrontation and if you loose you show your weakness. If you win you loose the dog’s trust. I don’t mean “no-stress” bringing up. If your dog wants to destroy something or if it steals food you have to react. But you have to react right away (exactly the same moment your dog does something bad) and your reaction has to last for a few moments. The dog should have no time to react. It should be surprise, that’s it.
The New Year’s Eve
The New Year’s Eve craziness is not stressful for Beti. No impressions at all. She slept the whole evening and no banging could interrupt her!:)
It was nothing special for Amber as well. He walked around the house a couple of times and went to sleep.:))) I introduced Beti to our obedience group.
She was shocked with such amount of dogs in one place. She finally chose the youngest friend: a three-month old GSD to play with.
Beti is still strangely quiet and Amber is still a little sick and in a little bad mood. So it is pretty sadly here.;) I hope the new year will bring us
some strength and enthusiasm.:)