March Stories
March Stories
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31.03.2006
Beti loves bringing different things. Thanks to the fact that I have taught her “get it” since she was a puppy she now does it very well. Nobody would say that Wolfdogs don’t like retrieving if they saw my two dogs.:) When we walk she brings me sticks or plastic bottles and exchanges them for treats.;) Amber likes when I throw sticks to him, but Beti simply likes carrying sticks. Carrying and bringing.;)
Beti has learnt “get it” very well for her age. Beit brings a retrieving object and sits in front of me.:) Not every time, of course, but still!
The end of March is the beginning of spring. My dogs can feel it already. Amber looks around to find some she dogs. He is not too pushy, but only lets them know that if they wanted he is always ready…:) Beti loves rolling in some nasty smelling things and also loves tasting them, ugh. My dogs miss running and longer walks. They simply can’t stand being at home.:)
26.03.2006
We finally began regular training! Regular means with a group of dogs, organized and planned. Of course my dog already knows a lot, but she has never trained with other dogs. We have a fantastic group. First of all, Beti’s sister, Bast, trains with us. There are also two GSD and a few Labs and Golden Retrievers.;) All are friendly. There are no aggressors. The dogs are young and love to play.
Rain poured when we worked. The most difficult task to me and Daniel was to part Beti and Basta. The girls simply love playing with each other! Generally, it was really nice, some sun and a lot of joy.:) We began with focusing the dogs’ attention. Beti knows what it is all about. All you have to do is to sit and look, and you get food.:) Beti was, of course, curious what Basta was doing. Was she practicing or was she doing something more interesting? But I was able to make Beti focused. A little running and “come”. A treat into a mouth ans more running. Beti would come, but it was difficult to run hanging on Basta’s neck or with Basta hanging on her neck.;) So we had to call a little and our dogs played pranks. It always could have been worse.
We began to teach changing positions. It was boring for us, but Piotr, the teacher, quickly found us a more difficult task – running, focusing attention and calling from a short distance. The class was very diverse and the dogs were tired after an hour.
It is interesting how Beti behaves when she is tired. She almost doesn’t show that she is getting tired, but when she has enough she stops working right away. This is how it was yesterday. After more than an hour she simply put her head down and didn’t want to eat and look at me. She had enough and I couldn’t do anything about it. It is the same when we have a class at school. The only difference is that at school she has to be much more focused and she is only able to work for about a half hour. Then, she simply turns off. This is when I have to play with her and go home.:)
19.03.2006
My dog is already a half year old! Despite terrible mud we went for a long birthday walk and we took a lot of pictures. There were some treats, bones and other stuff.:)
Beti’s training with Zuza on Saturday was pretty poor. Unfortunately my lack of time during a week influences it.:( We’ve had too little training and walking recently. Beti was only interested in running. She liked her Belgian friends. But training....oh, no! She worked only a little bit, but it didn’t satisfy me.:(
Generally, we are resting and are really lazy…:)
16.03.2006
A wheelchair is now OK. Beti walks next to it willingly if only she hears some nice words instead.:) Having a wheelchair at home brings a lot of possibilities. I will teach Beti putting different objects into it, walking with it and whatever else I will think of. At the beginning Beti didn’t want to bring and give objects to me, but since she works with a clicker I used it also in this exercise. She learnt quickly and now she brings me almost everything.:) She gives me a bowl, a basket, a cloth, socks and also, since not long ago, … a retrieving object!!!
I will try to put some pictures of Beti training.
Beti is exceptionally calm when she does “stay”. I am surprised. When I worked with Amber I had to correct him a lot, but Beti is completely different. She tries to stand up really rarely and usually lies completely still. It is the same with listening to me. I only need to say once. My she dog is like an angel...
15.03.2006
My Wolfdog baby is beginning to get to know medical equipment. Beti is already getting used to it since there is an ill person in the house and we’ve got a wheelchair and crutches. Crutches don’t impress Beti too much even when we do all kinds of walking and limping. The wheelchair smelled interestingly at first, but when it started to move it was a little different! Amber helped, though. He already did ride in a wheelbarrow so he quickly got used to the wheelchair. We practiced “hop” and other stuff.;) I think that soon a wheelchair will be a completely normal thing for Beti.
13.03.2006
I didn’t write for a couple of days, but it wasn’t because of laziness although I did lie in bed.:((( Illness is definitely a good test of a dog’s patience.;) This time it was a test for Beti. (Amber already knows how and when to be patient). We went for a short walk in the morning and then had a looong rest… Beti knew how to behave. She has a simple zasada if I sleep she sleeps too. And so she did sleep the last couple of days.
Oh, yes I wanted to say something about sleeping! As I wrote lately Amber started sleeping in a kennel and I think this is how it’s going to be now. Sometimes Beti goes to him, but they don’t lie there together too long.:) One of them quickly evacuates. The kennel is not big enough for two Wolfdogs to sleep in it! Beti sleeps like an angel.:))) I know, she is already a half year old, but the first months in the kennel helped a lot! She never walks or plays at night. There is no way she could destroy something and she even doesn’t touch the cat food. (I sleep with Beti, Amber and Zuzia, the cat, in one room.;)
Beti’s presence keeps changing Amber’s behavior. Last winter he preferred to sleep outside. Now he would never even think about it! If you all sleep in the house I want too! Other things, which I already wrote about, are Amber’s reactions to other dogs and...obedience. It was a little difficult at the beginning. Every dog was a potential danger he had to scare away. Now it’s practically all right which means that he still doesn’t like dogs, but pretends not to see them or prefers to „talk” from a distance. Of course, I wouldn’t risk letting Amber loose when Beti plays with other he dogs. It would definitely end up in an…. unpleasant way. This is the way Wolfdog he dogs are. There is a point in their life when they simply stop tolerating their competition. I don’t know any adult Wolfdog which would get on well with other adult he dogs.:(
As far as obedience, (I mean coming to me during walks and coming when there are other interesting things around) it was also worse at the beginning. He behaved as if he wanted to say: OK guys you are training so let me alone I have a couple of errands to do around here. Fortunately this stage is already over despite the count’s moodiness.;) But the best is still to come. Beti’s heat…I am already afraid!
Beti is everybody’s darling at home. She keeps being toady. Even my grandmother loves her. No other dog was able to achieve it! Aster loves my little one. She lets her play pranks to him. They play like puppies and chase a ball in the garden. Amber is the most reserved. He chases during walks and runs after a ball, but he is always the most important one and doesn’t let Beti treat him like her buddy. Still, he protects the little one and keeps an eye on her all the time.
07.03.2006
Beti has high endurance to pain. I checked it at the very beginning and it is still the same. Her score in a pain endurance test is much higher than a norm! I am wondering whether Wolfdogs are generally more enduring to pain or is it an individual thing.
My dog has slept in her kennel for the last couple of nights. This is all thanks to Amber…
Some time ago Amber decided that the kennel (which is quite big;) is the best place in the world and he really wanted to sleep in it. I let him stay there instead of Beti so that he doesn’t feel offended.;) This is his house, still!:) So he stayed in the kennel and Beti slept on a mattress. She slept the whole night, didn’t play pranks and didn’t pee.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t wait any longer in the morning… But the second and third night was much better. And it still is. Amber goes to the kennel and Beti sleeps in an open space.:)))
We now practice yawning and licking so that eating is not so boring.:)
05.03.2006
This weekend turned out to be a really important one, completely by chance. At a congress we learnt how to test dogs whether they are appropriate to work in dog-therapy. We got to know several tests and prepared our own. All dogs present were thoroughly tested. Beti was too. We determined a dog’s temperament, sociability, willingness to retrieve, the level of obedience, dominance and submissiveness and many other things.
Beti’s score was very good. She turned out to be a sanguine. She is sociable and submissive and knows basic commands.:) Of course, a stranger always carries a test. This was a third informal test in Beti’s life. The first one was carried by me when I chose my puppy. The second one was when she was to go to school, and now the third one. In spring we will sit an official test for puppies to determine if she is suitable to be a therapy dog.
Our classes contain more and more practical parts. Beti now has to go through several strange things: practice, playing, music, dancing, confusion and noise. I am very happy of it. The more such experience now the better for the future!
I began to leave Beti alone in an unknown place, a hall. At the beginning it was only for a few seconds, now she can stay even a half minute. She usually stays with strangers and is not upset about it.
It is difficult to make Beti stop looking into shopping bags to find some food. Beti is forever hungry. Even if she had her food she is always willing to eat another sandwich. Sometimes she brings a glove…
We visited Bast traditionally. This time we went for a short, but intensive walk.;)
The sisters love each other. When they see each other they simply run to get to each other as soon as possible. They don’t part until the end of a walk. Well, sometimes they run away, but for a really short time.;) Ania and I have a difficult task to make them come. Usually we are successful. Soon, the sisters will start training together…
02.03.2006
We have been making up new tricks since I introduced a clicker. Beti loves it and often makes me play with her.;) Her head keeps working all the time. What are we doing now? Would you like to see me yawning or licking? Shall I give something to you or open a cupboard? Maybe “give paw”?;)))
The winter break is over and Beti goes back to school. Her sessions are still very short so that she doesn’t get discouraged. I want her to always go there with pleasure. At this level Beti’s work with other people is important to me. It’s not only about training and playing but staying at school without me. This is why Beti now trains with Zuzia and goes to school with Dominika – a friend from the Foundation. Another reason is that I work too much and don’t have time for that.
There have been suggestions that I write more about the things my dog destroys.;) There weren’t too many things although I think I remember some. I guess she destroyed more things than Amber.;) Because it is cold I don’t like going with my dogs to the garden, so sometimes I break the basic rule and let the dogs alone.;) Beti runs, wants to play with everything that moves and then starts her modern gardening works. I only have a couple of flowers fewer, a few holes more and pretty a lot of litter in the garden. I don’t leave them alone for a long time so that they don’t start looking for emergency exits…
When I leave my dog alone in the house she starts thinking what she could destroy right away. She sometimes tries to plant a flower in another pot, make flip-flops of shoes or simply chew a ball into pieces. She also tried to steal some food. This is why she generally isn’t left alone loose.
But when she is alone in her kennel she is really bored and tries to think of something she could do. Since I didn’t remember stories about Bolo which pulled blankets into his kennel and left only stripes of it I left my old jacket hung above her kennel. Beti, my good dog, pulled the whole jacket through a small whole in her kennel (10x3 cm)… and chewed it.;( How did she make it? Only Wolfdogs
