Olive's view of the Holiday Season

This is Olive writing. I’ve taken over the keyboard for this posting.

My human has gone nuttier than the squirrels. Last Saturday he came in with a tree—a tree no less—and planted it in the living room! Now that would be crazy enough, but he lectured me about staying away from it, then put all these little light bulbs on it. Now just what good is that supposed to do? He then throws all these shiny things on it. It takes up a full corner of the room! At least he didn’t put it over my napping spot.

The Saturday before last he left me and spent the day at some place he calls “the mall”. He came back with a pile of boxes, none smelling like anything good to eat. You would think he would at least open them to see if there is anything useful? No, he spends most of Sunday wrapping them with colored paper. All those things are now underneath that weird tree!

Some of the family came by, and I though “thank heavens, they’re going to do an intervention”. No, they all oooh and ahhhh over the tree in the corner and sing songs about “decking the halls” (whatever that is) and “God rest ye merry gentlemen let nothing you dismay” (what the heck does that mean?).

I hope that this is only a phase that humans go through now and then, and things will be back to normal soon. At least I am still being fed, my bed upstairs is unaffected, and I am still getting my walks to sniff at trees outside where they belong, study squirrels, and chase geese back into the pond. The human also plays saucer with me in the back when I remind him to. I’m grateful that the human didn’t try to bring a pond or squirrels into the living room!

Signing off now. Yes, this is a short post but you try using a keyboard with paws and no thumbs. Thank heavens for auto correct.

--Olive

Olive Graduates/Happy Thanksgiving Olive

Sunday, November 22, was the last class for “Family Dog 1”, the introductory class at “Tails U Win” training center. Yes, there was a graduation ceremony of sorts.

The last class was a bit different from the previous six. We began with a contest of sorts where we humans were to call our dogs from the far end of the room. The first dog to make it to his/her human and sit down won. When I called Olive she made a beeline for me at top speed. I had a large dog biscuit in my hand and figured we had this race wrapped up. Guess again. She got to me, grabbed the biscuit, and refused to stay or sit. Just about every other dog was sitting while Olive was still dancing around with her biscuit. Oh, well, I couldn’t be mad at her but how embarrassing!

After a bit of time practicing some of the commands and behaviors we had been working on, the staff brought out something new. It was a long wide flexible tube that the dogs were to run through to their humans. The tube could be lengthened and shortened like an accordion. About this time my sister and brother-in-law came by to see Olive “graduate”. That distracted Olive, of course, not that I wasn’t happy to have them around. The first pass through the tube (or tunnel) was with the tube at its shortest to get the dogs used to going through. Olive was a bit hesitant, but when she realized that I was at the other end calling to her she went through. The tube was lengthened to about half its full length and the exercise repeated. Finally the tube was stretched to its full length. All of the dogs did well except for a shy greyhound that just didn’t want to go through. I was glad that Olive came through and seemed to think it was fun!

The last part of the class called upon the humans to demonstrate a trick we had been practicing. I had been trying to concentrate on the useful basic commands like “sit”, “stay”, and “come” rather than cute tricks like “roll over” or “shake hands”, so I was a bit unsure as to what we could do, but I decided to demonstrate “with me” (what some would call “heel”), something I have been emphasizing with Olive and she seemed to be catching on to. Well, there was a lot of noise and distraction in that room; not a bad thing in itself but at this point Olive was not fully concentrating on me. It took a few tries, but she finally did a passable “with me”. How embarrassing!

As in the photo below, Olive did get her diploma. We begin “Family Dog 2” on December 6.

(That was a plastic bag emptied of treats that I have in my right hand.)

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Thanksgiving this year was a small affair compared to previous years. Olive joined us and met my uncle and aunt from Virginia. After dinner I drove down to Norwalk, CT where an aunt lives but left Olive with my sister. I was told that Olive behaved herself reasonably well. A friend of my sister’s came by with her 2½ year old daughter who gave Olive a good run. Olive was exhausted by the time my sister took her back home to my house.

In Norwalk my cousin Nancy is fostering a large male rescued Rottweiler named “Trey”. I was told that Trey is not friendly to other dogs, so I decided to leave Olive with my sister. Well, Trey took to me right away, putting his head on my lap and seemed reluctant to leave me. Perhaps he smelled Olive and decided that I was a dog person? Nancy told me that Trey will not be with her very long as someone in Texas wants to adopt him. If Olive smelled Trey on me, she didn’t indicate that she thought anything amiss when I got home.

Goose Dog?

This is the season when geese are descending on the pond in the center of the townhouse complex I live in. Goose poop all over the place! Geese strutting around and honking as if they own the place! As I have mentioned before, border collies are reputed to make great goose dogs. Since day one I have been looking at putting Olive to work keeping those geese in line.

Until recently I was running with Olive after the geese when we saw them congregating near the pond. Geese are not very smart birds, so I have been led to believe, and think that a border collie (or I suppose most other dogs) are wolves and will flee. That seems to be the case with Olive. She shows no fear of geese. Lately I have been just letting go of the leash and letting her at ‘em, chasing those geese into the pond. Olive seems to love it. What really pleases me is that after the geese are all in the water I call Olive to “come” and she immediately makes a beeline for me. Perhaps she is more ready for geese herding lessons than I had thought.

Currently I have her in a class called “Family Dog 1” which ends this coming Sunday. I have already signed up and paid for the next class, “Family Dog 2”. That runs into January. The training center, “Tails U Win”, does sometimes offer a “Family Dog 3”. If they do after January I will likely enroll Olive. If not, there is a “Good Canine Citizen” class that we might take. That should bring us into the Spring when I hope to get Olive into training as a herding dog at a facility in a nearby town that specializes in such training. When I spoke with them by phone I was told that they could train Olive as a goose dog. The question mark is that they told me that Connecticut would require me to be licensed as a wildlife management officer. What that entails I haven’t really looked into as yet. If it’s a matter of reading a few books and taking an exam, I might go for it. If I’m required to get a degree in wildlife management from a university, probably not.

I suppose that technically I should not be letting Olive loose after the geese. I don't even have any authorization from the complex association, though virtually everyone in my complex despises the goose and their omnipresent poop and will probably not complain to whatever State office oversees this.

With Thanksgiving next week Olive will be part of my family’s celebration. I only hope that she will behave herself and not pester everyone during dinner. Two commands I would like to teach her: “Stop barking” and “go lay down and be quiet until we finish dinner”.

How embarrasing!

I took Olive to another obedience class last Sunday. She catches on quickly and seems to impress even the instructors. On the other hand, she tried several times to snitch a few treats from the next dog. After all the fuss I went through to put together a variety of treats she would like, including grilling some chicken. I told her she should consider herself lucky: not every dog person grills chicken just for their dogs!

During training the instructors asked each human whether their dogs would be ok participating in a free play time at the end of the session. I was quick to say how great Olive is with other dogs (so they tell me at the doggie day care place). I spoke too soon. So what does Olive do? She runs and finds a tennis ball, then comes and pesters me to throw it for her, ignoring the other dogs. When she showed signs of guarding the ball, the instructors asked me to take her out. I was so embarrassed!

I actually should have seen it coming. At the dog park Olive will be polite to other dogs but when other dogs want to play with her she will look at me as if to say “can we go chase tennis balls now?” I did hear one of the instructors say something about Olive “being a border collie”, and said something to Olive about being “a bit bossy”. Well, no one ever said that partnering with a border collie would be a bed of roses (not that I ever regret it or doubt that she is one of the best things that could have ever happened to me).

On Wednesday I went to an endodontist for a root canal. What fun! Actually the procedure went fairly well, better than I had expected, though I would hardly call it a great way to spend a morning. On the way home I stopped at a pharmacy to fill the antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicine that the endodontist prescribed. Wouldn’t you know that there was a line of some five geriatrics in front of me, and every one of them argued with the pharmacist about something or other. It delayed me about an hour. When I finally got home I immediately took Olive out for a walk, had a can of liquid meal replacement I bought at the pharmacy (I did not feel like chewing anything), and tried to settle down, though I was not in the best of moods. Olive seemed to understand that. There was no pestering though she did lay at my feet and got up to check on me from time to time. I was much better today and Olive was back to pestering me to throw her ball, take her for walks, etc.

Good to be back to normal!

Star Pupil

Sunday was Olive's second "Family Dog" class at "Tails U Win". I am happy to report that she catches on fast. The instructor "borrowed" her at one point to demonstrate walk etiquette, and thanked me afterward that my dog made her (the instructor) look good. Now if only I could get Olive to make ME look good.

Most of what is being taught is pretty basic: sit, lie down, responding to her name, behavior Olive already knows. We started on using hand signals, some of which Olive already seemed to know. At least she followed my signal to "lay down" (I pointed to the floor in front of her), though it took me a bit of trying to get her to catch on to "sit". There I didn't know what signal she might have been taught previously, so I made a circular motion with my hand to indicate her rump should go down. We were told to make the hand signal, then give the verbal command if she didn't respond. After a while a dog will associate the hand signal with the verbal command. Sure enough Olive caught on after a few tries. Imagine her thoughts in dialogue with me as:

Me: hand signal for sit.

Olive thinks: I don't know what that means.

Me: "Sit!"

Olive thinks: Well, why didn't you say so?

After several tries, Olive realizes "oh, I guess that hand motion means sit".

My only wish was that I had practiced hand targeting with her a bit more. That is where after getting her attention I hold out my hand flat near her. The object is that she should turn to sniff my hand and follow it if I move it one way or another. This is a stepping stone to getting her to follow me in a walking situation. She follows my hand, I click the clicker and reinforce with a treat. Even before the class started I had been working on "with me" (what some would call "heel") with some success. At first I tried to use "heel" as a command and got little response. Somehow I started using "with me" instead and got a much better response. Since then I have been using "with me" exclusively. I can see where hand targeting would be a help in firming this skill up.

For training treats to use at the class, the instruction to the humans was to bring five different kinds of treats and a hungry dog. I gave Olive her usual breakfast Sunday, but nothing else that day until class time. For treats I brought a small amount of her usual food (Blue Seal Active Dog Formula), cut up a "Dentastix" treat into small bights, bagged a handful of small dog biscuits that a friend had given us, bagged a handful of "training treat" pellets that I picked up in the grocery store, and cut up some leftover grilled chicken from the day before that I packed in a small plastic container and brought to class in a small cooler with an ice pack to keep it cold. Olive eagerly went for each of all five treats, though I think she liked the chicken best.

Now our task is to practice what we did last Sunday until our next class on the 25th.

Bath Time!

I found out what a "bully stick" is. You don't want to know!

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This afternoon will be Olive's first day at the dog training class. Last week, as I mentioned, was for humans only.

This morning I went to church and then for breakfast with my dad and nephew; my sister and brother-in-law are away for the weekend. After getting home I immediately took Olive out for a walk, figuring that she would need one after being in the house for about three  hours. While walking she suddenly started rolling in some grass. I gave it little thought, as she often does that. Shortly afterward, however, I noticed a putrid smell and realized it was coming from my dog. Then I noticed some yellowish substance over some white parts of her coat. When we got home the smell was even worse. I gave her a good brushing, which seemed to help, but the smell was still strong. With the obedience class tonight the last thing I wanted was to bring a foul smelling canine to the first class.

Fortunately some friends whose dog recently died had given me a box full of dog supplies. Among them was a bottle of deodorizing dog shampoo. I had never given Olive a bath before--she had a bath at the kennel when I left her for a week last July, and I brush her daily, but she is for the most part a clean dog and baths never seemed urgently needed. This time, however, I knew I had to do something.

I read the directions on the shampoo bottle, then filled my bathtub with lukewarm water (I was careful not to make it hot). Not knowing what to expect, I changed into swim trunks and nothing else. That turned out to be a good move.

Getting Olive into the tub proved a challenge; she was very reluctant, though not defiant. I finally got her in and wet down the affected fur areas with an old plastic cup. Once I got her in the tub she was surprisingly cooperative. I messaged the shampoo into the yellow areas. It took a bit of work, but it seemed that the foul stuff, whatever it was (I probably don't want to know), was washing out. Finally I figured I was at the point where it was going to be the best we were going to do so I rinsed her off as thoroughly as I could. It wasn't a full bath, but I didn't want to push things.

Getting her out of the tub was a good deal easier than getting her in. I simply said "OK, we can dry off now" and she jumped out. I dried her off as best I could with an old towel, then cleaned up the bathroom. Olive is downstairs right now drying off. There is still some of the smell, but I believe the situation is much better than it was before the bath.

Well, now I have an idea of how to give Olive a bath. I will try to give her one every few months, or when she really needs one as she did today.

OK, I will have to watch her when we go for our next walk and keep her away from the spot she rolled in this morning, I am hoping that no one at the class tonight will go "Ew, what's that smell". Stay tuned for a report on Olive's experience with obedience class.

Olive starts school

Last night there was an orientation session for those humans who will be bringing their dogs to the obedience class at "Tails U Win". The place was not hard to find, next to a restaurant called "Adam's Mill", an establishment with a local reputation as a place for fine dining that has me utterly baffled. Well, in past decades in the same town there were "Willy's Steakhouse" and "the Marco Polo" that also had reputations as fine dining establishments that similarly baffled the least demanding clientele. But I digress.

While waiting in the parking lot for things to get started, I spotted a woman with a border collie! Of course I had to introduce myself as a BC person, and found that she was the instructor. That was reassuring to know that the instructor knows border collies.

This session was clarified as "for people only--do not bring your dog". Of course, there had to be someone who missed that boldface notice and the email to that effect a few days ago and showed up with his dog. He seemed like a nice dog though a bit hyper. Staff was gracious and took him (the dog) to another area. I felt sorry for him (the dog, not the human).

Much of the session dwelt on the basics. Dogs on a leash, don't feed your dog before class, bring treats, a properly fitted collar or harness, bring a bed or mat for your dog to lie on. We were each given a folder of handouts and a "clicker". Some homework was also assigned. Much of the assignment is introducing the dog to the "clicker", a device that makes a snapping noise similar to the little tin devices many of us had as kids. We were instructed to click whenever our dogs exhibited desirable behavior, then reward. For example, if we command "sit" we should click the instant her rump hits the floor, then praise or give a treat. It seems that dogs soon take the clicks as affirmation of good behavior. A handout outlines the "name game" that we should play with our dog some ten times per day over the next week. We say our dog's name one time only and click immediately as he/she turns to look at us. As soon as we click, reward with small pieces of treat, praise, part of her dinner, toys, games, or anything else the dog really likes. I tried it with Olive a few times last night after I got home and she took right to it.

The rest of the homework consisted of reading the material in the folder and thinking about long and short term goals. After class I stopped in their store and picked up a treat pouch that I can wear on a belt during class. In the folder was a coupon for a free "bully stick" with a purchase over $5. Since the pouch cost well over $5 I took the stick. I am not sure what is in it, but a bully stick is a long stick for a dog to chew on. It looks like a stick one might find in the woods, perhaps made of rawhide. Olive took it right away and has already done some work on it. I will ask next time what it's made of, but I am certain that it's ok for dogs, since it's sold as a dog treat.

Now this morning a spring broke on my garage door, so I am waiting for the garage door service company to call me back and schedule someone to come out and repair it. Olive helped by barking at me from the house as I looked at the door and tried to figure out what happened. OK, one of the goals is to get her to stop barking when I command her to.

Stay tuned for more adventures in obedience class.