Lots of news, but first, I wanted to show you a picture of Oscar walking Sammy on his leash
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| From Diary of Oscar |
Photo courtesy of Karen. You can't seem Sammy in this picture, but Oscar demonstrates how to walk a dog on a leash.
Speaking of leash... we got Oscar the Gentle Leader head collar. Chris, Adina, and I have all been working with Oscar to learn to love the collar.
Since the nose has to go through the nose loop, we treat him everytime he puts his nose through the loop. For the first time between me and Oscar, I had the loop sitting on his nose while I kept treating him, and he looked like he didn't even notice it was on! Then I talked to Adina, who actually got the collar clipped and fitted, and he did great! Then... Chris told me he got pretty far too! Either Oscar is playing dumb with me, or I'm not very good at the training thing.
I can't wait for Oscar to start wearing it... like this:
We got his in bright blue, to match his regular collar and his leash. He's so color coordinated! :)
I remember seeing a guy walking his big dog (like a boxer) and he was using this head collar. I remember thinking, it's kinda like a muzzle, but it's not, but the dog looks well behaved; why is he wearing that?! Now I know! It's just for better control for walks - to keep him from sniffing every gosh darn thing on the ground. I'm very excited!
We also did a test run with the bullie stick yesterday. He loved the smell of it right away! He started chewing, but couldn't figure out how to chew efficiently on it, and it resulted him in pushing the stick through the bottom gap of the crate. Hence, we had to keep going in to get the stick for him. Finally, we decided to make sure of my old science text books.
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| From Diary of Oscar |
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| From Diary of Oscar |
It keeps him from pushing the stick through the bottom of the crate. Eventually he figured out that if he angles the stick against the books, he has a strong grip to chew. Smart dog.
Here is Oscar with the stick today:
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| From Diary of Oscar |
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| From Diary of Oscar |
I gotta say... the stick is smelly. Our living room smells like butt. But it keeps Oscar happy!
I instructed Noah to take it out when he came in the morning, and to give it back after his second session. That way, he's not chewing on it all day (it's very high in calories and protein).
As for the waggle.... I didn't stuff enough of his breakfast in it for him to associate food and the waggle. He rolled it around and was like, "Hmph, what does this do again?" and looked up at me: "Woman, stop playin' and give me my food." So I hand fed him, and did Sit and Stay again - which has been keeping him from biting my hands during the day. Ruth, the trainer, suggested we stuff almost all of the dinner in there, so that he can try to reach it with his tongue, and then he'll really associate it with the toy. Also, that we should add a few extra smelly treats with the kibble so he knows something super duper yummy is in there. (Got that Chris for tonight?)
So this might be TMI for some, but Oscar has been constipated and having diahaerra at the same time. Um... yeah, weird i know! Adina suggested giving him a spoonful of canned organic pumpkin. Even better, to freeze them into cubes and put it in his kong. Can't wait to try it!
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