Today's lesson was one for me (again). A headache and bad nights sleep do not make for a good morning's training. Today did not go so well. The only plus side is Custer is doing better in the car, I think as we are now returning from our walk when the schools are starting up the amount of people passing by when the car is stuck in the traffic is now having a desensitive affect. On day one, instead of shouting when he was 'about' to freak out at the sight of a passing dog, I quietly said 'no Cus' and passed him a treat. Day Two he lay down when he saw the same dog.
The rest of the time was not good, he had no focus and getting the muzzle on was a battle and a half, then he got it off twice - I was struggling with the leads and a poo bag, and short on patience which was of course doing neither of us any favours. Having watched an excellent video on muzzle training yesterday I began that way of training when I pulled up outside the house, and will practice all weekend so he gets to like the idea better. It is a learning curve for us both.
For today's rant I must mention the level of driving at school time. Here is a tip for you drivers, why dont you try setting off in good time for School? Instead of yelling abuse at anyone who happens 'in your opinion' to be in your way? To the man in the large posh car who pulled out infront of me, then hurled abuse at me, were you surprised when you got it back? not my finest moment I know, but I will not be bullied by some bad tempered 'twit' who cannot set off on time for school and clearly needs to re-take his test to learn about right of way on the roads. Then we wonder why the next generation turn out the way they do, when this is what they are taught en route to the school yard? Also explains why dogs react in the same way maybe? Perhaps we all need a lesson in patience? I should have smiled at the man really and not let him provoke me so, something else I need to work on.......
I was thinking earlier today, yesterday's blog post may have implied we did 'nothing' with Custer's training. This was not quite the case. Although I did sort of give up on his ever being any different we did not give up trying altogether.
In September last year my husband was out of work. He used this time to take Custer out every day on the beach with several balls and teach him to 'focus' on playing ball and staying with him. This is a vast improvement on what we had. It took 3 months of repeating each day but now Custer does love to play ball and is pretty well focused on us when we do this.
The down side of course is we do NOT live in an ideal world and many other dog walkers think all dogs should socialise with each other, they have no idea that not ALL dogs wish too (or indeed owners). Custer will now not go out his way to any other dog or person, however if the other owner (despite our being in the middle of nowhere in our own space, minding our OWN BUSINESS) insists on allowing their dog to run up to him it often will not end well, involves our having to put our dogs back on the lead and have our shoulder blades renched out of our arm until the owner 'might' decide to call their dog away. When I am out on my own now I muzzle Custer as soon as I see another dog, I know he wont bite the other dog but the noise he makes and the state he gets himself into by my using the muzzle I have more confidence and sometimes it just 'might' keep the other owner away. Again, I am out at 8am in the middle of nowhere trying hard to train my reactive dog in peace, but again the other dog walker will insist that my dog MUST socialise with theirs? I often wonder if they themselves are the same with other people?
I was in the park last week with Rhubarb (my new rescue Staffie) and Bailey (the retriever above). I had them both on leads as I had only had Rhubarb a week and not too sure how she would react with other dogs, and Bailey as he can be a bit 'over amorous' if allowed to be (which I do not let him). At least four times I avoided a man with two french bulldogs off lead by turning direction, as I know these dogs just charge at others into their faces - I watched as a man entered the park with the largest husky I had ever seen and a little Staffie, the bulldogs hurtled straight up to the other dogs at full tilt, how on earth the poor man stayed stood up I dont know as he dogs reacted in fear and defence at two rude lunatics running up to their faces! The owner of the bulldogs was very cross with the man with the dogs on leads? as he could see no wrong in his own dogs actions? Again I am left wondering what he thinks I would do if he rushed up to my face and forced himself on me, or should that be okay too? why should it be for dogs on leads?
Does seem we are the minority with this opinion though.
I can but dream of an ideal world were other dog walkers might leave me in peace. Meanwhile I keep walking early, and I have just invested in a bright yellow vest from 'yellowdog.co.uk' which says 'Rescue Dog, please give space' on both sides, wonder if it will work any better?
Wow, can you believe a whole year nearly since I last posted! Yes he is still here, and no he is not any better. But we do now have a new addition in the form of a little rescue Staffie girl now called Rhubarb.
There are people (I Know) who think this was a very bad idea, but I like to think of someone I once knew with a dog far worse than Custer who adopted a new puppy.. I thought this was the most stupid thing ever, but it worked very well, the dog in question is now fine and no longer attacks anything, when he used to be the scurge of our walk. So, it will work or it wont but so far its going very well.
One of the reasons for lack of blog posts was I just gave up, I could not help Custer's behavoir and nobody wanted to help us try. Dont get me wrong, in the house he is a dream - its just the 'walkies' thing.
Last week, whilst still reading up on Staffie info I registered with a facebook group 'Reactive Dogs' this could well be one of the best things I did, they recommended some reading and I ordered some book, I have only read up to chapter 2 and took Custer out today with a different frame of mind, so far so good. yes it would be really good to have some help........but this is not going to happen, so like many things in life we are on our own so time to try again. This is easier too as Custer is a different dog at home, he is so chilled and well behaved I have 'even' left him out of crate a few times with no problems (mind you, I did take my camera from the room). Today I was back to teaching 'watch me' which he did perfectly.
One thing I have learnt from this, is you need to be in a 'good frame of mind' yourself to be able to do it, if you are tired forget it. I had a good nights rest for once last night, so dog training was a whole lot easier. Just as well as after 'reactive dog training' with Custer it was time for the first recall lesson with Rhubarb.
Not too difficult as she is in love with treats!
Lets hope I do better with both training and blogging now - time to take Rhubarb for a wizz round the block, I have found keeping her tired keeps more peace in the household. After two weeks things are now calming down a bit. Wasnt the boys, it was our new little girl who was so unsettled they were both great. Here is Custer now learning to love Dolly's too.
Oh dear, I see it has been some time since my last update. Well, he is still here 'just' though I must say life is still not easy with Custer. My last post was the important day of taking down the crate, this lasted for 2 weeks, when he almost ate my camera that was the last straw, the crate was put straight back up again and Custer is put in it on EVERY occasion we go out, he is never left long - infact his longest stint EVER was on Christmas day, but as he had a long walk and play on the beach then a few hours with his toys this was not such a problem.
It seemed Custer had never done Christmas before, he had no idea - we had to teach him the fun of wrapping paper, so he now knows how to catch a paper ball and rip it to bits, Jaja did help to teach him this one.
He got two presents from his nana, this giggle ball - which he is still playing with a whole 3 days later..
..and a treat ball, one that you need some 'brains' for in order to get the treats out - Jaja loved this ball and played with it for hours, he could get the plug out then roll the ball around and get out the treats..
Custer however, could not work it out at all - last night said treat ball met its end, Custer finally got the plug out, but then couldnt get the treats out so totally destroyed the ball till he did, there is now nothing left of it.
In a desperate attempt to try calm him down a bit I have started him on CSJ 'calm down' herbs, no joy yet but they do say it takes 2 - 3 weeks to help, I have another 4 days yet before we are at week 2, really need something to help, nobody can believe he is not eating a stack of additives a day he is so loopy, and yes I do take him to the beach 'early' EVERY day for a walk and some training, but he still turns into tasmanian devil if the mood takes.
To finish, here is a picture of my Aunts rescue dog I covered in wrapping paper on the day, sorry Sophie - she is a lovely dog, gets on with all people and other dogs... almost perfect.
Today's pictures have no connection to the topic at all, they were taken last week while OH was off and we took the dogs to the beach each morning.
Alas, once he went back to work I then returned to my routine of taking Bailey (above with Custer) and Jaja (below) to the beach first thing, and then Custer to the park.
I 'was' enjoying my park walkies, often it was so quiet I had a chance to do some training with Custer without distraction, but then somehow we got walking with others. Must admit alarm bells did start to go off, I should know by past experience that daily walking with others rarely ends well, as everyone has their own opinion on how to (if at all) train dogs. Often you can end up walking with someone who has the most lovely timid dog, who is always good with other dogs.. and an owner who simply 'assumes' your dog to be the same. This scenario is fine, until the other owner then decides your dog does not need correcting or keeping in line? as of course, the brief hour or so they spend with you gives them all the information they need to form a judgement.
(yes, this has happened to me before with my last dog too)
So, after 3 days this started to happen.. instead of leaving the walk (which I should have done) Custer was enjoying playing with the ball and other dogs, so I did and said nothing (anything for a quiet life) but Custer was becoming a bit on the unruly side, which is fine for a dog who is submissive and good with other dogs, but NOT for a dog like Custer...
I should have taken more notice of the 'tuts' and grumbles when I did correct him - why people find the need to do this I dont know, if they dont like the way I train my dog, dont walk with me.
Sure enough disaster was waiting... along came a small breed puppy, now I knew this was not going to be good with Custer, he will either try to dominate or play, neither of which is good with a very large Labrador and a small puppy. I grabbed the line he was on and told him to leave, owner and puppy headed straight for us, the chap with us announces to the now apprehensive puppy owner 'Its okay, he's fine with other dogs'?? erm.... excuse me? he knew this how? after a couple of meetings? so he let the puppy off lead, headed straight for Custer who of course then lunged at it........... due to the line he was on, total disaster was averted, BUT this could have been worse. The other walkers did not even see a problem with this incident? They did not seem to realise what could have happened.
Very upset by this I was ready to leave by the next exit anyway, and was realising that I had lost control of my own dog (again).. when worse was 'almost' to come.. along came some more walkers with two very very LARGE dogs, one of which was a new rescue dog. Now, this time I knew exactly what would happen, they headed straight for us.. this would have been total disaster and one of the dogs would certainly have been hurt.
This time I took charge, leaded Custer up and marched out of the nearby exit, leaving the other walkers still appearing to see no problem at all?
Is it just me? are other dog owners totally unaware? can they just not read other dogs? or is it simply people who feel the need to take charge of a situation they know nothing about, making it ignorance.
The annoying thing is the same people are in the park at the same time every day, it is not a large park so I simply cannot avoid them. I cannot go earlier as I take the other two out, and later there is another set of walkers who have been there on the park since time began, and I know their dogs are certainly not suitable for Custer to upset.
So, today I came back from walkies number one in the car, put Custer in the car and took him to the beach too - I thought it would be as quiet as earlier, I got that one wrong - of 3 directions to walk in all 3 of them were full of dogs, owners and children. So, I picked the quieter of the three routes and went for it. As it happened Custer did very well, was easily distracted from the one dog we came into contact with, I only let go of his line once so he could play in some water, but that was fine. Hopefully I will get back control again, and one day we can mix with others....... but not on a daily basis. The beach is good, seems most people there are happy to walk with their dogs on their own, and do not see the need to interfere with others. Also when the weather gets better (which is worse to most people) that cuts down the walkers, especially on the beach as it gets a bit muddy and folk dont like that.
One day I might be able to walk them all together that would be good, and a lot easier for me. BUT, Bailey although a lovely boy, does have his dominance moments and does have to be watched with other dogs, he is very friendly but will take up an opportunity to dominate given the chance and with him being so large too, I do not feel I can manage both him and Custer just yet. Especially as they are still competing a bit, see they look like little angels above dont they? but Custer wont let Bailey in the car without a song and dance each time, and that's with OH to yell at them - not something I want to deal with, especially not whilst driving.
Jaja is no problem at all at any time - but, he was adopted by us as a puppy born into rescue, we took him at 14 weeks with no baggage to sort out at all. All I have to watch out for are rabbits, but he can be called off them, which is very impressive for a Lurcher.
Not really much to say (which is a good thing) unless you would like to read me waffling on about my hatred of the hot weather? probably not, so give that a miss. But, here we were late last night at sunset time on the beach, as far as the sea as it was just too hot to do much else.
Watching Custer play in the sea did make us smile, as the first time we took him, shortly before he tried to run off towards Birkenhead.... he was scared of the water, we doubt he had seen so much before. He seems to approve of it now though, of course its nice for them to cool off too. Jaja is a big fan of the water, and Lurcher's are not meant to like it at all, so I am told.
Nice quiet uneventful walk last night, which is just the way we like it. Today, (no pics, sorry) we took Custer, Bailey and Jaja out in one car - we have not done that before, was a success too. Although as we were out early for a Saturday morning, despite it being a bit cooler than of late it was very busy, with an awful lot of dogs.. Custer did very well with them all apart from one? not sure what happened there, was a young dalmation he took exception too, we are wondering if the dog had a go at him as we have never seen him react that way, he was all noise but thats not the point, luckily we still have him on a long line so easy enough to reel in quickly. This has given me some concern, as I was hoping to take them all on my own next week when OH is back at work. Still, we are going to try again early tomorrow morning before puppy class, as I have Bailey tomorrow too, so we can see how it goes, and also a quick park walk this evening.
We were out so long this morning, poor Custer had never had a walk that long before - at the end of it I saw one of the 'dog walkers' I know, so he ran round with two other Lurchers, that was a bit silly of him... he has been very quiet all day - so just a quick one tonight.
So, today somebody thought it would be a really good idea to take the dogs to the beach, including Custer - as of course you cannot improve (or start) a recall without being off lead right?
I 'really' hope my dog trainer is not reading this as he specifically did say DO NOT let him off lead.
It started off quite well, Custer was having lots of fun and staying with us. It was pretty early and the weather was a bit chilly and windy so nobody else was on this part of the beach. We had our Jaja and of course Bailey the Retriever I walk, and everyone was having a great time...
..That is of course until Custer got some sort of scent in his nose, and off he went!!! at quite a speed.... my OH still thinks he is at least 15 years younger and can of course still run as well as he could then (or is that 20 years?) so he went after him, till they were both dots in the distance...
Luckily, before things got 'too' out of hand, Jaja (he is a Lurcher, so can run) decided Custer had gone too far and took off, what had taken Custer a few minutes to get the distance took Jaja a matter of seconds, he got infront of him.. turned him around and brought him straight back to me!! Had to be seen to be believed, some minutes later the OH followed (a bit worse for wear).
It is quite obvious this dog has never had the freedom, but then he had never been out on a collar and lead either. It is also obvious that we need more training.. or a very long line attached 'next time' which of course we should have had this time.
Its puppy class tomorrow, and it will look like I have done nothing at all. But Custer is walking great on the lead until he see's a cat, dog, hedgehog, person... and in the house he is 80 % well behaved so in three weeks we have done quite well considering. Hoping to have pics tomorrow of puppy class, depending on the weather, as we had torrential rain forcast for today that didn't happen, so see what tomorrow brings.
Sorry for absence, been a long four days... Custer and his family have been fund raising for Woof Beginnings, who raise funds for small needy dog rescues. We managed to raise just over £500 which when banked will be donated. The monies raised from the dog show is to be donated to Freshfields our local animal rescue, and our friends at Husky Welfare.
The last few days have been VERY tough going for us all, as nice as it is to have good weather, heat is very tiring for us and the dogs, and the stall was so busy my helper Sylvia and I had barely no time away from it, which sounds good but six hours without a toilet or food break is hard going, and eyes in the back of your head from the 'unpleasant people' who try to steal, or win prizes by dishonesty which is of course STEALING from charities in my book and is also difficult. We REALLY need some more help if we are to do this again later in the year.
I think Custer was ready to drive us home at one spell...
As even the largest of crates is still a bit on the small side for him...
But he did enjoy his small training sessions to stretch his legs, with Daddy...
My favourite thing of the whole weekend was watching this talented man and his gundogs, I only got to watch two displays as I could not get a break from the stall, but I was totally captivated by what I saw, I have always loved to watch a gundog work - it is after all what the breed is for. I was lucky enough to have a quick chat with Arthur Telfair (dog trainer) who kindly came to have a look at Custer and has told us we have a tough time ahead but he is a nice dog who can one day become a well behaved nice dog, I am hoping this will be with Arthur's help, he has a great website here with lots of information about how he can help with dog training for dogs like Custer, and gundog work.
http://www.dogtrainingsouthport.com/
Just look at those two (above) should have seen them work for him, and no fear either which does make a nice change to watch.
The money raised from the fun dog show is to be divided between our local animal rescue 'Freshfields' and our friends at 'Husky Welfare'. The rest of the monies raised which was around £450 will be banked this week then donated to a couple of rescue's registered with Woof Beginnings.
By 6.00pm last night the dogs had enough and were ready for home please...
On the whole though, Custer did very well and was certainly a very tired boy last night. So tired we had our second full nights sleep since he arrived which was nice! He has also been pretty quiet today so far. Poor Jaja found it all a bit much today too, he was happy to have a gentle stroll on the beach this morning with Bailey, then come home to sleep on the sofa.
To close, here is Custer doing some obedience work in the ring with Daddy, he can 'sit' at least.... hopefully Arthur is going to teach us some heel work so walkies will be a bit less fraught as that is one of the main problems we are having. A VERY strong dog with no lead training, and a streak of stubborn.
Meet Custer!!! This is the photo taken on day 2 of his meeting with us his new family . As you see Custer is a Yellow Labrador, he is aged 16 months and we are to be his fourth home. Can you believe that? a dog so young...
But that is just the thing these days, firstly poor breeders - and I mean 'Poor' as in 'BAD' breeders of which they are NOT all - will give up a puppy to anybody with the cash. Then, many individuals are just not prepared to put in the time and training it takes for a good dog, they are not born!!! but trained. But that lecture is for another blog post (and trust me its on its way!).
Custer has had zero training. My husband describes him as a 16 week old puppy in a 16 month old body, which is BIG and powerful - not a good mix. Custer has been with us for 28 hours, in that time he has pulled hubby on the floor twice, peed on the bedroom carpet, kept us awake for most of the night, and is a complete and total pest to the Lurcher, resulting in an awful lot of teeth and growls.
On the plus side - yes there is one! I have taught him what 'ball' is, taught him to 'find' ball and sometimes even retrieve it, this one is going to take more work. He is loving his grooming, and his coat is starting to improve and having been out this afternoon and purchased a 'halti' he is learning to walk on the lead without pulling folk on the floor. Not a lesson he is enjoying much as this is the most stubborn Labrador I have even met in over 16 years of dealing with Labradors and rescue dogs.
Custer is a loving and insecure boy, he is guarding the house (a bit too much) and obviously has no idea what is role in life is, very confused by all the homes and lack of guidance he has had so far.
A busy week ahead, he needs registering at our vet, and taking to meet our supervet Uncle Owen. Also needed is a training school, were he can learn some controlled socialisation, as this is something else he has no idea about. In the future we hope there will be other activities to focus his brain and teach it how to work more positivley. Custer is of course too young for agility as yet, but hopefully this is something he can do in the future.
Thats all for now, whilst I make sure he is not chewing anything he shouldnt be.
