Belated Happy New Year

Its quite a while since I took the camera out on a dog walk, but we only had Custer and Jaja today and there was two of us so I gave it a go.  Here he is doing a 'very' rare recall, but then there wasn't anyone else about so he might as well.  I would like to say there was some improvement 3 (or is it 4) weeks into the CSJ calm herbs but I really do not think there is, I cannot recall ANY evidence of calm behavoir at all.  I even tried some A.Vogel flower essence on advice of a friend, they dont work either.  We have made another friend on our morning walk though, another rare soul who is brave enough to walk with us, and her dog a Springer Spaniel called Alfie, who takes no notice of Custer at all so is a nice calming influence.

Back to today... here is another photo of Custer 'attempting' a fairly 'bright' look, this does not happen so often.  It was a good walk in all fairness, we went to the beach and it was just full of folk, so we put the dogs back in the car and went elsewhere for a quiet walk.  We only saw two lots of people, one with small dogs that Custer is fine with, and the other we managed to hold his attention with the ball so all was well.  Would have been a good walk all round accept at the end when he point blankly refused to come back, not for another ball, chicken, cheese, ham.......NOTHING, so we were out quite sometime.  "Daddy" is much braver than I you see, I do not let him off lead now without him being on a long line I can stamp on! so I do not have the problem, and he is back on lead as soon as I am near others.

Jaja had a great time too, this is him having abandoned the ball he got first and Custer now trying to find it.  Hard to believe our Lurcher Puppy is to be 11 this year, nobody tells him that though, he can run around with Custer (who is 2 at the end of February) with great ease.

Wonder if Custer will show any signs of calmer behavoir when he gets to 2? I have a bad feeling it is more likely to be 4 year old though......

Custer's first Christmas

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.

Was a big day on Sunday

Whoops, after such good intentions to keep up with this blog, life went and got in the way I'm afraid...

Anyway, time for a Custer update!!! He is still here..........

Above is Custer on his new bed, very nice double duvet with paisley cover from charity shop.  This was to replace his CRATE!! Yes, we got brave and finally after nearly six months we took it down, it was big enough to take over most of the room and we had hoped it would not be for quite so long.  So far (5 days in) its going okay.  Custer does have a habit of stealing his Daddy's shoes to sleep with whilst I am out with Jaja, but he isnt chewing them, and (so far) has not stolen anything else.  When I leave him with Jaja  (again, so far) he does nothing.

The walking thing is still a bit up and down.  Each 'down' has a bad effect on my confidence though so does tend to set us back somewhat, which is not good for either of us.  Our 'downs' are his reaction to submissive dogs, he will dominate and is rather noisy about it.. now I know it is NOT aggression, Custer is NOT an aggressive dog - this was proved when we were set on by a stray and I had Custer behind me and submitting.  Problem is of course the other owner does not know this, and despite the fact I am never so far away, and do step in immediatly I still get 'what for' over it.

We have made some progress this week though, Custer has a new friend - a flatcoated retriever called 'Sam' I hope to get some pics one day to show you.  Sam told Custer off twice for his dominant behavoir and now all is well, they get on great - also after initial fear Custer is now good with Sam's owner too.
Today I had a meeting with a dog walker I have known a few years on passing, she is rather experienced and despite having heard about Custer until today we had not met with her dog 'Scout' - this was an interesting meeting as she had already told me not to worry as Scout could handle unruly dogs and there would be no problem, Custer immediatly went to dominate Scout who totally ignored him and calmly removed himself, this was quite fascinating for us to watch.  Apparently if the dog in question (being Custer) is not aggressive Scout will try reassure him, they too ended up playing well with Scout only 'telling him' about playing too rough. 

So, at nearly 6 months in - there is such 'slow' progress going on - it really is not easy by any means, BUT there are days when it goes well, before hand there was not any days that went well.

Oh I forgot, I have now got Custer to enjoy playing ball - he just went through the motions before, now he loves it, I can even get him to ignore 'some' dogs when we play, often he does not bother with smaller dogs at all.
We still do evening walks for them both, his lead walking for Daddy is fantastic - long way from that first day, and he walks on just a collar and lead for him, I still have a double sided harness as due to the damage he caused to my right arm I cannot hold him in that now.
I try to walk away from as many dogs as I can and if I do not know the dog I will change direction, or walk in a lot of mud to avoid any trouble - just work with the dogs I know - rightly or wrongly this works for me, but if I dog runs to us - I will let go, if its a confident dog with a dog savvy owner all is well.

I think thats all for this time's update - better not make anymore promises about my next one.

Custer went on holiday

We have an excuse for our absence this time, we have all been on our holiday's to Devon.  Might have been a bit on the ambitious side for us really with a new rescue dog, he did find the whole experience a bit much.  Though he enjoyed the 'playing in the sea' parts.  I booked the holiday just after loosing our beloved Alfie, knowing it was likely we would have another dog by now I booked for 2 dogs, spent ages on line finding the right place, with a large enclosed garden.  So, if the dogs were on leads the rest of the time at least they could play at the cottage.  So... I was rather disappointed to arrive and find the fence to be totally inadequate at keeping 'ANY' dog inside and no gate on the property toward the car park and road!  This meant the dogs to be on leads at all times in the garden, not quite what I had wanted, and was very restricting.

such a shame, as the view was stunning, there was a very large field outside the garden too that lead to a main road, so we had to be very careful.  We seemed to spend most of our days searching for a dog friendly beach, the cottage was so remote there was no mobile or internet connection either.

Custer spent so much time on the lead he has got a bit better on it now, he has seemed to have improved with people - he did see a lot of them though in all those coastal villages.  Though, in the back of Daddy's large car he managed to eat 4 leads - as he was not fond of being so far away from us.  In my car he is much closer.
Custer even made a friend at Dawlish Warren beach, this was a nice one.. a bit of a walk to get to the dogs allowed bit, but there he met another rescue dog to play with..

The weather was challenging too, we had an awful lot of rain!! We visited Torquay one day, the weather was dreadful and of course the tourist part was not for dogs, so we found a little walk to take them on leads, went round a corner and it stopped.... whoops!!! almost lost Custer....

At least it had finally stopped raining though, was one of the worst days for the weather.  Jaja was not impressed either to be on lead so much..

So good you can see him twice?? no idea why that happened.

There are more Custer holiday pics, so will do another post to bore you with them.  I am now back to 'clicker' training on our beach each day, also challenging... its all quiet today as Custer ran off to play with a Greyhound - that wore him out.

Bad Blogger

Oh my, nearly a month since my last blog post!! So sorry.  Just have not taken any photo's and hate to blog without, so I just dragged out an old one so the page was not bare.

I would like to say things are better - but then I would be telling lies.  Things have not been better!  But after a rather bad morning walk I bumped into a lady I know from dog club who recognised Custer's behavoir and offered some advice.

We have now started 'clicker training' my new book has only arrived today 'click to calm'.  Meanwhile I have been teaching Custer all about the clicker and yummy treats, also been working on some heel work.  I do have him responding to the clicker, and walking with me really well off the lead (were its quiet).

However, the lunging at dogs is still going on - and he is not too keen on certain people either.

With other dogs he is friendly every time, and only wants to play - I have now found on our morning off lead walkies if I run off he will follow me, so recall is now happening, just wish I could stop him from going in the first place.

I also watched some great video's by kikopup which were fascinating - learning some of her 'catch words' is also helping.

I will try not to leave it a month till my next blog post, and hope to be able to talk progress.

Custer the Gundog

Yes, this is of course in the place were I have my dreams, not 'quite' a reality.  These photo's were taken the other week at gundog/puppy training school, when 'Daddy' decided he would have a try just to see if it was Custer that was just naughty or me that was just useless.
The verdict was it was Custer who was naughty!!! This was however the class we found Custer had a great interest in the 'dummy' though, which gave us hope (we are always searching for hope).

I have spent all last week, every day (and most of the week before) training Custer in a quiet place.  I have taught him to walk with me, find the dummy and retrieve.. At today's class you would have thought I had actually spent the entire two weeks with Custer locked in a cupboard, his behavoir was nothing short of appauling, and very embarrassing to say the least.  I really do not 'get it', yes there was distractions in class and a lot of retrieve, but he just reverted back to the dog we brought home from rescue 3 months ago?  I know I shouldnt but I am so disappointed.

Totally, back to the beginning yet again tomorrow.  I now have to teach him 'LEAVE IT' as he clearly had no idea what that meant today.  I have 2 weeks to try drill this into him for next class, as there is no class next week.
This is what we aim for one day............... wonder if we will ever reach that day? of course these dogs have been with their owners since pups, and are well bred gundogs.

Unlike our Custer who is a rescue Labrador, on his fourth home - with no training before us, and one bad home we know of.  This week I was trying to execute the flies in the kitchen with a rolled up paper, I had enough of them and the plot was lost! well.............. I ended up having to live with the flies as Custer was in pieces, the rolled up paper had sent him over the edge, he had seen that before and not after flies, the sight of him so scared brought tears to my eyes.
Then, there was yesterday............... in the kitchen........... Custer going totally beserk and barking like mad at the unit base? this went on for sometime, I was convinced we had mice, OH had to go remove the cupboard base to see what was behind it, the culpret for all this fuss??............. was a garlic skin, Custer attacked it with venom, especially when it strayed menacingly towards his Dad.

He still wont let poor Bailey in the car, so we now get him out and put Bailey in, then all is well.

Just as I think things are going quite well, things seem to go backwards? I really don't remember this happening with any of my rescue dogs before, this one really is 'Unique'.

Interference!

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.