hoku's mum

I chose 'rarely', as we crate trained Hoku as a pup, and he was in it at night and when we were gone (I work mostly at home). But by about 8 months, he was reliable, and the door of his crate is just open now, coz he likes his space. Now at 2.5 years, he still sleeps in there all night long (and some naps in the day if I am near by), and has the run of the house when we are gone, no idea where he spends his time, but he is a good boy. We just have to keep him and Gussy separated with a baby gate while we are gone, or he gets grumpy with her.

You could try ginger for the carsickness, it worked great for us. I used powered ginger from the co-op, and filled gelatin caps, and popped a couple into Hoku 20-30 minutes before a car ride. Then we would go for short rides with really fun destinations, gradually going further. He no longer gets sick or even drools, but he does tremble a bit when he first gets in the car. If your pup is really scared of the car, try the ginger, getting in the car and hanging out for a bit. Don't fuss on her, just sit there, breath, yawn, relax, and then just getting out and play a favorite game. Do this for a few days. Next step, get in, turn the car on for a couple of minutes, and shut off, and get out and play play play. Then try just driving down the driveway, and coming back, play. Gradually increase the duration, try to find some fun close places to go, and use the ginger each time. As for the dog intro's, what helps us is if we can go for a leash walk with the other dog, just walking parallel together (dogs on the outside of the people), then when they are loose together, they are fine. Do you have any friends with dogs that can help you? Respect your dogs space needs. Go slowly, and if she seems anxious, back off, give her space and try later or try again another day.

WooHoo,Linda, that is really great news, I do so love happy endings. You did right by the girls, good work.

Wow, glad to hear you have such good support from your appt manager. Sound to me like this nutter has a long list of trouble, given that she is OUT now. That is often the case... Keep safe, and give your girls a scritch for us.

Sounds like it's not the bed that is the problem. Maybe you should crate him at night till he gets the idea that you don't roam around all night and wake everybody up. Make sure his crate bed is comfy, like the ones Bustopher suggested. JMO

Welcome, Maggie is very cute, what ever color she is! As for her crate training, take some time and do it, make the crate fun, lots of treats and toys and a good place. Go slow and don't close her in yet, just lots of going in and out. As she is comfy, close the door for a short while, and if she cry, do not let her out. Wait till she is quiet, then let her out. It will be a very good thing later on if she needs to be kenneled or at the vets, or if you need to keep her quiet for her not to freak out when crated.

It is important to get him out and experiencing things, but not untill he is settled in with you, and trusts that you, as his leader, will protect him and not force him into situations that he is not ready to handle. Take things slowly, with a young dog with some fear issues, trust is your best friend. Learn to read his signals that he's scared, and don't force him. Don't coddle him, just remove him from the scary situation. As Julie said, take him to quite, fun places at first and work on your relationship. Just take it slow. Clicker training is a great way to get dogs to explore what is scary to them and make a game out of it.

Gosh Cheri, I am so sorry to hear of your loss of Buddy. You were both so lucky to have each other for the time you did, but saying goodbye is soooo hard. You did so good for him, giving him a great home for his last years, and he repaid you by being such a great companion. RIP Buddy, your story fills all of our hearts with hope for more happy endings for senior dogs in rescue.

Congratulations on finding Storm, he very cute! As Julie said, give him a chance to settle in. He's just had his life turned upside down, and needs to feel things out. Give him quiet time, lots of easy love, and start right now on being the firm and fair and loving leader to him. Don't coddle him for fear, just go on like normal, and if he is really freaked about something, remove him from the fearful situation and let him chill in his crate. Hoku is a wild and bold guy in some situations, and a quivering nitwit in others (he is still terrified of the monster that lives in the furnace registers ). If you don't practice NILIF check it out, it's great for a fearful (or rambunctious, or headstrong, etc) dog, because they know the rules, and what is expected of them. Get everyone in the family, including the kids in on it. It has been great for us. Good luck with Storm, I bet he's gonna be the best!

Welcome C. and Sollers! Sounds like Sollers hit the jackpot, good on you for rescuing him, he sure is cute! As for the baying, yep, Hoku has the most amazing 'bark' when he is really excited, we call it his BaaHaaRoooooooooo! Very funny indeed...

Hoku often lets a little squeeky fart out when he sits, it's quite funny. He has to sit at the door to go out, and he looks soooo earnest, and then, brrriiip!

You guys are to funny .... all I have to add is thank doG Hoku is a smoothie!

We taught the 'we go through the door first' thing just so we are not bowled over at the door!

Welcome! You have gotten lots of great advise. One thing not mentioned that I think is wonderful is NILIF. It's a great way to gently let your dog know you are the leader, and instill good dog manners. Small things make a big difference for us, such as we go through the door first (he sits and waits till we give the OK), all the toys are ours (and we love letting him play with them ), sitting means 'please', we initiate the play (as others have mentioned, don't reward him for pestering you, just a minute of him stopping the pestering, and you can then play like it's your big idea) Handle him all over, play with his toes, massage his ears, stroke his back so he will be comfortable with grooming and vetting. And once he has all his shots, drop in regularly at your vets, weigh him, have folks ohh and ahh, give him a cookie and leave. Take him to lots of different place and walk on all different surfaces (no kidding, Hoku will not walk over metal... go figure ) And most of all, take lots of pictures, they grow up so fast! Besides, you need them to look back on when he is an adolescent devil to remind you how much you really do love him!

Elizabeth, it's good to hear that you were able to 'reform' your Meg, I have high hopes that I too can have a reformed juvenile delinquent. He has been on high lock-down, not out on his own at all, all play on the long line, leash walks, NILIF to the max. I have not seen a deer on the property for days, so have not been able to work with him with them, but have been doing lots of work on leave it, recall, and just our general relationship. But the change in him is pretty dramatic. He is very focused on me (he had been starting to blow me off on things in the past couple of weeks), very responsive to the recall training, amazing what really controlling all access to fun will do. I don't think that I have to worry about hurting him with the long line, because when he is on it, he seems to know that he can't take off. I do use it with a harness, and have since he was a pup. Last year with work, we got to the point of being able to walk through our neighbors pasture of horses and cattle, and he would just stick right with me and ignore them. We have not been walking there due to the vegetation in summer, fall and early winter are horrid foxtails and other nasty stickers, but I think it's time to get back out there again. The hardest part is that it is just not my personality to be such a control freak with my dog, so it's a learning experience for both of us. I am a very responsible dog owner, but just have never had a dog that requires such a high level of management. I have never used a shock or citronella collar, and have no idea how to. I think something like that would need to be used under the supervision of a very knowledgeable person. So for now I think I will work with what I know and see how we do.

Welcome! Kye looks like a great dog, good for you for giving him a home and 'job'.

Hoku get a 15-30 minute walk in the morning along with some fetching play, then he's in the house with me while I work, with his off switch firmly in place (he just konks out ). Late in the afternoon, we go out and play hard for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour or more, depending on the weather and if he has a doggie playmate. We play Frisbee, fetch, agility, soccer, swim, or off leash walk on our neighbors ranch behind us (now a long line walk again...), I try and mix it up so he doesn't get board. As long as I get him really panting for 10 minutes or so, with a warm up and cool down, he can chill just fine the rest of the time. We also play mind games and do trick training inside, especially when the outside time is limited due to sucky weather.

We just tried leaving the crate door open one night for Hoku at about 9 months, and he was fine. He now sleeps in his open crate, just stays in there till we get up, or at least are awake and laze about talking for a while on weekend mornings. We really like that he's in there at night, coz that means we won't trip on him when we get up in the night (our old dog was not crate trained, and he slept sprawled on the bedroom floor, and I always tripped on the poor guy in the night ). Plus, when we travel with him, we have a soft crate, and he is quite happy to have his safe place in a strange house. So we really never thought about transitioning him 'out' of the crate, just giving him more freedom.

I really see the point of not using stock for general training. I am sure it is quite stressful on the sheep with a green dog, and with other avenues available to us, I will continue our work with agility and general obedience work. Thanks for that input. The long line has been a great tool for us, and I think I will be using that alot in the near future, and try and set him up (has not worked the last day or two... may be the deer are wising up...) I agree that the stimulus is most likely very different with stock or deer, and I need to work on and proof his recall in as many different situations as I can. Thanks for all your thoughts, it is soooo helpful to come here and get so many thoughtful replies to a hard situation, I really do appreciate it.

Hoku sleeps in his blanket covered open wire crate in our bed room. He has free reign of the house, when we are gone. He'll sometimes put him self to bed if we stay up late, but will usually be in the room I am in, sleeping on one of the dog beds scattered about.

Thanks all for your thoughtful replies to my rather, er, despondent post. I am feeling much better today, less overwhelmed. In thinking through this whole event, I am sure that the deer was either ill or hurt during the chase... Hoku is fast and nimble, but no way could he catch a deer. There was no damage to the deers hind end (as would be if he dragged it down), it's front leg was snapped, so I really believe that he came upon it injured (most likely from the chase, true), and jumped on it. Distressing none the less. So he has not been 'free' since then. It's been the long line, or leash, or his pen. We have some friends with Lamas, and we are thinking of working with on the long line (outside the fence) on his recall and 'leave it' with them as stimulus. And setting him up with the deer (an easy thing since they always bed down by the pond) and the long line is a good idea, too. And I am more at ease with my role in the whole thing. I realize, Pearse, that it is my responsibility to train him not to chase, and have been trying, obviously more work is needed. I am (and always have been) interested in working with him on stock. Personally, I don't see any harm in using stock to aid in training him. But am interested in why you think if I will not work stock seriously with him, then I should not work on his self control (something we work on with other things, too) using stock and a trainer? And I am all ears on different ideas on how to teach not to chase deer.

We are having a bad windy wet storm today, and I went out to check the creek and pond, etc for flooding. Hoku spooked some deer next to the pond and took chase (this is all on our property). As he has blown me off in the past when he has started the chase (I can stop him if I call him off before he bolts... once he goes, he just ignores me, but has never left the property, abandons the chase at the property line) I just let him go today, not wanting to let him practice blowing me off, and thinking the run will help him blow some steam off. Well, a couple of minutes later I hear a sickening scream above the roaring wind, and I ran to find out what happened. Well, he had the deer down and was just all over it, mostly dragging it by a leg. It was still very alive, but with a very broken leg. I pulled him off, dragged him away and threw him into his pen. It was all I could do to not just loose it. I was able to track down a neighbor who came over and shot it to end it's suffering. I am just sick about this. I don't know if he caught it and broke it's leg, or if it's leg went into a hole (we have a ton of gopher holes and the soil it very soft right now) and was broken in the chase and that is why he was able to catch it. He has never even gotten close before.... Guess it doesn't really matter. My main concern is that now that he has 'had a taste', I am worried that I can never let him off leash, even on our own property, let alone on all the hikes we do. I am just so upset, I can't even look at him. I have never worked so hard with a dog before, and I still don't have the control that is needed for him....I am tired and burned out on dealing with his issues and needs.... When I let up just a hair, he does something stupid (I know, he is just being a dog...) I guess I feel trapped by him and the level of management he demands, I am such a dog person, I love him dearly, but I just don't know what to do next. ::::sigh::::

That is great news, congrats to Missy and her new people, lucky, one and all. And big big good on you, Linda, for rescuing those girls and riding the bumpy road with such love and care. I know you will miss her, that's just what a good person feels at times like these...

Good Mojo heading your way for your vet visit on Saturday Keep us posted.

Welcome! Your pups are lovely, thanks for the picture!