Safety First

I've realized lately that lots of our training, and lots of our equipment, has to do with safety.

Elka is on a collar and leash when we go outside, to make sure she's safe. She can't decide to run into the road, or chase something and get off our property, anything like that. On our walks, she's on a harness and collar, with liberty's attachment to make sure more than one thing will have to fail to put her in danger; not that I'm sure she'd just hare off somewhere the instant she had a chance, but better safe than sorry. See, there it is again.

In the car, she has a harness which hooks to the built-in child seat anchor vehicles have. In the case of an accident, it will hopefully protect her, and also the humans in the car, preventing the 75 pound dog in the back seat from becoming a missile within the vehicle. It also keeps her from just jumping out when a door is opened, so her exit can be controlled to a safe place and situation.

Elka does not know the difference between skunks and cats

I did not witness this particular adventure; my fiancé related it to me after coming back in the house. I have no pictures of this adventure, so I'll provide you with some stock photos and you can use your imagination.

Because the backyard is still techtonically snowy and icy (spring is here or coming or something), we're still just letting Elka out the back door and into the fenced area to go potty (which reminds me, I'm going to need a new poop scooper for when that is no longer the case). We're working on self control, so she doesn't just bolt out that door as soon as it's opened, but rather waits to be released.

Never Stop Training

Yesterday, Patricia McConnell posted "Gotta Love That Recall" on her blog, and while I read and recommend her as often as I can, I also noticed the specific phrase which I've poached for the title of this post: Never stop training.

I'd been thinking about this lately, in fact, when a certain long nosed miss started nosing up to peoples' plates in a manner she had not otherwise displayed. I may or may not have been mostly unbothered by this, for it was rarely, if ever, my plate she was getting too close to. This is Elka, who I can leave in the car with McDonald's or other takeout and she will not touch is. Elka, who has been in a room with a coffee table full of nachos and dip and even pigs in a blanket and not touched a thing. Elka, who dropped a turkey sandwich she had in her mouth when I said "drop it", and left along a dropped tupperware of taco meat when I said "leave it".

(forgive the old picture, I don't have a new one of her lurking in the "safe range" of food that is not hers)

Sick and Sleeping

So, this week, I was largely felled by an unpleasant flu/cold thing. Not many activities were to be had.

Instead, there was a lot of this:

And some of this:

And even a little bit of this:

I will say, it's nice to know that you have a dog who ignores bags of used tissues that are within easy reach, because that would be totally gross and I don't even want to confront such an issue. It's also nice to have a nice, warm dog who will happily nap with you. If my nose wasn't plugged, I'm sure the Doberman-aromatherapy of brownies would have been very relaxing. Nice thing number 3? We thought to teach Elka hand signals, so when my voice went, we could still communicate just fine.

Caution: Area Patrolled by Doberman

So, last Monday, I posted about our new furniture.

In the course of cleaning/organizing/clearing things, we located a sign that our housemate had purchased, but we hadn't hung anywhere just yet. It's so hard to choose where signage should go sometimes.

But, in the interest of display, I put it on top of the light switch in the living room.

Celebrations that Bother Dogs

Midnight is not an unusual hour for me to see; I've been a night owl since college, the first time it was really possible and permissible for me to do so. Back in high school, there were times in the summer I stayed up later writing, but not often. Now, it's odd if I'm in bed before midnight. I must say, though, the fireworks at midnight on New Year's Eve tend to startle me. We celebrate midnight now? Oh, that's right. Auld lang syne.

If fireworks startle me, though, how do dogs feel about them?

Birthday BBQ at the park

Sunday was pretty busy! I already posted about the walk that Elka and I took (or one aspect of said walk, anyway). I didn't tell the story of the whole day, though.

See, after we got back from our walk, we cooled down for a bit, and had some water. Then we got in the car and (wait for it) went back to the park! It was our friend's birthday, and we were invited.

Tasty Tuesday, March 13 2012

I make macaroni and cheese from scratch every couple of weeks. It's kind of funny that I do; as a kid, I loved boxed mac 'n' cheese, and only from the box. I was frequently picky, so it wouldn't surprise me if I turned my nose up at the from scratch stuff. That, and the box is super cheap. I still like it, but I don't try to call it dinner.

This is Elka, practicing her "leave it". 

Tasty Tuesday, February 28 2012

Because I already spend so much time telling you how good Elka is, what's one more, right? (If this leads you to believe this is the last one, I apologize. I'm sure it isn't.)

Remember at Christmas, we went visiting? And my grandparents were so happy with how good Elka was? Well, I left out a detail that to me hadn't seemed like such a big deal. A giant house made out of chocolate.

How could it not be a big deal? Well, we didn't eat it. My grandparents won it at a local culinary institute raffle. And then, after Christmas, donated it to their local senior center, where it got eaten with nary a bite saved for either of them!

But, Elka didn't eat it either. Or even sniff at it after the first "leave it". Of course, she was supervised the entire time we were visiting. In addition to a giant chocolate house, I'm sure there were other non dog safe items around that I couldn't even anticipate, because my grandparents are not pet owners. But everything was fine.

Tasty Tuesday, February 21 2012

I was mean to Elka today.

Not <i>mean</i> mean. Just..."testing her self control" mean. A little background: earlier in the day, I had given her a Monster Mouth. I noticed at the time, but didn't follow up on it, that one of the little molasses cookie treats I'd used to stuff it with had bounced out of the "area of play". Several hours later, Elka was chewing on something, which I instructed her to drop it. And she did.

So, I upped the ante.

Monday Mischief February 6

This Monday, I'm again recounting a tale that's a complete lack of mischief.

On Fridays and Saturdays, we tend to have friends over. Elka is very happy with this, as she loves all of our friends, sometimes more than our friends can take. The love of a Doberman is vigorous and occasionally overwhelming. This Saturday evening, one of our friends happened to drop a couple of M&M's on the floor. One skittered across the floor and hit Elka in the foot. Elka was laying down next to my chair, looking up at the toy that I had in my lap. I never even needed to say "Leave It". She never looked at it.

The Cold

Every winter, whether we like it or not, the cold does come. We people have done clever things like invent clothing and build houses to deal with it, in addition to having harnessed the power of Fire in the first place.

Dogs? They have fur. Most dogs, in fact, have lots of fur, in multiple layers. The Doberman, sleek breed that it is, does not have an undercoat. Elka's fur in particular reminds me of eyelashes, and when I find one of her hairs on me, or when she's not around, I wonder if it is, in fact, an eyelash or not.

So, thin glossy hair plus winter? Cold Doberman. A lot of the time, this also means sleeping Doberman.

Monday Mischief! November 21

A lot of people have truly shocking pictures of their dogs.

Dogs sitting inside an eviscerated frame that was a couch when people left the house an hour before. Dogs who obviously chewed the blinds right off of the windows. Dogs who killed the dragons that lived in their very own innocent dog beds.

I am a bad pet owner. I don't grab the camera when I see things like that (okay, so the bed is the only exampled I really have). I get rid of the evidence, without correction, which is very hard as a person to do, because the dog is obviously looking guilty, right? The dog must know what she did, right? Well, not really.

Dog Manners: the barking edition

Hey, you know what really bugs me?

Walking down a street and having no fewer than six dogs bark uncontrollably the entire time I'm on their stretch of sidewalk.

Do you know who I blame for this?

The owners.

I continue walking down that street, despite my annoyance, because I'm using those horrible animals to train Elka to behave calmly and look to me for guidance, regardless of the situation.  I talk her through as we walk by, and I assure you I keep my language clean, but what I say is not complimentary to those dog owners.