Camping

Over the past weekend we went to Curecanti National Recreation Area to meet up with my sister Evvie and her boyfriend Mark who were down in Durango WOOFing (working on an organic farm).  We drove down Friday night and spent two nights.  At over 4 hours, this was Pickles longest car ride.  We have a doorless hard shell crate that I got for free on the curb that we put in the car for him to ride in.  He spent over 4 hours trying to get out of it and into my lap.  It took us till the ride back to get smart enough to tie him in with his leash and harness.  As soon as he was tied in he laid down and went to sleep. 

The weather was cold, snowy, and rainy but it was a really pretty area.  We were the only people camping at Dry Gulch a really nice campground tucked in the cottonwoods along a stream. 

Pickles got the run of the place and spent hours off leash gnawing on deer carcass, running through the tall grass, and playing with his Frisbee.  He even brought his lawn chair.

He was absolutely filthy the entire time.  We had to dip him in the stream and then towel him off before we could bring him in the tent.  He slept amazingly though, better than at home.  He just snuggled on my sleeping bag and didn't budge; he probably slept in until almost 7am.

We went on a really cool hike that dropped down into the canyon on Saturday and then drove to Black Canyon of the Gunnison and drove along the rim.

On Sunday we packed up and headed out early, but stopped at Neversink trail at the edge of the park for another hike.  Pickles slept the whole way home.

Meet Oakley

We found Sara and Oakley through a Craigslist add they posted for a puppy play group.  Oakley is a Great Dane mix around Pickles' age.  We've been meeting about once a week in the evening for half an hour or so to let the puppy run, wrestle, and bite each other.  Oakley is pretty goofy looking; he runs with a gallop and can't keep up with Pickles.  They play pretty well together though.

We have been working a lot on recall (Come) because that was the number on thing we were looking for in a dog... excellent recall no matter what.  We watched Patricia McConnell's DVD "Lassie Come" where she gives some great tips.  We each have our own recall word that we save for special circumstances.  Here are the rules we try to follow with it.

1.) We always have a treat (preferably a really good treat) to reward Pickles when we use this word to call him
2.) We always let him go back to whatever fun thing he was doing or have something else really fun for him to do when we call him.
3.) We don't use it very often when we're not training.
4.) We don't use it if there is a good chance he won't come.

We started with no distractions and have slowly worked up to calling him from farther away with more distraction.  The ultimate is calling him out of playing with another puppy.  So far we only call him away from one other puppy and try to do it when there is a natural break or pause in the play.  In the middle of this video you can hear/see Mark calling Pickles out of playing with Oakley to come to him with his recall word "Velcro".

Coot Lake

Several weeks ago we took Pickles on a hike near Coot Lake and Boulder Reservoir.  It was a little cool and windy out, but still nice weather.  Pickles got to run to his heart's content through the tall grasses.  He waded a little bit in the reservoir, but the water was cold!  He also had fun chasing some really big sticks.

Pickles on the shores of Boulder Reservoir

Playgrounds

We live just down the street from a really nice park with a small playground. Pickles loves playing at the playground as much as any kid I've seen. He digs in the sand, runs around and around, and slides down the slides.

The short video

 

The long video

 

Ant Hills

Today, Pickles discovered Ants. Oh what fun!  There is ant colony living in our backyard with a small opening to one of their tunnels near the pathway.  If you sit and watch the opening, ants exit at a fairy constant rate maybe one every couple seconds.   There are also lots of ants milling around this area.  Pickles likes to sit next to the hole and play with the ants as they come out one by one.  He also peruses the area looking for them if they don't come out fast enough.  I don't think he likes the feel of them in his mouth because he doesn't always eat them.  Usually he squishes them with his paw, sniffs/squishes them with his nose, or licks them.  Surprisingly, ants that have been licked have a very high survival rate.  I watched for a while and most of them managed to get up and walk away after their play date with Pickles.  I would say he collectively spent well over an hour playing with the ants today.  They are the red fire ants so maybe he'll drive them out of the yard.

Water Water

Pickles is particularly fond of the patch of ivy along side our house. All the dead vines and leaves make a wonderful sound when he walks through them or pounces on them. Here Pickles is chasing the water as Mark sprays the hose through the patch.

Catch that Tail

Pickles often gets in moods where all he does is chase his tail.  He does the typical spin move trying to bite it, but he also has a few other tricks up his sleeve.  Here is what we've learned from him.  First, if you're trying to turn in one direction to catch your tail, changing direction often helps.  Stalking the tail and then pouncing is sometimes another good technique as well as just going as fast as you can and trying to out spin the tail.  If those don't work, try sitting down.  Tails usually stop moving when you sit down then you can get them in your mouth easier.  Once that tail is in your mouth you can stand back up.  And when you finally have the puppy by the tail you can take him anywhere you want him to go. 

My mom advised me that if I want to go "viral" with my youtube videos, they need to be shorter.  That's not really the goal, but I guess for people too busy to watch puppies all day, here is a short version and a long version of typical Pickle tail chasing.

The short version

The long version

Gigi Moss's Puppy Class

We've been taking Pickles to a puppy class hosted by Boulder dog trainer: Gigi Moss.   She holds drop in classes for puppies 8 - 18 weeks on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings.  We really like her techniques, style, and the class in general.  Pickles gets to play with a handful of other puppies of all shapes and sizes.  Gigi also answers questions, gives lots of good advice, and explains typical behaviors.  She usually has one or two exercises for us to work on during the class in between the puppy play times.  Some of the topics she's covered include: sit, down, stay, loose leash walking, wait (at a curb or doorway), impulse control, eye contact, being comfortable on a tether.  We've been taking Pickles at least every week and sometimes twice a week.  It's really vital for puppies to spend a lot of time playing with other puppies their own age to learn good dog manners.

Mark rewarding Pickles for being patient

Today, we worked on impulse control.  The goal is to teach the puppy that he won't get anything when he is being pushy.  So you take a treat and hold it in your hand in front of him.  At first he tries to lick, bite, or scratch it out of you hand.  As soon as he stops trying though and relaxes you give him the treat.  You move up to leaving the treat in your open hand and then place it on the floor in front of it.  Pickles had worked on this exercise at one of the previous puppy sessions so he was already a pro and Gigi had us move on to eye contact.  In this case, you hold the treat until he looks you in the eye and then give it to him.  The first time, I made a noise to get him to look at me, but then he caught on really quickly to and would look at the treat once and then immediately look up at me.  This exercise is supposed to be a really good base for off leash training because it sets the foundation for him to check in with you

Pickles playing with Clover (Burmese Mountain Dog) and Wolfgang (German Shepherd Mix).

Mud, Cow Pies, and Pine cones

The other day after work we took Pickles to Flatirons Vista Trail head just south of Boulder on 93. It's nice and flat with great views of the flat irons. If you make it far enough, there is a really nice open forest. We didn't quite make it to the trees but had a nice walk and a picnic.  Pickles had a blast playing in the mud and sniffing cow turds.   Luckily, he didn't really get into eating them.  Then he played fetch with a pine cone while we had cheese and crackers.  Pine cones are surprisingly pretty easy to find, sometimes easier than sticks.  I'm not sure why enjoys them so much but I think he likes to hold spiky things in his mouth because he also really likes small blue spruce branches with lots of needles.

Running Wild

Fetching Pine cones