A new jacket from Santa Paws.

Even though there is no gardening to be done this week Timothy - Michael thought he would make good use of his new gardening jacket that Santa bought him.

 

 

Blondie for company.

Timothy - Michael has had Blondie for company today while her sister is away for the day. They get on very well which is good to see although TM was supposed to be helping me clear leaves.

 

Counting Sheep.

It was back to work today for Timothy - Michael and I. One of his first things everyday is to check and count the sheep - this is one of his favourite jobs. There is a bit more to it than meets the eye though. It's actually training in disguise. As you can imagine he is pretty obsessed with the sheep so I'm figuring that if I can get him to take his attention off them on my command I willl be able to get his attention from just about anything. I make him sit or lie while watching them and then after maybe five minutes I tell him to come and I move off. If he starts giving them attention after that as we are moving away I tell him to leave them and when he does I reward him. There is still away to go but I can definately see an improvement.

 

Spending time with Tess.



At the moment we are trying to do more stuff off the lead and so far no mishaps. On the walk tonight Timmy stuck his nose through the hedge a couple of times but came away whenever I told him to leave it. It's all been straight forward with no distractions so far but what we have done has been good and he seems quite happy to stick close by.

 

We did more road work this morning and tonight but that is becoming routine now so can hardly be classed as training anymore.

 



Spending time on the stairs with Tess.

Running free recall work.

 

Today we have been doing more recall training while out on our evening walk. This just involves letting him lose and then at intervals when he is a short way from me or if he looks distracted I call his name and then tap my thigh and this is the signal for him to come back to me. We made a short video last night so that you can see how we are getting on.
Also on the way back we a detour by the road through the village just to practise his road walking. This is something he can slip into without any trouble now. I shorten the lead and tell him to do a GOOD WALK and he just walks by my side with little to no tension on the lead. I do still keep praising him and saying what a good walk he is doing and then when we reach the church I lengthen the lead again and give him a treat and lots of fuss and he is so delighted that he did well.

Click on the link below to view a video.
https://youtu.be/Qgsz_CuKToA

The lost momentum.

In case you're wondering why there has been no progress reports on the training of Timothy - Michael lately it's mainly because there has been no progress. In fact the wheel has not just stopped but is actually revolving backwards. This was blindingly evident yesterday when I wanted to take him somewhere for a walk in the car and he totally refused to go near it. In the space of a week he has gone from jumping in and out of the car of his own free will to reverting back to day one which is so disheartening considering all the work we put into getting to where we had. I let myself get put off by the complaints the other week so we didn't do anymore car games or recall stuff, in fact we haven't done much of anything for over a week now apart from incidental stuff as it happens and it makes me sad that the momentum has been taken away from us. We need to try and start the ball rolling forward again but I'm not sure how.

Timmy waiting under the Mistletoe for the posh dogs to come along.

 

Making sure the weeds go in to the bucket.

Super proud.

I was super proud of Timothy - Michael this morning. During the morning walk, that takes place around 7am we take a detour back through the village just especially to get him used to the traffic which usually amounts to probably a couple of cars. This morning however we encountered a huge sugar beet harvester which did turn off before it got to us but it still looked pretty scary to me. Behind it though was a long line of cars and vans which all had to pass us plus there was a tractor coming the other way so that caused more mayhem on the narrow village street that has no footpath where we were but Timmy didn't even flinch or pull on the lead just walked or when directed stood quietly by my side.

 

Today we did a first. Usually when I have to leave him at home for some reason I do so in the kitchen with the radio on and Tess baby sitting and recently there has been no trouble like counter surfing. However yesterday because Tess was not available for baby sitting duties I had to leave him alone in the kitchen which resulted in more breakages. So today when I left him I thought why not give him more room, so apart from the kitchen I gave him access to the stairs and his bedroom which probably doesn't sound very sensible after what happened yesterday but I thought being able to move from one room to another might make him feel less confined also he would be with his toys and bed and also Tess. Well on this occasion it seems to have worked as there was no trouble at all. He had been laid in his bed as I could feel it was warm.

 

This morning I called in on the people who own the dog which attacked Tess, mainly to see if they were alright after it all but also to reassure them we bore them no ill feelings. We discovered yesterday that there was a bit of a witch hunt being implemented via emails to residents in the village. This made me realise that we weren't the only ones to suffer through all of this. They have shown remorse throughout and done as much as anyone can to make amends. So it didn't seem right to us that they be treated this way and that's why I went to give them some moral support and also ascertain if lessons had been learnt and it seems they have as they have at least gone out and bought muzzles for the dogs and you can tell that she is just as devastated by it all as we are. I just think that if the boot was on the other foot I would be guttered without the whole village on my back over it.

Doggy Advent Calendar

A short video of Tess and Timmy receiving a treat from their advent calendar on Saturday evening. If you watch closely you will see Timmy give his paw at the same time as Tess does. Paw shaking along with sitting is one of his favourite games now.

The Christmas tree supervisor.

I'm pleased to be able to tell you that things went alright with the home visit yesterday. The way it was explained to me is that there are a group of people who for reasons of a historic nature do whatever they can to undermine the owners of the rescue place where we got Timmy. I don't know if they are justified in this or not but if they complain the owners are obliged to check out the complaint and that is what they did and found there was nothing to be done. Anyone who has ever read my blogs will know what I think of my dogs so I knew they were barking up the wrong tree so to speak.

 

The Christmas tree supervisor.

This afternoon Timmy and I were attempting to erect the Christmas tree but shortly after taking this picture we had to leave off the Christmas tree job as daughter Fallon phoned to say that she and Tess had just been attacked by a pack of three under trained dogs in the village so I had to go and retrieve them. Fallon has been bitten but not seriously but poor Tess as had to go to the emergency vets to have some open wounds seen to and get checked over.

One of Tess's wounds.



If right is right.

Today is the day of reckoning, the home visitor is due to arrive around lunch time. I don't really want to say anything until I know what I'm actually being accused of and this will be the first question I will be asking the visitor. They won't be taking Timmy away, or at least if they do it will be for reasons other than having his best interests at heart because he is way better off with us than he will be with them. They can go to anyone who knows me and find they will testify to the way I treat dogs. So if right is right nothing will become of this other than people getting egg on their faces.