Hoobie's Day and Last Night

Yesterday morning and afternoon went very well. I will hence forward be talking about the before late afternoon hours as Happy Hoobie time LOL. Horrid Hoobie showed up later in the day. Between yesterday and today, I figured something out, like a cranky child, Hoobie doesn't want the fun to end. So he is understanding at the beginning of the day soft looks, allowing the muzzle on and off, ET mean the beginning to an event filled day.

However approaching dinner time, Hoobie knows allowing liberty with his self is only so self rewarding. Daycare has gone home, and he is being put to bed!! The night before last night, he was totally howling all night long. I almost broke down and gave him his sleeping pill, but I wanted to see if in the end that caused any self control to kick in. Well, last night and today, it seems the light bulb went off that neither howling nor growling bring people running to his aid. In fact, it's quite the opposite. He has begun eating up a storm too, which makes me very happy due to his medical issues and the medicine/food schedule that we need to follow.

Hoobie has begun approaching my hand and licking it. Now sometimes I expecting he is just softening up his late afternoon snack (he wishes). He has been coming towards me many times during the day, and I have been trying my hardest not to screw that up for him. So today, when I wasn't expecting it (I was just about to pick up a Great Dane puppy accident) when Hoobie came right up to the bars of his crate, and right next to me. So the crap got delegated to my husband, and Hoobie got a walk through the woods with the rest of daycare. I figured something that big (plus the later hand greeting) was worth a reward (he was leashed).

Freedom is the highest reward that I have here, so I am holding a good deal of it back. The days were not packed with all positive Hoobie interactions. Springers are quite smart and stubborn. Any opening Hoobie sees, he makes note of. The time where you are taking off the muzzle to put him in the crate is one such time. Yesterday, he started growling just as I unclasped the thing. So that resulted in some well timed leash work on my part to get him away from me and in. He is most testy in the in the crate scenario. Up until then, he was quietly accepting muzzle off, leash off, and then in the crate. So last night began a bit of excitement in dog training where everything else is designed to be quiet as possible this week.

He went in with the leash on, so I needed to get him out soon to get the leash off. It probably won't hurt him to keep it on, but you don't want anything foreign in there that a dog can ingest. I thought it was also a good idea to show him that I was not reliant on the muzzle when needed. So when he needed to go out, and he was still testy, we just took him out and held the leash in such a way that he couldn't get at me. The key was that in going out, as long as he is not reacting that way, nothing bad happens to him (IE shots, forcing him down, ET). I wasn't sure after the next putting him in the crate that he quite got the point until today. Today Hoobie, while still not a dog that I would want as my own LOL, was much improved. So the activities during the day were more fun as well. He even likes the obedience that was begun because he is outside and it's very non confrontational. Hoobie loves being outdoors, which is not surprising as he is a hunting dog. So I use where we go to the bathroom ET as a reward to. If he has growled when I needed to take him out, we go to the small pen in back. If he has not growled when I needed to take him out, we go to the large lawn and offer a small walk or perhaps training session.

As far as the muzzle when we are closing the door to the crate, it seems good progress has been made there. A couple of times, I waited with my hand on the clip to see if he would growl. If he did growl, he went into the crate with his crate face on. If he didn't growl, he went into the crate with his crate face off. A couple of those times were meal times, so I think he got the point that he was free to eat if he didn't growl, but going to have to wait a bit if he did growl.

Hoobie's breeder's name for him was Lord Domino. I think of him as Lord Hoobie now or cranky baby in the evenings. He had certainly figured out how to manipulate. The great thing is that we can use this to our advantage, because if you think about it, he gets what he wants based on his behavior. You have to be very consistent to keep the communication going however.

Oh and about rewards for going in. I found out today why holding a toy to throw in if he doesn't growl isn't a great idea for Hoobie. I knew he was a resource guarder so I was prepared for his reaction. He would have liked to have taken my hand with the toy, and instead of going into the crate, he tried to whip around and take things into his own......teeth (a subtly placed chair makes a nice barrier). I was ahead of him, but you need to try these things out in order to know whether they will work or not. I am thinking if I had a toy that went easily through the crate after he was in and sitting, that might work. I have been able to get him out of the crate with him wanting to guard his territory and start working on the resource issues. (very early on working on the resource issues). I may try the lamb treats that his owners were nice enough to supply for me for tomorrow's session.

Due to Hoobie's figuring out the weak spot during going back into the crate, we needed to have some door slamming moments during today. However, later in the evening, Hoobie started to give me the look, and then delicately walked in and went about eating his food. As I closed the door, Hoobie started eating and rumbled softly (without making a move towards the door) as I closed it.

All in all, no real surprises today, as I would totally expect him to have figured some of these things out. Yeah, it's very nice if the dog doesn't make it quite this "exciting", however that's not the reality with your more intelligent dogs. As that intelligence can work for you, it can work against you sometimes LOL.

All in all, I had some really lovely moments with Hoobie today. Now I am totally beat as he was not the only client today . I will give more updates on others tomorrow.

Need your less exciting dog trained LOL. Call Maine Dog Trainer, Robin Rubin, at Mannerly Mutts Dog Training 207-361-4395. Serving Maine Dog Training, New Hampshire Dog Training, and Massachusetts Dog Training needs.