Perfect pointing at squirrels in the neighbor's yard. We're Back!
Shesh December was busy. But I'm back an boy do I have a bunch of news.For one thing we were invited to a bunch of holiday parties. The only one we made it to was our Dog Scout Party (Mom got sick so Gauis had to cancel his other engagements. He has quite a demanding social schedule) Well he won three little troop awards at the party and we got these very cute ornaments commemorating made by our friend Ms. Raliey (Garth the golden lab's mommy).
All of the awards revolve around being tiny. I think Gauis is the smallest dog in the troop so that makes sense.
We could get used to mom sleeping on the couch. She should get sick more often.After the parties and moms recovery we got into the Christmas spirit. Now that I have a house and a fireplace I thought we should have stockings. A good idea in theory but Gauis found unatainable food hanging just out of reach for a week to be a little stressful.
But he was happy enough when he got into it. We went to my parents for Christmas (well Gauis and I). He got to play with his favorite cat in the world Oolong. They chased each other around all weekend. And he earned some well deserved scratches on the nose from Pekoe, my parents less dog enthusiastic cat. we played retrieve games with the smaller presents during Christmas. It went well, with Gauis bring the gifts to my mom (though she needs to learn how to maintain criteria. It was a very "good enough" retrieve. Drop it sort of near me and that's good enough.) It was fun though. Gauis has never had to take an object from me and give it to someone else, so it was an interesting experiment.
Snickers and Sean stayed home for the holidays.
Speaking of our favorite 10 year old dachshund, huge news!
I was going to rotate this picture... but then I got lazy and didn't. Snickers is officially spending the new year in her forever home. She went home to a lovely couple in Herdon Virgina. They have two adult children (Her daughter came, and is in the above picture with Snickers the night she left), and an 11 year old low key beagle. She'll be getting lots of attention and three long walks a day. What more could you ask for?
The couple in Alexandria, who are also lovely, alas didn't email Claire back for a week and therefore missed their shot at Snickers. But they are looking at other older dachshunds in the organization to give a good home. There certainly enough senior dogs to go around. So it's a win win.
In other news we should be getting a new foster sometime next week! A black and tan 6 year old wire haired boy named Buckwheat (pictured below). The owner is giving him up because he's apperently "Food and toy aggressive and bad with children". Should be interesting. Then again I am not sure how seriously to take that. Snickers was given to us with the excuse of "potty issues". Since she had a perfect record of no accidents at my house, I think he was just looking for an excuse to get rid of the dog. When I get Buckwheat I'll evaluate him myself and see if he has trouble spots and where they lie.
But I like to be prepared. Do any of you out there have any fun games I can play with him to help overcome his resource guarding behavior? I have a few idea's but I'd love some input from folks that have dealt with this issue. Positive training techniques only please. Harshly correcting anxiety and aggression only begets more aggression.
Now do I look like I'm mean to you?
2 comments:
He's a cutie, I've heard some trainers say to "flood" the area with the desired objects, toys or food, so that its too much to guard....or hand feeding... I don't know I haven't dealt with this too to much, and the ones I've had just have been fed in separate rooms
hand feeding I'd heard, flooding the area with desirable objects I had not. Interesting, I'll have to try that.
I was also thinking of playing trading games with him, where give him something of low value (like a rawhide bone) and trade for something high value (like a handful of chicken)
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