A bit better around visitors

Not much new to report, we've not been able to take the boys for a good, long woodland walk for a few weeks, which is a shame, although last weekend we took them up to my mum's in Manchester. Their behaviour there was noticably better regarding not jumping up at her - she's not had dogs, and remembers not to pat them or respond to them if they jump up at her. On this trip though there was very little of that behaviour at all, which is a good thing.
We also took them for a walk in the fields behind her house, and let them off to run about. They both came back when called, Mishka actually a little better than Jackson this time, but then he seems to have a stronger liking for the liver cake!
We still haven't let either of them off the lead near other dogs, the right situation hasn't really arisen. It nearly did a couple of days ago, I was with them in the little park where I've been letting them off recently, and there was a woman playing fetch with her jack russell. I let the boys say hello (on the lead) and all was good, and it would have been a perfect chance to let at least Jackson off and see what happened, but this one the one occasion when I'd not brought the liver cake with me, and I want to be consistent in when and how I use it. So I chose not to let either of them off this time.. ho hum, there's always next time.

More off the lead work

Two weeks ago I took Lara and Jackson to the park, to see how Jackson would react when I know for certain we'll be in close proximity to other dogs. I must admit that he doesn't appear to be aggressive when near them, merely curious and excited. There is lots of sniffing of the other dog's face, and his tail-wagging goes into overdrive. It's difficult to tell whether his ears are up or pinned back to be honest, I've only ever seen them in one position, and it's neither one nor t'other. With Mishka on the other hand, it's easy to see when his ears are up (nervous or excited) or pinned back (relaxed).
I still didn't let Jackson off his lead though, even with his muzzle on. I just don't think he'll respond to my calls or the whistle if he goes to investigate another dog, and that's just not acceptable. This is a big park though, and perhaps in a smaller one, I might be more tempted to let him off, where I know I won't have to chase him for hundreds of metres.
Last week Olga and I got very brave one midweek lunchtime, and we took the boys to our local, smaller park together, and with no-one else around, we let first Jackson, then Mishka, off the lead together. There were no other dogs (or even people) around, and we tried some simple Sit, Wait and Come commands, and they were both fine. We moved onto a slightly bigger park, and let them go more further afield, and between a mixture of us calling them, and the dog whistle, both boys came to us every time. We did this for about 10 minutes, and it was great.
Then last weekend we took them back to this "middle-sized" park, and let them both off again, and this time I'd brought a ball for Mishka to fetch. Jackson has never taken to fetch, or at least we've never been able to teach him. Besides, he has his muzzle on and couldn't fetch a ball back even if he wanted to! Mishka traditionally plays this game very well for 5 minutes then gets bored and gives up fetching, and he was true to form on this occasion. I've bought a second dog whistle, just like the first one, so Olga and I can be consistent in calling them, and both boys responded. They were given more freedom to wander this time, and both disappered into some overgrown bushes, chasing some small animal or other, but both returned after toots on the whistle and some encouraging calling.
I think the idea is to get them in the habit of always coming back (and wanting to come back, not us going in search of them) when called, no matter what, and then we'll have a go with other dogs around.
On that note, I'm not going to take Jackson to the puppy classes where we took Mishka, I'm happy that he's not aggressive, having seen him interact with several dogs in the last few weeks since we bought his muzzle. Mishka is almost the bigger concern, he tends to rear up on the lead a few seconds after meeting another dog, although how much of this is for Jackson's benefit I don't know, I really need to take Mishka to the big park next weekend on his own and see how he reacts around other dogs when Jackson is not there. I think £7 might be well spent on getting him a muzzle, as it's given me much more confidence with Jackson around other dogs.
I am going to contact the dog walker in Beaconsfield that I found on the web, who offers a Social Walking service, where she will pair up like-minded and like-sized dogs for walks under controlled conditions. I really think that will help both boys. Perhaps best if we treat the dogs separately at first, and see how they get on with other dogs when the other one is not there, but we'll see what the lady thinks.

Since the introduction of the muzzle, Jackson seems more reluctant now when presented with his lead for walkies. He used to be very keen, coming to us and happy to have his halti put on. Now we use a harness that goes over his front legs and fixes behind his shoulders, and since we started using that, more often than not he'll run away at walkies time, and go and sit on his bed, shaking. We do tempt him out and occasionally he will even offer a paw to help me put his harness on, but then he'll stand still, but shaking a lot, until we open the door, and from that point, once he's outside, he's absolutely fine with the muzzle and harness.

The new diet is popular, there's always two clean bowls. I've ordered a month's supply of the four different flavours of NatureDiet (chicken, rabbit & turkey, fish and lamb) and we've got a goof routine going with regards to serving it up. The boys have to sit, then give a paw, before they get their food.

The doorbell and visitors is still an issue. We've actually moved the doorbell up to our office, so they don't hear it when it rings, but they can sense someone is outside, and once one of us starts to come downstairs to answer the door, they boys start their barking, more often than not initiated by Jackson. Funnily enough, when we spent a few minutes a couple of weeks ago ringing the doorbell, it was Jackson that learnt quicker than Mishka that if he gave one bark then sat still, he got a treat and praise. Mishka didn't get it at all. We need to repeat that exercise much more often than we currently do.

New food - so far so good

The boys have taken to their new food very well, we're scaling down the amount of dried food we include with it, although this week they have been spoiled with leftover food from us, as the humans are all suffering from coughs and colds, so our appetites are not what they could be.
They both know to sit and give a paw before the food bowls are put down for them, and I think Jacky has been not quite so sociable this week in terms of jumping up on the sofa with us. He comes up when asked of course, but I've noticed he does seem to jump up of his own free will as often as he used to, which I think is a good think. (Although he does still do it from time to time!)

Off the lead!

Big news this week: on Sunday we took the boys for a walk in the woods, to the place we normally go in West Wycombe, where it's rare, though not impossible, to bump into other people walking dogs. The weather continued to be toasty hot, so we took a little picnic too.
When we reached the woods, we put Jacky's new muzzle on him, and let him off the lead. We didn't actually bump into any other dogs, but it was a relief to see that within 2 minutes he was trotting along, not trying to take the muzzle off, and coming back to us whenever we called him or gave our two peeps on the dog whistle. He did seem a little subdued whilst wearing the muzzle, not really going more than 20 metres in front of us, but that in itself doesn't worry us. At the moment, we'd rather he did that than run miles away.
(We'd tried the muzzle on him at home, and whilst he did try to take it off the first time, once enough treats had been administered, he seemed happy enough to have it on)
We kept Mishka on his 5 metre lead at this point, but after our picnic we came back through the same woods, and decided to let them both off, so for the first time since our December holiday in the Lakes last year (outside of our back garden, of course) they were both off the lead at the same time. Mishka was more adventurous than Jackson, although to start with even he would only go 20 metres before turning to check we were still following. They both came back perfectly when called and whistled, which bodes well for future walks.
We got Mishka back on the lead when we noticed a couple entering the woods, as we didn't want him bounding up to them and worrying them, and we couldn't see if they had a little dog with them, but for those 10 minutes or so, I had what I want to achieve consistently in the future, a walk with my family in nice scenery, with our dogs off the lead, but responsive to our commands. Heaven!
Jackson was fine off the lead until we cleared the woods, and he spotted a grouse or partridge in the undergrowth, and went after it. He gave up pretty quickly, and came back to us, and we put him back on his lead and took his muzzle off.

Progress this week

So far this week, some things are improving. Jackson has definitely got the hang of giving a paw now, and he has to do this before he gets any food or attention from us. Both of them are responding to the silent whistle I bought, I don't even have time to blow it, then shout "Come" - they've already responded by the time I've finished my two short blasts on the whistle. There was a particularly good test today, Jacky was wayyy up in the back garden, and I was in the kitchen, with the door open. I blew the whistle from in the kitchen, and Jacky heard it and came running in straight away. Both boys are getting lots of praise and some livercake any time they come back in response to the whistle.

We have tried some doorbell training. After ringing it 10 times, we got Jacky down to just giving one yelp, and sitting by the inner porch door, but Mishka is still rather too noisy, although by the 10th ring even he was calming down. We need to do this every day, as I'd not done it for 2 days and when we had a parcel arrive today, the boys were as loud as ever in response to the doorbell.
However, we did have an expected guest around this afternoon, and whilst I opened the door to him, Olga kept the boys in a sit in the hallway. This was a great improvement, and whilst not perfect (each boy did bound over to our guest once or twice to say hello, although we were able to keep Mishka from jumping up with a verbal command. Jacky still jumped once or twice, but both dogs would quickly return for more treats from Olga, only given once they were in a good sit).

Olga has reported that on a walk on Monday morning, with both dogs, they encountered a Bernese mountain dog out with its owner. The dog was on the other side of the road, off the lead, and whilst Jackson noticed it, Olga had got him into a sit quiet early on, and he remained in a sit for a good few moments, only occasionally looking over at the other dog, and straining a little on the lead. Olga was able to lead both boys away without any barking or lunging.
I was not so lucky on Tuesday or Wednesday morning, when walking down a road with parked cars on both verges, I saw a man on the other side of the road, but not his dog. Jacky saw the dog before I did, and the usual chaos ensued.

I'll be ordering a DAP collar for Jacky and the DAP plugin for the house next week, as soon as I get some time, this week has been a busy one at work.

Time for a change of diet

We've decided to move the boys off their diet of mixed pedigree chum tins & Autarky dried food, on to NatureDiet, a wet food which is much more healthy for them. There are a few different flavours, but we'll start them on chicken and rabbit & turkey. We started them on it this afternoon, still mixed in with the Autarky, so it's not a complete shock to their system. It's a more expensive option, but perhaps I'll get around to cancelling my Sky Sports TV package to pay for it....

Liver Cake - my first attempt

Here's my first go at Liver Cake, the boys have tried little bits and haven't keeled over dead, so I think it's OK. I had no idea how it should look, but I think it looks OK, I had better tell Olga what it is before she gets home, I wouldn't want her tucking into a slice thinking I'd baked some bizarre bread!!
Today I've been keeping my treat-hand well away from Jackson when asking him to give a paw, and he's definitely getting the hang of it, and he also responded correctly to a command of down from a distance today, him by the front door and me in the kitchen.
I'm taking him now for a long walk on his own, to go and collect Lara from nursery. I'm not going to use his muzzle, it's a 3 mile round trip and I worry that would be a long first exposure.
I will take some cake though (just a little!)...

The first week

Tuesday 20th September

I checked on Tuesday afternoon at the community centre where we'd trained Mishka when he was a puppy, and this was the poster I found:

It all seemed a bit "puppy orientated", although I will send an email to the address on the poster to see if they will allow Jackson to come along, even if it is only to sit and watch for a while.

Olga practised keeping the dogs in a sit in the kitchen when I returned to the house, which was more effective with Jackson than Mishka, but they were still under more control than we normally permit.

In the evening we pampered Mishka a little, it was his birthday after all :-)

Wednesday 21st September

Jackson is getting the hang of "give a paw", although he is combining giving a paw with lunging with his mouth to try and grab the treat he knows we have in our hand that is not extended to receive his paw.

I bought a silent whistle and a muzzle from our local pet store. I've not tried the whistle out on the boys yet, and we've just tried the muzzle on Jackson very briefly to check it fits OK, and that he has enough freedom in it to pant and drink water.
I have also bought some liver from the supermarket, and after looking up the recipe on the web, will be having a go at making liver cake soon.

Today we changed the boys feedtime from noon to morning and teatime.

Thursday 22nd  & Friday 23rd September

Continued with Jackson's "give a paw". Also making sure they at least sit, if not give a paw too, before any food or attention is given to them.

Saturday 24th September

My first attempt at taking the boys out on separate leads. We went to one of our usual parks, a small one that occasionally has other dog walkers in it, but not this morning. I let Jackson off his lead for about 1 minute, calling him back three times, each time he returned to me quickly and with enthusiasm. I put him back on the lead then let Mishka off, for about 20-30 seconds, calling him back once. He was more reluctant to return, looking at me first from a few metres away, and only returning to me when it was clear there was a treat on offer. I took this opportunity to put him back on the lead.