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Careful about robovacs. Monty's poops v roomba ended with Monty's poops victorious
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Jan 26, 2021 22:05
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I have this problem with my puppy, a handful of times each day she tries to come up and cuddle. If I sit on the bed or something she'll come up and lay against my chest or w/e. However, literally 15 seconds later she'll go into ultra-hyper puppy mode where she becomes uncontrollably spastic and starts jumping on me and playbiting and stuff. I just want her to chill out a bit and accept some cuddles sometimes. I hope she grows out of it, it makes me real sad. E: i know there are some videos on this in response to me last page, I'm working on it. She's just. ugh, very hyper with physical contact and regularly bites/nips too hard or jumps up and gets me with her toenails. So much to work on there. Agent355 fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Jan 27, 2021 |
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Jan 27, 2021 03:29
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I have a training question! We're trying to get Lady to push buttons when she wants certain things, like playing tug and going outside. But we've been at a standstill for a while with getting over the final hump from "I do this before I am allowed outside" to "I do this when I want to go outside." And she's capable of expressing desires, of course - she's great at grabbing her rope and smacking your hand with it when she wants to tug. But she very rarely pushes the buttons without some amount of prompting (she is, for what it's worth, really good at pushing them when we're in the neighborhood of the button). I'm pretty sure she thinks of it as another step before she does a thing (like how we ask her to sit nicely before we go for walks), rather than a thing that she can use to modify our behavior. Obviously we're jumping to attention on the odd occasion she does push a button and giving copious praise, but...anyone have any ideas here? Picture tax: 
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Jan 27, 2021 03:42
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Boxman posted:We're trying to get Lady to push buttons when she wants certain things, like playing tug and going outside. But we've been at a standstill for a while with getting over the final hump from "I do this before I am allowed outside" to "I do this when I want to go outside." And she's capable of expressing desires, of course - she's great at grabbing her rope and smacking your hand with it when she wants to tug. But she very rarely pushes the buttons without some amount of prompting (she is, for what it's worth, really good at pushing them when we're in the neighborhood of the button). I'm pretty sure she thinks of it as another step before she does a thing (like how we ask her to sit nicely before we go for walks), rather than a thing that she can use to modify our behavior. Obviously we're jumping to attention on the odd occasion she does push a button and giving copious praise, but...anyone have any ideas here? This is a super cool concept that I haven't done much work with, although I think Fluffy Bunnies has done some with her puppy. My guess is that it's just going to take time. I've seen people recommend this FB group for more info/support but I haven't checked it out yet. Definitely keep us updated on your progress! It might be neat to have this topic be its own thread. GoGoGadgetChris posted:I could not be more excited and also need to get a furminator and a robo-vac Ask your breeder what comb/brush they recommend. Furminator will chew up the guard hairs in some coat types. My dogs do great with an undercoat rake and a slicker brush but your breeder will know best! Agent355 posted:I have this problem with my puppy, a handful of times each day she tries to come up and cuddle. If I sit on the bed or something she'll come up and lay against my chest or w/e. However, literally 15 seconds later she'll go into ultra-hyper puppy mode where she becomes uncontrollably spastic and starts jumping on me and playbiting and stuff. I often say the cuddles just shake the dog's brain loose. It's a common occurrence, at least in my house. I would practice just doing calm touches when the dog is already calm, not necessarily when she's coming up for cuddles and you think she might lose her mind. Just get her used to being touched as part of a calm moment. You're making great progress for having her for so short a time! A new dog is totally different 3 days, 3 week and then 3 months into having them as they settle and learn. Just stick it out and you'll get there 
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Jan 27, 2021 19:40
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I have the opposite problem as Agent335. We've had Ruby (8 months old, 9 pounds) for a week today, and she doesn't seem interested in doing anything but cuddling. She'll go on walks with us, although she refuses to step on snow, so she gets carried a lot. And she'll play with you, very lightly, if you goad her into it. But it seems like she's sleeping about 23 hours a day. To be fair, she spent the 7 days before we had her being transferred around shelters in the US and Mexico. And before that, it seems like she was maybe living in a shelter in Juarez. So maybe she's just unwinding and relaxing. The first day we got her, she ate a Nylabone "healthy edible", and four 3.5-ounce containers of wet food. The last few days we've even been having trouble getting her to eat anything at all. She'll eat table scraps, but has boycotted her wet food for extended periods. Poop periodicity and consistency seems fine though, so maybe we're worrying over nothing. Our last dog would go on occasional hunger strikes and we were just like "LOL whatever jerk", because he'd always decide eventually that the various food offerings we provided were better than starving. But we're all worried about this new dog because we don't have a baseline for normal behavior yet. We have a vet appointment in March but maybe we need to try to get in earlier. We've never had a dog this small before. So my questions:
It's basically impossible to get a photo of this dinky dog without a fisheye effect, so here's one with a ballpoint pen wedged against her new sweater for scale. 
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Jan 27, 2021 21:09
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I wouldn't want to wait that long on a vet visit for a new dog, just in general. She might just be decompressing after a stressful week but I'd at least want a fecal done to make sure she's doing ok. They can pick up all sorts of issues being shuffled through shelters and things. The vet can also give you a better idea of her calorie requirements so you might feel more confident about how much she's eating. A quick google says she probably only needs about 300 calories a day so you may have just fed her too much at first and now she's happy picking at it? I'd cut out the table scraps that might be filling her up and see if that makes her more interested in her food. She's very cute  And hopefully she's just a snuggle bug!
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Jan 27, 2021 21:27
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Instant Jellyfish posted:I often say the cuddles just shake the dog's brain loose. It's a common occurrence, at least in my house. I would practice just doing calm touches when the dog is already calm, not necessarily when she's coming up for cuddles and you think she might lose her mind. Just get her used to being touched as part of a calm moment. Yeah I agree. Today she was just a dream dog to have. She was calm and chill almost the entire day. I opened up one of the windows (which I had blocked with a sort of cling film) so she could look at people go by in the street. I then spent maybe 20 minutes sitting with her, looking out the window, cuddling and giving her treats when people went by. She managed to happily watch people go by without growling or barking for the most part for the whole day. We met some dogs on walks and she made friends with both the dogs AND the owners, getting pets from strangers like a champ. Happy wagging tail the whole walk. Just a really really great day for her. Been following a ton of the advice from this thread, for only a week of progress it's been really fantastic. She's such a sweet baby. 
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Jan 28, 2021 01:13
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Agent355 posted:Yeah I agree. Today she was just a dream dog to have. She was calm and chill almost the entire day. I opened up one of the windows (which I had blocked with a sort of cling film) so she could look at people go by in the street. I then spent maybe 20 minutes sitting with her, looking out the window, cuddling and giving her treats when people went by. Be warned, there will be down days too. But if you keep working hard with her, the overall trend will improve -- you'll need to learn to measure in weeks or months rather than hours or days. Kepler, our lab/collie mix, has been with us for about three and a half weeks now. While he can still be an absolute terror when he gets too full of energy, we can see an overall pattern of improving behavior and being more comfortable in his new environment. For example, he was constantly stealing blankets and shoes as recently as a week ago. Now he'll often just sniff or maybe chomp his jaws near a tempting object without actually grabbing it. You can almost see the cogs spinning in his head, and that he's fighting his instincts because he wants to do the right thing. So when he DOES steal the shoe, we don't worry too much. Because the trend is improving, and we're all still learning to understand each other.
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Jan 28, 2021 01:24
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Yeah 100%, I'm just taking today as a good sign that I'm getting through to her and with continued work she'll get there. Rather than a 'great, the new baseline is set' sort of thing. Currently she's whining at me for some of my pork tenderloin dinner, so, more hurdles ahead lol.
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Jan 28, 2021 01:36
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Anxious new puppy owner here (me, not the puppy) with some questions about potty training. I'm picking up my new 3 month old Shiba Inu from the breeder this weekend. She said that he has been really good about potty training and has only had a few accidents, even sleeping in his crate overnight for 8~ hours without accidents almost all the time. I live in a 1-bedroom apartment a couple floors up in the Midwest, so it is pretty cold here now. On the advice of this thread I am trying to eschew the use of any puppy pads and just take him out every few hours, along with 3 walks a day and all that. I (currently) work from home, so that's not really a problem. I'm more concerned about needing to wake up at 3 AM and take him outside because I don't live in the greatest neighborhood, and even though I'm a big bearded white dude I would rather not be strolling outside with a 3 pound puppy in the dark winter night. I have a covered balcony/porch, and the door is attached to the room I want to kennel the puppy in at night. My thought is that maybe I can get one of those fake-grass puppy pads and keep that out on the porch and have him use that just for night-time potty breaks. It would be way easier on both him and I to be able to just pop right out there and do that. My fear is that if I get him to do that he may think *that* is where he goes to pee, and just see walks as fun time. Is this a good idea, or am i setting myself up for difficulties down the road?
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Jan 28, 2021 02:24
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If you limit it to dead-of-the-night toilet breaks and stick to taking him outside during the day and just before putting him to bed I think that's a good idea. Eventually he'll be able to sleep through the night so you can just eliminate that part of the routine. Puppy bladders are so small that you probably will want an emergency spot for if you see him sniffing around before you have time to get downstairs. For three months old I'd recommend taking him out to toilet every hour at least, especially as he settles in to your home. In other news, the seeing eye dog I raised is graduating soon!! I'm very proud of her.
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Jan 28, 2021 02:34
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If the breeder says the puppy is sleeping overnight I wouldn't bother with waking him up to take him out. Is the crate going to be somewhere you can hear if he needs to go? I would plan on just playing it by ear and getting up early. With my puppy I did a "last call" potty break around 11:30 pm then got up around 5:30 am to let her out in the morning and she never had a problem with that.
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Jan 28, 2021 03:32
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Instant Jellyfish posted:If the breeder says the puppy is sleeping overnight I wouldn't bother with waking him up to take him out. Is the crate going to be somewhere you can hear if he needs to go? I would plan on just playing it by ear and getting up early. With my puppy I did a "last call" potty break around 11:30 pm then got up around 5:30 am to let her out in the morning and she never had a problem with that. I would like to let him have his own room, so my bed is like 15 yards away, albeit in a different room. I imagine I will be able to hear him if he whines. The other thing I’m really worried about is cords. I’ve tried to get them all put up or hidden, but I know Shibas are smart. I’ll be able to keep an eye on him most of the time, but I just worry what could happen if I’m distracted or in a work meeting.
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Jan 28, 2021 03:42
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Yorkshire Pudding posted:I would like to let him have his own room, so my bed is like 15 yards away, albeit in a different room. I imagine I will be able to hear him if he whines. if you are worried about a specific area, i.e. an entertainment stand, block off the sides or wherever he can get in with a box/gate/whatever, if you have cords all over the loving place everywhere then you're probably screwed and something will get chewed at some point or you might not have a chewer who knows? My dog chewed 2 things that weren't his and we got him ~5-6 months old. As for work/meetings, you could bring him into the room you're working in? Get a bed etc, I have a bed under my computer desk for just this reason. Also, people are extremely understanding about poo poo Happening right now, I've been on calls with all sorts of people (CEO/CTO/CIO, clients, vendors etc) where their kids are screaming in the background, they had to get up and deal with it and then come back, life happens and people have really gotten to a point where they're cool about it.
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Jan 28, 2021 03:55
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Real proud of my guy today. Took him to the park (not dog park) to play fetch. There were quite a few other dogs out there and he ignored them all. Even if it did distract him from fetch a bit 
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Jan 28, 2021 04:13
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I want to teach my girl to play fetch real bad.
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Jan 28, 2021 04:21
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Yorkshire Pudding posted:The other thing I’m really worried about is cords. I’ve tried to get them all put up or hidden, but I know Shibas are smart. I’ll be able to keep an eye on him most of the time, but I just worry what could happen if I’m distracted or in a work meeting. If you're focused on working he needs to be somewhere he can't get into trouble. Set up an x pen with calm chews and relaxing activities or put him in his crate or tether him someplace he can't reach anything he shouldn't have. At that age any time you do not have eyes on him he needs to be secured. Your life will be so much easier!
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Jan 28, 2021 04:34
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Instant Jellyfish posted:If you're focused on working he needs to be somewhere he can't get into trouble. Set up an x pen with calm chews and relaxing activities or put him in his crate or tether him someplace he can't reach anything he shouldn't have. At that age any time you do not have eyes on him he needs to be secured. Your life will be so much easier! Yeah I work in the “cord room”, so if I’m doing something where I can’t just sit on the couch and watch him I’ll probably just put him in his room. Since he’s so small I assume I should keep him in a gated area (bought a circular fence thing off Amazon) with his kennel in it, and then just slowly let him have more space as he gets older?
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Jan 28, 2021 04:48
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Yeah, that's a good way to do it. My puppy turns 10 months tomorrow and my house is still a maze of x pens because she makes terrible decisions at all times. Some nights even those aren't enough and she has to be tethered to me to keep her from being just the worst. She's lucky she's cute   
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Jan 28, 2021 04:54
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When trying to get my dog to be comfortable with strangers; I started by just giving her treats when strangers were some distance away, just to make her feel less anxious and more comfortable. I'm at the point now where strangers can mostly walk right past us on the street and she ~mostly~ is fine. Sometimes if somebody is wearing a parka or something, or they come around a corner suddenly Ellie will get frightened and then start barking/growling. She also tends to bark/growl if strangers pay too much attention to her, like if they want her to come say hello. So she's pretty okay most of the time when people are ignoring her and she feels safe. After I continue doing this for another week or so, making sure she's very comfortable, how can I transition this from 'strangers are okay if they don't bother me' to being more comfortable with strangers who are actively interested in her? Would it be okay at that point to give strangers some treats for them to feed her? Since she'd be mostly comfortable with them anyway. Also, fun note, if the strangers have a dog Ellie has decided that they're obviously good people because she happily goes and greets them after greeting the dog. Which is cute to me.
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Jan 28, 2021 16:59
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With previous dogs, I've always limited training to two or three things at a time until the dog has them solidly down. However, Kepler is incredibly intelligent, and he gets bored of training really quickly if we don't keep switching things up. So while we still drill the basics (sit, stay, down, leave it), we've been expanding his vocabulary a ton. Because I'm a turbo-nerd, I started a spreadsheet to track his progress, and I'm posting it here so everyone can make fun of me. We've only had him for four weeks as of tomorrow, and he knows the following:  Key: 1 - Sometimes, with treat offered 2 - Often, with treat offered 3 - Always with treat, sometimes with no treat 4 - Often with no treat, if there are no distractions 5 - Always with no treat, even with distractions We're doing leash skills separately. We haven't practiced commands for walking yet; we're still working on just getting him to not incessantly pull or chew on the leash, and "leave it" when requested. Aside from leash stuff, does anyone have suggestions for other things that would be important to work on in the short-term? I don't want to add much more until he gets better at several of these. Obligatory "Kepler at rest" photo:  WhiteHowler fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Jan 28, 2021 |
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Jan 28, 2021 19:42
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-tc6fFBAYg I was idly looking up Great Danes and this is a surprisingly good video that applies to most dogs I think. Dogs get scared of random things, they love to be on the furniture, they will follow you around.... gosh I love having a dog. Apollo's taken to sitting on the couch's arms and staring at the front door as part of his usual guarding the house, and it's fortunate that the couch is cheap and we're gonna replace it at some point.
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Jan 28, 2021 19:54
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WhiteHowler posted:With previous dogs, I've always limited training to two or three things at a time until the dog has them solidly down. Nice spreadsheet! I have two buckets with skills to work on/categories of training on popsicle sticks and just grab one randomly each training session to keep things interesting. If I had to get out a computer each training session I'd just fall back on the things I like training every time and we would continue to never work on stay. Foundation things I like that aren't on your list are a stand (I do puppy push ups with all the sit/down/stand transitions), a chin rest on a hand or item, a hand target where they poke your hand or other target with their nose, and a go to a place other than a crate like a bed or mat or rug. Also a recall to a cue, their name and a whistle because I like to have lots of recall things to fall back on. I don't bother with "off" meaning stop jumping, especially if I'm using off to mean get off of a bed or couch because it can get confusing. Sit, stand or down are all incompatible with jumping up so I cue one of those instead.
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Jan 28, 2021 20:03
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Instant Jellyfish posted:Nice spreadsheet! I have two buckets with skills to work on/categories of training on popsicle sticks and just grab one randomly each training session to keep things interesting. If I had to get out a computer each training session I'd just fall back on the things I like training every time and we would continue to never work on stay. quote:Foundation things I like that aren't on your list are a stand (I do puppy push ups with all the sit/down/stand transitions), a chin rest on a hand or item, a hand target where they poke your hand or other target with their nose, and a go to a place other than a crate like a bed or mat or rug. Also a recall to a cue, their name and a whistle because I like to have lots of recall things to fall back on. Kepler knows his name and "come" but isn't great at responding to either yet. He's easily distracted, and calling him doesn't work if something more exciting than us (or sometimes even more exciting than treats) is happening. We're working on it. We tried doing a hand target on a box, but then he decided that we wanted him to be interested in the box because it was a thing to take/destroy. Having the same issue with his nice pet pad -- he lays on it, but then he gets bored and wants to tear it up, even if we try to redirect that chewing energy onto an appropriate toy. quote:I don't bother with "off" meaning stop jumping, especially if I'm using off to mean get off of a bed or couch because it can get confusing. Sit, stand or down are all incompatible with jumping up so I cue one of those instead.
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Jan 28, 2021 20:11
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Agent355 posted:When trying to get my dog to be comfortable with strangers; I started by just giving her treats when strangers were some distance away, just to make her feel less anxious and more comfortable. Personally, I don't want my dog thinking strangers are going to hand out cookies. When we see a person I want the dog to look to me for what to do and then walk by neutrally. My older dog is reactive so I got really good at telling people to back off but I encouraged people to say hi to the puppy and it made her super obnoxious. I've taught her to "say hi" to people by going up and touching their hand with her nose but she always returns to me to get the reward so she doesn't get overly excited and start jumping all over folks. Especially with anxious dogs treats can encourage them to go further than they are actually comfortable with and they end up in a situation where they are suddenly way too close to a person for comfort and freak out when there isn't a treat anymore. On leash dog greetings can also be risky so definitely be sure to brush up on dog body language and preferably limit on leash interactions to a brief sniff and move on. https://smartdoguniversity.com/on-leash-dog-greetings-yes-or-no/
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Jan 28, 2021 20:12
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My dog loves to lick the couch cushion and it's really gross and weird. There cannot possibly be anything on it that's good tasting, no one even sits on that part of the couch and every time she does it I wipe it down with a clean wet cloth. Why does she do this... I don't know if bitter apple is good for fake leather or I'd put some of that on.
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Jan 28, 2021 22:03
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Can't be that bad, it's mostly isopropyl alcohol. Apply a little to an inconspicuous spot and see if your pleather acts up.
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Jan 28, 2021 22:28
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A God drat Ghost posted:My dog loves to lick the couch cushion and it's really gross and weird. There cannot possibly be anything on it that's good tasting, no one even sits on that part of the couch and every time she does it I wipe it down with a clean wet cloth. Why does she do this... I don't know if bitter apple is good for fake leather or I'd put some of that on. My dog does this, and chews on pillows sometimes too. I figure it's a texture thing, probably?
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Jan 28, 2021 23:08
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:My dog does this, and chews on pillows sometimes too. I figure it's a texture thing, probably? Could be? She loves licking, maybe it just soothes her. I'll try the bitter apple on a small hidden spot and see if it messes with the texture. I also don't really want it rubbing off on my clothes if I do sit there but eh.
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Jan 28, 2021 23:36
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Sometimes licking is just a self soothing behavior that they like to zone out and do. You can try interrupting them with a lickimat with peanut butter or something when they start up. If they're really doing it obsessively it can sometimes be a sign of an upset tummy and you might want to talk to your vet about seeing if some pepcid or mylanta might stop the behavior.
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Jan 28, 2021 23:42
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A God drat Ghost posted:My dog loves to lick the couch cushion and it's really gross and weird. There cannot possibly be anything on it that's good tasting, no one even sits on that part of the couch and every time she does it I wipe it down with a clean wet cloth. Why does she do this... I don't know if bitter apple is good for fake leather or I'd put some of that on. Last dog loved licking extremely short-pile synthetic fabrics. We figured it was a texture thing. Unfortunately, one of those things was the bed she slept in. She'd lick it until it was soaked clear through. On the plus side, though, we came up with the "slurpy, slurpy, lick lick lick" song, which is pretty fun to sing.
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Jan 29, 2021 01:25
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How big does a crate need to be? I was given a small one (just enough for the puppy to sleep in, no water bowl or anything) and an enormous one. If I had some sort of the divider for the big one I’d use it, but I don’t. I just feel like he’ll outgrow the small one quick.
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Jan 29, 2021 02:19
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You want it to be big enough they can turn around in it, but not much more than that. Don't worry about it being cramped, dogs like cozy confines.
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Jan 29, 2021 02:27
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Okay, the one I have should be good for at least a month. Thanks!
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Jan 29, 2021 03:15
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Speaking of crates. My pup is super wary of hers, she will go in there if I put down some tasty treats but she's clearly uncomfortable and comes out as quick as she can. Also she'll refuse to go in at all if the treats/toys aren't of sufficient quality. Is there anything else I can do to make her more comfortable aside from simply continuing to give her treats and praise and just waiting for her to acclimate?
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Jan 29, 2021 04:27
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My hound dog likes her crate better with a cover.
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Jan 29, 2021 12:25
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Depending on how food motivated yours is, meal time in crate might be helpful. We liked to jam kibble in the little corners of the bed that's in there to get her to really nose around and explore the space.
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Jan 29, 2021 13:58
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Boxman posted:Depending on how food motivated yours is, meal time in crate might be helpful. To start, I always put it in the back corner of the crate, so they HAVE to go in to eat. As soon as they do, I use my "go in your crate" word (in our house it's "bedtime!") and give them a special treat. As soon as they start eating, I gently close the door and sit on the floor next to the crate while they eat. If they freak out, I talk to them soothingly and give them another treat each time they settle a bit. When the meal is finished, I again praise them, give them a treat, and open the door. It has never failed to get a dog to appreciate their crate, even the one that was initially terrified of small spaces. Eventually you may find that they'll go in their on their own when tired or stressed out.
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Jan 29, 2021 15:38
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WhiteHowler posted:Eventually you may find that they'll go in their on their own when tired or stressed out. This. I totally half-assed crate training since my guy doesn't get into anything but the trash (I just close those doors) so I didn't have a pressing need. But I stuck with meals in the crate and he will go in there to sleep most mornings now.
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Jan 29, 2021 15:45
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Okay that sounds like a good idea, I've sort of done that already but I think I'll change it up a bit. As is my girl is on some medication for lyme disease, I got a month supply of pills and she gets one in each meal. So I've been giving her half her dinner with the pill in it and making sure she eats it all, outside the crate, then the second half in the crate. I'll change to the full meal in her crate and try and see if I can't get the door closed on her at some point and keep some good treats on hand. Side note: this morning she seems to have learned 'shake' well enough that she understands somewhat what she's supposed to do. At least she lifts the paw and sorta half-heartedly puts it in my hand. Which is great!
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Jan 29, 2021 15:56
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