Yesterday and Ticks

Yesterday was another quiet day. We worked for a while on being quiet while handling shoes and relaxed a lot. Molly got outside time when it wasn't raining and a good play with DH before bed. She ate a bunch of Orijen while training, which is really great.

Now, about ticks. I am finding a bunch crawling on her or other places, but very rarely attached. This is great considering how long it has been since she last got a Frontline treatment. I think the garlic pills must be working really well on her.

This morning I found a tick crawling across the bathroom floor. Yuck. She hadn't even been out yet today.

I started killing ticks in a lidded glass of alcohol. I'm getting quite a collection of dead ticks in it. But I had to have something convenient. One of the disadvantages of DH quitting smoking is that there are no longer lighters and ash trays all over the house. Last year I burned the ticks in the ash trays, but without them around I went for the alcohol. Otherwise I'd have to get up and do something else with them every time I found one.

DH commented last night that Molly is starting to smell like a dog, especially when a little damp. I need to give her a bath again soon. I think the trip to the beach and getting her into the water is contributing.

Training Update

We've number a number of small short training sessions in the past few days and made a great deal of progress. Her handling behavior is great. Molly had her nails trimmed with absolutely no stress for anyone. She's also been getting combed a lot. A net friend recommended I try a flea comb to remove the loose hair from Molly's short coat and it works great. It is also really nice right after she's been out in high grass for getting rid of ticks. Her Frontline treatment kills them, but it is even better to get rid of them before they crawl off somewhere in the house or get attached at all.

Her training on distance (aka around) is up to passing level 2 standards. She can also down stay while I walk quite a distance away and back. Her sit stay is a little shakier but it's getting better. She tends to want to down when staying.

I had to recue Molly's target work from the command "nose" to "touch." She was confusing nose with a silly game she played as a puppy hunting mice in the house. I need to extinguish that behavior.

Molly's zen is at least at Level 4 in the Level Book. But she hasn't tried Level 3. It involves a stranger and we don't have many of those in our life right now. We'll have to find out at some point to catch Level 3 Zen. I can put yummy food on the floor and say "leave it" and she'll stay away from it for well over 30 seconds.

Down is also at least at Level 2. I need to read the descriptions better and test her some to see where she really is. Level 2 is down from a sit with 1 cue only and no food or aids. That's easy. My rough guess is actually that she's at Level 5 or 6.

Tonight my husband and I took her out in the fence in the yard and worked on level 2 come. Its goal is to make her excited about coming when called from a distance. It was fun for all three of us and we finished up with fetch. Fetch for us also has downs, down stays, downs from a distance with a distraction (the ball), and walking slowly one step at a time instead of running mixed in with the usual high speed border collie ball chases, jumps, spins, and herding crouches. We had a ball, literally and figuratively.

Molly also really impressed a new friend yesterday (I hadn't read L3 zen yet to know to ask her for help testing that). Molly was running around with a rawhide chew while she was here. The new friend was surprised that she was allowed to take Molly's chew from her and even pretend to chew on it while Molly looked on happily. Molly has basically no food or toy aggression. The only sort of resource guarding she ever showed signs of was not wanting to share my husband with another dog but we quickly got her used to that (a really nice aussie male when she was around 9 months old). Now she does not whine or complain when he talks to other dogs--she knows she'll still get all the love and attention she needs.

Today she made me proud when the farrier came. We let her run out to say hi off leash. She kept four on the floor almost the entire time. She lifted up a little bit at one point in excitement, but didn't try to jump on him. That's a good Molly. He gave her lots of attention (he likes dogs and has met Molly several times before) and we also praised her several times for her excellent behavior.

Another thing about Molly off leash. Since we made that fenced area outside, Molly shows no interest in going away anywhere outside when she's off leash. We leave the gate open (or at least not pushed shut) when there aren't horses or Molly in it. She has learned to open the loose gate with her nose. So if we open the door and tell her to go in the fence, she opens the gate and goes in for a play or to lie down and relax. When we get home from somewhere, we can open the car door and tell her to go to the kitchen or her fence and she does. If she gets to the kitchen before us, she'll lie down and wait or come back or go in the fence. As long as we're around, she even ignores the annoying dog next door that barks most of the time!

Molly's item recognition and retrieve at a distance are also improving. This morning I told her to take pants from a long way away and with a little help, she managed to do it. She also pulled pants out of a pile that included a blanket, a knee brace, and a pair of socks. She had a little trouble locating them at first because they weren't where they usually were, but I was still at a good distance when she located the right item and retrieved it. Don't worry, she got high value treats for that one and praise and a snuggle. She's a good Molly.

It's been a long day so I'm overdue for sleep now. Molly is already dozing on the couch beside me. She'll be happy to move onto her bed in the kitchen so she won't be disturbed further tonight.

Relaxing

Molly didn't get to train much today. Just a little work on "Distance" from Level 2. I've overdone it at the computer with all this blogging and my health just can't take it, so I had to take a long nap to rest.

Tonight she's all dry from her bath so she got her Frontline pipet. We're so tired of all those ticks. They leave bumps that really irritate her. I check for them all the time but the little buggers are good at hiding. I found one today that is too big to have attached itself after the bath and I tried so hard to check. :-(

So she's gotten her treatment and got to run around and play with her kong with DH.



Now it's bed time and hopefully a better day tomorrow.

Bath Time

Like most dogs, Molly hates baths. But as an SDIT, she needs to stay smelling nice. BCs aren't a breed that tends to smell bad, but Molly has been using a fenced area also used at other times by a couple of Shetland ponies as her playground. She can find nice things to roll in there, so she isn't quite her normal self. We wouldn't normally bother to wash her yet because it is very slight, but it's time for her Frontline treatment. She is picking up way too many ticks and Molly isn't any fonder of ticks than Rebecca.

So it was time for a bath. More correctly, it is a shower and not a bath. We have a setup that works and isn't too stressful and she is getting better each time. I get everything ready first--clear out the shower stall, put in my shower bench turned sideways, put the shampoo right where I can reach it, find 2 big Molly towels (She got three old worn out green ones I've had since I started college in '94. They're plenty big and none of our other towels look like them. One has holes from where I used it to cover the rat cage once and it got chewed...) and spread one out on the floor, put away anything that can get damaged when she shakes. Then I get Molly and shut us both in the bathroom.

As wet as I get washing her, I just shower myself while she shakes off, which is why you do not get Molly bath pictures (sorry Samantha!). I fix the water temperature to something just lukewarm and put it aside so it isn't spraying all over. Then I get Molly into the shower stall. This is not easy because she doesn't just hate baths--she hates most WATER, especially any that is moving and making noise. Today I'm not too miserable so I just lifted her up and carried her in and sat down on the bench with her. I close the shower doors before I let her go then everything is fine. She settles down and tolerates the bath but makes sad faces at me.

After she is all washed, I put the water away and try to encourage her to shake off in the stall. I don't want her to get cold or be stressed too long, but I want the worst of the water off before she is out in the rest of the bathroom. Then I open the shower door and let her out.

Molly has learned on her own to dry herself off on the towel I spread out on the floor. The first time I did it, I did it to try to catch the worst of the water she shakes all over so the floor wouldn't be slippery when I came out. But I sure did get a surprise. Molly immediately starts rubbing herself on the towel! She starts with her face--it's probably the most annoying when it is wet. Then she does her sides and back. She'll shake intermittently but go back and rub on the towel. She gets to do this while I wash myself real quick and towel off.

By the time I'm done, Molly really wants out of the bathroom. So I grab the dry towel and rub her down a bit. Today I did something new. She was impatient and couldn't focus on a take, but she seemed to understand what I was saying. So I lay the towel over her back and opened the door, telling her to take it to DH. She got it most of the way there and was working on the rest when I came out. I just reminded her what to do and she took the towel to him. He rubbed her down and put her collar back on. She let him wrap her up in the towel and they played some. She kept bringing it back when she'd run off with it on her and it fell off.

Molly may hate bath time, but she definitely likes the fun time with her daddy afterwards. I'm really glad he's willing to help because the bending down to towel her down is hard for me. I'd rather not get her up on the sofa when she's wet and if I sit on the floor I have the fun challenge of standing up again. If he can't help, it's doable, but it's best as a family effort.

In the morning we'll give her the frontline on her neck and hope it means fewer ticks. At least the vets say tick-born diseases are REALLY rare here. I worry though because it's a tourist area and who knows what those foreign ticks might carry.

So that's the end of today. It's time for us to get to bed. I'll try to write tomorrow about today's training and my contemplations of kibble. I started earlier but I wasn't up to finishing. Such is life with my health. I have to do things in pieces and spend a lot of time correcting typos. Then I have to go back and correct the typos I made correcting typos, so I have a horrible time getting rid of all of them. You'll have to learn to live with them. I'm trying to.