Back Door Scratching

So one of the first bad habits of Clyde that I noticed was that he would scratch at the back door to be let in.  How do we address that?  Well, ignoring it of course.  The problem is - I can't have the back door destroyed in the process of teaching him he can't scratch the door to be let in.  On Day Two of Clyde, I had an epiphany.  Dog booties!  Thankfully, Zoe's old set of booties (that she never got used to or learned to like) actually fit Clyde's feet.  Mostly.  And he doesn't seem to care that much that he's got them on.  So I put them to the test.

Whenever I let him outside, I'd put the booties on first and let him do his thing.  Then I'd come inside and sit and wait.  He would start up his scratching but now it was just thump, thump from his paws banging because the scratching wasn't scratching anymore.  :D  And man, the first few times?  He is persistent.  I mean, persistent. 

Thump, thump, thump, thump... THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP.  Pause.  THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP!

Yeah, battle of the wills.  After several fruitless thumping sessions (lasting 10-15+ minutes), he finally began to make the connection that sitting nicely by the door would get it open.  He's mostly pretty good about that now so I don't need to put the booties on him.

Every now and then, when he's been waiting too long, I catch him giving a half-hearted paw at the door.  I don't know what would happen if I actually left him there for longer.  He'd probably revert back to scratching.

Pre-Agility class

Yesterday was Clyde's first class in Agility.  There were four other dogs in the class.  Two yellow labs, one aussie and one ACD/boxer mix.  Clyde did well enough, though he's definitely not quite as energized simply for treats the way he is for tennis balls.  We went through a lot of basic obstacles - getting up on a table, raised board, wobble board, walking over bars, etc.  At the end of class she let each dog try everything out off-leash.  Yeah, watching the herding dogs do everything?  So different.  Kind of made me wish I had a herding breed...  But that's okay, Clyde is still going to be awesome.  I have high hopes for him.  I just need to figure out how to get him motivated enough to be excited for it.  I think the answer is going to lie in tennis balls but I am not sure yet how to harness that energy.

Tennis balls.  His intensity and concentration when you have a tennis ball out is amazing.  But so much so that he can be entirely distracted.  If he even sees a ball, all he can think about for the next 5 minutes is how to get the ball, even if you've hidden it away.  Hello, front brain, where are you???

Starting loose leash walking with Clyde

When Clyde and I first left the animal shelter, he nearly pulled my arm off walking on the leash.  They were probably all looking at me, wondering whether I could even handle this dog.  The guy gave me a head halter, which we tested out for about 2 seconds, as he showed me how to put it on.  Clyde was not a fan of course.  I took it off of him after that.  I managed to get him out the door and into my car without being dragged around too much.  :P

I think I have more patience than when I first got Zoë (the best dog EVAR).  I tried the method of stopping when he pulls and moving forward only when he lets the leash go slack and/or comes back to my side.  Luckily, he's either quicker on the uptake, or I just, well, have more patience!  We were walking pretty decently Day 1.  Day 2, we only walked briefly on the leash (he was perfect) and on Day 3, he was good!  Clyde was walking perfectly (on-leash) by my left side and Zoë was walking (off-leash) on my right side.  We were heading back to the house when all of a sudden, I heard a lady start screaming and hollering.  After a few moments, I realized she was trying to call back her two off-leash dogs, who were headed our way.

Her yelling was so disturbing that I lost my focus on the dogs and they followed suit.  Clyde was very distracted by her yelling (he wasn't looking at her but kept flicking his ears around--he was nervous) and walked in a circle around me, tangling me on the leash.  Zoë was off sniffing the grass.  Finally, she grabbed her dogs, I called Zoë back, untangled Clyde and got us all back walking nicely, side-by-side.  Was she frantically calling for them because she saw he was a doberman?  Or does she do that every time her dogs try to run towards other dogs?  I don't know.  I would say, if you are that frantic about your off-leash dogs running towards other people/dogs, then please don't walk them off-leash and/or train better recalls.  Geesh.