Tinsel's Journey

Today we worked several times on going out without me lifting him. The best I got was he stepped down onto the first of two steps, waited a moment and then went back up. It gives me hope! We also did a little sit work and grooming 101. The sit went well, the grooming not so much. I'm going to have to phone Meaghan and ask her to redo him before he gets heavy duty knots. I need to buy a bigger table as my westie table is fine for a trained dog but too small for him.
Each day I get another glimpse into his personality. I was sitting on the stool at the island in the kitchen talking to my sister. Out of the living room comes Tinsel with the cuff of a mitt I am knitting for my niece being held in his teeth oh so gently. The 3 needles were hanging about 5 inches from his muzzle and a tail of yarn finished by the ball were wrapped around his legs and tail. All in all there was about 30 feet of wool wrapped around him. I exclaimed in a louder shocked voice "OH YOU LITTLE BUGGER" and popped off the stool to save my work. He didn't even flinch, just stood there while I unravelled him from the wool and took the mitt from his mouth. At least he didn't drop any stitches! In fact. once I was done he just sat down and looked at me like I should click and treat! I must admit I started to laugh so hard at his expression that I hurt afterwards. Needless to say, the knitting has been moved.
Tonight while he was laying on his TV bed our cat Chavala came over to lay on the bed with him. Chavala is the cat that the dogs turn their heads from. She likes to walk up, friendly like, and then give them a bat on the head. Tinsel learned really fast that she was a bit of a witch and avoids putting his head in harms way. So there he is sleeping and Chavala gets on the bed and makes herself comfortable. At first he wasn't sure what to do and then, shockers, he laid his head on her butt and went back to sleep. We waited for her royal highness to whack him one but she just closed her eyes and went to sleep as well. Later, she moved onto the chair and he, thinking that he was home free. took a stroll past the same chair. Whack. Poor Tin. I can't say for sure but I think I heard a Tonkinese voice murmur "Dumb dog".
 
LOLLLLLLLLLL
oh gosh, a joker!!!
Hilarious

AT least u got a dog that isn't afraid to experiment to see what gets him a click and treat, eh?
I also love cats, she sounds like a fire cracker
 
Yes, our Chavala is a funny little FAT cat. We found her in our barn 5 years ago on Dec. 19th. She was dying. She couldn't even make a noise or keep herself warm. We figure she was about 4 months old. Hubby and I had decided not to take in any more kitties but when he got home and came to the barn I told him to go look at the kitten in the snug. He picked her up and put her under his jacket. After being there for awhile she let out a noise that sounded like a baby bird, hence the name Chavala - from the musical Fiddler on the Roof. Remember "little bird, little Chavala". We called the vet immediately and took her in for some intensive care. For the next few weeks we had to feed her small amounts several times a day and she had a list of meds to go with it. She became our expensive little Christmas present to each other. She was terrified of the westies and lived upstairs for about a year and then one day decided that she lived here too. Since that time she makes sure she reminds the dogs that she is not without means of chastising them! When my hubby suffered an acute necrotizing pancreatitis 2 years ago she switched from laying only with me to laying only with him as he went through the 6 months of recovery. I truly believe that if his sugars went low, he's now diabetic because he has less than 20% of his pancreas, during the night she would be one of those animals that would wake me up as she will now if he coughs, isn't feeling well or gets cool.
Back to Tinsel, he had a great session of sit training this morning. I now give him the verbal cue and he sits. His little bum gives a wiggle in happiness cause he realizes he has done something special. I took him into every room of the house and asked for a couple of sits in each and he did them! Yeah. Hand target went well too. What a star - got to go and buy him a new toy tonight. Maybe today will be the day that he remembers that he did like me grooming him. Fingers crossed.
 
love it
he will remember he loves being groomed, you will not give up on him, I think he is figuring that out. love the bum wiggle

The expensive Christmas cat sounds like a typical story that fits right in with the rest of us...lol Crazies the lot of us!! Only thing we all 100% agree on around here is probably how much we all love animals, I think :lol:
 
From your lips to Tinsel's ears! I hate seeing his coat look like this and I don't believe it is healthy. I was just watching looking at a site called Fearfuldogs.com and I think I might just have to try her approach to when Tinsel takes evasive action. Might even have to order another book! As soon as he saw me with the brush in my hand he was off. We did a target session with my hand and he worked willingly but then when I put the brush in the same hand, bristles down, he backed off immediately. Since I know dog's can't generalize I think I will get out a different brush and see if he has the same response. Guess I had better get Rhi and Phoebe out for a tour of the hayfield so that I can take Tin out for his tracking game. I feel pretty lucky that we are having so much decent weather.
 
Oh it does feel good to laugh with Tinsel's stories. He is such a smarty pants.

Chavala's story is so familiar as well.

Just like Toffee's Mom said we are Like to like and kind to kind. We may not all agree in here but we do ALL love our animal people!!


Kate
 
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I'm sitting here waiting for an appropriate amount of time before putting Tin to bed. Thursday night is my Stitch & Bitch night so he was crated from 6 until 10. My head is about to blow up with a migraine but I want him to have a couple of hours of company before he retires. Yeah, I think I am certifiable!
He performed a couple of sits for my husband when I asked for them. He keeps a close watch on that guy though so hubby was a good distraction. Right now he sits every time I go into the kitchen in hopes of me treating him. It's nice to see that his back legs are folded tightly to his body and he does the bringing of his back legs up to his front instead of sitting back into a sloppy type of sit. Figures that the dog that can't be shown in an obedience trial does such a good sit. Took me a long time to teach that kind of sit to my Belgian. Well I think I am going to give him a cuddle and a kiss and call it a night.
 
Today I bought a new grooming table to teach Tinsel on. My other one was westie sized and although he would fit on it, there was no room for error. Tomorrow we start teaching him that it is a good place to be. Thought I would list out his accomplishements to date and what we are working on.

Tinsel now walks at a heel on lead and plays "were's the treat" on his walks.
He appears to be fully housebroken.
He is with the other two dogs at the door, albeit a the back of the pack, when people come into the house.
He knows the "settle" command.
He's becoming a "sitting" fool. He will sit on command anywhere in the house with distractions. Haven't done a lot outside as we have had snow the past few days.
Getting him out of his crate is down from his maximum time of 3 1/2 hours to 3 - 4 minutes.
He will walk his front legs up my body when I am kneeling on the floor and place his front feet on my shoulders, on command. He gives cued hugs on both sides of my face.
He no longer is dead eyed in the morning but instead looks forward to his day.
He knows and responds to the commands - go pee and go find a spot (poo) and he comes in from the ex yard willingly and when called.
He is doing really well with targeting on my hand and is nervous but willing to do it with the stick.
Goes to his crate willingly for bed.

We are working on:
Going out to the ex yard under his own steam.
Coming out of the crate right away.
Touching the ears and feet.
Grooming.
Coming when called, each and every time.
People socialization.

He's not ready, nor am I willing, to push taking him to visit busy places. He is still learning to trust his entire well being to my hands and so if he gets too scared, it won't be me that he looks to yet. I don't want to overface him so we only go to controlled places at this point.
Unfortunately I had to cancel our session with Mirkka this week and next. My brother-in-law's brother passed unexpectedly Saturday and the service is next Saturday. Hoping to arrange two sessions the following week.
All in all I am proud of him. He's gone from being a leg lifting, terrified and isolated little dog into my sweet little buddy that really wants to learn. He still has some challenging issues for us to help him to resolve but he has worked hard to overcome his fears. Good boy Tin.
 
Tinsel and I are working hard on desensitizing him to have his legs touched. I would suggest to anyone with a dog that hates having his nails trimmed to google the video "Tucker's Nail Trim". Two days ago he wouldn't let me hold his legs below the elbow. Using the lesson learned from the video I held each of his front feet today for 5 seconds several times without any pull back. This is huge as his feet = ability to escape and he has not wanted them touched.
He is also getting used to the table and is sitting on it instead of dropping like a sorry shih tzu. The lesson is put on table and get 5 treats out of my hand one at a time and then 5 treats placed on the table in front of him, again one at a time. After that, a good tickle and back off the table. I have the table in a corner of this room so that he has a wall on two sides and our aquarium on the third. That way I can control him easily in case he decides to jump.
We are varying the sit command so that I can now ask him from any position of my body and still get an immediate sit. I was sitting at one of the stools at the island in the kitchen and asked him to come up and put his feet on my knee, which he did, and then gave him a sit command which he immediately did. Awesome boy! Besides seeing his willingness to work I also could see how much stronger his rear is becoming that he could go from standing on two legs straight into a sit without going to four legs first. Gotta love Recovery.
Today he initiated contact with my very loud voiced sister by nosing her hand. I gave her a treat and told her to ask for a sit. He did it right away and got his reward.
Can't wait to get to class next week and show Mirkka his improvements.
 
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