We are in the “dark times” of less than 10 hours of daylight with another nearly 2 months to go until Winter Solstice.
I confess that I would not like to be any further north, but I do love the increased dark for the amount of time that we have it: cozy nights and mornings with fire and low lights.
All of the seasons and all of the light and dark – I enjoy!
Emmett came home with me just after we did Spring forward. We had a bit of snow when he was tiny. It will be fun to see what he thinks when we have snow again! The forecast is for a “warm winter” – BLECH!! We’ll see.
Emmett has been part of the family Summers for over 6 months!!
Life is good here at 785 La Brant Rd. Emmett is growing into an almost dog :) … 14 months for physical maturity … 2 years for the rest, but as we are firmly into adolescence … and not too many “teen” issues … I am grateful! We are following breeder and vet advice to wait as long as possible to neuter. This is a “medium-big dog” thing of allowing time for bones and joints to mature with the normal hormones. There are plusses and minuses for various issues, but I’m going with waiting until we “need” to.
Emmett continues to be a joy to be with, to play and teach and to learn from. Auggie continues to be a CHAMP at tolerating Emmett’s lapses into “puppy brain”. I love them both with all my heart and am so grateful that they are part of my life!
Time flies when you are having fun and we are HAVING FUN!
And in addition to Auggie and Emmett fun, we are having an absolutely spectacular Autumn to date! Some cool-cold weather and in the last 10 days some warm weather and the color … it is just great to be where we are and with the time to get outside and enjoy.
But this photo, a favorite of mine, is a great memory of Mr. Bob enjoying the sun. And so, it was inspiration as well as loving memory when I saw Auggie, quiet in the sun … and eventually, Emmett joining him.
Through the years: Zack and Gus, Karl and Gus, Karl, Gus and Bob, Bob and Bear, Bear and Auggie … and now Auggie and Emmett: my heart, my loves.
This photo series started with seeing Auggie in the sun … remembering Bob’s photo and hoping to capture something like that…
Actually a good week, although not a productive work week due to some domestic items … nothing bad just some things needing doing.
But as always, walks happen and the weather is gorgeous: cool, sunny, blustery Fall weather!
Emmett decided to move his kitchen bed to the office/sunroom, right behind my chair…
Lots of company while I was working, which I love! ***He moved the bed himself!!!
New things this week: a new leash which is thick and soft and I love it. So does Emmett – he took himself for a walk, he loved it so much :)
An orange long line as we begin proofing our recall with distractions. The distractions are deer, Auggie, squirrels and ??? Recall is perfect in the house and in the yard with no distractions so this is the next step.
Emmett is not fooled. He has more freedom on the long line than on leash, but he feels the weight and the one time he started after deer, I slowly applied pressure on the line as I called him. After that, he didn’t venture off the trail. But, this will take time and my plan is that it becomes habit on the long line, then I will use a lighter line which I’ll gradually shorten. I expect it will be Spring before the combination of his maturity and training is fully reliable in the face of wildlife or other very exciting distractions.
BUT, I am very pleased that he does not pull against the line or the leash. Occasionally he will lunge, but then stops. I have the long line as well as any leash attached to a harness so no neck stress. Trainers have differing opinions regarding using a harness. I am going with harness.
Emmett walks nicely on leash with the harness. In new places, he pulls against it, but I just stop. When he returns to me, on we go. We don’t walk when he is at the end of the leash and pulling – pulling gets him nowhere.
I do not do the change of direction thing. We have started some basic “walk to heel” but not at remote (EXCITING) locations. Walk to heel requires his focus on me and a specific position. We do that in the yard but it is too much for exciting places at the moment and right now, the exciting spots are for exploring with the only limits being not pulling and responding to attention noises from me.
Another benefit of working with a trainer and watching other trainers on YouTube is seeing and hearing that all takes time and every dog is unique, so I am working with where Emmett is: his maturity, attention span, experience as well as my own learning experience.
The orange line is very silky and does not get hung up on branches, rocks, grasses – YEA! It is also easy to see. So far, so good!
Auggie gets in on the action, also!
The vegetables took a decided turn to Fall: pie pumpkins! Delicata squash joined tomatoes and lemon cucumber plus cucumber slicers to make an Autumn vegetable “bouquet bowl”…
And that bouquet bowl made a nice backdrop to Saturday morning’s dough shaping…
30 weeks old tomorrow and 7 months old on 9/12/2018.
So much fun, in so many ways.
My dream of all of us on the little sofa in the kitchen just keeps getting better!
Training continues, of course. There are stellar days and days when Emmett pretends he never heard the word “Sit”. I have learned to switch things up with fun, fast paced training of things I know he likes to do: touch, follow, left paw, right paw. All of the training is short sessions: some 2-3 minutes, some 5-10 minutes if things are going very well. When I see that he is “done” we either do sprinkler (see video at the end!) or fetch. If we’re inside, I sit on the floor and we have a play/snuggle session to end things.
What I continue to see is an increasing bond of trust interspersed with some fun/funny naughtiness. For the naughty, I leave the area, the fun stops and I do some chore elsewhere for a few minutes. All calm, no one yelled – no drama. He waits by the pet gate and we have a nice greeting when I return.
The other thing I’ve taken from the Kikopup’s training videos is to think about teaching in a way that allows Emmett to do the behavior, or the first part of the full behavior … in a successful way, i.e. setting him up for success and building on that. It requires that I use MY brain so win-win for all of us!
We’ve worked a lot on attention and focus. When on our woods walks, I will occasionally make my attention noise: kissy sound, squeaky toy, cough/sneeze. When he looks, I get all excited, click and if he comes to me: treat, treat, treat!! The idea is that I stay more fun than anything else. Mostly this works :)
So, squeaky toys.
This is the latest. Actually, it is a puzzle toy which is why I bought it. Emmett, an English Shepherd, is a very smart dog that is good at problem solving and seems happiest with things that engage his mind: training, snuffle mat, kong, playing chase with Auggie …
This toy is a hollow log and comes with 6 little squirrels. All of the squirrels have squeakers.
… It seemed like a good idea at the time :)
Actually it is!
Even with 6 little squeaky squirrels, it is a fun toy for Emmett. Not only does he have a good time removing the squirrels, but he stashes them around and plays with them.
PLUS, they are small enough that I can put 1 or 2 in my pocket when we walk and thus have a squeaky toy for attention getting and proof that I am WAY more fun than deer, etc.
One of the keys to positive reinforcement training is to teach in a way that allows the animal to make good choices because those choices are beneficial to him and so it is easy for him to decide to make the good choice. Yelling “NO”, as well as other “punishment” serve to make the animal afraid and unsure. I’ve SEEN the difference in both Emmett and Auggie as I’ve trained with this method. I do some click-treat with Auggie in tandem with Emmett to calm them both if play gets out of hand. I’ve also taught Auggie a hand signal if he wants to walk past Emmett … it is a signal that says that I have control of Emmett and Auggie can proceed without a chase.
Is that a “Thank you” from Auggie ??? Well, maybe not, but at least he does have a retreat!
We have mostly turned the corner to Fall (Autumn).
HOO RAH!!
1 of 3 A/C units put away on August 26.
Help and supervision by Emmett and Auggie.
I put the other 2 away as well as fans that same day.
With the exception of 3 days last week, we’ve been smoke free and cool.
It is wonderful.
Overall, it was not the worst summer ever. And we are likely to have some warm days still, but I really think the worst is behind us. Fires continue and we need a fire-ending weather event. The loss of historic structures is heart breaking. And the animals.
But, to end on a fun note … a video. As usual, my video skills leave a lot to be desired. I am completely in awe of people who video pets and themselves while walking, playing, etc. The only thing I can say for myself is that I am slightly better at editing so mostly have edited out the wild camera swings to the sky and my feet. Emmett is the star and for myself, at least I did not talk “baby talk”…
Today, Emmett is 6 months old by the calendar and tomorrow: 26 weeks since his birth. And just in case you don’t remember … my birthday is Thursday, August 16. I will (hopefully) celebrate 63 times around the sun :)
Mid August. While not the hottest summer in my Montana experience, this week had its heat challenges. But my window coverings and A/C won!!
That reading was Thursday when Kalispell hit 100F and set a record for the date. The previous record was 99F in 2003. And although the gauge shows 99.3, the temp did rise to 99.5 for a bit before starting to cool about 5:00 p.m. And because of the very low humidity here, plus the longer nights as we are 6 weeks past Summer Solstice … it takes all day to get to the peak and we have enough night time and lower sun angle, that it cools quickly if skies are clear. This week, the smoke prevented the 102-105 forecast but it also kept the nights warmer than forecast.
Still, compared to the mid-west, east and south … the heat here is certainly more manageable. The A/C units I have would not work as well other places. In fact, this year, I wrapped the exhaust hoses in duct wrap. AND, I added extra light/heat blocking on windows. Previous years I could maintain about 20-25 degrees cooler than outside, but WOW -31 degrees cooler = happy, happy Summers fambly!
Double coated Auggie feels the heat outside …
He does not object very much to my keeping him in when it is hot and smoky!
Emmett likes the cool of the house and the extra cool of the fan.
Summer time is the time for taking it easy with an afternoon chew. I had to laugh at Emmett taking his chew to the towel. We’d just come in from a round in the sprinkler. I’d used the towel to dry him off and then dropped it to do something else. When I came back, he was there … all the mess of the chew treat on the towel: Mr. Neat!
Some evenings, the smoke has cleared a bit and the last walk in the woods is beautiful:
And this morning, after a cool front passed through, it is clear and the forecast high is a relatively pleasant 81F.
We had a slow start to Sunday and enjoyed.
Training! We continue and the focus the last 2 weeks has been focus, as in focus on me. And also calm. Emmett is all about action and sometimes more about what he wants than what I want. Hence, working on focus and calm.
My local trainer referred me to Kikopup’s youtube channel. WOW! I have watched many of the videos and also purchased the “Weekly Puppy Insight’s” package. So much good info and ideas as well as step-by-step training.
Kikopup is Emily Larlham. The website and her business is Dogmantics . Her intro video says it all about who she is and how she trains:
One of the videos that I’ve trained from for helping Emmett calm is this “chin rest” video.
The takeaway is that Emily is PASSIONATE about positive reinforcement training aka Clicker Training. If you’ve thought that this method is a gimmick or not effective or ??? please watch at least the 2 videos above. Emily works with Karen Pryor’s philosophy as does my local trainer and also Laurie Luck (Smart Dog University whose videos have helped me also).
AND!!! If Emily and Laurie are not enough … check out this Instagram feed:
https://instagram.com/p/BgbqmYqgzb1/
Mary (17) and Secret (3), her Aussie Shepherd Service Dog for medical alert and Autism. Their relationship as well as what they do together is beyond awesome. Mary trained/trains Secret herself based on positive reinforcement/clicker training.
Mary, Emily, Laurie and my local trainer, Will are incredible resources and inspiration. Emmett and I (and Auggie) are having so much fun as we all work together.
