Fluffy Dogs Chaplin and Noel: Camera Trouble...and Noel Learns Agility!

As fate would have it my camera stopped working at the wrong time. I worked with Noel (we call her Ellie) on some agility skills and then had my daughter video tape us so I could share it with you call. Well, all the video and pictures are stuck on the camera. For some reason I can't get them to upload to the laptop. So, you'll have to settle for the below.

Ellie has some terrier spunk for sure. She LOVES to play with the other dogs and I thought perhaps she might be good at agility. So, I got a few pieces of equipment down from the attic and with the great weather we've been having I decided to give it a go in the back yard. At first Ellie was frightened and would not go over the jump. She would plant her feet and slowly move backwards pulling on the leash. Not to worry though. She is food motivated so I put a treat on top of the jump bar and she came over and ate it. I clicked that (more on that later). Then, I progressed from there to the point where I could get her to walk over the jump bar...again click and treat. After about 20 minutes I had her jumping over two successive jumps off leash. Pictures that I took from the viewer on my camera are below. SORRY the camera is not working.

So, what's with the clicking? Well, it's just a method of positive reinforcement training. The click is a way to "mark" the desired behavior and then the treat comes right after the click. After a while you don't even need to use the actual clicker anymore and just a click of the tongue will work. Ellie is a food motivated girl and any form of positive reinforcement training will be great. I just prefer clicker training and clicker training does work quickly.

Ellie is a spunky girl and is really liking our walks. But, she's a terrier and likes to let people passing by know that she's out for a walk by barking. This too is an area where the clicker training can work as I've used this method with my own dogs. As soon as someone comes into view get the dogs attention and click and treat. Pretty soon they'll be focusing on you and not on barking at the others on the sidewalk.

My daughters, 12 and 14, had some friends over this last weekend and Ellie did bark when they first came in the house. However, after about 20 minutes she was fine and wanting some petting.

Ellie loves to play with my dogs and I've noticed that it gets in the way of her doing her business outside. And, when she doesn't do her business outside then we have accidents inside. So, I've begun letting her out in the yard on the leash. I tell her go potty and after she does she then gets a treat and gets let off the leash and can run and play. This has helped things tremendously. She is food motivated and catches on quickly.

Chaplin ...we call him Charlie...continues to do well. He lives life in a much slower lane than Ellie. Some of his easy going nature is probably due to the heartworm treatment which he had about 3 weeks ago. Once they have the treatment they are uncomfortable and need to remain low key for about 4 weeks. Charlie has just a few days to go and he'll be off "bed rest." Keeping his activity low has not been a problem as he just likes to be sleeping wherever the rest of the family is. All the girls' friends just love him. He's a quiet guy and doesn't bark much. He'll give out a little bark if he knows we're in the basement and he wants to join us (he doesn't go down the full flight of stairs) or if he's in the crate and he knows we're near by.

He sleeps quietly in his crate at night or in bed with us. I've snuck him in bed a couple of times and my husband didn't notice...he..he..he. He loves to chew bully sticks! Just a couple days ago I noticed him playing with a toy for the first time. It was very cute to see this otherwise mellow guy have a good time with a stuffed toy.

I work from home and I let the dogs out several times a day and he does just fine on our schedule. He sleeps in a dog bed near my desk or chews on a bully stick while I work during the day.

He is one special boy for sure. He just needs to stay on a monthly heartworm preventative (like heartgard plus) for the next 24 months. He's had his treatment, the heargard just prevents the heartworms from coming back).

Thanks for reading and thanks for thinking rescue! Don't miss the videos linked here

Video of Charlie

Dogs taking treats

Photo taken from my camera

Jump #1 Success!

Jump #2 Success! Good Girl! I only have it set to 6 inches right now. Eventually she'll be able to jump her shoulder height which I guess is probably about 10 inches.