Monday, January 31, 2005
Puppy Training
A couple of weeks ago we signed up for puppy training for Buddy at the local Petsmart ... we got snowed off last weekend, so it started last night.
The first session was without the dogs, just owners, and it was pretty good. A lot of the stuff she was saying was stuff we had already been doing (never say NO, or use their name when telling them off for example), and some of it seemed very basic to me, but from the looks of some of the others in the group, not to every one else.
There is one woman there, I’ll call her Jumper Lady, cos she had a horrible jumper on, who is going to be difficult. She has a “Cockapoo”, a cocker spaniel / poodle mix, and seems to think that bringing the dog to the one hour a week sessions will automatically make it well trained. She seemed quite shocked when the trainer suggested that we should carry treats, so any time they do good things, or follow a command, they can be rewarded, and you could just see her brain thinking “I’m not carrying stinky dog treats in my pocket!” She also jumped around with questions, all things that her dog does or she wants to know, instead of just shutting up and letting the instructor get to it ...
Either way, we have a couple of excercises to do this week, one being the Name Game, where you hold a treat in a clenched fist, raise it to face height, say their name once, then extend your arm out. They get the treats, along with a YES and a cuddle when they look back at you, and stop looking at the treat. The idea is to have them focus on you, not the reward, and to get them to see that their name being called is a good thing too. Buddy is good at it, he already sits very well and on command, so it’s pretty easy for him.
We also picked up two fantastic toys:
and
These things have the loudest squeekers I have every heard, and both dogs absolutely *love* them. They are quite soft, but very tough. They will squeek when they bounce even! Buddy has worked out how to pick it up by the head and chompsqueek chompsqueek chompsqueek chompsqueek, but Brutus still hasn’t worked it out. He picks it up by it’s feet, which don’t squeek, they gets all confused that it’s not making that cool noise 
Most definitely recommended toys!
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Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Experiment
We’re trying an experiment today ... we normally have Buddy in his crate in the day time, and let Brutus have the run of the house, but today we’ve let Buddy have free run. He showed us this weekend that he knows how to use pee pee pads, if he has too, so we’ve left one or two down for him, and his crate is open, if he needs time out.
According to webcam watchers, Brutus is chasing him around right now 
I expect they will chase till they are tired, then pass out on the sofa. I’m heading home at lunch, so if there is a problem, I’ll put him back in the crate ...
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Monday, January 17, 2005
Routine pooping
We’re trying to get everyone’s routines in sync right now, it’s been a bit of a messy week 
Brutus needs to go out three times in a day. First thing in the morning, as soon as we get home, and and just before bed time.
Buddy however, hasn’t got the capacity at 4 months old to hold on all day, especially considering he gets fed twice (morning and evening), and Brutus only one (evening).
So, it’s been a balancing act, but I think we’re getting a handle on it.
He needs to go within 4 hours or so of a feed, so when we feed him in the morning, we need to come home at lunch to take them out. Same deal in the evening, he needs to go out as soon as we get home, then feed him, then take him out a bit later, and again before bed.
Days we haven’t made it home at lunch (company meetings run over lunch, as did some training last week), we’ve come home to a messy puppy cage.
Training him to go out is fun. Whenever he goes while outside he gets a lot of fuss and a treat of some sort, he thinks it’s great, and now sits at my feet for a bit, hoping for a treat, before working out he needs to earn it first.
Pugs are pretty intelligent, so he should be getting there, but they are also stubborn, so if he decides he doesn’t want to, it could get interesting 
Fortunately, he can handle all night with no mess, so he’s been in bed this last few days, which has made for an interesting puppy pile in bed!
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Sunday, January 16, 2005
What a learning curve!
We thought Brutus’ first week was hard work
Buddy has had a very interesting first week in this house hold ... every one has had to learn a whole bunch of stuff, a whole lot quicker than we’d have liked, but I guess thats the way these things go in general 
Introducing Buddy to Brutus wasn’t a problem at all. They both get on with each other great. They play constantly. Unfortunately for Brutus, Buddy has razer sharp puppy teeth, and likes to bite on Brutus’ jowls. Over the course of the week, he’s done a bit of damage to Brutus, who now has scratches and a small section where he’s lost some skin to the pups teeth. I can assure you, this has freaked *us* out a lot more than it does Brutus! We called the vet who just assured us it’s a normal injury when you have a pup around, keep it clean and smother it in antibiotic cream.
We really didn’t want Buddy to make it worse, but when they play thats the area they always go for. To prevent it, we’re trying a couple of approaches.
Firstly, we’re trying lots of positive training ... whenever he does something good, he gets a treat and lots of cuddles (this is great for when he poops outside instead of inside).
Secondly, negative training. Specifically for when he gets too rough around Brutus’ face, we have some water spray bottles that he gets a face full of, along with a loud “STOP”
Thirdly is DAP. Dog Appeasing Pheromone. We had this recommended by a friend who has a particularly skittish greyhound, it mimcs the pheremone of a mother dog, and is very effective at calming them down. We plugged it in last night, and the difference has been amazing. Much calmer puppy, much less fighting with Brutus, a lot more affectionate. It’s been great. They aren’t cheap, buying it is about $50, with $15 - $25 a month afterwards, but well worth it for the difference it makes!
We’ve also signed him up for puppy classes to socialize him a little more, they start a week today. It’s also going to help train us on what to expect from him, which should be nice.
Last night, for the first time, we had Buddy in bed with the rest of us instead of in his carrier. It went *really* well and he settled down very quickly, and joined us in the land of nod all night. I woke up with him curled up around Diosa’s head, it was very cute (oh for a camera!).
Let me leave you with a few pics 
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Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Hard working puppy
I think Buddy is going to drive Brutus to an early grave
Brutus is getting on for 2 years old, hardly an old pug. He’s pretty active, gets lots of walks and play time, but like any true pug he loves to sleep too.
Buddy is 4 months old. I don’t believe Buddy ever sleeps when Brutus is around. He likes to jump on Brutus, chew on Brutus, bounce on Brutus, chase Brutus around, steal his toys and his treats and his food, but most importantly, never ever let Brutus get some sleep.
But it’s ok, Brutus gets his own back. He chews back, he chases back, he jumps on Buddy back. It’s cute, in a “two dogs trying to kill each other” kind of way (Their not really trying to kill each other, they just play rough)
I’m thinking that getting Buddy into puppy socialization classes would be good. He’s young enough for it to be effective, and obnoxious enough to Brutus to think he may need it And it would give Brutus chance to sleep occasionally
All that said, I love the little guy. I can’t wait for him to get properly settled in and to grow up a little, so he loses some of his puppy energy and can sleep in bed with us and Brutus at night.
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Sunday, January 09, 2005
Hi Buddy!
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Saturday, January 08, 2005
New pug!
We brought a pug brother for Brutus home today ... we’ve named him Buddy, in memory of Diosa’s mum. He’s 4 months old, and *very* much a puppy Full of energy, full of beans and driving “old” Brutus nuts already!
We’ve pretty much given them a full run this evening, once they had food. They needed to sort their pecking order out, and work out who was boss. So far it seems to be Brutus. They will chase, fight, rough and tumble until Brutus is on top, then he holds Buddy for a few seconds, and it’s about the only few seconds Buddy can handle still so far! But it’s working, their socialising, and Brutus speaks his language,
We’ve picked him up a nametag and a harness, and topped up his puppy food. The first few nights he’ll spend in his carrier, before we decide if he can go up to his crate (we got him puppy pee pads, which should help him out). Obviously the goal is to house train him so we can trust him to be ok all day or night, like Brutus, so maybe he’ll learn from his big brother
I did want to share this with you though, a cute pic I just took. I’ll take more tomorrow I think!
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Monday, January 03, 2005
Connecting to #lounge on IRC for Pugvillage members: Tutorial
This is a tutorial on getting into the #lounge chat channel on IRC
