The big walk

Today I came to the conclusion that the big walk in the park, where Bobby is off the leash brings out the dominant side of him.

Towards the end of the walk there were some "arguments" with other dogs, nothing to worry about as a simple "Bobby come here" solved it.

But at home he started growling at sounds coming from the street, and while going from one place to another he basically tried to run me over.

I think we are having a small set back:) But that is ok we knew from the start that Bobby would be a challenge.

Improving the behaviour

Bobby is back to being the most wonderful dog on the planet, apart from the walks - he is still improving with the heel work and of course the problem with strangers that enter our garden/home or interact with us from outside these boundaries.

On the walks thou he is still really good to everybody and to every dog, it is just when it concerns the house or the garden and (of course) Mr C. However he does not react to me interacting with Mr C.

He is putting on weight and he is calmer, not afraid of the tv any more, he likes to lay down on his bed in the sitting room and sometimes even licks the tv stand (which i already explained that it was a no area), his recall is better (with me, as it used to be terrible), I still keep the compress air bottle around but today it was not used so far, as every time he was building up to become possessive or aggressive a simple "leave" did the job, as we prefer to use the compress air as a last resort so that he keeps responding to that if needed.

Today I'll sit with him outside (again) to keep on the work on not barking, growling at the neighbours/strangers, he loves to sit on the grass and I keep him on the leash to keep him "wired" with me. As he will pay more attention to me if the leash is there even if I'm not holding it.

Good or bad?!?!?

I have come to realise that Bobby behaves badly when Mr C is around. Let me explain...

I arrived on Sunday evening, Bobby was ok with me and all, apart from eating (yes, eating) Marks work that was left on the dinning room table.

The next day (Monday), he decided that he wanted breakfast when he wanted so he helped himself to his bowl that was on the kitchen counter, which for me is new as Bobby knows he is not allowed to do that sort of things. I had to ask Mr C to help me as Bobby reaction was a bit unexpected. In the evening, every time I would hand over stuff to Mr C, Bobby would start barking and would get very unsettled, at the end of the evening he actually tried to nip me to prevent me from getting close to Mr C.

Yesterday while I was weeding in the front garden I took Bobby out there as well so that he could see me interact with other people and not become possessive, I managed to be successful in having him relaxing again while strangers (neighbours) would talk to us.

We are now using the compress air bottle to spray in to the air to correct Bobby when he is behaving badly and Mr C is hugging me in front of Bobby so that he stops reacting every time we are together.

This morning Bobby was again the dog we brought home and that behaves well. He does not jump on me, he obeys, he gives me the paw when I ask, Mr C was not able to feed him this morning as Bobby would not settle so I did it and fed him, again all was well.

I still keep the compress air bottle around me, just in case, but I believe Bobby sees Mr C as his and does not want to share...

We also need to tackle Bobby barking when a sound happens outside or next door however he knows that he is not allowed to bark in that situation. So i need to wait for that to happen to be able to tackle it.

We both knew that Bobby would come with some issues that would only show up after he settled, I do believe that his main problem is believing that he "owns" people and wants to be in charge.

When Mr C and I saw that Bobby was such a good dog we relaxed a bit with him and fussed a bit as he seemed so happy, we even allowed him to get over excited and playful.

We are back to follow Steve and Kirsty suggestions - no fussing, he is not used to it, correct a bad behaviour (using the compress air bottle), then make him "work" a bit for the praise and treat.

Work's not working

Monday afternoon and Tuesday i took Bobby into the office with me. I have my own office and had prepared his water bowl and bed etc and all was well. A problem very soon became apparent however. He very quickly became very territorial and defended "his space" quite aggressively when anyone knocked on my door and entered. He did not bite anyone but he did show significant aggression by charging forward and barking. We got through Monday afternoon, and i emailed Kirsty at Wolfwood for some advice. She suggested a few good ideas and i will put them into practice, but with the factory being so busy i really did not have the time to properly try the methods she suggested right away. In the end i decided to walk Bobby first thing, go into work in the morning then come home at lunchtime to work at home. Next week Mrs C will be back from her trip so he will have company all day. My worry is that this behaviour might manifest itself at home also, so we will have to figure this one out somehow.

Day Fifteen 18th July

I took him on a huge walk today, lead walking all the way, and by the end of it he was walking perfectly to heal. Either that or he was plain knackered, i know i was. Today is officially the end of Bobby's 2 week trial, so i called Steve at Wolfwood to let him know that we wanted to keep Bobby. Steve was more than happy to let us keep him and he agreed to send us his id chip registration and vaccination docs in the post. The trial is over but this blog will continue so that others thinking of homing a dog can have some kind of insight into the process, and hopefully be inspired to take a chance on a dog like we did with Bobby.

Day Fourteen 17th of July

Today we went back to basics, and reduced the amount of attention we gave to Bobby, only giving attention and affection on our terms. Also in an attempt to fix in Bobby's mind that Mrs C is also a pack leader we went on a 2 hour walk with Mrs C leading all the way. We have also been much more insistent in claiming the front door, and our own personal space when we sit with him. No longer allowing him to paw us and nudge us for attention.

Day Thirteen 16th July

Its amazing how dogs can find the most disgusting mud bog and jump right in it. The walk i take him on has just such a bog, and even with the incredibly keen senses and instincts the dog does not seem to understand (or perhaps care) that if he jumps into said bog he will be covered in black stinking mud up to his armpits. Oh well i thought sh*t happens and its all over my dog, but no worries i thought there is an old well near the road further on he can paddle in that to clean himself up a bit. When we came to it, guess what, he didn't want to go near it, was not interested. Perhaps it was not dirty enough for him??? Perhaps we need to review the statement "Collies are intelligent dogs" lol.

Later after returning from dinner at a local restaurant we sat with Bobby, us on the sofa and him on the floor of course. We had noticed recently, for the last few days that he had become "closer" to me than Mrs C. He was always nudging me for attention and i must confess that i gave it him, since everything was going to well, there did not seem to be any harm in it. However, while a was stroking him Mrs C also began to stroke him and he snapped at her. Did not bite, not even close, but he was giving Mrs C a warning to back off. Of course we corrected him right away. Then we starting to think about what might have caused his reaction. Bobby had become possessive of me we concluded. I was giving him attention whenever he was asking for it, rather than when i wanted or needed to give him attention. We were warned about this by Steve from the start, but we became complacent, since he was or had become in our minds a model dog. The snap from Bobby was a wake up call.

Day Twelve 15th of July

We have noticed something about the way Bobby reacts to people he meets that come to the house. If the visitor is female he calmly greets them and settles down in no time. However if the visitor is male he reacts differently. My nephew came to visit this evening and as he came in i told him to ignore the dog completely. Bobby became very anxious, growled at my nephew and became aggressive. We immediately corrected Bobby and when he had settled we invited Boddy to sniff my nephews hand, and then asked him to give Bobby a treat. Bobby took the treats and then all was well. We are not sure if we could have handled this situation any better but it turned out ok in the end.

Day Eleven 14th of July

Today Mr C managed to have Bobby running along side him off lead on their walk. Later I took him to the big Park and he had a great time (again), he jumped into the river 3 times, his recall was great, but a bit distracted when he saw some kids playing football (I had the feeling he wanted to herd them in a group) and there were no consequences as he was still on the lead. As always he was great with other dogs and with people.

On the side you can see one of the many trees in Brabyns Park where Bobby stops to "read" his "newspaper".

Bobby was a reject from a farm and had already been on trial with another family, I can't really understand why he didn't find a home before, as he is obedient, playful, extremely intelligent (I'm already giving commands without speaking, just by hand signs) and respectful of our space. In short a very good dog.

Of course we have been following the leads we got both from Steve and Kirsty making sure that Bobby knows who is in charge and the approach to Bobby is always a positive and friendly, without allowing him to do everything he wants, like chewing in our hands while playing, he knows he cannot, sometimes he forgets and all I need to do is say a gentle no and he immediately stops.

Just because he is a rescue it does not mean that he is not a good dog, just means that he just needs another chance and I know I'm happy Bobby has it with us.

Oh and he does not complain at night when we go to sleep and he stays in the ground floor and he does not complain as well when we leave him alone for a few hours during the day, like on supermarket day.

Day Ten 13th of July

We had another great walk this morning in the big park. Bobby met and played with lots of dogs with no problems and his recall was very good. He really loves the river. The bank slopes steeply to the waters edge and he actually dived bombed a poor unsuspecting and rather elderly Labrador that was taking a leisurely paddle. He almost jumped right on top of him lol, must have almost given the poor lab a heart attack. This afternoon i took Bobby to my work for the first time. He was pretty nervous as i expected but after meeting a few people and getting to know the place a bit he started to relax. Next week he will be coming to work with me everyday because Mrs C is away for a week so today was a good introduction for him.

Day Nine 12th July - Poorly or Bored?

Today Bobby and I went to the Park again (while Mr C went to work) for a big walk and for him to be able to stretch his legs and play with other dogs (and so that I don't have to spend the whole walk correcting Bobby to walk to heel on the lead - as it was becoming a "painful" exercise for me and i guess for Bobby as well).

Again he absolutely loved it, we ran, we played, he ran like mad all over the park, he jumped into the river twice and I must confess I was hopping he would not as it was not warm and sunny so he would not dry fast, on the other hand I didn't want to prevent him from having a really good time and he loved it.

His recall was not very good when other dogs would be around and a lady who was also walking 2 border collies told me not to worry, she told me just to count the number of times he would be checking where I was and to let it go if he was checking constantly it would be ok, which he was. So if he does not come all I need to do is walk in a different direction and he would come to me straight away. All is well in theory - you might think - I also lost sight of him for 2 minutes, the 1st though that crossed my mind was that Mr C, Steve and Kirsty would kill me, but I kept on walking in the direction I saw him going (also thinking that his collar has his name and phone number and that I would not leave the park until I had him back) and 1 minute later Bobby shows up running like crazy looking for me and wagging his tail as soon as he saw me, I think it was a relief for both of us.

We got home all right, I took his collar of as it was still wet, Bobby had the hair a bit damp, but

went straight to his bed and laid there for the rest of the morning, in the afternoon he was not very active, and closer to dinner time I think I can say that he was lethargic - is Bobby poorly or bored?!?!

Not really sure so I think I'll get a quilt on him

tonight and see how he wakes up tomorrow. And guess what - he will have another big walk tomorrow in the Park, but this time if the weather does not get better he will not be allowed to go into the water, I really don't want him to get ill.

At the end of the day Mr C decided to try on him my tiger ears and he looks like Tigger (from Winnie the Pooh) and on the side you can see how gorgeous he looked.

Day Eight 11th of July

The big black clouds on the horizon made us think twice about the 2-3 hour "expedition", so we cheated and took Bobby in the car to the Park. It was really quiet, lots of wide open space and we were confident about his recall, so off came the lead. At first Bobby didn't seem to notice or much care that he was "free", but after a lot of sniffing about in long grass he started to stretch his legs a bit.....well actually a lot. He went crazy sprinting around us in huge circles, almost too excited maintain his balance. We called him back and he came right away, and off he went again madly dashing about enjoying the off lead freedom like i don't remember seeing a dog enjoy before. His recall was not so good when he found something particularly interesting to sniff, but he always came back to us eventually. He was great with all the other dogs and people he met, always approaching respectfully, with no jumping up etc. When we reached the river that borders the park he did not hesitate. He sprinted to and fro along the shallow edges backwards and forwards. He had a great time. We sat in the sun for half an hour so that Bobby could dry off a bit (wet muddy dog on back seat of car not good), and then started to head back. On the way we met a couple with 2 collies so we stopped to chat. Both of their dogs were rescue dogs ( or reject sheep dogs as the bloke called them lol) They said it was the best thing they did to get the dogs and were even thinking of getting a third, so i told them about Wolfwood. I was very proud when Bobby demonstrated his excellent recall and they thought Bobby was going to be a really great dog. He played well with the other collies and was observing intently the toys they had, so next time we will give him a go with a frizbe and a ball. I think we will alternate lead walks with off lead park walks. I certainly don't want to lose the progress we made with the lead walking.

Day Seven 10th of July

I found a better technique for making bobby walk to heel today. Basically i hold the lead behind me and keep it very short, and it works. Finally cracked it! Also i noticed, at least i'm pretty sure i noticed that he's putting on weight. His ribs definitely feel less prominent than they did before so he's on the mend. Tomorrow we are planning a big walk - 3 or 4 hours and we intend to try him off lead for the first time.

The expedition will leave early in the morning

with Mrs C preparing supplies for us (picnic

according to Mrs C, expedition supplies according to me). We will walk to a place called Brabyns Park in Marple Bridge that has very large open spaces, perfect for letting him off lead i recon. We will of course have lots of treats to encourage recall and we will start him off on the 10m training lead. I'm very confident all will be well and i'm looking forward to him being able to run free and chase stuff.

Day Six 9th of July

Bobby is improving everyday!!

Yesterday night he just whined twice, he didn't bark, he didn't howl, he just whined twice!! I was really pleased, this morning he continued to surprise me by behaving a bit better on the lead, I guess when we are walking and doing the heel work we do not realise how much better he got until the next time he is walked again.

He alerted me to strangers at the front door (the window cleaners) and in the garden, the window cleaners forgot to tell me that today they would actually enter in the garden and do the back windows, well Bobby informed me, not barking like crazy, just a bit of growling, basically to let me know that there was people around the house. I think the window cleaners should have told me something as the kitchen door was open and Bobby could have gone there and let them know that he was outside as well. So in the end I just got there, spoke with the window cleaners, closed the kitchen door so that Bobby would not get inspired and all was well. He also lets me know when the postman is arriving but strangely enough does not warn me when Mr C is arriving!!!! I wonder why !!!!

Today I gave him a good brush again and the brushing time has become a good relaxing time that Bobby and I have together, we start by me sitting in the couch and asking him to sit in front of me then we just start having a "chat" with nice brushing strokes on his head and some treats, by the time we are about to finish I have Bobby lying on the floor with his belly up, asking for a belly rub. We also end with a nice touch, I continue to tell him how great he looks, get him to sit and lie down for me and give him a treat in the end, basically I'm following the hints that Wolfwood gave us to make the brushing time a good experience for Bobby (and to myself as well).

He is also improving with the tv, he is still afraid of it but manages to spend more time in the sitting room with us as long as the tv is low and the image is not running to fast. No action films for him yet! And looking at the photo, no wonder he is afraid of the tv!!!

I also noticed that he likes to give us little small bites (love bites, I wonder) when we are playing, and that issue is also being taken care of as he is very intelligent and we don't need to repeat the no command very often and he quickly changes in to little licks so all is well.

I can gladly say that Bobby is a very gentle dog.

Oh and extremely playfull.

Mrs C

Day Five 8th of July

This dog sheds hair like you won't believe. Mrs C spent 15 minutes brushing him today and the resulting ball of hair is impressive. Bobby allowed her to brush him all over his coat with no sign of anxiety or snapping from him, which was great.

I was looking at his coat and it does look better for the brushing but its not in good condition. The coat is very oily and dull from the shoulders back. I'm assuming that this indicates generally poor condition associated with being under weight caused by the stress of kennel life. I thought i'd do a little research on the subject.

Dogs with a condition called seborrhea can produce tremendous amounts of skin oil, which can result in sores and patches of missing fur as well as a greasy coat. Dogs and cats will sometimes get greasy coats when they have fleas, mites, or even allergies, all of which can cause the skin's sebaceous glands to work overtime and secrete more oil than usual. Wolfwood has been treating him for fleas with frontline so that's in hand. Less often, a greasy coat can be a sign of internal problems such as diabetes or a hormonal imbalance. He will be off to the vet soon for a general check up and an introduction to the vet so i'll ask about that. I have not noticed him scratching excessively so i don't think its a skin infection or allergy. Might be more to do with diet. Some sites recommend adding supplements that contain oils to his diet. Again i'll check that with the vet. Lots of sites talk about bathing the dog using various medicated shampoos but i don't want to stress him out with that ordeal at this stage.

Generally all is well with Bobby. He settled well last night with only a little howling and he is improving (slowly) with his lead walking. He's definitely getting more playful and its a joy to see to be honest, as it shows that he's getting settled in his new life.

Day Four 7th of July

He howls like a wolf ! Impressive howl but not at 12.30am. Last night he was not happy to be in his crate, not really sure why. He was let out to do his business before, he had his bone etc, but 10 minutes after going to bed he started to howl. I left it as long as i dared without upsetting the neighbours then went down to check on him. I told him firmly to settle down and went back to bed. All was well ....for 5 mins then he started the second verse of his song. So down i went again and told him to be quiet and shut the door. This time apart from a few whines he was quiet and we all slept.

Mrs C took him for his morning walk, again the emphasis was on training him to walk well on the lead. She took it very slowly this time and a walk the normally takes 1 hour took 1 1/2 hours. He was doing very well until a passer by made a huge fuss of him and he became excited. Also we noticed that when we jog with him he stays behind us perfectly. The only problem with that is neither of us are quite fit enough to run around the route (even if we wanted to )

Today was the first time we left him alone in the house. Mrs C was out for 2 1/2 hours and he behaved perfectly, no accidents, nothing chewed and no complaints from the neighbours.

He continues to relax with us, lies down on command., sometimes will give his paw. We have been grooming him cautiously a few minutes a day, as we know he is sensitive to being handled especially near his back end. So far all is well.

Day Three 6th of July

He's gaining confidence for sure. He's more alert, more active and even playful now. We took him for a long walk this morning together and really concentrated on him walking to heel. We found it helped having him walk between us, i suppose because it reduces the opportunities to sniff stuff on either side of him. We also had the chance to test his recall. I was adjusting the lead on his collar and the damn collar came off and he was free. He even gave a little dance to celebrate, but we stayed calm and called him back and he came right away.

Later we gave him the "dog brick" puzzle thing to have a go at. He's a smart dog. In no time he figured out how to grab all the treats by removing some bits and sliding others across in the right direction. I think i'll get him a rubics cube tomorrow !

Day Two 5th of July

He was pulling a bit on the lead on his walk early this morning, but other than that he was great. Whenever we came across other dogs he was very well behaved even when the other dog was yappy. Mrs C took him out at lunch time and she said he was pulling quite a bit on the lead. We need to learn how to make him heel better than he is at the moment, so i'll ask Kirsty (Wolfwoods animal behaviourist) about that.

We have been doing the whole pack discipline thing, including him eating last, him going through doors last etc and i think he's getting the message. His appetite is very good. We are feeding him a little more than is recommended in the hope he will gain some weight and he scoffs the lot right away. We have had no issues with his toilet training. He uses the garden and we have had no accidents at all.

All in all i think he's doing very well. He is gradually gaining in confidence and we are making sure that we keep the boundaries and rules we have set.

Day One 4th July 2010 - Collection Day

After a fair bit of preparation we finally collected Bobby from Wolfwood. The pack leader thing got off to a great start when Bobby decided he was going to sit in the passenger seat. Steve at Wolfwood reminded him of his place and he was quickly guided to the back seat.

The trip back with Bobby was fine he sat quietly in the back all the way. When we arrived home we took him for a walk around the local streets so that he could start to become familiar with his new area. Then we showed him around the house one room at a time with us entering each room first. We decided that upstairs would be out of bounds for Bobby since we don't want him on the bed or in the bedroom and although intelligent i'm sure he wont be needing our bathroom. Later we took him on a long walk along the canal and through the woods. In the house he was a little nervous, and watching everything all the time. He was totally freaked out by the TV when we turned it on and now refuses to go into the front room. As much as we want to make things work with Bobby we still gotta have our TV on once in a while, I'm sure he will get used to it eventually. We kept everything very quiet in the house on Sunday and he settled in the kitchen and back garden.

At night he had no problem sleeping in his crate with his bone, and was quiet all night.