Show off your pets thread

[wbradley]

That is a sweet looking Doge dog!

I have never had a dog, only cats. Just yeaterday I was saying how a Shiba Inu looks to be a dog I'd like to have. But with zero experience that might be a tougher breed to train. Such a nice baby face though!
I live across from a high school and there are people walking every breed imaginable past my house every day in large numbers. My cat gets very excited and sometimes quivers and chirps as dogs (or squirrels) pass my house. I won't let him see the bunnys in the back yard or he'll be scratching at the door non stop. My cats have always had slightly doglike attributes! Lol

In the meantime, the cats I have had in my lifetime have been highly interactive. Understanding an animal's natural behaviour really helps. With so many YouTube animal behaviorist such as Jackson Galaxy I know a lot more that I ever did about how my kitty thinks.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by wbradley

That is a sweet looking Doge dog!

I have never had a dog, only cats. Just yeaterday I was saying how a Shiba Inu looks to be a dog I'd like to have. But with zero experience that might be a tougher breed to train. Such a nice baby face though!
I live across from a high school and there are people walking every breed imaginable past my house every day in large numbers. My cat gets very excited and sometimes quivers and chirps as dogs (or squirrels) pass my house. I won't let him see the bunnys in the back yard or he'll be scratching at the door non stop. My cats have always had slightly doglike attributes! Lol

In the meantime, the cats I have had in my lifetime have been highly interactive. Understanding an animal's natural behaviour really helps. With so many YouTube animal behaviorist such as Jackson Galaxy I know a lot more that I ever did about how my kitty thinks.

Looks like that litter box could send the cat into orbit lol.

[spike021]

Originally Posted by wbradley

That is a sweet looking Doge dog!

I have never had a dog, only cats. Just yeaterday I was saying how a Shiba Inu looks to be a dog I'd like to have. But with zero experience that might be a tougher breed to train. Such a nice baby face though!
I live across from a high school and there are people walking every breed imaginable past my house every day in large numbers. My cat gets very excited and sometimes quivers and chirps as dogs (or squirrels) pass my house. I won't let him see the bunnys in the back yard or he'll be scratching at the door non stop. My cats have always had slightly doglike attributes! Lol

In the meantime, the cats I have had in my lifetime have been highly interactive. Understanding an animal's natural behaviour really helps. With so many YouTube animal behaviorist such as Jackson Galaxy I know a lot more that I ever did about how my kitty thinks.

Honestly he's my first dog. But I've wanted a shiba for about 9-10 years and had done plenty of research over the years and made some connections with other people who have one.

Training hasn't been too bad. He'll sit, lie down, even come up back to sitting position for me (as long as I have kibble/treats, but shibas tend to be food reward driven normally. He also is pretty good at waiting until I say "OK!" if I say to "wait!" to grab food/treats out of my hand.

He was already kinda potty-trained from the breeder but since the vet didn't recommend taking him into grass/dirt for parvo reasons (just about the one thing I did agree with him on), we've been trying to use a real grass pad on my balcony but it's been tough to fully house-train. I think that'll improve once I can actually take him out.

You have a cute space kitty!

[spike021]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

Insta0.002204623pounds for you people.

Hey @Tcoat get a load of this bot here!

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by spike021

Or say the behavior it's demonstrating is going to make it a bad person forever?

my sister in law was a special needs teacher to a grade school.

that question is an onion. and you're not going to like any of the layers

[RToyo86]

Majestic AF



Catdog sleeps everywhere but normal spots on the couch

[spike021]

Originally Posted by RToyo86

Majestic AF
Catdog sleeps everywhere but normal spots on the couch

Oooh those puppy eyes

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by spike021

Oooh those puppy eyes

Here's OUR puppy's eyes, taken yesterday, at just under 8 months old. Stuff nightmares are made of...

[Atmo]

Originally Posted by spike021

Training hasn't been too bad. He'll sit, lie down, even come up back to sitting position for me (as long as I have kibble/treats, but shibas tend to be food reward driven normally. He also is pretty good at waiting until I say "OK!" if I say to "wait!" to grab food/treats out of my hand.

Outstanding. Those are tough commands for any 13 week old puppy to follow. Of course the big one is the return command when they suddenly tend to go deaf.

I teach my dogs hand signals so they can run off leash out of voice range but still in line of sight. For some reason they respond better to hand signals than voice commands. Hand signals came in handy with my last dog who went deaf at age 8. It's part of advanced level obedience training but can be introduced from the start along with voice commands.

When I'm going somewhere knowing they'll be out of sight, I use a waterproof vibrating pager e-collar with a ¾ mile range that I use during off leash and hand signal training. It keeps them honest if they start thinking about running after prey or are just adventurous and curious.

[MuseChaser]

A "second" on the hand signals. I've always kind of subconsciously used them and found that, as Atmo said, many of our dogs seem to respond faster and more reliably to hand signals than spoken commands. I've also found the toughest one is developing a reliable off leash "return" command, whether it's "Come," "To me," "my side," or whatever you'd like. ALL of my dogs would do that with almost 100% reliability regardless of length of training lead, but I've had a few that always knew the difference of when I did and did not have the physical ability to require/enforce a return command.

The Kelpie we've recently adopted (three weeks with us as of yesterday) is doing GREAT, and is incredibly smart. He already knows pretty much all the commands we want him to know, and we're working on the usual (and some not so usual) stupid pet tricks for fun, along with some beginning training towards treiball skills and some agility stuff, again just for fun. I don't see us ever wanting to actually compete, but he loves having a job. Seeing him "herd" a bunch of inflatable exercise balls around our property is really hilarious. If you're bored and need a good laugh, do a youtube search for "Kelpie Sheep Surfing." These dogs are nuts. Getting him to return off leash when WE want him to continues to evade us, although so far, on the few times we've taken the chance, he's only stayed away long enough to prove to us that it's HIS decision to return. Grrrr. We'll keep working on it... it's only been three weeks, and he's getting increasingly attached to us so that'll help. He is an absolute blast to take shopping and pub crawling... he loves all dogs and all people.

[Atmo]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

Here's OUR puppy's eyes, taken yesterday, at just under 8 months old. Stuff nightmares are made of...

Beautiful markings. With its wide set eyes, parabolic ears, short coat and lean build, it looks like it comes from a breed that runs down it's prey. Well, in another time and place.

Edit: Posted before seeing your Kelpie writeup. I'm happy for your successful adoption, no doubt a result of your methods and experience. Kelpies are an exotic breed, tough to find, you're fortunate. Like other herding breeds, he should keep you active!

[spike021]

Originally Posted by Atmo

Outstanding. Those are tough commands for any 13 week old puppy to follow. Of course the big one is the return command when they suddenly tend to go deaf.

I teach my dogs hand signals so they can run off leash out of voice range but still in line of sight. For some reason they respond better to hand signals than voice commands. Hand signals came in handy with my last dog who went deaf at age 8. It's part of advanced level obedience training but can be introduced from the start along with voice commands.

When I'm going somewhere knowing they'll be out of sight, I use a waterproof vibrating pager e-collar with a ¾ mile range that I use during off leash and hand signal training. It keeps them honest if they start thinking about running after prey or are just adventurous and curious.

We're working on "Come, Haru!" with the game where you toss kibble several feet away, and when he finishes the 3-4 pieces then you say "come!" and have a reward (kibble or a special treat). Mostly kibble for now.

He's gotten the hang of it so much that *occasionally* he comes to me at random times if I say "come, Haru!" but that's probably just like 1/5 times right now lol. He definitely has the stubborn "I'm deaf" thing, lol.

I don't think he'll ever have full recall, not such that I can have him off-leash in large open spaces, but hopefully at least moderately decent recall. But we'll see.

Haven't heard of that collar, I'll need to take a look. I just don't want one that causes pain or anything.

[Atmo]

There are dozens of e-collars out there. Most are junk. Some of the best ones have three types of stimulation but not all need to be used and will have separate buttons for electrical or vibration stimulation. The prongs can be removed for vibration only.

Look for recommendations from other Shiba owners. Whichever brand you try, be sure it has an adjustable digital stimulation level from 0-XX with an LCD readout for fine adjustment. Start at 0 stimulation until Haru responds (you'll see it in his body language). Some dogs can't take any remote sound or vibration stimulation at all so buy from a source with a liberal return policy. You can strap it around your arm first to see what it feels like at different settings as a rough guide.

Collar fitment and use is covered in manufacturer documentation and videos. I don't put any weight on amateur YouTubers for proper use.

I use a Dogtra model that's been bulletproof. Glad I got a waterproof model for the rainy Northwest after it turned out that Mika likes to swim, very unusual behavior for a Finnish Spitz. At the beach I use it to quickly turn him around or he's on his way to Japan.

[MuseChaser]

Just a few more observations on training, after coming in from working with our Kelpie for an hour or so outside...

Even after more than forty years of canine companionship and gaining some experience training them, I STILL have to remind myself of a couple things frequently. There's lots of good advice out there; a search for Dr. Sophia Yin will yield some sites with great articles and tips. Every time I read something about training, my initial reaction is, "well, DUH!... who doesn't know that? It's just common sense... and what I always do. Why isn't it working with my dog as well as it does for (insert the name of author/trainer here)?"

The answer, almost ALWAYS, is not that the dog is doing it wrong or just has some sort of untrainable stubborn streak, but that I am doing it wrong... even though I'm aware of what I should be doing, there's things I do that I have to REALLY CONSCIOUSLY make sure I do NOT do. Despite that, I still find myself doing them. Here's some of them.

1. Do NOT repeat a command. You want your dog to learn, "Come," not "come... Come... COME.... COME!!!!!!!!!"

2. Do NOT give a command you can't enforce immediately if the dog does not respond. This means a LOT of long lead training, and not being too confident too early.

3. You MUST be 100% consistent. Don't change your phraseology.

4. Do NOT embellish praise. Think of your praise word as a clicker.. it needs to be a single short sound, also linked to something else pleasurable.. be it a small quickly consumed treat, a chest scratch, belly rub.. whatever you dog appreciates. The word "Yes!" comes naturally to my wife, while "Good!" is what I've used for years. The dog seems to understand both, but it would still be better to stick with one. Do NOT use, "Goodsit," Goodstay," Goodcome..."... it just confuses the dog. Those are not two word linked meanings to dogs, but rather new single words.

5. In training and any time you want specific responses, do not converse with or reason with your dog. We've had a lot of German Shepherds, and this Kelpie is very much like our most recent Shepherd in temperament... very human eyes, and you can almost "see" when they're thinking. I have a TERRIBLE habit of just talking to them.

I'm writing these things not to come off as some kind of expert.. I am not. I am guilty of breaking ALL of those rules, even now, unless I really keep my concentration up. I'm writing because we just had a GREAT on-leash, then off-leash session, with 100% recall, not because the dog is learning and improving, but because I finally got these things correct.

Here's one article by Dr. Yin that, as I said, just seems like common sense, but if you adhere EXACTLY to it, the results are pretty amazing.

https://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/t...to_you_on_cue/