March 2011

WE DID IT!  Bacchus and I were in our first AKC obedience competition today, the Dog Owners Training Club match.  Bacchus earned 2nd place of 4 dogs.  There was a 9-point gap between Bacchus and the third place dog, who looks like she is a ton of fun and I wish we could have a play date.  He scored 182, losing 9.5 points for lagging during the heel on leash, 5 for the heel off leash, and 3.5 on the very slow recall.  But he was perfect on the stand stay, sit stay, and down stay.  So, we have earned our first leg of the three we need to earn our AKC Companion Dog title.

YAY BACCHUS!

Kathy

I am proud to announce that Bacchus is now recognized by the AKC as a Canine Good Citizen!  Today we had to be very obedient while wearing a regular (not training) collar.  He had to accept strangers brushing him and ignoring him and doing crazy things near him and finally sitting with him without me for 3 minutes, plus obeying me.  He did a pretty good job.  He had a very hard time ignoring the other dog while I greeted the owner, and I heard him whining very loudly at one point during the 3 minute wait without me.  But he was so good during the recall (he stayed, came when called, and returned to the heel position) that I heard the small crowd go "ooooh."

He passed!  This is the first step if we want to become a certified therapy dog.  We may do that at some point, but he needs to mature a bit more first and I need to find some time.  Anyway, I am very proud of him.

love,
Kathy

Hi Sandy,

Bacchus will take his Canine Good Citizen test on Sunday.  We've practiced everything except the 3 min wait without me.  He does 3 min stays, but always with me in sight.  We'll see how it goes!  Bacchus is still very much a puppy with his behavior.  He loves to play and asks to play all day long.  I don't think he's ready to be a therapy dog yet, but we'll see.  Perhaps he'll start maturing this year.

He's doing very well in obedience class.  Our teacher sort of graduated all of us to the Novice class by getting us a new teacher.  Our group is a lot of fun and all the dogs get along so well that we were reluctant to change to a new class.  So thus begins the new challenge!  We're going to learn to be obedient without a leash, and we're going to learn to STAY even when a stranger tries to get us to move.  He was fantastic last night - I had a treat in my left hand with my left hand in the off-leash heel position and (we've practiced this at home but not quite as successfully) he was FANTASTIC at watching me and following my every move.

It often brings tears to my eyes when I think about what a fantastic dog he is.  Thank you so much for bringing such joy into our lives.

Kathy et al

KD and Bacchus are finally starting to understand each other.  This happened over the past two weeks mostly, though it's been 10 months coming.  KD laid on the couch next to Thane yesterday and let Bacchus sniff him all over for a very long time.  He got slimed, of course, but learned that B does NOT want to eat him even when given the chance.  KD has also learned that it is OK to stand up for himself because he's begun batting at B when B is too forward with his sniffing or trying to play.  The claws may finally have come out - I heard B yelp when he forcefully approached KD at the sewing table.  KD is also being bolder about moving around the house when B is out and about.  He still gets chased sometimes, but less frequently.

Bacchus hasn't been weighed in a month, so as far as we know he's still 125# and about 29" at the shoulder.  He's still eating 8-10 cups of puppy kibbles every day.  I don't know what he's doing with it because he's not growing!  He looks fabulous, sleek, and muscular.  And he's so well behaved (other than chasing KD).  We meant to enter an obedience competition last month but the timing was terrible.  I've registered us for the upcoming competitions this month, and in Feb & March.  We have the best time in class with all our dog friends.  We love going every week.

Kathy and the boys

Hi,

Here's a picture of our very handsome dog at Kill Devil Hills, NC last week!  Bacchus had such a good time playing in the waves and running/digging the beach.

My Aunt Liz and her friend Paul came to visit last month and Bacchus was not very well behaved.  He kept bouncing up to sniff them the entire visit and nearly knocked Paul over at one point.  So the next week we had friends over and I put on the training collar and... POOF a completely different dog greeted Natasha and Carl.  Every time he started to step out of line, he got a correction and it was much nicer.  Mom arrived a week ago, and I didn't think we'd need the training collar and we didn't.  He was civilized the whole time.  What a relief!

I've been on travel a lot over the past couple of months and have one trip left to take so we've missed quite a few obedience classes.  I look forward to getting back in the groove starting tomorrow.  We still haven't figured out the Stand Stay because I don't make him practice it every day.  He's also decided that Stay means stay in the same place, but not necessarily the same position.  We'll have to work on that more.  I'm trying to get him to heel off-leash and we'll be working on that for a while too.

A success: I've been teaching him Relax, which basically means lie down and chill out or take a nap.  This came in handy at the beach because he likes to keep track of everyone and there were so many people at the beach house that he was exhausted and not napping.  But, sometimes when I told him to Relax he would lie down and chill out.  Good.

love,
Kathy and the furries

Hi,

Bacchus will be 5 mo old on the 20th; he's 75# and still a growing boy.  I believe, as of this morning, all of his baby teeth have fallen out (I have found 12 to keep) so hopefully there will be no more bloody toys.  This morning I will go to several yard sales and buy new plush toys that don't look like they belong in a crime scene.

KD is getting bolder, or the heat is driving him -in desperation- to lie on the tile floor in the kitchen even though it subjects him to the tyranny of the pup.  Shouting "NOOOOOOO" has no effect, but if I call Bacchus to COME! he will leave the cat alone and come see me.

Obedience class is fun and the teacher is fabulous, though I'm still upset about having 3 aggressive dogs in class with us.  We're learning to do some things off-leash, primarily the STAY commands.  We're also learning the steps toward the "flying down" in which I will say DOWN when he's running, and he's supposed to drop to the ground mid-run.  Given that we're still working on DOWN in its most basic form, this is challenging.  However, I've been practicing DOWN every time I give him anything frozen, so he's getting much better.  Last night I used some asparagus to get him, off-leash, to DOWN while he was heeling.  He'll do anything for asparagus.

To sum up: KD is adjusting, and B continues to be a fantastic dog.

love,
Kathy

Hi,

We had a busy, good weekend.  Sunday Thane dropped B&I off at the Dog Park near his friend's house while they worked on the motorcycle Thane hoped to ride on Monday at the track day.  We had a good time.  That dog park has a small pool and a hose, so B was all set.  He played in the pool and eventually played with other dogs in and near the pool.

Monday we went to the track!  It has been far too long since we've been to Summit Point, WV (2 hrs away).  B came with us for his inaugural trip (see pic! He's sleeping on my motorcycle gear) and spent the vast majority of the day lying around.  We met two other dogs and lots of other people.

We went to our first session of Intermediate Class, and the teacher is great.  B was in fine form and did all of the exercises perfectly.  Two of the dozen or so dogs have dog aggression problems, which is really annoying.  Both growled and snapped at B during the hour-long class.  I wish I could prevent B from encountering nasty dogs so he doesn't become fear aggressive.  The teacher was somewhat helpful in keeping the two away from other dogs.  Funny: B was so tired that he fell asleep during the down stay (his hips kept tilting to the left, and he'd straighten them up, then they'd start to fall over, and he'd straighten them...) and during the last exercise was so tired he didn't want to Come after he'd already done the exercise once.  He was pretty cute.

We heel every night and practice all the other stuff during our walks.  We're getting pretty good.  I am very pleased with his progress.

Cheers,
Kathy and B and KD and TS

Hi,

We continue to have a great time with Bacchus, who we think is the Best Dog Ever.  This is a picture of us with our 2nd place ribbon for our puppy/basic obedience test.  He's just a fabulous dog.

Saturday we went to the parade.  He was afraid of the first marching band, trembling behind me.  But after that, he was fine with the other two marching bands, the super loud canned music, and the wailing sirens.  We sat near a toddler who grabbed his face, and Bacchus was fine.  The only thing that made him a little skittish was when he went in to lick her feet and she kicked at him - he hopped and backed away.  He's such a great dog.

He's almost 70# as of yesterday (18 weeks old).  And he's 23" tall at the shoulder.  It might not seem like he's growing, but here's how his growth has worked: First, he grew taller.  Then he grew longer.  Now his chest is getting deeper.

He's lost lots of his baby teeth.  His adult front teeth are nearly all in, and his molars are coming in very quickly.  We've been giving him ice cubes and a piece of frozen broccoli and/or a frozen carrot every day to help his gums.

Yesterday was fun with the hose/pool again.  We've had such cool wet weather we haven't had the pool out for about a month.
Kathy

Hi,

Bacchus is four months old tomorrow.  He's well over 50 pounds and stands at least 21" at the shoulder.  He's more than doubled in size over the past two months.  He's doing very well health-wise.  He'll finish up his puppy immunizations on Monday and the vet and his staff are always thrilled to see how well he's doing and how handsome he is.  He's a lean, muscular dog.  We're biased, but he's gorgeous.

He's doing very well behaviorally.  We take our puppy kindergarten graduation test in 1.5 weeks.  We have just upgraded to a prong collar after not doing well with the choke collar.  He's brilliant with the new collar.  It's as if the other collars just didn't tell him what he needed to know, and this collar tells him exactly what he needs to know.  No more pulling on the leash, he just does what he's supposed to do.

We take a walk every night, weather permitting.  We started this about 2 weeks ago.  I've been using the walks as time to practice our obedience skills.  Like I said, with the prong collar he's brilliant.  Last night, in a single walk, we mastered the art of sitting automatically when I stop walking.  Need I bother to mention that he's the world's best dog at Down Stay?  He fell asleep in class doing a Down Stay this past week.

He's fabulous about meeting other people and dogs, very friendly, not aggressive, not submissive.  While practicing an Automatic Sit on a walk this week, we were ambushed from behind by an unknown 4 yr old who immediately started petting Bacchus's head.  I was startled but Bacchus seemed to think this was a great way to Sit - even though he didn't see her until she was already touching him.

Last week I taught him a new command, LOOK, where he's supposed to look at my face when he hears it.  I used treats so he'd figure out where he was supposed to look.  After doing this a few times, he has it down.  This command is very useful to distract him from something he's not supposed to be doing, like stalking KD.  He'll comply even when he's really intent on something, like playing with another dog.

The TOY command has taken longer to learn, but we think this has finally been mastered.  We've been working on getting Bacchus not to try to eat us since he came home.  NO BITE was not an effective command so we just kept stuffing toys in his mouth.  For about the past three weeks we've been redirecting him to toys with the command TOY.  He's finally getting this.  He'll groan (the indicator of the need to chew on something) and start to wave his head around with his mouth open, in search of something to chew on.  Until this week, it was nearly impossible to redirect him but now when we say TOY he'll get up and look around to find one of his toys.  (We've been told he'll continue to chew compulsively until his adult teeth come in at about 9 months, so this command will continue to be useful for another 5 months!)

We played with Maddie, an 11-mo-old black lab, last Sunday.  They were excellent play partners, running at first and then just chewing on each other's faces.  KD seems to be adjusting, a little.  We think he played with Bacchus, sort of, this week.  Bacchus was under the sofa, KD approached the back of the sofa, hissed, and batted at the crack between the floor and the sofa.  Hiss, bat, hiss, bat.  OK, sure, that's passive aggressive, but it's a step closer to being civilized with the puppy.  He tolerates Bacchus being nearby a lot more, and Bacchus more frequently leaves him alone.

Bacchus loves asparagus.  We have a small bed next to the porch and it has been a challenge to teach Bacchus not to pick his own asparagus.  He's pretty good if we're within sight but ... let's just say I sometimes find stalks chewed down if we're not paying attention.  We gave him a piece of frozen broccoli yesterday and that was a big hit.  He also loves ice cubes, and loves peanut butter at least as much as I do.

We had pouring rain Thurs night through Friday, and I bet we got about 8". I thought we'd go stir crazy with me and KD and Bacchus trapped in the house.  But, silly me, I forgot how much Bacchus loves water!  Bacchus spent several minutes at a time biting at the water dripping from our gutter and racing back and forth through the stream that forms in our back yard during heavy rains - kicking up spray so he could bite the water as he ran!  I think he had a great day yesterday because when he went out, playing in the water was the best game ever.  Then when he came in, I toweled him off, which was also the best game ever.  Kathy

Hi,

Bacchus continues to grow.  This week he has a lot of extra skin so perhaps next week he will be even bigger.  The skin rolls up on his hips when he sits down.  And we can see his ribs again this week.  Yesterday was very hot.  I watered some plants and Bacchus kept trying to get under the watering can spray so I got out the kiddie pool and put a gallon of water in it.  Bacchus jumped right in, dug around, splashed, blew bubbles with his nose as he tried to bite the water, etc.  A great time was had.  Then more fun was had as I tried to dry him off.  He tries to play tug of war with the towel.

He doesn't seem to need naps as frequently now.  For the first month, he napped after being awake about an hour and a half.  Now goes longer between naps, though the naps are longer.  We're having lots of fun playing with toys and hanging out.  Yesterday I "heel"ed B up a few houses and back, then rested, then again down a few houses and back.  And periodically B goes wild and gallops around the yard or house (KD is not impressed with that).  He's very active when active, and very quiet when he's not active.  We had some times this week when B would chew quietly while Thane & I watched tv.  This is very nice.

Kudos to Thane, who built a dog ramp for my car this week and then trained B to use it.  I admit, I was starting to have problems lifting Bacchus in and out of my car.  We haven't yet weighed him today but I'm sure he's at least 45#.  We had both thunder and fireworks in the past 24 hrs.  B seems completely fine with thunder so far.  And although he whined a bit about the fireworks (a standard occurrence for Baysox home games on Fri and Sat night) I told him we were having a great time and he settled right down.

love,
Kathy (and TS and KD and B)

Hi,

We've had a good week.  Puppy class went pretty well.  He heels about half of the time I ask him to outside of class.  He's pretty good at sit, and getting better at down (I no longer have to lie on him all the time).

He's getting quite a bit better about his teeth.  Someone suggested I hand feed him, and only give him the kibbles when he doesn't use his teeth.  When we started this, he was all teeth.  Now, it's kind of like feeding a horse - all lips and whiskers, with the occasional tongue.  Very much improved.  And, as a bonus, hand-feeding him slows his eating.  Even though we free feed, he only eats occasionally and then gobbles whatever is in his dish.

Today we met some people with another American Mastiff, Mimi, who is sweet and gentle even while Bacchus was trying to chew her face off.  It was by far the best play date.  Mimi chased B at just the right speed so there was quite a bit of chasing.  And, we were at the beach!  We went to Kent Island, across the Bay Bridge.  Bacchus got to dig in the sand, which he really really enjoyed (digging is forbidden inside and outside here!).  The surf was a little noisy, which raised his hackles.  Mimi usually likes the water but it was too noisy for her too.

As of today, B is 3 months old.  He weighs 41.8 pounds and stands just shy of 19" at the shoulders.

Cheers
Kathy

Hi,

Bacchus continues to grow and learn and look very handsome.  Puppy class went pretty well Wednesday night.  We arrived, used the pee area, did a little sniffing, and started class.  I saw Bacchus look around as we were starting our exercises, and it was as if he noticed that the other puppies were working, so he worked his little tail off as long as he could.  He was a little sleepy, so after about 20 min we went outside - and pooped.  We came back in, worked more, and thank goodness they let us out 10 min early.  Everyone was exhausted.  He's doing most of the exercises pretty well, including heeling.  Sometimes he gets ahead of me, and sometimes he drops back to the side to watch someone else, but it seems like he understands he's supposed to walk along next to me.  He's doing this fairly well on leash at home too.  It seemed like we made a major breakthrough with STAY but I haven't been practicing that since.  oops.

After several introductions to the dremel tool over the past three weeks, we used it briefly on his nails yesterday.  He wasn't happy, but he wasn't horribly upset either.  Our friends use it on their dog, and there's a tutorial on the internet.  B's nails are very hard, and I know nails tend to split when they're trimmed the traditional way.  That's why we're trying this way.

He's still not leaving KD alone, so today and yesterday we've been on the leash most of the time (we take off the collar/leash for crate time).  That helps us control him much better.  Consequently, KD has only been ambushed twice (totally my fault).

love,
Kathy

Hi,

So, we're back from the vet this morning.  He weighs 30.2# today, one day shy of his 10-week birthday.

Interspecies negotiations continue.  Bacchus approaches KD (our cat) all the time, and KD discourages B.  For the first week, we redirected B away from KD, and now we're letting them hash it out.  B runs up, does a play bow, and barks.  KD hisses.  If KD runs, B chases him.  So far, no claws have been drawn.  I hope that continues.

We've had several play dates with friendly dogs who are up-to-date on shots and met lots of people at home and away.  He's a little cautious at first, and then enjoys himself.  He's a pretty motivated learner.  He's got "leave it" and "do your business" down pretty well.  This week we've been working intensely on stopping biting.  A combination of hand feeding and teaching him the difference between "bite" (toys) and "kisses" (people) has been good, as long as he's not overtired.  If he's overtired, we just have to take a nap and start fresh when he's rested.

He's such a lapdog.  His preference is to do everything, including play, on my lap.  Or Thane's lap.  And when my lap isn't available, he likes to sleep on my dirty clothes.  So far, he still can squeeze onto our laps.  I'm surprised, given how much he's grown.  We'll see how long this lasts.

Take care,
Katy on behalf of TS, KD, and B