blueboyluca - Tumblr blog

[blueboyluca]

From the twisted mind that brought you Big Luca...

Can you spot him???

Inspired by all the tags talking about dreams of your pets shrinking hehe

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Loyalty or neediness?

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Shh, the girls are sleeping

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I took the designer dogs out for a walk together

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sup

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I regularly have dreams I refer to as "Big Luca Dreams", wherein my dog Luca is very big. They are my favorite dreams.

This is how big Luca is in the Big Luca Dreams

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We climbed a tiny mountain Saturday

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Cousins

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I've read about half of Click to Calm by Emma Parsons and I was pleased that most of the foundations I have already taught Topaz. What still needs some strengthening (as always) is recall and what needs an overhaul is stationing and handling.

Then in the section of additional skills to teach, I will train: go touch object, get behind me, whistle recall, recall from tight leash, collar grab, chin rest and emergency relocation. I had previously started back up and "this way" already, but I need to practice more.

I have only just reached the section of the book with the core content about the click to calm method. If there's anything useful in there I'll share it.

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I get back from Alice Springs this afternoon and this puppy starts her Prozac prescription tonight

they're really weird

[blueboyluca]

In the beginning, when I was so scared and desperate about rehabilitating Ben, I shall always remember one incident in Karen Pryor’s clicker training class. I was standing with Ben on a leash in front of the gym’s entry doors, listening to Karen teach. All of a sudden, two women entered the room with their Australian Shepherds. Ben flipped out, lunging and barking at the dogs while I struggled to hold on. Mortified, the women hurriedly left the room, apologizing. I was shaking and trying to get Ben back under control as Karen approached. Holding back tears, I remember her placing her hand on my arm and saying quietly to me: "Emma, it’s OK. It’s only behavior."

— Emma Parsons, The New Click to Calm: Solutions for All Dogs In a Challenging World (2021)

[blueboyluca]

@wyrddogs tagged me to provide three random facts about myself.

I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie, specifically her character Hercule Poirot (but I enjoy all the stories, not just Poirot). I own a hardback collection of all her books and I periodically rewatch the David Suchet TV series.

I've visited 25 countries (besides Australia) but haven't been overseas since pre COVID.

When I was a teenager I wrote a fantasy novel. (It wasn't very good.)

I tag @as-old-roads @scruffydogposting @beansnpeets @dogtiber @appenzellerlouis

[blueboyluca]

perfect spring day

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He has brought shame upon his pedigree. He tried to eat my cake slice right off the table this morning.

[blueboyluca]

Last night I took Topaz to club. We did this sequencing work for five minutes, then the rest of the night I worked on her chilling out. We did some good sitting on the raised bed near the field until the other dogs started running, then she had a freak out. So I moved us very far away and waited for her to offer to get on the raised bed again. Then I worked on 300 peck. We got up to 21 the first try, then she had another freak out when she heard someone's tunnel cue. So I took her away to walk around a bit, then came back.

When she got on the raised bed again, we got up to a 29 count before she jumped off – but no freak out. We then did a lap of the field and she didn't bark at anyone. Then we came back to stand near some other trainers and dogs and she only made some mild frustration sounds, which was because she wanted to get near them to be friendly rather than to be antagonistic. So that was actually nice to see.

I'm trying really hard to frame this more optimistically in my brain. That things can improve if I work at it. But I've had another week of feeling utterly terrible after she was aggressive with my grandfather, starting to worry that maybe I'll never be able to have visitors over and what if in future she bites a judge? Some things we've made good progress in and others we just plateau or go backwards and I have no idea how to move forward again.

Next week I have an appointment with a behaviour vet. I would like to get her on some medication to trial it. If I was to anthropomorphise her behaviour, I would describe her as paranoid. I think that maybe a low dose behaviour medication might be able to bring her baseline down so she's not on edge all the time when around other people and dogs. I can see that she wants to be social and play and sniff and relax, but she doesn't seem able to in many situations. We've only in the last two months managed to see consistent calmness at home.

I'm trying for this dog. I love her. I still feel crippling shame about her. I haven't told her breeder about any of this yet because frankly I don't know how. I don't know how to talk about it without it verging into either blame or shame, neither of which I want. The mean selfish part of me just feels angry that all I want is a dog to do agility with and every dog I get is wrong for it in some way. I don't know why things look effortless for so many others and I feel like I have to fight tooth and nail to just feel like things are OK. But that's not helpful to anyone, so I try to let it go.