Swanky's an 11-week-old italian greyhound who seeks attention constantly by jumping, playbiting, scratching the litter box, humping, crying, barking, dive-bombing shoelaces, and whimpering. I'm sure there are more methods but that'll do for now. He is completely litterbox trained (!) and came about a week ago by plane from a breeder. He always wants to be held, and is violently opposed to being left alone. The neighbors (apartment building) have heard him cry like someone was pulling his legs off, just because his owner went out to the post office for a hot second. This problem has the potential for some extreme hair-pulling, bad-mouthing rumbles between Swanky and his downstairs, across the way, upstairs and diagonal neighbors.

Continue reading... "swanky #1"

Q: The reason I am writing is because I have taken in two beagles who were hunting dogs. Their previous owner used them to hunt rabbits and gave them to us last week. One is about two years old and got
lost in the woods for three days. When we found her, she was hungry and didn't want to hunt with her owner and since my sister and I were fawning over her, he said we could have her. She seems fairly healthy and well adjusted. The other one is about eight years old and the hunter was going to shoot her because she was slowing down the pack. My dad told him that we would take her and so we did.
She seems to have been abused though and is very skittish. She won't go near my dad at all and hides when he comes in the garage. She will come to me though but is very nervous and jumpy at sudden
movements or loud, unfamiliar noises.

Continue reading... "emailed q&a......"

"For the dog that destroys anything - the washing, the plants, barking, suffers separation anxiety or just wants to have fun! The HomeAlone is a bungy type play mate that connects easily to trees or backyard pergola. It has a treat ball attached for the dog that requires a food stimulus to make it play. The dog pulls the grip of the HomeAlone to release the food. The HomeAlone is ideal for entertaining your dog while you are out. It is available in a variety of sizes to suit most dogs."

Ninja's people gave me a call to tell me about a noteworthy event- they got a very nice compliment from a spectator who looked on as Ninja did a sit-stay, while he was excitedly anticipating a few kids coming up the sidewalk. When he was told to sit and stay he did it without fussing, and waited until he was released by Mom to then say his hellos to the kids. The watcher was sitting in his car silently noticing this whole scene, and had to acknowledge it. So he paid a drive-by praise to Ninja, which sent his owner into a solid moment of sheer pride.

Continue reading... "Ninja update via phone #7"

We're on our way to adolescence and we're having a pleasant journey. Ninja's mom realized the practicality of dog training when, during a walk outside, she found herself nervous about picking up his poo.

Continue reading... "ninja graduates..#6"

The pup is still doing well. The next hurdle is to get him to come down to a sane energy level when visitors come over. His explosion of happiness is too much for anyone- jumping, barking, playbiting , and anything else he can think of.

Continue reading... "ninja goes hog wild for guests.. #5"

We're pushing Ninja to pass harder sit-stay tests. The last couple of weeks, his masters held off correcting him with his leash when he broke their command to stay. He therefore got away with disobeying them repeatedly. This week we've decided as a collective governing body to give him a consistent consequence for disobeying (just a small bit of tension on his leash). Okay, gotta get serious now.

Continue reading... "ninja improves...# 4"