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Peachy adventures (and misadventures)

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  • Peachy adventures (and misadventures)

    It's been a while since we did an update, so I figured I'd share what's been going on with us so you all can laugh at my pain a bit

    For one, winter just needs to end. It's either extremely cold or warm and extremely muddy and I think a lot of our woes come from doggy being too cooped up. Cooped up meaning she only gets two hours of walking a day, weekly agility, and trips to the Barn on weekends. Clearly, she needs more exercise and mental stimulation, and winter is killing that for us.

    Since we finally had success teaching her the agility tunnel, she now spends much of her free time trying to tunnel under random things- like the play nook under the stairs, open cupboards, and the deck. Oh the deck! The deck has one open side that had maybe a foot and a half of clearance. Several times she would stick her whole face under there and look around, but she couldn't get her rump under there. Until...last weekend I was playing with her and turned around for a moment to clean a fresh poo. I turned around and my dog was just gone. I panicked, checked all the gates, looked behind everything, called her... then heard a shuffling noise from under the deck. Yep. Dog was under the deck. She was sliding around on her belly, back legs extended all the way behind her like a frog. She shimmied 40 feet across all the way up to the house and under the stairs. She spent half an hour stuck under there while I shook a food bowl, called nicely, called not so nicely, bribed her, threatened her, threw food at her. Also, it was the most frigid cold day ever, naturally. I finally did get her out, and barricaded up the deck. A lot of it is video'd because I could actually see her better through my phone camera than I could with my eyes, maybe I'll post it for your enjoyment.

    We had been making really good progress with the reactivity issues and had weaned back to walking on just a martingale collar, then randomly out of the blue she pulled a huge reaction at a dog that would have typically been far outside her threshold, even as I was following our protocol for seeing a dog. Caught me really off guard and I was on ice so I kind of skiid behind and fell and my butt and used my dead weight to stop her. Scared the crop out of the other people, I was pretty mortified. I yelled sorry, even though I was the one flat on my ass in the snow subduing a crazy dog. So she's back to the head halter for probably at least a month before we try the martingale again, and I've readjusted how I define her threshold again. One step forward, two steps back but I hold out the hope we'll get there eventually.

    She's doing really well in her agility. Jumps are great, tunnels are great, and more recently, weaves are great. She's following me really well and it's really starting to click. There is a but though. On class days I keep her food really basic, don't feed dinner until after class, walk her before hand, make sure she's peed and pooped before we go in, take her out every 20 minutes. Well, despite my best efforts last night, she went in, ran three laps, and with no warning squatted and let loose a huge diarrhoea poo. I was so mortified. So our poor trainer and her volunteer had to try to clean the turf while I took my beasty outside again. I think it was just a lot of nerves and anxiety, she gets super ramped up about going there, she had to wait in the car for a half hour, and I think she had just kind of a high anxiety week in general.

    So it's been an up and down few weeks for us. I love this dog to death, but she will be the death of me. Good thing she's cute
    sigpic

    Peach, merle Great Dane
    Born July 7 2014
    Peach & Emily!

  • #2
    Stuck under the deck part 1
    https://youtu.be/M-Mux2JGPEk

    Part 2, the great escape
    https://youtu.be/Ukvg15l0dcEL

    The mastery of tunnels
    https://youtu.be/QLK3SkQ-W7M

    And the mastery of weaves
    https://youtu.be/tnxHT2eofP0

    There's your Peachy update, the good, the bad, and the ugly!
    Last edited by emeko; 02-09-2017, 07:47 AM.
    sigpic

    Peach, merle Great Dane
    Born July 7 2014
    Peach & Emily!

    Comment


    • #3
      more like the good, the bad and the funny!!

      love the videos! i did agility with my welsh corgis many years ago and loved it. peach is doing great. we never did master the weave poles so i'm impressed!!
      [SIGPIC]

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      • #4
        My sweet PEACH! You sweet thing too! I can't watch the videos right now because it is very early in the morning here and if my dogs hear people and doggies they will bark and wake my kids and my peace will be gone....I guard these moments with my life so I will check back later but I can imagine for now. Siren has taken me on a couple of those skiing with boots on trips before. Yes on my butt! She realizes I have fallen and it scares her and the trip lasts longer. I have a very clear picture of what happened to you unfortunately! I am with you - I am ready for winter to GO! LEAVE! Take it's SLOPPY, ICY and debilitating cold self on until next year when I have forgotten how much I despise it.

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        • #5
          You know, if you would have just left her under there and ignored her, she would have come right out.
          Tracy
          sigpic
          Mouse April 2010
          Echo -- run free, Sweetie! Jan 9, 2007 - April 24, 2014 Lost to osteosarcoma at 7 years, 3 months. RIP.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by mnmouse View Post
            You know, if you would have just left her under there and ignored her, she would have come right out.
            I know right I was just kind of panicked! I was worried about other animals under there, getting hung up on something by her collar, getting into a tight position and getting REALLY stuck... a few times it looked like she was in such a tight spot she was having a hard time breathing, she stopped for a few minutes a couple of times to catch her breath. But honestly, despite my panic, I think she was just like "no Ma, I'm happy here!"
            sigpic

            Peach, merle Great Dane
            Born July 7 2014
            Peach & Emily!

            Comment


            • #7
              I just remember yelling at her "if there's a raccoon under there you're gonna die!!" While our neighbour over the fence just laughed and laughed.
              sigpic

              Peach, merle Great Dane
              Born July 7 2014
              Peach & Emily!

              Comment

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