Wordless Wednesday

A Very Belated Happy Howl-o-ween!

Hello! Treasure here. I know it is waaaaaaaaaaay late for this, but Ellie just found some Howl-o-ween pictures of Rocky on her picture-machine card, and wanted to share some pictures of my brother Rocky in his Howl-o-ween costume at Ellie's work!

He looks really sad in some of these, but he actually is just concentrating really hard on his 'stay' command. It was a really distracting place with dogs and humans coming in and out of the building!

Here he is playing with Roger, one of the foster dogs from Fuzzy Pawz Rescue who has since been adopted!

We think he looks really cute!

Wordless Wednesday

Silly Snow and Christmas Present Show-and-Tell!

Hello! Treasure here. It has been snowing off-and-on for the past few days. It has mostly all melted away today, though. I am so glad! I really HATE snow. This is a picture of me last year in the snow, just so you can see how horrible it is:

Do you see my disgusted face? Now look at these pictures of the boys in the snow for comparison:

I just don't understand how they think it is fun! Can somedoggy please tell me how snow can be fun?

Anyway... I just wanted to show you a few things we got for Christmas!

I got a brand-new coat! I absolutely LOVE it! I got so excited when I opened it, and figured out what it was! 

The boys were way too busy romping around in what little snow we have left to pose for a picture, but Rocky got the T-Rex, and Amp got the ball! Rocky loves the T-Rex, and he carries it around with him all of the time. He named him "Rex" for short. 

Amp hasn't quite figured out what to do with the ball yet, though... but he loves to carry stuff around with him when he gets the zoomies, so we will try to get him to run around with it and take a video!

We also got a couple of yummy bully sticks each, and a new kong toy each. What an awesome Christmas!

What did YOU get for Christmas?

Random pictures of us!

Hello all! Treasure here. Things have still been pretty hectic here lately. Ellie is getting so busy with her  grooming business that she had to stop teaching dog training classes! She even took on a grooming apprentice! She is kind of disappointed about the training classes, but she says that she can still teach us new things at home for practice, and to have some fun.

She wants to be able to help me post more often here, and she says she will see what she can do. In the meantime, here are some random pictures of us!

Here we are posing nicely for the camera-machine on a log at a campground!

Ellie wants me to tell you to pay no attention to the state of the grass... look at Amp's face instead! :)

 Here is Rocky waiting patiently for Ellie to move the toy so he can chase it!

The boys!

...aaaaaand me.

What We Do When Home Alone...

We finally got a new camera-machine and a new computer that can handle video! 

This is the first time that Ellie has taken video of us while nobody is home. This is the first video we have ever edited, so go easy on us! :)

By providing your dog with something to do while you are gone, you can prevent boredom and mild separation anxiety problems. A bored dog will find something to keep themselves entertained... and it's not always something that humans approve of.

Rocky's New Trick!

Hello, Treasure here. We are sorry that we haven't been around much lately. Things have been pretty hectic around here with Ellie building up her grooming and training business, and with her focusing more on her artwork. We just wanted to post this video of Rocky and his new trick!


This is Rocky's newest trick. If you don't have the sound on, Ellie is saying, "Shame on you."

Sorry for the dark video. This was taken inside using a new camera that we don't know how to use yet.

Disclaimer: No dogs were actually scolded in this video. This is just a trick!

Do you want to know how you get a dog to stop digging up the yard?

Give us an appropriate place to dig! Instead of suppressing the behavior, let us dig to our heart's content in a digging approved area! Sandboxes work great for this!

Here is a video of Rocky and Amp to demonstrate... with a guest commentary by yours truly. ;)

(Please ignore the human commentary. They don't know what they are talking about.)

If we have an appropriate outlet to get our energy out, we are usually much better behaved!

Training at the Park and Fun Outing!

Hello! Treasure here. I want to tell you about what we did yesterday. Ellie says that it is really important to train us doggies in a variety of different settings. Just because we know how to 'sit' in the living room does not necessarily mean that we know how to 'sit' outside. In her training classes, the human students used to tell her all the time, "But, Max can do this (sit, down, stay, etc.) at home! I think he's just being stubborn and ignoring me." What most likely happened is that they didn't train Max in different environments, so he was either distracted, or he didn't know that 'sit' means 'sit' and 'down' means 'down' wherever or whenever they are. Training us doggies in a variety of different settings and places will help us to know how to do these things anywhere and anytime!

So, to help us with this, we went to the park across the street from our house to practice! It is important when doing this for the first time, that your human chooses an area that is not very distracting... like your backyard, or maybe a different room in the house that you don't normally train in. If you are used to training in your living room, then you suddenly go to a very crowded pet store, it will be much too distracting for you and your human, and you won't be able to focus very well! You should slowly add in the distractions one at a time to set both of you up for success, and so you don't get frustrated!

There were a couple of human adults, and a few human children at the other end of the park yesterday. We chose the most distant corner from them, so we could still hear them, but they weren't so close that we would be too distracted.

(Please forgive the picture quality! We didn't have our good picture-machine with us yesterday!)

When training somewhere new to you, you should always start with things you already know how to do very well. Start with the simple things, so that you can get used to the new environment while you do things that are very easy for you. Also, if you know how to 'stay' for 30 seconds at home, maybe do it for only 10 seconds in the new environment, and work up from there. Set yourselves up for success! Succeeding builds confidence!


Check out how focused Rocky is on Ellie's face! He is learning to ignore distractions!

High-five:

Devin even took a turn with me. Ellie wants us to be able to listen to Devin as well as we listen to her. So it is important for us to work with him so that we get used to it! This is Devin asking me to do a 'twirl', which is a circle in a counter-clockwise direction. My ears look funny!

This is me focusing on what he wants me to do next (actually, I am focusing on the treat in his hand... shhhhhhh!):

We got a couple of nice rewards after our training session! The first one was more for the boys. They got to play with the fox on a stick at the park. I don't understand why they like chasing that thing so much! (Amp is on a long-line, because he likes to wander off sometimes even when playing with the fox. This makes him easier to catch!)

The next was an outing with our humans! Ellie later told me that this was part of our training too... to get us used to going different places and seeing new things.

Ellie says that going different places like this is good for our mentals. Also, it is part of something she calls "socialization", which is something she feels needs to be done throughout our whole lives so we don't forget!

We had such a fun day! I hope we can do it again soon!


Dog-training blooper: (supposed to be a high-five)

One Benefit of a Raw Diet (Warning: pictures of us eating raw meat!)

Hello everybody! Treasure here! Sorry we haven't been around lately. Ellie got really sick so she couldn't help me write any blog posts! Hmmmph. I think she needs to get her priorities straight! Anyway, I just wanted to share something special with you today. As you may have read before, instead of regular dog food that comes in a bag, Ellie feeds us a raw diet in the prey model style. That's around 80% muscle meat, 10% edible bone, and 10% organs (half of which is liver). We love love love this diet! There have been many great benefits for us, and we are a lot healthier than we used to be. I just want to share one of the many benefits with you today.

Four months ago, Rocky used to have a lot of yucky plaque on his teeth. Then, Ellie convinced her fiance (now husband) to switch his doggies over to a raw diet like what I was eating. Here is what they used to look like.


This picture was taken Sept. 29th 2011:

We love to chew on raw meaty bones, and they are very good for our teeth! As long as they are not weight-bearing bones from large animals! (cow femurs, knuckle bones, etc.) The types of bones we eat are turkey necks, pork necks, pork/beef ribs, chicken leg quarters, etc.

This is two weeks after Rocky started raw:

Do you see the difference? Just that short amount of time is helping to save him from having to go to the vet to get his teeth cleaned! Having clean teeth is so important for us doggies, because the yucky bacteria germs can travel through our whole bodies and make us sick!

This was taken a few days ago:

None of those teeth were brushed or scaled. Just pure prey model raw diet. He still has some yucky plaque on his canine teeth, so Ellie might brush or scale those to help them out. But, what a difference! If you don't feed a raw diet, Ellie says it is important to brush those teeth at least a few times a week to keep them pearly white! Oh, and she says to be careful with COOKED bones of any type! They are brittle and can splinter and poke holes in your tummy! Raw bones are softer and more pliable.

Some people have told us that raw meat is bad for us doggies, but we definitely don't think so! There have been sooooooooo many health benefits since we switched to raw. If you would like more information about this raw diet, Ellie has lots to give you! Thank you Rocky, for letting us take pictures of your teeth!

Taking Turns!

Hello! Treasure speaking! Tonight in our training session, we started learning a better way of taking turns! It is important for use to learn how to take turns really well so that we don't get into fights over the treats, and so that we don't distract the working dog while they are learning something new! It was difficult for us to just stay on the couch because it was such a big space, and we were confused as to where each of us were supposed to be. So, Ellie thought that maybe it would be more clear to us if she gave each of us an assigned bed to stay on while the working dog is training. Here are some pictures of our progress! We look kind of sad in these pictures, but we are really not! (Ellie says please don't mind the clutter in the background!)

Exercise is Important!

Well hellooooooo folks! Rocky here. Treasure is in quite the mood at the moment, so I thought I would fill in for her. *sigh* Sisters. Anyway... I want to tell you about my most favorite new toy! Ellie calls it the "Fox on a Stick", but I just call it fun fun fun! It's fluffy, it squeaks, and it MOVES! Yes, you read that right! It moves, and it's fast! I just love to chase fluffy things! Ellie says that exercise is really important for me, and that's why she made this toy. In fact, she says that exercise in one form or another is important for every dog. I've been going on a lot more walks, and have been playing with Fox on a Stick... and I now have the awesome physique to prove it! Just check this out ladies!

Ellie says that the exercise has been good for my brain too. Now that I think of it, I seem to be able to concentrate a bit better than I used to. I don't feel like I always have to pace back and forth through the house quite as much. Huh. Anyway... here are some pictures of me and the new toy!

I was actually able to catch it a few times. I just love catching this thing! I love to shake it around, and make flappy noises with it! It always manages to get away from me, though!

Ellie was laughing at me today while I was playing with it, because I was making really funny faces. Hey, I can't help it! I can't concentrate on what my face is doing when the fox is getting away from me, now can I? It was mostly my ears, anyway. Let's see her try to keep a straight face when SHE is chasing the fox.

Well, that's all I have to report today! If you like chasing fuzzy things, and have a lot of energy like me... I would encourage you to tell your humans that you would like a fox on a stick! If you are interested, Ellie says that all you need is a lunge whip used for horses (whatever that is), and a stuffing-free dog toy of your choice! It is totally worth it! 

Wordless Wednesday