My first Dog thread!

lovely update and so pleased you are keeping him, he looks like he is enjoying interacting with you,keep up the good work and you will have a much slimmer boy....my friend took on a rescue beagle bitch and she never ran off when she was younger and was always quite obedient. they are not all enthusiastic hunters but you just have to be alert all of the time which i am sure you are, have fun
 
Yay 😁
I have an entire male rescue who actually doesn’t hump,except on rare occasions like others have mentioned: when we have visitors! He humps our girl (not properly and she is done)
I just tell him NO and then either redirect with toys or attention or sometimes they are told BED to go and calm down!

We have leather sofa because of the dogs.... easy to vacuum the fur off. But they also have a bed (made from old sofa cushions with waterproof covers over) in the living room and when we have people over they are told to go on their beds. They also know they are not allowed on my families houses sofas as different rules!
 
Still going well, he has a couple of little habits though.

When we go out, he has to sleep with his lead, he ransacked the house last week because I put the lead away and he went searching for it. He likes to sleep with it. I assume because it smells of me where I hold it? He also knocks the washing basket over, takes the clothes out but doesn't actually do anything with the clothes, again I assume its because the clothes smell of us.

He is enjoying his walks, looks to have lost a bit more weight but I haven't weighed him yet. I will take him at the weekend, luckily we have a pets at home within 15 mins walk and you can weigh for free. I took him to a big dog park on Sunday, he was fab. Went off the lead for the majority of the walk, back on lead for the last 10 minutes as began to ignore me. He loved playing with the other Dogs and played with the tennis ball.

One problem I have with him (this only applies to me, he is fine with OH but he loves men and listens to my OH more then me) I can't put his harness on, If i walk towards him he runs and thinks its a game, if I call him over he won't come. OH never has an issue and just points at the floor and says here, Ralph goes trotting over to him and stands still to have the harness and lead on. It can take me up to 10 minutes to do. Once the harness and lead are on we have no issues. Just seems to think I want to play with him. I have limited time in the mornings and he has been losing 10 minutes of his exercise time because of this issue. Any ideas?
 
amymay said:
Get up 10 minutes earlier 😉😆😉🤔😂😂
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I have been getting up about 45 minutes earlier every morning ha ha. I walk him 3-4 times a day and OH walks him once at night before bed. So in a day, I roughly spend half hour trying to put a lead and harness on. Then OH walks in and does it in 30 seconds, very frustrating!
 
I know you're trying not to give him treats, but this may be the exception....? He needs to learn that you saying 'here' means the same as when your OH says it! I'm not a dog trainer though, so please ignore me if you want 😉
 
Could have killed him today. 18 minutes! I got up 45 minutes early today as OH isn't well so had to get G ready for school and drop him off. Gave me extra time with Ralph, thought we could go for a nice long walk. He cut into his walking time by 20 minutes by faffing around. I tried ignoring him, treats (yes I resorted to this, didn't work though) trying to clip the lead on. He kept wagging his flipping tail and running round the house. Once the lead is on he is straight to the door and can't wait to go out. So my thinking is, I am going to keep the lead with me later at all times, and just randomly through the night clip it on, take it off, on and off, on and off. So he doesn't know when he is going out. Do you think that will work?
 
Honestly, with the best will in the world it doesn't take 18 minutes to put a lead on a pet dog. You're turning this into a huge game for him, it shouldn't be this much of a palaver.

Thread the clip end of lead through the hand loop so it is essentially a slip lead, when he's walking around or mooching, not before this big game has started, drop the large loop over his head (you're holding the clip end) and it will naturally close around his neck. Now you have control and can lead him to where you want him to be or hold him in one place.
 
CorvusCorax said:
Honestly, with the best will in the world it doesn't take 18 minutes to put a lead on a pet dog. You're turning this into a huge game for him, it shouldn't be this much of a palaver.

Thread the clip end of lead through the hand loop so it is essentially a slip lead, when he's walking around or mooching, not before this big game has started, drop the large loop over his head (you're holding the clip end) and it will naturally close around his neck. Now you have control and can lead him to where you want him to be or hold him in one place.
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Thanks, I will give it a go. The problem starts when I pick the lead up. I haven't even attempted to put it on at this stage. The second that lead is in my hand he runs off. I don't chase him as I don't want it to be a game. So I put the lead down and go off and do something else around the house. Today I just ignored him, didn't talk to him, didn't even look at him and I got on with the washing up. Eventually after 18 minutes he realised I wasn't playing and came up to me.
 
My dog doesn’t much like her harness and tends to walk away if she sees me with it. She doesn’t get infinite chances and has mostly been cured when I gave up and left her at home while I went out. She now knows if she wants to go she needs to have it put on. If she does start to walk away just need to put my hand on the door handle and she definitely doesn’t want to get left behind. Do make sure you aren’t causing discomfort when doing it up. I hadn’t realised that when I was doing up the clips I was putting slight pressure on my dogs back. I think this was the problem since she’s a delicate flower, so then it was months trying to undo the association with discomfort/harness.
 
so lunch time yesterday, I didn't have the lead fiasco. He came straight to me and we enjoyed a lovely walk together. Yesterday evening I picked up the lead and he did a runner! so I went into the kitchen and made a loop, went into the living room and started cleaning and within 2 minutes he was over and I put the loop around and he went to run but it pulled tight and I had a hold of him. This morning I walked down the stairs and he just to happened to be standing next to his lead. I made a fuss of him and clipped the lead on before he knew what had happened. yay!
 
Well he went for his first "party" today with my friend. He gets picked up and dropped off and goes for a lovely 2.5 hour walk with lots of other Dogs (they have more then one person) at the moment he is on the lead as she likes to get to know them for a few weeks first to access firstly how he is with other Dogs and also to make sure he won't run off. She sent me some videos and pictures and looks like he had a fab time. The 2.5 hour playtime will certainly help him burn off that fat too!
 
Also re putting on lead-get a proper sliplead-don’t let him see that you’re getting the lead, just conceal it and drop it over his head in passing. Boom, off you go. If he tries to mess round, scruff him. You don’t need to hurt him-reinforce with a key word.

With training, our lot sit at the front door with it open. They’re not allowed a paw over the threshold. They wait til the boot is open then are told to get in and jump in. This took a while! They also have a key word/noise which makes them stop messing round/give up a toy etc, particularly useful given how easily they knock over the big dog.
 
if he runs off as soon as you get the lead, i assume he wears a collar so just make a fuss of him and keep hold of the collar and take him to where you keep the lead and clip it on there....i also make it a habit that my dogs have to sit before the lead is put on or off, also once the lead is off they have to wait for the command to go...
 
UPDATE: he went for a check at the vets last night, she said apart from being overweight he is healthy and happy. She is happy with the amount of exercise he is currently doing and said the food we give is fine, however we are perhaps giving too much so we have halved it. He has grilled chicken, cooked rice and dry biscuits mixed together. I can't remove the rice otherwise he wont eat. We are starting some beginner lessons next month to improve on re call and learn some new bits. Recall is a bit hit and miss to be honest, he is fine for my OH but can sometimes ignore me. Having said that I did go for a 1.5 hr walk on Saturday and he spent 40 minutes off lead, playing catch with the tennis ball. He then decides he has had enough and switches off which is the moment I pop him back on the lead. He will always come back to me, however he does get a very good distance away (too far for my liking) The other day we went into the woods and he took off after a squirrel, I lost sight of him and I was so panicked, I walked in the direction he took off in and whistled and called and I couldn't see him, all of a sudden I heard rustling of leaves and I turned round and he was running at me wagging his tail.

Regarding putting the lead on, I now clip it on when he is still in bed (I am always first to get up) then when i'm ready I just pick the lead up and we are off, sometimes he will get up and walk around the house with the lead attached but won't run if it is already on. He now has extra walk time in the mornings! He is off for his second group dog walk tomorrow with friend for 2.5 hours. He has managed to bag himself the front seat as he is such a good traveller and he has a seat belt adaptor on his harness. The rest of the Dogs are in the back of the van in cages (she has a modified van)

We have entered for a sponsored dog walk in Feb for the hospice where I lost my Nan in July. We are going with some friends and then after there is a Dog show and dog stalls, bbq etc. Should be a good day.

We all totally adore him!
 
He does really like him, he keeps trying to play with Ralph but Ralph doesn't really play back. He is happy to be cuddled and fussed over though. Ralph only seems to like playing with me and OH. For example, I will throw the ball and Ralph will run to get it and bring it back, G then throws the ball and Ralph watches it roll away and then comes back to me and wags his tail wanting me to throw it. poor G! G is super happy though as Ralph has started to sleep in his room for a couple of hours before taking himself off back to his own bed. G has a bunkbed and underneath OH built him a little den, filled with blankets and cushions. Ralph seems to rather like this space and sleeps here for around 3 hours and then goes back to his own bed. G is thrilled!
 
LaurenBay said:
G is super happy though as Ralph has started to sleep in his room for a couple of hours before taking himself off back to his own bed. G has a bunkbed and underneath OH built him a little den, filled with blankets and cushions. Ralph seems to rather like this space and sleeps here for around 3 hours and then goes back to his own bed. G is thrilled!
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Oh thats really nice. When my stepson was small my OH had a working terrier called Buzz who used to go to bed with him and then come downstairs when C was asleep. I am sure it was mainly for his own benefit but it made it special.
 
LaurenBay said:
G is super happy though as Ralph has started to sleep in his room for a couple of hours before taking himself off back to his own bed. G has a bunkbed and underneath OH built him a little den, filled with blankets and cushions. Ralph seems to rather like this space and sleeps here for around 3 hours and then goes back to his own bed. G is thrilled!
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My childhood lab used to come check on us each night when she and my parents went to bed! She would come to each room and sit by the bed for ten minutes or so, until she was satisfied we were asleep and then go to the foot of my parents bed for the night.
 
UPDATE:

Things are still going really well. He got weighed yesterday and I was happy with the results, he weighed 24.6kg on 15th Dec and yesterday he weighed in at 21.6kg. He looks so much better, still a bit to go but a good step forwards I feel. Mainly down to us cracking the food and him being off lead a lot more. His recall is good, could be worse, could be better. I only let him off in certain areas but we are lucky that he have lots of nice off road walks by us, the other day I went out for an hour and half, he probably spent only 10 minutes of that on lead. He will only come back if I have a treat or his tennis ball. If I have neither of those things it can be tricky. He ran off from my OH the other night as someone across the road dropped their food, luckily no cars. I wasn't happy that OH let him off that close to the road though anyway. I had a heart stopping moment the other day in the woods (I have never seen anyone in it) and he was trotting along the narrow pathway and I could hear Horses cantering, turned around and there were 3 riders cantering right at us with no signs of stopping. I got off the path and called Ralph who has now spotted the Horses and he wouldn't come to me. I shouted "loose dog" as I didn't know what he would do as he hasn't seen them before. Riders cantered right passed us anyway, I could have reached out and touched them they were that close! Ralph luckily didn't do anything but watch, no leaping, no chasing, no barking. Just stood there and watched. Could have been bad though had he reacted (although stupid of the riders to do what they did too)

I have hopefully attached some videos below that were taken on Saturday. I have also attached a pic of his nose, over the last 3 days it has become red and sore looking, he isn't bothered by it, he doesn't rub it and lets me touch it. Any ideas?

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10158258205600200

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10158258205885200

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10158258206020200
- had to ask him a couple of times before the video started to come back hence the little s**t comment

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=9d6899a851dcbf4a191bca248f263473&oe=5CFADDD8
 
Not the best pic but he could be rubbing it on something when you are out, I have seen that kind of mark on dogs sticking their noses under kennel/cage doors etc.
I have always carried food and a ball as a matter of course, so the dog always believes it might be there, so I wouldn't worry about bribing a relatively new dog ;)
With offlead work, the dog can always set their own pace, I do things like running, swimming, weight pulling/hill work or biking for fittening but it's a tricky situation as he is still carrying a bit more weight than I would like before starting anything high impact - you're doing a great job :)
 
I actually really want to start getting out and about on my bike again, I am not sure how he would be although I suspect he would be fine as not much bothers him. But I want him to lose a bit more weight first. He is still doing the group dog walks on a Wednesday, he is off lead for the first time this week so that will help him, he can run with all the other dogs and hopefully shed a bit more weight. My friend who does the dog walking has been away for the last 2 weeks. Her employee stepped in and has fallen in love with Ralph, she left us a lovely note to come home to, telling us how beautiful he is, how well behaved he is and she adores him.

CC would you put anything on the sore part to soothe it?
 
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