Member Riggan
MemberForum Replies Created
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What a beautiful face and love story!
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I love reading your answers! For Lance, massages, snuggles, and hikes have been the major bonding activities. In spite of his fears, he loves new adventures. And like you, Sharon, we are obedient owners when he comes over an asks for a butt scratch or massage. He is so polite and non-pushy about it! And he and my husband have conspired together to convince me that he truly does belong on the furniture!
For stress relief, it usually involves movement. He loves racing through the leaves in our yard making huge circles around us like the puppy zoomies (but he is 3) and going hiking on the mountain bike trails (as long as they aren’t too busy). If he is only slightly stressed, I can also help him with massage.
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When we got Lance 6 months ago, he had no idea what a toy was, and wouldn’t put anything in his mouth, even bones, Kongs or chew items. With a lot of work, in the last few weeks he is actually starting to play! He’ll chase a tennis ball for a few throws, and is beginning to play with a stuffed raccoon toy that I have been using for Hide and Seek (find reinforced with food reward, but he is beginning to find the toy itself rewarding). We still aren’t to the point where I can try tug with him, but he is beginning to get the idea that a tennis ball / polar fleece rope toy that I made is fun to hold onto. Hopefully in another few months I’ll be able to tell you how much fun he has with tug! I really want to be able to use toys as a reward instead of just food. Plus it is so great to see him actually getting the idea that he can play and it is fun!
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What a beautiful topic! It is so hard to lose our dear friends, but they live forever in our hearts and memories. My first dog was a Golden Retriever named Max. He was a bit neurotic (result of poorly mated backyard breeding), but he taught me so much. We did wilderness SAR, and he was a natural. The group used to tease me that I would be in for a shock if I ever got another SAR dog, because I might actually have to train him! He loved the mud, so we were always assigned any swamps in the area. Can’t say I was thrilled with that aspect! Max is the one who made me fall in love with the working relationship with a dog.
After retiring him from SAR, I still wanted to be involved with working dogs, so I got involved in training service dogs at the first prison program in the country. When Max died at 15, I got another golden, Jazz, to train as my “demo dog.” He and Max were opposites in all ways. Jazz was rock solid and unflappable. He adored people and was forever unable to resist anyone who smiled at him. He was my experiment in “positive only” training (just coming in vogue at the time) and the way I learned it is not realistic. With firm and fair balanced training, he was an amazing dog. I lost him all too soon from cancer at 11.
Here are my two golden boys. Top 2 are Max and bottom 2 are Jazz. I still miss them both.
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Hi, Simone! I’m going to speak from the perspective of the owner of the other dog. I don’t want an off leash dog to approach my dog at all! While your dog may just be interested in playing, you don’t know whether the other dog wants to play or not. They might be aggressive, or fearful, or any number of states. An off leash dog approaching them could set them back months in their training to overcome whatever reactivity they may have. So the best approach, from my perspective, would be to approach the owner with the dog in a controlled heel (whether on leash or a reliable heel off leash). You could then ask the other person if it would be OK for the dogs to play. If they say yes, then you are already in a position to do a controlled introduction (see Robert’s video on how to do this). But I never want an off leash dog running up to my dog.
Have fun with your pup! They grow so fast… Puppyhood can be a challenging time, but it is also loads of fun!
Riggan
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That looks like one happy pup!