Jo's Old Site

Mum had just told me that her Irish Terrier named Ruebens only stands if she gives the signal with the voice command and when she gives the voice command only he reacts as though he doesn’t know what it means. So now she is training him to stand with a voice command as she has read that one cancels out the other. Also with the assistant dog training that I’m doing with Ilse my mini schnauzer we found that she didn’t really know the object as this was because she was going to the object she thought that I wanted by my signal. And the trainer that is helping me with this form of training suggested dropping the hand signal and getting her to go to the article I want with my voice. I also thought later on that as well as dropping the hand signal that I also should drop the fetch command too, and it has worked but when we are teaching dogs to pick up objects in the beginning we should say fetch shoe or whatever. Then after they get consistent with it we can drop fetch and just identify the object and we also should put the objects far apart to begin with as this helps dogs to discriminate between objects. This is of course done after a dog and trainer has been practising with the objects one at the time as that is the first step and it also helps if the dog knows what fetch means.

Yesterday, mum and I took Ilse my mini schnauzer to the vet as she needed to get vaccinated. And while we were waiting for our appointment a lady came in carrying a cage that contained two cockatiels. This lady then put the cage on the floor in front of Ilse who totally ignored them.

I’m currently training Ilse my mini schnauzer to assist me, and she is going real well with the training. I also find that I’m enjoying the challenge too; as it has given me a new interest in dog training. At the moment I am training Ilse to tell the difference between a shoe and a sock and as I have also taught her to tug  on a toy she can now open a door and pull a sock off too, she is very keen and obedient.

This morning Ilse my Mini Schnauzer thought she’ll have a bit of fun by carrying one of my shoes, and when I realised that she had one of my shoes I just said “fetch shoe” and she brought it to me straight away. She also likes dragging my pillow off my bed and I just say to her “fetch pillow” and she brings that to me too. And also by identifying the object you want to a dog it helps them to learn to discriminate between objects which can be very useful.

Last night mum and I took Ilse and Dita to Ipswich Dog Training, and while we were there I spotted a friend who I haven’t seen for years. Her name is Chris and she trains Cattle Dogs. Anyway, mum put Ilse in the first session of the elementry class which was taken by Tom Miles, and Ilse did well. And after I told mum that I thought Ilse tends to get frustrated with me as I try to make her walk slower, mum suggested that I should take a slightly bigger stride when I walk instead of trying to walk quickly. Mum then put Dita in the second session, and I took Ilse for a bit of a walk and really noticed the difference as I was taking slightly longer strides.

Also part way through the second session Chris came over again, and she told me that she has been watching me walking Ilse and said that I have lost the limp, and I told her that I have just finished a series of physiotherapy sessions.

At Esk people could
train their dogs for endurance
as the hills are steep.

When training a dog, it is important to use commands that a dog understands as even though dogs don’t use words they do understand meanings, and some more than others. And one command that I know that Ilse understands is the word “leave it.” I also started using this command when she is being a bit bossy, and she gets this way when my mother’s Rottie is on the chair that I often sit on when I go outside.

Also another thing that I have tried with Ilse when she is being a bit noisy, is squirt her with water mixed with vinegar and found that this only confused her and is why I’ve stopped using that method; as I found another way to get a dog to make less noise is to say “quiet” whenever it barks, and also signal the dog at the same time and when it does respond then say “yes” and give the dog a food reward.

I also find that using food to train a dog, is an effective way to train. But once a trainer starts using it they cannot phrase it out totally.

And if using food, it is also important for us to have words that our dogs know will be followed by a food reward, and this can be a tidbit, or a jackpot. These words can be something like “get lolly” or “yes,” and I always give Ilse a jackpot when I say the word “come.”

Then another way to reward our dogs is to teach them how to play different types of games, as this is another way that we can get our dogs more focused, and motivated. And we can also get our dogs to work for it as training a dog to accept different types of rewards, whether it’ll be food, praise, or a chance to play can be very useful in training as long as it is something that we know that our dogs likes.

I missed my chance to
take a photo of a duck
that was very near.

Right now I can hear
a dog barking as someone
is mowing their lawn.

Haiku Poems is a Japanese form of poetry, and I thought that this style had to be written in seventeen syllables but some websites suggest that they can also be done in ten syllables. I also discovered more about the technique of writing haiku poems and that is they usually don’t have a title, and that proper haiku is usually written with five syllables on the first line, and then the next line has seven syllables and on the third line there is five syllables again. I also found out that another style of poetry that is similar to haiku is cinquain poems.

And so I thought to put a few examples of how to correct some of my Improper Haiku Poems and here they are:

A Kookaburra
spotted a green frog and kept
flying back to it.

There was a trap like
sound then a squawking green frog
was taken by bird.

A small black lizard
jumped from brick to brick to get
to the other side.