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| Do you really think this'll work? |
Today I have achieved the following:
- Walks: 2h 45min... Yeah, better than yesterday maybe but nowhere near anything to be content with. Again I'm writing this before our last evening walk, but from how I feel right now I doubt it'll be anything to write about anyway...
- Exercise: 0... Yeah, that may look bad but this time it's actually OK... No, really, it is. Today was meant to be a resting day, and since I overdid it with the dragweight yesterday there's extra reason for it too. So zero exercise is OK - but just for today.
- Training: 40-50min? Two sets of nosework (searching for a piece of plastic, indoors, four rooms), unfortunately not entirely sure how long but I estimate ~10min each - with better planning and preparation I would have known more precisely, no doubt. Also did some trick shaping (trying to get the "hands up - play dead" trick, for whatever reason), again very uncertain how long we spent on it but I think around 20-30min. Too long, anyway, since Monster wound up having to tell me he was tired before I stopped. Again the lack of planning made it ineffectual and uncontrolled.
- Planning/preparation: 0. Any and all activities we've gotten around to today happened haphazardly, nothing planned or prepared. Also have spent no time planning or preparing for tomorrow.
- Other: ~20min. Have spent some time giving Monster a massage, plus experimented on some new treats. (In case you're wondering: don't make a mousse by running canned tuna and rice flour in a blender, put the resulting goop in a cake decorating bag and squeeze it out as training treats. Apart from the mess, apparently raw rice flour results in a dog a few hours later turning in a doughnut shape to stare in confusion at his behind, since it's making weird noises - and even weirder smells...)
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| Tell me when it's over! |
Too early to tell how/if this works I guess... Although I have been aware of this post looming all day, so maybe it's having an effect! Most of all I just want to sleep, though...
Ok, I have to say, 2 hr 45 min of walks?!? Monster is very lucky, we are lucky if we get 45 min - 1 hr on leash walk a day. Tobasco is already jealous of Monster. But on another note, there was some articles about too much exercise for a dog too (not that it's my excuse), but good to keep in mind a balance between enough activity and too much can cause stress too.
ReplyDeleteHi there! :)
DeleteYes, I'm aware that overdoing the activity can cause stress rather than help lessen it, but in Monster's case about 3-4 hours/day of walks seem to be best. Especially one longish walk of >2 hours (many short walks do seem counter productive). I have tried to scale back in the past, but he's made it very clear that that's not the way to go for us... I am hoping though that more deliberate and focused physical exercise (like the dragweight training we've recently started) will give him a better outlet for his physical energy and allow me to cut back a bit on the walking time.
The main problem with the walks in my "accounts of shame" isn't primarily the time (although it is too little for Monster right now) but rather that I'm sort of just there, holding the leash behind him and staggering along, rather than being on walks WITH him. It's all "one foot in front of the other" - there's no fun in it... I suppose I'm trying to say that as far as the walks are concerned the time spent is more a symptom of the problem rather than the problem itself, if that makes any sense?
I don't think his activity requirements are necessarily healthy, but he really does seem to need it. I always feel like I'm doing too little with him - I probably am - and he NEVER gets tired. He may lose focus for a minute or two if he has to concentrate on something for too long, but give him a couple of minutes of rest and he's ready to start again. He's never, ever told me he's had enough, he always wants to do more... At the same time he's fairly calm and relaxed when nothing's happening, he can sleep calmly on the couch while the neighbor's dog is barking its head off outside the window, he doesn't follow me around begging for something to do (unless he's been seriously bored for quite a long time), and so on. He doesn't show any of the typical signs of being stressed and overactive. But if he gets far too little to do for a while, his problem behaviors toward dogs and people escalate severely...
I really hope these posts don't read like anyone walking their dog less than I do should be ashamed, that's NOT what I mean! What I'm writing about is how I'm (not) fulfilling specifically Monster's needs. And maybe I really am overdoing the activity, in which case I suppose it serves as a warning example. :)
I'm happy to hear your Corso is less demanding with walks at least! I don't wish Monster-walks on anyone. :) How are things going with Tobasco these days?
(I'm really sorry I haven't written in so long... I have completely adopted the childish "hide under a rock"-solution to my anxiety over unanswered mails - I know it's wrong and counterproductive, but I can't seem to deal with it! For whatever it's worth, it's not your mails I've been avoiding, but since I can't even open the mail account without panicking the result has landed on everyone... Ridiculously immature, but I can't get over it. *embarrassed*)
Hi there! It's good to be following you guys again! I feel the same about our walks, Tobasco is doing his own thing and I'm just along for the walk. But I've been rewarding him with treats when he looks at me, in hopes to get more connected. It's tough when we first start our walk, but as the walk progresses he turns away from sniffing to give me more attention. I think it works because when he is looking at me every so often, he is better at disengaging from triggers, like we crossed a couple walking their dog towards the end of a walk and he pretty much ignored them and was looking to me for treats. I think most trainers want a checkin every 10 sec or so, that seems too frequent for me, after all, I think walks should be about sniffing and exploring since he is stuck at home most of the day, so I look for 30-60 seconds, plus he also has other senses to figure out what I am doing ;)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely that 10 second intervals is far too often for my taste! It seems to me there's no point to go for a walk at all if the dog won't even notice that we're away from home... What I want from Monster (ideally I mean, this is not what I'm getting currently) isn't so much frequent checkins as an interest to include me. I'd like for him to want to "tell" me if something interests him, as well as "ask" me if something troubles him. I don't want him to shut his ears to me if he finds an interesting spot to sniff and try to "get as much done as quickly as possible before she forces me to move on" but rather to want to get my attention and "share" it with me (not that I have any interest in sniffing his finds, but I'd like him to believe I might ;) ). And I really don't want him to think something's scary and he must do something about it, but rather that he feels unsure about something and so chooses to look to me for guidance... You know? I can see this in Monster from time to time, so I know the potential is truly there - which is both encouraging and depressing, since I know it can be done but also that I'm not good enough to bring it out and refine it the way a better trainer no doubt could have...
DeleteIt's interesting you say you think it helps Tobasco disengage! I haven't thought about it like that before, but I think you have a very good point. I suppose in part it's one of those "repeating good behavior makes it easier to use good behavior"-patterns, as well as becoming more of a team?
I walk Monster off leash for parts of our walks now, but I only ever let him off leash if he's been paying attention to me first and showed he can focus on me. It's still scary - and I've had a couple of real heart stopper incidents - but I think it also helps the connection. Since he really can lose me when I'm no longer at the other end of the leash, he HAS to pay attention to me. (Plus it's sooooo much easier to reward him off leash, since food rewards are nearly no reward at all for him and play rewards are difficult when we keep getting tangled up in the leash!)