more food and pee

We switched him off the Purina to Wellness Core. A much better dog food. I keep forgetting to taper him off old food to new food. It's supposed to help with digestion. I also bought him salmon Zukes but it turns out he doesn't like it. I'll have to return it to Centinella for the other meat flavor. centinella is my new favorite pet store. they let you return the food if your dog doesn't like it! we also got him a pig ear that he demolished.

He seems a little more unruly on walks lately. He sniffs a lot. I walked him on a different path today and he was almost sniffing the entire time. I'm not sure if i'm supposed to correct him or not as he still stays on the path. I guess i'll let it go for now.

House training issues seem to be the number one issue at the moment. He pee'd again in the 3rd room and he peed a few times in my parent's house. Since this is a dog blog and not a "me" blog, I'll refrain from explaining why his marking in my parent's house pissed me off so much. I ended up buying a black CFL at home depot. I had a plug in auto/garage type lantern that i hooked up the light to. we were able to see any residual stains in the 3rd room with the use of the light. Kinda neat. We've been using a vinegar/water solution to clean up, followed by either borax or baking soda. I think the commercial products are no better than household items.

I emailed the people at Leerburg about Marley's separation anxiety and the whole crate incident. Cindy at Leerburg responded to me.

2 months isn’t very long to clear separation anxiety. Actually, it is many times a lifelong management issue that may be something you are always dealing with on some level. I know this because I own a dog with SA.

I’d use a bark collar and a crate. It’s not about the dog knowing you will return, it’s about the anxiety he feels when left alone. Building up the time you are gone is a good idea but if the dog is ever let out of the crate or room he is confined in while he is still feeling anxious, it will actually reinforce the feelings of anxiety he feels. This is why he goes wild in the crate when you are gone. It’s not the crate that he’s worried about, he’s anxious about being left alone. The problem is that if you don’t deal with this it will escalate, it’s not uncommon for dogs to chew through doors, drywall or hurt themselves in a crate trying to escape.

You will need to give this dog consistent handling to get him through it and it may be a project that gets easier but it may never really be cured completely.

Through various web searches I decided to put the Kong he doesn't chew, back into the game. the other day he amazingly played with it for hours when I put cheese in there. Then the next day when I left i added a little yogurt and "C" said she didn't observe any whining. Today I left him a frozen banana and yogurt mix. We'll see how it goes. I have a feeling it'll be a mess but oh well. Price you pay for having a dog.

Back to the house training... yeah this post is all over the place. I put his favorite pillow in the room and give him snacks. I spent some time with him in the 3rd room as well. I've been feeding his meals in that room for a few days. I think he won't pee in that room any more. I've also been giving him a verbal cue when he goes pee outside ("go pee!"). Now i'm not sure if i'm supposed to repeat it over and over while he pee's... but i did do that. I was previously telling him, "go pee", and then praising him while he did it and instantly stopped. that obviously wasn't a motivator. this time i repeat the cue and give him a snack when he's done. he's learned to expect a treat when I say that. hopefully he'll hold it when he's indoors (any indoor place) because he'll be waiting for me to give him the cue/treat.

ANXIETY!!!

Let's see... latest news... took Mar to dog park and a small dog wanted to play with him but he was too chicken and started to yelp. Dog parks don't seem that fun for him really. All he does is sniff the ground. Later we took him to tidy dog to wash him. I struggled with finding a shower setup to wash him at home.

I've been researching dog food. I think the purina brand i bought is crap. I think i'm going to try Innova Evo brand next time. It's one of the few kibble brands that is recommended on Leerburg.com. I really like the innova site.... they have a comprehensive comparison against all competitors and they tell you why each ingredient is good or bad. And Mar takes way too long to poo as well. That's usually a good indicator the food sucks.

So this weeks problems all stem from the fact that we found out he pee'd in the 3rd room. From what I've read dog's pee inside the home because they are nervous, fearful, anxious. I originally thought it was him being bored or acting out. When he acts out he goes into the trash, not pee. So we tried crate training him and for the first time we saw him go absolutely nuts. We taped him for 14 mins as we went to the market and he went nuts the entire time. I'm almost starting to think it's when I leave... not when anyone else leaves. The gf tried crate training him earlier today and he was fine. I tried it recently when I went to take a shower. he was fine until the middle of my shower when I could hear him. When I shut off the shower he stopped. I don't know if this meant anything so after I was done I walked back into the room and left again. then I opened and shut the door to the garage and he was fine. Did he get over it? it will probably take more time.

This morning when I left I left him in my room and he went nuts again. The gf had to kick him out. I wonder if this would be a good way to correct him for whining. We could leave the leash on him and I could leave the room and make all the usual noises when I leave.

I've also been leaving the leash on him all day. I'm not sure if it is a pyschological message to him saying he has no control. At least for a while I'm not going to give him any affection without him doing something for me. He was pretty good tonight. He even played fetch for me... but I had to give him the super happy attitude to get him excited. This time was pretty good because he would do it without a treat... the reward was me giving him affection.

Right now he's in his crate sleeping. I'm worried about the rain tomorrow. I won't be able to walk him. I actually had to take him on a 3rd walk today because he didn't go poo on the 2nd walk. Damn purina crap!

dog growls at japanese man

My roommate came home tonight and Marley growled at him! hah! but in all seriousness, that is not acceptable behavior. I "hey'd" him and stood up to him... not sure if he understood me. He was really distracted afterwards as he wouldn't respond to my call.

more dog like?

Lately he's been exhibiting more dog like behaviors... which I guess is good considering how reserved he is. On walks he definitely marks more. He still walks on a loose leash but walks fast so he's a little ahead.

I have a suspicion he doesn't like my roommate. so this morning, my roommate woke up early and was making noise in the hallway. first time Marley woke up as well and started to growl. shouldn't I assume he could smell who it was? and when he came back at night as he was dragging is snowboard in (which also make a little ruckus) he made a sound... that sound you hear before a bark. not sure how to describe it.

He has been doing the down command on walks though. even if he is slow at times. I don't need to use the treat anymore.

Oh, we got him some new dog food as well. can't wait to see how he likes it. has good ingredients and is 30% protein. I haven't found much dog food that has that much protein in it.

Marley (1)... Rottweiler (0)... haw haw!

Today we had our first obedience lesson. We learned to walk properly, sit, and down. Walking Marley was pretty easy but the trainer's technique was pretty good. it was actually something that I had tried earlier that morning but wasn't quite sure about. To master the walk she told us to walk in random directions. it forces the dog to pay attention to you, otherwise he/she gets a correction. I think Marley knows how to follow the human. The trainer said shy dogs like him really don't want to be a leader. I also didn't need to focus on getting him behind me. Besides me was good already. It's very enlightening watching him as the gf walked him. he was looking at her quite often actually.

The sit command with lots of distractions was good to learn... obviously. tell the dog to sit and if he doesn't obey, you walk up to him and slowly pull up on his collar. Position of his leash collar has to be high up on the neck. this is causing some issue as in order for Marley's leash collar to be that high, it has to be tighter... which makes it more difficult to put on. they also gave us martingale collars but I already bought one from them earlier.

the down command was pretty difficult. first off dogs don't want to lie down in front of other dogs. it's too submissive. we also had to use food as a lure. i'm still having some trouble with getting him down. you basically want to lure him down and then give him the treat when his head is up. mastering the down command was our homework. i practiced with Marley on our night walk. He's not fast but he gets it. He was even able to do it in front of 2 huge barking dogs.

We also learned that dogs tend to be aggressive to dogs who are not fixed. dogs who aren't fixed are sort of showing off and dogs don't like that behavior. so there was a 6 month old rotty... and Marley barked at him and the rot backed away. that's 90 lbs vs 17 lbs. haw haw!

We also tried exercising his anal glands. Not successful yet. He's beginning to stink!

brushing teeth and the trash

I must say it's somewhat challenging to brush a dog's teeth. Marley will always come to me when I ask him to go in the bathroom. we've been doing this for a while and the gf and I try to make it as comfortable for him as possible. He never shy's away. I even have his toothbrush in my hand as he comes towards me. There's no surprise here. Yet, whenever i try to brush his teeth it just seems uncomfortable. the moment i put the toothbrush in his mouth he licks the toothpaste from his teeth. when I hold his snout he moves around. not wildly but he makes it rather difficult. not sure what to do here.

today he misbehaved twice. when i came back from work at lunch and after work was over he had gone into the bathroom and taken trash out of it. I don't get why dogs do that. He knows he's not supposed to do that. I'm positive of it, though the trainer says that he actually doesn't. I have to correct him in the act. Well i have corrected him for going into the bathroom without being called in. I've done this while i'm in the bathroom as well as catching him walk into the bathroom. So in order to take the trash out, he has to first disobey my command in not entering the bathroom. Even when I take the trash out and lay it in front of him, he will run away. I've disciplined him on other occasions about this. I know I can just shut the bathroom but I prefer to keep it open to test his behavior from day to day.

Today i also left the mino camcorder on to see how long he whined after I left. I think it was pretty short but then again he was out of camera for a while. it only recorded 10 mins as well... which is odd because there was 60 min of recording time. I'm not sure if i mentioned this before but the last time we recorded him he whined and walked around for 20 mins before he finally sat down on his circle pillow.

tomorrow is our first obedience training session. stay tuned!

blehhhhhhh!

That would be the sound of throw up!

I guess that will be the last time we feed him prime rib bone. He threw up this morning. I saw a small orange, cracker shaped, orange thing on the floor. I "hey'd" him because i thought it was a cracker but upon closer inspection it was liquid throw up. He was fine on his walk later so it's all good.

We were wondering last night if it was safe to give him bone. From what we could gather, chicken bone is a no no because it can splinter. Raw bone is preferred over cooked bone because cooked bone is more fragile. other than that... it seems to be safe.

This was also a good opportunity to see if I could take away a highly prized food item from him. I could. At one point it appeard that he clamped down on the bone as I slowly took it away. When we gave that minor resistance I "hey'd" him and he let go. I would intermittently call his name, which would draw his attention so I could take the bone and inspect it to see if it was still safe to eat.

Bark 4,5

More barks... wow. Unfortunately we did not prepare adequately in the morning and we had to quickly drop off Marley at my parents. While we were away my mom said that he started barking when he heard noise coming from the garage. She was amazed because he is usually so quiet. When we came back we had to leave suddenly. When we left the house I forgot to get something so I went back into the house and I could hear him clawing at the door. When we finally did leave my mom said he continued to claw at the door and began to bark. I had a feeling he might be upset at us leaving so abruptly.

I've noticed him marking more often since his stay at sunny dog. I wonder if he picked up this behavior from other dogs. It is normal after all. On the past 2 walks he pee's in the beginning and near the end. It used to be just at the beginning.

I've started him on marker training. I'm choosing to use the word "yes" as opposed to using a clicker. I've also ordered a DVD on marker/clicker training... I can't wait to try this out.