Dylan's recovery

I picked Dylan up from the vet's at 3 pm. He was walking alright, but still dozy and limpy as he has a big bandage on his foot. The stitching all went well.

Dylan was a bit whiny last night, I think he was a little in pain and he was also hungry as he hadn't had any breakfast. I gave him some metacam last night which helped. In the evening, he got a mug of food for dinner. After that he was settled and slept well through the night.

He was very disappointed this morning when I took Flash and Jesse for a walk without him. He couldn't understand why. But I won't walk him until the week-end, and then it will only be walks on lead for another week.

Dylan sporting his bandage.

Dylan in the wars again... big cut on foot

I took Dylan, Flash and Jesse to the park this morning, nice and early. It was great, really enjoyed the walk, all the dogs - including Dylan - were fab and there were no problems.

When I got home, I saw Dylan lick his front paw and saw some blood. I assumed that he had injured his stopper pad again as he sometimes does. But when I checked it, I found that he had an almost 2" gash underneath the stopper pad. I washed it and took him off to the vet.

So Dylan's at the vet's now, having the wound stitched! He walked off with Mark no problem, but when I left the surgery, I already heard him whine... LOL

So yet, again, Dylan will be on on-lead walks for a few days... I have never known a dog to be so accident prone.

Dylan is a retired stooge dog now

I decided yesterday to retire Dylan from stooge dog work. I am not prepared to put his welfare at risk. He has done a fab job over the last three years and deserves to leave stooge dog work behind now.

I will also try to get him and Flash to some fun lurcher racing events. The Sussex Longdog Society holds events regularly, so will become a member and give Dylan and Flash some "lurcher work" to do.

Oh, and he took off again to the play field today. I now walk him on lead when we got near it, but I let him off lead too early as he turned again and went to the field. So he will unfortunately have to be on lead even more now...

Better today

This morning, I kept Dylan and Flash on the lead until we got to the playing field. I checked that there was no bread and let them off lead. I recalled Dylan about three times before we got to the spot where the bread normally is. He responded ok, though still very keen to go over to the spot. When we got really close, he went off again, but came back after a few calls.

I just take their toys with me from now on so I can provide a good reward for coming back. The Wubba is the best toy for them, especially Dylan absolutely loves it.

Dylan was then fine for the rest of the walk, though I made sure that I recalled him and the others frequently! He responded quite nicely almost 100% of the time.

The only time he and Flash took off at speed is when they spotted a fox cross the path, but that's fair enough and I have no problem with that (I have never taught them not to do that, so can't expect anything else from them). However, as soon as the fox disappeared into the undergrowth/bushes, they both returned immediately!

When we started walking towards the direction of the playing field again at the end of our walk (but still around 200 yards away), Dylan started to walk faster again and was thinking about taking off... but he came back when I called him and I put him on the lead after giving him some treats.

So all in all, the walk was fine... though more recall work is necessary to get him to respond regardless of what food is lying around...



We also did some nice training last night with Dylan being very keen! I taught him to walk around a cone! He loved it and did very well.

And again...

Dylan took off yet again today thinking that bread was spread on the field again (there wasn't). Then he proceeded to run away even further...

I have no idea what has gotten into this dog all of a sudden. He is more reactive to the trams, he is now looking for something to chase rather than just do it when he catches sight of a fox for example... and he now takes off at every opportunity to the playing field to look for the flipping bread.

Well, he ended up being on the lead for the whole of the walk. I cannot risk him to take off like that and then suddenly disappear onto the tram track or the road...

When we got back onto the field half an hour later, and there was yet bread out again. So I think I will take them out at 6 am instead of 7 am hoping that this stupid person doesn't go out as early as that to spread the flipping bread around.

I need to keep the dogs busier in general too I think... and Dylan might just go on a long line for a while until he is back to normal.

If this gets worse, I am going to have Dylan checked out by the vet... I am wondering whether there is something wrong for him to totally ignore me like that. He hasn't done this since he was about 2 years old...

I am also giving him a rest from stooge dogging, I am wondering whether that is contributing to his reactivity! We have worked with a very aggressive GSD a few months ago, though Dylan didn't seem affected by that at all... But he really wasn't happy when he got nearly bitten by the GSD we met when doing a home check. I wonder whether that's tipped him over the edge.

And I myself have to make sure that I stay calm and in control... I have been too stressy with him as I was so annoyed about it all.

Naughty Dylan

Dylan has been quite naughty over the last couple of weeks or so when out on walks and I am not sure whether it is just me not giving them enough to do on walks... or whether it is Dylan going through some sort of phase.

On Sunday (20th January), I took all three boys for a walk in the Country Park as always. We came across a couple of dogs. Flash and Jesse went to say hello, I called Dylan back and held onto him to pass them. The other owners then put their dogs on the lead.

As I went past, Dylan was interested, so I led him up to the nearest dog (a black lab type)and Dylan had a sniff... then snapped. I told him off, but then Jesse - who was fine with the dogs up to then - had a go at the younger dog too... just to follow suit... And being Jesse, he didn't stop immediately eventhough I grabbed him very quickly. He kept growling and barking for another few seconds.

I was quite shocked as Dylan very rarely snaps like that, and only if dogs are rude... this dog was not rude, he was well under control! I am now wondering whether that GSD that went for him when we did a home check (the first time ever Dylan showed his teeth to a dog) had more of an impact on him than I realised.

I think I will give Dylan a rest from stooge dogging for a while...

This morning, Dylan earned himself yet another telling off... We walked along happily when Dylan suddenly took off. I thought he was going off after a fox, which is not uncommon during the early morning walks. But when he didn't come back after a couple of minutes, I went to look for him and he just came off the field where someone had obviously spread bread out again and Dylan ate it all (he was licking his lips). Now eating food we come across is one thing (and I can understand that), but taking off and run about 100 or 150 yards away to do that, is not something that I can accept! So I am afraid he got told off again...

A few minutes later, he took off into a field yet again, this time after some animal... but he didn't come back at all when called. He got put on the lead for the rest of the walk as I just couldn't risk him going off again.

I am not sure why he has suddenly started doing this... it's not the first time, it seems to happen increasingly more often over the last maybe couple of months!

Well, I guess, it is back to basic training and making the walks a bit more entertaining again... Maybe Dylan is just getting bored... I don't know! Lots of stuff has happened over the last couple of months, so although they have always been walked and trained, I have not had so much energy to play with them and do lots of training with them on walks! And I haven't had time to walk them separately occasionally either. I guess, that's my new task from now on... otherwise Dylan will have to stay on lead for a while as I can't have dogs buggering off whenever they feel like and having a go at other dogs for no reason... PARTICULARLY if this rubs off on Jesse, which it does, because he copies immediately.

So not a happy bunny today, but perhaps a wake up call to change things a bit on walks! I guess with Dylan having been so good for years (getting told off happens very, very rarely with any of our dogs - I guess that's why it is stressing me out so much), I sort of took the boy for granted...

On a better note, Dylan is doing very well in our Tuesday training sessions. He loves it and likes learning new tricks. Last week, I started teaching him the send away to a mat. He picked it up fairly quickly and we go thim to the point where he walked to the mat and stood on it. Next step is to get him to lay down on it.



1ST JANUARY 2008 - NEW YEAR'S DAY

I took the three boys for a lovely walk. It was a bit muddy (ok then, VERY muddy...), but hey ho. Here's some pictures.






26TH DECEMBER 2007 - BOXING DAY

On Boxing Day, I took the boys for a nice walk... It was lovely!



And at home in the warmth




25TH DECEMBER 2007 - CHRISTMAS!

All the dogs loved their presents. Here's some pictures: