When Ray moved in with us, the outlines of his ribs were visible if we looked hard. That is not to say that he had not been treated well by OMHS*, but more likely at least partially the result of his anxiety issues. Continue reading
training
What’s in a name?
When we first started looking at OMHS* for a possible dog to adopt, the first one that was of potential interest was a large hound called Hank. It was not long after that when we contemplated a dog named Ray. Continue reading
Fist Bump Anybody?
Ray caught on very quickly to “Shake a paw” (with either paw), “Wave”, and “High five.” * Continue reading
Back to Basics
I have read so much about living with dogs and the predominant theme is often the fact that we need to take the time to learn as much about them as possible! Continue reading
A Tale of a Tail!
There is a little dog, who shares his home with a variety of animals and birds and who has great dexterity with his paws such that he can apparently keyboard. In fact, he follows this blog regularly and occasionally dialogues with our Ray! Continue reading
A Snow Day!
We recently had our first significant snowfall of the winter. We totaled around 12”/30cm which, because of strong gusting winds, created some “interesting” snow drifts! Continue reading
Adapting a Toyota for Ray!
I could write a small book covering our exploits with finding a suitable traveling spot in the SUV for Ray. In a nutshell however, my SUV is an early Toyota RAV4 and the obvious place (at least to us) was to put him in the very back. He made it extremely clear that the idea was not going to work so his place then became the rear passenger seat. Continue reading
Remembering Clicker Training!
Clicker training is a way of teaching a dog to respond as desired, with the “click” being a very precise and “clean” sound which can be created very quickly to mark success to a vocal and/or body language instruction. The dog soon recognizes that a “click” means a reward is imminent, just as it recognizes that no “click” means something went wrong. Continue reading
Treats vs Loyalty?
When the three of us are out walking, Ray will often try and impact whatever route decisions need to be made and, in many cases, we let him. The walk is, after all, designed around his needs and if it wasn’t for Ray, would we be out walking this regularly? We do, however, sometimes have an agenda of our own which we fit in with Ray’s walk as best we can. Continue reading
Fetch – Round 2.
Those of you who read about my earlier totally futile and humiliating experiences of teaching Ray to “Fetch” (see Post “Ray … Fetch” November 26), may be interested to know that he has done it! Continue reading
A Dog's Life ... and mine ... and yours! 