doggie time outs

Sometmimes a dog wants to take your attention away from another person in the home or another animal. This can be known as possessive aggression. You may notice the dog pushing his way in between you and another person or another dog. If you find that your dog gets in between you and another person or animal because of jealousy, meaning he wants to take your attention away from this rival and bring it back to him, you’ll definitely want to stop that behavior. It may be cute at first but it can quickly turn into a severe aggressive behavior. You can recondition him with “negative punishment.” By negative punishment I do not mean yelling, pulling on his collar or worse hitting him. For this type of dog negative punishment is simply taking him away from you, or the object he desires. Think of it as a time out for canines. When you see the dog acting this way give him a key word or phrase like, “Oops, you want out?” or “Oops, time out” in a non threatening tone then remove him to another room for two minutes. Keep the time length of removal short, if you extend it too long he will most likely forget why he was removed. Once he has served his time out bring him back into the room with you to try again and reward any good behavior. Repeat this process each time he shows his jealous side.

This process can even work for barkers when you have company, when the dog barks use the phrase above but put the dog outside, after two minutes bring the dog back in to try again. Eventually the dog will want to remain in the company of others and the repeated phrase will be all you need to quiet the dog.

Birth, continued

I was determined not to give up, still praying with every breath I blew into the pup and on minute number seven the pup finally cried! Thank you God!
Jason and I cleaned the pup, tied and cut the cord, then placed a piece of red yarn around his neck for the sign of the Red Cross. This pup is a keeper!
Since his birth, Chance has always worn red bandanas as a reminder of his strength and determination.

Abby went on to deliver pups number five and six without incident and when all was said and done, or so I thought, I finally hit the sack around one a.m. The plastic table cloths and old comforter had done the job of keeping the new mattress clean for me to sleep on and I drifted off to the sound of six very hungry pups nursing off of mom. The nusring sounds reminded me of Maggie, the youngest child in the Simpsons cartoon, sucking away on her pacifier only with little moans and groans in between.

The next morning before getting out of bed, I peeked at the pups that were nestled up close to Abby. All looked peaceful and quiet so I headed off to the kitchen to get my first cup of coffee. I returned to the whelping room armed with cleaning supplies and proceeded to remove each pup and place them in Abby’s crate. One, two, three, four, five, six ,seven, I counted. 'Wait, seven?' Knowing my mind is not always clear until I've had several cups of coffee, I counted them again. Sure enough there were seven. Abby had delivered another one while I was sleeping. Bravo, Abby, for a job well done!