I have had to resort to using the leash when training Chester in his place again. Yesterday, no matter how short a time I made it, every time I came back in he was off the bed. With the leash he remained on it.

This morning I used the leash, and he was standing the first few times I came back in — but the last time I had success; he was laying down. I mixed things up a bit in the bathroom, and had him stay on his place while I changed. Then he stayed — laying down! — while I walked to the door and stood for one minute.

The aim is to get him to stay in place for 15 minutes, without a leash? I just don’t see how that will ever be possible — I can barely get him to stay for a minute!

I had an interesting encounter at the farmer’s market this weekend. A man stopped me to ask if Chester’s harness was a “no-pull harness”, because he’d never seen one like that — it’s an all-in-one step in harness, meaning the leash is part of the harness.

I replied that no, I just like not having to find the leash. So he started talking about how harnesses invite dogs to pull, and how he helped a woman with a rottweiler who was almost dragging her off her feet. He said just a few corrections and that dog walked perfectly nicely without pulling.

I said that Chester doesn’t pull a lot, although he sure wasn’t listening a whole lot at the farmer’s market (too many cool things to smell — we’re working on it), and that I prefer a harness since small dogs are prone to tracheal collapse.

His reply was that it shouldn’t matter. The implication being that if he was properly trained, he wouldn’t pull at all, collar or no collar.

I prefer positive training methods. I sure wouldn’t want someone to put a collar and leash on me & then give me a “correction”, why would I do that to my dog? I want a willing partner, a dog that stays with me because he chooses to do so — because when he’s near me, good things happen.

People who use corrections often boast about how quickly the dog can be trained. But at what cost? Isn’t it more humane to use positive methods, even if they sometimes take longer? It probably boils down to the rush we Americans seem to be perpetually in — we want everything, and we want it now.

Most people are pretty impressed by how well trained Chester is. He’s not perfect, by any means — he still sometimes jumps on people, he has selective hearing in high distraction environments, and his recall is not 100%. But it’s the journey, not the destination, as they say. I just have to remind myself of that when I’m out there at 9 pm waiting for something to happen, and he just sits there looking up at me like he never heard the word “pee” in his life.

I think I’ve definitely established that Chester is fine going into the bathroom at any time other than around noontime. No problems at all this evening — and he did much better staying, although he was pretty tired and I worked on stays with me inside.

I had him stay in the bathroom while I took a shower, and he definitely did not like that.

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I’m pretty sure that Chester balks (so far) only around noon. Today I avoided doing place training at that time — we did some in the morning, and some in the mid afternoon. Sure enough, no problems getting him into the bathroom and onto his bed either time.

This morning he just couldn’t manage to stay on the bed when I went outside, although in the afternoon he did fine when I went out of sight in the house.

This afternoon I also kept him in the bathroom after training was done, while I showered. Since he hasn’t pooped since early this morning, I didn’t want him to have the run of the house.

He became very anxious when I didn’t let him out of the bathroom as soon as we were done, despite the fact that I was there. However, I gave him a treat that lasts a few minutes right before I got into the shower, and as far as I can tell, he stayed on his bed the entire time I was in the shower.

I was very pleased by that. I figure it just reinforces that his bed is a good place to be, and that I’m not always leaving when he’s on it.

Chester’s new beds seem to be working as his crate ought to — as his safe place. I don’t know why, but today everytime the cats even breathed funny he was jumping off the couch, growling and barking. I’m not really sure where this behavior has come from.

When he does this I have him come, go to his place, and do a down-stay. He does not get treated, so it’s not being reinforced by treats. After about the third episode in a row, I got annoyed & just let my voice show it. I told him he could stay there all day if he liked, and to my surprise he stayed on his bed for a good 10 minutes — I didn’t make him, he just did it.

For whatever reason, he calms down when he goes to his “place”. It’s similar to the boys & their mats. Whenever they really go at it — which is thankfully rare these days — I have them go to their mats & do a little training. They almost always calm right down & remain clam afterwards, too.

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Most of these photos just don’t fall into any specific category. Here’s a closeup of Chester with one ear up — he looks much more like a Chihuahua when his ears are up.

We recently finished the intermediate obedience class at Petsmart. Chester did extremely well again; most of it built on the puppy class — i.e., sit, down, stay with distractions or from a distance. We also learned heeling, which is quite a trick to teach to a little dog, let me tell you!

Chester is not a natural retriever. At first he wouldn’t fetch at all. And he still has to be in the mood. We worked on it though, with treats for bringing it back to us and “drop it” (which is how he’s gotten pretty good at drop it). If he’s in a fetching mood, he’ll go quite a while, treats or no treats. If he’s not, he’ll run off with it and settle down for a chew.

I know these are technically not good photos, but I still think they came out kind of cool! I call it ghost dog.

And for you cat lovers: check out Cat Fiesta for good deals on cat furniture. Someone on the About Cats forum mentioned their having a clearance sale. Even though we have more animal stuff than human stuff, I swear, I’m afraid I ordered one.

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Or why I think he balks. I had a light bulb moment today. I couldn’t figure out why sometimes he’s happy to go into the bathroom, and other times he has to be lured in — and often won’t go into the bathroom at all, but will go into the bedroom.

Finally it hit me . . . this only seems to happen (I think) around noon, which is when I leave every Thursday to go to the cat rescue. It’s the one thing in my schedule that’s very predictable.

Now, I go shopping every week, and while it’s usually on the same day around the same time, there’s still some variance there. Sometimes it’s different days, and the time may vary.

I’ll have to see if I continue to see a pattern there going forward.

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It is hot and humid where I live in the summer. All summer. Still, Chester sometimes likes to go out and sun himself for a little while.

Apparently, here he thinks his head is out the window of a car

These are what we refer to as Chester’s wings. When he was a younger puppy, he had this stripe of dark hair running down his back. Eventually it seemed to spread to pretty much all his coat.

Now, instead of dark hair (although you can see it’s darker), it’s a ridge of longer hair. It really looks very funky. I am hoping that it is the long haired chihuahua in him, and that eventually he’ll develop a longer coat. It can take 2-3 years for a long haired chihuahua’s coat to grow in.

I just took a walk down memory lane trying to find a picture of Chester’s tail when we originally got him. I had to do a lot of hunting, but here is Chester at 3 1/2 months, about a month after we got him. His tail is just beginning to unfurl here; when we first got him, it was what we affectionately called a rat’s tail.

Here’s Chester’s tail today

He’s 9 1/2 months old now. So yes, there’s been a huge change in his coat — more than I even remember. When he was a little puppy, it was all smooth hair, and pretty much the only place he had long hair was on his ears. Now he has a nice ruff around his neck and in the chest area, his tail is gorgeous (I really didn’t like that rat’s tail!), and he’s got the ridge of funky hair on his back. I really do think it will get longer, but only time will tell.

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I had been wanting to get a behind the sofa table for a long time. One day I realized I already had one — a very nice wooden kitchen utility cart we got made in Vermont.

We put the crate pad from Chekhov (couldn’t figure out what to do with it) on top, and it fit perfectly. The rest is history. The boys love it. One or the other, or both, are almost always snoozing up there (Chester is not allowed on it — after all, he has his bed, which he took over from the boys).

Not too long ago, we visited my sister in law in Seattle. They have 2 cats, Sammy and Ollie. Ollie is a bit cantakerous, although he’ll accept some petting if he’s in the mood for it.

Sammy (I think I got their names right) is an absolute darling 9 month old Bengal. My SIL is very busy with work and her two kids, so the cats don’t get a whole lot of attention. I, of course, was playing with Sammy every morning — and my reward was that he came and snuggled with me whenever I tried to sit down and read. I didn’t get a whole lot of reading done . . .

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This morning’s session went well, with Chester happy to follow me from the living room into the bathroom. Of course, in the bathroom, as always, he quickly becomes anxious. Still, he stays on his bed without the leash — but we’re still only at about 40 seconds.

We had a great walk at Town Lake today. Lots of dog socialization and some human socialization as well. I sat on a bench and had Chester do sit-stays a couple of times. One of those times I had a nice, long talk with a younger woman about her cat and puppies. I gave her some advice, and pointed her towards the About Cat’s forum.

I really didn’t want to go there this morning, I was tired, but once there we had a great time. One of these days I’m going to have to bring the long line & start working with his recall there. One of the things I love about going to a park to walk is that I don’t have to worry about making sure he goes potty before we leave — it’s okay if he goes there! Although usually he’s so distracted by all the great stuff to smell, all the people, and all the dogs that he holds it until the end anyway.

Oh, and he got a socialization chance today that will probably never come his way again — a monkey! Two elderly ladies were wheeling around some sort of monkey in a carrier. I thought it was a cat at first, because all I saw was the tail. I’ve no idea what they were doing there.

We had another quick session when we got home. For a dog that does a pretty good imitation of a dead dog after his walk, he sure is full of pep the moment he knows he’s going to be getting more treats. I decided to work with him off-leash altogether this morning. We also worked with him staying while I went out of sight inside, since Simba was quite interested.

Everything was fine in the living room. He was a bit hesitant about going into the bathroom, but he did it and got up on his bed immediately. He got very anxious when I had him stay, though. He was doing pretty good, and I had him staying (off leash) while I was using the bathroom — but he popped off at the end, and I could even lure him back up.

I finally just put him there, which I know doesn’t help him to feel he’s in control, but I just didn’t feel like going to get the leash (not to mention that would make him even more anxious). Then I gave him a nice treat that would take him a little while, and he ate that (and stayed) while I washed and moisturized my face, and we called it a session. He was so happy to be out of there he zoomed around the house.

Apparently I have I need to take Chester to Town Lake more often. He didn’t go out from the time we got home (around 10 am) until after 3, which is pretty good for him.

We did another session, off leash, when we came back in from pottying. He did pretty good. He went right into the bathroom without having to be lured at all, and I got him to stay (off leash) on his bed with me out of sight for one minute. Of course, he was standing when I went back to treat him, but it’s progress. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

No rawhide tonight. I gave him a fish skin instead, but they’re messy (dried, but the scales come off all over the place), so he had to eat it in his crate. He kept wanting to come out, but when I’d open the door, he’d try to take it out. Finally, I opened the door, told him if he wanted to eat it he had to stay in the crate.

He sat there for several minutes holding on to his fish skin for dear life, then settled down to eat it in the crate.

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I can’t remember what I was doing that got Simba and Chester laying together . . . must have been something to do with food.

Checking out the new scratcher

He’s mine, I tell you (notice Simba’s paw)

MINE!

And this is how they came to be almost cuddled up together. Chester was half laying in his bed (which I made, by the way), with his head on my leg. Simba was curled up above me, when he stretched down and started to knead the bed (which was his before Chester came along), and then just curled up.

Now, normally, if I hadn’t been there, I’m sure Chester would have been so excited he would have annoyed Simba into taking a swipe at him. Since I was there (and Chester was tired), I was able to keep him calm and they stayed sleeping that way for quite some time.

You will notice that Gizmo is not in this series . . . Gizmo does not like Chester. They tolerate each other, and I’m sure Chester would be willing to play with Gizmo if he was so inclined (most definitely NOT!).

It’s taken six months, but Gizmo is much more relaxed around Chester now. He’ll flop down when Chester is very close to him, and he’ll stand still (most of the time) when Chester is having zoomies.

Which doesn’t mean that he still doesn’t go up to Chester once in a while and give him a good whack for no reason, because he does.

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I have lots of photos I haven’t had time to go through . . . til now. Some of them are sort of a theme, such as these, taken the last time we gave Chester a bath.

Technorati Tags: photos, bath

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Today has at least started out well. It’s my day at the cat rescue, though, which means I’m gone about 3 hours; we’ll see how that goes. I don’t have high hopes to no accidents, but maybe he’ll eat his treat and go in the bathroom without a problem. That would be a start.

He was very calm again when my husband went to leave for the day. Normally he’s excited and jumping all over. I don’t know if he’s still just tired from his daycare playmates, or the 5 minute rule is beginning to help. The 5 minute rule is to not acknowledge him in any way any time you’ve been separated for 5 minutes — the whole purpose being that he learns comings and goings are no big deal.

We are inadvertently getting lots of off leash heeling training done. I call him to heel, and then he just keeps heeling — even though I didn’t ask him to.

Our first session this morning went well. He was standing when I came back in the first time, but the second time he was laying down. We are at a minute outside. And the last time he stayed laying down — and he was untied.

He willingly went into the bathroom and hopped up onto his bed. But then he clearly became anxious. He makes a low whining noise when he’s anxious, and this is a dog that never whines. Although I wait for him to lay down before I go out of sight, he’s usually popped up again when I come back in. We’re only at 30 seconds in the bathroom.

I did do the last one with him off leash, and he stayed on the bed. He’s sooo happy when I remove the baby gate and it’s all over, though.

We did our second session after our walk this morning. In the living room was pretty much a repeat. He’s doing well at staying on the bed when I go outside, even if he isn’t tied to it. I do need to work with him staying while I go around in the house out of sight, too, but I figure that this is a two-for-one: not only is he learning a pattern, learning that when I go I come back, he’s also learning to stay in his bed when the door is opened.

He walked willingly into the bedroom, with a slight hesitation at the door, but I didn’t need to use a treat (just the sight of the treat bag got him excited). He balked again at the bathroom door, but came in with minimal persuasion, and then refused to go to his place (bed) the first couple of times, but I was able to finally lure him up.

I did a couple of 30 second stays with me out of sight, then untied him but had him stay while I washed up and put on some moisturizer. He stayed laying down the entire time.

Once again, he was just sooooo happy to be released. All excited, although once I came into the office he was happy to pass out on his bed.

I took Chester out 20 minutes before I had to leave. He didn’t do anything! I ran him around a bit, although he wasn’t much into it — not too surprising at noon in Texas. I knew he’d have an accident, but I’m not staying home because he won’t go.

We did one more quick session. I had no trouble getting him into the bedroom or bathroom, although he became very reluctant as we drew near, but I did have some trouble getting him on his bed. He finally did get on it. He clearly knew, somehow, that this time was for “real”. In fact, he refused to get back on the bed at the very end.

When I got home, sure enough he’d pooped. But he didn’t pee! It had been 6 hours. I don’t understand why he won’t pee in the house (although I’m very, very thankful), but he will poop.

Since I got home he’s shown no qualms about going into the bathroom, even jumping onto the bed without being asked to.

I should have done one more session, but I just didn’t have it in me. He got a kong in his crate, and a rawhide on his bed afterward. Maybe the rawhides aren’t agreeing with him, though, because the next morning his poop was a little soft and there was a little mucuous.

It’s very frustrating, because it seems that everything that occupies him for a good, long time doesn’t agree with his stomach.

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