Indoor Doggie Games

I'm a big believer that dogs need mental exercise just as much if not more than physical exercise, just like humans. If you think about it, most of us that have white collar jobs are perfect examples of this, or at the very least, that having something mental to preoccupy us will help us compensate for a lack of physical exercise ;)

Ok, so with that said, I have just moved from SUNNY Texas to COLD Ontario....on top of that, I went from having a house and a yard, to being in a 15th floor apartment.

I'm not sure I need to say this, but these 2 changes have had a huge impact on me, and even more so since my dog has joined me. Now instead of just letting her go into the yard every morning and every hour or so, I have to go down an elevator, and out into a common area to walk her until she does her business and also make sure I give her some exercise. This is made even harder when it's cold, because now I have to "gear up" for the cold with my 15 layers since I'm a whuss about the cold still, and then go through the whole walk. Anyways, the net result is that in the cold, Namie doesn't get to go on very long walks :(

Because I felt guilty about the lessened activity Namie has been getting, I've been playing more games with her inside, and thought this might help out other dog owners that don't know what kind of activities they can do with their dogs. Oh, let me first say that I have some unique challenges as well. Namie is a 70lb black lab, who has lots of energy and is full of love....I live in an apartment....ok, so all the games I come up with are with the idea of keeping collateral damage down to a minimal. I mean if I had a small dog, I'd be playing fetch inside with her, but with my setup it'd be a disaster.

Game #1: Indoor Fetch
The basic game is just like you play outside, but instead of throwing the ball or toy, you make it more like hide and seek. First you need to teach a few commands, and I'll post blogs on how to do each later, so this is kind of a placeholder:

Needed commands: Sit, Stay, Come, Leave It/Drop It, Go Get It, Go Get Your

Ok, so here's how you do it.
1. Have your dog sit and stay
2. Have the dog sit and stay, while you place the object you want them to fetch in front of them. Have them "leave it" until you tell them to Get It.
3. Now do the same thing, except make the dog go a few steps to get it. When the dog picks up the object, praise them and then say drop it if they know that command, and again praise when they've dropped it.
4. Continue this, slowly moving the object away. When the object is a few feet away, don't tell the dog to drop it immediately, instead make them come. It might take a few times for them to not drop it now that you're changing the sequence a little, but I find it helps them understand the individual commands better by changing the sequence sometimes as well..just one more challenge for them to figure out.
5. Put it all together where you are telling them to sit, stay, then place the object somewhere, then tell them to go get it or got get their , then come, then drop it.
6. Eventually the dog will know when you tell them to go get their toy, that you want them to go get it and bring it back so you won't need to say all the intermediary commands. This is when you can start stringing even longer events together because you can now say go get this, and go do that, and give it to someone or put it somewhere.

Anyways, that took longer than I thought, so I'll post more later. Please teach me any games you know, or anything I might have done better in my blog.

Have fun, and love your furry friends, but remember YOU'RE THE PACK LEADER!

Teaching Namie to hold something on a walk

Well it's been about a month and a half since Namie has made the move with me up to Toronto, and into a 15th floor apartment.  We are having a great time, and the more urban environment has provided us the opportunity for some additional training.  She's doing great behaving around other dogs and new people, and one of the more interesting challenges has been the elevator.  You don't think about it normally, but dogs, take up more space than people, because they stand on all fours, and even when they are sitting, they have their tail wagging around and in Namie's case, she likes to sniff around a little.  Most people like it, and pet her, but I have decided to try to train her to hold a ball or a bone in her mouth while we walk around so that she has something to further preoccupy herself while we walk around.  Since I'll be trying this for the first time, I figured I'd share my experience with everyone.  Today I googled "train dog hold something in mouth" and found an approach I've decided to try.  Here's what they say:

1.  Teach your dog "Take It".  Do this by placing a treat on the floor, and make them leave it until you say Take It.  Eventually the dog will know take it means to take the object.
2.  Replace the treat with a toy, giving the dog a treat when they take the toy.  You might need to use a squeeky toy initially to encourage the dog to take the toy.
3.  Hold onto the toy while the dog takes it, and say hold, then leave it or drop it (if ti knows this command, which Namie does).  Make the dog hold the toy longer and longer and hopefully this will eventually work for walks.

So far today, Namie and I did the following drills:

1.  Trained Take It using treats about 10 times
2.  Trained Take It using a toys about 5 times
3.  Trained Take It using another toy about 5 times.
4.  Trained Hold It using a jerky treat about 4 times. 
5.  Trained Hold It about 8 times with the squeeky toy. 

It isn't all quite clicking yet, but we'll see how it goes again tomorrow.

Have a great night everyone,
Nick and Namie

On a walk in front of our apartment in snowy Toronto.

Parks galore in Toronto

Wow, so Namie is loving Toronto so far!  She loves the snow, the cold, all the new people and dogs, and now the parks.  We went exploring a few weeks ago while there was still a lot of snow on the ground and we walked by what looked like a playing field of some sort because it had a fence around it and stuff.  Well, we walked back over there today and found a great park that is basically just some grass and trees and some benches just tucked between 2 major streets a few buildings...like a hidden park!  So we walked around and I let Namie off her leash for a while and we hung out, and it was great.  It was so great that we went back later and I brought her ball so we were out there playing fetch when some mom and her kid start playing kind of close, so we decide to walk up a little ways because I remember finding another little park right near this one when I was driving around.  So we went just across the street and found another little park where no one was at and played for a while longer.  To make things even better, they always have trash cans in these little areas so I don't have to carry around  bags of poop haha.  So all in all, Namie is having a great time out here in Toronto, and we're finally figuring some things out here.  I'll keep everyone updated.

Nick & Namie

Hello My Name Is Namie

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my new blog MyDogNamie. This is just a place I'm going to share anything that has to do with my first dog, Namie. I've had Namie since she was a puppy, and love her like a child. Namie is now about 3 years old.

Last week we took Namie to the vet because she had been itching her hind quarters and belly a lot. I had noticed her scratching for a few days and decided she needed to be checked out. The vet told us that she was having an allergic reaction to a flea bite. She said she didn't find any fleas on her, but with the symptoms she had it was almost certainly an allergy to a flea bite. So she prescribed some steroids and recommended that we buy her some anti-flea medication. The flea medication we got was Comfortis, and it is given once a month and is supposed to begin killing any fleas on the dog within hours of the first dose. I will be looking online to see if I can get a better deal then the $98.00 I was charged for a 6 month supply (Dosage was for dogs up to 120lbs). After the first dose of steroids, Namie was much calmer, and stopped scratching almost completely. I think these steroids are wonder drugs. Namie is much less energetic, and isn't scratching herself bald any more. I have noticed it makes her very thirsty, but other then that it seems to have done the trick.

That's all for this post, but I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on what I find for the anti-flea medication deals.