my puppy...

I wasn't blogging at the time of the new addition to our family. 

So I thought I would share the story of Rufus McFly!

(the day we picked him up)

A little history: 

I have always wanted a dog. Growing up I wouldn't leave my parents 

alone about wanting a dog. 

Every year at Christmas, they would get me a stuffed animal dog. 

Which was wonderful, but not exactly what I wanted.

{I always dreamt of waking up on Christmas morning to a golden retriever in my stocking}

Matty's family got a dog when he was just in his twenties. 

He is a dog person through and through. 

How it happened: 

We had been talking about dogs for over a year. 

Our discussions revolved around what breed would we get, puppy vs older dog etc.

Obviously I fought for a golden, Matty wanted a husky. 

We started looking at other breeds, seriously considering Bernese Mountain dogs. 

We started looking at breeder websites, and adoption websites. 

We watched Ceasar Milan on Saturday mornings just to get our dog fill. 

{yes, we are nerds}

I forget who sent the email first - but we started looking at some pictures of puppies on an adoption website (petfinder.ca)

They were adorable, I wish I had a picture. 

We started seriously considering it, and thought what is the harm in applying?!

So we did. 

Three days later we brought Mr. Rufus McFly home with us!

About Rufus McFly

He was (around) 8 weeks when we brought him home. 

He was clumsy and couldn't make it up the stairs because he was too small!

He weighed about 10lbs and was so soft. 

He is a sheppard, lab, collie cross. 

And he is just the sweetest dog. 

We think he is just over a year now.

He weighs about 70lbs. 

He is a mixture between being super hyper (especially when we go somewhere new or we have company - he LOVES meeting people and dogs) and a suck (usually after he has had lots of exercise and is rather tired)

He has been a brilliant addition to our family. 

xo.a

training day 4.

i missed training day 3. and i completely forget what we worked on.

so onwards and upwards!

last night we went to training and rufus did well, although was really feeling pretty tired and distracted near the end. after not writing last week i realized i really dont remember what we did - so i want to continue to write about our progress.

so last night we worked on:

• eye contact. it is the first thing we do every class. and very important. we did a variation with holding a treat out to the side and when he gave us eye contact we click, treat. this food distraction is really good for reinforcing eye contact. 
• doggie zen. we have worked on this as well, but we added a variation like the eye contact - hold the treat out and get him to do another exercise (sit, down, touch) while holding the hand out with the treat. if he goes for the treat, cover it up until he does the exercise you want him to do - the reward becomes getting the treat.
• target practice. using a target to start the next level of training - we hid a target stick behind our backs and then presented it to him so he touched it with his nose (he actually would lunge and try and bite it...so we need to work on that!). this can lead to more advanced party tricks that your dog can do!
• sit and stay. pretty straight forward.
• tug. this is our half way play time during school. we let rufus play tug (he was ALL over play time this week) and then when we want him to drop the toy we present him with a treat and say drop. he is OK at this, but we definitely need to work on it.

so that is week 4 of rufus school. we are doing pretty well so far, but we need to do more practice at home.

we also got a little advice on a few of the things rufus does that we would like to work on - like jumping at us when we get home - any reaction is a good reaction for the dog...so we need to just stand, or ignore (no eye contact, no touching, no acknowledgement) until he calms down.

so that was long.
oupps.

training day 2.

puppy school tonight. 

last week we worked on: 

• eye contact - he is getting better but still a little slow to look from the hand that gives the treat, to the eyes
• touch - he is VERY good at this and learned really quickly
• doggie zen - he is also good at this, although sometimes army crawls along the ground to get closer to the treat...not what we want for training purposes, but hilarious to watch

this week we learned: 

• loose leash walking - this is exactly what i need, as rufus pulls on the leash a lot of the time. we started with reward rufus moving when our legs move...so take one step - when he moves towards the leg, reward. we did that walking backwards, then sideways and eventually walking forward. this will be (what i think) our biggest challenge, but hopefully biggest reward with much better walks. 
• tug - how to play tug properly. we let him play, even tease him a little, then ask him to drop the toy and give him a treat. also make him wait patiently before he gets the toy back.
• sit and down - rufus is very good at sit, so we are working on down. this is standard, do the hand motion, reward when he does it. the next stage is to do that for a bit and then do nothing and see if he does down on his own. 

xo.a

back to school.

rufus mcfly is going back to school. we had our first class last night.
generally he is a very well behaved dog for being only 9 months old. 
but there are some things, as dog owners, we feel need some work. 


so i am going to track our progress as homework. 
it was recommended to write down what we work on and progress rufus has with the training to use as a reference. this is the avenue i am going to use. 


last night we worked on the following: 


eye contact. 
when rufus gave us eye contact, we clicked and gave him a treat. easy peasy. 
rufus is ok at this - but definitely needs some work.


touch.
this is when we put our palm out in various locations and rufus is to touch his nose to our palm. 
this will be helpful in being able to move him when / where we need to when out and about.
we have never tried this before, so rufus was learning relatively quickly.


doggie zen.
putting the treat in the hand or on the floor and if rufus waits instead of jumping on it - he gets the treat. 
rufus is already pretty good at this...so we will just work on this one. 


hopefully we are on the road to a well behaved dog!
xo.a