Contain the Hound
Aug. 22nd, 2024 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bigmogPart of the goal of blogging every day of my European vacation was to improve my writing skills. It takes time to write well however and that has made me not want to write at all. Still, I feel I should jot something down for the history books.
First is the topic of the new dog. It's been 2 months now since I rescued him. Chasing rabbits is in his blood but it's causing a few troubles. He will get into neighbors' yards that aren't well fenced. Nobody has complained yet but I feel bad when he trespasses and forces me to do the same to collect him. The more critical concern is when he runs blindly into the street after a rabbit does. For his own safety, I can't let him go after the rabbits around the street. He doesn't like that and will pull hard to try and give chase. He's not that heavy but he has a low center of gravity and 4 legs. With that build for torque, I have to brace myself to avoid losing my footing.
As an attempt to distract him from chasing a rabbit into the and/or pulling my arm off, we're jogging a bit. He's not made for running though so it's more of a trot for me. I imagine we look ridiculous going down the street, me in a half jog and a basset hound bouncing along behind me in a pathetic attempt to keep up.
Clicker training is ongoing and I'd forgotten how much patience that requires. I think as Buster learns commands, additional commands will come easier to him.
The final note on Buster for today is the mess he makes. It's not terrible, I've gotten re-acquainted with living with perpetual dog hair. The slobber is a new challenge but it's limited to feeding time. After that, a brief mop is enough to clean up. His ears are long enough to be a mop too. Those too need occasionally cleaning but he likes having it done so it's easy.
More topics to catch up on coming soon(ish).
First is the topic of the new dog. It's been 2 months now since I rescued him. Chasing rabbits is in his blood but it's causing a few troubles. He will get into neighbors' yards that aren't well fenced. Nobody has complained yet but I feel bad when he trespasses and forces me to do the same to collect him. The more critical concern is when he runs blindly into the street after a rabbit does. For his own safety, I can't let him go after the rabbits around the street. He doesn't like that and will pull hard to try and give chase. He's not that heavy but he has a low center of gravity and 4 legs. With that build for torque, I have to brace myself to avoid losing my footing.
As an attempt to distract him from chasing a rabbit into the and/or pulling my arm off, we're jogging a bit. He's not made for running though so it's more of a trot for me. I imagine we look ridiculous going down the street, me in a half jog and a basset hound bouncing along behind me in a pathetic attempt to keep up.
Clicker training is ongoing and I'd forgotten how much patience that requires. I think as Buster learns commands, additional commands will come easier to him.
The final note on Buster for today is the mess he makes. It's not terrible, I've gotten re-acquainted with living with perpetual dog hair. The slobber is a new challenge but it's limited to feeding time. After that, a brief mop is enough to clean up. His ears are long enough to be a mop too. Those too need occasionally cleaning but he likes having it done so it's easy.
More topics to catch up on coming soon(ish).
no subject
on 2024-08-23 08:55 am (UTC)