“Nothing is as simple as we hope it will be.” – Jim Horning
Dog Stuff
All kinds of information about dogs, especially our Bernese Mountain Dogs.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Alex Wins Points in Pueblo
Here is a photo of Alex after winning Winner’s Dog and 2 points toward his championship at Pueblo, Colorado late in November. Jeni West, center, handled him.
Posted under: Dog Stuff • by Rick on 12/16/2004 at 05:02 PM
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Tuesday, October 19, 2004
SAILOR: New AKC Champion!
As promised, here is the photo taken when Sailor finished with a 4 point major in Lincoln, Nebraska. Jeni West did a brilliant job of handling him that day. Up to that time all his points had come from either Rick or myself doing our own handling. His AKC Champion Certificate came in the mail yesterday, so it’s official!
Posted under: Dog Stuff • by Lynne on 10/19/2004 at 12:57 PM
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Saturday, October 02, 2004
Sailor Wins His AKC Championship!
Lynne just called me from Lincoln, Nebraska where she took Sailor to a dog show. He won a 4-point major and that is enough for him to get his championship!
When she gets back and we get his show photo, I’m sure she’ll post a more detailed article on Sailor’s web site.
Posted under: Dog Stuff • by Rick on 10/02/2004 at 04:35 PM
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Thursday, April 29, 2004
Hailey Gave Us Quite A Scare
Yesterday, we got quite a scare from Hailey.
It was time for her vaccinations. And, we suspected she had a bladder infection. After acquiring a urine sample (“Mom, what are you doing behind me while I try to pee?”), Lynne was taking Hailey to the vet mid-morning. On the way, Hailey started coughing up blood. Well, instead of vaccinations she got a good examination to figure out where the blood was coming from and why. Actually, there was no definitive answer. The urine sample did show lots of white blood cells and an infection, so antibiotics were prescribed and she was sent home.
After an hour or so, Lynne noticed continued bleeding, now coming from the nose. So, she rushed Hailey to a close-by specialty/emergency hospital (which we happen to know very, very well…).
Posted under: Dog Stuff • by Rick on 04/29/2004 at 09:07 PM
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Saturday, April 24, 2004
Training Dogs not to Bark
For some reason lately, all the dogs have started barking at the slightest thing. We can walk down the stairs, open a door, make a funny noise, and they start barking ... it is just too much! So, we’ve been exploring techniques to train dogs not to bark.
One thing we’ve done with some limited success is buy a water spraying gun from ToysRUs. Today’s water guns are not anything like what we had when I was a kid. These things look like something The Terminator would carry around, have a huge water reservoir, and are battery powered. When you hold down on the trigger they fire a good stream of water continuously while making noise and flashing lights. So, when the dogs start barking, we start shooting. This stops them from barking at the moment, but isn’t training them not to bark at all.
Today we rented a citronella bark collar from the local feed supply company. These things are expensive, so they let us use one for a week to see how it works. Bart was the closest dog around once I got it assembled, so he is wearing it today. It has a small microphone and when it detects the dog is barking, a brief spritz of citronella spray shoots up from the bottom of the collar toward the dog’s neck/jaw.
Boy is he surprised! He just can’t figure out where this stuff is coming from and he does not like it one bit. We are creating situations where the dogs bark, then rewarding Bart when he finally decides not to join in. After a day or two, we’ll rotate the collar to Heidi or Alex.
I don’t know if this is going to work or not, but it is worth a try.
Our other option is a shock collar, which we just can’t bring ourselves to try (yet).
Posted under: Dog Stuff • by Rick on 04/24/2004 at 02:07 PM
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