PGA Saturday

[JudyJB]

I had a schnauzer that I trained myself after taking a previous dog to obedience classes. I started with stay when she was only 10 weeks old--mainly to make her stay in her bed while we ate dinner. It took a thousand trips to take her back to her "stay" place, but she got to be very good at it. We lived on a street with curbs, and I even taught her not to go across the curbs into the street. Mainly, whenever she got close to it, i would watch her and make her stay. Eventually, she would not even chase a ball that rolled into the street.

This was a big safety thing because our previous dog had gotten killed at a young age when she ran into traffic. I did not want it to happen again.

One thing I did was to combine with voice signals were hand signals. Holding my hand flat and closed while pointing it at her was combined with "stay" for example.

The best thing I taught her, though I don't remember how, was to spit something out. One day, she leaped up at a low-flying bird and caught it in her mouth. I yelled spit it out, and she did. Bird flew away unharmed!

[Acadianmom]

We had well trained dogs but I wasn't the one to train them. Harold bought 3 Border Collies over the years from the same trainer. The Heelers we had kind of trained themselves. They watched Harold all the time.

Sugar is afraid she will get left so she wants to be the first one out the door. She is very attached to me. I don't know what was done to her before I got her but if I raise my voice she falls on her side. If I show her the halter she get excited but when I try to put it on her she fall on the floor. I will try working on sit and stay at home before we try in the camper. Most of the time she walks well on a leash but some times she tries to heard me if she doesn't want to go a certain way.

Rascal is the cat that had the larva in his neck and got to stay in the house a couple of weeks. I call him my revolving door cat. He will come in the back door and go through the house and want out the front door. Sometimes he stops by a litter box on his way. He likes that I have a box with stuff that is so easy to dig in. He cracks me up. Sometimes he stops by the food bowl for a snack.

Martha

[JudyJB]

Rascal is a smart cat! There was a program on TV about a small town in the UK where they put tracking devices on almost all cats and cameras on quite a few of them. (Nearly all British cats are outdoor cats.) One cat would disappear for several days at a time but looked happy and in good condition when he showed up back home--even gaining weight. Turns out his old home had several cats, and he found a new home with an elderly man who not only had no other cats, but fed him better food!

[BarbaraRose]

My dad had a cat come to his house on a regular basis and ended up staying most of the time. He fed her and kept her outside because his cat didn't like other cats. Turns out the cat lived down the street in a house with lots of other cats. They were all pretty much neglected. We asked if we could keep her since my brother wanted to take her. They said sure. They hadn't really missed her. My brother ended up changing his mind but we found another really good home for her.

Interestingly, we also got a dog from the same house but were different owners, many years earlier. Long story there, but they asked us to dog sit while they went on vacation, and they never came back. He was a great dog!