Oh, Daisy!
I know most of you are freaking out at the picture to the left. To be sure, I will get to this seemingly torturous device soon enough. The coin in the picture is a quarter for scale (I am not the best macro photographer).
Daisy celebrated her fifth month on the fifth of January. She has been losing LOTS of teeth. Miraculously, I am finding them here and there in the house. Prior to this I have only found two dog teeth. One of Lopey's puppy teeth and one of Buster's adult canines that Buffy broke taking a Nylabone from him. Puppies most swallow their puppy teeth as they tend to come out while eating kibble. Human instinct urges us to soften up the food or to give substitutes during the teething phase. I try not to do this as when pups are teething they tend to not eat as heartily as they otherwise would. Daisy was a bit slower but she still made it through the worst of it when her bottom baby canine was hanging to the right. It was all I could do to not pull it myself!
I posted the tooth updates on Facebook and my friend Alicia (the catalyst for the whole Daisy scenario; thank you forever, Alicia!!!) asked me what the Tooth Fairy was bringing Daisy. I jokingly replied, "A heat cycle." Unfortunately this is not a joke and I am patiently waiting for Daisy's menses, her first period. I have two indications that this is pending.
1. Lopey has no control over his "thang" when he sees her and begins panting. Lopey is not neutered and is a bit of a perv. He recently attempted to sexually assault one male visitor, albeit a cute one. Nonetheless, Lopey's hog is nearly as big as Dasiy so we're gonna have to be a bit careful when she is fully blown in "heat." I really would hate to see them breed!
2. The neighbor's dog Jack was mounting my daughter. I know it seems far afield but Ella was wearing fuzzy pajamas and had been cuddling with Daisy all day before we stopped over. He basically smelled that good doggie smell and was intent on getting some. Smell is far more relative to dogs than form. Jack was fairly relentless but is only 20 lbs so it was easily fixable.
In addition to her physical changes, the fifth month will bring some mental developmental changes that are fairly significant and very welcome: the onset of long term memory. Until the fifth month it is a fairly futile endeavor to force orchestrated obedience. Puppies simply do not have the capacity or attention span to respond consistently or reliably to technical commands. At this point, we will be working toward RELIABLE response to commands and to achieve this end a training collar must be introduced. Daisy will be required to Heel (walk calmly at the left with no pulling and sit automatically when the handler stops), to hold a Sit or Down until released with the command OK and, most importantly, to Come and Sit at attention in front of the handler from increasing distances.
Until this developmental stage, most trainers will use a "back door" approach and "catch and praise" when a pup commits a desirable behavior. Now, Daisy will corrected when she fails to complete the task at hand.
Many trainers are against training collars, finding them cruel and painful. However, it is my belief that a training collar is only as abusive as the trainer. Heavy handed correct on a flat, buckle-type collar can injure a dog just as well as a prong or choke-type collar. Finding the "sweet spot" and leveling a correction to match the infraction as well as the dog's temperament, anatomical construction and size will achieve successful, consistent reliability; abusive correction will make your dog fear you... and training.
Please see the next post for a detailed discussion of various corrective training devices.
Daisy will be fitted for her collar this week. As she is so bright and enthusiastic, I am predicting she will be a grand success. Her potty training is nearly complete. She squeaks at the back door when she needs to go out and only has accidents in the house at the handler's failure to take her out. I have actually stopped using the crate and have left her out when no one was home several times with good results. I have rarely seen a pup house train so well so quickly.
Please see the next post for more on this subject... Until then, good luck and good training!
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