jetcitywoman

Ah, then perhaps setting an xpen between them so they can see but not invade. Of course that's not the best interior decor, not to mention a space hog/obstacle in your room, so.... that is a tricky one!

Yikes! Those are two of the designs I have. You may have to resort to outside the box thinking or downright tricks to slow him down. Putting his food inside a box that he has to open or something like that. Or nested boxes. LOL!

This will be our Loki's first trip to Dewey. We already know he's a good traveler after taking him to Gettysburg last spring. He's going to mostly hang with Dad, going to the beach and other fun things while my baby-doll Capri hangs out with me in my "shop". Now that she's 13, she can't do as much walking, so she would slow the boys down in their adventures. But she loves hanging with momma, so it's going to be a fun time. BTW, confirmed, I have three different designs of slow-feeder bowls that I'll bring to sell. Capri inspected the shipment herself, and approved.

You kind of have to think like a predator yourself. As long as your dog is calm, with no muscle tension (so it helps to be touching him), you can move forward. As soon as he tenses up, you stop. Also, as long as the prey isn't moving, it's not a trigger. Movement tends to trigger prey drive. Rabbits tend to stay still (tharn, heh) unless you get too close whereupon they'll bolt. Squirrels are NEVER still, even to save their lives. With them it's best to just not get too close. I also model the behavior that I want my dogs to do. If I want them calm and relaxed, that's what I am. If I'm tense, they will be too, so I make a point to not be tense. However, it all depends on the dog and your experience with him, whatever works best for you.

I like the Freedom no-pull harnesses too. I know it's pretty 50/50 people who like to use the front D-ring and people who prefer the top D-ring. One thing the OP should note, though, is that if you use the front D-ring like Sundrop describes, you don't get the chest-squeezy martingale action. Instead, if the dog lunges, the tension goes to the front of the chest, kind of turning the dog around. I recommend you try both and see which one works best for you and your dog. I'm not sure if this works for prey drive, but when my dogs get super interested in something on walks (like a new dog walking by, for example) I'll usually just stop and make everybody stand calmly and watch the interesting thing go by. I sense that often they are satisfied if they can just observe the interesting thing for a minute, and then we can all continue our walk. Just another thing you can try.

Yep, Larry is getting us all well organized with signage plans and such. We'll have small banners with all the vendor's names in front of both the hotel and the tents so that attendees can easily find where all the fun stuff is. Also once inside the hotel, we'll have more signs there with arrows and room numbers. As it's developing, I think that even if all the vendors are spread across multiple floors, it will be easy to find us.

It sounds to me like you're trying to stay one step ahead of him, which is just about all you can do. He might "get over it" over time as he realizes that he can't (or isn't allowed to) catch them. So I recommend you get him a martingale harness (I have one design in my shop that I love, and you can find others) for walks. He can seriously damage his throat by hauling on a leash attached to a collar. Martingale harnesses are great for discouraging pulling because they gently squeeze the dog around the chest. It catches their attention much sooner than a martingale collar does, so they immediately learn not to pull. It may take him a few squirrel lunges to remember he'll get squeezed, but that's okay. He'll learn it quickly.

I have one or two designs I can bring. Can you post a picture or describe the one he's used to? Then I can try to find something different to show you. Edited to add: Ah, just browsed through all my suppliers. I have 4 different designs available. Surely one or two of them would be novel enough to slow Xavi down.

You mean like slow feeders? I can get some from my suppliers, sure!

Does anybody want me to bring particular products from my online shop to try out? Puplights or anything besides the toys, muzzles and harnesses?

I have a flexilead horror story too. Some friends adopted a spooky black male greyhound. They'd bring him and their other grey to meet and greets with us so I got to know him. He was a sweet boy, but terrified of unexpected noises and shy with people. They'd been making some progress increasing his confidence levels and then one day we got the Amber Alert call. As we went out to help look for him, we got the story: The dad had the two greys on flexis on a walk and as he stopped to get his mail in front of his house, he dropped the spook's lead handle. Clatter, and that boy was GONE, just saw his back end as it rounded the corner at the end of the street. We searched for hours, hired a sniffer dog, canvassed multiple neighborhoods, searched two towns. We got one quick sighting of him the day after he got loose and then never again. The weekend after he got loose was the local town fair featuring fireworks. It was also summer, featuring evening thunderstorms many days. Never did find him. It ripped my heart out even though he wasn't mine, because he was a spooky boy, afraid of strangers, lost in a strange place, with constant scary noises. Never, EVER use a flexilead with a spooky dog. It's just not worth it.

I'll be in the Sleep Inn, vending from my room. Do you think you'll be the only one in the tent? Or just that you'll be working your booth alone?

When I foster, I start teaching the dog "wait" at the doors on day two, so this one is not too early to train. (Although I agree with the others that you should wait on other obedience training until she's settled a bit more and you've developed more of a relationship.) Here is how I teach a dog to wait at the doors. First, something marvelous that my first dog trainer taught me was to direct a dog with my body by claiming space. If you step forward into the dog's face (genty, don't ram her) she will naturally back up a step or two. Not too much different than if you get into another human's face, the natural inclination is to back up to reclaim personal space. This is better than grabbing the dog's collar because she's backing herself up, instead of just trying to pull against the collar. So you'll be using this technique here. So go near the door and if your dog follows you, position her where you want her to stand and wait. I suggest it be a spot not too close to the door so that someone walking in has a place to enter, but ideally a spot where she can see whoever it is outside. (I think one reason dogs rush doors is so they can simply see who is out there.) This is going to be her waiting spot from now on. The end goal is that whenever someone is at the door, or if you walk out it, she will go to this spot and wait. Start the training with nobody at the door to keep excitement down and you can do some repetition. Put her in her spot. Hold your hand up like a traffic cop, palm toward her face and say "wait". Grab the door handle, and if she doesn't move, praise and treat. Then open the door slightly and if she doesn't move, close the door, praise and treat. Any time she moves forward from her spot, use the body space technique to put her back in her spot. As she gets solid with each baby step, increase the challenge: open door all the way (it's ideal if you have a screen door in case she bolts past you, but if you don't, have her on leash). When she's solid with nobody at the door, go back to square one with a friend at the door and progress through the steps again.

I'll be at the Sleep Inn, supposedly the "official" event hotel (there are undoubtedly vendors at other hotels). The idea was that we'd all be on the second floor, which would turn the whole floor into something like a mall. I love the idea. But the hotel doesn't seem to want to make any promises. The Sleep Inn has interior hallways, but I could put a sign near the 2nd floor elevator and in the lobby telling people where I am. That's a good idea. Vending out of my room also saves money registering as a vendor since I don't have to pay for the communal tent that way. From what I understand we'll still have a vendor tent at the Sleep Inn, but we can't find a big enough one for all the vendors. Also, based on last year the two large tents we had took up close to half of all the available parking. So that wasn't ideal.

Oh, Jen, I LOVE that idea! Or even a "treasure hunt" or something, anything to encourage people to explore and visit all the vendors.

Yeah, I can definitely see the appeal of not having to set up a tent and tables. As long as people come to see us, at least to browse and chat.

In part because of the bad weather we had last year that damaged a tent and some vendor's merchandise, Larry asked some of us to try to vend out of our hotel rooms this year. I am willing to go along with that, but I have some worries. I'd like to ask other vendors who have vended from their room in the past what that experience was like. Larry said that if we all get rooms on the second floor, then we can turn the whole floor into a sort of a mall. Love that idea! But when I booked my room, the hotel staff said they can't guarantee which floor they'll put me on, won't know until I check in. So I'm a bit worried that I'll get there and discover that I'm the only vendor on my floor and as a result, nobody will come to shop with me. I asked Larry about that and he said that we can do something with signs to tell everybody where to find all the vendors. But just the nature of shopping.... I don't yet have a following of "fans" so depend a lot on foot traffic. I'm not sure that even with signs, people will come looking for my shop/room. I could be wrong, maybe I'm just nervous. Other miscellaneous questions: When you vend from your hotel room, can you hang your banner or other signs in the hallway so that people down the hall can see it? Or are you restricted to taping a small sign to your door only? How was the shopping experience in a hotel room? It seems to me that the beds would be in the way but I don't think I want to try to move them. I can use them for display tables, but there's not typically a lot of space around them for a couple shoppers with dogs to move around and look at things.

I agree with the first statement. The very first training I do with a new dog is to start teaching him "wait" near the doors. It's not very hard, just takes a little repetition and patience. I have a few quibbles with the other statements, though. For some dogs, you can remove the tape once they know the glass is there. But other dogs... let me just say that I had to buy window stickers after we'd had our greys for at least 3 years, after one night Capri came running in the door without realizing it was closed. (It was light in the room, but dark outside, so from her perspective - coming in - there was no barrier there.) Painters tape is not my preferred interior decor, so I got something similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/Dandelion-Flying-White-Window-sticker/dp/B01DCRCIIE/ref=pd_sbs_263_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01DCRCIIE&pd_rd_r=K1828G16ECX4QCEPRT0V&pd_rd_w=cSFZG&pd_rd_wg=3Gcyp&psc=1&refRID=K1828G16ECX4QCEPRT0V It's subtle and attractive but still functions to show them when the door is closed. Also, don't put his collar on tight. His collar should be correctly fitted. Also, martingales are not impossible to back out of. A paniced dog can pretty easily squirm out of one even correctly fitted. If the new dog seems at all skittish, I recommend either a wiggles wags and whiskers no pull harness or a spook harness. Most importantly for the OP, I'd say to just relax and give yourself plenty of time to get to know your new baby. You're engaging in a multi-year journey of building a deep relationship/bond with another intelligent creature. Relax and enjoy the process and the journey.

Awesome, Greysmom, thanks! Will implement all of that immediately.

Lovely picture! I suspected that it's fixable. I was able to train Capri to not have sleep startle, much in the way you describe. But this lashing out is different from a startle response. He literally has a short temper, an emotional thing. I like how you said you sent your boy to his place when he got snarky. How did you do that? For example if you were there last night instead of me: he was super comfy and didn't want to get up. I was like "move, you're in my way" and he was like "no". The stronger my voice got (not yelling, just using the Voice of God) the more stubborn he got. How would you get him up in order to send him to his place? Oh, just want to add that he shares a bed just fine and is a nice sleeping buddy. Last night was a problem only because he placed himself smack in the middle of the bed, and even on my pillows so I had to move him to get in bed. 98% of the time he looks a lot like your boy there. But even so, his bed privileges are revoked for a while until we can fix this.

Our new boy that we adopted this year is a complete love bug. Super affectionate, kissy and super playful. We love him. He does have a dark side that we've discovered, though. He's got a quick fuse. You know how everybody here says not to scold a dog for growling because it teaches him to stop doing that and just go directly to biting? He's like that only we didn't teach it to him. We never scold for growling. Maybe his previous owner did, we don't know. He's never aggressive for no reason. It's just that when he gets annoyed, he lashes out immediately. The first time it happened with us, Capri and I and him were in the living room and I was tossing a toy for him to chase and catch. When he accidentally bumped Capri, she snarled at him and he responded by pinning her to the floor, flat on her tummy with his teeth in her back. I called him off and he obeyed to that, luckily. Capri did have a small bite wound that we got treated and she's okay with him being around her. When he starts playing she leaves the room because she associates him playing with him being mean. But I'm okay with that, she's smart enough to avoid risky situations. The second time we had an incident, the cat did something to annoy him. Again, I was in the room with them but I wasn't able to see what the cat did. She was being super friendly for the last week or so and I guess she maybe tried to rub against his face (he was down in a sphynx position). Suddenly he was snarling and tossing her in the air. Called him off again, and took her to the e-vet. Fortunately - and surprisingly - she had no physical damage. And last night, I tried to get him out of my bed. He did NOT like that and bit me on both forearms. He didn't puncture me, just quick angry chomps. I yelled at him to get down, he left the room and I shut the door. He's no longer allowed on my bed. I've had greyhounds long enough that I'm not afraid of him, and I understand what happened. He was annoyed at me and lashed out. But that's not tolerable. I don't believe in dominance theory or physical punishment, so I'm at a loss as to how we can teach him to not lash out like that. Is it enough to immediately revoke bed privileges and shun him for a while? What I'd like to do is teach him that when he gets annoyed, he should remove himself from the situation like a mature boy (that is, leave the room), instead of attacking whatever is annoying him. Is that at all possible?

Okay, thanks all! I think we can continue as we are, and I won't bother trying to get a product manufactured. It sound like the reason that exact combination isn't being sold anywhere is because there are too many better/cheaper alternatives.

If you could design a brush that you liked, what would it look like? Part of the reason for this topic and asking you this specifically, is trying to figure out if it might be worth it to approach some manufacturer to make them as per my own design so I can sell them. That is likely an expensive task, but if there's an untapped market for better dog toothbrushes it could be a good thing for me to invest in.

I've used human toothbrushes and liked them. My husband prefers the double-bent handle of the dog toothbrushes, though, so that's why I was trying to find something that had all three characteristics (long, bent handle; extra soft bristles; different colors packaged together). I've found all three things in dog toothbrushes, just not all at the same time. Typically you get multicolored packages of bent handle brushes with hard bristles - or you get a package of 2 or 4 bent handle brushes with extra soft bristles that are all the same color.

I have this idea about dog toothbrushes, that the bristles should be as soft as the ones we use and also that each dog should have his/her own brush for best oral hygiene. I struggle to find dog toothbrushes to meet those needs: when I find them with soft bristles, they all have the same handle color. When I find a multi-pack with different colored handles, they have stiff bristles. I tried marking each dog's first initial on the handles with a Sharpie, but it always rubs off after a few days, so just assigning a different colored brush to each dog is best. I've searched and searched, and can't find this exact combination anywhere. I want them for myself but also I think if I find them I could sell them in my shop to like-minded pet owners. I've been searching for suppliers and even there I can't find anybody who does that combination: soft and multicolored packages. Before I give up, I thought I'd do sort of a casual poll here to see if I'm being overly picky. Do very soft bristles matter for a dog? Am I the only one who doesn't want their dogs to share brushes?