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Sidney the Dog
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dogrando & I went to Battersea again yesterday, and came home with a dog!She is an 11-month-old mongrel (bit of lurcher, bit of terrier, bit of a lot of other things) called Sidney (she already knew her name & it suits her well enough so we're keeping it), & there are some photos of her on my Flickr.
She's fairly hyper in a young-dog-type way, but she's also very eager to please, already knows Sit (and is learning quickly that I don't think it counts as a Sit unless you have all four paws on the floor and are being still), and is currently having a snooze on her bed in the corner, so she is *capable* of being calm for a while. She isn't properly housetrained at the moment (although was clean overnight), so we're working on that (I actually think the major problem is that Outside is scarier than Inside so she's a bit too nervous when she's out there; so as she calms down it should get easier. In the meantime, it is Watch Like Hawk And Take Out Every Two Hrs time.). She's a bit overvigilant at noise right now as well, but again, that should calm down over time. And she only whined for about 10 min last night when shut downstairs, which isn't bad going.
She also likes playing the Fetch In The Hallway game, and is enthusiastic about training (because it involves treats!), and she reliably comes when called (because you might have a treat, I suspect, but hey, that'll do).
(Anyone wishing to recommend games-to-play-with-adolescent-dog, do comment; my dog experience is all of slightly older dogs, and while Sugar, the dog I had as a teenager, was up for playing, we mostly played "run around the garden" with her :) ).
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Battersea is the most fabulous place, isn't it? I can't imagine why a Londoner would want to get a cat or a dog anywhere else.
Invite me round - I shall bring biscuits suitable for dogs and hoomans :)
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Charlie likes Fetch, enthusiastic chasing games, wrestling and tickling. We've somehow incorporated the command "where's your toy?" and if you say that to her, she'll run off and find a toy you can throw for her. She'll also initiate play buy dropping a toy on your foot, then if you ignore her, picking it up and dropping it on your foot again or shoving it on your lap if you're sitting down.
You might not want to go for games like wrestling or tug immediately because they're a bit close to dominance games. One of the things I found useful with Charlie was teaching her to "leave" - she's reliable enough at this that I can say "leave" when we're playing with a tug toy and she'll drop her end of the toy. It means that I'm still in control over the game and can stop it when I want to, even though I let her win because it's funny watching her dash off with the toy.
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I couldn't play rough games with him because he was very submissive but eventually we could play a sort of buffeting game where I'd gently shove him and he'd pounce me and try to climb in my lap. My brother's dog, who never had any anxiety used to play rough and you could wrestle so long as you made sure you 'won' most of the time (she was a Kelpie X German Shepard) so she didn't get ideas about being higher in the pack than she really was. We had to build up to 'chase me' because he got scared if I stood up or moved fast. I also spent time extinguishing 'mouth your hands' and, once he built up to it, 'jump on you.'
I kind of traded playing tug-o-war for having a dog that gives me back anything when I want it, I have to be very gentle when I tug or he assumes I *want* it and hands it over.
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Tug-of-war vs handing things over: that sounds like a good trade!
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Re games, tug-of-war is good. However don't let the dog win all the time - they can start thinking it means they're stronger than you and therefore get to boss you about. Rule of thumb I was given (although regarding the incredibly bossy Westie in my icon) was to make sure the game ended with me winning.
Depending on what kind of a dog she is, 'fetch' might easily be turned into 'find it', where you hide the toy while she's in the hall (can be great for teaching 'stay' as well!) and then she, well, finds it. Obviously start out easy with it being e.g. fairly prominently in the middle of the floor or something.
I hope you have loads of fun together!
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*yay*
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I do have a nice solid rope tug toy, which we've played with a bit but it's not as exciting as the ball. Yeah, I've seen that advice about getting to win, as well. Currently most of the toys / interesting things live in a box in the downstairs loo where she's not allowed, and come out & go away again when the humans decide not when the dog decides :)
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'Find' was pretty handy to teach, particularly as we did it with a variety of toys, so now we can just say 'gimme the toy' and he'll go fetch one for us *g* Also he's a pretty intelligent dog and I enjoy making him think. Currently when I go up for a visit I'm trying to teach him to come and then walk around and sit right up against my left leg. Incredibly, he does remember the general principle between visits.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clicker_training
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Fabulous looking dawg :)