Today was another beautiful day - hot and sunny with a bit of breeze. After having our smoothies (yes even Carm although I swap out the spinach for a banana) we headed out for a mid-morning walk. It was lovely but hot and humid at times - the heavy dew evaporating made for a high humidex. The dogs were hot and dragging at the end even though we stopped part way for a little dip.
Carm played his first round of golf this afternoon, plenty of sunscreen and bottles of water in his bag. We have been very environmentally unsound this year with our plethora of bottled water. But our pipes still taste of RV antifreeze (non-toxic).
The dogs and I tried to go out for a 4pm walk, but only lasted 20 minutes. I knew from the start that it would be a short one when they all walked behind me, dragging along. Even Bella the ever keen!
I saw some pictures of Fiorgyn's new baby, born today. It seems like just yesterday that she was born herself and I was imprinting her. She was the culmination of our breeding plans. Her dam, Valena, was the first North American filly by Flotren. Valena was a beauty (and I'm sure still is) with a playful personality. Fiorgyn's sire was Felix, a fantastic stallion imported from Norway and owned by four of us. Our hopes were high for this breeding and Fiorgyn didn't let us down. I'll post some pictures of her in the next few days (when I feel like spending time on my computer going thru the 1000s).
This afternoon campers started rolling in and filling the spots - I started having panic attacks thinking it was Friday and someone was going to show up for our spot... luckily it is still Thursday and no one did show up. Tomorrow is tear down day though :-( I always feel sad about that.
I read a blog post today about dog training which named several training devices as instruments of torture, including the prong collar. I'll come clean right away - we use prong collars when we are camping. The two big dogs are very powerful, and the little guy has a surprising amount of strength - if they see a squirrel or deer they can pull me right over. With the prongs on they are perfect on the leash and our walks are so much more pleasant. We are always careful how we use them and do our up most to ensure they are comfortable. Before the prongs I tried halties - the "positive" trainers solution. My dogs used to run and hide when they saw them come out - they hated them! While with the prongs they all come and stand quietly. I guess they voted! Instruments of torture, perhaps not...
Golf is a good walk spoiled.
Mark Twain
3 comments:
I have had a couple of wonderful large labs. With one I did buy a prong collar because she just wouldn't settle down. I think I put it on her three or four times. After that she became a good girl that I could handle.
I don't think it hurt her. What was hard was the shock collars that went with the invisible fence. We have several acres and it was impossible to fence the dogs in. They wandered too often and were threatened by a neighbor. It was either the invisible fence or we would have to give them up. Our Shepard was shocked only once and never went near the perimeter again. The lab went thru it several times before she learned. I figure anything that would keep a lab from going after a ball that rolled over the perimeter must have been very bad.
Luckily Halley is small enough to easily control with a simple harness. I do not like just a collar as I am afraid if I have to pull her out of the way of something, I will injure her.
Around here, she does all the torturing is done by Halley as she drags me all over the place to look for the perfect location to perform her duties:)
I learned that the Halti doesn't suit all dogs. It was perfect for my Lab, Chimo. Stopped her from charging ahead of me and didn't bother her at all. Terri is different - she fought a Halti when I first tried it and I didn't bother to try to train her to it, although I think I could have. For her, I discovered that the no-pull body harness works reasonably well, especially when used with a springy leash.
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