Monday, April 23, 2007
Millie emailed to say that she had been talking with an applicant in Florida about Jeffrey. They have a big fenced-in yard, pool, and the female applicant works from home, while her husband flies home from New York on weekends. Their daughter�s family live close by and they have a dog also. Millie is planning to meet them while she goes to Florida for vacation in May.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
I had long suspected it, but last night I finally saw clear evidence of it, that Anastasia has possessive aggression towards Oscar. And the object of her possession, me. Last night Oscar was sitting next to me, then snuggled up to me for petting, then went back sitting right next to me. Anastasia had been sitting about five feet away watching it all, then all the sudden she rushed towards Oscar, and Oscar ran away, then Anastasia looked at Oscar running away and then at me in the eyes and sat down right next to me. I don't know how to solve this one, should I train them like I do with dogs with the same issue?
Friday, April 27, 2007
Oscar has been slowly warming up to me. And last night, in the middle of the night, I felt somebody snuggling up to me. Before I opened my eyes, I thought I would see Tara with her butt and tail facing me, like she does occasionally, but the fur was black, and it was Oscar! I felt so warm inside having her decide to snuggle up to me. Before I went to sleep last night, I was petting Oscar for a long time and scratching her neck, causing a lot of loose fur to come out. Then in the middle of the night, I had allergy attack and couldn't stop sneezing. I think it's from inhaling all the cat hair. I am slightly allergic to cat dander, but only have symptoms pretty much when I bury my face in cat fur.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Forgot to add earlier, that ever since I scrubbed the fish tank with toothbrush at the last tank cleaning, there is no longer a mineral deposit line on the side panel. And I think overall it looks cleaner.
Oscar purrs pretty loudly, definitely louder than Anastasia. Oscar is pretty fun to watch and train, while Anastasia is my little sidekick.
I went to the ESRA Garage Sale in Birmingham yesterday, was away for about 12 hours. I hired a new pet-sitter recently and yesterday was their first visit. When I got home, all three were acting normally, doing the same things as usually when I come home from school, even though yesterday I left really early in the morning and did not get home until past their usual dinner time. So I think they got some good petting from the sitter's visit.
I wonder if Oscar gets flea bites and that's why she licks her belly so much. Her tummy still has no hair from her over-grooming, but it has those little red spots, like flea bits. She threw up again yesterday morning, she ate her breakfast slow, but she went to drink lots of water, so she threw up water and food. On Friday night we went back to practice "go to mat", However it was taking a long time, I was just staring at her paws and the mat, and for some reason she just sat next to the mat and would not budge. We were probably staring at each other for a good 8 minutes of the 10-minute training. I'm not sure if she forgot how to do it or if it was intentional, but she refused to walk onto mat. However I don't think it's intentional (as in trying to play persistency game with me), because Oscar really want that chicken flavored baby food on my hand. So after waiting a long time, I finally just went back to click/treat for just one paw on mat, instead of all four, and did that a couple times, and ended the session.
Monday, April 30, 2007
I asked Virginia and she said Oscar had those red dots on her belly before, so it's probably not flea bites (however I do keep the cats on monthyly flea meds whenever I have dogs).
This morning I took Tara to the vet for the intraocular pressure test to get a baseline value. The vet said Anastasia's Herpes test result has not come back yet.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
We practiced "going to mat" again last night. We started out doing it on the long table in the livingroom, tried that twice, but Oscar wasn't getting it. Then I moved the mat to the ledge between the livingroom and the dinning room, in front of the sewing machine and the fish tank, tried that once, but Oscar was still not doing it, I think that time was because Anastasia was staring at her from the cat tree, distracting her. Anyways, I decided to move the mat onto the kitchen counter, and I thought, I probably really need to go back to the basics and do small steps, not expecting Oscar to remember all she learned three weeks ago and go to the mat with all four feet on it immediately. So that was what we did. I started out standing right in front of the mat, so Oscar had to walk onto the mat to come sniff the food, and I click/treat when she had one paw on the mat. We did that twice then I moved about a foot away from the mat. However, again Oscar wasn't getting it, then I realized my click timing wasn't good, and probably Oscar was confused as to what she's being clicked for, since there was probably no consistency on my part, so I started pay a lot of attention to her paws and the mat again and my thumb on the clicker, to make sure I click the exact moment her paw is on the mat. It took me about four tries to get myself back in shape about clicking at the exactly right moment. But after that, Oscar progressed quickly and realizes what I was clicking for fast. Again I had to remind myself to go back to the basics and only increase in small steps, this even include my body language. For example, there is a huge difference to cats and some dogs, whether the trainer is standing straight up or bending over during the training. They don't generalize well, so even if they had learned a behavior with the trainer bending over (like when I am watching the mat and paws closely), then they might not know how to do the behavior when the trainer's standing straight up. Also, I keep my eyes on the mat and paws at all times so I can click at the right times, but it makes a difference to the cat whether I am facing toward the mat, or facing slightly away and watching from my peripheral vision. Oscar was doing really well with at least one paw on the mat and my facing the mat directly and bending over, then I tried standing straight up and facing the mat directly, we practiced that a couple times until I was sure Oscar realized it's the same thing. Then we tried with my standing straight but not facing the mat. With a couple practices, she picked that up too, so I decided to walk away from the mat, to the side more about 1.5 feet (originally about 1 foot away). But then since I increased the distance, I would have to go back to bending over and facing the mat, then standing straight but facing the mat, then standing straight and look away from the mat. I always give Oscar the treats away from the mat, so her paws would not be on the mat when she's getting the treat; this sets up her for the next try. Because before, when I would feed her on the spot, she would still be on the mat after I removed the treat, so I didn't know whether I should continue feeding her since she's stayed on the mat, or try someway to shove her off the mat for her to start again. But this method of feeding her away from the treat is a much better idea, that way after I removed the treat, we would just have wait until she replicate the behavior (going to mat) again. Then we tried over again at 2 feet away from the mat. At this distance, Oscar would have to obviously walk AWAY from me and the treat, after I removed the treat, go TOWARD the mat, listen for the click, THEN come to me when I hold the spoon out (I hold the spoon close to my body while I wait for Oscar's next action). So she must resist the immediate temptation of the smell of the meat, go AWAY from it, go to the mat, in order to get the reward later. When she learned that, I think it's safe to say she has realized that the precise action of "going to mat" was the one she's being clicked for, and it's not because of the luring at the beginning (with me standing right in front of the mat). We tried that a few times, and decided to end on a good note and did not progress any further during this session (and also I don't want to feed Oscar so much food that she throws up later), and I always give her a spoonful of baby food at the end of the training session to reward her for being good (during the session, she gets about 1/4 spoonful for each click, unless there is a major breakthrough, then she gets a full spoon of food).
This morning Anastasia was sleeping on the mat in front of the door, and Tara happened to walk by, and Anastasia bit Tara's paws. Tara was being very tolerant of it (and probably a little confused) and just let Anastasia bite her. But after about 10 seconds, she walked away, although I think Anastasia still wanted to play with the big fur toy.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
We had some more breakthrough with Oscar's mat training last night. Since she seemed to get the idea from the training on the kitchen counter last night, I decided to practice on the ledge between the kitchen and the livingroom, and place the mat in front of the sewing machine, for last night's training. For some reason she again seemed to forget how to do it, I think there must be something about that ledge that she doesn't like to do it on there. Maybe it's too narrow (about 1/2 inch of the mat sticks off the edge when I put it on there)? So again we went back to the basics. I started out sitting on the chair and legs folded up close to my body (again new body language from me the trainer) and sat right in front of the mat, so she is sort of lured to go to the mat with me sitting in front of it, but I tried not to do a completely lure, because when they learn from lure, their brain is all focused on the food, that they don't pay attention to what "behavior" they are being clicked for. So what I did was sitting right in front of the mat, but kept the spoon (with the chicken baby food on it) close to my body, so it's not stretched out as an invitation for her to eat it. We waited for about 60 seconds of nothing happening, then finally Oscar had one paw on the mat and I clicked for that. We did that a couple times until she's consistent with it. Then we tried with my leg hanging down in normal sitting position. I could definitely tell this makes a difference with Oscar, because even though she had been pretty consistent with my legs folded up, she hesitated when my body language changed (legs hanging down now), but we waited for about 20 seconds, and then she felt confident enough and tried her paw on the mat again, and she got clicked for that. Again I fed her away from the mat, about a foot from the mat, just enough distance so that her paws would not be on the mat, so she would have to walk away from the mat to get the treat, so that would be easier for us to start the next set. We practiced that a couple more times to make sure she knows to do at this situation, then I decided to move myself and the chair straight back and away from the ledge about 1 foot more, so at this location, Oscar can't even touch me without jumping off the ledge. With this new challenge, we went back to my legs folded up, but still feed her about a foot away from the mat after the click. Then we tried my legs hanging down. After she's okay with that, I decided to move the chair further back again, and of course going back to the basics each time the distance changes. At this distance, I was away from the ledge enough that I was actually sitting next to the long table in the livingroom, so after Oscar was okay with the previous, I decided to increase the distance that Oscar needs to go away from the mat to get the reward. Before she must walk about 1 foot away from the mat after the click to get the treat, then I increased it to two feet. At first she was a little confused but after one try she caught on to that too. Also you realize when she has to walk 2 feet to get the treat as reward, this also means she needs to walk two feet back to the mat in order to get the next click. So this is an additional challenge. But Oscar learned it quickly, then I decided that she must walk across the drop (between the ledge and the table) in order to get to the treat and then walk across the drop to get back onto the mat, this is about 3 feet distance each way for her. She quickly caught on with that too. Sometimes I fed her right on the table's edge, so she had her front paws on the table, and her back paws still on the ledge, her body all stretched out, kind of elegant and funny in a way. I know the above sounded like we did a lot, but all it took us probably only 20 minutes, small increments each time, plus some time for the waiting game when Oscar tries to figure out how to get me to click, but she figured it out each time. What a smart girl!
Since Oscar's going through a jar of meat flavored baby food every three days, and each jar is like 60 cents, I am thinking about making our own baby food to save some money. I did a little research on puree meats, we'll see if it's worth it when doing small amounts (probably 1-2 cups maximum at the time). Also I would have to freeze some for later use, but I'm not sure if Oscar would like previously frozen food. We'll see.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
I checked Oscar again last night, I did not see the little red bites on her tummy.
We practiced "go to mat" again last night. This time, I decided to place the mat at one end of the long table (6 foot long) in the livingroom. We started out again with me sitting right in front of the mat, click for one paw, then two paws, then four paws on the mat. Then with about 20 minutes of practice and slowly increasing the distance, near the end of the session, I was able to sit on one side of the table, with the mat on the opposite side (6 feet away), and have Oscar go all the way across the long table, walk from me to the mat, all four paws on the mat, sit on the mat, click, I extend the spoon out, then have Oscar walk six feet across the table back to me! I think is a great accomplishment for both of us! I still have not added the "mat" verbal cue yet, so I'll probably do that tonight or tomorrow night. Just like we did with "target", I'll probably start out saying "mat" at the same time I click, then slowly stretch out the time. After Oscar's okay with that, I'll probably start leaving the mat out, so she would realize that she would only get rewarded when I say "mat", this part is probably for next week, but I think Oscar is learning really fast. Another weird thing, when we did clicker training three weeks ago, when Tara smelled the food, she would be whining and pacing around, but this week, she would still whine a little bit but go back to sleep. Not sure what happened but maybe she realized I wouldn't give her Oscar's treats, no matter how much and how long she whines. This is sort of nice because Oscar can concentrate on me and not have to worry about a dog whining and pacing around near her.
Friday, May 4, 2007
I just it would be funny to mention that, Oscar's belly flaps when she runs, especially when she runs to greet me at the door when I come home everyday. Anastasia comes to greet me occasionally, maybe once a week, and Tara tries to find me when she smells my scent, but Oscar's the one does it everyday, just like a dog!
Last night we added verbal cue to the "mat" behavior. I just clicked and said "mat" at the same time, and we practiced about two minutes with that.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
I caught Tara eating cat poop this morning! Before I just had a suspicion, but this morning, after I woke up and went to the bathroom, I saw that Oscar's litter box had been used, but I didn't smell anything so I didn't know if she pooped or peed, so I thought I would check after I got out of the bathroom. Well, I then saw Tara walking back there and I immediately knew there's poop there and that she could smell it (Tara has a very strong scent ability), so I yelled her name, but she completely ignored me, and when I ran up to her, she was swallowing and smacking her lips.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Anastasia watches Oscar and I when we are doing clicker training and that makes Oscar nervous, so I give chicken to Anastasia too to keep her occupied and eyes off Oscar. Anastasia eats a lot slower, so I can still concentrate on Oscar when we are training. Also hopefully this helps diffuses some jealousy from Anastasia with my spending extra time with Oscar (although Anastasia has always been very understanding when I spend extra time with dog training).
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Millie and Craig and Freckles went to Florida for a week of vacation. And they took Jeffrey with them so that they could meet his new adoptive family in Florida later this week. Millie said about Jeffrey, �I hate to admit that I never did start back crating him. I can give lots of excuses and know that it would have been best, but I just did not do it.
He is with Deb (an ESRA foster mom and volunteer near the Florida panhandle area) now until tomorrow when we meet his new family. Deb says that he and Tulip (Deb�s adopted ESRA dog) have had 2 skirmishes one about food another about who gets to sit closest to mom. When I took him to Deb's house he and Tulip (about Jeffrey's age) immediately started playing and it was such a joy to see. I don't often get to see real doggie play and it was a treat. Deb says they continue to play well and she has enjoyed having him. It�s great weather here at the beach, having a really good time....but for some reason I am not seeing as many dogs as usual. I usually see several Goldens and remember last yr I saw Gumbeaux the Springer (also an adopted ESRA dog, whose family lives in Florida part time of the year). It�s more fun when you see more doggies.�
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Well, last night when I came I home I had clear evidence that Anastasia's able to jump out of the baby gate too. For whatever reason, Anastasia had been chasing Oscar more in the past week, and on Monday night I found an additional bare spot due to overgrooming on Oscar's left elbow (and also it could be from my overmedicating Oscar with crab apple flower essence). So yesterday, I plugged in Feliway for the entire day (and also backed off on the crab apple per Virginia's advice), and set up the baby gate trying to separate the cats again (and also a way to keep Tara out of Oscar's open litter box when I am not there to supervise; I will change the litter box to another hooded one, the spare one that Anastasia has, at the next box cleaning). Before I left home, I checked and made sure Anastasia was sleeping in the car seat by the window in the bedroom, and I closed the baby gate. However, when I came home, I first saw Anastasia sleeping on the dog bed in the livingroom (!), and Oscar jumped across the baby gate, running from the bedroom to greet me at the door. I still have no idea how Anastasia jumped out, and I don't know if she would be able to jump from the hallway back into the bedroom, even though it should supposedly be the same. Anyways, I still kept the baby gate closed this morning, to keep Tara out of Oscar's litter box when I'm not at home.
So, last night, after I washed my hands and took Tara out potty after I came home, I went into the kitchen to prepare dinner. When I passed by the kitchen earlier, one of the cabinet doors was open and there were some white wrapping paper out (the door next to the oven and I store wrapping papers in there), but that had happened before, when Oscar gets bored and wants attention, she would open cabinet doors. It's just a little strange she did it when I wasn't at home, maybe she was stressed for whatever reason? Anyways, because of the prior experience, I didn't pay a lot of attention to the open cabinet door and paper on the ground when I passed by the kitchen when I first came home. But then I was in the kitchen and turned on the light, I saw that the kitchen trashcan (open-top kind, no lid) was also out, and all the trash strewned all over the floor! But amazingly, the door of the cabinet where I kept the trashcan in (under the sink), it was closed. And the food processor that I kept in front of that door so Oscar can't open that particular door (she only weighs 8 pounds and the food processor weighs more than she does), it was pushed however slightly to the side, but still right next and against to the cabinets under the sink. I have no doubt that Tara and Oscar worked together, because Tara had never opened any of the cabinet doors before (Virginia gave me that food processor when Oscar moved in with me, and none of my other animals had opened any cabinet door before, even without the food processor in front of the door but child-proof latch inside; but as Millie had said before, if Lexi had lived with me longer, she would've found the way to open it too; Lexi's one of those smart dogs who tries to entertain herself if she gets bored), and Oscar would've never been able to push that heavy food processor away from the door or go through the trash that way. I don't even think I had any food items in the trash that morning, and I don't know if Tara and/or Oscar had eaten anything from the trashcan. I think somehow Tara bumped in the food processor to kick it away from the cabinet door, then Oscar easily opened the cabinet door (yes she knows how to open child-proof latch, but I think Anastasia and all the dogs who have/had lived there do not), and then Tara (and maybe Oscar too) raided it. Oh well. After no trash-raiding incident for six years that I've lived in this apartment, I guess it's finally time for finding a more secure waste disposal system. So after I took Tara for a campus walk last night, I stopped by Walmart and bought another trash can, the kind with metal outer shell, no-rim lid, and step-on pedal. Tara and Oscar won't be able to lift open the lid this way without opposable thumbs, plus the tight-fitting lid will help contain any food odor (just imagine how much more enticing the trash would smell like to the animals if I eat meat), and the metal shell would be too tough for Tara to bust open. Well, actually, I'm hoping they won't figure out how to step on the pedal...
Oscar threw up again last night, which she hadn't done for over a week. But I guess with her overgrooming in the last few days, it was to be expected, even though I have been giving her hairball paste for over a monoth. Oscar threw up on the knapsack where Virginia kept Oscar's clothes, in the bedroom, so I had to clean up the mess on the cardboard boxes and wash the knapsack. And how did I find out the vomit that was hidden in the bedroom when I was watching TV in the livingroom? I saw Tara walking back to the bedroom and I was worried she smelled cat poop, but when I followed her back into the bedroom, she was sniffing on the other side next to Virginia's cardboard boxes. I couldn't figure out why she was sniffing there, but I knew it had to be a reason. So I looked around and tried to locate any food smell, and I smelled cat food (which shouldn't be any because all food are kept near the kitchen) and found the pile of vomit. Tara and her amazing nose.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
This morning I practiced clicker training with Oscar (did this before her breakfast, thinking she would be hungry enough to work extra hard for the chicken). We've been just doing associating "mat" with the go to mat behavior. Oscar is now very good about having all four paws on the mat at the same time, but so far what happens most of the time would be, she would walk across the mat, and I would click when all four of her paws were on the mat. Then this morning, she was walking fast across the mat, half of the time I couldn't even catch her with all four paws on the mat. I think she thinks I've been clicking for the very specific behavior "going to mat" or even "walk across mat". Anyways, the final behavior I actually want is "going to and then sit on mat", so then I decided to ignore walking across the mat and only reward for sit or stand with all four paws on mat. It took Oscar a couple tries, but she learned to sit on mat quickly also. We'll practice more with that and the "mat" verbal cue. Also we've been practicing at various locations and Oscar has done well with that, even on the ledge, so I think Oscar has generalized the behavior to all locations. Then maybe by this weekend, I can just leave the mat out even when we're not practicing, so she would realize she would get rewarded for the behavior when I say "mat".
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
An update of Jeffrey from Millie, �Well, just as I was lamenting that I had not seen any Springers on this trip (other than Jeffrey, Freck and Tulip!) I ran into one this afternoon. His name is Oscar......how bout that! They live in Birmingham and dad (probably in his mid 30s) was telling me that Oscar was getting into garbage, eating his wife's (I guess they were married) underwear, and generally being bad. When I told him I did rescue, he asked if I wanted to rescue Oscar....but upon further discussion, that was all in jest. Anyway, I got my new Springer fix for the week! He is a cute 3 yr old L/W 68 pounds with a head like a St Bernard. He was so cute, he just looked like trouble. I am sitting here at the computer hoping Jeffrey will write but I will bet he is too busy soaking up the attention and swimming!�
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Another update from Millie, �Finally! Unfortunately, Deb was unable to groom him prior to his transport since he did not like the clippers so he was a little on the ragged side when she got him, much to my embarrassment but anyway, she likes him...so far. Yea!� (the following is from Jeffrey�s new mom)
�What a wonderful dog! You certainly did a great job as his foster mother. We went to the vet today to get chipped. You'll be interested in knowing that one of the vet techs was from Birmingham and her Mother uses the same vet you use. Small world! Anyway, he is in the best of health - now weighs 56 lbs - and the vet thinks he is between 18 mos. and
2 years of age. So we made his official birthday yesterday! One question - has he ever been to the groomer. Since I can't keep him out of the pool already the vet suggests that I get his ears trimmed on the underside to keep more air flowing. I was just wondering what kind of experience this is going to be for him. I'll keep you posted and send some pictures. Oh, yes, he thinks the cat is great, but the cat has a few more days yet before he thinks the same.�
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
An update of Jeffrey from Millie, �Things are looking good. I had talked to (Jeffrey�s new mom) about using the crate some which I think she will do. I am happy...he sounds like he is having fun!�
(and from Jeffrey�s mom:)
�So far, the transition is going very well. I did have him in puppy day care this afternoon, and he enjoyed it. He hasn't gotten into too much "trouble" when I'm not home. However, I am going to try the crate again for the short times I'm away. He definitely has more energy than my other Springers! But he is very intelligent (as you know) and has learned new commands already. The one I'm working on now is to go in the pool only when invited - not every time he comes in from the back yard. He has loved zooming around the back yard and is working on rid my yard of lizards, squirrels, pigeons, and the occasional mallard ducks. So far the birds don't excite him. I'll keep in touch.�
