Friday, March 23, 2007
Tara had "killed" three of the cat�s fur mice. I just found the third one this morning. For now I�ll just leave one or two cat toys on the floor, so Tara won�t destroy more of them. I started putting Rescue Remedy with Tara�s meals, thinking that there are so many changes in the past few days, that she might feel anxious. I think both Tara and Oscar did miss Virginia for a day or two, but not Anastasia. We took Anastasia with us to the airport, and when Virginia took Anastasia with her to the restroom, Virginia said Anastasia started getting anxious and meowed! Anastasia probably thought Virginia�s taking her away from me. Anyways, sometimes I forget to the put the supplements into Tara�s food until she�s already eating it. With fatty acid, I just put my hand between her mouth and the food and deliver the liquid with dropper. I also do this on regular basis with treats, so Tara would not guard her food from me. She has no problem with me putting the fatty acid in the bowl while she�s eating and would continue eating. However, with Rescue Remedy, I�m sure it�s got a distinct smell, at least to dogs, because whenever I put it via dropper while Tara�s eating, she would immediately back up one or two feet, like I just put something bad in her food. Maybe she smelled the alcohol that�s the carrier for the flower essence or something, anyways, I always have to nudge her and tell her it�s okay to eat again.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Oscar is still scared of Tara and hisses and howls when Tara gets close to her. I found a small pile of vomited hairball on the carpet, with black hair, so I think it's Oscar's. Anastasia was watching us with curiosity and some jealousy (I think) when I was doing clicker training with Oscar this morning. So after I fed Oscar and Tara breakfast (dry kibbles), I gave Anastasia wet food. But she threw up. It might just be hairball, so I gave her a fiber capsule.
Oscar has learned to bat the ping-pong ball out of her food bowl! At first, yesterday it was just when there were few kibbles on the bottom and she couldn't get to them even when nudging the ball. Then this morning, she did it even when there were half amount of food left in the bowl. I didn't want her to eat too fast, so I put the ball back.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Oscar refused to eat tuna flakes as treats for clicker training this morning. I had no choice but to bring out defrosted �frozen� Bil-Jac (I forgot to buy baby food from the store yesterday). Oscar loves Bil-Jac, she has loved it since her days at the pet orphanage and we used to give it to the dogs as treats and we would give her some too because she seemed so interested in it. Definitely it's making her do clicker training. I think she's got the idea that sniff-tip = click = treats, but I want to keep at it for a couple more days, especially at different locations to make sure she doesn't think it's location specific, before adding the verbal cue.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Update from Curtis, �It sounds as if Faith is in a good place and all are happy. They called me to check in and report last weekend and everybody was reportedly doing well. I will do the follow-up in this case and I�ll be interested in learning how Faith and the older retriever are getting along. The initial report was that they were mutually tolerant. I will be curious about the relationship after time. I will be concerned to know if Faith is feeling comfortable in her home and is calming down.�
I figured out that with certain bowls, Oscar can�t bat the ping-pong ball out. So I just ignored her and thinking she would persist (like Anastasia) to bat the ball out. But no, Oscar looked at me and then proceeded to eat out of Anastasia�s bowl. So I quickly got the ball out from her own bowl so she went back to eating her own food. Last night when Tara and I got home from the dog park, I saw Oscar running out of the bedroom, with Anastasia running right behind her! Poor Oscar. Oscar is getting better and better with targeting. I think she's already got the idea, but right now she's more reluctant to do it when she doesn't see the treats (if I hide the treats in my back). Also, Oscar is still a little scared of Tara, whenever Tara is near her and walking around (smelling Bil-Jac), then Oscar gets nervous and would keep looking at Tara and would not focus on me or the treats at all.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
I finally tried hydrogen peroxide on Tara yesterday to see if it would help reduce bad breath, and it did! So I am trying it on Anastasia today. And strangely, Tara stopped licking her shoulder also, and I don�t have to put the doggie pajamas on her (it needs to be washed anyways, it smells of her bad breath). This morning as Oscar was on the cat tree and Tara was walking past it, Oscar hissed and swatted her paw on Tara's back. Tara did not care. Tara was still not liking the doggles, and last night she licked some cheese on the tray as I was in the kitchen getting water. So I decided to give her the cheese, but have her work for it, i.e. wearing doggles while eating cheese. I think she's getting more tolerant of the doggles already.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
I still saw Anastasia chasing Oscar last night a couple times, but thank goodness no hissing in the middle of the night. Also as I'm readying through the horse clicker training book to review on clicker training (while still waiting for the cat clicker training book to arrive from the library; besides, one of the trainers from the cat clicker list said training cats are more like training horses than like dogs), it reminded me to not go too fast, to set up for success, so the animal won't get discouraged. There was a lack of improvement with Oscar's targeting in the past day or so, and I think it was because I was pushing too far (wanting her to walk half way across the room to target), so now I'm back at having her target about 1 foot away, and it seems like she's back at targeting more reliably. And also I've found that Oscar has much sharper hearing than Anastasia and Tara, so she's more distracted by the loud click sound (I'm using the regular clicker), so now I hide the clicker and treats in left hand behind my back, and then show her the stick with my right hand. Also I put a colored tape onto one of the tips of the stick, to make the tip look more distinct. More about Oscar getting distracted by sounds, I remembered that when training dogs, it says to put the other dogs in the other room to decrease distraction. Well, I finally decided to do that with Oscar, put Anastasia in the bedroom, and then Tara into the hallway. However, Tara kept bumping into the closed hallway door, Oscar was distracted with the banging sound and would not focus on me, so that did not work either. Since yesterday, I think Oscar has gotten better with me, not hissing when I pet her, and I told her if she stays nice with me, than I'll continue to take care of her as best as I can, and I do love her as much as I love Anastasia and Tara, Oscar's our family's first cat, so what can I say. I decided to take Tara to the dog park yesterday afternoon, and I called Virginia to ask her which of the cats I should take to the park with us, and Virginia said to take Oscar, so we did. Oscar was in the backpack on my back so I didn't see her on the walk, but some people saw her, so she probably sat up at least during some of the walk. I do feel she appears to be calmer after the walk, and luckily Anastasia didn't get jealous from the special outing. I promised Anastasia I will take her next time.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Update of Peter from his mom, Deirdre. �I wanted to give you an update. Peter is doing great. We took him to a dog park this weekend and he was great. He was very sweet and social. We are going to keep making trips there with him. He's also doing really well with other children now that I'm working on the introductions. I think I just needed some tips to help him. I am going to sign him up for a class soon. I need to find something that works with Brian's travel schedule so I can take him by myself. I'll keep you updated.�
Friday, March 30, 2007
Oscar is still afraid of Tara when the dog gets near her.
Yesterday I took Tara and Anastasia to the dog park, as promised. Another young dog (Chow mix?) came up to sniff Tara (Tuesday it was a young Lab), she actually acted really nice and happy and let him sniff for a couple seconds, and then went on to sniff him. About three months ago, I tried CC&D with Tara at the dog park, that I carried treats with me, and that when she met other dogs (she's always leashed, the other dog comes up to sniff her), I would take out the treats and either lure her away or give it to her right after the other dog leaves, to reward her for being nice. I did that for two visits, but stopped (kept forgetting to bring treats with me). Occasionally if I take the treats out too early, then the other dog would push Tara away and wants the treats for himself. I used to ask the other owner if I could give their dog treat or just gave the dog treats without asking if the dog appeared to be hyper and my dog was acting annoyed, but I don't do that anymore. I'm a little annoyed that Tara got pushed away and she can't do anything about it because she's blind. Anyways, the other owner usually calls/pulls their dog away, and so far Tara has been acting nice and wait patiently for her turn to get the treat. I think after those two visits, she actually looks forward to the other dog sniffing her, because she thinks she would get rewarded after for it for being nice. And actually when I forget to bring the treats, after the other dog leaves, I would pet Tara and use that as reward. But I will try hard to remember bringing treats next time to work more on CC&D.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Last night Anastasia was sleeping next to the TV stand and Tara was lying next to me while I was watching TV. Then Tara stood up started pacing (sniffed something, going to get a drink of water in the kitchen?). Anastasia was being so persistent/stubborn/dominant, or whatever you want to call it, but the 8-pound cat refused to move, and as the 43-pound dog walked right into her, instead of jumping up and move (Anastasia knows Tara's blind, it took her a couple months to figure it out, but she does know now), Anastasia rolled on her back and hissed and batted her paws at Tara's face! Tara immediately backed up and licked her lips (nervousness?), but did not attack Anastasia (which she would've when she could see), so I went up to Tara and touched her to reassure her and lead her around the cat. Anastasia still did not move from her spot at this point, such a bully, luckily she's an indoor-only cat and only 8 pounds..., but I do think she knows her limits (since Tara had pinned her to the ground once about two weeks after they first met).