Two Big Changes (and a makeover)

We’ve had 2 big changes this week here at my house- and both are animal related.

The first big change is that we decided to try to keep Timmy here with us.  The person who expressed interest in giving him a home has not contacted us, so we are thinking that he didn’t have THAT much interest in him.  Since we are going to keep him, it was time to re-introduce him to the ‘big pond’ that he hasn’t been in since he was 3 days old.  He has gotten quite big since I last posted a picture of him.

He is almost all feathered out now.  The first day we let him out of his cage, I led him to the pond and he just stood beside it hiding in the taller grass.  I had to catch him and put him in it.  I was expecting him to jump right in I guess, but he was too scared and immediately jumped right back out.  So I took him over to this area and spread some food out for him and he stayed.  Then he discovered the little puddle by the waters edge and there is where he happily stayed for the rest of the day.  The puddle is shallow and he felt safe there. 

We caught him that night and put him back into the cage and let him out the following morning.  He went right back to his puddle and eventually sometime during the day he stepped over the edge of his puddle and into the big pond- but just swam right by the edge of his puddle.  He was testing out the waters :-)  He seems very happy out there and is not attempting to follow us to the house like I thought he would.  The cats and the dogs are used to him too, and I actually looked out and saw the one cat sitting 2 feet away from him on the first day.  I panicked and ran outside thinking that Timmy was being stalked.  Tarus was just sitting there eating a piece of bread that we had thrown out there!  lol  Timmy was just happily sitting by his ‘friend’!  Anyway, we spend a lot of time outside in the summer, and the pond is just right behind the garage, so he’s not as ‘alone’ as I thought he would be.  Hubs talks to him through the  open garage window a lot too :)

The other big change is one that I was not going to post about at first.  It can be a bit controversial and I do not want to open myself or my blog up to nasty comments about it.  But I decided that with the difference it has made in our lives, it was worth posting about if it might help someone else with their dog.

Our dog, Matty, has been a challenge.  She is just turning 2 years old and we have not been successful with training her to stay in the yard- it’s kind of hard when we can’t fence the whole thing in.  So when she needs to go out, our only option is to keep her tied or she will take off and run the orchard for hours at a time.  We do not want her to get lost, hurt, or hit by a car, so she gets tied.  She is wonderful in the house- if we call her, she comes running.  But, if we open one of the doors to go outside, she does her best to shoot out and has been successful many many times- too many times to even count.  If she hears you call her outside, she will take off and run further away.  Two of those times were as I was going out the door to work and there is no way to catch her.  I had to go to work on those days and worry the whole time and hope like heck that she was worn out and sitting on the porch waiting for me when I got home.  Luckily she was.   When we are cooking on the patio or just sitting out and enjoying the evening, it is spent trying to untangle her long leash from around the legs of the chairs or the rocks in the wall cause she likes to make her rounds and visit with every one of us :)  Like I said, she’s been a challenge.

One morning, she shot out the door when the boys were going out for the bus.  I ran out after her and tried to catch her.  She was ‘taking care of business’ in the back yard and I got within 2 feet of her and she saw me and took off- dropping the rest of  ‘her business’ as she went.  I was fuming!  I came right inside and started researching training collars.  My neighbors had used one on their ‘runaway’ dog, so I knew that they could be a great tool.  I found one at a decent price (but any price at that point would have been worth it to me) and I ordered it.  It came around the time that we started working on the patio.  Just so you know- I have tried every setting on that collar on my hand.  I wanted to know what it felt like.  None were painful, but the higher settings were uncomfortable, but no so uncomfortable that I couldn’t do it more than once.  I watched the instruction video several times- I wanted to be sure that we would be using it effectively.  I would take her outside with me on her 20 foot leash and I trained her to come to me when I pushed the Tone (beep) button.  She did great like that for days and would come running excitedly when I would have the collar in my hands to put on her because she knew she would be going outside with me.  Long story short- she bolted after something and broke away from her leash and no setting on that collar would make her stop.  I was convinced that her ‘will to run’ was just too strong.  I put the collar away deciding it would not work for us. 

Hubs and I were talking about it the other day when I had her on a leash in the garage with us.  I went up and got it and put it on her again.  She still remembered to come to me when I beeped her- which was good because we had worked so long on that.  I went ahead and tapped the lowest setting on her to show Hubs how it wasn’t working…she didn’t feel a thing.  I tapped the second setting….nothing.   Hubs called her over, and tightened the collar one more notch.  Lowest setting worked!  I would have sworn that I had that collar tight enough all that time!  Within 5 minutes, we had her off the leash and in the garage with us!  If she went to go outside the garage, she would return on Tone.  She walked outside the garage once and started to run down to hill to go behind the barn (one of her favorite spots to run because we can’t see her) and I pushed the Tone button and she literally made a U-turn and came right back up.  It was the most amazing thing ever!  We walked up to the upper garden with her, which is near the orchard (another place she always runs off to) and only needed to use the lowest setting on her twice when she would not respond to the Tone and us calling her back.  A total of 3 times that first day with the lowest setting (one of them being the ‘test’ one), and we have not had to use anything but the Tone button since!  She’s been outside with us for the last 3 days and she is now the dog we always wanted her to be!  The biggest relief for me is that when I get the collar out, she still comes running to get it on! 

I am still amazed at how well she has done.  For awhile, I was upset that I had spent all that time training her to come to Tone (while still on the leash) and I had felt that it was a lot of wasted time because the collar would not work for her.  In the video, they said that training collars may not work on all dogs- some just have a stronger will.  I was afraid that she was just one of those dogs and she would never be able to be outside with us without being tied.  This would have never been possible before…

I have had her on a short walk in the orchard with me and she walks right beside me now.  When I have taken her up there with the leash, she constantly pulled on it trying to sniff rabbit trails into the weeds.  It was rough and frustrating for me  (and her too, I guess).  She still thinks about taking off now, but she responds to my voice and stays with me.  It is literally a ‘night and day’ difference.  I am now so glad that we tried the collar again- and I am doubly glad that I did spend all that time training her to come to Tone and my voice.  I now think all that time made all the difference and made the transition that much easier.  I was afraid that it was going to be a long and hard process, and that I would just feel like I was torturing her, but it has been nothing like that at all. 

Where I was not a huge believer in using training collars before, I am now a convert.  If they are used as instructed and used with patience, they can work miracles without being harmful or cruel.  She is my baby and I would never want to do anything to hurt her, but I never want anything else to happen to her either when she would run off.  Now she is able to be my baby inside and outside :)

I haven’t been up to much else lately.  Mainly I have just been enjoying seeing my Timmy on the pond and my Matty enjoying the outdoors with the rest of us :)  I’ve been trying to get things organized for our vacation and will get back to crafting after that is over.  I almost forgot to show the trash to treasure thing that I mentioned in my last post! 

Remembered this firkin planter that I picked up at a yard sale recently?

I took the firkin off and put it in the redo pile- haven’t gotten to it yet.  But I was left with the sturdy stand that it came on.  I just couldn’t throw it away and I knew I would find a use for it eventually.  Well I ‘married’ it with another piece that I was going to throw in the trash.  It used to be one of the kids’ Easter baskets but the handle had come off.  I put them together and painted it up and here it is…

I wasn’t sure if it worked well together or not, but I kind of like it.  It will look great with flowers planted on it on the porch.  I was going to get flowers to fill it the other day, but I decided to wait until we get back.  I didn’t want to put any more responsibility on my neighbors- they have graciously offered to take care of our animals and watch our house while we are gone.  It can wait.

I have much to do before we go, so I doubt I will be posting anymore for awhile.  When I get back, I will be refreshed and ready to get back into the swing of things, and I will be looking forward to catching up on all my favorite bloggers!