Paying It Forward

My friends, you all know I’m a blog lurker.  There are just times I don’t have anything to say or to add to a conversation in the blogosphere.  However, I’ve been lurking for the last few days around a blog that is new to me.  Crisitunity from over at Mars is Heaven is a blog  that my husband, the Corporate Prince frequents.

Crisitunity was recently laid off and has for some time been trying to save up for teacher training to become a yoga instructor.  She’s still shy of her goal, but is offering her short stories for a very reasonable price to fund this training.  A worthy cause, don’t you think?

Please go visit her blog and if you can, spread the word and buy a short story or two.

Again that link is:  Mars is Heaven

Thanks!

Quick Take- Casey Update

I haven’t seen Casey for a couple weeks.  I’m a bad horse mom, but I’ve been busy.  Usually when I’m out at the barn, Tasha is not.  So connecting can be hard.

But, I finally succeeded in getting a hold of her on Thursday!  Poor Tasha!  She’s in a wheel chair with a broken ankle.  On the plus side, it wasn’t Casey’s fault.

As we chatted, we discussed the move, her ankle, how the horses are doing with her in a wheel chair and of course, Casey!

Tasha says Casey has turned into the biggest sweetheart.  He’s done such a turn around with near constant turn out and a buddy that she’s got a confident beginner exercising him since she can’t.  Yep!  A confident beginner!  Betcha didn’t see that coming, did ya?  Tasha says she’s just working on getting him used to being rode by different people.  She also says he adjusts to accomodate each rider’s skill level.  Casey is more cautious and slow with beginners and stepping it up with the experts.  (He still has training sessions with the assistant trainer.)

Tasha says Casey doesn’t spook at anything any more.  She can even lead him while in her wheel chair and he’s very careful with her.  Not all the horses accept her wheel chair though.

Casey has also graduated to an Argentine bit.   Yay!  A big boy bit!  He’s still learning  to neck rein at speed.  He does fine and gets it at w/t speeds, just not at a canter or a gallop.   He works off the leg nicely and doesn’t need spurs anymore.

And lastly, there is a good chance that the horse moving to the new place with us to be Casey’s buddy will actually BE one of Casey’s buddies!  Tasha is thinking of selling Sir to us, one of the lesson horse’s Dude rides.  Sir is 20 and an Arab, so he’s got several more good years left.  The other potential is an 18 yr old Arab named Taz (but not my former Taz- this one is bay) who is also a lesson horse and is owned by the Barn Manager.  She’s starting to think about retiring Taz to a slower pace.  Both Sir and Taz are Casey’s turn out buddies.  He alternates spending time with each of them.  So, hopefully!  Either of these two would be great options for Casey and the kids!

I am so pleased with how Casey has turned out!  I feel so lucky to have found such a great horse hiding in that skinny, gimpy throwaway we brought home 9 months ago.

A little more time and some more miles and Casey just might make a great kids horse!  How exciting is that?!?!

Training Thursday: Bite Inhibition

Wow!  Today, I want to cover a super important topic to me right now, bite inhibition.  This is something I’m going through with Luna at the moment.

But first, the Luna update!

Luna is growing and is a bit less clumsy this week.  She’s had her first bath here and her puppy bumps are going away.  Luna is also eating solid food and has been switched over to a quality puppy kibble from Purina Puppy Chow, which is crap.   Luna plays with Copper at full speed and their play styles are similar, minus Copper’s herding abilities.

Here are this week’s pics:

Luna 9 weeks old

Pardon the “Mo chunks” on the floor.  He is shedding and there are now boxes in front of my vacuum cleaner.  Notice Smudge is watching over Luna, yet still out of the way of those rambunctious puppy paws!

"What? What are you looking at?"

Size comparison with Copper.  He is knee high and 45 lbs or so.

Playing Fang

(Copper just bowls her over when she gets out of hand)

Now that you’ve had your weekly dose of puppy cuteness, let’s get down to business!

Bite Inhibition is an important skill for every pup to learn.  It teaches them how to control the power of their jaws so they don’t hurt anyone or anything.  Without this important skill, any potential offense created by a child to the dog can result in a powerful bite.  Puppy must learn to control and restrain the power of her teeth on skin.  Merely teaching Puppy to keep her teeth off human skin isn’t good enough, because she’ll miss out on this very crucial lesson.  Bite inhibition is the first step to bite prevention.  Every puppy, everywhere should learn this.

Puppies begin learning bite inhibition usually before they ever leave the litter.   The mother and siblings play an important role in teaching Puppy how much is too much when biting.  This is one reason why it’s so important for Puppy to stay with her litter and mother until she’s at least 8 weeks old.  So much is taught about behavior and social interaction during this time.  Ideally, Puppy won’t come home with you until 10-12 weeks of age.  However, that’s not always the case or always possible.  (For instance, Luna’s mom quit nursing and dried up when Luna was 3 weeks old and she has a lower than average frustration tolerance as she didn’t have to compete for food, she was bottle fed all she wanted, whenever she wanted- we’re working on that).

So, here’s how we’re going to tackle this issue.  Every time Puppy puts her teeth on your skin with any pressure, I want you to yelp out an “OUCH!”  and quit playing with Puppy for a couple seconds.  This *should* cause Puppy to be startled, stop and look at you.  Go ahead and resume play.  If Puppy starts “sharking” (biting) again, stand up and walk away.  End play.  Right. Now!  Wait a few minutes and try again.  If Puppy bites again, end play for several minutes, give Puppy a bit of a rest and try again later.

The average puppy will learn to not shark sooner rather than later.  However, if you have a pup like Luna, it will take longer.  Also, never leave your pup in an area that is not puppy proofed.  If necessary, put her in a crate when you end play time.

Once Puppy has learned to not put any pressure in her jaws when her teeth are on People skin, we can move on to teaching Puppy to keep her mouth off of you, which is another lesson for later.

Luckily, the major shark phase doesn’t last as long as teething and Puppy will be over the worst of her chewing offenses in a few months.  In the mean time, remember to yelp “Ouch!” and end play for any biting behavior with any pressure to it and hold your temper.  Puppy doesn’t mean to hurt you.  It’s up to you to teach her better.

P.S. This also works with any age dog!

My first award!

Aunt Krissy gave me this award!  Thanks Aunt Krissy!  I’ve never won a blog award before!

So, the rules of the Scrap award say you need to list 10 honest things about yourself.  Here goes!

1. More often than not, I’m a procrastinator.   I usually wait until the last minute to do something then, under stress, jam out a quality product or job.  Don’t know why.  It’s just how I am.  For instance, I’m procrastinating on today’s Training Blog.  It’ll be up today, but not until later.  I know!  Shoulda already had it wrote!  Oh, and I received this award several days ago but didn’t blog about it until now.  It’s still taking me time to write this.

2. I can be a bit of a control freak.  There are days when other people’s driving just wigs me out, because, well, I’m not in control.  And it’s usually when going at a good clip with traffic around.  This can translate over to horses too.  I don’t like not feeling in control so I often chicken out and choose not to canter.

3. I am not a big fan of having my curtains closed.  Must come from the long Alaskan winters, but I prefer letting the sunshine in.  So, don’t be peeping in my bedroom window unless you’re looking for a show!  lol

4. I have developed a love for quality shoes later in life than most women.  Anne Klein, Ariat,Steve Madden to name a few!  However, I rarely get the chance to wear them.  That’ll be changing soon with my Ariats anyways.  The heels, not so much.  But I still love them!

5. Most of my horsey stuff has come off of ebay.  I’m known to be a smart and savvy shopper there, often comparing prices with those in town.  CP calls me “auctionbot1227″ because of this.  However, I always appreciate a good deal and love that I can find blankets for a fraction of in town costs.

6. I can’t stand to have my picture taken.  Honestly, it’s not because I’d rather be behind the camera, but because I never resemble the image of myself that I see in my head.  Yes, I suffer from some low-level body image dysmorphia or whatever it’s called.

7. Whenever I don’t have any money to spend, I find like a gazillion things to buy.  But when I do have money to spend, I can’t make up my mind or I decide against whatever it was I thought I couldn’t live without.  For instance, I just got a $32 paypal refund for something.  I want to spend it, but can’t figure out what I want to spend it on.

8. I’m really having a hard time coming up with 10 things.  After all, I’m pretty open here already.

9. I stopped writing this blog to spend my $32.  I chose a couple wall mountable saddle racks for the new place.  I’m tired of waiting for CP to be around with my truck so I can get a couple eye bolts, some hooks and a 4″x4″ so I can make some cheap ones.  Honestly, when it’s all said and done, the racks I just bought probably cost as much as if I got the supplies to make the cheap, wooden ones.

10. Can I be done now?  I’m kinda out of things to say for now.  Since this is a cop-out, I’ll answer the next 3 honest questions left in the comment section by the first 3 commenters.  To clarify, that’s one question each.

Now for the rules:

List 10 honest things about yourself.

Link back to the person who nominated you.

Nominate 7 other people and pass them the rules.

So, I nominate:

dp from Food For Founder

KacyK from All Horse Stuff

Melanie from Horses, Kids and Homework!

SquirrelGurl from Notes From The Squirrel Nest

Stephanie from The School of Life with Horses

Ok, so it’s not 7, but this award has gone around a bit.  If I missed you and you don’t have this award, please feel free to partake of it anyways!

Quick Take- Pony Shopping!

We’re slowly starting to look for a second horse as a companion for Casey.  Need to have a second horse before we get him moved some time in August.  And we’re looking for a couple de-budded wethers as well to assist with brush clean up.

So, if you’re within 50 miles of Portland, you’re welcome to suggest horses and goats to us!

Not sure if I want a project horse or an older, close-to-being-a-retiree the little kids can learn on.  We don’t want to spend a lot and I do have a soft spot for rescue- I need help type situations.   Our only real requirements is that the prospective horse load and stand for the farrier.  Beyond that, we can work on things.   Ideally, I’d like to keep the price under $1000.    I know!  I’m not wanting  spend much, but there are always horses who need good, loving homes!

As for goats, we feel the optimum number is 2.  Gotta keep the blackberries mowed down.  Not really looking for a milk goat as we dont use enough milk to justify it.

I won an award too from Aunt Krissy!  I’ll post about that later though!

Having THAT Day

So, I started packing up the dvds today.  I’ve got about 6 large boxes of stuff already packed sitting down here in my living room.  And they’re not light!

Then, I realized that the Disney Princess is supposed to be dropping off Doodle tomorrow and the carpet looks nasty.  Mo, Doodle’s cat is not 100% litter box trained.  So, I decided to steam clean the carpet.  Honestly, Mo’s behaviors sometimes keep me from inviting anyone over at all.

So, I moved the boxes into the dining area, leaving just a narrow walk way in which to move from the kitchen to the livingroom with the steam cleaner reservoir and I could carry the steam cleaner itself over the boxes.

I put the footstool up on the couch along with Doodle’s birthday presents I still have to wrap.  Then, I picked up the cats’ cardboard scratcher thing that you rub catnip into.  I put it on top of the footstool, which is on the couch.

As soon as I’ve got the carpet cleaned, as I’m dumping the final bit of yucky water, Mo knocks the scratcher over onto the wet carpet.  Murphy’s Law, it lands upside down! Now there are bits of cardboard and catnip all over my carpet and I can’t vacuum them up because the carpet is wet!

So, what does Mo do?  He rolls around in the cardboard and catnip bits on the wet carpet, getting cleaning solution all working into his long hair and he’s pretty damp!  So then I have to give the stupid cat a bath so he doesn’t die from licking the carpet cleaning solution off himself.

And if that’s not bad enough…

Dude was helping me give Mo the said bath.  The second I let go of Mo to grab a towel, Dude opened the door and ran out of the bathroom!  So then there was this long haired, soaked, dripping cat streaking around the house looking for somewhere to hide!

Arrrgh!  It’s one of those days!

Training Thursday: Puppy’s Rule of Twelve

First, the Luna update!

Luna has learned her name, is switching off of the icky puppy food her breeder had her on and adjusting to a new, better food.  She is now sleeping through the night.  Luna is also beginning some rudimentary target training of my hand, which makes it easier for me to catch her when she’s being a wild wildebeest.  We are also actively working on bite inhibition, which we’ll talk about next week.

We have found that Luna does not like it when flocks of birds fly over the fence.  She startles and then her hair stands up.  This is something we’ll have to work on as we plan on having chickens at the new house.

Additionally, while outside the other day, we heard a dog fight in the neighborhood.  This also upset Luna, causing upset barks and growls along with her hair raised again.

Luna has gone on a couple short car rides and one really long one with stops.  The long one resulted in her being car sick.

We have found a suitable puppy class near where we are moving that she can start after she is 10 weeks old.  The next session starts July 11th and lasts 8 weeks.  Afterwards, we will be going to obedience classes at the same place so Luna can learn to focus and be responsive in a distracting environment.  (There are no trainers in our new town!  Maybe an opportunity for me??)

And now for our training topic today:

Puppy’s Rule of Twelve

Puppies need a great deal of socialization at an early age to help them grow up into well-adjusted companions. The list of activities below was developed as a fun way to properly socialize your new pet.

Make sure all experiences are safe and positive for the puppy. Each encounter should include treats and lots of praise. Slow down and add distance if your puppy is scared!

By the time a puppy is 12 weeks old, he/she should have:

Experienced 12 different surfaces: wood, carpet, tile, cement, linoleum, grass, wet grass, dirt, mud, puddles, deep pea gravel, grates, uneven surfaces, on a table, on a chair, etc.

Played with 12 different objects: fuzzy toys, big and small balls, hard toys, funny sounding toys, wooden items, paper or cardboard items, milk jugs, metal items, car keys, etc.

Experienced 12 different locations: front yard (daily), other people’s homes, school yard, lake, pond, river, boat, basement, elevator, car, moving car, garage, laundry room, kennel, veterinarian hospital (just to say hi and visit, lots of cookies, no vaccinations), grooming salon (just to say hi), etc.

Met and played with 12 new people (outside of family): include children, adults (mostly men),elderly adults, people in wheelchairs, walkers, people with canes, crutches, hats, sunglasses, etc.

Heard to 12 different noises (ALWAYS keep positive and watch puppy’s comfort level—we don’t want the puppy to be scared): garage door opening, doorbell, children playing, babies screaming, big trucks, loud motorcycles, skateboards, washing machine, shopping carts, power boat, clapping, loud singing, pan dropping, horses neighing, vacuums, lawnmowers, birthday party, etc.

Been exposed to 12 fast moving objects (don’t allow puppy to chase): skateboards, roller-skates, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, people running, cats running, scooters, vacuums, children running, children playing soccer, squirrels, cats, horses, cows, etc.

Experienced 12 different challenges: climb on, in, off, and around a box; go through a cardboard tunnel; climb up and down steps; climb over obstacles; play hid and seek; go in and out a doorway with a step up or down; exposed to an electric sliding door; umbrella; balloons; walk on a wobbly table(plank of wood with a small rock underneath); jump over a broom; climb over a log; bathtub (and bath); etc.

Handled by owner (and family) 12 times a week: hold under arm (like a football), hold to chest, hold on floor near owner, hold in-between owner’s legs, hold head, look in ears and mouth, touch in between toes, hold and take temperature (ask veterinarian), hold like a baby, trim toe nails, hold in lap, etc.

Eaten from 12 different shaped containers: wobbly bowl, metal, cardboard box, paper, coffee cup, china, pie plate, plastic, frying pan, Kong, treat ball, spoon fed, paper bag, etc.

Eaten in 12 different locations: back yard, front yard, crate, kitchen, basement, laundry room, bathroom, friend’s house, car, school yard, bathtub, up high (on work bench), under umbrella, etc.

Played with 12 different puppies (or safe adult dogs) as much as possible.

Been left alone safely, away from family and other animals (5-45 minutes) 12 times a week.

Experienced a leash and collar 12 different times in 12 different locations.

Even if your puppy is over 12 weeks old he/she will benefit from these tips.

Start socialization right away!

Quick Take!

Totally forgot to tell you all with all the Luna excitement this past week!  We signed papers on the house on Monday!  We take posession on July 16th!

Wordless Wednesday

The puppy princess surveys her kingdom for the first time

Luna’s First Appearance On My Blog

Now, to unveil her puppy cuteness, drum roll please!

(yes, that is my saddle there in the corner)

Whatcha got, Mom? Is it tasty?

The wiggliness of the pup is such that good photos are not possible.  It’s wet outside and she doesn’t like it, so we’ll work on better pics when the grass is dry.  And I have had more sleep.

Speaking of sleep, Luna is still crying, howling, whining and throwing temper tantrums thorough out the night despite sleeping in a crate next to our bed.  She has quite the temper and can be quite demanding.  We will not cave and let her sleep with us so she tells me that I am just the meanest and cruelest Mommy E-V-E-R.

I have come to realize she has a low level of frustration tolerance.  I believe this comes from being bottle fed at 3 weeks, when her mother dried up and her breeder began bottle feeding the whole litter.  Not having to compete for food, not being pushed and shoved around during feeding can limit the amount of frustration a pup experiences.  Not experiencing much frustration obviously lowers tolerance levels.  So, we may have a little remedial work ahead of us.

Other than that, her cuteness is learning the rules of the house and is eating well.  We are getting on a schedule too.

More puppy cuteness in the days ahead!