08:16 – All of my Saturnalia shopping is done, such as it is.
Yesterday, Barbara picked up an early Saturnalia present for Colin, not that he much likes it. It’s a snout twister collar. It has a running loop, one end of which is connected to the leash, with the loop around his snout. If he attempts to pull on the leash, it pulls down and to one side on his snout. It does indeed stop him from pulling, but it does little or nothing to stop him from leash-fanging. He grabs the leash in his fangs and works his way up the leash, usually getting it wrapped around him in a big tangle, and sometimes wrapped around me. At one point when he was much younger (and lighter), I ended up with him hanging completely airborne like a hooked fish from the handle of the leash.
Unlike all our other Border Collie pups, Colin is rather timid. Duncan and Malcolm, for example, started going up and down the stairs to the basement the first day we had them home. It took Colin weeks to get up the nerve to go up the stairs, let alone down them. If I threatened Duncan or Malcolm with a rolled-up newspaper (which I call a dog beater), they’d yap at me, look me straight in the eye, and say, “I’m not afraid of you!” Colin, conversely, cringes and pulls away.
We’ve never abused him or done more than tap his rear end with the dog beater, but sometimes Colin acts afraid of me. For example, I’ll offer him a treat and he’ll follow me to the treat jar in the kitchen. But as I’m getting the treat out of the jar, he disappears. I’ll find him at the end of the hall or in the bathroom acting as though he’s afraid I’m going to hit him. So we decided to stop using the dog beater and just speak sternly to him when we need to adjust his behavior.
Interestingly enough, our dogs still won’t go down the stairs into the basement, except on rare occasions when my wife goes to the basement. And even then they are inclined to stay out of the basement.
Re: Leash fanging
I used to teach group puppy training classes for fun. Leash fanging was not uncommon with the herding breeds.
A technique that worked well for many students was attaching two leashes to the head collar. One would drag, the other in the students hand. When the fanging commenced the student picked up the non-fanged leash and dropped the fanged leash.
Most pups (which from the stories you’ve told may not be Colin) gave up leash fanging after a few weeks. It simply wasn’t any fun when the leash lacked tension.
You’d need to switch to a conventional lead for a bit – naturally the results would be unsatisfactory with a Flexi (imagine the clatter-clatter-clatter of the dropped Flexi ‘chasing’ Colin).
It’s worth a try – most folks own multiple leashes or can honky hack something.
I’ve also seen folks try chain leashes, but am not fond of them myself. Seen too many human hands welted on them, and tooth damage with pips that didn’t have the sense to not fang them.
Colin sounds like he has enough personality for three dogs. Hearing about his antics has been entertaining.
-Jennifer
Our retrievers are not the least bit shy of the basement here. Unfortunately, sometimes.
My wonderful and smart Irish setter, used to go to the basement if she needed to do any business, and we were not at home. She carefully placed herself over the drain and did whatever was necessary. Cleanup was just a matter of hosing everything down the drain. While she seemed very smart in most regards, she twice ran away and could not find her way home. Fortunately, the collar tag was her salvation.
Ah, Chuck, not to insult your dog, but Irish setters are generally considered to be–how can I put this politely?–morons among dogs, down there with Afghan hounds, mastiffs, borzois, basenjis, chows, bulldogs, and so on.
Years ago, I read a book devoted to the intelligence of different dog breeds. I took it with a grain of salt then, but IIRC the author’s conclusions have been pretty well borne out by others. IIRC, he ranked them according to how well they learned to obey commands and perform certain tasks. He used the Border Collie as his baseline, giving approximate multiples for other breeds. For example, what a BC learned after one repetition (if not on its own), the dumbest breeds wouldn’t be able to master after literally a thousand reps.
Of course, even the dumbest dog is worlds smarter than the smartest cat.
Oops. I may have done Chuck’s dog a disservice. I just found what I think is the same list from that book I mentioned, and it ranks Irish setters about average.
Setters, Retrievers and any of the hunting/herding dogs are smart, some are wicked smart, but are like humans so that even though the breed is smart, you’ll still get morons.
I don’t know about dumb cats, we feed them, we pet them, some of us have “houses” (not I) for them. The majority of us have a litter box, and attend to their waste. Seems just about as smart as any dog, if you compare how well they’ve trained their human “owners”.
The woman who cut my Irish’s hair, thought they were a dumb breed, but when she saw the dog respond to spoken commands in plain English sentences, with no visual cues at all, she changed her mind about that dog. We had dogs when I was growing up, but even my dad (who had even more as a kid) admitted that that Irish was so smart that I would likely never have another dog that intelligent.
Had a friend with a BC, and there is no doubt they are a smart breed. However, they are just plain hyperactive if they do not live on a farm. My Irish always knew I would get to her needs, and rarely demanded attention, but waited patiently for me to get to her. My friend with the BC was driven nuts by the BC’s pestering — which included various escapades that were most surely aimed at making the guy sorry he ‘ignored’ the animal when it demanded attention.
People who’ve never had a Border Collie ridicule me when I tell them that BCs are capable of not just deductive logic, but inductive logic as well. But I’m totally serious, and anyone with a BC can confirm that.
I’m thinking about getting Colin his own Kindle. He keeps getting snout marks on the screen of mine. At first, I thought he thought it was a Kindle Touch, but then I realized that he was actually pushing the page turn buttons with his snout. It’s just that his nose is too large to avoid getting the screen as well.
Bill wrote:
“I don’t know about dumb cats, we feed them, we pet them, some of us have “houses” (not I) for them.”
I’ve *never* met a cat I liked. I’ve met a few dogs I don’t like, but I get on just fine with about 95% of them. I think we should abolish all taxes, but introduce a cat tax on owners. Set the rate high enough to run a basic government, and declare cats/their owners who don’t pay up outlaws.
If I were a fireman and an old lady called me because her cat was stuck in a tree, I’d get it down for her. With the fire hose.
Yet another tale from my mom’s days as a sheriff’s deputy: a little old lady called for help because little Fluffy was stuck up in a tree. The deputy who answered the call told her that the fire department didn’t roll out to get cats from trees any more. “But you have to help her! She’ll starve to death up there!” The response, “Relax, Ma’am. Fluffy will get herself down. Have you ever seen a cat skeleton up in a tree?” did not go over well with the old woman. The deputy officially got yelled at and privately was told it was pretty funny.
Well, if I were a cop I wouldn’t have a fire hose, so I’d just get the cat down with my shotgun.
Greg wrote:
Outlaws don’t pay taxes, Greg. They’ll end up raising yours to make up for it.
RBT wrote:
“If I were a fireman and an old lady called me because her cat was stuck in a tree, I’d get it down for her. With the fire hose.”
I’d get it down for her with my shotgun.
Bill wrote:
“Greg wrote:
I think we should abolish all taxes, but introduce a cat tax on owners. Set the rate high enough to run a basic government, and declare cats/their owners who don’t pay up outlaws.
Outlaws don’t pay taxes, Greg. They’ll end up raising yours to make up for it.”
Ahh, but they wouldn’t be outlaws *yet*. They’d have the choice: pay $20000 per year for the “privilege” of keeping Fluffy or they and the critter will become outlaws and the house, car, superannuation, etc, are forfeit. That’s a pretty good incentive to stay on the right side of the law.