A wild Helo has appeared!

I was looking back through some photos and this photo sequence gave me a giggle!

Arya was just minding her own business at the dog park when a wild Helo appeared!

"Oh great." She thought as the whirling tornado approached.

"ERROR IN JUDGEMENT, CORRECT PATHWAY... OH CRAP! CAN'T!"

"Hey, you wanna play?"

"NOPE."

"K, BAI!"

Walk in Sync and Freedom Harness Review

Helo has had a Freedom harness since he was 6ish months old. It does the job (discouraging him from forging by pivoting him around) but not effectively and I'm not totally happy with how it fits him. It comes across his shoulder right at the point where the scapula and humerus meet. Attempts to encourage it to sit higher usually ended by the end of a walk or training session with it back down lower.

A 9 month old Helo wearing the Freedom. 

In use, when Helo forges ahead the chest strap will buckle sideways - I'm not sure the best way to describe it. It tended not to pivot him much and largely he could ignore it because the chest strap was loose. All my attempts to fix this issue by tightening it made the harness sit on his body weird.

Further, the construction of the Freedom is such that it tended to pull on his long body hairs. Often little tufts of white hair would be found in the parts where the vertical strap met at the chest and neck. This is because instead of being sewn together, the chest strap loops around a portion of the chest and neck straps for some side to side flexibility.

Lots of Helo hair got caught in this part.

I do like the harness in general. The soft velvet on the chest strap is a very nice feature. I could see this harness working for dogs with short hair, with different conformation than my boy. For us it wasn't quite right. I am planning on trying the Freedom on the corgi, so I will report back in the future what I think of it on him.

We just got the Walk in Sync yesterday and already I'm much happier with how it fits Helo. I put it on him for CGC class and that night got a compliment on how well it fits him from someone we've taken a few classes from. It naturally sits up higher on his shoulder and when he forges or moves away, the front piece stays stable and pulls him around quickly.

I like that it doesn't come across his shoulder at any point.

For us, that is big because Helo really likes other dogs. He knows when he feels the tug to look back at me, but (my best guess) with the Freedom it tended to come after he was over threshold. Several times we were in close quarters with other dogs last night and he would be pivoted around to face me and just walk back as if to say "oh well I tried".

Now, don't get me wrong. Some of this is maturity and training. I've spent countless nights fretting that he would never find his brain again! Then I bonk myself on the head and remember he's an intact adolescent. But I definitely noticed a difference in just one training session with the Walk in Sync. Bonus? No white tufts of hair stuck on the harness when we were done!

Solid sewn together construction means no ripped hair!

**I purchased both the Freedom Harness and Walk In Sync for personal use. No money or items were given to me for this review. **

What's in a name?

A friend recently mentioned he is writing a blog on how he decided on his dog's name. I thought, "what a great idea!" so here we are.

Arya "Stark's Needle in a Haystack"

Arya's name comes from the series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. You maybe more familiar with it's television cousin (which follows the books surprisingly well) Game of Thrones. On a car ride home back in college, James and I ferried a friend back home with us and we spent a good few hours listening to stories about the series. Never one to be deterred by spoilers, soon after we bought it and gobbled the series up. Since then we've been absolutely obsessed!

It is hands down my favorite series written ever. A while later I adopted a black/brown little herdy mix adolescent from the Tacoma Humane Society. James was with me and we brainstormed. We joked about calling her Sansa but agreed that didn't feel right. We settled on one of our mutual favorite female lead characters. Arya the dog is probably a little more Sansa in personality - certainly a princess who doesn't like having to go potty in the rain and expects her dinner on time, thank you very much!

Her registered name - entirely made up because I'm silly like that - breaks down like the following. Stark's- Arya's family name in the series is Stark. Needle - Arya's weapon is a small sword given to her by her half brother Jon called Needle. In a Haystack - Arya is my one in a million dog and the World's Best Dog (just don't say it too loud around Mochi and Helo, ok?) I also like plays on words. A few people have complained dog show names are silly, people put too much thought into them. 

Well phooey on them. Even if my husband and I are the only ones who get a smile out of it, seeing her registered name on things like our RN certificate makes me smile.

Bow to me!

I don't suppose you have a cookie for me for shoving this camera in my face?

Mochi "Amsburg's Ninja Invasion"

We got Mochi a month after we were married. We had our honeymoon in Seattle. We thought it'd be cute to name him something off theme from Arya and settled on our favorite discovery in China Town - mochi. If you haven't eaten yet, the next time you catch yourself at an Asian market buy some! I'm particularly fond of the exotic fruit flavored ones like mango and passionfruit, but the peanut butter ones are good as well. The standard flavor is just rice flower and red bean paste. Some love it, some not so much.

In a case of I probably should have waited to name him until I actually owned him, I got really excited and bought an expensive collar with his name on it in preparation. It turned out the two litters we had a deposit on were all girls... yes that's right 13 or 14 puppies and not a single boy! Mochi was 4.5 months and his breeder let us take him home instead of one of the girls. I have no idea what I would have named him, but I don't think Mochi totally suits him (of course now 5 years later I can't imagine what else he'd be!)

As for his registered name? Amsburg is the kennel he comes from. Ninja Invasion is just something silly we came up with - his sire's name is "Amsburg's Own Invader". Mochi are Japanese and for us that makes us think of things like samurai and ninjas. James and I originally got close because of a game called Ninja Gaiden, in fact! So Ninja Invasion was a nod to his Dad and his call name.

You're all stupid, I'm going over here.

I'll take a stupid picture for you Mom, gosh.

Helo "Revelaire's Compelling Truth"

Helo came to us, the long awaited grandson of a dog I had admired from afar for several  years. When we first talked about getting a second dog, I wanted an aussie from this line actually! So finally in 2012 that dream came true, and a fluffy little boy came home to us. As soon as we'd confirmed that we were in line for the litter, we immediately agreed we wanted a Battlestar Galactica name. Like Game of Thrones, we are a little obsessed with the series and we enjoy the theme of naming our dogs after series. 

Originally hoping for a girl, I spent a lot more time on girl names narrowing it down to Caprica, Athena or Starbuck. For boys I thought Helo, Baltar and a few others were ok. Then the litter came and there were only 2 girls with the breeder definitely keeping one for her daughter! A boy it would be!

We quickly decided on Helo, but decided to make sure this time - having learned our lesson from Mochi - that it fit him before it was final. 

Helo the character wasn't in the original series and wasn't even going to be a part of BSG until the producers were so impressed with local actor they'd hired for his bit in the pilot they wrote him in. Helo always tries to do the right thing, to find the truth. He actually becomes probably (one of) the most important character of the series... but I won't spoil it for you if you haven't watched it!

Luckily the name fits, though sometimes we joke we should have named him Baltar after the mischievous, devious and vain Gaius Baltar. Compelling Truth was a random thing I thought of, a nod to the character's decision to always follow the truth, no matter where it leads him

Waiting for his ball.

See? Poser!

Renewal

I'm an infrequent blogger here but in other spaces, I've been able to teach myself to log in regularly and post. I'm hoping to carry over some of that habit to this public space. Mostly I want to start having a public place with my photography. I will need to figure out a watermark I think. Not that I think my photos are so amazing, but they aren't horrible and many friends have had issues with people reposting photos as their own.

I like having all this stuff in 1 place, as soon I started the last blog on top of Mochi's own I immediately avoided blogging. It felt like I had to pay attention to both of them equally but I didn't always have or want to say a bunch of stuff.

A list

I wrote this as a list for a friend when he asked how Mochi has done on prozac. I thought it belonged here as well!


Pre Prozac Mochi:


Could not have another dog within 10 feet of him without alerting to it (longer distances if we're in unfamiliar places)


Would startle at every little sound. If I played Adele he would come lay under my feet. He was getting worse in the few months before I put him on prozac and spent too much time trembling at my feet in fear of the sounds he heard (this includes wind, which we have a LOT of). 


Had a hard time staying in work. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhpugZGyuNE Yes the thundershirt made a difference but it wasn't lasting.


Bmod "didn't stick". We'd work on counter conditioning or desensitizing to him and get just as bad of reactions the next time it was encountered. His anxiety was truly overwhelming.


Reacted to every. single. noise. ever. 


Post prozac Mochi:


Has learned to tolerate Helo and even come within inches of him. It's still a bit up and down but especially today I'm noticing lots of good behavior from Mochi.


Doesn't startle at most sounds. He still doesn't like the sound when my bass cord gets hit (makes a huge boom) but doesn't not panic during wind/storms. In fact I have only used his thundershirt when we had an especially bad storm and I'd say his reaction was 25% of what it would have been pre prozac. With the tshirt he slept comfortably.


Stays in work. I just finished a REALLY REALLY amazing heel work session with him. Stayed with me despite barking dogs he wanted to go see and was insanely attentive and focused. Knew to sit immediately when I stopped. It gave me serious pause: I think he might need to do rally!


Responded extremely well to his bmod with Helo. Went from actively seeking him out to correct him to tolerance. Was actually being a butthead during helo's training earlier and kept interrupting with no calming/stress signals given, no dilated pupils... just wanted to train XD.


Is learning the 3 bark rule. He gets 3 barks at noises, dogs, people and then he's done. Actually responds when I ask him to be quiet. Can sit next to the fence while the neighbors work and just watch them.


Oh and doesn't live in a state of constantly dilated pupils.


Edit: Oh and pre prozac Mochi gave calming/stress signals way too late and couldn't calm himself. He is building a frustration tolerance and learning to give other dogs calming signals BEFORE he is too close for comfort.

The last 2 1/2 weeks

Mochi is good despite the huge wrench thrown into his life. I've started to write this blog 3 or 4 times, the puppy is quite demanding of my attention! And if not, then there's some fire that needs to be put out somewhere and then my husband was finally home for a week last week!

So the first week was a bit tense. Mochi really wanted the puppy to know not to mess with him so they were kept completely separate and we played lots of look at the puppy, get some good food. For the most part he didn't have super dilated pupils and was, for the most part, able to calmly deal with the puppy as long as they were separate.

Week 2 was much better, I graduated into having the puppy on a leash with Mochi in extremely controlled situations. My husband being home helped a lot, he could help me manage the two without much weirdness. When I'm solo I have to make Mochi wait inside while the puppy goes outside to pee then I let him out.

So last weekend I decided to start going outside on leash with Mochi out with us. It went a lot better than I expected. Mochi mostly wants to be near me but without the puppy in his face. Helo was interested but quickly learned to give him his space.

On Monday we graduated into the puppy on leash in nearly all situations with Mochi. It was going well so today I tried off leash. They're both doing very well! Helo has been taking himself outside to potty with no fuss from Mochi, they've passed each other quite a few times with no incident.

The only tense moment was at the front door when the dogs thought someone was coming in. When Mochi was a puppy, he got his head stuck in the baby gate that used to be stationed to the left of the door and so the area puts him on edge. He lip lifted at the puppy and started towards him just enough for the puppy to go "oops sorry!" and back up.

The most interesting thing to me in this has been Mochi's desire to cuddle. He had gotten pretty cuddly by week 3 of prozac but he definitely seeks out my company with the puppy around. Luckily the puppy just goes and sits with Arya and waits for Mochi to be done. I make sure to give him lots of love and a few nights ago I pulled him on the bed. He fell asleep in my arms almost instantly and two nights after that he slept in his crate.

I think a few more weeks and Mochi will start to trust the puppy not to hurt him and calm down even more. I amazed in just 2 1/2 weeks the progress we've made for a dog who is intensely afraid of other dogs.

Helo Update

Helo is getting used to the house rules well. I haven't yet tried to integrate him and Mochi, but there are signs of improvement!

Mochi chose to lay like this, Helo was passed out. Mochi was falling asleep until I pulled the camera out and snapped 2 pictures. 

Helo was brilliant at my in laws and charmed them and my sister in law. He didn't even need his pen, get him tired enough and give him a soft place to land and he's good. My father in law took him out back and played chase... oh thank goodness. It was nice to have someone else play with him even if just for 20 minutes! Arya came with us and was awesome, of course. If ever there was a dog to trust with puppies, Arya is definitely it. 

He crashed out towards the end of dinner. We headed home and played some more, people ended up not being able to make it for TV shows, so he got to learn to chill while Mom watches some TV. It doesn't happen that often, but I would like him more calm while I play on the computer!

Monday was a big day for the little man! We got up and played for a few hours, I had lunch and then we ventured out to Petsmart. We worked a lot on the way that if you stay calm and don't scream, you get liver lips. I think I counted 7 people that he met, 4 dogs that he saw but didn't interact with and several more people plus walking around the store and seeing all the stuff. After that we got gas, which was an interesting experience for him. 

He was quite restless but seemed to realize that this stop was different. I tried to pick the lane to the side to minimize the gassy smell, of course being Costco even if you go during the slow part of the day you still have to wait a little! I couldn't hear any whining while I was out. 

Finally we stopped at Discount Tire. By this time it was around 2pm and he was starting to fade not having had a nap yet. They let me bring him in while they rotated my tires. One of the guys commented I could leave him when I left and I laughed and said, "don't be fooled, he's just tired." Of course we're going through mouthing (though honestly it's not nearly as bad as Mochi, Helo is quite gentle most of the time), all that guy needs to do is come see the nip on my face, neck and arms. I'm actually almost exaggerating, they're really not that bad. I have one that is less than a cm of ripped skin, the rest are all superficial and heal quickly.

After that we came home and I tried to give him some down time. Didn't really work after his nap! So we played again and then headed off for the dog club. Monday was our board and general meetings. Helo got to meet some of the club members and was already pretty tired by this point. He played a bit in the board meeting then fell asleep half on the table and half off. During the general meeting he got a little burst of energy and then passed out on the table I was sitting next to. He met at least a dozen people, I didn't count. 

Unfortunately, he did nick one of my friend's chin. I feel bad! I will be more careful until we get this thing better under control. He's stopped biting my face/neck as much so there's progress. 

I spent a while chatting after the meeting, so he got to play on the gravel outside and then passed out in Mama's arms for a while. I will miss when he's small enough to do this! According to his weight gain from Saturday-Monday, 9.4 pounds to 10.1, that will be really soon. Sad! Someone give me a shrink ray!

Some things the Helo monster needs to learn: morning routine and crate games. I have my sights set on beginning crate games today. He's still doing great at night, he was so tired he slept 6 hours straight before asking to go out. He got a little excited as I was getting up and peed, but that's not a big deal. Our normal morning routine is dogs out, dogs in and fed, dogs out/on their own while Mom responds to emails (or in today's case, writes a blog). 

He wants to play with me right away! He'll get his wish.. after he potties and eats some food! He's a very light eater, so I'm still just filling his bowl and letting him decide how much he needs. He likes to play, eat then play some more and eat. This morning he's doing a pretty good job of self entertaining between snacks, so yay progress.

Today we have agility class which I am assisting and he will just hang out in, then another agility class tonight that I am in and he will need to hang out for a little bit more than an hour. That should be interesting. The good thing is after we get past the initial "MOM YOU ARE SO EVIL FOR NOT PLAYING WITH ME AND CUDDLING ME ALL DAY" he's pretty good. He just goes about his business. I'll be sure to take his 2 favorite toys and both the antlers.