Holly And Paris

648117

Honored Member
Hi,

I have two dogs, Paris the 9 year old Cavalier and Holly the nearly six month old pug cross (father was a pug, mother was apparently a foxy bichon cross).

Paris is not well trained but she is well behaved at home.
So Holly is the first time I’ve really tried to train a dog properly.

My mum and my sister decided to get Holly and brought her home two days before Christmas (I did not feel ready for another dog after our other cavalier passed last April and Paris has developed the same heart condition). My mum admits that she was somewhat of an impulse buy after seeing the puppy in the petshop a month earlier, they decided that since she was still there they would buy her.

I tried to warn them that a pug x does not equal a couch potato (our cavaliers have always been pretty lazy, behaved but not trained if you get what I mean). And that most pups are not as quite as Paris was as a puppy (she's the only dog we got as a pup and she was sick). Holly is very active and my sister doesn’t really play with her (and mum works and is busy when she is home and isn’t confident in dog training). So it fell on me to train and play with this puppy that I didn’t even want (although I do love dogs).

After Christmas I took Holly to puppy obedience class (she was too old for preschool) which she did excellently in (she was the best at most things, in my opinion J).
So next was intermediate obedience class (she is on week 4 of the 6 week course) and is doing well (her sister is in the same class which is funny to see).

So far I’ve taught her to sit, lie down, touch her nose to my hand, target a plastic disc, shake paw, roll over, spin, jump over my leg, play dead, fetch a tennis ball, stay (without too many distractions though), I’ve just tried to teach her to cover her eyes with her paw but it sort of turned into a ‘scratch face’. In the obedience class the dogs are learning flyball (just for fun) and Holly is the only one that can hit the target and then grab the ball (even the Labrador wont grab the ball). I am proud of her.

She gets spayed on the 29th of March and then when she is healed we are probably going to start the advanced obedience class and puppy agility classes.

We just started using the clicker yesterday (after watching kikopup on youtube) and today I tried to teach her to ‘get on the mat’ which she found a bit too exciting and would leap as fast as she could onto it, but I think I can iron this problem out.

Holly’s main problem that I would like some advice about is toilet training. I will post about that problem separately.

So... that’s my introduction.
 

Dogster

Honored Member
GREAT INTRO!!!!:ROFLMAO: Holly knows a lot of tricks!!!! If there's ANYTHING you need help with, any problems you have, or any exciting news or funny stories you want to share (obviously having to do with dogs) this is the site to do it all on!!!!(y) I would LOVE to see pictures of your wonderful dogs (I'm sure many others would too):LOL:
 

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
Welcome to the Academy! Sounds like you are off to a good start with Holly. :)
We have many helpful members here who would be happy to help with any questions you might have. :) Feel free to post in the forums anytime you have a question on tricks, behavior, health, nutrition, anything.

Good luck, and enjoy the site!
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
WELCOME!! Great post, i bet your dogs are cute, hope you post some pictures soon??

//"Holly’s main problem that I would like some advice about is toilet training. "//

I did not spot a separate post, but, here is great Kikopup video to help you get started in right direction:

 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
Also, the 9 year old dog, can totally learn tricks, too, sure can.

It's a myth that old dogs can not learn new tricks. I think mature dogs often make better students, myself. No reason at all, to leave out Paris from the lessons. If Paris's heart condition (rampant in the KC spaniels) limits her ability to move much (not sure) there are also plenty of sedentary tricks, too.
 

648117

Honored Member
Paris is a bit frail. Our other cavalier was her half brother and he only survived for a month after his heart started to give out (he was on the same meds as Paris is now) :cry: . And Paris has never really been motivated by food or play, she was sick as a puppy and had to have her tonsils out so she has always been a bit picky with food and some days even when she was healthy she would just refuse to eat much for no reason at all. And we think she's gone a bit deaf (her half brother went partially deaf when he was about 2).

I'll try to put some photos up soon.

Paris is a black and tan cavalier and Holly looks a bit like a small pug coloured border terrier with a curly tail :)
 

Dogster

Honored Member
Oh, that's sad...:cry: I wish you the best and I hope that somehow, Paris will get better. Your dogs sound ADORABLE, by the way.:love:
 

648117

Honored Member
The pictures are about a month old so I'll try to take some new ones soon.

This is Paris, she is actually half cavalier (her father was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and her mother was a King Charles Spaniel, slightly different breeds)


And this is Holly the Pug x FoxyBichon (she loves to bring sticks inside and turning them into wood chips)
 

Dogster

Honored Member
:ROFLMAO: I LOVE your pics!!!!! OMG, TOO CUTE!!!!:love: The stick obsession never goes away....:rolleyes: There are about 30n sticks in our house and the wood chips make it look like a hamster cage!!! LOL!!!!:LOL:
 

648117

Honored Member
Thank you. The wood chips really do make a mess and she likes to chew the sticks on peoples knees so you get wood chips all over your lap too.

I think I've actually been a bit harsh on Paris about her level of training. It is true that she has always pulled on her lead (I never knew how to fix this other then getting a halty thing for her face which I would never do because she already has issues with her muzzle/throat), she doesn't have a good recall and she barks and lunges like crazy when she see's another dog.

I think this is our fault because when she was a pup it was all "make sure you socialise your dog" so we let her say "hello" to every dog we saw so she barks at them now until she gets to say "hello" and then instantly calms down. At Holly's puppy class they said it's important for the puppy to not meet every dog they see so they can be calm around them and even walk behind a strange dog without wanting to meet it, so we are trying to do better with Holly. I think new puppy owners really need to know that you can over socialise a dog (sort of) which we wouldn't have considered if it hadn't been mentioned in class.

Anyway...Paris knows sit, down, stay, shake paw, other paw, crawl, backup from the door, outside, bed, "that's enough" when she's barking, if you wave your hand at her she will move over on the couch so you can sit down and she has a habbit of scratching your leg if she wants on the couch (until you let her up even though she is always allowed up), scratching when she wants a pat and scratching if you stop patting her before she is ready for you to stop patting her.

And... Holly has had one walk so far using the "kikopup method" of teaching the loose leash and she seems to have already figured it out because she continued walking with loose leash after I ran out of treats (I just wish I knew how to do this when we got Paris).
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
//"And... Holly has had one walk so far using the "kikopup method" of teaching the loose leash and she seems to have already figured it out because she continued walking with loose leash after I ran out of treats (I just wish I knew how to do this when we got Paris).//

MARVELOUS! YAY!! KUDOS!! Sounds like you are doing something right, and have one smart lil pup there!! WOW! Way to go!

word of caution on the treats, keep 'em really tiny, like pea-sized bits,
to avoid a fat dog or a full dog. It's easier than you'd think, to end up with a chubby dog when we use so many treats a day. I even cut Buddy's dinner size back, if he has had a LOT of treat in a day, but, i only use homemade healthy treats, so i don't worry his health.

itty bitty Tiny treats are fine.
I get the feeling , YOU, are gonna become a training addict,:ROFLMAO: i bet you do! I can hear it coming! YAY!:):D:LOL:
SO DO keep those treats small,
there are some recipes in treat section to cut co$ts of all these treats, as well. Some of them are lower calorie than others, but, do look them over.

Is Paris healthy enough for short walks, or no?
cuz she could also be taught the kikopup method, age is not a drawback, at all, IF Paris is allowed to walk. (?) For real, even older dogs can learn to stop pulling.
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
btw, i don't really think it's "your fault" that Paris pulls, i kind of think all dogs pull,
til they are trained not to. Dawg knows, my dog sure did! wow, did he ever! oh my.
 

648117

Honored Member
Paris only gets slow walks around the park on the extend-a-leash every couple of days because of her heart and she has a damaged cruciate ligament in one of her knees (we can't get it fixed because of her heart) so if she walks too far she will limp for the next couple of days, but playing with Holly doesn't seem to hurt her leg and I guess she has control over when she wants to stop (she often has to stop and cough) without getting excited by the environment.

I am enjoying training Holly. I have always wanted to get a Staffi cross from the SPCA (very common breed to find in the SPCA here) to train and do agility with and I've always wanted a "fetch dog" to play with at the park but my family don't like larger dogs and mum and my sister decided to get a tiny dog (little did they know that she would turn out to be the smart little monster that she is, lol, a pug does not always equal lazy or slow).

I will still get a staffi one day, maybe in four years. I really started to like them after a bridle one turned up at the park across the road from my house without its owner (or a collar) a few years ago and I called her over to me, she was the sweetest dog but we had to take her to the vet so she could be returned to her owner. Then a couple of days later she turned up again so I played fetch with her for a bit before returning her to her house (I had found out where she lived by then). Then she turned up again the next day when I was on my way home, so we played and I returned her to her house (she escaped because she was bored). This happened a few times (I started calling her 'Judy') until my mother said I had to call the pound on her (I suppose it was dangerous for her to be on the street on her own and we live on a moderately busy street). So the pound took her away and I never saw her again. :( But she was such a lovely dog it really made me appreciate how nice staffi's can be (and she loved fetch and could jump really high over fences which probably isn't the best)
 

648117

Honored Member
Holly's loose leash walking is going well, her trainer at dog class was impressed. And she has only had two accidents inside in two days so I think we might be reaching a turning point with the toilet training (except when it rains)

I have some new pictures that I took yesterday (Paris needs to go to the groomers so she is a little hairy.


 

Dogster

Honored Member
OMG!!!! SOOOO CUTE!!!! OMG!!!!!:love::love::ROFLMAO: I LOVE Paris' haircut!!!!!! SOOO COOL!!!! (and original- haven't seen a dog with that haircut before:)) I LOVE her dogtag too!!!!:love: And Holly is just the CUTEST thing!!!! She is SOOO photogenic!!!!:love::LOL: TOOO CUTE!!!
 

648117

Honored Member
Thank you. :)
It's not really a "hair cut", Paris gets a puppy cut every few months and that's what it looks like when it has grown out a bit,
I made her dog tag.
 

Dogster

Honored Member
It's a great dog tag!!!!:LOL: Does Paris look really different with her puppy cut??? I know some dogs that are almost unreckognizable when they get their puppy cut.:D
 
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