Sunday, October 28, 2007

New behaviours

Haroo, all!
I have mommy grumbling at me a lot these days. She's a little annoyed that I don't really like human guys. Well, it's not just that... I don't like human guys who could potentially take my mommy away. They make me unhappy. She's been muttering something about me being a brat and having to "desensitize" me, whatever that means. I didn't do anything wrong, this time, I swear! Sure, I clawed the first guy, but he was asking for it! He shouldn't have been trying to get kissies from my mommy. I'm the only one she's allowed to kissie. This time I only placed myself strategically between them when they were watching TV! Seriously, if she doesn't want me to scare those stupid human boys away, she should stop picking the ones that are afraid of dogs and don't adore me properly. Really.

I've also managed to confuse her (and everyone else) by starting a new habit! I sing along with the phone! One of our phones doesn't ring, it plays this annoying tune by someone named "Vivaldi". Well, a few days ago I started singing alone when it rings! Mommy woke up this morning sure I was in trouble because I never howl for no reason! Hehehehehehehe. That ought to keep her on her toes.

Woos,
Louka

Mommy's note: I seriously need to start inviting male friends over to get him used to guys before I even consider a boyfriend, at this rate...

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Charpentier

So I ran into Charpentier again, the dog who got caught in my collar last week and made me think that I was going to die. Physically, he's also fine, but we both were really nervous seeing each other again. I didn't want to go in the dogrun with him standing at the gate. He started crying when he saw me, bouncing around because he wanted to play, but he was scared that we were going to get hurt again. Our owners chatted, stayed calm, encouraged us to play and petted us. Mommy gave us each a tiny little bit of cheese, which went a long way towards calming us and finally, we played a bit together. The stress is gone, which is nice.

Mommy's happy that Charpentier is ok and that his owners aren't blaming her or mad at her.

I'm happy that we didn't get stuck again.

Woos of relief,
Louka

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Positive reenforcement training and clicker

Well, I had an interesting day!

Mommy took me to a seminar on clicker training. No, this does not mean that I can use the tv remotes (I wish). It's a very interesting way to attempt and make us dogs obey. It uses a 'clicker' which makes a clicking sound when I do the right thing. The point is for mommy to mark (using the click) the exact moment I do the thing I'm being rewarded for. So for example, to practice me looking at her while there's distractions around, she'll have me sit in front of her and hold a treat out to the side. The second I look at her, not the treat, even if it's by accident, she clicks and gives me the treat. It didn't take me that long to associate looking at mommy = getting treat! Gradually, she's supposed to give less treats, so that I'm just working to hear the click, associating click and positive things. I like it a lot. Of course, since I'm doing all of this for cheese, I learn pretty fast.

There were quite a few of us four-legs at the seminar, but as usual, I was the biggest. The only other large-sized dog was the teacher-lady's very friendly pitbull who wanted to play with me big time. I wanted to play with her too, but our mommies wouldn't let us. Stupid mommies. The other dogs were all small. There was a pekenese, a japanese chin two mini poodles, a jack and a chinese crested dog (or however you call those), but of the furred variety. And black. She was pretty afraid of me at first, but her mommy and mine worked on that until I could sniff her without her panicking. Yay her!

In all, it was lots of fun and it was great to spend a whole day outside with Mommy, even if I wasn't allowed to go play with Ivy the pitbull. We should do this more often, especially if there's snow.

Just to know, do any of your humans use the clicker on you? As a dog, what was your "training" like and how did you condition your humans to give you treats?

Woos,
Louka

Thursday, October 18, 2007

My near death experience

As some of you may know, to be able to run and play like a husky should, I go to the dogrun every day. Today was not such a good day, there.

We go early, because it's getting dark early and I really want to go out. When we get there, my friend Charpentier runs to greet me and to try and slam me into the ground, which is our favourite game ever. This is when things begin to go wrong. You see, my collar was a bit loose and he was aiming for the scruff of my neck. Instead he got my collar and slammed me into the ground, getting his teeth and mouth caught in mn the process. Now he's freaked and I'm freaked because we're linked in this rather unusual way. A few other dogs, sensing panic, decide to ram us. This induces more panic and attempts to escape. By now, mommy's figured out that something's wrong and all that she can see is that there's another dog who won't let go of my neck. She's sure that it's this other big black lab who doesn't like me, because never in a million years would Sharpentier try and rip my throat out like it looked like he was doing. Anyway, other dogs pounced us, we escaped, still panicked, humans pounced us and tried to pull Charpentier off of me, they finally realized that we were stuck, managed to immobilize us and mommy stuck her hand in Charpentier's mouth and finally unhooked my collar from his teeth and then tightened my collar so that this wouldn't happen again. Mommy was a bit reassured to see that neither of us was really attacking the other, but I was still traumatized! Charpentier's mouth was bleeding a bit. I think he may have nicked himself on his teeth trying to get free, but he looked pretty ok. He went home right away, so I'm not really sure, I was too scared and busy getting comforted by mommy! We went and sat on the bench together (I was allowed up as a special favour) until I was a bit calmer, then we walked around so that I could get rid of the extra adrenaline in my system and not be scared anymore. I wooed with my husky friend Inook whose mommy helped calm my mommy (Inook did too and he helped calm me with his friendly wooing) and I finally ran around a bit, but I stayed close to mommy. She petted me a lot and I've been thoroughly fussed over, so I'm feeling better, lying here in mommy's bed, dictating the post, but that was really scary!
I hope that never, ever happens again!
Louka

Monday, October 15, 2007

Pictures!

So Mommy is finally on the computer with pictures and will post them!

Here's a bad picture of me with my new collar. It's the best one we have, though, because I was more interested in lying in mommy's lap than taking stupid pictures. I mean if she's going to sit on the floor and her lap is free...
It's a martingale (limited slip) collar because mommy didn't want the hassle of a clasp that may or may not break or jam like my last collar's did. This way it's nice and loose, except when I pull, when it goes snug so I can't get away. Apparently my cousin Gaia was a collar escape genius, so they got used to worrying about this. Anyway, I don't wear it often. Mommy gets annoyed at my tags jingling in the house, so I mostly just wear it outside. Rarely inside. I like it, though. It's pretty and it has chili peppers on this. Harem member #1 told mommy that it was displaying my status as a Hot Dog! Woo!

Mommy says that we'll go for a walk during her week off to take pictures of the pretty leaves and of the magical snow pile. I'll post more pictures then.

Until next time,
Woo,
Louka

Friday, October 12, 2007

Magic snow

Well, the pictures will come tomorrow. I think that mommy has kennel cough because she keeps coughing like I did when I got out of the pound. But she's using lots of kleenex too, so maybe it's not that. Anyway, whatever it is it makes her stay home and sleep instead of going to that college place, so I'm happy. This evening she was feeling well enough to go on a short trip to the dogrun with me. We didn't stay that long, but it was ok, because I got to wrestle with a few friends and then mommy brought me to play in the magic snow pile! I LOVE snow, but it's not snowing yet. However, right across the street from the dogrun, there's been this snow pile for the last past couple of weeks. Because she was feeling guilty about me not being able to run as long as I wanted, mommy brought me to go roll around and pounce it it. I was so happy! I want to do that again soon! And I want to figure out how that snow got there... Mommy said something about an indoor winter place for people to play hockey and skate, but I'm not sure what she means. Any detective dogs out there willing to help me solve the mystery?

Pictures will come this weekend, I swear...

Woos,
Louka

Monday, October 8, 2007

My interview

Ok, so now I can see my blog and read my comments, I can answer Zim of the Army of Four's smart interview questions. I'll highlight what he's asking in blue and my answers will just be in normal black.

1. Your mom does such cool knitting and wool projects! Do you think she'll drop that senseless grudge over that minor incident with the thread and let you help her?
Mommy says that the only way that she'll trust me around her wool is if I have a bone in my mouth. I do, however, help her by creating the need for new knitwear by destroying gloves, mittens and socks, now and then and, of course, by loving long walks in very cold weather.

2. Your profile says you're a "Siberian Husky with maybe a little something else mixed in." What do you think the "something else" is?
The silly humans around me have said many things including but not limited to German Shepherd, collie, greyhound and wolf. The current theory is that I'm part malamute, since I'm taller (26" at the shoulder) and heavier (I weighed 60lbs last time I was weighed and now you can no longer see my ribs, so I've gained weight) than huskies generally are and my tail curls to touch my back, which is supposedly Not Good in husky breed standard, but typical of the malamute. Also, mommy thinks that I look too much like a husky to be just 50% and another northern breed that's similar looking would explain some of this. I just say that I'm gorgeous the way I am. whatever else I have, I feel a strong attachment to my huskiness and I will continue saying loud and proud that I AM A HUSKY! But that little mysterious plus gets me extra attention, so I'm not all that keen on solving the mystery.

3. How did you get your name?
My first human mommy gave it to me. It sounded pretty and it's easy to say in a bunch of languages, so mommy decided that I should keep it. However, I most often here Loulou or Wookie than Louka. I got Wookie because apparently I sound like one.

4. Since you live in Quebec, can you ignore commands equally in English and francais?
Yes. I am a trilingual husky, although of course I am best in Huskese than in anything else. I understand (and occasionally obey) "Assis" (sit), "couche" (lie down), "reste" (stay), "Viens" (come), "Va-t-en" (Go away... as if!) in French, but "take it", "up", "ok" are my English commands. I also understand words for things in French, like "marcher" (walk), "manger" (eat), "nonos" (bone) and "baballe" (ball). Those I don't ignore. Those are good words. Especially marcher.

5. Do you "fetch"?
Do I look like a labrador? No. I do not fetch. I will play with a ball, but only to tease other dogs and mommy. I'll chase it if mommy bounces it, but I don't bring it back, I run around with it and expect to be chased. This is how mommy plays with me, especially if there are lots of small dogs that I'm not allowed to play with at the park.

Yay, that was a fun interview! Thank roo, Zim! If anyone wants me to interview them, just ask!
Woo!
Louka

Laptop, collar and excuses

Well, the reason things are so slow right now is that mommy's still busy configuring her new laptop. That's right, a laptop, which means that instead of her going to sit at the stupid computer desk, she lies in bed cuddling me while typing instead. This is an improvement, in my mind.

So when the (pink) laptop (whose name is Floyd) is trained, I'll be able to post pictures of the pretty red leaves around here and of my new collar! That's right, I have a new collar. It's a limited slip collar, which means I can't get out of it, not that I've ever tried, and since it slips on and off, it doesn't have a mechanism that can jam when it's washed. That's what happened to my old collar.

Anyway, another little glitch that mommy has to fix is that we can't see my blog right now. We're going to try again tomorrow and when we can see it, we'll answer all of Zim's smart interview questions.

See you soon,
Louka

Monday, October 1, 2007

Happy birthday to meeeeeeeeee

It's my legal birthday today! I'm officially 2 years old, now, which makes me an all-grown-up husky! I say that it's my legal birthday because I'm terrible at remembering dates so when mommy got me and wanted to know when my birthday was, I couldn't tell her. All she knew was that I was 14 months old in december. Then she needed to tell the nice police officer when my birthday was so that I could have my official badge of residence (what mom calls my liscence) and when I said that I didn't know, the nice officer-lady said that I could have the same birthday as her, the first of october. Isn't that nice of her?

So yeah, it's my birthday. Mommy says that I'm spoiled enough, so instead of giving me a real present, she's going to go donate to the SPCA where I stayed before coming to see her. I think that's a good idea since the money will go to help other poor doggies who haven't found their homes yet. I am also getting another present, but that's just because the need presented itself. I need a new collar. The other one's clasp broke, so I've been using an old collar from uncle Aslan, the golden who raised mommy and antique. The Funny Farm Boutique is having a fund-raising week for Le Repaire de Sasha/Sasha's Den rescue, a local animal rescue. 5$ of every sale of a collar goes to Sasha's. I needed a collar, Sasha's needs money (as most rescues do) and the fund-raising week just haaaaaaaaappened to be the week of my legal birthday.... So I'm getting an unexpected present. Woo.

I'm a happy husky, can you tell?

Woos,
Louka