Off Leashing Harvey

Many people try to off leash their dogs too soon before doing anything about it. Off leash dog is a dog that must be trained in order to be free.

A non-off leash trained dog can be a hazard to itself, other dogs and people and its surroundings.  Also a dog that has not been off leash trained can form behavioural issues such as not listening to you, not coming when called and others.

So, what is off-leash training?

Off leash training is when you train your dog to basically listen and obey you on leash when called, when asked to sit, asked to stay and etc.

After you have accomplished control over your dog and have removed any negative and anti-social behaviour from your dog than you can be more confident and certain to allow your dog off leash among all others.

Off leashing a dog is like teaching our kids to ride a bike by themselves for the first time. We start with a tricycle, then we move to bicycles with training wheels, and then we get to a bicycle but we hold on to the bike until we are sure that our kid will be able to balance and ride by themselves.

Up until we let go off the bicycle we need to gain the trust from our kid and vise- versa. We need to make sure that our kid is going to balance him or herself and then we let go. Our kid is also letting us know that if he or she is ready or not. When they are ready and you let go is the when you and the kid feels that all that work, practice and patients paid off.

Off leashing a dog is similar to teaching a kid to ride a bike. I took my time with Harvey until I let him off leash. It took more than 5 months till off leashed him. I took him everywhere with him on leash, I walked him on leash even when I was off leashing Jonah (Jonah is off leash trained), I started training him to sit, stay, to come on leash and then I felt he was ready. If I felt he was not ready yet, I put him back on leash. After all it paid off.

Now he is having a good time, running and playing with other dogs off leash and follows me everywhere and comes when called. I am still training him to improve even what we have.

Training dogs is a lifetime task which should be considered fun and be positive.   

Traininig Harvey

Since Harvey was adopted few months ago, I started to train him slowly but surely. Everything that he does tells me a story about his past. Based on those I planned a training routine on daily basis.

At the beginning since I have a doggie playcare, I used this opportunity and allowed him to socialize with many dogs. He also loves to meet and play with new dogs. He loves to play with dogs in general, so I let him play and play. Play is the best way that dogs get trained by other dogs.

When a dog is young like Harvey, it is very important to let your puppy to meet and socialize and play with as many healthy, balance dogs as possible.  

%50 of the training is done by other dogs and the other 50 is done by you. Young dogs at young age need full on training but not many people understand that and do not follow up on that.

I started training him by first wording my commands and then actual and formal training. Soon I will start doing agility as well. He loves obstacle and the the agility equipment’s.

Jonah and Harvey playing

In our case one of the benefits of having  a second dog, Harvey is that it made our older dog, Jonah to behave young again.

Click the link to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYREz3OvZMw

Bringing a second dog home – part 1

Many people think having a second dog is not as hard as having one dog although I think even one dog is more than enough. Now that we have Harvey it doesn’t seem so.

There are difficulties and differences when it comes to having a second dog.
Difficulties are those that can be labeled in both dog’s ages and energy levels. Jonah obviously is older and has less energy than Harvey and is entertained by different activities. Jonah also has had a different routine before Harvey came into his life. He walked in a different time of the days, in different speed or we played games that were created throughout times that we have spent for the past 9 years. These games are not either fit or suitable for Harvey or not developed in our relationship yet.

In a way we have to be fair to both dogs when it comes to entertainment and exercising them both. Harvey being a younger dog needs more activities exercise and play routines. Do I need to spend hours and hours trying to entertain Harvey so he will get tired? Obviously not and that is for few reasons.

Realistically, I don’t have the time to put on.  Second, if I exercise Harvey for many hours, then he gets more fit that I won’t be able to keep up with his energy level soon. Then he is going to ask for more and more in order to get tired. Also, he won’t learn to slow down and relax when I need to.

That is the mistake many people make when it comes down to their young or even older dog. They believe that because their dog is young and is high energy, it needs to be exercised for a long time. Although many dog owners could be low energy people, they practice high energy relationship with their dogs and always allow their dog to be hyper. This way the dog learns to be hyper all the time until nature takes its toll on the dog physically.

I practice 60% of the time to relax Harvey and I have a good role model to teach that to Harvey, which is Jonah. I provide the five common dog’s need to Harvey which are; exercise, training, socialization, care and affection.

 I am lucky to have the playcare that can provide all these in regular basis. For those who don’t have the opportunity like mine, then that’s the part that is the difficulty of having a dog or a second dog.

Harvey’s Forever Home

Harvey is the newest member to our family. He is a 7 months old, male beagle mix. We adopted Harvey in December of 2010.He was rescued from a kill shelter, humane society of Utah in Salt Lake City by a West Vancouver based rescue organization “Dogwood Rescue Organization”.

He was one of 7 puppies to be euthanized in the shelter. The rescuers had already filled the car with dogs that been saved and were on the line for euthanization. One of the members could not say no to the puppies and had to save one of them at least but there was no kennel space. They selected Harvey because he was small enough to be put on the lap and get him out. He was brought to Vancouver through an amazing network of volunteers. We are proud to be one of them.

We met Harvey because the volunteers who were fostering Harvey brought him to our playcare for play and to have fun. The moment we met Harvey, we felt the connection but we were not ready to have a second dog. Jonah was our priority and we had to consider him in this matter.

We agreed to give Harvey a week to try to see how he gets along with Jonah and also to get to know him better.  Few days later we knew that we had to keep him. We made our decision based on the fact that Jonah welcomed him in our family and Harvey needed some work that we could handle. Plus he was too cute to let go. We finalized the adoption on Monday December 7, 2010. 

We have decided to create a blog about Harvey and his progress for two reasons. One because Harvey’s fans have requested a way to be updated and second his training progress can be a tool for new dog owners or similar to Harvey can pick up some tips. This way we can contribute to our fans and community.