Pip's progress

It's that Monday again!

Pippin's weigh-in day seems to come round quickly. He's lost another 500g this past fortnight and is now down to 21.7kg! He's doing much better than me at the moment! Dieting is easy when someone else is in charge of all your food haha!

A walk in the park!

I was supposed to be driving down to stay with my friend at the weekend but I wasn't feeling 100% and decided to stay home. The sun came out on Saturday and we decided we had to get out somewhere for a while after all the horrid weather we've been having and I thought it might help clear my fuzzy head!

We put a few essentials in the van (tea, milk, food!) and drove to the Cotswold Water Park. We parked at the main information place (which has a big camping shop and cafe etc). We walked about 5 miles along the disused canal. Everything was very green and lush after all the rain we've had recently.

We are 99% sure we saw an otter crossing the canal. I only managed to get a photo of the 'wake' as it swam across - although if I zoom right in I can just make out a brown body in the water - can you spot the otter?

Pippin investigating a hole!

And looking over  a wall

 

After our walk we moved to another parking area with a nice lake view and I cooked up some pasta for lunch. We've not been able to go camping for weeks now because of all the rain so it was nice to use the facilities again!

On Monday I went over to my friend's for another agility lesson. Pippin did 3 jumps in a row this time - although I can't get him to do them while I run alongside. I have to have him sit and wait while I go and stand behind the 3rd jump and then call him! He also went through the tunnel a couple of times. The first time we sent Max in first and got Pippin to follow him. I think he's definitely much fitter and stronger since we first got him - he was easily keeping up with Max when they had a run round the field :-)

Weigh-in day!

We popped into the vets today to weigh Pippin - he's lost another 700g in the last fortnight and he's now down to 22.7kg which is brilliant! He was 26.3kg when we got him. He must be feeling better for losing so much weight - I hope so anyway!

Unfortunately the weather has been awful recently. No camping trips for us in April :-( and not many fun dog walks either. We've been working on improving his walking on the lead as he likes to pull quite a bit. I started clicker training him to walk next to me on a loose lead and although it definitely improved his position  a lot and increased his attention, unfortunately it also came with a side effect which I didn't want! He started to get quite aggressive towards other dogs when we were out walking. He did sometimes bark at other dogs anyway - but not much and not all dogs and definitely not with as much anger! I quickly came to the conclusion that using a lot of treats when out walking just wasn't working and was actually causing a problem so I decided to stop using this method. Within a couple of days he went back to his 'normal' self and the aggression went away.

So, we have returned to stopping if he pulls and waiting for him to release the tension on the lead. He is improving but still needs a lot of work. I can really see why so many owners have dogs that pull ahead all the time - because it is SO tedious having to stop every time they do it. It does work - when we were really strict about stopping his pulling reduced a lot. Trouble is - when it's p-ing down with rain and windy and horrid you really don't feel like stopping every few yards!

He's really good about sitting when we stop at the curb now and often does it without any prompting. I've been carrying on with clicker training at home and he really knows 'touch' (with his nose) now and he's pretty good at 'target' (with a paw). We played 'find' with him one day this week when it was just torrential rain all day and we only went out for one short walk. He's much better at 'find' now too and will go in each room looking for the item you've hidden!

Having fun with Max

Today I took Pip to watch Max having his agility lesson and to try and help Max learn to cope with distractions! Pip did quite a good job of trying to distract him by barking at him when he was training. Max did really well and managed to ignore Pip most of the time! Pip also managed to sit really quietly some of the time too. Pip & I had a go at some really low jumps and soon realised he was supposed to go over them and not sneak round the side. He also had a go at the dog walk and the see saw.

Here's some photos of Max in action!

And one of Pip which my friend took

After the lesson it was time for a play with the other dogs :-)

Been for a swim!

I took Pippin to visit some friends today who are camping not too far from us. It's the first time he's travellend in the crate in the van as I was on my own. He seemed ok with it - didn't complain or try and escape anyway! We went for a walk and Pip had a bit of a dip in a lake. He's got his paws wet before but he hadn't had a chance to swim - he seemed to like it! I don't know if he'd been swimming with his previous owner.

Uh oh - I think it's time to get out!!

Slimming down!

We took Pippin for his fortnightly weigh-in today and he's lost another 700g! He's now down to 23.3kg and he's definitely looking slimmer. I think he's getting fitter too. When he jumps up to greet us he now tries to bounce up off his back legs for extra height!

I wanted to post a couple of photos to compare how he looks now with when we got him (about 10 weeks ago) but sadly I haven't got any which are a similar 'pose' so you can't really see the difference very well. Ok - I'm useless!

So, instead here's a photo of him looking over the edge of the wall along Swanage seafront! We're not sure what his target weight should be - the vet suggested 20kg but given his mixed parentage I'm not sure if that is too ambitious! I guess we'll have to see how he gets on over the next few weeks.

We finally got round to buying him a crate on Saturday and he seems to like it! I've set it up in the lounge and put a blanket over the top. He's been in it quite a few times for a snooze without us even asking him. I haven't tried shutting him in yet. We only really want to use it in the van when travelling and possibly when camping. At the moment he travels happily in the passenger footwell (attached to the seatbelt buckle and supervised by A!) but I don't think he'd stay there if I was in the van on my own. I have started asking him to go in his crate (just 'Pippin, crate') and I think he understands that too :-)

He's now really good at sitting at the curb when we're out walking. He is much better at laying down when asked now and we've got him giving his paw when asked too. I suspect he already knew these things but maybe hadn't done them on command for a while. He soon realised we were now asking him to lay down before he got a treat and he started doing it without being asked so we switched to asking him for his paw. I'm trying to teach him to roll over now - which he's starting to get the hang  of! He does still pull on the lead but he's getting  better. I don't think we could ever stop him chasing small fury creatures (we don't let him off the lead except at my friend's dog-proof field). He spotted a squirrel when we were camping at the weekend and flew out the van like a loon! He was attached to the seat so he didn't get very far!

The results are in!

We returned from our camping trip to find Pip's DNA results had come back! Some of it is a bit of a surprise and it's hard to believe but my Vet reckons the tests are pretty good.

So, Pippin's grandparents are:

English Cocker Spaniel which was crossed with a Sprollie (Welsh Springer x Collie)

and a Great Dane (seriously?!) which was crossed with a German Shepherd

Quite a mixture! Have to say I'm struggling to see any Great Dane in him or GSD either but he is bigger than any Springer Spaniels we've met. We can definitely see the Welsh in him and quite a few people reckon they can see Collie :-) Apparently Great Danes are calm dogs and he's really chilled out at home. He seems to like climbing walls too - I have no idea where he gets that from!

Spring sunshine!

It felt very Spring-like today when we went out for a walk. The sun was shining and there were lots of Skylarks singing.

There are lots of lovely logs in one of the fields we walked through which Pip enjoyed investigating!

He had a good climb up this old tree trunk too!

He had dew on his nose from sniffing around in the grass ;-)

Stopping for a rest...

and a snack (you can just see the treat above his nose!)...

Unfortunately Pippin decided to wade through every puddle and muddy patch on the walk. He was most unimpressed at having to be hosed down when we got home. I managed to hose A down as well by mistake - oops! Pippin got away from us and ran off - promptly rolling in a flower bed and earning another session with the hose! Poor dog. He had a tasty (I assume!) venison ear afterwards.

It's a hard life being a dog!

Pippin asleep in his new bed (which we bought him to use in the campervan). I think he likes it!

I've lost some weight - can you tell?!

Pip had his fortnightly weigh-in on Monday and he's lost another 700g - that's a total of 2kg so far :-)

I managed to get this photo of him asleep earlier!