#scooby doofus

[exploring-with-blue]

She scared of the waves 😱😱😱

[merrysmasquerade]

i am so fucking angry

scooby got into the pantry. the pantry that my mom and i both triple-check to make sure it’s closed before we go to bed. scooby got into the pantry and ate a whole bunch of stuff. but only my stuff, because of course that’s what would happen. and not, like, regular stuff like bread or tortillas that he usually goes for - oh no. scooby got into the pantry and ate a whole bunch of my treats that i never get and have been rationing out for myself because i so rarely get them. 

and yeah, it’s junk food, but i’m still way more upset about it than if it had been regular groceries, because this stuff is super rare for me to have and is not gonna get replaced.

i am so fucking angry

[merrysmasquerade]

woke up to find my mom asleep on the couch, having slept there all night, dog sprawled on top of her. her explanation: “the thunder was making him cry”

[merrysmasquerade]

after playing tug with my dog i’m always left panting like i’m dying and i feel ashamed of how wimpy i am. then i remind myself that games of tug pretty much consist of me literally lifting/flinging around 50lbs of resisting, muscular animal on a string one-handed for 5 straight minutes and i feel a little better.

[merrysmasquerade]

mom, MOM. i know you like to chat with the neighbors and the yard guys and whoever else, but if the dog knows you’re outside on the lawn while he is stuck inside, he cries the whole goddamn time. loudly. without stopping. please come back inside so he will shut up. i’m begging you.

[merrysmasquerade]

so scooby’s got a pretty good “drop it” to the point where he’ll stick his head between your knees to drop the item right between your feet, but i’m pretty sure he connects the command more with the object’s ending position on the floor than the act of opening his mouth and letting it drop, so i decided to introduce “let go” for when we’re both holding something and i want him to let go (duh) so i can have it

we used his tug toys (foot long braided ropes) to practice - i had to stand there and refuse to either let go/let him have it or put up resistance (which he would interpret as playing a game of tug). i repeated the command (even though i knew he wouldn’t understand, as he had never heard it before) until he got bored with what was happening and gave up, letting go of the toy, and i praised him immediately. after that he picked it up pretty quick.

i started doing it before i would engage in a game of tug with him - he’d bring the rope (holding it at the very end) hoping to play, and instead of just grabbing the other end and tugging like i usually would, i would grab it and command him to let go. then he had to wait for me to say “tug” before he could grab it again and start pulling. it took a few times but now we’re down to him doing immediately on the first command.

now i’m working on getting him to let go in the middle of a game of tug, and it’s going really well! it took a bit longer to take, with him getting all worked up from the game and making it harder to get his attention, but now, even if we were in the middle of tugging, he’ll let go on (at most) the second command, back off and sit, waiting for me to give the rope back. such a good boy!

my dog is smart and i can’t stop gushing about it, is basically the whole point of this post i guess.

[merrysmasquerade]

all this thunder is stressing scooby out

[merrysmasquerade]

scooby is getting much better at responding to “focus” (his attention command where he has to look at my face for a count of 3) - i’m consistently getting him to turn away from birds, squirrels, and neighbors, though cats require a bit more cajoling to look away from and we haven’t really encountered any other dogs since i started bringing treats on our walks/started to teach him “focus.”