Koondog Shenanigans

A collection of videos, pictures, and text posts about my puppers' (The Noodle™️, Belgian Malinois & HoneyGirl, Belgian Malinois) life and my growth (and I am sure some backwards steps as well) as a trainer. I absolutely welcome comments, reblogs, and discussion. So much can be learned by sharing knowledge whether everyone agrees on what is shared or not! If I forget to @you when I reply I am sorry lol I do read everything though I promise. My main is maligatorthealligator so you will probs see that a lot.

[wilderun]

Basil goes in for his FHO surgery on Tuesday, since the dislocated hip he suffered when he was attacked by the loose dog hasn’t stayed in the socket and the toggle pin option for surgery is just too out of budget. His skull has healed really well, which at the time has been my biggest concern. He’s got a permanent dent above the left eye now and a lumpy ear with the scar tissue, but that’s just cosmetic. The stitches are fully dissolved on the healed lacerations to his leg.

I’ll be really glad to get him through this last hurdle of his recovery, the pain management has been keeping him mobile to go in and out for potty breaks, but it’s affected his appetite so his weight has suffered.

Between the initial emergency vet visit after he was attacked, the MRI, and the follow ups, it’s run us about $6500 so far, $1300 of which y’all contributed when I initially asked for help. Thank you so so much for everything <3

I’ve got about $1800 of the ~$2300 quote for his upcoming surgery covered and can put the rest on CareCredit if needed to make sure he gets in for his surgery date either way, but if you’re interested in chipping in towards what is hopefully the last big vet procedure for Basil, my PayPal is [email protected] and Venmo is @gabriel-ogle-wilderun

[thenoodlesadventures]

Went hiking today and got quite wet! They definitely enjoyed themselves though lol

[thenoodlesadventures]

I found a very photogenic tree the other day 🥹

[thenoodlesadventures]

#bloopers

[thenoodlesadventures]

I found a very photogenic tree the other day 🥹

[thenoodlesadventures]

Okay. So. I'm definitely going to have to get Bubble Pictures with all of the dogs because these are just. Gold. Absolute gold. I'm in love.

[thenoodlesadventures]

Okay. So. I'm definitely going to have to get Bubble Pictures with all of the dogs because these are just. Gold. Absolute gold. I'm in love.

[thenoodlesadventures]

Herding skills!

Switching direction, laying down mid-stride, and walking up directly (we're working on it) opposite of me. We're putting our skills together now.

[thenoodlesadventures]

Hiking adventures! Dogs on logs and The Noodle™️ showcasing how much pollen was trapped in the leaves 😅

[thenoodlesadventures]

I practiced some of the stuff i outlined last night and then put it together here. Thoughts?

We're going to herding today so we'll have some real feedback from honeygirl on whether this helps our communication or not lol but anything you guys see in my handling here that could be adjusted for greater clarity?

Note: the you is behind her because she was wayyy too jazzed when i was holding it or when it was in my pocket. The toy being on the ground behind her gets behaviors much more similar to her on sheep

[thenoodlesadventures]

I'm just gonna write my thoughts down here real quick because my brain can't decide where it wants to start a honeygirl training file. SO you guys get my Herding Thoughts:

1. My handling needs to be so much more thoughtful because that's where her and I are ending up frustrated. There's major miscommunication between me reading>listening to her and me directing her and me reading the sheep. It's ending up with her ignoring me and then getting frustrated aaaaaand then sheep loose wool 😅 this is not the kind of relationship (training or otherwise) that i want to have with my dogs so that's led us to crafting a training plan outside of herding to practice these skills.

Which leads us here: set toy down>being dog away>A "walk up" (one slow step)>B "lie down"> repeat "A>B" sequence until close to toy then send to toy

Dog in front of me, toy in right/left hand, extend left/right hand (respectively) at dog's eye-level (ish), cue "left/right" matching the extended hand (sweep hand forward and tilt body if needed)>when dog moves towards the toy hand mark and reward.

Set up Object (like a sawhorse) > place dog opposite the Object from you>toy in left/right hand>extend right/left hand (respectively)> cue "right/left" matching the extended hand> when dog mover around the object in the correct direction mark and reward

Next evolution of "Walk Up" is to set up an Object (like a sawhorse) >walk up > leave dog in a down> then extend appropriate hand for intended direction and cue "left/right"> when dog goes around object mark and reward

(haven't done this one yet) place dog in "down"> walk a pace or two away from the dog>hold toy in hand>cue "walk up">cue "lie down">mark and reward. Gradually increase distance and needed amount of "walk up">"lie down" repetitions

Repeat 6 but send the dog in a circle around you either left or right on cue after last "lie down" and then mark and reward.

Repeat 7 but you're moving slowly away from the dog.

Make sense? My brain says that this all seems and feels logical as a reasonable and fun way to teach her these behaviors without or with minimal pressure. I'm going to leave a toy outside the gate and play with her on the way up to the gate and around the pen the sheep are in. Asking her for some of these behaviors when it isn't our turn so she's less pent up and also so she gets practice doing these things around sheep

[thenoodlesadventures]

Pls enjoy my snappy boy catching treats 😁

[thenoodlesadventures]

Second send! So i definitely should've waited to send her until all the sheep had gotten to me or stepped in after she started moving BUT i wasn't watching my sheep so i didn't realize that i'd already pulled ALL of the 'm off the fence.

And THEN I'm so concerned with trying to get her to not go around again (which was silly in retrospect) that i put the sheep BACK on the fence because i pulled ALL of us over to the edge. Which of COURSE the sheep went to the fence because that's literally what we've been working on hahahaha we get them off the fence, turn them a few times, then bring them back to the fence, and do it all again. So like. Of course they were going to go back to the dance and i clearly want protecting them from the dog since she promptly split them so why the heck would they stay with me hahahahaha

I absolutely should've just let her go around us another time and moved all of us back into the center and then gotten a few turns/direction changes in and then had her take them back to the fence with me and reset... And paid attention to my sheep when i sent her again hahahahaha instead we got them stuck and had to get the helper dog

(please ignore her yelling 😂 i frustrated her with my lack of good guidance and she's very vocal lolol my opinionated girl)

[thenoodlesadventures]

A snippet from herding! This was the cleanest portion but i literally made a handling error right out the gate by not following her with the paddle long enough to get her on the outside of that sheep since she doesn't know she needs to swing wide yet and needs the guide. We cleaned up and had a few more really clean runs this session but also a lot of learning moments for both of us lol

Like the second time i sent her to get them off the fence i wasn't paying enough attention to where the sheep were and she split them and put two on the fence and we had to get a helper dog to get them off 😂😂😂😂

Girl goes in a little hot and i've gotta get better about how i'm using space to get her around the sheep so we all stay together

I'll post the clip from second time i send her here too so you guess can see is but Tumblr hates it's users so can't have two videos in one post! Even if they're short! 😂

[thenoodlesadventures]

Only the best pics for ya'll 🫶

[pawsitivevibe]

I want you dogblr folks to know that I very much appreciate all your very cute Christmas dog photos. The rest of social media is full of horrible AI stuff people seem to think is cute but is really really not. I enjoy the actual photos of your dogs!

[maligatorthealligator]

You'll probably appreciate our pawprint ornaments we're decorating then! Yellow is Honeygirl. Red and gold is The Noodle™️. Pink is Babypop (who's pawprint is literally the same size as thenoodle's 😭😭😭😭😭).

[terrierthing]

🌀 you want a small dog so bad 🌀 you want to experience the unique challenges of training a small dog 🌀 you want to improve your skills by working with breeds that aren't handler oriented 🌀 low drive and sensitivity to pressure exist to test your problem solving skills 🌀 you welcome back pain 🌀 you want to learn to assert yourself and advocate for your small dogs' needs in a world that's scary to them 🌀

[thenoodlesadventures]

WE GOT TO GO HERDING TODAY!!! i have more video but this is the only one that doesn't have other people in the shot hahaha this is her fourth time in the pen. First time we just let her chase the sheep to see if she had interest (this was a week ago). Second time was this morning and this was the first time i got some instruction on how to start teaching her these skills lol she ended up needing a helper dog to get them off the fence a couple of times 😆 but overall did really good! Wrapped me up in her line though and I had to recall her and have her lay down to remove it from around my ankle hahahaha third time was much the same as the first. She has a tendency to want to go really fast because it's exciting. Makes her little malinois brain go ‼️ so that time was a bit fumbly because I tried to direct her a bit more and slow her down some and she definitely just ended up a hit confused (also needed a helper dog to keep the sheep off the fence). Fourth time (which happens to be this video) we kind of found a groove! She cued off me a lot more, I was successful in slowing her down some. She got the off the fence all on her own. Called away and heeled when she got mouthy then went and collected them (from the fence !!) when asked and brought them into a really nice gather around me 🥹😊 i tried to micromanage her a bit less the fourth time. Allowed her to loop around me all the way more often rather than trying to stop that and worked on lessening her speed and then started trying to direct her more to cross around back of the sheep rather than me which was vastly more successful this time.

All in all very fun!! Will definitely be doing this regularly! Her face still smells like sheep despite the bath ❤️🤣😂