The Dog - part of the family

Our little Petite Peu (“little bit” in French) dog is part of the family. We have been a very reluctant family. But slowly she has made it into our hearts (sic), and into our living room. She made it into Arnia’s room (and bed) as well, but lost the privilege when the teen’s room started to smell...

The normal doggy stuff still gets to us, especially when she upsets the neighbourhood, such as the VERY LOUD barking. Or running around like a dog on espresso when she gets out of the garden. Or jumping up on our guests. I am sure the Dog Whisperer would have a field day at our house. We know now that it is not the dog, but the OWNERS who are the problem! (Guilty!)

The clicker training helped some, but also guilty! We did not continue with it...

The bark is the worst. It seems abnormal for such a small dog to have such a loud yap! She is supposed to have been a Miniature Pinscher, but turned out to be a cross with a Dachshund and some other genealogical mixes on her family tree. She got the loudest and most irritating bark of them all! The toddler has been copying her Dad: when Petite Peu barks, she calls out “Hay!” while showing the little finger! We cannot help but smile every time it happens.

But strangely we like our little dog more and more, and love it when she awaits us with her welcoming yaps! She stays in our vicinity while we are busy or watching television; moving with us when we does; and sleeps in her doggy bed at our feet. We have even caught Dries with the dog on his lap, even though he threatens to not take her to the vet ever again, or to help her out of her existence here on earth... (But who is the one who takes her to the vet every time? Or make sure that she has her extra blanket with her?)

This dog is more work, more money and more everything than we anticipated... The thought remains that another dog would have been easier. (?) But now we have our “little bit” of Big Trouble! Part of our family!

Related posts:

Petite Peu of a mistake

Clicker training #8: CRazy, psycho dog got her certificate

Wordless Wednesday #31 - Teen's BDay

Arnia, the teen, with the hat
made for her by the day care where she is working
during the holiday.

Petite Peu of a mistake

Little Bit of a Mistake! That’s what our little bit of a dog IS! The problem with dogs and with children: You can’t give them back. (You can!)


Noooo! You can’t!

Our Petite Peu dog got an eye infection after we washed her yesterday! Hubby had to take her to the vet today. R600 ZAR money later and armed with three bottles of eye drops he was back. And visibly upset! We took the toddler to the doctor as well yesterday. The same amount of ZAR money was spent. The only difference: the medical aid paid for it! Ouch! Vets ask the same as normal doctors for their consultation fees.

And now we have to get the eye drops into the dog’s eyes. It is as mission impossible as giving medicine to the toddler...

Our dog has calmed down since we allowed her more into the house. Or maybe it is because she is getting older? She sleeps with the teen in her room, and we do not hear a peep from her until the next morning. She still dashes out of the gate when she gets the opportunity. She also barks her very loud yaps at mostly unknowns, and the doves who try to steal her food...

We have to smile (sheepishly) at ourselves: we got a “little bit” more than we imagined our little dog would be!

Crazy dog: Clicker Training #7

The dog trainer: “Come here, you little crazy dog! Are you a crazy dog?” Patting the dog on the head.


It is nearly the end of our clicker training sessions. We see her respond to our commands, or some of them... When we get her to focus... Sometimes...

But Petite Peu is still all over the place. If ever there was a dog that needed Ritalin, it is this one!

The teen was walking the dog at the training grounds when a lady with her dog from the previous session started to walk a circle around them: “Ooh, there’s that overexcited dog again!” Arnia felt offended... (I think it is the same with busy children. You somehow feel responsible for them being so excitable; even though it is an inborn genetic trait.)

Did I mention that our Petite Peu; which means Little Bit in French, is also not so little bit anymore. She is even bigger that a Dachshund.

Maybe we should call her our Little Mistake? It was a mistake to buy a dog at a pet shop, and we should have looked more closely at the type of breed we wanted. (But she is here to stay; do not worry. Smile!)

Mieka and the dog played with her wax crayons this afternoon. Mieka throws a crayon to the ground and Petite Peu grabs it and chows it. I caught her time and again feeding the dog the crayons, although I reminded her again and again not to give it to the dog. They are a naughty team together...

Clicker training #5

I was waiting for the dog trainer on Saturday to call our dog “pycho dog” again. I wanted to question her about it. Maybe she thought about it as well, because she did not do it again...
Petite Peu really did well with her commands on Saturday. I felt that she and I were getting on very well. She is getting used to me being the Alfa dog as well, and not only the teen. (The teen is occupied with hockey on Saturdays.)
The dogs were taught to go through a tunnel. It is not that difficult when food is thrown through the tunnel, and they are being called to the other end of the tunnel. The dog trainer made the tunnel longer and longer, and the dogs had to run through. It is a bit scary, because you have to let go of the leash. I am still not sure that I will be able to get Petite Peu coming back to me when she gets a free reign in the park. She wants to take on all the big dogs that are in the class with her. Very cheeky!
Dries is still threatening the dog’s survival when she barks her very loud barks in the house, or when she starts barking at the neighbours outside, or when she makes a dash for the gate. Translated: he threatens every day to get rid of her...
The toddler enjoys the dog the most. We sometimes catch her feeding the dog some of her food through the gate. She laughs when the dog bumps into her, and she laughs when the dog licks her face and hands. She also finds it irresistibly funny to kick at the dog when she is underneath the chairs; which makes the dog bites at her feet. She is not at all bothered by the liveliness of the dog’s nature. She gets the dog more than we do!

Related post:

Psycho dog

Psycho dog

Clicker training #4: I had to take the dog through her training on Saturday, because the teen was busy with hockey. The dog is doing “sit” and “paw” and “lie down” very good by now, but I struggled to get her to learn the new stuff. The teen gets more out of the dog...
The “look” command was not too difficult, but the “stay” command did not really make an impact. Petite Peu was tired after half an hour, and the treats not that inviting any more. She was lying in the shade, panting, and I struggled to get her to get up again. In the end the trainer said I could practise the “stay” command by letting her be, showing her the hand, and rewarding her for staying where she was. (I am not sure she made the connection?)
Walking with her in an eight-figure circle proved to be impossible. I got tangled in her leash, and could not get her to walk the desired way. We will have to practise more...
Petite Peu also barked at all the other dogs, and at one stage we got tangled with another dog (cross-breed fluffy dog), and fluffy dog yelped in distress. Fluffy dog got so traumatized that her owner had to walk her up and down for the rest of the class...
I got a ball on a stick to show to Petite Peu. She had to sniff it for me to treat her. Petite Peu was scared of the stick-ball. In the end I had to reward her for looking in the direction of the ball. The goal is to get the dogs to follow the stick with their noses (without the use of a leash). Apparently it is going to take a bit longer to get Petite Peu to learn this trick...
I was a bit taken aback by the trainer calling our little bit of a dog “psycho dog”. Does she know something that we don’t?

Related posts:

Clicker training #3

Clicker training #2

Clicker training #1

Clicker training #3

The dog is able to roll over (sleep, play dead, and roll over) and creep. But not yet walk with us...

She got so excited with seeing and sniffing the other dogs, that we had a hard time to get her to focus. But that is part of the training, getting her to get used and socialized with other dogs. For a third lesson it really went well, and we are even more amazed at how much can be accomplished with treats and a click!
Petite Peu is a highly excitable dog. To get her to walk next to us you have to start walking in another direction when she starts pulling on the chain. And give treats when she walks where you want her to go. Eventually she will learn that she will get to where she wants to go if she stays with you! It makes a whole lot of human sense! Hopefully dog sense to our little bit of a dog as well!
Dries is threatening her existence more regularly now! It is only verbal at this stage! We (not including Dries) love our little bit of a wild dog! We will have to increase our practising with her during the week... (Thumbs crossed!)
(Photo: Arnia trying to get Petite Peu to get up and go in another direction.)

Related posts:

Clicker training for the dog week 2

Dog (owners) clicker training

Dog (owners) clicker training

The dog (actually us) got her first clicker training on Saturday. We thought she was unmanageable and it turns out she is very smart! We bought a Miniature Pinscher, but we got more of a Dachshund in the deal. The constant yapping is a good indication of the mix between the two breeds! Unfortunately you cannot give back a dog like you give back faulty equipment, so we are stuck with her. (And we love those big brown eyes too much in any case). But we had to make a plan to make her more pleasant to be around with…
She was spayed as well on Thursday, and when we got her back, she was the pleasurable dog we always wanted. Shame! It must have hurt, but we enjoyed her lying quietly with us on Thursday evening. Arnia even kept her in her room for the night, but by Friday morning she was her bouncy self again. (What other operations can we send her for? Smile)
I am very impressed with the clicker training. After 30 minutes Arnia got her to sit and to lie down. And we are seeing a remarkable change in her behaviour already! Not the all-over-the-place mad dog we were getting fed-up with! The secret is apparently to catch the dog doing the thing you want them to learn. The dog’s bum hits the ground; click-food. Now Petite Peu sits whenever she is around us. The promise of food works every time.
I was contemplating of incorporating the clicker training in my disciplining of Mieka as well. If it works for dogs, it will surely work for kids as well? Rather catch them doing positive things, than focusing on disciplining the negative…

Related post:

The dog

The Dog

Dries found the dog cowering in the corner today with a big cat busy eating her food. Now we have to teach her how to chase cats as well… In her defense, Dries said that it was a cat much bigger than her!
We had to lower our high expectations of her in any case: Petite Peu (little bit), the dog, is definitely not a Miniature Pinscher. She got a lot of the Dachshund genetics as well. We were still hoping that she would suddenly turn into the Pinscher, but the ears never got pointy, and the legs are too short. She seems fully grown by now.
I am not pleased (to say the very least) that we had bought her at a pet shop as the real thing! She came with a very steep prize for a cross a well. Where do we report such a thing?
And now she is part of the household. She is a family member whom we love with all her quirks. She is also still very much a baby at five months old. Chewing and barking (very loud for such a small thing) and jumping up and down. But she is sweet as well. She sometimes turns her head, looking at you as if to say: “What are you on about?” (See photo)

We usually get her in to “vacuum” the floor, especially underneath Mieka’s chair. She loves sitting on us or underneath us when we are on the floor. She loves gardening, and we get lots of upturned plants in the garden and leaves in the garden. She loves carrying Mieka’s toys and socks around, and we find most of it buried in her basket in the house. Luckily, because she is so small, she doesn’t bite through the stuff that she is chewing on.
It was said to us that she is not very bright, because she peed in her own bed, but we think she knows what she is doing. She marked it once and for all… And she is the Queen, for goodness sake! She sees blankets and cushions on the floor as the ultimate in invitations for using the toilet…