Monthly Archives: January 2022

Four-square

Posted on by
1
Themba standing four-square and showing his potential

Dear Zak,

Themba has had a busy few weeks since I last wrote. We went back to see Fynn who was delighted to meet us again and they had a boisterous time until Themba suffered the ultimate indignity of being “beaten up” by a cantankerous old sausage dog! No contact was made but Themba yowled long and loud. How embarrassing. Well, that was the end of the play date and as it was a Friday afternoon it was time to make out way back home again.

We also had another play date with a Labrador, Ollie, of six months. He was clueless. It didn’t start well with both him and another adult Lab mobbing both of us before we’d even got out of the pickup. It took a while for things to settle down.

Ollie is not much bigger than Themba but has absolutely no idea about play etiquette and kept running straight into Themba and knocking him over. Themba eventually got fed up and told him so. Not an entirely wasted session as he has to know how to deal with dogs who are like Ollie!

Where has the little puppy gone? 16.5kg and growing…

Themba is still maintaining a weight gain of a kg per week. Now he’s 16.5kg and the little puppy of eight weeks ago is long gone. He still has that cute puppy waddle but is running more like an adult dog now – no scampering. We got him a special bowl with lumps in it to slow down his eating which I think was even faster than yours. It’s slowed him down a bit but he’s working out how to speed the gobble up again.

Roxy and Themba seem to have come to an agreement; she growls when warning and he takes notice. There haven’t been any confrontations this past week so hopefully the snap-and-yowl is mostly behind us. We are careful when food is around to keep them separate but have yet to cross the bone bridge. We’ll get to it along with swimming pool awareness training.

We took the whole pack to a newish dog park in Highlands yesterday to get a bit of exposure to meeting other dogs and for quite a while were the only ones there. I guess it was early for a Saturday. Some Beagles arrived just before we left and all was fine though Roxy seemed a bit anxious. She’ll get used to it.

A warm, hairy chin-rest in the form of Tia. Life cannot be too bad.

Training is going well though Themba has learnt to anticipate when he is going to be called by either Marianne or myself. We’ve even tried code words such as “Thursday” or, “after this command” but he even recognizes those and bolts to the next person before we’ve finished. A clever little boy. Mind you we are using very high value treats; biltong bits.

Themba – in training

Posted on by
1
I think I’ve had enough of this leash thing

Dear Zak,

Themba is 13 weeks old today and on Friday he weighed 13 kilograms. That’s a kilogram a week that he’s put on since we got him. Yes, he loves his food just like you did and we are seriously considering getting him a special bowl just to slow him down a bit.

The training has started in earnest and we are making progress. He’s not so keen on the walking on a leash but will recall to a treat quite successfully and has learnt to sit and lie down. Fetching has never been a strong instinct for ridgebacks but Themba will give it a go if he’s fetching a treat.

There have been a few hiccups. He plays with Roxy quite nicely but she can be over-reactive and there have been a few squealing fits when she over-did her disciplining. She can also be a bit heavy-pawed in the playing and has squashed him on a couple of occasions. Cheryl said just to ignore it and let them get to know the rules but Marianne has decided to get a dog behaviourist in tomorrow to give us some tips. Themba has got a bit of a dent on top of his head from Roxy – we didn’t see what happened but it looks like there are two bite marks on her chest so maybe he got carried away. We’ll see how it goes.

Tia can get a bit excited when playing but she does give him plenty of warning when she’s had enough and we’ve never heard him yelp when playing with her.

Playing by the rules – this time

On Christmas Day we went to Jeanette’s and took along Themba to play with her Django. He’s seven months old, big and very boisterous ridgeback. I’d been over a few days earlier to make introductions and Jeanette had brought in a dog trainer who works with military dogs and mine detection dogs to give tips and advice. Django was kept under control and it was all fine on the day. Luckily he is a gentle fellow despite all his energy and with a couple of exceptions, when Django had to be reined-in, they played well.

We have started Themba on short walks on the farm now that he’s had all his vaccinations and has a tick repellent. Marianne insists on putting a harness on him for easy handling but he doesn’t like it and last week just sat down an refused to move with it on. He’ll get used to it.