Hmm...I don't like the look of this...
My new home is very different from my old one back in Auckland.
First, it has those slippery wooden floors…although I have to say, I am getting much better and confident about walking on them now! 
In fact, even though my humans put down rugs for me, I sometimes prefer to just lie on the bare, wooden floor.
My new home is also much bigger – there are lots of rooms in the top part…
…and then there are stairs IN the house (I’ve never had those before!) which go down to a big room in the bottom part. The stairs are very narrow and steep so I find them quite difficult to go up and down.
The big room at the bottom of the house...
Because the house is built on the side of a hill, the garden at the back is lower than the front of the house.
So you have to go down the stairs and through the big room at the bottom of the house to get to the garden…
…so I don’t go there much coz it’s very hard for a big dog like me to go down so many steep steps and it is probably not very good for my joints.
But that’s OK because there is a small patch of grass at the front of the house where I can lie and sun myself…
Sunning myself in the small garden at the front...
There are some other strange things in this new home too…like a big hole in the kitchen wall where I can see my humans -
- and hey, it even comes with a place to rest my big heavy head when I’m tired of holding it up! 
I made sure that I found all the sunny patches in my new home very quickly… (Hsin-Yi can’t believe that I would still want to sun myself in this hot weather but actually, I am getting used to it and have stopped panting all the time – and anyway, I just LOOOOOVE the sun! 
)
And guess what? My new home comes complete with a doggie neighbour! He is a Bull Terrier and he looks very sweet – although I have only sniffed noses with him through the fence. We have not met his humans but we have heard them calling him so we think his name is Monty.
We feel a bit sorry for him because he is left alone in the garden the whole day, often till 6pm in the evenings - his humans must be away at work a long time – but at least when they come home, they always let him into the house with them. Many other doggies in Australia seem to be “outside dogs” and are not allowed to go into the home to be with their families at all 
- and are often not even taken for walks either, because their humans think that just having a big garden is enough! 
When I first arrived in my new home, the rooms were all very empty…
…because our things which were coming on the ship from NZ hadn’t arrived yet. So my humans had nothing to sit on, sleep on, cook or eat with! So they went to one of Hsin-Yi’s favourite places in the world, called IKEA, and bought a few things just so they could live until our things arrived.
Our sofa in Auckland was very old and made of wool – and that would not be nice to sit on in the hot, humid weather here – so my humans sold it and got a new one here! Hsin-Yi is really happy with it because it has washable covers – which is very good for a doggie household that gets lots of hair, mud and slobber!
Here is a picture of us enjoying the new sofa…and see how big my new beanbag bed is??!!
But last weekend, our things arrived from NZ and we had lots of Mover Humans come to the house again…
…and lots of boxes and mess everywhere…
…of course, I had the important job of supervising again!
(Hsin-Yi: our movers this time were wonderful: courteous, careful and efficient - they restored my faith in removal companies! The company in Auckland was called AusMove and their partner in Brisbane was called Wridgeways – I highly recommend them if anyone is moving between Australia & New Zealand!)
So this week, my humans are very busy again with unpacking and sorting stuff (and they are starting to do the Work thing again too – so that’s why they haven’t had much time to help me with blogging stuff!).
Well, one thing that hasn’t changed in my new home is my “house rules”! See, my humans have always been very strict about me following certain rules around the house – from the 1st day I arrived as a baby puppy. For example, I learnt to stay out of the kitchen, to only toilet in a special corner of the garden (NOT on the lawn!), to Sit at the front door when we have visitors and to never go out the front door or beyond the driveway unless I had permission.
Respecting the Kitchen Rule... (my humans put down some temporary masking tape to help me learn the boundaries)
My humans taught me these rules using commands like “Out!” and “Wait”, my toileting command (“Be Clean”) and my release word, “OK!” – (in the beginning, when I was really little and didn’t understand these commands yet, they had to guide me and use barriers like ’baby gates’ to help me learn) – it took a lot of consistent repetition in the beginning but once I learnt these good habits, it made life very easy and I could enjoy more freedom around the house because my humans trusted me.
For example, I can safely stay in the front garden by myself – even with the gates open…
Here is a video showing how I “re-learned” these rules in my new home:
A lot of people ask Hsin-Yi how she taught me these rules so well – the secret to training us doggies successfully is to be 100% consistent and to set up the situation and practise before trying to do it in the real thing. Most people fail because they don’t take time to set up and practise a situation – for example, polite manners at the front door: they only try to control us when visitors come for real and us doggies are super-excited and they get flustered and embarrassed and worried about keeping the visitors waiting…and so they let it go “just this once” but of course, we doggies learn that this means we can get away with naughty behaviour if we just push our humans long enough!
When I was learning this rule, Hsin-Yi got Paul to knock on the door lots of times, so I would get excited and then she could practise my door manners with me – and she has also shut the door in visitors’ faces a lot of times, until I could learn to remain sitting calmly when it opened!
This way, us doggies learn that we can never get away with it – not even once, no matter what we try! – and after a while, we stop trying and it just becomes a good habit. In general, if you never give us doggies a chance to learn bad habits, we will never think of doing them. But give in to us even once in the beginning and we will try even harder next time! Every command that is given to us MUST be enforced – no exceptions – otherwise, it is better not to give the command at all, because it will teach us to ignore our humans.
Respecting the Boundary Rule
You might be wondering why my humans keep the gates open in the front garden – this is because Hsin-Yi does not like dogs that patrol and rush fences, barking at people passing. It encourages aggressive-type behaviours in us doggies, which can then start extending outside the home to barking and lunging when out on walks, etc…
Of course, it is natural territorial behaviour for us doggies to bark at strangers but it is important that humans teach us what is “our territory” and that we should stop barking once we have alerted our pack leaders (our humans). Just rushing aggressively at fences is a bad behaviour to encourage. Dogs who are kept unsupervised all the time in gardens with people walking past, often learn this bad habit very quickly! Because we doggies think people move away because we scared them off with our barking (when actually, they would have walked on past anyway) – we think we are successful and get rewarded for it – and so we start repeating this behaviour A LOT. And if our humans are not there to supervise and correct this behaviour, we think it is OK to do this.
Us doggies will see any “barrier” as the limit of our territory and will rush to protect it (this is why we often bark & get aggressive in cars but are fine out on the street). By only having the front door as the “barrier” between me and the street, my humans teach me that my territory ends at the front door. By keeping the gate open, there is no barrier so I think that the front garden is just a continuation of the street and I don’t get territorial if someone is just walking past on the pavement. Anyway, I think even if someone just saw me behind the screen door, from the street, they would think twice about coming into our garden – gate or no gate! Hee! Hee! 
And by the way, in case you don’t think I make a very good guard dog (due to certain photos with stuffies in the past – ahem!), here is a picture of me on guard duty…believe me, it’s very hard work!
Now you might be thinking that it’s a bit mean making me follow all these rules when I’m just settling into my new home…well, actually, having rules and routines and boundaries actually makes us doggies feel much more happy and secure. We know where we stand and what is expected of us – and this is very important to us. This is a common mistake humans make with ‘rescue doggies’ because they feel sorry for them so they spoil them in their new homes and think they should let them get away with things for a while…and then they can’t understand why their rescue doggies start developing all sorts of anxiety and behavioural problems! In fact, my humans have been surprised at how well I have taken the whole move and it is partly because I have had these familiar old rules to hang on to and give structure and routine to my new life! 
Well, I have written a mammoth post again so I’d better stop but I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my new home!
Again, I am so sorry that I have not been able to visit your blogs – hopefully, Hsin-Yi will be less busy next week after all the unpacking and sorting is finished and then she can help me do more blog stuff again! 
a family moment...
I’m glad to see that you guys are all settled in and Honey is adjusting well! Great post on being consistent with the rules
Oh and super cute pictures of Honey in the driveway!
Hi! I have been reading your blog for a long time now but just now commenting… I absolutely adore it!
I have a 2.5 year old Great Dane named Elle Woods… I grew up with grade danes and could never imagine ever having anything else! They are the best dogs ever!
Honey is exceptionally wonderful! Love the newest pics and am glad she’s getting settled in!
Tank woo fur the update on your settling in!
What a nice place -- with lots of sunshine opportunities fur woo!
As fur the open gate, I’d be gone gone gone!
No matter how much one works with most Siberians, it is what we do!
Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
Hi Honey, glad to hear you’re settling in. Somethings never change, eh? I can see how hard you’re working there
Your Home looks lovely! I love wood floors even if they are slippery. When Moose hurt his knee I had tons of rugs everywhere and he would lie right next to them! And, like you, he loves to find a sunny spot even in the summer. People tell me that they can’t imagine having a black dog in south Florida but Moose asks to go out in the middle of the day and will lie in the sun! Crazy pups!
I am glad you are settling in. Practically everything in my house came from Ikea and I love it. My couch covers come off in theory but they are really hard to get on and off (different couch than yours).
Moose and I have lots of work this year to get him to be a good dog. Training a puppy is hard work but untraining a grownup is hard too. Every time I teach him something new and he soaks it ups so fast I wonder how that other family KEPT him from learning for 5 1/2 years (given that he was a well cared for a socialized dog) Anyway, door training is on our list STILL along with the recall and leash training. The gate as boundary idea is interesting. We have no fence in the front yard and he watches out the door all day and is convinced that the neighbors across the street are in his territory! Not sure how to clear that up for him. Fortunately he only woofs a few times so not that big of a deal. Anyway, nice to hear from you!
Looks like things are beginning to look a lot more like home. As long as you are with your momma and dadda you will be happy. Maybe you can play with the dog next door once your momma and dadda make friends with the humans over there.
What a great post! I couldn’t have said any of this better myself. We have rules and boundaries too. Juno (a Siberian, who invented the sport of counter surfing) NEVER takes anything off the counter. they also know not to go out a door unless invited. but i didn’t think of the gate thing. that’s interesting.
we still have a little difficulty with guests and behaving when they arrive. Both Loki and Juno can stay in “down’ but Loki takes a long time to stop barking. it’s so naughty. drives me insane. i’ve tried so many things. he usually shuts up w/in about 1 or 2 minutes and my guests ignore him. once he’s quiet, he’s allowed to greet them “say hello.” but not until he’s quiet. He’s GSD mix, so i think a lot has to do with the breed but its something i really need to fix because its not a good habit.
Loved the video. feel bad for monty. maybe you can do some play dates with him once you know his parents!
thanks for sharing. i’m going to have to go through all of this myself!
wags-n-wiggles,
wild dingo
Wow! What a long update! It’s nice to see the transformation of an empty house to a home. Love your bean bag. Hope you enjoy your new home! Mum says Brisbane is lovely…I’ll have to take her word for it since I’ve never been. Hope you get to go diving at the Great Ocean Reef.
Hi Honey
Great to see you settling in so well and the house starting to look like a home!
take care
Clive
Hi Honey! Your house looks great! I like it… and as I’m only, apparently, little I don’t mind stairs -- I LOVE THEM
But we already talked about that, hey…
But it is the same everywhere -- Australia, Germany, NZ name it -- some hoomans seem to lack it 
And those poor doggies they own become aggressive and it isn’t their fault but they get the blame -- so sad!!!! To be precisely: it makes me sad and my mom aggressive! And yeah, it is very common here to have a backyard dog for the kids that never gets out for walkies…
Who would have thought so -- we have the same house rules and our mom’s seem to have the same “consistency” issue.
My mom says thanks for sharing the information behind the rules and why we do certain things. She says that she didn’t know the reasons but trained me in exactly that way -- guess it is called something like common sense
The poor Bull Terrier looks so sad
Slobbers Teal’c
Hi Honey -- I am a long time follower of your cool blog but this is my first time commenting. Hello from cold and snowy Baltimore, Maryland! My name is Indy, and I’m a one year old chocolate lab. My humans lost their very special 13 year old lab in December of 2008 and they were very very sad. They rescued me in february of 2009 when I was only 8 weeks old. I know they love me lots -- they take very good care of me, and I have tried to be a good boy for them. I love reading about all your adventures, especially your recent move to that hot place
WOW -- you are a lucky dog! My human Diane pulls up your blog so I can see pictures of you and your humans. Please thank them for telling us how to train a dog to obey the rules and how to set boundaries. My humans try to train me but they don’t do a very good job so sometimes I am confused about what they want from me. I really want to please them so they will play with me and give me lots of healthy treats! Well, I must go for now, my human has to go to work now so I will say good bye for now. Talk to you soon -- I love your new home!
Barks and licks to you
Indy Taylor
Looks like you are finally getting settled in to your new house! I bet the rules make you feel better during the chaos of moving and learning a new place. Thanks for sharing with us!
Your new home looks great Honey. I can see that the stairs would be hard for you. I do like stairs -- we don’t have any at home and I like to run up and down them every chance I get. I do like that ledge into the kitchen. You get a good view of all the important cooking activities.
What a great post about all your training in your new home. I hope that when your people have time they will enter the Train Your Dog Photo Contest on our blog.
Your friends,
Niamh & Ambrose
we love your rules honey and the logic behind them especially about the fencd. unfortunately we can not do this because we are sight hounds and that honestly can’t be trained out of us. but we do not go to the fence edges anyways because we are too lazy and too friendly to bark --hehehe. we liked the masking tape idea in the kitchen too, that is very clever. we are hoping you will eventually report more on Monty --perhaps you will become friends and reassure us that he is well looked after. love saige and guinness
Your bean bag bed is HUGE!!!!!!!!!!! Lucky dog!
I loved the video. Very well put together with great information in it. I especially love the part where your ball kept rolling down the street and your Mom had to fetch it instead of you lol. Talk about role reversal haha.
I’m glad you’re settling in so well and you’re adjusting to the heat.
Keep us updated. When you have the time stop by my blog. I’m eating raw like you now!! 
Jackal
WOWWOWOWO Honey!!
))))
What a big and beautiful house you have there!!!
We’re so happy you and your humans are settled in very well!!!
You all look so happy!!!!
And OMDDDDDDDDDDD…what a huge bed you have!!!!
it’s looks soooooooooooooooo comfy!!!!
And we love your mommy new sofa…our mommy loves IKEA too!!!
Lots of things in our house come from Ikea!!!!!
Honey….sure you’re a very very well mannered girl!!!
but we must admit we don’t love rules too much!!!
Waawawwawwawaaaaaa!!!
but we’re good boys and girl with mommy!!!!
We love all your pics…you look soooooo cute!!!!!
Have a wonderful time there!!!!!
Hope to hear from you again very very soon!!!!!
WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Tons of love,kisses and licks!!!!
MUAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Honey
It’s gweat to see youw new home and that you awe settling and leawning about all the new things. I think youw pawents awe vewy smawt wif theiw wules! and you awe such a vewy good giwl that I know you obey them pawfectly. I hope you get loads of sun to lounge in and I think it’s gweat that you can west you bootiful head on the countew and watch youw Mom in the kitchen..I bet it’s a pawfect place fow good smells and tweats
smoochie kisses
ASTA
I love great danes. I want one myself, but I have a very small home and a very small budget to match!
Anyways, I was wondering if I could ask you a couple questions? Maybe you would be kind enough to give me some pointers?
I have a 6 year old American Bulldog. He’s VERY well behaved and I have very few behavior issues with him, I would just like to address a few things.
He is very good about “wait” when I tell him and open the door, then he goes out after I tell him “ok”. The problem is, if I leave the door open and I’m not watching him, even though there’s a screen door, he will push it open and let himself out. When I tell him he’s been bad and try to get him into the house, he will not budge. I don’t chase after him, I just wait for him to come in. He’s knows very well that he’s not allowed to do that, but if he sees a squirrel, he’s gone!
Also, when I first adopted him (about a year ago), I tried to get him to only do his business behind the garage as to not ruin all my grass. This is not working out so well. Not only are there brown spots all over my grass from him peeing everywhere, but it takes me forever to walk the whole yard picking up his messes. How do you teach them to only go in one designated place? I tried taking him out on a leash but he’d stop and pee on the way and I’d be dragging him! His favorite place to go is right outside the back door
I appreciate any suggestions you have! Thanks so much!
Honey you are such good girl! Maybe you mommy can help us since she is such a good dog mommy! My little Boston Terrier is only 9 months old and we have been bad dog parents and she jumps up constantly and spends half her time actually on her back feet only as her front ones are on a. us b. the cabinets.
She is kind of dumb compared to you and also quite stubbborn
Welcome to your new and beautiful home, Honey. You and Hsin-Yi do such a great job with your training. Our Mom has learned so much from watching you in your videos. But she doesn’t think she would ever be brave to leave us in our front yard without the gate being closed. We just have too strong of an urge to run.
Hope you get to meet your neighbor pup and we hope he is friendly.
Tail wags, Phantom and Thunder
I never get tired of reading your posts, Honey. Actually I’m always amazed at how well trained you are. It’s not easy to keep the consistency. Bravo for your humans.
I do need to learn how to welcome people. My humans must work more on that!
It’s great to know things are settling in. All your humans’ work will be paid off.
Love, Kimba and family.
Hi Honey,
It’s good to see how you are doing in Brisbane! I think now my humans regret that they didn’t set rules like yours when I came to their home, hehe… I know they are trying hard to convince me to follow new rules, but I follow them only when my humans are around, as I already know the freedom I enjoyed before the rules were set in place!
I am glad that your are getting used to the climate in Brisbane.
Love,
Cinnamon
Hello Honey!
Ah ha! I bet you love your new place yeah? It looks so cool!
Anyway, I thought I’ll share with you. When I was living in Holland, I had problems with the stairs but my humans solved the problem by putting carpets on them. You can check out this link to have a clearer idea.
http://homergoldenretriever.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-01-22T00%3A00%3A00%2B01%3A00&max-results=50
We are also moving to a more permanent place this weekend. Oohh yeah, I’m looking forward to my new casa!
Love,
Homer
Hi Honey,
I really enjoyed reading this post! Misty & Oreo are learning some new rules right now, so it was fun to hear about how you are learning new rules in your new home.
Seems like you have adapted well to your new surroundings. I think your favorite part my be the cut out in the kitchen where you can peek your head in!
Practice is they key. Your home looks great! I can’t wait to see it when it is all done. Honey looks right at home.
That bed is HUGE, it looks like it’s big enough for me to crawl up on and take a nap.
That’s sad about Monty. I hope you get to know him. Maybe then you can work out some play dates so he isn’t alone every day.
Looks like everyone is settling in. Your house is lovely.
Your humans did an excellent job of training you! Maybe I should send my pups over for a little visit and Hsin-Yi can train them and ship them back! BOL
I love it when you post the videos. I enjoy hearing your human’s accents. Plus it’s always a joy to get to see you!
Don’t forget to have your human stop by my place and pick up your award!
Hi, Honey!
Glad to see you all are adjusting so well to your new place!
You are the best! Yes… good girl!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza
hello honey its dennis the vizsla dog hay wow garding duz seem to be hard wurk!!! fortchoonatly i hav trixie heer to do it for me wilst i can spend my time performing skweekektomee reesertch on stuffies!!! ok bye
Hi Honey,
We have house rules too. Ressu has still problems to understand some times that he is not allowed in kitchen when humans are eating. It just didn’t have any rules at all. Mom keep saying that people who have dogs are worst visitors when you have a puppy. You keep hearing “oooh, it is so cute it does not matter that it jumps against me. I have dogs my self.” And it is true it is harder to teach bad behavior away than theach a new one.
Lenni & Ressu
Pst.. Your beanbed looks so comftable
It is so good to see all of you settling in to your new home, especially you Honey! We are thinking that wood floor must feel purrty cool to lay on…and we mean cool as in cold. Now when winter hits, you may feel differently about it, but you have that great ginormous bean bad to sleep on then. Wonder if we can get Meowm to get us one that size?
We kind of feel bad for Monty. He looks like a cute woofie. Maybe his humans, and others in the area will learn from you and your humans. We hope so, we hate to think of all those woofies not getting to go for walks.
It was great of whoever built that house, to put that window in the wall with a purrfect place for you to rest your head. Sometimes we get tired of holding ours up too, and we rest them on Meowms arm and it makes her go all gooey on us. Have you tried that with your humans?
We posted a video today…we hope you can go see it!
I do not go up the stairs to the sleeping rooms, because my humans say it’s too hard on a big, heavy dog like me. I have a wonderful fenced in yard, and my boys go out to play with me. We have a window into the kitchen, too, but Mom won’t let me put my head up there. I have kitchen rules, too: I can’t go in there when anyone is cooking, because someone might get burned. I’m glad you and your humans are settling so well into your new home! Maybe you can get to meet Monty soon!
Drools,
Thor
Hi Honey,
So nice of you to take us on a tour of your new home. Our humans are so impressed with you for being such a well-mannered dog. They really admire Hsin-Yi for all that she has done training you. Our humans wish we could be as well-mannered as you.
Hope to see more of you in your new home!
Hi Honey,
Still unpacking with all the stuff from the old house? Must be so busy busy busy, ya? *wiggles*
Whoa.. you have a neighbor? Mmaybe you two can take a walk and also play together, that’s gonna be fun!
Licks,
Adele, Vincent & Bella
Oh, Honey! My mom and Dad LOVE the picture of you resting your chin on the pass-through to the kitchen! Wooooo! You look so adorable!
And you are the most well-behaved pup we’ve ever known. You are amazing and your mom is such a remarkable trainer!!! We salute you both!
Luv,
Dave
Your new home looks great! I’m gald to see I’m not the only doggie who has lots of rules in the house!
Becasue I go absolutely everywhere in the car with my persons they are very stricked on me about not stepping a paw out of the car with out their permission! They don’t want me to just jump out when I please and get hit by car machines.
We miss you back in Auckland Honey and your humans of course
I’ll try and post some new photo’s of me soon!
Licks,
Lexi
Hi Honey
I’m so pleased you’re settling in and adjusting to the heat -- it was very hot here the other day, we slept in the lounge room because the noisy box was making it cool. I don’t often snuggle up to my human but I made sure to do it so she would know I love her even when it’s hot.
I like your kitchen head-rest -- I might ask my human to build me some stairs so I can rest my head on the kitchen table. I’m sure she will, once I show her your blog.
I’m glad you’re getting along so nicely!
Puppy kisses
Sasha
Great post. I thought the video was most interesting. I did notice the slippery floors and I was interested in that because we are thinking of pulling up the carpeted section of our house and getting the floor polished. I’m going to ask if it’s possible to get a polish that is not so shiny. I don’t know if that’s possible, though.
I thought the pic of Honey with her head resting was hilarious.
We just saw your message to us! We so hope you can get a new kitty! We will purr for your landlord to be so pleased with how good youare that he will let you have a kitty in your home too!!!
cool place honey!
it’s good that your humans are strikt in rules
our humans does that to:
we are not allowd in the bedrooms en basment,…
sometimes hauwii sneek upstairs en sleeps on Sanne’s bed
bad doggy
icey kissslobbers
El’bow & Hauwii
Your new house looks great Honey! I is not allowed in the kitchen when the peoples eat dinner, but sometimes I put my front toes over the imaginary line. hehe!
You must work very hard with your Humans to get all your rules down.
~lickies, Ludo
We LOVE your new home Honey:)
You look totally pawsome in those pictures, and boy that movie of you learning house rules, you were a real champ!
Licks & Kisses,
Toby
Don’t feel bad I am VERY disorganized. My list of monthly goals is my first ATTEMPT at being organized. I haven’t done any training all winter, so I’m hoping this will get me going again.
I feel guilty for not doing anything in so long.
Your new home looks gorgeous and it looks like you are settling in well. It sounds out like the rules for helping dogs feel safe and secure (and therefore to behave) is much like those for human pups -- routines, rules, and consistency is the key. Of course, that is often easier said than done!
Hi Honey -- this might be a long comment so please bear with us….!
Female human is always amazed by how different we are -- both the same breed, the same age -- from the same litter but SO different! She says that if (heaven forbid!) they had only chosen JD then they would have probably been quite smug dog owners as JD is extremely easy to train. If they had only chosen Max (again -- doesn’t bear thinking about -- he he!) then they would probably be despairing a bit as he is -- erm -- somewhat wilful!
We’re quite well trained now but FH knows our behaviour needs constant re-inforcement and she also thinks it’s a bit harder having two doggies and not one as we like to lead each other astray -- he he he! Well, we certainly distract each other at any rate. Still, she says we’re like children -- we need to be constantly guided and sometimes reminded what the correct behaviour is.
FH gets amazed -- and frustrated -- at how some folks over here think that having rules for dogs is cruel. It’s true -- and it’s crazy! As you said us doggies are happier when we know our boundries and we know what the rules are. It means we stress less as we know the humans are taking the responsibility for the decisions, we can just kick-back and let them! But some humans really do think that correcting a dog is cruel. For example, on weekends we meet up with a group of doggies at the park for a morning walk. We love it and we have really good fun romping with 5 other doggies. However, FH doesn’t enjoy it as much as us as some of these other dog owners are pensioners and are now VERY set in their ways.
FH had to ask one of them to stop constantly feeding us treats -- we admit we were very miffed at FH for doing this, but this person would give us about 10 treats EACH per walk and we didn’t have to do anything for it -- we thought it was brilliant! But when FH asked the person not to do it -- she explained it was confusing us and making our training inconsistant -- she got a barrage of abuse about being a bad owner who was out to cause misery and that she was ruining our lives as well as ruining this person’s life by stopping her from feeding us! FH was quite upset at this -- but the others in the group explained this person was in her 80′s so wasn’t likely to change her opinion now.
Even now this person makes comments to us (not to FH but always loudly and whenever FH is within earshot) at every walk about how FH is cruel to us and that we must have such a miserable existance living with FH. FH would REALLY love to comment about this on her blog, but she knows that family of this person read it and show it to her so she thought it wasn’t really worth it.
Also, another person in the group thinks it’s cruel to stop a dog from barking and showing that ‘charging’ behaviour that you mentioned in this post. She says that it’s ‘natural’ for a dog to behave like this so to try to stop it is the same as ‘breaking the spirit of the dog’. She also had words with FH for teaching Max not to bark at EVERYTHING!
Sometimes FH wonders why she continues these walks, but she’s learnt to let these comments wash over her and she does get on with the others in the group! Plus, we love all our doggie pals so -- since it’s just two walks a week -- FH puts up with it. So we know she must REALLY love us!! The other doggie owners we all know and meet up with on other walks all have the same ideas on training as FH so that helps too!
Great informative post Honey, we’re pleased to see that you’re settling into your new home. Schnauzer snuggles -- JD and Max.
Great to see the pics of Honey settling in. All best wishes for your new home!
Glad that you settling in well Honey!
Your new home looks so beautiful!
Love,
Thor
Honey, looks like your humans picked a lovely home for you! Thank you so much for the tour of your new home, I love it! Can I come and live with you?
How wonderful that you are so well trained!