BillPitcher's Page

Bill, Thks SO much for your response. I have had the worst flu/cold thing and this has been ongoing for two weeks. Today, I finally feel like myself, but I appologize for not responding to your answer to my query. That is probably not a great sentence, now that I look at it, but you know what I mean. Thomas is extremely good natured and will allow me to call him away from his food. In fact I could stick my hand in his bowl while he is eating or remove the bowl and he would just look at me with a bewildered look on his face.(he is probably thinking why is she doing this?) He will stay with a treat on the floor while I walk away for 10-12 feet indoors. Would he ignore the treat when I called him? That is a big NO. Same thing if I tossed a toy-he would bring the toy to me, but not ignore the toy to come to me. Did I tell you that he was 5 1/2 months old? I thought he was doing well, but now I think maybe not. Our trainer is great, but we only see her once a week. He has mastered sit(of course) down, settle(lies on his side and is supposed to stay there-not happening yet) leave it, watch me, and numerous other commands. Perhaps we are lazy, I do not practice these commands on an hourly basis. He will leave a treat on the floor for 10 minutes with the command "leave it" and then I give him the treat as a reward. We are working on the jumping up-when a member of our family comes home-he greets us now with a waggy tail-almost no jumping. His counter surfing has also slowed down-I think he may be getting the message-but honestly, we leave nothing there to tempt him. I would not leave food there yet, because I'm sure he would grab it and run. We have his neutering in 1 1/2 weeks coming up and honestly, we are probably lazy in our training methods. I am not going to buy the zapper thing- it is just not in me-I just don't feel right about it. I just want a well behaved dog-not a certified guide dog like some people on this site talk about. Just to be able to cook and eat in peace would be a pleasure. Our trainer has many ideas which are all non aggressive which we will have to work on more diligently. You are right in saying that these doodles are strong willed-our trainer tells us that Thomas has more of the "Golden Retreiver" personality traits (his mother) and yet he is very smart like his poodle dad. I'm not sure if that is good or bad, but we just love him no matter what. Now in the Canadian way I am getting long winded and want to thank you for any input.
Regards, Debbie

Hi Bill and thanks for responding to my desperate need for advice. I have been diligently working with Thomas on this "counter surfing". He is so trainable in all other aspects of "dog life". He is the star of his training class and breezed thry puppy training learning all of the commands. In the intermediate class the trainer uses him to act out the more advanced commands because he catches on so quickly. So in other words, this dog is smart. BUT- with all of these commands which we practice on a daily basis-he continues to jump on our kitchen counters. We have tethered him so he can not reach, but then when we let him loose, he jumps up. I have tried him on a leash and pull him down saying, "leave it". He stays away for a minute and then is right back. When we sit down to eat, he is jumping up at the table. We remove him and tell him to stay, but he is right back up again. I keep thinking maybe he is starving but I know he has eaten all of his dog food. I think it might be time for harsher methods. He is 5 1/2 months old and weighs over 45 lbs. so he is going to be a large dog and I just can't have him stealing our turkey or something next Christmas.(so far he has not gotten any food off the counter) Do you think buying something like an invisible fence system type of thing made for indoors would be appropriate? Maybe a little zap might teach him that no means no!

Hi Bill,
I was just reading your comments and see that you are a dog trainer. Our GD, Thomas is 5 1/2 months old and is intermediate level of training. He understands all of the commands and usually listens well. He is extremely smart so I know he is choosing to NOT listen to me when it comes to the counter surfing. He is constantly jumping on the counters looking for anything and everything. We try to keep the counters totally cleared off when we are not cooking and able to supervise the "beast". However, I really don't think we should have to do this. He should learn that he CANNOT do this. Any advice, because we are fit to be tied. Also he likes to jump up on people-which is truly annoying to some. With us, we just turn away and ignore him and praise him when he gets down. I have heard that this is a trait that they will probably never be rid of. I would love to hear your comments.
Debbie from Toronto

Barb hasn't sent us his full report cards yet but is going to and told us some of the stuff that you'd worked on. He's hands down the best puppy I've ever seen for behaviour and manners. I can't wait to see all you've done, he's getting much more comfortable now that he's been here almost a full day and he knows where things are. I took him on a full walk today and was so impressed with how easy it was. I didn't think there were dogs as well mannered as our cats were (I know I could get in trouble for a comment like that) but he's proved me wrong here. We're just so humbled that Barb let such an amazing pup come join our family, I can't say enough about how happy we are with him. The doctor asked me to look at getting a pup for my health and I never expected it to be like this.

Bill, Barb tells me that you've been working with Oreo for us, he's pretty amazing. Thank you very much!

Great pics Bill,...nice to put a face to the name. Boy does Ice look FANtastic!

Hey Bill
Cool picture of Opal's baby..looks just like her mother.

Welcome to DoodleKisses Bill, Ice and Family!! What an interesting bio!! You will like this friendly place. Nice to see you here!!