Buster the Ranch Dog

We had an opportunity to head north with the horses over the Memorial day weekend.  We were part of a meet-up group of horsemen and women.  We got to take our dogs.  The one rule was they were not allowed in the houses, but everything else was okay.

Riding on the Bar SZ Ranch

How did Buster do?  Well, for the most part, not bad.  When we went on trail rides he came along.  He is a very good trail dog.  He wanders around and explores, but he keeps an I on us.  I was a little worried he would find a snake.  We did see one over the weekend.  I think it was a gopher snake.

Around the ranch when we were trying to visit, he was a bit of a pain.  He has no manners and a very good nose for food.  Turned loose he would hunt for food.

He got along with the other dogs there as long as he was off leash.  Some people had their dog on a leash.  If Buster approached and they pulled back on their leash, Buster would immediately show aggression.  Same dog, off leash, they would smell each other, and go off chase each other.

Buster was exposed to goats wandering around the property.  The goats would get some of the fruit rinds and peels left form the meals.  One morning I took them out to the goats, Buster trailing along.  I dropped the fruit, Buster stuck his nose in to grab a bite and the goat head butted him.  He jumped back and looked up to me as if to ask, "Is that legal?"

Buster slept in his kennel in the back of the truck.  He was quiet all night.  When I was off cleaning horse pens he would wander around the ranch house occasionally checking in, but mostly playing with the other dogs.  When I would give him a whistle, he would turn and look at me.  If I had a leash or lead rope in my hand, he turned and ran in the other direction.  The little turd knew when I was going to tie him up.  "Not while I'm having fun you're not!"

Monday and Tuesday morning were the most fun for all of us.  Most of the other dogs had left and I was relaxing a bit more.  We had a couple of nice rides and Buster got to relax off-leash with some of the dogs around the ranch house.

Busy Busy Buster

Busy Busy Buster

I realize it's been quite sometime since our last update.  I've had quite a busy schedule.  And, one thing I've learned about trying to take your dog everywhere with you - it's takes almost twice as long to do everything.

Going to the store:  Walk Buster to the truck after making sure he doesn't need a potty break.  In the parking lot, putting him in the back of the truck. Shopping.  Come back to the truck, place Buster in the back.  At home, Buster gets out first, then...well you get the idea.

Size - Growing Boy

Buster is over 60 lbs now.  His appetite has stabilized at 2 cups of Blue Buffalo in the morning and 2 cups in the evening.  He is much taller than Rusty as you can see in the picture.  He still loves horse manure judging from the luscious green color of his poops.

Exercise

According to the Nike tracking app on my phone we walk over 35 miles each month.  We are already over that for April.  I don't keep track of every step we take either. Buster tolerates walking, but I don't think he is a big fan.  He generally is looking all over the place, which brings us to...

Training

Buster has a sit and a down.  His heel is whatever he may feel like.  As long as he doesn't pull me around, I kind of tolerate that.  Oh, and he can pull!  This is much different from other dogs I've owned.  I usually wouldn't tolerate such insubordination.  I've realized over the last couple of months however that Buster just needs constant reinforcement.  Trying to force him into a regimental training program just isn't going to work.  For the most part he wants to be a good dog, it's just that sometimes he has too much puppy energy juice flowing through him and it carries him right away.

We've done a little dock diving.  He loves going in the water, but he has yet to consistently "jump" in.  I think this would be a great sport for him.  We will continue to work on this and see if he can get the hang of it.

Socialization

We've been to the dog parks in and around Bakersfield over the last couple of weeks.  One had a lot of dog traffic, one only had a little, and the third had no one else around.  Buster is not quite sure what to make of the other dogs.  We'll keep working on this too.

The people downtown know him well.  People see us on almost a daily basis.  They've seen Buster grow up.  I had to start asking people to make Buster sit before they touch him.  Most do, some don't.  It was getting to the point where if Buster saw someone he thought he recognized he would just pull me over to them.  We've managed to get this behavior under control.

Buster is great on the trail with the horses.  He follows along well and has good stamina.  At our usual restaurant stop, he rests quietly while we enjoy a meal or conversation.  We still buy him a burger before heading back to the stables.  Most definitely his favorite part.

I do get concerned about his lack of concern for the horses.  I'm not sure how to make him understand that all horses aren't as friendly as ours.  This might be something he will learn the hard way.  I took him over to a friend's house to help her with her horse training.  She had a little mule there too.  The mule put Buster in his place.

Buster Brown the Clown

He still makes us laugh on a daily basis.  He is totally uninhibited and truly a free spirit.  He has learned to deal with the cats.  He still sleeps in his crate until 6:15.  He can go 90 miles per hour or be a couch potato.

He is still hard on Rusty.  Rusty is a tough old girl and refuses to back down.  Buster will steal Rusty's rubber ball and run circles around her until she pretends to give up.  She looks disinterested, he drops the ball, THEN she steals it back. 

There's No Place for Frustration in Puppy Training...

...But Shit Happens

This would not be a very valuable training puppy blog if it were all champagne bubbles and caviar dreams.  Today was just a roller coaster day as Buster did some things fantastically and then drove me absolutely batty with the inexplicable.

I had an early appointment with a guest on the East Coast.  I was up at 5 am, got everyone fed and even had time to play with everyone a little. Buster and I headed for the office. We arrived early enough for a walk and insure that Buster had the opportunity to take care of business.  He happily availed himself of the opportunity.  Back at the office he was a little noisy as we conducted a recorded interview, but five minutes in he was sound asleep in the corner of my office.

Afterward we went for a brief walk and I got another 90 minutes of work completed before he was up.  We had a walk planned for noon. It was 11:15.  Okay, let's just walk.  We walked for 45 minutes and met my wife for lunch.

Buster is interacting with most people in a much more positive way.  He met up with several people who see us walking and stop to say 'hi'.  I have not quite figured out what makes him leery of a person.  There were a couple of people we ran into that he just did not want to approach.  One group had five people in it with a women squealing to say hello.  Buster seem confused, but tolerant.  When the waiter quietly and calmly brought our food out to the patio, Buster barked at him.  There just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to his reactions.

The afternoon was spent editing.  We got back at 1:30 and Buster slept until 3:45.  But, then he was up.  He paced from room to room, grabbing this toy then that.  He tried chewing on a the file cabinet, then the chair leg, then got tangled in an electrical cord.  I got the message.  My day was over.  I packed and we headed home.

The power was out when we got home but I had a few chores I needed to get done outside while Buster and Rusty burned off some energy.  I was getting my stuff done when I look in the direction of one of our mulberry trees.  There was Buster digging a hole in a spot I had caught him digging a few days ago.  I had filled the whole with dog poop thinking that might discourage him.  No such luck.

I grabbed his leash, lead him over to the hole.  I pounded the hole with my fist while yelling "NO, NO, NO".  I had done this same procedure the first time he dug here.  I let him loose and he looked remorseful for about 30 seconds then bounded off to play with Rusty.  I felt that I had caught him in the act and let him know I disapproved, so what he did afterward was out of my control. I refilled the hole with dirt and smoothed it over.

Twenty minutes later Buster is back at the same spot digging.  Well, this time I lost my cool.  I hooked the leash on him again and this time we hustled over to the hole.  I made him lower his head as I pounded the ground (I don't believe in striking the dog, just the object of his obsession).  After three good whacks of the ground, I scooped him up and put him in his kennel for a time out that lasted 20 minutes.

Somehow I think this digging thing is going to be a big problem for him.