Sunday, 2 June 2013

My Birthday Surprise and visiting the giants at Jeanine's

Although my blog has been rather quiet for sometime, it doesn't mean that I've stopped associating with dogs!
 
 
Tui : Yoz, Hows your day?
 
Woah, I've got so much to catch up and update you guys whats going on for the past 3 weeks.
 
Ok, perhaps I shall start with what we have been up to over at the shelter first..
 
& so the core group had ANOTHER round of training conducted by Fred one Saturday morning.
It was raining cats and DOGS just when I was about to reach shelter. The rain was crazy and Fred drove in by bike somemore, jawdrop. So dangerous.  
After lagging for so long, my memory already cui, so this session everyone start from basic again - What is Classical Conditioning T_T . YOU REMEMBER MEH!!
 
 
 
*Half way I was given a tub of Meringue Kisses from Minghui ~.~ Cant stop munching throughout the lesson because im damn hungry*
 
& this is when we were introduced to clicker training, most of us should have heard of that right, but do you know WHY and HOW clicker can help us in our training? NO RIGHT... tsk..
In short, by using clicker, it is more standardized and synchronized for the vollies as we have males and females, low and high pitch voices and of course different ways of praising/marking the dog's behavior. Also, clicker allows us to CATCH and MARK that important moment when a dog does a correct behavior be it eye contact or sit etc.
 
 
 
Our tools - Clicker, treat pouch and high value treats!
 
This session was rather productive as we brought a few dogs one by one to let Fred assess. The first student was Chelsea, follow by Coco and Tomkin and lastly Weijie's son - Robin.
Robin during lesson
 
 
 
Our task:
Level 1 - Charge them with food/treats whenever we click.
So as to condition them that click = reward/ good things happen.
Subsequently we can use that to charge eye contact or even teach them more tricks :)
 
Coco was doing good! So proud of her, only a little scared here and there but she's rather focus.
 
 
 
 
TADAHHHHH !!
 
Was given a Birthday surprise 1 week after my actual birthday :)
Was preparing for our training session with the rest of the vollies and was surprised with a Choco cake (Thanks Jac and Joyce :)) plus drinks (well-prepared thanks to Jeanine!) and 6 Red velvet cupcakes (SCREAMMMMMMMSSS) specially queued by Des.

We were all too hungry to remember to take picture of the whole cake..
by the time we remembered, half the cake was gone hahahah.
Minghui main culprit lah, she keep saying she's super hungry... so we all focused on cutting cake
 
 
 
 
MY FAVVVVVVV. Thanks Des!
 
 
Spread and share the love!!
The cake was quite big and thus we decided to give everyone a piece, which includes the Bangalas, Bonsai auntie and Uncle (Toto don't have because he eat liao will die *choco kills dog*), the Rabbit shop uncle (is he call Uncle Raymond?), Oxana, Ida (I wonder if she got eat anot because WEIJIE they all help me put in the kennel), and Hilda.
 
:) Im happy when I see the smile on those people's faces, and when I received birthday wishes from some of them.
 
 
 
 And Bonsai auntie even gave me a pot (not really a pot but I cant find the correct word for it) of flower as prezzie ^^
 
Jeanine
 
Joyce and Des and somebody airing armpit behind
 
Ann
 
My hometown friend from Sukhumvit
 
 
 
 
 
Our group Pic :D
 
 
 
A simple celebration that brightens up my day.
 
After that continue with more clicker training...................
STONED
 
Well...
Not really hor, we all very attentive
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Joei working on Puopi (aka PP)  
 A happy PP because he finally get to come out after 1 month, and get to eat ALOT of food
 
.
.
.
 
 
Went over to Jeanine's to visit the Giants (Indie and Miller) and Muds. Havent seen them since VA's Xmas party.
 
Was greeted by Miller with a super big HUG (He pounced on me with his 48kg body!!). Hookay, its actually quite scary when the door open and 4 dogs (2 gigantic ones) come running to you and the biggest of all to pounce on you. Luckily I have know them, cause if its the May 2 years ago I think I'd faint on the spot.
Note to all: Even if you know the dogs, you've gotta remain calm and composed when you first see them, preferably NO TOUCH NO TALK NO EYE CONTACT.
 
I just stood there like a wood and waited for them to calm down..
 
 
 
 
They settled down quite quickly and we chilled in the living room. Camwhored with my little boyfriend CAMMIE (*Insert a lot of heart shapes*) and Miller.
 
 
Sorry Jeanine, Cam's tummy too cute to resist from posting
 

i love to take pics with miller because he make me look smaller HHAHAHA


 
 
I sit until very tak glam and Indie like not very happy =/


Ahh... hai shi miller love me
 
You see Muddie small small compare to Miller ah, this naughty boy will bully the big giant one.
 
Say Hi to Muddie!! Long time no see
 
Hi 5 Muddie!
 
 But there's a lot of time the both of them kept doing silly loving actions.
 
 
 Indie as usual, has the pack leader aura.. Frankly, I also abit scared when she stare at me, she have killer stares, like Minghui (HAHAHA)..
 


 Big Head Dog


 
Little Elliot is superrrrrr cute!!
(Ok, he's not young anymore, infact he's the oldest of them all, 9 yrs old liao).
 
 
 
This pic is so chrismasy..
 
 
He's the quietest of them all and we often forget it's existence. After chatting for an hour or two, we will start looking for Elli, Jeanine walked all over the house and the 3 other doggies will follow her..... then.... Elli will slowly run out from the sofa and follow them to look for him -____-" (if you understand what I mean)

Had dinner with Jeanine's family and throughout the meal we were rubbing Miller's tummy with our  feet hahahaha (he was sleeping under the dining table). And he enjoys it :/
 
Wah.. My hand tired already, shall update these 2 day's event some other day next week! Stay tuned!

Wednesday, 8 May 2013

New Babies - Coco and Socks


Have been working on Coco, Tiger and Socks for the past 1 month, but Tiger went for homestay halfway through before I could see any progress in her, and got lost after that :(


Their standard position when I come in.

The trios 



Tiger

Coco
 
Socks
*The picture damn fail, sorry if you see already will pek cek*





Too many lost dogs cases happening..
Chilli, walker, and now Tiger.. Sadly, I don't think she can survive in the outside world like Chilli..
And I wonder how is she doing now.






So without Tiger, I diverted my time and attention towards Coco and socks,and occasionally the 3 giants - Emma, Ernie and Eddie..


Do re me fa (soh) at the back

Ernie posing for cam haha

Look at sock's tamjiak face!!

Ernie is also very tamjiak one

Can you see the (soh) behind??
PS: Look at socks again, can only see her teeth hahaha!


My fav pic of Emma
Eddie



 They are a whole sweet bunch especially Ernie. People will normally judge him before they get to know him due to his size and color, yes he is BIG and BLACK, but that doesn't mean he is aggressive and scary. He will prove you wrong!

CUTE BO ?!?! His antena ears *AWWW*

Ernie has special talent

not graceful enough T_T

Coco and socks are slowly opening up. And I make sure I prepare a lot of high value food for them every session. (Coco lah, so choosy, don't want to eat the more economical treats *Side stare*, Socks more Cincai, everything also eat).

Very blur pic, they are trying to run away from the bangala worker who was cleaning the kennel..

Socks:
Remember on the first session: She will freeze in a corner everytime I go into the kennel and twitch/shiver whenever I touch her body.

Like a mouse

Always this corner, this position..

 Touching her head was quite a challenge as she tend to avoid and run around

Today: She wagged her tail and glinting smile when I stand outside its kennel. 
:DDDD

Im able to touch her on her head without her running away that much, or at least she doesn't twitch anymore (need to work more to desensitize her to human touch), when I have super high value food, heh heh, she will shamelessly run up to me and show me her puppy eyes glowing with sparkles.

 At times, Socks will also attempt to steal the food off my hand, cheeky girl!

Happy socks :) 
 However till now, she is still very wary of unfamiliar faces/ when she sense somebody is outside the main kennel, she will run and hide in a corner. Have to slowly find way to work on that hmmm.




When Im working with Coco and Socks, this neighbouring furball will peep over, hoping to get some food from me


How to ignore his pitiful look!?!?!

Coco: 
On the first session, her face is like that:


Second session also like that. 


Third session, STILL LIKE THAT.


With tails tugged in. Although she doesn't show any signs of aggression, she definitely isn't very happy with my presence. I know -_-

Minghui teaching me how to train her with food

Over these few weeks, she learnt how to give eye contact when I feed her..
And today she wag her tail at me also!!! SUPER TOUCHED SIA!! 
Last session I realized that she can also be very sweet. and that she likes people to saying her cheeks, oh, she give me a short lick on my face too! 


SMILE MORE COCO!!

Tried putting collar on her today, (ok, some of you must be thinking, collar only what very hard to put meh.. But you are wrong. Some dogs tend to run up and dog, dodging here and there to avoid the collar, it is very tiring for the humans to chase them around especially when we are rushing for packwalk), so for Coco, 60% of the time she will freeze there, 40% will dodge her head away, but so far so good. Spammed her with treats everytime I put and remove the collar. She will also react to her name when I call her now!! Whoo hoo! Sense of accomplishment.
Maybe to the people who have been interacting with her all along, this might be something very normal but ahem, its a small milestone for me. And seeing this gives me the motivation to commit more to this 2 babies, they sure have the potential to go out and see the world :D


**********************

Some random updates here and there: 

Went for the Nat Geo Free Pet Shop Event last week

Very nice scenary hor.. 

Our warriors
*weijie, LOL*

Supported Yenyen 
Group photo, errr, whose that red tee guy ;/


Me and Z-10, I cannot stand his cuteness sia!
He behaves totally like an innocent kid who just learnt how to play.. Soooooo sweet daooo.. 

 Didnt have much chance to spend some time with my canine (K-9 I KNOW HOW TO PRONOUCE LIAO!!) bf.. I miss the time with him..
A good arm-rest, no? 

You know i love you so.
 Even thou you murdered a bird. Which traumatized me terribly. 


GOODNIGHT WOLRD! 
More updates on them next time!