Well, she’s a bit over 16 months old now, and is more than I ever hoped for. Kyrie understands pretty much everything we say, and while very energetic, is incredibly well behaved, friendly with other dogs and people, and isn’t destructive at all. She only becomes agressive when I am (when I do, she goes from calm to snarling and straining at the end of the leash to whatever the recipient of my concern is), and she seems to pick up instantly on everything I do. It’s late, more on everything tomorrow.
Well, this one obviously got away from me, sorry! Kyrie will be two on May 2, 2019, and has matured into quite a dog. She minds very well, sits, stands up, lies down, heels, fetches, comes, stays, and responds to many other commands and “signals;” as she has quite the vocabulary of words that she understands, which apparently grows each day. She’s also done quite a job in helping to train my wife’s Australian Shepherd, who turned one this week. Kyrie loves to ride in my truck and boat, and watches everything, even when they’re quite some distance away. She started out watching things on our street, but that quickly grew to watching things on other streets, and across the canal. She then started noticing birds and squirrels up in the trees, and running down the power lines. When she started watching helicopters and planes, I figured that would be it, but the other night, she stopped, and when I turned around, she was looking up at the moon! I constantly have to remind myself that her being so aware and observant are great traits for a watch dog, because it’s definitely a pain when you just want her to go potty, and she’s intently watching someone two streets over putting out their trash! She was a lot of work, and took a great deal of time and attention when she was a pup, but now I can’t imagine life without my Kyrie. She’s always loved kids, and here she is with my eight year old granddaughter:
Correction: Kyrie will be two on May 22, 2019, not May 2. Sorry about posting this as a “reply,” but I couldn’t find a way to edit my previous post...
It sounds like you have done a great job in training Kyrie - and what a lovely picture of Kyrie and your granddaughter!
This morning we hit another milestone! On many prior occasions I’ve let Kyrie loose in the neighbor’s fenced in yard, to play fetch, and just run around as much as she wanted to. After the first couple of times; I’d let her walk with me, unleashed, across the yard and up the stairs (we live on the water, so the house has to be elevated). Occasionally, after a walk, I’d let her off the leash to go back up the stairs. So, she’s had some experience with being off the leash when outdoors, and was always trustworthy. Now; for her second time outside this morning, I walked her down the stairs, stopped in the driveway, and let her off the leash. Kyrie stayed right beside me as we walked north a ways, then back south to our driveway, then on past to the south, with her staying generally in the position she’d be next to me, as if she was walking on the leash. She wasn’t distracted by either a car that went by, or other dogs barking in the neighborhood. I was very proud of her, and look forward to being a part of her continuing adventures as she matures. Kyrie was three this past May 22nd.
I am teaching my pup to heal at the moment , he has this intense energy like a spring and it’s a fine balance of maintaining the calmness and control . a push bike was going past today and the excitement got a bit much for him , so after it passed he ran a little way with it . so we had a bit of healing and a bit of chasing , which as heal is only a new command wasn’t a bad effort and he came back when called. the other older girl watching helps teach him the ropes too. beautiful girl you’ve got there ! it’s funny the familiarities , and she will be loving those adventures with you and vice verse.
Yes Sir; they can be quite the handful when young! Thank you for your kind comments about Kyrie. Take care, Rick
Hi Rick , Your cattle dog on the boat reminded me of a miraculous story of a cattle dog some time ago that went over board at sea on the North Queensland coast. which led to a wonderful story of her returning 4 months later . thought you may be interested. don’t know if you every heard about it here’s a news video at the time. The dogs are heroes.
Kyrie’s been off the leash now more times than I can count, and never a problem with cars going by, dogs barking, and so on. As to teaching her to “heel,” I’d started on that with her, but realized that her “easy” command would work just fine. Kyrie learned “easy” very early on in her training. The first week I had her, she wanted to pull a bit too hard when on the leash, and since we have to go up and down stairs all the time (living on the water in Florida pretty much requires a stilt home), she learned to not pull hard when on the leash quickly. She also learned that she can’t go all the way up the stairs at once. When we get to the stairs, she waits until I say “up,” then goes up the first set to the landing, where she waits until I get there, then at the next up command, she goes to the top. Once there, she waits on me to open the door, waiting for the ‘Inside” command. Anyway, while off leash, at the easy command, she’ll immediately stop until I get beside her, then continue along at my side. She also learned “up” in literally two times out. I give her the up command for her to stand up so that I can attach her leash without having to bend over, and the same to remove her leash. I’ve also taught the wife’s mini-Australian Shepherd the up and easy commands for the same reasons.
