Muddy Puddles
Imagine, if you will, the gentle slopes and fields of the English Countryside. See the gentle rain that all too often of late moistens the earth and fills the ruts in farm roads with water... ..Now see a sheepie in full coat bombing along the farm track and deciding he simply must investigate and/or drink from every muddy puddle he sees. He will neither listen to his daddy when told to leave the puddle, come back or stop. Neither will he respond to praise when he sniffs at a puddle and passes by (a rare occasion this) He arrives home covered in mud and is then upset by the fact that he has to stay in the kitchen until he's dried out a bit.... Aarrgh! Any suggestions?  |
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| The only think I can think of to do is work on teaching a "stop" command in a non-puddle area- such as your back yard. If he can get a stop (Ie "stop moving, stay where you are" kind of stop) down, maybe you can get him to "stop" when he heads toward a puddle... I know Isabella is training her puppy Louie to "stop". It might work...
Karen  |
| It probably won't make you feel any better, however Cassiopia, our 1 1/2 year old sheepie does the same thing. She has never met a puddle that she didn't love and will bound through through them....with great pleasure! It doesn't seem to matter what size the puddle is or whether it is mudddy or not. She just takes great joy in SPLASHING through them. And yes, we are letting her coat grow out.
As for getting her to stop it - well, I've had the same success that you've had. She's just having too much fun and her "selective" hearing kicks in. We've handled it by teaching her the command "hit the showers". She then heads for the shower, which my husband set up with a shower head with a 6' hose and we just rinse her off. OK...so it's really sidestepping the issue, not handling it. But it does lessen the aggravation factor. Good Luck Jennifer, Baxter, Cassiopia & Sharkey |
| MikeyG,
I can offer no good advice, some sheepies just love the mud..LOL  Annabelle will also make a bee line to any puddles or mud. She loves to roll around in it and make sure that she is all covered. Jack doesn't like getting dirty at all, he even tip toes through the morning dew. We give her once a week or once every two weeks depending on our schedule to run and have fun and then it is bath day.....LOL She is very good at the stop command, she will stop dead in her tracks. It is actually pretty easy to train. Put Woof on a long leash and attach it to a door knob or allow another person to hold the end of the leash. Get some yummy treats and tell Woof to come, but before he reaches the end say the command stop, of course then you want him to reach the end and then he is forced to stop. It will take a few days or weeks, but eventually he will associate the word stop with actually stopping.
I am awful at giving instructions so I hope that it helps. LOL Good luck with your mud puppy.
Stormi and co. |
Mikeyg wrote: Imagine, if you will, the gentle slopes and fields of the English Countryside. See the gentle rain that all too often of late moistens the earth and fills the ruts in farm roads with water...
[...] Any suggestions? 'ave you considered a move to London, guv'nah? (That was my best British English impression, with an attempt at a cockney accent.  ) |
 Why Ron, that's practically worthy of my high school version of "Oliver Twist"!
Karen |
| i thought more dick van deke in mary poppins |
| My first oes Mickey was a digger... she used to make SUCH a mess. LOL I could never train her not to dig, but I did manage to train her to only dig in a specially made sandbox for her, and I managed to train her to sit on "her mat", a rug at the back door just for her, each and everytime she came in from outside. She would come in, lay on the mat, but wiggling in anticipation waiting for the ok command. If she was clean, I only waited a minute or so, but if she was wet she would stay there and dry off, then I could quickly brush the dried dirt off before letting her roam. |
| Hi Mike,
Well I could actually envision the lovely scenery you described so well in your first sentences and then could visualize the sheepie running towards the mud! I live in the Pacific Northwest and it rains a lot here. In fact most claim in my area no one tans they rust! Both my sheepies love mud filled holes especially on their daily romps to the dog park. There is one rather large mud filled hole at the beginning of one of the trails that they both love to dive into...urg! Here's how I sorta solved the problem but trust me it's not a pretty sight and probably not spelled out in any Sheepie behavioral books. I see them running....I run after them...yelling nooooooooo ...they continue in their mad quest to dunk themselves...they are faster than me. This continues daily with no end. I decide to put leashes on them until we get past that muddy hole...they try to step in I pull them back and sorta made a argggggggggg sound. See? Not a pretty site to behold. Merlin finally "gets it" Mama is not happy when I go near that place...he now romps in the park and avoids that area. Panda whom loves it more than Merlin is still continuing to dive in it but not as much. If I try to head him off and make my argggg sound he also avoids it. I realized I had to be involved and not passively just say no from afar. By running to that area they see what I do not want them to do and of course lots "of Good Boys" if they just walk by. I should mention that I drive to the park in bad weather and so it's a pain having them in the van. LOL the mud I can handle it's the nice wet doggie smell that lingers for days after! Good luck Mike and even if I can't help I can relate and offer sympathy. Marianne |
| Thanks all. I am crying with laughter at my desk.
And Ron (or Mr Van Dyke if you prefer)... "I ain't goin' back to the smoke for luv nor money. Me country-squire gaff suits me just luverley, ta for askin'" (Woof would probably love it - we visited my Dad at Christmas in Kensington and Woof loved the Underground. We got a big reaction from other passengers too....) |
| We've started nicknaming Bentley "Mud Muffin". I don't think I've cleaned my floor so much in my life! I thought that the mud would let up once the temperature dropped, but it hasn't. It just comes in in frozen clumps. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one dealing with it.
Renee |
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