# Dog Blog



## MoirasNiceLady (Jul 11, 2011)

As some of you may know, I not only have Mo, my Havanese princess, but I also have a Cairn Terrier named Merlyn. I recently thought it might be fun to start a blog from his perspective. Thought I'd share the link to get some constructive criticism from you all. Please visit http://merlynthewizarddogcapers.blogspot.com/ and share your thoughts with me.

Thank you  Please keep in mind I've never done anything like this before and I'm just getting started. Thanks....


----------



## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Nice blog! Beautiful picture! 

Cairn Terrier breed was one I was considering when I was doing all my research, along with anything that was shaggy was on the list. 

Have fun with your blog and thanks for sharing.


----------



## sashamom (Jan 12, 2009)

Good job we need to hear more about the Havanese addition! LOL


----------



## Missy (Nov 6, 2006)

VERY NICE!!!


----------



## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

I love the blog. Rosie asked for one last year and I actually had my daughter see about setting her up one, then I got to feeling bad and Rosie didn't have time to be blogging when she had to nap with me. I showed her yours today and now Rosie is thinking about it again. She wants to hear about the Havanese addition. she is such a flirt that I really think she just wants to see Merlynn again.


----------



## MoirasNiceLady (Jul 11, 2011)

*Stay Tuned...*

Thank you for your feedback and for checking out the blog. Never fear, plenty of details and photos to follow to get you all up to speed on the baby Havanese, Mo. I guess you could say its a good way to keep you all checking back for more...  Thanks again. You have all been a great wealth of information to me in our first few weeks of Hav puppy parenting. Have a great night!


----------



## katkoota (Feb 25, 2010)

Beautiful  loved it! Both your dogs are adorable ^_^

Snowy & Crystal also blog (not as much as before though), but it is still up for updates from time to time 
www.maltesepaws.blogspot.com


----------



## MoirasNiceLady (Jul 11, 2011)

*L O V E !*



katkoota said:


> Beautiful  loved it! Both your dogs are adorable ^_^
> 
> Snowy & Crystal also blog (not as much as before though), but it is still up for updates from time to time
> www.maltesepaws.blogspot.com


OMG Kat, your dogs are fabulous! If I had those two running around I'd never go to work EVER!

How did you train them to turn in a circle on cue like in the video? Thank you for sharing that!


----------



## Moe's Gram (Oct 9, 2009)

Merlyn, you are adorable and I can't wait to read more about your life and adventures with the "Nice" family!


----------



## Thumper (Feb 18, 2007)

Awe! What cuties you have, they certainly deserve to be blogged about and I like the set up, very cute!

Kara


----------



## katkoota (Feb 25, 2010)

MoirasNiceLady said:


> OMG Kat, your dogs are fabulous! If I had those two running around I'd never go to work EVER!
> 
> *How did you train them to turn in a circle on cue like in the video*? Thank you for sharing that!


LOL these two do keep me busy. Try studying next to them, or doing your projects. it is not as easy or as quick to acomplish when these two monsters are around. Especially next to Snowy. He will make sure to distract you with whatever. He taught Crystal that trick too. I don't start my next course until September, so they cant play that distracting trick with me these days (and I get to actually spend looots of time with them, which is cool) but then again, they've been playing another trick with me lately. they've been swimming a lot during this season. somedays, I dont get as excited about their action because swimming fluffs do need the extra unplanned bath , groom and dry in an unplanned swim day). So they give me the extra work in days where bathing is not planned. Other days, they would listen when I say "NO!" right before they go for a dive into the pool. Other days, they act deaf, pretend that they did not hear and just dive in anyways. BUT, I still can not imagin life without them <3 I can do all the an planned work caused by their sometimes-mischievious act  i still can not imagine life without them <3

In regards to your question - that is one of the commands that I taught them. We call it "turn around". With the help of (1) clicker training (2) treat (3) dividing the command into steps, i taught them.

I first taught Snowy seperately, then taught Crystal. Then we practiced on it together. It is really pretty simple.

For teaching it, I used a yummy treat in hand, showed it to monster while it was in the palm of my hand, then closed my hand, of course monster had his nose on my hand, i lured him with the treat in my closed hand to go a quarter of a circle (about 90 degrees turning around monster, I made my hand go and he followed with that nose face and a lil of body), then clicked , gave little treat and praised once he followed my hand (made the 90 degree turn). We repeated this a few times, until he realised that this is the desired behavior which cause the click, treat, praise and lots of positive encouragement. 
Once monster learned that, we made the turning go to 180 degrees (same way of teaching as I mentioned above), then teaching the turning to 270 degrees around (same method of teaching), and finally, the full 360 degrees turn "turn around" which is the full circle. After monster realised the desired behavior (with repeatition, monster learns), I was able to only rely on the word "turn around" and the small hand signal that i show him for the "turn around" cue, without the need of luring him / guiding him in a circle motion right in front of him anymore - just a small hand sign far away from him is enough with the word cue 

After also teaching the second monster (Crystal), both malts got it. With the same hand sign and word, they do it and have no problem doing it together.

I find double trick performers to be fun to have around ^_^

You can sure teach your pups how to do that too 
I enjoy teaching tricks, commands and different stuff to dogs. They are SO smart and so much fun to work with....unless there was a pool involved in somedays, or exams/projects in other days lol but wont trade them for anything. Love them loads.


----------



## Flynn Gentry-Taylor (Jan 17, 2008)

Thanks KAt....let's see what I can do LOL...


----------



## katkoota (Feb 25, 2010)

My pleasure flynn  

I am sure you u can teach the two cutie pies of yours


----------



## Flynn Gentry-Taylor (Jan 17, 2008)

katkoota said:


> My pleasure flynn
> 
> I am sure you u can teach the two cutie pies of yours


Thanks Kat, they are sweet, but with strong habits formed already at their ages, so we will see how quickly it happens. I will post some photos on Body Language..they are are getting along fabulously...


----------

