January 2025 - Five Fault Club

The Ruby Project, Week 5: Measuring Up

Ruby is now loose in the house all day, except for popping into her crate when I’m feeding or training Able. She’s had literally zero accidents inside the house (there are advantages to starting with an adult dog!) and there haven’t been any major scenes of destruction. She does like to collect up dog-approved things she finds lying around – cow hooves, balls, empty Kongs – and amass a hoard of them on the back deck, her favourite sunbathing spot.

Ruby enjoying some midday sun, not long after I’d confiscated her collection of treasures.

A New Approach to Measuring

Ruby was, like many dogs, quite worried about the measuring stick when she first saw it. I’ve played around with a few things to build her confidence to have it looming over her and touching her:

The Ruby Project, Week 4: Building a Balance

This week Ruby met her first ever pushy squeaky toy. She enjoyed pulling the stuffing out (holes pre-made for her by Able). She liked it when it squeaked, unlike poor Rik who ran off and hid behind the loo the first time she heard a squeaky toy. Most of all, she was very determined but ultimately unsuccessful in plucking all the fur off.

Yes, that’s a jump in the background. It’s in my living room (temporarily) because I LIVE in my living room … and most of my life revolves around agility.

Out and About

Now that we have the vaccination situation sorted out, Ruby has a big wide world to explore. Some outings this week:

The Ruby Project Week 3: Learning to Learn

This week Ruby has been to the vet clinic (for vaccinations as I don’t have any record of when/if she has ever had these done) and she met her physio.

The vet visit went better than expected. She walked into the consult room voluntarily and she was able to eat while she was in there. She didn’t mind her intranasal or intramuscular vaccines, but she did not like it when the vet straddled her and tried to stretch her rear legs out. However, when I took her back on Friday for a little “happy visit” she looked a little less happy about the place, so we’ll have to do some more of those to help her learn to like the vet.

On the other hand, she loved every minute of her initial physiotherapy assessment, and spent most of it upside down demanding belly rubs. I’d noticed that she is a bit more muscly in one thigh than the other, but this is apparently nothing to worry about and she has a clean bill of health.

Ruby meets Lucy the physiotherapist/belly rubber.

Different Every Day

This week I picked one of the very few skills that Ruby has – jumping up on a raised dog bed on cue – and presented it to her in a different way every day:

Monday – with her hippo sitting next to it. Very tempting but dinner won out!
Tuesday – with me sitting on the ground next to it. She was thoroughly bamboozled for 90 seconds and I had to help her, but after that she had it sussed.

The Ruby Project, Week 2: Hippo Hysterics

Ruby discovered something underneath a side table that was super exciting to stalk. When I investigated I discovered … A GRUNTY HIPPO!!! I gave it to Able a couple of years ago, but he never saw the point in it and I’d forgotten he ever had it.

Ruby staring lovingly at her new hippo bestie.

Ruby is delighted with her hippo. She very rarely puts her mouth on it, but it’s super fun to poke it with her paw and make it grunt. And of course it’s also good to stare at…

Ruby loves her hippo so much that she has been ferociously resource guarding it from Able, who didn’t give two shits about the hippo when it was his, and still doesn’t now. Fortunately her hippo-specific personal space has been shrinking throughout the week as Able continues to pay no attention whatsoever to her treasure.

It’s All About Rewards

I like to train with positive reinforcement. That isn’t possible if I don’t have things that I can reward my dog with. This week we’ve experimented with lots of rewards including: