Yoshi!

Our Never Say Grow Up, Squirrel Obsessed Boy

Feedback is welcome:
(Click any photo for a larger view)

Yoshi is our Virginia farm boy (born 7/28/03) he has told us that his passion is herding and that he self identifies as a ranch dog.

This page is very old now but still has some information on it.

The Perpetual Work in Progress

The Yoshi & Trek Training Diary (updated often)

Herding

Cooper and Yoshi started herding in 2006.
Cooper got through AKC Started and was working on Intermediate in 2011 when he decided that he'd had enough and retired himself.

Yoshi is considerably more difficult to control so hasn't competed in AKC Started but he has his PT (Pre-Trial) title, and has the AHBA JHD title also.
He loves it and is not showing any sign of wanting to stop.
Right now he's working a lot on goats to get better control.

Rough Play

Yoshi plays rough to the point of bullying, so it's become clear that we have to carefully monitor his doggy interactions. So it takes some effort to find him appropriate playmates.
After Trek arrived she became his playmate and sadly Yoshi and Cooper stopped getting along.

[older]
The shining example of well matched playmates is Yoshi and Cooper. These two rough each other up on a regular basis and they love it. If you'd like to see an example of dog rough play that is really play (no matter what it looks to us), please take a look at the Yoshi-Cooper-roughplay movie. In it, you will see a series of well orchestrated calming signals that they use to let each other know what they want. One thing that's likely important to note, that neither dog panics even when the other has got them in their grip. I have noticed that if another dog starts to panic Yoshi doesn't let up which is a concern, and in fact later when Cooper objected to having Yoshi on top of him they got into a scuffle which has never happened before (we all, including Cooper's Dad, were standing/sitting near which may have affected things.)

Adventures in Toothbrushing

Update: 7/21/06 I finally gave in and had his teeth cleaned by his vet. They did not use Telasol or Ace but Ketamine and Vallium as a sedative. He did fine. Tatar was building up on his teeth and it was there even before I started brushing his teeth, so now we're starting with a clean slate so to speak.

Nicky, one of Yoshi's littermates (pictured in the puppy photos), died completely unexpectedly from an anesthesia
reaction during a routine dental cleaning. Which has made finding a way to keep Yoshi's teeth clean without having to put him under rather imperative. This has inspired us to find every novel way to keep those teeth healthy.

There are many good approaches to doggy dental health. Oxyfresh dental rinse, Foster Smith dental rinse (both have enzymes and are quite effective), Greenies (there is a risk of them gulping these), feeding Raw Foods (I don't do it because of time considerations and other health risks), Bones, Rawhides, Scaling (a definite skill) and toothbrushing!

I heard from a couple of folks about using a children's electric toothbrush as a good approach as you can concentrate on just placing the toothbrush rather than also doing the brushing motion (tough with a moving dog). Given that the children's brushes are now only about $6 from the grocery store it seemed like a good thing to try.

He loves it, more so that I thought possible. We use a peanut butter flavored enzymatic toothpaste that he adores, and he's used to the dremmel so the sound doesn't bother him that much. These photos are his first introduction to it, and for more of the photos the toothbrush is off. He was initially a little hesitant about the vibration of it (now he's not at all), but the peanut butter taste is a powerful draw so I alternated turning it off and on. Even when it's off you can use it like a regular toothbrush so it's fine having it off too, especially because he chews the brush - which is a good thing!


		Toothbrush is on here. Hmm, not so sure about that, but there's still peanut butter which is worth tolerating a little buzzing for.

Some Movies (Quicktime format)

Playing (Yoshi goosing Cali)
Yoshi does animatronics

Other Photos

shedding (eek)
Virginia puppy shots

Photos (click on a photo to see the full size version)

Zoom!


His speed is forever surprising folks. On a whim I took a camera to the dog park. These are the ones where I could actually get all of him in the frame. While I have contol of the shutter speed on this camera I just left it on automatic (consider this a first draft). Next time I'll set the shutter speed to a high value (if I can catch him.)