No bite lesson…

Tuesday, October 11th, 2005 at 10:30 am

Yesterday Jamie and his wife, Kamrai, came to see me and Pepper in the afternoon. They just came back from Thailand. Kamrai just got her settlement visa and this is her first time in Scotland. I asked Jamie to buy me ‘Parodontax’ toothpaste. I could not get it here in UK. I asked him how much, he said it would cost me curry. So I made roasted chicken curry for them in the morning. Pepper was so excited to see new visitors. He jumped up to Jamie and Kamrai. I told them not to pet him when he jumped up. He tried so hard to jump up to Kamrai and she pushed him away but he did not get the message. I have to try harder to teach him not to jump up to anyone.

It is very wet here today. The weather forecast said it will be wet like this for another day or two. Pepper woke up at 5:15 am, HG took him out to pee and he refused to go back to sleep. I had to wake up and be with him while HG was getting ready to work. We had a ‘no bite’ session this morning. Normally when we tried to get any of his toys which were stuck under the cupboard, Pepper would always try to scratch/bite our ears or hands. It seemed like we were down to the same level as him which he could attack. I felt uncomfortable every time he did that and I thought this behaviour has to go as well as when he tried to bite when we touched his body. So I threw the ball under the cupboard. When I tried to get it, he came to do as I aforesaid. I suddenly yelp “Ouch” very loud and got up immediately and left the room. I could see him through the glass from the door and I saw the black thing was not moving. I waited for one or two minutes and came back in. He was calm and came to me. I tried to get the ball again, this time he was gentler but still tried to scratch my hands. I yelp and left the room again. He crouched on the floor and did not move at all. I waited for one minute and came back. I did these for about 3-4 times and it seemed to work. He seemed to get my message that he cannot be tough with me. Now I could lie down on the floor and all he did was licking my face and lie down with me. It was wonderful. I will try to use this method to get rid of other bad behaviours.