Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cash, dogs that have been rehab'ed, lily, puppies, training, what dogs learn from each other
For the last month I’ve been boarding a puppy named Daisy. Now, Daisy has all sorts of issues arising from congenital aggression (i.e., a problem in her brain makes her aggressive). One of the many issues facing Daisy is the ability to deal with other dogs in a mannerly fashion.
Now, she really likes dogs. I mean, she really likes dogs! But if they start to play too rough, it can overwhelm her and trigger her aggression. When she started boarding with me, my dogs, Cash and Lily, would play with her. Over the first few days they would play too rough (Cash, a 107-pound king shepherd, Lily, a 65-pound pit bull, and Daisy, a 20-pound welsh terrier), and Daisy would panic and try to make them back off. When they backed off, she would continue to attack. (That’s when I would step in, usually with a squirt bottle!)
Cash and Lily worked with Daisy patiently, rarely losing their cool. Now, I noticed that she was getting much better with them. She’d learned that when she played too rough, they’d yelp and if she didn’t back off, the other would cut in and shoulder her away until she backed down. (Cash and Lily quite often work as a team this way. It fascinates me to watch!) Soon, she’d learned that if they yelped or tried to bully her away, she needed to back off. Getting pushier wouldn’t work; they wouldn’t stop until she settled down, but they’d remain calm and keep from triggering her aggression.
The next thing she learned was that if she got hurt or scared, she should yelp, and they’d back off. Once she’d learned this, her aggression lessened greatly. She’d never attacked my dogs with intent to hurt, but certainly with intent to scare: a small but significant difference in the dog world!
For three weeks, she got on quite well with my dogs. I was always there to step in (if I can’t see them, I’m listening for them) so that if someone yelped, I went out quickly to see what was going on. Nine times out of ten they’d already solved the problem, and were milling around sniffing each other carefully. The tenth time a sharp hist noise settled them down quickly.
Well, one of the things we’ve been working toward is getting Daisy into Doggieville, a fantastic doggie daycare (among other things) center in Mountain View. My thought is that if other dogs can help Daisy remember she’s a dog, and wear her out at the same time, her mother’s job will be MUCH easier! It’ll also give her mom a nice break from running home to check on Daisy, who can’t be left for more than 5 hours at a time (yet).
Today (or rather, as of this writing on Jan 27th!) was Daisy’s evaluation, and let me tell you, I was biting my nails! She’s been doing fantastic with my dogs, but my dogs are supremely well behaved and there are only two of them. I didn’t know how she’d do with A) a bunch of dogs and B) dogs that aren’t so well mannered. Anna and Chris (head trainer and owner, respectively) brought in one dog at a time to see how Daisy would do, slowly increasing the number and type of dogs in the room.
My biggest concern was that Daisy wouldn’t do well with a dog that was in her face or chasing her around, and we figured that out right away! One of the dogs they brought in was determined to let Daisy know who was boss, and barked and chased and barked and chased. Daisy handled it like a trooper, though, using everything Cash and Lily had taught her; she retreated, played elsewhere, retreated, played elsewhere, and finally hid behind Anna’s legs when it was too much.
I was also quite proud because at that point I leaned down, touched her lightly and said, “Just settle, sweetie.” She did, which I knew she would, and the other dog went trotting away. Daisy followed a moment later. Chris commented, “Wow, her off switch is really good!” I gave a big grin, because we’ve been working on that quite a lot! One of the things about a dog who doesn’t turn themselves off is that it’s more important for them to listen to us when we ask them to focus and calm down, so we can help them when they’re not sure what to do. Daisy did that excellently!
Daisy’s now been enrolled in Doggieville, having gotten along with all the dogs and handled all the stress with the grace and playfulness Cash and Lily have taught her. Thank you, Cash and Lily!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cash, dogs that have been rehab'ed, lily, pictures
I keep meaning to somehow put these on my webpage, but that hasn’t happened yet. Alas! Still, here are more adorable pictures!
Here we have Max and Ruby, two rescues, with their stocking from this year! Max and Ruby are very proud to be able to walk down the street, ignoring most dogs they meet. Even better, they’re fantastic at answering the door without barking, and they’ve stopped waking their mom and dad up in the wee hours of the morning. Yay! But MOST importantly… they’re really darn cute!
Here we have Layla, a boxer mix who suffers from biological aggression. Biological aggression can never be “cured,” but sometimes it can be managed. We’re still working on Layla’s food possessiveness, though it’s much better than it was! She’s also much improved in listening to her owners and not attacking dogs in the middle of play — two very important items that we’re glad to have managed!
Ahhhh, it’s a dog’s life! This is Bella, a goldendoodle puppy. One of my favorite things is seeing her and her owner — who is almost as small as Bella herself — walk down the street. What a pair they make!
And finally we have Donzi, Cash, me, Lily and Bella, all but my dogs from different families, but getting along spectacularly. It’s nice to have good dogs!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cash, expecations, lily, perfection, philosophy, training
People tell me my dogs are perfect. I’m here to tell you right now: NO dogs are perfect. Except seeing eye and police dogs, and those dogs retire around 6 or 7 typically because they burn out.
So, how do you have a perfect dog? Don’t expect perfection.
Not too long ago, I took my dogs to a rodeo school where a friend of mine was going to learn to ride bulls. My dogs have seen all sorts of livestock, but not bulls — and not bucking bulls! I didn’t expect them to be perfect. I am a perfectionist, and for a while I DID expect perfection of my dogs. Then I realized some things that were very important:
1. I’m not perfect, no matter how hard I try. If I can’t be perfect, and I’m supposed to be smarter than them, how can I expect them to be perfect in an exciting, sometimes scary, always confusing world?
2. Expecting perfection means that I am constantly disappointed. I love my dogs, and I want to make sure they know it!
So, I dropped perfection. Now I look for a few things: Are they being generally well behaved? The answer is usually yes! The other thing I look for is: Are they better this week than they were last month? Once more, the answer is usually yes! This one is especially important when I’m newly training a dog with lots of problems. The truth is, that dog isn’t going to be well behaved for a while — but he can still be better behaved than he was last month!
When I took my dogs to the rodeo, I didn’t expect perfection. I expected them to be dogs, to mess up, to listen as best they could, to be pretty well behaved, to need reminders, and to be their usual loving selves.
We took our place on the grandstands. I told them to go lay down, and I poured them a bowl of water, leaving it where they could get to it. A few minutes later, someone walked by and said, “What nice dogs!” and reached to pet them.
Lily wagged, but stayed put. Cash leaped to his feet to help that hand get closer to his head. I had moved to the rail to get a better view, but I turned when I heard the person talking so I saw Cash stand up. I said, “Cash, lay down and then you can be petted.” (This is a sneaky trick, by the way: If I tell Cash he can lay down to get petted, then the person also realizes that Cash must lay down to get petted, and they wait! Otherwise, they reward him for standing up by petting him. If I tell them to wait until he lies down, they often tell me they don’t care if he jumps up, or they seem disgruntled. By correcting him, not them, the politics in the people world stay smooth!)
Cash didn’t lay down right away, but I just walked over, took his leash, and laid him down. Then I said, “Down,” told him he was good, and let the person pet him.
This happened several times, until the people walking past realized what was going on and actually started making him lay down before they petted him. If Lily didn’t get petted because she didn’t get up — better behaved dogs often get ignored, sadly! — then I made sure to pet her. Obviously, only when it’s a small group will people see what you’re doing and help enforce it, but regardless your dog will still learn!
After a while, Cash and Lily figured out they had to stay laying down. But twenty minutes passed and they got bored. Cash reached to sniff. I reminded him to stay put. Lily started skipping from sunshine to shade and back again. I reminded her to stay put (but released her after a while, so she could skip back and forth. By telling her to stay put, I reaffirmed that she had to stay. By releasing her to travel just a few feet in either direction, I was a nice person. Lily has been with me long enough to know the difference between, “Stay,” “Stay close,” and “You can be here or here [with pointing].”)
At lunch I gave them both bully sticks, which kept them occupied for another twenty minutes. In the late afternoon, when things — including them! — had calmed down, I released them and let them wander around the bleachers nearby. (Again, small group of people. Don’t do this in a crowd!) Occasionally they’d go too far and I’d call them, remind them of their boundaries. I always expected them to watch me, so that if I started to move they’d follow no matter what was going on. Twice I had to remind one of them by calling “Come on,” because they were distracted.
Were they perfect? No. But we had a great day, and the people around me were amazed at how good they were. Could I find a million and one flaws I’d like to see them be better about? Yes! But that would drive us all crazy. There were a few things I needed them to be very good about: not barking. Lily didn’t care about the bulls, but as soon as Cash started staring I corrected him and made him look away. By keeping him from even staring, I was able to keep him from getting excited and barking. I was able to communicate to him that those bulls were part of our pack, and nothing to get excited about.
I also wanted my dogs to listen — and they did. They did admirably, in fact. They were there all day, and though they needed reminders of things, they did their best. They weren’t annoying, they didn’t become unmanageable, they listened, and they tried very hard. I couldn’t ask for more.
This is how you have perfect dogs: don’t set unreasonable expectations, be proud of them for what they do well, and remember they have short attention spans. I would rather have an almost perfect dog who won’t burn out at 6 or 7 years than a perfect dog who needs to be retired young.
Perfect is overrated.
J
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bobby, dogs that eat animals, dogs that have been rehab'ed, lily
Before I start, for the record in regards to the last post, Cash finally decided to go potty where I was telling him to go that afternoon. I’d already decided that if he waited until night, it was too much trouble and he’d win! But now he’s happily going under the stairs, and I don’t have to walk out to the bushes with him at night. Hooray!
Now, for the next post!
I have a conure, fondly (and sometimes not so fondly) referred to as Bobby da Bird by those who know him.
Bobby is utterly fearless when it comes to dogs, which is both a good and a bad thing. Lily da Pit Bill was, once upon a time, a bird killer. She’d stalk them outside, pounce, and quite often succeed in catching (and eating) them. When I adopted her, you can imagine this was of some concern to me! But time and effort (and a lot of chasing her away from the birds) paid off, and today she lives with Bobby da Bird peacefully.
I mention this because Bobby’s out wandering around on the floor at the moment, and when he decided he was ready to be picked up (and Lily was in his way), he crawled up onto her foreleg and sat there, contemplating whatever it is that birds contemplate. She licked him, but didn’t eat. Hooray! Then he climbed up onto her back and I picked him up from there. All in all, a hard day’s work — for Lily. Bobby isn’t worried in the slightest, but you can practically see the wheels turning in Lily’s head: I want to eat the bird. Must not harm bird. EAT BIRD. DO NOT HARM. Mom is watching! Bird is climbing! Do not harm! Poor girl did remarkably well. 
(I think Bobby is of the opinion that he could take her. He might be right.)
The next time someone tells you that it’s impossible to fight instinct or old habits, just tell them about the rodent-and-bird-eating pit bull who lets birds climb on her and mice run across her toes. (What, I haven’t told you about that? Hmm. Some other time. )
-Jenna
