I have been thinking about writing a post about this for awhile now. It is something that I consider extremely important and, oftentimes, extremely overlooked. I am talking about dog and child safety.
When I first started writing this blog, a lot of the posts focused on my dog, Lita.
As with any shelter dog, she came with baggage. We had no idea of her experiences before she came to live with us. When we brought her home I started doing a lot of research into training methods to help her. We worked with an excellent trainer for a long time. We have made a great deal of progress with Lita. And have worked very hard to get here. When I learned that I was pregnant, I was overjoyed. But also a little nervous. Nervous about how our dog would react. Does that sound crazy?
My dog is not my baby, but she a part of my family. She trusts me. I have worked hard to earn that trust. She trusts that when I am with her she is safe and I will not put her in an unsafe situation. I will not ask her to do something that she cannot handle. I knew when I learned that I was pregnant, that we would have to work hard to maintain that trust. I knew that I would expect my child to respect Lita and to have boundaries when it comes to interactions with her. I knew that for both of their safeties, they would not be left unsupervised together. Ever.
We have all seen pictures in a forwarded email or shared on Facebook of a dog with a baby propped next to them. Or maybe it's a smiling child, giving a dog a hug. The dog is sitting there with eyes carefully averted away from the small hands. Maybe its ears are back. Or its feet are tense. Subtle, subtle cues. Indicating that all is not well. Before I knew enough to detect those cues, I used to think those photos were cute too. Alternatively, maybe you have heard a friend or family member say proudly "Those kids can do anything to that dog!" Again, I used to think that was a good thing.
Now, as a relatively knowledgable dog owner AND as a parent, those things make me cringe.
I believe that it is children that need to be taught to interact properly with animals and not the other way around. They should learn that it is not okay to pull a dog's ears or tail. To pet them gently. That most dogs do not like hugs. To leave them alone while they are eating and when they are in their bed. A dog needs a safe place where they can escape. Obviously, very small children cannot understand the rules. It falls on the parents to enforce them. These rules are all in place in our house. They may seem extreme to some. Those same people that say 'my kids can do anything to our dog.' There are two problems with this scenario.
1) Are you sure your dog is okay with what it happening? Have you really watched? Have you watched the eyes, ears, tail, toes? One concept that I learned from my training experience with my own dog is the idea of The Bank. All positive experiences add to The Bank, while negative ones take away. You want to keep adding to The Bank, so, when you least expect it, and you are in a bad situation, your dog will have something to draw on. To allow YOU make a choice for him. When The Bank is empty, the dog is forced to make a choice. Not all dogs will reach a breaking point in their tolerance levels, but many will. Those negative interactions with kids subtract from The Bank. The dog is also learning that interactions with the kids mean uncomfortable things and no one will stop it. Kids become a scary thing. Does he continue to just sit there and take it or stop it himself? The key to peaceful family interactions is not having to put your dog in the situation to make that decision in the first place. If every situation is monitored and only good things happen during those interactions, then, should it ever be needed!, The Bank will be good and full and while your dog may get surprised by an random negative encounter, he will not feel a need to make a decision.
2) Kids generalize. If they treat their own dog in a certain way, giving hugs for example, they will think that they can hug all dogs. Wow. I cannot tell you how many kids have come up to my dog and just stuck their hands in her face or tried to hug her. And I cannot emphasize enough how dangerous this is!! Some dogs just are not around kids a lot and can be afraid of them. After all, kids are noisy and unpredictable and may be at the perfect height to look a dog in the eye. Some dogs have already had bad experiences with kids. Either way, you just cannot know. Children (or parents!) should ALWAYS ask before petting an unknown dog. And they should be taught proper dog manners--do not reach over their head, let them come to you, etc.
I am hopeful that my son will grow up with a proper respect for our dog and for animals in general. As he gets older, I plan to give him added responsibility when it comes to Lita. He will be able to feed her and let her outside. For now, I will continue to monitor interactions, making them as positive as possible for both of them!
Showing posts with label lita. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lita. Show all posts
Monday, January 7, 2013
Dogs and kids.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Lita: Training Update, it's been awhile.
Wow. I can't believe that the last time I reflected on Lita's training was nearly 3 class sessions ago.
Since my last update, we completed our Level 2 RAD class. From there we moved on to FOCUS, which was more centered around trying to get your dog to focus their attention on you with a variety of distractions. We did okay in this class. Lita was definitely able to work in the presence of other dogs. Our biggest struggle continued to be loose-leash walking. :) After that we moved on to Lita's favorite class yet: Nosework! Wow. She LOVED this. Basically our trainer sets up a huge number of boxes, chairs, and other obstacles and hides food around the room. Doggy's job is to find it. Once she got the hang of this she was flying around the room on the scent. We play at home sometimes and she still loves it. Since that class, yes we've completed 2 whole courses since my last update!, we have now moved on to SOAR (Strength, Obedience, Awareness, Reliability), which I like to think of as Doggy Yoga. :) Lita has found a new favorite thing... an egg ball.
She climbs up on that thing and it is a struggle! for her to maintain her balance. She can do 2 feet on, sit on it, lie down on it. It's a lot of work though--you can see her muscles shaking and vibrating.
We've also worked with some other balancing tools. We're working (and failing) at teaching a retrieve. She's also learning to spin (links! for left and rechts! for right)--she doesn't know the verbal cues yet, but has realized that she *can* turn both directions now. And we're doing stretches as well.
We've hit a few snags. This is the first class that she has been in that has had multiple dogs all "working" at the same time. The first time we tried joining our doggy classmates on the various obstacle challenges, Lita could not focus at all... "Look at that dog, what's he doing?! oh, there's another one! I smell good food this way, let's go!" Disaster. Since then we have been staying in our partially shielded corner while the other dogs move throughout the room, watching (mostly) calmly. Once they return to their stations we have been able to go out and do a few things while maintaining some degree of focus. Awesome!
Training at home has been a challenge. Well, it always is... because it's hard to be motivated to "train" after working all day. :) But it's been DARN cold here this winter and we've had a ton of snow. So there have been days when walks have been impossible. We've been playing a lot of "find it" on those days. Lita doesn't mind.
Health-wise... we've taken a down turn in that area as well. The Loo is now coming off a month of Baytril. Yes, a month. She has had an on again/off again infection on her belly, right along the line of her surgical scar. We put her on a 2 week course of the Baytril. It helped but didn't entirely clear everything. 2 more weeks. Things still continued to improve, but never completely went away. And we started seeing blisters between her toes again. *sigh* I hate thinking my poor girl is miserable. We've been bathing, spraying, powdering, dosing. Now it's back to the vet on Monday. New doctor this time.... hope we don't have to start at the beginning because of that! We'll see what happens.
Next class session we're heading back to nosework. Time for Loo to have some fun again! Once the weather warms up we'll head back to some heavy-duty behavioral training again.
Since my last update, we completed our Level 2 RAD class. From there we moved on to FOCUS, which was more centered around trying to get your dog to focus their attention on you with a variety of distractions. We did okay in this class. Lita was definitely able to work in the presence of other dogs. Our biggest struggle continued to be loose-leash walking. :) After that we moved on to Lita's favorite class yet: Nosework! Wow. She LOVED this. Basically our trainer sets up a huge number of boxes, chairs, and other obstacles and hides food around the room. Doggy's job is to find it. Once she got the hang of this she was flying around the room on the scent. We play at home sometimes and she still loves it. Since that class, yes we've completed 2 whole courses since my last update!, we have now moved on to SOAR (Strength, Obedience, Awareness, Reliability), which I like to think of as Doggy Yoga. :) Lita has found a new favorite thing... an egg ball.
She climbs up on that thing and it is a struggle! for her to maintain her balance. She can do 2 feet on, sit on it, lie down on it. It's a lot of work though--you can see her muscles shaking and vibrating.
We've also worked with some other balancing tools. We're working (and failing) at teaching a retrieve. She's also learning to spin (links! for left and rechts! for right)--she doesn't know the verbal cues yet, but has realized that she *can* turn both directions now. And we're doing stretches as well.
We've hit a few snags. This is the first class that she has been in that has had multiple dogs all "working" at the same time. The first time we tried joining our doggy classmates on the various obstacle challenges, Lita could not focus at all... "Look at that dog, what's he doing?! oh, there's another one! I smell good food this way, let's go!" Disaster. Since then we have been staying in our partially shielded corner while the other dogs move throughout the room, watching (mostly) calmly. Once they return to their stations we have been able to go out and do a few things while maintaining some degree of focus. Awesome!
Training at home has been a challenge. Well, it always is... because it's hard to be motivated to "train" after working all day. :) But it's been DARN cold here this winter and we've had a ton of snow. So there have been days when walks have been impossible. We've been playing a lot of "find it" on those days. Lita doesn't mind.
Health-wise... we've taken a down turn in that area as well. The Loo is now coming off a month of Baytril. Yes, a month. She has had an on again/off again infection on her belly, right along the line of her surgical scar. We put her on a 2 week course of the Baytril. It helped but didn't entirely clear everything. 2 more weeks. Things still continued to improve, but never completely went away. And we started seeing blisters between her toes again. *sigh* I hate thinking my poor girl is miserable. We've been bathing, spraying, powdering, dosing. Now it's back to the vet on Monday. New doctor this time.... hope we don't have to start at the beginning because of that! We'll see what happens.
Next class session we're heading back to nosework. Time for Loo to have some fun again! Once the weather warms up we'll head back to some heavy-duty behavioral training again.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Bumps in the road.
Yeah, so... since my big "this is going to be the best year evah!" post, The Universe has been crapping on my parade. It has been one thing after another and I haven't been dealing with it very well. My poor husband has been riding a roller coaster and not knowing if he was going to get the "It's all going to be okay"-me or the "OMG! The Universe hates me!"-me.
Backtrack.
Shortly after my birthday we were slated to begin our kitchen remodel. As expected, we hit a few snags and got a bit delayed. We finally began the process with the removal of our cabinetry on October 1st. All in all, we are doing quite well with this whole thing. Once again, there have been a few snags. But we are doing a lot of the work ourselves (with help from my parents) and I'm so darn proud of us! Granted, even with things running relatively smoothly it's still stressful. We have a microwave in our office. A refrigerator in our living room. I'm washing dishes in our bathroom sink, while filling our water pitcher from the tub. We've been eating takeout pretty much every night. Some people may find that fun, but I don't. So it's been... a challenge.
Then, one day I came home to find that our precious pooch had eaten her leash. All 6 feet of her leather leash, devoured. Like, I found the clip from the leash still attached to her harness AND the clicker that is normally looped around the handle, but not a single scrap/piece/molecule of the leash, devoured. I took her to the vet that night and because we didn't know how long ago she had eaten it, they didn't want to induce vomiting. So, because she's a big girl, we were told to feed her Wonderbread and vaseline sandwiches and hope that it would pass. Yum. She loved them. She was doing well for several days... things were still moving, so to speak. Then three days after her big snack, she vomited breakfast. Not good. Back to the vet for more Xrays and an intended barium series. This was not in Lita's plan though because despite the fact that three people were assisting, she would not take the barium. One regular Xray taken before trying the barium clearly showed "stuff" in her stomach. Knowing that our dog definitely had eaten something and that it was the something that causing the issue, we opted for surgery. This was an extremely stressful situation for both my husband and myself. Now I have worked in this very animal hospital. I know that gastronomies, while not super-common, do happen and usual have good outcomes if the dogs are seen early enough. None of that mattered because it had never been my dog in the situation before! I was a wreck. But we signed the papers, refused a quote (it didn't matter to us what it cost at that point) and left our big furbaby in capable hands. After an agonizing 5 hour wait (thanks to an emergency spleen-ectomy), we finally heard that the surgery was finished and Lita Loo was in recovery. They removed MANY 3-4 inch pieces of leash from her stomach and the rest of her system was clear. And, oh yeah, they also spayed her while they were in there (refer to early posts for info on her mystery cycles--she was supposedly spayed when we adopted)! Oh boy, a 2-fer! She spent a night in the hospital and it pained me to think of her there, alone and scared. And probably stressed out simply due to the presence of other dogs. She did well the next day though. Ate in the late afternoon and kept her food down, so the doctor agreed to release her. When we picked her up we could tell that she was out of it, spacey, didn't even seem to recognize us. Poor girl! The first night she was home she cried the whole night. This is quite normal for dogs coming home from surgery, but it broke my heart and I cried right along with her. Thankfully, things improved quickly from there. She ate her liquidy food quite well. By the third day she was even playful and we had to try to keep her calm since she had about 25 stitches in her belly. Now, 15 days post-op, her stitches are out. She had a minor infection at the incision site and is still on antibiotics. Other than that though, she is eating well and is back to her regular self. The one major change is that she is now crated during the day when we aren't home. We hope to transition her back to her regular kitchen corner once that area isn't a construction zone anymore and realize that it is probably the destruction of her "bedroom" that stressed her out enough to eat her leash in the first place.
Meanwhile, I was dealing with a health issue of my own. I have known for awhile that my wisdom teeth were coming in and have been trying to ignore them if I'm being honest. But they would not be ignored for awhile there... For several days I was in severe pain, pain that would even wake me up at night. I had to suck it up and visit my dentist. From the Xray she said that I may have a cyst in my jaw that the tooth was pushing on as it was emerging from the gum. And it was partially impacted as well. Both of these are factors that indicated that it needed to be removed. And why not remove the others at the same time??? Gee, thanks! So I went to an oral surgeon recently to schedule the surgery. The good news is that I don't actually have a cyst, but that tooth has still got to go. It's not sideways or anything, but there's just not enough room for it so it will never entirely break the surface of my gum. It's still causing me some pain too. So, yeah. I get to have my first surgery too. I'm a chicken and am not looking forward to it at all. I'm not so much worried about the pain afterward because I'm pretty sure I can handle it. It's the actual anesthesia that has me freaked.
Since I started having issues, I've been trying to get this taken care of asap though. Since, as I've indicated, we have been fully intending on starting to expand our family in the near future... The surgeon's first available appointment is another month away. The Monday before Thanksgiving! ha! :) There may be no big dinner for me this year. So we are delayed another month. Which is NOT that big of a deal really. But this news on TOP of all the other stress... sent me into a bit of a tailspin that I have been fighting to pull out of.
Slowly, but surely.
The kitchen is looking awesome. And the tiles go down this weekend so I am super-excited about that. As I said, Lita is doing well and is returning to her walking schedule... AND although I can see we've lost A LOT of ground in her training during her time off, we are starting a new class next week that I am so thrilled to be taking--nosework! AND... well, I don't really have anything good to say on the wisdom tooth subject... other than it will be taken care of. :)
So, that's where I've been. I'm hoping that this year will now balance itself out and I'll have tons of goodness (or at least LESS STRESS) coming my way soon. We'll see!
Backtrack.
Shortly after my birthday we were slated to begin our kitchen remodel. As expected, we hit a few snags and got a bit delayed. We finally began the process with the removal of our cabinetry on October 1st. All in all, we are doing quite well with this whole thing. Once again, there have been a few snags. But we are doing a lot of the work ourselves (with help from my parents) and I'm so darn proud of us! Granted, even with things running relatively smoothly it's still stressful. We have a microwave in our office. A refrigerator in our living room. I'm washing dishes in our bathroom sink, while filling our water pitcher from the tub. We've been eating takeout pretty much every night. Some people may find that fun, but I don't. So it's been... a challenge.
Then, one day I came home to find that our precious pooch had eaten her leash. All 6 feet of her leather leash, devoured. Like, I found the clip from the leash still attached to her harness AND the clicker that is normally looped around the handle, but not a single scrap/piece/molecule of the leash, devoured. I took her to the vet that night and because we didn't know how long ago she had eaten it, they didn't want to induce vomiting. So, because she's a big girl, we were told to feed her Wonderbread and vaseline sandwiches and hope that it would pass. Yum. She loved them. She was doing well for several days... things were still moving, so to speak. Then three days after her big snack, she vomited breakfast. Not good. Back to the vet for more Xrays and an intended barium series. This was not in Lita's plan though because despite the fact that three people were assisting, she would not take the barium. One regular Xray taken before trying the barium clearly showed "stuff" in her stomach. Knowing that our dog definitely had eaten something and that it was the something that causing the issue, we opted for surgery. This was an extremely stressful situation for both my husband and myself. Now I have worked in this very animal hospital. I know that gastronomies, while not super-common, do happen and usual have good outcomes if the dogs are seen early enough. None of that mattered because it had never been my dog in the situation before! I was a wreck. But we signed the papers, refused a quote (it didn't matter to us what it cost at that point) and left our big furbaby in capable hands. After an agonizing 5 hour wait (thanks to an emergency spleen-ectomy), we finally heard that the surgery was finished and Lita Loo was in recovery. They removed MANY 3-4 inch pieces of leash from her stomach and the rest of her system was clear. And, oh yeah, they also spayed her while they were in there (refer to early posts for info on her mystery cycles--she was supposedly spayed when we adopted)! Oh boy, a 2-fer! She spent a night in the hospital and it pained me to think of her there, alone and scared. And probably stressed out simply due to the presence of other dogs. She did well the next day though. Ate in the late afternoon and kept her food down, so the doctor agreed to release her. When we picked her up we could tell that she was out of it, spacey, didn't even seem to recognize us. Poor girl! The first night she was home she cried the whole night. This is quite normal for dogs coming home from surgery, but it broke my heart and I cried right along with her. Thankfully, things improved quickly from there. She ate her liquidy food quite well. By the third day she was even playful and we had to try to keep her calm since she had about 25 stitches in her belly. Now, 15 days post-op, her stitches are out. She had a minor infection at the incision site and is still on antibiotics. Other than that though, she is eating well and is back to her regular self. The one major change is that she is now crated during the day when we aren't home. We hope to transition her back to her regular kitchen corner once that area isn't a construction zone anymore and realize that it is probably the destruction of her "bedroom" that stressed her out enough to eat her leash in the first place.
Meanwhile, I was dealing with a health issue of my own. I have known for awhile that my wisdom teeth were coming in and have been trying to ignore them if I'm being honest. But they would not be ignored for awhile there... For several days I was in severe pain, pain that would even wake me up at night. I had to suck it up and visit my dentist. From the Xray she said that I may have a cyst in my jaw that the tooth was pushing on as it was emerging from the gum. And it was partially impacted as well. Both of these are factors that indicated that it needed to be removed. And why not remove the others at the same time??? Gee, thanks! So I went to an oral surgeon recently to schedule the surgery. The good news is that I don't actually have a cyst, but that tooth has still got to go. It's not sideways or anything, but there's just not enough room for it so it will never entirely break the surface of my gum. It's still causing me some pain too. So, yeah. I get to have my first surgery too. I'm a chicken and am not looking forward to it at all. I'm not so much worried about the pain afterward because I'm pretty sure I can handle it. It's the actual anesthesia that has me freaked.
Since I started having issues, I've been trying to get this taken care of asap though. Since, as I've indicated, we have been fully intending on starting to expand our family in the near future... The surgeon's first available appointment is another month away. The Monday before Thanksgiving! ha! :) There may be no big dinner for me this year. So we are delayed another month. Which is NOT that big of a deal really. But this news on TOP of all the other stress... sent me into a bit of a tailspin that I have been fighting to pull out of.
Slowly, but surely.
The kitchen is looking awesome. And the tiles go down this weekend so I am super-excited about that. As I said, Lita is doing well and is returning to her walking schedule... AND although I can see we've lost A LOT of ground in her training during her time off, we are starting a new class next week that I am so thrilled to be taking--nosework! AND... well, I don't really have anything good to say on the wisdom tooth subject... other than it will be taken care of. :)
So, that's where I've been. I'm hoping that this year will now balance itself out and I'll have tons of goodness (or at least LESS STRESS) coming my way soon. We'll see!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Lita: RAD class 2, session 4. Progressing in leaps!
We've made so much progress in the last 2 months!!!
Firstly, we "graduated" RAD Class 1. Well, kind of. The session was 6 weeks and we finished it. We weren't deemed ready to move on to a non-RAD class though (2 of our classmates were, WOO!), so we started Class 2 with two other pups from the group. Roo, a white male pit mix, who, I am fully convinced, should be Lita's boyfriend. And Moss, a male aussie. Just the 3 of us. Last week was our 4th session and it was a big one. BIG. Lita has come such a long way! Sometimes the progress is *very* difficult to recognize, but this time it was clearly apparent. Lita is much calmer in class. Not pulling nearly as much (sometimes not at all!!!). She is able to pay a lot more attention to us as well. We focused a lot last week on the Look at That! game, which she is clearly understanding since The Husband reports she is now offering the behavior on walks. !!! Also, not only was she able to respond to "downs" appropriately, she also offered one on her own for the first time in class. "Downs" are far more difficult than sits for reactive/stressed dogs because it puts them in a more vulnerable position. Roo was able to approach her while we played Look at That! and neither one of them reacted. He made it to about 10 feet away! This was HUGE for both of them. Outside of class, we still struggle with loose leash walking on walks. But we're working more on integrating games (at least touch for now) during walks to be able to get her attention.
In the house she is doing fantastic things...
~I can now get her to jump off her feet for a high touch.
~She will put her front feet on top of a large paint bucket for treats (achieved through shaping).
~She's learning "woof" (our version of "speak").
~She is becoming bilingual--her new release word instead of "okay" is "Vamos"!
~She has a new Nina Ottosson toy (the tornado) that she is learning to master.
~She has a baby size swimming pool for hot days that she will walk through/stand in and even sat a few times, but hasn't laid in yet.
~AND she had a head to head loose dog encounter with Ernie, a little terrier dude that lives near us. Thankfully, he didn't bark and Lita didn't react! So much happening!!!
Our trainer thinks that we will probably be able to advance to the FOCUS class next session, which is more traditional obedience in a group setting. For that we need to learn mat training and Lita's new mat arrived a few days ago. She has already laid down on it with no prompting. :)
This session I have also started assisting with the level 1 RAD class which meets right after us level 2ers. It is completely fascinating to watch and recognize all the little things that I'm not able to pay attention to when I'm trying to work with my own dog.
This is quite the change from the last gloom and doom update, huh? That's the way it goes, I guess! Our next class is tonight. *fingers crossed*
Firstly, we "graduated" RAD Class 1. Well, kind of. The session was 6 weeks and we finished it. We weren't deemed ready to move on to a non-RAD class though (2 of our classmates were, WOO!), so we started Class 2 with two other pups from the group. Roo, a white male pit mix, who, I am fully convinced, should be Lita's boyfriend. And Moss, a male aussie. Just the 3 of us. Last week was our 4th session and it was a big one. BIG. Lita has come such a long way! Sometimes the progress is *very* difficult to recognize, but this time it was clearly apparent. Lita is much calmer in class. Not pulling nearly as much (sometimes not at all!!!). She is able to pay a lot more attention to us as well. We focused a lot last week on the Look at That! game, which she is clearly understanding since The Husband reports she is now offering the behavior on walks. !!! Also, not only was she able to respond to "downs" appropriately, she also offered one on her own for the first time in class. "Downs" are far more difficult than sits for reactive/stressed dogs because it puts them in a more vulnerable position. Roo was able to approach her while we played Look at That! and neither one of them reacted. He made it to about 10 feet away! This was HUGE for both of them. Outside of class, we still struggle with loose leash walking on walks. But we're working more on integrating games (at least touch for now) during walks to be able to get her attention.
In the house she is doing fantastic things...
~I can now get her to jump off her feet for a high touch.
~She will put her front feet on top of a large paint bucket for treats (achieved through shaping).
~She's learning "woof" (our version of "speak").
~She is becoming bilingual--her new release word instead of "okay" is "Vamos"!
~She has a new Nina Ottosson toy (the tornado) that she is learning to master.
~She has a baby size swimming pool for hot days that she will walk through/stand in and even sat a few times, but hasn't laid in yet.
~AND she had a head to head loose dog encounter with Ernie, a little terrier dude that lives near us. Thankfully, he didn't bark and Lita didn't react! So much happening!!!
Our trainer thinks that we will probably be able to advance to the FOCUS class next session, which is more traditional obedience in a group setting. For that we need to learn mat training and Lita's new mat arrived a few days ago. She has already laid down on it with no prompting. :)
This session I have also started assisting with the level 1 RAD class which meets right after us level 2ers. It is completely fascinating to watch and recognize all the little things that I'm not able to pay attention to when I'm trying to work with my own dog.
This is quite the change from the last gloom and doom update, huh? That's the way it goes, I guess! Our next class is tonight. *fingers crossed*
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Lita: RAD class, session 4. Or how mommy had a break-down.
There are moments in life when you can feel the emotion welling up inside you, the tears creeping their way out of the corners of your eyes, and you can do nothing to stop them. I had one of those moments on the way home from class last night. Here's the thing though... class went pretty darn well! Once again, no outbursts, no significant reactions. We even survived and did pretty well with some brief parallel walking sessions with another dog.
However, Lita continues to be SO wound up, SO excited, SO overstimulated that every time we try a walking exercise it is a struggle. Hell, just getting her in the front door is difficult as she pulls and huffs and puffs her way towards the building. On top of that, actually feeding her treats is a total nightmare. I can't even count the number of times my poor fingies were nipped and grabbed last night. I *know* that she is not doing it on purpose--there are times at home when she's not excited that she'll grab a bit reaching for a treat thanks to that bully underbite--but that doesn't make it hurt any less or make it any less frustrating.
We are practicing the foundation loose leash walking skills at home. She is good at giving attention and even has a nice default sit. The "Find my Face" game is going well. She is comfortable walking and eating in the "heel" position in the house, without a leash on. Our next step is to add the leash in the house without distractions and then move out to the backyard, the driveway, the sidewalk, and then, finally (maybe) walks around the neighborhood. Even out on walks though, she does not pull anywhere NEAR the amount or with the force of what she is doing during class. Of course not, it's a different environment, there are DOGS around. Of course it's different. But how to fix it? Ignore it for now and focus on the fact that she's not trying to EAT the dogs? That's kind of what we've been doing to this point as the reactivity was more of a concern to me than having the most polite leash manners. But our trainer called us out last night and specifically told us "you need to practice loose leash." *sigh* We're trying.
Sort of.
Being a tree doesn't work. And in the interest of getting Lita some exercise I know we put up with more pulling on walks than we should. But, again, she's really not that bad in her own neighborhood.
Anyway, the point is... that after class last night, despite the fact that our dog was reasonably well-mannered and had no reactions, I felt like we were the "bad dog." And it's mostly because I can't handle her by myself. That's what it comes down to... at class right now, my Husband holds the leashes, I do the clicking and feeding. I've tried doing both and she can just drag me around. SO frustrating. NONE of the other dogs have this issue. If anything, they all seem SO well behaved on a leash! And then we were done and we got in the car and I noticed that the Elizabethan collar that Lita has been wearing for a week and a half while we're at work to allow her face to fully heal has caused 3 small abscesses on her neck where the edges rub her. And her feet are red and blistered. And she has hives on one of her back legs and her stomach is red and irritated. And my Husband told me he wouldn't be able to make it to class next week because he'd be traveling for work for 4 days. And I knew all these things before, but now they were just running through my brain and I felt like a failure. And that's when the tears started coming.
Ohmidog, how am I ever going to be able to handle this on my own?!?! It's too much. It's just too much. My Husband actually said "You did good tonight." And I just shook my head, and I couldn't hold it in anymore. So I cried. And I mumbled. And I gasped. I think my Husband thought I was seriously ill, but I managed to choke out "I'm disappointed." Over-reaction much? Heck yeah. But sometimes, just sometimes, you *need* to have a good cry.
Don't get me wrong, I am still terrified at the premise of showing up at that class alone next week. I fear I will emerge with freshly gnawed fingies and bruised palms from clutching leashes so tightly. The good news is that my emotional breakdown has caused the Husband to recognize that loose leash walking is something that we really do need to work on. Like I said, on walks recently we've been more concerned with not reacting and so we have been shoving her favorite squeaky toy in her mouth, which has been working brilliantly! But it is only a management device and not actual training--meaning, we take away that chicken and we're back to an excitable, pulling pooch (although still not to the level we've seen in class).
And so, for the next 6 days, Lita will be attending the amateur version of loose leash walking bootcamp. We already know that the whole "become a tree" thing doesn't work with her--I think she could ignore us for days. So we're going to focus on some other techniques--walking around cones, walking calmly towards a toy or food item, penalty yards for pulling, changing directions, clicking and treating when she's paying attention to us and walking where she should be. This is going to be a *real* challenge for us. Our other homework for the class is working on stay (thankfully, she's pretty good at this already) and teaching "get back," where the dog will move behind you and sit behind your legs. A voluntary body block kind of position. Busy, busy week.
Hopefully I can start viewing this more as a personal challenge and less as something I need to just get through. And I really need to remember the great progress that we have made. It's just so easy to forget all of the positive in a moment of disappointment.
So here: a list of things that Lita has learned....
~Sit/default sit
~Down
~Stay
~working on Backup
~Find It
~Get him (for getting Kong)
~Touch
~Go to your spot, which has transitioned to being cued just by picking up her food bowl, where she sits and waits for her meals before being released
~Go to bed
~Tug--get it and give
~going up the stairs backwards!!!
~check ins
~learning the look at that game
That's a lot! Look out world, here we come (hopefully with a loose leash)!
However, Lita continues to be SO wound up, SO excited, SO overstimulated that every time we try a walking exercise it is a struggle. Hell, just getting her in the front door is difficult as she pulls and huffs and puffs her way towards the building. On top of that, actually feeding her treats is a total nightmare. I can't even count the number of times my poor fingies were nipped and grabbed last night. I *know* that she is not doing it on purpose--there are times at home when she's not excited that she'll grab a bit reaching for a treat thanks to that bully underbite--but that doesn't make it hurt any less or make it any less frustrating.
We are practicing the foundation loose leash walking skills at home. She is good at giving attention and even has a nice default sit. The "Find my Face" game is going well. She is comfortable walking and eating in the "heel" position in the house, without a leash on. Our next step is to add the leash in the house without distractions and then move out to the backyard, the driveway, the sidewalk, and then, finally (maybe) walks around the neighborhood. Even out on walks though, she does not pull anywhere NEAR the amount or with the force of what she is doing during class. Of course not, it's a different environment, there are DOGS around. Of course it's different. But how to fix it? Ignore it for now and focus on the fact that she's not trying to EAT the dogs? That's kind of what we've been doing to this point as the reactivity was more of a concern to me than having the most polite leash manners. But our trainer called us out last night and specifically told us "you need to practice loose leash." *sigh* We're trying.
Sort of.
Being a tree doesn't work. And in the interest of getting Lita some exercise I know we put up with more pulling on walks than we should. But, again, she's really not that bad in her own neighborhood.
Anyway, the point is... that after class last night, despite the fact that our dog was reasonably well-mannered and had no reactions, I felt like we were the "bad dog." And it's mostly because I can't handle her by myself. That's what it comes down to... at class right now, my Husband holds the leashes, I do the clicking and feeding. I've tried doing both and she can just drag me around. SO frustrating. NONE of the other dogs have this issue. If anything, they all seem SO well behaved on a leash! And then we were done and we got in the car and I noticed that the Elizabethan collar that Lita has been wearing for a week and a half while we're at work to allow her face to fully heal has caused 3 small abscesses on her neck where the edges rub her. And her feet are red and blistered. And she has hives on one of her back legs and her stomach is red and irritated. And my Husband told me he wouldn't be able to make it to class next week because he'd be traveling for work for 4 days. And I knew all these things before, but now they were just running through my brain and I felt like a failure. And that's when the tears started coming.
Ohmidog, how am I ever going to be able to handle this on my own?!?! It's too much. It's just too much. My Husband actually said "You did good tonight." And I just shook my head, and I couldn't hold it in anymore. So I cried. And I mumbled. And I gasped. I think my Husband thought I was seriously ill, but I managed to choke out "I'm disappointed." Over-reaction much? Heck yeah. But sometimes, just sometimes, you *need* to have a good cry.
Don't get me wrong, I am still terrified at the premise of showing up at that class alone next week. I fear I will emerge with freshly gnawed fingies and bruised palms from clutching leashes so tightly. The good news is that my emotional breakdown has caused the Husband to recognize that loose leash walking is something that we really do need to work on. Like I said, on walks recently we've been more concerned with not reacting and so we have been shoving her favorite squeaky toy in her mouth, which has been working brilliantly! But it is only a management device and not actual training--meaning, we take away that chicken and we're back to an excitable, pulling pooch (although still not to the level we've seen in class).
And so, for the next 6 days, Lita will be attending the amateur version of loose leash walking bootcamp. We already know that the whole "become a tree" thing doesn't work with her--I think she could ignore us for days. So we're going to focus on some other techniques--walking around cones, walking calmly towards a toy or food item, penalty yards for pulling, changing directions, clicking and treating when she's paying attention to us and walking where she should be. This is going to be a *real* challenge for us. Our other homework for the class is working on stay (thankfully, she's pretty good at this already) and teaching "get back," where the dog will move behind you and sit behind your legs. A voluntary body block kind of position. Busy, busy week.
Hopefully I can start viewing this more as a personal challenge and less as something I need to just get through. And I really need to remember the great progress that we have made. It's just so easy to forget all of the positive in a moment of disappointment.
So here: a list of things that Lita has learned....
~Sit/default sit
~Down
~Stay
~working on Backup
~Find It
~Get him (for getting Kong)
~Touch
~Go to your spot, which has transitioned to being cued just by picking up her food bowl, where she sits and waits for her meals before being released
~Go to bed
~Tug--get it and give
~going up the stairs backwards!!!
~check ins
~learning the look at that game
That's a lot! Look out world, here we come (hopefully with a loose leash)!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Lita: RAD class, session 3.
Last night was the real test--all the dogs in the same room at the same time. Scary! I won't lie, I was nervous. I think I was more worried about the reactions of the other dogs though and not so much Lita. I know by now that on the scale of reactivity, Lita is on the lower half. Granted, we've done a LOT of work with her, but really she was never *that bad* to begin with. She never attacked, or barked viciously, or pulled us down. More often than not what we were getting was a pull in the opposite direction of the scary dog.
Anyway, we knew that last night would be interesting. One of our group did not make it to the class, but that still meant there were 3 other dogs in attendance. There were screens set up in the room so that the dogs could not see each other the entire time, but they were definitely aware of each other's presence. We each brought our dogs in and guided them to a position behind a screen--only one dog moved into or out of the room at a time. We then we told to basically just click and treat for *anything*--sitting still, sitting at all, downs, touches, looking at other dogs, ear flicks at barks, interest in the surroundings, no interest in surroundings, *anything*!!!! It was all about calming them down. Then they all went back to their cars for a break. After a few minutes they all came back in again (still one at a time) to a new position in the room--oh my, change! We calmed them down and took turns bringing one dog at a time out from behind their screen. This was a challenge to each individual dog (coming out from behind their protection) and to every other dog in the room (where'd HE come from, what's he gonna do?!). At one point, we brought Lita out from behind her screen and did a small circle in the room before heading back, there was another dog right in front of her about 10 feet away, instead of being concerned about the dog, Lita was more interested in the piece of hot dog that had been left behind about 2 feet in front of her. How awesome is that?!
We had no major outbursts from her. No lunging, no barking. Her mouth was rather "hard"--as in when I was giving her treats there were lots of nips because she was so nervous and wound up. I had to start just dropping the food on the ground, which I don't like doing. She was able to do a lot of interactions, we played tug, she sat and even performed downs, was able to do touch sometimes and was still very curious about the environment. And her exit was a dramatic one--playing with her beloved squeaky chicken and then carrying it all the way out to the car. Honestly, the hardest time that we had with her was just getting her in and out of the building--she's so excited that she's pulling and just trying to see everything. And being that she's a big girl (nearly 90 lbs!), she can be a bit hard to control, even with 2 leashes. We have to just keep shoving food in her face and trying to keep her attention, but it's hard. Real hard. And The Husband just informed me that he may be out of town for class in 2 weeks. I have no idea how I will handle this on my own. Guess we better start working on some more loose-leash walking ASAP!
All in all, thing went MUCH better than we could've expected. I think all of the other owners were pleased as well. I didn't really get to focus too much on the other dogs, but didn't see anything that concerned me greatly. In fact, in at least one case, I wondered why the dog was in the class in the first place.
Our homework this week includes playing the Look at That! game and... loose-leash walking! Hurrah! I am so excited about this class.
Anyway, we knew that last night would be interesting. One of our group did not make it to the class, but that still meant there were 3 other dogs in attendance. There were screens set up in the room so that the dogs could not see each other the entire time, but they were definitely aware of each other's presence. We each brought our dogs in and guided them to a position behind a screen--only one dog moved into or out of the room at a time. We then we told to basically just click and treat for *anything*--sitting still, sitting at all, downs, touches, looking at other dogs, ear flicks at barks, interest in the surroundings, no interest in surroundings, *anything*!!!! It was all about calming them down. Then they all went back to their cars for a break. After a few minutes they all came back in again (still one at a time) to a new position in the room--oh my, change! We calmed them down and took turns bringing one dog at a time out from behind their screen. This was a challenge to each individual dog (coming out from behind their protection) and to every other dog in the room (where'd HE come from, what's he gonna do?!). At one point, we brought Lita out from behind her screen and did a small circle in the room before heading back, there was another dog right in front of her about 10 feet away, instead of being concerned about the dog, Lita was more interested in the piece of hot dog that had been left behind about 2 feet in front of her. How awesome is that?!
We had no major outbursts from her. No lunging, no barking. Her mouth was rather "hard"--as in when I was giving her treats there were lots of nips because she was so nervous and wound up. I had to start just dropping the food on the ground, which I don't like doing. She was able to do a lot of interactions, we played tug, she sat and even performed downs, was able to do touch sometimes and was still very curious about the environment. And her exit was a dramatic one--playing with her beloved squeaky chicken and then carrying it all the way out to the car. Honestly, the hardest time that we had with her was just getting her in and out of the building--she's so excited that she's pulling and just trying to see everything. And being that she's a big girl (nearly 90 lbs!), she can be a bit hard to control, even with 2 leashes. We have to just keep shoving food in her face and trying to keep her attention, but it's hard. Real hard. And The Husband just informed me that he may be out of town for class in 2 weeks. I have no idea how I will handle this on my own. Guess we better start working on some more loose-leash walking ASAP!
All in all, thing went MUCH better than we could've expected. I think all of the other owners were pleased as well. I didn't really get to focus too much on the other dogs, but didn't see anything that concerned me greatly. In fact, in at least one case, I wondered why the dog was in the class in the first place.
Our homework this week includes playing the Look at That! game and... loose-leash walking! Hurrah! I am so excited about this class.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Lita: RAD class, session 2.
Last night we had our second RAD class (reactive and/or aggressive dog) with Lita. It was the first night where everyone brought their dogs. Last week it was humans only to lay the groundwork, discuss the rules and just to meet the other owners. Last night was supposed to be an easy night for the dogs and for most it was. All they had to do was walk into and back out of the building, just to become familiar with the territory, the props and the people. There are 5 dogs in the class and each dog came in and out 3 times, adding some more distractions each time. Lita didn't seem nervous at all, if anything she was anxious to explore and showed this by trying to drag me (and sometimes succeeding!) all over the place. I was surprised at some of the other dogs in the class. There were a couple that looked outwardly nervous, but some seemed very calm and just walked next to their owners nicely the whole time.
4 more classes to go. And next week all the dogs will be in the building at the same time. That's when things will get interesting.
So, how are we doing otherwise?
Last week our homework was to work on spontaneous sits and name recognition. She's pretty good with her name these days. And can do 8 sits in a minute. Doesn't sound like a lot, but she's a big girl and it takes her awhile to settle into and to get out of a sit. :)
Walks are going... okay. We have had to switch over to a harness thanks to an abscess on her face that became infected and has led to her wearing the cone of shame for the last week. She definitely pulls more with the harness versus the head collar. It's usually manageable as long as she has her chicken though. Yes, our dog carries a chicken on her walk, okay? What's wrong with that? I'll get pictures eventually.
The Husband's newest irritation (aside from the cone of shame, the daily foot washings thanks to her allergies and having to constantly monitor her outside due to our ill-mannered neighbor dogs) is the fact that she has started eating grass and plants a lot. I started working on that this morning by giving her a quick "eh, eh" when she headed in that direction and rewarding her with a click and some chicken when she moved away. That should be easy to remedy if I can keep it up for awhile. We then did some touch in the yard. Touch is actually part of this week's homework, although I know she'll be far too amped to make use of it in the RAD class with other dogs around. We're also going to work on collar grabs ("gotcha") and establishing direct eye contact ("find my face"). I actually really enjoy this part of the training. It's the walks that frustrate me--although I did have a pretty nice walk with her the other night when The Husband was out.
This morning however, The Husband forgot the magic chicken on the morning walk. Apparently it didn't go well. We definitely need to work on her leash manners as the chicken is only a tool, not a solution. But for now, calming her reactivity is top priority, and we've actually made decent progress already.
She's a smart girl and although we both get frustrated with her on occasion she has made great progress and I have high hopes for this class.
4 more classes to go. And next week all the dogs will be in the building at the same time. That's when things will get interesting.
So, how are we doing otherwise?
Last week our homework was to work on spontaneous sits and name recognition. She's pretty good with her name these days. And can do 8 sits in a minute. Doesn't sound like a lot, but she's a big girl and it takes her awhile to settle into and to get out of a sit. :)
Walks are going... okay. We have had to switch over to a harness thanks to an abscess on her face that became infected and has led to her wearing the cone of shame for the last week. She definitely pulls more with the harness versus the head collar. It's usually manageable as long as she has her chicken though. Yes, our dog carries a chicken on her walk, okay? What's wrong with that? I'll get pictures eventually.
The Husband's newest irritation (aside from the cone of shame, the daily foot washings thanks to her allergies and having to constantly monitor her outside due to our ill-mannered neighbor dogs) is the fact that she has started eating grass and plants a lot. I started working on that this morning by giving her a quick "eh, eh" when she headed in that direction and rewarding her with a click and some chicken when she moved away. That should be easy to remedy if I can keep it up for awhile. We then did some touch in the yard. Touch is actually part of this week's homework, although I know she'll be far too amped to make use of it in the RAD class with other dogs around. We're also going to work on collar grabs ("gotcha") and establishing direct eye contact ("find my face"). I actually really enjoy this part of the training. It's the walks that frustrate me--although I did have a pretty nice walk with her the other night when The Husband was out.
This morning however, The Husband forgot the magic chicken on the morning walk. Apparently it didn't go well. We definitely need to work on her leash manners as the chicken is only a tool, not a solution. But for now, calming her reactivity is top priority, and we've actually made decent progress already.
She's a smart girl and although we both get frustrated with her on occasion she has made great progress and I have high hopes for this class.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Lita update.
On 2/20 we did go to the vet as scheduled and boy, am I glad we did. We saw the same doctor this time as we had for her initial visit right after adopting her. He knew of the issues that we had been having and spoke some magical words, "I'm fairly certain that she does not have food allergies." He came to this conclusion basaed on the fact that she had been on a duck and potato diet (strictly!--no rawhides, only duck and potato treats) for over 6 weeks and had not shown improvements. The chances of her being allergic to duck or potato are slim.
Additionally, skin scrapes of the *ahem* affected areas only revealed bacteria, no yeast, which means she does not have systemic yeast overgrowth either! Yay!
Diagnosis: canine atopic dermatitis caused by an unknown (or multiple unknown!) environmental allergens (likely dust mites, molds, etc.), with secondary pyoderma (a bacterial infection affecting the skin).
Treatment: 3 weeks on simplicef, the same antibiotic as last time, because 2 weeks cleared up the problem, but didn't completely get rid of it, hence the relapse. Also, a new allergy medication called Atopica. Begin with daily dosing for a month and then re-evaluate. Atopica is a trade name for a cyclosporine-based drug for dogs. It is a mild immunosuppressant, which is supposed to help prevent the dog's immune system from "over-reacting" to allergens. These buggers are expensive. But, honestly, if it works I don't care! I'll pay it, just keep them coming. Also, keep up the Nzymes program because even though she does not have a systemic yeast infection the antibiotics are going to destroy her system. Any help she can get here is good. Finally, to help ease her blistered and aching feet, twice daily foot soaks in warm water with epsom salts.
While we were there, we also had her thyroid levels checked. Thyroid issues can also be a cause of a number of skin conditions and I didn't want to take any chances. It came back normal! Yay again!
We are now nearly two weeks into treatment. Her skin has cleared up nearly entirely. Her feet look MUCH better, not entirely cured, but definitely improved. We had some initial side effects from the Atopica (vomiting is the most common side effect, but our girl just got nauseous) and some *ahem* loose stools. But no accidents in the house, just several early a.m. potty requests--what a good girl!
We are going to keep everything up for now. And will probably head back to the vet in another week or so for a re-check and to decide on whether or not to continue with the Atopica and whether or not to change the dosage. I'm leaning towards yes and hoping we can move to every other day dosing, but we'll see.
Here's hoping that we truly have found a solution. If she continues to do well, we'll even get to start introducing other foods again. I'm sure she'll be excited to get some rawhides back on occasion.
I promise that the next update will be about our training progress. We've come a long way on that front as well. Lita continues to impress. Hopefully that trend continues tonight as we head to our 6th training session!!!
Additionally, skin scrapes of the *ahem* affected areas only revealed bacteria, no yeast, which means she does not have systemic yeast overgrowth either! Yay!
Diagnosis: canine atopic dermatitis caused by an unknown (or multiple unknown!) environmental allergens (likely dust mites, molds, etc.), with secondary pyoderma (a bacterial infection affecting the skin).
Treatment: 3 weeks on simplicef, the same antibiotic as last time, because 2 weeks cleared up the problem, but didn't completely get rid of it, hence the relapse. Also, a new allergy medication called Atopica. Begin with daily dosing for a month and then re-evaluate. Atopica is a trade name for a cyclosporine-based drug for dogs. It is a mild immunosuppressant, which is supposed to help prevent the dog's immune system from "over-reacting" to allergens. These buggers are expensive. But, honestly, if it works I don't care! I'll pay it, just keep them coming. Also, keep up the Nzymes program because even though she does not have a systemic yeast infection the antibiotics are going to destroy her system. Any help she can get here is good. Finally, to help ease her blistered and aching feet, twice daily foot soaks in warm water with epsom salts.
While we were there, we also had her thyroid levels checked. Thyroid issues can also be a cause of a number of skin conditions and I didn't want to take any chances. It came back normal! Yay again!
We are now nearly two weeks into treatment. Her skin has cleared up nearly entirely. Her feet look MUCH better, not entirely cured, but definitely improved. We had some initial side effects from the Atopica (vomiting is the most common side effect, but our girl just got nauseous) and some *ahem* loose stools. But no accidents in the house, just several early a.m. potty requests--what a good girl!
We are going to keep everything up for now. And will probably head back to the vet in another week or so for a re-check and to decide on whether or not to continue with the Atopica and whether or not to change the dosage. I'm leaning towards yes and hoping we can move to every other day dosing, but we'll see.
Here's hoping that we truly have found a solution. If she continues to do well, we'll even get to start introducing other foods again. I'm sure she'll be excited to get some rawhides back on occasion.
I promise that the next update will be about our training progress. We've come a long way on that front as well. Lita continues to impress. Hopefully that trend continues tonight as we head to our 6th training session!!!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The dangers of adopting a mutt.
Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our mutt. But we sure have had a long series of ups and downs with her. Right now we're back on a downward path--bummer! I have discussed some of the behavioral issues that we've had with her already and there will be a big update on that soon because we actually started with with a trainer! For right now though, I want to put down everything that I can remember about her health issues, which really just boils down to skin issues. We're still trying to figure out the actual *cause* of them. Unfortunately, to this point, our vet(s) have not been much help so I thought maybe creating a log of everything I can recall would help. Let's hope so....
When we brought Lita home she was already on a high-quality (no fillers!) diet at the shelter. It was a chicken, lamb and rice kibble and we brought a bag home with us from the shelter. She had some patchy bald spots on her coat, but the first vet visit revealed the usual shelter dog ailments--icky skin, ear infection, multiple intestinal parasites. We came home with medicated shampoo, ear cleaning products and treatments for the parasites. No big. When the first bag of food ran out--probably about 4-6 weeks later--I found a local shop that carried it and bought another bag. Spoke with the very knowledgeable staff about our new addition. Because Lita was a shelter dog, who we know had been through at least one shelter previously, they recommended a course of probiotics and enzymes to "re-balance her system" or something like that. I honestly thought it sounded a bit kooky, but picked them both up anyway, figuring it couldn't hurt and if it helps so much the better! I also bought a bottle of salmon oil which is supposed to be great for coat conditioning.
Somewhere along the way, the girl started getting what we thought were blisters between her toes. They'd get swollen a little. She'd lick them. They'd burst. I'd clean them. And they'd generally go away. She was getting weekly baths then too.
By the time we made it to our third bag, the blisters were gone, but she had gotten these bumps on her back. They seemed like pimples to me. They were red and swollen around the hair follicle. They'd get big and burst and ooze a little (lovely, I know). We took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with a bacterial infection and we were told that it was likely that she had a food allergy that was the primary cause. She was put on 2 weeks worth of antibiotics (can't remember what kind, bad mom!). They got worse rapidly and to the point where there would be several of them clustered and her hair would actually fall out at those places. I continued baths and after about a week and a half on the meds they started going away. We changed her food at this point too, for the allergy issue--from chicken, lamb and rice to duck and potato. All her treats were tossed. No more rawhides either. No more salmon oil. We actually managed to find several duck-based treats, including duck jerky!, and that's all she got.
Soon she was done with her antibiotics, the bumps were gone!, the blisters were gone! and her "course" of probiotics and enzymes was out as well. I didn't think we'd need to give her more.
A miracle! We made it to her second bag of duck and potato and all seemed well. Then she got hives all over her belly and back legs. We called the vet, not the same kind of bumps as before. Maybe it's an environmental allergy. We haven't really changed anything, but we washed all her bedding (none of it was new) in hypoallergenic detergent, upped her daily dose of benadryl to 3 tabs (25 mg) 2X a day, and applied hydrocortisone religiously.
Eventually, the hives mostly went away, but she was still itchy and had blisters on her toes again. My mom did some digging and finds Nzymes. Supposedly the symptoms of yeast overgrowth can very closely resemble allergies. She has a lot of the symptoms:
It was like a light was shining down upon us. Part of me thinks it's crazy again, but at this point I was willing to try anything. We bought the kit. We started her on it 2 weeks ago. And have been giving her twice weekly baths. The blisters have gotten worse. The bumps on her back are resurfacing. I'm at my wits end!
I've done a little bit of research on her skin condition and if I had to guess I'd say it's pyoderma, a bacterial infection of the skin, which is exactly what they told us last time. Supposedly, it's quite common for it to re-surface if the antibiotic course is not long enough. "They" recommend 3-4 weeks, we only did 2. But the question still remains... what is the underlying cause? Allergies? FOOD allergies? Yeast overgrowth?! ARGH!
Other random facts:
~She has been on and off benadryl pretty much since we brought her home. We thought it was seasonal allergies for awhile so she was on it for much of the fall. And then again when she got the hives. Not sure if it ever actually *helped* or not. Luckily, they never really seemed to zonk her out at all. :)
~Yes, I checked the box for irregular heat cycles. Yes, she's "spayed." But she went into heat in September (about a month after we brought her home). We had her estrogen levels checked. They were at zero. ZERO. So she's "spayed," but there must be just a little bit of something left in there to cause a mini-cycle. She went in again at the beginning of the month. We haven't done anything about it yet... the only thing we could do is an exploratory surgery the next time she cycles. I'm not sure we want to do that. Maybe if we get her other issues figured out.
~And I also checked the box for anal gland irritation! TMI! She has had her anal glands "expressed" twice since we adopted her. The first time was when the bumps were checked out the first time. And the second time was just a few weeks ago, after the hives, before the bumps returned. :)
~She has been on the Nzymes for almost 2 weeks now. No improvements, obviously. But all the literature says that it's likely to get worse before better. Maybe this is the worse? We still need to take care of those bumps if it's an infection. Which will mean more antibiotics, which cancels out the probiotics and enzymes... Do we change her food again?! Or give the antibiotics and essentially start over with the Nzymes. I have no freaking clue.
We have a vet appointment on Saturday to have her checked out again. Hopefully, this doctor will listen to the whole story and help us formulate a plan. That's all I want: a course of action. It would help us so much to know her history, but there's no chance of that. THIS is the danger of adopting a mutt. Not the fact that she is a mix of breeds, but the fact that she has no history! I probably would have taken her anyway, but at least if we had known about these issues, we would have been better prepared to deal with them. I just need someone to help me figure out what to do.
When we brought Lita home she was already on a high-quality (no fillers!) diet at the shelter. It was a chicken, lamb and rice kibble and we brought a bag home with us from the shelter. She had some patchy bald spots on her coat, but the first vet visit revealed the usual shelter dog ailments--icky skin, ear infection, multiple intestinal parasites. We came home with medicated shampoo, ear cleaning products and treatments for the parasites. No big. When the first bag of food ran out--probably about 4-6 weeks later--I found a local shop that carried it and bought another bag. Spoke with the very knowledgeable staff about our new addition. Because Lita was a shelter dog, who we know had been through at least one shelter previously, they recommended a course of probiotics and enzymes to "re-balance her system" or something like that. I honestly thought it sounded a bit kooky, but picked them both up anyway, figuring it couldn't hurt and if it helps so much the better! I also bought a bottle of salmon oil which is supposed to be great for coat conditioning.
Somewhere along the way, the girl started getting what we thought were blisters between her toes. They'd get swollen a little. She'd lick them. They'd burst. I'd clean them. And they'd generally go away. She was getting weekly baths then too.
By the time we made it to our third bag, the blisters were gone, but she had gotten these bumps on her back. They seemed like pimples to me. They were red and swollen around the hair follicle. They'd get big and burst and ooze a little (lovely, I know). We took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with a bacterial infection and we were told that it was likely that she had a food allergy that was the primary cause. She was put on 2 weeks worth of antibiotics (can't remember what kind, bad mom!). They got worse rapidly and to the point where there would be several of them clustered and her hair would actually fall out at those places. I continued baths and after about a week and a half on the meds they started going away. We changed her food at this point too, for the allergy issue--from chicken, lamb and rice to duck and potato. All her treats were tossed. No more rawhides either. No more salmon oil. We actually managed to find several duck-based treats, including duck jerky!, and that's all she got.
Soon she was done with her antibiotics, the bumps were gone!, the blisters were gone! and her "course" of probiotics and enzymes was out as well. I didn't think we'd need to give her more.
A miracle! We made it to her second bag of duck and potato and all seemed well. Then she got hives all over her belly and back legs. We called the vet, not the same kind of bumps as before. Maybe it's an environmental allergy. We haven't really changed anything, but we washed all her bedding (none of it was new) in hypoallergenic detergent, upped her daily dose of benadryl to 3 tabs (25 mg) 2X a day, and applied hydrocortisone religiously.
Eventually, the hives mostly went away, but she was still itchy and had blisters on her toes again. My mom did some digging and finds Nzymes. Supposedly the symptoms of yeast overgrowth can very closely resemble allergies. She has a lot of the symptoms:
SKIN AND COAT (X) Rashes and Itching(X) Hives (X) Draining Sores (X) Body Odor (X) Face Rubbing (X) Acne ( ) Eczema (X) Oily, Greasy Skin (X) Dry, Flaky Skin (X) Excessive Shedding ( ) Discolored Skin (blackened skin) (X) Thickened Rough Skin | GENERAL HEALTH (X) Fatigue( ) Poor Appetite ( ) Overweight ( ) Nervousness ( ) Anxiety (?) Allergies ( ) Environmental Sensitivities to pollens, weeds and grass ( ) Frequent Infections (X) Dull rough hair coat | SCORE RESULTS 0 = excellent health 1-2 = mild dietary change and nutraceutical/herbal support needed. 2-5 = moderate dietary change and nutraceutical/ herbal support needed. 5+ = marked dietary change, nutraceutical and herbal support and time needed for your dog or cat to cleanse, detoxify rebuild his or her immune system and replenish missing food nutrients not available from previous diet. |
| EARS (X) Ear Infections ( ) Increased Discharge (X) Ear Itching (X) Ear Scratching / Rubbing | EYES (X) Itching Eyes (X) Red, Irritated Eyes ( ) Cloudy Eyes ( ) Excessive Tearing ( ) Dull Appearance to Eyes | MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM (X) Limping and Stiffness ( ) Joint Pain ( ) Arthritis ( ) Backaches ( ) Stiff Neck |
| DIGESTIVE SYSTEM (X) Bad Breath (X) Smelly Bowel Movements ( ) Indigestion ( ) Frequent Episodes of Vomiting / Diarrhea ( ) Constipation ( ) Malformed Stools (X) Anal Gland Irritation | UROGENITAL SYSTEM ( ) Bladder Infections ( ) Bladder / Kidney Stones ( ) Increased Urination (X) Irregular Heat Cycles ( ) Vaginal Discharge / Infections | RESPIRATORY SYSTEM ( ) Wheezing ( ) Coughing ( ) Asthma ( ) Nasal Discharge (X) Reverse Sneezing (X) Itching Nose |
It was like a light was shining down upon us. Part of me thinks it's crazy again, but at this point I was willing to try anything. We bought the kit. We started her on it 2 weeks ago. And have been giving her twice weekly baths. The blisters have gotten worse. The bumps on her back are resurfacing. I'm at my wits end!
I've done a little bit of research on her skin condition and if I had to guess I'd say it's pyoderma, a bacterial infection of the skin, which is exactly what they told us last time. Supposedly, it's quite common for it to re-surface if the antibiotic course is not long enough. "They" recommend 3-4 weeks, we only did 2. But the question still remains... what is the underlying cause? Allergies? FOOD allergies? Yeast overgrowth?! ARGH!
Other random facts:
~She has been on and off benadryl pretty much since we brought her home. We thought it was seasonal allergies for awhile so she was on it for much of the fall. And then again when she got the hives. Not sure if it ever actually *helped* or not. Luckily, they never really seemed to zonk her out at all. :)
~Yes, I checked the box for irregular heat cycles. Yes, she's "spayed." But she went into heat in September (about a month after we brought her home). We had her estrogen levels checked. They were at zero. ZERO. So she's "spayed," but there must be just a little bit of something left in there to cause a mini-cycle. She went in again at the beginning of the month. We haven't done anything about it yet... the only thing we could do is an exploratory surgery the next time she cycles. I'm not sure we want to do that. Maybe if we get her other issues figured out.
~And I also checked the box for anal gland irritation! TMI! She has had her anal glands "expressed" twice since we adopted her. The first time was when the bumps were checked out the first time. And the second time was just a few weeks ago, after the hives, before the bumps returned. :)
~She has been on the Nzymes for almost 2 weeks now. No improvements, obviously. But all the literature says that it's likely to get worse before better. Maybe this is the worse? We still need to take care of those bumps if it's an infection. Which will mean more antibiotics, which cancels out the probiotics and enzymes... Do we change her food again?! Or give the antibiotics and essentially start over with the Nzymes. I have no freaking clue.
We have a vet appointment on Saturday to have her checked out again. Hopefully, this doctor will listen to the whole story and help us formulate a plan. That's all I want: a course of action. It would help us so much to know her history, but there's no chance of that. THIS is the danger of adopting a mutt. Not the fact that she is a mix of breeds, but the fact that she has no history! I probably would have taken her anyway, but at least if we had known about these issues, we would have been better prepared to deal with them. I just need someone to help me figure out what to do.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Project Dog Update. Lita: Training Report - Week 10!
Ohmygoodness. Nearly a whole month since my last post. Shame on me. Truth is that I've had TONS to be updating about. Work dramas galore! But I haven't yet decided whether or not I want to drag work into the blog. Just how personal do I wanna go with this? It's something I've definitely been thinking about. I don't even know if I want to be posting personal photos and I haven't used any real names yet. Think, think, think.
For now though, I want to write some more about Lita. She has been with us just over 10 weeks now. The last time I wrote I was feeling completely overwhelmed. I knew my girl has issues, I just wasn't sure of the best way to solve them. Then, I found it. A thread on Dog Forums that answered so many questions, made me realize that I wasn't alone in my frustrations, and showed me that there was HOPE! The thread, The Fearful Dog Thread, is a continuously updated log of how owners are dealing with their dogs fears. What works, what doesn't. Good days, bad days. It's wonderful! Full of ideas and successes and set backs, of course. This is actually also very helpful. It made me recognize that this is going to be an ongoing process.
After reading all of this and "speaking" with several of the more experienced posters there, I decided to implement a positive reinforcement-based training program for our girl. Yes, I totally made this up myself with out consulting a "professional trainer" based on things that I have read and the experiences of others.
The first thing that I did was buy her a new "collar" for walking. She wears a flat collar at all times with her tags, but it's impossible to walk her on this thing. She just pulls far too much. We then tried the Illusion Collar from Cesar Milan (more thoughts on Cesar in an upcoming post). It was definitely better. But I think that all the corrections (jerks on the leash) were making her more nervous. I did some more research and then picked up a Halti at PetSmart. The Halti is a head collar.
Despite the fact that the strap goes around the dog's mouth, this is not a muzzle. Yes, I've been asked several times already if it was a muzzle, but, as you can see from the picture, dogs *can* open their mouths in the Halti. In fact, they can even eat and drink comfortably as long as the leash is held loose. If the leash is held up above the dog's head, the Halti does force the dog's mouth closed. It's still not a muzzle though and this action only makes is easier to control the dog when necessary.
There were some initial protests when we changed over to the Halti. Lita would rub her face against everything--the fence, the door, our legs, and scratch it with her feet during walks. We still have occasional "freak outs," but, for the most part, she has completely adjusted (with the help of treats, of course). And the best part? She has stopped pulling nearly completely. Seriously. The first time I walked her with it I thought that I was walking an entirely different dog! So, now that we were able to better control her, we were able to start working on other things.
One of Lita's issues seems to be a fear of barking dogs. She may see another dog at a distance and it won't bother her, but if she hears barking, even if she can't actually *see* the dog, it becomes an issue. Easy solution? Desensitization. Making the sound of barking dogs a positive experience. We purchased a treat pouch to clip onto our pants and it goes with us on every walk. Hear a barking dog? Get a treat. We've been doing this for about 3 weeks and we're not to the point where she's completely nonchalant about barking dogs. But she is definitely calmer. She doesn't try to pull us away quickly or hide behind our legs. In fact, some of the time she even looks to us in a "where's my treat?" kind of way! Which is exactly what we want to happen. We're getting there.
We have been completely avoiding head-to-head confrontations with other dogs and are still learning her threshold distance. Right now she can usually handle another dog walking on the other side of the street or walking past a fenced-in yard, but if the dog starts barking, all bets are off. I actually did have an encounter with an off-leash dog last week sometime. I didn't even know he was there until I heard the owner yelling and then saw a whitish blur charging up to us. I got between the stranger and Lita. Tried to keep the leash loose, but put my hands on her "shoulders." She let the strangers sniff her without issue. He definitely wanted to play with Lita. She started pulling a bit and actually slipped out of the head loop (which is why the safety chain is SO important) so I had to restrain her a bit more. By that time the owner showed up and led the naughty boy away. I'm honestly not sure what she would have done, but I don't *think* there was any aggression in her at that moment. I put the Halti back on properly and we moved on. That in itself made me feel good because there were many encounters previously that just spooked her so much that she was nervous the rest of the walk. Not this time.
Yay for small victories! Around the house she is still great. She sure does love her jumbo beds from CostCo.
Other notes:
~Thanks to salmon oil, I believe her skin is starting to improve.
~Bathtime is becoming more tolerable thanks to the use of, you guessed it, treats! She'll even climb into the tub on her own now.
~We've been practicing catching small treats mid-air. She's a rockstar.
~All these good things and yet she skipped breakfast this morning. The first time that she has ever refused to eat for us. Nothing else out of the ordinary that I can think of, she did eat her biscuits when I left the house. Let's hope she's just having an off day.
Next up, I'd like to actually start training the "watch me" command. And maybe the quick 180 degree turns too. Eventually, I'd still like to get her evaluated by a professional and think about getting her into regular obedience classes as well.
Last time I posted I was feeling overwhelmed. I still have those days. But, for the most part, I'm taking a more positive outlook now. I do think that we can handle this dog. And that makes me incredibly happy.
For now though, I want to write some more about Lita. She has been with us just over 10 weeks now. The last time I wrote I was feeling completely overwhelmed. I knew my girl has issues, I just wasn't sure of the best way to solve them. Then, I found it. A thread on Dog Forums that answered so many questions, made me realize that I wasn't alone in my frustrations, and showed me that there was HOPE! The thread, The Fearful Dog Thread, is a continuously updated log of how owners are dealing with their dogs fears. What works, what doesn't. Good days, bad days. It's wonderful! Full of ideas and successes and set backs, of course. This is actually also very helpful. It made me recognize that this is going to be an ongoing process.
After reading all of this and "speaking" with several of the more experienced posters there, I decided to implement a positive reinforcement-based training program for our girl. Yes, I totally made this up myself with out consulting a "professional trainer" based on things that I have read and the experiences of others.
The first thing that I did was buy her a new "collar" for walking. She wears a flat collar at all times with her tags, but it's impossible to walk her on this thing. She just pulls far too much. We then tried the Illusion Collar from Cesar Milan (more thoughts on Cesar in an upcoming post). It was definitely better. But I think that all the corrections (jerks on the leash) were making her more nervous. I did some more research and then picked up a Halti at PetSmart. The Halti is a head collar.
Despite the fact that the strap goes around the dog's mouth, this is not a muzzle. Yes, I've been asked several times already if it was a muzzle, but, as you can see from the picture, dogs *can* open their mouths in the Halti. In fact, they can even eat and drink comfortably as long as the leash is held loose. If the leash is held up above the dog's head, the Halti does force the dog's mouth closed. It's still not a muzzle though and this action only makes is easier to control the dog when necessary.
There were some initial protests when we changed over to the Halti. Lita would rub her face against everything--the fence, the door, our legs, and scratch it with her feet during walks. We still have occasional "freak outs," but, for the most part, she has completely adjusted (with the help of treats, of course). And the best part? She has stopped pulling nearly completely. Seriously. The first time I walked her with it I thought that I was walking an entirely different dog! So, now that we were able to better control her, we were able to start working on other things.
One of Lita's issues seems to be a fear of barking dogs. She may see another dog at a distance and it won't bother her, but if she hears barking, even if she can't actually *see* the dog, it becomes an issue. Easy solution? Desensitization. Making the sound of barking dogs a positive experience. We purchased a treat pouch to clip onto our pants and it goes with us on every walk. Hear a barking dog? Get a treat. We've been doing this for about 3 weeks and we're not to the point where she's completely nonchalant about barking dogs. But she is definitely calmer. She doesn't try to pull us away quickly or hide behind our legs. In fact, some of the time she even looks to us in a "where's my treat?" kind of way! Which is exactly what we want to happen. We're getting there.
We have been completely avoiding head-to-head confrontations with other dogs and are still learning her threshold distance. Right now she can usually handle another dog walking on the other side of the street or walking past a fenced-in yard, but if the dog starts barking, all bets are off. I actually did have an encounter with an off-leash dog last week sometime. I didn't even know he was there until I heard the owner yelling and then saw a whitish blur charging up to us. I got between the stranger and Lita. Tried to keep the leash loose, but put my hands on her "shoulders." She let the strangers sniff her without issue. He definitely wanted to play with Lita. She started pulling a bit and actually slipped out of the head loop (which is why the safety chain is SO important) so I had to restrain her a bit more. By that time the owner showed up and led the naughty boy away. I'm honestly not sure what she would have done, but I don't *think* there was any aggression in her at that moment. I put the Halti back on properly and we moved on. That in itself made me feel good because there were many encounters previously that just spooked her so much that she was nervous the rest of the walk. Not this time.
Yay for small victories! Around the house she is still great. She sure does love her jumbo beds from CostCo.
Other notes:
~Thanks to salmon oil, I believe her skin is starting to improve.
~Bathtime is becoming more tolerable thanks to the use of, you guessed it, treats! She'll even climb into the tub on her own now.
~We've been practicing catching small treats mid-air. She's a rockstar.
~All these good things and yet she skipped breakfast this morning. The first time that she has ever refused to eat for us. Nothing else out of the ordinary that I can think of, she did eat her biscuits when I left the house. Let's hope she's just having an off day.
Next up, I'd like to actually start training the "watch me" command. And maybe the quick 180 degree turns too. Eventually, I'd still like to get her evaluated by a professional and think about getting her into regular obedience classes as well.
Last time I posted I was feeling overwhelmed. I still have those days. But, for the most part, I'm taking a more positive outlook now. I do think that we can handle this dog. And that makes me incredibly happy.
Friday, October 9, 2009
"Project Dog"
I'm in over my head.
The reason things have been silent the last couple of days is because I have been looking into trainers for lovely Lita (meter maid). And, let me tell you, the world of dog training is far more massive, confusing and just plain overwhelming than I could have imagined.
Phrases like positive reinforcement, operant conditioning, FLOW training, Relationship-centered training, and others are swimming in my brain. And those are just the techniques. Want to know about the trainers qualifications? That's a whole 'nother vocab set: there are CCPDT certified trainers, members of the APDT, IIABC behaviorists, and plain old "professional trainers." Good gracious!
It seems to me that it is impossible to know if a trainer is actually "good" or not unless you've seen them work or at least received a recommendation from someone you trust. I'm sure there are great trainers out there that aren't certified at all! But how do you begin to sift through the masses to find them?
I've got a couple of recommendations from a forum that I joined: Dog Forums. I've found a couple of training schools through online searches that have nice websites--always a plus in my book--but itdoesn't necessarily mean they're any good.
If I had all the time and money in the world, I'd probably try out a couple and choose among them. But training sessions are expensive! Since we have an unreliable pooch at this point, we're looking for someone who will come to us right now. This can cost around $100/hour! I don't mind spending the money. But I'd hate to pay $100 for a trainer that doesn't even help. *sigh*
I think the reason I'm most frustrated though is that since we brought Lita home I've been the one doing all the training research. *I* joined the forums. *I* have been doing searches and reading stuff online while we lounge in front of the TV. *I* have been asking friends and buying books and READING them. Yes, there have been discussions with my husband. And to be fair, I know he has been listening because he has been implementing the techniques we discuss on walks with the girl (and due to our schedules he does walk her more than I do). I should be thankful for this and I am. And we have already seen some small improvements! But I just wish he cared enough to do some research on his own and did not wait for me to spoon feed him everything. I mean, I actually went and created a training folder in my favorites and just wanted him to read through them to help me pick a trainer. There were all the links. All right in one folder. Easy peasy. He couldn't even do that. :(
Today, my husband received an email from his step-mom recommending a trainer that some of her friends had used. Very kind of her. I looked into it though and this trainer is not certified and has just attended "Animal Behavior College." It seems like my husband doesn't even want to research anymore (or at all in his case) and just wants to go with her because a friend of someone we know said she was good. Of course there's a chance that she IS great and it would work out wonderfully! But... but... all she did was graduate some school. It's not a certification procedure that requires a set number of hours of training and experience.
I feel like one of those uppity Moms that insists HER daughter is going to *Private School.* But really, it's scary! My dog already has issues, imagine what one bad trainer could do!
I hope we get this figured out soon. Until then, I'm going to keep reading. I've already read "Feisty Fido" by Patricia McConnell and today I picked up Cautious K9, also by McConnell. These are supposed to be great for leash reactive dogs and for fearful dogs. I think it's a good start.
Having a "project dog" is stressful! Clearly I am NOT ready for two-legged children.
The reason things have been silent the last couple of days is because I have been looking into trainers for lovely Lita (meter maid). And, let me tell you, the world of dog training is far more massive, confusing and just plain overwhelming than I could have imagined.
Phrases like positive reinforcement, operant conditioning, FLOW training, Relationship-centered training, and others are swimming in my brain. And those are just the techniques. Want to know about the trainers qualifications? That's a whole 'nother vocab set: there are CCPDT certified trainers, members of the APDT, IIABC behaviorists, and plain old "professional trainers." Good gracious!
It seems to me that it is impossible to know if a trainer is actually "good" or not unless you've seen them work or at least received a recommendation from someone you trust. I'm sure there are great trainers out there that aren't certified at all! But how do you begin to sift through the masses to find them?
I've got a couple of recommendations from a forum that I joined: Dog Forums. I've found a couple of training schools through online searches that have nice websites--always a plus in my book--but itdoesn't necessarily mean they're any good.
If I had all the time and money in the world, I'd probably try out a couple and choose among them. But training sessions are expensive! Since we have an unreliable pooch at this point, we're looking for someone who will come to us right now. This can cost around $100/hour! I don't mind spending the money. But I'd hate to pay $100 for a trainer that doesn't even help. *sigh*
I think the reason I'm most frustrated though is that since we brought Lita home I've been the one doing all the training research. *I* joined the forums. *I* have been doing searches and reading stuff online while we lounge in front of the TV. *I* have been asking friends and buying books and READING them. Yes, there have been discussions with my husband. And to be fair, I know he has been listening because he has been implementing the techniques we discuss on walks with the girl (and due to our schedules he does walk her more than I do). I should be thankful for this and I am. And we have already seen some small improvements! But I just wish he cared enough to do some research on his own and did not wait for me to spoon feed him everything. I mean, I actually went and created a training folder in my favorites and just wanted him to read through them to help me pick a trainer. There were all the links. All right in one folder. Easy peasy. He couldn't even do that. :(
Today, my husband received an email from his step-mom recommending a trainer that some of her friends had used. Very kind of her. I looked into it though and this trainer is not certified and has just attended "Animal Behavior College." It seems like my husband doesn't even want to research anymore (or at all in his case) and just wants to go with her because a friend of someone we know said she was good. Of course there's a chance that she IS great and it would work out wonderfully! But... but... all she did was graduate some school. It's not a certification procedure that requires a set number of hours of training and experience.
I feel like one of those uppity Moms that insists HER daughter is going to *Private School.* But really, it's scary! My dog already has issues, imagine what one bad trainer could do!
I hope we get this figured out soon. Until then, I'm going to keep reading. I've already read "Feisty Fido" by Patricia McConnell and today I picked up Cautious K9, also by McConnell. These are supposed to be great for leash reactive dogs and for fearful dogs. I think it's a good start.
Having a "project dog" is stressful! Clearly I am NOT ready for two-legged children.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Lita: Training Report - Week 4
I meant to start updating on Lita training right away, but, somehow, a month has already come and gone since we adopted her!
When we first brought our girl home she was very timid. I wouldn't say she was scared, but a bit shy--to be expected in a new house. Very well-mannered -- didn't jump on any of the furniture, didn't steal things off of counters or out of the garbage. I gave her a bath right away and while she certainly didn't LOVE it, she tolerated it just fine. Walks were... interesting. She pulled quite a bit. On top of that, encounters with neighborhood dogs didn't go too well. Just passing by dogs or even dogs in yards along the route resulted in pulling and even lunging. No growling, no noise at all really. Unfortunately, none of the neighborhood dogs seem to be well-mannered themselves. Most of them ran towards us or barked and I'm not sure if that's what set her off. But I know that lunging can either be defensive (i.e. she is frightened of the barking dogs) or aggression (i.e. she wants to eat the barking dogs) and we're just not sure which it is.. I'm certainly not going to take the chance with a stranger's dog. The few quiet dogs that we have encountered she has been keenly observant of (a little too keenly for my taste)... but, again, this can either be play or aggression. I am no expert so I'm not quite sure how to interpret.
We don't know a lot about her history. What we DO know is that she has had puppies, has since been through an apparent incomplete spay (that's a whole 'nother story), and has some scars that could be a result of fighting. We were also told by the shelter that she gets along well with other dogs and even had a kennelmate while there. But the lunging and stare-downs have me worried.
Anyway, since we have brought her home she has been getting twice daily walks. Walks are going MUCH better although they are FAR from perfect. Morning walks are typically better than the evening ones. She still pulls initially, but seems to settle after awhile. In the evening it takes her A LOT longer to settle. I usually end up getting frustrated, which I know is awful. We are still avoiding any direct confrontations with other dogs. And when we see one on the other side of the street that she is staring down, I typically will put her in a sit, get her to ignore and then treat. I have no idea if this is "right" or not. I've been reading quite a bit, but, again, my knowledge is limited.
The good side of things is that in a short time, we have been able to get her to sit and wait for her food. I am able to put the bowl down and she will wait until I release her. We've also been working on eliminating her possessiveness of chew toys. Now, instead of pulling on the toy when I try to take it away, she gives it up easily. She has also started bringing her Kong toy inside and outside when told. Yay for small victories!
Also, the parasites, ear infections and skin infections that she arrived with are all cleared up. Minus the blisters on her feet that are apparently due to seasonal allergies (of course our dog has allergies! We both do, why wouldn't she?!).
We have now reached the point that we are ready to start professional training. I have started looking for trainers in the area and, hopefully, within the next month we can get started. I'm excited!
I know that training methods are quite a controversial topic. I would LOVE to start implementing some more serious positive reinforcement training, which is fantastic for obedience training. I really want to teach her to "look," which means to make eye contact with me. I think this will be incredibly useful on our walks.
All in all, we've got a long way to go, but we've definitely made some major steps already. Having a dog is like one big science project. :)
When we first brought our girl home she was very timid. I wouldn't say she was scared, but a bit shy--to be expected in a new house. Very well-mannered -- didn't jump on any of the furniture, didn't steal things off of counters or out of the garbage. I gave her a bath right away and while she certainly didn't LOVE it, she tolerated it just fine. Walks were... interesting. She pulled quite a bit. On top of that, encounters with neighborhood dogs didn't go too well. Just passing by dogs or even dogs in yards along the route resulted in pulling and even lunging. No growling, no noise at all really. Unfortunately, none of the neighborhood dogs seem to be well-mannered themselves. Most of them ran towards us or barked and I'm not sure if that's what set her off. But I know that lunging can either be defensive (i.e. she is frightened of the barking dogs) or aggression (i.e. she wants to eat the barking dogs) and we're just not sure which it is.. I'm certainly not going to take the chance with a stranger's dog. The few quiet dogs that we have encountered she has been keenly observant of (a little too keenly for my taste)... but, again, this can either be play or aggression. I am no expert so I'm not quite sure how to interpret.
We don't know a lot about her history. What we DO know is that she has had puppies, has since been through an apparent incomplete spay (that's a whole 'nother story), and has some scars that could be a result of fighting. We were also told by the shelter that she gets along well with other dogs and even had a kennelmate while there. But the lunging and stare-downs have me worried.
Anyway, since we have brought her home she has been getting twice daily walks. Walks are going MUCH better although they are FAR from perfect. Morning walks are typically better than the evening ones. She still pulls initially, but seems to settle after awhile. In the evening it takes her A LOT longer to settle. I usually end up getting frustrated, which I know is awful. We are still avoiding any direct confrontations with other dogs. And when we see one on the other side of the street that she is staring down, I typically will put her in a sit, get her to ignore and then treat. I have no idea if this is "right" or not. I've been reading quite a bit, but, again, my knowledge is limited.
The good side of things is that in a short time, we have been able to get her to sit and wait for her food. I am able to put the bowl down and she will wait until I release her. We've also been working on eliminating her possessiveness of chew toys. Now, instead of pulling on the toy when I try to take it away, she gives it up easily. She has also started bringing her Kong toy inside and outside when told. Yay for small victories!
Also, the parasites, ear infections and skin infections that she arrived with are all cleared up. Minus the blisters on her feet that are apparently due to seasonal allergies (of course our dog has allergies! We both do, why wouldn't she?!).
We have now reached the point that we are ready to start professional training. I have started looking for trainers in the area and, hopefully, within the next month we can get started. I'm excited!
I know that training methods are quite a controversial topic. I would LOVE to start implementing some more serious positive reinforcement training, which is fantastic for obedience training. I really want to teach her to "look," which means to make eye contact with me. I think this will be incredibly useful on our walks.
All in all, we've got a long way to go, but we've definitely made some major steps already. Having a dog is like one big science project. :)
Friday, September 4, 2009
Meet Lita.
My husband and I have discussed adopting a dog for, oh, pretty much EVER. When you've been together for over 10 years, you have plenty of time to talk about hypotheticals, but we knew that one day this one would come true. The problem was when?
When I finished graduate school, I moved back home with my parents for several months in the hopes of quickly finding a job. Getting another dog in their already multi-dog household was not an option. Several months later, with the job prospects looking bleak, and a sparkly new engagement ring on my hand, we decided to move in together. This meant moving into a small one bedroom condo. Again, not ideal for a dog. After getting a job and working there for several more months, we decided to upgrade that condo to our very first home. Yay! But, we were also in the middle of planning a wedding and honeymoon, bringing lots of chaos into our lives already. Certainly a dog would not help the situation.
When IS a good time to get a dog? I don't think there ever is a perfect time. Just like having kids. Of course, I haven't HAD kids, so this is just my blissfully-ignorant opinion, but I imagine that with dogs, just like with kids, you become ready when you NEED to be ready.
We needed to fix the fence.
We needed to think about our schedules.
We needed to buy gates/crates/bowls/leashes/beds/toys/etc./etc./etc. (getting a dog is not cheap, people!)
Three weeks ago we made necessary repairs to the fence. Anything else, we reasoned, was not quite as imperative.
Two weeks ago we jumped in the car and drove to the shelter. We convinced ourselves that we were mostly going to look. To meet some of the faces we had glanced at via the website. To see how the shelter was set-up. To find out if any of the pooches we thought were the cutest would fit into our family. We said that we wouldn't come home with a dog automatically, but only if we could find one that was "just right." We said all these things, but we knew deep down that there was not a chance in hell that we would come away without a leash in hand.
We went in with a list. A list of 7 dogs. The shelter staff eliminated 5 based on personality alone (we wanted a dog that was known to get along well with children--I have a nephew--and other dogs), leaving us with 2 options.
Sadie was a 2 year old American Bulldog/Boxer mix. Sounded right up our alley as we are lovers of all ugly dogs. My heart aches at the site of English Bulldogs, Chinese Shar-Pei, French Bulldogs, Boston Terriers--anything a little bit ugly and a lot cute. My husbands just LOVES Bull Terriers with their odd football-shaped heads. We met this ugly dog and, as expected, thought she was super cute. We took her for a walk. She was very calm. Very mild-mannered. I secretly wondered if she would have enough energy for my husband's tastes.
Goldie was a 1 year old AmStaff mix. She was adorable. Very friendly, very playful. But then a Beagle puppy strolled by and Goldie became uncontrollable--lunging and barking. This was the same puppy that she had just been playing with and it certainly did not seem like she was playing now. Hmmm...
We went back and asked to see Sadie again. She was so sweet. And mellow. Certainly she would warm up once she was given a chance???
Yes, we took her home. I handed over my credit card to pay the adoption fee and we brought her out to the car for our hour-long drive home. After a quick conversation on a name change, since she didn't seem to be responding to Sadie anyway, she promptly fell asleep.
We got her home and I gave her a bath to get the shelter stink off of her. She didn't fuss at all. That night we went for a nice walk and she slept on her new bed right next to ours.
My husband commented the next day that I should not be offended, but that our house now felt more like a home. I agreed.
Here's our new girl--Meet Lita.
(You didn't really like the name Sadie anyway, did you?)
(Snoozing on the car ride home--a girl after my own heart.)
(Waiting with my husband and observing other pups in the Petsmart parking lot while I grab a few necessities.)
When I finished graduate school, I moved back home with my parents for several months in the hopes of quickly finding a job. Getting another dog in their already multi-dog household was not an option. Several months later, with the job prospects looking bleak, and a sparkly new engagement ring on my hand, we decided to move in together. This meant moving into a small one bedroom condo. Again, not ideal for a dog. After getting a job and working there for several more months, we decided to upgrade that condo to our very first home. Yay! But, we were also in the middle of planning a wedding and honeymoon, bringing lots of chaos into our lives already. Certainly a dog would not help the situation.
When IS a good time to get a dog? I don't think there ever is a perfect time. Just like having kids. Of course, I haven't HAD kids, so this is just my blissfully-ignorant opinion, but I imagine that with dogs, just like with kids, you become ready when you NEED to be ready.
We needed to fix the fence.
We needed to think about our schedules.
We needed to buy gates/crates/bowls/leashes/beds/toys/etc./etc./etc. (getting a dog is not cheap, people!)
Three weeks ago we made necessary repairs to the fence. Anything else, we reasoned, was not quite as imperative.
Two weeks ago we jumped in the car and drove to the shelter. We convinced ourselves that we were mostly going to look. To meet some of the faces we had glanced at via the website. To see how the shelter was set-up. To find out if any of the pooches we thought were the cutest would fit into our family. We said that we wouldn't come home with a dog automatically, but only if we could find one that was "just right." We said all these things, but we knew deep down that there was not a chance in hell that we would come away without a leash in hand.
We went in with a list. A list of 7 dogs. The shelter staff eliminated 5 based on personality alone (we wanted a dog that was known to get along well with children--I have a nephew--and other dogs), leaving us with 2 options.
Sadie was a 2 year old American Bulldog/Boxer mix. Sounded right up our alley as we are lovers of all ugly dogs. My heart aches at the site of English Bulldogs, Chinese Shar-Pei, French Bulldogs, Boston Terriers--anything a little bit ugly and a lot cute. My husbands just LOVES Bull Terriers with their odd football-shaped heads. We met this ugly dog and, as expected, thought she was super cute. We took her for a walk. She was very calm. Very mild-mannered. I secretly wondered if she would have enough energy for my husband's tastes.
Goldie was a 1 year old AmStaff mix. She was adorable. Very friendly, very playful. But then a Beagle puppy strolled by and Goldie became uncontrollable--lunging and barking. This was the same puppy that she had just been playing with and it certainly did not seem like she was playing now. Hmmm...
We went back and asked to see Sadie again. She was so sweet. And mellow. Certainly she would warm up once she was given a chance???
Yes, we took her home. I handed over my credit card to pay the adoption fee and we brought her out to the car for our hour-long drive home. After a quick conversation on a name change, since she didn't seem to be responding to Sadie anyway, she promptly fell asleep.
We got her home and I gave her a bath to get the shelter stink off of her. She didn't fuss at all. That night we went for a nice walk and she slept on her new bed right next to ours.
My husband commented the next day that I should not be offended, but that our house now felt more like a home. I agreed.
Here's our new girl--Meet Lita.
(You didn't really like the name Sadie anyway, did you?)
(Snoozing on the car ride home--a girl after my own heart.)
(Waiting with my husband and observing other pups in the Petsmart parking lot while I grab a few necessities.)
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