Posts Tagged ‘new dog’

Having Guests with Our Adopted Dog Child

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Well, I am happy to say, the weekend went better than expected with my mother staying. This is our second overnight guest occasion with our rescue dog, Charlie. The first guests were a dog savvy friend and her young son. Let’s just say that visit didn’t involve much sleeping on anyone’s part. My other half had to go in to work the next morning and was pretty cranky with the whining and pacing. I ended up sleeping on the couch with Charlie on leash, well very little sleeping, and Charlie would not settle down until the house had been completely free of any sounds for a few hours when he finally begrudgingly slept.  I woke with a stiff neck. Our dog is very anxious around being separated from anyone in the house by doors or anything. We have done lots of work on this and I do exercises as this situation inevitably comes up as repair people have to move about the house and it is not safe and undesirable to have a Collie anxiously crowding them.

 We have made some good progress recently and Charlie is developing some coping and adapting skills with new things in the home. So after canceling friends that were planning on coming to the house, we had my mother stay over. Worst-case scenario was we all wouldn’t get any sleep but I was hoping since this was one quiet adult that we would do better now. Well, Charlie was very excited about my mother and if I didn’t manage him with great treat rewards and have him go to his bed, he would herd her and block any walking progress and wanted sniff her and nibble on her clothes, which is a nervous habit of his but he did eventually lay down although with big sighs.  Progress!

The first night I knew he would be concerned about being in our room with someone else in the house and indeed he did keep us up for at least an hour whining but he did eventually give up and go to sleep. Progress, less fussing. The next night there was only the briefest whining at door and then he settled in for sleep again with lots of sighing which he does when concerned but we got a good nights sleep. Yes, progress and adapting! Yeah!

 My mother drove home yesterday and this morning when I came down to make coffee I heard Charlie fussing and whining upstairs and I knew he was looking for my mother. I opened the door to the

Grandma Judy with Charlie

Grandma Judy with Charlie

room so he could see she was gone. I left him on the guest bed and he stayed there for a while but now we are back to normal.

 Yeah, progress. We are climbing a steep hill to normal but at least we haven’t slid back down to the bottom and the view is improving all the time.

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Posted in clicker training, dogs, positive training | 1 Comment »

Week Five with Our Adopted Dog

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

If you have adopted an untrained and unsocialized dog, let me just say you’re entitled to be tired and drained and maybe emotional. I am an experienced dog trainer and at week five I am tired, drained, and emotional. It is easier for me since I know how to deal with all the issues that can come up with an adopted dog so my hats off to all of you that take this on and have learn all this stuff along the way.

What helps me is to set dates on calendar to check in and see how things are going with our new dog Charlie. It took him a year to become the dog I adopted so we are going to redo the first year of his life from this point forward and it will probably take at least twice that time. Yes, we have missed that oh so important socialization stage of his development when he was a young puppy but we will do our best to have a do over. We will have to take it very slow since the world is very overwhelming for Charlie right now. My alarm clock even concerns him. I try to jot down a few words each day to record how it is going.

If you have adopted a dog or puppy be sure to mark your successes down on the calendar or keep a journal to see how far you have come. Sometimes we forget how things were on day one. We have achieved many things in five weeks but it could be easy to lose track of the successes with so many things still to achieve.

Some of our successes at five weeks are: being able to walk nicely and quietly by a horse, coming in the yard off lead when called, many weeks without any pee or poo in house, laying quietly in house and yard most of the time without barking at outside activities, not being afraid of stairs, the coffee grinder, the fire truck without siren, distant gunshots, trucks outside when riding in car. He is gradually getting better about being brushed. Learning some training basics at home and on walk like keeping leash loose, eye contact, sit and wait at door, retrieve, target hand and lid and Steve, come, and follow and lots more.

I have come to conclusion that it will be a long time until Charlie is able to go to big hectic dog events with me as I planned but that is okay. That is real life you have to adjust your expectations when the real nature of your dog is revealed, which took a few weeks for Charlie. Your new dog will change you and change your family just as any new member would and usually in the end it is for the better. Whether you end up being a more patient and sensitive person or even a more social person as you find yourself meeting people as you find avenues for your dog’s energy and intelligence.

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Smoke and Mirrors

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

Well it is day six since we adopted our new dog and I am reminded of something an owner of a business once said to a friend in regard to managing people – “It is all smoke and mirrors.” Well, the key to having a new dog is much the same. You want to use your every advantage to direct their energy into activities you like and want to live with on a daily basis. So you set the stage. In positive training you reinforce the behaviors you want and ignore the behaviors you don’t want. The behavior that is reinforced increases. Behaviors that are not reinforced in some way should disappear. Of course the third part of the puzzle is that you are not the only one reinforcing behaviors, squirrels, mail delivery people, relatives, spouses, and the stinky socks on the floor can also reinforce behavior so you need to get ahead of these influences and set the stage so your dog learns what you want him to learn.

We are working on house manners so we have shut doors and blocked hallway access to the front of the house with chairs and boxes because we want to head off any potty accidents (there was one in front hall) and jumping and barking at front door, which happened once. We have tried to remove any tempting items and frequently put toys in his mouth and play with him. We distract him if he starts any unwanted behaviors and when we are out, of course, he is safely in his crate where he can’t get into trouble. Charlie is not trained to the yard yet so I have him dragging a rope attached to his harness that I can grab if I need to prevent him from learning any unwanted behaviors. This way I can interrupt and prevent any move to harass our wild bird population or our neighbors’ animals and allows me to reinforce all the things I want like coming when called, chasing and retrieving toys and staying away from fence. If I didn’t do this, he would inevitably find out it would be easy to run out of our grasp and harass the other animals and of course they would run or react, which would probably reward this undesirable behavior. Eventually he will have been reinforced so many times for doing wanted games in the yard that these activities will replace any unwanted behaviors and he will think I still can control him when I really physically couldn’t. Like I said, smoke and mirrors.

Dogs almost always learn unwanted behaviors when left on their own that is why controlling the surrounding area or setting the stage so they will follow your script is so important. We are doing this on a long list of behaviors but so far our diligence is paying off with great progress in a short time and I can usually see the mistake I have made in managing the setting when he does something unwanted like grabbing my slipper, which I should not have left on the floor. It is a lot like a preschool daycare teacher controlling a class. The teacher will put the toys and supplies she wants the kids to play with in front of them and be sure to remove any hazardous items or distract the children from doing any unwanted or dangerous activities like trying to climb the shelves. Dogs are always learning. Make sure you give them lots of stuff to do that is easy to live with like, activity toys, safe chews, games to play like fetch and tug, hikes and walks and get ahead of the game by preventing any unwanted behavior. No dog ever learned to knock down the garbage can if he never had access to one. All our trashcans are up high or behind closed doors right now just for that reason. Remember get ahead of the unwanted behavior so your dog won’t learn it in the first place. It will really make your life easier down the road.

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