Daisy

A potential client calls to see if I can take her 4-month-old Lab for a few days. It has been a while since I had a puppy for B&T and frankly I am looking forward to it for my sake and that of my two dogs.

They arrive and Daisy now out of the car begins to investigate. She runs in her cute puppy manner towards me as if she has met me before and I am her biggest friend.

I noticed a big grin on my face. Ah puppies! You got to love their energy and amusing ways. And how about that puppy-breath?

Now it's Deuce's and Rio’s turn to meet Daisy. Daisy has not had any experience (besides her parents) with adult dogs so we are eager to see her reaction. I bring both dogs out and have them investigate Daisy while Daisy remains next to her owner and separated by a gate from both dogs as to not overwhelm her by their approach, and to give me an opportunity to asses her reaction towards them.

She pees a bit in submission but otherwise she is happy to interact and the fun begins. The three of them are play bowing, taking turn sniffing each other, running and just having fun.

Daisy’s mom leaves and I make sure that she is comfortable.

As part of the board & train we will work on some basic obedience (drop it, loose leash walking, off, etc.) as well as to continue with her housetraining, and dog & dog interactions.

Finally all tucked in the dogs fall asleep. Daisy in her big crate next to Rio - who is lying on her bed as close as she can to the crate.

The next morning as Deuce lays in the kitchen Daisy approaches him eager to play. I am watching them and noticed that Deuce either has not fully woken up or is frankly over the cute puppy. Daisy continues to pester him and he lets out a growl. Daisy responds immediately giving Deuce the room he is asking for. I had told Daisy’s mom that most likely Deuce and Rio would “correct” Daisy.

The thing is this. Well-socialized adult dogs will cut young puppies slack when they act crazy and rambunctious towards them. However, this license begins to fade once the puppy turns 5 months of age - the beginning of adolescence in most dogs.

Corrections by adult dogs must be gentle: A sneer or a growl and even a gentle physical correction should do the trick to having the pup mend his or her ways.

Daisy was corrected three times by Deuce when she was here – all appropriate corrections and she responded also very appropriately.

In one occasion she rushed towards Deuce as he was (again!) lying down. This time I did not see exactly what Daisy did to warrant his growl, but I am assuming that she startled him because he was lying down as she rushed towards him -  perhaps she might have even stepped on him.

When I turned around Daisy had moved away from Deuce and was now sitting all alone in the kitchen. Ahhhh, I felt sorry for her. I went to her, picked her up and brought her to the sofa with me. Two seconds later she had bounced back to her happy and confident self and was now gnawing on an antler-bone that I was holding for her.

The next morning, I was curious to see if Deuce would once again engage in play with Daisy and he did!

The beauty of well-socialized dogs is that they help socialize younger pups by teaching them social skills but they have an understanding of what is an appropriate correction.

Because of their lack of overall experience, young puppies can be sensitive to the harsh treatment of other dogs- especially adult dogs and one should make sure that the interactions that they have with all dogs are overall positive as to avoid a pre-disposition to fear when it comes to dog & dog interactions.

After seeing Deuce’s reaction to Daisy that morning I began to fully relax knowing that Daisy had learned some really good lessons and that she had the social skills instilled by her sibs to continue to positively interact with all sorts of dogs.

Before she left, I was hoping to get some cute photos of her. It was almost impossible! The results were images of half a puppy, or a moving head and paw. Disappointed at my images, I finally took a picture of Daisy that revealed a tired pup just taking a rest from one more play session with her newfound “buds”.

Choose Your Battles

I love the days when I take the dogs to Santa Fe for leashed walks. The three of us are still working the kinks of ongoing loose leash walking but I am encouraged because both Deuce and Rio are improving with every outing. This morning was remarkably cool and with a lingering fragrance of rain when we set-off  for our morning walk.

Rio has this little annoying thing that she does pretty much every time I release her from the car: She gets off the back of the car as if she was a bronco coming out the gate. She is so “exuberant” in her enthusiasm that I have to make sure I park in an area away from traffic so that as she leaps and rotates I can still maintain control over her and Deuce - who thank god has learned some better manners!

This morning Rioja surprised me. I was expecting her to get out of the car in her usual manner but instead, she remained collected. She expressed her joy by jumping enthusiastically out of the car yet her pulling at the leash was minimum.

This got me thinking about the importance of choosing our battles with our dog’s and the behaviors that we want to have them change.

Rioja exiting the car as I described above is not on my top 10 list of favorite behaviors but I realized that for the moment - until she matures a bit more - I was going to cut her a break and allow her to be exuberant… as long as she waits laying down inside the car for me to leash her and release her. This part she does great so why not cut her some slack for the time being on her exuberant exit?

Now, there are some other behaviors that I do not want Rioja to continue practicing so I am not cutting her much slack on these. Here is an example:

A vast majority of dogs love to sit by a window and see the world pass them by. For most dogs that live in residential areas their day might be peppered with people walking alone, people walking with their dogs (this option is one of the most exciting ones) and with the occasional sighting of a cat perhaps.

For my dogs it is just very few passers-by, mainly the neighbors who walk their dogs up on the ridge or the occasional handy-person who both my dogs think are here to see them and I haven’t had the heart to tell them this is not so.

Now, my take on dogs sitting by a window that faces the outdoors is that for the most part it is not a good idea. Owners tell me they like to have their dog looking out the window so that they have something to do when they are left alone. But the problem is, that most dogs get way stimulated (over–aroused) because they are constantly seeing people, dogs and the like that they cannot access and that in itself frustrates dogs (this is called barrier frustration). Rioja loves to lay by the see-all window. Sometimes she'll lie there and snooze. Sometimes she barks wanting out to say "hi" to the contractor of the week. Now, if I allow Rioja to bark without re-directing her at the sight of people, just like my client’s dogs I will most likely end with a dog that gets too aroused when seeing people. And that is a slippery slope.

Arousal is an autonomic response of the nervous system. As such is not something a dog can regulate on its own. The best analogy I can think of (different bodily processes but kind of the same result) is a small child who has consumed lots of sugar  - now try putting that kid to bed or to have him play quietly, not an easy task for either party!

Arousal, of course, is part of everyday living. However, when our dogs are permitted to engage in arousal inducing behaviors without some sort of an intervention to calm down, it is possible to end up with a dog that has difficulty responding appropriately when aroused. To be clear, arousal as stated cannot be regulated by the dog. The dog cannot feel more or less aroused at will. However, what our
dogs can learn is to respond appropriately when aroused. Similarly to a person who suffers from road-rage, most likely this person will always feel [some] rage when in a similar situation but that person can learn to engage in a less desirable behaviors such as singing along with the radio or breathing deeply versus flipping someone off when driving. Instead of letting Rioja bark past her there is someone on the property… Alert! Alert! is that I call her to the kitchen and I ask her to lay on her bed. I treat her occasionally, as she remains laying down.

If she peels away from the bed to go bark again at the window, I call her back and do the same thing again. This back-and-forth gives Rioja an opportunity to do her “job” of alerting me when someone is coming in through the gate but most importantly, it gives her an opportunity to calm down, take a sigh and just relax.

I have noticed that the more we practice this protocol and the more relaxed I become about asking her to come lay on her bed the easier it has been for Rioja to disengage from the post at the window and come lay down on her bed.