Anything for Salami

Phoebe took food from strangers. This is a HUGE big step in her trust. She still had to be on leash, but she relaxed and even looked a little bit like she was enjoying herself. I had two dog savvy friends over the other day, we all sat on the floor with Phoebe on leash and gave her bits of salami. It took her about a half hour but she eventually relaxed, ate the nibbles and came (almost) into the centre of our circle. She still isn't ready for adoption, it will be a few more months but boy do I see some nice strides in her development in the last couple of weeks.

Nepsa is doing some pretty interesting behaviours these days. I had her out for her second big run in the bush on Saturday. We came across some strange dogs (which is unusual, we rarely see anyone out there which is why I go there). She was on the attack before they could even sniff her butt. A large fight ensued unfortunately, malamutes don't take kindly to obnoxious little aussies that think the best offence is a good defence. And of course I had her on the long line so she wasn't easy to get and when I did get her the mals were sure I was holding her in place just for them. I have fitted her with a gentle leader and I am taking her to the training centre to sit in the foyer and receive treats while people come and go to class tonight and see what exactly I am dealing with. She has improved tremendously in the house here and is now able to be out with all of the dogs all the time. Her gaurding is still present but has significantly diminished. She starts her basic obedience class next week so I need to work on this new development pronto!

On another note, I have THE cutest little six month old border collie here being fostered and assessed for the PG SPCA. She is lovely, a nice little submissive peeing baby who likes to grovel at your feet. She does have resource gaurding issues that I am trying to sort out at the moment but is a lovely and very athletic dog. I'd show you pictures, but I dropped my camera and broke it! Very frustrating.

We Did It!

After two and a half months in foster care, I was able to pick up Phoebe this week. Not only did I pick her up without being bitten, I held her in my lap for half an hour, massaging her from top to bottom. She didn't pee on me this time! She did shake and pant, but what the heck, that's minor compared to being cornered and picked up by the scary human without biting or peeing your pants! Yippee!!! I am giving her a few days rest before we do it again, I don't want her to associate me (and the leash) with scary things.

Home again and other news

I am back to the land of the frozen north. It took several hours to dig out in order to get to the driveway and to dig paths for the dogs so they could make it outside. From green grass and daffodils poking up to this....yes, that is a six foot fence you are looking at! Sigh. I do love the snow though, especially the thick stuff when it is warm like it is now.

The trip home was uneventful thankfully. We had a great visit with friends in Kamloops and picked up an extra foster dog to bring home. This is one that has been in the works for some time so I was glad to make the extra trip out to get her. She is a lovely little puppy, six months old and full of puppy beans. She is a deaf australian shepherd with a natural bob tail that wiggles constantly. She's a very smart little character, loves all people and is doing pretty well with the dogs. She is a bit of a pushy princess and has limited dog socializing so she is in the process of learning her manners (you have to love Mollie for all her teeth and snarliness she does a great job of teaching the deaf dogs body language!). Meet Nepsa (at six months she is just a little bit bigger than Sobe so around 17" and 30#)

I will try and get some better pictures of her soon. She does settle in the house pretty nicely once she's had some exercise and worked out the wiggles.

Phoebe made the trip really well, she did great in Kamloops. She didn't regress at all and even was able to come up to me while I was sitting in a chair and take some kibbles when the other dogs were away. I was very pleased with that, sometimes you have to start all over in a new place. Not that she didn't have her same issues for sure, but she was much better than I anticipated. Now that we are home here and I have gone back to work she has regressed a little. The way my small house is set up she can't come into the living room without being cornered. And now that I am back to my usual crazy schedule I'm not sitting down very much either. So my plan is to get her back on leash and show her the hidey places in the living room and see if we can't get some improvement there. I am also going to attempt to put a harness on her. I need to be able to pick her up soon so she can go for truck rides and get more socializing. Poor baby is way too small to be able to jump into the truck even if she wanted to! So that will be a good motivator for me to get at it. It is time, I think she can handle it enough to get over her fear.

Toque has regressed as well. She slipped on the ice first thing when we got home. Plus I have all tile in my house so the floors are slippy. She is not using the bad leg nearly as much as I would like. I do have carpet downstairs so we are going down there for physio but there is no way she can go for her ten minute walks outside with all the ice. I am taking her to the dog training centre so she can do walks and physio on the rubber floor a few times a week (plus she feels like she is doing something). She is allowed to do circles and figure eights this week so we are practicing our rally exercises. :)

A few more successes and an interesting development

So Phoebe is coming along. The biggest success is that she is learning to beg. Under the safety of the computer desk she will poke me with her nose and this morning put a paw on my leg asking for a treat. If the other dogs are around she will take it from my hand, if they aren't she tries to hold out until I drop it. Unfortunately for her I have decided that she will take it from my hand or she doesn't get it. But it seems clear that food is going to be the way to get her out of her shell to like people maybe a little bit.
I have also started feeding her in the kitchen. This last week she has been running out to the kitchen to watch the other dogs eat and then running back into her kennel. Back and forth like a little rocket. Day before yesterday she stole a couple of kibbles out of Heidi's dish while she was waiting to be released so that was my sign that she was ready. I put her bowl down first and then had all the other dogs sit and wait in front of their bowls as usual. She ate a few kibbles out of her bowl, especially while the other dogs were eating but was intimidated by all the commotion and kept running away a few steps from her bowl. In the end Marty ate her supper while she watched so we'll see how things go tonight! I doubt she will let that happen again.
She has also been on her first couple of leash walks outside of the yard. After triple checking that there was no way that collar could come off we went for a walk down the street a couple of blocks. Lots of fish on the line business. She is petrified but seems to have a natural understanding to stay close to me and not pull on the leash which is nice (since none of mine are properly leash trained!).
The interesting development is related to her developing some pretty serious 'tude. She has started guarding her kennel, growling and barking at the dogs if they get close to it and also growling at me when I give her straight on eye contact while she is in there. I noticed this behaviour starting a couple of weeks ago but never did anything about it (stupid me). It is now transferring out of the crate, she runs up barking when I let the other dogs out of their crates and when they are playing she is becoming the fun police. She runs out barking and huffing and scratching the carpet with her back legs and then runs away like the big chicken she is. She has started to really "yo b*#ch" me but she isn't really sure what she is doing.
In light of this I have taken the crate away from the den where we spend most of our time and put it in the bedroom next to me. That way she can't bark to be let out in the morning (I don't let her out but I have been listening to it every morning for about an hour before she gives up for the last couple of weeks) and there is no crate to guard during the day. I need to hustle up and get her really wanting the treats that I have in order to start establishing some rules around the crate, some impulse control etc. It is impossible to do crate games and impulse control exercises when she runs away and won't take the food. I can see that this is one little dog that could very easily become an absolute terror and rule the roost given the opportunity.
On a lighter note she has started taking toys and chewing on them (and my socks) which is great. Hopefully we will be able to build on that in the coming months as well.
I have not started working on picking her up. I am still working on petting her and getting her comfortable with that first. She flinches every time you touch her, so until she stops flinching at my touch I will not push the bigger handling moves.
That's it for now! Toque is doing well, she is putting her foot down now and will weight bear a tiny bit at least enough for me to get her physio done. Yay! Poor baby is going a little stir crazy. I've taken to putting agility videos on TV to keep her entertained, she loves to watch dogs on TV. :)

Pretty Girl

So Phoebe went to the groomers last week. She looks great! And she did well too. She was muzzled for the event, but the folks at the groomers handled her very gently, even taking her kennel apart to get her out so as not to stress her as much as possible. By the end of it all they were able to take her muzzle off and trim her ears and face. Yipee! She didn't even hurl on the way home, which was stellar since the highway on the way to the groomer was flooded out and a normally ten minute drive was 30 just to get around the water. Sheesh!

The other major accomplishment this week for Phoebe is that she has stopped bolting away when I put my hand down to give her a treat. She won't take it from me unless she is in the safety of her kennel, but at least she is not running away at the presence of a hand. This week I am going to work on petting her while she is in the safety of the kennel to get her used to the hand going in for the "pet." Once I am happy with her reactions to that I will start muzzling her and handling her a little more. It is a tough balance between forcing her to be handled and not creating a negative association with me. At this point she is following me in curiosity when I leave the room though not coming close. I don't want to lose that bit of connection I have with her, but she also needs to be challenged a little more in order to keep progressing. I have also taken the water away from her kennel. If she wants a drink, she now has to be brave enough to go to the kitchen to get it. She held out for a good full day, but with persistence she is taking the "plunge" as it were.

In other news, Toque has had her knee surgery and is improving slowly. She is still not weight bearing but hopefully soon.

Dorky pictures etc.

Heidi says "so like, what do you mean you don't deliver popcorn?"

More soup Mother Theresa?

Phoebe tries to play a little. She is getting cheeky and barking a lot these days, still a scaredy cat but she has a big voice!

Breakthrough by competition

So today I decided that was it. This little Phoebe dog was going to take food from me whether she liked it or not. We had made it to the point where I would put kibble in her crate one by one next to her and she would eat it but still refused to take anything from my hand (even if I left my hand in there until my arm went numb). Enter Mollie and Marty, two very voracious hounds. Today I decided to pick my criteria and stick with it. Phoebe was in her crate (as usual). I had Mollie and Marty lie down just outside her crate with the food bowl in betweeen. I picked up one kibble and held it out to Phoebe in my flat palm. And then I counted to ten. Ten seconds to take it or else. She refused as expected so I handed her kibble to Mollie. Then I gave Marty two more from her bowl. I picked up another couple kibbles and handed them to Phobe and counted to ten..no go...lucky Mollie got two more. Again I tried, and again. Then on the fifth go a little lick about eight seconds in. I wait...nothing...lucky Marty. The next time I get a little stronger lick and a kibble falls off my hand and she eats it. I try again holding my breath...success!! She ate it off my hand! Once she figured out she could do it we were off to the races. I only had to give Mollie and Marty a couple more pieces when I upped the criteria to me looking at her and then again to me talking to her (but not looking) while she ate. We'll be working on looking and talking in the next week. Yippee!!! This is serious progress, all thanks to a little food competition (good aussie!). She is getting more bold about coming out of the crate in the last couple of days, she likes to go outside and run a lap only to come right back in again. Least she is getting her exercise!

In other news, Toque got her e-stim machine in the mail this week. She had her first treatment and she doesn't like it, but did hold still long enough to have her picture taken so everyone would feel sorry for her. Here she is poor baby with all her fur shaved.