Rescue Assessment
Recently, I was contacted by one of the rescue volunteers at DINO Rescue about a dog named Buddy. Buddy is a 3-year-old, male, mixed breed (possibly, Chihuahua, French Bulldog, and Pug) who was one of several dogs rescued from a high-kill shelter in California. He was adopted by a family almost a year ago, and within a week of his adoption, he began exhibiting a number of unwanted behaviors, such as mock-charging humans, barking and not allowing people in the door, and other things. The family enrolled Buddy at a local doggy daycare and training facility, but while there was some improvement, the dog’s overall behavior continued to worsen. The recommendation was made by the facility to enroll Buddy in Reactive Dog classes, which the family did. The classes did not help. The family is now at the end of their rope with the dog’s behavior, so I was called on to help.
The assessment took approximately two hours. I spoke with the family, watched how they interacted with each other and with the dog, and gave extra attention to how the children interacted with the dog. After asking them to consider giving the dog another week – because they’ve already invested almost a year of work into him, so what’s another week – and getting their agreement to that, I gave them some things to work on with him, and made sure they can reach me if they run into trouble before the week is done. After all was said and done, my assessment is as follows.
Buddy does not need obedience training. He needs complete rehabilitation. He is excellent with children, but he is extremely fearful, mistrustful, anxious, and insecure with adults. Obedience and Reactive training address the outcome of these problems, but not the cause – which, in this case, is the family itself. Not on purpose, of course, but because they weren’t taught how to be calm but assertive leaders.
Despite the challenges and the long road of rehabilitation that lies ahead for Buddy, I believe that he is a good fit for the family. Ultimately, though, it’s up to the family to decide whether or not they want to try. If, after a week of following my recommendations, they still feel that it’s just not going to work and they want to return Buddy to the rescue for re-homing, there’s nothing I can do to change their minds. I will, however, be happy to work with him while he is being fostered, if that’s what the co-ordinator and the foster want. Buddy is a good dog; he just needs a different kind of help than what he’s been getting.
Because I don’t know, yet, whether my involvement with the dog will continue, I am not starting a category for Buddy. I will update this when I hear from the family again.
Role Reversal
Good morning. My apologies for not posting sooner; the past ten days have been very busy.
Yesterday, Lacey’s human mom called me. She was feeling quite frustrated and upset because Lacey has been very destructive and disobedient, lately. She’s been chewing on the furniture, taking toys away from her boy and chewing on them, she destroyed her bed, and she destroyed a blanket that was being used to protect the sofa. Lacey has also been getting extremely vocal during both working time and when she requires correction, and she’s been trying to nip when she is corrected. The weather has been cool and rainy for the past couple of days, making walks and working outdoors impossible; this has exacerbated Lacey’s bad behavior, and in turn, her humans have become very frustrated and upset with her.
The plan for last night’s session was to take Lacey back to the Pet Planet store we’d visited on the previous session. However, because of the high frustration I could hear and feel from Lacey’s human mom, I suggested taking Lacey myself so that her family could have a break for a couple of hours. I would also bring my dog, Glimmer; Lacey learns much more quickly and easily when she has Glimmer there to show her what I’m asking of her. Lacey’s mom accepted the offer.
Glimmer does not travel well in the car. She is extremely anxious and very nervous, and tends to shake quite violently during the entire ride. When Lacey’s dad brought her out to the car, her response to Glimmer’s anxiety stunned me: Instead of becoming anxious herself, Lacey immediately went to Glimmer and started licking at her chin and ears in an effort to help Glimmer relax. It was difficult, because we were trying to buckle her in, and Lacey kept trying to position her body so she was close enough to Glimmer to give physical reassurance. All this from a puppy who has only ever bullied Glimmer. To say the very least, this role reversal [the pup trying to calm the adult] blew my mind.
During the ride to the Pet Planet store, Lacey continued trying to give Glimmer calm, reassuring energy. When we arrived, Glimmer was still extremely anxious – and still, Lacey continued to try to reassure her and give her calm energy. Several times, she tried mounting Glimmer – and that behavior had to be corrected. But, finally, after about half an hour of determined, persistent effort on Lacey’s part, Glimmer finally calmed down enough that we could get to work.
Because I was alone and working the dogs together and Glimmer was so anxious, we spent a lot of time practicing the heel command while walking through the isles. The toys, open food-treat pails, and other things served to distract Glimmer quite nicely, which in turn, helped reinforce the lesson. We also worked on focusing (“look at me”), sit, sit/stay, down, and down/stay, as well as recall both on and off the leash.
Despite Glimmer’s high anxiety, Lacey did a phenomenal job on all counts. During the sit/stay, down/stay, and recall lessons, Lacey stayed focused on me and waited for instruction. Not once did she break position without permission – including when people were coming into and leaving the store. When we were walking through the store and I was constantly changing direction, Lacey continually checked in with me [looked up at me] for guidance. In fact, she became so adept at the check-in that she was responding with lightning speed almost every time I made an unexpected change in direction.
Lacey worked very hard last night. Not only did she have to practice her basic lessons, she had to do that work while dealing with a dog presenting extreme anxiety and nervousness. For a puppy who is only four months old, Lacey did an extraordinary job. She loves to learn, she loves to practice what she learns, and her understanding and compassion towards both humans and dogs who are suffering in some way is so incredible that I have no doubt that she’s going to be an amazing Support dog. Good job, Lacey!
Happy Dawgs Obedience Training 