Yesterday, the re-introduction process with the leash and the kennel was started. Lacey was on lead all day to help her adjust to the presence of the leash and learn how to work with it instead of against it. She also performed several exercises throughout the day being in the kennel and learning how to wait until invited to come out of it.  She did remarkably well, considering that she is very demanding and she strongly dislikes being confined for even a minute.  She doesn’t like being given boundaries, either – which the leash enforces – but she’s learning how to accept them and how to work within them in a calm, relaxed way.

Today, the leash and kennel training will continue.  We will also be continuing to work on recall, “sit”, and “down”.  Depending on how well she does with those things, I may introduce the “stay” command to her, as well.

Yesterday, I offered a play-bow to Lacey to invite her to play. To my surprise, instead of correctly interpreting that position, Lacey became afraid and ran away.  I tried everything I could think of to encourage her to come to me – including using a treat – but she absolutely refused.  She was genuinely afraid – and that concerns me. I’ve never encountered a dog who is fearful of the play-bow position. Lacey’s way of inviting play is to jump at the dog or human she wants to play with, but when she does that, she gets corrected.  This is very hard on her; she’s just a puppy, and she wants – and she needs – to play, but her invitations are not correct. She just isn’t understanding that what she believes is an invitation is, in fact, an unwanted behavior.

So, the challenge, here, is twofold: First, she has to be helped to overcome her fear of the play-bow position.  Second, she has to learn that the play-bow is the correct position to use when she wants to invite play.  How this is going to be achieved is anyone’s guess.  Having never met a dog who was fearful of a standard position like the play-bow, I’m not certain about how to address this very serious issue.  My creativity is definitely going to have to work over-time in order to help this little girl.

If anyone has any suggestions about how to help Lacey overcome her fear of the play-bow position, please comment.  Play is so crucial to a dog’s development and learning social behavior….

Lacey is a sweet little pup who loves to be around people and who loves to play with our cat Violet. But she has absolutely no understanding at all of correct social behavior around other dogs, including our dog Glimmer.  Instead of sniffing and using play bows to invite interaction, Lacey tends to chase and jump at Glimmer’s face. This makes Glimmer very nervous and anxious, and though she gives the puppy every imaginable cue to tell her she doesn’t like that behavior, Lacey is consistently failing to read those cues.  Instead, she becomes more persistent, not less, which makes Glimmer nervous and very fearful.  The last time a dog jumped at Glimmer the way Lacey does, it was to attack her, not play with her.  Sadly, almost every experience Glimmer has had with other dogs has been negative and traumatic for her, and as a result, she has become anti-social and highly mistrustful around them, even when they are in her house and she knows I have control of them.

Lacey has been fostering with us long enough, now, for me to see quite clearly that this situation must be addressed. So, beginning today, I am putting her through a re-introduction process that will not only help her learn to associate her kennel with calmness and relaxation, it will also teach her how to be calm in the presence of her foster pack. When she is not in her kennel, she will be attached directly to me by a long leash. This will help her learn that in order to have any freedom around her foster pack, she must be calm and she must not jump at or otherwise chase them, even when they invite her to play.  She must learn self-restraint, and she must learn to recognize and respect the end of a game when her foster pack lets her know they want to take a break.  Having her on a leash will help her learn that only calmness and polite behavior will be rewarded.

It’s going to be quite an adventure.  Lacey is a very independent little puppy who wants everything her way, all the time, and if she doesn’t get her way, she howls and throws temper tantrums. It’s going to be quite an interesting journey, helping her become her very best, most balanced self…