Just another boring post from me! :)
(And Me! hee hee mom should leave her drafts up on the computer!-Texas)
School and work have been consuming me lately...as well as training/entertaining Rob. Little man is quite the active pup. Which might be due, in part, to the break down of our structure in the last little bit.
(Fur real! I mean that dude is down-right annoying
However, summer is right around the corner and with only a week or so left in this semester, I'm already making plans!
(Woohoo! I hope they include me! Cause MAN its been dull around here!)
First we have Mr. Rob.
(Its ALWAYS about ROB! GRRRrrrrrr)
Of course we have the normal everyday exposures we are required to do by the Guide Dog Foundation, but we also want to hit up some of the festivals/ meet up with other dog owners/puppy raisers that are lurking around Knoxville. Its always more fun to do things with your dog. :)
(Um..hello? what about me?)
I'd also like to enroll Rob in a Puppy Class of some sort, if I can find someone who will let me attend for free...so far no good.
(Yeah well, I don't think any amounts of class could fix what's wrong with dork-boys brain)
Then we have Mr. Texas.
(FINALLY!)
To our newer readers, if you don't know about Texas's and his "special needs" (WHAT?!!) then you can read about it {here.} (LIES I TELL YOU ALL LIES! DON'T CLICK ON THAT LINK!) In a nut shell, Texas has not quite mastered the proper ways of greeting strange humans or other animals. In an interesting twist to the plot, I've discovered that he's only reactive towards strangers....when I'm around. How's that for making a girl feel all warm and fuzzy? (Ok so what she doesn't know won't hurt her, but in truth I'm a secrete special ops agent trained to keep my girl from getting hurt. Excepts when she puts me in my crate when people come over I can't even help her out and how's that supposed to make ME feel!?!?)
As long he knows I'm in the vacinty he will bark, lunge, growl, snap, and possibly bite, whomever comes near/talks/makes eye contact with him. However if I'm not in the house/outside, anyone can go in and interact with him (at the risk of making him pee on the floor) without an issue.
(OMD I CANNOT BELIEVE SHE JUST WROTE THAT!!!!!)
So now that we've realized he might have some guarding issues going on, as well as reactivity towards other dogs and strange objects..we've still got a lot of work to do. This summer I'm hoping Texas and I can spend some time working on re acclimating him into the world, parks and walking around in public, without wanting to snap peoples...feet off.
I also want him to become more comfortable being handled, as he shys away from even me, when I reach out towards him.
*sigh* We have soo much to do.
To be honest, there are times I've wondered if he would be better off with someone else, since I seem to be the problem, and while I'm in contact with many many different trainers/knowledgeable dog people, its still an overwhelming process to do by ones self. Don't worry I could *never* give him to someone else, unless I knew without a doubt that it was the ABSOLUTE best thing possible for *him*. Even then I'd have my doubts. But there are sometimes I wish we could just have a normal dog existence.
(....well this is interesting...)
So anyway we've got a lot to work on, which is why I've re-upped our training routines. Now that school is almost over I have more time to devote to Tex-Mex.
Another thing I'm hoping to do, is going ahead and starting putting some money away for un-anticipated pet medical expenses, and boarding costs. Since traveling is very stressful for Bubbles & Texas, they seem to enjoy staying at our vet's kennel.
(Yeah its alright, i mean the service is lousy can't even get a good potty walk in a'fore its time to come back inside?!)
Here's to a good Summer 2011!
5 comments:
Texas, I has to haves your back on dis stuff (gasp)...I didn't believes a word of dis junk your mom said bout you. I is a doxie so I knows we tend to be a little protective of our peeps.
Puddles
PS: did you hears? I gots my furst chipmunk!!!!!!
You are a sneaky little rascal Texas! I'm sure your mom was surprised when she went to read over her post and noticed you added a little something to it.
Wilson's like that too, even down to the peeing on the floor when a stranger tries to pet him when I'm not home. I don't even know what to do besides keep trying to introduce him to safe strangers that I know and he doesn't....blah! Best of Luck to you though!
You know Gaius doesn't bark at strangers when he's put in a situation where no one he knows and is comfortable with is there (Me, Sean, my parents, his friends). I don't always think it's a guarding issue. I think it's more of a confidence one. For example at the vet this week he screamed the entire time until the vet picked him up and carried him in the back room for shoots. As soon as he was picked up he went limp, catatonic. The vet said he was totally pliable in the back room (To his surprise, I think he was expecting to have to use a muzzle).
The fact that he doesn't react when you aren't there might mean that he's too scared (Not confident enough too). That may be what the peeing is about. Without mom he loses all courage and shuts down. When you are around he feels safer and because of that feels confident enough to attempt to defend himself when he feels threatened. You aren't the cause of the problem. The problem exists with or without you. It's just more hidden when you are gone. At least that's my interpretation. I'm not an expert except for personal experience with a similar head case.
It's an overwhelming issue. No one will argue with you on that one. At a certain point it's just management I think. Make them as happy as they can be in their skin. They'll never be "normal", just managed.
Yeah I was talking to another trainer, and she suggested he might be shutting down as well. I do believe he shuts down with people coming into my house without me there, but outside, he's definitely calmer, which I believe is due mostly to the fact that he is more free to get away.
Yeah, we've kind of let our managing get out of control, so we're having to tighten up a bit.
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