Texas Log: Heros

Every dog has a hero. And mine be the great:

Hank The CowDog

{Photo Credit}

If you's has never heard of Hank, I suggests you go to your Library place and get some of his books, cause BOY are they a BARK! 
I know, I know you be thinking "TEX, uh Hank is NOT a doxie". I know its a sad thing,but we'll let that little detail slide, cause I learnt all my sekurity tips from this guy. I listen to his stuff alla time...well I would if i could anyway. 
Cause just like me, Hank don't like cats.
In his own words here is Hank: "When I took this job as Head of Ranch Security, I knew that I was only flesh and blood, four legs, a tail, a couple of ears, a pretty nice kind of nose that the women really go for, two bushels of hair and another half-bushel of Mexican sandburs.You add that all up and you don't get Superman, just me, good old easy-going Hank who works hard, tries to do his job, and gets very little cooperation from anyone else around here."


Dat is EXACTLY how I feels. I'm just one dog trying to keep two humans and two dogs safe from this vicous world full of cats, and squirrles and trash. its a hard thankelss job to say the least.


Oh. 
Pompei says that he would be Drover...and that's right cause he's just a scaredy cat. LIke the other day, there was sometin on our porch so Bubbles and I went and scared it off and POMPEI RAN RIGHT BACK TO MOM!!!!!!! 
What a dork.

{Photo Credit}

Butt I can let him be Drover cause this is what he would do exactly: 

'Hank to Drover, over. Confirm visual sighting at eleven o'clock.'

'I thought it was only ten o'clock.'

'Roger, but suspect has moved one hour to the south.'

'Time sure flies when you're scared.'

'Roger. Suspect has invaded our territorial territory. Prepare to initiate Growling Mode!'

'Hank, let's don't growl at him. He might think we're being unfriendly.'

'That's the whole point, Roger.'

'I'm Drover.'

'Of course you are. Ready? Mark! We have initiated Growling Mode One and are proceeding toward the target!'"

From Hank the Cowdog 8. The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse

(Copyright © John R. Erickson)

BOL!!! Dat is why it takes special dogs to be head of security.
Anyway, now alla I need to get is a badge and i'll be good ta go. 
Prolly can steal one like Puddles did her Preacher thing.
Oh yeah sorry for missin da parties, this weekend...but duty calls ya know. 

REACTIONS

All dachshund owners will tell you, that owning a dachshund is a noisy affair. So when we brought Texas home, hearing him bark at everything walking past our house, strangers in our yard, people in our house was all part of the "joys" of dachshund ownership. Or so week thought.

It wasn't long before, we realized what we were seeing, was not your typical dachshund behavior.

• First was watching him tear from the back of our (at the time) half acre yard, too chase some kids walking past our house. When they asked if he would bite was when some flags were raised in my mind. But I knew Bubbles had done the same thing in younger years, with no intention of harming anyone..but this...something was different. 
• Next was at work. At the time I was working at a doggie daycare and in the evening we'd let the "staff dogs" into the office while we waited for the remaining few to be picked up. Texas was quickly banned from the office during this time, for shrieking at new customers and snapping at people who were trying to pet him. (Though why anyone continues to try and pet a barking dog is beyond me.)
• Then in the car, we noticed that he would continually bark and snarl at people "approaching" my car. On the weekends, my job gave us a two hour break so Texas and I would go grab some lunch and sit in my car for a while. I soon began to leave him crated in the building as he was so stressed and overwrought with sitting in the car with me.

This behavior had me completely mystified, as he was only a 4-5 month old puppy! Why is this dog reacting like this at this age?! I tried to talk to my boss, who was a "trainer" but she had absolutely no advice for me. So I kind of let it drop as me just overacting, but for the life of me I could never remember Bubbles acting this badly.

Life went on, we moved to TN, I got a job working service dogs, and began to enter deeper the wide world of dog training.  I began to learn more about the positive methods of dog training and realizing what I was doing was not working (dominating etc..), and we started to see a little bit of progress, in Texas...as he had other issues as well.  I started clicker training with Texas and soon realized how smart he really was. Alas it wasn't until he actually did bite someone before we started realizing how serious his behavior was. 

But when I mentioned it, a lot people had many anecdotal stories about their dachshunds doing the same etc..that Did NOT help me, but just sunk me into a funk, of trying to figure out if Texas was really a dog I should keep, could keep or even could work with. 


Thankfully I follow a ton of trainers on Twitter, and when I posted my panicked "OMG MY DOG JUST BIT SOMEONE" message, they responded with lots of helpful advice. I began studying up on aggressive dogs, causes of aggression, and  soon realized that's not what he was, but "reactive". 

A reactive dog, is a dog that reacts in a fearfully defensive or "aggressive" manner, when faced with certain triggers.  
Looks like: Barking, Growling, Lunging, Snapping, Snarling, wants trigger to go away generally. 
Triggers: Other dogs, strangers, situations and prey

I quickly realized that Texas reacts fearfully in any situation where he feels he can't escape. Examples include: Behind a door, or fence, on leash on in my car.When he'd get in the "zone" there was not stopping him, unless he was removed from the situation completely. The bite occurred, at the door...when he slipped out behind me, and nipped the first foot he saw.

Once I realized this all of his outings stopped. He did not leave my property. He spent a lot of time inside, unless I was positive there was no one outside. Our yard maintenance guys  were also HUGE triggers, and I had to wait until they'd been gone for at least 30 minutes before going outside with him. Let's not even bring in strange loose dogs. Dogs that we intro'd in a controlled situations were fine, but random dogs? No so much.It was tough, he had to be crated when I had strangers in my home, and my stress levels were extremely heighten if we decided to venture out to a park or somewhere.


Between YouTube and Twitter I found some great resources and began working with Texas to help change his emotional reaction to these "fearful" things. We learned how to introduce Texas to new people; He doesn't feel threatened if he's allowed to approach the situation, rather than someone approaching him. I also learned to teach people a "new" way of approaching dogs. "No Touch, No Talk, No Eye Contact." This was quite difficult since people have it ingrained in their heads, that you must "make friends" with the dog, by sticking your hand in their face.


But Like this, Texas was able to make many new friends, and realize the world was not such a "scary" place after all.

Now you can understand a little bit more, why we had such a hard time, during the 4th of July Holiday. Basically Texas we were in the worst situation possible, for a reactive dog, but we all made it out alive, and un scarred. But I think my family will now believe me when I tell them why I don't take Texas out of town.

So anyway I said all of that to intro you into today's situation. Today was our annual church clean up, and we had people all over the place for about 7-8 hours. The dogs were of course in the house as they would have just been in the way, and I wouldn't have gotten anything done.

Last year, I really couldn't have let Texas outside period, until EVERYONE was gone. He wouldn't have been able to focus on doing anything but letting the "intruders" know they needed to be gone. 

Today this is what we get:  

Video Description: Texas, Bubbles, Pompei and Lacy are in the "left side" of my yard, across the parking lot are people, cars, kids on bikes roaming around. Texas is wandering around the yard sniffing, his body language is very relaxed. He does bark as one child whizzes by on a bike, but is quickly redirected by me.






To all of you, this is normal dog behavior, for me this is hUGe...as I keep saying in the video. We've made a lot of progress, but still have a very. long.way to go still. But at this point any progress is awesome. Will he ever be "completely" normal? I don't know, I have my doubts but we're working hard to make his day to day life as pleasant and stress free as possible.

Erin &


P.S. (What I want everyone to take away from this is: SOCIALIZE, SOCIALIZE, and SOCIALIZE.  As early as possible. Your dog will thank you, and so will everyone who comes in contact with him.)

Oh Texas

As I've said before, moving is stressful for the dogs as well as us humans; and I was interested to see what behaviors the dogs would display, as they adjusted to their new surroundings.
For Texas its been an increase of his already annoying barking. All these different house sounds, outside noises, cars pulling in and out...etc.. are usual things that have GOT to be barked at!

And because we don't think moving was stressful enough, a dear friend of mine, will be rooming with us for the near future. Over the weekend they  have been dropping in randomly over the weekend, getting things squared away.

Since Texas has met them in the past, I don't worry too much about them coming into the house, yes he'll come at them in "killer mode" but turns to wiggling, silly puppy once he realizes who they are. And because they know to just ignore him, which takes the "fun" out of sounding mean.

Well yesterday C (future roommate) and her sister R (future neighbor as she's moving into my old house) came over to "hash out" our living arrangement. R was in the back room, doing something on my computer.

All the dogs went silly of course with new people, but calmed down when they were receiving any attention. Everything was quiet until R yelled out something from the back room.

What? Intruder!

Texas lets out a bark and tears to the back room, ready to defend his.....hide...  a few seconds later he comes back out, realizing who it was.

R called for some assistance a little bit later, and again Tex tore into the back room, sounding the alarm. Again he realized it was a false alarm, and comes trotting back out after getting some attention.

You'd think we'd be done by now...but no. Once again, R (eaves dropping on our convo) made a comment, in her normal voice, which sent Texas back into defense mode.

It will defiantly be interesting to see how he adjust to having another person living with us.

>> I really wanted to start some "serious" Texas work this weekend, but forgot we'll be heading over the mountain for Pompei's puppy meeting. So. Phooey.

Also to my small dog owner bloggy friends... has anyone used a car seat for their dogs....is it worth it?

Texas Log #1

Texas Ranger Log - 1.1 (cause diary's are for sissy's. uh......no offense)

Weather: Rain
Mood: Sleepy
Location: Mom's Bed
Life: Is Good.

Breakfast was on time this morning..even if mom rushed us out of bed, and out into the rain. NOTE TO SELF: Be sure and let mom know this is not acceptable, and that we need some sort of covered "pee spot" for these types of situations. Anyway pretty much kept watch over the house and napped here and there. Bubbles was a usual no help, and hogged all the good spots in the house; left me with all the work. Mom left some bread crumbs in the trash for me, so I dove in and found those and some other tasty things. I had to move the garbage to a better chew spot, which was the living room of course. Once that was done, I went back to my window watching vigil. I think I must of dozed off cause when I woke up there was a car in my drive way! I sounded the alarm before realizing it was MOM! WooF! Finally cause i really had to pee!! Mom let me outside than let out a very strange screamygrowl type sound...sure gave me a fright for a second, than I realized I forgot to clean up my mess. Oops! Well Pompei helped too cause he forgot to hold his pee in. So its mostly his mess. So we just ran outside to play. Ok so mom wasn't too happy and took a lot of time moving stuff and spraying stuff, and picking up stuff. It was tiring watching her, so I laid down for another nap.


And I think I hear dinner getting ready GOTTA GO!

Lazy Monday

The weather was beautiful today, so abou an hour after I got up, the dogs and I headed outside to play. Well they did at least, I was busy moving boxes...into our NEW place!

There are three houses on the property I'm staying at, and one of them was vacated several months ago. I asked my "landlord" (my father) about switching places, as that one was bigger,"normal", and under 50yo... at the time it was a no because of ...you guessed it, the dogs.

The dog smell, fur, and of course the OCCASIONAL accident. Some how in the last week something changed...and I was given the "OK" to move over!

I'm excited as the dogs finally get a place for their stuff, and I can ditch my ideas to find some way to disguise the lab sized crates! I'm planning on get some kind of foam/rubber mats for their room in an attempt to cut down on the dog smell/fur/clean up time etc.

And I can finally have friends over, without having the dogs launching themselves all over them! My current house there is no where for the dogs to be separate....and the dachs..ok Texas is just annoyingly in your face constantly.

Yeaaah my fault I know....

After I was finished for the morning, the dogs crashed for the next 3-4 hours. I was begining to go stir crazy so Pompei and I hopped in the car and headed off towards town.

We hit up the mall and Wal-Mart...at his age we do a LoT of carrying as these guys walk slower than Methuselah, and I want to get where I was going sometime that day.

And this dude at (I'm guessing) 10lbs+ is HEAVY to carry around for an hour+. Needless to say we crept home, and well...they ate dinner and I left for choir practice. I would have brought him but I completely forgot.

For real!

This week i'm really hoping to start bringing him to classes, still waiting on my job to tell me he can or can't come...than we'll have to decided on how we are going to proceded from there.

Fingers Crossed its a "Yes!"

ATTACK!!

So today was just "one of those days" (I seem to be having a lot of those lately) but today defiantly classifies as the worst.

First it started with me loosing my keys. I searched EVERYWHERE for them, walked up to my parents house to borrow one of their keys, but my mom how did have a key, was gone, and my dear father had also lost his key...
 My dogs of course were throwing fits due to me going in and out of the house multiple times etc.etc..

...so an hour after I was due at work, we called a friend to come pick me up and she took me on to work.

Work day, meetings, phone calls etc... the end.

My dad comes and picks me up from work, we get home, and I dash inside to let the dogs out, and check the status of my house. (I'd given my dog walker permission to leave them loose until I got back) Everything was fine, so I gathered my treat bag,(Hot Dogs!) and we stroll outside....

Well I did at least. Texas and Bubbles however had obviously been keeping an eye on the neighborhood while I was gone, and had seen that "Something was not right!"

And off they dash across the yard, barking full tilt......I called they came. Good.

Except for one thing.....they weren't the only dogs that came.

Here is where I have to stop and "yell" IF YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A DOG...TAKE THE TIME TO PROPERLY SOCIALIZE AND TRAIN IT! DO NOT LEAVE SAID DOG LOCKED UP OR BEHIND A FENCE 24/7.

Our company was our "lovely" neighbors dogs from across the street. Remember the accident that took away their fence? These dogs are in that fence 24/7, Rain, Cold, Sleet, Snow, Ice, Sun....

They have not had any training, they've never been outside that yard that I can tell, and they don't even interact much with their humans they live with. They are extremely aggressive behind the fence, and I knew that it wouldn't be pretty outside that.

And it wasn't.

Texas and Bubbles of course led the charge towards theses dogs, while Hope pranced around me, and Victoria ran in the opposite direction...the dogs, noticing she was the weaker took off towards her....which of course brought out my mommy instincts.

Dudes you betta back off my baby!

I yelled, they ran, I grabbed dogs, and hustled them back into the house (yesss all that obedience practice paying off here) and went to see if I could get these dogs out of the road.

Though cars were honking and flying around them, they stood and barked and wandering in the road. I couldn't just stand there and watch that happen..(no matter how much I hate these dogs). So ok, lets see if I can lure them back across the road.

The saw me charged.

I crouch, avert eyes, toss hot dogs....watching them out of the corner of my vision.

They stop at the hot dogs and then approach me. More hot dogs....which they take from my hands.

And than I make the mistake of standing up. Baaaad Move. DUH Erin you know better! Blame it on adrenaline...

They both attack. A yell sends them backwards....

I try to back off to let them know I'm not going to hurt them, but they move forward, showing their teeth.

Hmm...ok I stop, making sure never to make eye contact, yet throwing hot dogs away from me.......

After a 5 minute stand off (with no help from some folks standing watching this across the street, and no clue of a response from the owners home...)I was able to back off into my house and at least retrieve a broom.

I needed those dogs off of my property as my dogs still needed to get out. My father happened to drive down in the car at the moment, and helped to sort of herded them back across the street. Where the owner suddenly appeared and took them back in the house.

"Hi! Nice of you to join us!"

I had to make sure Texas was on leash after that since he was still pretty keyed up over the whole ordeal (That is a responsible dog owner thing to do btw)....while Hope and Victoria ran laps around the yard...

Anyway once I got back in, I looked up Animal Controls number and put them on speed dial..because they WILL be getting a call if I EVER see these dogs loose again.

Believe me.

I have too many siblings/church kids running around here to even risk another chance.

These dogs are aggressive because that's the only way they know to react; to use their only defense mechanism. So no I'm not mad at the dogs for biting me....

You know, if there were a law banning dogs left outside...vs a law banning specific breeds....I wonder if there would be a decline in dog/human aggression.

Just a thought.

#WetWednesday - Texas Speaks

Yo Guys!

Wow have we had a crazzzzyy weekend!! Mom has only told you about a little of it. But it was a blast!! We had like 5 dogs in here, and we played as much as possible!!!!

The black one is a guide dog, mom had at one time or another, and the orange one is Eden; he's part of the program Ben is in. He wasn't much fun at all, cause he just stayed under mom's desk for most of the time. He did come out a little bit on Sat/Sun and played for a teensy weensy bit.

Anyways they both left on Monday, and we were so tired we slept for like....ALL EVENING.

Tuesday was boring - Mom and Ben left for a while, and then came back and left again. Some dog related stuff.

Today all it did was RAIN! It stopped for a little bit and mom ran us outside for a quick walkie up the hill, to her parents house. Her dryer stopped working so she has to haul her clothes up there to dry them. But while we were there it started to pour!!

But the silly lady didn't just stay inside until it stopped...nooo she had to walk us ALL back HOME in the RAIN! We were all SOAKED by the time we got back.

Anyways as dried off, we broke out all the new toys mom had bought us! Cause when Rei and Eden were here, we all had fun tearing up every toy in the house...cept for the bones. Mom said from this point on she's not buying stuffed toys.

I'm just like whatever, cause these new toys are awesome, she's going to get some more, cause we're going to have some more visitors coming soon!

Note from Erin:
When I'm buying toys, I just by for the big dogs....Texas will haul around the biggest toys and have fun so...whats the point of buying little?

Texas's Motto:
If I look at it Its Mine
If I sniff it Its Mine
If I want it Its Mine
If you have it Its Mine
If you are having more fun with it than, I'm having with my current toy ITS MINE. (wow that one was long. lol)
And you know the drill.

As I was telling someone else, I don't make "specialer" allowances for Texas due to his size...mainly because he is the bully of the family!

Little Dog = Big Additude.

Anyone out there??

You know what's kind of disheartening?

When you post, and blog, and then no one comments. Kind of takes the joy of posting away....

So here's my philosophy....when people stop commenting...Erin you need to come up with something FAST!!

So after searching around....look what I found!

This little cutie is Jordan! She's a guide dog puppy for the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind!
Her puppy raisers are out of town for the week, and she's come to stay with me!!
Depsite only being with her for a couple of hours, I'm already in love!!

My dogs however, are NOT.

Veda can't figure out WHAT exactly she is, Texas is jealous, and Bubbles has just inwardly groaned and headed the other direction.
They'll be the best of friends by the end of the week, but for now I'm busy keeping Texas from being a bully...while Veda has been laying beside her, trying to avoid her teeth.

"Can we be friends?" "NO!!"

Its going to be hard letting her go!

Busy Busy Me by Texas

Wow Guys,
We had a really busy day today, I didn't even get my morning nap in!! Mom needed to run some errands this morning, so she was up and doing stuff early! She put Bubbles and Me outside, and we patrolled the yard, while she did whatever....

Then I had to check out the house, visit Grandpops, check out the kitchen for tasty morsels, dodge my overbearing Auntie, who was trying to chase me and pick me up... *shudders*
Then realized I didn't know where mom was, and had to tear around the house looking for her, but I Found her!! ;D

Then we went outside, and mom got upset cause she didn't have a car to go anywhere...Grandma took it somewhere, while she was on the phone, I had to go escort the neighbor into our yard, DON"T WORRY I WAS NICE TO HIM!

Grandpops talked to him, while I checked on the neighbors houses, making sure everything was still in its place.
After that I finally got a chance to lay down for a little bit, before mom got some treats, her stupid ol' camera, and went outside. We did some obediance stuff...which I don't mind as long as I get a treat. Mom is teaching me how to "Roll" and "Spin", she says I'm picking it up quick! That's cause I"m real smart!!

Grandma came home while we were doing that, so Bubbles and I hopped in the car before mom could stop us and she took us with her. :D We are soo good at getting in before she leaves us!

And while she shopped and stuff, we protected the car real good!!

{I'm an under-the-wheel-driver :D}
{HELP! Two's a crowd here!!}
{I can't feel my hind-quarters!!}

When we finally got home, those stupid chickens were in the yard again!! SO Bubs and I went after them....and Mom came too!! IT was great fun, all three of us chasing the chickens....oops actually mom says she wasn't chasing chickens; she was chasing ME!!?

Wonder why she was doing that....? Humans are so weird sometimes...

Anyways, its time for bed;

BAYL!

Walker Texas Ranger - Head of Home Security and Blog Cutie

Boring by Texas

Hi Guys,
I don't know what happen, but all of the sudden mom has stopped taking us to daycare!! In fact she doesn't do much but write in a book ALLLL DAYYY... Whats going on???
Well ok I can't say that she does that ALLL DAAY, cause sometimes she takes us outside; Bubbles and I have to make sure we have the area thoroughly patrolled.
Sometimes there are these big ugly birds that like to come in our yard, and I have to tell them to get out!! Mom calls them Chickens I think. She says its weird cause we live in a subdivision, not a FARM! .....w/e.

{Me guarding the house...or really I was waiting for Bubbles to come up and join me}

And then someday, she puts a whooole lot of stuff in the car, and then we all have to squeeze in for a Loooong ride. But when we get out, we are back at my new OTHER house, that I didn't even know I had!! But I know its mine, cause there a bunch of my toys there, and my bed, and crates, and more!

Mom is trying to get a new job, she says that we can't come with her to this one, which I don't think is fair at all?! I mean who wouldn't want to have me? Texas Ranger Proctecting their things!!!?? But she did say this new job might bring me another playmate...how cool would that be??

I wonder what job mom is going to get, that brings me a playmate.....weird....

{ Another picture of me, just because I'm cute!}

Our Week

Hi Guys,
What a week this has been!! Monday I started school online; so far so good...got 100% on my first quiz! Yesss!! :D

Tuesday, Texas and I were involved in a .....major fender bender. My brakes locked up and we slid into the hitch of an SUV. My car..well it was messed up pretty bad..but at least the other driver's hitch saved her. A new car is in my future. *sigh*

Wednesday, was the last day on my job; I am glad that I was sad to leave....I've had my rough patch, but the majority has been good, and they were all very nice to me. It was nice to be able to look forward to going in to work! Texas got to play with his '"girlfriends"one last time (Molly a Shui-Tzu and Penny the Mini dachshund)

Thursday - It was weird not to have a job, but I studied hard and got through my first quiz with an "A"!! I had a job interview at 10AM on Friday so I loaded up my dad's car with as much stuff as possible and my sisters,Texas and I headed across the mountain.
The weather was headed towards the 9's and my "new"house is really really drafted and uninsulated. So Texas and I were huddled under a mountain of blankes and covers and a heating pad. :D
Halfway through the night, I realized that my legs were awfully cold to be laying on a heating pad...but soon found out why. Texas was curled up smack dab in the middle of it. :D
By 7:00AM, I had finally reached the perfect tempture....and my phone started going off. URGH.

Friday - I was out the door by 9:15AM and thanks to mapquest and my dad's GPS, found the place on the first try!
I feel the interview went very well, and I'm extremely excited about the position,... of course now i'm playing the horrid waiting game...but fingers and paws crossed!!
I will tell you that of course it has something to do with service dogs:D. (Of Course)
Now Texas and my sisters are spend the night with a friend; I'm really trying hard to stay calm and assertive, but this dog is extremely taxing my patience right now. To bring in the house I made him sit/stay to come in the house, then began scattering treats at the feet of our host.
So he was focusing on the treats instead of the "scary people". And we did great!! He wasn't sure about the 7-year-old, but I was able to correct and praise accordingly.
Then more people came, and they ignored him, and it was all good...
Then we had some more unexpected guest....and I was not prepared to recieve them......so then the evening turned very loud.
I then began teaching the "Look" commands so he was focusing on me and not children.
Then once he was more calm, I took him over to the children and spread treats at their feet.
THey were awesome and didn't even touch or talk to him; and he has calmed down some more. Now I have finally got him to calm down enough to sleep. And I can relax just a tiny bit ....

OOoh nevermind ...here comes someone else.
'
oh WHY didn't i bring the crate!?!?!?!?


Frustrated.

Erin and the territorial dachshund.

btw- If i'd had the choice to leave him at home...believe me I would have!!!