Teddy's Blog - Day 5

Another horrible rainy, cold day so lots of short walks instead of a nice long one where I can really let Teddy run about a bit!  

The barking at external stimuli is developing now that he's getting a bit more confident.  Where it was initially more nervy it's becoming more bold now. I've found this can be a pretty common development after the first few days in a new home!

It's not aggression, actually more of a sign that he's beginning to trust us by raising the alarm that he can hear something he wants us to know about.  Really frightened dogs don't dare do that in case they have to deal with the situation themselves.  

I'm dealing with it by acknowledging this 'job' he's taken on and telling him calmly 'that'll do' and sending him back to his bed.  If the stimulus has gone (i.e. people walking outside the house or sounds next door) then he's happy to do this because he's done his job and got my attention. The important bit is not making a big fuss of it so there's no point in him continuing to bark unless the 'problem' is still there, in which case I'll remain with him until it's gone.  Ignoring it or merely telling him to 'be quiet' would only tell him that nobody else can hear the sounds so he has to continue barking! 

Oh, and he discovered the delights of stuffed Kongs and carrots today too!

Teddy's Blog - Day 4

Houston we have a problem...

This dog is the worst sock /slipper stealer I've ever known!!!  (and I've known a few, believe me.)

And you thought I was going to say our Teddy had turned into some snarling monster... Have some faith, people!

Yes, like a lot of dogs he LOVES cheesy socks, shoes and slippers.  There's a very good reason for his; these items are intensely saturated with our scent more than just about anything else, other than underwear (let's not go there, eh?).

The fantastic thing about Ted though is that he learned in about two instances that if he picked something up and brought it to me, I would exchange it for a small piece of food.  By the end of the day he was picking up random items, bringing them to me with a 'Sit' and releasing them on command.  No conflict, no chasing him to retrieve the odd sock or dropped piece of paper out of his mouth, no pulling jaws open or holding him down.  I've never fostered a gundog before and it's honestly been a joy to live with a dog that has such an intelligence about his mouth; working with mastiffs is a WHOLE different ballgame!

Last night some idiot was talking right outside our gate and Teddy became quite anxious and barked for a while until said idiot moved away.  He has barked a few times at outside stimuli and the odd knocking from next door.  The easiest thing to do with this 'There's-someone-outside-come-quick!' barking is to simply appear in their presence completely unperturbed and do something banal such as fetch a glass of water to show the dog that you aren't bothered by the stimuli, they don't need to be either.  Ignoring the dog completely isn't the best thing to do as it makes them more anxious, but giving their anxiety attention in the form of talking to them or telling them to shut up isn't a good move either as they soon realise that's a button they can push to summon you if they're bored...

The weather has been utterly pants all day so we haven't had a chance to get out for a long walk but I then just split the walks into 10 minute excursions and he's been out for about 4 of those today and one more to go before bed.  

We've been playing fetch with a toy indoors but somewhere along the line Teddy's been taught to tug for competition.  Such a shame because he'd have so much more fun retrieving and releasing but he hasn't learned that yet.  We'll work on this a bit more but the best thing to do with a dog that refuses to give it up is drop your end of the toy.  Repeatedly and immediately he pulls on it.  Poor Ted was a bit confused as he is used to the human end of the toy being a bit more obstinate and competitive!  

He's had another very quiet day chilling in his bed while I work a few feet away in the office but he's equally as happy to chill even when I'm not in sight, which is perhaps the most important thing to teach a dog within the first 48 hours - to be happy on their own.

More tomorrow, Teddy fans...

Teddy's Blog - Day 3

Was woken up by Mr Ted at 7:30 this morning with him whining.  I knew there was something wrong - the sounds he was making weren't just attention-seeking.  When I came down to him he'd been a little sick in his bed so it was cleaned up and bed changed without fuss.

So then a very frosty early morning 10 minute walk and toilet.  A couple of hours rest and then breakfast.  2min toilet break and then straight to bed for a couple of hours sleep.

In the afternoon we had another lovely 40min walk around the village.  Teddy is a lovely dog to share a walk with.  Just SO happy to be out and about, scenting, seeing, listening. He's bright as a button.  We've encountered all sorts of stimuli including bird scarer bangs, heavy traffic, noisy motorbikes, kids playing football, other dogs running about etc. His obedience in the form of 'Sit' and 'Heel' commands excellent for an 11mth pet dog.

He's VERY keen on cats... Don't actually know what he'd do if he caught one but he's not so gamey that I don't think he could be trained to accept them.  Birds on the other hand... Well, let's just say it's a good thing my little family of hedge sparrows have a quick take-off speed...  Well he IS a gundog!

We spent the rest of the afternoon working on getting him enjoying being handled with more TTouch.  As he's quite mouthy I've been working on relaxing his muzzle area and he is LOVING this.  I now have absolutely no qualms about bending down over him, next to him, putting my face next to his etc.  He was even nibbling my ear this afternoon!   He's actually got a very soft, sensitive mouth with excellent bite inhibition... When he is CALM.

That's such a critical point with this dog.  If you wind him up with lots of fast movement, noise, activity, then he loses impulse control.  He's a working breed - it isn't rocket science.

He's a wee bit jittery on night walks but confident, calm handling and a 'Walk On' command, that's all he needs

Hoping that he will give me a bit more of a lie-in tomorrow...

Oh, and I promised ya'll some pics, didn't I?

 


Simply beautiful, isn't he?

Teddy's Blog - Day 2

I had forgotten how tiring having a foster dog around can be!  Especially a young, lively pup!

Shall I cut this short?  Teddy is a wonderful dog and someone is going to be very lucky.

== End of blog ==

Okay, okay I’ll elaborate a little with our day today:

Day Two:

Ted went into his crate after a final short walk and toilet break at about 11pm the night before.  He was snoring so loudly by midnight I could hear him upstairs!

Not a peep out of him until 8am when he heard some people outside and gave a few woofs.  He went out for a short walk and toilet break.  Great dog for this – he toilets on the grass immediately he gets out.

Breakfast at 9am and he ate well (loves his soaked Burns Chicken & Rice!).

Allowed a short toilet break in yard and then straight to crate for a couple of hours rest – this breed like many others are at risk of bloat so I take NO chances.  A good, long sleep after a meal!

I went out but my daughter was in the house working upstairs so could monitor him while on his crate rest.  Not a peep out of him for over 2 hours.

When I got back we went for a really nice 40 min onlead walk.  Now this is where I saw some magic…  He picked up ‘Heel’ and ‘Wait’ within 10 minutes.  He has obviously had some obedience training because he wouldn’t walk on the right (in rural areas where there are single track roads and no safe pedestrian areas, it’s sometimes necessary to put a dog on the right for safety) so I worked with what he knew and he picked it up with lots of positive reinforcement and smiles.  We had a lovely walk together, exploring things, showing each other interesting possible scents (what a great tracking dog he’d be… what a nose!).  I gave him a 3m line to have a bit of freedom on the village green and we played for a little while, playing fetch and ‘seek the stick’.  This is where I saw the boisterous adolescent come out with a bit of excitable mouthing but absolutely no aggression and he soon learned to stop on command.

That same excitability and lack of impulse control is evident around other dogs as he has met mine and he displayed some typical adolescent behaviours – jumping, landing paws on them etc.  However again there is absolutely no aggression and he responded to my guidance when I blocked him with my leg.  He has obviously got away with some pretty boisterous play and if I didn’t know better I’d say he’d been living with another dog of the same age, possibly a littermate, all his life with little supervision.  It’s just that full-on!

He had his first massage session with me this evening where I applied some TTouch to his body and he l-o-v-e-d it.  It had possibly the biggest calming effect I’ve seen on any dog.  He literally melted into my hands.  It was obvious he’s never experienced any handling like this before and it was a really nice bonding session.  He allowed me to touch him all over and even to lean over him and hug him (which was apparently the situation in which he bit someone and was given to rescue and I have to assess while he's with me).  

A very positive day with massive progress made in that the nervous, twitchy little guy I saw hiding a couple of days ago is now a confident, boisterous adolescent simply after a break in quiet, calm environment with some sensitive one-on-one handling.  If only rescues had more help so that dogs like Ted could get out of kennel environments and have the chance to simply chill out and get their bearings.  Volunteer to help your local rescue now!!!

More on Ted, with hopefully some pics, tomorrow.

Foster Dog Blog - Teddy

When I got up this morning, I didn’t think that at 9pm this evening I’d be fostering a skittish, nervous, hyper-aroused 11mth Viszla boy whose future is at risk because he had bitten the face of a child.

Long story short, I work as a behaviour assessor for a local rescue and when I was in there yesterday, they mentioned this little lad who nobody could get near.  Cut it even shorter, I realised that what he needed was a peaceful, quiet, uneventful environment without any foot-traffic, children, phones ringing, dogs barking etc.  I realised that’s what I could offer for a short while.  The rescue is so keen to save this dog, even though it’s bitten, that I offered my help.  Just how could I refuse?

Does this look comfortable and peaceful enough?  (This is my quilt off my own bed in there… it should be).

So I’m going to run a mini-blog on Teddy (as I have named him).  I always rename rescues that are relinquished for anxiety or fear just in case their existing name has negative associations.

Here’s the first blog:

17:00 – 18:00

Journey with Ted very uneventful once he was in the car.  Was extremely reluctant to get in but allowed himself to be picked up and placed in.  He didn’t whine or pace in the car and simply sat there.  I left a front window open so that cold, fresh air was flowing back to him (always helps dogs).

18:00

Got him back in the house, unclipped his lead and allowed him to simply pace about in the kitchen and office (we divide the house in half with a tall dog-gate and this is the ‘foster dog’ area).  He was very aroused, with dilated pupils, stiff, jerky body movements, tight tail & ear carriage and ‘skull skin’.  He gave a couple of slight ‘freezes’ at me, usually if I moved a hand a bit too quickly.  So I simply stood in the kitchen pretending to read the paper for 10 minutes, ignoring him totally.  He then started to slow down so I left him in this area and went to the other half of the house.

He whined for a few minutes.  When he stopped I came back into the kitchen, got myself something out of the fridge and then walked straight out again.

This procedure was copied for the next couple of hours with me merely popping in and out but not in response to any whining.  I didn’t pay him any attention, give him any eye contact or talk to him.  Gradually he got so bored at me coming through the gate and ignoring him that he didn’t even get up out of his bed to see what I was doing.

20:00

17yr daughter Rachael came home from being out with friends.  We met up with her outside.  Teddy behaved as if he’d seen a long-lost friend and jumped up to her.  Very sociable, excited and happy – lots of loose tail-wagging.   Rachael remained very calm with him and we all went for a short walk on the green where he toileted without prompt.  Rachael entered the house first so Ted could see she lives there too and we stood in the kitchen calmly to chat for a while.  Ted reverted back to his aroused state for a while so we hung out in the kitchen until Ted got bored with us and we went through to the other half of the house without talking to  him or looking back at him.

Ted went straight back to his bed without a murmur.

21:00

Seems very hungry (hadn’t been given afternoon feed so that he wouldn’t be travel sick and also to motivate him with food if necessary) so gave him some soaked Burns.  Left him alone completely to eat and then rest (concern about bloat).

Will blog about his first night here tomorrow – watch this space…  May be able to write more about his history too if I can get it.

This is the only pic I dared take of Mr Skittish tonight

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Dog Adoption and Follow Up Support

I was in the office working today when I received a call from someone who had a problem with their dog that they had adopted from a local rescue a few months ago.

Whenever I am told that the dog has come from a rescue organisation my first question is always “Have you contacted the rescue to see if they can offer some support from their behaviourist?”. 

When I asked this question today, I was told that the rescue was a very ‘ramshackle’ place and it was extremely unlikely they would have a consultant behaviourist.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this and I know it won’t be the last.  I find it deeply disturbing that rescues are still not signing up a behaviourist or trainer to assist with post-adoption support and advice, leaving adopters having to find third-party support, sometimes from very dubious people calling themselves behaviourists or trainers but who have actually only watched a couple of TV shows or read a few books, or who are vets with no behavioural qualifications…

I have the very unusual perspective of being the coordinator of a breed rescue as well as having a professional behaviour consultancy which, amongst other activities, assists with the assessment of rescue dogs from other organisations.  I just can’t imagine not being able to provide advice to adopters when they run into trouble after the honeymoon period of a couple of weeks.  It’s so important for owners to realise that the rescue is there to help them KEEP their dog, not just offer to take it back and rehome it yet again.

Most small rescues will not be able to afford a good in-house behaviourist but surely it is then in a rescue organisation’s best interests to source an external behaviourist to refer their adopters onto if there are problems rather than just leave the owner (and the rescue dog they have placed) in trouble?

There are many, many qualified, experienced behaviourists and trainers out there who would be more than willing to assist rescue organisations by taking on post-adoption referrals.  

Take us up on this, rescues! 

Go out and look up some behaviourists, get them in for a chat and see how they work, check out their qualifications and experience, look up if they are a member of a professional organisation and if they are used to working with rescue dogs.  Ask if they would be willing to offer a reduced rate to the owners to work with your post-adoptive dogs; I do!

Times are changing and it’s no longer acceptable for rescues to simply do the homecheck and release the dog.  Aftercare is so, so important and by simply providing a resource where owners can go to if they are having problems might just reduce the ‘bounce’ rate of returned dogs to rescue…