Oh My Dog!

Separation anxiety is a contentious topic. Often, what’s described as separation anxiety is simply boredom or bad manners or a combination of both. With Lucas and Emmett, while they both displayed similar behaviors when we left the house, with Emmett is was full-blown separation anxiety. With Lucas it was mostly that he was an ass. But we worked on both, equally!

A bit of a digression: When we first adopted Emmett, the shelter said we could not crate train him, that he freaked out, but that he was totally fine with having a small area to himself – in fact, a shelter worker had left the door open to Emmett’s run by accident one day, and he never tried to leave! When the shelter did our home visit, they suggested that we baby gate him in the kitchen.

Emmett and one of his special toys

The front door to our condo was off of the kitchen. We had a number of incredibly fabulous, patient neighbors who kept us posted: Emmett cried for the full four hours you were gone today, Emmett cried and scratched at the door the whole time you were at the grocery store, Emmett cried and paced when you went to get the mail, and so on. We would leave, he would lie down in front of the door and cry, pace, whine, scratch. When our neighbor Lou finally met Emmett he exclaimed, “THAT is the dog you have in there? I thought you had a teeny puppy!”

All this is to say, I’ve read a handful of pet blogs lately that have been talking about their battles with separation anxiety. And while I would caution anyone to talk to a professional trainer first, I wanted to share what worked for us in case it helps someone who’s dealing with similar issues.

It was all about the routine.

Every single time we left the house (EVERY single time for the first few months, even to run out to get the mail), we performed the same series of steps:

Emmett went into the kitchen, and we latched the baby gate. We turned on the radio to a low volume. We reached into the cupboard and pulled out two or three of his favorite toys that were special toys (they ONLY came out when we left the house. Stuffed Kongs work great, Busy Buddy, etc.). Then, what turned out to be the most important step in the process for our food-motivated Emmett, we pulled a biscuit out of the cupboard, led him to his bed, said “Be good, we’ll be right back” then gave him the biscuit. Then we walked out the door. When we got home, we’d unlatch the baby gate, turn off the radio, pick up his special toys, then give him rubs and hugs and tell him what a good boy he is.

The trick was repetition. We performed this same series of steps 100% of the times we walked out of our front door, even if it was to run to a neighbor’s to borrow a cup of sugar. Every. Single. Time. Yes, it was tedious, but it worked. Within a few weeks, Emmett caught onto the routine, and our neighbors reported a significant decrease in his crying. After several months, when we would get ready to leave, put our shoes and coats on, etc., Emmett would dash to his bed and start licking his lips, awaiting his special biscuit.

When we adopted Lucas, he did bad things when we were away, but even though he was a puppy, he never once had an accident. And once we helped him learn what was appropriate for him to chew (NOT the arms of our furniture), his bad behavior ceased entirely. Even though Lucas didn’t suffer from separation anxiety, I feel confident saying that the routine helped him as well because he was very quickly able to learn what was going on and to assimilate into our specific routine.

Lucas, the first weekend with us!

WHEW! Long post! I hope this helps, and if anyone has any questions about our routine, the steps we took, or whatever, fire away!!

Anyone else faced separation anxiety? Any tips or strategies to help pups overcome their fears?

Go Colts! (fuzzy camera phone pic)

Coming into the weekend, all our plans have changed! We were supposed to fly into Baltimore to meet our new nephew, but we heard they’re getting a little snow, so we’re rescheduling our flights. That freed up Saturday and Sunday so we can watch the Colts win the Super Bowl while snuggling Emmett and Lucas (better pics of their Colts apparel to come on Sunday)! Then, Emmett and I were supposed to spend the morning visiting three kindergarten classes, but due to inclement weather here, schools are closed, so that was canceled. And I had one appointment this afternoon, and it seems that might be off too. Which means we now have three full unscheduled days!

I think we’ll be setting up our indoor agility course in the basement to get the boys some exercise while it’s icy out. In the meantime, while they’re snuggled in bed snoring away, I’m catching up on lots of dog blogs! Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:

From Dolittler: BSL is a bitch… until a judge says otherwise

From Smart Dog U (I’ll be working on this with Lucas this weekend!): Simple Way to Get (and Keep) Your Dog’s Attention

From Pawcurious: Meep Meep, a post about counter surfing

I also recorded Animal Planet Investigates Dog Fighting, but have yet to decide if I should actually watch it or not.

How about you? Weekend plans? Links to share?

After last week’s strange temperature spike (50 degrees! in January! in southern Indiana!), we’re back down to the more typical 14-degree weather. Of course, when it gets this cold, it’s impossible to walk the dogs. I can barely stand to be outside to walk to my car, let alone around the block… and that’s when I’m wearing my puffy coat, lined boots, gloves, and a hat. So in addition to our indoor agility course, we’ve been finding lots of other indoor activities.

One of their favorite indoor games is “find it.” Basically, I put them in a wait on their beds and sneak off to hide a toy somewhere in the house. Not only does it keep them moving, but it also exercises their senses and gets them thinking! Plus, I’ve recently started working on specificity: find hedgehog, find rope, etc.

Waiting for the cue to "find hedgehog"

Whoever finds the toy gets a few victory chews before I hide it again.

Emmett takes his victory chews.

Here’s where Lucas’ confidence issues come in: He finds the toy many, many times. However, he will only extract the toy from its hiding spot IF it’s somewhere he is totally confident. For instance, when he spots the toy on a dining room chair, he will poke his big old head under there and get the toy (sorry for the blurriness, he was moving too fast):

However, if that same toy is hidden on my desk chair -which has wheels and is, therefore, frightening – he will spot the toy, stare at it for 2-3 seconds, then keep looking. I don’t know why he does this. I have a few theories: he doesn’t want to clue Emmett in on its location, he’s hoping to find another toy somewhere else, he’s stalling to work up the courage to grab it. Who knows? But, of course, Emmett always ends up with the toy because Emmett is afraid of absolutely nothing.

It’s not just the desk chair either. If the toy is hidden in any of the bathrooms, behind a door, near the washer/dryer, the list goes on… he does the same thing every single time. He spots it. He stares for a couple seconds. He backs up, then resumes his search. I tried hiding treats with the toy, but of course that just led Emmett to the toy even faster and didn’t help encourage Lucas at all. I tried playing it with Lucas when John was out walking Emmett, and instead of continuing to look for the toy after spotting it in the scary location, he sat staring at it and crying, in essence asking me to get it for him. Which I didn’t. Because I’m mean.

My goal, of course, is to continue building Lucas’ confidence. Maybe this isn’t the right game? Or maybe I need to increase the stakes? I’d love to do an activity (indoors until it gets warmer) that will keep him moving, motivated, learning, and help build his confidence.

Any suggestions or insights?

We returned Otto to my parents this past weekend. If nothing else, the week of dogsitting followed by a 90-minute drive up north proved that if we were to adopt a third dog, we need a bigger car, even if the dog is as small as Otto.

After Otto’s visit, Lucas needed a bath. From a week of playing with Otto, his fur was matted with slobber, and he had chunks of mud stuck to his belly. He really only needs a bath a handful of times each year, and he was due. While this might not seem like a big deal, poor Lucas hates water. Not just a little bit. A lot. He runs from the hose in the backyard. He refuses to dip his toes in puddles on the sidewalk. He won’t swim, and he definitely won’t go into the bathroom. Bathing him is an epic struggle. Last time John tried, Lucas kept trying to ninja-escape from the bathroom. And, of course, nosy Emmett was all up in Lucas’ bath business.

Since then, I have tried everything to lessen the horror of bath time. First, we worked on decreasing his bathroom-associated fear. I left treats in there for him to discover on his own. I started brushing him in the bathroom while giving him tons of treats and praise. Then I got in the tub with him and fed him treats while getting just his feet wet. When it was time for a full-fledged hose down, I cooked him sausages and hot dogs and bacon. I tried liver. No matter what, the poor guy just shut down the second he got in the tub. He tucked his tail, hung his head, and froze, refusing any of the meaty treats.

Until.

It’s such a great moment when you find the exact right motivation for your pup, right? It’s such a relief to know that you finally, finally got him past the pain of fear and into tolerance. Yesterday, Lucas got into the tub, allowed his feet to get wet, tolerated his back and neck getting wet, even stood for a good scrubbing. For what?

Slices of processed American cheese.

Huh.

This was the first bath that he didn’t tuck his tail. It was the first bath that he didn’t forcefully try to push past me to get out of the tub. Heck, it was the first bath that he actually ate the treats I was offering. It was the first bath that we got all the way through the last rinse before he started to get panicky.

All for slices of food-product-flavored-to-resemble-cheese.

Who knew.

My parents, who live about 90 minutes from us, are on vacation. So for this week, my mom’s little dog Otto is staying with us. Otto is a one-year-old bichon/shih tzu mix with the funniest little underbite. He just adores Lucas, and Lucas loves him, too, though Lucas tends to tire out long before Otto. With the three dogs, it’s a pretty funny dynamic around the house.

Big friend and little friend

Lucas is a trim 75 pounds; Otto is a porky little 12 pounds. Despite their size differences, they play together most of the day, wrestling, tugging, chasing. Lucas is really amazing at self-handicapping.

Although he usually lets Otto win, which has led Otto to think that he’s much, much stronger than he really is.

Emmett… he doesn’t mind Otto, and occasionally he lets on that he might actually like him, but mostly, Emmett is just happy to hang on the sidelines and watch Lucas and Otto duke it out. But I did catch them snuggled up a couple times today!

Otto is a pretty easy dog. He has great recall and is a generally happy fellow. The hard thing, though, is that his set of rules and boundaries are completely different from the rules I have for my guys. It’s difficult to decide whether or not to teach him the rules (i.e. out of the kitchen while I’m cooking) or just let it go for the week. Of course, as soon as Emmett realized Otto is in the kitchen while I’m cooking, he slips right in trying to get away with it, too!

Overall, Otto is doing great. It’s tough for any dog to be away from his people and his home, with all different routines and rules. He settled in pretty much right away, in large part because he worships Emmett and Lucas and just does whatever they do!

He’s here until Saturday, and I’m sure it’ll be an easy week. Although… Lucas will probably sleep for three straight days after Otto leaves!

Have you ever had a training session that just dissolves into laughter? You just have to stop working because you can’t stop laughing? Meanwhile, you dog is staring at you like you’re a raving lunatic?

I taught the boys to “wave hi” using the clicker. Since they both already knew “high five,” I started with my hand in the “high five” position but clicked whenever they missed, giving the “wave hi” verbal cue. They got it immediately. They got it so quickly, in fact, that Emmett basically sat waving his little paw in the air, like a second grader trying desperately to get the teacher to call on him. Every time I glanced in his direction, his little paw flew up in the air. After a few minutes of that, John and I were laughing so hard, I could barely continue with the training. Even when I was working with Lucas, Emmett sat with his paw poised and ready to wave!

Also, John was hanging around while I was working on the behavior. About three minutes in, he pointed out that when Emmett responded slowly, I said, “Come on, buddy!” or something similar… so poor Emmett would get confused and scootch forward like… I’m already here, lady! Stop saying come!

That’s the great thing about the clicker. After a few minutes, we were able to refine the behavior so that Emmett wasn’t holding his paw up in between turns, and they were both waving on the first cute.

In this last pic, thanks to Emmett’s bandage (after last week’s biopsy), you can see the waving movement we finally nailed!

It was nearly impossible to get a good picture with our little point-and-shoot camera, but I might try to get some film footage of a training session next week!

This pic has nothing to do with the post. I just think it's ridiculously cute.

Tonight Emmett and Lucas take a practice AKC Canine Good Citizen test. I’m looking forward to it because I’m pretty sure they’re going to fail spectacularly. However, it’ll give me a really clear picture of what we need to work on before the real test a week from today. Before Emmett’s therapy dog test, I “loaded” my pockets, meaning I gave him treats all day long, sometimes for no reason, out of the same pocket. In no time he made the association between my hand going in my pocket and him receiving a treat. You are not allowed to use any treats for the test, so I used this technique to trick him. Before the test component requiring him to completely ignore another dog – his biggest challenge – I stuck my hand in my pocket. He instantly gave me his full attention and practically waltzed past the other dog. Therefore, I’m repeating that maneuver for this test. We’ll give it a whirl tonight and then refine over the next week.

In the meantime, I discovered a couple new blogs today that I wanted to share. They’ll be added to my blogroll, but here they are:

3 Woofs & a Woo

Why Everyone Should Train Dogs

And this one is already on my blogroll, but I thought today’s post – How many words does your dog know? – was particularly interesting. After tonight’s CGC debacle, I think I’m going to catalog the boys’ vocabulary.

Emmett and Lucas had a big day today. A service-dog trainer from Utah is visiting our town, and we signed the boys up for a two-day session of clicker training, agility, and advanced obedience. The training was held on a farm – the first time the boys had ever been to a farm! It was wonderful to have a wide-open, fully fenced-in space for them to run and play with the other dogs. In the pasture beyond the fence, a horse trotted around, but as soon as Lucas got a whiff of that big boy, he ran over barking his little head off. The poor horse retreated behind the barn, and throughout the rest of the day, whenever he tried to make an appearance, Lucas and two other dogs that he apparently recruited, dashed over to bark the horse back behind the barn.

The agenda mixed work and play – three minutes of focused work followed by five minutes of play – from 10 to 4. We started with some basic clicker exercises and worked on shaping a new behavior. Lucas learned “back up” while Emmett worked on “crawl.” We worked pretty extensively with hula-hoops, encouraging the dogs to walk around, through, and over. Last was agility, something the boys have never really had much opportunity to try. They both LOVED the tunnel. In fact, we struggled to get them to stop running through the tunnel! They even ran through it together, side-by-side, several times. The weave poles proved to be a bigger challenge, though they both mastered the table.

I, of course, forgot my camera, but toward the end of the day, I got out my phone and snapped a few pics of the boys doing agility work.

I lead Emmett over a jump while the trainer observes.

John leads Lucas over the same jump.

John works on the hula-hoops with Lucas.

Emmett and his new friend Riker.

When we got home, Emmett and Lucas crawled into their beds and haven’t moved in nearly four hours. Tomorrow we’re working on additional tricks – we were instructed to bring shoe boxes. Hmmm. Wonder what we’ll do with those?

Emmett snoozes after a hard day's work!

Yesterday, Emmett and I volunteered at Girl Power, an event designed to promote leadership and self-esteem in grils age 9 to 14.  Our booth focused on responsible pet care and animal advocacy. It was an awesome event, and I was incredibly impressed with all the girls who stopped by our booth.

In addition to Emmett, the booth was staffed with a cat and a ferret. Ferrets look an awful lot like chipmunks and squirrels. Emmett loves to chase chipmunks and squirrels. However, Emmett is so incredibly food-motivated that as far as the ferret was concerned, all Emmett really wanted was to eat the ferret’s bowl of food. If I looked away, he tried licking the food bowl through the ferret’s cage. Only once did he perk up as the ferret dashed by, but I diverted his attention and that was that. Same thing with the cat. Mr. Blue the cat was getting Chex Mix as a treat, which Emmett just could not understand. He tried everything to get the cat’s handler to look at him, sitting pretty, wagging his tail, licking his lips, even waving hi at a couple points. The only time he paid the cat any attention was when a little girl accidentally dropped the cat mere inches from Emmett’s face. He lunged a bit then, but can you blame the guy?

The girls who stopped by were excited to pat Emmett, the cat, and the ferret. We’ve done similar events before where, after a good scratching and a few questions about Emmett, the kids would move on. At this event, though, the girls engaged in the booth, asking intelligent questions, and grabbing the literature and bookmarks. Part of the booth included a poster about dog fighting, puppy mills, and Brownie the cat. Some of the girls had seen Brownie on the Today Show, most of the girls easily identified the pit bulls in the anti-dog fighting posters, but almost none of them had heard of puppy mills. The great part about the booth was that these messages were secondary to the fun parts of patting the animals and watching Emmett do tricks, but most of the girls really engaged, looking at the posters, and asking great questions.

After the three-hour round-trip drive and the two hours at the event, Emmett zonked out, though he did perk up when I stopped at the Starbucks drive through and got him a puppy latte, his favorite after-work treat!

Lucas and Emmett share "their" chaise.

Lucas and Emmett are currently training for the AKC’s Canine Good Citizen test. Tonight was week 3 of 7, and it’s been interesting… there’s an array of skill levels in the class, which actually serves as a good distraction for the boys. The test is similar to the test Emmett took for the Delta Society, but different in a lot of key areas. For example, with the Delta Society test, they look to the handler to assist their dog in being successful, but the CGC test seems to focus more on the dog’s ability to execute the steps alone.

Luckily week 7 is a practice test. We’re getting close, but – UGH! – my dogs will not sit politely to greet a stranger! Because we’re always taking them new places, arranging play dates, etc., they are used to just wagging and greeting anyone who approaches instead of holding a sit. But, at least we know what to work on!

Anyone been through this test or trained this particular behavior? They will walk in a heel up to the person, and they will sit, but the second the person reaches out to pat them, their little butts pop up, tails wagging, and they approach… Any ideas?? Tips??