Now the last two years I worked abroad and Ansa was just with my boyfriend. Now they did great considering the situation and we had a dog walker come in once a week to help out. But of course Ansa did spend more time alone and did not get enough attention. She would also get very depressed when I left after visiting. But now I am back and unemployed and pretty much just hanging out with her at home since September with no jobs in sight.
Our days go something like this:
Wake up at 7:30 with Ansa jumping on the bed for morning belly scriips after the alarm and then off for the normal “around the blocks” morning walk of around 20 min.
Eat breakfast of Orijen kibble.
Hang out or sleep (not me) after seeing boyfriend off to work.
Around lunch time we do our longer walk of around 1 hour mostly off leash in the woods never really seeing anyone. She has good recall unless there is a bunny.
More hanging out or sleeping.
In the afternoon another 20 min walk around different blocks before the after work dog walking rush hour starts or after it before it gets dark.
Evening hanging out. With dinner of Orijen kibble.
Pee break around ten, if Ansa agrees to go and then off to sleep.
Ansa sleeps mostly under our bed or on the two beds she has in the bedroom. As a pup she wasn’t allowed on the bed or sofas, but boyfriend changed the rules (he originally set) and well now some nights she’s partly slept on the bed with us.
(Ok, so I do go out to the city or whatever on some days. And Ansa is fine when left alone.)
Now “hanging out” also contains some trick training and I’ve just started doing 101 things to do with a box. When I came back Ansa was not so much into playing with her toys but now she seems to be more into them again so we also play (bring the toy, tug, “oh you won”, bring it again, “thanks” -let go, maybe a trick like back-up and then catch, bring and tug…). And then she likes destroying/destuffing the toys but luckily does not eat them. If it seems like she just wants to chew I give her a chew of some sort. Also if she seems in the mood I give her like a box to destroy for treats of something.
So the problem indoors is that she is scared of sounds. Like now it is quite windy and the roof tiles are making sounds and she is scared of those. Yesterday she was incredibly scared of this sound that the building made as it sort of warmed up with the sun - it was just a small crack and really not loud or anything. And also she is scared of the dishwasher and uncomfortable with the vacuum. And if me and my boyfriend discuss politics in any way in a louder voice she starts doing appeasement things like jumping in our laps and licking. And really we do not argue, just discuss in a “oh people are stupid these days and the world is going to …” -manner. Generally when she is scared she wants to come to our laps which I let her and pet her calmly. Other times she goes to her cave under the bed or under the desk in the office, where she of course hung out a lot with the boyfriend as he is on the computer a lot.
So what to do with the indoor sound fright? I’ve been thinking about getting Victoria’s noise phobia cd’s. Maybe just playing the calming one would mask some sounds and help. I haven’t used any DAP or anything but could give it a try. Good idea? I sometimes go out with Ansa when the dishwasher is on, but then it is a fire safety hazard. She can be handled well so I was also thinking about massage or the TTouch helping her but don’t really know where to start.
The problem outdoors is that she is scared of “weird things” and some other dogs.
The worst is rollerskaters, skateboarders and these kick bike scooters that like every kid now has. She will bark and lunge if they surprise us and really this is an extreme reaction as she normally never barks. What I do is most of all try to keep away or run away if I see or hear (Ansa also reacts to the sound) one of these and then treat her trying to get a more positive association but really I have to start a desensitization program with just the sound first I think. I do have skates myself. Though of course winter is coming and we will be safe for a bit.
But then the skiers hit the trails which brings us to another frightening thing - people moving weirdly. Like if someone does not walk/run pretty much straight then they are weird. This is not a big issue and I can just do a “watch me walk nicely” and treat. But of course Ansa is also more wary in the dark and winter is coming and living up north it is going to be dark on most our walks soon. And she is also scared of people with head lamps. And in the dark pretty much anything will make her stop on the walk and look around. Question - if she just stops and looks around at “nothing” warily, should I treat her of just let her watch and continue when she decides it is ok? I call her the neighbourhood watch dog as when it is dark she has to watch neighbours getting out of cars and any random walker pretty much at any distance. (We sort of live on the edge of a busy neighbourhood right next to the lake/woods.) Oh but the skiers will be annoying as they come to our “safe zone” - the woods.
Then there are dogs. Generally she will want to lie down and wait for the dog and then bounce at the last minute - if I let this happen. It is hard as people with the other dogs generally do not see this as a dog being frightened and let their dogs approach. But I think we are getting somewhere. Generally we can get around (I of course tend to turn the other way or jump in the bushes) dogs with a “watch me walk nicely”-treat system. If she lies down I do a “where’s the treat” and drop a treat to the ground and she will sniff it out and we can then get going with the “watch me walk nicely”. I think the "where’s the treat" works well also as it breaks she stare which of course is also bad for the other dog. She’s only once really barked at dogs with me and this was in the dark at two big black dogs and I just ended up picking her up to get past.
We’ve also started doing agility again and in addition to the group lesson with 5 other dogs and most of them waiting in cars, I can go to the agility hall by myself with Ansa and I have done this a couple of times. She is great at agility (me not so much) and loves the A-frame a bit too much…
So what do you think? Am I on the right path? I just feel like she is generally too worried about everything and I want to raise her confidence. I think the last two months I have been home have helped and that is why I did not ask earlier to let her settle a bit first and see where it all goes.
(She was spayed after her first season when she was one. She is generally very healthy though gets eye infections in the spring dust. Treats interest her even though her appetite is not so good, but nowadays it seems like she is almost like a normal dog eating-wise.)
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