Update on our life. :)

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Blackcurrant
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2014 12:34 am

Update on our life. :)

Post by Blackcurrant »

I wrote here months and months ago, about lunging towards other dogs, dog not eating well and bad behavior on dog-park.

I decided to update all this, tell how we are doing now. :)

I have a mixed breed female, about 35 kilos, who has been making my life more active for a bit more than one year now. She had never been in a home before she came to us, and that in mind she has done very well in our home.

Now our lovely Wendy has started to be like a pet. She is not scared that easily, she loves attention, and she has learned to play with plushie-toys. :)

She still doesn't like some dogs while we are on our walk, and she could growl, lunge and bark, but we haven't had an incident like that in ages. It's mostly because we haven't met that many dogs, maybe people don't walk their dogs that much during the winter... And the other reason is that I try to avoid these situations by changing the side of the road, going the other way, so that Wendy does not find herself in the situation she feels she has to protect herself.

We stopped going to dog-parks, because my fiancee got a new job, and we don't have time to do that any more, and from August we haven't gone to the park because we found out Wendy has bad arthritis, and it is not encouraged to let her play with other dogs. And while we haven't gone there, we have changed our own opinion about the parks as well. They are fine when the dogs are fine with each other, but if there is not nice dogs it is too stressful, and it's better in Wendy's case to stay out. We have visited the park a few after the diagnosis. Once we went to a meeting, and there were only social small dogs. Wendy is fine with small dogs, and doesn't seem to mind if a small dog barks at her. At some point she might just tell politely growling that she doesn't like it. But nothing too stressful happened. There was the person who first saw the potential in Wendy and took her to her own shelter from another country, and it made us so happy to see Wendy meet the people she knew and loved. She just ran around happily, saying hello to every person there. The other times we have visited the park when there has been no other dogs there. Once there was a dog on the other fencing, and Wendy seemed to play with the dog a bit. But we didn't want to risk her arthritis and didn't let her to the same fencing.

Our dog-trainer agrees that maybe the park is a bit too stressful with strange dogs, because she is still guarding her back. She is not that confident yet, and she sees other dogs that are not confident as a threat she has to control.

The eating-problems were most probably because of the pain. Our vet said Wendy had been in constant pain for a few months. We didn't realize that, and I feel very bad. But we took her to the vet when she started to limp without any obvious reason. The x-rays told the cruel truth. Arthritis. But when we started the pain-medication, she has been a different dog. She is happy, playful and has a good appetite. She seems to eat well when she gets enough exercise, and when there is not much exercise she eats less. Also when the routines are different she doesn't eat.

She is happy, well-behaved and gets attention wherever she goes. Everybody falls in love with her. She is so goofy, happy and polite.

We took a basic training-class during December. It was so great. It made Wendy more attentive of us, and more eager to do what we wanted. Also the pulling on the leash has almost disappeared. Sometimes we have to remind her gently about the pulling, but the trainer equipped us with awesome tips. And it is all positive training.

Now we are in a Rally-O-class. I don't believe we will ever do anything like competing, but it is great activity for everyone. It makes our bond deeper, trust better and it is something Wendy enjoys.

Right now we basically have one problem. She barks indoors. She has done it before, and she keeps doing it. She quiets down on her own, sometimes. Sometimes she runs back and forth, hackles raised, until me or my fiancee go and tell her to stop. We don't yell, we just say "Ok, that's enough, good, fine, enough". Then she sits down and is quiet.

We don't even know everything that triggers the barking. She barks if a dog barks somewhere, when the postman is outside putting post in the boxes, if someone walks near our backyard, and when doorbell rings. It doesn't matter if it is the real doorbell or from the tv, but it gets her barking. If I sit next to her and don't let her start, she is quiet, not trying to go through me, but I can't always be there.

We think that she is allowed to bark a few times, but right now she barks way too much. And she can bark in the middle of the night.

Ignoring doesn't work. Praising her when she stops doesn't work. I don't know what works... Maybe some of you have had a similar problem, and had managed to have it under control. I'm grateful of all tips. :)
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