We got the $20 fluffy bed from Costco a week ago, and well, she's not sleeping on it much. Actually, I would probably say she slept on it less than five times in the past week. I hardly see her sleeping on it when I am at home, and during the day, there was one time I could tell she had been sleeping on it, because she smelled like pine shaving. She continues to sleep on the carpet most of the time, and sometimes on her old bowl bed. Oh well.
Last night in class, there were just three canine students, Tara, Roxy, and Hoagie (and the instructor's demo dog, Gemma). Hoagie's parents didn't come, just the two kids, and two women who appeared to be the kids' aunt and grandma. The boy was the one who handled Hoagie throughout the class. Tara did fine with commands in class yesterday, we showed the instructor commands from the last class: Wait (actually we just did Stay with Tara, instead of trying to teach her a new verbal command and hand signal), Stand (I just lured Tara with treat like people do in show ring), and Sit-Stay six feet away. New commands this week are: Down (which Tara knows well) and Sit-Stay with the handler walking around. The instructor spent about half of her time on Hoagie last night, especially when the boy had trouble dealing with the dog. At one point, when Hoagie growled at her, she grabbed the back of his neck and hanged him until he stopped (not saying what she did was right, and not saying she's great positive trainer, but she's about as good as it gets around here in Auburn-Opelika area, and that's why Tara and I are in this class because we have nowhere else better to go; unless I drive 100 miles each way to Atlanta for classes). The boy was a little scared, and the instructor told the aunt that Hoagie has fear aggression and to get rid of his "dominance" and to prevent him from biting the kids, she had to do that. Also, when I was showing her Tara's Sit-Stay, I told her that Tara has cataracts too (in addition to hard of hearing). She said, "Now, is there a big group of people who are looking to adopt a half blind, half deaf dog?" I appreciate her honesty, but..arg! Anyways, she said a couple times in class that Tara is very sweet and happy (glad to know Tara no longer appears to be scared in class). I just kept feeding Tara treats throughout the class to keep her occupied. I left Tara's vaccine records in the car and the instructor didn't ask about them.
Tara played with the treat ball today! It took her only about two minutes to figure it out, and once she did, she just kept flipping it; it was so cute!
�My strong recommendation for this dog would be to manage her behavior by not having her loose around other dogs, ever. If you must foster, then I'd suggest keeping the foster dogs separate from Tara. This for a number of reasons:
1. It's not fair to the foster dogs (or other dogs in public places) to put them into a situation where they are likely to be attacked. They could be injured, and if not physically injured, it could plants the seeds for defensive aggression in those dogs.
2. It's stressful to *her* to be placed in situations where she feels compelled to aggress on the other dogs - and one day when one doesn't submit, she, too could be injured.
3. Her medical conditions are probably only going to get worse, making her more, not less, likely to continue her aggressive behaviors.
4. By her previous owners' admission, she's been practicing the behavior for years, which means prognosis is poor (especially along with her medical conditions) for successful modification.
Sorry to be less than positive on this case, but I really think you'd be rolling a large boulder uphill...�
I had hoped to do lots of counterconditioning and desensitization with Tara, so it�s a little depressing to hear training probably won�t help, but I think in the back of my mind, I kind of know the answer before already, just that I needed somebody to point it out. Oh well.
Friday, December 1, 2006
Peter�s family sent an update, �He is doing really great!! He is so sweet and very loving. In the mornings, I drive my daughter to school and he loves to go with us. He will lay and wait in front of the door to the garage so he can come with us. It's so cute.
We really love him and he's a great addition to our family.�
Saturday, December 2, 2006
I groomed Tara again today. She's such a good girl for groomings. When I put the leash on her and tie her onto the treadmill, she doesn't like it because she thinks I am going to clean her ears, but once she realized it wasn't, she just lies down and goes to sleep, while I trim her. When I take her into the bathroom and close the door for the bath, she would jump into the bathtub by herself, even without me telling her to. And while I bath her, she never tries to jump out, not even when I shampoo her face. When I am done and tell her to stay in the tub (while I put towel on the floor), she does it. However she does not like as much when I towel dry her (some dogs like it when I wrap their faces in the soft terry towel, Tara always tries to get her face out). But when I blow dry her, she just stays still and sometimes even goes to sleep. What a good girl!
Sunday, December 3, 2006
We went to the dog park again this afternoon. It's a nice afternoon and lots of dogs there, so I kept her on leash. She was fine with all the dogs we met.
Monday, December 4, 2006
Tonight in obedience class, this is our next to last class. About thirty minutes before class, I gave Tara a cookie with Rescue Remedy on it. As we were driving towards Petco, I noticed that all the stores and traffic and street lights on the east side of Opelika had their lights off. About 5 minutes before we got to the store, all the sudden all the lights came back on. When Tara and I got into the store just in time (6 PM), we didn't see the instructor or the chairs or the ring. But we did see Bailey the Black Lab and her owner, so I thought we would just wait a few more minutes and see. It turned out that Petco experienced power outage also, and the instructor was going to cancel class, but the light came back on, so she was just setting up. In class last night, there were just Bailey and her mom, Tara and I, and Hoagie the American Eskimo with the dad and son. We think the other students probably came early and saw the lights were out and went back home. Anyways, Tara was especially active in class last night, she barked at me several times for treats, and when I hesitated, she would walk around a lot. Hoagie used to be very skittish and huddled under the chair, but last night even though he still stayed near the dad, at least he didn't look skittish anymore. Bailey is a young and smart dog, usually well behaved, but they skipped last week's class, and Bailey had been lying around in the house for the past week. So last night she was very active in class too. Tara and I sat between the two other dogs, and one time Bailey pulled on the leash and acted puppy-ish while sniffing Tara's back end, so of course Tara lifted her lips. No growling, but I saw it and grabbed her muzzle (not hard) to make her look at me. Bailey's mom saw that too and pulled Bailey away. Bailey continued to act puppy-ish in class, but whenever she got near Tara (Bailey's mom had hard time controlling her last night), I quickly gave Tara a cookie, and she was fine the rest of the night. Last night, we showed sit-stay while circling around, and down-stay, and come while walking, stuff we learned from last week. Tara did fairly well on both. Last week we also learned the "take/drop" command. But only Bailey worked on that. Hoagie's dad wasn't there last week and his kids forgot to tell him about it. And like the instructor said, with Tara, this command is not high on our list to learn, so I forgot about it too (I'm not sure if Tara knows the drop command; I'll have to give it a try with her toys and see). This week we learned stand-stay for vet exam, and sit-stay/down-stay at 6 feet, and come at 20 feet away. Tara did fine with the first two. For the third one, the instructor holds on to the dog, while the owner walks away, and then calls the dog. Well, with Tara, when I walked 15 feet away, she had no idea where I was. When we did it again, I was a little bit closer, maybe 12 feet away, she still could not see me. Overall, I think if I am more than 10 feet away, I might just well be any other person in the store. So, with this realization, I've decided not to go forward with her CGC test, because part of the test is recall 20 feet away. I just don't think Tara would know where I am if I stand 20 feet away from her. But of course even without the test to look forward to, we will still continue to practice basic commands. Next week is our last class! The instructor encouraged us to bring cameras.
I am taking Tara and Anastasia for Santa pictures this Sunday. I'm still deciding whether or not to make Tara wear the reindeer costume for the picture.
Christmas came early for Tara! I ordered some Christmas dog toys on sale. When the package came, Tara kept sniffing and scratching it, even though she usually leaves the boxes alone. Finally I had enough and gave in and gave her one of the toys. It�s a grunting hippo!