Switching crate to x-pen

Terra's crate has been tight for a few weeks. I was finally able to retrieve her large, heavy duty x-pen from where I'd left it on the agility field. She's confused about the change, but she has room to stretch out now.

Here's the most recent picture of her growth. She weighed 96 pounds last week.

And a couple bonus pictures of her sleeping:

 

Potty training update

I've mostly stopped putting Terra in her crate at night or when I leave. She has had a few accidents but they only happened when 1) I was sick and slept in way later than I should have, or 2) I was getting the car serviced and it took longer than I'd been expecting.

She always pees on top of her bed when she does need to go, but thankfully it has a truly waterproof liner, so I just wash the cover and liner and it's good to go.

It's still a bummer to clean up a tsunami of Wolfhound urine, though.

12/23/17-12/26/17: White Christmas

We spent the past few days up in Truckee. Snow had recently fallen and the dogs got to go on morning and afternoon off leash walks in the woods. Terra didn't hesitate at all about walking in snow, even though she had never seen it before. She did really well both in the condo and walking outside. She frequently played with my sister's little dog, Frankie. I brought her crate and was diligent about potty training, so we didn't have any accidents, thank goodness! At first she held her bladder as long as she could because she wasn't relaxed enough outside. That also got better as the days went on. The only negative was that she's still scared of my dad, but she's getting better every time they're together. We had a few reactive barks at noises early on, and on the last day at a little girl with a snow shovel playing outside the back patio.

Here are my favorite pictures from the trip. Click on any photo to see it come up larger.

Trying to be a lap dog on the couch.

She enjoyed tearing up the tag on her Christmas present.

Beautiful view.

Playing with Frankie.

Besties.

She liked to lie down against the L-shaped couch and rest her head in the coffee table.

Days 67-69 (11/12/17-11/14/17): Home Depot noise and nosyness, alone training

A new boarding dog checked in Sunday. Terra was wary at first, but I knew that she would warm up to him quickly. Within ten minutes they were playing. I have to referee because they get too intense. Sometimes the other dog mounts Terra, which makes her lose her balance and fall over with a yelp.

We went to Home Depot on 11/13 as I needed to buy a larger chest freezer. She did great walking around the store, until the end - I was at the service counter placing my order for later pick up, and there was a series of loud noises from merchandise getting moved around. She tried to bolt and I had to hold onto her harness. I placed her between myself and the counter, hoping that she would feel protected, but she still kept trying to pull away after the noises had stopped. Poor thing.

Before that happened, as I was maneuvering us into line, a woman stopped right in our path and asked "boy or girl?" I gave the barest of polite smiles and moved around her. She turned and asked "is your dog a boy or girl?" I barely kept myself from rolling my eyes and ignored her as we got into line. One of my pet peeves is random people asking questions about my dog that don't actually matter, just to satisfy their selfish curiosity. In this case my dog was wearing a vest that says "in training" and I was trying to get through a crowd, so I didn't have patience for it. I almost snapped "What does it matter to you?"

Terra went to Cai's agility class on 11/14 as usual. She settles well now when I leave Cai next to her and walk the course, but she gets upset when we both leave for our turn. So I had one of the other students feed her pieces of chicken. That worked to keep her quiet. The student reported that during our third run, she wasn't so interested in the chicken anymore, but she was still calmer.

Days 51-62 (10/31/17-11/07/17): rabies, visiting parents, dog friends, outings

10/31/17:
Got rabies vaccination. Terra shied away from Shawn the vet tech. She had been friendly with him before, but he came into the room and toward her too quickly. He was in a hurry because the clinic had an emergency patient, so he couldn't sit with her and let her warm back up to him. So I positioned myself next to her side, blocking her view of what Shawn was doing at her back end, and fed her pieces of chicken. She gave a tiny flinch when he put his hands on her but it seemed surprise/confusion rather than worry.

11/02/17:
My sister dropped off her little dog Frankie for the weekend. Terra and Frankie love each other.

11/03/17-11/04/17:
I packed up Terra, Chimera, and Frankie, and drove two hours south to visit my parents. Along the way we had a private lesson with Vicki Ronchette (will detail in a separate post).

Terra loves my mom (all my dogs do, probably because she and I are very similar). She's wary of my dad. By chance, he kept startling her by popping up in doorways. I realized what was happening toward the end of the visit and told him that if he remembered to talk as he was coming around the corner, she wouldn't be startled and run away. She did approach him to sniff here and there, but would retreat when he would turn toward her or reach for her.

My mom and I took the dogs for a long walk on Friday evening. Between that, playing with Frankie, and just the general excitement, Terra was tired out on Saturday.

We had one potty accident, right as we got back from the walk. She had a full bladder but she is not relaxed enough to potty while walking unless she absolutely can't hold it anymore. Lesson learned - next time I'll take her straight to the back yard as we come in.

She didn't chew anything up except for a shell that fell from a shelf while the dogs were running around.

I brought her big crate and she was comfortable in it overnight.

A few times while we were in the back yard, she heard sudden noises from neighboring yards and alarm barked. She was also uncomfortable with the neighboring dogs doing territorial/alarm barking (which is common for puppies).

11/05/17:
Rachel and Eli brought Halley over while we butchered chickens with a couple other friends. I left all the dogs in the back yard. Terra played a little, dug a little, and sunbathed.

11/06/17:
We visited Sherry for the day. Terra played with a few other dogs. She was wiped out that evening.

11/07/17:
Had agility class in the morning, though Cai injured his foot so we left early. Terra was quiet as I left her and Cai to walk the course, but barked loudly when I took Cai out for our turn. I think I'll ask another student to feed her chicken while we run.

We stopped by the vet's for a weight - 71.5 lbs, which is an increase of 5.5 lbs in 7 days!

We went to Lowe's for a socialization trip. Terra was generally more comfortable walking all around the store. She startled at some loud noises. She was uncomfortable with people passing close by us.

In the evening we went downtown. There weren't a lot of people out since it was a Tuesday night. Terra initially was suspicious of the gourds lining the sidewalks, but her curiosity won out. She investigated, then dismissed them.

General:
She's been sleeping longer through the night, but still wakes me up to go out between 6 and 8 am. She goes back into the crate afterwards without a fuss.

She doesn't like pork but I bought it in bulk so I've been struggling to get her to eat all her meals lately. I've been adding chicken broth, warm water, and bacon fat. Not even all that is enough. I will have to buy some more beef or chicken and mix it 50/50.

Day 34 (10/14/17): visitors, peeing in crate, nose work

Terra didn't get out of the house today, but two pairs of clients came by. The first couple came into the kitchen as I let her in from the yard. I had to immediately put her into the bedroom because their dog guards them and might have laid into her. I had to push and pull on her to get her away from the people. I got her behind the baby gate between the kitchen and bedroom, and she manded (sat) and pawed at the gate repeatedly because she wanted so badly to greet them. YAY!

Later in the day, another couple whom she knows well came by, and she ran right up to them with her tail wagging wide, alternating who she approached and leaned into for petting.

The one low point in the day was that she peed in her crate while I was out for 3 hours. The urine didn't have any smell to it, so she must have loaded up on water shortly before I left and I didn't notice. And because there was a lot of it and the puddle spread across her bed, she then lay in it. I rubbed her down thoroughly with a wet towel but I sense another bath in her near future.

Switched a few things up for today's nose work session and she did beautifully. Here's what I wrote on the forum:
1. I recorded with my webcam, which is mounted about 5' up. You can see that I live in a tiny apartment! Recording from higher up allowed me to move around more. The downside is that it's hard to see where her nose is when she's not facing the camera, and I didn't want to obsess over that and ruin the fun. You'll just have to trust me that I was rewarding as soon as her nose hovered over the tin, and she was dead on every time that she chose to move toward it.
2. I used fresh cooked chicken as the reward, and right before dinner. On the first few hides she was distracted by the chicken hand, but on the last two she went straight to the tin!
3. Started with IYC in the hand, then on the box, floor, box, floor, box. I don't think she has any trouble with the concept of doing the game on the floor; only the same initial distraction by the chicken hand. (I'm looking forward to RLGL helping with this later on.)
4. I rewarded only one target to each hide, then removed the tin, and physically moved to a different spot. So we got 6 reps in in exactly 1 minute, and she stayed interested the entire time!!

Let me know how we should proceed. More of the same? Add duration? More floor work? Put tin in container?

Day 30 (10/10/17): agility class, car show downtown

I gambled that Terra could wait an extra ten minutes this morning while I showered, but I lost - she peed in her crate. Between that and frequently rolling around outside, she has gotten stinky and desperately needs a bath. Hopefully tomorrow.

I had skipped agility class last week because I overslept, but we made it today. I ran Cai twice, then put him in the car and got Terra out. At first we stayed far from the field and walked along the adjacent pasture fences. She saw a goat and a sheep about 100 feet away. She stopped and was unsure. We walked away. A horse came right up to another fence and put his head over. She spooked at the movement and gave a half whine, half growl when we didn't move away quickly enough. But as soon as the leash was loose at a distance she felt was safe, she sat and watched the horse. After a minute she ignored him and lay down facing away from him, toward the field.

As the handlers walked the final course and so there were no dogs on the field, I walked her across and to the opposite side. We hung out in the area where people crate their dogs. Terra was moderately nervous about walking past the people, but curious about the nearest dog and pulled toward him after we'd stopped. I moved her over, then we hung out and watched the class. She laid down. She rolled onto her side. She got gravel stuck to her lips and gums (ew). We wrestled. She got up and pulled toward the dog again. The teeter was on the far side of the course and she didn't react to the noise other than orienting to it. If I remember, I'll bring a pen for her next time and let her hang out through the entire class. She does so well with habituation.

This evening was the final classic car show for 2018 in downtown Winters. It takes place over two small blocks, with mostly classic muscle cars parked along the street for visitors to chat about. I put on her "in training" vest, parked in the park, and slowly headed over. She alternated between needing to stop and look around, and being okay with walking. We stayed on the quieter block, where maybe 20 people mingled at once.

We practiced passing people or getting out of the way of people. We practiced walking at my side. She's not really used to the leash restricting her movements, as usually I let her lead the way and sniff around. This time I needed to use the leash to stop her moving in this or that direction. She would often turn in a circle when she felt the tension, confused about the best way to remedy the situation. Oops, bad trainer - we haven't really practiced this at home, and that would be a big benefit to her. On the bright side, I gave her lots of freeze dried beef liver treats and she seemed to understand walking at my side and staying with me at turns. That comes naturally to her since she's so clingy!

I had to stop a few people from approaching us. A few others asked what she was in training for, which caught me off guard. I'm focusing on socialization and confidence building but at the same time I'm working on basic manners and it's all working toward a goal of being a confident sports dog as well as a pet dog I can take anywhere. I said "basic training."

We didn't get close to the clown.

The show wrapped up and most of the drivers left around sundown. Terra did not like the loud engine noises (I didn't either) but was less stressed by them toward the end. I give this trip a B-.

The current boarding dog has had a few barking fits in the yard. Terra now mostly ignores them. HOORAY!!!

Day 27 (10/07/17): downtown Davis, another male guest

The client dog with separation anxiety was back for another training stay, and this time Terra initiated play with him! Yay! It was short because she tired out quickly and he was a little awkward.

Greeting the owner. (She's met him a few times now.)

Toward evening we drove to downtown Davis and parked by Central Park. We walked along the park and then down the commercial strip. Terra is continuing to improve in her comfort level with strangers. She still sometimes retreated and/or hid, and sometimes just slightly moved away from people, but there were more times that she passed them neutrally, and many more times that she leaned toward people as they passed! Yaaaay! She was still scared of any person or thing who was out of the ordinary, such as homeless people sitting by the sidewalk, and a humanoid statue. She showed curiosity toward every dog we passed. She wanted to go into a few stores. She got into the groove of just walking along right by my side. I use the leash to control her as little as possible, and she makes it easy by being very responsive to light pressure.

Passing through this narrow section was scary for her and took a few tries.

Leash looks tight here but it was loose 90% of the time.

On the way home.

My friend Aaron came over, and as he is big and tall, she hid from him. I told him to ignore her, rather than having him sit down and be available, since her fear level was higher compared to most of my other male guests. After a while she laid down and ignored him, and was comfortable going into the crate right next to him. She never approached him.

Day 25 (10/05/17): growing, food, new guests

For the past few days, I have been thinking that Terra is getting slightly bigger every time I wake up or get back home. She's been more sleepy than usual, which make sense for a growth spurt.

I put a full daily portion of chicken liver and pork kidney into a food processor until it turned into goop, then mixed half into each of her ground meat meals. She didn't want to eat it for breakfast, so I tried giving her the same thing for lunch. This time she ate half, but reluctantly. I had made myself a BLT for breakfast and mixed a little fried bacon fat (YUM) into the rest of her breakfast, and then she finally finished it. For dinner I went ahead and mixed in a small spoonful of bacon grease and she ate without hesitation. I'll pick up some tripe as soon as I can and try that as a topper instead, since it will be healthier than bacon fat. She also had duck wings for her RMBs and she ate those eagerly as usual.

The rude-greeting dog with separation anxiety came back for another four hour stay. Terra tucked her tail and moved away as he did his charge up, but as soon as he was done she then relaxed and they ignored each other for the rest of his stay.

She was deep asleep on the kitchen floor after he left. I needed a nap, too, so I let her stay there. I had a fright when I woke up and forgot that she was in the kitchen, and peeked in her crate.

I had a client couple come over in the evening for her socialization. She had met the wife before but not the husband. She immediately went up to the wife and leaned against her and licked her face. She approached the husband as well, but slowly, and then moved away to get petting from the wife instead. She slowly warmed up to him but kept going back to me or the wife. We stood up and let the husband stay on the floor, and that helped. After a few minutes I handed him treats to give her. Later she was willing to play tug with him, though she'd prance away with her toy after every time she won. (I would get the toy and hand it back to him for another round.) She gave him kisses and tail wags here and there, and let him pet her neck and back, but it wasn't until the very end that she felt comfortable standing sideways right in front of him. She never leaned against him or lied down in his lap like she does with nearly all the women she meets. He had awesome dog skills, so I was a little disappointed that she didn't feel fully comfortable with him.

Since I only moved to this area five months ago and haven't met a lot of people yet, I've already exhausted my small pool of male clients. Not sure how to find more local men who are dog savvy...

Day 22 (10/02/17): playing at park, new people and dog, nose work

Terra weighed in at 49.5 lbs on the vet's scale. She said hello to a couple new staff members. She happily walked up to one standing but was wary of the two sitting in big black rolling chairs.

We drove to Cooper School Park. We arrived at 2:15. Terra walked and sniffed around under her own initiative. She hid between my legs when a man walked by 15 feet away, and retreated farther behind me when he called out "hello doggy." She resumed exploring. She laid down on the grass.

At 2:30 the elementary school next door ended their day. I hadn't known that was coming and was worried, but Terra handled it better than I'd expected. She watched the kids walking by from her shady spot in the middle of the park, and sniffed the breeze. She didn't show any overt stress signals, just curiosity. At 2:37 she stood up and resumed sniffing around. She even wanted to approach three kids playing nearby (I didn't let her as it was not a controlled enough situation).

At 2:45 we started playing, switching up between jaw and paw wrestling, running, cuddling, and resting. We both had a grand time. Twice more she tried to approach the three kids, with her tail wagging higher and faster each time. But I don't want to let her interact with kids I don't know at this point in time.

At 3 pm we returned to the car. Terra spooked when a girl came around a corner and turned right toward us. She tried to run directly away but I used the leash to steer her off the side instead.

She went into her crate for a nap. More demand barking put through extinction. Ugh.

I had invited a couple clients to come over with their six month old Dalmatian, Beedo. I particularly wanted Terra to meet the boyfriend, and then the pup. We were outside when they arrived, which gave Terra a good sightline and plenty of warning that new people were approaching. She quickly went up to the fence to say hello to the girlfriend. She backed away for a moment when the boyfriend came up, but he talked sweetly to her and put his fingers through the fence, and she tentatively came up to sniff his hand. When they came into the yard, again she approached the woman but retreated briefly from the man. As the minutes went by, she was willing to get closer to him, and at the 25 minute mark she came all the way up and pushed into him for a cuddle.

Soon after that, I had them bring Beedo over. Terra came right up to the fence to sniff him. As he came through the gate, she let him sniff her but tensed and slightly tucked her tail, and then walked away for about 30 seconds. She came back and they sniffed each other again. Beedo wanted to sniff all around and wasn't pushy with her. After a couple of minutes she wandered off and found a big wood chip to chew on. Then Beedo did the same.

It wasn't until Terra went all the way up to the boyfriend, and then placed her paws on his shoulders, that Beedo thought about playing with her - she had been too quiet before. Now he pawed at her head and shoulders. Terra responded in kind - "oh, we're playing now?" And they were off to the races! They ran around and around the yard, and wrestled. They played for an hour (with self-imposed breaks).

Kangaroo-puppy!

I signed up for a gold spot in Nose Work 101: Introduction to Nose Work at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Class officially started yesterday and my vials and scent q-tips arrived today. I had ordered a kit with the NACSW scents (birch, anise, clove). I hope that the AKC scent sport will take off locally and there will be more opportunities to trial, but for now I'm just assuming that we'll do NACSW.

The first homework assignment is an IYC-style targeting exercise: hold treats in one hand and a hot tin in the other, and reward the dog at source when they choose to check out the tin. Terra startled at the strong smell. She did quickly choose to move toward the tin rather than futilely nosing at my treat fist, however she's not at all "drivey." She will do a few reps of one behavior, then take a lap around the room and drink some water, then sniff the floor, then either return to work or just lie down. That's okay - her ability to focus and desire to stay in the game are slowly increasing over time. It just doesn't make for snappy video.

We also practiced stand-stays and we can sometimes get to 4-5 seconds. She is rarely manding in confusion. But she will walk off and sniff around every few treats. Gotta keep it short and sweet, and give breaks before she decides to take them on her own.