Day 15 (09/25/17): training, food, playing at new park

Terra had solid poop all weekend while at Sherry's, eating Honest Kitchen. What a relief! Now that she's back to normal (and getting good nutrition), I'll try transitioning to raw food again.

This morning she pooped twice, peed twice, ate breakfast, and played with Luki, the current boarding dog. Then she went into her crate for 4 hours while my sep anx dog came for another training stay. She spent the first hour barking off and on, which was annoying, but I didn't worry since I knew her basic needs had been met. She also had a jumbo-sized bully stick in her crate, which she ignored. She was just experiencing FOMO.

When the sep anx dog's owners came to pick him up, I brought her out to meet them. She was curious about them both, but approached just a bit hesitantly, and was more willing to get into the wife's personal space. After she'd had a minute of cooing and gentle petting, I handed liver treats to the husband. She manded for him and wagged her tail, and after a stream of treats she was willing to come into his bubble and get "normal" petting from him. Perfect!


Since she was full of energy, we did play and a training session in the barn. I brought out two balls and rolled them slowly. She pawed at them minimally but preferred to come and lean into me for petting. So we did "personal play" (without toys), such as "got your tail!" (trying to get behind her and tapping her butt while she spun to chase me), jumping, running, and of course interspersed cuddling. (I LOVE that she's such a cuddle bug.) Then I got a braided fleece toy and we did baby-tug, with lots of encouragement for pulling back on the toy (gaining strength!), holding the toy, carrying it, and bringing it to me.

Clicker time: eye contact while I hold treats at her nose level (anti-mugging / IYC), shaping mat (seeing some intentionality there), shaping fly with body prompting (was getting consistent movement at end, rather than standing and thinking), and stand-stay (still have to keep it at max 2 seconds).

I gave Terra two raw chicken drumsticks for lunch. She was SO excited to get raw again! She danced with her paws and wagged her tail, and it prompted her first ever jump onto the counter to try to get more!

Then she passed out for a long afternoon nap.

At 5:30 pm, I loaded her and Luki into the car and drove to Pet Food Express. Luki got his training inside, and I bought a number of rubber-textured toys, since Terra prefers those. She slept (on her back, of course) while we were gone.

I drove to nearby Walnut Park, a large grass sports field. I let her off the leash since it was sunset and few people were around, and I knew that she would stick close. Initially she wagged her tail and set out in front of me, but when we got about 30 feet from the car, she suddenly became overwhelmed and clingy. We turned back and she trotted ahead of me toward the car. Once we got back to it, it seemed that she gained confidence from the ability to return to "home base," and she was ready to explore again.

I pulled out one of the rubber stick-shaped toys and we played together - a little tug, a little chasing the tossed toy, a little run and cuddle. It was a quite fun for both of us. A year ago, I would have relied entirely on treats to do counter-conditioning, but since then I have been turned on to the magic of just playing together. When we finally tired out, Terra was comfortable walking even farther from the car. She spent most of the "walk" intensely sniffing the grass. We practiced two recalls, using cuddles and licks from the liverwurst Bark Pouch as rewards. (She loves the Bark Pouch!)

On our way back to the car again, a woman and her leashed Golden Retriever walked by about 50 feet away. Terra stopped and watched them for 10 seconds, then decided to run over and say hello. On the one hand, I was thrilled that she was much more comfortable approaching a strange dog. On the other hand, I definitely didn't want her to practice running up and accosting other walkers! I ran and called her, she slowed down and looked at me, she trotted off again, I ran and called again, she paused again, and finally I caught up to her. Lots of cuddles and treats for letting me catch her.

Dinner and playtime with Luki at home. She was fast asleep before I put her in her crate, but then she decided to spend 90 minutes chewing on that jumbo bully stick. She doesn't have much jaw strength yet, as she barely shortened it.

Everything is headed in the right direction.

This was the farthest she ever got from me.

Rubber stick!

She found some crumpled paper and tore it up.

And I encouraged it, because yay play!

Whack!

New toys!

Day 7 (09/17/17): puppy class

I had planned a play date with a trainer friend's Puppy Culture-raised PWD puppy, but we decided to reschedule since Terra had a big night yesterday. She had more diarrhea during the night but it wasn't so watery. She scarfed down her breakfast of 1 lb of cooked chicken, 4 oz of cooked sweet potato, and 1 cup of chicken water (from when it was cooking). I've removed her supplements other than the probiotic Fortiflora that her vet gave us.

Yum!

Terra's current routine in the mornings is to play a lot with the boarding Welshie, eat her breakfast, do some calm play/chewing on toys, and then fall back asleep. At this point I want her to get lots of free play with the Welshie to build her confidence with other dogs.

At 4 pm we had our first week of puppy class. (It's open enrollment so new puppy owners can join at any time.) I emailed the trainer ahead of time and let her know that Terra is nervous around both new dogs and people so we would be staying on the side lines until she was comfortable. The class is taught at a basketball court and sports field at a school, so we had plenty of distance. Terra didn't even notice the other dogs except when they walked toward the grassy area for potty breaks.

So faaarrr awaaaayy

I brought two bunny fur tugs, her pound of cooked chicken for dinner, a mat, and a 15 foot long line. I clipped the long line to the back of her harness and let her lead the way in the grassy field. At first her head was low and her ears were back, but after just a minute or two she relaxed her body language. She wandered to the pile of stuff I'd set down on the ground and sniffed out the bag of chicken. She manded to ask for chicken (thank you Puppy Culture!) and shifted her front paws excitedly. I gave her a whole bunch of chicken and she kept asking for more. I tried to get her to play but she was in food mode.

Chicken!

I LOVE this collar from 2 Hounds Design. It has plants and bunnies and unicorns!

The class instructor came over and sat down in the shade. Terra immediately walked over with a wagging tail  and sniffed her, and I handed her some chicken as well. I was delighted at how social Terra was with her.

After the trainer left she sent over a mother and ~10 year old son. (Their puppy was with the instructor in the meantime.) They also sat down and waited. The mother was great about coaching her son on how to be calm and polite around a nervous dog. Terra was curious about the woman but nervous enough about the boy that those feelings were almost equal and she stayed in place. I talked to her, per her, and stepped forward one step. That gave Terra enough security to also move closer one step at a time. Once she was within sniffing distance, I passed big hunks of chicken to the humans and they both fed her and pet her chest. In retrospect I should have given her a bit longer to sniff them before I handed over the chicken, to give her natural sociability a chance to kick in more. After a few minutes she moved away and laid down with her back to everyone. The woman and son slowly stood up, one at a time, and returned to the class.

I thought about leaving then but Terra rolled onto her back and let me pet her belly (until she got mouthy and I put a toy in her mouth). Then we got up to head back to the car. Terra sniffed around new areas of the grassy field with relaxed body language. We went by a large plastic garbage bag. She curved around it warily, then slowly approached to sniff it. Lots of praise!! She walked right over a metal grate in the ground. Woo!

The students from the next class started to arrive before ours was done (good for them) and unfortunately the group was standing closer than Terra was comfortable. I made the decision that it would be better to hurry her into the car rather than to move away and be stuck there for another 15 minutes. One of the pups was barking and that was making her nervous.

I hope that during the next class I can get her to run around and play with me. We'll only go closer to the rest of the class if she's willing to play.

She slept in her crate while I trained the Welshie, then initiated another round of intense wrestling and biting. So she wasn't exhausted from class, which tells me that I did well in orchestrating everything.

She hasn't pooped since this morning, so it looks like the sweet potato is helping!

I did her nails at the end of the night when she was too tired to really notice. They had barely grown since last time but the point is to do them frequently and just take teeny pieces off while the pup is relaxed.

Welcome home!

This is Bad Wolf's Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey, AKA Terra, an Irish Wolfhound. She is currently 13 weeks and 3 days old, and as of 4 days ago she weighed 41.9 pounds.

I have high hopes for Terra, though I know how to temper them to realistic expectations. If my wildest dreams come true, we will be competing in conformation, competition obedience, and nose work at the least. She will be a dream at the vet's with 100% cooperative care. She will not be reactive to dogs, people, noises, or motion, and will be able to go everywhere with me. She will have fabulous social skills with other dogs.

For now, we are working on socialization, crate training, chew training, not pawing for attention (she already knows to sit instead of jumping), potty training, and leash walking. She got a head start on all of these things at her breeder's, who followed the Puppy Culture program. My thanks to Amanda Baerwald Spencer of Bad Wolf Irish Wolfhounds.