Leo vs. the Track Team

Leo vs. Joggers, May 2014
Leo vs. Joggers, May 2014

Leo redirected on me last week during a walk. Things had been going just smashingly and we hadn’t had a reaction worth reporting in a long time. On this walk, he was triggered by a pedestrian and a bike on the other side of the road. He barked, lunged, and redirected twice on my leg. His teeth didn’t break the skin, but the experience is quite like getting bitten. It felt like a setback.

One bike. One (admittedly sketchy) pedestrian. One after another. I thought I could manage the situation by hiding behind a partial wooden fence, forgetting that this technique has backfired in the past. I have turned “Quick, Leo, let’s run and hide!” into a cue something scary is coming.

A couple of preceding events may have helped push him over his threshold:

1) I came home smelling like three strange dogs from the Humane Society.

2) Minutes earlier, Rob and I saw a deer. I do not think the dogs saw the deer, but they definitely smelled it.

Whatcha gonna do? It happened and it was a bummer.

Walks around our neighborhood are challenging because it’s tough to escape an oncoming trigger. The secret to a successful Managed Training walk (I just coined that term) is visibility. I need to be able to see the bikes and the sketchy pedestrians coming in time to decide whether to manage the situation by preventing Leo from seeing the trigger at all, or whether this is a training moment when I can counter-condition him to the thing by feeding him cheese as we pass it.

That’s why I like to drive my dogs to their walks. This time of year, we’ve been having a great time parking by a baseball field, walking up a hill toward a sports stadium, and circling the neighborhood. Even though we encounter some bikes, even though there are people playing on the fields, and even though last week a toddler ran straight toward us – I’m able to see the triggers in time to manage or train.

The hill I speak of is just camera-right of the photo below from May 2014.

On our most recent walk, we’d gotten about as far as the grass in the background when I saw a man jogging toward us. I didn’t have time to race ahead and get away, and since I was armed with at least eight sticks of cheese, I veered off the path to counter-condition Leo.

So far, so good.

As soon as the man headed down the hill, I looked ahead and saw a little kid running toward us, with an adult just behind him.

Argh. Oh well, let’s see if we can keep the cheese party going until they pass.

Miraculously, he continued to take the cheese calmly.

Once they passed, I looked ahead again and saw …

TEN more people about to run past us. The whole damn track team!

Feeling doomed, I considered asking the joggers to stop, but instead pulled out more cheese.

It cost me four or five sticks of cheese, but Leo did not bark! Nor did he take the cheese particularly hard.

This might have been my proudest moment.

Leo biggest achievement here is that he counter-conditioned me. Next time the Track Team heads toward us, instead of cringing and bracing for the reaction, I’ll remember how it felt to stand next to a calm Leo as joggers pass.

Heart Like a Dog

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Blog the Change for Everyone

This news story irritated me this morning (emphasis mine).

A dog described as an American Bulldog was visiting a Temecula home Saturday afternoon when the dog mistook kids playing as aggressive action, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. …

The dog, described by animal control officers as an American Bulldog, was with three children when the attack occurred. …

The dog, described by animal control officers as an American Bulldog, will be held in quarantine for 10 days.

Look at the pictures. It’s pretty obviously an American Bulldog. By saying “described as” every time the breed is mentioned, the story conveys, “They say it’s a bulldog, but since it attacked children, it’s probably a pit bull.”

I agree with the animal control officer quoted in the story who said she’d lock her dog up before leaving him alone unsupervised with children. In my life, being good with children is not a requirement for a companion animal.

I’m working on a novel about rescued pit bulls, and I recently received a critique that said:

I know that there are many defenders of pit bulls as wonderful misunderstood gentle creatures but as I write this another little boy locally had his face ripped off yesterday. Literally. And it was the family dog. It would be a hard sell for many of us to believe there is not a structural problem with that breed and frankly we don’t want to hear about how wonderful they are, especially in the face of their sometimes shocking dangerous behavior.

(I’m familiar with that story, and while the owner insists that dog was a pit bull, it looked an awful lot like an American bulldog to me.)

Pretty harsh words, but they came at the end of an otherwise insightful and helpful critique. This isn’t a fringe opinion I can afford to disregard. Maybe I’ll give her words to a character in the book.

I’m just so tired of prejudice.

dalai-lama-we-can-let-the-circumstances-of-our-life

I didn’t post anything here at the time of the Charleston church shooting, but here’s what I wrote on Instagram:

Not unspeakable. Not unthinkable.

Unconscionable. Not just on the part of the shooter. But that racism and hate exist to this degree in our country. That guns are ubiquitous. That deranged white killers are given flak jackets and arrested peacefully while black teens are beat up, harassed, and shot in the back by police.

Some people respond to the news of another mass murder in America by saying they have “No Words.” I have a lot of fucking words.

#CharlestonShooting #BlackLivesMatter

Something that broke my heart about the Charleston shooter is that he reportedly almost changed his mind about killing those people because they were so nice to him. That there was a moment where he was like, “Waitaminute, all those things I’ve been taught about black people might not be true.”

The bulldog article above is minor compared to the systemic racism in our country, but it struck me as I tried to think of something to write about for the Blog the Change hop. It’s the same discrepancy that we see in news coverage about dog bites. If a Golden retriever attacks someone, there’s something wrong with that dog or that situation. If a bully breed does, there’s something wrong with the entire breed.

People of color who do bad shit are labeled terrorist and criminals, while the actions of white men are attributed to mental illness or some other factor that isn’t the fault of the entire race.

I don’t know how it happens that people can feel hate toward certain other people because of the color of their skin, or their sexual orientation, or gender identity. I don’t know how we begin to fix that.

Can we start with dogs? Can we convince people who like some dogs but not other dogs, that the dogs they’re afraid of are basically the same as the dogs they love? They have many of the same wonderful qualities. And you know what? Your purebred whatever has a lot of negative qualities too.

I’ve snuggled a lot of pit bulls during the past year. Not one of them acted aggressively toward me. In fact, the worst “bite” I got at the Humane Society came from a black lab who grabbed my wrist with his mouth. It left a bruise, and that dog was adopted within days. At last report, it was a happily ever after situation. I wish my purebred dog would snuggle up against me the way the shelter pit bulls do, instead of hopping off the couch to get away from me when I smother him.

I’ll admit, I love dogs more than I love most people. So for me, it’s a pretty easy leap to love all dogs, no matter what they look like, how they were bred, or whom they bite. While I can’t promise to feel the same way about all people, the best I can do is speak out against racism and injustice when I see it.

This post is part of the Blog the Change for Animals Blog Hop.

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What your dog needs

The theme for this month’s Positive Pet Training Blog Hop is training mistakes. Before I caught on to this whole positive training thing, I made so many mistakes that I wrote a book about them, called Bark and Lunge: Saving My Dog from Training Mistakes.

Everyone makes technical mistakes, like using the wrong gear, or using the right gear in the wrong way. Beyond those, one of the fundamental mistakes I made was trying to get Isis to fit the mold of the dog we wanted her to be, instead of putting her needs first.

miapenos
Mia on a father-daughter date

As I write this, Rob and Mia have gone out for a beer together. Leo and I are sitting on the back patio, where the air is cool against my arms, in contrast to the gust of hot air that greeted us when we came in the front door.

I would love to take Leo with us to cafes and patio bars, but that would be for our own enjoyment, not his.

Leo doesn’t require a ton of stimulation or exercise, but we take him somewhere every day. We cheat with the dog park during the summer, because there’s too much activity on the streets during these long summer days. It’s tough for a leash-reactive dog.

Tonight, we did half and half. We drove to an off-leash field that Leo walks in and out of on leash.

The flaming orange sun hung behind a thick haze from nearby wildfires. We saw three other dogs one at a time. I made small talk with one woman, who might have found it odd when I told her my boyfriend was having a beer with our other dog.

After she and Checkers left, the crispiness of the field made me think of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Some of my best walks with Leo are like this: solitary. I remember one around our neighborhood in the rain, where I felt like we were on patrol.

Leo would be a really good Apocalypse buddy, especially since he wouldn’t have to be on leash.

Nights like this make me happy, and remind me how low maintenance Leo really is.

I know a lot of people had a hard time over the weekend with fireworks. Our dogs aren’t afraid of them, but Leo barks at the noise. I hate the noise more than he does.

Heat Alert
Handy little item Banfield is giving away. Lets you know when it’s too hot for a dog inside your car. Also raises awareness when others walk past your car.

The other problem we’re having is the heat.

Last year, we took the dogs to Port Townsend for July Fourth weekend. I remember being thrilled that it wasn’t too hot to leave the dogs in the car while we went inside places to eat. We always parked within sight of our table, and left the windows down, but one of the pleasures of the Pacific Northwest is that it is rarely too hot to leave a dog in the car. For a short period.

That has not been the case this year. We’ve had a couple of weeks already of record-breaking temperatures that not only make it unsafe to leave your dog in the car, but also prompt warnings about walking dogs on hot pavement.

I wouldn’t have thought that 80-90 degree temps would make it too hot to walk dogs on pavement… until I stepped onto my own patio barefoot the other day.

A dog trainer friend commented that she saw two people running their dogs in the middle of the day and that the dogs were very clearly stressed. Probably those people thought their dogs needed the exercise; probably they mistook their dog’s panting as a good sign, not of heat exhaustion. Or maybe they’re such obsessive runners that they didn’t give a second thought about whether it was good for the dog or not.

I don’t run, but I had just recently walked Mia at noon. We were on a woodsy path, not pavement, most of it shaded by trees, but I did wonder if it was too hot for her.

That was a reminder to me to put Mia’s needs first. Maybe she doesn’t need a half-hour walk at noon on a record-breakingly hot day. And when we do take the dogs out at the hottest part of the day, we make sure it’s someplace like the Best Dog Park, where they have kiddie pools and a hose.

Positive Training

Positive Reinforcement Pet Training Week is hosted by Cascadian Nomads, Rubicon Days & Tenacious Little Terrier. This month we are sharing stories of our flaws as trainers. Like every month, any and all posts or comments about positive reinforcement pet training are welcome. The blog hop is open all week, so if you are a blogger, add a post and if you are a positive pet training enthusiast, hop around by clicking the thumbnails below, learn and share. Next months Positive Reinforcement Pet Training Week begins August 3rd and the theme is improving our pet training skills.

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Crispy Field at Golden Hour

Leaping Leo

They say the best camera is the one that’s in your hand. The above picture was taken close to sunset at one of our off-leash areas. All I had with me was my phone, and yes, I’ll admit to using the “clarity” filter (love that filter). I’m also tempted to photoshop Leo’s ball blue so it stands out more.

I took my DSLR on our next visit and took the following. I’m working with a new lens, which might not be the best for capturing running dogs. I don’t think the pictures turned out as well.

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

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I love all my dogs equally

Mia fountain
Looking at my Instagram feed last week, I realized with shame that it had been a while since I posted a picture of Leo. It’s not that Mia is more beautiful or more photogenic than Leo, just that Rob had been taking Mia to work a lot. He takes her on long walks during his lunch and practices with his new cameras, and therefore we wind up with lots of beautiful pictures of her.

That night I took a few phone pics of Leo at the Bad Dog Park, which was strangely empty. Everyone must have defected to the new Best Dog Park, so I’ll take the kids there tonight. Here he is, actually lying down at the park because there was no one else to play with.

Bad Dog Park

BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop

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Blame it on the pit bull

Gracie
Just kidding. Don’t blame Gracie. It’s not her fault!

Gracie is a total wiggle butt/snuggle bug available at the Humane Society of Skagit Valley. At least she was the last time I was there, which was May 22 … !

What happened to me there, and the reason I haven’t been back yet is not her fault, but because of her breed, even though she’s a very petite pittie, the news media is bound to sensationalize it and place the blame on her.

All right. Here it is. I fell down.

Somebody that I told my story to, before I even told him how I got hurt, before he knew it happened while walking a dog, asked “Did your dog pull you down?”

Seriously, I swear. No.

I was walking Gracie between a fenced play yard and a berm. The ground was uneven; I think I was walking on fist-sized gravel. Smooth rocks. I’ve walked Gracie before and she is flawless on leash. A larger dog was in the yard, one I haven’t walked because his sign says he’s not available because he’s “working on his manners.” He raced toward the fence and I thought very calmly, What a great opportunity to see if Gracie is at all reactive to other dogs.

And then I went down. It is a testament to both dogs that I don’t even remember what they did. I’m pretty sure Gracie just stood there attached to me via leash. The other dog didn’t even bark.

I had simply tripped over my own feet, and when I landed on my left shoulder, the wind was knocked out of me.

That’s a phrase I’ve heard a lot – “wind knocked out” – and now I understand what it means. I couldn’t breathe. Specifically, I felt like I couldn’t get air out. I also sprained my right thumb.

My thoughts at the moment: I’m hurt. I’m hurt. No… I seem to be okay. Nothing broken. No scrapes. No one saw; thank god! So embarrassing.

So I kept on walking Gracie. Then I walked two more dogs. My thumb hurt quite a bit, but that seemed to be the worst of my injuries.

Until I woke the next morning with pain on the side of my chest. I googled “bruised ribs,” and yep that’s what it was. Even if they were cracked, the Internet says the treatment is the same: ice, rest, drugs. Six weeks to heal.

That was almost four weeks ago. I’ve mostly been functional when upright, as long as I don’t overexert myself. Walking is fine. Getting up from a lying position is hard. Sneezing was excruciating, but that has improved. I was able to do my part to separate two fighting dogs (ours).

I did wind up seeking medical help a week and a half ago when I had sharp chest pains and was short of breath. Thought I was having a heart attack, maybe a Vicodin overdose? Nope, just strain in the interstitial cartilage or something. A house call from paramedics and four hours in the ER later, I was disappointed they didn’t see any fractures in my X-rays.

So that’s my deal. I hope to be better and back to walking shelter dogs in a couple of weeks. And though I’d love to see her again, I hope Gracie’s not still there when I go back.

Heart Like a Dog

Since my injury, I have neglected not only blog posting, but blog hopping. I’m getting back up on the horse right now with the Thursday Barks and Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. 

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How to break up a dog fight

This happened during Positive Pet Training week when the theme was multiple dogs, but sadly I didn’t have a chance to write it up in time.

Not fighting
Playing. Not fighting

Mia and Leo hadn’t been in a nasty fight in almost two years, and generally are the bestest of buddies. Most of the time, I feed them sort of separately. Leo gets his food in his crate (The Bug Hut) and Mia gets hers in her condo or the kitchen.

When I give them Raw Meaty Bones inside the house, Leo runs from room to room looking for a place to hide it before settling down beside Mia to eat it.

 

Often, they sit back to back while eating their bones. Adorable.

The other week though, something happened. I don’t remember the moments before, but suddenly they were fighting.

I’m certain that Leo left his bone too close to Mia, and then when he went back for it, she snarled at him. With most toys or lower value items, Leo shrugs it off, but here, he didn’t back down, and that’s how they ended up fighting. Snarling and snapping at each other’s faces.

In that first moment, I started shouting, “Hey! Knock it off!” Because that’s what they tell you to do, right? Make a loud noise to shake them out of it? (We’ve used an air horn in the past. Didn’t work either.) But this is counter to what I believe about dog behavior. I don’t scold or yell “No!” to stop my dogs from barking and lunging inappropriately, because shouting begets more shouting.

I grabbed Leo’s hips and pulled back. Rob rushed in from the other room with a broom in hand. He thought he might use the handle to separate them, but instead, he grabbed Mia’s hips and pulled her back. Even though we were in a smaller space (in front of the TV) than we were the last time they fought (over a live rabbit, on the back patio), we succeeded in separating them.

(We had a hard time with that last one. Since then, I’ve been advised to “wheelbarrow” fighting dogs by lifting their hips while pulling back, so their back legs are off the ground. We didn’t have room to do that this time, but luckily we didn’t have to.)

No one was injured.

Even after they were separated, Leo continued to bark at Mia, and Rob said it was scary to see him so checked out (that’s called hindbrain).

After my initial, failed attempt at shouting a distraction, I started saying, “Shhh. Shhh.” I repeated this while putting Leo in his hut and Mia in the back yard.

Then I walked them separately, and when they reunited, they were buds again.

I don’t know if “Shh” is necessarily a better way to break up a fight than “Hey!” but it kept me calm, so maybe it soothed the dogs too.

Our hearts were pounding afterward, but I felt quite pleased with ourselves. This was a welcome change; usually I beat myself up about my failure as a dog parent. This time, Rob and I congratulated ourselves on how well we handled the fight.

But sadly, this means I won’t get to watch them eat Raw Meaty Bones side by side for a while.

How about you, readers? What was the worst dog fight you’ve had to break up? Do you have any field-tested techniques?

Hark! There is a blog hop I can join with this post: June is Multiple Pet Mania Month hosted by Cascadian Nomads, My GBGV Life and Wag’n’Woof Pets and sponsored by K9 Bytes, Merrick and The Umbilical Belt. The entire month is all about life with multiple pets culminating with the first annual Multiple Pet Day on June 30th. If you have or have ever had more than one pet, please take the Life With Multiple Pets Survey. We will be sharing the results on Multiple Pet Day. That is also the day we will announce the winner of our #MultiPetDay photo contest. Anyone can join in the photo contest or multiple pet mania month fun. Check out the posts below, comment, share and follow #MultiPetMania. If you are a blogger with more than one pet, please link up a post about multiple pet life below. Any and all things about living with and loving multiple pets are welcome!

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