Leaving Pyrrha for the weekend

How could you leave ME?

We are going to Indiana this weekend for my paternal grandfather’s memorial service. My dad’s family is where I got my dog-crazy genes from, and they all encouraged us to bring our latest addition along. However, after some further thought, I feel like a 10-hour car trip to a place with lots of unfamiliar people (and one unfamiliar and shy dog, belonging to my aunt and uncle) would be way too much stress, for everyone. It will be better for all involved parties if Pyrrha stayed behind.

Thankfully, Pyrrha’s former foster from SGSR is a SAINT and has graciously agreed to take her back for the weekend. This is the best of all possible worlds, as it’s a place (and a pack of GSDs) that Pyrrha is already familiar with. I am so, so thankful that this could work out. It eases my anxiety a lot.

I, of course, really hate to leave her now, especially as I feel like we had a big breakthrough last night: It was the first time that Pyrrha actually tried to play with US!

Back story: I’d been really discouraged with her over the past few days, as it seemed like she’d been regressing and getting even more shy about things that formerly didn’t stress her out (like going in the backyard, or wanting to be in the room with us while we made dinner, etc.). But for the past three days, we’ve had daily thunderstorms, and I think those have only contributed to her anxiety, even though she hasn’t shown any serious signs of storm phobia. I was even starting to feel like we made a mistake, that she’d never get better, that we were not right for her, and so on…

But then last night, after our dinner guests left and we moved her crate into the guest room, she suddenly perked up. It was like her personality did a 180. We sat down on the loveseat to watch her, and she suddenly gave us a play bow and clambered up into my lap. She started kissing our toes, trying to playfully mouth our hands, and even played with her squeaky bunny toy–for the first time! Those few moments made all of my doubt and discouragement fade away. I was reminded that there is a happy dog in there, that she is going to come out of her shell, and that she still has so much to learn and gain confidence about.

She’s going to be OK. We’re going to be OK. I have to keep reminding myself to slow down and be patient. As of today, she’s only been with us for a week. I shouldn’t expect her to magically transform into a stable, happy dog so quickly. She’ll get there. So, here’s to hoping that she still likes us after we get back from this weekend!

In which Pyrrha has an uneasy “play” date with Silas

Sunday delivered the most beautiful spring weather. We spent the whole day outside with Pyrrha, mowing the lawn, tending to our plants. We ran a brief errand and bumped into our friends James and Sara and their Great Pyrenees mix, Silas. We told them about Pyrrha and said we’d be hanging out all day in the yard if they wanted to come over and bring Silas.

Pyrrha, sitting in the freshly mowed lawn.

At this point, I knew that Pyrrha reacted fearfully toward other dogs on lead, but I’d heard from her foster that she was great with them in open spaces. I figured that this would be a good interaction, especially knowing that Silas was super-calm and steady. Enter my first dog-parenting misjudgment.

We were in the backyard with Pyrrha when James, Sara, and Silas showed up. As soon as she saw Silas, she EXPLODED. Snarling, barking, growling, hackles up, teeth flashing everywhere. Thankfully, James and Sara are as calm as their dog is. I didn’t know what to do, but James encouraged me to lead her to the back of the yard and then let go. He then released an unleashed Silas and I held my breath.

Silas, being his wonderful, chill self.

Pyrrha did not lunge at him, which I was afraid of, but just started slinking around him, sniffing him. If he ever faced her, however, she started snarling and growling again. But Silas was SUCH a champ. He was the perfect dog for her, because he refused to respond to any of her bitchiness. He’d just saunter away and let her do her thing.

The dogs, somewhat coexisting.

After about 10 minutes of Silas studiously ignoring her, she started to calm down and they began to coexist together. They certainly weren’t going to play with one another, but they were happy to be side-by-side and even face-to-face for the rest of the afternoon.

What I Learned: I definitely underestimated how Pyrrha might react to a new, big, strange dog in her new yard. Silas was THE best possible dog to meet her like this, however. I think he may be a critical part of her rehabilitation. And James and Sara were awesome, too; they didn’t take Pyrrha’s behavior personally and knew that she’d get over it. Which she did.

Silas relaxes; Pyrrha sniffs out James.

I’m listening to your majority opinion now, and I think all of you are right: Pyrrha still just needs more time to calm down and adjust and grow in confidence. There will be plenty of time for doggy play dates. For now, we just need to work on some basic bonding and training. But the afternoon wasn’t nearly as disastrous as it could have been, and I daresay she was almost disappointed to see Silas go at the end of the day. I think Pyrrha and I both learned a lot. So, a thousand thanks to Silas and his wonderful humans; you guys deserve dog socialization medals.

I am going to take it slow with Pyrrha for now and politely decline any future, well-meaning invitations for play dates. However, I feel like the fact that she was able to happily coexist with Silas after some time bodes well for her future. She can get there eventually, but for now, we’re going to start with some more basic bonding work instead of rushing her into the presence of new dogs.

Those of you with shy dogs, how did you gradually introduce them to other dogs? What are some of your recommended techniques?

Practicing her sit

Pyrrha, waiting for a bit of hot dog.

As far as training goes, Pyrrha is a blank slate. (She’s a blank slate in most respects, come to think of it…) She’s still learning her name and this week, now that she’s more confident and out of the post-surgery malaise, we’re learning “sit” and “down.” Here, she demonstrates her pretty sit.

We are leaving town this weekend for my grandfather’s memorial service in Indiana. We went back and forth a lot over whether to bring Pyrrha, but we decided that, for the stress of all involved parties, it would probably be better if she didn’t take the 10-hour car ride with us. Thankfully, her former foster is a SAINT and has agreed to take her for the weekend. I really, really, really hate to leave her, but there’s no getting around it. I feel so much better knowing that she’ll be in a familiar place and that we won’t be gone for too very long…

More to come! Happy Tuesday!

Meet Pyrrha!

Pyrrha and me at Blue Mountain Brewery, on our third day together.

Wow: We have a dog!

I kind of don’t believe it yet, but allow me to introduce you to Pyrrha, formerly known as Lyndi.

On Thursday night, we brought this sweet, super-beautiful, and groggy shepherd home from Southeast German Shepherd Rescue. She had just been spayed that morning, so she was (understandably) really out of it on Thursday and Friday. She handled all of the craziness–our moving, still unpacking, having our sweet in-laws staying with us, and the added pain and disorientation from her surgery–like a champ!

Happy Pyrrha.

A bit of back story: Pyrrha (*pronounced “peer-ah”) is 14 months old. She was brought into SGSR with about 14 other dogs after a backyard breeder in North Carolina closed his operation. Since then, she’s been fostered by the absolutely wonderful Cassie, who has been a joy to work with and a superb resource already.

Pyrrha is naturally shy, owing most likely to her under-socialization. Up until she was taken in by SGSR, it’s believed that she lived her whole life outside in a kennel. Cassie worked on house training and teaching her how to live indoors with humans. So far, that transition into home living has been very smooth. She loves her crate, which we keep in our bedroom, and sees it as her “safe place.” She goes in there very willingly and often opts to crawl in there herself. She hasn’t shown any signs of separation anxiety, which is great.

Watchful.

I’ve been very relieved to notice how well she’s met and handled all different kinds of people. She is a little timid at first, but always willingly greets people and seems naturally interested in them. She’s also met several babies and little children and handles them graciously. She’s not kissy like a retriever (e.g., sweet Bo), but I already knew to expect that with GSDs. Rather, she likes to politely greet you and then submit to your petting and attention. No jumping, no excessive displays of affection from Pyrrha, but politeness and calmness instead. She’s extremely mellow with people.

We’ve been trying to take her to as many places as possible over the weekend, to the best of our ability, without overwhelming her. She ate outdoors with us at Blue Mountain Brewery and was great. She met lots of new people and children and laid calmly under the table for the duration of our meal.

Pyrrha by the back stoop.

Our one major issue with her right now is teaching her dog manners. The main consequence of her under-socialization is that she is terrified of other dogs and reacts with growling, snarling, and barking. It’s clear that she has no idea how to greet and interact with other dogs politely. (She was even terrified of a roly-poly lab puppy that we met at the brewery.) We arranged a “play date” with a super-chill Great Pyrenees mix yesterday that did not start out very well–but I’ll write more on that later (and have some photos to share, too).

All in all, we are very, very happy with Pyrrha and can’t wait to learn more about her. It’s been so encouraging to already see her confidence grow, her tail wag, and her tongue hang loose in a happy smile.

Thanks for ALL of your advice, wisdom, and encouragement over this past year! I need it now more than ever! More to come soon!

Pup links!

Those ears! German shepherd pup on the beach. Click for source.

Dog-related links from around the Web this week:

People and Their Pets. I love this sweet and moving photo series by Stepan Obruchkov; I’ve pinned a lot of his images on my Dogs board on Pinterest. (Wolf Eyebrows)

To Pet or NOT to Pet. This is a really helpful and illustrative re-post about reading dogs’ body language; it would be great to show these photos to classrooms, particularly. But, actually, the more I think about it, the more I think your average person could benefit from discerning between these images. I’m constantly amazed at how poor we are at reading dogs’ body language and how many myths still persist about what dogs are trying to tell us. Great post. (Success Just Clicks)

Therapy Dogs Helping Seniors Live Longer. A feature on an assisted living facility in our area that welcomes therapy dogs; apparently it’s one of the only ones in our region that does. (Dog Days/Grouchy Puppy)

Puppy Breath, Take Me Away. Tales and Tails visits a socialization day for a new litter of fuzzy, heartbreakingly cute German shepherd puppies. Just because we can all use more puppy pictures on a daily basis. (Tales and Tails)

Green paws? The malinois is really getting into gardening these days. I just loved these photos; he looks like he is having such a good time. (Exercise Finished)

A successful introduction to the foster dog

The foster dog, currently called Lyndi.

We had a really wonderful introduction to “Lyndi” on Friday night! I don’t want to say too much at this point, since we still haven’t had our home visit (happening this Thursday), but it went very, very well and I have high hopes!

Guion was sold as soon as she sat down on his feet in the grass. I was sold as soon as I saw how calmly and considerately she handled meeting all kinds of children and people in Lowes, at a restaurant, and on the extremely busy and crowded downtown pedestrian mall. We can’t wait to see her again on Thursday! Of course, I’ll keep you posted…

Other nations caught with ourselves

Click for source.

“We need another and a wise and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”

– Harry Beston, The Outermost House

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kind of a dramatic quote for today, but I like its basic meaning and premise. Happy Friday, everyone! I’m really excited today, because tonight we get to briefly meet Lyndi. Our home visit still won’t happen until next week, but her foster could tell that I was super-eager to meet her, so we get to see her ahead of schedule. I really hope she could be the ONE… We’ll see! Of course, I’ll keep you posted… in the midst of all the moving madness. Have a great weekend, and happy Mother’s Day!

Dogs with bad manners

Dogs in flight. Click for source.

(So, I couldn’t find a photo illustrating dogs with bad manners. These two are just REALLY excited to go outside…)

On Tuesday, I read the article “He Just Wants to Say ‘Hi’!” by Suzanne Clothier, who wrote one of my favorite books about human-dog relationships. Clothier’s basic premise is that we, as dog guardians, often misinterpret canine behavior and are frequently slow to recognize dogs with bad manners–especially if it’s our dog who is the rude one.

As Clothier says:

It never fails to amaze me how willing humans are to excuse and rationalize a dog’s rude behavior instead of teaching them good manners. Part of developing appropriate social behavior is learning that no matter how excited you may be, there are other folks in the world and certain basic rules of politeness still apply no matter how excited you may be.

I realized I had totally seen this in action when I was walking Bo at the park some months ago–and I was definitely the one at fault. While we were walking in the park, we passed a big cluster of dogs on leashes with their people. Bo happily bounded up to the group and was wagging all over the place. A woman with a pair of greyhounds walked over to let her dogs join the circle. Bo went over to greet the pair, and the senior male greyhound growled and snapped at him. His woman instantly jerked the dog’s collar and reprimanded him, saying to me, apologetically, “Sorry, he’s just a grumpy old man.”

But after reading Clothier’s article, I realized that I was the one who should have been apologizing. The old grey was just trying to teach the over-exuberant Bo some manners. Instead, we humans interpreted the greyhound as reacting “aggressively,” where it was Bo who was at fault. Bo listened closely to the greyhound’s reprimand, however, and immediately backed off. It was just us humans who didn’t understand what was going on. I wish I could see that woman again and tell her that her genteel old boy wasn’t the one to be scolded.

Clothier suggests that we need to pay more careful attention to the ways that our dogs interact with other dogs. We should be able to recognize when our own dogs are being rude AND when other dogs are approaching our own with impoliteness. While we can’t control other people’s dogs, we can be advocates for our own–and that sometimes involves physical action. Clothier writes:

I encourage handlers to be quite active in protecting their dog – whether that means quietly walking away to a safer area, or, when that’s not possible, literally stepping in physically to present the first line of defense. Stepping in between two dogs is a classic act of leadership. Dogs do it with other dogs all the time, so this same gesture coming from a human leader is understood and appreciated.

This simple act of stepping between an approaching rude dog can do a lot to defuse the situation, if you know your dog isn’t one to tolerate impoliteness. Finally, as she says, we have to remember that we are responsible for our dogs and we cannot expect perfection:

We cannot expect our dogs to be saints – at least not until we can rise to that level of tolerance ourselves. And that’s unlikely to happen any time soon. We can expect our dogs to be tolerant to the degree that we educate them, socialize them and protect them – with respect to their individual needs and boundaries.

I’m glad I read Clothier’s article and glad to have had my eyes opened to a particular aspect of canine behavior that I had previously misinterpreted.

How about you? How does your dog handle rudeness? Do you feel like you’re able to detect when your dog is being the impolite one? How do you defuse building tension between dogs?

Review: Don’t Shoot the Dog!

Don’t Shoot the Dog!

This classic book by landmark trainer and behaviorist Karen Pryor has been on my to-read list for almost a year now. Our public library didn’t carry a copy, but then I stumbled upon it at a used book sale for a $1. Perfect!

I actually had no idea that this book wasn’t exclusively a dog training book; Don’t Shoot the Dog! is actually a general primer on the techniques and methods of positive reinforcement training, applied to all kinds of animals–humans included. The book is not a step-by-step training manual, but rather a primer on why these positive techniques work in the first place.

Pryor is best known for being a leading proponent of clicker training, a method of reward and reinforcement that she began using while training dolphins. Clicker training has widespread application to many different types of animals and dogs, of course, respond very well to the use of clickers.

The book discusses the application of clickers in positive reinforcement training, but it spends more time explaining why clicker training works. Why do animals respond so well and so quickly to this schedule of training? Pryor has the answers, and she presents them cleanly and clearly in this book.

I almost wish I had read it earlier, as it would have been a nice foundation for my introduction to positive training. As it stands, however, I’m still glad I read it and glad to have that extra assurance that this is the type of training that is respectful and effective. I am looking forward to continuing to learn these techniques and put them into practice with my own dog in the coming months!

Pup links!

A meditative mutt. Photo by Winnie Au.

Dog-related links from around the Web this week:

Your Complete Guide to the Diamond Pet Food Recalls. If you read any pet blogs at all, you’ve surely already heard about the big fiasco with Diamond Pet Food’s recall of a whole host of kibbles infected with salmonella. I was dismayed to read about it, because I had kind of decided to feed our future dog Taste of the Wild, which is one of the brands included in this voluntary recall. Were any of you affected by the recall? Will you be switching brands because of it? (Poisoned Pets)

Lure and Clicker Training to Teach Sit: Advantages and Disadvantages. Patricia McConnell discusses the pros and cons of using either a lure or a clicker to teach a dog how to sit. She also wonders if anyone is a combination trainer, perhaps using a mix of both techniques? (The Other End of the Leash)

Dogs Are Born to Run. Interesting citation of a study that claims that dogs, like people, can experience a “runner’s high.” (The Bark blog)

Four Easy Ways to Eliminate Tag Jingle. Some tips and tags to prevent the constant jingling of tags. (*Although I sometimes like noisy dog tags, in that they can always tell me where the dog is in the house…) (Unleashed Unlimited)

Ted Recommends Stagbars. Ted the long-haired chihuahua likes these particular stagbar chews and thoughtfully explains why. (Tinkerwolf)

Film: Badlands (1973). M.C. reviews Terrence Malick’s beautiful film Badlands and the dogs who play a role in it. I’m looking forward to seeing this myself, as it’s one of my husband’s all-time favorites. (The House of Two Bows)

The Long and the Short of it. I love these old-fashioned/woodblock-print-like key fobs and tags, all printed with a variety of classic breeds; would make a nice gift for a particular breed devotee. (Under the Blanket)

Rosie’s Bloopers. This is the goofiest pointer ever! These photos are hilarious. (Paws on the Run)

His Face Every Time I Catch a Fish. This is… so good. This man’s hound makes the exact same expression of curious bewilderment whenever there is a fish in the boat. (Full Pelt)

OK, and now, one of my new favorite animal Tumblrs is Animals Talking in All Caps. (It’s exactly what it sounds like.) Some of my favorites that include dogs:

WOULD YOU GUYS STOP ARGUING ABOUT POLITICS
AUGH! NO, NO! THIS IS GIN!
SEVEN YOUNG LADIES STAND BEFORE ME…