From the moment we got Alice, I wondered what breeds were mixed together to make her. She has a lot of interesting behavioral quirks and I really needed to know what she is.
Luckily for Yulemas, my husband and inlaws got together and got us an Embark DNA test! Embark is one of the most reliable DNA tests on the market. I've a lot of friends who have used Embark and are happy with their results. For Alice we decided to do a full panel, which means we also got her health report and traits in addition to her breed results.
We received our DNA kit around the first of the year and waited three long weeks to find out what she might come back with. Honestly, it felt like three years!
Alice came back with 7 breeds! You can see her results by clicking here: Alice
I was more than a little stunned by her results. I thought Alice was going to come back as some sort of rat terrier and spitz or asian mix. I don't really see any poodle at all in her but I do see the shih tzu, she has the tail, teeth and weird conformation in her hind end that definitely reminds me of a shih tzu.
I see cattle dog the most. She has very strong herding instincts and often will get stuck stalking her friends. She also does the same problematic herding behavior that Phoenix displays (chasing and nipping at heels and hindquarters).
When she's not herding, her personality reminds me of several purebred terriers that I've worked with. Her play style is almost totally terrier when she's not stuck in herding. She has the same intensity and higher arousal as the terriers I've worked with and she's prone to the same frustration behaviors if she doesn't get her way.
She's such a fascinating dog and even though we've only been together a year, she's taught me a lot!
I'm still really wondering if she has some sort of spitz or asian breed mixed in with her Super Mutt and Embark just couldn't find it. She has a double coat and has only shed out once since we've had her. Most of the breeds in her mix shed pretty heavily year round. Alice does not shed at all except for the one time when she blew her coat last spring. She also struggled with alopecia after I deshedded her with the wrong grooming tool and we're still working on growing that part of her coat out. Pom/Spitz/Asian breeds are prone to alopecia. It's possible that she could of had a long-haired chihuahua give her this kind of hair as they tend to be similar to pomeranians in haircoat sometimes... I just don't know.
As with most things, I have learned to take these tests with a grain of salt. While I trust Embark I'm not as sure about Alice's results as I was about Phoenix's. Some of it makes sense but some of it doesn't and that's okay. It's probably because I've worked with too many dogs and she just reminds me so much of those terriers. We've decided to go with Cattle Rat when people ask us what she is, as it makes the most sense to us. I see herding behavior and I see terrier behavior.
I am happy to let everyone know that her health report came back clear for all of the genetic diseases that Embark tests for. I have a 10 page report to take to our veterinarian. I'm sure he'll be thrilled with all the paperwork he gets to look at. LOL!
For those who have asked, we definitely plan on doing an Embark on Zoe. It will be interesting to find out what breed mixes come back for her and if she's related to Phoenix. They were both rescued out of Klamath Falls and that's a really small town. It will just be a while until we have the money to get another test kit but I will let you all know when it happens!
HOLY CRAP! I can't believe Alice has been here a whole year.
Happy Gotcha Day, Teacup!
It was about a year ago that I was starting to watch Zoe and Phoenix turn grey and feeling 100% terrified that I might end up dogless again. My dogs, my reason for getting up in the morning are getting old. The older they got, the more fearful I became. I remember what it was like to live in a mostly empty apartment. No jiggling collars, no happy dances when you got home from work. No matter how much I love my other pets, there's nothing like having a best canine friend in the house. A dog is the only animal on earth that will love you more than they love themselves. A dog is the only being on earth that will love you unconditionally and I need a dog in my house. I had been thinking about getting a third dog since we got Phoenix. I knew she wasn't going to be our last dog but our circumstances didn't allow for another animal for a while. As soon as our circumstances did change, though, I started to annoy my husband endlessly with photos of available dogs.
"Indigo"
I had been specifically looking at puppies because I thought that a baby would be more accepted by our older dogs, even though I prefer adult dogs. One day on a whim, I changed Petfinder to show me "puppies" and "young adults". As I was searching the dogs, a young adult dog named "Indigo" showed up in my feed. That was it! I knew immediately that I wanted Indigo and she was all I thought about for days. The rescue takes their dogs to adoption events on the weekends and they don't adopt out if your whole family isn't present. My husband works weekends. My chances of getting her were slim to none. In Portland, young dogs and puppies are usually adopted immediately. So after discussing it with my husband, I decided that if Indigo wasn't adopted over the weekend, we would go meet her when he was off work on Tuesday. I almost went to the adoption event by myself to meet her but I didn't want to break my own heart when she was taken from me, so I didn't go. I decided that if she was still there by Tuesday and she liked us then it was meant to be and if she wasn't then it wasn't. Luckily for us, it was meant to be!
I barely survived the weekend. I refreshed her profile
over and over to see if she was gone. I cleaned my house from top to
bottom on Monday and puppy proofed the whole thing, just in case. I
rearranged my bedroom to fit an extra crate. I just had a good feeling
about her. Finally Tuesday came and it was freaking SNOWING. The rescue
is located over an hour from our house. We would have to drive through
Portland traffic, over icy bridges, in the snow (something you just
don't do here unless it's an emergency) to see this dog. I know this
probably sounds silly to anyone who regularly lives in the snow, I grew
up in the snow, too but unfortunately the city of Portland is never
prepared for snow and neither are the people who live here. I called the
rescue before we headed out to make sure she was still there and
luckily she was!
The rescue employee brought "Indigo" out to see us, she ran right past me and jumped into my husband's arms and that was it for him, he was sold. Once she was done with him, we had a wonderful moment together that my husband caught on film. We had an instant connection and she was everything I hoped she'd be. She is the friendliest dog I've ever met in my life and I couldn't believe she wasn't adopted over the weekend. She was even their "kissing booth dog". Hindsight a year later and I think she may have been passed over by regular humans (non dog trainers) because she comes across as "too hyper" when meeting new people, as my neighbor has said about her. As a dog trainer, I like/want that energy and can channel it into training games, so I didn't mind that she was "hyper".
We brought her home and Indigo Jones became "Wonderland's Thee Alice of Legend" (from the SciFi movie with Caterina Scorsone "Alice") and boy did this little dog fall down a rabbit hole of training! I have done so much work over the year. Sometimes I look back on it and feel like I haven't taught her anything but I think it's because I'm taking such a different approach to raising Alice than I did with the other two. The other two dogs felt like a race to me, to teach them the most amount of tricks I could, to show off how great of a trainer I was, to build Phoenix's confidence up from her trauma. With Alice, she's got a lot of confidence already and I'm taking things day by day with her, focusing on being a good house dog and companion first and a fun training partner second.
It's been a whole year. The year of Alice.
She did come home with some issues, as most dogs do and we've been working on so many things!
The main issues we've been dealing with are:
Potty Training! (She had zero understanding of what to do when she goes outside and gets distracted by literally everything, sometimes taking over an hour to just pee)
Dog/Dog Reactivity (barking and lunging at dogs while on leash)
Over Greeting Strangers (lunging and jumping on every stranger she passes/finds)
Pica (eating everything including dangerous items, especially when stressed)
Hyperactivity (She only slept exactly 8 hours at night and was up all day)
Resource Guarding (Object guarding from the other dogs and cats, not people)
Touch Sensitivity/Handling Issues (Biting humans for touching body parts, including ears and paws)
Playing too roughly with Phoenix
Chasing and stomping on cats
We also had to deal with Zoe hating her for several months, too. I'm so relieved that's over. Zoe has fully accepted Alice as a member of our family at this point. They play every day and Zoe does enjoy her company. We don't keep Zoe muzzled anymore and we don't keep them separated at all.
I was also worried about ever letting her off leash because she's so friendly that she would take off with any stranger she found, so teaching her a solid recall was extremely important to me and I work on it every chance I get.
Potty training is still on going, I won't go too much into it here since I did a whole post about it and you can find that here: Potty Training the Impossible. At the time of this writing, I'm still working with her on pottying quickly when we go outside. She is a bit of a diva about pottying in the same spot twice but she's gotten so much better than she was a year ago. It can still be frustrating at times for me when Alice gets distracted and forgets what we're outside to do but it's better.
Her dog/dog reactivity has been something we spent the most time working on. I wouldn't say she's 100% cured but she's great with all of our regular neighborhood dogs and has even made a few dog friends that she likes. The general rule with Alice is if the other dog is "cool" then she's "cool". She is also doing better when the other dog is not cool and is barking and lunging at her. She did really well when we were waiting in line to meet Santa and there were tons of dogs running around and barking. We still have a harder time on narrow trails. I'm trying to teach her to ignore the passing dogs and stay on her side but if the trail gets too narrow and we don't have enough space to pass without them going nose to nose, then we just pick her up and carry her past. I don't think she'd nip a dog just in passing but you never know what another dog will do and I don't want her to have a bad experience and I really don't like doing on leash greetings with dogs we don't know.
Over greeting people is still a thing and I don't really mind it that much. She's small, she's not going to knock anyone over. We are still working on ignoring strangers that are not interested in saying hello to her. Then with strangers who do want to say hi, I let her say hi and be as crazy as she wants to be. No one has ever been offended by her cheerfulness.
The pica is getting better, too. I believe it's due to stress. So if she's upset and stressed out she will eat non-food items. We carefully manage that and make sure she doesn't have access to dangerous items.
Hyperactivity has gotten WAY better. When we first got her, she reminded me of a child on crack (sugar high) at Disney Land. From the moment she woke up until the moment it was time to go to bed she wanted to play and run around and rough house and tear stuff up. She was also making herself overly tired and was having something similar to what a child would do, have a tantrum. For a couple of months, she was like this and I had to crate her and force her to take breaks and naps for both of us to stay sane. A year later and she has learned it's okay to take breaks, relax and nap during the day.
The resource guarding has gotten so much better as she's gotten more confident in our house. Guarding doesn't really bother me that much, it's a completely normal behavior that animals display. Alice's resource guarding was directly related to the other animals in the house approaching high value items in her possession. The rule here is if a dog has something, then it's theirs (unless that object is dangerous). Nobody is allowed to mess with another dog's stuff. They have all learned to have chewy bones near each other without stress. Alice still struggles with a bit of guarding towards the cats. My cats are pretty dumb and even though they've lived with dogs for years, they still want to go up to them when there's a new bone or something to smell the thing. They don't want it, they just want to see what it is. So Alice has struggled with realizing they won't take the thing from her. This is still a work in progress but I'm sure that as she gains more confidence it will go away.
I've been working really hard with Alice for her to allow handling. I don't really believe in owning dogs who won't allow you to handle their body parts and take care of their husbandry needs, so this was a top priority. I haven't been doing as much cooperative care with Alice as I would like to be doing but that will come with time. I've been handling her paws, ears and brushing her. She gets lots of treats for allowing me to touch her body and I really want her to have a positive association with it. She gets her teeth brushed every day and she loves that.
She does not like baths but it isn't a big deal and they are non-negotiable, it's the price she pays for sleeping in the bed with me. I don't really plan on working on it too much because I've never really had a dog who truly loved baths and they are really quick events. Not everything in life can always be fun. Alice also doesn't like ear cleaner put into her ears but if I go slowly and show her what I'm doing she does better. We dremel her nails at least once a week and while she doesn't like it that much, she's learned to tolerate it because she gets peanut butter or cream cheese in exchange for letting me do it. I haven't tried eye drops yet but I definitely will be working on that eventually, too. These husbandry things we will be working on forever, body handling is so important. You never know when your dog will need medical attention. Having a cooperative patient is so much easier and less stressful for everyone.
Playing too roughly with Phoenix is something we work on a lot. Alice is very much a terrier when she plays, there's a lot of growling, snarling, chasing and grabbing. Phoenix is a bit of a wheeny with other dogs and ends up backed into a corner, just getting beat up on. Phoenix loves to play but she's not always into how Alice wants to play with her. Terriers just want to play rough and they get frustrated when they can't do what they want, which escalates their behaviors and sometimes it can look like aggression when it's not. She's "big" and "loud" and it sounds so awful, lol! So for that we are doing a lot of impulse control work, recalling dogs out of play, proofing our stationing behaviors (go to a place and stay) and I will redirect Alice on to a toy and play with me if I know Phoenix is over it.
Chasing Cats is still a work in progress, too. For that I try to keep in mind that Alice has needs that have to be met. If I meet Alice's needs, by exercising her brain and body appropriately, if I give her outlets to chase things like a flirt pole, she doesn't need to display these behaviors on my cats. So I make sure she gets enough exercise every day and I keep her tethered or crated (management) in the evenings when the cats are more active.
We've done a lot of fun stuff this year, it's not just been all work and no play. We've gone on many hiking trips, we've gone to the beach a bunch of times. She really enjoyed the beach, there were so many smells and things to do there. We did two major road trips to visit my in-laws, which Alice absolutely loved. Towards the end of last year, Alice was even able to go hiking off leash a few times and she was so good! I was really proud of her. She came every single time I called her and stayed with me.
Alice has been learning some fun behaviors:
bow
wave
back up
sit pretty
spin (both ways)
bang you're dead
shake (both paws)
jump into my arms
We've also started more advanced training:
heel work
back stall
jumping through my arms
leg weaves
retrieves
disc dog
nosework
One of the most important things I taught her this year is what I'm calling "flawless door manners", meaning Alice will not exit my house until cued, even if you pull on the leash. Door dashing is a dangerous behavior and it's not something I will ever tolerate in my dogs. Our backyard is not fenced and even though we live on a pretty quiet street I never want her darting out the door without permission. So that was one we've been working on since day one.
Alice is doing really well with all the training we're working on. She's super fun to work with and I really enjoy training her! She is a bit slower to learn things than what I'm used to but once she has a foundation of whatever I'm teaching, it's much easier to build on it and it's more fun for both of us. She really enjoys putting her own spin (pun intended) on behaviors and it's cute watching her come up with stuff! Alice sometimes finds learning new things a bit stressful and in the coming year, I'd really like to work on that.
Another thing that stresses Alice out is if any human in the house picks up an object she has not seen before or formed a positive association with. I believe this superstitious behavior popped up over the Yule holiday, my husband received some noisy musical things from my in-laws, and I also got a nerf gun. Phoenix loves to bark at us when we are doing something she determines to be weird. Weird musical instruments and weird guns that pop when they shoot foam darts are weird. I think Alice got scared when Phoenix was barking and generalized it to us picking up random things. We will be working hard on fixing that over the next year and making sure she doesn't continue to have negative associations with household objects.
A couple of months ago, I started allowing Alice to sleep in bed with me. She is the first dog I've ever had that wasn't worried when I have a nightmare and unfortunately as someone who was diagnosed with PTSD, I have regular ones. Alice has been really good at interrupting my nightmares and waking me up. This is not something I taught her, she's been doing it all on her own. She is such a comforting presence. She is just so affectionate. She will lay on my chest and when I pet her, I calm down.
Then and Now
Alice has brought everyone at our house so much joy. She has re-energized my old dogs. They are always playing and running around together. At one point my husband asked me what Phoenix ever did without a little sister. They are just the best of buddies and it's so cute! Alice is funny and has so much spirit in her. We've really enjoyed getting to know her over the year and I'm looking forward to many more adventures!
Alice still remains the friendliest of any of the dogs we've ever had.
She loves all the humans she meets, including weirdly dressed ones! So we
knew she'd have a blast meeting Santa. She did amazingly well in a long
line of a wide range of dogs. It was so loud, there was so much barking
but Alice kept it together. She was SO happy. It was such a fun time!
You can lead a dog to grass but you can't MAKE them pee!
If you had told me a few years ago that potty training a new puppy would be my kryptonite, I would not have believed you! I've potty trained or assisted with potty training countless dogs, my own dogs, my family's dogs and client dogs.
"It's not hard", I would say, "just put them on a reliable schedule and take them outside frequently." This year I may have eaten my words.
Quite a few people have told me that small dogs are more difficult to potty train than larger dogs. I've never believed those people. I have always thought that it was just stereotypical "small dog owner" nonsense. Small dogs usually get away with murder. A lot of owners don't train them very much, if at all. I just chalked it up to owners being lazy or irresponsible and didn't think any more about it until I got Alice.
When I got Alice, I did exactly what I've done with other dogs. I put her on a schedule immediately and took her outside frequently for potty breaks, just like you're supposed to do, just like ALL the dog books say to do. When she wasn't attended she was crated. I also used a tether attached to the couch so she could have more freedom. When we moved around the house, she was leashed or carried.
We'd go outside and Alice would sniff around and then look at me like "okay, now what?" We could spend hours outside and she would just hold it. Then we'd come back inside and she would still hold it. She was completely unpredictable and she would not pee or poop. She wouldn't even mark over the other dog's pee. Even worse, she begun displaying behavior that was almost identical to what Zoe did for years (taking hours on end and long walks to relieve herself and never using the same spot twice). Alice's behavior being so similar to Zoe's behavior (that's driven me crazy for 8 years) caused me so much anxiety. I love Zoe but I absolutely did not want another dog like her and I was terrified that Alice was going to be Zoe 2.0. At least in Zoe's case, she never had a single accident in the house.
For months Alice continued to not pee or poop on a regular schedule, despite being fed at exactly the same times and having water available at all times. She would only pee maybe twice per day and I was lucky if she'd poop once daily. Sometimes she'd hold her poop for up to three days. I was either walking her or standing in the yard. If she wouldn't go we'd either stay outside for hours on end or I'd bring her back inside and crate her immediately. Sometimes she would hold her pee for 15 hours, despite many, many trips outside... Which isn't healthy at all. Rinse and repeat over and over with zero progress. We even tried driving her to new places to see if she'd pee at a park somewhere. Even hiking for nearly 3 hours where dogs frequent, she would not pee or poop during outings, either. We saw two different vets by this point and they both said she sounded challenging but normal for a shelter dog in their new home. All the tests we ran came back normal.
Any time she did finally go to the bathroom, I was praising her and feeding her high value treats.
There were times when I felt bad for keeping her crated and we'd be playing inside and then she'd suddenly squat before I could catch her. It's incredibly embarrassing to admit but she had way more accidents inside the house than any dog I've ever had under my care.
The frustration that I felt during this period of time was extreme. I would cry to my husband and friends about it. I had people tell me I should take her back to the rescue, that she was completely abnormal and there wouldn't be any way to fix her. Another friend who is extremely kind and has tons of patience, mentioned that I might be suffering from codependency and she wasn't wrong. I realized that I desperately needed to take care of Alice and she wasn't allowing me to because I couldn't make her go to the bathroom. During these months, my depression and anxiety were at an all time high. I had the puppy blues so badly and it was all over my inability to potty train this dog. My confidence as a dog trainer took a huge hit as well because "potty training should be easy". "All you have to do is put them on a schedule, stand in the yard and then reward them for going." Yeah, no.
In the meantime, during this, I also had neighbor problems. We own our townhouse but have to share a large yard with other neighbors. Most of my neighbors are elderly and don't have much to do, so they were curious at all times about the new dog. They were constantly coming out whenever I'd go outside to see the puppy. So Alice was never not distracted from learning what I wanted her to do outside. I believe she thought that the yard was play and social time and it never really occurred to her that the yard was for pottying.
My new puppy was going to be house trained or I was going to DIE trying.
So after a few months of trying and failing to potty train her I ended up crowd sourcing it. In complete desperation one day, I posted on my facebook wall (most of my friends are trainers) and in my favorite facebook group, the Fenzi Academy: Fenzi Dog Sports Academy Alumni Group. I have taken quite a few of their online classes and have loved all of them. The people who train there are always kind and understanding. My posts received a lot of attention and the advice I got was incredibly helpful.
By the time I decided to ask for help, I had three problems, Alice would not go to the bathroom regularly, Alice would not go to the bathroom in our direct yard at all, end of story and Alice was nervous about me and the yard because I had gotten so frustrated trying to get her to go that she was totally picking up on my negative energy. It got to the point where I would dread waking up in the morning because I knew getting Alice to relieve herself was going to be such a frustrating hassle. I'm also not my best self when I'm low blood sugar, either. We would go outside and she would sniff or eat grass and refuse to look at me. It sucked and I was totally afraid I was screwing her up and ruining our relationship because I was so frustrated.
On the Fenzi group, a few ladies suggested that I up her water intake. They said that Alice might be condensing her urine and if I upped her water intake I'd have more opportunities to reward her for going in the right place. This advice might seem counter intuitive as I didn't want her having more accidents in the house but I had to start somewhere. The ladies suggested that I give her some low sodium chicken broth and wait 20-30 minutes. They also recommended trying to wait to go outside until Alice really had to go and was almost bursting at the seems, so that she would go quickly to reduce my frustration. They were absolutely right. It totally worked. Within 20-30 minutes Alice had to pee! So I started implementing extra water and giving her a splash of low sodium chicken broth mixed with water on a regular basis and then taking her outside frequently. I was able to finally capture her peeing and put a cue on it. So now I have something to work with. She finally understands the cue and I can use the cue when she gets distracted to remind her what we are doing. Hallelujah!
The next piece of advice was from a friend and several people on the Fenzi Academy mentioned it as well for pooping. I was told that I should be giving her an activity prior to going outside to poop. That some dogs needed their bodies to move before they are able to go. So getting her active by chasing a toy, or using the treadmill. etc. Someone also suggested that she might just feel unsafe in the yard and needed a calming activity to settle in before she poops. I also had a friend mention that maybe Alice had a slower gut than my other two dogs. I did some research about this online and found out that some small dogs do have a slower metabolism than larger dogs!
So in addition to giving her an activity prior to pooping, I also decided to add more fiber to her diet and feed her dinner earlier so instead of feeding her at 6 or 7 I started feeding at 4-4:30pm. I prefer my dogs to poop in the morning, right away, so they are all taken care of. So Alice gets a few spoon fulls of plain canned pumpkin and green beans mixed with her dinner. I also give her a tiny splash of low sodium chicken broth mixed with a bowl of water at this time, too. Giving her water at dinner has really helped. We walk the dogs after dinner and she will pee during that walk and then she will pee again right before bed time (in OUR yard!!!) .
You Park Here, Literally!!!
Alice is generally ready to poop in the morning when we wake up but she still refuses to go in our direct yard. On this I decided to give in a bit. I will walk her to the end of the block and back and if she doesn't go in that amount of time (20-25 minutes) then she has to wait until it's the next time to go outside. At the time of this writing, I've been working on getting her to poop closer to home by walking her back and forth in the grass across the street from our grass.
We still have issues sometimes during the mid-day potty break. I give Alice extra water with her breakfast and a lot of the time I'll pop her on the treadmill or run her around with a toy right before a potty break. Then I will hurry her outside and she will usually pee immediately in our yard.
We've had Alice for 9 months now and luckily the novelty of Alice being new has worn off on my neighbors. They no longer bother me while I'm outside with her.
We have not had an indoor accident in several months. She will whine at us now when she has to go and seems to understand that potty should happen outside. Things have gotten so much better! It's taken a little more work on my part to figure out what works for Alice but she's finally getting there!
I am so thankful for all the people who were kind to me and helped through this difficult time! For all the late night chats and for telling me my dog is normal and to stick it out. That she just didn't know what I was wanting her to do and she was going to be fine. That it was just going to take a little longer than what I was used to but everything was going to be okay. For those people who believed in me and told me I could do it.
To summarize our day:
Morning - Alice has been sleeping with me in bed, so we get up, I toss a few treats in her crate and she hops in. Then I take Phoenix out first, then Zoe, then Alice. Phoenix and Zoe potty in the yard. Alice pees in the yard and then we go for a short walk down the street.
Breakfast - Zoe and Phoenix are fed and then Alice will get a training session or a puzzle toy and a bowl of water mixed with low sodium chicken broth.
After Breakfast - Alice plays with Phoenix and Zoe, then takes a nap
Afternoon - Alice gets an activity, we play fetch or tug, or she does her treadmill workout, then we do a potty break in the yard
Early Evening - She will usually play with Phoenix again and then nap. Sometimes we will play outside in the yard if the weather doesn't suck.
Dinner - Zoe and Phoenix are fed. Zoe and Alice get some canned pumpkin. Alice gets a cup of green beans in a bowl and then we do a training session with the rest of her dinner. After dinner she gets a bowl with a splash of chicken broth and water.
After Dinner - We go for a family walk, usually around an hour, sometimes Alice will poop but often she won't. When we get back, we will relax for a little bit and then we play again.
Bed time - All the dogs go out at the same time for a quick pee before bedtime.
At any time during the day, if Alice whines at all or paces I run her outside to pee. She often gets an extra walk at some point during the day, too and play time with her neighbor dog friend.
So this has been our potty training journey! It's been a frustrating one but in the end Alice is worth every second I spent working with her.
We've had Alice 8 months now! I can't believe it's been that long already. She's doing so well and she's finally starting to feel like a member of our family and not a foster dog. I've felt like the last 3 years I worked at the dog training facility was all in preparation to own Alice. The minor behavioral problems that we've had have been easily worked out and most of the time I've immediately known what to do if she does something unexpected. Even though I'm no longer at that job, I still highly value all the knowledge and practice I got there. I'm thankful to my mentors for everything they taught me. Alice would not be a successful member of our family if I hadn't had all that training.
When Alice came home, she was always in a high arousal state. She was way too excited about absolutely everything, which lead to some barking and lunging at dogs on leash, she was also extremely intense about the environment and all the creatures around us. She would not take anything but the highest value food (cooked meats), which made training a little challenging at first. It was hard to know which reinforcement would work and which wouldn't so it took some experimenting. We've gotten to the point where in our neighborhood, I can use lower value treats but when I take her on a hike or any other trip, I'm still pulling out the highest value stuff for her. She's not being counter conditioned and fed constantly anymore but I like having the best treats on me for when I need them.
I was really worried about Alice for a few months because the last thing I wanted to do was have another reactive dog. I'm happy to report that with some diligent training, counter conditioning her to dogs and the environment and training of alternative behaviors, we have not seen any reactive behavior in a good long while. She does still fixate on squirrels here or there and I have seen a bit of neophobia (it was dark and someone left an unexpected bag of trash in a weird spot, she couldn't tell what it was so she barked) but she's easily redirected. I've noticed that she has started trusting me and my judgement about stuff. She's really good about all our regular neighborhood dogs, even the ones that bark their fool heads off at us. She can still get a little tense if she smells a new dog but she takes direction well and looks to me for what to do and falls right into the training we've been doing. It's taken a little extra work on my part but she's coming along so nicely.
We've also had a major break through with her potty training. I was extremely and I mean EXTREMELY frustrated with her with the potty training. Alice is the first dog that I've ever known who would not go potty unless it was absolutely urgent for her to do so and it was hard to tell when she had to go. We had more accidents in the house that I've ever had with any dog previously. Even with crating her and watching her and trying to get her on a schedule, it was tough. I ended up desperately asking for advice on a +R facebook training group and I was given advice to up her fluid intake. For about a month, instead of doing training for meals, I would soak her meals in water. I also gave her water mixed with (low sodium) chicken broth about two hours before bedtime, so we could get a quick pee in right before bedtime. With all the extra fluids going in, we finally made progress and I was able to put a cue on her peeing. Occasionally she will go outside and be so distracted she won't go but it's gotten so much better. We are still walking her to get her to poop but with a few spoonfuls of canned pumpkin at dinner time, she's gotten more predictable and regular with that, too. She has started to alert us to when she needs to go outside now, which is great.
In the past couple of weeks I've even started to trust Alice a bit off leash and we've done a few hikes at the park I know best (where off leash is legal). If you're following along on my instagram (@zoepheedogs) you can see some of her beautiful recalls. When I got her I was worried I'd never be able to take the leash off because she'd either take off after a critter or go home with someone else because she's so friendly. She has greeted people on our hikes but has always come to find me right after. It appears that she knows who her family is now and she's choosing me.
With the hikes we've done and the dogs Alice has met, I'm still on the fence with how she feels about interacting with other dogs. I would generally say she doesn't really like dogs she doesn't know well. She greets well and is cool if the other dog is cool. I've never seen her really play with a dog she just met. She's not very trusting. I've also seen her get snarky if another dog won't leave her be. We had to save her recently from an adolescent cattle dog puppy, who wouldn't take no for an answer. That puppy was twice her size and was bullying her and it caused an aggressive response from Alice because he wouldn't stop. The thing is, Alice is definitely a terrier, she's got BIG feelings about things and if she doesn't like something, she won't put up with it. So with that knowledge, I'm being super careful with her dog/dog interactions.
Alice is doing really well with Phoenix and Zoe. Phoenix is still her favorite buddy and she beats Phee up regularly. They have a good time crashing around the house. She still has some trust issues with Zoe. Zoe is definitely that old lady dog who would scream "GET OFF MY LAWN" if she could. We're still working on building a trusting relationship with the two of them. Zoe can be snarky at times but I trust her way more than I did when Alice first came home. Most of snarky behavior we've seen was because Alice was too high in arousal and it bothered Zoe. So we're constantly working to make sure the chaos doesn't last too long, or Zoe is in another area of the house when they're being crazy.
We recently took Alice on a solo adventure to Bauman's Pumpkin Patch and hiking at Silver Falls State Park. (Silver Falls is a gorgeous park but not very dog friendly. Dogs are not allowed on any of the trails to the waterfalls, which was a huge bummer) She did absolutely amazing. At both places, there were people, kids and dogs everywhere. She posed for photo after photo. She did everything we asked her to do and was completely fearless. She was the perfect traveling companion and all the people she met loved her.
Which pumpkin are we getting?
Helping push the wheel barrow to the checkout line!
We still have some things to work on. Alice is still scavenging things she finds on walks. It's been a real problem and she has gotten sick from eating acorns. We've been working really hard on "drop" and "leave it". She's pretty darn sneaky with things she finds on walks. A few times I've had to open her mouth and remove objects. The joy of a former street dog! LOL!
She's also having a tough time leaving the cats and their food alone. Cats are super fun to chase and only one of our cats will correct her. The other cat acts like a prey animal. We've been doing some timeouts for cat chasing and we've had to up our management and rearrange the area where they are fed. Alice was climbing the cat trees! I think we've finally got that worked out.
I am also super aware she's a bit chunkier than I would prefer. We've been doing so much training that she has gained a little weight. I'm very careful with her food intake but with her sneaking cat food and eating nuts off the ground and all the training, it's been tough to keep her slim. I think we're about to the point where I can start reducing my rate of food reinforcement and we're working on adding toys as the reinforcement. She loves running on the treadmill and going for hikes so hopefully we can get about a pound off of her soon.
Alice has been sleeping with me at night and she has been so loving. She's such a sweet dog and has been comforting to me in a way that the other dogs aren't able to. Zoe has always been aloof and Phoenix, while she's my heart dog, she's not into being cuddled. I think Phoenix is finally relieved to have another dog in the house, so she's not constantly being kissed. LOL! Alice absolutely soaks up the attention and wants to be held and petted. I've been really struggling with depression this year and have been having a very hard time. Alice is down for cuddles, she's down for laying in bed if I need her to. She's also ready and willing to go on any adventure I throw at her. She's gotten me out of the house, she's gotten me socializing with people I would of never spoken to. She's so friendly and such a social butterfly that I've just gone with her on her adventures. She reminds me to get up and get outside, she reminds me to get up and get off the computer. It's time to GO! Even though Alice didn't come at the perfect time in our lives, we weren't financially prepared for a third dog with me being unemployed, I'm happy she's here. It's becoming really hard to imagine what life was like before she brought her optimistic, chaotic craziness into our lives. We really love her!
I'll be posting her photos from Silver Falls in a separate post, as I'm reviewing the coat she wore. :)
We took Alice on her first beach adventure for the 4th of July!
We planned on spending the entire 4th of July on the coast, wanting to make sure we got home after the fireworks, so we took our time, stopping at some hiking trails. This picture was taken on the Cape Lookout trail. It's a gorgeous trail that we haven't hiked since Zoe was an only dog!
Cape Lookout Trail is where a lot of people come to whale watch!
The girls had a blast exploring this "new to them" trail. The trail was super narrow and so busy with other people and dogs. The girls did really well. We did have a few moments where Alice got overly excited but she didn't react and ate all the boiled chicken I shoved in her face. Most of the time the girls just cooperated and moved off the trail to eat while other dogs passed. I am so proud of them.
Alice was super excited when we finally made it to the beach!
There were smells and sand and dead things to eat! Woohoo!
Run, Phoenix! RUN!
Phoenix is the only one with a reliable recall, so she's allowed off the leash.
There were sisters to play with!
At one point, Zoe pounced on Alice and said "this is where we play!"
It's been so cute how Zoe has finally accepted Alice into our family!
Just Zoe and her mini me.
Phoenix just wants to play fetch at the beach!
We practiced lots of recalls! This little dog loves chicken.
At one point I felt safe enough to drop the leash and she came right back when I called her.
Waves are weird and wet!
Being brave because "sisters".
Unfortunately we walked too far south and ran into some people with illegal fireworks. Cannon Beach is a Nature Reserve and they don't allow them so I thought we'd be safe. We couldn't get away quickly enough. The girls were exposed to around 4-6 big booms and they were very scared. I had to carry Alice for about a mile because I was worried she'd slip her harness. I'm glad she's little!
It took us about 2 hours to hike back to our car. We did see some recovery in that time. I was able to get their meds into them and they were feeling better after they kicked in. We spent the rest of the evening in the car watching the sunset. Luckily no more fireworks! We made it home just after midnight and our street was covered in firework debris. Even with the few booms we dealt with at the beach, I truly believe it was better than staying home and listening to them all day. Zoe actually ate her food the next day and that hasn't happened in the 8 years we've had her.
We are planning on going to the beach again soon so that we can make sure those booms did not leave a lasting impression on anyone. We want Alice to love the beach as much as we do.
Since coming home we haven't really had a break from any of the noise, our neighbors are still lighting something off every night. Alice has become really sensitive to loud noises, including the airplanes that fly over. I hope we get a break soon and we're able to work on it. Just like other times when she gets upset about something, she won't take food. I have learned to hate the 4th of July.
