Happy 1st Gotcha Day to Alice!

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!

If the video doesn't show up for you, please click here to see me meeting Alice for the first time.

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 - 8 month Update and the Pumpkin Patch!

"She's just one of the pumpkins!"

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. :)

The Girl and the Wasp - Shutting Dogs Down

Once upon a time there was a young girl who was terrified of wasps. You see, her parents used to compete in gardening events and they took her along to all of them. In the summer, this girl has been chased and bitten by wasps, for just playing in the gardens. Over time, she developed an extreme phobia of flying stinging insects.

One year she met her new family and they are very loving people but they don't really understand this girl very well. She's a weird one. She connects with animals better than people and would rather spend hours reading than interacting. You could say she has always had her head in the clouds, dreaming. Her family? They love her but that doesn't mean they get her. The girl's new family loved to have picnics and dinners outside on their patio. Every summer the wasps would come and the girl, she would run for the house, often vocalizing her fear loudly. "GO AWAY, you nasty stinging insects!!!" she would scream. She would scream and sometimes swat at these horrible stinging insects and try to get them away from her. Often times she would resort to having to eat inside the house, with the window open so she could still be with her family.

What did her family do about this? Well, her family thought her behavior was pretty annoying. They wanted to have nice, quiet dinners with polite conversation. They would complain loudly at her and shame her for being afraid. Often times they would tell her that she was "just doing it for attention". They would tell her she was being ridiculous and to come back outside and every time the girl would give in to her fear, the wasps would come. Her family did try some wasp traps but they were never enough, there were always too many.

The girl was VERY embarrassed by her phobia. She hated that these flying insects would make her scream and act out. She was shamed by her family and she was SO ashamed of herself. Often she would wonder why she couldn't just sit outside and enjoy a meal with everyone without being terrified. Eventually the girl was shamed so badly that she would sit outside with her family and when the wasps came she was still terrified of them but she sat in silence, often screaming inside her head, absolutely afraid to move or vocalize her discomfort because it was always met with ridicule. It's not polite in our society to scream and dance around in fear. She was still terrified of the wasps but her family had effectively shut her down. So there she would sit, silently terrified, wishing the flying stinging things would all die and leave her alone.

What does the girl and the wasp have to do with dog training? Well funny you should ask. Every single time a person "corrects" their dog when they display behavior out of fear or anxiety, they are only shutting that dog down. They are stopping behavior without addressing the underlying emotions. You have stopped the dog from moving or vocalizing but they are still screaming silently in their heads, just like the girl and her wasps.

When dogs are anxious in their crates and make noise and their person whacks the crate to shut them up, they might shut up but they are still anxious. Just because you've stopped the dog from vocalizing does not mean you have fixed the anxiety, you've likely made it worse. When you squirt your dog with water or jerk the leash for reacting at another dog, you may have stopped the reaction but you have not made the dog feel better, you've likely just associated your dog's trigger with more fear and pain. The dog learns that they can't trust their owner. Their owner gets mean when their trigger is present. Often times we see reactivity get worse and worse and the owners keep having to escalate the punishment to get the dog to "stop".

We need to remember that our dogs did not ask to be a part of our family. We went out and chose our dogs and we owe it to them to be loving humans worthy of their trust. We owe it to them to use kind, humane training methods. When your dog displays unwanted behavior, you have to figure out what the underlying cause of that behavior is and you have to address the emotions behind it and if you can't figure it out on your own, you owe it to your dog to find a trainer who uses humane methods to assist you.

The girl might have eventually learned to live with the wasps, she might have been able to get over her fear had she been supported through her phobia. She was not and she is still terrified of flying/stinging insects. The girl loves her family dearly but she doesn't visit them as often as she should and she avoids any activity with them that requires eating outside. Everyone has lost in this one. The girl does not blame her family for not understanding her or behavior. It just is what it is. The girl does her very best to never use aversive punishment on her dogs or shut them down because they are scared and displaying unwanted behavior. The girl continues her education and tries her best to be worthy of her dogs and to pay it forward.

Compassion for other Dog Owners. Mindfulness and A Love Letter To Reactive Dog Owners

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words... Words will rip my heart to shreds.

I recently defended a man on the internet, a complete stranger. Someone who does not know me and I don't know him. I wasn't even there when the supposed "incident" with him and his dogs happened but I defended him. A woman wrote on facebook about him and his "dangerous" dogs about how her off leash dog was just passing by his leashed dogs and stuck it's nose out to sniff and bam a bite. Apparently his dogs were very dangerous and out of control and he looked angry. This woman was astonished that this man would walk his dogs at a park on leash in harnesses with no "corrective gear" since they were obviously very bad dogs and out of control. How these dogs don't belong in a "dog park" if they're aggressive. "Don't take your aggressive dog out if they can't handle themselves".

The whole post rubbed me wrong for so many reasons but the very first one is that the park she's referring to is not a dog park. It's a natural area where on some of the trails it's legal to let your dog hike with you off leash. It's not a dog park and the rules state that dogs must be under voice control. It's common sense to not let your off leash dog run up to on leash dogs, let alone a man who's got three large ones he's trying to walk. You never know why a dog is on leash, maybe that dog is old and prone to over doing it (cough, Zoe, cough), maybe that dog is scared, maybe that dog is a brand new dog to them and they don't want them to take off, maybe they are in training, etc. It's just so rude to expect someone with multiple dogs that are on leash to handle your off leash dog and all the things that go with greetings. Dogs are not able to perform natural dog/dog greetings when restrained on leash and the situation can get tricky really fast, especially when it's one person dealing with three dogs and three leashes and there's a loose dog running amock with your dogs, getting in their faces and whatnot. 

Additionally it really bothered me that she implied his dogs were bad and aggressive and he had no right to be out with them. Any dog can display aggression at any time for any reason. Even the world's most friendly dog can have a bad day. Dogs trigger stack, dogs can get scared of stuff. The dog that bit could of just been attacked by another dog or coyote or maybe the dog was old with arthritis and was scared the other dog would hurt them and was feeling defensive. Shit happens, literally. This woman judged this man and his dogs and she only knew him for 5 seconds. 

I used to have perfect dogs. Well, not really but people thought that. Zoe was perfect. Quiet. Walked well on a leash unless she saw a squirrel. "Loved" all her dog friends. Didn't bark and lunge at dogs. Phoenix, too. Phoenix was "quiet". She didn't like other dogs in her face but she rarely barked or lunged at anything unless it was a huge dog in her face or a threatening human. We couldn't have any of Vince's male friends over but she's still perfect, right? She only liked "Uncle" Jeff but he's a guy so she doesn't have problems with men, right?

They could go for walks and walk next to me. People thought they were perfect and I agreed. My ego was inflated, look at my perfect dogs! Oh and by the way, this one, well this one is a rescue that I rehabbed all by myself with no other trainers to help me. She also saved my life from a near assault, too! She's amazing. Look at that perfection. Except when she "nips" those hyper labs that rush up into her face but that's totally not her fault. Everything really is fine. No blood no foul. Inside though, on the inside both of my dogs were basket cases and so was I  (we were working on it with training) but it didn't matter because on the outside where people could see, they were perfect.

You see, I had that childhood. The one where your parents wanted the perfect child. I had to have straight A's. I was not allowed to make a mistake and if I did I got to pick which belt they would use on me. I was expected to be the best at everything. If I failed and disappointed them very bad things happened. They bought me (I was adopted) so I damn well better deliver the results they wanted. After all, didn't I owe them? Our community needed to believe I was their perfect daughter... My parents were awful humans, so bad that some of our neighbors actually sold their houses and moved away. I wish I had the luxury of doing that.

So as a grown up adult, my dogs needed to be perfect because I'm still that scared little girl who was taught that I had to meet everyone's expectations of perfect. We can't bark and lunge, we can't have a moment of anger, even if another dog threatens you. Reactive dogs are just reactive assholes that aren't trained well enough, right? People that own them just need to do a better job, right? I'm literally the making of a perfect compulsion trainer, honestly. Yep, crossover trainer here and still doing my best to use science based learning and not fear or compulsion.

I used to be that dog owner who walked her dogs around the world and judged other owners, your dog having a meltdown? Why are you letting it act like that? Your fault. Train it. Seriously. I never said anything to any of those owners because I'm scared of confrontation but I was thinking it and my face probably gave it away. 

If it was my dog that was melting down? I was the worst dog owner on the planet and I needed to do a better job training them. I was even harder on myself than those random people I came across. One bad incident would ruin my day and I would be really hard on myself and my dogs, I'm still working on this. Social pressure from other dog owners for your dogs to be good is an intense feeling and I hate it so much.

It wasn't until I started working with dogs and specifically working with folks who were dealing with some of the same problems that I had, that my opinion on dogs displaying unwanted behaviors changed. I learned that a lot of the time genetics and the environment rule the behavior. I learned that most people with dogs who overreact to stuff were just as desperate as I was for their dogs to be good and they were doing the best they can. I've met people who's dog was the love of their life and they still couldn't fix them, no matter what they did or how much money they spent on vet behaviorists and training.

The reality is there is no such thing as perfect and there never will be. Dogs are dogs, not robots. They do dog things, sometimes their behavior can be scary to humans but not allowing them to ever get mad? That's like telling someone to drive through Portland at rush hour and you're not allowed to get upset if someone cuts you off. People have meltdowns, people display aggression, too! Everybody gets upset sometimes. It doesn't mean that a person isn't training their dog or the human that's melting down is a bad person. It just means that right now that dog or human can't handle what's happening to them and that's okay. Maybe the dog owner made a mistake (and we all make mistakes, I am the mistake Queen) but we need to realize these owners, they are doing the best they can.

Years have gone by and despite a lot of training my dogs are still dogs. They aren't perfect robots. We've had so many incidents with other dogs. Some of it was my fault. Like going to the dog park too much and just letting whatever happened there happen because "socialization" and "that's what dogs do". We stopped going to the dog park, I don't know if I will ever get the courage to take Alice to an actual dog park. We've had incidents hiking, loose dogs running up to us and jumping them, we've had loose small dogs run right up to Zoe and bite her in the face. Zoe has been attacked by several dogs. Phoenix was attacked after trying to herd a running dog (chasing/nipping). We stopped taking them off leash hiking and slowed way down on the leashed hikes. My dogs main activities were little trips to my work to demo for classes and play after. We also spend time walking around in our neighborhood, where there are dogs we know. Occasionally we'd go to a park but I hate going because there's always loose dogs. 

Then Alice entered our lives like a wrecking ball. This tiny 15 pound teacup of a dog threw herself into our lives and said "You will love me and provide activities". Suddenly I have a young puppy with so many needs. This little dog has got to be a terrier, she needs an activity and she needs it right now, dammit. She's also big into her feelings. She has opinions and they will be heard. One of her opinions is that leashes are frustrating and the whole world is exciting and she needs to get to it. If she can't get to it then the world needs to hear about it. She's actually not truly reactive, she doesn't bark at lunge at everything but occasionally something will get her.

Over the past year both of the older dogs have become even less tolerant of dogs than they were and we've seen some outward leash reactivity. The reactions are typically from Zoe who will scream/whine at loose dogs. "Is that loose dog going to run up and bite me?" If they are leashed she doesn't care and doesn't display that behavior. Phoenix is still pretty silent but "deadly", meaning she will lunge and nip a large dog if they get in her face. If Alice is upset or overly excited she will bark and lunge. The one great thing about Alice is she redirects easily or I can pick her up and she stops but she's one of those dogs that can get worked up and doesn't let something go (cough, terrier, cough). At this point I don't feel like Alice is actually fearful of other dogs, I think she is typically barrier frustrated. She greets dogs well on a long line and gets along great with most of our neighbor dogs. All of these things we are continually working on and training. I train my dogs every single day, rain or shine.

Which brings me to the most insulting incident I've ever had in my life with my dogs. Yesterday we were having a weird day. If you've been reading my blog you know that I've been through a lot in the last couple of months and we recently got more bad news, I have to have major dental surgery. It will be very expensive and we are really stressed out about all the things. The morning just started out bad. The dogs had been doing really well walking together but that morning they were attempting to drag me all over the place, I kind of wonder if the coyote had been back and they could smell him. All of the dogs were overly aroused about something. I've had so much going on that I just didn't think my next move through. I had an errand that was near the park I like to take them to, so I threw them all in the car with me and I did my errand then took them to the park.

We got to the park and the first thing I hear was a dog losing it's mind across the pond from us, this immediately had all my dogs up in their arousal again. I could literally see the adrenal dump. I was trying to figure out where the barking was coming from and if we should just turn around and leave when suddenly a small dog rushed right up to us. I think I said something like "Oh CRAP! ...and you're off leash, too". As soon as my dogs saw this dog, they lost it. Zoe did her scream/whine, Phoenix lunged and Alice I think barked. I have no idea. I just knew I had three whirlwinds happening and the only thing I could think to do was drag them away from the off leash dog. I'm so glad I had the older dogs on gentle leaders because I would of been on my ass if I didn't. As I'm trying to collect them and get them out of the situation the other dog owner says, "It's okay, my dog can handle being off leash. He's TRAINED. Unlike yours."

I was in complete shock. No joke. I could not believe this guy had the audacity to say that to me, especially when he was completely at fault. The ponds where I walk is a nature reserve, it's illegal to let a dog run loose there. His dog caused all of this drama to happen and in the 5 seconds this guy knew me, he judged me to be the world's shittiest dog owner and I was devastated by it. It only took three sentences to ruin my entire day, I didn't even sleep last night thinking about this dude and how unfair he was to me. 

It's not fair to judge another dog owner when you've only met them for 5 seconds or 1 minute or had one interaction. It's not fair to judge a dog by the meltdown they are having. There's no way to tell how much time and effort someone has put into their dogs in one interaction. Absolutely none and when people judge other dog owners they are doing real mental harm to people who desperately want their dogs to be good. 

That man I defended on the internet, I feel his pain so much. I've been where he's at. My three dogs acted out, I'm by myself just trying to deal with them. If you had seen my face after the incident occurred, I bet I looked angry as hell, too and I was. I was really mad at that guy for letting his dog loose and I was really mad at my dogs for not being able to handle themselves because I've spent years training them (Zoe and Phee). I was mad that I had to deal with social pressure from some asshole who had only known me for 5 seconds and didn't know the crap I've been through with these dogs, or the work I've put into them. 

So this is my love letter to reactive dog owners everywhere. I see you and I know you're trying. I know you love your dogs and just want them to be good. The struggle is real. I have your back if you ever need it and I'm sorry if people have been mean to you. We've all got to stick together.

Kindness is everything. You have no idea what someone else has been through or what they are going through. Words can rip people's hearts to shreds.  

Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.

Alice ~ 8 Weeks Home ~ Update

Alice has been in our home for 8 weeks! It's crazy how time just flies by. I'm happy to report she's doing really well! She's still settling in but we've made a lot of progress in so many areas.

The most important thing that's happened so far is that Zoe has accepted Alice into her life. Zoe has been without the basket muzzle since last month. They are doing really well coexisting. I've been allowing really short play sessions. Zoe and Alice Interacting  Zoe is 30lbs, twice Alice's size and she likes to play pretty rough which isn't really reciprocal. It's a little intimidating for Alice, especially since Zoe has been snarky and crabby with her up until a few weeks ago. I still separate Zoe out when Alice and Phoenix are playing because they are both twice her size and I don't want them ganging up on her.

 

She's also started taking naps all by herself during the day. The first 6 weeks she wouldn't rest on her own without being put into her crate and being "forced" to take a break.  

Last week Alice went on her first official hiking trip. Up until this trip, we had been going to our quiet little spot at the pond for walks and training. This was the first time we took her to a busier place where there would be more dogs. She did really well. I didn't see any reactive behavior, she did get a little excited when a reactive dog passed us and was whining at us but she didn't react back at the dog. 

We've been working on a few tricks, too! She's learning to sit pretty, fetch, roll over and spin. I'm also working on position changes sit to stand to down, etc. She's so smart! 

WALK ME!!!

So far our only real challenge has been potty training and bare with me because it's not what you think. When she was at the rescue, they have volunteers coming in all day, every day and walking the dogs. Previously to that, she was found on the street, so I doubt she was ever taught to potty in one spot. So I've had a hard time convincing Alice that she can go outside and just potty without going for a walk. She doesn't really like pottying in our yard and will hold it forever. I take her out on a long line and she has to share the yard with my neighbors because we live in a townhouse but she's got about a quarter of an acre to roam and find a spot. Often she will try to go to the street, strain against the leash and cry for a walk. I've been working hard on sticking with it so that she learns to go in our yard. It's been tough. She will often get really distracted outside and if you add in some really annoying and nosy neighbors and their barking dogs, it's a recipe for frustration on my part. It's really important that she learn this because I won't always be able to walk her. I feel like she's definitely gotten better but two months later, we're still struggling with it.

If I FITS I SITS

Overall, Alice is a great puppy and I'm super happy with her progress. She's fitting into our lives almost seamlessly. I'm really happy that Zoe has finally accepted her into our family and I love how much Phoenix plays with her. Alice is the perfect friend for Phoenix. They play and cuddle all day in a way that she never did with Zoe. She's brought out so much puppy in Phoenix. It's been so fun to watch them! 

I post a lot of videos over on my instagram, so I would recommend following us there for more frequent updates: @zoepheedogs

Introducing Alice, Our New Puppy!

On February 5th we welcomed home our new puppy, Alice! 

I've had puppy fever for years, even though I'm not the biggest fan of puppies. I've never liked puppy breath or sharp needle teeth but the thought of raising my own baby puppy after only having adult dogs was appealing to me. I agonized over breeds and breeders and rescue puppies. My husband wanted to do another rescue and I wanted to find a breeder.

One thing became apparent to me after knowing my older dogs so well. If I were to bring in a third dog, that dog would need to fit in well with at least Phoenix. Out of my two dogs, Phoenix still has a lot of get up and go in her. Where as Zoe just wants to nap all day and go for a walk around the block, eat snacks and hang out with her dad. Phoenix still wants to play and train. I would need a dog that she would like to hang out with but not be too intimidating for her.

After obtaining my home owner's association's permission, I decided to look at rescue puppies. I knew that Phoenix tends to get along with smaller "terrier" type dogs. Looking for rescue puppies in the Portland area is a huge pain. Puppies are adopted within hours of even arriving at facilities. I would see a puppy on Petfinder and it would be gone. Some were even adopted out the night before arriving at a facility. I was afraid I'd have to go to California or Colorado! 

I saw the above photo after weeks of looking at puppies. My husband was still very much on the fence about getting a puppy, especially since our financial situation is always a bit unstable with his job and I had quit my job recently. We were planning on waiting to get a puppy until either this summer or next year. When I saw her picture, I couldn't get her out of my head. I just imagined her being with us. I could see her in my house. I saw her photo a week before we adopted her. I told myself if she was still available by my husband's next day off, we had to go meet her. This puppy even attended an adoption event (she was the kissing booth puppy!!!) that weekend and was still available. That never happens here. I really feel like it was meant to be.

We drove over an hour through the crappiest Portland traffic to meet "Indigo", a 7-8 month old (Yay! adult teeth!) "terrier" mix. The rescue worker brought her out and she ran right past me and jumped into my husband's arms, giving him tons of kisses. It was like she knew who she had to win over! LOL! After she was done with him, it was on to me. I was immediately smitten with her as you can see in the video above. My husband and I looked at each other and it was done. Decision made. Indigo was coming home with us.

After a quick stop at Petsmart to get a harness and some puppy things, we made the drive home. The whole time I agonized over how to introduce her to the girls. We decided that Vince would go inside, greet the girls, get them leashed up and take them outside on a walk, then I'd meet up with him with the puppy. The meeting outside on our walk went really well. Both of the older dogs greeted her politely. Phoenix has always had a hard time with face-to-face meetings with new dogs and I definitely held my breath when they met but Phoenix did really well. 

Moving to inside the house was pretty challenging for Zoe. Zoe has liked dogs her whole life but now that she's gotten older, she's gotten less tolerant and can be grumpy. We knew that bringing home a new dog would be a little tough for her but we didn't realize how tough or how upsetting it would actually be. Zoe was not the world's happiest camper having a new dog in her house and let us know pretty quickly that she was stressed out. In the first couple of days of Alice being here, we had two instances of aggression from Zoe. The first time was a resource guarding incident, the second time was the puppy bouncing into her face. Alice was fine, I think I was more traumatized than she was! After those incidents, I decided keeping them completely separated for a while would be best. Up until now we've done crate (or room) and rotate inside the house. 

3 weeks later

Three weeks later and I'm happy to tell you things are going much better. Zoe is definitely more comfortable and isn't as grumpy. Zoe has even initiated play a few times! Since Alice is half the size of the other dogs, I've been keeping a basket muzzle on Zoe any time they are together in the house. Zoe was introduced to the muzzle years ago and has no problem wearing it and it makes me feel better. I am able to keep my emotions out of their interactions and everybody feels better when I'm able to praise them and mean it. Outside on walks, they've been doing great together and I don't need the muzzle then. We also use tethers, crates and baby gates inside the house. Alice is usually on a 25 foot line or we switch her out with Zoe being baby gated into the kitchen/dining area, so I don't have to wonder where she is or if she's getting into anything.

Please excuse the giant t-shirt on Alice, we didn't have cold weather gear for her yet!

Phoenix is still the best damn dog in this house. She is doing so well with Alice. They play together every day. Phoenix has had moments of snarkiness with Alice but it's been really mild and appropriate. "NO! You can't bite my legs", "This is actually MY bone", etc. They've done great together and I trust Phoenix completely. Every morning when we wake up, Phoenix does her happy dance when I let Alice out of her crate. "Oh! You're still here! Let's go play!" She's always happy to see her. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen. 

All of our animals have special names, our theme here is scifi/mythology and we wanted to give this puppy a special name, too. We decided to name her after Alice in Wonderland, since this puppy is going down the rabbit hole into dog training land.

Speaking of training and behavior, that's been a fascinating time. When Alice first came home, she scared the crap out of me with a behavior I've never dealt with before. CHEWING. She was literally chewing everything soft she could find with her back teeth and trying to swallow it. She also had zero interest in hard toys and SO much energy. I joked to my friend that I got a "working bred" puppy. The chewing gave me so much anxiety. I had to remove a ton of stuffed toys, fluffy beds and blankets. I felt like I had to watch her like a hawk and every second was spent worrying she would kill herself by eating something. After 3 weeks, I believe the chewing was actually displacement behavior from stress. It has gone way down. Now if she gets a hold of stuffing, she spits it out like a normal dog. LOL

I also noticed resource guarding right away. She would get stiff when a cat approached her when she had a bone. Luckily, this has gone way down as her comfort levels increased. She's beginning to realize cats are dumb and just want to smell things.

One week into her adoption, our neighbor's reactive dog flipped out on us and for two days, Alice barked and lunged at dogs. If she wasn't barking or lunging she would fixate and would plant herself and wouldn't move. This incident also coincided with a booster shot where she had a vaccine reaction (hives all over her body) and wasn't feeling well. This was my lowest point with her so far. I've been dealing with behavioral issues for so long with Phoenix and Zoe that I just didn't want another project and I was super upset about the whole thing. Then I came to my senses and realized that Alice liked dogs (every day she was at the rescue she was kept in a play group situation and would play all day long with dogs) but she was just sensitized to them from being in the shelter system. My mentor told me "you know what to do" and she wasn't wrong. We started playing reactive dog games with high value food (red meat) and haven't had any meltdowns since. She's already learned that dogs mean cookies rain from the sky.

We've been doing a lot of training. She hasn't eaten out of a food bowl yet and I'm not planning on her seeing one for a long time. All of her meals come from me as training sessions and I carry treats on my person at all times. She is reinforced throughout the day, all day, for doing things I like. 

She did come with some training already, which was amazing. She was already crate trained, she walks well on a leash, sits for everything and knew what hand targeting was. She gets distracted very easily, so I've been playing a lot of focus games and working on building her attention span. The first week, she couldn't even train for a minute without grabbing a toy and leaving me. Now she can make it through a whole 10 minutes! She used to ignore me the whole walk and now I have her attention. She knows I'm there and she can earn snacks! I'm also working on teaching her to settle and building an off switch.

Alice is one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met, she loves to cuddle and I'm pretty sure she was exactly what was missing in my life. I've been having a really hard time watching Zoe and Phee get older and slow down. When you already have anxiety and depression, watching your dogs age becomes terrifying. When the reason you get out of bed every morning, doesn't want to get out of bed either, it's hard! Alice is so energetic and she's brought a lot of joy and fun back into our lives.

I'm hoping to start updating the blog more! Alice has so much to learn so I will actually have things to write about now. If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with us and I will be back soon with more updates!

Making Better Choices!

Hi everyone! I hope you're all having a great day. Today I have an update on how Phoenix has been doing. As most of you know, we started Phoenix in play groups at my work back in the beginning of February to try and help her with some of her dog/dog issues. Along the way, we've had some struggles and we've learned so much about her. Phoenix also attends our reactive dog class whenever there is room for her and helps other dogs learn how to be calm around each other, so she's getting some additional counter conditioning on leash with other dogs in a controlled manner. Working my own dog in that class has been really helpful for me and has helped me improve my handling skills which is great for Phoenix and great for all the dog training classes that I help with.

The main thing that Phoenix struggles with is greeting new dogs. She is fearful and face-to-face
 (----> <---) greetings are hard for her. Sometimes a face-to-face greeting can illicit a soft snarl and flash of teeth all the way up to an actual snark with light contact. I say light contact as she has never hurt anybody.

The other issue that we've seen is what we call "breed-specific (hereditary) chasing and nipping. This behavior is very interesting as it seems like something she has a very hard time controlling on her own. It's like some sort of compulsive action that she can't help doing. When she sees a dog moving, her first instinct is to chase them and nip at their butts.

We've also seen some low-level separation anxiety from me. As soon as I would leave the room, she would continually pace and try to figure out where I went or try to get back to me. Transitioning times between employees and dogs were pretty stressful for her.

I'm happy to report that things are going a lot better and it seems like each week she does better. We've been setting her up to win with new dogs by introducing her dead last. That way the new dogs are distracted by the rest of the group and Phoenix is also distracted by the group. She is not able to zero in on a new dog to chase and nip or get snarky upon greeting them. We control the greetings by feeding the other dog so Phoenix can sniff them without conflict. We are very careful and thoughtful on how we do greetings and it's really helping. She's doing amazing outside of my work when we go hiking and meets new dogs on her own without help. We have not seen much snarky behavior in weeks, most of what we see is avoidance or a very low level lift lip. We've even seen her solicit play from new dogs out at the park, which is amazing.

A post shared by Lauren Miller (@zoepheedogs) on May 19, 2017 at 2:19pm PDT

Playing in the water surrounded by new dogs she's never seen before!

The chasing and nipping has gotten much better as well. Today I actually saw her think about **NOT** doing it. She started to do it and then stopped herself, turned around and came back to me. She was SO good!!! I was excited to see her do that. She is also not nipping as much if she does end up chasing and is able to recall off the dogs and come to us. We've also seen some play that did not include chasing with her, actual play bows and jumping around a little. It was so cute!

The separation anxiety and worrying about where I am has gotten much better. My coworkers report that she's doing really well and participating in all the training activities that they've been doing. She's still really worried when the dogs are transitioning to go home but we wait until she's completely calmed down before she's allowed to get back to me, which seems to be helping a lot too!

I'm so happy with her progress and I'm really glad that I stuck with the play groups, even though she had a hard time at first. I'm so thankful that I work with awesome trainers and that my coworkers have been so helpful with her. The support I've gotten has been amazing. I wish everyone had a facility like this to help them.

Note: Our play groups are not in any way close to what you would find at a traditional "Doggie Daycare". Our facility is first and foremost a training facility where we work with the dogs to help them with their issues and understand them better. I do not recommend traditional doggie daycare for dogs who have dog/dog issues, as they can end up flooding a dog and causing more issues. A training facility that understands behavior, does training and careful, thought out introductions is where Phoenix goes and it's the only sort of facility I would ever recommend. Pet owners need to thoroughly vet the places they are taking their dogs.