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Indy, enjoying Door County, WI

Hi Kristin,

I check your website from time to time to keep up with the puppy updates, although our dogs are no longer puppies. Indy is doing Great!! We had another funfilled summer in Door County, WI. Indy loves to roam free and go swimming. He actually seems a little depressed when we return home or maybe just “wiped out”.

Hope the rest of Chloe‘s Clan is doing well.

K-

Jubilee - Autumn 2011

Everyone here is great. D is 20 months already and just loves animals. She loves the dogs and is always calling out their names followed by “Where are you?” Its really funny. D and Jubilee have really started to bond…….the table food might have something to do with it. Jubilee brings her toys now so she can throw them for her. Jubilee has done an amazing job knowing the difference between her toys & D’s. Even when they are offered to her from D she will not take them. We need to start working with D on stranger dogs. She is too comfortable with dogs at this point and loves to give hugs and kisses. It’s cute and sweet with our dogs because we know how good they are but unfortunately that’s not the case with all dogs.

Jubilee has been great and healthy, she loves her walks and if for some reason we can’t go on one you can always tell she is bummed. Shena “The old Lab” is hagging in there. She will be 16 in a few weeks (Crazy!) but she still seems extremely happy by wagging her tail all the time and still loves to eat. She too loves D but once again I know it’s food driven.

Willow in 2009

Greetings from Germany! I was cleaning out very old emails and I found your address. I thought I would update you on Willow. She is doing GREAT! She has become quite the international traveler. All my fears about her traveling were unfounded and she did great on our first trip to Germany (and our trip back to the US and back to Germany this summer). She absolutely loves it here since we walk everywhere and often take her. She also gets to routinely go on very long walks in the hills/forest in this beautiful place where we live! She still has the issues with being afraid of men, although she has improved a little. She is still nervous around my husband unless I am sitting right there next to him. She will only relax and let him pet her when we are laying in bed (we didn’t want the dog in bed but he really wanted the chance to pet her, so we sometimes let her come up there

Dogs here in Germany can go to nearly every public place, even restaurants. They really have well-trained dogs and love them to death! How are things going with you and all of your animals? Are you still taking in rescue dogs? Well, better go, as it is almost 10 PM here.

Take care,
Lisa & Willow

Lollie

I remember when Lollie was just a pup. She was part of that first litter of puppies we fostered. They arrived just a month after Sadie died, 8 weeks old and dirty. We got 3 of 11 of them, born to a fierce fighter of a mother who scared me down to my toes when I met her at the vet’s office. I didn’t want to keep her. I really didn’t like her much. She was whiny, noisy, cried long and hard whenever she was left alone, and had SO much energy. Mike and I would stay up for hours throwing the ball to her, wondering aloud when she was going to get tired. I remember being afraid of her and for her, remembering her mother and not wanting to have any part of that. When that first family came to view the pups and I saw and heard myself steering them toward her littermate, I knew I was attached. After they left I had to acknowledge that she and I were destine to walk part of this life together. I remember holding her head in my hands, looking into her eyes and saying, “You will be my Buddha.”

I was determined, by willpower alone, to change the course that genetics seemed to lay out for her. I took to socializing her as if it were my job. We went to the dog park nearly every night. I met many kind people there and watched my little baby puppy grow into a lanky teenager, running among the dogs. At about 6 months of age, we stopped going to the dog parks. I dedicated myself to her training, starting her out at 4 months of age and going weekly, every single week, until I decided that she didn’t seem to like it much and I was getting too stressed out. That was about a year ago. If you read my last post, you know I failed to shape her into a different dog than she was. Some things really are destiny.

But I did get some things right: I got a semi-career out of it – I still train dogs on the side. And Lollie has a lot of skills. And I have had an amazing opportunity to learn about myself, life, and for lack of a better word, spirit. You see, Lollie triggers a lot of emotions in a lot of people. Dogs like her will do that. She isn’t an easy or a simple dog. She is fully herself and she has a big self. And she isn’t wall balanced. There is definitely a screw loose in her, a sensitivity, an over-reactive, fear based aggression that comes to the front more times than I would like. Don’t get me wrong – I am not glamorizing her. If I could make her one of those simple dogs who likes every dog she meets I would. In a heartbeat. The one thing, one of the best gifts she has taught me though, is to see what is in front of me.

Hermes and Lollie

So, when she attacked Hermes, I had to get really clear about what I was seeing in front of me. I had to sort through all the fears, the sense of failings, the horror stories my mind was telling me. I had to get as clear as I could to see what was in front of me. For a long time I thought I saw the end of my ability to keep my pack safe. I also thought I saw a potential heartbreak or law suit from her attacking a child. I also thought I saw the slow decline of a dog into doggy madness. Mostly I thought I saw myself failing, afraid. But when I finally settled my mind down I saw this: just Lollie being Lollie. Her “attack” was predictable, not unfounded (if you know dogs and how this particular dog’s mind works) and not intended to be so aggressive. No dog targets another dog’s tongue – that she got his was clearly an accident. And I also saw this: Hermes got over it as soon as the pain receded. Within a day he was eating normally and within two days I saw him happy to finally get to play with her again. Five days after the incident I saw all of my four dogs laying side by side in the sun on the deck. I saw Lollie finally relaxing as I finally relaxed.

Here is my biggest realization – Lollie is a mirror for me. Not always, that’s where good training comes in, but most of her incidents of “aggression” were a way for her to embody the stress of what I was carrying inside me. A lot of you won’t understand this. But those of you who’ve lived with an aggressive dog that you’ve worked hard with may. When I was stressed, she would pick up on it and become more agitated. When I was afraid, her eyes would dilate to nearly black as she also felt fear. When I was frustrated at home, she would turn on one of the other dogs lying innocently in her path. The aggression I was putting out into the world, she was showing up with. And it wasn’t just the aggression I was putting out, it was my perceptions of the world, how it works for me (or against me as was my usual story line) that was coming back to me in her behavior. It wasn’t until I consulted a spiritual adviser, Mary Muncil that I really understood this. She helped me hold a deeply grounded place while I searched for my answers. It soon became clear that this issue had more to do with me and my dissatisfactions, my left over issues from childhood, my fears and worries that I don’t get to be happy or have an easy life, than they do with Lollie. Lollie was simply being Lollie, my very predictable very present Buddha.

Lollie settles

As I got clear with this she settled immediately. She seemed happier and more at ease. She was careful and non reactive around the other dogs. I started taking her out to run more and she liked it. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is no way I think that she is “cured” – she will likely do this again, be reactive with an overly stern level of correction to what she thinks is a slight to her, a disrespect, or a play for a possession she thinks is hers. But it won’t shake me to the core like it did this time. This time things are more clear inside me. Sure I still have an enormous amount of work to do. I am clearly in the middle of this thing with myself – still needing to listen, observe and be brave. But I am no longer afraid. I’m not afraid of her or of my truth. I know I can handle whatever comes my way. The fear was the hardest part for me, because it left me feeling so young, so cut off from myself, so helpless. Now that the fear is gone I have access to all my training, my skills, my intelligence and my instincts. As long as I can keep myself clear, I believe things will be much better. And I also bought a great book (Brenda Aloff’s “Aggression in Dogs”) on working with aggressive dogs, just to make sure my skills were up to snuff!

So, again, as always Lollie has pointed me in a direction that has been about spiritual growth and healing. For that, for her role in my journey, I will be eternally grateful to her.

Hi,

I recently got a Chow Chow (a week ago), they don’t seem to get on quite well. I believe I introduced them incorrectly as I read somewhere on the web saying we should let them affirm their ranking system and allow them to have small fights. After first two days, I noticed something seems amiss as the fight just got more aggressive. Which I decided to do more research and fought an alternative suggestion which is to stop such dominance fight should it occur.

I have the chow chow restricted by a fencing in a small area (Toilet train)and allow my other dog, an 11 month old Japanese Spitz to roam the house as it is toilet trained. My Spitz tends to start a fight with the 4 month old chow chow whenever i let it out of the confined area. I remain calm and assertive throughout hoping to correct my spitz but it doesn’t seem to be effective. Out of this one week, there was only one occasion where the two of them were peacefully roaming around the apartment for 10 mins. However, everything was back to square one again.

I bring them for walk daily, side by side (Chow on my left, Spitz on my right). My spitz gets along quite well when out of the house, however, there were occasion where my Chow started biting, unsure if it was play biting my Spitz during walks.

I’m hoping to get some advices on how to introduce two properly and get them to live harmony in my apartment.

Thank you, and your advise is greatly appreciated.

My response:

Your dogs are both young so there is that going for you. It seems that you have done a fair bit of research on your own, good for you! It will help you to be educated on how to read dog’s body language so you can be more confident in knowing what you are seeing – aggression or dominance display, play or fighting, how to know when things are getting tense and you need to intervene.

First thing I would do is this:

1. Pick up ALL toys, bones, chewies, and food. Keep only water in a bowl on the floor and keep at least two bowls of it available at all times. This will eliminate one reason for fighting – resource guarding. Of course, you and anyone else in your home can also become a resource so be mindful of that and don’t let any dog be annoying, pushy or bossy around you.

2. Continue walking them daily, making sure to keep them at your side. It sounds like you walk them  correctly – good for you. Just keep this up. The walks should be about 30 minutes long minimum and you should work up to a full hour as your new little one matures. I’d say a full hour by the time the Chow is 6 months old. Do stop any biting on the walk, playful or otherwise. I consider walking to be  “work” and expect focus and concentration from my dogs. They aren’t held to a firm heel or anything but no messing around – stay in your place and keep your eyes forward. I don’t talk to them much either, we just do our work side by side. I like to say to myself “We are a creature with (in your case) 10 legs, 6 eyes, 6 ears, 3 mouths, 2 arms and one mind.”

3. Enroll them in a structured training class together if possible or separately if necessary. But  either way work them together. One dog may need to be confined in the pen you have or on leash but work them at the same time and reinforce both dogs for good behavior. Decide what “good behavior” means for you for the non-working dog. For example, if you are working one on a sit and they perform well, treat them and the other if he/she did not interrupt, remained quiet etc. As their skills develop you can have one in a down/stay and work the other on a new skill. Both get treated if the one held the down/stay and the one you were working did what you wanted. Get the idea? This reinforces the idea that you are the one in charge of resources and that good behavior (compliant, respectful, quiet, patient) gets rewarded.

Before going on to number 4 you will need to determine a vital piece of information – who is the trouble maker here? I would suspect given your description of the 4 months old’s behavior (biting on the walk), that he is the instigator. Watch how the Chow looks at the Spitz – who starts the glare and who breaks it off first. That sort of thing will give you information about who is challenging who. Also, think back to who starts the actual fighting. And then leash one of the dogs. Your information gleaned from the above will tell you who to leash up. I would leash the instigator but do not let the unleashed dog to hassle the one on leash. Teaching both dogs a command that means “ignore that thing” would be helpful. Again, a good training class will help with that – the command is often called “Leave it”. If you have a situation where one is the problem and the other just wants to be left alone this leashing up the problem one will “fix” the fighting. If you have a situation where both are instigating them it becomes more complicated. But leashing one gives you more control over the situation. So, on to number 4…

4. After your longest walk of the day, walk into the house and only unleash one of the dogs (the non-instigator). Keep the other one close at hand and simply ignore them both. Go about your business while the one dog is leashed (tie it to your pants, around your wrist). Keep half an eye on what is happening around you but don’t get overly intense. If they go to interact use your body (legs) and nudge the unleashed one out of the way saying firmly “GET” or something to communicate disapproval. Continue to block any approach of the other dog. IF you are unable to do this step without a fight you have a more complicated situation on your hands and you’ll need an expert to come in and assess what is going on. If however, this works, keep it up daily starting small – say 10 minutes, and work up from there.

5. As their obedience skills develop you can do this off leash but put both dogs into a down/stay and keep them there. You may be allowing more rough play in your home that is advisable. I do not let my dogs wrestle or play rough in the house. The house is for lounging and working and sleeping and eating. Play happens outside. Limiting this rough play in the house may help.

Hopefully this will be helpful. I have to say that you will be able to get a much better sense of things if you hire a dog trainer to come into your home for an hour session. Just that should help you get a handle on what is actually going on and what to do about it. In general though, think like this, “what you practice you get really good at” so if your dogs practice being calm and self-controlled, they will become good at that. If they practice fighting, they will get good at that too.

Good luck to you and let me know how this all works out!

-Kristin