Champion of My HeartA real-time memoir about life with a fearful border collie, by Roxanne Hawn

I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Thoughts? Advice?

Ridgeback Video

I knew Lilly and I were making progress, though, when she began using a front foot to hold the toy down inside the basket once she placed it in there.

However, my fear is that she will learn / believe that the foot action is the thing I’m clicking. It’s so similar to the cardboard box game, where sometimes she gets rewarded for sitting in the box. Other times, it’s putting just her rear feet in the box, etc.

I’m sorry there isn’t video of our tribulations, but by the time I eek out some clicker time, trust me, I’m not camera ready.

BUT, if we get the trick solid, I’ll be sure to get a clip of that so that we can brag.

We had fans and heaters going to dry the floor. We had a gaping hole in the bottom cabinets, where the old dishwasher once sat. We had tools and towels, wrenches and water, and a couple of grumpy people clomping around for a little over a week.

You see, she gets very worried, slinks away, and worms like she is the most fearful dog on the planet when I try to wash her face. (Tom lets her lick the bottom of his yogurt cups, and her nose gets crusty from the yogurt, if I don’t wash it off.)

So, any time she saw me near the sink with a wet rag, she thought she was in for. After a few days of no face washing, she got less worried. It helped that I kissed her and gave her treats for approaching me and even hanging out while I did the dishes.

I’m happy to report that Tom installed our new Bosch dishwasher this morning. This beauty is heavily encased in a rubber-ish shell that provides serious sound dampening. The only thing you can hear when it is running is a little swish-swish of the water. It’ll be interesting to see how Lilly copes with that.

Ever since Lilly’s Best, Best Dog friend Katie, the borzoi, moved away, we’ve wondered if another such canine match exists. Not only did their personalities mesh, but thanks to Katie’s impressive dog-dog skills and infinite patience with Lilly’s style of bossy-noisy border collie play, the two girls became easy companions.

I am confident there are many dogs with whom Lilly could share walks, hikes, and training classes. I suspect, however, that a Katie level of off-leash, hanging out and/or playing comfort will be much harder to find because Lilly’s social skills are so rudimentary.

But, there is a new borzoi in town, so we introduced Lilly to him this week. He is staying with Katie’s former family as a foster, with an eye toward adoption.

His name is Valinor Golightly Thundercrest JC (call name Thunder). He is a 3-year-old retired conformation dog (aka “show” dog). If you click through, you can see photos of him as a tiny pup (scroll all the way down) as well as some beautiful shots of him in the show ring and in lure coursing. Very handsome boy.

We introduced Lilly and Thunder yesterday on a short leash walk up the road and back. They shared several polite face and butt sniffs on Thursday. They walked nicely together.

Thunder seemed worried or wary in general, but he has had a long week that I’m sure is disorienting. Long drive, new places, new people, etc. He also got some kind of cut on his shoulder recently, so maybe that was hurting. See how he held his mouth closed and is a little squinty. (I’m having trouble getting the 2 photos and video below to show up all at once, so if it doesn’t work in the post, look in comments, where I’ll try to add anything that is missing.)

Lilly looks a bit tense in this shot, but I think it’s more the camera than him that made her tighten up. I took another photo, thinking I got her smiling at him, but she must have clammed up and blinked because her face only looks slightly less like this.

At first Thunder refused any treats from me. So, I gave them to Lilly. Once he saw her munching away, he asked for another try, and I managed to give him several treats during our walk.

We visited him again today after our usual 3-mile walk. We let the dogs hang out off leash in Thunder’s backyard, and things were fine at first. Nice polite face sniffing, etc. Lilly even did the smart thing and simply sat when he showed prolonged interest in her butt. They poked around and sniffed some things together, but then Lilly got a little snarky with him after we played One Treat for You, One Treat for Him. When she curled her lips and growled at him, Thunder barked and jumped away. Since she persisted with the bossy display (stepping toward him and showing her teeth), we took Thunder inside and left Lilly outside alone … while I helped upload some video of Thunder showing his funny swivel ear action.

As the video loaded, I sat on the floor and fed Thunder several treats. He seems to get the idea now, which makes me happy.

Lilly didn’t seem to fuss or worry at being left outside in the yard alone. She just laid down on the back deck while the rest of us went inside. I didn’t mean for our departure to be a BUMMER or attention withdrawal, but I think Lilly may have interpreted it as such because when we came out again, she jumped her jitters out and was all kissy to me.

Pat and Thunder walked with me and Lilly up to the road and down to our house. Lilly showed no signs of wanting to sass him again, and Thunder seemed MUCH more relaxed today. He had a nice smile as we walked. I didn’t want to stress him with the camera, so I’ll try over the weekend to get some shots of him looking less worried and more happy.

So far, he seems like a nice, mellow guy. Whether he and Lilly can be more than walk-date friends remains to be seen, but it’s always good for her to have exposure to new dogs who don’t scare her.

Katie Update
Katie’s first home after leaving our valley did not work out. She stayed there only a few days, then she spent several weeks with a foster and was placed again last weekend in a new home. The rescue person who housed Thunder for a couple days happens to know Katie’s new family and says they told her it was “love at first sight,” so our fingers and paws are crossed that this is a happy and permanent match for Katie because she deserves all good things.

Shocked, I am. I figured all the change would unhinge her.

We even moved the dog crates into the garage (temporarily) because the concrete sealer we’re using in the unfinished basement reeks. The baby gate upstairs remains vigilant, but the few times Lilly followed me upstairs she managed NOT to hurt and scare herself on the exposed tack strips. (New carpet went in upstairs yesterday.)

Lilly does seem confused, though, especially since her crate is ALWAYS on the right and Tom put her on the left in the garage. When we let them out in the morning, they both run inside the house … rather than to the dog pen door. Just my luck, she’ll adjust in time to move back down into the basement.

It’s been noisy, smelly, and pretty stressful as we race the seasons to finish a few home improvement projects.

In the same vein as my need for a smaller car, I’m also purging “stuff” like mad. Clutter stresses me out. There is something empowering about getting rid of things you don’t need, even if at some point you thought you did. We’re not quite done (still have about 1/3 of the basement to go), so I cannot celebrate yet, but it does feel amazing and lighter around here.

More than likely we’ll just finish our basement tasks as planned, but it is tempting to turn what used to be my yoga room into a dog-proof, industry-grade dog suite.

For a decade now, I’ve written feature articles and facility profiles for the Pet Care Services Association (formerly the American Boarding Kennel Association). Many times each year, I pour through pages and pages of information and do phone interviews with petcare centers around the world about how they designed their spaces and their services to serve pets in their communities with training, boarding, daycare, and other spa services. (Grooming is such an “old” word … as is “kennel” for that matter.)

That said, I could probably design quite the “dog room” in the basement, which could serve as a safe, impervious spot for elderly and/or young pets in our future.

Compare this from a couple weeks ago …

To this timid body language on Sunday

Notice the ear and tail position

Look at this squinted, worried face

All in all, she coped well with the unpredictable dogs (4 out of 6 in this photo), as long as she had enough distance.

We went through an entire chicken breast, two buffalo hot dogs, and about 10 ounces of cheddar in this one-hour class. Lilly did everything I asked really well, including:

A reactive Lilly means she is nervous, but confident enough to say something about it. Now, we just have to build her confidence to where she isn’t nervous AND she doesn’t feel the need to say much about what she sees as an affront to her world — like a kid rolling by or a young dog being a young dog.

I didn’t fully recognize how worried she was until we stepped into the sunlight as we walked out of the heavily treed park. I swear it’s as if stepping into the light released her from fear. It reminded me of that scene from The Blues Brothers, where Jake says “I have seen the light,” then proceeds to do a bunch of dancing and gymnastics (or so it seems).

As soon as we got away from our classmates and into the sun, she began leaping as high as my head — which is what she does after “surviving” something scary. We call it “jumping her jitters out.” Then, she made a b-line … I mean dragged my sorry behind to the car. That, friends, is a b-i-g sign.

So, there is your tip for the day. See how your dog responds after the situation has ended for a good indicator on how big a issue it was (despite what you saw in the moment in the dog’s behavior).

For a good example of this, check out Laurie Luck’s Smart Dog University‘s video and blog post called Talos + the Freight Elevator. Talos is a service puppy in training. He will provide physical stability, kind of like a canine cane. He took a ride in a noisy freight elevator as part of his ongoing socialization work. He is nervous to be sure, but watch his exit at the end of the 3-minute video. He is not hot-footing it, which means he was coping pretty well.

I could post the video here, but I find Laurie’s blog so helpful as she chronicles the socialization work I sorely wish Lilly had had as a youngster. Plus, Talos … a great dane … is a total hoot to watch.

***

Now, you know why I decided Lilly could have her big bison bone on the way home from class. She deserved it. Later, we went for a walk in town before heading back up the mountain, and Lilly walked within mere inches of a college-aged guy on a skateboard without flinching. Honestly, I didn’t see him. He was at the back of a pack of what appeared to be frat guys doing some trash cleanup along the creek. He was rolling very slowly, which helped a lot.

Honestly, I’m somewhat careful when it comes to bones. I allow bones every few months. The reason? I recently interviewed Dr. Kate Knutson from Pet Crossing Animal Hospital and Dental Clinic in Bloomington, Minnesota, for an article in the summer 2009 issue of HealthyPet magazine.When I asked her about it, she basically said that dogs can chew onbones as long as you are willing to get any dental damage fixed, if ithappens. She understands that many of us consider chewing on bones aquality-of-life issue, so we balance the risk against the reward.

She did warn me about some dog chews you’ll find on the market: “Thereare a couple things I say no to,” she told me. “No hooves, no ears, norocks, and no pizzle (bully) sticks. Those are the fourthings that cause the most root canals in our practice.”

So, with those warnings and caveats in mind, I went ahead and got some big, meaty, raw bones for my pups.

Lilly enjoyed hers on the way home.

I even managed to give Ginko a bath. He never once stopped playing with the bone. Sorry there isn’t video of that, but I was home alone at the time.

A debate in the following days cropped up about bones coming in the house. The people here at Chez Champion of My Heart vetoed the idea. But, the canine members of the family are ever hopeful.

Again, I wish I had video of it, but Ginko stood outside my office Monday looking forlorn. So, I went to let him in. He got the biggest smile on his face when he saw me. But, before he came inside, he raced around back to get his bone and came running up to the door. When I told him to leave it outside, Ginko gave me the most hurt look.

So, we’ve been working a lot on DROP IT and LEAVE IT as they come inside.

Lilly remains optimistic that her powers of persuasion will prevail. “Pleease, Mom? Please?”

DANGER
One of the dogs at issue eventually bit off part of his owner’s thumb. Seriously. Chomp. We know this because an EMT friend went on the 911 call. So, I count us lucky to have gotten past this big dog who kept squaring off without injury.

There’s a whole comedy of errors that goes along with the severed thumb, but I’ll spare any of you who may be squeamish.

IMPROVEMENTS
Of the four houses with dogs of concern, only one remains an issue. The others have either moved away or are finally restrained away from the road. Once in a while those two spaniels come after us, but lately, they keep their distance. Oh, they still race toward us, barking and growling … but they stop about 20 feet from us. Their owner now calls them as soon as he sees us coming, or he recalls them even after the chase is on. It took Lilly a while to adjust to the guy’s hollering required, but she no longer thinks she is the one in trouble.

I learned recently at an engagement party in the valley that this is NOT the case for others who walk their dogs the same direction. They still refuse to walk that direction after numerous, ugly encounters with these dogs. I’m not sure if the spaniel’s owner takes pity on us or what. He is known around here as “Mean Mr. XXX” or “The Dog Kicker,” so I’m pretty sure we’re not his kind of peeps, but whatever it is that has spurred the improvement … I’ll take it.

The set-up remains a training challenge, though. The spaniel house is across the street from another house with two dogs who like to bark at us too. They are well fenced, so it’s not a danger, but it freaks Lilly out.

This gauntlet, unfortunately, sits where three rural roads intersect … at the bottom of a hill, on a bit of a blind curve.

Each time, Lilly and I end up playing poor-folks’ game of Frogger, as we move one way or another so that she has enough distance from either set of dogs to keep her from freaking out with fear.

I succeed many times of late at finding just the right balance of space to keep Lilly walking, looking at me, and taking treats. We don’t look at either set of dogs. We don’t talk to them. We focus on each other and keep moving.

Once in a while, my timing is off, and Lilly shoots to the end of her leash to bark, growl, and lunge back at them, but I just keep walking until she relents and refocuses.

We could speculate that this non-confrontational strategy works better. You know the mantra as well as I do: Ignore the behaviors you do not want.

Granted, I’m sure these other dogs were trained using something other than the clicker and positive reinforcement (and the withdrawal of attention that comes with it), but I figure if I ignore them, if I tip my head and shoulders away, while keeping Lilly focused on me the best that I can, then I may just succeed at making a safety bubble for both of us to pass.

Since it’s an out-and-back route we take, that means we face this situation twice on every walk, but once we get up over the hill, we have miles of road clear from fear triggers. We walk. We relax. We smile a lot.

Last week, we met some neighbors with their leashed dog on the road near the point where we turn around. So, we walked together back to their house before heading home. Their dog, also a spaniel of some sort, isn’t great with other dogs, so we put ourselves between them and walked with the dogs to the outside. Lilly did amazingly well — relaxed, loose body, focused on me. The only time she spun and snarked at him was when he shot behind his dad and got right behind Lilly. And, let’s face it … he deserved it.

As we chatted, the dog’s mom told me that it makes her smile whenever she sees me and Lilly on the road because “You both always look so happy.”

Now that, kids, is a compliment.

Our behaviorist increased Lilly’s twice daily dose of alprazolam from .5 mg to .75 mg when she learned at our last meeting that Lilly continued to have several noise-related fear issues. Of Lilly’s two behavior medications, this one specifically targets noise reactivity and sudden fear episodes.

Rather than return to the Relaxation Protocol set-up, however, I simply started opening the window over the sink while Lilly was eating her dinner in the kitchen. It seemed to me that using the window as a trigger had somehow poisoned the more formal training situation, which I began to believe meant we’d never overcome the window that way.

Remember, for Lilly, evening is often much scarier than daytime. I wish we knew why, but we don’t. So, after early success opening the window during meals in the morning, I switched to dinnertime with some success.

We’re not quite ready to declare victory, but the worst fear behavior I’m seeing is this: Lilly stops eating. She looks at me and the window, then resumes eating.

I’ve tried opening the window during non-meal times, and in those cases, the worst that happens is that Lilly retreats a few steps before responding to my offer of a snack with caution. Typically, I ask her to take at least a few steps toward me and the open window to earn her food.

***

Summer Winds
The benefits of having access to this window include a nice evening breeze. I doubt I’ll do justice to my nature descriptions the way KB does, but here is my best attempt at explaining the winds around here.

Most of the time during the day, during the summer, any winds we get come from the West (downslope). BUT, in the evening, when the hot air down in the city gets enough height and oomph, it spills over the mountains from East to West (upslope). The result? We have nice breezes coming from the East at night.

The fastest way to cool off our house in the summer is to open a couple windows on the East side of the house as well as a couple others elsewhere, and voila! we have a comfy house with a pleasant breeze.

Weather geeks can read more here from a local meteorologist about what different winds mean around here for moisture, etc. Since we’re on the East side of the Continental Divide, what he says about Denver-area weather applies somewhat to our situation.

These breezy summer days are quickly coming to an end, though. And, come winter, the winds most often howl from the North and West. When we get big storms, they do indeed come from the East (as an upslope storm).

AT CLASS A COUPLE WEEKS AGO
We arrived at that week’s location, and immediately went into SIT-STAY-EAT … be calm mode.

Lilly is most familiar with this location because it used to be the only one when we first started taking these classes. Back in the day, before things took a turn, Lilly used to howl with joy when we turned off a major road and began weaving our way back to this spot.

Since we were the first to arrive, we walked along a path next to these soccer fields. It’s nice for Lilly because we’re moving away from the dog park area, and she can walk at ease on her long training line without having to be on duty.

Thankfully, I spotted the MOTHER of all triggers early: A boy riding a skateboard, being pulled by two dogs straining at their leashes.

We bailed off the path and went well into the grassy area, where Lilly could sit and eat as they passed. I’m happy to say that she only fired off ONE holy crap! bark and otherwise was fine thanks to the extra distance (100+ feet) I could give her.

AT CLASS THIS WEEK
This week, class was at another location that Lilly tends to enjoy thanks to squirrels. (See KB’s blog post from that day for a funny photo of Lilly being obsessive about squirrels. In the comments, I argue that Lilly may have followed the letter of the DOWN-STAY law, but not its spirit.) )

Lilly handled the walk from the car to the working area back by the unfenced dog park well. We used our walk two steps, sit, eat pattern, and she had no trouble making her way across the park. Lilly was doing GREAT until two young dogs broke off from the play group that was winding down so that class could start. Both of them flew at us at top speed, so we reversed course while others tried to Whoo Whoo them away from us.

Despite my best efforts to get distance FAST, Lilly lunged and growled and flopped around like a large, ocean game fish. Hate that, but what can you do when the chase is on? I just kept walking until she stopped growling and could sit and eat calmly.

Once the pups were leashed up, Lilly recovered quickly.  Still … I used the fence corners that mark the off-leash area as a barrier. (That’s KB and K on the far side of the fence. It was the boxer and the doodle who gave us chase. Lilly actually loves the greyhound who is closest to us, but Lilly was licking her lips a lot when she first saw the big dog, so we kept a moderate distance at first.)

This is just minutes after the growling. Lilly is completely fine. (How many photos of a smiling Lilly, wearing her red warning bandanna, do you think I can take over the years?)

In fact, later we used those same two pups as blockers when a couple other off-leash dogs showed interest in Lilly. One time, it worked great, and we slipped away while these two social dogs intercepted the interlopers for us. Another time, it didn’t work, so Lilly turned and snapped at the approaching dog who really gave her a vigorous butt inspection.

I’m happy to report that Lilly worked well through a Rally Obedience-like exercise where we went from paper plate to paper plate. Each one had instructions for something to do, including tricks. The shocking part was that a mature Italian Greyhound that Gigi knows was poking around off leash as we were doing this exercise, but as Gigi promised this dog had strong dog-dog skills and correctly read that Lilly was NOT interesting in saying hello … thank you very much.

YET, the fact that she would not only work (DOWNS, STAYS, etc), but that she would do tricks (ROLL OVER, SHAKE) while this tiny dog bopped around was a lovely little breakthrough.

Trust me, it would have been a totally different situation with a bigger dog or with one who had poor body language skills.

MORE TRANSITION WORK
After class, I had a couple of errands to run, so we practiced our arrivals at each location. Both of these spots were new to Lilly, and it shows on her face.

Post Office

Grocery Store/Strip Mall Parking Lot
(with cart boy rumbling by with carts)

You’ll notice too that I have her off leash in these public areas, which is a brave thing for me to do, but I felt like Lilly was in good shape emotionally, and I only had her hop out of the car and sit for a minute tops while I fed her treat after treat before asking her to hop back into her car crate.

Again, I muted the sound on everything except the real time clip of the correction because the constant praise of both dogs gets annoying. BUT, I wanted you to be able to hear that specific encounter. Then, you can watch it again in super-slow-motion and see just what Lilly did in response.

Ultimately, there was no harm, no foul. Just an adult dog teaching a pup a thing or two. At least, that’s how it seemed to me and Betsy (the two dog moms present).

(Side Note: I spent a lot of time as a kid with my mom’s mom who watched a lot of The Lawrence Welk Show, hence the ah one, ah two.)

Without further ado, I present Anatomy of a Puppy Correction:

Just so you know … tomorrow is another video I’m calling Anatomy of a Puppy Correction. It shows in detail the one encounter, where Lilly put her foot down, so stay tuned.

BUT, today … enjoy Lilly & LuLu

Lilly did well overall. She was cautious. She would circle away, if necessary. There was a fair bit of lip licking, but for the most part, her tail wagged. Many times, she seemed perfectly content to have LuLu around. And, only ONCE did she correct her enough to make LuLu cry. I have it on video, and my best guess is that it was a lesson in bite inhibition. I can’t see for sure, but Lilly whips around suddenly, so I suspect maybe some puppy teeth clamped on accidentally.

First of all, there was a LOT of sniffing. LuLu has not seen many dogs with tails, so she found Lilly’s behind very interesting.

You can see here that Lilly’s body language is a bit tense, but clearly LuLu is looking for approval. And, Lilly’s tail is swinging.

The only way I got this shot was by waiting until LuLu tired out, then I had Lilly slip in a DOWN-STAY next to her.

The GOOD
I was out of sight. She could not see me. I could not see her.

She was a good half-acre away from the house, so we had distance as a challenge.

She gave up what she was doing and came inside.

I did not holler. I did not repeat the cue, but I did offer other encouragement.

The BAD
It wasn’t the fastest recall in the world. It took a good 60 seconds for her to make it up to the house.

***

I first read about the recall as a many part response in Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt. Her point, as I remember it, is that getting a dog to COME actually requires several things to happen, including stopping whatever the dog is currently doing, turning toward you, and then coming to you.

Yep. He’s down there banging away. The compressor is running. It’s noisy as crap around here tonight, and Lilly was just laying outside the front door — happy as could be.

When I suggested it was perhaps time for dinner, she came right in with zero qualms.

I still think I’ll institute the no-going-outside-after-dinner rule (except to the dog pen to potty) for a few more days, but I’m feeling pretty good about this new .75 mg twice a day dose of the alprazolam, which is meant to specifically target her sound sensitivity.

I don’t want to jinx myself, but I’ve even been able to open the SCARY window over the kitchen sink several times recently without a fear-related incident.

Now … if I could only get rid of this hideous cold I managed to catch. My poor aching ears aren’t taking the noise as well as our brave canine protagonist.