Friday Canine Friend: What do we give up when we give up our pet?

Micheal and Max

I adopted Max, a Golden Retriever, many years ago. Max was a sweet, beautiful Golden Retriever who turned out to be severely thunderphobic.

The first time I walked into the house after a thunderstorm, I found my dog still in his crate but with blood everywhere, in and out of the crate, and several wires bent. I worked a full time corporate job and I admit seriously considering returning this boy to the rescue. I just didn’t know what I was possibly going to do for him with my hours. After a couple of days of pondering, I committed to his rehabbing.

The next 3 years was honestly the most difficult 3 years of my life as anyone dealing with canine thunderphobia knows. The sleepless nights holding a Golden to keep him from hurting himself, the sick feeling in the stomach as you hear him coming up the stairs after that first thunder strike knowing your sleep is over, checking the TV every morning deciding whether to board your dog, drug him, supplement him, crate him in the dark bathroom with the vent on, have your neighbor run over at lunch time with supplements, etc. We even considered soundproofing one of the closets!

I early on decided against medication after seeing his reaction to them. So I embarked on the usual desentization to sound, association with yummy treats, herbals, and yes even animal communications.

What I discovered in the process was a whole new world of alternatives. Today, I am a healthier person physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually thanks to this Golden boy. I often wonder where I would be today if I had given up on him, and I know that I would have given up a precious part of myself.

P.S. If you are dealing with thunderphobia, see Tuesday’s Training Tips on thunderphobia tips.

Sylvie Pleasant
Building Lasting, Empowering Relationships
K9 Solutions LLC
www.nck9solutions.com

Friday Canine Friend: Look where you are going

During a consult to teach owners how to have a well-mannered Golden, I was covering the Sit at the Door exercise to reinforce a strong Stay. The owners were sitting on the couch watching my demo. I put the Golden in a Sit and, while keeping an eye on him to make sure he stayed in his Sit, I opened the back door. I explained that I was going to step through the doorway then give the dog his release command to go out the door as well. I turned and ran quite roughly right into their glass door!

My immediate thought was how stupid I just looked so of course with my twisted sense of humor, I died laughing while the owners looked on horrified.

Lesson: Look where you are going or you might just bounce off a hard surface!

Dogs Don’t Care About Open Flys

I am offering one of our foster workshops for rescue dogs with behavioral issues or that just need some training for better adoptability. I meet a painfully shy Australian Shepherd, two rambunctious Goldens, an independent easily bored Chow/Golden, and a fear aggressive mutt.

We spend the first 30 minutes practicing leadership and proper body language to instill confidence in the dogs. And we also work quite a bit on not jumping on humans for our overly enthusiastic Goldens. 

During our break, the dogs are walking around relaxing. I look over to one of the fosters and see a gentleman enthusiastically approach one of the very happy Goldens. I yell at the owner to keep her dog in a polite sit. The dog responds well though it inches closer to the gentleman and leaves Mom behind. I remind Mom to keep the Golden by her side so she can be quicker to respond if he chooses to jump, which of course he finally can’t stand it and does so.

With a slightly irritated tone, I once again shout out for her to block her Golden from the gentleman and put him back in a sit. We’ve been working on this for 30 minutes for crying out loud.

She turns around and throws me a heck of a glare. Uh oh, I crossed my boundaries apparently so I back off and focus on another foster.

 She returns to the group a few minutes later and whispers to me, “I just couldn’t get any closer to that man—his fly was wide open!”