The First Bite

Why is it when things are going so good that something always has to come along to help everything fall apart?

I've never believed that Toby couldn't bite or even that he wouldn't, but I've managed every situation so that he wouldn't ever feel like he had to. But today mom called and asked us to come pick her up at the bank so I put the dogs in the car and drove down. Toby wasn't feeling much of himself today so I figured the car ride would do him some good. It did. He was a happy dog the whole trip. When we got home we got paused by neighbors so they could ask questions about the dogs. Normally I would never stand out in my front yard with Toby because these neighbors are known for having their little dog get loose (and now their second little dog as well), but the door was shut and they assured me both dogs were locked in the house.

Alright, I let Toby linger out front with me. He was greeting all the neighborhood kids happily and mom entertained the neighbors (they were curious about Reba's breed and her sight, their new dog looks similar to her). I can barely remember what happened next. Their door must not have been locked and one of their kids must have opened it... next thing I hear is something jingling behind me and a flash of black and white as their little Shih Tzu darts over. Toby whips around but he's very good at keeping his head... normally. He's MUCH more tolerant of little dogs than he is of big ones.

But this one bit first. I remember having that split second startle as the dog did two snaps against Toby's nose and then it all blurred over in speed. I think he tried to pin the little dog first but the dog was fast, just jumping and nipping. It was over in less than a second. I had the leash reeled in and Toby hefted off the ground and Toby had the little dog by the back of it's next in his mouth. He let go just as fast as he picked it up and the owners were there to collect their dog... but I don't even know what to think.

Toby remembered himself fast and pulled himself right into a sit. He was whining slightly but nothing like he would if he were really over threshold... but I don't know. I talked to him a bit, asked him if he were okay and he settled back to normal. His breathing seemed fine. The other dog wasn't hurt according to her owners. Toby went in the house fine, none of his normal stressy behaviors after an outburst.

I shouldn't say it was his first bite... he's gotten loose once and after greeting one of his buddies turned and saw that his other buddy wasn't there and those two collided. But Comet had the same problem Toby had and neither of them stuck a bite. Their jaws were open and knocking against each other but neither of them were willing to put in the bet for the fight. Other little dogs that have snapped up Toby's face have just been pinned to the ground and held there until they cool it (unless I can intervene). (He's been raised around a bunch of little dogs, so most of those have always been someone getting a bit too bossy and Toby not tolerating it). I've never seen him actually bite, let alone hold that bite for more than even a split second.

Needless to say my adrenaline is up. I never saw that one coming. Toby acts fine but he'll be taking it easy around the house for a few days. I probably need it more than he does... because all I want to do is curl up and cry. I'm thankful neither dog got hurt and furious that these people can't contain their dogs. And at the same time I'm downright furious with myself because... I don't even know. I'm not even sure where to go next with our training, I just hope we've done enough that I'm not completely back below zero again. I don't think I can stand having to be reset all the way to the beginning again, let alone having be worse for another year before I undo what tonight did. Please just let it be a small speed bump... not a whole earth quake. I don't think I can take another one of those.

Morning Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of the Tobermeister!

(No, he's not supposed to be drinking out of the bird bath. I called him away after I realized what he was doing... When I clicked to take the picture he was just standing pretty, apparently in the split second it took for the camera to register he dipped his nose for a drink. Silly boy, that's yucky!)

And a few attempts at getting some bird shots... ironically they're fine with me wandering the backyard without my camera. I go and get it and they all leave...

Open Bar at the Track

Well, this past weekend I'd bought some of those cake decorating kits - where you squeeze the frosting out through the nozzle... fully intending to use them as a way to squeeze food into Toby's mouth at a continuous stream. In the moment getting the reward in fast and as often as I possibly can is actually allowing us to watch a dog go past and have Toby remain pretty calm.

So I set out today with some cut-up hotdog in my bait pouch (not a real, high value treat for Toby but good enough for how comfortable he feels at the track for some obedience work) and my frosting-thing filled with blended meat. I'd been hoping to try the Open Bar technique again but until my Direct Stop gets here I was voting for the safety of the track. And well... I thought it smart to test my new equipment before trying it on the road. Good thing too...

We get there, are barely out of the car and into the gate, not even on the actual track yet when some guy walks his dog past. I spot it first and am able to get Toby out into the middle of the track (I had to drag him away from a smell, but thankfully he just thought it was me being impatient). I still new we only had about 100 feet between us and the other dog... in this environment I wasn't too sure that it would be enough of a distance, but by then Toby had spotted the other dog. Equipment failure 101 - always have a back up plan. Because sure enough, when I went to squeeze food into Toby's mouth I discovered the hole in the nozzle was too small for the thick goo I was trying to squeeze through. This wasn't going to be just a quick pass from the other dog either... the dude had to walk the whole length of one side of the track, then of course turned, and had to walk half the small length of it before the sidewalk dips down the hill and the guy/dog would go out of sight.

I started shoveling hotdogs into Toby like you wouldn't believe. But they're not high value rewards for him... he was taking them but more because I stuffing them in his lips than actually reaching for them. So I changed to scooping gunk out of the sleeve of the froster and letting him lick that off. Gross, but effective. We did get some mild crying from him - because we were a bit too close once the guy turned and walked the width of the track, that put him quite a bit closer because of the angle I'd rushed out to. I'd expected him to go straight or turn the other way... not continue on closer to us. Nonetheless we made it through without an outburst...

But we've gotten an interesting new twist to this. In the car on the way home he saw someone so I fed him as we passed (might as well build on calm behavior right?). Then I saw a dog so I was feeding him as we drove past - all calm. I like this. We got to a stop sign and while I was waiting to turn he saw two dogs playing across the street. Now, normally in car that'll set him off into his cry-screams. Instead he whined and whipped to me, so I fed him hotdogs as we drove past and that was that. We were within 30 feet as we drove by (the dogs in a fenced in front yard) and while he was a bit nervy (breath a bit to fast, his eyes glued on the dog, a bit stiff but not overly tense) he was way under his normal reaction level for a situation like that.

Things are actually going pretty good... I think they'd go better if I could remember to breathe normally in the moment things are happening. I'm getting better now that I have a plan for how to handle the situations and we've laid some good calming foundation work for this... I just have to remember to breathe normally.

New Trick - Cross Paws

Well today we did a lot of mini-sessions again. Some old work with pairing his lip lick with the cue 'Yum,' but we also did a variety of new stuff. Both dogs had a lesson on getting on the skateboard/getting used to it's movement. Sadly I need a different skateboard, my brother won't be too happy if we continue to use his good, expensive skateboard for the dogs (it feels the same to Toby as his nail file board, so we get a combo of standing on it and scratching it).

I'm also trying some body awareness stuff. For him I discovered teaching him to work into a laundry basket and then working into smaller stuff works well. We tried a while back with a medium sized box but he didn't get it. Half the time he got a back foot in by chance, but he was consciously thinking about it. The laundry basket was big enough he would put a back foot in with some encouragement, but the sides were also high enough that he had to think about lifting them in. I'll have to get a picture of this as we work our way down into something smaller.

Last, but not least, he learned how to cross his paws today. We settled on 'girly boy' as the cue (which we're starting to add). Took it outside to get a good picture, the new environment meant he wasn't 100% sure on what I was asking, but he did do it. We'll work on making the behavior more solid and more prominent 'cross' of his paws as he gains confidence. But here it is:


And Reba saying good bye:

Gotta love the slurp face she has going on there!

Impulse Control and Mat Work

We've done a lot of mini-sessions all day today, but at the request of a friend I videoed the impulse control/mat work we (both dogs and I) did tonight. Thought I'd post it here:

Loose Dogs and Set Backs

I love idiot little dogs that are allowed to run loose. Probably not as much as I love their idiotic owners that let them out in the first place. Don't get me wrong... I understand fences break, or latches fail... management always fails. But when people don't even bother? I don't think they realize just how much that pesky little dog can damage months and even years of work in one day and one encounter. And it's beyond frustrating for the person behind the leash of a dog they've spent months getting to a semi-normal state.

We'll see soon enough just how much damage the loose dog today did. I'll take a break from walking Toby around here for a while and let him have some breathing time. You see, we set off today rather confident. Yesterday's success just blew me away. We'd just set out when I saw there was a loose Shih Tzu running around - and she gets loose a lot - but we just crossed the street and I fed Toby as I passed. Worked brilliantly. He was a bit distractable this walk... but I could see all the cats that were out last night. I was impressed I was getting at least some check ins while he sniffed down all the cat places.

The entire walk went rather smoothly and we even took the long way back and still there were no problems until we were half way down the block and saw that not only was the little dog still out, but his owners were sitting in their yard a half a block down watching the dog run the entire length of the neighborhood. How nice of them. I had him nibbling for a few seconds but then the dog spotted us, started jumping up and down and barking. Great. There went Toby. He hit the end of that leash and the dog took off (mind you, the dog was across the street from us... but that much movement/barking from the other dog pushed him over threshold). Instead of continue I stepped us back a few feet and moved behind a car to let Toby cool down. He did and although scanning his surroundings wanted his cheese. Stress reliever? I don't know.

We talked with the guy whose car we were now hiding behind but he started shaking his head. I'd known from the barking that they hadn't taken the dog inside and instead the dog was darting back and forth the street and sure enough... heading back for us. I stood up to get a look, told it to get but that only made the dog yap more. Thankfully, unlike the dog's oh-so-helpful owners, the man by us chased the dog off back towards it's owners. They never once moved. I thanked him and headed Toby home. We were heading down my neighbors drive way (not risking trying to get to the gate in my front yard) when I could hear the dog barking it's way back towards us. We made it in fine... but come on.

Toby did fairly well, all things considering. I just wish people would keep their dogs under control. And I really, really can't wait until my Direct Stop gets here. But here's to hoping that this doesn't set us back very far... we've worked so hard to get to this point. -sighs-

Fooling Around

Toby was a little bored so I decided to teach him to hop up into my computer chair. It moves, so we started slow. He wasn't phased by any of it. It was his size that got in the way. -rolls- He climbed up but he was backwards and it was awkward turning around while the chair was wobbling (I didn't let it move too much, but I did let it move some. He was comfortable with that). He even slid into his puppy sit and stared at me and the treats impatiently while I wobbled the chair around and had him do shakes and hand touches.