Time to Reflect

I think it’s time to reflect on where we were and how far we had come. It did seem that we would never progress beyond full-time crazy, but there we were, only part-time crazy. That’s progress. We were walking in a somewhat civilized manner, she was responding better to verbal commands, I actually found time to breathe, and daycare was working out great. We did still have a couple of problems. First, was her high prey drive which caused her to go nuts and launch herself at the windows when she saw a squirrel or rabbit in the yard or even when we were just out, and second were her lunging and overall poor manners when greeting other dogs. These were problems that just didn’t seem to want to go away. Now and again they would start to improve, only to reappear as if they just went on vacation or something.

I must admit that I was confused. Chili loves other dogs. At daycare she plays and plays and plays. She’s popular, doesn’t discriminate as she plays with any dog that will play with her, and has a ton of fun. When we’re at the dog park and she has been properly greeted to another dog, again she just plays and plays. However, walk her down the street, and she lunges at every oncoming dog. What the...??? I don’t get it. Yes, I do admit that since this had been an ongoing problem that I would tense up when I saw another dog. It was hard not to. I had control but it wasn’t pretty and most other dog owners wouldn’t make it easier. Most would look at us as if I was allowing, or fostering the behaviour. Sometimes I felt like not even leaving the house for a walk but what would that accomplish? Nothing. The only way to progress was to go out into the world and try everything I could to make things work out.

Then there was the high prey drive. We could be casually doing anything and having a calm and wonderful time when suddenly she’d just bolt and try dragging me behind her. Even though she thought she had the element of surprise, she was wrong. I’d say that most times, I was prepared. I knew that she had the tendency to just fly at a moment’s notice so I guess I was never really at ease. The bolting was hard on my body. Something in me would always have the strength to hold onto the lead and not let go, no matter what. I think it’s just an instinct because I knew that as long as I held on, she couldn’t get into too much trouble, even though it was hard on me.

Now, her greetings with other dogs were the equivalent of a human saying hello by running up to someone and body checking them. She would run full-on up to the dogs face and then stop short, or body check them from the side. Not a greeting that was typically appreciated by the other dogs. To avoid this I would facilitate the greeting with the first dog. I would keep her on leash and let the other dog approach us. Then guide her to not get nose to nose but to sniff bums. Then I would just watch and assess the situation. If everything seemed OK, I would let them play. After the first dog greeting, usually the rest of them went fine. It was like she needed the first greeting as an ice breaker.

So that’s where we were. I would estimate that at this point we had her for over a year. Even though there were still issues, we had taken great leaps forward. Patience was key and when it comes to Chili, I have a lot. She’s a loveable goofball, not so elegant, with a touch of crazy, and when she looks at us with her happy face, we can’t help but melt. It may take an unknown amount of years to go by before we’ve solved the mysteries of Chili but I’ll wait. She’s worth it.