When I first got Ziggy, I got a fleece on one side dog bed for her. She only ever used that for two things: using as a ginormous plushy toy to drag and throw around and chew on, and to hump.*
It was very peculiar to me as I'm not accustomed to spayed females who hump things, though I wasn't at all surprised that her BFF (before he moved up north) was a humper because he was almost two years old and still not neutered.
It usually proceeded like this: she would start playing and it would escalate and her brain would seem to misfire out of control and she would grab it and hump it with this look of desperation on her face and it would calm her down. Fortunately this was not something that I failed with, like I did with so many other things with her. I would let her ride it out and not make a big deal of it. I was honestly pretty relieved that she was able to calm down and not attack me, which she was doing pretty regularly. Not attack like seriously, but a fun attack which usually was absolutely no fun for me - lots of jumping on me, mouthing, scratching - all puppy fun but awful for me.
That lasted maybe a month, maybe two, and she hasn't done it once since. I just think of how confusing that time must have been for her - she was spayed a week before I got her so her hormones must have been out of control. Did she ever have puppies? When I had Selma and got her spayed, she had horrible hallucinations from the anesthesia and it really fucked up her head for a few days. Fortunately she was very young, very resilient, and very loved, so she got over it. But Ziggy? IN such a stressful environment, while at the shelter? How awful.
I will never know Ziggy's past, but I do know that there were a lot of fuckups in her transition to life with me. Most of them committed by me. I was so naive, thinking she was well-adjusted.
If I had it to do over again, I would know now to watch her stress levels. She was giving me all kinds of signals that she was stressed off the charts but I didn't understand. I wouldn't take her to an obedience class for damn sure - that was the most stressful of all. I wouldn't have people come meet her in the first couple of days, I wouldn't take her out so much. No dog parks, no Petco (that was a disaster), no driving around with my classmate on school assignment with her constantly attacking us. Jesus she just had no matters at all - what a mess. And so while she still can sometimes lose it and think it's ok to paw at me and jump on me and try to wrestle with me, that's far less often and sometimes because she's trying to tell me something very ardently (usually: go to bed, and she's usually right). Now she stays in the backseat of the pickup and sniffs at a passenger and kisses them if they like it.
She's made tremendous progress, sometimes I forget how much because there's still so much more to do.
And yesterday I said she was very responsive but I have to edit: only at home. Outside in the world, she's still a wild beast. A dog was barking aggressively behind a fence and Ziggy went insane; somebody was backing out of their driveway and afraid of going anywhere because of her lunging - as if she would drag me into the street where they could hit me. Oh lord no, people. I am a seasoned pro with being dragged by this Catahoula. My two-handed leash anchoring system works very effectively. It would of course be better if she were not flipping out on me, but we're working on it. IF that dog were better behaved and ignoring Ziggy who was clearly not approaching the house, then Ziggy wouldnt have lost her cool. Other dogs can be fire propellant or fire retardant with her, and obviously I cannot control other dogs at all.
We'll figure it out.
*Now it is only used to store toys on when I'm vacuuming. NOt a very useful item for us.
It was very peculiar to me as I'm not accustomed to spayed females who hump things, though I wasn't at all surprised that her BFF (before he moved up north) was a humper because he was almost two years old and still not neutered.
It usually proceeded like this: she would start playing and it would escalate and her brain would seem to misfire out of control and she would grab it and hump it with this look of desperation on her face and it would calm her down. Fortunately this was not something that I failed with, like I did with so many other things with her. I would let her ride it out and not make a big deal of it. I was honestly pretty relieved that she was able to calm down and not attack me, which she was doing pretty regularly. Not attack like seriously, but a fun attack which usually was absolutely no fun for me - lots of jumping on me, mouthing, scratching - all puppy fun but awful for me.
That lasted maybe a month, maybe two, and she hasn't done it once since. I just think of how confusing that time must have been for her - she was spayed a week before I got her so her hormones must have been out of control. Did she ever have puppies? When I had Selma and got her spayed, she had horrible hallucinations from the anesthesia and it really fucked up her head for a few days. Fortunately she was very young, very resilient, and very loved, so she got over it. But Ziggy? IN such a stressful environment, while at the shelter? How awful.
I will never know Ziggy's past, but I do know that there were a lot of fuckups in her transition to life with me. Most of them committed by me. I was so naive, thinking she was well-adjusted.
If I had it to do over again, I would know now to watch her stress levels. She was giving me all kinds of signals that she was stressed off the charts but I didn't understand. I wouldn't take her to an obedience class for damn sure - that was the most stressful of all. I wouldn't have people come meet her in the first couple of days, I wouldn't take her out so much. No dog parks, no Petco (that was a disaster), no driving around with my classmate on school assignment with her constantly attacking us. Jesus she just had no matters at all - what a mess. And so while she still can sometimes lose it and think it's ok to paw at me and jump on me and try to wrestle with me, that's far less often and sometimes because she's trying to tell me something very ardently (usually: go to bed, and she's usually right). Now she stays in the backseat of the pickup and sniffs at a passenger and kisses them if they like it.
She's made tremendous progress, sometimes I forget how much because there's still so much more to do.
And yesterday I said she was very responsive but I have to edit: only at home. Outside in the world, she's still a wild beast. A dog was barking aggressively behind a fence and Ziggy went insane; somebody was backing out of their driveway and afraid of going anywhere because of her lunging - as if she would drag me into the street where they could hit me. Oh lord no, people. I am a seasoned pro with being dragged by this Catahoula. My two-handed leash anchoring system works very effectively. It would of course be better if she were not flipping out on me, but we're working on it. IF that dog were better behaved and ignoring Ziggy who was clearly not approaching the house, then Ziggy wouldnt have lost her cool. Other dogs can be fire propellant or fire retardant with her, and obviously I cannot control other dogs at all.
We'll figure it out.
*Now it is only used to store toys on when I'm vacuuming. NOt a very useful item for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment