Mondays are Ziggy's worst days. She always struggles with Mondays
and it didn't help that she was recovering from medication that made her
very lethargic.
Today she's adorable and sweet and smart, as usual. She tells me to come play frisbee wtih her in the backyard and I do and we have fun (she got a new soft frisbee and she absolutely loves it, doing leaps to catch it in the air). The key with a reactive dog is to not play catch too much. Don't keep throwing the ball over and over and over - watch for signs for breaks. Ziggy can calm herself down sometimes, if I let her. Too much predator instinct and she loses her marbles. A little, and we have fun.
We are in an awkward stage with the dog door. She uses it for different purposes than intended - mostly to stand at it and cry, making it very obvious that she wants me to open the door for her. But when she really wants in or out, she just goes. It's all about the show with this puppy. She'll get over it - mostly it's that she's waiting to be invited. Sometimes I still have to invite her up on the couch or bed. Somebody taught her that, but it's not in place firmly. Just sometimes. Because I don't need to invite her usually - she's usually now good about not getting up when it's not appropriate.
I want a dog whose judgment I can trust. I do not want a dog whom I have to train to do whatever I say. I have known dogs like that and many people want them. But not me. I want the spark and sass of a dog who knows her own mind. But I always want her to have manners.
For all the mismatch of Ziggy and me, we're also very matched. She is a strongwilled street-smart sassy dog who has ferocious focus. She is skeptical of the world, including me, because she knows that she may have to fend for herself again someday.
Oh good grief. Here is a not-atypical Ziggy story that I'm in the middle of right now. She got her bone back that she started two days ago - I confiscated it and put it in the fridge, so she's not only eating bone. She's been outside quite some time enjoying it but when I opened the back door to shake out mats, she merrily trotted up the stairs with the bone in her mouth. I closed the door. She looked at me, aghast. "No, I dont' want that in here." She tried to slip past me and I said, "No, really. YOu are welcome but not the bone." She looked at me to say "But we have a deal. ONce it's not meaty anymore, you let me bring it in." "Well, not tonight. I just vacuumed and want no bits of bone in the rug for company tomorrow. No bone."
Looking me straight in the eye, she took the bone that was hanging out her mouth and put it so it was completely in her mouth and tried again to slip past. I laughed and said she wasn't very bright to do it right in front of me. She sighed and took off down the stairs, and then came right back up with nothing apparently in her mouth. I even said, "Are you hiding that in you mouth?" and she looked at me very innocently. She trotted around the house a bit and I finished vacuuming and turned and ... she had the goddamn bone in her mouth. She had been hiding it in her mouth!
So, I got a towel and said, "Fine, if you must have it in the house, then eat it on this towel," and she set it immediately on the towel and has been keeping it there ever since, as she goes to town on it.
This just doesn't feel like normal dog behavior. I mean, the dogs I've raised have always been like this, understandign complete sentences and doing work-arounds to get what they want. Because I do not demand or want complete obedience. Instead, I wanting thinking dogs who are creative and entertaining.
I think that most dogs are capable of this sort of interaction but it's trained out of them, and only when they get into such activities as flyball or agility can they figure things out and have fun.
Figuring me out and working around me is my dogs' fun. Like, when the bone moves off the towel, she picks it up and sets it back on it. She's just so damn smart in her own way. But a sit-stay when a squirrel runs past? Good luck with that. Perhaps I coudl teach her to be obedient like that, but I don't want to. My co-worker told me in the movie Up how no matter what they were doing, dogs would stop and all turn and say, "Squirrel." That is so Ziggy. And that is natural.
So apparently night is her stressor lately. she was starting up with the same shenanigans of mauling me and I could distract her, but she's clearly very worked up. Why? I have a cordless drill which motor I burned out and I pushed it and heard the loud grinding noise and she leaped back in terror, as if I had shot her, and the drill looks like a gun. Does she know guns? Poor baby.
My co-worker's daughter was in today and showing me pictures of her Catahoula - 130 pounds of it. It's already huge and then also very fat, and good grief. I think they're feeding it to death. I'm so glad Ziggy is ok with food.
She finally went to go lay down on my bed and she just cried out in her sleep. Not a play cry, but I can hear pain and fear in her voice. Oh, poor Ziggy. What dreams torment you? Even sleep gives you no relief?
Today she's adorable and sweet and smart, as usual. She tells me to come play frisbee wtih her in the backyard and I do and we have fun (she got a new soft frisbee and she absolutely loves it, doing leaps to catch it in the air). The key with a reactive dog is to not play catch too much. Don't keep throwing the ball over and over and over - watch for signs for breaks. Ziggy can calm herself down sometimes, if I let her. Too much predator instinct and she loses her marbles. A little, and we have fun.
We are in an awkward stage with the dog door. She uses it for different purposes than intended - mostly to stand at it and cry, making it very obvious that she wants me to open the door for her. But when she really wants in or out, she just goes. It's all about the show with this puppy. She'll get over it - mostly it's that she's waiting to be invited. Sometimes I still have to invite her up on the couch or bed. Somebody taught her that, but it's not in place firmly. Just sometimes. Because I don't need to invite her usually - she's usually now good about not getting up when it's not appropriate.
I want a dog whose judgment I can trust. I do not want a dog whom I have to train to do whatever I say. I have known dogs like that and many people want them. But not me. I want the spark and sass of a dog who knows her own mind. But I always want her to have manners.
For all the mismatch of Ziggy and me, we're also very matched. She is a strongwilled street-smart sassy dog who has ferocious focus. She is skeptical of the world, including me, because she knows that she may have to fend for herself again someday.
Oh good grief. Here is a not-atypical Ziggy story that I'm in the middle of right now. She got her bone back that she started two days ago - I confiscated it and put it in the fridge, so she's not only eating bone. She's been outside quite some time enjoying it but when I opened the back door to shake out mats, she merrily trotted up the stairs with the bone in her mouth. I closed the door. She looked at me, aghast. "No, I dont' want that in here." She tried to slip past me and I said, "No, really. YOu are welcome but not the bone." She looked at me to say "But we have a deal. ONce it's not meaty anymore, you let me bring it in." "Well, not tonight. I just vacuumed and want no bits of bone in the rug for company tomorrow. No bone."
Looking me straight in the eye, she took the bone that was hanging out her mouth and put it so it was completely in her mouth and tried again to slip past. I laughed and said she wasn't very bright to do it right in front of me. She sighed and took off down the stairs, and then came right back up with nothing apparently in her mouth. I even said, "Are you hiding that in you mouth?" and she looked at me very innocently. She trotted around the house a bit and I finished vacuuming and turned and ... she had the goddamn bone in her mouth. She had been hiding it in her mouth!
So, I got a towel and said, "Fine, if you must have it in the house, then eat it on this towel," and she set it immediately on the towel and has been keeping it there ever since, as she goes to town on it.
This just doesn't feel like normal dog behavior. I mean, the dogs I've raised have always been like this, understandign complete sentences and doing work-arounds to get what they want. Because I do not demand or want complete obedience. Instead, I wanting thinking dogs who are creative and entertaining.
I think that most dogs are capable of this sort of interaction but it's trained out of them, and only when they get into such activities as flyball or agility can they figure things out and have fun.
Figuring me out and working around me is my dogs' fun. Like, when the bone moves off the towel, she picks it up and sets it back on it. She's just so damn smart in her own way. But a sit-stay when a squirrel runs past? Good luck with that. Perhaps I coudl teach her to be obedient like that, but I don't want to. My co-worker told me in the movie Up how no matter what they were doing, dogs would stop and all turn and say, "Squirrel." That is so Ziggy. And that is natural.
So apparently night is her stressor lately. she was starting up with the same shenanigans of mauling me and I could distract her, but she's clearly very worked up. Why? I have a cordless drill which motor I burned out and I pushed it and heard the loud grinding noise and she leaped back in terror, as if I had shot her, and the drill looks like a gun. Does she know guns? Poor baby.
My co-worker's daughter was in today and showing me pictures of her Catahoula - 130 pounds of it. It's already huge and then also very fat, and good grief. I think they're feeding it to death. I'm so glad Ziggy is ok with food.
She finally went to go lay down on my bed and she just cried out in her sleep. Not a play cry, but I can hear pain and fear in her voice. Oh, poor Ziggy. What dreams torment you? Even sleep gives you no relief?
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