Kimba – Wild car chaser, reactive dog

Week 1

“99” was found as a stray on a country road by Brazoria animal control. Tammy, the lady who works there does everything she can to get those stray dogs out before their deadlines. He smelled horrible, had many scars, fleas and I could feel all the bones on his body. But he was so sweet, ran to me and gave me sweet and smelly kisses. On the way back home, I already saw one of his issues – car chasing. He was chasing every car that passed us in his crate. Exactly what my female Border Collie used to do.

We did a short leashed greeting (99 on leash, my dogs were off leash) in the drive way prior to going inside. There were no aggressions; however, I immediately noticed his fixation in Jazzy’s urine/private area. Although that is normal for an unneutered male, I had to be extremely careful to prevent any problems between Jazzy and 99. When I brought Cooper, it was a totally different story. As a trainer, I find these interactions quite fascinating. Cooper was extremely tolerant when the last foster (female) was invading his space. As soon as 99 did the same (attempted to mount, paw/chin over), he let him know that was NOT happening. Click here to watch a clip. Again, I was comfortable enough that these two males would not hurt each other and that I was able to intervene anytime. I also kept a light leash on 99 at all times.

My top priorities at this point is to get him

Bathed!
Fed!
Fixed and vaccinated!
Crate trained

When my husband came home, he acted as if he had known him for years. Such a sweet guy. That was a HUGE relief. At least he loves people, even strangers in a strange place. (Checked!)

Bathing, feeding and crate training weren’t easy. He is afraid of water, at least for now. I don’t blame him. He is in a strange place with a strange person and she is splashing water for whatever reason. He had urine, feces, mats and fleas on him so I had to get him washed before bringing him inside. After two baths, I still couldn’t get rid of the smell. In a few days, I’ll be able to apply frontline on him. He doesn’t eat any kibbles but he did eat tuna fish in oil and roasted chicken. He is terrified of crate.It took several hours to get him in on his own. He also whines, pants and howls when he is separated. He is an extremely anxious dog. He pretty much whines all day long, even when he is with me or out of his crate. I don’t know if he always does that or because he is adjusting. (Hopefully the later) Either way, I didn’t want to reinforce those behaviors. I did “reverse CAT for SA” technique. It took 2.5 hours for him to stop whining. After a week of doing this, he finally figured out how to leave the door open while he is crated, and to have more of me around. He is still leashed when he is out of crate. He stays crated during the day, even when I am home. I want him to get used to the routine and heal better from the surgery.

I did a little bit of temperament/training evaluation. He did not respond to any of the common cues. He was fine when I approached him while he was eating. He became obsessed with moving cars when I took him outside. Click here At this point, he is not interested in toys. On 0-10 (10 being high), he is probably 1. The only time he played was when Cooper had a rope toy, which I had to stop when I saw a quick freeze.

I found an affordable spay/neuter clinic nearby. It says you were supposed to show up before 8:30am. People online say that you’d need to get there by 5:30am to get in. I didn’t know how many they were accepting each day and if we had to wait outside…in cold. So I took a sleeping bag and some books with me and showed up at 5:30. There were already some people waiting. I did not have to wait in line for three hours. They leave about 20 clipboards outside. As long as you get one of the clipboards filled out, you are in. You can then wait in the car for 3 hours. Kind of ridiculous…there has to be a better way? Another issue I figured out on this day. He is leash reactive when he sees other dogs. He is not aggressive but reactive due to frustration. I had to crate him in my car and cover all sides with blankets while I waited for our turn. This experience humbled me. I know a lot of my clients go through this with their dogs in public. It’s good to experience what they go through. Anyway, I got him neutered, vaccinated, heartworm tested (negative) and weighted.

He is now officially named “Kimba“. A friend of mine said he looks like a lion with a mane. Kimba is from a white lion from an old Japanese cartoon. I have not used the name yet. He is still very anxious and untrusting. I don’t want him to associate the name with negative feelings. I just call him “Sweetie” for now.

Week 2

He loves people! (Watch him interact with strangers)
W H A T a relief…So far he seems to like kids, all the females, most males. I haven’t let him approach kids but he gets happy when he sees one.
…………………………………………………………..
Crate Training:

Let’s start with the good news. After a week, he finally slept through a night without whining or howling! My webcam also caught him sleeping (while sitting, how talented) in his crate. I am continuing to open the bedroom door when he is quiet, and shut it as soon as he starts to whine/howl/bark. It is taking less and less for him to quiet down. Tonight, he didn’t even whine when I got home. He goes into his crate on his own when I throw some treats. He is still untrusting if I am standing behind him. I toss the treats, walk away or turn around, then he would go inside. I wonder if it was because of his time at the animal control.

A week after his arrival – He is learning to stay calmer in his crate so I graduated him into a penned area in the living room when I am home. I still don’t trust him loose in the house with my dogs, furniture and his marking. This way he can move around more and get used to our movements. Well, He started whining again. I know it’s a different setup so that I’d have to start over. I placed toys, bones, food, kongs and Manners Minder with some kibbles in it. Each time I step away from him and if he doesn’t whine, I’d dispense a few kibbles. Watch video here. He also reacted to people walking outside the windows so I had to block the windows until we can work on that issue. (Just one more thing on the list…)

1. Leash/Reactivity (Other dogs):
He turns into a Cujo when he sees another dog. You see people with lunging dogs on the street, and the owner says “He’s friendly, he just wants to say hi”. He is one of them. I wouldn’t say he is completely friendly but he is not aggressive. He gets overly stimulated by sight of dogs, cars, people and he loses it. We are going to take baby steps on this. I took him to Rover Oaks yesterday. When he saw the daycare dogs, he lost it. Nothing in the world could snap him out. Baseline video

2. Car and bike/Jogger lunging and chasing:

Baseline Video
I’m spending more time working on sit, instead of down. As soon as he goes outside the house, he immediately goes into crouching/flat on the ground, expecting cars. At this point, I cannot imagine adopting him out to a regular family. He wouldn’t even walk without dragging his belly on the ground. I’m working on finding a local herding instructor to see if he’s got what it takes to work on sheep.

3. Marking:

4. Mounting Cooper:

I’ve been trying to call him off when he starts to sniff Cooper’s private area, BEFORE he has a chance to mount. I don’t want to stress Cooper by being on guard around him. Interaction video from day 1 (Mounting and getting too personal)

2/20: They were able to play tug together without any issues. (Watch video)

5 Fence reactivity (Other dogs):

6. Obedience commands: Name recognition, Sit, Down, Stay, Leave it, Touch, Wait, Bed, Come. He does not seem to know any basic cues. I tried sit using different cues. He does respond to tones of voices. He acts like he had been yelled at a lot.
Update: I’m going to have to focus on this more. I am shifting gears on his reactivity issue. Since there is no fear involved, I’m going to try to fix that through obedience.

7. Low tolerance for restraining/handling:
He does not like his paws being touched. I started working on that tonight. More to come.

8. Resource guarding: (Other dogs)

9. Recall:

10. Fear of motors/lawn mower

11. Barking (in the house)
Update on 4/5/2011
He used to bark at delivery people. I ordered food every other day for TWO weeks! He got rewarded each time and now he LOVES to welcome delivery guys.

12. Fear of water:

It’s been a little over two and half weeks. I can finally say that the house is somewhat back to norm. No video update on car chasing and dog-dog reaction yet. It will take some time to see good progress on those issues. I also have been working on his obedience and impulse control as well as crate training.

Video: Watch Kimba getting used to another scary crate

Video: Watch Kimba working on impulse control – group wait using “point”

As long as I am in the house, I can leave three dogs loose in the house. His desire to mark has drastically decreased. He has not attempted to mark in the house since. I wish I knew what “fixed” this issue. I’d like to say it was due to neutering but I can’t prove that. It is safe to say that everything I did helped: Neutering, monitoring, micro-managing and so on.
He now sleeps through the night in his crate without whining. Same for the mounting and obsession to other dog’s private areas. They now play tug together. Kimba’s toy drive has gone up to around 3 (from 0). Food drive has gone up from about 1 to 3. (Works for kibbles without distraction)

Video: Threesome play – This was a miracle moment!

He still prefers to be outside and slightly suspicious about coming inside the house. I wonder if he ever lived in a house before. His favorite spots are the windows (now blocked) where he could chase cars and the back gate where he tried to escape on week 1. He is sweet and affectionate but the bond and trust are still not there yer. On a really good note, I was able to finally give him the much needed bath.

Breakthrough on trust issue.

From day 1, He preferred to be outside. If he had a choice, he’d choose to escape over staying in our house with a comfy bed and great food. He was obsessed with the gate and doors. Whenever I open doors and gates, we had to block the exit with my body so that he doesn’t learn how to open them. If you walk up to him, first reaction was to run. I sometimes used Cooper and his tug toy to “retrieve” Kimba back in the house. His desire to stay outside was so much greater than his desire to eat a piece of steak and/or to play. Old habits are hard to break. He had roamed unneutered for who knows how long.

We are working on building relationship; did all the fun things in the house and never put him back in the confinement after he came in the house. On week 4, he CHOSE to come back in the house without being persuaded for the first time. He is becoming less and less suspicious and starting to think that we ain’t so bad… He graduated from the penned area to the entire house at night. This makes me feel much better that he is confined only when I am at work. Also last week, I was able to crate him in the matter of a second. Before I had to leave high value food in the deep end of the crate, walk 10-15 feet and look away for him to feel comfortable stepping in this crate.

Chewing a stuffed kong while I trimmed his nails

Handling and grooming

He was a fighter (Luckily not a biter) when anyone tried to touch him. The vet had to sedate him in order to HW test him. I knew nail trimming was going to be a challenge so I started working on it three weeks ago. I started with just touching his legs on the floor, then treats. As soon as I added the nail clippers, he freaked out – just the sight of them. I had to back it up and work on getting him used to just the nail clippers themselves. On week 3, I was finally able to cut all his nails without stressing him out. It was a huge Hallelujah moment for me!

My husband came home after being away for four weeks…

And he thinks Kimba is wonderful. One thing he really likes is that “He comes to me and he likes me” he says. I thought it was funny because that was one thing he never used not to do. If he had been home in the last four weeks, I don’t know if he would have felt the same way about Kimba. My husband certainly missed all of the “FUN” I went through with him. At my house, I think he is almost perfect as a pet dog, even though he is a quirky, young, high-energy BC. He is sweet, affectionate, playful, OK with crate, good impulse control, doesn’t chase cars anymore, healthy, and get along with my two dogs. The ONLY thing left to work on is the dog-dog reactivity before he is ready to be put up for adoption. And that’s going to be the biggest challenge for all of us.

Car Chasing and Stalking

We’ve been working on this three times a week. I spend about 10-15 minutes each day using his dinner. I work on other issues in between while I manage his car chasing/stalking issue. On day 1, he immediately lied down flat when we went outside. He’d eye, stalk, freeze then lunge and chase a moving car/motor cycle/jogger. I’m still amazed how he survived on the streets, without getting hit by a car. A piece of rib eye steak, leash control or raising voice would not snap him out of it. I tried it all, except for physical corrections. Yes, if I kicked him, shocked him or yanked him on a pinch might have helped. But that type of method can leave him with bad side effects, such as aggression, redirection (on me) and fear. It took a while with my method but I wanted HIM to make better choices with my help. In the house, I blocked all windows unless I can watch him. That way he cannot obsess with the cars going by.

Triggers:
Moving cars, especially the ones coming towards him.

Progress:
We finally had a breakthrough. Here’s Kimmy making a good choice on his own without chasing. We even got to walk on leash like a normal dog for a few minutes without having him lie down or crouch. (Welcome to the world of wild Border Collies!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mLgqjGzXUM