Dog with a big ? mark (Finn’s story)

If Finn were a human child…

He would be a child with high IQ who never received proper education, let alone a book to read. A child with a potential to be a professional athlete, but never had a chance in life to even run freely or to catch a ball. He was sheltered in the house all his childhood, he screams and pees in his pants when he meets strangers. He’s the type that pokes another kid in the sandbox because he never learned how to appropriately play with others. He gives you an evil eye if you approach him and his lunch box. He has no patience or boundaries. He cries, screams and have a tantrum in a grocery store. If mom takes his hand, he kicks and bites her until she lets go. And she had always let him go… A child with the biggest potentials and the face of an Angel, turned to a psychotic basket case all because of humans. This is a blog post about his second chance in the human world.

Evaluation at the shelter

A week and half ago I evaluated a pure bred Border Collie at a high kill animal control. According to the staff, his previous owner turned him in due to a move. Yes, we hear that all the time; “Moving”, “Allergies”, “Having a baby”. When the staff explained to the owner that owner-surrendered dogs will be put to sleep right away, he still surrendered the dog without hesitation. He is a young, gorgeous and healthy dog. This was my first question mark. “If this person cared this dog enough to keep him healthy, why didn’t he try to find a home or a rescue for him before moving?”

When I asked the shelter staff if they knew how he was with other dogs, I was told “good with other dogs”. They also put the same comment on their facebook page. If you’ve been rescuing dogs long enough, you should know to take what the shelters say with a grain of salt. When I entered the kennel area, first thing I noticed was that he was the only one housed alone. All other dogs had at least one kennel mate. That was my second ? mark. After getting jumped and sprayed on (excitement and submissive pee), we quickly tested him with my dogs. As soon as he saw my male from about 30 yards away, he started lunging and barking. I’m very familiar with this reaction. I’ve had my share of leash reactive Border Collies. It was not an aggressive reaction. I so wanted it to be “I’m excited!” but it was more of a “Go away!” signal. This dog obviously learned that barking and lunging turns a leashed dog (and his person) away. It was not a training but an evaluation so I proceeded to approach the dog with my dog. I had to see what his next reaction was going to be while keeping my dog safe. By the way, I’m a rescuer and my goal is to save dogs, get them ready and find them new homes. I have to make sure that each dog we pull is not truly aggressive. It’s extremely tricky to evaluate a strange dog in a strange place in such a limited time. When he realized we were still approaching, he stopped barking, quickly hid behind the staff with his tail tucked in. That confirmed that he was scared, not excited. I kept my dog’s face away from him and presented the rear end but he did not even try to sniff the air. He wanted have nothing to do with my dog. I removed my male dog and approached him again by myself. He was back to his over-the-top wild self, barking, jumping and peeing. Then I brought my female who is much smaller and calmer. He did slightly better but still avoided her completely. This was a red flag. If pushed, he will most likely have to defend his space. So that was my third and the biggest question mark. I asked the staff to hold him there as long as they could while I tried to find him a place. I left with a big uncertainty.

The whole week and half I could not stop thinking about him. I told myself that if I got Skyler (my current foster I got two days ago) ready fast and find him a home, then I’m meant to help this guy. Part of me kept saying I shouldn’t take him but that most likely meant he was going to be put to sleep. I worked really hard to get Skyler ready and decided to let the fate decide. Skyler was adopted, and I had Finn on the same day on 8/24.

Day 1 – Observation (Friday)

I brought treats, martingales, a thunder-shirt, a padded belly band (for his fear/excitement peeing) and had made a vet appointment right after the shelter appointment. I positioned the crate in my car in a way that he has no choice but to walk in it. As we entered the run, I recognized his barking from the last visit. Note 1: Yup, He’s definitely a barker. I watched the animal control officer entered his run. He ran to a wall and turned into a little ball. I asked him to take him outside and give him a chance to pee before I greeted. He held and held until I finally approached him calmly. Note 2: Confirmed he’s a pee-er. This could be one of the reasons for the surrender. Some people do turn in dogs for such problem. He jumped and jumped on whoever was nearby, then ran till he hit the end of leash over and over. He doesn’t walk on leash, he runs and flies. Note 3: He’s wild. I put him in the crate in my car. I offered him some food. He hesitated, smelled, looked at me with semi-whale eyes, then took a very fast and snappy bite. He then turn around to eat the piece. I remember having the uneasy feeling, which was confirmed a bit later. Note 4: Guarding issue? As I drove off, he panted, whined and scratched the crate. He did not lie down once during the 45 minutes ride. When we stopped at the lights, he growled and barked at people who were walking on the street. Note 5: Oh crap. At the vet’s parking lot, he saw a dog 20 yards away. He lunged and barked. He saw people, he lunged and barked. Note 6: He reacts about the same way to dogs and people from a distance. While we waited outside, he started mouthing my hands. Not the kind you get from a young and playful puppy. That bothered me. The leash got tangled while he jumped around so I picked his front paws. That’s when he gave me the first warning bite. It was a very controlled and well-practiced “do not do that again” bite/hold. I was grateful in a way because the bite was so inhibited. Note 7: Do not do that again until we build trust. We’ve only knew each other for a few hours. He hit the floor as soon as we walked into the vet clinic. When the tech walked in, he lunged and barked at her. When she started talking to him he wagged tail and greeted her submissively. I had the belly band on him for this but I’m sure he peed each time a person walked in. The band was soaked when I took it off after the vet visit. I noticed some sweaty paw prints on the floor. Clearly stressed. I told the vet that I only knew him for an hour and didn’t have enough temperament information. They ended up muzzling him to draw the blood for the heartworm test. He tolerated better than I expected with lots of treats in between. When they left us alone, I tried to comfort him by gently stroking him and he gave me the second warning bite. No mark on my hand, just a quick snap to let me know he didn’t like that either. Note 8: Could it be because of the experience he just had or does he have issues with certain types of handling? Probably both. This time he jumped right in my Jeep. I was relieved as he would not have let me to pick him up then. On the way home I was trying to find the best way to explain my husband that the dog has behavior issues. My biggest and absolute nightmare is putting my husband and my dogs at risk. I was also worried about how my husband will handle if there is a bite. Later we discussed this in length and asked him to watch his warning and fear signals. I called him on the way home to give some tips, asked him to stay very neutral and to put our dogs in the bedroom. I showed him the yard on a short leash. He squatted to pee, then pooped two times. Very stressed. I had to take Skyler to his new home and I only had 30 minutes to get him settled in. Not the best scenario but I had to work with what I had. I set up a large crate, on top of a plastic sheet to prevent any pee leak. Thankfully he walked right in to get the pieces of treats I tossed for him. I left his leash on him. Then I tossed a small chew in his crate, which had helped past fosters settling in. I will never do that with a questionable dog ever again. That’s when I heard a low growl/bark. I looked at him as I wasn’t 100% sure…He guarded it with his paws and gave me another growl. Note 9: He guards his resources. This could definitely the reason for surrender.

I put on a big smile at Skyler’s new home, but I couldn’t get rid of the tight knot in my stomach. I saw too many signs that this dog could possibly a risk to my dogs and my husband. I went back to his room and found him in a tiny ball with his ears pinned. I used the calmest and sweetest voice and got down on the floor. He stared at me with enlarged pupils. I blinked several times, not to “calm him” but to diffuse the situation. He finally relaxed and gave me a low wag then a dance. I could only imagine how terrified he was. I distracted him with some treats and got him out of the crate so that my husband could remove the chew. This is going to suck. I won’t be able to provide bones and chews to keep him occupied, at least for now. I looked everywhere to make sure there is no bone lying around in the yard. Since I got him out of shelter, my mind had been going 100 miles a minute. I was keeping mental notes of everything I observed so that I could come up with a good training and management plan.

To introduce or not?

The biggest decision to make was whether to introduce my dogs on day 1 or wait for several days. I’ve always introduced new fosters to my dogs right away as long as they are healthy. I wanted to give Finn several days to de-stress, but I was also worried about him feeling too “at home” and missing the right opportunity to introduce the “resident dogs” to him. At this point, the house still belonged to my dogs, not to him. Part of me wanted to wait because he was clearly scared of other dogs. I decided to trust my dogs and my instinct. I took him out to the front yard, asked my husband to release Jazzy off leash first. I gave him the first handful of treats, then tossed a few to Jazzy away from us. I asked her to keep enough distance and parallel walk with us. Finn was nervous but there was no barking or lunging because she was already close enough. That’s what I wanted. No chance for him to build the reactivity and frustration from a distance. It was quick and it was done. Then I had Jazzy walk ahead of us. Not once did I see him trying to catch her scent. A lot of avoidance but he was happily taking food from me while keeping one eye on Jazzy. We walked back and forth for about 10 minutes. He had his fourth poop for the evening. Treats can be a double edged sword for him. He loves it so much I can use it to train, but he will more likely resource guard it from other dogs (and me). I have to be very careful about the delivery. I put Jazzy up and did the same with Cooper. We will keep doing this until he tries to use his nose to get to know my dogs. He will be kept on a leash 24/7 on week 1. This week, I plan on focusing on detoxing and reducing the anxiety.

Day 2 (Saturday) – Submissive peeing, jumping, barking and more

His arousal level is over the top, he’s unable to relax. He whined and barked and pawed at the crate throughout the evening. I attach a long string to the door nob. Whenever he starts barking I shut the door. That way he doesn’t think attention barking = me. He also associates the barking = losing access to me. (negative punishment) When he holds the quietness for a longer period, I quietly go over and open the door for him. I had to move him to a bathroom because of his peeing/squirting when I approach him. When I passed his crate to use the toilet, he gave me a nice “shower” on my legs.

He pooped 7 times today. I will know when he’s finally relaxed when he stops pooping so much. Still squats and no desire to mark. Love that.

Day 3 (Sunday) – “5 days in Tibet”

I allowed my dogs loose in the yard while he went pee on leash. He still avoids them at all cost but he tried to sniff Cooper for a split second. He extended his neck to get a quick whiff then turned his head 180 degrees when Cooper looked at him. I gave him a handful of kibbles for being curious. This is good. He’s learning that these two dogs are no harm. I let him out several times a day, 5 minutes or less at each. When he’s out, there is always a combination of food and my dogs. He also gets one kibble if he sits without jumping or muzzle-punching me. I want him to associate me, dogs = food and freedom but I don’t want him to have too much fun out of his confinement just yet. All controlled interaction. I change the duration of detoxing based on the dog. Lots of nothing time, calming, meditating and de-stressing. For him, it is a period when he learns that barking or whining don’t get him anything. He will adjust to the new environment, new routine and learns to trust the hands that feed him. Because I can’t leave chews and bones for him, I left a few toys for him to nibble on.

I decided to try manner’s minder for his anxiety in the crate. I cannot leave a stuffed Kong or anything that holds value for an extended period of time. Because of his guarding tendency, I had to place the machine on top of his crate, not inside. I thought I could reward him one kibble at at time when he shows calmer behaviors in the crate while I took a shower next to him. It was going great until I tried to pick up a piece of kibble that was thrown out of his crate. Unfortunately preventing resource guarding is far more important so he will NOT be getting any food in his crate at this point.

Fear and/or reactivity towards:

• Water hose – terrified
• Strange dogs
• People
• Being handled/restrained/collar grab
• Fear of losing his resources
• Noises and certain objects

Issues to work on: (To be added)

1. Dog-dog reactivity (fear)
2. People reactivity (excitement and fear)
3. Resource guarding
4. Confidence building
   submissive/excited peeing, barking and growling at strangers
5. Self control, patience and calming
6. Jumping, fighting on leash
7. Mouthing
8. Barking and whining
9. Handling/Restraining (Very low tolerance, will use teeth to get away)
10. Destructive, would chew shoes, furniture, beds, leash, anything pretty much and consumes
11. Then basic manners
12. Pica – fabric, rocks, wood chips

Motivators/Reinforces:

1. Food
2. Freedom
3. Being safe
4. Being with others he likes
5. Toys – not so much yet

Rules – First week

1. No greeting or talking in the house (To prevent peeing)
2. No food in his crate, no food or bones left in the yard
3. Always kept on leash 24/7 until I’m comfortable
4. Interaction with my dogs only under careful supervision
5. No picking him up, picking up his paws, touching his collar
6. Avoid exposing him to other dogs
7. Limited amount of freedom

Day 4 (Monday) – Reactivity, Baby step with my dogs

I was gone for 8 hours. I left him in a medium size crate in my bathroom. No potty accidents, no destroyed crate, just a shredded mat. We came up with a good routine so that he doesn’t have to give me a pee-shower when I open the crate. After doing his business in the yard I dropped his leash for the first time. He maneuvered around my dogs deliberately, giving at least 2 feet from them. Then about 5 minutes later there was a “kiss”. A little nose to nose with Jazzy. A handful of kibbles for both. He scooped up the whole thing with his mouth using it like a ladle, took it elsewhere to eat it. His food drive is extra-ordinarily. He will do anything if the food is in my possession. I have to take a full advantage of this. Lots of brainstorming to do. When I let him out on the 5th time, my husband and my dogs were already in the yard. He immediately went into the reactive mode, barking, lunging and peeing. I was able to redirect him and calm him down. I don’t believe he met enough people and dogs in his life. With people, I can see that he had some negative experience, might have gotten in “trouble” often. He also understands praise. He somewhat knew “Sit”. He walks right into a crate, even thought he gets anxious about staying in it. Whoever had him tried to work with him…tried and gave up too quickly. He still poops every time I let him out. He was nervous about noises in the yard but he’s slowly getting more comfortable around water hose (without water). He’s learning to sit at the doors and he has not peed on me for a few days. He still reacts to people on the street, even when they are 50 yards away.

Day 5 (Tuesday) – Handling and Down in the crate

Tape worms! He had his fecal done 5 days ago but obviously it didn’t catch it. The same thing happened to Sunny, two fosters before. I’ll need to get some meds on the way home. This morning he did a short Zoomie in the yard, it was so fast , blurry and cute. Poor guy, he has so much pent up energy… I might let him play a little depends on how he is when I get home. I left him in the doggy den during the day. I put a shower curtain on the floor, a large crate with full of toys, and hooked some clips to secure the crate. He caught a sight of people in the window and started growling so I covered the window with a thick screen. I put a puppy pen around the crate so that my dogs cannot visit him while I’m gone. I set up a webcam so that I could monitor him all day.

Came home and everything was in one piece, except for the crate mat. The webcam got turned off while I was at work and I was a little worried. I could hear him alarm barking when I pulled up in the driveway. He continued to bark until he realized it was me. I am sure it was scary to have someone come in when he was crated in the living room.

I let him off leash (without the leash) in the yard with my dogs for the first time. He did really well. He knows that my dogs could careless about him. I love that about my dogs… There were a few moments where he attempted to chase Cooper. I think his chase drive took over his insecurity for a second, but when he realized what he’s done, he immediately ran away from him. I tried flirt pole but he cowered and hid as soon as he saw the whip. I let Jazzy do a quick demo in front of him, he decided to give it a try for 10 seconds then got scared again.

When I tried to put a leash on him, he did a quick snap at my hand. We worked on that a little and I’m starting to really see what bothers him and why he has to use his mouth. We spent 10 minutes working on collar/neck touch. He does not want to bite me, he just wants my hand to go away.

We also worked on “Down”, using capturing. He never relaxes and never lies down so I wanted to teach him it’s OK to do that. He threw every other  behaviors, but “down” for about 5 minutes. When it “clicked”, he was doing the down non-stop.

Now that he is moved into the living area, his whining is back and really bad. It’s a different environment, so we have to start all over.

Day 6 – Oh my…the whining!

When I put him in the crate in the morning, he caught a sight of a person through the screen and started growling. I don’t want him to be doing that all day while I’m at work. He’s back in the bathroom during the day.

He has destroyed three mats already. I’ve learned my lesson not to put a nice bed in the crate. He shreds any kind of mats or carpet. Because he’s not getting enough exercise I am sure the big part of it is from the pent up energy. I wonder if an industrial rubber mats would work…I just hate him lying on the hard bottom.

It’s been 6 days so I’m going to start giving him a bit more freedom. We will start exercising, doing some impulse control training, handling and working on guarding issues. He is still going to be monitored every second he’s out but I will start letting him interact more with my dogs.

I got some baseline video clips on some of his issues. Jumping, muzzle punching, mouthing, tantrum when he feels restrained and his reaction to people.

I ended up trying the manners minder one more time. His whining in the crate is not getting better and it is driving me bonkers but I still don’t feel comfortable about leaving any long lasting food/chews. I hesitated using the manners minder because of his possessiveness. I placed it above his crate and I randomly visited him with higher valued treats so that he associates my approach with something better. His whining has gone down slightly as long as I keep dispensing random kibbles. Two hours into it, he put his head down! This is so time consuming, not something I could recommend to my clients.

Day 7 – Diamond in the Ruff???

Last night I had the best moment with him. I might possibly have a diamond in the ruff for canine sports…only if his reactivity can be modified. Despite all the fear issues and reactivities, he might have some great toy drive. He watched Cooper and Jazzy playing tug. When the rope toy was left on the ground for a second, he slowly first then quickly “stole” it and started chomping it in his mouth. He pushed it against my thighs while chomping on it. To see what he was trying to do, I stood still and watched him repeatedly pushing the toy against my legs. Very carefully I placed my hand on my thigh, caught the end of it. The game was ON! He had a nice grip, pull and focus. I let it go to see what he does. HE BROUGHT IT BACK! I felt his teeth on my hand several times. He doesn’t know “drop” or “take it” yet. He’s going to have to learn those rules but wow…I was over the Moon! He was finally able to get some physical  exercise.

Then this morning I tried different toys. Tennis balls was OK. He prefers to steal it then hoard. He tried to play “keep away” with a soft frisbee so we worked on retrieving. He’s starting to bring it back. I can’t walk him or run him next to a bicycle due to his reactivity so I am thrilled to find a way to exercise him.

He got about 90 minutes of physical/mental exercises today. He avoided the neighbor’s dogs, which is much more appreciated than charging. He is MUCH less anxious in the crate thanks to the exercises and the manners minder.

I saw one thing I didn’t like about him. Now that he’s much more comfortable with my dogs, he started giving cheap shots at Jazzy. She wasn’t even running or barking. One time she was catching bubbles and he stalked her and gave her two snaps, one on her neck, the other one on her muzzle. He also aimed at her back legs which I stopped before he had a chance. He does respond OK when I block him or verbally interrupt him but we are going to need more proactive approach. This can get him in trouble AND I take it very personal when it’s about my dogs. He also got fixated on her face and air snapped at her when she was only sitting and looking at me. She was not moving at all…which bothered me.  I have three options. 1. Let her handle it 2. I punish him 3. I prevent and/or get a different behavior. I’ll keep you posted. (update: That was the last time he ever snapped at my dogs)

He got aggressively mouthy when I tried to put leashes on before going outside. Even though I didn’t want him to bite me, I also didn’t want to let him think biting works. I kept my hands on him while he fought, then he gave in. He leaned against me, took a big sigh, then finally allowed me to put the leash on his collar. After the potty break, we worked on collar grabbing. The alternative would be to work on a really strong sit-stay or lean-against.

Before his bed time I let him loose in the doggy den without my dogs. I wanted to see how wild he will get. For the most part it was all blur. He span, jumped, ran, stalked a toy and played with it for about 10 minutes. He would have kept going all night if I let him.

Day 9 More anxiety, guarding and his potentials

It’s been 9 days since I got him. His barking has gone down drastically but his whining is still consistent. He starts up again as soon as one of us talks or makes a sound. That’s after exercising and training him 4 x 30 minutes sessions. Sometimes I feel like I hear his whining even when I’m not home. I decided to give him a stuffed Kong and an old bone in the crate. Now that his desire to be with me is stronger than keeping the bone, he does not guard it when I approach him in the crate, as long as I don’t reach for it.

I also added the third place for him. He has a large crate in the doggy den, another crate in the bathroom where he usually stays during the day. I added a tall wire pen in the spare room. I’ll let him sleep there during the long weekend. That way I won’t have to worry about not having enough sleep. Update: He continued to whine in the pen next to me. He started tearing up the blue blanket you see in the picture. That was the fifth bed/blanket he ate. No more blanket for him. He growled and barked at the noises throughout the night.

Day 11 – Nail trim, bath and being in public

I had two days off this weekend and I got to really work with him. After spending total of 10 hours over the course of two days – extensive exercising and mentally stimulating, I took him to work for the first time. He reacted to every person he met by barking and lunging but when they were sitting calmly, he was able to greet them semi-normal. Got him chipped, bathed and nails trimmed. I didn’t think I could do any of these for a while. Bath was not fun for either of us but he seems to tolerate better when I use a small bucket instead of a hose. Now he’s ready medically and physically, just need to fix him mentally.

He still gets growly (both fear and excitement), lungy and barky towards my husband. He still jumps on him and occasionally pees. One of my goals is for him to develop an off switch (or something close to it) in the house and go wild outside…sort of like potty training.

Day 13 – Guarding, potty training and off-switch

We were working on “place” using a bed he’s never been on. After rewarding him on the bed several times he started guarding the bed. When I reach down to move the bed, he grabbed my fingers and tried to hold them down. I also discovered that he is not fully potty trained. Speaking of pottying, he finally stopped pooing 7-8 times a day. I think that’s a sign that his body is starting to adjust.

The “off-switch” training is going slow but making a tiny tiny progress. He stays in a confinement (picture) while we watch TV. This set up teaches him to chill in a small area, chew on toys, go to the open crate where food gets dispensed, or go to the bed if he wants. The area is too small for him to run or play hard. At the same time I can work on potty training, growling at people that are passing outside, and counter condition when the doorbell rings.

Day 17/18 – Love and hate relationship – growling and barking

I let him sleep in the bedroom in his large pen on weekends. On Fri/Sat night he kept me up all night by barking and growling. I couldn’t figure out what he was growling at. I think it’s at random noises that he can hear much better when everything is turned off and quiet. I tried manners minder by his pen but I had to remove it after he started guarding it. I almost lost it this weekend. To keep me sane, I am going to have to crate him in the bathroom at night as well. I will leave a CD player with soft music on to mask the outside noises.

On Sunday I gave him total of 4 hours physical exercises and training and mental stimulation. Then I let him loose in the living room to see if he will ever relax. He did not once sit or lie down until he was asked to. He constantly moved around and had a zoomie and ended up crashing into a wall. He tried to steal sandals, ointment, and other random items off a table, all which I was able to recover without an incident.

He did not like me putting the harness on him. It was more about being restrained for more than two seconds. He mouthed me but did not bite me.

Day 19 – “He did want to bite me, didn’t he?”

My husband finally got to see his aggressive displays. Until today he never had to because I made sure he didn’t. As I was letting him out to potty, my husband called him to say hi. Finn went to greet him very excitingly, and peed all over him. Husband went outside with the dogs while I cleaned the floor but he sneaked inside. When my husband told him to go back outside, and reached towards him he started baring teeth, wide eyed and frozen. I calmly asked my husband “Don’t do anything”. I called him outside and he was back to Dr. Jekyll. I was sick to my stomach because I was worried that my husband was done with him. I explained to him why he did what he did and what not to do with him. I wasn’t happy with what happened but at the same time I was glad to see Finn giving very clear and obvious warning before biting. I need to make sure that he never loses that.

Training Plan – Week 3/4

1. Off-switch in the house
2. Resource guarding/Recall
3. Reactivity towards people
4. Handling/Restraining
5. Expose him to a few friendly dogs (on leash)
6. Potty training

Day 24 – Deep sigh then lied down

After a few hours of mental and physical exercises I brought him inside and left him loose in the house. 15 minutes of pacing, he came up next to me, took a deep sigh and lied down by my feet. He stayed there for about 2 minutes! He still wouldn’t put his chin down or lie on his side. He now recognizes us when we reappear from another room or come home. He no longer barks when he hears our cars pull up. He still growls when my husband comes home late at night but the growling is not as deep. His obsession to water play is getting stronger, I can now use it to get behaviors and impulse controls. The resource guarding training is going slow but steady. He hasn’t had any potty accidents since the first week. However I have to watch his water intake.

For the first time, he cuddled with me on the bean bag. It was only for 10 seconds or so but it felt really nice. He also let me adjust his harness without giving me “the look” today. He was tired and wet from playing. I pretended like I was rubbing him with a towel. He likes being rubbed after the water play so much that he’s starting to enjoy the handling more.

Day 26-30 – With another dog in the house

My last foster Skyler is back in the house. Last time I introduced them, it did not go well. Skyler is here to get de-stressed before meeting a potential family and their dogs. I am shuffling both so that they never have to see each other before the important meeting. Skyler is doing much better with other dogs, I want to keep the positive spirit.

Finn has started growling and barking at night since Skyler is back. They are kept completely separated but they both know there is someone else in the house. If the adoption doesn’t work out, I will introduce them again and hopefully they can co-exist without major issues.

1 month update

I asked a friend to come over with her calm female lab for training. First he did really well with her, without the dog. He was still busy and spazzy but no peeing, no mouthing or lunging at her. Took a break and introduced him to her lab. There were only two barking and semi-lunging. Once he got close to her, he avoided her completely. We did some walking, passing and following for a while, he got comfortable enough to smell her butt. We got one nose-to-nose and ended on that. I think he will be OK with calm and friendly dogs as long as we go slow and introduce him appropriately. He is beginning to be more and more affectionate towards me. If I’m sitting in a chair, he leans against me and gives me the sweet and soft eyes while I pet him. I’ve been doing more handling his paws, collar, mouth and back. For his growling and barking at night I got this white noise machine. I put it by his door so that he hears less at night and I hear less of him. I think it’s helping but a friend told me I could download an app for that for free (or a $5 fan)! I’ll be returning this $65 noise maker.

Resource guarding

1. Management
2. In a perfect world, I don’t want to see his guarding behavior ever again. It will be a combination of prevention/management and counter-conditioning
3. Prevent territorial/place guarding
4. Teach him that he gets fed only when he is patient and respectful of my space (Wait/Leave it)
5. Counter condition to change his emotional/physical response (Approach = better food)
6. Incompatible/alternative behaviors – Teach him “Come (bring/drop/exchange)” for emergency situations

Week 3

We’ve been working on #5. This is the only time he eats out of his food bowl. No matter how I position him, this is how he ends up with his food bowl (picture right). Some might find it cute, I don’t. I put my approach on cue “Treat”. He now expects more food and looks up when I say “Treat” and reach to his bowl. He guards when the food is already in his “court” or between us, within his reach. If the food is in my hands or between my legs, he gets excited but he doesn’t try to steal them.

#4 (leave it) needs to be modified. He gave me a nice snarling during this exercise and I had to switch gear immediately. In case he steals things or he is already within reach of an item, I will use recall. We are also working on “Back/Down/Stay”.

I started giving him a low value chew in his off-switch area. The pen also acts as the “buffer” between my dogs and him. When he is chewing, I randomly approach his area and toss higher value treats until he is done chewing. Initially he tried to chew faster when I approached, but he started dropping it after many repetitions.

The recall with a valuable item is going really well. I got to test him in a real situation. My husband left a cup of pudding next to him. I saw Finn sneaking for it and my husband tried to grab it. Finn grabbed it quickly and froze. I told him not to do anything, then told Finn “GOOD BOY!” and ran to another room. I know he wasn’t being a good boy but I wanted to use reverse psychology on him. He turned from Mr. Hyde to Dr. Jekyll in that split second, ran after me with the cup in his mouth. I praised him like he was the best dog in the world, tossed a piece of treat and I picked up the cup he dropped. So that he doesn’t think I stole his found treasure, we did a few retrieve game using the same cup.

Week 7-8 – Started feeding him in a bowl

He’s getting really comfortable with his food around me. He would still guards from my dogs if they ever go near him and his resources. I need to take care of his guarding from people first. Because he eats SO fast when I feed him kibbles in a bowl, there is no way I could work with him. He almost choked on kibbles trying to vacuum the whole thing at once.

I freeze a cup of kibbles/water in his bowl so that I can do counter conditioning with it. Because of his sensitive stomach I can only use the same kibbles to reward him.

After doing CC for two weeks, I am now able to stick my hand in his bowl while he eats. A huge accomplishment for us!

Read a blog post about resource guarding

 Week 6/7: Pica & Sensitive tummy

He’s been having continuous diarrhea on and off. He’s well otherwise. He’s been eating the same food since day 1 and he was doing fine till recently. His stool was back to normal immediately after I started him on boiled rice and chicken but as soon as I switched back to kibbles, it was back to loose.  He would eat anything if not watched. First week he ate and consumed large amount of fabric from the mat/toy. I no longer leave any fabric toy or a bed in his kennel. He tries to eat wood chips in the garden (and guarded them). If he finds a bit of fluff from a toy, he eats it like food. He also found a large rock in the yard and tried to eat it. I’ve been keeping a very close eye on him so I know he hasn’t been eating anything he’s not supposed to. He will now drop a wood chip if I ask him to. The soft stool thing was working against everything we’ve been working on. Whining in the crate, potty training, and I couldn’t use treats to work with him. I give him plenty of bones and added Acidophilus Probiotics and pumpkin in his diet but still didn’t help.

On week 8 I switched him to Natures Balance Syndergy which is made for sensitive stomachs and quality stool. It’s been a week, his poop has been better than ever! I still don’t know exactly what was going on, what helped but I’ll just stick with what’s working now.

  7th Week Update – available for adoption

It’s been 8 weeks since I brought him home. On day 45, for the first time, he rested his chin on the floor and took a short nap by my feet. THAT was a big deal. He no longer needs excessive amount of physical exercise to be “normal” when he’s loose in the house. He loves thinking games to earn his food. Last week I saw him turning a corner with his anxieties. He hardly whines, barks and vocalizes his frustration when he is confined. I have been able to have a good night sleep without turning on a white noise machine and putting on my shooting ear muffs.

In summary, Finn is:
About a year old (or slightly under), neutered, pure bred semi-rough Black and White male. On a scale of 0-10, his energy level was about 20 without the outlet. Today it is about 8-9. With me he understands the concept of: (not necessary verbally) “Sit” “Down” “Wait” “Drop” “Bring” “His name” “Target” “Come here” “Kennel” “Bed” “Back up” “Watch me” “Release/OK” “Off”. Some of his earlier behaviors may come back initially when he goes to his new home so it is highly recommended that he is adopted right before a weekend. He can hold up to 9 hours in his crate. He loves getting attention from people. He still gets nervous about certain types of restrains. He follows me around everywhere, making sure he doesn’t miss any action. It takes a proper and slower introduction but once he is comfortable with a new dog, he will play, chase and share toys with them. He loves to work for toys, water play, attention, praise and food. He is clicker trained and learns new behaviors very quickly when paired up with reward. He seems to be scared of cats and has not been officially tested with them. He’s NOT thunder phobic!

The perfect family for Finn would be:

Adults only
Has balanced and active dogs. He can be an only dog too if you are an active person.
Active and experienced with high energy pure bred Border Collies
Believe in non-aversive training and understand animal behaviors (No shock collars, choke chain period. This will be part of the contract)
Lives in Texas

Finn’s first adoption video:

Week 10 Update – A possible set back, reality check & applications

I’m starting to get inquiries after I posted pictures of him playing in the pond. Even though I put “No kids” on his bio, all of the applications are with children under 13. I turned down all, but one so far. This family has horses and 3 herding dogs. The 11 year-old child has experience with horses and they live on a 25 acre land. More to come on this.

We had the worst day yesterday. I had to take him to the vet for neuter surgery. I switched to this vet the last minute because they said they would give him something to relax upon check-in. I asked the staff and the vet tech to please be extremely careful and gentle. They told me how experienced the techs were and could handle any dogs, including aggressive Rotties. I told them that my concern wasn’t whether they could handle him or not. I was worried that he would be put in a situation where he HAS to snap at someone. I called several times but did not hear back from the techs. When I went to pick him up, the tech asked me to come get him in the back, because they couldn’t get him out. He was in the back of the cage snarling. He didn’t recognized me for a few minutes. I kept talking to him, making the noises he was familiar with. His nose started moving and suddenly his body relaxed, tail started going. It was such a relief that he was able to snap out, but my heart broke into pieces to see him so terrified. One of the vets came out and told me that he was dangerous. I told him how I felt…then I cried all the way home. I told him how sorry I was for putting him through that. I was so upset on so many levels. I really hope it didn’t set him back with training and he will be able to differentiate this vet experience and the others.

3 months update – More video, boarding, scent work

After the bad vet experience, he was back to where he was 3 months ago, and worse. He refused to go into the crate/bedroom which he learned to LOVE. He snarled and snapped at me when I reached over, which he stopped doing a long time ago. I could not let this affect our training. I brought my big gun (chicken!) and worked on crate/handling as if it was day 1. It took him about 3 days to completely go back to pre-vet experience.

He was already scheduled to board at my work so that I could go on my birthday trip. I almost cancelled it because I didn’t feel comfortable leaving him in someone’s care. I spent 5 days getting him used to the luxury suite, going in-out, getting leashed by the staff and felt good enough to leave him there overnight.

We started working on “nose work” for fun. He wasn’t as focus at first but once he learned that all he had to do was to find the Birch odor, he was ON! He will never be a real scent/detection dog of any sort but it helps to mentally stimulate and strengthen our bond. When he finally got it, I felt the biggest connection with him.

Adopted and Returned, being re-assessed

After screening several applicants, I decided to adopt him out to the family with an 11 year-old-girl. Originally I didn’t want to adopt him out to a family with children but there was something special about this girl. They live on 25-acre, have horses and three herding dogs. When Finn met this girl, he immediately accepted her and stayed by her feet. He accepted their two female dogs and cats right away. He avoided the pushy male but finally accepted him by day 3. I kept getting positive and exciting updates daily until day 4. They wanted to return him because he started barking at night, snapping, growling and bearing teeth. This tells me that something happened to scare him on day 4. Apparently he’s still great with the little girl, but worse with the father. They went back and forth but we decided to pull him before he gets any worse. Turned out the little girl was doing everything I told her to do. The adults on the other hand pushed him way too fast. Mom even tried to get a chewie from him on day 4. It took me 6 weeks to get his trust. Oh boy. I take partial responsibility as I obviously didn’t do a good job training the adults. They say he was too unpredictable. You really can’t understand a rescue dog (with fear issues) until you spend more time. It took us 2 months to really understand each other. I will have to extra through when explaining his issues and how to manage.

Another volunteer in the area took him home to stabilize him for a week. Interestingly enough he did not accept her husband for a few days. My gut tells me the negative affect the father of the family had on Finn. He got along with all of her female dogs and cats. He did guard his food from her and her dogs. So he’s back to square one on that. When I got him back yesterday, he was much better than I anticipated thanks to the other volunteer. He peed all over me, barked in joy, and jumped in my car right away. His jumping and mouthing are back. He is more physical in play with other dogs now that there will be some adjusting to do with my dogs. I don’t know if it was because of the long day he had, but he was extra calm in the house and with my husband. He was back to our old routine in a few hours.

5 months update

• Read his progress with settle in the house
• Read his progress on fear of leash