[goldendog]

Well it has been a bit since there has been an update on “Z”. Sorry for the lapse. Sometimes changes are so minute they don’t seem to show at all. It has now been a little over 2 months that “Z” has been with us and she seems to have adjusted well to our home.

Her interaction with our cat is improving. They have been face-to-face with the cat staring at the dog, sometimes the cat will siss which “Z” does not like. Z will back away, cry and then bark. Z still has the desire to chase after her when the cat jumps from the couch to go back into the bedroom. But we have been able to stop her with a “tsh” or at least change the direction of her attention.

She sleeps on her bed every night in the living room instead of sleeping in her kennel. And doesn’t seem to have an interest in sleeping in our bedroom with us. She remains there on her bed until we get up in the morning to begin the day.

She loves going for cart rides and knows just what position she has to be in to enjoy the ride.

She has been going back to the Humane Society to visit on Mondays and some Fridays to get used to having dogs pass by and either play with them or ignore them. This has been semi successful. She has even played with several of the larger dogs a bit.

She has excelled in walking on a leash and healing and is getting better at ignoring the little barking dogs who are tethered at the end of the leashes..

Over the past week we have learned that she is extremely afraid of thunder and lightning, or any loud noise actually. I had to literally drag her from the house tonight to get her to take a walk and then she did not calm down the entire walk. It is going to be a long summer for her with our daily storms. Hopefully we can give her enough calm and balance that she can begin to ignore the storms.

So that is the update for now.

[marianne237]

Thank you for the update. Have missed reading about you and Z.

[plimit56]

Purchase Z a thunder shirt for the ...well ..thunder. Works great on my dog glad I purchased one.

[sandybill2]

Oh, please continue to post updates. Just found this thread and read everything you have written out loud so my husband could enjoy as well. We both think you definitely have the art of writing down pat----think you could write a book! Thank you for fostering Z. Have thought about it but we stay on the road a lot now-still traveling but our plan is to provide a forever home eventually to a rescue.

[ajbrown]

Originally Posted by sandybill2

Oh, please continue to post updates. Just found this thread and read everything you have written out loud so my husband could enjoy as well. We both think you definitely have the art of writing down pat----think you could write a book! Thank you for fostering Z. Have thought about it but we stay on the road a lot now-still traveling but our plan is to provide a forever home eventually to a rescue.

Thank you. Write a book? Lucky if I actually read a book. I am reading "A short guide to a happy dog" which is just about the right size for me... I am a slow reader, so Z may be adopted by the time I finish...

I can only take credit or try to defend AJBrown's posts, Mrs. AJ posted the last update. She has been doing wonderful things with Z.

[Ecuadog]

I love this thread. Thanks.

[goldendog]

Well Ms. Z. has hit a milestone. We would normally put her in her kennel when we go off to play golf to make her feel safe and keep her from doing anything we are not sure she would or would not do. Well we decided to let her be out and on her own in the house while we were out this weekend; except making sure the area where the cat stays was blocked just in case Ms. Z was tempted to visit with the cat. Well we came home and everything was perfect. Ms. Z greeted me at the door, went out to the lawn, came back in, greeted both of us again, and went back to resting comfortably on the floor again. Big leap for her!

[redwitch]

Sure you don't want keep her? She sounds like a sweetheart.

[CFrance]

Originally Posted by goldendog

Well Ms. Z. has hit a milestone. We would normally put her in her kennel when we go off to play golf to make her feel safe and keep her from doing anything we are not sure she would or would not do. Well we decided to let her be out and on her own in the house while we were out this weekend; except making sure the area where the cat stays was blocked just in case Ms. Z was tempted to visit with the cat. Well we came home and everything was perfect. Ms. Z greeted me at the door, went out to the lawn, came back in, greeted both of us again, and went back to resting comfortably on the floor again. Big leap for her!

What a relief, huh?

I'll never forget the butterflies-in-stomach the first time we left our last golden out of the crate alone, age 1 year. He was lounging on the foyer rug. We said goodbye, rushed to church, skipped social hour, rushed back home.

He was still on the foyer rug.

[ajbrown]

Originally Posted by redwitch

Sure you don't want keep her? She sounds like a sweetheart.

I am not sure I am ready to adopt a dog. Of course if this thread continues for 7 years what is the difference? Z is with us to give her a safe place where she gets affection/training and we get to enjoy her company.

Z is a wonderful dog, but not a dog I am used to. I have adopted dogs prior to Z when they are a younger age and have not been subjected to whatever Z has. These dogs and I were on the same page, almost like they spoke English. Z does not seem to learn words/phrases as easy. “Where is Linda”, “get your ball”, etc. Does this make her a bad dog, of course not… in fact kudos to her for standard training, she sits, stays, comes when she is called, etc. When I take her to an open field where we are alone, we work off leash and she is doing pretty good.

I wish to digress about Z to tell the story of my favorite dog. Caly was my smartest dog, if smart is a word that can be attributed to a dog. Casey was the best dog I ever had (sorry Caly). Why was Caly ‘smart’? After training her and spending time with her she seemed to know what I wanted. I could almost make up words on the fly and she would learn them quickly. When we were in MA, I taught her the command ‘yard’. I remember when I first brought her to The Villages and she was off leash in our yard (yeah yeah, sorry about no leash). I was out there with her and as she would approach the neighbor’s yard I would say ‘YARD’ and she would turn back and keep sniffing. I could set her boundaries no matter where we were with the command YARD, pretty neat I thought… another example is she knew the difference between ‘heal’ and ‘with me’. With me simply meant stay close, not the rigidity of heal …

Back to Casey…

We lived in MA, we already owned an adopted shepherd/lab mix from the SPCA. We were pondering getting another dog for reasons I forget, likely silly human reasons like they need a companion. I was at the vet and I saw something on the cork board for a lab (no papers) less than a year old.

I took the number, I called and asked why they were getting rid of the dog. The answer was that when they got the dog it was small and cute, but now it was bigger and starting to pull the couch around. I did not ask for clarification, but had visions in my head of a dog with its mouth on the living room couch pulling it out to the kitchen. Off I went to investigate this couch pulling dog…

What I learned was they kept her on a front enclosed porch with her leash around a PVC couch. I took her outside and there was an immediate connection. This was not an alpha dog, this was the kind of dog people dream of. These ‘people’ had no clue what they had; it was ‘calm submissive’ out of the box. I told them I would take the dog home to be sure it could live with our existing dog.

She had one mark against her. They named her Buffy (sp?), really, Buffy? I could not imagine myself out in the yard yelling Buffy, Buffy, come on girl….

I got her home and the two dogs met in the yard, ran around a bit without issue, so I figured we were good to go. I had never seen any aggression from my existing dog. I went in the house with the dogs and I went to the bathroom and as I am in there I hear a load ferocious growl and a whimper. It was over in a second. I rush out and ‘Buffy’ has a hole in the top of her nose.

I looked at her, stopped the bleeding, and renamed her Casey. If I was not sure I wanted to keep her, I was now. It would be hard to bring her back with a hole on her nose…

This story has no purpose; I share because it is a funny story as to how I found my favorite dog… this dog never needed a leash anywhere, it just followed. Z and I do not have that which is not her fault, but we will keep working…

[CFrance]

I love your dog stories, ajbrown. You should give yourself a lot of credit in training, as well as giving credit to your various dogs. Some people just have the knack. We have goldens because they forgive our lack of ability and obey us anyway.

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by CFrance

You should give yourself a lot of credit in training, as well as giving credit to your various dogs.

Yes, kudos to ajbrown. Thanks for sharing, from the dog lovers who are enjoying your stories.
You have patience and consistency, both requirements of pet owners/trainers who have well-trained dogs.

[MrGolf]

This is, without a doubt the best posting thread on TOTV. Was about to give up this site entirely tired of all the garbage and political BS. Then along came the saga of Z. What a breath of fresh air. Easily the most favored thread on the site. Cudos to you for taking time to share it. Hilarious and heart warming

[ajbrown]

Kind words, thank you. Do not let my posts lead you to believe I am a dog trainer. I have read TOTV for years, there are many folks out here better than I.

I am OK at little stuff, e.g., come, heel, stay, etc., but pretty clueless with behavioral issues. I have learned quite a bit by how Cesar is around dogs, the way he stays calm and never gives up until the dog is calm... There are times I feel like I have no idea what to do...

Z's current challenge. Alan must cut her nails. For a 55 pound dog, she is like a slippery pig. I imagine she is, I have never held a slippery pig. If you try to hold her down and touch her nails, she will wriggle, try to get up, slip out from under you. She could be an all-state wrestler, I mean if they had dog wrestling. She is obviously scared of something.

I have never dealt with this. With past dogs, I said lay down, I put a little weight on them, enough so they could not pull away their paws and I 'Dremel'd' their nails. Caly would almost fall asleep. The Dremel was great. I used to use clippers, but no matter how I tried I would cut too much on one of them and then we had a bleeder ...

Z must not trust me enough, or I am not relaxed enough, or she is just too afraid. I can put her on her side and make her stay and pat her, I am working to be able to hold her there using some of my weight. This is progressing well. As soon as I touch a nail, we are back to slippery pig…

In addition I have started to make her stay near me while I touch her nails. Even using my fingernail to simulate a cut noise. This requires me holding her collar so she cannot flee. As we are just starting this whole session lasts a minute or so.

This could be a multi week process and I hope I am up for it.

Will let you know…

[CFrance]

Originally Posted by ajbrown

Kind words, thank you. Do not let my posts lead you to believe I am a dog trainer. I have read TOTV for years, there are many folks out here better than I.

I am OK at little stuff, e.g., come, heel, stay, etc., but pretty clueless with behavioral issues. I have learned quite a bit by how Cesar is around dogs, the way he stays calm and never gives up until the dog is calm... There are times I feel like I have no idea what to do...

Z's current challenge. Alan must cut her nails. For a 55 pound dog, she is like a slippery pig. I imagine she is, I have never held a slippery pig. If you try to hold her down and touch her nails, she will wriggle, try to get up, slip out from under you. She could be an all-state wrestler, I mean if they had dog wrestling. She is obviously scared of something.

I have never dealt with this. With past dogs, I said lay down, I put a little weight on them, enough so they could not pull away their paws and I 'Dremel'd' their nails. Caly would almost fall asleep. The Dremel was great. I used to use clippers, but no matter how I tried I would cut too much on one of them and then we had a bleeder ...

Z must not trust me enough, or I am not relaxed enough, or she is just too afraid. I can put her on her side and make her stay and pat her, I am working to be able to hold her there using some of my weight. This is progressing well. As soon as I touch a nail, we are back to slippery pig…

In addition I have started to make her stay near me while I touch her nails. Even using my fingernail to simulate a cut noise. This requires me holding her collar so she cannot flee. As we are just starting this whole session lasts a minute or so.

This could be a multi week process and I hope I am up for it.

Will let you know…

When we took in an abandoned 15-year-old golden last year, he had never had his nails cut in the two years his owner dumped him with her parents. It must have been quite painful for him to have nails that long, as he wouldn't let me touch his paws. he would pull his paws away even if you just stroked them. My solution was to have them done professionally by our mobile groomer. It preserved our bonded position (that had taken a while to achieve) because I wasn't doing it. I really didn't care if he bonded with the groomer, as long as his needs were met without harm done to him. And the groomer understood.

I have never felt comfortable with my level of expertise at nail clipping. All our dogs have relied on groomers for that.