Really enjoying this thread.
 

I have really enjoyed reading this thread. Please continue posting on Z's progress. A shout out to all people who foster and adopt rescue dogs and cats. :bigbow:

I do not have any special update
 

Z is still here. I do not have any interesting update at this time. My wife sent me this which I thought was interesting.

Pit Bull Breed Profile

I take anything I read with a grain of salt, but a few things hit a chord for me with regard to Z.

Update on "Z"
 

I have been taking Ms. Z to the SPCA on Mondays hoping to get her used to other dogs and being around them. She has good days and some bad days.

I was so disappointed and assumed maybe I had bitten off more than I could handle with this dog I was trying to save. She is so sweet with people and getting a whole lot better with our cat; but if she could not deal with being around other dogs, things were not looking good for her.

So this past Monday when I took her with me to the SPCA I told myself okay, it is do or die time. So I asked my other dog walker to just hold her while I go and get a dog to walk even as he was holding another dog and then hand her off to me when I walk up to you.

So I got a little dog who is a sweet one and said okay, let’s go for this and I walk up and took Z on one side and the little sweet dog on the other and kept all thoughts of trouble out of my mind and walked them both into a pen together. To my extreme delight Z followed right along and did not snarl, bark, growl or anything. I then released them both and just watched. The little dog started to run and Z immediately went on the chase. I told her “gentle” and she reacted, much to my surprise, perfectly.

I am now realizing that Z does not know how to play as a dog. So we did this with four dogs. She did well with all but the fifth dog. Unfortunately, the fifth dog growled and advanced on Z who then growled back and then the other dog attacked Z who just stood and did nothing back. I was truly amazed. It happened so quickly and was under control in a split second and no dogs were hurt. Just one dog trying to assert authority over Z.

I have also been taking Z to the polo field for a walk and learning session.

I have been working on walking and then when I stop Z is to stop and sit at my side. It was not working in week one, week 2, only when I asked or tugged on the collar. Then I went back to Caesar, The Dog Whisperer, my fall back helper. I saw in one episode where a dog would not respond the way he wanted. So he said a dog first realizes smell, then hearing, then sight. So he said he was going for the “smell” sense and used pieces of cold cuts to get the dog to do as he wanted. So……, I tried this and week three was lots better and this week, she did it perfectly.

And now today, Wednesday, I said okay Z it is you and me only today and we are going to do this. So I picked my first dog to walk, just walked into the pen, took Z’s leash and off we all went without any incident whatsoever. Then I released both in the pen and she actually played with the dog. No aggressive moves or chase. She was chasing the dog but barking in a playful mode. After a few runs she wanted more but the little dog was not interested so she went on her own and found a nice wet spot on the ground and went down and rolled on her back wiggling around like a dead cockroach and barking at herself.

It was truly a happy event for me; she was actually finally acting like a dog; having fun and playing. After three other dogs she was exhausted and hot so I put her in a pen to relax and stay cool.

I am very proud of Z today; and she seems happier today as well.

Post did not show up in New Posts
 

For reasons that are not important, my lovely's update did not show up as a new post, so bumping thread.

GoldenDog and AJBrown:

A wonderful, wonderful rendition of events.
Z is changing and coming along.
Her future is so promising.

You are two incredible and exceptional people.

AJ Brown, the Village dog whisperer! Love your stories of Z and the other dogs you and Z have encountered. Lost my Jack Russell almost a year ago and not ready to get another dog, but you and your stories are sure working on me. Thank you.

Wow. I am just amazed at how astute and creative you are with her. You are just what she needs. Your ability to dissect her behavior and start at the ground level with tiny steps is so impressive. A lot of people don't have that kind of patience. Or intuition. Brava!

There are no dog whispers here...
 

We are glad you enjoy the posts of our everyday challenges and joys of working with Z. She is a good dog and is coming along, and hopefully one day she will be part of a forever family.

My first reaction to these compliments is thank you. Who doesn’t love to hear wonderful accolades about themselves occasionally. This is quickly followed by… it just ain’t so…

I do not want this thread to come across as a self-promoting ‘look at us’ thread. I started this to share our experience as people who love dogs, but ARE NOT experts at dogs. It is from that perspective we write these posts.

Exceptional? Hardly. We are fostering one dog because I hated hearing she was not being adopted. So many people do so much for dogs that I flinch a bit when we garnish praise because we post about it.

Nail update coming ...

The Dremel has landed...
 

For those not familiar with a Dremel, here is a picture with a sanding bit on the end: Product Details - dremel.com

I do not want the perception to be that I work on trimming Z’s nails daily. I do not, life gets in the way. It may be a few days a week when I feel the urge. If you have ever used a Dremel you know it is loud and whiny. Reminds me of a few …. hmmm let’s not go there. I really want to trim this dogs nails. It is embarrassing for me to be fostering a dog and have to bring her back to get the SPCA vet to do it.

When hanging around watching TV I would get out the Dremel and have Z come over and be curious about what it was, she would sniff it and occasionally lick it. The next phase is the same deal, but this time the Dremel is on at the lowest speed. The first thing I notice is that the fan on the Dremel scares her, so I face it in such a way that it would not blow on her face. She is clearly scared of the thing, like many things quite frankly.

Since she arrived we have worked on the stay command. It will be this command that will greatly help to shave a nail or two someday. She is also becoming more confident in all situations. I give my wife credit for this as she spends a lot of time with Z.

Finally I took a chance as she was sleeping next to an outlet. I plugged in the Dremel turned it on and held her back leg. Her immediate reaction was to get the heck out of dodge, to which I told her to stay. She was clearly nervous, licking her lips, eyes darting for an escape route. The stay needed to be reaffirmed several times, and when I could see she was going to stay I shut the Dremel off without doing a nail. I did this a couple of days later, and then the third time I touched a nail for a few seconds. I remained as calm as I could and more important, Z survived.

I doubt Z was too pleased, but I was darned psyched.

More to come…

You are, and always have been a good man, Charlie Brown, or at least I have agreed with all posts on this forum for a very long time. It is not surprising that your mate is a good person too. Thank you for your patience with this dog.

Keep on plugging, ajbrown. It surely takes a lot of patience, doesn't it. Nothing can make one feel more inadequate than having a dog you can't "fix." We have a foster now who simply won't eat dog food. And even with the people food she'll eat, we never know from meal to meal if she'll eat it or turn up her nose. She came to us after a traumatic week for her, losing her home at age 11.5, needing six pills a day. Thank goodness for my vet suggesting marshmallows, because she shuns cheese, fake cheese (Velveeta), hotdogs, bread, peanut butter... you name it.

Forget about Come, Sit, Stay. She's apparently hard of hearing. Obviously never walked on a leash. But at this point I'd be happy if she just ate on a regular basis. Her owner died after a long illness, and the daughter took her to a shelter in Louisiana. She was driven 18 hours to Tampa in a van wth other dogs. My vet thinks she's grieving and traumatized somewhat. But she's starting to wag her tail.

All these poor rescues have their back stories & problems. I hope to achieve the same level of patience as you have. Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I thought you might like to know you're not alone.:o

To those who foster dogs who have been through traumatic situations, my hat is off to you. :ho: :BigApplause:

You are a really neat & kind person.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Aw shucks, DB. Thanks. Just a sucker for old animals in need.

Cfrance, posts like yours are not off topic. Sharing experiences good and bad is perfect for this thread. I have only shared the good ones :D

The older the dog, the tougher the task. It is wonderful you are taking on such a task, have fun with it and please let us know how it goes...

Another important post - sand away!
 

I now can ‘sand’ Z’s nails with the Dremel. I am doing them more frequently than normal to reduce the length of the quick. Sometimes a do one paw, sometimes two, never four yet. I stopped doing just one as I would forget which one I did :). After the whole process there is much ‘good dog’ praising and ‘tail wagging’ and a half of a cookie.

I have learned a couple of things. The front paws are tougher for a dog that is nervous as their nose and eyes are closer. They can smell the ‘naildust’, see the Dremel. Physically restraining a dog is not the best method; it just makes everyone more nervous and a handler can never be frustrated or nervous. I am fortunate with the fact that I do not have to worry about any behavioral issues to humans <knock on wood>. My ‘knock on wood’ should not be taken to mean I think Z may have aggression issues to humans. I do not, she is a sweet girl. I just often add that in for my own superstition…

What does this process look like? I rely heavily on her other training and IMO this is critical to everything we work on. I use the commands come, sit, down and stay when doing the nails. It is not until Z is down and somewhat relaxed that I get in position. Even before the process starts the Dremel is on. <IMO> This is not the time to comfort the dog by petting or saying things like "it's OK" and " do not worry". All the dog knows is that she is working on come, sit, down and stay and hopefully learning that nothing bad will ever happen while she is with me.</IMO>

I recently did her front paws. It was about noon, I was headed out to find out why my step mom’s cart only goes in reverse and on a whim, I decided to cut her nails. I am in the living room, I turn on the Dremel and set it on the floor. I call Z, ‘Z… come’… and she comes over. I tell her to sit and she does. Down takes a bit more convincing. I will repeat a command two or three times in a situation like this (but ordinarily I never like to repeat a command). She lays down and I move into position, I am trying to lay on my elbows with an elbow on each side of her and almost no weight on her. I do this and pick up the Dremel and she backs out. I do not try to stop her or restrain her. I set the Dremel down and we start all over. The second time she let me take her paw and almost start; the third time was the charm.

You get to the point when handling the same dog that you know the task at hand is going to happen. The dog may not know that but the handler must. It may take 10 times to start, but this is going to happen, even if it is only one nail. It is also not done until the handler says it is done. If she leaves it must restart, the handler must end it. As stated, this time it took three times before we started sanding. The fact that she comes back, sits, lays down is a huge deal and tells me she is becoming a darn good dog. :clap2:

Once she is down, we start, if she moves I simply say ‘stay’. If she breaks stay, this is not the time to correct, I just start the whole process over. That day we did both front paws.

My best experience to date was doing her back paws. I was watching TV on the couch, she was lying near my feet. The Dremel is tucked under the end table. I turned on the Dremel and get off the couch to get next to her and she flees, not fast, just nonchalantly walks away like shes getting a drink. I call her, sit, down and this time I give her a light shove on her shoulder and say 'over' (she does not know this command yet). To my amazement she stayed there on her side. I moved in and started sanding; by the time I was done with her two back paws Z almost looked asleep. I looked at my wife who was in the kitchen and said wow, did you see that? :shocked:

Next we need to get back to dog on dog work… my wife is visiting friends up north, so Z and I will be spending lots of time together…

Love this thread!
 

Z and his handler get a big fat A :popcorn:

I second that!

Your story is such a great reminder that these things take time and patience. I've often read the key to teaching a dog new tricks is to break the process down into individual steps and address them one at a time. You seem to have done that and achieved good results. Bravo!

Awww What a wonderful story!

What a wonderful thing you are doing.

Thank you!
Angie Fox

Miss Z and thunder day
 

I know what you are thinking... another post already... Z was too adorable yesterday to not share.

A couple of weeks ago a typical FL downpour started. Z gets up and casually goes under the end table in a corner of the room between a chair and a couch (thunder cave).

I was surprised as there was no thunder just wind and rain. I opened the lanai door a bit and called her and she came over. She would not even look out the door never mind go out. I went out she went back to the cave and slept.

This leads up to yesterday. First she had a long ‘detoured’ ride to Chatham from Mallory, then spent a couple of hours in my step mom’s HOT garage watching me work on a golf cart. On the way home, I took her down to the Polo Field to let her run. She does not run wild, she will heel to the cart so she is never far away. I can allow her off leash when there is no one around. I can see someone coming from a quarter mile away and if someone comes she goes back on leash.

Yesterday, she never did run, we were just hanging out walking around off leash about 50 feet from cart when a distant thunder could be heard. With no panic or rush, Z simply turns to the cart and walks back and hops in. I laugh when I see her do this like if she goes slow enough no one can see her. One time I called her and she came out of the cart all the way to me long enough for me to say ‘good come’ and then she walked back.

She is not in a state of panic, not panting, licking licks or shaking… I called her again and this time she would not come. This is the first time she has done that for quite a while, but it is understandable in this situation. I could have headed home, but the storm was distant and right or wrong I felt this was a moment to help her and learn more about her (selfishly I was hoping she would poop so I could drop it in the poop canister :evil6:).

I put the leash on her (normal collar) and gave her a slight tug to get her started and off we went, as we walked we heard another distant rumble, and I could feel her try to turn on the leash. I do not even look at her and keep going which she follows :2excited:. Again we are about 50ish feet from the cart, no one around, so I take her off the leash. She walks around a bit but then ‘sneaks’ back to the cart. This time as she was about half way back I head out another 20 feet and hide behind one of the big trees on the edge of the driveway that runs around the property.

I was extremely curious what she would do. I peeked out from behind the tree and she was standing next to the cart looking back trying to find me. She then started sprinting to where I last was and as she approached I popped out and she came over with a big tail wag. She is always such a happy dog.

If you are familiar with the Polo Field, I cross over the driveway towards where the horse fields are and still off leash, she follows. We walk around a bit, I could not hear any more thunder and she finds a spot and … well you know… We head back to the cart, drive over and drop off her payload and head for home.

To top the day off as we head back to Mallory we were caught in a heavy downpour. She managed just fine.

There is no point to this post, Z is not ‘cured’ of thunder, I just found Z adorable through all of the drama.

" I laugh when I see her do this like if she goes slow enough no one can see her."

I love this story, especially the part quoted above. We had a big black fluffy dog when I was a kid, and he would hide his head behind a tree if he didn't want to come inside when my mother called him. His whole body from the neck back sticking out, but he thought he was hiding!

Nice to see that "Z" and you are bonding nicely while I am away!

Just when you think you know what you are doing
 

Just when I was beginning to think I knew what I was doing with Z an event happens that reminds you things are never easy and require more effort…

Z and I were down the Polo Field again like many days, parked on the driveway furthest from Buena Vista by the horses.

I go there to do off leash training with Z. We stay off the polo field, between the driveway and horse fence. It is a place that there are no cars, I can ensure there is no other people and there is no danger for her.

She was doing her exercise, walk/trotting next to the cart off leash. She is off leash so that at the end of the exercise I speed up and she falls behind and begins to sprint. This time she was exercising off leash ‘cart heeling’ when out of the Polo field comes a dog with no human. I knew I was in trouble as Z is just in the 4th grade when it comes to off leash work and other dogs. As soon as I saw the dog I stopped the cart and it was too late; the chase was on. I could not break Z’s mindset, At the top of my lungs I yelled her name, come and stop (a command I have not taught her). I was just trying to break her attention with any sound I could.

As I run after her my brain flashes odd thoughts, the first is Z is going to eat this dog and it is my fault, followed by should I contact TOTV person angiefox about a lost dog, what kind of dog is it I ponder. The things the brain considers under stress are pretty humorous (after the fact). The whole chase only went about 50 – 60 feet. My worst fears were not realized. Z, with hair on back raised caught the other dog and they stood next to each other facing in opposite directions (head to tail). I was about 20 feet away and approaching making lots of noise; hardly calm assertive…

The silver lining is that Z did not attack the other dog, she just loved the chase. I suspect the other dog was submissive. My wife has seen this behavior at the SPCA when Z goes to visit other dogs.

After 5 to 10 seconds the other dog headed away towards the poop bucket and Z wanted to follow. I was fortunate she finally heard me, not sure if it was my clapping or my yelling, but she stopped and I was able to get her to come. If I was 20 years old I would have whacked her upside the head (relax, it is just an expression), but after many dogs and life experiences it was clear to me that if anyone should be whacked upside the head it would be me.

It looked to me like the dog found its handler in a car down by the poop bucket. The incident happened about half way down the polo field.

So… instead of admonishing anyone, I collected myself and Z and I completed her ‘cart heel’ exercise (on leash) and worked on sit, stay, come off leash. I need to get her non distracted commands much better, and then slowly start with distracted commands. For example sit/stay and have a dog walk by… we are not ready.

My heart was pounding mid-stream in your dialogue and I couldn't read fast enough to know what happened next with the "intruding other dog!"

Whew!

Three cheers and two beers; all's well that ends well.

In a similar vein, one of the hardest things I've ever had to do surrounding care for a dog is when they accidentally get outside free, or escape their leash. Chasing them does not work. And they're usually romping around the street. We never had a dog with any kind of traffic sense.

Sitting down on the ground is what brought them back. In both cases, each dog was so surprised that I would do something so odd, he came over to see what was up, and I was then able to grab the collar.

Of course, this wouldn't have worked with Z because she was focused on another dog . But I know well the panic you must have felt.

yes Cfrance...
 

So many folks with so much experience following and commenting on this thread is great...

I learned to not chase a dog running away, but to go away from the dog to make it change its behavior. In this case Z could have cared less about me because of the other dog... but thankfully, no harm no foul...

Any pillow in a storm will do...
 

With all the worry... how about some calm...

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...psvyekljst.jpg

Not sure why my image tag above did not insert photo... will investigate.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...psvyekljst.jpg

Obviously not yet from the picture :)

It will be interesting to watch her. From experience I know when it downpours and she hears it on the roof she drifts under a coffee table in the corner of the living room.

I am sure if we get the rain, wind and thunder as forecasted, she will be there.

She is not panicked under there, she just sleeps. My job which may be challenging in this event is to pretend things are normal...

She just went out and peed. I am amazed she is not in the 'cave', but just sleeping away in the living room.

I am taking credit for this behavior :a20:

I think one of my woosie dogs will pee on Tuesday when the sun comes out. The other one is perfect and does anything mom tells him to do. I love reading all your tales of Z. I have fostered over 100 dogs, mostly greyhounds, but you sound like you are doing an amazing job. Kuddos!.

What a good dog...
 

We did not feel like walking around the yard in the wind/rain. Z and I have been caught in several storms in the golf cart lately (one I should share), so I figured why not go for a ride? I put the sides down on the cart and we headed for a common area.

My lovely wife came along and did the hard work of walking Z for a few minutes until we had number 2. Picked it up and headed home.

As they did that, I was busy keeping the lights on in the cart :angel:

To be honest, riding in the cart was a lot nicer than I thought it would be after watching the news...

Z should be set for the night fingers crossed...

Be safe!

You are one of many folks on TOTV that has so much more to offer than I. I cannot imagine 100 dogs, I am hoping to foster two :)

My poor foster got so nervous. (She's a bit of a nervous nelly to begin with.) She barked and barked. We went out with the big golf umbrella. She paced and paced and did her business. Then inside she paced and paced and had diarrhea, thankfully on a cheap throw rug. Then she threw up, on another throw rug. Then she had another episode of the former kind on the tile. She has now settled down, but we have blown up the aerobeds and are sleeping out in the great room because it's all tile. Well, I said I was sleeping out here, and next thing I know, my dear husband was dragging out another aerobed to stay with me.

The other golden is remarkably calm, probably because there's no thunder. I know we will not be going outside again until this is over. I also know he can hold it. Hopefully I will be able to get Annie out to either the lanai or the front porch.

Bless you, good luck... that sounds so tough. I am shocked how calm things are here ... so far...