Goodbye, Shasta

Over the past 8 months, we had a wonderful pup living with us -- Shasta.

She's funny and smart.  Shasta learns tricks quickly, learning to roll over, sit up pretty, high five, high ten, and dance on her back legs.  She's a great snuggler, too.

With all these wonderful traits though, she also has severe fear issues, and this manifests in aggression.  True aggression.  It's something she helped teach me about over the past few months, and I'd never seen it first hand previously.

In the time we shared, we did agility, walks, tricks.  We worked on reactivity to cats, which she had mastered and was able to hang out with our kitties with no problems.  We worked on walking past strangers, which we were still doing, and we worked on just being loved.  We worked on her ability to make new friends, which was still a work in progress.  I also changed her diet to help with these things, boosting the tryptophan to assist her brain's serotonin production. She regularly got frozen kongs stuffed with kibble, yogurt, chamomile, banana and peanut butter.  We even got a full panel of blood work done, but it turned up nothing...only showing that she's physically healthy.

She enjoyed the agility and walks.  The car rides.  The snuggles.  She was an agility rock star.  She's our puppy rocket.

This part is the hardest to write...we did all we could.  Today, we say goodbye to our puppy rocket, our Shasta.

Last week, she attacked Sean. He didn't do anything out of the ordinary, and they have a good relationship.  However, she bit him in the stomach and proceeded to lunge for him repeatedly after the bite.  He was able to get away, but even after he shut the bedroom door behind him, she lunged for the door.  She meant business.  Her gaze was clear, without confusion, and her intent was without question.  It's one thing if this happened out of the blue, but this wasn't her first bite.  Unfortunately, it is her last.

Today, Shasta crosses the rainbow bridge.  She won't have to be afraid anymore.

Shasta, I'll miss you terribly.  You're a sweet, misunderstood girl, and I'm so sorry that I couldn't fix your problems.  All I can do now is take away your pain.  Thank you for teaching me about aggression and that not all dogs are meant to stay with us.  I hope you rest peacefully, have lots of rolling, green hills to run, bunnies to chase and laps to snuggle.  I love you, little girl.

Baby Steps

Our girl Shasta had a big morning.  On our walk, Shasta was able to pass 4 groups of strangers without reacting.  Woohoo!!!!

Again, WOO!!!! HOOOOOO!!!!!

This doesn't mean her training is finished, not even close.  We simply tried something different this morning as people passed.  We stopped, and I got her attention on me.  Then, we did tricks.  Sit.  Shake.  Down.  Sit.  High Five.  Repeat.  It also helped that I had some Natural Balance Treat Roll - also known as puppy crack.

While I don't think she's ready to routinely walk by people yet, I know she's able to focus and work while people pass us.  This is a step in the right direction, and now I know a method that works with her.  We'll do this more, at least 4-6 times as a training standard.  Then, we'll change the location 4-6 times.  There's the Canine Center and the Petco parking lot, just to name two.  After Shasta proves she can do this consistently, we'll advance the work to add movement, and we'll work and walk past people.

We've still got work to do on her toy play in the front yard, and I've got time to start on this today.  We did fudge the toy holding this week...giving her pets for being cute.  However, I'm going to 86 that tactic anyway and train the toy hold like a sitstay.  She's just too darned adorable, and I don't see that withholding affection from a her when she's relaxed will really accomplish anything.  I want to reward that calm state, not ignore it.

Concerning her diet, the addition of chamomile, banana, fish oil and OptaGest seems to be working.  Since making this change, she hasn't vomited.  There's been the occasional belch, but no pukes.

Also this coming week, we'll begin working on integration with Nola.  They walk nicely together outside, even being playful (I do NOT let them have physical contact though).  Next, they get to hang out in the house...on leashes or tethered on opposite sides of the room.  All so they can get used to each other and know that I'm in charge.  If this goes well, the chances of adopting Shasta skyrocket.  Sean told me there are three things that need to happen first:

1. We need to be able to trust her in the house with the cats.  CHECK
2. Nola and Shasta need to be able to live together.  Sean doesn't want to run two households permanently, which is understandable.
3. Shasta needs to be able to meet new people.  We don't want to chance her biting family if they come to visit.

We've got one of those things done.  So, it's onto the rest of the list.  Baby steps.

For what it's worth, I think she really wants to stay.  :-)

Oh, that Shasta

Like I've written, Shasta needs lots of training.  We went for a walk this morning, and I'll give the good news first -- she was able to walk calmly past two cyclists.  The bad news, she wasn't able to walk past a even one pedestrian without yelling at them.

But cyclists!  Yay!!

I'll keep at the walks, doing pull-to's as soon as she starts to lock her eyes on someone, and this will be a learning experience for me also.  The trick is getting her into a pull-to before her excitement is too high, and she's so quick to react that it's difficult to find that point.

The changes in her diet need time to have any impact also.  I just made those changes with banana, chamomile, and fish oil yesterday.  My mentor also recommends OptaGest.  This is a probiotic for dogs and cats, and with her nervous stomach, it definitely can't hurt.  I added this to her yogurt yesterday as well, and she didn't vomit today after the walk this morning.  I call that a win.

We also need to work on play and toy holding in the front yard.  Shasta loves to play, and her toy hold is getting better.  However, once we're out the front door, she looses all interest.  Why?  One of the earliest things I learned in my dog trainer internship is that play is the first behavior to fall away when dogs are nervous.  While she loves walks, she's still nervous outside her comfort zones of the house and backyard.  So, we'll start playing outside the front door and gradually advance it to the driveway, then the side walk, and on.  We'll need to have a good play session in the house first to get her revved up and excited about the toy, but I feel this will work.

Eventually, she'll walk with a toy in her mouth, and if her mouth is already occupied, she's less likely to bark at strangers.  The toy hold will have some calming effects, too.

We're still working on all this, and it's good that our neighbors are understanding.  One lady was very nice about it when I told her that we were training, and maybe she'll even work with us as Shasta improves.

Shasta - Coming to understand a misunderstood pooch

Shasta is an interesting dog, and that's an understatement for a lack of better words. The opportunity to learn from her is continually unfolding with new levels.  I'm fond of her, VERY fond of her.  It's difficult to not love her, and she's teaching me a great deal about training, behavior issues, diet and biochemical imbalances, too.  As time passes and our relationship strengthens, I'm coming to understand her more and more.

One of my first steps in her training was writing a full training program for her.  It starts with remedial steps for anxiety, leading to our goal which will take time.  What is that goal?  For her to show the world what a sweet girl she can be! ...and to pass the AKC Canine Good Citizen test.  I won't feel comfortable adopting her to someone else until she can pass that test.  Yes, yes, she may stay with us forever, but I want her to get the CGC either way.  For now, we're focusing on the remedial training.  She's comfortable with me and Sean, and with that trust, we can continue to work on her relaxation, basics and build to the advanced training later.  Notice the key word there is "trust."  To be able to train a dog, you need their trust, especially nervous pups like my Shasta.

Now, for a progress report.  :-)

When Shasta first came to my house, she was reactive to Sean and the cats, and I couldn't trust her loose in the house because she might have hurt one of our kitties.  Today, she's madly in love with Sean, and as I type, she's sitting at my feet, untethered and with cats lounging a few feet away.  It took several passbys, pull-to's, tTouch, relaxation exercises with cats nearby and time outs for inappropriate behavior, but she did it.  She learned.  Shasta still explosively reacts to strangers, but there's hope.  Her change in behavior around the cats tells me that she can learn -- one day, she'll be able to walk past a stranger without yelling at them.

It's not going to be easy, and it's going to take time, likely months.  Shasta is a special case, and after reading her history, I'm beginning to understand her a little better.

Here's a brief back ground.

Shasta was rescued from Bastrop in the spring of 2011 and was sickly.  Her health began improving, but APA quickly realized that she was pregnant.  They did the usual care for her, which was great, but they spayed her only seven weeks after she had her puppies.  That was too soon.  After a dog has a litter or a heat, the wait time for spaying is THREE MONTHS, and some behaviorists even recommend six months.  This allows the uterus to return to a normal size and for the hormones to level out. Because of the early spay, her progesterone levels weren't allowed to normalize, and progesterone affects the brain's ability to produce serotonin.  Of course, spaying later also removes estrogen and progesterone from the system, but her body should have been given a chance for those hormones to return to a normal level before they yanked them out.

Moving forward.

As frustrating as it may be, nothing can be done about it now.  All we can do is press on and use this knowledge.  After some research and brain picking of some helpful trainers, I'm going to supplement her diet with anti-anxiety and serotonin boosting foods.  There's Rescue Remedy, which has calming herbs.  I'll also give her fish oil daily since fatty acids help with brain health and mood regulation.  In addition to this, I'm adding chamomile for her stomach upset.  She still vomits after getting overly excited or nervous.  As a good friend put it, she really feels it, not just mentally but physically also.  I'll add bananas to her yogurt-peanut butter-kibble kong, too, because bananas contain high levels of tryptophan which the body converts to serotonin.  So, she'll be eating like The King!  Minus the fried bread part.

Adding these to her diet won't fix her behavior, but it'll make her more susceptible to the training.  Shasta can learn, as she proved with the cats, and I'm going to give her every advantage possible.  Like Lee Mannix would say, "If you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough."

Shasta relaxing in the backyard. As lovely and sweet as she is, Shasta isn't the dog for a casual dog lover.  She needs a dog enthusiast who will take her training seriously and keep up with it for her entire life.  It's a tall order, and it's also a reason for her to stay with me.  Unless I can find an adopter who has experience with special dogs like Shasta, I'll continue the campaign for her adoption at my home.  I'll keep telling myself that, too.  My love for her and not wanting to let her go has nothing to do with it.  Right?

Shasta - tricks

I promised more of Shasta.  Here she is making her cinematic debut...(don't mind my nerdy voice in there)

Meet Shasta

This is Shasta.

She's pretty cute, right? Of course, she is!  Shasta is adorable, and she's my new foster dog, which is a bit of an adventure all by itself since this is my first foster. Then, while Shasta is sweet and fun, she also has some issues to boot.  Essentially, it's "stranger danger" which means that she reacts poorly when spotting someone she doesn't know.  I'll get back to that in a minute.

Let's start with the meaning of her name, "Shasta."  Going by the name dictionary, it means one with natural beauty, and that's nice.  She is a looker and a lover, but to be honest, the reference to the volcano in California is likely more appropriate.  Fortunately, Mount Shasta is dormant and won't erupt for several hundred years, and my goal is to get Shasta the dog to a similar state of curbing those eruptions. Then, some claim that Mount Shasta was named by Russian settlers, perhaps from Russian meaning "white, clean, pure" or another word for "happiness and luck."  I like this part of Mount Shasta because Shasta the dog could use more of that luck.  :-)

Shasta has lived with me and Sean for a month now, and she's making baby steps toward rehabilitation.  While she would growl at Sean for the first couple of days, now she's madly in puppy love with him.  She'll snuggle and play with him and lick his face.  He was even gone for two weeks, and when he returned, Shasta was thrilled to see him.  This is huge.

When I write that Shasta has a "stranger danger" fear, it might seem small, but her problem is anything but that.  When she meets a new person, she goes from cute to scary in a matter of seconds, and this is from a distance of more than 10 feet.  We're working on it, and during the process, I'm imaging the dog she'll become.  I see how wonderful she is with people she knows, and am keeping faith that she'll be able to calmly walk past strangers and meet new people one day.  By the way, that imagination is key to dog training.  You need to be able to see the dog you want her to become to be able to address specific areas...with kindness.

So.  What is she working on now?

Currently, she's getting lots of walks and play time.  I'm going to make her crazy about toys, and the goal is for her to walk while holding a toy in her mouth.  Why?  She can't bite if she's holding onto a toy for dear life.

The first change was her diet.  Shasta eats only from Kongs now. I stuff them with kibble, yogurt and peanut butter and then freeze them.  The yogurt is for her digestion.  She's a nervous little thing, and when I first brought her home, she'd throw up when she got excited.  Since adding yogurt to her diet, her stomach has calmed down, and I haven't had to clean up puppy puke in 2 weeks.  Freezing the Kongs is just to make her work harder on the food puzzle.  This gives her something to do with her mouth and makes that brain work.

We're also working on walking past people she knows, meet and greets, basic obedience and general manners.  I swear she's got spring coils in her back legs and will post a video soon.  We're working on appropriate jumping by putting it on cue and ignoring it the rest of the time.  Seeing her "dance, dance, dance" is definitely a frown breaker.

We make a little bit of progress everyday, and it's a slow trip with a scenic tour.  The destination will be wonderful though.  It's been a month now, and I can already see that it'll be hard to let her go to a new home.  While she tends to over-bond with people she likes, I'm falling in puppy love, too.

More soon...

long time no post

Well, I had a slip back into unhealthy habits: smoking, no exercise, etc. Then again, the past few weeks have been difficult. My dad passed away a month ago. It was swift and unexpected, and I miss him dearly.

To add to this, I learned something about tragedy -- it brings out the best and the worst in people. My mom and my sisters have been amazing, but my brother has shown his true colors...shades of brown like an asshole.

It's funny how some people see their family in pain and see that as an opportunity to bully, insult, threaten and try to take charge even when they've been estranged for 3 decades. His abuse has multiplied the pain of loosing my dad, and it's simply unfair, unnecessary, and unforgiveable. Oh well. It's his loss. I was nice to him and opened my heart despite his past abuse, and he only disrespected my efforts by throwing unreasonable accusations and threats at me...in a flood of text messages at 2 o'clock in the morning.

In dealing with this and losing my dad so suddenly, I started smoking again, and when I smoke, I don't exercise. But in missing and loving my dad, I'm also getting back to taking care of myself now because he would want that. His health problems all stemmed from his smoking, and he would proselytize to me about the dangers of it. There's rheumatoid arthritis and cancer, which he had, and both are triggered by smoking...both can be heriditary as well.

So, there it is. It'll be slow getting back into the routine, but day by day, I'll get back to running regularly.

Mon: walked 1 mile with Nola
Tues: walked 1 mile with Nola
Wed: Walked 1.5 miles with Nola
Thurs: Walked 1.5 miles with Nola...try to do some yoga tonight
Fri: walk/run
Sat: walk/yoga
Sun: walk/run