Back to the Vet

The good news is that we waited about 1 full hour to see the vet with other dogs and people coming and going and Mia was on her best behavior.  She had a lot of anxiety during that amount of time but she didn't bark even once, and usually she's in total and utter meltdown mode barking at everyone and everything and it's a very BAD scene.  This time (our first trip post-bootcamp) she was so well behaved letting out only a few little whines.

The bad news is that she has this growth between two toes on her back foot and it grew really quickly from only becoming something about 5 days ago to today when it was enormous.  The vet pricked it to get a sample to put on a slide and it just about exploded blood all over her - it was disgusting.  She doesn't really know what it is or how it happened, but she said that it could be from Mia licking her feet and causing an infection or it could have been a splinter that became infected or it might not be infected at all and just be something that will pass on its own.  After the prick there was a good amount of blood so then Mia had to wear the cone of shame and we were given 2 weeks of antibiotics and something to bath her foot in 2x a day.

The cone completely changed her personality from being high energy and happy to being depressed and sad.  It was as if this one device somehow sucked all the life from her... and it's heart wrenching.  We just need to watch her and make sure she's not trying to lick it at all and then we can take it off while we continue her meds and soaks.  I'm glad that we went in, but this whole experience took 2 hours because they were running behind schedule and because for some reason every time we go there it takes Forever and by the time we're done everyone is hungry and cranky.  We're going to schedule these visits for earlier in the day from now on, 2 hours is just too crazy for us.  Hopefully this growth heals and no further action will be required.  Poor Mia has gone to the vet so many times since she's been in our care, she must think we're monsters!

Barking Insanity

Mia didn't do that great at Thanksgiving... with the kids.  With the adults she was like A+ with the kids she was like C.  She just barked at them a lot from the beginning to the end 5 hours later.  We thought about it a lot and she really is doing better all around, but it's hard to practice the whole kid thing without kids being around.  She's just barky in general, so no matter what, even if she stops after 1 bark or 2, she isn't able to fully control her initial reaction to every little thing. 

A vibrating bark control collar is on the way for her - and this is Not a shock collar, it uses vibrations only.  There are a large variety of control collars to buy for a dog from sprays to smells to shocks, but we were most comfortable with using the vibrating one that vibrates according to the pitch of her bark.  I don't know anyone who has actually used this collar so I'm not sure what to expect (our trainer did recommend it though), all I know is that Mia is driving me completely insane with her barking.  INSANE.

The day after Thanksgiving we had a family portrait taken for our holiday card this year by my brother's girlfriend who does freelance photography.  It really figures that Mia was horrible on Thanksgiving and Wonderful the day after.  She stayed completely still for the camera for 30 minutes in different areas around our yard.  All it took was my brother waving a his hands like a lunatic behind the camera to get her attention.  Once she locks in on something she will stay there for 5 seconds which is plenty of time to snap a few pics.  I'm really looking forward to seeing them!  I'm pretty sure the doggie will look better than the humans.

Mia also had a very successful overnight play date with Bodhi and Bebe.  It was successful in that the playing was so good, all very gentle and tame.  Bodhi peed in the house a few hundred times, but because he's such a well mannered dog otherwise it was hard to get mad... also he only peed on areas that could be easily washed.  Mia was great, she might have been a little bit too much puppy for these dogs who were both about a year or two older than her but they all had fun together.

Tomorrow We Need Good Behavior!

Mia had a couple of bad days at daycare where she got a little roughed up.  A bad scratch to her face and then a scratch on her stomach, and not to say that she didn't deserve it... it still wasn't what want for her of course.  The wounds are healing nicely though with some Neosporin that mommy applies each day and things to be back to normal at her daycare so that's good to see.

Today we spent some time practicing the doorbell with her.  She seems to think the doorbell is a threat to her for some reason.  She may know that it means strangers are coming to the door and her reaction to it is pretty intense - mass barking.  This is something that we are going to need to work on everyday for a while until she comes to realize that whatever happens after the noise will not cause her harm.  She's my little princess but she does not like to feel threatened and strange things and sometimes strangers make her feel this way.

Taking her in and out of daycare we often walk by people that we don't know and she won't react, which is huge.  Sometimes taking her in the car and parking in a parking lot while one of us runs in to do a quick errand can cause her anxiety.  She doesn't bark anymore, but she will growl and sometimes whine.  Her growl is actually just part of her bark, it's the noise she makes Before she barks.... so it's not like a mean "I'm going to attack you" type of growl which is hard to explain to people who don't have dogs.  Just the growl is really just like anxiety level 1 or 2 while a full out bark is anxiety level 5 or 6.

Tomorrow is a big day for her.  We're going to have 8 guests (including 2 children), and I know that once we get past the initial greeting everything will be just fine.  I am definitely worried about her initial greeting to the little girls though, they are very little and will likely be afraid if she acts badly.

A Better Day

Well today is a new day, and Mia is much better today.  After an email and a phone call, our trainer talked me off the ledge.  Jermaine told us that dogs have good days and bad days just like humans and that it won't happen 2 days in a row and he's right.  Daycare said that she played very well today and was a good little doggie.

One item worth mentioning is that I wasn't correcting her right when people came to the door.  I was tugging to the side, as I would on a walk if she got distracted.  It's highly effective on a walk because it brings her head back to the front so she gets back on track quickly.  This correction is different.  Instead, you pull up on the leash and as long as its placed properly (very top of her neck) I will actually suppress her barking.  It will of course be very uncomfortable for her but it will also give her the chance to figure out why it's happening. We need to practice the doorbell with her, even just the 2 of us can do this.  Just as we practice her commands each day (and she's doing so well with those!!), we may need to practice the doorbell too until she realizes that its not a threat.

This will not be the first time that Mia wakes up on the wrong side of the dog bed.  It happens, and all we can do is prepare for it and know how to react when it does.

I also spoke with the daycare staff about Mia's incident on Friday when a meanie apparently scratched her face.  It took a few days for the owner to get back to me, but she did and she was clear that this is not up to her standards and it shouldn't have happened.  She's going to speak to the staff and make sure they are more diligent with actively watching the dogs during play groups.  I've been putting Neosporin on the cuts and they are healing... I just wish that it hadn't happened.  Scuffles are fine, little scratches are Ok but this was just a whole different level of rude.  I hope this doesn't happen again because she's just too pretty to be all scratched up!

Not the Best Day

I got up bright and early to go to the farm stand with my mom, so I had to take Mia for a morning walk to try and get out some of her energy before she had to go back into her crate for an hour... the walk went great, she was heeling and well behaved, I thought it might be a good start to the day.  The day never got any better from there.

When my mom came over, she rang the doorbell, and that instantly set Mia off barking at the door and then at my mom.  Typically she never barks at my mother, so this was not normal for her.  She barked and jumped and barked and jumped, and finally she settled down.  Then I had to drag her into her crate kicking and screaming, shut the door, and then she whined.  Well, sorry dog, mommy has chores to do.

After that quick errand, I decided to take Mia to the dog park for an hour to run around before having guests over.  This didn't go well.  We got into the park and immediately Mia went right up to the only child in there and started barking at her.  Luckily she was like 11, and not a really little kid.  She barked and barked, and finally stopped and the little girl ended up playing with her for a while.  So why bark at the kid?

I was warned yesterday that there is a mean shepherd dog that likes to play at the park on weekend mornings and today we met her.  The minute the dog arrived she went right after Mia.  The dog was Mean.  Later, they got into a tug of war battle that lasted close to to 10 minutes - my baby won.

I knew that Mia had some toy aggression from our trainer with other dogs, so I was a little worried when they started to play with a frisbee.  It was fine, she wasn't any more aggressive with the toy than any of the other dogs. Then suddenly and without warning the mean dog attacked Mia, they were fiercely jumping on each other clawing, biting, etc.  There was no blood, and the owner of the meanie broke it up after a few seconds but it didn't make me happy.  More passive dogs came into the park after that to help the dynamic and there was no more funny business, and we left after about an hour of play and prepared for having guests over.

A couple girlfriends came over... and I tried a new tactic this time.  Instead of having them ring the bell and open both doors, I left only the glass doors closed so that she could see them coming and not be so surprised when the doorbell rang.  It definitely worked a lot better, she barked a few times maybe even a handful and then jumped on them upon entry (sigh) but it was still much better than when she rudely greeted my mother this morning.  A few minutes later when I was showing them around the house, Mia peed on the basement floor.  She's Never peed on the basement floor before, and it's been over a month since her last bathroom accident and that was at the vet office not in the house.  I find that really puzzling.  She may have gotten overly worked up or something, I'm not sure.  After that she was really well behaved and occasionally barked at other dogs that walked by or walkers but not half as much as she used to.  I was at least able to get her to stop pretty immediately and she knew that she was doing something wrong so that's something.

After all that barking and all that craziness, my little pumpkin is curled up in a ball and snoozing.  Must be nice... oh and then another barking fit.  Today is not her best day.

Mia's First Dog Park Visit

I agonized over where to take Mia to run around today... there is only 1 park that is anywhere near us so I felt like although it's sort of in an area that I don't really like to go to, it was important that we at least Try it before driving an hour to another park.  It was sort of hard to find and you have to drive on the highway and then through the hood to get there, but once we got there it was good (15 mins. away!) and the people were really nice.  We spent about an hour there and first there were 2 other dogs, then 4 other dogs, and then 6.  She was the most well behaved dog in the group - and my biggest fear is that she would be a bully, but that wasn't the case at all.  There were toys and water around and she was able to share everything without being a meanie, so I'm so happy with today's efforts (and now she's totally exhausted and dirty).

To the Face

Someone scratched or bit Mia in the face yesterday at daycare.  We are pretty pissed off about it considering that nobody told us about it for one and this shouldn't happen for two.  I wrote the owner an email and we'll see what she has to say about this.  Daycare is great, it really lets your dog burn off their energy all day but the downside is that there tends to be a lot of dogs and just a few humans to manage the craziness.  There are several daycare workers there that we really like, but we've never actually seen them in action... they could all be standing around chatting for all we know.

I found it, cleaned it up, and the vet said to put Neosporin or Bacitracin on it to help it heal.

In more annoying news, Mia and I went for a walk this morning and she was awful.  She pulled all around, smelled all around, and whined to go see another dog while pulling me across the street.  I felt like I corrected her the entire time but she just wasn't caring.  During our afternoon walk I'll try to be more firm or something.  I don't know what else to do.  Jermaine said that she was going to challenge us to see how far she could take things sometimes, that should be expected, so today is just one of those days it seems.

Mia the Mellow

Mia continues to do really well at home after her bootcamp training.  We practice her commands every day morning and night, and she really loves going to daycare while we are at work.  They changed up her routine at daycare, which we just found out tonight and now we understand why she's been so pooped each night.  Previously they did 1 hour in smaller playgroups, and then 1 hour in the crate to nap/rest, and then rotate.  Now she does 1 hour out of the crate in a bigger playgroup but also a much bigger space (huge warehouse) and 30 minutes of crate time, rotating still.  She's getting much more exercise and also really is able to truly run and she's a really fast runner.  One of her favorite games with other dogs (and us) is to chase.  She asks us to chase her almost every night before completely just melting into her doggie bed and snoozing from 8-10pm before bedtime at 10pm.  I've taken her in car rides on my own and I do still need to correct her sometimes, but it's rare.  Just by saying Hey from the driver's seat, she'll relax... or I may need to say Hey a few times if something is a little bit strange - like when another car is parked right next to us with another dog inside, but we can drive past other dogs with no issues.

I think that she's a much happier dog now that she has her anxiety under control.  Imagine if you walked around all the time in a state of worrying?  That's what she was like before, but now very few things rub her the wrong way.  Tomorrow I'll be working from home, so I'll be able to take her for a long morning, noon, and evening walk and I should really get to see how far she's come.

She's Back!

Mia arrived home from her 3 week boot camp today.  She did a really fantastic job there, it's amazing.  When Jermaine brought her back we had a session with him on how we should proceed with her - bottom line is that we can't be the same as we were before.  Now that she has learned new behaviors and new skills its important that we don't become lazy dog owners - when she does something wrong we need to correct her immediately because she will push us.  We took her for a short walk around the block and she walked in the "heel" position the entire time, and when she didn't, we gave a quick tug on the leash to get her attention back.  She did beautifully... and then a dog and stranger walked by - and she didn't react.  She looked and she started to think about barking, but she didn't bark.  That's never happened before, that's usually her most mortifying behavior.  Jermaine showed us how he gets her to sit, lay down, and stay.  The stay command isn't perfect yet, but getting her to stay for even 10 seconds was still really impressive to us.  Abe was able to get her to stay after he left too for about 15 seconds before she decided to get up.

In the next few days we'll really be able to see more behaviors - going into the crate, staying in the crate, riding in the car, what she's like at daycare, etc.  So this is just the beginning, but so far we're really happy to see her progress and intend on working hard to keep it going.  It feels so good to have your dog on her leash and know that she's not going to go berserk at every thing we walk past!

Almost Time!

Mia has made it through 3 weeks of boot camp training and Jermaine said that she has learned exceptionally fast.  She arrives home at 3pm today and then we are going to have a session with Jermaine and take her for a walk and see how she reacts differently now to things than she used to.  It's exciting!

More to come...

Week 2 Update

We just got our weekly update on Mia's progress at boot camp.  This week she really has learned how to play less rough with the other dogs that she sees at the day camps.  She's very nice with the small puppies, which is good to know.  Jermaine gives her a command to drop a toy when he wants her to and you know what?  She actually does it.  Before camp, if I told her to drop it - she'd run away with it.  She does continue to work on her toy aggression around other dogs, so Jermaine still advises that this is something that we will need to watch out for.  Without toys around she does very well with the other dogs.  He's been taking her around in the car, and he straps her into the backseat on a doggie seat belt and instead of barking at every single person and dog that passes by she just looks.  Occasionally she will let out one tiny bark and that's it but she understands that she's not supposed to be vocal about the strangers.  We have been putting her in the back of our Jeep and using a doggie divider which was working Ok.  She liked it back there and could jump in and out of it pretty easily.  The only downside is that when she gets really worked up, that situation is not good because you are too far away to correct her before she's in full on meltdown mode.  So keeping her closer is better, and actually keeping her safer as well.  I can't even tell you the amount of times that a turn was taken a bit too sharp and our poor dog would end up rolling around more than anyone would have liked.

I asked Jermaine how she has been during the mornings.  Instantly, he said that she was great.  He actually has to wake her up.  I was like: WHAT!  Perhaps one of the most annoying things to new dog owners is having your dog wake you up barking/crying/whining at 5:30am on a weekend or even a weekday.  He said that the first 2 days she barked a little bit, but then she really got into a routine and with all of her intensive training and exercise that she's just Really tired and likes to sleep in as much as she can.  So he wakes her up and then she comes out of her crate and stretches for a few minutes (upward and downward dogs of course) and she's ready to go.  He advises that the key to this is making sure your dog has gotten a lot of physical and mental stimulation during the day - which is obvious, but what isn't obvious is How to do that.  If I didn't have to go to work everyday, then I'd be out there throwing the ball and running with her just to get her to sleep in but that's just not feasible.  She goes to doggie daycare and does get a lot of exercise and when she gets home she typically is Very tired but it's just not the same somehow.  I'm still not sure what we can do about that.  I think Caesar would tell me to put her on a treadmill, but we don't have one yet.

This is her last week away at camp, and she's going to be enrolling with Jermaine in typical obedience classes so that she can try a new facility and be around new dogs and new people to see how she does.  I like this because her biggest issue seems to be fear of something she doesn't know.  I can't wait to hear about how she does and I can't wait for this week to be over so she can finally come home!

Week 1 Update

We got a Week 1 update from Jermaine about Mia's progress.

Her walking skills have gotten a lot better.  She can now walk on a leash without getting distracted by strangers or other dogs.  I never thought I'd see that day.  I imagined that she'd get better, but our trainer tells us that she can now walk by without even reacting to the presence of strangers or dogs.  He continues to work on her sharing skills - she's very possessive of toys and her food/water still with other dogs.  She's a street pup though so that may take some time.  She plays really well with the other dogs in general and is making friends and having fun.  He even called her a sweetheart - which of course I see all the time, but she's not always a sweet heart with other people.  He also practices putting her in the crate when he's cooking dinner so that she can learn to be in there without having a meltdown, and he says that she just hangs out in there without whining or crying (I'll believe that one when I see it).  

I miss my princess a lot and I'm preparing for her return everyday.  She needs a new dog bed and a coat for the winter.  This year she'll have her very own Christmas stocking with her name on it for Santa too!  I can't even imagine all the bones that will be waiting for her in there.  Being an only child can get you many more bones than if you have siblings, so I hear.  We're also having a very small Thanksgiving gathering here at the house as a test to see how she does with people in the house and a small amount of chaos beyond the average day.  I look forward to seeing her progress laid out in front of my family since the last time I had these same people over she went crazy and took a dump in the office.  I'd love to show them that we're not crazy for doing this whole bootcamp thing and that she actually will take home some very important skills.  

Just 1.5 weeks to go!!