Queen of The Car

This is Mia at boot camp and her new friend - little puppy Delilah.  I'm not sure who that white dog is, but I think she may be jealous of Mia's car or cuteness.  Jermaine says that she continues to work hard and learn new things every day.

One item worth mentioning is that if your dog has toys, you should keep them all together and out of reach.  A human decides when playtime begins and when playtime ends.  You hand the toy to the dog and then take it back when it's time to stop.  This can prevent/control toy aggression, and this is one item that Mia will be working on while away at camp and also when she comes back home.

First Short Boot Camp Update

We got our first boot camp update this morning from Jermaine.  Mia is doing really well with training, he's finding that she's very responsive to what he's serving to up to her.  He did find that she has an additional issue that we had no idea about.  She has a mild case of toy aggression where she's not willing to share toys with other dogs and lashes out towards them when they try to take one away from her.  We've never actually seen her in a situation where she'd need to share toys.  During play dates there are never any toys laying around, and at daycare we don't see her.  Jermaine thinks that this is a habit that she picked up while at daycare and likely the people working there didn't think it was a big deal and likely never stopped the behavior.  I would agree with that.  I think that the people at her daycare are wonderful people but there are a lot of dogs and they can't watch and correct every single bad behavior.  I think that she probably learned this well before daycare when she was living in her foster home with 13 other dogs -- which is like crazy talk.  Who can care for 13 dogs?  I am sure the woman meant well, but like really?  13 dogs in 1 house?

Jermaine took a video of her walking on a leash to post on his facebook page, I'll post a link when it turns up!  I'm interested in seeing which part of the walk he decides to show.  The first part is not so good but by the end of a walk she's typically great.  I have a feeling he'll show the bad part now, and the good part in 3 weeks... although there should be only good parts by then.

I'm actually not as depressed and sad as I thought that I would be since Mia has been gone... I've been lonely but not so much broken down and upset.  Work has been really busy during the day (it's super busy season) and Abe and I have a million and one projects to do before she comes home - we haven't progressed very far admittedly.  I have been able to find time to play Words with Friends and spend lots of time reading The Game of Thrones (freaking love it) so that's a positive.  I can't wait to see photos and video of my princess!

Off To The Slammer

My little princess got picked up today and taken to a 3 week boot camp full of obedience training and behavioral adjustment.  When I tell that to people they think I'm crazy, but you know what is crazy?  Not having control of your dog, that is crazy.  Jermaine our dog trainer is going to help her cope with her fears and get over being so afraid all the time (she's the biggest wimp ever) and he's going to help her learn how to focus and listen to her handlers.  He's going to do it the right way and there won't be any shock collars or mean things like that.  As much as I love my dog, at the end of the day I'm the dog owner and she is my pet.  It's our responsibility to make sure she's cared for but also that she is controlled so other people aren't ever effected by a giant Mia meltdown.  She's not as bad at many of the dogs that he trains, which is good, but we just don't have the skills to help her the way she needs it.  

It was really hard to watch her be taken out of my house knowing that I wasn't going to have a couch-mate for a long time, or a puppy to kiss on the nose.  She has become such an important part of my life and I already do feel a giant gaping hole without her here.  We will be getting updates and photos sent to us via email/text/phone from Jermaine on an every other day basis with a longer update at the close of each week.  At the end of her sentence in the big house, he'll bring her back home and we'll spend some time with him going over what she has learned and how we can maintain it at home.

My expectations for the completion of this training are that she will be able to:
1. Not bark at or jump up on strangers, or kids
2. Be in public without barking at others or pulling on the leash
3. Go on walks and see other people and dogs without freaking out
4. Be able to sit in the vet's office without having a total meltdown
5. Respond to our commands and execute them even with distractions going on
6. Go in and out of the crate on command without putting up a fight
7. Control her anxiety level

So most of those items are related.  The bottom line is that if she can learn how to control her anxiety: anxiety of strangers, anxiety of big scary men, anxiety of the unknown, separation anxiety, etc. she will then be able to do just about anything else.  She's a really smart dog so her potential is sky high.

I'm not sure how much I'll keep up her blog while she is away, but I'll be sure to post her photos at boot camp and her updates!

A Gallon of Pee

We decided sort of last minute that we wanted to get Mia groomed before sending her off to boot camp.  I had planned on washing her, but she also needed her nails trimmed and that's just not something that I'm comfortable doing.  I called up her vet office and got her a grooming appointment before her actual vet appointment (conjunctivitis - again) only because I didn't know where else to take her and they are pretty nice there.

I think they did a good job on her because A: she was really really stinky, and B: she is really really squirmy.  My only beef with that whole process is how long it takes.  I dropped her off at 11:30am and she stayed there till 4pm.  Do all grooming appointments take that long?  I am pretty sure they washed her, clipped her, dried her off, brushed her, and then put her in a crate for like 3 hours or something.  I got there and she seemed really annoyed, and then we got her into a room to be seen by her vet and she literally pissed a gallon of pee on the floor and then stepped in it.  This is the first time that she's peed indoors in a month and it was pretty obvious that she Had to go, and it wasn't because she was nervous or like scared or something but that makes me mad.  Why wouldn't they let the dogs go to the bathroom outside?  Maybe they did and maybe Mia just wanted to pee in the room, I don't know.  These are the days that I wish she could talk.

Usually going to the vet office is a nightmare.  We're talking like code Red nightmare and it's a 2 person job.  Today, Abe was stuck on a work call so I had to go alone.  The last time we were there she barked for 10 minutes straight before they finally just threw us in a room to shut her up.  This time we got there and she didn't really do anything.  She sniffed around and looked around everywhere but didn't bark at anyone or any of the 7 or so dogs that passed us by... it was So Weird of her to be so calm.  She did have to be held while the vet examined her eyes, but she didn't put up too much of a fight and then on our way out she sort of began to slowly melt down.  She just really wanted to go home... and so she decided to take it out on a little boy -- well a 10 year old boy.  She just started barking at the kid for no reason, and of course she had to pick on this little kid instead of all the other people we saw while there -- omg, mortifying.  The kid looked at me like "your dog is a scary bitch!!"  I know kid, I know.

At the end of the day, our dog is clean and smells nice.  Her bladder is empty and she's getting better at the vet's office.     

Fox Hound

Doesn't this dog's face on the right look like Mia?  And also the body of the dog on the left...
They are yellow fox hounds, and I'd never really heard of a fox hound until some lady at our daycare said that Mia looked Just like her own fox hound.  Amazing.

I think they do resemble each other pretty closely.  I'm not sure how in he world our rescue group decided that our dog was a yellow lab when she very clearly is not.  I am going to go out on the limb and just guess that labradors are a lot more adoptable than most other breeds.  I love our dog just the same though, so we took the bait.

Clicker Training

We have begun to train Mia at home using "clicker training".  What is this you ask?  This little device just makes a clicking sound when you press the button.  The idea is to use the clicker sound to "mark" the correct action.  Many times a dog will sit and then 5 seconds later you say good girl, and she's already running around again, and you've missed the mark.

You command the dog to sit.
The dog stares at you.
Nothing happens.

You command the dog to sit, and this time she lowers her butt to the ground.
When her butt hits the ground, click the device immediately, and then give her a treat.  Don't click and treat at the same time.

The dog will learn commands faster using the clicker because she'll want to perform for the noise and the following treat.  Eventually the dog will be able to execute commands without the clicker, but for a while she will need it in order to learn.  You can use the very small "training treats" and break them in half, so the dog just gets a morsel to minimize the calories.

Without the clicker, Mia can currently sit, lay down (sometimes), come (sometimes), and "up up" which just means to jump into the car or run up the stairs.  She really needs help learning "drop it", "heel", etc.  She can perform most of the tasks without the clicker, but with the clicker it's immediate.  I say: Mia Come and she'll come trotting around the corner, and before it she would sometimes show up... it depends if she had better things to do.  Distraction is also an issue that we're trying to overcome.  So hopefully it continues to go well and can be used as tool in her obedience training.

Disaster

Oh, yesterday with Mia started out so nicely.  She is an expert at fooling us into thinking she's just a little angel...

We had a lot of yard work to get done so we decided that she's been so good lately that we both went outside to do our chores (lawn mowing, twig and branch collection, etc.) and we opened the front door keeping the glass door closed so she could sit and watch.  Previously, she had passed my 45 minute test where I planted bulbs in the front yard and let her sit and watch me and she was perfect.  There was only a little whining but overall it was really an A+ behavior day.  So we did our chores, and only got about 75% done when Abe needed to run back inside to get something.  He came back out and said, "go see what your precious little muffin did to the house."  I was like, "WHATTTTT!!! AHHH!"

Scene:  An entire roll of paper towels chewed up and distributed throughout the office and entryway.  A red solo cup that previously held paint - half eaten, half destroyed, all over the place.  And the worst part.... gray paint paw prints on the office rug.

[Mia inspecting the paint damage after I cleaned up most of the mess.  The bones indicate where the paint is since the photo didn't show it very clearly]

She had somehow weaseled herself into the dining room where we hadn't finished cleaning up from our painting last weekend and brought it all over the place.  I wasn't aware that paint that was dry could become wet again... and this is obviously all our fault 1. for leaving her uncrated alone in the house as a puppy, and 2. not taking every single thing that would be bad out of her reach.  I took things like electronics, mail, magazines, liquids, etc. out of her reach but I never thought that she would be able to get into the dining room - foolishly.  She is pretty much an expert at getting into trouble and now she has paint on her chest, nose and paws... not that she cares.

Now she needs to earn back our trust... which may take months and months.  That innocent mug isn't going to persuade me anymore.

Barks a Lot

Mia and I had a lovely morning this Saturday.  We got up, ate, used the "bathroom" and then hung out on the couch together for a couple hours.  Abe got up and came downstairs and Mia was happy to see him, and then suddenly out of nowhere she went crazy.  She went into the kitchen and started madly barking all around at nothing but she was obviously startled or scared or something.  Normally if she's barking its because there is another dog outside and she's looking out the window, or she can see someone else around.  We tried to figure out if she was barking at her reflection or if she had heard a noise, but she continued to be very upset for another 10 minutes.  Maybe there was a mouse?  I think if there was a mouse she would have tried to catch it or would have been able to target her anger.  Abe looked behind the fridge to see if there was anything there, but of course there was nothing (our fridge is a super tight fit).  This obviously means that we have a ghost right?  A ghost is potentially messing with my dog and I do not appreciate that.  

We were finally able to calm here down and she's happily lounging up against me again.  She's actually done this a couple times before - once with me all by myself at 11pm before we went to bed.  We were in the bedroom and the door was closed and locked (as I like to do when Abe is away) and she suddenly ran up to the door and started barking at it.  Obviously this did not sit well with me, but I'm not stupid enough to go out there and inspect what might have set her off.  Instead I just assumed that all was actually fine and she probably just heard a little creaking noise somewhere... and then we went to sleep.  It's odd because she really makes the worst guard dog ever.  She sleeps through pretty much everything, loud noises don't bother her, and only 5% of strange noises set her off.  Ghosts I tell you.

Ok, maybe not ghosts... but what else?