Happy Friday

Dinner Time at our House

Got anything for us?

Yesterday was pretty quiet with Gidget. We just worked on the same stuff, RZ, IYC, sits and downs. She's not real consistant with the sits and downs but is getting good with IYC. I can drop kibble on the floor from a standing position and she will wait until I give it to her.

We went for a walk after dinner and she was great. Still pulls a bit and wanders all over but doesn't pull so hard that I would feel that she's pulling too hard on her neck. My husband says she'll always be able to find her way home as she pees every few feet. My dog seems to be picking up the habit:-).

I started working on "wait" this morning as I use this a lot. I find it helpful in so many ways and she doesn't have it at all. I was able to walk a coule of steps before going back to treat eventually but if I turn around to walk back, she gets up so I am just walking backwards for now until she has a better grasp of what I'm asking for.

I'm hoping I can take her to the vet next week to find out for sure whether or not she is pregnant. Her shape seems to be changing to me but it may just be that she is losing a bit of weight over her ribs. Her belly is quite round. Don't know if you can tell anything from this photo. She's really sacked out this morning:-)

Quiet morning

We had a fairly quiet morning. We worked on RZ (reinforcement zone - sitting at my left knee) with most of her breakfast kibble. She's a bit more comfortable but this is clearly going to take time. We also did some IYC at the end. She has this down pat, at least the basic stuff. I can drop the kibble and it'll bounce pretty well and she just lies there waiting for me to give it to her. She is trembling a lot.

When she 1st came, I thought the trembling was fear but I'm beginning to think that it is also excitement. She does it a lot. And at many times when it is fairly obvious that she isn't afraid. Or at least, I don't see any other signs of fear. She's so bubbly, I really do think it's high energy a lot of the times.

We also practiced catching kibble when I throw it. She's probably only 20-30% accurate. She does seem to enjoy it though ... well, any time she gets to eat is fun time for her. She is verrrry food motivated.

I went to the store this morning and put her in the crate with a couple of sweet potato chews. I am not quite ready to leave both dogs home alone together yet. I really don't think they would do anything but, just in case.  At any rate, when I got home, I went to let her out of the crate and she started jumping up and barking so I thought it would be a good time to work on a few manners.

I wouldn't let her out until she sat and was quiet (like a nano second). Well, she ran for the door and barely made it out before she had to go potty. I had taken her out just before I left and hadn't been gone more than an hour. The good news is that she is very reliable with her potty training!

When she's lying on her side sleeping, I keep looking at her round tummy. It may just be fat. It is firm. No telling if she's going to have babies or not. It's about 5 1/2 weeks since she was supposedly bred. I'll just keep treating as though she is. We'll know soon enough.

I've been squirting oral rinse in her mouth each day. I did try to brush her teeth one day but think I was "lumping" (trying to make too big of a leap. I'll try to break it down into smaller steps soon.

Gidget Surprises me

OK, I was taking my dog into our "training den" (actually the living room/dining room in which I have stacked the furniture around the perimeter and filled with all kinds of fun equipment I use to teach body awareness, self control, and basic skills to my dog - you could see the stairs in my video the other day).

We have a doggie door separating the family room/kitchen from the training den so I signaled my dog to go in and tossed a treat towards Gidget so she'd stay outside (haven't got wait down yet).

Whoa ... she caught it! I threw a bunch more and she caught most of them. It seems the piece needs to be a bit larger than the itty bitty pieces I use normally to train (with small dogs, I try really hard not to give them too many treats to keep their weight down). But she is amazing. She had to have learned this from her other home. Maybe why she's not very gentle taking treats?

I got my husband to help me take this video. I'm not a great "thrower" and perhaps she hasn't practiced in a bit. I edited out the catches.

Broom and Vacuum

Now you're all going to know what a terrible housekeeper I am:-( Today is the first time I have tried to sweep or vacuum since Gidget came to live with us (it'll be a week tomorrow). I have been a little hesitant to try them as my own dog has been such a challenge with these 2 things.

When my dog was a puppy, he'd attack the broom and vacuum as though he was defending his life. I have been working on this for almost 4 years now and he's doing great with the broom. He can be down on the floor and although he drives me crazy getting in the stuff I'm sweeping up, he no longer has a fit. I still have to put him in a down stay when I vacuum and continue to go back and treat him every so ofter or he'd be down attacking it again in a heartbeat. I'm not sure why as he appears very calm as long as I'm handing out the treats. (perhaps he has me trained:-)

At any rate, the great news is that Gidget essentially ignored the broom. She cowered a bit and displayed some anxiety when I turned on the vacuum but I threw a treat towards her and she took it and seemed perfectly happy as long as I was throwing treats. A bit awkward but hey, it beats the heck out of having barking, screaming dogs. I think she'll be just fine with the vacuum, though. It may just be that it's a new one to her. She just keeps on pleasing me. Great little dog.

Building the Reinforcement Zone

Yesterday afternoon we worked a bit on building a reinforcement zone by my leg as a precursor to loose leash walking. I was able to get her to sit and sort of remain in place so that I could maneuver around to standing by her side and treating from there. The idea is to build so much value for her being in this position that she chooses to be there on her own. It worked well for my dog. We'll see how it goes whit Gidget. She doesn't sit still for long:-) Also, she can be really rough with her teeth. If I hang on to the treat and don't let her actually have it until she is more gentle, it sometimes works. During her dinner, I actually had to stop feeding her and leave the room for a bit and when I cam back, she did better. I'm sure she will learn eventually how to be more gentle in taking treats but until she does I'm going to have bruises and a few cuts. She has a lot of energy.

So today's plan is to work on the reinforcement zone some more and perhaps some relaxation protocol. For sure some more IYC. I think that work paid off for our dinner last night. She still begged while we were eating but the bit about getting in our faces wasn't there. Hope it wasn't just a fluke.

Later this morning

We just did some reinforcing of position next to my leg this morning with Gidget's breakfast kibble. She really isn't comfortable with me "looming" right over her but she let me get pretty close to her. I cued the sit and then positioned myself so that she was sitting at roughly what would be a heel position. Mostly she took her kibble well but I could see her leaning away from me a bit more and more each time. It'll just take a bit for her to get comfortable with me being so close. I didn't get really close, just a foot or so. If she hadn't accepted that, I'd have backed off. I didn't take any video. I'd tried last night with dinner but she was moving around so much, we didn't get any useable video so I decided to wait until we have it down better so I ca predict where to pur the tripod. The good news is that she doesn't sem to ming the camera when it is on the tripod, just when a person is holding it. Wish I could get some better still shots of her.

She's still fairly "sharky" with her teeth. She just doesn't seem to know how to take a piece of food or treat from my hand. Especially is she is the least bit stressed. Outside when I treat her for coming when called or for potty-ing, she does better. 

Training over Breakfast

I videoed our breakfast training session this morning. The original was about 15 minutes long so I edited it down (not my best thing). It's difficult to believe that she's 10 years old. She's really smart. I'm not sure whether or not she was ever trained before although I think her come was pretty strong when she came here. The sit and down may have been taught at some point but she didn't offer them in the beginning. I lured her to get the positions and clicked and treated. We've been working on those for a few days. I don't think she had ever done any IYC (Leave It) before but she's catching on really well. If you watch this, look for the crawling backwards in a down. I just love it. Got to get that one on cue. She is very athletic. A bit old to be starting agility but I think she would have loved it. If she turns out not to be pregnant, I may try her on a few low jumps and tunnel.

Monday, Monday

Yesterday was pretty quiet. We did some training with meals and Gidget is getting really good at "sit" and has a great start on "down" and "IYC" (It's Yer Choice) which is impulse control. Some people call it "Leave it" but I don't put it on cue.

She seems to be getting very comfortable here and is becoming a bit pushy when we eat. I'm afraid that in our old age, we have taken to eating our meals sitting on the sofa rather than at the table (which is actually piled pretty high with dog stuff and things I don't want the dogs to get into:-(

Our dog will get up on the sofa with us when we eat but has learned to just sit down because we don't share (well, my husband does drop a good bit on his chest but not intentionally). Gidget has started getting up on the sofa when we eat and gets pretty much up in our faces. Need to work on that one. Hopefully the impulse control will help and cueing her to sit on the floor before we sit down as well. Do need to teach "off" I guess too.

My plan for this morning's breakfast is to video us working and try to post it. She is really camera shy. Whenever I have the camera, she walks away. Does the same thing if my husband picks it up. It doesn't matter what is happening. Last night, I was walking behind a stuffed chair and the next thing I knew, she had jumped up on the back. Would have loved to get a photo but the camera was no where near me. I had hoped to get my husband to take it but he was listening to something with earphones and his charades skills are sadly lacking. I was miming clicking the camera but he thought I was motioning for him to get up. Any movement by anyone results in her getting up from wherever she is and following the person moving. I think she's hoping someone will feed her. She loooooves to eat.

She met our older son yesterday and showed no signs of fear. She didn't go greet him but also seemed pretty comfortable. We aren't taking her out anywhere except for little walks because she hasn't been vaccinated yet. I am assuming she was vaccinated at some point in the past so she may have some lingering immunity but don't want to take any chances.

She's doing fantastically in the crate at night and I put her back in it this morning after we took them out so that I could read the paper in bed (one of my favorite things). No problem. Even stayed peaceful when I got up to get another cup of coffee. She is proving to be quite adaptable.

Sweet Sunday

We took a nice walk yesterday evening. Gidget starts off pulling a bit but once she gets that first burst of energy out, she walks pretty nicely. She likes to sniff and does stop to mark quite a bit:-)

She quieted down in her crate immediately last night and only had a very brief bout of quiet whining (I didn't hear it but my husband told me about it). I needed to get up during the night and was afraid I'd get her excited and have her want to get out of the crate but she was fine. And this morning, I peeked at her around 6am and she immediately looked at me but I didn't get up and she just lay back down. We got up around 7am and she did let me know with a few barks that she really did need to go outside:-) She only did that as I was unlatching the door to the crate so I think she is doing remarkable well with that.

I worked on sit in a different location this morning and she got it. Will need to move on to down now.

She's made herself at home really well and still hasn't found her absolute favorite sleeping place. She likes both of the stuffed chairs as well as under the dining table and on our dog's oversized bed. Sometimes on the rug by the coffee table. She does seem to want in on the action if our dog is getting some petting on the sofa but doesn't seem to want to stay long.

One thing I am noticing more and more is that she really doesn't like to be picked up and carried. She will allow you to pick her up but gets really wiggly trying to get down once you stand up.

Oh, and she has taught herself to use the doggie door. We really don't use it much but our dog does go out it occasionally when we open the regular door (the doggie door is in the storm door). I've never had a dog teach itself how to use one. Cats, yes, but dogs usually have to be taught, at least in my experience. She may have had one in her previous home but even so, I'm pretty impressed.

Tried working with her a bit this afternoon with my dog around. I put my dog in a sit stay but I guess it raised Gidget's anxiety a bit much and she used her teeth too hard. I'll wait until dinner time and take her in another room to do any work.

She doesn't seem to have any real problems with my dog but is showing more and more need to be in the middle of things when I'm loving on my dog or if my husband loves on him.

Breath and other thoughts

The vet said that Gidget's teeth were in remarkable shape for her age. I don't know whether or not he commented on her breath:-). She pants a lot and while she is not a face licker, the panting can smell pretty toxic (probably not really all that bad but I brush our dog's teeth every day and he has great breath so by comparison..). So I've decided to try the mouth wash that I use after I brush my dog's teeth (CET Oral Hygiene Rinse). She tolerated it very well. We'll see how that works and I may actually try to brush her teeth in a few days.

I am reading Pat Miller's Do Over Dog. Great book. She begins with some overall info on training and background material and then gets into the nitty gritty of what and how to train a dog that either has had not training or force based training. Her list of what is important for teaching the do-over dog is great for me. If I can get these things done, I think it will go a long way towards helping Gidget find a forever home. Her list is:

Teach the dog his name

Attention

Sit

Down

Crate Training

Walking on a leash

Come

Tug

Our 1st Saturday!

I slept in my own bed last night!! And except for panting a bit at first, Gidget was quiet all night. I gave her a sweet potato chew when I put her in the crate and she settled down pretty quickly. I don't think she "likes" it yet but will add some value with treats during the day.

She is starting to show signs of feeling at home. I was loving on my dog on the sofa yesterday and she jumped up between us and begged for attention. Then last night, our dog was cuddled up next to my husband on the sofa and she jumped up on the other side of him and begged to be loved on too. She may turn into a lap dog yet.

I worked on charging the clicker with her dinner last night. She's still fairy sharky with her teeth. She can be soft occasionally but it's going to be something to work on for a while.

I'm planning on working on her name recognition (not sure yet if she knows it- just want to make sure) and then more on "sit". I may want to put the "sit pretty" she does fairly often on cue as well as the standing on her hind legs.

After Breakfast

What a smart girlie! We have a sit. I tried luring and mostly got her standing on her hind legs but could lure her down vaguely into a sit. Was able to get her to figure out that I wanted something before I would give her a piece of kibble but then I got a down. Then all of a sudden she seemed to get it and I was getting a sit after I'd throw a kibble to reset her. Will test it again later.

As for her potty habits, she's really great. She seems to be settling into a morning poop after breakfast. No evening last night but this may be because she's not free feeding any more. She pooped in hte evenings the 1st couple of days. Also, since she is on high quality kibble, this may be contributing to lessening although for such a little dog, her are really big.

All in all, I think she is a great little girl and someone is going to have a wonderful companion in her.

Oh, and we put her in bed with us this morning while we read the paper. She did jump off the bed so I put her in the crate. Only a little panting and whining and she settled pretty quickly. No more on the bed for her. If the bed were lower and if we had carpet, maybe (also, if we didn't have a cat and a litter pan) maybe it would be ok. She's so athletic. I think she's ok doing it and if I knew she wasn't pregnant maybe I wouldn't be so concerned but until we know for sure, no jumping off beds.

We begin day 3

We tried to take a walk last night but it started raining just as we left so we made an aborted circle in the middle of the block:-(, Gidget likes to walk and we had decided to brave the street. I wasn't sure how she'd react to cars so hadn't wanted to try her out there alone. One did pass as we were leaving the driveway and she didn't pay any attention to it so, hopefully no reactivity there.

We spent the night in the guest room and she was much more vocal about her dislike for being in the crate.  Some of that could have been because I brought my dog with me this time and he kept looking over the side of the bed at her. She did quiet down but it probably took 20-30 minutes for her to completely relax. I am very hesitant to let her in the bed. First for safety, it's a long way to the floor and I don't want to have her decide to jump off. And 2ndly, I don't want to set her up for issues if her forever family doesn't want her in the bed with them. I am allowing her up on the furniture, hope this doesn't cause issues for her in the future. She seems to have been allowed up on it before as she doesn't hesitate. She seems to prefer the floor, though.

I started charging the clicker this morning but she got pretty "sharky" and caught her upper canine on my finger and did a good number on it so I stopped.  Will try again later. I did do a little bit of luring to a sit with her breakfast this morning and may do some with her dinner this evening. Sometimes she takes treats fairly nicely and others she bites down a bit hard. I wonder if she's ever taken treats before.

So far, she has not had any accidents in the house. She appears to be well housebroken. We had her out around 8:30pm last night to potty and then I didn't take her out until after 7am this morning and she was quiet in the crate (after settling down) all night and didn't get me up this morning. I think once she gets used to the crate, she'll make a great dog for letting you sleep in:-)

I'm transitioning her to Nature's Variety kibble right now. So far I haven't found anything that she won't eat.

She can stand on her hind legs and chooses to do so often. I tried to lure her and get a photo at the same time but wasn't very successful:-( Sorry for the zombie eyes.

In the PM

This afternoon she seems to be much more gentle in taking treats. I can hope that she is just that smart and figured out that if she bites down too hard, the treats stop. She is also doing the standing on her hind legs a lot more since I was trying to lure her for the photos. I think this is one smart little dog.

The morning of the 2nd day

Well, we took a nice little walk this morning. I had both dogs. Gidget walks ok on the leash. Pulls a bit at 1st but calms down fairly quickly. She does walk round and round me and I am afraid that my dog is going to pick up some bad habits so I may walk them separately. Will see.

I gave her a bath after we got home. She wasn't crazy about it and shook the entire time but was still able to take cookies:-) Will keep making sure that she gets lots of positive stuff so that she sees all this as good.

She seems to like my dog's big bed (the one I made for him which he never uses). I was able to catch her face a bit. She does have a pretty face, doesn't she.

Our 2nd Day begins

We took a walk last evening after dinner. Gidget absolutely loved it. She pulls a bit but not too badly. Sights and smells excited her and she seemed to have a ton of energy. It was fun. Interesting thing happend just as we were getting home. Our neighbor next door was out in the back yard with her black Lab. When Gidget saw her, she lunged and barked her head off. No trembling at all. Well, may want to do some CU (Control Unleashed) for that reactivity but we'll see.

The rescue has decided to give her 10 more days to make sure she is not pregnant before they immunize her.

When it got to bed time last night, I set up a wire crate and bed in our room (the cat sure thought we had put it there for her and she liked it. But, Gidget did not. She was panting and whining (I couldn't hear her - there are some benefits to being hard of hearing) but she was driving my husband crazy so I took her out to the family room and put her in the crate out there and slept on the sofa. Hope that doesn't have to be a regular event. She settled down pretty quickly and slept all night (I didn't, however).

I was afraid to put her in the bed with us as it is pretty high and I didn't know if she'd try to jump down or not. This morning, after taking her out and after my husband went to work, I got in the bed and put her there with me (and my dog). The cat came up to investigate this newcomer. She walked over and gently sniffed at Gidget. It didn't take more than a few seconds for Gidget to let her know that she didn't want any part of her. She barked and snapped. Didn't bite but sure let us know that she didn't like it. We'll see how that goes as well.

I'm going to give her a bath today, or at least give it a try. I didn't want to stress her too much yesterday and she doesn't seem dirty but she is scratching and licking a lot today. I'll use some soothing shampoo and see if that helps. I also noticed her sneezing a bit both at the other foster's house and here. Both my dog and cat sneeze. We know my dog has allergies and think the cat does as well. It's not too much so I'll just keep an eye on it.

The evening of the first day

Evening

OK, so this evening I fixed her a bowl of half the food the other fosters had been feeding and half some sweet potato and fish premium kibble I had from before I started feeding raw to my dog. Her previous fosters said they were free feeding her because she didn’t eat. I have been giving her a lot of treats through the day trying to help her become more comfortable here as well as rewarding her for doing things I like so I kind of thought perhaps she wouldn’t eat too much.

I took her into another room to eat so that my dog wouldn’t bother her as he wolfs his food down. By the time I had put my dog’s bowl down, I saw her walking around in the other room and thought that she wasn’t going to eat. OMG, she had finished the entire bowl already. Gonna have to watch the weightJ

Gidget's First Day with us

Gidget the Foster Dog

8/22/2012

Gidget, an 8-10 year old Fox (should have looked this up first - it's got to be Rat Terrier, not Fox Terrier) Terrier (supposed to be pure bred but I think she has some Chihuahua in her) is  my first foster dog. She trembles when she is afraid, which is often but she recovers well. And, she will work through her fear. It doesn’t stop her for coming up for treats. I haven’t tried her out with the cat yet.

She doesn’t seem to like to have her picture taken. She walked away from me every time she saw me pick up the camera.

I understand that her previous owners were elderly and had to move somewhere that didn’t allow pets. She has been bred multiple times and was supposedly bred to a long haired fox terrier 3 weeks prior to being taken in by rescue.  Her previous fosters took her to the vet where she was found to be free of intestinal parasites and heartworms. The vet did not think she was pregnant.

When I picked her up this morning, it had been 4 ½ weeks since she was bred and the previous fosters still do not think she is pregnant. She is pretty shy. She hid from me but came right away when she saw food. She does love her groceries.

When she is outside without my dog, she runs and plays like a puppy but hasn’t been very outgoing while around my dog.  She tolerates him but doesn’t pay much attention to him.

She hadn’t had any accidents at the previous foster house and has been very good about going outside since being here. She has waited to be invited to jump up on the sofa.

I did a bit of IYC (It’s Yer Choice or some call it Doggie Zen or “Leave it” without a command) with her and she caught on really quickly. Even with my dog sticking his nose in.