Paws for thought

Hi y'all, Sonny Dog here,

We haven't spoken to you for a while have we?  I am minding the blog whilst She Who Shall be Obeyed is recovering from surgery.  Not much to report recently.  I have been very good and not causing the Pack Leaders too much trouble, except when I try to sneak into the kitchen to steal various treats from the kitchen worktop, although not had much success in that department recently.  I think they are onto me :(

My female Pack Leader is a bit worried that I am going to get all protective now that she is a bit under the weather because I may realise that she is in a weakened state.  She hears so many stories from owners who tell her about how their dogs of protective of them but this is not good guys.  We dogs usually only do this when we are confused about the pecking order in the home and it means we see ourselves as above you in the pack, which really means that you are not exerting enough or maybe any authority over us, get it?

Like my friend Cesar said the other day, I cannot support you allowing your dog to get away with ANYTHING , not barking, not jumping on the sofa... because that is not being a good parent.  He's right you know xxx

It's Christmasssss!!!

Twinkly lights, santa hats and that's just the owners!! Some people will be dressing their dogs up this Christmas.  I our house we go for a discreet bow or 2, not much more.  Dogs can look forward to a turkey dinner tomorrow with all the trimmings, it's the one time of year they get something other than their normal dog food.

I don't think they particularly like the Santa Hats but it makes for a good picture

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I remember when my aunt's dog rang off with the remainder of the turkey after sneaking into the larder during the afternoon zuzz, this was after frightening everyone to death by hiding under an antique table and then getting up taking the table and its' contents with her. 

What's the worst your dog has ever done at Christmas?

Oops what a plonker

http://www.jack-russell-terrier.co.uk
Just in case you thought we were getting far too smug I can inform you that all dogs no matter how far on in their training can have a bad day.
We were out tonight and Sonny apparently about to 'perform' my partner was relaxed and taken completely by surprise when Sonny suddenly pulled away from him to attack a miniscule adversary, a young jack russell about 1 year old.  How ridiculous, he was clearly using eyes not nose so I immediately took charge and brought the puppy back to Sonny who was now back under control and had been muzzelled all the way through to meet it.  He wanted nothing to do with it, however our other confident dog was able to politely greet and the puppy after initially shaking was happy to meet me and became a bit playful. 

This is such a different me to the one of 6 months ago.  Such an incident would have sent me home, probably in tears, feeling that the police were about to jump on me and remove the dog.  However this incident  is such a rarity now and today was partly our fault in that my partner must have not had firm hold of the lead for him to pull away from him.  Also very helpful was the owner of the puppy's attitude.  She was very laid back and taken as much by surprise as we were.  It is so important to ensure we do not overreact when our dogs have an adverse experience.  The more panicked and tense we are the more we create a memory for them that could lead them to see all dogs as a threat in the future.  This puppy is still learning and hopefully learned today that even a bad experience good turn out well.  As I said to the owner at the end she was more under threat from the open poo bag which flew out of my hand rather than Sonny who could never have done any damage! In turn Sonny learnt that he could not avoid a situation with a dog he found threatening and had to face it. What a nana !

Glorious Devon

We have just returned from another great trip to the South Hams we have loved the azure seas and the jagged coastline of Bolberry Down which would definitely give the med a run for its' money. 

Unfortunately Sonny's behaviour was not always impeccable on this trip.  Whilst walking him was fine, he elected to investigate the compost bin in the kitchen which he then proceeded to cascade all over the kitchen floor.  He polished off 2 salmon steaks which my aunt had 'kindly' left on the kitchen side as well as vomiting without warning shortly after our arrival.  You would imagine that such behaviour would put any normal person off the idea of having him to stay again.  However my particularly lovely aunt is always very calm about such issues and only says 'I continue to learn'.

Sonny of course should not be helping himself to items on the kitchen worktop however this is a habit I have been unable to cure him of in our years together and I think it's probably a bit late now.

A time for thinking

We have had a turbulent few weeks, for once not dog related as my father has died following a short but acute illness.  The dogs have been the most amazing therapy giving me a time to think as I have walked them in the inspirational terrain of the breathtaking South Hams.  As I knew my energy was not good I have elected to get my partner to do the bulk of walking Sonny as I did not want to give him any reason to revert to his former behaviours of lunging etc.  Fortunately he has held it together.


It reminded me of the importance of animals in offering solace and comfort at difficult times, however this unfortunately turns us into weak owners and is the one time it is more likely that our dogs will take over as leader of the pack.  It is very tempting to fall for a cute puppy when we are going through a bad time or, have just lost our faithful long term pal.  But really important that we pause and allow ourselves time to grieve and get over the loss, otherwise it will be grief that makes the decision for us, rather than our sensible brain.

Many times Cesar has dealt with grieving owners who are in this situation and tried to find a 'replacement' for the lost dog, often they are disappointed when the new dog is not behaving in the familiar way or, shows throught it's behaviou,r that it cannot be managed with the same regime.  This is when the problems start.

I am totally devoted to both my dogs but although as characters  they are irreplaceable I would never feel unable to give another dog the same level of love and attention.  After all, if our dog has lived a long and happy life and eventually died after 14 years, we have proved ourselves to be a good dog owner, capable of the love and commitment needed.  There are so many unwanted dogs out there, desperate for new homes, let's give them a chance too when the sadness has faded enough for us to be a good pack leader for them too!!

Life at last!

We've just returned from a fabulous week in Devon where the real impact of Sonny's improvements have finally begun to sink in.  We have been able to walk on narrow paths overlooking beautiful blue azure seas.  We have met lots of dogs big and small with owners of varying capababilities and knowledge.  In each case we have been able to pass them without too much trouble.  We've even been able to ditch the 'nervous dog do not approach' coat that he has been wearing for some time.

 It was such a joy to be on a proper walk.  No more quick round the b lock jobs acting like a scanner for anything four legged that came our way, at last we felt like proper dog walkers, after all that was one of the reasons I got a dog, because I like walking out in the wilds.

On our last day we had a long walk across Dartmoor.  My aunt is extremely knowledgeable about the place and so we were able to trail across deserted paths, overlooking a wild and unspoilt landscape.  Sonny was in his element.  As a collie cross, he is made for this territory.  Despite his advanced years he was up hills and down dales with barely a pant.  I think he could have gone on all day if we had been able to which of course we weren't as owner's levels of fitness do not allow it at this point.

What an amazing transformation!  Our lives have opened up  and we can make plans which do not have to include what the dog is or is not capable of and Sonny Boy, well he's having a life at last!

Anyone for a nudge?

The blogasphere has been quiet from the point of view of Sonny Dog, excepting you may have noticed I have been prettying it up a bit and as I find my way around the system, boldly added some new pages which I hope readers will find informative, amusing and possibly controversial.  I was on the point of threatening to put my article on dog poop in the local village magazine.  Hold on there, my partner said.  I'm not sure that it will have the impact you want and may put some people's backs up.  Do I care I wonder?  At least if you are putting people's backs up, you are getting them to talk about it and therefore  having some effect.  Rather than leaving everything to the status quo which might mean everyone carries on getting annoyed about it but not doing anything about it or, carries on doing it and ignoring their responsibility for it.  

Anyway this all prompted a much bigger discussion about how you get to change people's entrenched behaviour.  A while back our government became keen on a certain thing called 'nudge theory', this is the concept that rather than changing people by giving them negative consequences, you come up with fun positive ways to 'reward' them for changing their behaviour.  Example - in a certain country they had a problem in the public toilets with men (sorry guys) missing the toilet and peeing on the floor.  The authorities were getting fed up with all the cleaning up, so came up with an ingenious idea to deal with the problem.  What they did was they got someone to paint a fly on the inside of the toilet bowel and gave all incomers the additional challenge of trying to hit that fly when they were having a pee.  Result?  They reduced the number of incidents of people missing the toilet by 80%, now that's a result, isn't it!!

So this got me to wonder how us dog owners could find similar inventive ways to help people change their behaviour in terms of picking up after their dog.  I'd be glad to hear about any ideas that anyone has to deal with it.

The dog training is going really well.  Sonny is now SO MUCH BETTER  when it comes to encountering his fellow canines.  He has reduced his oppositional behaviour to in the main some heavy breathing, which is a massive change from the spitting, snarling whirling dervish of before.  The point is I think that we feel more calm and  confident about managing these situations, so are probably not transmitting so much anxiety towards him.  The new lead works a treat and we know it can both hold him and calm him down.

Recently we encountered a lady in the woods who was having trouble with her dog who very recently had become aggressive to both people and other dogs for reasons unknown.  Curiously despite these issues she was allowing the dog to walk off lead, anyway passing over that small detail, I was very interested to watch her and the dog when we encountered them.  Her immediate reaction on seeing us was blind panic, she shouted at us to stop and at the dog, who took absolutely no notice of her.  It reminded me so much of how I used to be only a few months ago and I really felt for her.  In fact we stopped and had a chat which helped the dogs to calm down and I was able to recommend both the wonderful Sally and Suzie to her.  It's all about paying it forward, learning from others and passing on what you've learned in the hope that it might help them out in the future.  Talk again soon...