Swathy

One month went by so quickly and we are almost in the second month of the year and here we are with Sky’s journey as a reactive dog!! The monthly series serve as a barometer of the year for me and are a great way to recap our progress through the entire month.

Since environment management was going so well and Sky’s reactivity had decreased, I became a bit careless and stopped managing the environment so diligently. To add to this, Weather also changed and the nice sunny afternoons turned into long gloomy days where keeping her cooped up in the house became a task. And, bang on, her reactivity increased again.

So, in January, we reimplemented the environment management protocols, recreated the routine suiting the weather and made sure her longer weekends were all filled with fun as much as possible. Of course, there were quiet days as well.

Activities

I forgot to mention quite a few things in the last month’s post.

Taking Help of a Trainer

The moment I took up the task of managing Sky seriously, I decided to enlist the help of a trainer. Our journey of engaging a trainer has been really rocky till date and owing to Sky’s stranger danger, her warming up to a person smelling of all kinds of dogs is very unlikely.

Sky is not un-friendly. She is just cautious and wary of new people. She usually takes 3 meetings to become friends and once she is friendly, you should just see the way she welcomes you!!

Finally, we found a female trainer who eventually made her way to Sky’s friend’s list, Kirti from Praise the Pup. As expected, Sky was not comfortable in the introductory and first session but second session eased her a lot. And, now, she associates Kirti with all fun and picincs.

I would definitely suggest to enlist a professional’s help when you are not very confident of handling the dog. My major anxiety has always been about my ability to handle Sky in an unknown environment. I could not take her for walks around my house. With Kirti’s help, I have gained enough confidence that I can take her out in familiar settings and to make the transition easy, I still ask one of my family to accompany us on our explorer walks.

Getting Used to Wearing clothes

One of the major wins in this winters was to have Sky comfortable with wearing clothes. Last year, the girl had spent entire winters without any clothing. My guess is she found this winter a lot of more chilly so she submitted to wearing the clothes and changing and not destroying them. To keep things simple, we just got the 4-5 years old kid fleece lined sweat shirts.

And, man, does she look cute. Now, I know why pet parents buy so many clothes for their dogs!!

However, I am speaking with experience that puppies submit to such experiences more easily than adult dogs. If you have a puppy, you should train them to wear clothes and it is easy too. Same goes for shoes, muzzles, ear muffs, cones, crates. You never know when the need arises.

One person can give treats while the other puts on the shirt or jacket or raincoat. If you do not have help, you can take it slower and alternate between the task and giving treats.

Exposure to Different Places

We went to Deer Park and different residential areas and parks.

She enjoyed the Deer Park so so much and we saw a peacock. She did not understand what it was though!! And, loved chasing the squirrels and run at full speed all around and climbing trees and sniffing.

And, on our second time there, she even did a sit and stay for a minute or so with people walking around. Huge huge win!!

Environment Management in Winters

January was way more colder than December and since there was no sun, there was no reason to go and sit outside. This affected Sky more than any of us. Her outside access was restricted to a major extent and even if she went, she would be shivering in the cold. Getting her back inside would be a task.

And, also, since we were acing management protocols in December, I became lazy and less meticulous. To add fuel to fire, she graduated to sleeping in the bed at nights. It was seriously chilly to leave her in the crate and she would not want to enter the crate during the day because it is harder than the bed. Obviously, sleep quality suffered.

Btw, there is nothing wrong with your dog sleeping on the bed. It is a personal choice completely. For Sky, I have seen she sleeps well in crate because she has no other choice when any distraction happens. If outside, she will get up and immediately run over which disturbs her sleep and increases stress.

The cumulative result of all this was a reactive Sky. We faced this issue for a few days before I became diligent with putting all routines back in place. You can read what we did last month here.

Eventually, with supervision, restricted access to the windows and doors and focusing on her sleep, she returned to normal. This time I did not become that lazy and still follow the basic things. I make sure she sleeps in the crate in the day time just to keep the habit up. I have to be more diligent with this activity.

Vet Visit

We got the long overdue vet visit also covered in the month. She hates going to the vet and she would just crouch as far as she can under the chair. Did the same thing this time around so I alternated between giving her time to settle down and taking small walks outside the clinic.

She does not like us lifting her either. So, it was a task at the vet but it went decently smoother than the last time. One thing we learned was getting her on the table adjacent to the wall is more comfortable for her.

Enrichment Sessions

Daily Training

I am proud to say that I spent most of her meals training her in basic cues in house. Eventually, I will do the same things with doors open and distractions once weather clears off. Overall, it was not very mentally challenging but the idea is to solidify the muscle memory.

Chewing

Sky used to love chewing but somehow over the course of last year, she has lost interest in it except for very simple chews like wings and necks and trachea etc. Not sure if she has any teeth discomfort or she just grew out of the hard chews and likes only the softer ones.

Anyway, we try to play “Find the Chew” most of the days. Somehow, I am not able to make it harder for her by hiding the chew on a higher level. May be I have to work on her confidence a bit more step wise.

Play

I have a daily routine task list in which I have listed her training, playing, chewing, etc. as different to do tasks. To be honest, taking out time to play with her has been difficult on working days but I am working on it.

Improvements Observed

Relaxation in All Environments

Sky chooses to sit on her mat and relax and even ask for pets when sitting outside. In fact, if there is no mat, she asks for it. She has grown pretty good at relaxing on the mat outside when there are no distractions.

Even when out in the deer park, she did choose to sit on the mat a few times for few seconds though sitting in a place in the outside world is very very difficult for her. She even did a sit and stay with people moving around for like a minute or two before it overwhelmed her.

Overall, she is better at relaxing now. She can sleep on the bed near our entrance door when there are no distractions. She does keep getting up at sounds but when we tell her its okay, she sleeps right back. The only challenge is when a delivery person comes to our place or any house nearby or something big is happening outside.

Dog barking is still a challenge. The first step is to not get scared at any such sounds if it is in a distance. This is for both of us. We are working on it.

On the other hand, Sky did make a streetie friend! To be accurate, the street girl wore Sky down. And, now they play rather violently.

Place Command

Due to her regular training, her place command is a lot better now. This is useful outside as well. This is also one of the reason she is relaxing on her mat more easily, I guess.

Stranger Danger

I have realized that not seeing the person who is entering the house causes Sky more anxiety than being able to see them. Therefore, we allow her to look at the delivery guys and give her treats. This does not happen very often though and she does keep barking but she is a lot better with her barking intensity and recovery. We need to keep working at it and manage it better.

Again, if this is an issue you face, just remember your dog does not have to meet the delivery people or your electrician. You can just move your dog into a closed room. And, having a long line really helps!

Oh yes, due to my laziness, the Thankyou Protocol sort of got left the mid way. I should start working on it again.

Overall, I can see sky is doing better. As always, it is a work in progress. Please do say hi to Sky and wish her the best in the comments!! Ciao and see you next week.