Briar (Briony) Crossbreed x Terrier DofB 2015 Oxford

Dogs that have found their forever home
leldridge

Re: Briony Crossbreed x Terrier DofB 2015 Oxford

Post by leldridge »

It's been a quiet few days - we're back to two proper walks a day as Bri's leg seems fine - and she was going mad not being allowed to walk properly. I have discovered that, although treats are insufficiently high value to distract her from a squirrel or an excited off lead dog, a tennis ball will do it! So we will now take tennis balls on our walks and use them to get her focus back on us when there's a distraction we don't like. So far, that's worked brilliantly.

Having said that, people's off lead dogs are driving me absolutely mad. It really doesn't matter how friendly your dog is, letting it run up to my on lead dog and get in her face is so irresponsible on the part of their owner, especially if they come up all bouncy in play mode- they have no idea how friendly my dog is! Obviously Bri is really friendly, but it gets her all excited and makes her behave in ways we don't love, like jumping up, barking, etc. The other day we took her to the park, and she spotted a squirrel. This was pre-tennis ball epiphany so we were trying to get her to sit and focus back on us with "paw" before moving on, to break the fixation, when a big bouncy juvenile Labrador boy bounded up, got right in her face trying to say hello, owners miles back. She got a bit annoyed with him, she was just trying to get away from him, because she was trying to watch the squirrel, he was being pushy, so I was physically pushing him away whilst trying to get her focus back on me. Owners eventually come running up, "oh sorry, is he ok?" - well, no! He certainly wouldn't have been if she'd had a different temperament! Anyway, the tennis ball is really helping with that on her part, since we can't make other people be sensible. Rant over.

On another subject, Lynne if you read this I don't know if you might have some further advice, we're seeing a lot of anxiety if she's left alone in the house. Initially, I thought she was fine, on our first couple of test runs. and she settles brilliantly at night, every night. We've been consciously trying to leave her alone for a little while in the day time, not every single day, but at least every couple of days, so she learns to cope ok. She wasn't barking when I left, or when I got back, and there were no signs of any damage in her room, etc. However, she was pulling the curtain down from the window (she can't reach the window, it's too high up). So I bought a pet cam so I could find out what was bothering her and making her so desperate to ruin that particular piece of fabric!

That arrived a few days ago, and behold, when we leave her on her own, she's fine initially. She gets a high value food treat, usually a dentastick as she loves to chew, which she only gets when we leave her. So she eats that, and then she starts pacing, jumping up at the window and the desk that's in her room, barking, howling, whining, scratching at the door. And I left her for half an hour to see if that was just initial stress that calmed down, but it didn't in the 35 or so minutes I was gone.

So, the plan of action is to, firstly, get her a bit more used to being shut in her room in the day time for short periods whilst we're in the house, letting her out before we see any signs of anxiety (what did people do before pet cams?!), keeping greetings and exits low key and as calm as possible. Then extend those periods, hopefully with her not displaying anxiety. Then start again with shorter periods with us actually leaving the house, but staying in the street outside, away from where she can see or hear us. Extending that again, assuming she can stay calm for, e.g., 5 mins to start with. The advice I've seen is once we can get past half an hour on that front, she should be ok with longer periods.

I have some other things I'm contemplating if we don't make progress that way.

One is that we have a crate - we originally bought it a couple of years ago for our house rabbits, for travel, but they passed away not long after so its nearly new. I'm not a massive fan of crates, but her bed is in the crate already, just in case we decided we wanted to use it. We've never shut her in it. My understanding is that some nervous dogs find having a smaller space reassuring, so we could try that. My concern with that is that she is already a bit of a paw licker/chewer, and I don't want her to displace her anxiety because she can't pace and chew on her paws instead.

Another thought is that maybe we should go the other way and give her more space - instead of shutting her in one room, let her have the whole of downstairs whilst we're out. We'd need to get a gate for the hallway so she can't rush up as soon as you open the front door, but, for example, Tom just went out without us, and she sat on the hall carpet patiently waiting for him to come back. So perhaps, if given the chance to sit and wait patiently like that, she'd feel calmer.

On the upside, one of the neighbours has a dog that barks all the time because he's old and a bit grumpy so if she gets barky we don't have to worry about the extra pressure of the neighbours complaining and we can focus on getting her comfortable at her own pace!

I don't have time to resize photos today as it's time for our first walk, but we've got a playdate with another dog this weekend so I imagine there will be some lovely photos from that!
sweetpea
Posts: 3301
Joined: Fri 14 Aug 2015 20:58

Re: Briony Crossbreed x Terrier DofB 2015 Oxford

Post by sweetpea »

I would try giving her more room than a crate. ..crates are great but i dont believe in closing an anxious dog in one ...it will only make her more anxious ...do you leave a radio on when you are out ...i always leave classic fm on whilst i am at work in the mornings. ..its proven that classical music calms dogs down ...i would also leave her with a kong stuffed with some of her breakfast. ..you can freeze them too ...xxx
leldridge

Re: Briony Crossbreed x Terrier DofB 2015 Oxford

Post by leldridge »

It has been a very busy few days!

Firstly, on the anxiety when left front, we did some experimenting on Thursday, after my last post. First, I tried leaving her with the whole run of the house to see if that helped. It didn't, she was running around barking the same, just using the larger space. However, she was running from window to window, not just randomly running about. So, DIY skills out a little bit, something more substantial than a net curtain up to protect the window in her room from her paws and claws, net curtain as well to stop passing people seeing in/seeing her watching them, my old desk then found itself having a pillow and blanket sewn onto it, and now we have a raised dog bed at window height! I put her in her room as we have been, and left the house, watching her on her camera, and she displayed absolutely no anxiety at all! She just sat calmly on her new bed watching out of the window until I came back ten minutes later. We haven't had a chance to try again or try for longer yet as we've been away this weekend, but that's very promising. Now I'm going to be constantly upgrading and tweaking that raised bed to make it comfortable for her!
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The other big deal this weekend was our first trip away from home together and meeting the first of the other family dogs.

We picked the easiest, gentlest one to meet first; a seven year old very submissive Labrador who is very very calm. We arrived and exited the car straight into the lane, and one human and the dog came up to meet us once we'd gone a little way. Briar was jumping about a little bit and barking, but in a friendly excited way, not a worried way. We went for a walk together and she was very calm, ignoring the other dog and still listening to her commands. Once we went into the house she was very excited to explore a new place, and once she had done that she remembered about the other dog and got a bit nervous. So we had some barking and teeth out, no real aggression, just a bit of fear, and we gently moved them a bit further apart to calm down and tried again. It took about two hours of sitting on the floor, just the two of us and the two dogs, talking gently and sniffing, before she decided it was ok. She was constantly looking for reassurance by coming back and touching us, sweet little girl, but no more panic or fear.

We were there for two days, and as the time went on she was getting into the hang of interacting with another dog much better; she was throwing toys at the other dog and asking her to play, and running around with her playing a little bit. She's definitely more of a people dog than a dog dog, but no surprises there! Overall she did brilliantly and after getting home yesterday lunch time we're having a couple of nice calm days to rest after all the excitement!

Figuring it out with lots of reassurance and praise:
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Getting there, with tricks and treats:
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Nailed it!
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Home, and that's quite enough fun and games...
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sweetpea
Posts: 3301
Joined: Fri 14 Aug 2015 20:58

Re: Briony Crossbreed x Terrier DofB 2015 Oxford

Post by sweetpea »

Lovely update and photos 0093.gif ....great that you are making progress :goodjob.gif: thumbs.gif
nada.c

Re: Briony Crossbreed x Terrier DofB 2015 Oxford

Post by nada.c »

Love reading about your updates with Bri! It really is a process of learning, patience and perseverance and it looks like it’s paying off. I love how you worked out that she needed a space to look out the window when you’re not home. We didn’t realise how important it was for our RR Steffi to look out the window until we stayed in a cottage where the windows were too high up for her to see out!
minimum

Re: Briony Crossbreed x Terrier DofB 2015 Oxford

Post by minimum »

Addie and I enjoy the posts so much! We got such a giggle watching her and new Lab friend playing tug and pull! Love her!!!!!!! Heart fill with love.gif]
leldridge

Re: Briony Crossbreed x Terrier DofB 2015 Oxford

Post by leldridge »

We've all settled into a nice routine now, with no more worries about being left alone since my window epiphany, she just sits quietly and waits patiently for us to return.

Teresa and Addie, we've replaced her chewed harness with a brand new one - it's exactly the same but it's covered in roses for Briar Rose! :) That's helpful as, not being broken, it distributes the weight a bit better down to her chest instead of letting it go on her neck when she pulls on the lead. She still pulls quite a lot on the lead, but not on her daily "normal" walk. So she's great with routine: when we take her to the meadow behind the house she's no trouble, because she knows the walk, but everything new is super exciting and we get lots of lead pulling.

We're trying to do new walks and visit new places every few days as she absolutely loves exploring- her daily walk is fine and she practices her commands and loves to play with her ball (that's an interesting game on an extendable lead- we have to run with her, and I fell over very soundly the other day when I lost my balance whilst running with her: considerately she came back to check I was alright! thumbs.gif ) but that tail goes mad when there are new things to sniff. The other day Tom was out with her and they saw squirrels twice, and we can firmly say that there's still work to be done there for a calmer reaction!

She remains very excited when seeing playful looking dogs, and we are hoping that we can teach her to greet other dogs a bit more calmly. There's no aggression at all, but not all dogs/their owners like being jumped up at and barked at! We're still working on it - it's only been just over a month!

We had another big milestone today: not only did she meet another one of the family dogs, who is much more boisterous, but said dog came to visit us at our house after a nice long walk! Briar was absolutely brilliant, we were so pleased with how well she did. We put all toys and bowls away as we did experience a little bit of possessiveness last time she interacted with another dog in a house, and initially kept them both on their leads in the house. They were both nice and calm - we had just all been on a decent walk together, that helped - and when Briar decided she would like to play we moved out to the garden.

Last time when we visited another dog, Briar didn't seem quite sure about how exactly to play with another dog. This time, she had no concerns. They were chasing each other around the garden, rocketing around like absolute loonies, both wagging tails madly. Tom's sister and her husband, our human visitors, were surprised that Briar is quite shouty as their lab rarely barks - B does like to bark at other dogs, but not at all aggressively - it's just quite shrill sometimes...

I'm afraid I didn't get many pictures today as I was too busy watching them run around, but here are some from today and since my last post...

"Helping" me work...
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Disclaimer: she is in no way eating the pen: Tom cheekily posed this when I left the room using a well placed treat.

And from today's walk and playdate:
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sweetpea
Posts: 3301
Joined: Fri 14 Aug 2015 20:58

Re: Briony Crossbreed x Terrier DofB 2015 Oxford

Post by sweetpea »

A lovely update and credit to you...your patience and hard work has paid off ... :goodjob.gif: 0093.gif love4.gif woo.gif]
leldridge

Re: Briony Crossbreed x Terrier DofB 2015 Oxford

Post by leldridge »

I'm going to have start posting less frequently on here, I think, as all I have to say every time is "this dog is the best dog"! It's been another couple of weeks since my last post, and we've had a workmen in the house a couple of times to fix broken things. Briar has been making friends, charming the pants off people. One of the workmen would definitely have taken her home if he could have snuck her into his van...

Every year the University of Oxford has a ceremony to "matriculate" new members of the university, which involves a certain amount of Latin and a lot of gowns. I took part in the ceremony years ago, but each year you dress up to have college photos done, and there's a celebration, etc. So, naturally, although Briar couldn't attend, I thought she should get to enjoy academic dress, but I don't think she was that impressed...
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Yesterday, she met the last one of the family dogs - and the hardest one. My sister has a 7 year old little black pug who, being a pug, likes to get his own way! We spent the day out in town, going into shops (it's astonishing how many shops will let dogs in when they see my sister's dog...) and having a nice pub lunch where the people on the table next to us fell madly in love with Briar (who doesn't). She got a bit shouty at one point over sharing the under table space with another dog, but calmed down nicely and laid down. A man had heard her shouting from the other side of the room and deliberately came to say hello and tell us about the English bulldog he had when he was younger!
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At home, Briar struggled a bit with being insecure and confused about what to do, the same as last time she had a visitor. It seems like maybe she didn't socialise very well as a young dog, because she stands and barks at another dog to indicate she wants to play, instead of adopting the "play pose". She also seems to ignore it when other dogs are making it clear to her that they aren't interested in play, and just barks at them! But then, when we're out on walks, she can definitely tell if a dog wants to play or not, and gets excited or walks calmly past accordingly- it's just in the home she seems confused.

Anyway, we're working on it, gently, and she's not distressed or aggressive: her tail goes like mad! She's getting less anxious each time, as well; the first time we had lots of rubbing up against us for reassurance, and we're getting less of that each time as she figures it out. This time we adopted a policy of gently leading her out of the room when she started barking at the other dog, with lots of praise for gentler/quieter interaction. That worked well, and she definitely started to understand that barking doesn't encourage other dogs to play, because eventually she had a proper play with him without any barking. She actually kept her mouth closed entirely the whole time and didn't even play mouth him, bless her.
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Not sure about this little black guy...
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Alright, he's probably not a threat, safe to nap.

Of course, we don't want her to think she can never bark, but unfortunately if she's going to non-stop bark at other dogs they don't necessarily want to play with her! Lots of practice needed. She's been having in-house playdates with other dogs every two weeks, and she sees at least 3 or 4 dogs every day out on her walks. We've been trying to find a class that works well with under-socialised dogs, as well, as the one we originally picked doesn't fit that mould, and we think we've found a promising one that someone else I know uses for their puppy, so that should help too. If we don't see progress I might see if I can find a trainer who can bring their own, calm, dog into the house for regular visits to get her more practice. It's unfortunate as the first one of the family dogs she met would be perfect for that role but she's temporarily living a little bit far away and we probably won't be able to have her visit regularly until after Christmas at least.

I am definitely not complaining, either: we love her to bits, and we want her to be happy and safe and to be able to have great fun with other dogs - we just need to find the right way to help her to understand how!
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Jojokate
Posts: 1809
Joined: Thu 18 Aug 2016 00:09

Re: Briony Crossbreed x Terrier DofB 2015 Oxford

Post by Jojokate »

Lovely updates and wonderful how you are so committed to Briar being happy x
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