Cito – my Assistant

Today I brought my assistants Cito and Sloan with me, which means Sloan handled Cito and I took out Shelby. She didn’t fight me as much as she did a couple of days ago but I still had to give her a couple of tugs to move her forward. I walked her to the grassy area where Cito was waiting on her. Well, he really wasn’t that interested in her. Instead he wanted to sniff and pee everywhere.Shelby is a very dog-friendly girl. She checked out Cito and even followed him a couple of steps. Cito looked a little bit confused when he couldn’t see the fourth leg. He sniffed her behind and then … like a typical male … he wanted to hump her. Now, we know that when a dog wants to hump another dog that it has nothing to do with sex but rather with dominance. On the other side, as Sloan said, “Cito doesn’t need to hump a disabled dog.”

Sloan and Cito walked in front of Shelby and I all the way to a telephone pole which was a 30 yard walk. Every time she moved forward I rewarded her with treats, when she stopped, I didn’t say much but rather gave her another tug. I could see that she was afraid of the cars passing by but that was part of her rehabilitation program as well.

Training Shelby to overcome her fears will require a lot of patience from my side but I am okay with that; it is something that I have to learn in my life anyway.

Aggressive Dogs or Ignorant People???

This morning I went to the shelter to play with Shelby. Yesterday I went to the Pet Supermarket to buy the Natural Balance meat rolls. These are one of the best treats that I know so far when it comes to reward during clicker training or as bait on a scent track. I cut a few slices off and headed to the shelter.Recently, Shelby has always been in one of the first crates when you walk in the door. Since her crate was right behind the door I was worried that she or I might get hit by the door when someone openes it. So when a tech guy came by I asked him if I may work with Shelby and go to a different area where we are not disturbed.“Hold on, I will check on that”, was his answer. A minute later he returned with a grim message, “Dr. Good said leave that dog alone. This past weekend she bite a family member of a tech guy and we don’t know yet if she will stay in the program. Please leave her alone until we decide what we will do.”

What?????? Oh no, I hated that I even asked. Sometimes I want to be kind to people and at the end I always get screwed. If I had taken her without asking, I could have worked with the dog. Now I have to go home without making any progress. I was pissed when I had to leave but I am determined to return in the evening.

Why cannot people take responsibility for their own action? I wonder what happened when Shelby supposedly bit that person. There are really just 3 reasons when a dog gets aggressive: the dogs primary need of exercise doesn’t get fulfilled and (s)he gets frustrated, the dog goes for prey or the dog bites out of fear.

I assume the later happened to Shelby. When I watch some of the volunteers work / walk with the dogs I am surprised that not more people get bitten. They talk in that whiny voice when they open the crates, they reach inside the crate rather than wait until the dog approaches them. I assume that this family member reached inside the crate and Shelby reacted. And at the end the dog has to suffer and gets isolated due to people’s ignorance? Is there justice in this world?
If more people took responsibilities for their own action, maybe we wouldn’t have this problem with all the homeless pets.

This evening nobody bothered me when I took Shelby out of her crate. She walked outside with me but then she hit her little 3 breaks on me again. Even though this dog isn’t even 50 pounds heavy, she is a strong girl. However, I was determined to take her to the grassy area today, which means she had to walk with me about 20 yards. I walked up close to her, picked her up with the leash and gave her a slight tug to move her forward. As soon as she did a couple of steps I rewarded her with treats. Oh, she likes those treats. Then I gave her a tug again, she walked a few steps and she ate some treats again. In that way we walked all the way to the grassy area! There I rewarded her with many treats. Small improvements – big celebration. I know I can help her!

My Decision to Work with Shelby

Shelby - the little Rottweiler female – wasn’t leaving my mind. I felt sad that she was so fearful and I only could wonder what truly happened to her considering her fear of life. Where did she live before? Did she have a good home or was she neglected? What was her initial name? After all, the volunteers at Homeless Pets give the dogs new names.At the end, the answers to those questions don’t matter anymore. Dogs don’t live in the past; they don’t worry about the future, they just live in the presence. What happened to her before she came to the shelter doesn’t matter; what matters is what happens to her now.

This is the beginning of the Christmas week and it is going to be a slow work week anyway. Therefore I decided that I will work with Shelby every day. I will take her out, I will feed her food, I will spend time with her so that she learns to trust me. Sloan, my husband thought that this would be a great idea.

Traumatized Rotti

Yesterday I saw Shelby again, the female Rottweiler, who’s leg was amputated due to an animal trap injury. Anice, one of the volunteer walkers came inside with Shelby. She needed some help to put the Elizabethan collar back on Shelby and I was there to help. Anice told me that Shelby is really fearful. “Shelby doesn’t even want to go outside for a walk. As soon as I took her outside, she tried to pull me towards the door. Then she layed down on the ground and didn’t want to move. I feel so sad for her.”

Wow, that dog really must have had a bad experience. When I put her back into her crate, Shelby turned around and layed her head on my thighs. I stroked her head several times and I could feel that Shelby felt safe.

Today I returned to the shelter with the intention to walk Shelby. When I opened up the crate, Shelby stood up. I took off her Elizabethan collar so that we could go out for a walk. Yeah right! As soon as I opened the door to the outside, Shelby “hit her 3 breaks”, meaning she bocked like a goat and I couldn’t move her forward. I grabbed the leash a little bit shorter so that I could lift her up and give her a tug. She moved forward a little bit but when we were outside, she layed down on the door mat. I tried to get her up again, but Shelby was so scared, I could see her panting heavily and her eyes were filled with fear and insecurity. So rather than pulling her any further, I just stayed there with her for a few minutes but her state of mind didn’t seem to improve. Considering that this dog didn’t know me from Adam, I decided to put her back inside. After all, it was already dark and this is not the time to get a dog through her fears.

When I was standing in front of her crate, I noticed that she was bleeding. I asked one of the techs about her bleeding and I received the answer that they noticed that she was bleeding earlier. “Let the vet take a look at her.” was the answer I was given. I lead her to the vet’s office and after looking at her chart, the decided that it was time to pull out the stitches. I left Shelby in the vet’s office and McKenzie handled her from there.

When I saw the fear in this dog, she had me. Right away I knew that I needed to help this little dog. After all, in this disposition Shelby isn’t even adoptable. If she gets into the hands of people who feel sorry for her, she will stay trapped in this fearful mindset until the rest of her life.

We humans have the capability to feel empathy for others. And many times it helps to share empathy with other human beings. But animals – dogs – don’t need that empathy. They don’t need us to feel sorry for them. They don’t need to hear our baby voice. Empathy, feeling sorry, being fearful represents low energy. And if we want a dog to overcome their fear, their insecurities, we have to be calm and assertive. We cannot feel sorry for their situation, we cannot feel sorry that they are living in a small crate, we cannot baby them and smother them with affection and love. When we do that, we keep them trapped in their insecurities and fears.

Shelby doesn’t need anybody who feels sorry for her and who wants to give her affection and empathy. Shelby needs a leader who believes in her, who believes that she is a strong, confident dog. After all, she cannot be that weak because if she was, she never would have made it through the ordeal of walking with an animal trap on her leg for days and surviving a difficult surgery. She is a strong dog and she needs someone who pulls her out of this body of fear. Am I the right person? I don’t know yet but I sure could try.

Rottweilers at Homeless Pets

In late November, Fulton County Animal Control brought in a little Rotweiler female who had lost her leg. Everyone in the clinic was talking about the horrific picture they have seen when the little girl arrived. They told me that she got caught in an animal trap and she must had been there for several days. Her leg was almost severed and they assumed that she tried to bite it off. They had to take her leg off immediately in order to save her life.

Why do people do such cruel things to animals? How much pain must these people feel in their own life so that they can stand putting animals through all that pain?

 

I must admit I didn’t pay that much attention to this little Rottweiler who was given the name Shelby. Instead I spend a lot of time with Mozelle, the female Rottweiler who had a broken leg. She wasn’t allowed to be taken out for a walk and I felt so bad for her. Therefore, I took her out of her crate, took off her Elizabethan collar and carried her to the grassy area. There I would sit down with her and watch the cars pass by. And yes I admit I gave her a lot of affection but she was a calm dog back then. It was so funny, it took Mozelle only a couple of days to recognize my voice. As soon as I walked into the building, she got up in her crate and started barking. It is amazing how quickly dogs get used to us and how they command our attention.

   

Effective Dog Walking

Walking dogs at Homeless Pets has become a regular routine for me. I try at least 3-4 times a week to go over there. I enjoy spending time with the dogs and get to know their personality.Unfortunately, these dogs spend their entire day in a little cage. Consequently, they have a lot of energy and therefore it takes calmness and assertiveness to get the dogs under control.

I see many volunteer dog walkers who are taken on a walk by the dog. Before they open the cage, they already speak in a high pitch voice to the dogs. Bad idea since that kind of energy is excited energy which a pinned up dog doesn’t need. They take the dog out and rather than taking control of the situation, the dogs just take off. I wonder if these people actually enjoy walking these dogs like that. I could imagine if they had more control over the dogs and wouldn’t have to hold on to the leash as much, they probably would come and walk dogs more often because they wouldn’t feel so exhausted from the walk.

Then there are others who spend the entire time talking on the cell phone while walking the dogs. Sure, everyone has different opinions but I truly believe that you cannot control a dog completely while talking on the cell phone. Besides, ou don’t even share your energy with the dog since you are preoccupied with your cell phone.

I believe when you want to walk a dog effectively:

• You want to keep your focus on the task at hand. Stay in the present.
• Stay calm and assertive. When you take the dog out of the cage, you don’t need to speak with the dog. The dog checked you already out by sniffing your energy. The less you say, the better. Just open the cage and let the dog approach you. Once the dog is in your reach, put the leash on and let the dog step outside of the cage. Most of the dogs haven’t been taught obedience so that they won’t sit on command. However before you step outside, get focused, ask the dog to control him / herself before you take the first step. Let them know who is in control of the walk.
• When you open the door, you are the first who steps out. The dog always follows you. After all, you don’t want to have the dog in front of you when suddenly another volunteer walks in with their dog and the dogs could possibly get into a fight.
• Avoid affection within the first 10 minutes of your walk. Why would you want to massage or caress an out-of-control dog? Dogs crave more exercise than affection. Let them work for your affection. The work that they need to provide is a controlled walk on the leash.
• Take the dog for a walk and not across the street. I see way too many dog walkers just going across the street and then they stand around. What kind of crap is that? Dogs don’t want to stand around. They want to use their legs. They need to be challenged mentally.
• Pick up the dog’s feces. Nothing is worse than stepping into dog’s poop.
• Once you and the dog walked a good round, then it is okay to stop and give the dog some affection.

Sometimes, when I am there with only 1 or 2 other walkers I tend to start panicking. I think that I need to hurry up to get the next dog or I think what dog I will take out next. And these are the times when I always have to remind myself, that I am not with the dog that I currently walk. Rather than worrying about what will happen in the future, focus on the now, focus on the dog that I am currently with and enjoy his or her presence. Since most of the dogs there are big dogs I always make sure that I get at least 20 minutes in with each dog. Of course, therefore it happened that I spend 3 1/2 hours at the shelter even tough I just wanted to spend 45 minutes there.

Sloan thinks that I have issues with saying “no” to others but I don’t. I can easily say “no” to people but I cannot say “no” to these animals.