Tomorrow Mississippi is going to spend the day with Tom alone. It’ll give him a chance to bond with her since I’m almost always around her. It’ll give me a chance to get away from her and take a breath. It’s been a very intense week for the both of us. I know I need a break. I’m going to poke around some dog behavior books at Powell’s, take a gardening class, and maybe see some art shows. I feel bad that I’ve had so much more time with her than Tom. He needs some quality time with his new girl.
I’m learning that there are several “camps” of doggy training styles and some people have very strong opinions about them. I made the mistake of allowing a stranger to show me how to get her to stop jumping. He kneed her in the chest. That was so not cool with me. We started out with a few of our own opinions about dog training but I’m willing to hear any and all advice as long as no one tries to demonstrate on my dog. we’ll figure out what works best for us. We have lots to learn about dogs, Border Collies, and rescue dogs. What I do know is that after spending 5 days with Mississippi, I feel like I’m starting to understand her a little better. Our relationship is starting to feel real. She’s a very good learner.
We are working on an understanding of who’s the boss. She’s testing me and I’m not letting her get away with it. At the same time, I am not going to punish her for it, instead, if she’s too bad, she goes in her room for a while until she calms down. Usually her bad behavior stems from restlessness and frustration. Giving her some alone time seems to help. It also shows her where her place is and that bad behavior isn’t tolerated. I make sure she has lots of her favorite toys in her room so she has things to do that are good behavior. I’ve tried using distractions to get her to change her focus and that is sometimes successful too. Going about her training with a “punish and dominate” mindset seems very selfish to me. She doesn’t understand anger and it just spawns other reactions in her when all she should have to know is a simple “good” and “bad” there doesn’t have to be any yelling or hitting. I even feel bad at the times when I’ve lost my temper when I could have just used a firm tone. I’m getting there.
We are getting so much better with the barking problem. We spent some time with our neighbor Keith today so she won’t bark through the window at him. She barks much less often when we pass by other dogs. I want to work on the mailman barking as soon as possible. Today is Good Friday, so I missed an opportunity. He seems to have an irregular schedule so I’ve been closely listening for other dogs on the street to start barking as a tip off.
She barks because she is a complete fraidy-cat and punishing her for barking is not going to help. In fact, it only seems to aggravate her fearful state into a frenzy. She has a hard time calming down and focusing when she gets super overly stimulated. I’ve found the most successful methods are between firmly reminding her to be quiet while taking her away from the scary stuff, and having her sit still to calm her down. I’ve managed to refocus her with treats when other dogs are near and get her to sit down for some petting while they walk by. It seems to make her feel more secure and she even seems to enjoy just watching the dogs. She wants so badly to hang out with them. We are getting there. But no time for more writing, we have reached the witching hour when she turns from good girl to bad. Time for some time outs.