Tag Archives: pit bull

Wonderful Weekend

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What an awesome weekend! My best friend flew into town, and we packed in as many cool things as we could. I haven’t seen her since my wedding in 2010, so this was a really big deal.

Her flight was delayed, and didn’t get in until almost 1 in the morning. I had physical pain waiting for her to show up at my house. The anticipation was killing me. And what was worse, I couldn’t tell my husband about it all. It was a surprise. KEEP CALM and CARRY ON.

See, I couldn’t tell my husband about it because it was his birthday, and this was part of the surprise. My parents, his parents, and my friend all pitched him to get him a GoPro camera, as well. He had a good birthday!

While she was here, we had an awesome time, and did all the things we used to do when she used to live closer. We went to sushi, saw a movie (Oblivion), and then watched League of Legend games.

Then, on Saturday, I took her to my Pack to Basics class, and I was dying to have her come. I introduced her to some of my clients/neighbors and their dogs. Afterwards, we went to our local street fair. It would have been more awesome if there were more tables to visit (we have a small town), or if it didn’t rain. It was freezing!

Later, we drove to my parents’ house, and my niece was there. She’s 3, and just loves my husband. She sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him, and played and played until she was too tired to play anymore. We played Mario, watched her play doctor with her dolls, ate chile, and my mom made my husband a special chocolate cake.

PittieOverall, it was a wonderful weekend. However, Sunday came around, and I had to take my friend to the airport. Sad day. We didn’t want her to leave. It felt so normal having her stay with us. It’s like all that time we haven’t spent together in the last 3 years didn’t pass at all. We just picked up where we left off. It just wasn’t long enough. It wasn’t enough time.

So, we have decided our next meeting will be to go on a cruise. We will also invite another friend from college. We call ourselves the ‘Quad’. It’s actually a pretty awesome story. Our best man and Maid of Honor are my best friends. I knew them before I met my husband. Well, turns out, they were also my husband’s friends too! So, when I introduced him to get approval of who I was seeing, I found out they were friends too! So, all was well, and nothing in our ‘click’ changed because now we were all just hanging out together.

As a close to the weekend, a trainer friend needed a doggy-sitter while she is out of town, and I get to watch ‘Pittie’ again! I have him for a week this time! He is such a good dog, I’m happy to be able to watch him again! The best part – he wasn’t so good with our cats last time, so my friend had him come with his eCollar, and he is doing much better. Here’s a picture of Max actually approaching him, and not fixating at all. Notice, I’m right there, just in case.

Anyway, Sunday was a pretty emotional day. Hopefully it will get better throughout the week.

Pittie and Kitty

Napoleon’s Temper Tantrum

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sadness

I SERIOUSLY am at the end of my leash.

I am fighting back tears, or the will to scream… or both.

Napoleon has completely driven me crazy. I’m supposed to be a newbie dog trainer. I will make mistakes. But when I can’t even control my own dog… I am seriously a ‘frustrated owner’ right now. I feel like I’m in the position of someone who doesn’t know what else to do with their dog.

We were going on a walk, and practicing distractions as well as leash work. He was just doing fantastic. Just wonderful, and then I saw my neighbors, who wanted to chat. That’s fine, great opportunity for him to be ignored right now. Again, wonderful. So far so good…

So, because he was doing so well, he got to play with the neighbor’s boxer for a bit. They are friends, but we have to watch out for-yep, there it is… mounting. My dog always mounts this boxer for some reason. He’s 9 years old, and neutered. And completely … perfect. Then there’s my dog…mounting him. Great. I try to catch it, as I see the signs happening and ‘Ah-ah, NO!’. But he ignored me. I have no training tools with me, and he’s off leash. Great. So, I run over, and pull him off. Then, I have him do something else for a bit – “Puppy Pushups” I like to call them. Sit-Down-Sit-Down and so on and so forth. Eventually, he seems to have relaxed. Well that was embarrassing (“I’m sorry my dog just completely dominated your dog.”). Ok, they are playing now, good. Good play, everything is going well again…

Until a fucking idiot teenage kid on a skateboard was being pulled by a pit bull ran down the street. Napoleon FREAKED OUT! He started lunging, and snarling, and barking/whining. Behavior I have never seen before. Even in a fight, he’s not like that! Unfortunately, for me, he was off leash. I tried to get control by his collar, and then remove him from the situation. The little fucking asshat teenager decided it was fun seeing my dog all freaked out and then came back again! This time, as I was trying to get control of Napoleon, I was able to [somehow] slip the Halti back on, and secure it so I had more control.

Yeah, I decided that was enough of that, and that we needed to go. I wasn’t going to take him home yet, because he was too worked up. We walked around the block, and we went real slow until he calmed down.

When we got home, he was back to his out of control ‘I-want-dinner-now-mom’ attitude. I don’t respond to that at all, and he doesn’t get fed until he calms down. So, he was ignored. . . which resulted in ear-splitting howls and whines. This, again, doesn’t usually happen unless he’s in the kennel. So, the Pet Convincer was used on him. Then, another uncharacteristic thing- growling at me. This has never happened. So, I stood there, and waited for him to calm down. Then put him in the bedroom by himself to ‘cool off’.

My boy – having a temper tantrum is what it looked like. It was like my  high energy lab, just turned into a huge problem. Hmm… wow. Either I royally screwed up on something, or something is really wrong.

I feed the cats, and then eventually let Napoleon out again. He is jumping, knocking me over in the hallway, getting in the kitchen (he’s not allowed), and jumped COMPLETELY OVER a sofa and smashed into the window.

WHAT.THE.HELL.IS.GOING.ON??? No. No. NO. NO! I don’t even care right now. I am up to my eyeballs in these negative feelings.

I give up… feeling words:

-Disappointed
-Distraught
-Frustrated
-Ashamed
-Embarrassed
-Hopeless
-A failure
-Miserable
-Guilt
-KILL ME NOW

I want to ‘fix’ him. I want so badly to do this. I want to know how to solve ‘difficult’ problems like this one, and it feels like the whole damn world is against me. I ask for help from the organization I am a member of, and they tell me ‘It might be because he should be getting a 5 mile walk every day’, and ‘it’s something you might just have to deal with’.

Yeah. Well, if I have to ‘deal with this’ … seriously: Please kill me. Put me out of my misery and take me out back and just shoot me. I could run him 5 miles, and it wouldn’t make a difference. It really, REALLY doesn’t. It’s not an exercise problem. He’s OVER-ADRENALIZED. I was very unhappy with these responses, so now I’m even more frustrated.

FAILURE. I CAN’T DO THIS EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF FOREVER WITH MY BOY. He is so good when he’s not over-stimulated. I just can’t do it all the time. I need a break every once in a while. Ignorance was bliss. Before I knew what ‘over-adrenalized’ meant and before I realized that he wasn’t just ‘a really happy dog’, we were all really happy. Now, it feels like I have one of the worst dogs in the world. My poor boy, getting all these emotions from me. If he can read my mind – I’m sure he feels awful. See, there I go -putting human emotions on a dog. FAIL.

But if he could talk, I think he would be saying, ‘But Mom! I’m really trying! I’m working so hard, see? See me work so hard? ‘. And now, GUILT.

I can’t even talk to my husband. It’ll start a fight. When I get like this, I have to attack something/someone. And I don’t want to start a fight. I think I’ll just sleep downstairs. By myself.

Doggy-Sitting with a Pittie

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PittienapoleonThis last week we had the opportunity to watch my friend’s dog. A sweet pit bull named (for the sake of protection, we’ll call him ‘Pittie’). He was a love, but there were some adjustments that needed to be made. He wasn’t used to our house rules, so we quickly did a bit of ‘house training’. No, not potty training, but actual HOUSE RULE training. He caught on, and we were patient with him.

However, first night was a little rough. Pittie was anxious and needed some time by himself before we could let him out of the kennel. Spray bottle, verbal corrections, or ignoring him didn’t really work. Ok, let’s put those training skills to work! Blanket over the crate? Check. Essential oils? Check. Did they help? YES! After putting some lavender on him, it only took him about 5 minutes to settle down in his crate and go back to sleep.

Still anxious the rest of the night and the next day however (he was lip licking, pacing, whining, eyes darting around). So, again, he was ignored until he calmed down. Finally found a spot on the comfy carpet that felt nice, and curled up quietly. Then and only then, he got attention. He’s a love! Kisses and snuggles! It just took some time to realize he’s not home, and things are a little different.  After the first original day, he settled in, and was just completely wonderful!

Pittie3Napoleon and Pittie had some things to figure out, however. Napoleon is still learning his doggie manners when he is around other dogs, and as I have said before: he is over-adrenalized. He kept getting in Pittie’s face. Luckily, Pittie is a good ‘teacher’, and Napoleon is learning what is acceptable and what is not.  Pittie is very dominant, and Napoleon is not. So, after he realized Pittie was going to correct him on everything, he just submitted. This took about a day to work everything out.

Now, as for Pittie and the cats: Pittie was showing signs of over-interest in the cats on the first introduction. Cats were not so sure about this new dog. I wrapped Mia in a towel first, and then had Pittie sniff her in the towel. She eventually had enough, hissed, swiped, and then ran away. Pretty much same thing happened with Max. Whatever, that’s fine, they’ll come around, right?  After that, Pittie was very fixated on my cats. So, we did small introductions throughout every day, with Pittie tethered to the banister, and had the cats eat about 6 feet away. Max ate, Mia didn’t. So, I put Mia behind a wall, so she still knew Pittie was there, but couldn’t see him. She ate. Each meal got a little closer. Pittie was put in the cat’s room so he could sniff everything, and the kitties were put in his crate to smell him. Every day, small introductions. Finally, on Monday, the cats were brave enough to approach Pittie.

PittieThe approach was fine, and even though they didn’t sniff, they walked away peacefully. However, we started to trust Pittie a little more, and when he was around the cats, we weren’t tethering him anymore. He seemed interested, but still able to respond to commands. But when we were far enough away, he started chasing them, and they ran up the blinds , basically near the ceiling. That was enough to scare both my husband, and my cats. That was it – no more introductions for kitties and Pittie. However, it was a comfort to know the kitties were fine eventually with a new dog, since we are planning on fostering. He was just way to adrenalized. So, kitties stayed upstairs, and the dogs stayed downstairs. No biggie.

Now, Napoleon and Pittie have been fine together for the most part.  Until a bone was introduced. Well, Pittie found it. I got another bone for Napoleon, and set them up on either side of the room, just in case one had a fit or something. We have had Pittie for a few days at this point, and everything was going fine, so I just let them be. I was working on my computer, and I notice Pittie get up and walk over to Napoleon while he’s chewing on it. Napoleon gets up, and tries to walk away with the bone. Pittie didn’t like that. He air snapped and Napoleon. Normally, he would have just submitted and given Pittie the bone. I think at this point, he had had enough of the corrections from Pittie. Napoleon snapped back, and it turned into a fight. I broke it up fairly quickly, and the fight lasted about 3 seconds total. They were separated then so they could calm down-both were pretty adrenalized after that. Once they stopped licking themselves, and stopped panting, I checked them both out to make sure there wasn’t any damage. Pittie was fine, and Napoleon walked away with a cut in his ear. More blood, than actual damage. He’ll be fine. After they were both calmed down, and the adrenaline had subsided, I introduced them again. Napoleon submitted immediately. We went on a ‘pack walk’ later that evening, and no issues at all.

Pittie2So, I was able to get some experience with a very dominant dog, introducing resident cats to a new dog,  pit bull experience, and re-introducing some dogs after a dog fight. I wish the dog fight didn’t happen, but it was good to get some experience. Afterwards, Pittie realized what I say is law and we didn’t have any more problems after that.

 

 

 

Thinking about the fight, I think there were a few factors that contributed:

-Food/resource.
– Pittie being dominant
–Pittie being in a new environment, and possibly having some stress
-Napoleon having enough of Pittie’s dominance
-I wasn’t watching closely enough

Good experience overall for me. I’m so happy I was able to experience this, and I hope I’ll be able to doggie sit him again!

Distracted Day

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distracted

Today, I just feel distracted… I start working on something, and then I get pulled into something else. Or, I get distracted because of a phone call, an email, a text, facebook, or another work-related something.

I keep thinking about dogs. Haha, I’m always thinking about dogs. But today, I was excited about seeing one of my long-term doggie clients. He was recently neutered, so I was excited to see how his behavior is now. I haven’t seen him in a few weeks, so I also wanted to see he was progressing without me. I normally get to accompany him and his human-momma to class on Saturdays, but I won’t be able to attend this weekend. Rarely happens, but a series of different events led up to this moment. See? Now I’m thinking about the social this weekend.

**And then my coworker got my attention by making colonoscopy jokes. Ok, back to dogs.***

great-dane-puppy

Super cute dane puppy picture I found

My husband and I have been discussing getting a second dog, on and off really, for quite some time. We are ready, and then something financial happens. Or we are 100% on board, and then the dog gets adopted before we get there.  The puppy fell through (see my post on Great Dane Breeding), and I’m still disappointed. Though, I would much rather rescue anyway, instead of buy.

So, we are just putting it on the back burner, and letting it happen when it happens. Yes, I will continue looking, but it seems I just get my heart broken every time. I want to have a dog throughout its whole life. Go through the puppy stages, adolescence, adult stage, senior, and then make the final decision to terminate life when the time comes. I want to be there every step of the way, and be there the whole time. Someday… someday.

So, let’s do some self-searching, and talk about feelings again. Right now, in this moment:

-Distracted
-Sad, it’s an underlying constant
-No Motivation (not sure if this is a feeling, but meh). This started last night.
-Excited !!

Oh yeah! I’m babysitting a trainer friend’s dog this weekend, and he’s coming tonight. I’m excited for a few reasons.
1) Having a second dog over the weekend. That’s always fun for me.
2) Napoleon gets a playmate.
3) He’s a pittie, and I love this breed. Since he’s not my dog, I’ll say his name is ‘Dawg’
4) He’s a ‘teacher’ and will help Napoleon learn what is acceptable and what is not.

I’ll post about our adventures over the weekend on Monday. Oh, back to my emotion list…

-Nervous (About the cats and Dawg)
-Tired, I always feel tired these days
-Worried (My hubby is sick today and about money-constant)
-Annoyed at all the spam emails I have

Well, I think that sums it up for this exact moment in time. How is your day going?