Improvements! One paw forward, two paws backwards
Things are starting to get better with Tiburon. He is learning slowly but surely. Already, he is beginning to understand that jumping is not okay, though he still does it. This morning he had a bad start because he coughed up a bit of chewed bone that must have gotten stuck in his throat. This was around 6am and after he heard me get up, it was engines on full burn from then on.
I took him for a 30 minute walk over to the park where I let him off the leash for a bit. He stayed close by me, raced around and kept looking at me like 'where's the ball/rope?!'
He still pulls on the harness and wants to chase cars, but I adopted the acknowledgement method where I will stop, wait and let the car pass. I let Tiburon focus on the car and wait for him to turn back to look at me. Once he has, I say Okay, lets go! and start walking again. It makes our walks slower but it stops him from lunging at the leash like a fruit loop. Still can't take him out at night yet, cars with headlights is just too much for him still and I am trying to keep him off busy roads.
We also took him to a vet today to get an estimate on having him desexed. Will cost us 320 for the operation, cone and pain management meds. This is a bit pricey but doable. Also it will make registering him with the council much cheaper, only 18 or so dollars rather than 75 for an 'intact' pet.
While we were at the vet, he went nuts seeing another dog there, This wan was a three legged Dalmation. They started to meet, but Tibby began to growl and then went nuts barking and lunging at the lead. He really needs to be fixed and socialized more with other dogs. I am a bit nervous about socializing him now. The last thing I need is for him to get into a fight with a dog. We might have to invest in a muzzle if he wont play nice. That disappoints me a lot really. I want a friendly dog that can be around people and other dogs without going mental. I think I can get Tiburon to that stage, or at least I hope I can. I just don't know if 6mos is just too late to start. The previous owner said that he had been socialized with some other dogs, her brother's puppies, but if that was in her backyard where Tiburon was 'dominant' and the puppies submissive, then it is very different from a 'neutral setting'. Sigh I have my work cut out for him.
Today we had a friend also come over to hang out with us and of course Tiburon started jumping up on him. Made our friend feel awkward; though I did warn him, twice that the dog was going to jump up on him before he arrived, and I did explain that he has a lot of behavioural issues he needs to have corrected. Hopefully having him fixed will help relax him a little.
He is learning that when we give him the bone that means calm/settle down time (so I can actually check emails and such!) and has taken to that quite effectively. He doesn't mind car travel, he just has no clue how to get into a car and while he is not relaxed in the car, sitting, lying down, he at least isn't going all over the place or trying to go out a window.
My foot hurts from where I had a blister a few months ago (was a really bad one) and my shoes are old so it makes walking a bit painful, but nevertheless I am going to take Tiburon out for another walk later this afternoon, hopefully with different shoes =/.
Edit: Walk #2 for the day was a success. Tibby is learning to acknowledge after we pause in our walks while a car passes. We also encountered a local 'stray' on our way home that I call ewok-dog because he looks like an ewok crossed with a chihuahua (ewok face and fur color, chihuahua size and body with long fur). It heartened me because there was no way to avoid ewok-dog since he was lose out of his yard and kept coming up to Tibby. I didn't let Tiburon go mental, but he did get excited and sniff the other dog a bit. Tibby clearly wanted to play and was showing all the signs of being playful but ewok-dog was a bit standoffish.
I also met another kelpie owner named Mich who had the fattest kelpie I've ever seen. We talked for a little bit while Tiburon was going nuts because he wanted to play with ewok-dog. He initially came out to find out what the racket was while Tibby was barking, but he was friendly and nice. He was all, 'is that a kelpie?" and stuff and I explained to him that I had just gotten him and that he was just a bad puppy with a few bad habits and he said that was alright. Tibby got a few pats off him (there was a gate between them so Tibby was jumping up on that and Mich didn't mind as we talked.)
So Tibby still has a bad time at night, so we are going to restrict his evening/night walks to only a 30 minute walk tops and work on just getting him to potty in the back yard after dark. Of course one of us has to be outside, playing with him in order to encourage him to go or he will hang by the door and whine and then go potty inside. It's sort of funny how he will be running around playing and then suddenly he will stop or run off and suddenly go to the bathroom. James and I have taken to praising him after every time he does this. Already Tibby is trying to tell us that he needs to go, by getting our attention, unfortunately, its most often by being obnoxious and jumping up or wanting pets. We are all learning though!
I took him for a 30 minute walk over to the park where I let him off the leash for a bit. He stayed close by me, raced around and kept looking at me like 'where's the ball/rope?!'
He still pulls on the harness and wants to chase cars, but I adopted the acknowledgement method where I will stop, wait and let the car pass. I let Tiburon focus on the car and wait for him to turn back to look at me. Once he has, I say Okay, lets go! and start walking again. It makes our walks slower but it stops him from lunging at the leash like a fruit loop. Still can't take him out at night yet, cars with headlights is just too much for him still and I am trying to keep him off busy roads.
We also took him to a vet today to get an estimate on having him desexed. Will cost us 320 for the operation, cone and pain management meds. This is a bit pricey but doable. Also it will make registering him with the council much cheaper, only 18 or so dollars rather than 75 for an 'intact' pet.
While we were at the vet, he went nuts seeing another dog there, This wan was a three legged Dalmation. They started to meet, but Tibby began to growl and then went nuts barking and lunging at the lead. He really needs to be fixed and socialized more with other dogs. I am a bit nervous about socializing him now. The last thing I need is for him to get into a fight with a dog. We might have to invest in a muzzle if he wont play nice. That disappoints me a lot really. I want a friendly dog that can be around people and other dogs without going mental. I think I can get Tiburon to that stage, or at least I hope I can. I just don't know if 6mos is just too late to start. The previous owner said that he had been socialized with some other dogs, her brother's puppies, but if that was in her backyard where Tiburon was 'dominant' and the puppies submissive, then it is very different from a 'neutral setting'. Sigh I have my work cut out for him.
Today we had a friend also come over to hang out with us and of course Tiburon started jumping up on him. Made our friend feel awkward; though I did warn him, twice that the dog was going to jump up on him before he arrived, and I did explain that he has a lot of behavioural issues he needs to have corrected. Hopefully having him fixed will help relax him a little.
He is learning that when we give him the bone that means calm/settle down time (so I can actually check emails and such!) and has taken to that quite effectively. He doesn't mind car travel, he just has no clue how to get into a car and while he is not relaxed in the car, sitting, lying down, he at least isn't going all over the place or trying to go out a window.
My foot hurts from where I had a blister a few months ago (was a really bad one) and my shoes are old so it makes walking a bit painful, but nevertheless I am going to take Tiburon out for another walk later this afternoon, hopefully with different shoes =/.
Edit: Walk #2 for the day was a success. Tibby is learning to acknowledge after we pause in our walks while a car passes. We also encountered a local 'stray' on our way home that I call ewok-dog because he looks like an ewok crossed with a chihuahua (ewok face and fur color, chihuahua size and body with long fur). It heartened me because there was no way to avoid ewok-dog since he was lose out of his yard and kept coming up to Tibby. I didn't let Tiburon go mental, but he did get excited and sniff the other dog a bit. Tibby clearly wanted to play and was showing all the signs of being playful but ewok-dog was a bit standoffish.
I also met another kelpie owner named Mich who had the fattest kelpie I've ever seen. We talked for a little bit while Tiburon was going nuts because he wanted to play with ewok-dog. He initially came out to find out what the racket was while Tibby was barking, but he was friendly and nice. He was all, 'is that a kelpie?" and stuff and I explained to him that I had just gotten him and that he was just a bad puppy with a few bad habits and he said that was alright. Tibby got a few pats off him (there was a gate between them so Tibby was jumping up on that and Mich didn't mind as we talked.)
So Tibby still has a bad time at night, so we are going to restrict his evening/night walks to only a 30 minute walk tops and work on just getting him to potty in the back yard after dark. Of course one of us has to be outside, playing with him in order to encourage him to go or he will hang by the door and whine and then go potty inside. It's sort of funny how he will be running around playing and then suddenly he will stop or run off and suddenly go to the bathroom. James and I have taken to praising him after every time he does this. Already Tibby is trying to tell us that he needs to go, by getting our attention, unfortunately, its most often by being obnoxious and jumping up or wanting pets. We are all learning though!