Mirror, Mirror

It's true, the things that have been said about your dog being your mirror.
If you ever want to get to the bottom of a behavior problem your dog is experiencing, you must take a good, hard look at yourself.

It's even harder when you have multiple dogs. Are they, then, both/ALL your mirrors? If one is behaving admirably and the other is not, which mirror is right?

What a puzzle.

Here is my own recent experience:

I hereby do admit, confess and otherwise agree that, in the process of rearing and training Leo, I have let Kansas slip. Not in the sense that I let her "get by with" things she's not usually allowed to do. Instead I wrongly succumbed to the idea that she was trained. She was done. She was so good she would just stay that way on her own while I turned my attention, focus and skills to honing a Leo of same magnitude.

Are you laughing with me/at me yet?

Don't we all know and understand Chaos Theory?
Nothing in this world stays in order, if left to it's own devices. Without outside "interference" from us, in the form of upkeep and maintenance, it all falls into disorder.

The textbook example is the the room- your room, your child's room, your teenager's room- whatever it is, someone is told, at some point to CLEAN IT. Voila! fabulous, clean room! Congratulations! Does it stay that way without regular picking up after one's self? Noooo.

Neither does your dog.

Kansas is still mostly fine, don't get me wrong, however, after 4 years of nearly perfect, she suddenly became

a fence jumper.

Words that strike fear into any dog lover's heart.

Honestly, we knew it was bound to happen sooner or later- we have moved into a slightly rural area with lots of wonderful, lovely trees, and wooded areas... things that = squirrels, and deer, and buzzards.

Oh, joy.

Our yard is "fenced".
In the sense that it is bordered on two sides with fabulous 6ft. wooden privacy fencing. The front-facing fence, however is decorative wooden 4ft. stuff. The back is even better- it's barbed wire. It probably isn't even 3.5 feet high.

So, it was only a matter of time.

DH was supposed to have improved at least that fence before he left.
But he had too many other things to get accomplished, and I figured I'd just deal with it when the time came.

My mistake was letting the dogs out to pee one night, forgetting to check first to see if there were any deer out back.

There were.

Before my eyes even adjusted to the darkness I heard Kansas scramble over the fence.

To my credit, she came when called.
Raced right past me, in the opposite direction.
But at least she hadn't plunged deeper into the woods.
She returned when I called again, and then I had the incredible experience of figuring out how to get her BACK on the right side of the yard. See, there aren't any gates, and it was too dark to see clearly enough to part the barbed wire and guide her through without risking her getting any more hurt than she might already have been.

I did what any insane, nonsensible person would do.
I bent over the fence, knowing full well I'd at least rip my shirt (I did, but it was an old shirt and I mend things ok...). I tried my hardest to lift properly, which was not easy as when I usually pick her up, she is held close to my body, and, as she was across a fence, that was not an option.

I got her back in the yard, and pulled a muscle in my back doing it.
But she was safe, unscathed and fine.
Human training discourages going off on the dog for such things. What dog is going to come to you if the experience results in unpleasantness?
So, I crated her and we all went to bed.

The next afternoon, she did it again.
Only this time she CLIMBED the barbed wire-
while I was out in the yard with her.
I couldn't get to her fast enough to pull her off.
After a squirrel...

I called and called, to no avail.
I knew she was headed for the one remaining street behind ours, but I didn't know how far she'd go, and it was possible she'd eventually encounter the highway.

I gave up, leashed Leo, and we went walking down the road, intent on reaching the lone street that intersects with the one she'd headed toward, in hopes of heading her off.

I could tell by the barking of the other neighborhood dogs- we were going in the wrong direction. By the time we had turned around and swung back by the house "just in case" she was there, in the yard. She put herself back in.

Once again, you can't angrily discipline THAT- or she might never come back the next time.

In all it probably was only about 10 minutes- 15 at the outside.

I was devastated. I was beside myself. Where did I fail? What had I done wrong? Why was she doing this? How was I ever going to fix it?

I wished I had spent more than just the mere first weeks teaching her the boundaries (fence or no fence, apparently this is a good thing to do), that I had even THOUGHT of "boundary training" and had had sense enough to at least try to research it, learn how, etc...

Obviously, it was time to re-initiate the doggy bootcamp I'd put her through the year she experienced separation anxiety. No more free time in the yard- she had to go on her tie-out until I was able to make other arrangements. Nighttime potty breaks would be on leash.
I would start requiring extra little things from her, focusing more on instant cooperation, restricted privilleges, etc...

That weekend, I put up my own fence.
By myself
My first fence.
Granted, it was only 50ft. of fence and the whole town was out of the 50ft. rolls of 6ft. tall chain link that I wanted, so I had to settle for another option, but still, I spent an hour that Saturday pounding t-posts into the ground, lining up cattle panels and wiring them to the frame I'd made.

I am pleased with it. It turned out well.
The minute she was loose inside of it, she spotted 3 buzzards roosting in a tree a few houses down and almost cleared the 6 ft. privacy fencing trying to get to them.

When my usual methods weren't working, I "failed", resorting to losing my temper. I even handled her a bit roughly, because it was what the breed-specific books advised as far as communication and discipline. I'd never tried such with her before, but I am not surprised that none of it worked. Your dog is not going to listen to you and comply with you if she doesn't respect you. How can she respect you if you're flying off the handle?

After that attempt, with absolutely no reaction from her at all- not even to bat an eyelash, I decided to try falling back on what worked for Leo when he was a puppy. This is amusing to me, as I had to completely overhaul my dog training methods from when I reared Kansas in order to get through to Leo. Hound dogs do not speak herding dog. So it's funny that she grasped me handling her the way I'd treat him. The madder I got, the quieter, more calm and more cheerful I behaved.

It worked.
She looked at me.
I had her attention.
She got the message.

We're still polishing it, but she is now able to go longer and longer bouts out in the yard before she goes berserk over a critter. She now knows that if she does lose her cool, she gets put in the house alone, or put on her tie out, while Leo and I have all kinds of fun and she's not allowed to interact.
I can see it working every time.

I also have started communicating with her more the way I do with Leo in this way. Leo has never been one to understand or comply just by hearing. I have to get him to "look at me" first, then tell him what to do.

I taught Kansas that a long time ago, I just never needed it. She listened, whether she was looking at me or not. But now, making eye contact gets her attention and gets the message across in what seems to be a different way. I have been able to get her to "look at me" and then say "stay IN the yard". And it works!

How I managed to forget my own training and what I taught my own dogs, I'll never know. I only hope I can manage to keep TWO dogs in line AT THE SAME TIME from now on. No more letting one slide in order to focus on the problems of the other.

It's work! It's exhausting! but it's worth it.

Progress is being made.
She is, most of the time, able to walk with me past many deer, without hitting the end of the leash in a frenzy. We are still working on her wanting to herd them when they are running, but deer that are walking or standing have become quite an pleasure for her to observe. Some of them even approach us... which is disconcerting. Leo's fine with deer, unless they run, then he gets a bit excited but nothing unmanageable. Just today Kansas completely ignored a deer right beside her- in favor of the 5 squirrels chasing each other in circles around the base of a tree. Somehow, that's progress... and somehow not. Both are also being made to SIT! whenever we encounter buzzards. They tend to roost in some of the areas where we like to walk, and both dogs react absolutely violently to their presence, whether they are moving or not. I've actually almost been jerked off my feet and airborne recently. We can't have that.

I hope that one day they can be as good in the presence of any wild creature as they have become with the deer. I never believed they'd get that far with the deer, myself. Kansas has had a thing for them since she was a puppy. That's the only time she has ever run off. One time she spotted one of those when I had her out to potty, off-leash. That's the last time she was allowed to potty off-leash in an un-enclosed yard. Before that, she was absolutely perfect at that skill. After that, I quit trusting her, and never gave the privilege back.

I do also think that, in light of the recent moves and changes in my own life, she was reacting to my emotions. I had finally felt like I'd reached the point where I could now sit back and begin to fully acknowledge and process all of the stuff I've been dealing with, finally feel the emotions I had to stuff back in order to cope and survive.

I guess I'm done with that.
You can't do that when you have dogs.
They see it as instability and will try to take charge.
I know this. I know better.
I don't know why I thought I could do it anyway.

And so, we soldier on...

How do things look in your mirror today?
What is your dog doing that you might not realize you are the root cause of?

It's a relief to know that not only do we have the power within ourselves to CAUSE that, we also have the power to CORRECT it. And fast!

This month, I have already built a fence, and re-connected with my dog. The dog whom I "created" in a sense. We can build up- and just as easily we can tear down. Without even realizing it.