BB nibbling a baby, 25 wks. He and Mom on one side of the barrier, Kenai and I on the other.
BB’s relations with Mom have very much improved! She’s been affectionate, patient and encouraging for several days now, and Beebs has definitely responded. Even his reactivity to Emily is much reduced, since Mom started doing the “look at me” and “look at that” games with him. The book “Control Unleashed” has been a godsend!
She had in her head that she couldn’t “fix” BB’s timid behaviors, but I finally got her to just try getting BB to look at her when she called his name. Thursday night he took to looking at her so fast and so well when his name was called she saw just how easy he is to work with.
So when my 2 year old niece came this weekend, she was religious about the look at me. Saturday afternoon, he hardly even noticed when she came into the kitchen with them. He just automatically looked at Mom for his treats and affection!
Sunday she slipped a bit in the patience department: she didn’t take him outside for exercise all day, and needless to say he was restless and hard of hearing. He was continually trying to get his brother to play over the expen, and they were both getting in trouble for fence fighting. Ooops. She didn’t take him outside to play, and it showed.
That’s one thing you can’t neglect with dogs: exercise. They have built into them the need to run, to explore, and be a part of the natural world. They live in the human world, but the need is still there for being outside. Provide for that need and they are much less frustrated, and less frustrating to us in return.
Kudos to Mom though, for the turnaround in her approach and interaction with the Beebster! He’s loving it, that’s for sure. She has to go to her own PT today, and I hope she leaves herself enough energy to get BB out to play. Hope and pray she doesn’t fall back into ‘the dishes are more important’ mode during the week.
If Mom continues with the look at me games and the look at that games during the week, then Emily’s appearance for weekend number 11 (so much for “temporary”) is likely to be much less distressing for BB.
I also have to work on his “watch this” game I’ve started. BB’s watch this game is what I use to teach him that staying on his bed and being quiet when someone approaches and touches Mom will get him a reward. It’s much harder for him!
He has a protectiveness and possessiveness of Mom, which we need to stop. It is part of an overall relaxation protocol: if he stays quietly while Mom gets attention, he then gets attention and treats. “Watch this” game = get me some love because I wait. It teaches a dog self control.
At the start, I give him the attention while Mom is playing with Emily, but slowly I take longer and longer to get over to him. And when Mom is done playing with Em, she goes over and loves on the boy.
BB’s physical therapy…his progress is stalled, for lack of effort on Mom’s part. The best I can manage for him is occasional work. I tried for about 4 days to provide all his exercise, training, and PT on top of Kenai’s. It was too much for me: I wound up nearly incapacitated all weekend.
The extra hour and a half that BB required was more than I could add to the 5 hours or so of time I spend working with Kenai: his considerable exercise times, interactive play, training, and outings. Kenai was getting short changed all week because my strength was giving out. I can’t do that to him. Or myself.
But I can encourage Mom! She’s seen the fast response BB has to her attentions, and I can help her calm down when he frustrates her. We’ll work on showing her how much fun it is to watch BB play outside, and hopefully that will become a bright spot in her day! I know it is mine, when I have the energy to do it.
The pic has BB in what looks like puppy prison—we are still separating the two boys. Our efforts on their ability to behave nicely together is a bit shoved back. Getting BB’s reactivity reduced is more important, and when he’s solid on look at me and look at that games, we’ll begin teaching him to come when called. Kenai’s pretty solid with recall, but BB hasn’t started it yet.
When both pups can be called to come, even when they’re in the midst of the toy stealing and butt biting, we won’t really need the pen to separate them as much. If you take on too many points of training focus, you wind up exhausted and ineffective. So focusing on nothing more than 2 things at a time is the way to go.
So on the PT and littermate interaction fronts, we’re paused. But BB’s relationship with Mom is stabilizing, and his reactivity is reducing! I’m happy with that. So it BB. A little at a time still gets-r-done!
