The Story of BB the Great Dane

BB waiting for lunch, 27 wks old

BB has had a stressful week, full of icky things that a boy don’t like none at all. Thursday he got stoned so the vet could take an xray, Friday afternoon his beige bottom got put in the pool, and the weekend meant he had a small child in the house. Icky!!

The pool was a new torment for him, the prissy boy who doesn’t want to get wet. I had to carry him from the deck stairs to the water by the handle of his puppy life jacket. Bless his heart, he was scared, even with Mom and me both in the pool with him. But he used all four legs like a normal dog doing the puppy paddle. All four! Count ‘em, one, two, three, four. And it carried over into his normal walking some, with just one dip. I hope to get him splish splashing 3-4 times a week.

His progress with physical therapy had stalled, since Mom just isn’t doing it or exercising him enough. I can’t always get to him every day, having my hands full with Kenai, BB’s littermate. Now that the pool is open, though, it wipes out most of Mom’s excues: it’s too hot, I’m too tired to walk, I’m scared of snakes in the field… Yeah, we’ll probably have a new crop of excuses, but one batch at a time, right?

As for the typical torture of my 2 year old neice, BB is making improvements in his ability to handle the noise and suddenness of a small child. Again, I can’t get to his training every day, hoping and encouraging Mom to work with her puppy. Beebs the b-ratatouille can now quietly sit in the kitchen when Emily is at the table for meals, he can watch her playing in another room without getting upset, and he can watch her outside, too.

But Beebs cannot handle Emily running into the room to see him and Mom on the couch. It’s frightening to a timid dog, to be charged and looked at in the face. Em doesn’t know better, being only 2. My brother at least has learned to keep his daughter somewhere else most of the time, and to carry her or hold her hand so she doesn’t run ahead of him. I won’t leave BB stuck in his expen all weekend: it’s his home, and they are the visitors to his turf.

The “look at that” game has very much helped BB, but I have developed a new game for the gameboy: “watch this” game. During the week I will move quickly towards him and Mom when they are on the couch, and mimic my niece. Any time BB is quiet and stays, he gets a bounty of treats. It’s actually called a “relaxation protocol”, but I prefer games, and so does BB. This game is going to take longer, but we’ll keep at it.

Saturday, Emily caught me without any treats when she charged into the living room, trying to jump on the couch with Mom and BB. Of course, Beebs woke up and lost it, his barking and growling scaring the devil out of Em. Nothing settled him down, either. Those kind of setbacks are frustrating, but part of life.

So I got myself a bag of treats and kept in on me, like I should have in the first place. Later, while Mike was in the kitchen, Em did it again. But this time I saw her coming: I was up and had BB’s full attention before she got to them. “Look at that” prevented any barking or freaking out. Yay! Thankfully we also had the barrier up, so I didn’t have to insist Kenai hold his down stay… some days I need eyes in the back of my head.

The last time Em came, to say goodnight, I also saw her coming and put BB in his crate. He feels safe there, where she can’t touch him, toss toys at him, or get too close. And I wanted Em to give him the treats–if he can see her as a source of pleasurable things and food, it can change his fear of her. Her little fingers could reach just far enough for Beebs to get his treat, but he had to move towards her instead of backing away to get it.

It worked like a dream, just those two episodes where distraction and treats took his attention away from Em as a possible threat. The next morning Em was in the kitchen eating breakfast in her chair when Beebs got up, and he walked right up to her to say hello. He gave kisses, wagged his tail some, and laid down on the bed. I’m not fool enough to think he’s “cured” of the scare when she runs towards him, but my efforts obviously have affected his feelings towards her.

My biggest problem with the re-conditioning is actually my brother: he gets mad, gets a threatening attitude towards BB, and has even once hit him. I warned Mike after he hit him (I wasn’t there or it would have been a whopper of an explosive butt shredding) that the next time Beebs meets up with Em he will be far worse in his reaction for it: not only is Em scary to him, she is the cause of physical pain.

Sure enough, the next time BB didn’t bark, back away, or hide. He snapped at her, without warning at all. Mike sort of got the point, but I have no doubt at all that he would hit the boys when we aren’t there. So neither of our puppies are left at home when Mike is there. Please, Lord, let him get the idea that he will not be living here the rest of his life…

Even with all that, BB is doing better. What a good boy! Having spent so much of his puppyhood in hospitals, he’s a bit behind in the basic puppy lesson-learning department. He never was able to do alot of the puppy no-no stuff, so now that he is able, he’s got some behavioral oops. But he’s frighteningly smart, quick to please, and just a generally happy little boy. So he’ll be fine, our little boy.