I may have done something not entirely reasonable. Help and advice appreciated

Another T update.

I'm very pleased with the little lad, he's settling in well and I'm now working towards reintroducing him to Monster. If that goes well, I'll do separate introductions to Liberty, and then finally both at the same time. I'm not expecting them to stay together when I'm not around, but if everyone could get along for a night in front of the TV, that would be great.

T is getting a lot better at staying on his own at night, and is often still on the sofa (as opposed to glued to the door) when I come down to let him out in the morning. Also seemingly better at emotion regulation, no ragging of shoes this week, if a little bouncy when excited. If he gets barky at something in the garden, I just call him back for a treat and a cuddle and he's then generally content to leave whatever it was be and hang around with me. He is obviously still timid, though, jumping at dead leaves falling off trees and bushes shaking in the wind.

T also had his first day of being cared for by my parents while I was away for work, and the only casualty was his lead! Mum said he was fine to walk and she quite likes walking him as he's the only one small enough for her to manage with her health issues, but when it came to taking the lead off, he wanted to play tug of war, and wouldn't give the lead back to her! Anyway, she unclipped the lead from his harness and left him with it. When she came back for the next walk, the poor lead was no longer. I now have a little chain lead for the next time I'm away and someone else needs to walk T. I've never had an issue getting things back off him, but he was obviously trying his luck with a new person.

I've had a chat with M, and T will be staying with me at least until end of January, but let's be honest, he's unlikely to be going anywhere now. I just need a pay rise so I can take him on financially as well as physically. I also got hold of his health booklet that indicates that T was 7.5kg at 2yo before he came to M's, which seems like a good weight to aim for for him. He his also written down as dachshund x chihuahua... I can see the dachshund but not the chihuahua. I also strongly suspect there's some sort of jack russell type dog in there somewhere. I also got a bit more details about when T bit M's husband. Apparently, both times, M had been out in the car and her husband stayed at home with the dogs. When M returned, he opened the gates to let her drive in, but without putting the dogs away first. The dogs of course started milling around the car. Husband shouts at dogs to stop it but they have never been trained to "stop it". The bigger dogs (one of them their son's dog) sort of get the idea, but T just gets more and more frantic, so husband stamps his foot at him and flaps his arms while shouting. T retreats but when husband is distracted comes back in and bites his leg. Once husband was wearing trousers that got turned into shorts. The other time, he was wearing shorts and he still has T's teeth marks on his legs. It certainly explains a lot.

I would also like to say how proud I was of T yesterday. We went for a family walk to see the horses. (My little nephew is in love with Pippin and demands to see him when he's here). So I took T and met up with my sister and my mother, each pushing a pram, and my sister's aussie shepherd, Fluffbutt. After Fluffbutt's initial excitement, everyone calmed down and we walked on lead up the road, T in front, with plenty of distance for his comfort. Once we'd admired the ponies, T and I dropped behind so that Fluffbutt could go off lead, she's extremely good and wouldn't bother T. Once everyone was comfortable with everyone else, I overtook the prams as my nephew wanted to walk, so I stayed ahead with T on a longline and Fluffbutt off lead. They gradually got closer to each other by moments, each pretending the other didn't exist, until at some points they were sniffing the same things with no reaction from either. T seemed rather surprised at the praise he was getting for ignoring / moving away from Fluffbutt, but soon got the concept. All in all, he acted like a normal family dog, albeit with a few precautions thrown in, such as always well out of reach of my nephew and only go past the prams on a short lead.
 
FinnishLapphund said:
So glad to hear that it is slowly going in the right direction.
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Thank you. It was very reassuring to read from other posters it might take a while, I think I'm always tempted to go a little too fast or get disappointed if it takes longer than expected. Reminders to be patient really help. And T's a lovely little thing when not engaging in attempted dismemberment.
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I do wonder what some neighbours think, seeing me merrily leading 3 horses around or walking my 2 larger dogs but behaving like I might have a T-rex on a lead if I come across anyone whilst walking T. To be fair only happened once so far and it wasn't an issue, we just nodded and crossed paths. I was more worried about the neighbour I met at the bins who wanted to say hello to T through the gate. I quickly dissuaded him. He has the sort of awkward attitude around dogs that puts even Monster on edge and T is not as patient as Monster.
 
misst said:
What a difference! Well done T and TP 😍. Lucky little dog. I hope you'll all be very happy together x
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Thank you. I'll definitely put in the work so that we can all be happy, but I think that even just the change in environment and attitude towards him has worked wonders. I try to see him as an unsocialised, slightly lost little dog that needs help to understand and navigate the world. Before he was mostly viewed as a naughty little dog to be told off, even though nothing was set up to help him succeed.
Fingers crossed for continuing success!
 
I've had Moti for almost 8 and a half years. He was a street dog in Spain brought over here ending up in Foster care with an acquaintance. He had bitten, was afraid and could be reactive.
He was not allowed near children as he hated them.
He's now granddaughters best friend, shes 8 and dog savvy but it took some years to turn my back when they were in the same room. I don't trust him with small children or non doggy older kids. He's reactive if strange dogs get in his face. He's still muzzled for anything painful at the vet. But he's loyal, funny and adorable (if you like smelly scruffy mongrels). He's probably JRT x yorkie or possibly a badly bred Australian Terrier. We have no regrets and he is great with all the other terriers in his family who visit. He tolerates younger sister Ruby quite well.
He's far from perfect but we wouldn't change him. He's currently in disgrace for catching and plucking a pigeon in the garden🙄
 
misst said:
I've had Moti for almost 8 and a half years. He was a street dog in Spain brought over here ending up in Foster care with an acquaintance. He had bitten, was afraid and could be reactive.
He was not allowed near children as he hated them.
He's now granddaughters best friend, shes 8 and dog savvy but it took some years to turn my back when they were in the same room. I don't trust him with small children or non doggy older kids. He's reactive if strange dogs get in his face. He's still muzzled for anything painful at the vet. But he's loyal, funny and adorable (if you like smelly scruffy mongrels). He's probably JRT x yorkie or possibly a badly bred Australian Terrier. We have no regrets and he is great with all the other terriers in his family who visit. He tolerates younger sister Ruby quite well.
He's far from perfect but we wouldn't change him. He's currently in disgrace for catching and plucking a pigeon in the garden🙄
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Sounds like Moti is another one of the lucky ones. I hope to be able to post a similar story in a few years time.
 
Hi All,
In the interest of honesty, it's not been all plain sailing. I got bitten twice last week. Nothing major, didn't break the skin or leave a mark, but was a bit of a shock. Both times were when I tried to leave T alone when he was excited / frustrated due to visitors arriving / not long having left. In both cases I bellowed at T, which made him retreat and just left the room and locked him in.
I had a chat with another more experienced trainer at dog club on Saturday and he suggests finding a toy that A) T can use as "company" and B) I can use to deflect any biting onto. He also suggest keeping an eye on T at all times in moments when he may bite and keep working on controling emotions, being calm and being happy alone, like I'm already doing.
Apart from those two incidents, T has been adorable and is quite happy for me to leave him in his room at night for example. I always sit with for a while last thing until he has settled and then leave him to go to bed.
I also took him to another riding competition where he mainly stayed in his crate in the car in a quiet spot. As it was so quiet in the morning, I got him out to observe a bit and let him meet a few people who had been briefed about his behaviour. He loved the attention from the people, wasn't keen on the horses, that he barked at if they were too close or too fast for his liking (if this happened, we moved away until he was comfortable) and didn't like the two elderly dogs wandering around (we kept out distance from them).
His previous owner got a bit of judgement when I told his back story, but over considering putting down a biting dog rather than taking on a dog she wasn't equipped for. People are strange. I always thought that being prepared to put to sleep rather than passing along your problems was the responsible thing to do. Mind you, the person doing the judging is very judgemental for someone who has a dog that wears an electric collar simply to stop it stealing food off the table (I've been judged and found wanting before for the crime of not giving my dog a bowl feed when they've had their daily ration from my hand in training). I ignore her judgements and roll my eyes when she's not looking and then file her under "nought so queer as folk".
 
OK - so don't be shocked when a dog with a bite history, bites. He is triggered by movement and known to vent when stressed, excitement, it wasn't a situation that was going to be cured in a couple of months. You've done a great job so far but he's just in a different house now - it's a management issue and not a cure. Vigilance is the most important thing as mentioned early on and the suggestion of something to redirect onto is a good plan. Just be careful of the way you 'move' rather than the activity of 'leaving', which was probably more the reason you were bitten - you say fast moving horses upset him and if he is in a state, he is more likely to vent on whatever is moving. So if you move and the toy doesn't, he will not bite the toy, if that makes sense.
 
CorvusCorax said:
OK - so don't be shocked when a dog with a bite history, bites. He is triggered by movement and known to vent when stressed, excitement, it wasn't a situation that was going to be cured in a couple of months. You've done a great job so far but he's just in a different house now - it's a management issue and not a cure. Vigilance is the most important thing as mentioned early on and the suggestion of something to redirect onto is a good plan. Just be careful of the way you 'move' rather than the activity of 'leaving', which was probably more the reason you were bitten - you say fast moving horses upset him and if he is in a state, he is more likely to vent on whatever is moving. So if you move and the toy doesn't, he will not bite the toy, if that makes sense.
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Sorry, by shocked, I didn't mean surprised (like you say, it was more or less bound to happen at some point), I meant more my reaction was shock. I've never really been bitten by a dog before and I'm not quite sure what I was expecting.
Ok, moving toy, slow non agitated me. Got it. Thanks.
 
Another update on T the terror, mainly because I'm so pleased with him.

He continues to loose weight, down another 200g, which doesn't sound like much, but he is visibly slimmer and I keep having to tighten his collar to stop him loosing it.
Progress has not gone as fast as I'd hopped, but that's on me and being ridiculously busy all the time, rather than any fault on T's part. We've had a couple more rags of trousers, including my Dad's which is unfortunate, because Dad is now twitchy around T, and T thinks twitchy might be a new game of jump on and grab. But I'm also getting times when T goes to rag, and manages to hold back, which I'm incredibly proud of.

He will now lie in the kitchen with me, with the other two dogs on the other side of the baby gate and looked quite relaxed, even if the two big dogs move a bit.

Today mum came round to give me a hand and we took T and Liberty out on a short walk. T stayed on the longline and Liberty went off lead further into the walk. Not a grumble from T (or Liberty)! They were very civilised to each other, kept to very minimal contact but if T was sniffing a place and Liberty came over to inspect, he just moved aside and walked on. He also tolerated her running past him, both in the same direction as him and towards him. He was of course rewarded for this.

Liberty was also a good girl and kept a lid on her curiosity and mostly left him too it.

The plan is to repeat this a couple of times a week (whenever I have some help) with T and either Liberty or Monster until it is routine. Then, if I can get a third person, try all three together. After I would like to graduate to being able to take a combination of any two out on my own.

I have also signed up for an online course to help teach my dogs to relax in various situations. I really like the teacher's approach and have already followed several of her lessons. This particular course is one I've wanted to follow since I first got Monster, but I never had the money and the time simultaneously. I still don't, but figured it was now or never as the course is aimed at reactive dogs and would particularly benefit T, but also the other two to a certain extent.
 
Titchy Pony said:
I have also signed up for an online course to help teach my dogs to relax in various situations. I really like the teacher's approach and have already followed several of her lessons. This particular course is one I've wanted to follow since I first got Monster, but I never had the money and the time simultaneously. I still don't, but figured it was now or never as the course is aimed at reactive dogs and would particularly benefit T, but also the other two to a certain extent.
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I think this must be the same one I have signed up to. A friend recommended it.
 
I have a bitey terrier, mainly towards other dogs but also some people. She was attacked by a bulldog as a puppy, then at just over a year old by a German Shepard who was known for attacking dogs and after I was the 6th person to report it, it was put down. My Margo was also kicked in the face by a horrible horrible man when she was 9 months old. I muzzle her when she is out now as in the summer I tripped and lost hold of her in the park and she flew at another dog. We obviously don’t know each other but I’m very proud of you for giving this little dog a chance
 
ItIsILeclucer said:
I have a bitey terrier, mainly towards other dogs but also some people. She was attacked by a bulldog as a puppy, then at just over a year old by a German Shepard who was known for attacking dogs and after I was the 6th person to report it, it was put down. My Margo was also kicked in the face by a horrible horrible man when she was 9 months old. I muzzle her when she is out now as in the summer I tripped and lost hold of her in the park and she flew at another dog. We obviously don’t know each other but I’m very proud of you for giving this little dog a chance
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That is a very kind thing to say.

I hope your Margo is doing well, it sounds like she has had her fair share of bad experiences but is another lucky dog to have a dedicated owner to watch out for her.
 
ItIsILeclucer said:
Not having such a good day today, but her elderly mum Hilda is not doing so good and waiting for a call back from the vet. I think this will be her final weekend 💔💔💔💔
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I'm really sorry to hear that Hilda's not doing well. Spoil her rotten for the time she has left and take care of yourself.
 
Well T is very fond of the fireplace!
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This is a novel experience for me, as my other two dogs run hot and are more likely to move away from the fire.
T was also shaking after going out yesterday morning. Does he need a rug? He's still quite overweight, but he has wiry hair, that seems to be relatively sparce.
I'm completely novice in dog clothing, as one of my criteria was always a dog that doesn't need clothes (ha!). Any suggestions/ advice?
 
Doggykings. Integrated harness easy to put on and off with plenty of room for movement. Waterproof and windproof and dries quickly. My terriers feel the cold if it is very wet
Yesterday they wore coats in sleet and a bitter wind. Today it is minus1 but the sun is shining and there's no rain. They only wear their coats in really wet cold windy weather.
The company is reliable quick and helpful with measuring.
 
Another T update. The little lad is doing well. I think I may have discovered a rib under the fat, so I need to weigh him and check his progress. If he's doing well, I might very gradually up his food to slow the weight loss.
The course is working wonders, though I may have screamed (into the void) a few times about annoying dogs. Monster who is the most reasonable of the lot has had a barky phase, probably due to me concentrating on the two younger ones. I do my best to make sure everyone has one on one attention, but sometimes it just slips a bit. And when you have one barky dog, you get three barky dogs. I also may have cursed the new cat in the neighbourhood to the Nth generation for frequenting my garden and setting the unruly dogs off. Anyway, I currently have a sign on my gate saying the doorbell is unplugged and please phone me for entrance while I work on T's hosting skills. He's getting very good at staying on his bed, but I'm trying to get him to relax on it, which he doesn't do when it's an exercise because he's busy trying to get the treat (his normal kibble).
T's owner dropped off a dozen coats and jumpers for me to select from for him, so I now have a dog that has a Christmas jumper. How did that happen?! I always said "no" to dogs that need clothes.
T's owner is being a little worried about his kennel cough vaccine. It runs out on the 17th, so I've booked him in on the 29th, same day as Monster, which makes life easier. She reccons three vets have told her his immunity will run out if he's not vaccinated on or before the anniversary date and it will take 21 days for immunity to come back after the vaccine. I pointed out that a) he was two months over due last year and still alive and b) vaccines don't have a calendar and immunity doesn't suddenly pack it's bags and fly of to Barbados. Also, no dog club over the Christmas holidays, so minimal risk. We've planned to talk about T's future end of January, but I think I need to see about getting him signed over to me if I can afford him, to put me in charge of all decisions.
T is currently in my office with Liberty as well. She's a bit too curious and tries to control his movements (a proper shepherd) but I'm keeping an eye and making her tone it down. If it gets too much, she will be exiled back to the kitchen. This morning it was T and Monster together both in the office and bit in the garden, going well, the boys mainly ignore each other in favour of the comfiest furniture available.
All three have been walked together twice now, when I had extra hands to help me. Letting the big dogs off lead the first time almost went pear-shaped, but putting Liberty back on lead to calm down and starting over worked wonders. All brilliant after that, with T (on long line) tolerating the others passing him at speed without a peep.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the lot of them. Picture of T in a Christmas jumper to follow.
 
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