Meeting a rescue dog tonight!

[ArklePig]

This might be a silly question but does anyone have any fool proof method of encouraging a dog to bury things somewhere that isn't my sofa?

The lady who's horse is stabled next to mine kindly gave Fodhla a puff pig snout yesterday and boy is it her favourite thing ever. She tried to bury it in Finbar's bed first and then took it home and she keeps trying to bury it in the sofa now. I had read about moving it, so she doesn't feel it's a safe place to bury her goodies but it doesn't seem to be making too much of a difference. She LOVED her little trip to the yard. She only saw ponies from a distance as all of our barn were out yesterday,hence why I brought her, so she was just hanging out with me doing some chores, but she got to sniff loads and she even managed to eat some poo ? so she was delighted with herself. She was tired and content when we got home.

As an aside, a puff pig snout is possibly the grossest thing I've ever touched and a big step for someone who won't even cook her husband meat. I am fast getting over my squeamishness now that I live with an obligate carnivore ?

 

[AmyMay]

Simply take it off her. If it’s too gross for the house my motto is it goes in the bin (sorry, not sorry).

My little Doo is a burier. Usually (and thankfully) only of my socks. She can often be found skulking around outside trying to find a suitable place to bury them. Or they are hidden in my bed.

 

[ArklePig]

I'm caught between that's going in the bin it's disgusting and aww look how much she loves it. I've swapped it out for an antler which she has no interest in burying just chewing. Maybe I'll just let her have it in the garden and see if I can encourage her to bury it out there if she simply must. Thankfully no burying of socks etc yet.

It's really amazing how much she's come on in just three weeks, she's still a lot of work but she's so rewarding and I couldn't imagine being without her. I'm no longer at the wtf have I done stage but at the I'm enjoying training you and can't wait to see the dog you become stage.

She's had one very big walk today in the forest and is currently snuggled between myself and Mr AP. We might never be able to sit beside each other again ?

 

[CorvusCorax]

Can you pop her in a crate with it or put her on her place/mat/bed with it. It's only for eating there. Put her back if she tries to get off, remove if she starts digging, to give back at a later stage. You can swap out with a handful of food to avoid conflict.

 

[ArklePig]

Thanks CC, I have moved it a few times to her bed but maybe wasn't patient enough with it and then just swapped it out cause she was driving me spare. I will keep doing this, and I guess I should do it with all of her chews for consistency? I think that's the one area I've not really been consistent on because if she has any of her chews or something on the sofa I've been tempted to just be like oh well at least she's being good. So this is entirely my own fault, it just stupidly never occurred to me it would turn into sofa digging.

 

[Clodagh]

Doesn’t hurt to move on with your demands. Mine are nit allowed edibles in any room except their beds. I just take them away if they want to take them through. The penny has mainly dropped now.
I’m so pleased she’s doing well with you. Training is such fun.

 

[ArklePig]

It really is. The three of us are learning a lot. Right I'm officially banning any edibles from anywhere that's not the bed or the crate as of now. I think I felt reluctant to do it earlier as it seemed for a few days there like every second word out of my mouth was 'off'.

 

[Clodagh]

It really is. The three of us are learning a lot. Right I'm officially banning any edibles from anywhere that's not the bed or the crate as of now. I think I felt reluctant to do it earlier as it seemed for a few days there like every second word out of my mouth was 'off'.

Every second word here sometimes is the F…. that goes with off ?

 

[ArklePig]

That's very common in this house too ?

 

[ArklePig]

I don't mean to brag, but I brought Fodhla for a walk at 7.50 home at 8.30, breakfast, and she's been happily sleeping beside me since 9. I will probably pay for committing this to the written word but I can't believe it.

We have read varying things about when to feed them but we tend to find that morning walk, then breakfast is what's working for us, as she has something to do when she comes in from her walk and then tends to wind down once she's done eating. So just wondering really when other people prefer to feed and why in case I'm making a terrible error.

 

[skinnydipper]

To reduce the risk of bloat (GDV) leave minimum of 30 mins after exercise before feeding.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

If it works for you and your dog, you're doing it right!
We don't link mealtimes and walks because our routine is different. I let the dogs out at 8.00 am and then give them their breakfast, before Daycare Dog arrives. That works for us because I am retired. We started our day earlier when I was working p/t and even earlier when I was working f/t in school.

 

[CorvusCorax]

I feed my young one on walks and during training, I just spread her daily allowance out over whatever we happen to be doing in a day, and some goes in a Kong too when I am at work.
The older ones get fed before or after walks. Just depends on the dog, really!

 

[ArklePig]

Thanks, some food for thought here (intentional terrible pun). We find that if we give her her breakfast in the morning while we're getting ready, before her walk, she doesn't really focus on it and gets super distracted by whatever we are doing.

What PS says makes loads of sense, I think for us though (especially me as I can get a bit all over the place if I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing) some sort of routine for working days is a must and I'm worried if I don't have a set time I'll forget to feed her or something.

OH and I work from home on alternate days so whoever is at home walks her before work, and whoever is at the office walks her in the evening-though the timing of the evening walk does vary. The morning walk time varies a bit depending on who is doing it but she's usually back in the house by 9 at the latest . We've found that if we don't feed her after a walk that she comes in from a walk not really knowing what to do with herself, which is a pain in the morning as we are then sitting down to work.

We did try from the beginning to train her to go to bed after a walk but we found she was finding it super hard to settle after her morning walk. After her evening walk she will come in and go to sleep for herself on the sofa next to one of us but that's not really an option in the morning if I want to get any work done!

As per CC she is not getting her full allowance in her bowl as we are still at the stage of lots and lots of treats and basically bribing her into submission. I've been cutting her kibble into small pieces for training.

So hard to know what to do, but today has so far been my most successful home working day with her (OH at home the majority of the time) so might keep with this routine if it continues to work though but I might see if I can stretch out her breakfast til slightly later as per SD's advice.

Shortly after I made my last post I let her out to toilet and we've done some playing in the garden and a small bit of basic command training and we've just come back in and she's put herself back to bed, so hopefully I have as productive an afternoon as she let me have this morning!

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Thanks, some food for thought here (intentional terrible pun). We find that if we give her her breakfast in the morning while we're getting ready, before her walk, she doesn't really focus on it and gets super distracted by whatever we are doing.

What PS says makes loads of sense, I think for us though (especially me as I can get a bit all over the place if I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing) some sort of routine for working days is a must and I'm worried if I don't have a set time I'll forget to feed her or something.

OH and I work from home on alternate days so whoever is at home walks her before work, and whoever is at the office walks her in the evening-though the timing of the evening walk does vary. The morning walk time varies a bit depending on who is doing it but she's usually back in the house by 9 at the latest . We've found that if we don't feed her after a walk that she comes in from a walk not really knowing what to do with herself, which is a pain in the morning as we are then sitting down to work.

We did try from the beginning to train her to go to bed after a walk but we found she was finding it super hard to settle after her morning walk. After her evening walk she will come in and go to sleep for herself on the sofa next to one of us but that's not really an option in the morning if I want to get any work done!

As per CC she is not getting her full allowance in her bowl as we are still at the stage of lots and lots of treats and basically bribing her into submission. I've been cutting her kibble into small pieces for training.

So hard to know what to do, but today has so far been my most successful home working day with her (OH at home the majority of the time) so might keep with this routine if it continues to work though but I might see if I can stretch out her breakfast til slightly later as per SD's advice.

Shortly after I made my last post I let her out to toilet and we've done some playing in the garden and a small bit of basic command training and we've just come back in and she's put herself back to bed, so hopefully I have as productive an afternoon as she let me have this morning!

We feed ours 3 x per day, so they only get a fairly small meal at breakfast time, a larger meal at tea time and another small one at supper time. When we had the Rotters they had 3 equally sized meals and we were extremely careful to avoid bloat, which is a particular risk for large and giant dogs.

 

[CorvusCorax]

As per CC she is not getting her full allowance in her bowl as we are still at the stage of lots and lots of treats and basically bribing her into submission. I've been cutting her kibble into small pieces for training.

You can call it that, but if I was sitting in the office and my boss kept coming and putting tenners in front of me for doing nothing, I probably wouldn't work very hard

 

[ArklePig]

This is true CC all my boss gives me is a pain in my head ? If I got a treat for sitting down and doing nothing I'd be very obedient.

 

[Karran]

On weekdays mine have walks then breakfast. I take about a quarter/half of their breakfast (plus extras) out with me and Mrs Collie earns them by paying attention to me and not chasing joggers/cyclists.

What doesn't get eaten stays in my pocket for a lunchtime walk (if wfh) or evening walk.

I reverse it during weekends and they have breakfast first.
Evening walks are around 5-7pm and dinner at 7. If they are going to agility/obedience class I'll take their entire dinner allowance with me and they earn it during class.

They also get a bedtime snack ? of a biscuit/dentistick/carrot/whatever is floating about.

 

[ArklePig]

This week has been a lot for non Fodhla related reasons, so I didn't get to update earlier but I just wanted to share my happy moment of the week. We brought her to the park on Wednesday with a long line and dog trainer friend to try some recall training on top of what we're doing in the house / garden. There were a few other dogs and some cyclists and joggers and she did not lose the run of herself once, and came back most of the time she was asked straight away. I'm honestly so relieved. I know we've a long way to go til she is reliable and safe for proper off lead walking but that was really inspiring that a) she doesn't want to run away from us b) she didn't go buck daft.

Also, while we were on lead a group of about 8 runners passed us and she barely even glanced at them. Then she came home and conked out. So proud of our girl.

She is currently having a little snooze for herself and we've had very few annoying moments today. I had a tradesman in doing an hours work downstairs this morning so I brought her bed up to the office and turned on some classical music to drown out any strange noises and she barely stirred.

I'm still looking forward to 5pm when Mr AP comes to relieve me of doggy duty but she's turning into the best girl.

 

[Clodagh]

Fabulous!

 

[ArklePig]

Actually delighted with herself.

 

[misst]

She's certainly fallen on her feet with you

 

[ArklePig]

Thank you @misst that's really lovely of you to say. I feel like I'm the lucky one!

I've just realised it's been 4 weeks since Friday so thought I'd write a full update/essay for myself to look back on.

We are learning more about her every day and her about us I'm sure. We've noticed how the anxious behaviour ramps up and how we can de escalate it.
That probably sounds silly that it's taken 4 weeks to be able to fully get to that oiint, but now that she's becoming more trained it's becoming more apparent what's an ingrained behaviour and what was just generally being uncivilised!

There is still some on and off humping but it's like she does it out of habit and when to tell her to get off she looks confused as to why she is even doing it. It is very few and far between though thank god because that and the chewing (of me) was getting hard to deal with. She hasn't mouthed me in a bit either, I've only connected with teeth in play accidentally so I've been following dog trainers advice of stopping play immediately and it seems like she's being more careful now and getting the picture.

Her little party tricks are coming on great and we did some recall training yesterday again in the field and she came a good 90 per cent of the time. I guess some smells are more exciting than us but I'm sure she'll get more reliable with time and practice.

Also we've switched her food gradually cause the stuff the rescue had her on wasn't great and her hair is getting so glossy. She was a bit dull when we picked her up.

Instead of jumping all over us when we come in the door which she knows is not allowed, she has taken to sitting down and wagging her tail until she gets her greeting and it's honestly adorable. It's hard going raising a dog for the outside world because I honestly don't care if she jumps up on me but I don't want blurred lines and the wee woman next door who likes to say hll to her is 90 and I just can't have her thinking it's okay to jump on people. So I've had to be really firm with myself on that too.

Her walking on lead is coming along great, her engagement is really good and she isn't bothered by cars but she still sometimes tries to say hello to people when I'm trying to keep her moving and I'm just trying to reinforce that it's not her right to be into everything, and when she's walking she is with me. The other Day I stopped to tie my shoelaces and thought it was going to end with me getting dragged along the footpath but she actually just sat patiently looking up at me while I was stopped-I was amazed.

She did have a wee inside on Wednesday but that was my fault as I heard a whine while I was upstairs and by the time I got down she had gone. I reckon she's been punished for the same before because she was sat in the corner looking frightened when I came down, so I felt awful for letting it happen. Accidents are very few and far between now-can't remember the last one before that.

She's still tough going at times but she is really coming along, she's nearly like a different dog. There's been tears on occasion but I can't believe how much I would probably jump in front of a train for her.

My absolute favourite thing is that no matter where she goes, to the yard, to her bronze classes, everyone comments on what a lovely nature she has, and she really loves other people. At least she only ever disgraces herself inside the house!

Also I have a new found appreciation for how much my parents must have done with our rescue dog when I was a kid cause if I had kids on top of her I would probably do a Shirley Valentine and eff off far far away.

Not the best pic but please enjoy these ears I snapped last night when I realised how shiny she was getting.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

She looks and sounds lovely and you are obviously doing a good job with her rehabilitation.

 

[ArklePig]

Thanks PS

Fodhla was so well behaved yesterday I genuinely couldn't believe it. She slept on and off next to Mr AP in the box room/study for most of the day, after her morning walk and again after lunchtime play. Then she went to the garage/our makeshift gym yesterday evening and hung out with Mr AP while he did a work out.

When I came home from work she didn't howl, bark, jump up on me, just sat in front of the door waiting for me when she heard me coming, and stayed sitting for her fuss when I opened the door. She basically snoozed on the sofa then all evening with me while I did a bit of study, had a bit of a chew on her buffalo horn (gross but she likes it) , and we had a couple of 2-3 minute training sessions and she just generally wasn't a nuisance at all. She was nice and calm again this morning when I was leaving so hopefully she's still feeling calm tomorrow and Thursday as those are my WFH days. It's nice getting a glimpse of having a proper pet dog, and an evening without any howling, humping, chewing etc was actual bliss.

Hopefully if she continues to be calm I might actually pass my exam and do decent training contract applications due to living in a less stressful house. I keep telling her I have to get qualified so I can keep her in Equifleece's, antlers, and indestructible toys, but obviously she has no concept of this.

Anyway, things are getting better every day, so I'm hopeful she is starting to settle as her default is no longer anxiety. Some of that will be down to us seeing the signs of when she's about to have an anxious episode and avoiding it. Last week I thought she was really coming along, but looking back on this thread has jogged my memory and shown me how much she's come on again even in the last few days. On Saturday night she barely lifted her head when the doorbell went and it's been on a serious up since then. It's like something has just clicked in her brain and she's decided to be happy. By her behaviour the last few days, you could nearly be fooled into thinking she's been with us her whole life.

I await regression with trepidation, but I'm treating this good behaviour as a hopeful glimpse of our lives together, whilst doing my best to reinforce it.

Thanks to everyone for all your encouragement and tips and tricks- it's been invaluable. Fodhla thanks you too for keeping me on the right path.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Thanks PS

Fodhla was so well behaved yesterday I genuinely couldn't believe it. She slept on and off next to Mr AP in the box room/study for most of the day, after her morning walk and again after lunchtime play. Then she went to the garage/our makeshift gym yesterday evening and hung out with Mr AP while he did a work out.

When I came home from work she didn't howl, bark, jump up on me, just sat in front of the door waiting for me when she heard me coming, and stayed sitting for her fuss when I opened the door. She basically snoozed on the sofa then all evening with me while I did a bit of study, had a bit of a chew on her buffalo horn (gross but she likes it) , and we had a couple of 2-3 minute training sessions and she just generally wasn't a nuisance at all. She was nice and calm again this morning when I was leaving so hopefully she's still feeling calm tomorrow and Thursday as those are my WFH days. It's nice getting a glimpse of having a proper pet dog, and an evening without any howling, humping, chewing etc was actual bliss.

Hopefully if she continues to be calm I might actually pass my exam and do decent training contract applications due to living in a less stressful house. I keep telling her I have to get qualified so I can keep her in Equifleece's, antlers, and indestructible toys, but obviously she has no concept of this.

Anyway, things are getting better every day, so I'm hopeful she is starting to settle as her default is no longer anxiety. Some of that will be down to us seeing the signs of when she's about to have an anxious episode and avoiding it. Last week I thought she was really coming along, but looking back on this thread has jogged my memory and shown me how much she's come on again even in the last few days. On Saturday night she barely lifted her head when the doorbell went and it's been on a serious up since then. It's like something has just clicked in her brain and she's decided to be happy. By her behaviour the last few days, you could nearly be fooled into thinking she's been with us her whole life.

I await regression with trepidation, but I'm treating this good behaviour as a hopeful glimpse of our lives together, whilst doing my best to reinforce it.

Thanks to everyone for all your encouragement and tips and tricks- it's been invaluable. Fodhla thanks you too for keeping me on the right path.

She is bound to have 'slip back' periods but each one will last for a shorter time and not be as far back. Eventually living with you will be her normality and although she might occasionally become anxious, she will trust you to sort the problem out. Lucky dog!

 

[Bradsmum]

Wow look how far she has come already - from an anxious girl who got frightened out on walks to a much more confident, happy girl. It's still early days so you and OH should be very proud of the work you have obviously put in as it is paying dividends. I noticed a big change in our rescue dog at 3 months and again at around 6 months. Their confidence just grows and they are able to settle and feel secure. Keep up the good work

 

[ArklePig]

I noticed this morning she is noticeably less flabby than when we picked her up 4 and a half weeks ago, and we're having to adjust the harness frequently. We brought her to our own vet for a full MOT last week and she said she was a good weight but not to let her get any bigger. I think she was 16.3 kg.

The first pic was literally the first pic we took when she walked in the door, and the second pic was taken this morning. What do you think, is she looking noticeably fitter or am I kidding myself? I wish I'd thought to take a proper angle the first day so we could compare but here we are. There was so much going on the first while was survival lol.

The food given by the rescue wasn't great when I really looked at it, so we switched her over and she is on Simpsons 80:20 now which seems to be doing her wonders, and she is obviously getting exercise, something I'm sure was lacking in her previous life. Appreciate any thoughts on her general condition as I'm no expert and just want her to look and feel good.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

She certainly looks fitter and tauter, if that's a word. She is looking great.

 

[ArklePig]

Thank you PS. I wish I could get into shape as quickly ?