The Golden, The Pyrenees & The Collie

I was rather startled to see exactly how few posts I've made this year. It seems like I've either been feeling under the weather (it was the wettest March on record and my body didn't like it) or busy. Some of that busyness has been directed toward bird photography (house finches nesting in Goldie's backyard prompted me to get moving on purchasing my birding lens), but the main reason I haven't had the energy to write more is that I have been doing a lot of dog-sitting. I've seen three clients in the last month and am currently in the midst of a long gig. Since I'm always pointing my camera at the dogs in my care and caring for dogs has been my primary preoccupation as of late, I thought I might as well share some of my dog shots.

First up: Goldie, the pretty and ever-genial Golden Retriever.

She likes going on walks...

...crunching up sticks...

...rolling on top of her toys...

....being silly....

....and spreading happiness.

I spent a day with the mischievous Cutie, who just celebrated her third birthday.

Here she is peering over my laptop at me, hoping to stir things up.

A long walk in the woods burned off lots of that playful energy!

Mr. Gorgeous' coat is in particularly fine form this time of year...

....though the back end of it is a little less sleek-looking than the front.

He really is quite the handsome beast!

Though, like most of us, he can look a trifle disheveled when he first wakes up.

He even had a moment of silliness the other day...

....but he mostly spends his hours posing regally or sleeping soundly.

The hardest thing about spending so much time taking care of other dogs is that I miss my own so much. I see her for a few hours almost every day when I'm gone, but we are both glad when I lug my duffle bag of clothes back through the door, the sure sign that I'll be sleeping at home again at last.

There will undoubtably be more bird photo posts to come and I really hope that I have the energy to do more writing soon! In the meantime, check out daily photo posts on my Facebook page!

Thirty Days of Dogs

I knew January was going to be an intense month because I was scheduled to look after Goldie and Cutie back-to-back, resulting in thirty days of continuous dog-sitting. The first ten days were spent with Goldie, and it was a fairly mellow gig. Goldie is cute and quiet and easy as they come, so the main hardship was an unpleasant stretch of days featuring chilly rain. I normally walk her in the park across the street, but to spare us from the winds coming off the lake, I took to taking her on quick walks through the more protected streets behind the house. The scenery was not as interesting, but I did stay marginally drier and warmer. (Goldie, being a Golden Retriever, doesn't mind being wet and windblown!) I was sorry that the wet weather meant that I didn't get to take many photographs and worse still, we only got to go to the dog park twice! Goldie has a blast at the dog park and I do, too, where I will happily throw balls for any dog that wants a ball thrown, or play tug with a stick, if you are a bull terrier with a brindle eye patch that wants to play tug, and pet any and every dog that will let me put my hands on them. I just barely dodged one monster migraine (though I was as wiped out the next day as if I'd had the headache) and there was one night when we had a windstorm that generated some thunder and I had a to sleep (or not sleep) on downstairs on the couch with Goldie, but all-in-all it was a pleasant gig.

Golden girl.

With wagging tail, Goldie is ready for whatever I'm doing next, especially if it's a game!

Goldie spends many of her hours snoozing with a toy.

We were able to dodge most of the rain on this evening's walk...

….but, as Goldie's wet ears attest, not on this night!

A sunset captured through a decorative pane of glass at Goldie's.

A restless Cutie begs to go out
by jumping up on the door.

After approximately 20 hours at home between gigs, I was off to spend the rest of the month with Cutie the Pyrenees. Cutie has many wonderful attributes, including her playfulness, friendliness, an interest in your activities, charmingly expressive face, and considerable overall beauty, but unlike all my other clients, who are at least ten years of age, Cutie won't be three until March and still has episodes of puppyish energy. And she's huge, so if, for example, she decides to expend some of this energy by jumping up on you--something that's harmless enough if done by, say, a dachshund--she can knock you over. I know that her owners, who love her dearly, don't normally expect much in the way of discipline from her (this is not to say that she's a bad dog, just that she doesn't have to do much of anything she doesn't want to), so I had a hunch that a great way to help her burn off some of her spells of restlessness and sauciness would be to mentally challenge her.

"Would you care to join in a game with me and my squeaky snake...

….or perhaps you'd prefer a game with my soccer ball?"

On the move!

A beautiful young lady.

Cutie nose.

Cutie has a large, sensitive nose that she already uses to vigorously investigate her world, so I suspected that "Find it!" would be a natural match. To play "Find it," I hid pieces of kibble around the kitchen and family room for her to find. The first time, I let her watch me do it. Next, I did it while she was in the room but couldn't see where I was hiding the kibble. I'd give the "Find it!" command and whenever she found some kibble, would cheer her on with phrases like, "Find it! Yay! Good find it!" She quickly grasped the premise, so I took to hiding the kibble while she was outside. When she came in, I'd give the "Find it!" command and she'd go right to work. I soon had to make it more and more complicated as Cutie became a real whiz at sniffing the food out. While not necessarily systematic or efficient in her search, she was always thorough: she wouldn't stop hunting until all the kibble was found. (Furthermore, she could tell by smell when she had found all the kibble.) Not only did she have a great time, but I noticed (not to my surprise) that Cutie had a much easier time settling down after she'd hunted for her breakfast or dinner. I decided to deploy another mental exercise: the food-dispensing toy.

Cutie working on her Wobbler to get the kibble to fall out of the hole.

I know about exercises like "Find it!" and food-dispensing toys from the various dog blogs that I follow. I knew right off the top of my head that there was a Kong brand food-dispensing toy called a Wobbler and got one. The Wobbler, which, as the name implies, wobbles, has to be batted or rolled for kibble to trickle out of a hole in the side a few pieces at a time. It took Cutie three meals to grasp what needed to be done to get the kibble out and even once she got good at it, the smallness of the hole meant it still took her fifteen minutes to eat all of her dinner. By then I had her on a program where 1/4 of her dinner went to "Find it!", 1/2 of her dinner went into the Wobbler, and the remaining 1/4 was used for other training purposes. I often had her work for all or part of her breakfast, too. This program worked well for us because it tired Cutie out AND she loved it! She would eagerly come running when I called her to come inside (normally one of her weakest areas of obedience) to see if a game of "Find it!" had been set up in her absence and couldn't get enough of the Wobbler, eagerly hoping for its appearance every time I opened the pantry door and quivering with anticipation as she waited for me to set a full Wobbler before her. I took a lot of pleasure from watching her sniff for her kibble or worrying it out of the Wobbler, and the resulting mellowness put her in great state of mind for working with her on problem areas like grooming. (She doesn't like having her fur pulled. But who does? Still, I wanted to get her coat in good shape and reintroduce the brush to her as a positive thing. By the end of our time together, her coat was untangled and she was accepting being brushed if there was kibble in it for her!)

A peaceful Cutie with a relaxed tail.

Pyrenees in the fog.

Covered in Cutie fur!

It was not easy to be away from home (and more importantly, my own dog) for a whole month, but there were plenty of lovely moments, like some spectacular sunsets and those delightful trips to the dog park while taking care of Goldie, and there were beautiful, dreamy days of fog, the pleasure of photographing the minute world of moss- and lichen-covered stumps (you can see some of the photos on my photography page), and listening to the amazing wild sound of a pack of coyotes howling at night while I was at Cutie's. Still, I'm quite glad to be home (and my dog is very happy to see me!) and to once again be using my desktop computer, where all of my photos reside, and so back to work on photo-related projects. I am also looking forward to washing a month's worth of dog-hair-covered laundry! I love dog-sitting, but it's true what they say: there's no place like home.

Sunset and rain showers.

Moss- and lichen-covered stumps.

"Welcome home!" licks on the nose from my Abbey.

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Dog Duo Dynamics

Sweetheart and Cutie

I spent my 4th of July weekend making sure that no fireworks went off...between dogs, that is! I was engaged to look after both Cutie the Pyrenees and Sweetheart the German Shepherd. Their families are good friends; Cutie's people went with Sweetheart's family to pick her up when she was just a tiny puppy. I'm not sure if Cutie and Sweetheart had met before, but it would definitely be the first time they were tasked with living in the same house. Given that both dogs are quite large, if things did get out of hand, it would be incredibly difficult for me to physically control them, so it was essential that things never reached that point! Fortunately, I was intrigued by the challenge and was excited to have an opportunity to put some of my theoretical dog know-how into practice.

Although not high energy overall, Cutie can be very exuberant, and when something as big as she is gets exuberant, there's always the potential for trouble. Here she is pretending not to look at me during a game of keep-away.

I follow a number of dog blogs and most of these dog blogs deal with fostering dogs. Almost all of the foster families already have dogs of their own, so integrating a foster into the household in a manner that is safe and stress-free for all dogs involved is an important subject. One of the very best guides for introducing dogs comes from the great folks at BAD RAP, outlined in this blogpost. It should be required reading for anyone who is going to add another dog to a household, whether it is a foster dog or an additional pet, or, like me, someone who will be dog-sitting for a long weekend! I'd also like to give a shout-out to DINOS: Dogs in Need of Space for spreading the word that not all dogs want to be friends and should be given the space they need. I also want to share these great illustrated guides to dog body language by Lili Chin. I'm pretty good at reading dog body language, but these illustrations have been helpful for me and should be required viewing for everyone, especially those not familiar with dogs.

Lili Chin, www.doggiedrawings.net

Lili Chin, www.doggiedrawings.net

Cutie's raised tail indicates she's excited. Her raised head indicates she is the dominate dog in this pairing. Sweetheart is licking Cutie's muzzle to say that she is friendly but submissive and wants everybody to just be chill.

With this info in hand, it was time to get the dogs together. With the help of my family, the very first thing we did was take Cutie and Sweetheart on a pack walk. This meant walking side-by-side with minimal interaction. What interactions that did take place were nose-to-tail. (Meeting face-to-face is extremely disrespectful in dog language.) Cutie was kept distracted by the fact that I was walking her on a Gentle Leader, a type of head halter, for the first time. When walked on a regular collar, she pulls so strongly that you could practically go waterskiing behind her. She was a different dog altogether with the Gentle Leader and it was an auspicious start!

A good start did not mean that the two dogs immediately got to run free and were best friends ever after. While both dogs, according to their owners, "love everyone," this does not mean that Cutie and Sweetheart would love each other. Just as we don't like all other humans even if we like people in general, even dog-friendly dogs don't love every canine they meet. This goes double for accepting another dog in the house! It was very important, therefore, that I keep an eye on the girls at all times and separate them as much as possible.

Both dogs are wearing leashes so I can swiftly grab and remove one should trouble arise.

Fortunately for me, Cutie's family keeps an X-pen, as wire enclosures are known, in their kitchen in case she needs to be contained. Cutie will make a fuss if you put her in there, but Sweetheart went in it just fine, especially once the bed she sleeps on in her own kitchen was placed inside. This pen became an indispensable tool for managing the dogs because it didn't take long for the behavior dynamic to emerge: big, rambunctious, two-year-old Cutie wanted to play play play all the time and frail, arthritic, eleven-year-old Sweetheart wanted nothing to do with Cutie's rough advances. Early on, after play bows had failed to entice her, Cutie slapped Sweetheart on her poor, wasted hind end (like many German Shepherds, Sweetheart suffers from hip dysplasia) with a big heavy paw and Sweetheart yelped with pain and snapped at Cutie. The snap was not a bite and was a perfectly acceptable piece of communication from one dog to another, but Cutie proved oblivious to Sweetheart's emphatic message and continued to pester her to play. Thus, it was my job to make sure Sweetheart was safe and comfortable and that Cutie gave her the necessary space. When she realized that Cutie couldn't lay a paw on her when she was inside, Sweetheart quickly embraced the benefits of the X-pen and was quite content to be in there, especially for the first few days.

Sweetheart snoozes soundly in the pen while Cutie naps just outside. It took until Day Two for Cutie to relax enough in Sweetheart's presence to sleep on her side (an indication of total relaxation) like this.

I also made sure there were consequences for Cutie when she was too rough. Anytime she tried to use the paw on Sweetheart, she was immediately exiled. This meant that if we were out in the yard, I would grab her and march her inside while Sweetheart and I continued to enjoy the fine weather on the lawn. The one time when Cutie attempted to use the paw while inside, SHE was put on a timeout in the X-pen while Sweetheart got to roam the house untethered. While not especially well-disciplined, Cutie is plenty smart, and it didn't take long for her to refrain from using the paw. However, I also strove to make sure Cutie's excitement level didn't rise that high. It's far better to set dogs up for success than to punish them after bad behavior occurs, so I worked hard on getting Cutie to redirect her attention when she started to get excited about Sweetheart. Cutie has poor recall, so that meant I needed some high stakes rewards. I found an unexpected incentive: Sweetheart's kibble.

Cutie is so big that the yellow bowl on the edge of the stove proved to be easily within her reach.

I fed the dogs at the same time but in their own spaces, which meant Sweetheart ate in the X-pen. Sweetheart doesn't eat much anymore, though she certainly was quicker about getting it down when there was another dog around! Still, she usually left a few pieces of kibble in her bowl and Cutie was absolutely entranced by it. It turned out to be the ultimate training reward--as long as I made sure Cutie couldn't get to it without my permission! This meant shutting the bowl in the pantry when not in use after Cutie demonstrated that things placed at the center of the kitchen island were fair game. Typically, the time when Cutie is least willing to come when called is when she is out in the yard, but her desire to run free and play keep-away was no match for her desire to eat those pieces of kibble, specially formulated for senior dogs with bladder issues. Since I was the source of this kibble, she quickly began paying attention to me when I called her! She soon learned to back off and check in with me when I'd say, "Cutie, give her space." If she left Sweetheart to come to me, she was rewarded with a petting session if I didn't have treats on me. I also made sure to play with her so that she could expend some of her ample playful energy and have less to direct at Sweetheart.

Toys were only available under my supervision and even then on a very limited basis. After Cutie and I had a game with the squeaky snake, Sweetheart requested a turn. We'd come a long way in just a short time: Cutie is interested, but not beside herself with excitement that Sweetheart is playing with the toy.

The weather was fine, so the three of us spent a lot of time out in the yard. Cutie's yard is large and has a little patch of woods in the center. Because it is only contained by an electric fence, Sweetheart could not have free run of the yard. This was just as well. I'd walk her all around the yard for bathroom and exploring purposes several times a day and then I'd put her on a long line attached to a tie-out stake. This left Cutie free to run around and sniff and bark and play and burn off her energy while Sweetheart got to bask and roll and sniff the wind. I'd play keep-away with Cutie and then sit down with Sweetheart and brush copious amounts of loose fur out of her coat.

This is how Sweetheart liked to spend her time in the yard...

...and this is how Cutie liked to spend hers!
(Note the giant pile of dog hair I'd worked out of Sweetheart's coat in the background.)

One of the most important parts of managing two dogs in the same space is making sure there is no competition for resources. The girls were fed separately, so there was no competition over food. Toys had the potential to be a trigger, so they were only played with on a limited basis under my close supervision. Sweetheart wasn't very interested in treats, especially when the treat was the kibble she'd rejected at breakfast, so I could easily give Cutie lots of treats for behaving respectfully around Sweetheart without Sweetheart getting jealous. Cutie showed way too much interest in Sweetheart's rope bone, so that was swiftly put away in pantry. What ended up being the hardest resource for the girls to share was me.

I love these two dogs and they love me! Moments before this photo was taken, Sweetheart had covered my face with slobbery kisses. 

There was little competition for my attention while we were outside or when I was in the kitchen. Things got trickier when I sat down on the couch to read. This didn't come up on the first day, of course, but after Cutie had mellowed a bit and Sweetheart felt more secure in her presence, Sweetheart made it known that she'd really like to take a nap on Cutie's squashy round bed in the corner of the family room. Cutie very seldom uses that bed herself, but any time Sweetheart settled on it, Cutie would get excited and use every maneuver she could think of to try to entice Sweetheart to play with her. By this point, when I told Cutie from my position on the couch to leave Sweetheart alone, Cutie was responding to me well enough that she would abandon Sweetheart and come over to me. Seeing that Cutie was about to get attention from me, Sweetheart would haul herself up and come over, too. Cutie never got mad when Sweetheart came running over, claiming to have first dibs on all my affection; she'd just get excited and excitement would turn into invitations to play and the invitations would get increasingly rough. I really wanted Sweetheart to have a chance to take a nap on that bed and be free from the X-pen for a while and I knew that Cutie was capable of calming down quickly if I could keep Sweetheart calm, but it took a while to get it worked out. One evening, after both dogs had been (separately) walked, I escorted Sweetheart to the pillow and then used to a low tone of voice without looking at either dog to keep things from getting out of hand--that, and one other secret ingredient: I sang to them.

Sweetheart had the best nap ever on Cutie's pillow.

I sing to my own dog quite a lot, both for fun and as a way of calming her. I've made up a number of dog-specific lyrics to songs while others I sing as they were written. I'd sung to Sweetheart for an hour on the 4th of July as a way to soothe her and give her something else to listen to other than the explosions, covering everything from "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to the national anthem to half-remembered songs from "Les Miserables" to Depeche Mode. I don't know how much it helps the dogs, but it helps me feel calmer and happier and like I can do something to help, and since dogs respond enormously to our energy, it's absolutely beneficial from that point of view for me to sing to a nervous dog. It's no accident, in my opinion, that when I launched into my favorite lullaby, slow and low and minor key, Cutie stepped away from Sweetheart on her bed, and by the time I'd reached the end of the second verse, had plunked herself down in her regular spot in the kitchen against the back of the family room couch. By the time I'd sung it through twice, both dogs had heaved their settling-in sighs and I was free to read my book in peace. It was so magical that I delayed getting ready for bed just to prolong that wonderful, peaceful energy, feeling very good about my dog-handling skills, indeed!

An un-penned Sweetheart naps in the sun.

I never left the dogs loose and alone together for more than just a moment, and then only when they were both lying down, but the day after our success in the family room, I was able to grant Sweetheart more freedom. She used this to sleep in the sun by the kitchen door and to spend a little more time on Cutie's fabulous bed. I still had to closely supervise interactions in the family room and Cutie was unable to pass up carefully sniffing Sweetheart every single time she was near her, but a tentative balance was achieved. Cutie, of course, would have preferred to have a relationship that involved more play and Sweetheart might have been willing to play if Cutie would just dial it back a bit, but I was happy that everything was under control and no one got hurt!

The girls.

It was a tiring but rewarding job to bring the two dogs together. It was meaningful to their owners, too: Sweetheart and Cutie's predecessor had been good friends and everyone was hoping that this pair would get along, too. As humans, we tend to hope that our dogs will form joyful bonds and will want to spend all their awake time playing and all their asleep time snuggling, but two dogs hanging out and ignoring each other is also a desirable outcome. It would have been lovely if Cutie could have played very gently with Sweetheart, but the reality is that Sweetheart is very old and frail and that Cutie is very young and energetic and doesn't have the social skills to bridge that gap. I was therefore very pleased any time the two of them were sleeping soundly in their respective spaces or engaged in their own pursuits outdoors. Very best of all was when I was able to sit on the lawn while petting Sweetheart with my left hand and Cutie with my right as each dog sniffed the wind and watched the world go by. I'm extremely gratified that the blogs that I follow gave me the knowledge to set up a (relatively) peaceful coexistence between two large dogs with very different energy levels during the long holiday weekend.

Two dogs enjoying the outdoors while ignoring each other.

My favorite dog blogs included Love and a Six-Foot Leash; Peace, Love and Fostering; BAD RAP barn blog; Two Pitties in the City; Our Waldo Bungie; A Heartbeat at My Feet; Pitlandia; Oh, Corbin; Mr. & Mrs. & Nola Kisses; I am Bouncer; I am Robin; I am Winnie; Defining Lexi (these last three are no longer updated because the dogs have been adopted, but they contain lots of fun posts and good info); and Notes From a Dog Walker. Most of these blogs have Facebook pages, too! (Bouncer, Robin, and Winnie were all BAD RAP foster dogs and Lexi was a Handsome Dan's rescue foster.) If you love dogs in general, pit bulls in particular, and are interested in the triumphs and travails of rescuing and fostering dogs, I recommend checking out them all.

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