I've only been back from vacation for a little over a week now. Neko had a great time at Creekside and was well taken care of, but it didn't exactly help her training. We're taking Intermediate Obedience over at Sound Animal because Neko's regular trainer (the one helping us with the service dog training) isn't running any classes until April and we couldn't wait! We know a great dog-friend Jeff has trained and are really enjoying class there so far (we've been twice)!
The reason we really couldn't wait to take our next class is two-fold: it's important for Neko's training to progress and she's in a really tough phase right now (doggie adolescence, a second "fear period", still chewing, generally irresponsible). Example: This was the shift knob in my smart car. Neko has been confined to the back/cargo area by a cargo net since she was a puppy and has never broken out...until Tuesday, that is! I don't know why she chose that day, but I do know why the shift knob was so tempting - covered in leather, smells like my hand. I'm just glad she didn't get hurt or do any more damage (the car has taken the brunt of her destructive phase - there are a few small holes in the back of the seats too since I was only using a net rather than a solid barrier).
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| Neko, 3; Homer the smart car, 0 |
Since the car was now out-of-commission until I could figure out a more solid, inescapable barrier (the regular dog-barriers don't fit in my tiny car), I had to figure out a new place for Neko to be all day. She hasn't been able to settle on her bed in my office quite long enough to stay all day (her maximum seems to be about 3 hours), I brought her airline crate to work:
So far, so good with this. She settles in and does what she probably was doing in the car when being good: chewing, napping, being a dog.
As for the car - necessity really is the mother of invention. I just used the babygate (no longer working in the house now that she knows she's able to hop right over) to make a solid barrier:
The only problem with this is she lost a few inches in her already small space, but I don't feel as bad about that as I would if she hadn't tried to destroy the car a few days ago!
In general, she's still my sweet girl, but I can totally understand why (statistically) most dogs are given up between 5 and 8 -months of age! Neko's spending too much time in her crate(s), but I think it's the best option for both of us right now. At least she's near me, and I'm doing my best to be sure her crate time is still a "good" thing for her. She still goes in there voluntarily sometimes to nap or relax with her toys so I suppose she's telling me it's still an okay place for her...I just feel a little dog-mom-guilt.
Our current schedule is: wake up 5:30a, give Neko a small snack (not too much because) then we go for a jog!
6:30a, Neko's in the car waiting for me to leave for work.
While at work, Neko gets chew toys and any breakfast she didn't eat as "treats"/ rewards. I try to let her just "chill" in my office, uncrated, as much as possible but she can't keep her cool the entire day, that's for sure!
4pm, to the park! We go off-leash for an hour every day (rain or shine)
7pm, dinner in the food puzzle.
7-9:30p we try to have Neko out in the house, hanging around, playing, maybe doing a little training or going on a short neighborhood walk/potty break. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't and she has to go in "time out" for a while. I'm ever-hopeful that the amount of time she spends in her crate will shrink as she matures, but right now it's hard.
Oh, and she's still really cute:
Intermediate Obedience is going well too. Neko continues to be easy to train and a very hard worker. It's been frustrating and difficult to have her at work and around so many people who don't seem to understand what we're doing though. Last week when she was in the office, my co-worker and one of our students were allowing her to grab papers out of their recycle bin and shred them, "it's ok, we don't need those papers". Yesterday I had one of the instructors telling me that the reason Neko chewed up my leather shift knob is because I give her meat products as treats (last I checked dogs are carnivorous so I can't exactly turn her into a vegan). And, no matter how many ways I explain the concept of animal behavior theory (dogs do what works) and operant conditioning, people insist on noises, "no", yelling, etc to get Neko to stop barking - it is not helping us at home...I feel like crying in frustration because we really are making progress, but it's not the way most people train their animals so their automatic assumption is that if I would just do it their way (yell at her, hiss at her, spray her with water), she would stop. If that worked, she'd have stopped a long time ago. You can't fear/avoidance train a service animal. It doesn't work. Why would she want to work with me if she was afraid of me? Why would she calmly enter any situation if she thought she might get yelled at?
I continue to worry that I might not be cut out for this...it's hard, it's frustrating, sometimes it makes me cry... On the other side, if I do fail, I'll still have the best trained, sweetest Gordon Setter you've ever met (maybe the prettiest too). I do love the Lady!
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