Pan-demonium
The last time my
husband went out of town, our one-year-old Border Collie mix, Pan, was
hellacious - refusing to listen to me, growling, and even biting - but this
time after a single four-hour session with Echo (and a few
follow-up e-mails), Pan did extremely well.
Last weekend, Echo
volunteered to see Pan, my husband, and I, pro-bono. During our
meeting, Echo observed Pan and our interaction with her. After observing our
situation, Echo told us that Pan has three challenges. One, she is very
high energy and easily distracted. Two, she is very smart and willful, and
three, a very strong resource guarder. Resource guarding is a phenomenon that is
very common with female dogs, especially those who are allowed to go into
their first heat (which explains why her growling and biting got much worse when
she went into heat).
Echo's
dog, Lucy, is a female rescue Border Collie who started out
with many of the same challenges Pan has and was able to outline a
detailed approach to help rehabilitate Pan. This was Echo's advice, which has
worked wonders so far:
1) Echo told us to expect Pan to behave
and try to have faith in her. The idea is that if Pan can sense that we don't
trust her, she will not listen. If we are confident that she will listen, she
will. This is WEIRDLY true. I can't believe how well this works.
2)
We were confining Pan to the back room a lot of the time with my
husband in his office, and kenneling Pan for about 3-4 hours a
day at times when we were both at work, as well as at
night. Echo told us to stop kenneling Pan at night as well as when
we are gone. Dog proof the house as much as we can, and
simply expect her not to trash the place. When we leave, or leave
her out, we should calmly walk out of the room and say "be a good dog" and
that's that. Echo explained, Pan probably felt isolated not being able to walk
around the house with us or the cats (her pack) and we should just leave them
all together most of the time, so they can get to know one another better - even
though the mere sight of one of the cats sent her into a frenzy - so she and the
cats could work things out. (A hint that Echo gave us; spray Chlorox
disinfectant over anything we're worried about Pan chewing ). This has worked
too. Pan has been free to roam in the house for a week now. Being
around the cats 24/7 makes her much less likely to go over threshold when she
sees one, and she hasn't chewed anything but her nylon
bone!
3) Echo told us to put away her kennel for
now as she was refusing to go into it on command since we had been using it
occasionally for discipline and also since it was such a strong resource
guarding trigger. Think of a mama wolf guarding its den... Pan was going crazy
if we so much as touched the gate! So that old thing is in the attic.
For right now, she has no place in the house that is her own, so her resource
guarding is never triggered. We will reintroduce her kennel later on slowly,
moving it around the house constantly once the food guarding is under
control.
4) Echo told us to stop feeding Pan from a bowl.
In the morning, place her daily rations in a Ziploc bag, and then when
she is behaving correctly, listening, or laying calmly on the floor, feed her.
When she stops barking after I say hush, feed her. When she calms
herself down after freaking out over the cat, feed her. Not only will this
help with her obedience issues and help relax her, but also this
will help with resource guarding, as the constant association of humans as
food providers as opposed to food takers will help her stop thinking she needs
to guard food from us. (The cool thing about this is that she is
finally calm when she is with me in the front of the house
now because she knows good things happen when you are calm! For the longest time
if I was watching her Pan would run from window to window barking at cars
passing in the street or other dogs
barking or god forbid motorcycles - now she lies calmly at my feet and
waits for food to fall from the sky. AWESOME!)
5) Echo told us exercise
is the most important part of Pan's routine. She also explained that we needed
to expose her to new experiences every day and to teach her commands for
"right," "left," "go," "stop," so we can take her on safe bike rides every day.
These long bike rides are important to get some of the excess energy out of her.
The earlier in the day the better. This part is so much fun! Every day we
have been going about six miles and she loves exploring new places. Today
we rode four miles away to a tunnel that goes under a street; a
really wide sidewalk shaped like a half-pipe and rode up and down and through
the tunnel over and over using these directional commands because she
loved the rush of running up and down hills. Also, we practiced
sitting calmly and staying so Pan will learn to wait for me outside of coffee
shops and stores downtown. For now it is enough for Pan to learn that sitting
still and calm by the post I've attached her leash to will make me approach
whereas, pulling and trying to get away won't. Eventually, I want to be able to
take her to a coffeeshop and sit outside with my laptop and write while she lays
under my feet - which is what she - finally - does at home
now!
Thanks, Echo!