Dogs…

I’ve pretty much always been lucky with dogs. Regrettably they have sometimes not been lucky to have me. I had to become a full adult to understand that training a dog is a matter of teaching them, not breaking them.

Sometimes you’ll see harsh training, and while that terrorizes the dog into submission it also breaks the dogs spirit and you never get to see the actual personality of the dog develop.

As an adult, the last 3 dogs I’ve had, I trained gently and let their personality develop. I find dogs that have personality far more rewarding than those who do not.

Jesse is no different. He’s smart, he does want to please but is easily bored or distracted. So right now we’re concentrating on the basics. No chomping on hands, arms, feet, or clothing. It’s not biting per se, he’s just mouthy and forgets that when he clamps down he can hurt ya.

He’s been remarkably surprised when after a few warnings I bare my teeth and try to chomp him back. Obviously that’s behavior he’s never seen from a human before and he doesn’t quite know what to make of it. I’ve chomped his ear lightly so now he knows I have teeth and am serious when I say NO. He’s only been here 6 days, and is making progress.

Walks are really good unless he sees a rabbit. Then all hell breaks loose. Again, nothing I haven’t dealt with before, and he’s getting much better about responding to commands though there’s still a way to go on that front.

He’s a generally happy pup, and as he’s to getting comfortable he’s also showing me more of who he is.

He is sweet, he’s a trickster, he seems to like a good joke, (even if I don’t seem to get it). He’s strong and fast, he also really seems to want to be all cuddly but then gets distracted with the mouth clamping a bit too hard on my hand, ending the cuddle session. Sunny and Etta both went through a similar phase, (Etta’s I remember all too well and have a scar or two to show for it!)

Right now he’s like a two year old child with boundless energy and even when he’s obviously tired, he fights going to sleep until gravity wins. It’s funny to watch. He’ll be sitting then his eyes start to close, then his behind slides out from under him and he catches himself on the way down.

I don’t think he likes me laughing at him when he does this, but it’s damn cute.

Took him to the vet yesterday because he was upchucking and it sounded like kennel cough. Turns out that’s not the problem, his stomach is a bit upset by the antibiotic he’s on for the next 8 days. That was a vet bill that I wasn’t expecting, but he’s gained a couple of pounds since he came to live with me. So that was good news if only that he’s been able to eat healthy and our twice daily long walks are doing him as much good as they’re doing me.

Multiple “Zoomies” in the back yard are apparently helping him too.

He is a lot of work. I hope at the end of this I’ll have a good trusting and trustworthy dog.

He’s a little defensive of his spaces, it’s going to take some time to teach him what is a problem and what isn’t anything to worry about.

At the moment, I’m having to get up to check on everything he decides to bark about. So he knows I’m interested and from my reaction he’s learning what is normal. Eventually, I’ll be able to tell from his voice if he’s saying “hello” or if the message is, “Dad! There’s something out here you need to deal with NOW!”

He’s talking to the lady next door instead of a full on bark. He says hello to her with a brief woof and then carries on the conversation with a series of low woofs, whines, and tail wags.

This is progress.

He’s taken to responding to my throwing one of his toys off the deck into the back yard by retrieving the toy as part of play and enjoying the stairmaster aspect of running up & down the back stairs. This is expected behavior, what is surprising is that when he’s tired he’ll bring the toy half way up the stairs, look me in the eye and drop it. Then he’ll come up the stairs and lay down. He watches as I go down the stairs to get the toy and seems to enjoy seeing me retrieving.

It’s hard to believe it’s only been a week tomorrow. At the same time I know that I’m looking at a minimum of at least 11 more weeks before he gets the routines and I fully understand what occupies him and satisfies his needs.