And One Step Back

As well as TWO has been doing, we have had some recent set backs when it comes to other dogs. I took him to the park early in the morning last week, muzzled of course. For some reason, he has a very strong reaction to certain other dogs. They are few and far between but in this case, some poor chocolate lab walked by, they never even interacted and TWO turned on him, snarling and growling, threw a leg over his neck and went for his withers. Hard to tell if this was an inhibited bite response and he was just trying to make a point or whether he would have actually bitten. The muzzle tends to obscure his body language a little and of course it also forces inhibition regardless of TWO's intentions.

Needless to say, this does not please me. Interaction with other animals was one of the few things I could rest easy about as he has always gotten along with other animals. This is a relatively new thing and started after Hudson's death. I am not sure if it's related to how little exposure he is getting to other dogs and thus his social skills are getting worse or if it's related to the Prozac or is simply a growing pain. I have an email in to my veterinary behaviorist to discuss it. In the meantime, he has been fine with all dogs since that time and of course he gets along famously with Samson, Keila and his regular friends.

I also asked the behaviorist about the benefits of getting another dog as company for him at home. I have toyed with the idea for some time but in anticipation of a K9 spot opening up at work and thinking about putting in for that, I have held off as 3 dogs is too much given my current lack of land. That of course, hasn't stopped me from looking on petfinder all night :)

Aside from this new issue, TWO is thriving. I have been leaving him home more and more rather than taking him to work as my intuition tells me this is starting to stress him out a little more than it used to. Even though it's cool as it's an underground parking garage, it's been really muggy lately so partly due to weather and partly due to keeping him as stress free as possible, I have been leaving him to guard the house while listening to suicide doggy music. The only downside to this arrangement is he gets NO exercise in this scenario. He refuses to walk anywhere around my house so I can't walk him before or after work. The only places he will walk are at or around work which was part of the reason I was taking him with me as he could exercise before and after work before I go home. He clearly gets cabin fever but I am at a loss as to how to get him to walk or exercise when he is at home during my work hours. We try to make up for it on our off days but it's not ideal.

In the meantime, before I can sell my house and move to a much larger space, we work with what we've got which are kongs, bully sticks, his Busy Buddy toy, playing chase around the yard etc. to try and keep him stimulated and active. I constantly buy different toys and games for him to see if anything will catch his fancy but so far he is only interested in his Busy Buddy cube.

Our next great challenge will be at the end of July when I take a couple days to climb Mt. Baker, my last unclimbed mountain in Washington. Here it is in all its puny glory:


I say puny because when you consider the summit is just about base camp for Rainier, it kind of puts it in perspective. Anyway, back to my original point. My parents are unavailable as TWO-sitters for this weekend and thus the time has come to arrange my backup plan for him. I have no one else who has either the circumstances or whom I trust enough to watch him for me. He is not a dog I can take a chance with and so I will be going to look at a boarding kennel that my behaviorist recommended. She has sent many of her clients with fearful/aggressive dogs there as they are apparently very good at caring for the dogs without interacting with them and they will respect his space and not try to "win him over" or otherwise fix him. I'll go look at it next week, have a meeting with them and make sure that everything is up to par. It kills me to put him in a kennel as no matter how nice it is, I think it's going to traumatize him but the reality is my parents can't always care for him as they are often out of town as well. So we'll see how that goes. Stay tuned...

And no, I STILL haven't decided on a name. As convenient as TWO is, it's not him and my recent suggestions of Atticus, Laszlo, Atlas and Gandalf have all been shot down. Pretty soon it's just gonna be Rover!