This is the most challenging thing that Gillie, on the left, does all day. Jake is my pro. He learned this almost from day one. He sometimes looks at Gillie with an exasperated expression as if to say, “Sit still, will ya?” I just love how excited Gillie gets at mealtime. She has such a joy for life. I’m glad I was able to save it for her, and for me.
This summer was chock full of good times for us. Our doggies had a great summer, too. No camping for them, unfortunately, as Jake still has his moments with strange dogs and crowds of people, but, lots of walkies and keeping cool inside when the temps got too hot for them.
We are hosting our famous “PastaRama” at a music festival in Virginia.
Since all the summer fun is ended, we are concentrating on Jake…again. On one of our walks at a local park, Jake and I met a couple walking their tiny Yorkie, Mattie. We let the dogs meet. Mattie snarled and snapped at Jake at first and then calmed down nicely. Jake barked at her and wanted to leave. Anyway, they told me about the place they were taking Mattie that was really helping her with other dogs. I gave them my cell number in case they wanted a play date at my yard and then went straight to the K-Nine Dog Camp nearby.
While there I was able to talk to the employees and Jake got to look around a bit. We made an appointment with a trainer for an evaluation which we did yesterday. The trainer was great with Jake. He tried to ease him into the place using non confrontational dogs, one at a time, and on an anxiety scale of 1-10 Jake went from an 8 to about a 3 in an hour’s time. We soon realized that I wouldn’t be able to leave Jake there that day and they wanted another eval from the owner. The trainer felt pretty sure that Jake would improve after another couple short visits, supervised, of course. They had just had a recent nutcase, Oscar, a small terrier type, who acted very much like Jake did, and he was now part of the group of dogs and calmed down tremendously. Oscar was part of the evaluation and got along with Jake, no trauma.
This center has been the only place where they didn’t want to dump Jake in a yard full of all sizes of dogs without a thought to how to introduce him to the experience. I never felt good about any of the other places I checked out. This place is really concerned about each dog there and they have lots of employees that are actively involved in the care. They also have cameras focused on all the areas that you can view from their website! How cool is that?
Time has just flown by since we drove home from Janice’s with our little “nutcase”. I’ll never forget how much he whined and screeched and tore at the comfy memory foam pad in the kennel. Ah, good times. Well, he’s four years old this month and has matured some. I must admit that his crazy ways are why he’s so much fun.
Yesterday I went to Petco and bought him a new bed. He has a habit of biting holes in the bottoms of his fleece donut beds. He then removes the filling and Gillie chomps on it. They make a great team.
Since Jake is growing up, I resumed his manners training. Ever since he bit me, an accident, I’m sure, I have been insisting on calling the shots around here. He is so quick to pick up the new changes to his routine. Like when we get up in the morning we go downstairs and make breakfast. I used to let him out first to chase Mr. Squirrel. Now, doggies eat first, Jake finishes first, and he has to sit and stay in the kitchen with the outside door open before I’ll let him go out with the release word, “ok”. It’s so cute how he looks up at me while waiting for my command. Then he bolts out the door. Gillie is pretty good at this, too. I’m just afraid Jake will break a bone someday as he catapults off the porch, the sitting and staying slows him down a bit.
More later.
I can’t blame it all on Jake. I was careless and didn’t think before I did it. Tony and I had been out all evening and before I left the house I gave Jake a rawhide bone to keep him busy. Jake is VERY possessive of his toys, etc., and before I went to bed I decided to take it from him, so I wouldn’t find it in my bed. I blame it on being half asleep and not thinking it through. I grabbed Jake by his back with one hand and grabbed the bone with the other hand. I got the bone out of his mouth and he spun around and grabbed my other hand and chomped down hard. I guess I was lucky that it wasn’t worse but he did break the skin and it did hurt and bleed! I was mad and woke Tony up so he could help me get a bandage on my finger. Jake went immediately on my s**t list! 
Here is a picture of my boo boo several days after the event, healing nicely.
For at least 24 hours afterward, I was still pretty mad at Jake, so no bed, recliner privelages for him.
I also resumed his obediance training as far as making him sit for anything he wanted, including going outside. Both dogs always sit for their meals. That means sitting and staying until released.
I have a great training book called “How to Behave so Your Dog Behaves”. by Sophia Yin. I’ve had the book for some time, but I think now is the time to really read it and follow the training tips. They really do work but must be strictly followed, the tough part.
It’s been a week since I got bit and maybe it was a wakeup call on my part. I was slacking off on my
attention to Jake’s training. He really is a fast learner but humans tend to get lazy. I will try very hard to keep up with training and to avoid situations where Jake has to be territorial. He really is a great little guy and wants to please.
Who couldn’t love this face?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UremsgbuZ54&feature=youtube_gdata
Click on this link to watch Gillie and Jake practise their “catch” skills.
Since I have had “adopted” Yorkies for the last 23 years, I have had many thoughts on dogs experiencing stress, especially at holidays. My current dog dynamic is no exception. I now have two very different dogs that have their own kinds of stress that I have to learn to recognize and deal with.
My number one concern is Jake, my almost four-year old. He has his own ways of dealing with stress and I’m not crazy about them. He tends to vocalize when we come into contact with new people on the street or in my home. My actions are to pick him up. Now I know some people say I’m enabling him and he really wants to be picked up, but, hey, it works.
He also mounts his soft donut bed and humps vigorously until he sports a quite impressive erection, which he waves around until it disappears. This usually happens when we have company. I’m getting over this, slowly. I think the best thing is to not make a big deal out of it and maybe he’ll grow out of it.
I have tried to get him interested in playing ball with Gillie as a release for stress, but when I throw a ball and Gillie goes to get it, Jake just jumps on her back making it impossible to continue the game. I have settled on confining Jake to the house and playing ball just with Gillie.
I live and learn from Jake.
Gillie’s stress is managed by close contact with me. She loves to sit at my side, across my lap, on my chest, on my laptop, wherever I’ll let her perch. I’ve also noticed that she may pee in a non typical place when stressed. I think she once had a UTI that was cleared up after she was on antibiotics for something else, so I can never rule that out as a cause for house training mistakes.
I found an interesting article on this subject. http://www.webvet.com/main/2008/12/10/your-pet-stressed?xid=nl_EverydayHealthPetHealth_20121206
Jake's and Gillie's Blog 