Boy, the dogs were edgy today. Maybe the thunderstorms? Less yard time? The dog who ran up to us the other day? Spring time? Astrology? Who knows. Gustav bark/lunged at a guy who came out of his house unexpectedly. When Steve, a good friend, came over, Gustav wagged his tail but also started staring so intently, and his hackles went up, that I called him away. It was unnerving. Dottie compulsively licked the couch cushion while the band friends were over. Gustav gathered all the toys he could find and put them in a little pile in his space while everyone was sitting around in the living room. I disapproved and took them all away to avoid any guarding. He even woofed once in the kitchen from excitement when I came up from band practice in the basement, a really unusual thing for him to do. All this after a forty minute jog, which was refreshingly brisk since they seemed so full of energy. Weird weird weird. I can think of a million possible reasons (change in schedule: I just went back to school after spring break, meaning fewer jogs and home time; the aforementioned weather and possible connection to stress and/or less yard time; the off-leash dog incident); but alas real life doesn't provide us with perfect experimental conditions so there are too many variables to consider.
Oh well. No class tomorrow, so we can take a nice jog. I scheduled a CAT session with Chelse in a few weeks. I'm thinking about recruiting someone from the dog training group to try one with Dottie and a dog.
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ReplyDeletea gem from Pat Miller's blog where she sits in on a consult with Dr. Karen Overall regarding anxiety:
ReplyDeletehere's a link to it: at the end of the blog for Apr. 7
http://www.peaceablepaws.com/blog/
"She talked about treats, toys and praise, etc., being various reinforcers for dogs at various times, but, she said, “a dog’s most important currency is information.” They are always seeking to understand how their world works, and how to make it work for them, and they need information in order to do this. For an anxious dog, many behaviors we may read as “aggression” – growling, lunging – are ways of testing the environment to seek information. She reassured our mutual client (as I had already done) that when their dog was growling at them he wasn’t about to bite, but was merely offering information (I’m not comfortable here) and seeking information (what is happening, and how are you going to answer?)"