Well Kooza is 15 months old today. What happened since that behaviourist visit? A lot....for the better of course.
I'm lucky to have had Tammy (and Lenise) to guide me through this "ordeal". They truly were my guides and I thank them for their patience and wise words.
Kooza hated grooming. He even bit me the 1st or 2nd time I had him and had tried a few times within that first-second week I had him - but did not let him win of course but he was showing signs of discomfort. Now, with time and lots of goodies, but mostly watching his signals, I can now groom him a good 30 minutes (if not more) and not a negative look comes from him. And I love grooming my pets. It is almost a calming therapy for me. And grooming Kooza is now a charm. Perfect ending!
The biggest news of all.....HE CAN SLEEP through the nights and more. Yeah!!!! He gets up when we get up. That is so neat. hihi He sleeps on one of our pillows (on top of our head - he has his own pillow as there is no way I'll sleep with a pee/butt smelling pillow hahaha). We can feel his breath on on our neck when he sleeps. But watch out if one of us wakes up. He is up like a watch guard ready for day - but can fall asleep when we go back to sleep. hihi
I had issues putting him through housebreaking. He was ok during the night. He was ok when we were home because he got taken out very often. But as soon as we'd be away from his sight, or at work, he'd pee where ever he happened to be. Not all the time but too often. I'd come home from work and found poop on the kitchen tile and a pee near his pee pad. He'd refuse being "isolated" from us (meaning in the powder room, or left in the kitchen area"). He'd bark up a storm like you would not believe. Drove us insane many times! So I took the bull by the horns and borrowed a huge crate (fits a lab) and he was back to crate-training during the day when we could not watch him. Spent 3 weeks that way during work hours (I have no clue if he barked up a storm...I was not there to hear it!!!!) and I tested him for a week (no longer crated) and he's been a week without one single drop of something on our floor (I'm probably going to jink myself here this morning!). It took a very long time for him to catch that he'd have to go outside...and hold it until we got home. My good friend who's a breeder of CKC told me that for some little dog, it may never happened to be housebroken. It is frequent. And she's thinking that at night, he sleeps but during the day, when we're away, he happens to be more "distracted" with noises, etc and the needs to go is "there". But for the time-being, the re-crating seemed to have work. He loves that big crate and runs to it the minute he's back from the outside (even though he is no longer using it), just in case a pizzle stick or rawhide would happen to have landed inside by magic. hihi
He is still verrrry shy of people but at least will go to smell them, and accept a pat on the head but not more than this. He is fine with those he knows very well. We worked a lot on this but it is not a won-battle just yet. At least he has not "snapped" anyone since then. He'll smell and bark and back away to come back to them. hihi A lot of work on my side to "train" people on how to approach a dog, any dog! No matter how cute it can be.
He still ignores all other dogs he does not know. He could not care less that they play. He does his own thing and sticks by me or Sylvain. He adores Takoda. It's like a shadow to him. In fact, he's probably glued to him and I never noticed. haha
He does not play with Nuuk except for tug-o-war. Weird heuh. He loves cats. Plays with them but can be overly excited and snaps (playfull way) at their faces. My cats don't care much and let him get away with it and when they've had enough, they reach for heights.
In general, he's very gentle with them. But once into the game, it's like he forgets they're kitties...and not Tako. He's a rough player. Never really played smoothly. He'd be a good wrestler for sure. He may be small, but he can push it. hihi
End of Spring, we finished his obed classes at this "specialized" place and will not return. I hate the way the training is done, and do not like what I see around me. Their training methods are not compatible with mine at all. They are sooo focused on obedience competition and there was no fun in training him. It was a good experience for training but that's it. Every time I got out of that class, I would be so demolished (for many things), that Sylvain wanted me to drop out before but I wanted to finish what I had started. Sylvain rarely saw me smiled when class was over. That is sooo not me.
I called back this behaviourist to report where we were at now and mentioned to him that I want to take a Zen Obedience class with him starting in November (his next session). He asked me to come to a "free" class last Wed. night to see where we stand and see if Kooza could stand an-hour class without barking too much, etc.
So I head there and of course he had to smoke the whole place for 15 minutes. Bark bark bark...you know...the high-pitched tone one. So while trainer was working with the class, I was working on Kooza's attitude. At the end of the "trial" he was ok and was able to shut up even with other dogs barking or moving around. But he is very sensitive to people/dogs moving around. But trainer said he sees no reason not to have him in a class as he is just as good as the other one. He's way more advanced than the "beginner" dogs there as he does all the commands already (sit, down, wait, come, relax, etc - all leash-less) but I insist on going to that beginner class so he can be soaked in a real class environment vs the one I attended last spring where we were basically one-on-one with little distractions. Great for competition...but no so for the needs I have right now. By the way, teacher was telling class that when a dog barks like Kooza was doing, to do what I was doing to him: keep him busy by calling him back to me. I was making Kooza do his "turn", give me 5 tricks, his down, sit, etc. And to teacher, this is what you needed to do. Get your dog's attention. I was doing exactly what he would have recommended someone to do. That is if you are in a class for instance. But if you were somewhere that would not disturb anyone and a dog was barking (lunging on leash, etc) like crazy, you simply ignore him. Not a word, not a tug on his leash. Ignore. It may take 5 minutes...even more. Ignore. But once the dog looks at you (while stopping his "bad" behaviour), click and praise. You work on "extinguishing" a behaviour by itself. It will need to be repeated often. But that is the best way to recondition a dog. Ignore and praise the good. I know...easier said then done as we talk to much and if a dog is barking, there is no way he'll be able to focus on you. His mind is already elsewhere. And you have 4/10 of a second to react. So if you work on your dog...you're not watching tv or vaccuming. You need to concentrate on training. Nothing else. It will pay off...quickly.
So overall he is a verrrrry good dog and I'm happy to have him in our family. He's really a little clown, always in a good mood. If I get mad (which is extremely rare) at him, he still has this cute face of "what have done wrong?" with a huge smile and tail waggling. You simply cannot get mad at him. It's just impossible. Little love bug.
So we have a few remaining issues but I'm confident that once this obedience class is over and I have better control of him (although he sticks by me like glue), but mostly he has a better control of his "emotions", he is going to be enrolled into agility. Now that Fall is here, I'm getting the equipment out in my yard and we'll start having fun. He was too young before (at least to my liking) to do a lot of those jumps, etc, and agility will be great for him (and me). He already knows the name of the equipment as we played on it on/off since he's been with us. But nothing serious.
Puppyhood and teenage years are basically behind him now...so welcome to the real world buddy!
