Help Me Get Inside This Dog's Head - Page 3

He's depressed, Sunsilver. Part of his problem. He can work through this, and with your renewed compassion, I have high hopes for everyone to work this situation out. You saw the bigger picture, and yes, he needs you to help his people understand him, he would not do well in a shelter.

My dog with separation anxiety was fantastic with the babies, by the way. He just wanted to be with his people. That's it, that is what he lived for.

When we had to board him, you described exactly what he would do. Mope and not eat. Oh, and bark... non-stop, the first times, I was told. He was even worse at one time, (different kennel) and had been frantic and bloodied his paws trying to escape. I felt so awful, I resorted to valium for the dog before I would drop him off, (new kennel) in the very, very beginning. (Vacation stays, only). And then the kennel people when I asked, said, no they did not give him any more, because it was not a good choice for a depressed dog.

That person opened my eyes, and made me a very loyal customer. I knew then, they had my dog's well-being, foremost in their mind.

Sunsilver, sounds like you've got a good handle on the situation now...it's always helpful to flesh out things you're seeing (or not seeing) in a dog like this by putting a LOT of thought into it so you can formulate your basic foundation plan; I DO hope you've explained to the owner that this is far more than just basic 'doggy day care', though, and are going to be adequately compensated for the amount of extra work that is going to need to be done.  If you can't bring yourself to charge more than the basic day care rate, then at LEAST insist that *they* either supply the training treats directly to you, or have the cost of these training tools added to their bill each week...

A word of caution, from the experience of my mentor in training: do NOT let this client run a 'tab'; insist the bill be paid weekly.  These are the types of situations where you too often can wind up not only getting stiffed on your fees, but stuck with the dog as well when the owner fails to pick him up one day due to 'an emergency' that stretches out into several days, then weeks, and suddenly a month has passed and you now have a resident dog instead of a boarder. :(  If both the husband and wife were both emotionally invested in the dog, it would be less likely they'd abandon him, but in this case, it's all too possible. :(

Hope you'll update everyone every so often as you work with him...it can be a useful learning experience for all of us to hear you review what worked best, what didn't work at all, etc.  Good luck!

How many days does the dog come visit you?  Is he nervous?  Does he eat his meals at your facility?  Maybe have the owner bring his food and you can feed him while hes at your facility.  If he doesnt eat perhaps try separating him from the other dogs somewhere he can watch them eat, it might spur his appetite.  He likes to go for walks, maybe if you had time you could take him and another dog you think he has a good chance of getting along with for a group jog or bike ride.  Something vigorous to really work out negative energy.  He might have grown up with no dog socialization and is overwhelmed.  He might come around if he can form a bond with one dog before a group-maybe a calmer, older dog?  Im not a trainer, but these are just some things I thought might be worth trying.  I would be giving him lots of treats, trying different things until I found something he really liked.  (chicken neck, with owner permission?  I havnt found a dog yet nervous enough to refuse one of those) If you make it fun enough and give him treats coming to see you should be like a kid going to Grandmas house :)  Good luck.

Sunsilver....i am not an expert in any shape or form but may I suggest attaching dogs leash (maybe even with prong collar on the doodle) to another dog with good energy?....

It worked great for me when I had anti social/food possessive ridge back that did not get along with one of my dogs and after getting to no where for the first week I attached her for 4-5 hrs a day to one of my dogs (1st 2 days i watched them like a hawk) and within a week there was a huge difference, dog learned to follow my dog, come when called, run after a ball even though there was no chance of her getting it, and eventually those two became play buddies, 6 months later owners did not recognize their dog, she no longer dug holes, did not knock kids over, did not jump on you, gave up her bones w/o snarling, I still hear how much of a transformation happened...what i don't tell them is that most of the work was done by my dog. LOL. 

LOL! Can we call you "Caesar?" He does't yoke dogs together, but he does let his pack does a lot of training on dogs that have never been properly socialized!

Thank heavens this guy is neutered. The one I had in for boarding on the weekend was not, so even though the owner wanted him to play with other dogs, we had 'issues'. He wouldn't submit to my older neutered male, so I had to separate them before it got too hostile, and he kept bugging the ladies. He was very lucky they didn't tell him off. I could tell from his behaviour he'd never been around other dogs enough to learn the pack rules.

I'm sure this is going to sound really lame but it works for us.

We rarely board Senta but sometimes we have to when we travel for work. Senta is very attached to my husband so when boarded at the kennel, she refuses to eat and constantly paces in her outdoor run. It's awful- we end up picking up a skeleton with hair. She LOVES to swim, even in the dead of winter, so I paid the kennel to let her swim in their outdoor dog pool or play in a kiddie pool if they felt it was too cold out. She will eat some food if we do this (as opposed to not eating anything for 5+ days). Perhaps the golden doodle would enjoy playing in a kiddie pool with a ball?

Laura, this is November. I live in CANADA.

Great suggestion for the summer, though, and we do have a kiddie pool that we let the dogs use!

Pissing rain today. The poor doodle is NOT going to get very much exercise, I'm afraid. It's really nasty out there!

LOL Sunsilver! I live in Kitchener, ON. Senta chooses to swim all months of the year if there is open water. I think the kennel I use has an indoor play area that they put the kiddie pool out for her although she would gladly have swam in the outdoor pool.

Our indoor play area is only 20x20, and doesn't have much in the way of heating (working on fixing that!)  I hate to think of a dog this size romping in a pool in that small an area. Otherwise, good suggestion...   I hope to have a larger enclosed play area some day, but right now, I'm trying to figure out how to heat the area we have, and still have enough money left over to celebrate Christmas!

I don't want to wind up having to give everyone a piece of coal for their stocking!

BTW, I'm in Ontario too, close to Bradford!

You can save the kiddie pool suggestion for when you are really desperate. :)

I recall that the farm country in the Bradford area is gorgeous! Lucky you!