Training
Tips
“Neenies Soapbox”
By Janeen Jackson
Part I. The Soapbox
Many Catahoula owners have asked me to put some things like this on the board
here, to help those who are struggling with their dogs. Some of you I have
worked with in the background already. So Neenie will do this in parts and
climb up on the soapbox. If it will help our dogs keep their homes, I don't
mind a bit.
We pull dogs from shelter environments, and we have little to no clue what
their beginnings were, how or IF they were socialized, or whether they were
abused. We take them to foster care or into adoptive homes and all are
supposed to live magically and happily ever after. But that thought is far
from realism. Dogs that have been dumped in shelters often are traumatized greatly.
There are a few exceptions where the dog is just naturally easy going, happy go
lucky and hopeful. Often as not this is not the case; that type of dog is the
exception really. Most are pining for their owners, even if their owners
weren't the greatest, why? Because these Catahoulas are loyal to a fault and
the familiar is what they have known, and it is now gone and they long for it
back, are scared, confused, frustrated and some are plain angry and it
expresses itself in aggression, which can cause them to be labeled unadoptable
and they are put to sleep at the shelter or if it surfaces at their new
adopters home they are taken back to the shelter, when in reality if given
time, all this will dissipate with love, patience and understanding. So many are
deeply depressed, scared, skittish, defensive aggressive. They can be removed
to a home where they will either show behavior that is extreme or where they
will mellow out and you find a wonderful but usually needy dog on your hands.
Often a dog in a shelter won't even catch someone's heart or eye because they
appear to either be aggressive and unfriendly or they are in deep depression
and appear to be a blank page, withdrawn, unsocialized. Once removed from the
shelter, or even removed from one home to another, things will
change and it can become quite a process for the dog and
the adopters or fosters, until they actually settle in and settle
down. One of the things I stress here is this:
IT TAKES TIME for them to understand all that has befallen them.
Even the good they experience in your home, whether foster or adopter, it puts
them on one big high and then it becomes a roller coaster ride emotionally for
them.
Put yourself in their skin, they are removed from a situation that is akin to
death row in prison. Dogs yapping, people coming and going but not their owners
they are watching for, food changes which upset their digestive systems, to
mention a few.
Now here they are, more changes. Often thrown in with strange dogs, strange
people, maybe cats which they aren't used to or children which they aren't used
to.
They have a new pack and they have NO CLUE their status in the pack. Some dogs
try to bluff their way through this scary experience. They get defensive and often aggressive. Dog
fights erupt, children unsupervised get bitten, the dog goes to another foster
home or back to the shelter or is put to sleep. But listen, it takes time.
How would you like to go to a foreign country and not understand
their customs and language, be fed strange food and go through some scary
experiences that are at least scary to you? Going from familiar to prison to a
foreign situation and then have everyone expect PERFECT behavior and reaction
from you? We throw too much at them tooo fast and our
expectations of these animals are far beyond their comprehension and when they
become reactionary, DOGS REACT BY BITING, often as not. DOGS BITE! That is how
they settle pack differences in the wild and that is the only thing they know
to do in domestic situations and we kill them for it. We execute them for it.
What we constitute reasonable and non-threatening does not mean they feel or
see it that way. REMEMBER, THEY ARE DOGS... PACK ANIMALS and we are
considered their pack. Dogs have feelings. They mourn, they hurt, they are
afraid, they are defensive, they are hungry, they are needy, they feel love,
they give love, and they withdraw.
Our expectations and our rushing them with introductions to
friends, family, other dogs, is often overwhelming and often creates problems. We set time limits.
I have heard people say to me: Well it has been two months, and my dog loves me
I can tell. Love can be there but the dog can still not know its pack status
nor feel secure nor see you as a leader. Dogs are individual. Some dogs begin
to adjust quite rapidly and settle in nicely and quickly, however and this is
going to shock most of you. I have proven this more than once with my own dogs.
Until they have been in your home for a year, without bounce, with steady
consistent firm training and reinforcements mixed in with love and care and
re-building trust the chances are (even if you don't see it) that until that
year is up, your dog is not really secure and settled in at all.
I notice subtle things that most miss and I can tell you that while I saw (with
my easiest one) changes daily after a few weeks, and then things seemed to be
fine… SEEMED TO BE… at the end of that year I finally woke up one morning and
ironically it was almost a year to the day, I realized that the corner had been
turned and the settling in was complete and good. It was like waking up and
realizing that actually the sun was completely out. Some dogs take longer. I
have a male that is very sensitive; my rescue. With him I could see a huge
difference in a year, but now two years are gone and we are still having some
little setbacks. Maybe we always will, but I can tell you this... I am not
setting any time limits on this. If we do that we hurt our dogs. What
difference does it make if it takes time? Don’t we want them for their
lifetime? Do we realize that you train a dog from the moment you get them until
they draw their last breath? We polish and nurture and guide just
like we do your own children. We give up on our dogs but not our
children. But remember, Love isn't love until it’s given away, then we
start growing love all over again in our hearts and give it away again. Be it
to humans or our pets.
Part II. Expectations
When someone calls me for rehab help, one of the things we talk about is
expectations. We have high expectations for our children and for our pets. It
isn't bad to have expectations and to aim high, but we still have to keep it
realistic. A three year old child cannot hike 10 miles with a pack of adults.
That isn't realistic is it? So why do we expect puppies to behave as if they
were five years old? We do that often and we push until we have frustrated and
confused our dogs. We expect them to forget being abused or beaten or starved,
or whatever… forget it in two months, or two weeks
even? We expect all dogs are to love cats and kids and other dogs and everyone
that walks through the door of our house. Does every human love children? Does
every human love pets? Does every human love swimming in deep water, fishing or
hunting? We can name a long list. Does every human like every other human they
meet in life? Does every human like another human right in their face? NO, but
we expect our dogs to do this and even more. We take a breed of dog and expect
it to be like another breed too. A Houla is not a poodle and can never be, nor
can it be a laid back couch loving Basset Hound.
We have some Catahoulas that are very laid back and easy going,
but we also have some that need more stimulation and exercise. And it doesn't
mean every Catahoula has to be in agility or doing flyball
either. There are ways we can keep our dogs exercised and entertained and happy
even if we are limited on space and live in the city. It is all in stretching
our imaginations and commitment to the max. That is where love comes in though.
If we love, we make it work don't we?
Example: A pup was rescued from a shelter, a very young puppy, the puppy grew
and began to have more drive and more need. It was loved, but the dreams and
expectations of the owner were so far beyond what that puppy could possibly
give, not only at that age but maybe never. It wasn't to have any hunting
instincts and go smelling scents when they were hiking or riding, it was to
heel and stay close in spite of the tempting smells that were haunting and calling.
EXCUSE ME?? THIS IS A HUNTING BREED, and even if it wasn't, I could take a
poodle out with me on the same trail and I guarantee you that poodle would be
off nose to the ground, and if a deer jumps up in front of it.. GONE!! Natural
instincts were repressed right and left and the dog became more unresponsive
and the owner more frustrated. The end result, we rescued said pup. That pup is
in a wonderful home with children now, the whole demeanor; the whole nature of
the puppy is relaxed instead of tight and tense. A puppy or dog trying to
please you, to love and give love, to try to figure out what you are asking in
your foreign language; for human language and desires and outlooks are foreign
to horses, cattle and dogs my friends, and it causes a pup or dog to be
trying so hard that it gets up tight, it gets tense and it gets frustrated and
in time it can get defensive and even defensive aggressive.
The bare truth comes next. I rescued my large male. He was on one big
high and low as things changed and changed and changed in his life. When he got
to me it was like a roller coaster ride and I could see it emotionally. Big
changes, big strides, much progress, some backward steps. A dog that growled at
every visitor, now loves company, and all the perks it brings, a dog that you
could not read, but now is more open and easy to read. He was pushy in some
ways. While he was very much a beta dog, he also was an alpha wannabe as he
settled in. He was needy and he began to be pushy. So in trying to establish leadership
and give him security, which I did, and it was coming good, I also kept pushing
him in the background. He got pushy; he was made to be low man on the totem.
Then one day things came to a head. He
growled at me when I was loving him. I knew he didn't
like someone in his face and his space, but I forgot and I had been up tight
and I had been making him up tight and I had been on his case for weeks, he
couldn't do one thing right even if his name was RIGHT. I didn't realize things
had gone that way, it was because I was so keyed up and upset about things
myself and he was reacting and sensing those things and I was making him unsure
and insecure again. Oh listen? He growled at me seriously and I didn't have him
put to sleep? WHAT?? Well first of all it was defensive aggression and so what
was it that made him feel threatened? I had a lot to look at here, my own
expectations of him. Old scars, they are still there and I had rubbed one of
them. 90% of the problems with our dogs we create, whether we do it knowingly
or not. When I have something occur with my own dogs (and believe me I do
practice what I preach to you with my own dogs) then I start saying, OK JANEEN,
what did you do, what could you do better, what should you have or have not
done? I start looking at ME! So now we are looking at his need again, I have
quit pushing him into a place where he feels he is the CINDERFELLA! I didn't
even realize I was doing it to that extent.
Dogs feel frustrations and they KNOW when they aren't pleasing
you. He was trying, he was defeated and he got defensive because he was
worried. I have had some tell me that this is all far fetched, but it isn't
folks. Tension can be passed from handler to leash to the dog. Dogs smell and
sense intensely things that we as humans miss. Their senses are far keener than
ours by far. I have had dogs that didn't like someone they met and no reasoning
or cajoling changed that, in time I was to understand that the dog had the
person pegged far better than I. When my Gypsy first came to me I was in the
raw stages of mourning the loss of my husband. She would be sound asleep on her
bed in the same room with me, and I would put my head down on my desk and
quietly shed some tears, no sound made whatsoever because I didn’t want to
worry her. It seemed like in two seconds flat I would feel a head on my leg and
there she would be, her brown eyes looking into my tear filled eyes, asking me
what was wrong. How did she sense that? So what I am saying is this, if you
have a dog you really are frustrated with and you keep getting after it all the
time, but you fail to let it know it pleases you and that you love it in spite
of its failure, you are going to send that dog in a wrong direction every
single time; frustrate it. If your expectations are way out of line for your
dog, you will have a dog that will be an emotional tangle. Frustrated and
confused and getting conflicting signals from you. Children have been done the
same way too. Always put down, always being made to feel that they are deficit,
so they quit trying, their behavior becomes unbearable, they become delinquent.
Since that little episode and the looking IN with my male dog, he is a big boy
and could have nailed me in two seconds flat so it made me sit up and take
notice and one better do that when you see that type of reaction. You
cannot ignore it.
Remember, if a dog feels defensive or threatened in any way or
confused, there are only two modes in every creature on earth. FLIGHT OR
FIGHT. That is the bottom line. But he restrained his reactions and we got back
in sync. I am making him know he is doing plenty right things now and I am
not overreacting to his wrongs, I am correcting again but not overreacting and
not over expecting and setting time limits and being hard nosed about things.
He is happy and responsive again and relaxed. He isn't a dog that will be
relaxed like some I have had; he is more sensitive he is more
needy, he is more unsure of himself, unsure IN himself a lot. He is
going to need more reassurance from me and IF I AM A TRUE LEADER, I am going to
read the need and rise to meet the challenge to lead him into the expectations
that are realistic for what and who he is and can be. A dog has to feel good
about themselves too. We want to be proud of our dogs and they will give far
more than we can imagine. If we can
become the leaders that truly inspire confidence and security. BUT if we
want to feel PROUD to the extent that it is an ego trip for us and we will get
the behavior we wish from our dogs through dominance and pushy behavior; riding
roughshod over the dog, we are asking for big problems to surface, or at least
they can, and if they don't, we have lost respect and our place as a true
leader who inspires, we are only getting what we want for our own self gratification
and we lose the beauty of becoming truly a team and unit with our friend and
companion. Remember, we take them to be a friend and companion, and if our
motive is anything other than that first and foremost, we are the loser and we
could be setting our dogs up for failure and the end could be death. If we are
the leaders we should be, our dogs will be abounding and surprising us with
many things that are even beyond their own capabilities or our expectations.
But let’s not expect a dog to act like an elephant. That wouldn't be a
realistic expectation. Let’s get our expectations high but not so high that no
matter how wonderful the dog is, it can't meet the criteria and it fails enough
that it is either destroyed, dumped or re-homed needlessly. One man's trash has
often in rescue become another man's treasure. All that brought that about was leadership
where it had once failed, love where it had once grown thin.
Remember this about our dogs, life by the inch is a cinch, by
the yard it is hard. SET YOUR DOGS UP TO SUCCEED! Where love is thick, faults
are thin, where love is thin, faults become thick. I can always tell when I
talk to someone just how much they really love their dog. A dog doesn't care
how much you know until it knows how much you care.
Part III. The Bare Truth
Is there any time that I have taken a puppy and been disappointed with it, been
frustrated with it? I mean after all, I am telling you all what to do with all
these behaviors so how am I coping and how do I feel about my own? I do put my
dogs through the same things I tell you will work for yours. Yes I do, but I
also have some of the same bumps and grinds that you have. For instance: Just
recently we had someone being frustrated with a puppy chewing up everything in
their house. MYYYYYYYY does that sound familiar right now to me.
Let’s talk about this a bit and at the same time bring into play
COMMITMENT. I am going to talk turkey here and use an example we all have seen
right here amongst us. Bambi is kind of special to a lot of us but she and I go
a ways back, before rescue. Since I have sort of adopted her she is going to
let me use her as an example of commitment. She has three rescue dogs and one
purebred Houla, three males and a little female. Her males have presented some
challenges both health wise and otherwise along the way but basically have been
pretty much easy for her to rise to those challenges. ENTER BOBBI!! Bobbi has
chewed up her sheetrock, her bedding, and recently ate poison mushrooms to the
tune of $4000.00 to save her life. So where do we go from here Bambi? Like me,
Bambi failed foster 101 with Bobbi just like I did with Coal. We fostered,
planned on adopting the pups out, but we ended up keeping them. Now if Bambi
had adopted Bobbi out, it is very likely that Bobbi would either be back in a
shelter, or back on her doorstep. She is a challenge. BUT FOLKS SHE IS A PUP
and she will grow up and change in time. We just have to give her time and
training and guidance and even protect her from herself. Bambi is doing that.
How far has she gone in her commitment? A MUZZLE had to be bought, a little pup
walked in public with a muzzle on, criticism coming from an observer saying,
poor little pup, that little pup wouldn't bite anyone. Bambi had to patiently
tell the woman that the muzzle was on her to protect her from eating more
poison mushrooms which nearly killed her and protect her from eating other
stuff that could cause an expensive surgery and maybe cost her, her life with
bowel blockages. THAT MY FRIENDS IS COMMITMENT! Doing what you have to do,
understanding and loving in spite of things not being all you hope or planned.
Now back to my own pup. This is the most frustrating sweetest
pup I have ever had. THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN A WAY too. He is a pup that would
already have been turned back to a shelter. He is the wildest most unsettled
pup ever, even with the continual and I mean CONTINUAL training I give him. He
is the worst chewer I have ever had. He chews his blankets up, just nibbles on
them and scatters parts and pieces everywhere, sporadically but consistently. I
buy blankets at thrift stores just for him to destroy. I buy new sleeping bags
for Jellybean's crate in the car and he pulls it through the slats of his and
chews it to ribbons. He can come in the house nicely at times but most of the
time he is like a tornado when he hits the door. He is ALWAYS being corrected
heavily and he doesn't even know when the other dogs and I mean it seriously,
it is all play and a game and I am tearing my hair out with him. He is timid
and when I finally get through to him that I MEAN BUSINESS he is crushed. He is
sweet and loving too but he is a handful of a pup and I keep asking him and
myself, AM I EVER GOING TO MAKE A DECENT DOG OUT OF YOU BOY? But in all honesty,
I am not going to give up trying. At some point in time we are going to make
the turn. And the positive side to this is that he is loyal, he does adore me
in spite of all we go through, and we go through aplenty so don't think you
guys are the only ones that ride the roller coaster ride with your dogs. I
figure by the time he reaches about 10 we might make a dog out of him. One I can be proud of and tell people, I DID
IT! LOL. Sometimes it is one step forwards and three backwards, but you
know commitment is just that. No matter which direction, we just commit. When I
get mad at him I tell him I am going to feed him to Sweet Pea, (who jumped onto
him and tried to eat him alive, at least he thought she was going to) what he
doesn’t know is that Sweet Pea was put to sleep for her dog aggression. I still
tell him I am going to feed him to Sweet Pea if he doesn't shape up. He just
bounces around my feet in wild puppy abandon. REMEMBER GUYS, he is a puppy!!
And I have to remember it too and often. He is a puppy that had no guidance or
love in his early days. For six months he was over corrected wrongly and let go
with real training and then dumped in a shelter. He couldn't even ride in a car
at first without being a basket case and throwing up all over the place. He has
come a long ways. We have to look back and see where we have inched to. We want
miles but looking back at inches, it is miles.
Part IV. If You Are Lucky…The Last Part
A dog changes rolls from baby, to obnoxious take life by the throat teenager,
to brilliant adult, to fragile senior... and it happens so much faster than it
does with humans. It overwhelms us often as it takes place. The average Houla
lives 12 years. From 8 weeks to 6 months old they are sweet and very easy to
love and nurture. Then comes the hellion times. From approximately 6 months to
2 years they are babies but adult wannabees! Taking on the world and us in
gulps. At two years old they are blossoming a little and we think we MIGHT make
it yet, the light bulb begins to come on, in some maybe faintly, but it is
showing promise here. By three you think you MIGHT REALLY be going to have a
dog at some point and by four you know you are getting there. By five and six
you are feeling a bit smug and are on your way, and by the time you really get
them coming along nicely and feeling proud of them and yourself, they die! All
that work and you look back on it and it is gone in a blink. But all the love
and memories and all the wonderful things too are there and they hold us in
their spell as we shed tears and wish with all our heart we could have them
back, then it is on to another or maybe another and another. So yes, there is
some fast heartwork that takes place when we take on
a dog and especially a rescue dog. We owe every critter we take on, commitment.
WHY? Because we are the reason they are lost to begin with. Someone bred
casually, or carelessly, or someone bred two dogs or didn't spay/neuter and oopsies took place and there you have lives to deal with.
Then the dogs are dumped for whatever reason is given and then those of
us rescuing have to prove to them again that humans do care and can be
trusted and are committed. Critters cannot take care of themselves. They can't
make the right decisions for themselves. They are dependent on us. If we aren't
going to make a commitment to them similar to that which we would make to our
children who are helpless and vulnerable too, or to a marriage, for better or
worse, in sickness or health… etc. I used to tell people to get a goldfish, but
even a goldfish has to have commitment so I have stopped saying that.
When I think of commitment there are other wonderful examples.
Just recently a man and his wife got a little rescue Houla they were told by
their landlord that they couldn't keep it, so did they come to us and ask us to
find it a new home? NO SIR. They went looking for a new place to live and with
their pup in mind and a will to find it, they found
some acreage to rent that will work fine for them and their new pup. They
wanted it to work so they went after it in that manner. When Jimmy and I were
between homes, no place for a pup, living in an RV and apartment, we lost our
older settled Catahoula, and how could we get another pup to help us through
the mourning and loss? We so wanted one? Well we just did it and made it work.
It was a commitment and there is always more than one way to skin a cat.
I have a reference letter by the way, from the apartment manager telling anyone
interested that our pup did not destroy anything and he would rent to us and
our pup again. Not a bit sorry for those days and all the struggles we had to
make it work either. For she only lived 11 years and that is NOT LONG! Not for
the enjoyment she gave us, the loyalty, the love, the adoration and
protection... and she also was our working dog on our ranch; without her we
would have been hard pressed to do what we had to do every day with the
cattle work in our rugged terrain. We had no clue when we got her
that we would need her so much and we were lost without her when she died.
I realize there are circumstances where dogs have to be re-homed
and there is no option, even though love and commitment are there. But often we
give up too soon and too easily. I mean after all, if it isn't pushbutton
perfection and YESTERDAY, we give up right? WRONG!! I think of Grayson who was
so scared he hid under a porch and we all wondered if we could inch him along
to where he could have a life. Amy N. never gave up. She kept at it. Today Grayson visits dog parks
and plays with other dogs, he lives in an apartment but he has all sorts of
doggie activities that fill his emotional needs as well as physical
needs. His new family is committed to him; Amy was committed to
him as his foster. The dividends today are BIG because of commitment for
Grayson and those that helped him through and for his new family most of
all.
My purpose for climbing up on the soapbox is to tell you that
there is much that CAN be done. It all takes work and hope and purpose,
but the pay back is huge. Magic?? People have said I
work magic. They have sung my praises it only makes me feel very small because,
really, teamwork and commitment on the part of those I work with, TIME, and a
little experience and knowledge and imagination thrown in with willingness to
NOT GIVE UP (this being my part) is what is really bringing out the best in
your dogs, keeping you guys together. No magic, no quick fixes, no special
touch, just hard work together and BELIEVING. Stepping out in
faith, giving them another chance and another chance and another chance.
HOW MANY CHANCES HAVE YOU HAD IN LIFE? HOW MANY CHANCES WOULD YOU LIKE? WHAT IF
YOU GOT A FEW AND THEN IT MEANT DEATH; NO MORE CHANCES? There are cases that
can't be rehabbed unfortunately. So far I haven't met one yet that couldn't be
helped, but what I have met is human unwillingness, impatience, resistance and
so there have been some that we have lost due to that. So far we haven't lost a
dog due to the dog not being rehabbable. It can
happen, it likely will, but if we don't try how do we know for sure? Sweet Pea
that I loved was just put down because of dog aggression. I am not convinced it
was necessary but it wasn't my call. I tried to convince them to give her time,
to give me time. She had only been rescued 6 months.. that isn't long and all the frustrations and health issues
she was dealing with.. well it was a lot for a one
little Houla X Hound to deal with. I don't have all the answers, but I still
look for them. I am still willing to try and try and try again. If we have inch
progress and we are careful not to take unnecessary risks where someone is put
in jeopardy, we have little to lose to try and try again. When the turn is made
and rehab is complete and good.. well
the steps backward don't really seem significant at all. Whether you agree with
me or not, it is something for you to think about, it is something I am proving
weekly and others are proving and have proved.. or there would be no rescue dogs having a happy ending/and
new beginning. Next time you guys start asking me to post like this.. you will think twice.. Neenie
steps off her soapbox for now until you are brave enough to ask for an encore!!
LOL