Getting a guardian puppy - any chicken<-->dog communicables I need to worry about?

[chickfused]

The doggy playdate did not go well. Copper was scared to death of the dog who seemed too dumb to realize she was being told to back off. I think Copper could have bit the hell out of her and she wouldn't have cared. (That didn't happen.) At any rate, Copper was fine chilling calmly and relaxed in a down position within 5 feet of the dog as long as it wasn't paying her any attention. So it wasn't "dog aggression" per se, it was "please don't eat me!" Eventually they had a short, but rough, play session and then after a brief seperation of just a few feet and some chilling, Copper was willingly going up to sniff the other dog. I think if we'd had another hour together, they may have got to a better place. We'll try again another time after she's met more dogs. She needs to learn to dog better from a non-dumb dog.

The dog she met yesterday and wanted to play with, didn't want anything to do with her, in a complete "I'm ignoring you" mode. So, she was trying to initiate everything and wasn't rough at all. She was begging for interaction instead.

And then she came home and learned about television which scared her as well for a bit as she'd never seen it before - we very, very rarely watch it. And she got a DIY snuffle box to demolish, filled with paper, and other boxes, and treats, and a new chewy bone. She eventually happily settled in to watch a movie with us and her new bone. And then she went to bed with her chickens.

I also met another livestock dog trainer today and her eyes lit up when I told her we had an English Shepherd. She's going to come over and do a site assessment with Copper and her chickens and help me learn how to channel her natural instincts to actually start doing work with them vs. just protection.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Glad you got the nap times/breaks down, all dogs need a break even work dogs. My dog is skitish around other new dogs, she is warming up but the more dogs you introduce her to the better. Also try getting dogs the same size as her till she is good with dogs, it helped my pup alot.

 

[chickfused]

I have a new dog. Way better with cats. Much less bitey. Listens better (recall has turned to shit but everything else is vastly improved). Hyper mess to mostly chill.

 

[chickfused]

We are doing really well. I am going to start volunteering at a local dog rescue so I can learn more about how dogs are supposed to interact and body language.

Copper knows she has a fun leash and a business leash, which is pretty cool. She figured it out. Chain for business and nylon for fun.

She remet the chihuahua she met 2 weeks ago and was an angel. He corrected her hard once. She learned. He's 9 years old and has no bullshit tolerance. She was very gentle with him, but too insistent. They are pretty close to play. Unfortunately he wanted to chase a chicken and she thought that was a great idea...

 

[chickfused]

And...she was back to a bitey, no fun mess today. I think we got off schedule for naps TBH. Tomorrow is another day.

Posting is going to go much slower until something interesting happens. It feels a lot like same old, same old right now.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

We are doing really well. I am going to start volunteering at a local dog rescue so I can learn more about how dogs are supposed to interact and body language.

Copper knows she has a fun leash and a business leash, which is pretty cool. She figured it out. Chain for business and nylon for fun.

She remet the chihuahua she met 2 weeks ago and was an angel. He corrected her hard once. She learned. He's 9 years old and has no bullshit tolerance. She was very gentle with him, but too insistent. They are pretty close to play. Unfortunately he wanted to chase a chicken and she thought that was a great idea...

Thats a great idea for joining the rescue group. That is pretty cool she knows different leashes. And also very good improvment with other dogs. Hopefully soon she will be all trained and perfect.

 

[chickfused]

Continuing to make positive, slow, steady progress on some open items:

• Biting is drastically decreased after some hail marys: I bit her ear when she was defiantly biting me badly (I know that some people hate this, but in desperation I figured I'd try it once or twice and see what happened), I slathered my hands in gel anti-perspirant (which has a high alum astringency) and I've been consistent with removing myself from the situation to put the dog in timeout when she's been biting me when there wasn't a danger to herself or others during the biting episode. Biting (not mouthing, biting) has been reduced 75% this way, and I think the rest can be settled with the reverse timeout and consistency over time. She checks herself more often that not now.
  
  
• Cat sensitivity is slowly decreasing, but one of my cats won't correct her _enough_ and I worry for him that he's teaching her that he can play rough vs. that he's pissed. The other cat set her straight with a few episodes of good scratched nose, and now she gives him a lot of respect and a wide berth. She's still interested, but much more calm. She remains fairly respectful with my elderly boy and just tries to lick him. He's cautiously interested in her, but has no sense of self preservation at all as near as I can tell.
  
  
• Continuing to enforce naps/downtime is also working well to produce a much less hyper/excitable puppy.

She seems much happier overall really. And so am I.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Continuing to make positive, slow, steady progress on some open items:

• Biting is drastically decreased after some hail marys: I bit her ear when she was defiantly biting me badly (I know that some people hate this, but in desperation I figured I'd try it once or twice and see what happened), I slathered my hands in gel anti-perspirant (which has a high alum astringency) and I've been consistent with removing myself from the situation to put the dog in timeout when she's been biting me when there wasn't a danger to herself or others during the biting episode. Biting (not mouthing, biting) has been reduced 75% this way, and I think the rest can be settled with the reverse timeout and consistency over time. She checks herself more often that not now.
  
  
• Cat sensitivity is slowly decreasing, but one of my cats won't correct her _enough_ and I worry for him that he's teaching her that he can play rough vs. that he's pissed. The other cat set her straight with a few episodes of good scratched nose, and now she gives him a lot of respect and a wide berth. She's still interested, but much more calm. She remains fairly respectful with my elderly boy and just tries to lick him. He's cautiously interested in her, but has no sense of self preservation at all as near as I can tell.
  
  
• Continuing to enforce naps/downtime is also working well to produce a much less hyper/excitable puppy.

She seems much happier overall really. And so am I.

Sounds like she is doing great!

 

[chickfused]

Things are continuing to progress well. Her off-leash, out of sight recall is improving, "leave it" is coming along nicely, the cats are still teaching her manners, she's met 5 dogs now and eventually tried to play with all of them. One played back with her, super rough too, which she seems to like. I thought they were going to kill each other, but they both were happy as clams (another stock dog type, a Texas Heeler).

She's still incredibly mouthy, and occasionally throws a biting temper tantrum, but we're not regressing or getting worse, so I'll just keep at it on those. She's getting her adult teeth.

She spent some time supervised off leash with her chickens yesterday and she still does not understand chickens are not going to play with her. She kept play bowing to her archnemesis white chicken, who would respond by pecking her nose, making Copper think the chicken wanted to play. Translation problems all over the place.

She just plays so rough, I can't let her be with the chickens or the cats - she could legitimately play them to death. My 8 pound fluffball is now 26 pounds.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Glad she is getting better in areas. Give her frozen carrots for her teeth, my vet told me to do this with my pup to help her. Im not sure how to stop her from thinking the chickens will play with her, eventually she would learn though.