Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Time to check in with an update. Hi Docs!

It's past time. Passed time. It is passed time I should check in with Roscoe's psych docs. Why do I keep putting it off? Cuz I just don't really know what to say. He's such an enigma. I mean, really, can he just be who he is for ONE day??? No, he has to be Marky Mark one day and Davy Jones the next. Last weekend we spent time visiting a house full of dogs and what does my little aggression case do? Spends the whole time trying to hump red border collies? Well, not just the red dogs, but the poo-cocka-poo-poo also. He was a HUMPING machine! This is my dog-dog aggression case. He's now FEELIN' THE LOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEE. We visited some very tolerant red dogs. I put a stop to it. Poor red dogs.

He is SO high at Rally-O class he heels on his back feet. The other students ask our instructor if that's acceptable? Can a dog qualify in Rally-O heeling on just two feet? We actually looked it up and there is nothing in the rules that say a dog must have all four feet on the ground. Oh MY!

He has stopped his marking in the house, however, so that is good. But, he DID pee one night when I left the dogs for three hours to have dinner at a friend's. I think he thought I must be going someplace fun, like dog class or something and he got upset. I wondered if he might get upset and had put his belly band on him. He peed in it. Tonight I took Spur to class and put Roscoe in his crate. No pee. I think he is going to have to be crated at night if I leave. I do believe he thinks at night any time I leave it must be to dog class. He LOVES dog class and gets upset if I leave him. The nerves just over-whelm him and he can't hold his pee. It's that simple. Nothing cynical, nothing medical, nothing vindictive, just Roscoe upset that he can't be with me TRAINING, TRAINING, TRAINING! The dog LOVE to train! I think he could train all day long and all night long. His ability to learn things, to practice old steady things, to work for me, to figure things out, to bring me my coffee in the morning...........well.........OK,.............so that was a stretch, but the dog LOVES to train! It's probably his absolute favorite thing to do, of all thing, except maybe eat dinner. He LOVES his dinner.

Roscoe is doing well. I am focusing on training him, teaching new things, sharpening up old things (he's doing the Sylvia Trkman backwards weaving around my legs pretty perfectly now!!). I am praising him for breathing oxygen. Yep, I try like heck to praise him when he is just being. It's really beneficial to him to get lots of praise, so when he is being good he gets praise. Breathing oxygen, praise. I think it is really helping.

So, I don't even really know how to update his docs. We haven't had trials lately to test his clonidine. But, I can say things are better. Why? Not the meds. Training more? Praising him more? Who knows, but things are better.

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