Changes

Over the weekend I decided to give Bell a trial period without crating her at night. While doing my house cleaning on Saturday I moved the crate into one of the spare rooms and in it's place I washed all of the doggie blankets and put her bed/blanket down and attached a leash to the leg of the bed.

In the evening I let her out to go potty and then told her to "go to bed", instead of walking around my bed to go to her corner she likes take a shortcut by hopping up and over my bed, but this time when she saw that the crate wasnt there she put the breaks on and stood on the edge of my bed looking down. I told her again to "go to bed" but she stood there looking at me funny, like 'I wold but it's not here'.

I again told her to go to bed and guided her off of my bed and onto hers. It took about 10 minutes for her to settle down and get the idea, she kept wanting to either climb up on my bed or go over to Sadie and but her; but once she finally laid down she stayed put for the rest of the night without any problem.

She repeated the process last night except that it only took her about 5 minutes to settle down and go to sleep. I think that she is going to be just fine! Though the crate was doubling as a night stand for me and I dont have space for a night stand and both doggie beds, I think I'm going to make some sort of shelf for the wall that I can put up to use instead. For now though I'm just happy that I can get that huge crate out of my room! And now I'm going to now be on the hunt for some new doggie beds instead of a new crate!

The other new change for Bella is that over the weekend, we added a doggie door to the door that goes between the back yard and the garage. This way the girls will have access to the garage without us having to leave the door open all of the time. When it's cold or windy outside this should help to keep it warmer in the garage.

After about 5 minutes and some treats, Sadie is a pro and loves coming in and going out through the door. But my poor little 'fraidy cat' having a more difficult time adjusting. I have coaxed her through it a few times, as long as she is on a leash so she cant run away and I hold it open for her she will creep through. But she now is even balking at walking through the doorway even if the regular door is open. I'm hoping that with some time she will settle and get accustomed to it, and that with Sadie using it, it will help show her that it's not going to hurt her.

Poor girl I guess it was just a lot to change for her in one weekend!

To crate, or not to crate?

Lately I have been considering whether or not to continue to crate Bella at night. Her crate is the huge plastic "varikennel" kind and takes up so much precious space in my teeny 10x11 bedroom so at first I was considering purchasing her a new smaller wire type crate that wouldn't be so bulky but then DH mentioned just getting rid of the crate altogether and leashing her to the leg of the bed, like I do with Sadie. I could spend the money I was going to use on a crate, and get them both nice new cushy beds and blankets (it gets REALLY cold in there at night) for the floor in my room instead.

I'm undecided. It's been over a year that Bella has been sleeping in the crate; she does fine and sleeps the entire night without any problems, she never has any potty accidents. Sadie started out in the crate and eventually graduated to the leash/bed; and if she is leashed, she wont be able to wander and get herself into any trouble during the night. But Bella doesn't tend to handle change very well, I'm just not sure if it's too soon for her to graduate. My other concern is whether or not she will leave Sadie alone and let her sleep. I don't have the space to put them on opposite sides of the bed and even if leashed (one to the head and one to the foot of the bed) they will still be able to touch each other.

I'm thinking that before I spend any money either way, I might give it a trial run one night. I'll move the crate out and then move her bed that she has in the living room (one that she's used to being leashed to and sleeping on) to my room and see how she does. If it works, it would be awesome to get some space back in my room!

If only...

This past week as I've been doing "homework" with Sadie for her obedience class I have also decided to work Bella to refresh her training as well. I really haven't done much formal training with her for a while and I had forgotten how good she can do (at least she does at home when no one is around) She hasn't missed a beat!

I think the break may have been good for her because she seems even better now than she was before. Even things that seemed to give us trouble in the past, such as the "moving down" she did quite well the other night!

If I can only get her past the extreme fear/shyness that she has. Last week there was an episode of Dog Whisperer that confirmed my beliefs about why she is the way she is. It was a Mallinois who was a trained sniffer dog. He was awesome at what he did but he had a problem with being very shy and afraid of sudden noises and movements around anyone other than his primary trainer/owner. The poor guy acted just like Bella does! When DW and the owner/trainer sat down to discuss the dogs problems the owner told him that he had spoken to the breeder and asked why the dog behaved like that and was told that the dog had spent the first 8 months of his life confined to a crate. I truly believe that this has been Bella's problem, I have no idea what happened to her during the first 5 or 6 months of her life but based on her behavior I think that nothing happened! I really think that she spent her time either tied up left in someones yard/garage/crate without any interaction during the critical developmental stages that a puppy goes through.

The good news is that DW was able to bring the dog on his show back from what he called "total rock bottom", unfortunately I am not him and I don't have access to some of the things he did to bring about such a rapid and extreme change in the dog. He took the dog everywhere, even places like New York! He had someone with the dog 24/7 working on his confidence and socialization.

I do have hope for Bella though, I now know that have been doing the right things with her, it's just been a bit slower going. She has improved some but she does still have a long way to go. I think the weather is starting to get better so I really want to start getting her out and about again. I want to take her to places like, petsmart, the park, and even the outdoor areas at restaurants/coffee shops. Even if she never improves enough to compete at another trial, I want her to be able to have a happy panic-free life!

Merry Christmas!

From Bella!

Bella's New Bling

Bella got new bling for Christmas!

Guess there is always next year...

For months now my dog club has been discussing the idea of participating in the local Christmas Parade this year. The plan was to do drill team type demonstrations for the duration of the 5 mile parade route.

I really wanted to participate with Bella as this would provide a great socialization experience for her to be around so many people. But I felt that it would be pushing it to expect her to not only be around all of those people, but to also do drill team exercises.

I got my hopes up when, at our last meeting, they discussed the situation in more detail and offered that anyone who didn't feel that their dog was ready for the drills, could still participate in the parade by just walking along behind those doing the drill exercises.

At that point I started to get excited thinking that "we can actually do this!" Then they announced the date and time of the parade...

December 4th at 5pm.

Crap.

Where will I be on December 4th at 5pm?

In Long Beach at Eukanuba!

No parade for us this year, dang it.

A Walk in the Park

Yesterday afternoon Bella and I went for a walk at the park. We had just about finished our first lap when a lady with a White Shepherd pup approached us. She said asked how old Bella was, I told her about a year and a half. The lady said that her pup was the same age. She then said that her dog was very dog-shy and asked if we would mind if she would just follow us for a while to try to get her dog comfortable walking near Bella. Of course we were happy to help.

Bella set an awesome example and just kept on walkin' right along with me. She looked back once or twice but I think that was more because of the lady and not the dog. After another lap the lady was able to move up and walk her dog right next to us. She was surprised at how well her dog was behaving. Both dogs behaved beautifully!

It worked out quite well for both of us actually, because the other dog had a positive experience with another dog and Bella had a positive experience with a stranger.

During our walk, the Shepherd Lady kept commenting on how well behaved Bella was, and that she had always loved and admired the "Pitties" but that she didn't feel she could handle one. I commended her for being responsible enough to understand that. "Pitties" are great dogs if they are raised and socialized properly, but like any breed, they are NOT for everyone.

Anyway, Shepherd Lady and I had a good conversation about dogs, training and how they help us be more balanced people. Though the lady was on the right track, I was able to give her a few training tips that might help her and also referred her to Trainer Guy because I'm sure he could really help the few issues she was having with her pup. I hope she goes. LOL Maybe I could get a freebie or a discount for referring her.

After we had finished our laps I left the park with an awesome feeling.It was such a great experience for all of us! Bella behaved beautifully with both the other dog and the strange lady. And we were able to help socialize and educate another dog and owner!