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koalathebear ([personal profile] koalathebear) wrote2014-02-18 05:04 pm
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Twiggy: Day 3 in care - 'drop' and some anti-barking training, meeting Ruby

Today, Twiggy has learned to 'drop'. I wasn't meaning to start training that yet but she is quite receptive and it wasn't hard to teach her. I might teach a 'shake hands' soon as she is still too tentative to follow a food lure for a spin.

She is good in her crate if we are around but barks like mad if she's crated in another room or when we leave the house. Today when Dan and Mr M went to pick up Mrs M, I pretended to leave with them and spent the hour coming in and and out of the house - rewarding Twiggy when she was quiet. She was very good by the end and I was outside for 15 minutes without hearing any barking, but it's still very early days.

She seems to have learned that although the other dogs are allowed on the sofa and the day bed, she is not so she does not try to go up there anymore. No house-training accidents today and she has been toileting with the other dogs.

When she's with humans, Twiggy is great and has a lovely off-switch. Unlike other fosters, we haven't had to do the 'crate' or 'tether' as she does not wander restlessly or race around. For instance, Ollie and Juniper were tethered to my desk/leg for days ... maybe even a week or so before they 'settled' and learned not to wander and pace all the time.

Her 'issue' is that she is very clingy to people. As long as people are around she is happy but if people leave or if she is outside (even with other dogs) and there are people inside, she gets very distressed and agitated. This is going to take some time to address I think. As I type this post, she is in the kitchen and just calming down after having had a fairly noisy dummy spit about being crated alone in the kitchen while everyone else is in the other room.





















This is her in the study crate. Very content to be crated if she's in the same room as people






She has an off-switch and is not a restless pacer. Here she is when we were watching a DVD - happy to chill out in a dog bed or the soft crate next to it.


She slept quietly the second night as well. We went to visit Sam to drop off an ethernet cable and let Twiggy meet Ruby.

She is very much a people-oriented dog. She has got along fine with all dogs she's been introduced to so far but she's quite indifferent to them. If she's outside with the dogs, she wants to be inside with the humans and is hanging at the door all the time. This may change as in she may start playing with the dogs more and start moving away from the back door but at present, she plays with them a little but just shadows the door hoping to come in.

She has pretty strong separation issues. She's fine while in a crate if humans are around. If she's in a different room she's a caterwauling mess.

Weirdly when we were at Sam's house, Dan and I were outside with Ruby and Twiggy and Sam was inside on the computer. Twiggy spent the whole time at the door wanting to go inside. Only when Sam came out did she move away from the door - even though (no offence to Sam she didn't really know Sam at all so it wasn't anxiety caused by separation from Sam. It was just that "there is a human inside and so I want to be there rather than with the two humans outside."

I haven't met a dog like this before. She's not timid and skittish like Dodge and Juniper were. She warms up to humans and dogs quite quickly. It's the neediness/separation issues that are new - and therefore challenging.

In all other respects, she is a good dog and learns very quickly. I know I am being harsh - it is only day 3. It's just so weird!!! :)











This was Twiggy when Roo was getting zoomies. She was totally fine until the end when she decided she'd had enough. She told Roo off once and then was fine.


To be honest, once we can address her separation issues she would be a great sports dog. She's light on her feet, jumps gracefully, is ball-motivated AND she is very human-focused and not distracted by other dogs. For many dogs, seeing Roo running around like that would make them want to run, too. Elbie, Hoover and Dodge certainly would, but Twiggy stayed very calm.

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