(spoiler: I mostly just needed a place to vent, though any advice would be great!)
This is Cooper. He's around 3 years old. He's a Doberman terrier mix. A rescue twice over. He is adorable, loving, and a huge fucking handful.
To avoid the quagmire of poorly explained emotions, turn to page 26
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Cooper
My partner and I got him this past week. We knew he would be a lot to deal with. He's very reactive to other dogs (barking, lunging), and has a boatload of energy. That's okay, we thought - we have a lot of time on our hands, we can just take him for walks.
We live at the end of a cul-de-sac. Turns out, every single house (except for one) owns at least one dog, most own two. They almost all have fenced in front yards, where their dogs are always running around. This means that the furthest we can get without Cooper getting freaked out is about 20 yards, on a good day.
That's okay, we thought - we have a fenced in yard too, and the neighbor on the other side of the fence doesn't have a dog!
Turns out that there's a reason for that.
Mrs. Jenkins, pt. 1
Our neighbor is named Mrs. Jenkins. She told me her first name once a few months ago, but everyone seems to just call her Mrs. Jenkins. She's about 80 years old, and has lived in her house for 52 years. I live at the edge of Cully, one of the historically black sections of Portland. Mrs. Jenkins and her family are one of two remaining black families on my block - the rest are, largely, white couples under the age of 30. A few families that have been here for a while, but it's mostly renters.
Mrs. Jenkins, I learned yesterday, is terrified of dogs. She was chased by a pack of dogs and bitten when she was a child - I don't know much more of the context than that. Her house is adjacent to 5 other houses - each and every one of those houses has a dog. Her yard is fenced in on all sides, and there is a beautiful garden along the perimeter. Tending to this garden seems to be one of her favorite activities, and she spends most of the morning doing so.
Cooper is good with people. Sure, he gets excited when I get home, but he doesn't bark at people otherwise.
Except, of course, at Mrs. Jenkins. And her family.
The Last Owners
I don't know much about Cooper's past - we got him from a couple who were living in an apartment complex on the outskirts of Portland. It was... not so great. They were hoarders, and had been feeding him pretty much only hot dogs. He had a shock collar on, which they gave us for free. It was clearly meant for their other, bigger dog. On our walk to the car, his owner Vince was giving me advice on being the "alpha", and letting me know that he tried the shock collar on himself, and the highest setting wasn't too bad, so that's what he uses on Cooper.
This couple had gotten Cooper from a shelter. He was going to be euthanized soon if they didn't adopt him, because he had gotten into a serious fight with another dog before and his owners abandoned him. I guess he was in a pretty rough condition when they got him. They told me that if he attacks another dog again and the owner alerts Animal Control, he'll be killed.
They don't know much about his first owners, but they think he was being trained to be a guard dog.
Mrs. Jenkins, 2
Back to Mrs. Jenkins. She has tarps on all sides of her fence, except for the side connected to us. She put them up because she was afraid of the dogs that kept jumping at the fence when she was gardening.
She's putting up some tarps on our side today. Cooper hasn't lunged at her or anything, but he barks at her when she's gardening. Again, she and her family are the only people I've seen Cooper bark at.
I don't know if this is a thing that is even possible, but I think the dog's first owners might have trained him to bark at any people of color he saw. I feel more than a little insane for thinking that. Even if not, I have no idea why the only person that he barks at is the one person in all of Portland who doesn't like dogs.
I feel acutely aware of the fact that I am starting to impose on a neighborhood that was once largely black. All my anxieties about becoming a part of gentrification are coming to a head, and I'm having a hard time dealing with it all.
Enough Sleep
I know that these are small problems that feel dire just because I've been getting less sleep than usual. I'm waking up earlier to take Cooper out, because I can actually take him for a walk at 6 AM without worrying about other dogs. And if I stay up till 1 AM, the other dogs are asleep already, and I can walk him then.
I've been spending a few hours a day doing leash training with him. He doesn't pull as much anymore, which is a start. I know that his pent up energy is the biggest problem here, and once I can actually walk him safely, everything else will start to fall into place. He can go to sleep sooner, and hang out in the yard without freaking out. I can slowly socialize him with other dogs. Mrs. Jenkins can take down some of her tarps.
It all takes a lot of time. I just want everyone to be okay in the meantime.
Page 26
TL;DR: Any advice for getting Cooper some indoor exercise while I'm working on leash training him? I've been playing tug of war, and he's getting a lot of his food out of a Kong now, which tires him out a bit. He can also walk around in our yard, as long as our neighbor is inside and he is on a leash.
That is a beautiful dog. Beautiful. I mean it. You got yourself a damn good looking dog. Thing number one. A tired dog is a good dog. Keep your dog well exercised and mentally stimulated and he'll be much easier to handle. Thing number two. See what you can do about obedience lessons. With your dog's history, I'd actually recommend seeing if you can hire someone to come to your place for private lessons. Your dog has a past with other dogs that means bringing it in proximity with other dogs is a bit of a risk. Especially this early in the game, having him around other dogs is very much ill advised. Thing number three. Keep up with the leash training and try to socialize but be super careful about it and do it in a safe, controlled environment. Hopefully it all works out well for you, but if it does, keep in mind, you can control your dog, but you can never control your dog. It is an animal with a mind of its own and no matter how obedient it is, there's always a risk that it will misbehave on a whim. For example, let's say you had your dog for five plus years and all this time it's never stolen food off the counter when your back's been turned. Then one day, when you and your buddies had friends over for potluck, it got into food and you're all like "Wow. I'm surprised he did that. He's never done that before!" Don't be surprised. He's a dog. He's gonna do dog things, including running away, barking, rolling in dead shit, on and on. Part of dog ownership is risk mitigation and knowing that dogs are as unpredictable as they are predictable and it's your job to predict and prevent unpredictable behavior. In the case of your dog, this especially includes aggressive behavior. He's already had one strike and a second strike would be tragic. Thing number four. Seriously. That's a good. looking. dog. I'm jealous as to how handsome your dog is. Thing five. We have a dog that is randomly dog aggressive. When I say randomly, I mean we can take her for a walk at the park and she's perfectly fine with 90% of the dogs she passes and one day she's completely fine passing up a dog and the next time we go, she'll bark, snarl, and raise her hackles at the exact same dog. In those circumstances, we control her, apologize profusely for her behavior, and immediately remove her from the zone of conflict. Dogs are weird, they have their own signals to each other, and by the time they're 20 feet within another dog they've both already made up their minds as to whether or not they'll want to get along. We use this leash with a sturdy chest harness that for some reason I can't find online any more. See that second loop? That's for you to grab with your other hand whenever you need to control your dog. Thing six. If you need to avoid taking your dog out in public because it just can't handle other people/dogs/kids, whatever, that's fine and there's no shame in it. When you do need to take your dog out in public, say, to go to the vet, and you've decided that you need a muzzle for your dog (and I'm not saying you do, we're just talking hypotheical here) there's no shame in that. It's for other people's protection, you're protection, and most importantly his protection. You might get some funny looks, don't fucking worry about it. You're doing the right thing. Just know, if you do need a muzzle, your dog is gonna feel EXTREMELY vulnerable and you need to modify your behavior to help mitigate that. Thing seven. You've taken a dog that has had a trouble past, given it a third chance at life, and you're ready to celebrate everything that is amazing and beautiful about it. Pet your dog. Rub its belly. Kiss its forehead and tell it how much you love it. That picture, right there, is of a dog with good, friendly eyes. It deserves every ounce of love you can give it. Love the shit out of that dog. If everything goes right, shit's gonna be AWESOME. Thing eight. Experiment the fuck out of toys with your dog. See which ones he likes, see which ones he dislikes, and try new things from time to time. Sometimes dogs will like only one or two kinds of toys, sometimes all of the sudden they like completely new things. Thing nine. This is my best advice (and I'm sorry for focusing on the negative, I'm just trying to give some tips to help you with your underlying concerns). My best advice might not actually be the best advice. Consult your vet. Consult dog trainers. Maybe even pop over to reddit and make a duplicate post for this over in r/dogs. I've gotten good advice from all three places over the course of me owning my giant ball of fun. Thing ten. Seriously. I can't get over how good looking of a dog you have. Good pick. Edit: someguyfromcanada, you've worked with rescue dogs before, right? If so, your input would be much appreciated.
Thank you so much, I really truly appreciate it. He is such a good boy, especially for a rescue - he doesn't beg for scraps, he's housebroken, and he's good with people (and yes, gorgeous - expect more pics in this week's pubski!). I'm happy that he just has dog aggression - it's a much more manageable issue than him hating people. Re: thing nine - I've been stopping by the local pet store every day since I got him, and I've found them to be incredibly helpful and reassuring. They offer free classes on training once a week, and I plan on going to just about all of them.
TOUGH LOVE THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO WANT TO HEAR 1) That is not an "indoor" dog. 2) You are not in a place in life to deal with this bullshit. 3) You have had the dog less than a week. One of three things is going to happen: 1) You move. 2) Mrs. Jenkins moves. 3) Cooper moves. I'll bet you have a lease. Mrs. Jenkins has lived there 52 years. Cooper has been there less than a week. Seriously. All that's left is the waiting. And with the waiting, suffering. Because you want to be nice, but you're deciding you're giving over your life to making a poorly-behaved (your own admission) rescue dog not freak out your neighbor. That's going to make you resent the dog, the neighbor and yourself. The energy you're sinking into this is energy you didn't have in the budget. Sure, you have "a boatload of time" now but what you just decided is that you never want to use that time for anything but keeping a dog under control. A dog you didn't have last week. A dog that is now fucking up the lifestyle of an 80-year-old lady that has lived in her house twice as long as you've been alive. And you think the dog wants to live indoors? Don't kid yourself. I recognize you feel responsible for the dog's well-being in this situation but not only is the dog a tragedy unfolding, it's beyond your ability to deal with. The longer you spend deluding yourself about "indoor exercise" the more time you're burning before you find somewhere the dog isn't busy being the irritant in a fragile relationship. Oh, you didn't think your relationship was fragile. Wait until you've been dealing with the dog for a while. One of three things is going to happen. Choose or have the choice made for you.
I keep re-writing a response to this, but I'll just go with: I appreciate that you don't let people off easy. I needed that. I spent the morning watching the eclipse on Mrs. Jenkins' deck. We were watching on lawn chairs at the end of the cul-de-sac, and she invited us over to watch with her. I met 2 of her 10 children, we talked about soap and where they were in 1979 for the last eclipse. She made me some coffee, and we talked about Cooper. She told me that having one more dog around doesn't change much - that as long as he's not in the yard when she's gardening near us (6 am - 8 am), she doesn't mind at all. And plus, she thinks he's cute. After that, I went on a walk with Cooper. I introduced him to everyone on our block. This was also the first time I met most of them. Most of them said they hadn't noticed there was a new dog, and the ones that did notice said he was fine. Finished up dog proofing the yard. He's been running around all morning, only a few barks. Seems plum tuckered out now. Believe me, every concern you have is one I've had ten times over. But I'm dealing with whatever immediate problems I can, and everyone in my house is happy. We're not a perfect home for him, but we're better than what he had, and now that the yard is ready, he's getting the exercise he needs. Thanks for looking out. I mean it.
Hey, man, if you're willing to deal with the blowback, good on ya. As _refugee_ can attest, my default solution for problem pets is "ditch the pets." I grew up wiht some seriously suboptimal critters in my life and fuckin' hell I don't need that shit anymore. Full stop. But if you're willing to go into it eyes open, I wish you the best of luck.
Two things: 1. You got a working dog. A terrier is DESIGNED to be a ratter. His job that he wants to do 1000 hours a day, constantly, every single day, is to dig and chase and pursue tiny little furry things. And kill them. 2. You need professional help. A dedicated trainer and obedience classes. Probably 3x/week for the first two months, or so, then weekly for 6-8 months. Sorry for the bad news. You got the wrong kind of dog, basically. You got a highly active working dog that is genetically predisposed to ACTION. Constant action. What will happen when you go to training/obedience class, is that YOU will be trained on how to deal with your dog and it's inherent design. You will get better at communicating with the dog. You will understand your dog's motivations, and how to guide your dog's behavior. But you will never be in control. This dog is, and will be, your alpha, and you will always be subservient to it. Again, sorry for the bummer. But I have three friends who deal specifically with "difficult dogs", and this pattern repeats over and over and over and over. When you walk into the pet obedience school, the owner of the place will see you and the dog and already know everything you have said here. And much more. Good on ya for adopting. But next time, go with a dog the size of a couch. They are designed to chill and hang out (Golden Retriever, Labs, etc.), and go for occasional walks. There is a reason why service dogs are always retrievers, labs, and beagles.
Yep. The biggest issue is that people get dogs, then don't want them to be dogs. Dogs like to be dogs. I know its a dumb statement, but people try to make them into people, children and stuffed animals. You're neighbor has as much right to quiet enjoyment of the space as you do. So your dog is going to be out there, it's important. If you can't deal with that I think you need to rehome the dog or move. But please don't put the dog on meds just because you don't want to cause an issue when it plays. If it actually needs meds, that's one thing, but we have seen so many people just putting dogs on meds cause their "crazy" which is just that they have energy.
I know. There's a leash/reactive dog group training class at the place around the corner, starting August 27th. 3 weekly private classes would be literally my entire monthly income, so I think we may need to wait on that, but the group class is not too expensive, and seems like the safest way to socialize him with other dogs. I could definitely use a professional meeting my dog, looking at my living situation, and telling me exactly what I should try and do. Going to try and make that happen as soon as I can.
Freeze peanut butter and treats/food in the kong. (Make sure the peanut butter doesn't have artificial sweetener in it, because that's a thing and it can kill your dog.) Puzzle toys, treat dispensing toys, or hide the treat are fun for the dog too (I take a few small training treats and hide them around the house while the dog is locked in the laundry room, then I let her out to go find them.) Of course you have to be careful with these because you're feeding the dog which does offset some of the benefits of the activity. I don't know how much space you can make inside but something like this could help: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MRBF4ME/ref=pd_aw_sbs_199_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=AX03X7ET648CYVF8CQ9Y&dpPl=1&dpID=71IF0DMiMiL Or if you have a treadmill, I have walked our dog on mine in the winter when the weather was bad. My tips for that are to have the dog stand on the belt and start it from there at the slowest speed possible, then work your way up. And to do short walks on the treadmill until the dog gets used to it. I don't know how different a dog's paw pads are to a person's foot soles, but I have walked barefoot on a treadmill before and it was kinda uncomfortable, and I am the kind of person who wears shoes as little as possible. Good luck and what a cute pooch!
Thank you, Dala! The Kong is a godsend, and I love the idea of hiding the treats around the house! He really likes digging, so I'm thinking of building a little sandpit for him in the yard and hiding treats and chewtoys in it. Luckily, my landlords are incredible, and they've been helping me re-fit our yard to be more dog friendly for him. Pretty soon, I'm going to feel comfortable leaving him in the yard when I'm home.
Our mutty girl is also a rescue who was an adult dog when we got her. Our experience has been that she has mellowed out quite a bit since we have had her - it may take awhile for him to realize that you are his people and hopefully when he does he will chill out a bit. Our dog was fairly anxious at the beginning, especially the first few weeks/months. Take things slow with your new guy and he should relax some as he begins to trust you more.
2 things that might help: 1.) Dala brought up puzzle toys etc. These are all great because while your dog is an active dog, he's also a very intelligent dog and he's going to get bored and act out if you don't keep him mentally stimulated too. Plus, what dog doesn't like peanut butter? 2.) My dad actually made a dog-sized hamster wheel for our chocolate lab. You need to train the dog a bit to use it, but eventually (so I've heard, we haven't gotten there yet) they use it themselves for a good run. You can buy one, you can make one. could be good if you can't get him out as often as he needs every day (running late from the office, an evening event, etc.) He looks cute A F. Good luck.
Good for you to adopt a dog you knew would not be the easiest to deal with immediately. You have a lot of time to figure it out, have thought about it and seem willing to put in the effort. So things look good so far. So nice to hear that you had a great conversation with Mrs. Jenkins. Something as little as knowing that 6 - 8 a.m. is her time make things a lot easier for everyone. Would she be open to giving him treats through the fence? Perhaps asking if you could help her beautify the fence up a bit beyond a tarp might be a nice gesture. rd95 gave great advice. And kb is right that almost no dog is truly an indoor dog. You are going to have to walk him at least 45 minutes a day past your neighbor's dogs, who you have no control over. But you can control your dog in time and with effort. I think it would be an excellent idea to have a trainer come over and go on walks with you. I would also suggest researching a doggy day care with trained staff. That is a really good way to socialize them and tucker them out. As far as barking and lunging, as least you are getting plenty of signals that will hopefully diminish with time but you still have to aware of. And that does not mean they want to fight. If a fight happens, remember that dog fights almost always look far worse than they actually are. If it comes to it, the best way to stop a dog fight is to grab the dog by the hing legs and pull and twist. They have no leverage if they are only on 2 feet and the fight is usually over.
Thank you, especially for the advice about the fight. Knowing what to do makes me feel less scared about the possibility of one happening. We're saving up for some lessons. There's a great trainer about half a mile from us who specializes in aggressive rescue dogs. We should be able to go in for our first lesson in a few weeks, maybe a month.
What a handsome dog! As others have said, he's not an indoor dog. I don't know how much time or money you can afford to give to Cooper, but here are some (tired) thoughts I would tell a new dog owner. Physical exercise is bare minimum, but just a walk through the barking dog gauntlet is probably going to create more issues than it will help. Giving Cooper some kind of outlet for mental stimulation is gonna tire him out and satisfy him much more than playing ball in the yard or going for a walk/jog. Obedience training is really fun for a dog if you employ reward-based methods. It also will satisfy his desire to learn and accomplish something. (I'm going off typical Terrier mindset, but your dog will have his own ticks of course). As you get to know Cooper and learn his favorite treats, toys, etc., you can use that to your benefit by exchanging his favorite things with the behavior you want from him. I like to think of basic manners like Sit, Down, Stay, or walking nicely at your side as all tricks you have taught him. First in the home, then at a park with a little more distractions, and eventually through the gauntlet. Can't recommend enough getting in contact with some kind of trainer or behaviorist that: a) uses reward-based/marker/clicker training, and b) you can establish a good rapport with. I'm not a zealot for NO prongs, NO aversives, but in my experience setting up the training in a way the dog thinks he's playing you and getting everything he wants makes the behaviors so much stronger. They want to stare at you walking by your side in the crazy human world. Also, he looks like he would be fantastic at some dog sports like Barn Hunt, Rally, Agility, etc. Maybe look around your area for some cheap classes, or a daycare you trust! edit* Fun obedience training will also jumpstart Cooper bonding with you, and trusting you. That will go a longgg way with his reactivity at your neighbor, other dogs, or anything.
Been doing a whole lot of obedience training with him, and he has been quite quick on the uptake! He's already solid on sit and stay, and is getting better at listening for commands during our short walks. We have a trainer nearby that uses clicker training, which is what we've also been teaching him with. Will hopefully get in to have him meet the dog in a few weeks or a month, depending on funds and his waiting list.