A General Update

First, pictures. We just took them this morning and they're just the cutest thing---like most pictures of Zim.

So, first thing we'll talk about is potty-training. Zim has been doing fantastic. He hasn't had an accident since the last time I posted that he had one, which means that we are one day short of a month accident free. I think he's actually potty-trained. Finally. God, I really sometimes thought we'd never do it but we're finally there. I'm so proud of the whole family---me, Fathead and, of course, my wonderful little Zim.

In other news, Zim had his 6-month check-up at the vet this past Friday and I'm really overall not happy with how it went and Fathead and I have decided we need to make some changes in light of it.

First, Zim has developed a fear of the vet. We were hoping that stuffing hot dogs and cheese into him would help but it only did so much. It kept him calm right up until he got onto the table, but even with those tasty treats on offer, getting up on the table still definitely freaked him out, even though he'd been calm (well, probably more expectant since he knew we had good treats) up until then. Then the poking and prodding happened and the most I could get him to do was lick a treat. Then they needed to put stuff in his eyes. He was fine for the first drop, but for the second he knew what was happening and he growled. It was then that things went to shit and that I really wish that Fathead and I had made better decisions.

First, they suggested a muzzle. I was not entirely comfortable with this, but I do think it was necessary for the eye drops. Even after a fair amount of conditioning, it's not his favorite thing when I clear his eyes. Having a stranger put cold drops in his eyes when he was at the scary vet was going to get someone bitten. 

What I didn't like, though, was when they suggested that we leave and they take him in back. We agreed and I really think it was the wrong decision. The entire time we were away, all I could think about was my baby and I immediate felt like I'd been a terrible parent for agreeing to let them take him back when I wasn't really comfortable with the suggestion in the first place. When they have him out of my sight I have no idea what's being done to him and I know he's past his threshold already because he wont take the very rare and absolute best treats ever of hot dog bits. I was scared they would traumatize and ruin my dog.

They didn't, but Fathead and I talked about it and we're going to proceed differently moving forward. 

First, we're going to try going into the vet whenever we go into PetSmart and do some counter-conditioning with him. They said that as long as we ask the receptionist we can even take him into the exam room to try and get him okay with being on the table.

Second, we're not going to let them take him in back again. Anything they can do to our dog they can do in front of us. It was an uncomfortable experience and we're not having it again.

Third, despite what it sounds like the vet wanted to do, he will not be muzzled regularly for visits. Yes, if he growls (or if we already know from experience that he will), he will get muzzled but only then and only for the purpose of whatever he's growling for. Zim is a sweet dog who loves everyone and his first reaction to something he doesn't like is to get away, not get aggressive. He's not generally aggressive at the vet, even if he is very scared (and he is). He doesn't need a muzzle 95% of the time that he's at the vet and I refuse to have my dog muzzled unnecessarily.

Lastly, we're going to watch when we schedule our vet visits. We've decided to make sure they're all with Dr. Pavlovsky, who Zim has never had a problem with and who we like a lot. Unlike the vet who was there at this last visit, Dr. Pavlovsky has never asked that Zim be taken in back even though he did once growl when someone tried to force his mouth open. Basically, I think we're going to have an easier time going with our plan of no muzzling unless necessary and no being taken in back. I also think he's less eager to push unnecessary tests which is an unrelated bonus. Honestly, if he were to open up his own private practice while we were still in Champaign, we would follow him to his new practice. I'd been thinking earlier that we should be trying to make sure we only see Dr. Pavlovsky and this latest vet visit has solidified it.

And now, to end this post on a happier note, Zim has gotten huge---by which I mean he has apparently grown 2.1 lbs in the past month, because he weighed in at 16.4 lbs at the vet. I was absolutely amazed. I mean, I suppose he has been looking a lot less tiny next to the other dogs at the dog park but I had no idea he'd grown so much. Honestly, since he'd been static at about 14.3ish lbs for the last 2 months before this visit I'd figured he'd probably stopped growing. I mean, I figured he might get another growth spurt around nine months, but I honestly didn't really think he would. Well, he's 2 days from nine months old and here he's grown 2 lbs. I mean, he's still a slight, skinny little thing but he's definitely bigger.

Broken Record Time---More Potty-Training Woes

So, as I've written about before, despite the fact that Shibas are supposed to be easy to potty-train dogs, with some even coming home basically potty-trained, Zim has been anything but. We've never been able to go more than two or three weeks without an accident and the fact that he has separation anxiety has made it even harder to figure out exactly what's going on---is he deficating because he doesn't like it when I'm not there with him or did he just not get an opportunity to poop outside? Either way, at 8 months old, he's still only about 90% potty-trained and he may even be regressing on his pooping.

Part of the problem is, of course, that we've not been able to interrupt him for simply months now. Picking him up no longer works and tonight when he had an accident and I finally kept my wits about me enough to try clapping loudly, that  didn't work either. I suppose next thing to try is a shaker can, but frankly I dispair of that working as well.

Really, I just don't entirely know why it is that he pees in the house. It's not a UTI, we've checked, and I don't think it's infrequent chances to go to the bathroom. When he had his accident a few minutes ago, he'd been on a walk not that long before. Instead he just quickly walked up to the baby gate and then peed. Now, I'll admit, in retrospect I realize this was a signal, but frankly he pulls that whenever he wants to go out for any reason and I'm sick of being at his beck and call for Zim-wants-to-have-fun-outside-time. That said, if I make him really insist, sometimes he pees in my house (and I'm not entirely certain he even signals before every accident, I'm just pretty sure he did this time).

Everyone keeps telling me he'll get there eventually, it just needs consistency and to keep a close eye on him. Well, been doing that and here we are. How the hell do you stop a dog who refuses to be interrupted from peeing from peeing in your house so you can redirect him outside? I really, honestly, have no idea. Like I said, we'll keep trying things but . . . well, first we have to think to use them, then we have to see if they actually work.

Honestly, sometimes I really do get tempted to see if I can teach him to use potty-pads because I feel like I'm banging my head into the wall and doing something that doesn't work for either of us. The problem is, of course, that we didn't start that way, and I worry about confusing him by refusing to take him outside and trying to retrain him or something. Maybe we should just try getting some potty-pads and only using them when he does have these infrequent accidents? Maybe that would be enough to teach him without confusing him? I really don't know.

Mostly, I just think I'm bad at this potty-training thing.

Update

So, the little brat has probably been getting less training lately than he should because mom and dad have finals coming up---which is too bad because dad has figured out how a way to train him to shake (he's a dog that has to do the motion himself or he'll just think the treat is for behaving while we grab his paw), he really needs some more time with the clicker and the crate so that he can stop being so miserable when we leave the house and we need to bell train him because his signals to go out have gotten subtler and subtler. I'm going to try and work with him tomorrow through Friday when I have less class but I really don't think we're going to be able to really go at it until after finals. I'm really wanting to use the summer, when we won't be having as many people over, to really knock into his head not to put his paws on the coffee table, grab arms holding toys, jump on people, etc. You know, really work on his manners when it's only Fathead and I who have to be consistent with him and if we need to timeout him for something then there's no one else over to be tortured when he protests this (just as a note, we don't timeout him in his crate---the last thing he needs is to associate it with punishment).

In other news, he's decided he likes kibble---as long as it's coming out of his kong wobbler (this dog, he won't eat kibble from a bowl but he'll do tricks for it and eat it out of the wobbler). We actually call it his slot machine because he looks like he's pulling the handle on one when he plays with it. We do need to switch the kibble he's on, though, when this bag runs out. He's currently on Avoderm Puppy, but it's given him gas. We're going to switch him either to Wellness or Taste of the Wild, I think, once this bag runs out.

In other news, Fathead weighed the little sucker today---he's 12.2 pounds. He's getting so big!

Zim's Progress

Well, it's been a little while since I've updated on Zim's progress and a fair amount has happened.

Potty-training:
He was seeming pretty well potty-trained (he'd stopped having accidents but not long enough that I was ready to declare him officially potty-trained) but then we screwed him up. I was playing a card game and it was mine turn to take him out when he signalled. Stupidly, I took my turn before going to let him out and then got caught up and forgot to take him out. He held it for a while, but eventually the inevitable happened and after that he started having a number of accidents---he wouldn't signal but would just go and we'd have to rush him outside. Obviously, this was all my fault and I feel really bad that I caused him to do that. We have gotten him back on track now (he hasn't had an accident in over a week) and I've vowed to just take him out right away whenever he signals like I should have then.

Crate-training:
Well, we had been working on slowly getting Zim used to his crate and had been putting him in the bathroom while we were asleep or away. Well, yesterday he did his first destructive thing ever and he chewed on the wall. He really only took the wallpaper off but obviously we can't have him doing that; he could hurt himself that way. So now we've had to return to the crate and he hates it just as much as before. As soon as he realized we were putting him in there to sleep, he was crying and all that work to get him to like the thing by putting meals in that was destroyed. I really wish there were a better solution here but I can't have him hurting himself.

Resource Guarding:
Zim has stopped doing this through the power of trading. A while ago a friend took a tissue from him and he didn't growl or anything. He wasn't keen on giving it up but there was nothing bad. Definitely going to be keeping up with the trading so that he never starts that again and so that his "give" stays good enough that we can take things from him when we need to and are without treats for some reason.

Commands:
His sit has always been pretty good and he'll do that basically automatically and for any reward. He's also developed a good "leave it" and "give," which I'm really proud of.