Zim's First Escape

So, we've had yet another Shiba owner right of passage: we've had to get our escaped dog to come back.

So, Zim is not normally a doorbolter. He's more interested in the person coming in a door than in getting out. Well, today we were at the home of my sister-in-law and her husband for her husband's graduation party. Zim was alternating between inside and outside, but when he was outside we had him on a 50 ft leash. When he was inside, he was playing with Molly, my sister-in-law's beagle mix. Well, at one point everyone was outside except me, Molly and Zim. Molly wanted to be outside where everyone else was because unlike Zim, she still really loves people when other dogs are around (Zim normally loves people but is merely fine with them when there are other dogs for him to interact with). Well, she was trying to doorbolt the whole time and then finally one of the many people at the house ended up letting her out and Zim ran right after her. Now happily outside, Molly's attention turned back to Zim and they started playing chase. Well, we tried to call Zim back but Shiba selective hearing was the order of the day---his entire focus was on Molly. Luckily the streets were basically empty the whole time we were there (I saw a total of maybe 3 cars in the hours we spent there), because at one point Zim went into the street. It was at that point that it occurred to me that with his focus on Molly, we should be calling her instead, I only hoped she came back. Like I said before, she's people focused but I've heard stories about her occasional selective hearing. Still, I was pretty sure her recall was better than Zim's and I knew he would follow her if she ran back to us so I tried it. She came right back and Zim followed. We didn't catch him right away but at least he was nearby instead of running away. He slipped out of my grasp once or twice after this, still staying nearby because Molly was, before he suddenly decided he needed to poop. I grabbed his harness as he went and we then put him on the 50ft line so he and Molly could play outside instead.

So now we're getting Zim a Tagg Pet Tracker. We'd thought about it before, but it seemed like an awful lot of money for a dog who didn't doorbolt and who was always on a harness and leash when outside (and wasn't a harness escape artist). Now, though, we've decided. He obviously becomes a doorbolter when's he's with another dog who's a doorbolter and I do know he's capable of slipping certain kinds of harnesses (he just doesn't try). This will give us a little insurance for if he does do the unlikely and slip a harness or run through an open door.

On a way, way different note, I just found a picture online of Zim's uncle, the full brother of his father, Kisaragi no Kouten go Amamisou (Kouten). I don't really think Zim looks much like him now that Kouten has gotten older but I found this picture of Kouten from when he was younger that I really think looks a lot like Zim:

Makes me wonder if Zim will grow up to look like his uncle, or at least his uncle at the age pictured ( I would guess between 6 months and a year old).


Also, here's a picture that Fathead snapped on his cell phone of me and Zim earlier tonight, both curled up on the floor. Like owner, like dog I suppose.

Zim's Second Fear Period

So, I think that Zim is going through his second fear period. He's suddenly starting to whine and whatnot in the car and he was scared at the vet on Monday. We're going to be trying to use food to condition him to fear those things less (we've already made some progress with the scale at the vet, which he's never liked) and trying to ignore his upset to not encourage his fear. Hopefully it all goes well.

Picture Time!

These first ones aren't actually mostly of Zim, but rather of the Gir collar I made for him out of a lanyard. Pretty spiffy, huh?

Yes, that is my character sheet sitting right next to a dog who loves to shred paper. And, yes, I did notice this before he did.

Zim sometimes decides my backpack is a dog bed.

Zim has taken up the adorable habit of sleeping under the couch sometimes. It's super cute.

Little Zim at the Vet

So, we took Zim to the vet today because he was having problems with loose stool on Saturday (he was going about once every three hours as well) and he had some discharge from his right eye as well. I suspect the stool was either worms (right after we left the vet I saw some specks in his stool) or the fact that he's been on one brand of kibble (Avoderm) and another of canned food (Merrick), which might have been messing him up as well. Either way, we're going to try and get him onto all the same brand of food after his bland diet is done and hope that either that or the deworming he got at the vet takes care of it. We're also going to keep an eye on the discharge and take him back to the vet for it if it doesn't clear up in a couple of days.

Now, for the real reason behind this post---despite stuffing the little one with treats and him always having been fine before, he was super scared at the vet. He was shaking and wouldn't even take food when the vet took him in back to be dewormed---but when they led him back out from the back he was perfectly happy! No more shaking, no whining, tail up, just trotting along like the happiest puppy in the world. It was really strange. Maybe I made him nervous by not putting him down after having him on the scale? He's not a big fan of it and he climbed right onto my shoulder to get off of it. Maybe I should have put him down right away. Whatever it was, hopefully he'll be better at the vet next time---and we'll bring along hot dogs to try and make sure. He loves hot dogs.

He also growled when both the vet and the nurse wanted to look at his teeth. I guess Ben and I will have to be better about getting him used to that. It's funny, though, because I do look at his teeth every now and again to make sure his baby teeth are coming out. That said, I usually don't open his mouth to do that, I just let him open it and then I put a finger in there for him to chew on while I look at his teeth. I guess that's not good enough. We'll work on it to make sure it doesn't get worse as he ages.

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!

Pictures and A Short Update

The last three pictures are from the last day of puppy class on March 26, 2012. That was also the day he got the last of his puppy shots too, so it was a really big day for him. Now that he has gotten all of his shots and is 4 months old we intend to get him a tag for the dog park up the road and take him there sometimes. The one near our house is rarely used (the one in Urbana is nicer and more popular) and I plan to take him on Wednesdays when I don't have class so I'm thinking we'll get the place to ourselves. In fact, if we stick to the small dog area I bet we'll definitely have it to ourselves.

Zim's next "big day" is May 14 when he gets neutered right after Ben and I finish finals.

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.