Week One
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This is a
record of events, with occasional pictures, of how we brought a 12-week-old female Bull
Terrier pup into our lives and the havoc that resulted Saturday – Sept. 25, 1999
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The Big Day – We Pick Up Picard It was like Xmas morning, New Year's Eve, and the 4th of July for Mary Ann. I got up with Woodie – our 9-year-old female Scottie – did our usual morning routine, and finished puppy-proofing the house [or so I thought at the time]. Mary Ann was up a little while later and we eventually got out of the house at about 9:45. We would drop Woodie off at the groomer's for her biweekly bath and then head out to get Picard. We usually schmooze with the groomers for 20 minutes or so, but we cut that short. We told the bullie breeder, Linda Jones, that we'd be there between 11 and 11:30. She's in Painesville, so it was about an hour's drive from the west side of Cleveland. This time we followed the MapQuest directions correctly and had no problem finding Linda's house. There were a ton of bullies there: Calliope, the pups' mother, and two other adult bull terriers. Everybody was crated. One bullie was in heat and the other, being male, was crated. Three adult bullies and two puppies. With a Doberman tossed into the mix just for fun. The female in heat was quite the drama queen. When you'd go by her crate, she'd give you a soulful look and hold a paw up in the air. Kind of like Lassie after she'd hurt her paw in an illegal bear trap. Mary Ann, of course, wanted to take them all home. Two of the pups survived the litter of four. One was all white and the other had brindle around the base of her ears and along the edges. We were getting brindle-ears. We’d picked Picard as her name because of the breed’s close resemblance to Patrick Stewart, Captain Jean Luc Picard in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." The breeder who provided the stud to Linda’s Calliope wanted a pup from the litter so she could show it. She preferred the all-white pup. That was OK with us; either one was fine. Though, at first I had my doubts about an all-white pup. Bull terriers, like many white dogs, are prone to genetic deafness if they are pure white. We visited the breeder and saw the pups when they were six weeks old. Both acted like puppies – sniffing everything and peeing all over the place. We did notice that when Picard got tired that she threw a tantrum and was nippy. Linda didn’t put up with it and put Picard in the whelping crate with her mom. Picard then sulked by putting her nose in a corner of the crate and pouted. She then fell asleep. When we got to Linda’s house, she wanted to show us the "bullie run." They don’t run so much as look like bow-legged sailors. Picard was all over the place. Linda took her into her back yard and Picard proceeded to do puppy things: attacking potted plants, picking up sticks, eating everything not encased in concrete, and cracking her chin on the brick step of the patio. She got a little owie on her chin from that. Linda gave Picard a small tomato. But, Picard not being hungry at the time [what! a pup that wasn’t a glutton?] tried to bury it. Pretty cute to watch a puppy try to hide a tomato for later. After about 30 minutes we gave Linda a check and we got Picard, a nylon choker, and our old towel. Mary Ann, Woodie, and I all left our scent on the towel and gave it to Linda when we visited previously so Picard might recognize our scent. Now we were taking it back after she slept on it so her separation anxiety wouldn’t be too bad. I drove back to the groomers while Mary Ann held Picard. She was a little fussy at first – Picard, not Mary Ann – but then got used to being held by her. After a little while, she went to sleep. We made a quick stop at one of those pet supermarkets to pick up new collars and leads for Picard as well as puppy food. Linda was feeding the pups dry Purina Puppy Chow with some canned food and cottage cheese added. We also picked up some Purina Puppy Chow in cans that proclaimed extra calcium. Several people at the pet store wanted to know about her – how old she was, what breed, etc. One flaky woman who had what she professed to be two Jack Russell Terriers [though I have my doubts about the purity of their genetic heritage], made goo-goo sounds over Picard and said we should name her Durante or Pinball. Obviously, some New Age fool, her. I carried Picard through the store while Mary Ann took care of the cart. Picard is hefty. Linda said she was 15 pounds. I know my bicep cramped from holding her. When we arrived at the groomers’, we put Picard on leash and took her in. The groomers – Kathy and Donna – made appropriate noises about her. She showed off by licking their faces. Mary Ann then took Picard outside and I brought Woodie. We wanted them to meet outside in "neutral" territory with me handling Woodie since she’s my girl. They met on the sidewalk and did the sniffing thing. Woodie didn’t like having her rear sniffed and let Picard know it. The proprietors of a photo studio just down from the groomers wanted to see the dogs as we had them meet. It was a younger couple – in their late 20s perhaps – and the girl loved Picard. Of course, the natural instinct for a puppy is to put on a show whenever there’s any interest expressed in her. Woodie just looked tolerant. For any of you single guys out there: puppies are chick magnets. You want to meet girls, stand around with a puppy. After that encounter, we took them to a tree lawn just in case they had to pee, but all they did was sniff around. Visiting My Parents At my parent’s house, we let them out and Picard wanted to smell the whole yard. Woodie gave a sniff to some cursory spots and then headed to the back door. My parents, too, made appropriate sounds. We gave them both some water [the dogs, not my parents, they know how to get their own water] and then headed home. Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog We spent the remainder of Saturday following Picard around the house, watching her sniff everything. She was a small perpetual motion machine. We kept a careful eye out to make sure she didn’t think the house was a toilet. We also paid a lot more attention to Woodie, though I think this confused her. There were lots of "NO!s" being directed at Picard – no chewing the furniture, no pulling bread out of the microwave cart, no walking into the open refrigerator, no just about everything a puppy thinks is fun. All this yelling confused Woodie. "Why all the ‘No?’ I didn’t do anything." We tried to make up for it by telling Woodie how good she was and making a fuss over her. Between sniffing bouts, Picard and Woodie were establishing themselves in the pack. We want Woodie to be ahead of her in the pecking order, so we’ve been encouraging Woodie not to take any crap from Picard. Picard did the usual puppy dominance thing: jump on Woodie’s back, put herself between us and Woodie when we’re making a fuss over Woodie, and trying to get through doors ahead of Woodie. Woodie will give Picard a bark and snap when she steps over the bounds. We tell Woodie that she’s a good girl for doing that. § § § A curious thing has happened to me. I’ve been calling Woodie, by Ollie’s name. Ollie’s been gone for three years, but suddenly I’m using her name for Woodie’s. Go figure. Maybe it’s because we’re back in two-dog mode. I hope part of it is because Ollie still has such a prominent place in our hearts. § § §
We took Picard out about a hundred times. One of the things we had to do was teach her how to use steps. She grew up in a ranch-style house where she only had to go up or down one step. Now she was faced with FOUR STEPS! Going down was scary and going up was daunting. After some help and coaxing, she caught on. At least on hard concrete. In the house, she seemed to take one look at the 12 steps [no it’s not a help group] similar to the way I’d look up at K2. That’s kind of a blessing – it’s tough enough trying to follow Picard around the first floor. If she could take steps, we’d literally be running around the house. During one of the trips outside, the Filips, one of our neighbors saw the pup. Diane is allergic to dogs, so she didn’t come close, but Vic made a big deal over her. Life was pretty much play, sniff, chase, and dominate the rest of the day with lots of NOs from us. Toward evening I brought down Stan’s old crate and put it in the living room. We put Picard in it to get her used to being crated by herself. She’d always shared a crate or pen with her mom, Calliope, or her sister. The crate as in the living room next to us. I thought it would be better to get her used to it at 5 p.m. than at 11 p.m. [or whenever we went to bed]. She whined and cried and broke Mary Ann’s heart. Eventually she quieted down and went to sleep. We let her nap a little and then took her out and told her what a good girl she was. She still wasn’t catching on that her name was Picard even after 312 reps. But that will come. For a first day she’d been doing well. Dinner time wasn’t as traumatic as we anticipated. What happened with Ollie and both Stan and Woodie is that Ollie – who was much more confident at a top dog – would go over and chase the puppy away from her food. We put a chunk of canned food in with the kibble and fed both Picard and Woodie. Picard, of course, wanted Woodie’s bowl as we brought them out of the galley. We showed Picard the contents of her bowl and she followed that as we put down Woodie’s "Oh, boy! Dog food! Gotta eat, gotta eat, gottaeat, gottaeat!" Another wonderful thing about dogs: they love routine. Picard finished all but a mouthful of her dinner. Woodie finished first, and then stood a couple of feet away from Picard, wondering just what was going on. You could actually see Picard’s puppy belly get bigger as she ate. As well as it should have. She got a heaping cup of dry food and that chunk of canned. Proportionally, that would have been about 5 pounds for Woodie. Picard lost interest in the last bit of her food and I flushed it down the downstairs toilet. It’s a little too wet and tempting to put in the garbage can. Picard walked around with a round solid belly for about 10 minutes, snuffing, wiping her face, and playing with toys. After about 10 minutes, she stopped playing and started sniffing. Time to "Go Out" again. She took a dump and we were all so happy; well, Woodie controlled her joy. Puppies don’t realize they grow. When we visited Linda the breeder, both pups were scooting on their bellies under the rails of the kitchen chairs. Picard, not realizing she’s about twice the size she was back then, was scooting on her belly under the rails of the dining room chairs. She was slightly too big. She’d scoot, the chair would rock and she’d have a grand old time. Later we’d discourage going under the table because she would get inaccessible and it could become a convenient pee spot. About 8:30 all of us except Picard were exhausted. We went to bed. Mary Ann laid on the chaise with Picard’s crate next to her. It had a towel in it and the stinky towel on top. Woodie went where ever she was comfortable: the chaise, looking out the window while on the chaise, or on the bed. Mary Ann is taking the toughest duty: she gets up in the night when Picard cries or gets fussy and takes her out. She was up four times between 10 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. carrying the pup up and down the stairs – remember, they were too daunting. Picard made it outside two out of four times. The two times she spilled over was while she was waiting for Mary Ann to open the back-porch door. Woodie also made the trips although she didn’t have to. I think it was just the novelty of it all that she was enjoying.
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| Sunday – Sept. 26, 1999
The Work Continues and We Worry About Woodie’s Mouth Breakfast for the dogs went as well as could be expected. I distracted Picard while Mary Ann gave Woodie her meds – she takes almost as may as I: a tab-and-a-half for her blood pressure, an antihistamine for her allergies, and two garlic tablets for blood pressure. At night she gets all that as well as a half tab of another BP med and a Pepcid AC. Picard saw bowls coming out of the galley and went after the first one. We’re giving Woodie her food first to reinforce her pack position. We had to show Picard her filled bowl to get her attention. Both ate with gusto, but Picard left a couple pieces of kibble. It’s a wonder she’s not as fat as a pig. We’re feeding her half the amount that Linda said she was giving to the two pups: a cup scoop at each feeding as well as a chunk of canned puppy food. It seems like so much, but I guess she’s changing it into puppy. The day was a little calmer. Picard isn’t snuffling the whole house. She and Woodie actually played Woodie’s favorite game: Chase! Put a toy in your mouth and have any other person chase you. We usually let Woodie hold the toy and we play chase – when we’re not too lazy. Unfortunately for us, she learned how to play from Ollie, so she only knows how to do dog play. She’ll play tug with us, but when she gets the toy, she’ll take off expecting tug to become Chase! We expected Woodie and Picard to fall right into the game. Unfortunately, Picard is too determined to challenge Woodie’s position. Chase! works for a little while, then Picard starts jumping on Woodie or challenging her by putting her head under Woodie’s belly and the game devolves into dominance. Woodie’s holding her own. She growls and snaps at Picard, and Picard backs off, but she’ll try again. We’ve noticed that Picard mouths and nips a lot. A lot more than we were used to. With our other dogs, a small smack on the mouth and a "NO BITE!" usually stopped the biting quickly. Not so with Picard. Smack her on her nose when she grabs a shirt tail or shoe laces and tell her "NO BITE!" and sometimes she quits and sometimes she doesn’t. Smacking her nose is like hitting a rock. Mary Ann switched over to swatting her butt and that helps some. Mary Ann’s concerned about this biting business. She only mouths people, but she does bite on shoes, shoelaces, pillows, phone cords, and lots of other stuff. We’ll ask Dr. Boris, our local vet, about it. In the meantime we’re doing dominance exercises with Picard: Holding her by her pits and letting her hang, and rolling her on her back. The holding up goes well, she doesn’t fuss, but rolling her on her back is tough. She fights that. I’ve started growling and baring my teeth at her when I do it and that seems to give her the idea that I’m the boss. When she quiets down on her back I tell her how good she was and then let her go. But not until she’s quiet. Mary Ann’s been doing the same. We’re also getting her used to being touched. We fondle her toes and nails and put our fingers on her lips, gums and teeth. She tolerates that well. We also have been checking her for food territoriality. As she’s eating we’ll put our hands in her bowl, touch her face, and pull her face out of the bowl. She doesn’t protest at all. I have to admit that I punked-out of some of my parental responsibility today. We have some plastic barrier fencing – you see it along highways and construction sites, it’s usually orange – that I cut down sections two feet high. There’s just too much to get into in the backyard, so I was going to fence off a section where the dogs wouldn’t get into trouble. I used that as an excuse to get out of the house for a while. Before I could install the fencing, at least I told myself, I had to put some of the things in the backyard back into the garage. We had a new driveway installed and a new garage built in August. I still hadn’t put all of the gardening stuff and tools back in. They were on the patio. I put that stuff away and then had to carve up the cardboard box that the snow thrower came in. That took some time. Then I had to find the right kind of hammer to drive the fence stakes in the ground. And . . . well, you get the picture. I started about 10:30 and fussed around till about 4. During that time Diane Filip asked me if her daughter Sara could see Picard. I called out the troops and Mary Ann and her two charges came out. Sara likes Woodie and spent some time getting friendly with Picard, but she also fussed over Woodie. Our neighbor two doors down on the other side – Mr. Negron – was also out, so Mary Ann called to him and showed off Picard. Woodie has "conversations" with him. He’ll talk to her and she’ll vocalize at him. It’s not really a bark, more like "Hey, I see you. Why don’t you come on over and admire my beautyosity." The neighbor between us and Negron, Kay Shulte, was out futzing around in her yard, but didn’t pay any attention to us. Weird old lady. We got a call that morning from my sister-in-law. She wanted to bring our two nieces over to see the dog. She wanted to see Picard as well. I quit "working" about 4 p.m. I had most of the crap put in the garage and the fence up. I took a shower and by 5, my sister-in-law came by with Paige and Maggie. Mary and Paige made a fuss over Picard. Wouldn’t you know that the one most allergic to dogs – Paige – would be the most enthralled. Maggie wasn’t very enthusiastic. Mary said she’d come by with my nephew George [We call him Spud because my father’s named George and my brother’s named George – you’d think Foreman named them all]. The rest of Sunday was uneventful except for lots of "NOs!" Picard fell asleep on me for the first time. It’s tough being a dog bed – you’re afraid to readjust because you’ll disturb this angelic [what a lie!] little beast laying on your chest. One reward for the discomfort is the smell. Puppies have their own unique smell. It’s probably a combination of disgusting factors that you’d rather not know, but pups smell great. It’s probably what keeps people from drowning them in frustration. I made a tactical mistake that day. Picard was chasing her tail, as is a puppy’s wont, and I mentioned to Mary Ann that dogs with compulsive tail-chasing can be helped with Prozac. It set her to worrying whether this was a problem. We did make a disturbing discovery Sunday evening. Mary Ann noticed a little spot on Woodie’s nose that lost pigment. I took a look, but didn’t think much of it. Mary Ann, however, has been extra vigilant since Ollie contracted cancer. She had me check Woodie’s mouth. Woodie’s always had a gingivitis problem – she grows excess gum tissue, the opposite of my problem. But, when I checked Woodie’s mouth, I saw that on her top left side, the gum had become so overgrown that her lower canine was embedding itself within it. Pretty ugly. Later I examined it more closely and found some food particles embedded in there as well. Mary Ann was worried. She was taking Picard to the vet on Monday, so I suggested she have him take a look at Woodie’s mouth as well. I’ve noticed over the past month or two that Woodie wasn’t as anxious to play tug with her rubber toys as she had been in the past. I should have checked her mouth then. Picard was more used to her nightly crating, but was still up three times.
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| Monday – Sept. 27, 1999
Day Three of Mary Ann’s Vacation from Hell We all got up at 5 a.m. That way we could both handle breakfast feeding and Mary Ann and I could get cleaned up. The extra half-hour was eaten up by dogs. Picard has the habit of jumping on things – people, child gates, furniture – that we’re trying to break. It’s kinda cute now, but when she weighs 50 pounds, it will be obnoxious. Also, she keeps trying to get into the refrigerator. Open the door and she’s got herself there and her face sniffing things. Not so nice. This is the first dog that’s done that for us. Usually, we’d break that by closing the door on her. Our Scottie’s hated being trapped. Close a door on them and they learned to avoid the situation. Picard is kinda dumb. We close door on her – it’s a refrigerator door, so it doesn’t hurt, and we do it slowly – but she doesn’t get the point. "Oh, this door’s closing on my nose. How strange, but the smells from in there are still fascinating." Besides all of the puppy displacement, it was also garbage day, so I had to round up all the trash in the house and get the garbage cans out. After we fed the dogs, Mary Ann got her show while I watched the dogs. More sniffing and Chase! with some dominance work thrown in. Mary Ann called me after she got her make-up on and I got ready for work while she watched the "kids." Picard was still mouthing and putting everything in her mouth. Mary Ann’s begun to get worried about this behavior. It’s much different than the other three dogs we’ve had. With them, it was a couple of corrections and they caught on. With Picard, it correct, correct, correct, an she still "bites." A word about that. She’s never really bitten either Mary Ann or myself, where we feel teeth and the skin is broken. It’s more like she’s tasting things with a light chew. It’s still not something that’s good. She’s got to be trained out of that before she gets any bigger. Mary Ann is worried that Picard will end up like her cousin’s dog, Henrietta. Henrietta would actually have rages for no apparent reason. She’d be fine with her owner or her owner’s family, and then for no apparent reason, go into a rage and bite doing damage. I’m not sure, but I think that Henrietta had to be destroyed. We wouldn’t want that to happen with Picard. At the worst, we’d give her back to Linda the breeder. It would still be an emotional loss for us. I told Mary Ann to ask the vet. She has an appointment around 9. I went to work. I’m in UNIX class from Monday through Thursday. I called Mary Ann when we got a break at 10. She asked if I’d gotten her message. I hadn’t, so she filled me in. Dr. Boris Pakesh [I've gooned the spelling, but the Doc goes by Dr. Boris anyway] said Woodie's gum didn't look so good. He said it was inflamed and probably infected. There was also some black pigmentation on it that concerned him. He said he’d keep Woodie to take a biopsy and trim back some of the gum. He said he was almost sure it wasn't cancerous, but the black coloration had him concerned enough to want a biopsy. The vet told her she could pick Woodie up that evening. He then took Picard from the exam room to give administer her permanent inoculations. When he left the room with her, Woodie got upset and pushed open the door to see where they were taking Picard and went walking into the treatment area. Mary Ann was surprised it happened, and so was I when I heard it. After two days of dominance competition, we were surprised by Woodie's concern. We didn't think she’d grown that attached to Picard. We weren’t sure how good Woodie would feel after being knocked out for the biopsy, so we fed Picard early and then went to the vet’s to get Woodie. We put Picard on a leash to take her in, but she was recalcitrant. I can see how walking the dogs together would be a help in training Picard. She would follow Woodie and not put on the brakes as she did. Woodie was in dandy shape when we picked her up. She was a little bedraggled looking, but she was in fine spirits when she saw us and her mouth didn’t seem to be sore. Dr. Boris said he sent the tissue in for examination, but he didn’t expect it to be cancerous. He’d get a fax of the report in a couple of days and give us a call. Woodie came home and we gave her a light meal, which she at with gusto. She’d not much interested in grabbing her latex toys or chewing her nylabones, but that’s to be expected. She did do some dominance chasing with Picard.
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| Tuesday – Sept. 28, 1999
We Give Linda a Call and are Reassured Today went much like Monday, according to Mary Ann, but the "biting" continues. When I got home from work, Mary Ann and I talked about it. She’s got a growing fear that Picard will turn out like Henrietta: a dog that growls and bites nearly everyone. I’m not sure the problem is that severe, but Mary Ann’s disturbed. She called Linda Jones, the breeder to get some advice. Mary Ann related that Linda said that behavior is normal and that the stubbornness is from the bulldog blend in the breed. Linda told Mary Ann that Picard should get over all of her bad behavior with the proper discipline. She also told Mary Ann that bull terrier puppies are kind of dumb at first. Mary Ann was reassured, but I am now having my doubts. I think Linda may be exaggerating how well-behaved the puppies are. I remember back to when we saw them at six weeks and how Picard threw a tantrum then. I also remember how both pups were allowed to gnaw on Linda’s watch and shoes. Picard still does both. I’m afraid it was a bad habit she picked up that we’re going to be stuck breaking. Thankfully, Picard doesn’t bark. I mean she doesn’t bark. We’ve had her for three days and she’s a orchestra of biological noises: burps, belches, farts, grunts, groans, etc., but no barks. We do know that she can. Mary Ann and the dogs were downstairs this morning and I had to come downstairs to get something. Picard heard me, but didn’t know what the sound was and let out three barks. Just three. At least we know she can. It started raining in the evening. It just so happened that when I took them out later in the evening that there was a lightening flash just as we got to the mudporch door. Woodie didn’t like it. I got them both out, but then the thunderclap from the lightening arrived and spooked Woodie. Woodie’s start made Picard jump. Woodie wanted to go in and that made Picard want to go in too. The rain started to come down seriously later in the evening. Picard didn’t like rain hitting her and Woodie didn’t like the rain sounds. She associates them with thunder. Some damnfool went down the street with superwoofers shaking our windows and floors. Picard didn’t like it one bit. She barked four times. Then quit. Seven barks in three days. I can live with that. I finally got them to pee before bedtime, but it was a hassle. Picard spent the night in her crate in the bedroom and had to get up three times. Once she wouldn’t go out because of the rain. I’m wondering how much of that is boredom and courtesy pees.
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| Wednesday – Sept. 29, 1999
Trouble That Night Wednesday, during the day was tough. It started raining last night and Picard wasn’t used to it. She didn’t want to go out into it that morning, though I can’t blame her; it was coming down pretty hard. The thunderstorms had Woodie frightened. Picard doesn’t seem to be bothered by the lightening or thunder, she just doesn’t like rain hitting her. They didn’t go out much that day, according to Mary Ann. They mostly slept. Picard is still as stubborn as ever. It can take five or six corrections before she gets the point. For instance, jumping on Mary Ann while she was sitting at the table eating. We must have pushed her down eight or ten times with increasingly vigorous "NO!s" until she finally stopped. We’ve never had a dog like that. Usually, it’s been two or three corrections and they get the point. I think the stubbornness of the bulldog in the breed, and puppy dumbness makes her so persistent. She was behaving pretty well when I got home, though we had to keep a sharp eye on her since she hadn’t relieved herself as often as she had when it wasn’t raining. Lots of cuddling and sleep that evening. It’s something of a break when she cuddles in and sleeps, we can let our guard down and relax a little. I got a call about 8 p.m. from Ron Lucas. I’d left him a message after I called Joe Fristic, the guy who bosses the editorships of Gases and Welding Design. Ron told me that Brad Kuvin, the editor of both books since I left there, was leaving and that Fristic asked the employees if they knew anyone who could take over the editorships. When I first called Fristic, I had to leave a voice-mail. I gave him a little more than a week to respond [I didn’t want to seem desperate], and then I called him again. He told me that Dean Peters – another editor who left for the presidency of some company in one of the far eastern ’burbs – had come back to take over both books, and of course he got the job because he was a metallurgist [please provide the appropriate ruffles, flourishes, and salutes]. I wasn’t much disappointed, but it would have been cool to go back and take over both books. Ron’s call filled in some of the details. It looked like Peter’s was picked even as Fristic was asking for nominees. How can you tell when a sales guy is lying? He’s not six feet below ground. That ended about 8:25. Mary Ann and I were both pooped from following Picard around. So we called it a night. She and pups went up and I closed up the house and got a glass of pop to take up. Then I heard the growls and shouts. When I got upstairs, Mary Ann was upset. She put Picard on the bed for the first time at night. Picard started jumping around, sniffing everything, and biting and pulling at the blanket. When Mary Ann corrected her. Picard went back to biting and pulling. Mary Ann corrected more forcefully, and Picard resisted. Mary Ann picked up Picard and put her on her back and Picard growled and bit her. Not the mouthing bites we’d experienced, but a full-scale bite. It didn’t break the skin, but it left an indentation. Mary Ann corrected and let her go and Picard ran up and bit Mary Ann’s arm, leaving another indentation. This was bad. I put Picard on her back and made sure she knew who was boss. Mary Ann then did the same. Picard seemed to have calmed down, but I still took her off the bed and put her in her crate. She whimpered once or twice while she watched us, but finally laid down. Mary Ann and I discussed what happened. Mary Ann was in tears.
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| Thursday – Sept. 30, 1999
Picard Almost Gets Returned, but Good News About Woodie I came home bearing "gifts" for Picard. Two new baby gates. These are plastic and lock with a handle on the top. Our old wooden ones were falling apart. We've got a permanent swing gate between the kitchen and galley and a pressure-install gate that can be opened without removing it, but we really needed a couple more to keep Picard from going up stairs or into rooms where she's not allowed yet. These fit the bill nicely. I found some Fisher Price ones on the WWW, but didn't see them in store. Kmart, of course had crap. They had some wooden ones like we had – they take two hands to install and open – and some crummy Graco plastic version. I shouldn't have even stopped. I ended up at Walmart, of course. They didn't have the Fisher Price ones I saw, but they did have a better ones and a better selection. I got two. Seems like the only thing I've gotten from Kmart recently have been shirts. They carry a selection of 2X sizes that aren't too bad. That's where Walmart fails: if you're outside of the S-M-L-XL curve, they ain't got nothin' to fit yah. Picard was within a hairsbreadth of going back to Linda on Thursday night. When I got home, Mary Ann nearly was in tears; she had been crying during the day. Picard had growled and bitten her several times that day. Mary Ann would either be on the floor or holding Picard and Picard would growl and bit her hard. Mary Ann had tried several approaches to controlling this, but none seemed to work well. She was at the point where she thought Picard would have to go back. I hadn't witnessed any of the attacks because they took place
during the day. Mary Ann explained that they seemed to happen mostly when Picard was
cranked with excitement. I'm not sure whether they are true rages or just heavy-duty
dominance attempts. She hasn't done that with me, but I've been more aggressive with
making sure she knew I was the alpha dog. It also probably helps that I'm a male. Things were status quo after I got home. Mary Ann wanted to check Internet resources about this behavior, so I watched and played with Picard and Woodie. I made sure that I put her on her back several times and showed my dominance. Here I am, playing alpha dog. Who would expect that at my elevated station in life? Mary Ann came out somewhat reassured, but had what I thought to be bogus advice. A couple of the web resources stated that when being bitten by a pup, the person who exclaim shock and surprise and withdraw from the puppy. It sounded way to submissive to work. When one dog is being domineered by another, it whimpers and withdraws. This sounded too much like that. Mary Ann wanted to give it a try, so I agreed. The dogs had finished dinner, and Mary Ann had eaten [we're eating in shifts so we can watch the dogs]. I was just getting ready to eat when from the dining room, I heard Mary Ann yell. Picard was growling and biting and Mary Ann was trying the new strategy. It worked the way I thought it would: Mary Ann's apparent submissiveness encouraged Picard's aggression. I stormed into the dining room and grabbed Picard by her scruff and forced her on her back. I then lowered my voice and told her how bad she was. When she stopped struggling, I put her in her crate and we ignored her. That calmed her. I was suppressing anger at Picard and that helped not at all. Mary Ann was a wreck. She was crying from both the hurt and the possible loss of Picard. I started an argument between us with an "I told you so" about the crying out about being bit. Things devolved from there until I threatened to call Linda that moment and tell her we were returning Picard. We both calmed down some. I explained to Mary Ann that tempering her maternal tendencies toward Picard with more dominance might change Picard's behavior. She agreed to try. Picard's last attack had come when Mary Ann was holding Woodie and showing her affection. Poor Woodie knew there were a lot of pissed-off people in the house, but she didn't know what was going on. I told Mary Ann that at the first sign of aggressive behavior from Picard, she was supposed to grab Picard, put to on her back and give her some heavy-duty correction in as low a voice as she could. When Picard stopped struggling, Mary Ann was to put her in her crate to settle down. The latter strategy is from the "Mom Knows Best" dog training book. The author suggests using the crate as a "time out" area where the dog can settle down. My take on this is to put the puppy in the crate and ignore her until she connects bad behavior with withdrawal of social contact. Since pups are such social animals, making her "sit in the corner" will show her that such aggressive behavior will be punished by withdrawal of social interaction. Mary Ann was worried about using the crate as punishment. I used the metaphor from the book that when a child is sent to her room for misbehaving, she doesn't end up hating her room. Metaphors, of course, are suspect, but we have to do something. Poor Woodie was then used as "bait" again. I had Mary Ann try to duplicate the circumstances that provoked the first attack. She picked up Woodie and fussed over her. I stood there an watched. Picard ignored Mary Ann and looked at me. I don't know if it was because of alpha dog status or what, but she didn't bother Mary Ann or Woodie. We tried it again with me in the hallway, out of eyeshot. Picard didn't react then either. Later, when I got back to dinner, I heard Mary Ann give Picard a correction and she put her in the crate. She said Picard came up and bit her, but hadn't growled. It seemed an improvement. It looks like we've got to have an absolute zero tolerance for this behavior with Mary Ann going nuclear at the first sign of this behavior. That may be the only way Picard will learn, she's both stubborn and puppy-stupid, a crummy combination. Where only a couple of corrections were needed with our other dogs to stop a behavior take 10 or 15 reps to get through to Picard. For instance. We rested a gate across the stairs to keep Picard from going up there on her own. Puppies, of course will test the environment. Picard knocked down the gate and tried to climb over it. I stood behind the gate the next time and Picard tried to knock it down. I tipped it over on her. With our Scotties, that would have been enough. With Picard, she just kind of ignored it. I set it up and she tried again. This time I tipped it over on her and rattled it on top of her. This would have guaranteed that our Scotties would give it wide berth for the rest of their lives. Picard took it as a minor setback. I set up the gate again. She tried again. This time I shook the gate, dropped it on top of her, rattled it on top of her, and told her she was a bad girl. It finally got through, though she still goes up an sniffs it. Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn, and not too bright. One the good side, we got a call from the vet that Woodie's overgrown gum biopsied as non-cancerous. I was pretty sure it wasn't, but getting verification took a load off both our minds. Picard continues to be good at housetraining. She spotted Thursday night – completely unrelated to any aggression displays or correction. We caught her before more than a thimbleful escaped her. Mary Ann took her out to the yard while I used the Bissell Spot Lifter cordless vac to clean up the half-dollar sized pee spot. That's the best housetraining investment we ever made. Instead of using a half-roll of paper towels to blot up the pee, then to blot up the vinegar, then to blot up the water, you just vacuum up the pee, spray the area with the vinegar in the onboard tank/sprayer, vacuum up the vinegar, spray with water, and then vacuum up the water. Two minutes tops. I was done and had the Spot Lifter rinsed out before Mary Ann was back in with the dogs. Picard had a barking fit last night. I don't think she knows that images on TV aren't real. We were watching "Whose Line Is It Anyway" when Wayne Brady was featured making up a disco song. Picard watched him sing and dance and then barked at him until he was done. Very strange. She was on my lap at the time. So, she doesn't like Wayne Brady singing and dancing disco, and she doesn't like cars with superwoofers. Even though she's dumb and stubborn, at least I admire her taste in music. Things proceeded peacefully the rest of the night. Mary Ann had Picard in bed with her. We've split into separate rooms. Mary Ann and Picard try to make it through the night while Woodie and I retire to the second bedroom for sleep. We picked up Picard's water about a half-hour before we went to bed. It might have helped since she only got up once. However she was thirsty the next morning.
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| Friday – Oct. 1, 1999
Picard Falls Off a Bed for the Second Time and Woodie Doesn't Take Any Crap Morning with dogs. Mary Ann comes in and wakes up me and Woodie . She usually carries Picard in. She put Picard on my bed as I pulled on a shirt and a pair of pants. Yesterday while we were going through the routine, Picard was backing up on the bed and fell off. I'm a little leery of leaving Picard on the bed that early. She might decided she can't hold her pee any longer. While the Spot Lifter would help, who wants dog urine on their bed? Going out and breakfast for the dogs goes well. Picard loads up on water when the fresh bowls are put down. Maybe it's too early to take her water up early at night. Mary Ann said Picard got through the night with only one visit to the yard. I left them snuggling together when I went to bed last night. It's hard to believe that a dog that cuddles itself so tightly to Mary Ann would then growl and bite her. While they were eating, Mary Ann went up to take a shower, fix her hair, and put on her make-up. I watched the dogs bounce around the dining room. They like it because it's carpeted – they can get traction. Picard spent a lot of time sniffing around and I noticed her anus was getting big. A sure sign that she had to defecate. I told her "let's go out" and led her to the back door. She went out and dropped some dung. She's getting good at this. Last night she went to the back door and stood there looking at me. I let her out and she pooped. Last night when Mary Ann took her out, she came all the way back up the back steps and then went back to the yard where she pooped before coming in. I think she's generalizing the idea that our house is her den and she shouldn't mess it. That's ironic. We thought that housetraining would be the biggest hurdle, and here's it's backseat to this barking and biting problem. Woodie and Picard played Chase! for a while and then it devolved into dominance. Woodie's getting more aggressive toward Picard, but Picard still tries to dominate Woodie. Woodie had Picard on her back, standing over her and growling three times this morning. Picard still hasn't given up. I wonder if she's going to have to go through a traumatic event to make it stick. That's what happened with Woodie. She pestered Ollie enough so that Ollie actually bit Woodie hard enough to puncture her upper lip. That ended with a trip by Mary Ann and Woodie to the Emergency Vet Clinic and a stitch in Woodie's lip. They also shaved her beard on that side and it was six months before it grew in. But, that was the turning point in their relationship – Woodie knew Ollie was boss. They became deeply attached after that. Woodie's "problem" is that she's too gentle. We have to encourage her not to take any of Picard's guff. Compared to Picard, Woodie acts like a human in a dog suit. After they settled down some I took both dogs upstairs and put Picard on Mary Ann's bed while Mary Ann was putting on her make-up. Picard still likes to bite, attack, and pull the blanket and sheet. I think that's also a hold-over from her puppy kennel – it was "paved" with blankets and towels the puppies were allowed to fuss with. Alas, another behavior we have to correct. A third one, but not at high up on the priority list is plastic jugs. When we picked up Picard, I noticed that Linda had an empty plastic drink bottle in the puppy crate. Picard thinks that the two-liter bottles of pop on in our kitchen are toys. More correction. This isn't to give you the idea that Linda was a bad dog raiser. Quite the opposite. The three adult bullies and dobie she has are all well-behaved, or at least seem so from our limited exposure. It's just that what some people allow, others don't. Picard picked up the habits of pulling on covers, biting wristwatches, and playing with shoes while at Linda's. We don't allow any of that. We've got a laundry basket full of stuffed and latex dog toys as well as probably pounds of nylabones for adult and puppy dogs. They can play with any of that. Tear them to pieces as long as they don't swallow any of the latex or stuffed toys, we don't care. But they can't bite or destroy anything else and can't beg or pester us when we're eating. Not complex rules, but tough ones to ingrain into a puppy. Next Monday we're going to start seeing if she can get through the night. Linda said Picard's sister is sharing her bed and gets through the night just fine, only getting a little "fussy" occasionally. Having had dogs pee on the bed in the middle of the night and having gone through the hassle of pulling off the quilt, top sheet, fitted sheet, mattress pad, and cleaning the mattress, all in the middle of the night, we aren't anxious to go through it again. I thought we'd keep Picard in her baby crate at night for the first week, but Mary Ann's a softie. She's had her in bed for the past couple of nights. I'm going to go to a home health-supply store this afternoon and get a waterproof liner for the bed. At least that way we won't have to dump the mattress pad and clean the mattress. We're also going to start on collar and leash training this weekend. Some short walks in the backyard at first. This is where having an older dog helps: The puppy follows the older one. Woodie walks pretty well on leash [though Ollie was better: nearly perfect]. I'll walk Woodie ahead of Picard and Mary Ann will have Picard on leash. I want to do it that way to reinforce Woodie's place in the pack and Mary Ann's authority over Picard. There shouldn't be too much trauma. Picard does like to sit much more than any of our Scotties. When
we're out taking a bathroom break, Picard will usually pee right away, while Woodie likes
to pick the perfect spot. While we're waiting for Woodie, Picard will sit herself down
just perfectly. It would be nice to have a dog that "sat" on command.
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| Saturday – Oct. 2, 1999
Midnight Falls Picard fell off of the bed twice last night. She'd not hurting herself, but the brass bed's awfully high and we have nightstands on either side that have glass shelves. We don't need her going through those. She has a habit of putting her head between the bars at the foot of the bed. Mary Ann's afraid she'll try to jump through them and end up hanging herself in some gruesome method. Correcting her is like trying to teach French to a brick. We got up at the usual time – 5 a.m. – to keep Picard in a routine. Great Caesar's Ghost, that's early. Mary Ann said Picard fell off of the bed twice last night. Not real bright. We did the breakfast deal and watched them play a while afterward. Picard still plays dominance with Woodie. I don't know if she'll ever get the idea that she should be beneath Woodie in the pack order. Woodie doesn't take any crap from Picard: she's rolled the pup on her back and held her there while growling. Picard just gets up springboks away and then tries to climb on Wood's back. Maybe we need that one defining event like she got when Ollie punctured her lip. I tried to give Mary Ann a break today. She's put up with Picard for a week and it's time to let her rest. We all went back to bed in the same bed about 6 a.m. Mary Ann and Woodie went right out. Picard took a little longer, but settled in. I zoned in and out, but never fell off deeply. One reason is that in bed, Picard likes to readjust her position every two or three minutes accompanying it with a groan. We thought Woodie was noisy. Picard puts her to shame. We got up around 8 a.m. and Mary Ann took a shower and put on her makeup. She hasn't been able to do that on weekdays – she has to get out of the shower quick so she can watch the dogs while I get ready for work. I took the dogs out and watched them until Mary Ann came down. Picard's like most pups, she doesn't know when she's tired. She keeps playing until she gets cranky, and then takes it out on whoever's near her, usually Mary Ann. For instance, after Mary Ann came down, she watched the pup while I had some cereal. No sooner did she get on the floor than Picard growled at her and was biting at her arms. Picard was tired and should have been put to rest. Instead, she ended up getting a scolding from Mary Ann and put in her crate. She'll have to learn that she can't take out her anger at people. We let her out of her crate after about 10 minutes and she was better. Mary Ann's been talking with the groomers, telling them just what a hell dog Picard's been in some aspects. They suggested bringing Picard over to their shop for some socialization. It's tough to have other people correct to our standards since – unless they have a dog and are firm owners – that puppyness makes them forgive a ton of misbehaving. Kathy and Donna would be good people to help socialize since they don't take any crap from dogs. Mary Ann took Picard to the shop and the groomers berated Mary Ann for exaggerating. Picard was as nice as pie [speaking of which, Picard's nickname will be "Pi"]. The only time she tried to bite was when Kathy leaned over her and her long hair fell in Picard's face. That was almost expected from a puppy. It looks like we're going to keep Pi for keeps. Mary Ann's over her worry about "rages." Pi still growls and snaps, but it's usually a result of a correction, so it's a dominance thing. Mary Ann's working on "going nuclear" by scolding Pi, rolling her on her back, and putting her in her crate. It seems to be helping. How long does it take to turn a puppy into a human being? How long have you got? |
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Saturday – Sept. 