A Year Later and Many Changes

So, it seems like I post once a year instead of the weekly post that I want to do.  I promise to try and do better.  Life has been pretty crazy for us.  S, of course, has PTSD.  He had a good job and then got an even better job at the local base.  Well, one of the lovely VA doctors put him on some meds that caused him to blow up and he was fired.  We have since figured out that the way his PTSD is right now, there is no way that he can work.  When he got fired, I went and got a job as a Screen Print Production Artist at a local t-shirt shop.  The pay is way better than my last job, but it is still lacking.  I am also going to college full time for a B.S. in Psychology.  My plate is very full.
Back in April, we were looking for a cat to add to the family.  While on Craigslist, I saw a Golden Retriever listed.  I told S about it and told him that if he wanted him, I would get him.  We had been looking for a Golden because S missed the old one we had when we lived in New Mexico, plus we wanted one to train up to be a PTSD dog.  Bud, joined us on April 20, 2015.  We didn't think that he and Molly would get along at first because he kept trying to start issues with her.  We got it all sorted out though and are much happier for it.
This fall, S and I moved in with another veteran to try and save money to move to another state.  The dogs have a yard to play in now and they couldn't be happier.  Well, they could as the yard is infested with fleas and I've been battling the little bloodsuckers for the past month.  I just tried a new flea topical this month, I will review it next week.
S has went back into treatment and will be gone anywhere from a month to 4 month, so I am left here to be keeper of the dogs and to work on Bud's training.  His last owner kept him in a crate all day and didn't really give him much attention.  He's house trained and we have since trained him the sit command, but I have a lot more work to do with him if he wants to be service dog ready.
We did take Molly and Bud out to Blue Springs, MO last weekend for the Dogtober Fest.  This is the first time Molly has been to anything like that and she loved it!  She did pull on the leash a lot, so I need to work on that while in large crowds, but there was no barking or snarling from her.  She even sat and tried to beg food from a complete stranger!  (Which was a bit rude of her, but so out of character for her to give a stranger that type of attention anyway).  Bud also did well.  He pulled some, but no where near as bad as her and he did not feel the need to go sniff every person or do that came by.  I think he has great potential as a PTSD dog, especially seeing how he has calmed S down during major anxiety attacks in the past.  The only major issue I have with Bud right now is that he is destroying the yard of the rental by digging holes.  They aren't small ones either.  The yard looks like the moon with all the craters.  I'm sitting outside working on that one today though.  Hopefully I can get it through his head.
Anyway, I must wrap this up.  I will try to update again next week and let everyone know how the flea treatment is working.

Molly and the Moves

     Molly and I moved in July back to my hometown of Memphis.  Gordon wanted me out of his house, even though the deal was that I would stay there during the summer and work at his wife's silk screening shop for room and board.  He told me to get out without even asking his wife, thus, firing me from my job because I wasn't going to stick around with no compensation. (His wife and her business partner were not too thrilled with this as I was the only one that knew how to work the computer.)  I had a friend come pick me up and we took the long 11 hour drive to Memphis.  Of course, Molly did try to eat him when she first saw him, but I put her in the car while we packed it and once she realized we were going on a ride, she calmed down.
     Molly had her first hotel stay during this.  We went as far as Oklahoma City and stayed in a nice hotel.  I was a little worried about how she would behave, but we got in around two in the morning, so we met no one in the halls. She sniffed around and went to sleep once we got settled in our room.  She did enjoy looking out the window.  She got a little loud once morning hit, barking at people through the window and barking at the maid when she knocked.
     Molly did settle in fine with my family in Memphis.  The only one that did not like her was MacTavish, my old family dog.  Otherwise, Molly got along great with everyone and loved sitting in my mom's lap and begging my mom and grandmother for food.
     We weren't there too long before we got the opportunity to move back to Kansas.  S was done with his PTSD treatment and had a job.  He came and got us in September.  Molly was good on the ride to our new home, sleeping most of the way, letting us know when she needed to potty.  Now we live in a duplex and the lady next door has three dogs, but she doesn't live in the apartment...Molly barks when she hears the woman go in and out.  Of course, I had Molly outside training today when the woman let her dogs out and her dogs started barking.  Molly went to the fence to greet them and they weren't going for it.  The woman made her's go in and then thought she'd talk to me, but Molly was having none of it.  She kept barking her head off until the woman went in.  Now I am trying to figure out how to go about training all these new things to Molly.  I am in a bigger city, and there is proper training available.  I just need to find a job so I can have money to pay for it. 

One Step Foward and Two Steps Back

     Somedays it seems that just as soon as you have one thing figured out, another problem pops up.  Molly and I have been staying with these people for about 4 months now and she's improved in some areas, but have seemed to develop other problems.  She loves Mrs. Sherre to bits.  She was tolerating Mr. Gordon, but now everytime she sees him, she barks/growls low at him.  He came in the other day when was taking her back upstairs and she tried to start.  It wasn't anything frantic to it, but just that low warning growl a dog does.  I told her to hush and had her sit/down beside me and she did and quieted but it has me wondering what has started this.  I do remember a day, when Mr Gordon and his son didn't think I was home, that I heard them talking and saying that they wanted to beat Molly or get a shock collar and repeatedly keep hittind the shock button or just open the kennel outside and let her go.  At that point, they were not allowing her inside and of course, she started barking when she saw people, wanting out of the kennel and howling at night because she was cold and lonely.  When I got her fixed, she was allowed in the house because it was snowing and I never put her back out.  Now I wonder if those two hve done anything to her even if it's just to yell at her or if she just senses the hostility towards her.  More than likely she just senses that he doesn't like her.  I'd imagine if it were anything else she wouldn't have settled when I told her to and laid down beside me.
     Also, their son has a dog, a Blue Heeler.  Very well behaved dog, but one time when I had Molly out, she came rushing Molly so Molly went bounding towards her to greet and this other dog attacked her.  The son called her off but now anytime Molly sees Ellie she goes beserk.  Of course, I've heard the son brag on more than one occassion about his dog "teaching" other dogs a lesson when they aren't well behaved.
     So, now I have these two issues to work through.  That and she has suddenly gotten to where she barks whenever she hears someone come into the house.  She's doing well on listening to me when I tell her to stop when she comes across Mr. Gordon, so we are making strides there, but now I have to work with her to get her to ignore Ellie and to keep calm during the noises of people coming in and out of the house.
     That is the two steps back, her getting reactive with Gordon and Ellie and people going in and out.  Now the step foward that she has made is good.  Now, whenever she sees a car, she automatically sits.  She watches it go by then comes to me and jumps around wagging her tail and getting praise.  We've even been pretty close to the street when it happened.  I'm proud of her for that progress she has made.  Now to just make progress with people, other dogs, and noises.
     Well, she is talking to me, wanting out so will wrap this blog up.  What are some tips you have for helping a reactive dog overcome these issues?

Molly's Lifef

     Living with Molly has been an adventure from day one.  She may have been the calmest pup in the shelter, just sitting there, watching the world go by. (She never once stood up when we walked past her kennel.) But her personality shinned after a few weeks.  As soon as she was released from her confines of the kennel, she zoomed around S and I.  She was licking us and wagging her tail and generally happy.  We clipped the leash on her and of course she pulled.  She tried getting in the trash in the office at Woodward while we were filling out the paperwork.  When we got outside, he headed right for the truck (even though we tried to get her to potty.  Her gas was something awful!)  As soon as S opened the truck door she jumped right in like she belonged.  She stayed in the back seat of the truck and fussed a little when we had to run into Walmart to buy a few supplies for her.  Then we went to Atwoods to get some things that we had seen there earlier, like a dog bed, treats, and toys.  S gave her a treat when he got out and she buried it in the back of the truck.
  She laid down and slept for the hour and a half car ride home.  We stopped once to let her out when she started to whine.  As soon as we got to the house she perked up and jumped out of the truck with us and ran straight for the front door.  We let her in and off she went exploring.  We didn't realize she wasn't house trained until a day or so later.
     Our second day of having her, I had to go work at the t-shirt shop, so she stayed home with S.  When it came time for me to get off work, he asked Molly, "Do you want to go get Momma?" and he said that she ran straight to the front door when he said that so she got to ride to the shop with him.
     Over time, we started taking Molly out to pastures and Coldwater Lake on Sundays.  She had so much energy and I quickly found out that there was no walking her around town. She tried to chase cars, went berserk at dogs, and even went ballistic over people that were walking too.  I tried various times to walk her and found a few times of the day that I could get her walked going down a dirt road that didn't put her over threshold as often.  She loved going and seeing the goats along the path., though she wasn't allowed to bark at them or hassle them.  When she went out to the pasture, she got to run as fast as she wanted and dig and explore.  One hot day we tried to get her in the horsetank to cool off.  She was thinking about it, but couldn't figure out how to get herself in there.  We picked her up and put her in.  She came out.  Then she went and played in the mud and cow pies near the tanks and got dirty, so back into the tank we threw her.  After about the third time, she decided she liked being in the tank and begged us to put her in.  She still couldn't figure out how to get in there herself though.  Thus started her love of swimming.
     That summer we had enough rain that a pond developed in one of th pastures so we took her to it to see what she would do.  She explored the new pasture then went running to the edge of the pond.  She got her feet wet then started playing around the edge.  We had brought her ball so we threw it and into the water she went to get it.  We took her out to that  pond for weeks before it dried up.  She would get so excited that she was shake as soon as she saw the water.
     By then it was fall and we still wanted to take her out on Sundays to do stuff.  We started taking her to Coldwater lake.  She about had a fit when she saw how big that lake was.  We let her out and she did zoomies all around us and ran out into the lake and swam and ran back to us and zoomed some more and swam more.  We also started taking her Geocaching with us she she helped us find the first cache in the woods at Coldwater Lake.  We took her to Clark County Lake once too but she didn't like it as much.  She like roaming the cliffs and was vertical at one point climbing on them, but she didn't want to get into the water because the land didn't slope into it.
     For now, while S is out of town, Molly and I play ball and frisbee.  I also let her play with the dogs in the neighborhood.  Of course we do training too and I play hide and seek with her.  What are some of the things you and your dog do?  Do you go hiking, play ball, compete in agility or other events?  Let us know in the comments!

Introductions of Molly and Me

I started this blog thinking I would do it from Molly's point of view, but now think that I will change it over to my point of view.  I am Clarissa, Molly's owner.  I work full time as an elementary school teacher's aide and part time as a Graphic Designer at a silk screening shop.  Molly came into my Fiancé's and my life on January 20, 2013.  It was a Sunday and we had just moved into a house of our own after being without a home for over a year.  We had had to give up the Golden Retriever that we had had while he was in the Air Force in New Mexico.  It was not something we wanted to do and we miss that dog to this day, but we were having issues finding jobs and knew that it would be unfair to Indi to drag him along, not knowing where we were going to live and when we could feed him.  We bypassed putting him in a shelter and interviewed many families before choosing one that we thought was a good fit for him.  We wanted to make sure we were stable before getting another dog into our life.  We didn't want to have to give another pet up!  That's what lead us to that faithful day last year.  We had just moved into a house and both had stable jobs.  We decided to go to Woodward, Oklahoma and got to the animal control there to see if they had any Golden Retrievers.  We found a greyhound that we liked at first.  Older.  We talked about getting her, but the shelter was still looking for her owners and had a lead on them.  We walked around some more and I saw Molly.  She was laying in her kennel just watching people go by.  There was a tag that said there was a hold on her.  We asked about her and why the hold and were told that someone brought her in from Fargo, OK.  She was found wandering the highway and the person brought her in and told her who she belong to.  The owners had been contacted three days prior but had never come in like they said they would.  They contacted the person that found her and that person said that as long as she wasn't going back to Fargo, that she could go home with us.  She was so calm in the truck, falling asleep on the hour drive back to southwest Kansas.   She even whined when she needed to potty.  That's when we decided that we got a great dog and that she looked like a Molly. 
It wasn't long before we figured out she wasn't house trained but that only took about three days for me to get through her head.  What really surprised us though was her reaction to people.  She could care less about them at the shelter, but it soon became apparent that she had reactivity issues.  When I tried walking her, she would try to chase cars (and if she could bolt out the door when one went by she'd go for the tires while it was driving down the street).  She would bark and lunge and people and other dogs while on leash.  I could barely take her for a walk.  When she was on leash and another dog approached her, ignoring her barking and lunging, she would calm down and greet them.  But her greeting wasn't normal.  She sniffs the other dog's face.  Most dogs in this small town, while not thrilled about the wrong way of greeting let her slide with it and she has made many furry friends.  She loves playing with other dogs.  I have come to the conclusion that her reaction to people is anxiety/fear based and am currently working with her to overcome that.  Her reactions because of other dogs?  That's excitement.  She sees other dogs and immediately wants to play so she gets frustrated that she can't go to the other dog.  Another issue I am working on.
Since we got her, she has met and stayed with an elderly man and woman.  The man got around in a scooter/wheelchair which she didn't even try to chase.  She adored them both at first but began to dislike the man as he was starting to mentally abuse my fiancé and me while we were there visiting and he even started bad talking Molly.  Stating she had fleas and other things. Even though she didn't like the man as much, she didn't get aggressive with him.  She just steered clear of him.  Then Molly and I went and stayed with a middle aged couple.  She was reactive at first but had not settled in with them and adores the woman and tries to get the man to like her better.  He is indifferent to her.  Since we got here, she has been spayed and has even gotten to have a little off leash play with other dogs. 
Yesterday I got to do more training with her and people.  Some relatives stopped by of the people we are staying with.  I moved Molly away to where she wasn't barking and got her interested in her frisbee.  I slowly moved closer to the people, watching Molly the whole time.  We moved toward the water spigot which was about 10 feet away from the people and put some water out for her to play in.  She played in it with her back to the new people knowing they were there.  Later she wanted to calmly go to them and sniff them.  We ended up sitting near them and she ran through her obedience for me.  Another set of people started heading our way.  I moved her back again to start the process over.  There was a kid with them.  He is one of the kids in my 2nd grade class.  I was giving Molly treats for not reacting and she was doing okay watching them.  Of course, the kid came towards me and Molly started barking some.  I told the kid to stop and go back.  He ignored me and she ran at him barking and nipping at his shoes. (She is a herding breed, so she was trying to herd him back, still unacceptable.)  I called her back and got her to sit/stay and his grandmother got onto him for not listening to me in the first place.  I moved her back to where she wasn't reacting and start the process of working with her again.  Finally, putting her in the pen nearby so that I could go talk to the kid.  I'm upset that she reacted and nipped his shoes, but also mad that the kid, a 2nd grader, didn't listen to me at all when Itold him to stay back.  But I've learned from that mistake and will work with adults for now until she is flawless with them then start with children.  In the meantime, she will be put inside or in her pen when I see a child approaching.  I wish I was closer to a bigger city to get her formal training, but for now, I am all she has.  She has made strides since I got her.  She now accepts 6 other people aside from my fiancé and me and she is getting better with listening to me around other dogs and I have even gotten her to where she is less reactive to cars when they go by.  I have been slowing closing the distance to the street and treating her for looking at the cars but not chasing. 
My goals for Molly?  I'd like her to be a therapy dog one day.  Be comfortable enough with people that she can help them.  I'm also interested in getting her her Canine Good Citizen test done and compete in agility and fly disc with her one day.  It will be lots of hard work and she may never be comfortable enough to reach all those goals, but we will work hard and see where we can get her.  My ultimate goal is for her to live a life free from fear and anxiety.  Feel free to follow our journey.  Our triumphs and mistakes as we try to figure everything out!

It Has Been a Long, Long Time

So, I'm back again and boy do I have a lot to tell!  Currently I am writing this entry from what seems to be an outdoor jail.  It reminds me of the jail my parent sprung me from in Woodward, Oklahoma.   This morning started out different than normal.  Mom came outside around 8 and had time to play with me and hug on me.  She asked me it I wanted to go to the vet.   I was just happy to go for a ride in the car.  When we got here there were so many interesting smells!   I put my nose to work and went right into this building when the doors were open.  There were 3 people in there and I was handed off to one of them.  I kept investigating.   It wasn't until mom started filling out paperwork that I figured something was up and went runninng back to mom.  The man said no so fast and told me to go with him.  So, I went.  Nose to ground investigating all the smells of friends I have yet to make.  Now I'm out in an outdoor kennel.  I can hear dogs barking inside.  I want to go meet them!  I have no idea why I am here but have heard the word surgery and shots thrown around.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see what all that is! 

I'm back!

Sorry I've been MIA the last few weeks.  We havent really been up to too much.  Every Sunday the weather has been pretty nasty so I haven't been out too much.  I've got my walks and all, but haven't gotten to see the calf or go out to the pasture to play.  I'm hoping now that spring is here, I will get to go to the pasture more often.  My parents went to the big city on Sunday and left me all alone.    I made the best of it.  Mom had made up a Kong for me and left me with a bone and some rawhide.  They were gone for what felt like forever.  I had started wondering if they were coming back.  I was happy to see Dad but miffed at Mom since she's the one that told me I had to stay behind.  I didn't stay , ad long though.  They brought me a HUGE rawhide bone and they even brought a tag home for me with my name and address on it.  I did get to run an errand with Dad on Saturday.  He was supposed to be taking me out to potty and next thing I know, we are in the truck, going to the convenience store.  I was good for once.  I didn't try  to get out of the truck at the store and when we got home, I didn't rush Dad to get out of the truck.  Dad was proud of me.   Anyway, I think I'll go play.  I hope everyone is doing well!