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December, 1999
Thursday, 12/2/99
meds given approx 7:30am, 7:30pm
I realize that I set this journal up to observe and
record Bacall's behavior, but I just gotta say, Samantha
is doing SO well. I noted a few days ago that she had
done some galloping. Well, at the time I was thrilled
because it was by far the most I'd seen her move in
months. In hindsight, that was more of a canter. Still
a great improvement. Tonight though I saw her really
gallop. Not at all a casual loping to pick up speed,
but a real all-out gallop across the field. Magnificent!
Bacall continues to do well. For the past week (with
increased medication) I have not noticed any swings
in behavior. I realize that a week isn't very long,
but this sure is nice. She and Sam continue to do a
little playing. It's still not what it was a year ago,
but it's good. Cat playing is controlled. She isn't
darting after the cats each time she sees one, and poor
Cori is starting to come out a little more often in
the evenings.
Interestingly (or ironically), just as Samantha is
starting to eat regularly again (she was off her food
for a few days) and to feel better, Bogart is off HIS
food. He didn't eat Wednesday, and only picked at dinner
tonight. The last few days he has been cranky, and has
snapped at both of the girls if they get too close to
him while he's sleeping or lounging. He may be in pain
due to weather changes. But both girls are giving him
his space.
Monday, 12/6/99
meds given approx 7:30am, 7:30pm
Wow, when things are going along nicely, I have nothing
to log here. Bacall seems to have been in a settled
place over the last two weeks. She is very much like
she was a few years ago, after I adopted her and was
progressing with the desensitization and socialization,
before she started to backslide from that. She is, however,
learning a little better now than she was then. She
has already imprinted the pattern for the dinner time
routine. When I get ready for feeding, she takes her
place in the middle. The split second I get all three
of the dogs lined up, she downs before I can tell them
all to do so. If I am backed up from where the dogs
are, standing in the kitchen, she puts herself RIGHT
in front of me. I have to back her up into line with
the dogs. She is not taking the down command, though,
she is going down on her own, because it's now part
of her pattern. And she goes down onto her back, submissive.
Uck! I have started making her sit back up, just to
break up the routine.
Bacall continues to be interested in the ball, but
also continues to not completely understand unless Bogart
is involved in the game. It's like she's imprinted this
activity as well. She chases with Bo, but most of the
time, even if she beats him to the ball, she jumps over
it to let him get it. This still differs from behavior
prior to a few weeks ago, since she is focused on the
ball at this point, where previously she was only focused
on Bo (or whatever dog she was with). If I've got the
ball in my hand, and haven't thrown it yet, while Bo
is intent on watching my hand, Bacall will start to
bark at me. A month ago she wouldn't have even been
paying any attention until she saw Bogart start running,
and she NEVER took notice of the ball. Now she is overly
focused on the ball.
Tonight Duke came over to visit while we were out playing.
Bacall was initially a little puffy (hackles raised).
Then Sam ran over to say hi (yay! Sam notices the other
dog, seemingly for the first time). Then Bo ran over
to see if someone might have a ball to play with. Duke,
a bit overwhelmed, took off back towards home. Bacall
and Sam followed, so I followed, so Bogart followed.
By the time I'd gotten over to Duke's place, Bacall
was playing with Duke nicely, hackles back down. Duke
still seemed a little unsure about all the attention,
but he likes the girls. Bogart really pays no attention
to Duke (Bo doesn't care about other dogs unless they
have a ball, or Bo is attached to me by a leash). The
other thing that was odd though, was that I had trouble
getting Bacall to recall while Duke was out. When she
headed off with Duke, I called her to return. She immediately
turned around and headed back towards me, then turned
back around. I called her again, she turned again and
came towards me, then turned back towards where Duke
had headed, and ran back that way. This happened five
times, and it wasn't until I'd gone all the way over
there that she would return with me. Bacall normally
has a GREAT recall...by far the best and most reliable
of the three dogs. This seemed to be too much for her,
and she couldn't figure out what she was going to do.
When she heard me call, she turned fast enough that
she was throwing up turf. Then she'd hear something
from Duke's direction, and do the same.
Sam is doing great, evil purple decreasing, energy
increasing. Bo is still a little cranky, but we've been
having a series of fronts moving in and out of the area,
and if my knees are any indication, his hips are probably
bothering him a fair bit. Both Bogart and Samantha have
been eating well the last few days, however, which is
good.
Sunday, 12/12/99
meds given approx 10am, 8pm
I've been sick as the proverbial dog for a week, and
so the dogs are a bit off their normal schedule, and
I haven't been updating this journal. I don't know if
it's the weather, the medications doing their job, or
me being sick, but all three dogs have been superbly
behaved all week, and not complaining a bit that I haven't
gotten them out for more than a quick visit to the grass.
Bogart had some sort of injury last week to his right
front leg. He pulled up lame while we were playing ball
in the yard on Tuesday night. By the time we got inside,
he would not bear weight on it, and actually cried out
in pain if he tried (Bogart, like many large breed dogs,
is quite stoic about pain...this is the dog that walked
out of the clinic after hip replacement surgery, and
never stopped bearing weight on the leg during recovery).
He is slowly recovering, though he is still a bit lame
on that leg. I'm assuming that the weather (cool and
very rainy) is affecting his hip some also. He has been
sleeping a lot the last few days, and today is quite
cranky about Sam or Bacall getting too close to him,
which is odd. He has barked warnings at them both a
few times today, if they get too close to him (I'm assuming
this is the issue...I can't tell for sure, and Bo isn't
talking about it).
Samantha is doing well, with good energy, and a pretty
good appetite. She has only turned down one meal in
the last week. She is drinking more water than she used
to, however. I'm not sure why that might be. She isn't
doing as much flat out running as she displayed in the
last week or so, but that might be due to cold, wet,
or just not having something specific to run for. She
did respond earlier this week in an interesting manner.
She had wandered across the road (the private road on
property, not a public road where she might meet with
a car) to the meadow to visit the grass. As she came
meandering back into the yard, she froze, looking across
the yard at something. She was VERY alert...more so
than I've seen from her in a long while. She started
towards what turned out to be a piece of paper in the
yard, paused, started again, paused. I think she thought
it might be a "rabbit" though none of the
dogs have actually seen any since we moved in (they're
all over the place out here, but I make a lot of noise
before we come out to warn the bunnies out of the way).
I'm assuming they've smelled them, however. They do
a lot of snuffling around some areas where I assume
the bunnies have burrow entrances. Anyway, Sam started
and stopped towards the "bunny", and then
when it hadn't noticed it, she bolted towards it. So
she's capable of moving, but doesn't really seem to
feel the need to do so much the last few days.
Bacall has been on her current med dosage for a few
weeks now, and seems to be much more even keeled. Yesterday
I accidentally stepped on her leg while trying to negotiate
the dogs in getting to my chair. She yelped, but didn't
run away, and accepted my pets of apology without cringing.
Today she responded to me "talking" to her
the way Bogart does ("You know, you're kind of
in the way there. It would help if you moved over a
little."). She is quite active outside, but very
calm in the house. Interaction with the cats has been
pretty good. Blackbean seems not to want to interact
with anyone the last few weeks, but Bacall and Tucker
have played a little. She isn't being at all jumpy about
anyone touching her while she's sleeping. There have
been no instances of trouble when taking her place for
dinner. She's responding to the down command. I have
not been playing ball with anyone in the evenings since
Bo is still lame. I might try playing with just her
a bit, but I've been too sick to think about that the
last few days. I'm hoping that I start feeling better,
and that work calms down enough for me to pay more attention
to all of them. I also want to break up her dinner time
routine some to see how she responds. She is still occasionally
a bit cringy and submissive without cause or predictable
trigger. But the temperament swings seem to have evened
out, and I believe she will start responding to training
again.
Monday, 12/13/99
meds given approx 7:30am, 9pm
The cooped up conditions and superbly controlled behavior
of the last week or so resulted in Bacall doing some
hard core laps around the yard and meadow tonight, literally
kicking up turf as she went. She was in a great mood,
and Samantha came around the house as she was tearing
around, and joined in for a minute. They both did some
chasing, and "boxing", and a minute or so
of general play posturing. That seemed to be about as
much of that as Sam wanted or was comfortable with,
and she returned to looking for hoof shavings, while
Bacall went back to running figure eights around the
yard.
Bo is still limping just a little, but since the girls
were so energetic, and and he's been generally cooped
up so long, I did toss the ball for him a few (like
three) times...short and soft. After that he was content
to wander around the yard holding the ball in his mouth
for safe-keeping. He just ignored Bacall trying to get
him to play. She's leaping about his head (and over
his back once), and he's just wandering around, sniffing.
Last night, late, all three did something odd. When
I took them out for a last visit to the grass, all three
headed straight from the door to my car, sniffing around
the car carefully. Bo was in the lead, and it's entirely
possible that the girls were following him. Sam just
sniffed around a few seconds, then wandered off. Bacall
sniffed a little, but seemed more interested in what
Bo was doing. Bogart spent a good minute carefully searching
the ground and air around the car, concentrating on
the driver door, and the trunk. Bo followed his nose
out onto the "road", sniffing around the edge
of the grass, and then back to the car. After another
search around the car, he seemed to decide all was well,
and went off to the grass. Bacall seemed to be studying
him the whole time, sniffing where he'd sniffed, like
she was trying to figure out what he sensed. Whatever
it was, it must have been gone, and not too much of
a threat, as Bo never raised hackles.
Wednesday, 12/15/99
meds given approx 7:30am, 10pm
This is turning out to be another very long week, and
I'm afraid that my schedule (and therefore the dogs'
schedule) is quite off. I ran out of Bacall's pills
yesterday, but am improvising. Samantha takes .5mg pills
twice daily. Bacall has been taking .3 in the morning,
and .15 in the evening, for a total of .45 per day.
So I've been giving her one half of one of Sam's pills
in the morning, and half in the evening, for a total
of .5mg/day. She seems to be doing fine this way, and
even though I was quite late with her evening dose,
Bacall was pretty calm. She seems a little better than
the last week or so, even with the off-kilter schedule.
Perhaps that's due to getting a more evenly distributed
dosage.
When I got home tonight and let the dogs out, Bogart
and Bacall both investigated the car again. This time
Bo concentrated on the front and back passenger doors.
Bacall followed suit, even going so far as to stand
up against the car to sniff at the window. I'd only
JUST come home, so it couldn't have been anything that
had come around the car since I pulled in. That leaves
the parking garage downtown. Wonder if someone tried
to get into the car today?
I'm attempting to break up routines a little. I've
always had the dogs sit and hold until released before
eating or going out. I've started releasing them one
at a time. This is a stretch for all three, actually,
and a very good little idea for the whole group. But
Bacall isn't totally freaking out by the change. She's
a little unsure, but isn't peeing on the floor, or falling
on her back. I'm having to hold each of them (a hand
on the chest) while I release them one at a time. Sam
actually seems as confused as Bacall. So far (I've only
been doing this a few days), I'm releasing Bogart first
-- as top dog -- and I've been primarily releasing Bacall
last. Once I release Bo or Sam, I can back up from Bacall
and take my hand off her chest, and she holds. She's
tense, ready to spring forward, but she holds. I'm also
alternating making one or two of the dogs down, and
the other remain sitting, switching which I ask to do
what, while holding for food or to go out. Just another
way to break up the routine, and to enforce that they
are each obeying commands, not just following the regular
routine. I don't, however, want to move their "places"
for mealtime. I want to be able to give the command
"take your places" and have each fall into
place. I can't do this if the "places" change.
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Copyright © 1999, 2001 by OffLead Productions.
Reprinted with permission of the author.
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