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intro

01/15/2024

a year ago, my partner and i adopted a dog from a local rescue. i had researched a list of common breeds you find in shelters—i was considering a husky or cattle dog, my partner was hoping for something on the smaller side, such as a chihuahua.

we were at an adoption fair for a local rescue to meet a chihuahua we were interested in. its foster wasn't able to make it to the fair, but we met many other dogs. i took a shine to a wiggly black puppy named clarence; my partner wasn't too sure about him. then she knelt next to a rather chunky, nervous looking cattle dog. the cattle dog looked at her, scared eyes, ears back, tail tucked, and gave my partner her paw. the deal was sealed and i would not sway her: this dog was ours now. they had shaken on it.

i had read enough to know what i was probably getting into with an acd, and accepted that she might be a little insane (and by insane i mean inexhaustible, clingy, protective, intelligent, stubborn, et cetera). i wanted a companion, so the clinginess appealed to me. i run marathon distances and wanted a running buddy, so i could easily commit to giving her the exercise she needed. i love training dogs, so we would put that intelligence to good use. and having owned pet rats, i was used to coming up with enrichment activities. dog enrichment just required bigger boxes. i hadn't worked with stubborn dogs before (my childhood dogs were very biddable lab mixes), but felt i had the patience and stubbornness to tackle it.

we walked her around the field a bit, she went slowly and didn't pull. her fosters, who only had her for a week, said she had been found wandering the streets in the city with a puppy. she seemed protective of the puppy and unsure of other dogs. we signed her papers, placed her in the backseat, and off we went. the drive home was difficult. she sat on my lap in the backseat and cried the whole time. i was just happy she didn't distress-poop on me, which had happened to the foster on the way to the fair.

i came up with a few names. billie (like the blues singer) was my favorite, but my partner preferred goose. and so she was dubbed goosedog.

as goose bonded with us, it was increasingly clear that she was afraid of the world. afraid to go through doorways, hop onto furniture, enter a crate, wear a collar, chew on a toy, meet a new person, step out into the rain, stay home by herself, and most apparently, see or hear another dog. and when these objects of fear got too close for comfort, she would do the only thing she knew would create space—bark, growl, muzzle punch, and snap.

we started training right away. we were starting from square zero. our priorities were house training, loose leash walking, and being able to enter and exit the car. the house training worked as long as someone was keeping goose company. when we left her alone, she would cry and eliminate out of distress, so working on drama-free separation was added to the priority list. on walks, we stopped when she pulled and moved forward when the leash went slack; loose-leash walking slowly and painfully improved, at least outside of the presence of other dogs. we sat in the back of the car with the doors open and fed her string cheese every evening. soon we closed the doors and ate cheese. then started the engine and ate cheese. in a few weeks we could drive around the block.

at that point, we knew we were ready to enroll in a training class. a class for reactive dogs, because our greatest difficulty at that point was encountering dogs on our walks. it didn't matter if the dog was across the street or at the very end of the block, as soon as goose noticed it she would stiffen, yelp as if in pain, growl, lunge, and altogether put on a wonderful (terrible) show.

in the six weeks of classes, we were able to practice existing in the same room with three to six other (reactive!) dogs. our training spaces were visually divided by bedsheets draped over x-pens. we practiced DRIs, alternate behaviors that are incompatible with reacting such as Find It!, Look At Me, and Touch. we practiced emergency turn-arounds. we started counter-conditioning in a field with a stuffed dummy dog (goose can't tell the difference). on the morning of the last day of class, on our morning walk around the block, goose was bitten by a small dog we didn't notice until we were turning a corner. it was a major setback after we had progressed so much.

we have continued our training since the classes ended. we are still working on counter-conditioning and building a positive emotional response to her triggers. i don't think we're ready to increase trigger intensity (desensitization) yet, but that is our eventual goal.

i wanted to start a bit of a diary blog to write about our continued effort to convince her she's safe. she's had a lot of improvement this past year, and i'm hoping for much more in the future.

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