Mind Adventures

The freak-out phase of owning a pit-mix puppy is abating. Next up is "Educate Thyself." Great. I crave more time on the computer... NOT!

Nap time=my computer time

About a year ago, a friend turned me on to Paco Collars, a Berkeley based company that makes sturdy, beautiful dog collars, and the owner, Ana Poe, works with rescued pits. Besides coming to admire the talent and determination with which she's building her business, I also admire Ana's work with rescue dogs. I've been reading Huckleberry's blog. (Huckleberry was a very handsome blue pit/pit mix that she fostered.) It seemed to me, from reading Huck's blog, that training a pit/mix takes an inordinate amount of time. (I don't have inordinate amounts of spare time!) And, in the end, despite the hard work, time, attention and effort, Ana still had to make the difficult and heart-rending decision to put Huck down. (How on earth am I, an utter novice, going to be able to distinguish a "red flag" and discern hidden aggression in dog's personality?) This was only one of the concerns behind my adamant refusal to consider JL's suggestion that we get a pit puppy after Joy died.


Poppy's arrival in our household wiped out my previously hard-line attitude about "no pits" and set me on a path of education and research. Ana's site gave me a great starting point as she works with Bad Rap, a pit education/rescue group in Oakland. Bad Rap's founders, Tim Racer and Donna Reynolds, have participated in some astounding rescue projects including the rehab of dogs from Michael Vick's Bad Newz Kennel. What great folks to start learning from!

I followed and read through all the resource links from Bad Rap's site - training, exercise, behavior - and have begun to feel less anxious about being a good caretaker and companion to Poppy. I still think my biggest challenge is going to be time (daily one-hour walks and guided exercise) and lack of access to an  affordable trainer. Bad Rap offers a hugely discounted training program through Berkeley Animal Care Services (BACS) and I dutifully signed up for it. Then both their trainer and I changed our schedules - she to a Sunday only class and me to a Sunday-Thursday work week. <sigh>

Kitty?

At the moment, my strategy is to incorporate what I've learned from reading and watching training videos into every walk that Poppy and I take. She's doing pretty well at "sit" and "down," and we're working on "stay" which is really tough for an easily distracted pup to do.

Sometimes I forget to use both verbal and hand commands together or I mix up the verbal and hand command which makes us both frustrated. Sometimes when we get home I'm tired but she's still raring to go, zooming around the house or jumping on Jimmy and I lose my temper. Yelling only makes her look at me as if I've grown a second head. I've learned to put her outside and let the two of them work it out.

I guess it's not really the dog who needs to be trained. It's me. She's pretty happy to do what I ask of her. I on the other hand grouse and grumble about getting up and out of the house at 6 or 6:30 a.m. to walk her if only for half an hour and then repeat the process when I come home. This is a real challenge since I'm not a "routine" person. I managed to feed my child when he was hungry and get to work on time but never had much use or interest in keeping my life on a schedule. What I'm reading about behavioral training indicates that a schedule is an important tool. Rats... there goes my carefree independence.