Pepper is a really good dog. While she took a little time to warm up to us, particularly to Kelvin, she is now wonderful with us. She is playful but not hyperactive, loyal, well-behaved (except with some jumping/nipping when we come home from work), and only slightly "naughty"-- when we are gone for our half-days at a time, we sometimes come home to various objects (usually shoes, slippers, paper towels or bathmats) piled in her doggie bed, although nothing has been chewed/damaged.
She is a bit stubborn sometimes on walks when she is close to home as, after going potty, she sometimes tries to turn around and race home; however, when out of the neighborhood, she is a great explorer and even goes on runs with me. She is obedient off leash, as long as we are not in the vicinity of our house, and we never feel she is going to take off and run away.
She is sometimes finicky with her food, but we give her about 30 min to eat it and then take the bowl away, reminding ourselves that she will eat when hungry enough.
She is a pretty smart cookie-- she has been easily taught to sit and stay pretty well, and, this week, I accomplished the "shake" which is totally adorable.
While (thankfully) it is nothing compared to having a digging or aggressive, biting dog, her biggest issue, and one which I really hope we can fix, is her stranger anxiety and shyness. As I have been reading (recently read Patricia McConnell's For the Love of a Dog), a lot of inherent "shyness" is inherited/genetic; shy puppies can come from shy parents, and often turn into shy adults. Some of dog- and people-oriented shyness is due to the extent of socialization critical in the puppy period-- puppies should be exposed to a wide variety of people and situations so as to improve their adaptability. I am not sure how well Pepper was socialized but, in the time that she was with her previous owner in Happy Camp, she was around a few other shih tzus and her female human "leader," but was in a very remote area and I don't think "got out much" in the past year. I think this probably greatly contributed to (or magnified) her already introverted, nervous personality. I think it may also have been the reason that the owner didn't want to keep her to breed (as this is not a very desirable trait) and wanted to adopt her out.
Pepper still tends to cower in the corner when we have guests over and is something of what McConnell calls a "velcro dog" (sticks to ya!). On walks, she'll show interest in sniffing and greeting small dogs but tends to cower and run behind us when she meets a larger one. She never bites or becomes aggressive, but she shrinks away at strangers' outstretched hands, particularly those of kids, not even taking treats from people she doesn't know. I wish we could get her to be more of a friendly, happy-go-lucky extroverted doggie. Per Cesar, and which I understand, in order to improve her nervousness, we have to let her become curious and approach others, rather than let others approach her. I know this is going to take time, but I'm not sure just how long, or how successful we'll be.
I have also been struggling with the parental guilt that comes with leaving your "child" behind while you go to work. I am usually the first one out of the door in the morning-- either to round on moms/babies at the hospital, or to get up to McKinleyville to the clinic. I don't think I could manage it any other way. When I am (rarely) the one getting ready (i.e. coat/boots on) to leave Pepper alone, her round chocolate eyes seem to plead, "don't go," and usually as soon as we/I walk out the door, this is the position she assumes:
I have to avoid looking back at the house, because it breaks my heart to see her little fuzzy face peering out the front window as I drive away.
This is where she often waits for us to walk through the front door (which we term "the throne")
Because I know that her "hoarding" objects to her dog bed is a sign of boredom while at home alone, we have been trying to mix things up to make her three days of full-time alone time (broken up by our lunchtimes walks/visits) more interesting (and to assuage my personal guilt at working outside of the home).
- We have tried to exercise her more as, as Cesar says, a well-exercised dog generally sleeps a lot more and gets into less mischief; I have been taking her for runs in the mornings when the weather cooperates.
- When we do walk her and we have a bit more time, we try to take her to new places (i.e. the Arcata Marsh, Hammond Trail, Hiller Park) to mix up the daily routine
- We have left the TV on with the music channel for background noise (however; it shuts off automatically if there isn't movement for a while)
- We give her rawhide bones or sticks to gnaw on; this works pretty well
- We have invested in a couple of Kong doggie toys which are plastic, hollow toys that you can stuff with treats that require the dog to work to get them out (Pepper works to some degree but, if too difficult, seems to give up on these). I just bought another toy, the Tug-a-Jug, which I think will be very enjoyable for her, as the only toy in which she has ever taken interest is a rope bone. I wish these toys didn't all have to be food-oriented, so I'd welcome any suggestions for doggie-occupying and mind-stimulating activities that are less nutritionally-motivated.
Tug-a-jug
Last week, we took Peppy to doggie day care for the first time. I had been interested in exploring this option for a while, both to "mix up" the monotony of half-days alone at home (and to prevent the mischief, albeit benign, that she does exhibit), as well as to try to get her more used to being around other dogs and people. Kelvin was a bit more hesitant to leave her there, and is now more hesitant to take her back there, as it was a bit of a bust.
Pep was only there for 4 hours (the afternoon session), but both when I dropped her up and when we picked her up, she was shaking. She did NOT look very happy to see us immediately when we came in and seemed a bit traumatized by the whole experience. The dog sitter said that, while nothing bad happened, she was just very shy (as we expected) and kind of hung out in the corner.
When we got into the car, we smelled poop and her whole behind was kind of smeared with it. This struck us as quite odd-- she had already pooped over our lunchtime walk, and she never makes a mess like that. We couldn't figure out if she "crapped her pants" out of fear and then sat in it, or "sat in another dog's poop" which Kelvin hypothesized (and which I found fairly ludicrous).
We had to sit her down on the car floormat to not contaminate our seats:
Don't you love this face?
In any case, K is quite reluctant for me to take her back to daycare as he feels that she was somehow traumatized. However, I feel quite strongly that we should continue to try this option out, to get her "back on the horse," and to keep her getting used to new situations so that, with hope, she gets to where she enjoys going to be around other dogs and people. Thoughts?
I am eagerly expecting in the mail McConnell's The Cautious Canine for more tips on getting our cutie to be a lit less of a 'fraidy dog. Your suggestions are very welcome, too!
