Jeri Wagner, Dog Behavioral Therapist & Master Trainer with Bark Busters Home Dog Training chronicles her dog foster experience in the hopes of inspiring and helping others on their dog foster journey. Read along and meet Jamie!
Jamie has been here a week! In this short amount of time, she has made good progress on some things and slower progress on others. Here are some highs, lows, and updates from her first week with our family.
- While it only took a day for Jamie to warm to me, it took her a few days to get used to Craig and Jason.
- She is VERY sensitive to sounds and movements and VERY focused on birds. She will watch them out the back window and try to chase them while inside the house. She tries to chase birds while on the leash, too.
- She shows fearful, flight responses (running to other side of room, pulling back while on leash) and reactive behaviors (growling, barking, lunging) for loud sounds and fast or unexpected movements, though verbal corrections will stop this. She is fearful of anything new, from toys to people, but she is fine once she gets used to things.
- She resource guards human and dog food from both humans and dogs. This behavior is controllable, however, with LOTS of management: for example, she stays in her crate during human and dog meal and snack time if I cannot be there to watch her. She is not allowed toys or bones when around Craig, Jason, or Zoey, but is fine with these things around me.
- She has begun to resource guard me when Jason or Craig come near me. She does better with Zoey, but still tries to push her out of the way.
- Crate time is a mixed bag. She eats meals in the crate; she sleeps in the crate; she “naps” in her crate, though she only makes it about 30 minutes before she yips, barks and whines. Nighttime is still difficult, as she only makes it about 6 hours at night before she yips, barks and whines to get out. Overall, she does okay with the crate.
- She has improved quite a bit with her leash training, but still needs work. She is much better on a harness than collar. She has no issues going outside in the backyard with or without Zoey, though she will want to go back in (I don’t let her) if there are loud vehicles.
- We are still working on sit/stay – she does alright without a treat, but better with treats. We started a melatonin variety to see if it helps with her anxiety and nervousness.
Week One has not been without its challenges, but I am pleased with Jamie’s progress so far! She is a sweet girl, and I am confident that we can work on her less-desirable behaviors. Stay tuned for weekly updates from our first foster experience.