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 to follow Jamie’s progress!
Perhaps the biggest improvements this week were between Jamie and Craig. Jamie will lay with him on our big chair, and he can move around and pet her. Craig can also enter a room and walk around the house without issues, unless it is at night or when she is resting or sleeping. In those instances, she will then bark and growl, usually moving backwards in a fearful motion, but sometimes charging him.
While Jamie and Craig have improved, she remains fearful of Jason, and she does not like him playing with Zoey. She will take treats from him and he can pet her, but she tends to low growl at him at times when he walks around or enters a room, and she charged, lunged, barked, and growled at him two times this week.
We are making great progress with Jamie’s backyard leash training. She is still hyper-focused on the birds and other dogs but is improving with other distractions – people walking past with no dog, loud vehicles, and next-door neighbors in their yards.
We finally had a day with nice weather, so I decided it was time to try another walk in the neighborhood. Jamie went through the front door with only a little hesitation – much improved from last week – and entirely without my coaxing. Craig and Jason took turns walking with Zoey and Jamie would walk next to or near them without difficulties. This was Jamie’s longest walk so far, and while she was definitely stressed, I was happy she kept moving and didn’t completely freak out with her patented “bucking bronco.” My next goal is to get Jamie to walk next to me in a proper loose leash walk with little to no stress.
Jamie is still fearful – this week, we found out she is afraid laundry baskets, whether they are near her, in another room, staying still, or a person is moving them. I have continued to give her melatonin calming treats, which make a difference. She up is to 150 micrograms (one treat four times per day); she is allowed 3000 mcg’s (or three grams) per day. At the same time, I’ve stopped Zoey’s melatonin, as it gave her the runs. She pretty much only gets stressed when Jamie goes after Jason or engages her too much. We had one instance this week of Jamie resource guarding when Zoey walked past a rope toy, but there was improvement overall.
After some time, her sleeping habits are getting closer to my schedule. She will wake up around 6:30-7:00am for potty, then goes back in the crate until about 8:00am. I have increased her food to almost three cups per day: one at breakfast, ¼ cup in a Kong around noon, one at dinner and ½ cup in a Game Changer interactive toy around 10pm.
Overall, Jamie is showing improvement after only three weeks, but she is still very managed. I do not yet trust that her fear won’t take over and cause her to go after someone in the house if she is left alone. Hopefully we can continue chipping away at this over time.