Penny at 14 weeks

We must be doing something right because sweet Penelope has doubled her weight in the last 6 weeks that we've had her. But it is easy for me to think that I am doing a lot wrong in puppy parenthood. Mostly, I am completely lost on how to communicate with my feral-born puppy. It seems that when I try to make her comfortable, she thinks that I am going to hurt her. When I try to give her a treat she thinks it's a trap. When I want to pet her and give her love, she runs away with her tail between her legs. Is this the additional challenge that comes with adopting a dog that was born to feral desert parents? That is the most logical explanation that I can come up with.

I try to get into her head and understand her even though I am not a dog and obviously do no think like a dog. But I do it anyway. So here she is - born to feral parents, under a log in the middle of the desert. It would have been during the late monsoon rains we got out here. So it was warm and moist and she lived for awhile with her mom and litter mates under a log or more likely a large creosote. And then comes along these two-legged giants that scare her mother away and take her and her littermates to a new place with other dogs, cages, weird food, weird smells and no mother. They find her mother and bring her in a couple of days later. She and her littermates are hungry, traumatized and thus associate the two-legged giants with these negative feelings. Then they spend the next several weeks watching their mother interact with humans. And from what I have heard, her mother would shy away or snip at any human that approached her. So this is how Penny learned to interact with humans.

When I think about it this way, which dog psychologists would probably tell me is completely off, I understand why I still evoke fear in my sweet pup. And I know I need to be patient but sometimes it is so hard because all I want to do is love her and feed her and train her and make her comfortable and yet she often responds with fear to these attempts. Fascinating to watch my own emotions fluctuate, my frustration arise... and then I remember. I am not a dog. I am a human. It may take a whole lifetime of learning how to communicate with her. But I have to be patient.

happy 4-week adoptaversary, Penny!

These notes below were typed up for some friends who are going to puppy-sit for us next week. Thought I'd share them here.

Penny has been with us for 4 weeks to the day. We think she is 12 weeks old even though the rescue told us she was born September 1. The vet assigned her birthday as September 7. She has grown so much, she's had her first taste of Thanksgiving turkey, her first experience with unrequited love (Bravo), has made her first friend (Louie, see pic below), has expelled the worms living in her gut, and has gone on her first night-time adventure with the pack (a walk to Chris's house with Louie, me and Ethan). She is getting used to the ritual of sleeping in her crate, waking up for a poop outside and then snuggling in bed with either Steph or Ethan, or both. Despite her apparent affinity for cuddling in bed or on the couch, Penny still shies away when we turn to pet her. More work still to come...

Here are some things that we are working on with the little pup: 

1) Not shying away from people and their hands. We only pick up, pet, put her leash on when she is calm and relaxed. It is easy to find yourself chasing her around but we are working hard to stop doing this and instead wait patiently for her to allow us to approach. Chasing her to pet her or pick her up only reinforces her early life experience of “being trapped or caught”.

2) Sleeping in her crate through the night. This is her safe place and where she feels most comfortable. Snuggling in the bed in the morning is fine and has become a ritual for us, but she has always slept in her crate.  She often needs to pee and very rarely poop during the night and she starts to feel very anxious if she can’t do this in an appropriate place (her wee-wee pad or outside). Also, she often will eat a bit of kibble during the night.

3) Chewing only on her toys. Penny has ample selection of toys from which to choose for her chewing pleasure. We have given her many options so that she doesn’t feel the need to chew on hands, feet, shoes, furniture, socks, clothes, etc. Please encourage her to chew and play only with her toys and, if you feel comfortable, discipline her with a “chhhttt” if she is chewing on/playing with something other than a toy, especially feet. Because she is a herding breed, we are trying to discourage the tendency to nip heels as she grows older.

4) Lack of possessiveness with toys. Penny should know that the toys ultimately belong to us as the “pack leaders”. We are working with her to freely give up any toy if we decide to take it.

5) We do not play tug-of-war with Penny because we don’t want her to think she can engage in a contest of strength with us, even if we know we can win every time. We’ve read that it can nurture dominant and obsessive behavior, which is exactly the opposite of the calm-submissive dog we want to create.

6) Leash walking. Penny generally follows us around outside, but we are still using the leash most of the time to encourage her to be comfortable with the leash. We haven’t started training her to heel yet but simply give her a nudge a kissing sound when we want her to follow us. The other night, she walked with Louie all the way to friend’s house about a half mile away!

7) Fetch. Penny takes to fetch pretty easily and we’ve started reinforcing this by giving her a treat when she returns to us with the object and after she drops it.

8) Peeing/pooping only outside or on the wee-wee pad. She has to pee so often that sometimes we can’t give her the opportunity to go outside every time. It is important she knows where the wee-wee pad is so that she goes on it and doesn’t learn to pee anywhere in a house.

9) Eating. Penny is a pretty good eater. We change up the kibble and that seems to interest her more. We give her a mixture of kibble and canned food or turkey throughout the day. She always has food available but too much chicken or turkey can make her sick (as we discovered on Thanksgiving).

10) Confidence. Penny has a “stray dog” complex and seems to be very sensitive to loud noises, high energy and changes in her environment. We are trying to gently get her more comfortable with these things by using Louie to introduce her to new sounds, smells or objects. Louie seems to be the best at inspiring confidence in her.