Well, a few weeks less. Blaze is now officially ten years old. That’s a lot time. Ten years ago my life was completely different. It’s especially cool to spend his birthday with a great friend who moved away just months after I got Blaze.
A summary:
Year 1: My first dog. We started training class at five months. Our first show, 4-H Showmanship, at six months. We got first place!
Year 2: We were with a different 4-H group. He was very mouthy. He bit a trainer for hitting him for mouthing me… We used clicker training to decrease the mouthing.
Year 3: We learned a lot about clicker training. We did our first agility class. It was amazing. This year we also did our first agility trial.
Year 4: More agility. More training. More dog reading.
Year 5: Luna was added to the family. More training with Blaze and more agility class.
Year 6: We visited a pair of trainers who thought his behavior was very abnormal and recommended a consult with a veterinary behaviorist.
Year 7: We visited the vet behavior clinic at Purdue. We did a lot of trying different medications. Our first AKC rally trial! We started the Karen Pryor Academy Dog Trainer Program together!
Year 8: More changing meds. Griffin was added to the family. I was really able to see which of Blaze’s behaviors were golden retrieverness and which were very exaggerated.
Year 9: Medications not working as well. A neuro consult led us to find he likely has a brain lesion, likely resulting in his behavior problems and seizures.
Year 10: We started tracking. He loves tracking.
Year 11: ???
He’s literally changed my life, in very good ways and in very not good ways. If I didn’t have him, my life would have likely been completely different. Due to these experiences, I can be extremely empathetic to owners with challenging dogs. It’s hard to be scared of your dog. It’s hard to be working so hard on training and seeing little to no progress. It’s hard to not be able to reach your goals. It’s stressful, physically demanding, and mentally stressful.
Hard decisions:
Thinking about euthanasia for a pet with a behavior problem is important. It is incredibly difficult and a different scenario from when physical health problems are present. Quality of life is very hard to evaluate. We came close to this decision more than once, starting at 6 months of age. The closest was about two years ago, and as I was about to make the call, I got an email about an amazing student dog who had just died in a very unfortunate situation. The student now just returned to class with a new puppy.
Training and management are important to help maintain current levels of behavior and to decrease problem behaviors. Ignoring unwanted behaviors is not enough. Training basic cue response is not enough. We need to be using management and training of incompatible behaviors and we need to be using response substitution.
Professional help:
Professionals really need to know what they’re doing. Numerous vets, trainers, and enthusiasts told me that my dog needed more punishment. More training. More exercise. Better training and exercise. We never addressed the underlying chemical imbalance until much later in life. Our life would have had a very different path if this was addressed early on. Experienced people need to be teaching puppy and basic classes and watching out for abnormal things in young dogs. Instructors need to know enough about normal and abnormal behavior to know when cases should be referred to a vet behaviorist and/or appropriate professional.
The challenges of living with this day to day has huge impacts on a family. These people and dogs need the best help available.
2 Comments
Robin Sallie · February 19, 2011 at 3:15 am
I live with an abnormal dog. She is 7 years old. Thank you.
Lindsay · February 19, 2011 at 4:13 am
I think it's great that you wrote this post! The more these kinds of stories are out there, the more people in need are likely to stumble upon it, and the more dogs that can be helped. Too many people end up being made to feel at fault for something that may very well be out of their hands. And I do agree that puppy classes are all too often the classes that get the short end of the stick with regards to the "trainers" teaching them.
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