How do animals sense when you need them? My husband, for instance, has been out of town, and Simba has slept with me for several nights. He only occasionally sleeps with us. I’m not sure it was really helpful, unfortunately, as being sandwiched between Chester and Simba make it difficult to sleep.

This afternoon, however, I was feeling a bit lonely. I was finally laying down for a short rest, after a very busy day. I was missing the dogs, since Chester would usually be glued to my lap when I lay down on the couch.

Lo and behold, Simba suddenly climbed down and curled up on my stomach. He never does that when the weather is warmer. He loves to curl up on me or next to me when it’s cold, but when it’s warm he doesn’t seem to want to. Occasionally he’ll get on me, but he leaves after just a few moments.

Simba, in fact, is my thermometer. The month of May can be very warm in the mornings, or it can be very cool. I can always tell which it is — when it’s cool out, Simba lays on me in the mornings. If it’s warm, he doesn’t come in until it’s time for breakfast. Even then, sometimes, he has to be persuaded.

I was very glad of his company this afternoon. There’s little more soothing than a silky, purring cat curled up on you. Unfortunately, I had to get up much sooner than he wanted to. No rest for the weary.

I’ve told him that it’s okay if he sleeps with me tonight. We’ll see.

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I love all my animals dearly, but sometimes I just feel overwhelmed. Especially by the dogs, it seems. Well, of course, I was overwhelmed by the girls when they got old & sick.

We have been fighting environmental allergies for a while now. It started several weeks ago when Chester suddenly started scratching himself so badly he gave himself a hot spot. I wasn’t sure if that was what it was, of course, having never seen one, so off we went to the vet (did I mention we’d just been there 2 days ago for a wellness check?).

Yup, a hot spot. I specifically asked about fleas, since I don’t use a flea preventative, and he’s never had fleas. But the vet said the area he was scratching (his stomach) wasn’t the are you’d see fleas on. She gave me an antihistamine and a topical steroid cream. I used the antihistamine, but not the steroid — I used an aloe gel I had instead. And I started adding a tea of nettles and lemon balm to their food.

The hot spot healed quickly, and while they were still scratching, there was no no hot spots and it seemed to get better.

Until a couple of days ago. All of the sudden, he was really scratching again. No new hot spots, but he was driving me (not to mention himself) crazy, even waking me up at 3 am with his scratching. Then this afternoon I saw a new hotspot near the base of his tail — which would indicate fleas — and I saw some fleas.

So I called the vet, and ran over there to pick up some frontline. This is the first time in twenty-three years I’ve had to treat an animal for fleas! The last time was when we gave Cleo a flea bath (not fun at all). I’ve had Chester for a year and a half, and this is most definitely the first time I’ve seen a flea on him.

Did I mention that I’m getting ready to go out of town and my plate is already overflowing? Running out to get the flea meds was the last thing I needed to do today. Not to mention the washing of the pet bedding. But they’re going to be boarded tomorrow, so it’s not as if I could put it off.

Supposedly, fleas only attack animals with a poor immune system. Which is what I don’t get; I am already jumping through all sorts of hoops trying to make sure they’re as healthy as can be, including making their food. Yet it seems as though I keep facing a never-ending array of health problems with Chester. I love him to death, but I also fear he’s going to be the death of me. I feel so overwhelmed sometimes.

The interesting thing is that I’ve heard from a lot of people that this season the environmental allergies have been terrible, and dogs who have never been bothered by it before are having troubles. And when I was at the vet, mentioning to the receptionist that I’ve never had to give them flea medicine before, she mentioned that I was about the tenth customer who’d said that today.

Hopefully I’ll come back somewhat refreshed from my time away, and to non-scratching dogs. Hopefully the house won’t be full of fleas by the time I get back. I was already going to try to wash the sheets tomorrow and vacuum, but now it looks like a necessity . . . yet I still have so much to do.

And why, I wonder, do the cats seem to be having no problems? So far? Knock on wood!

Technorati Tags: environmental allergies, hot spot, frontline

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As I’ve written, we’ve had ongoing training with Lola on the leash. She’s very reactive on it — lunging at dogs who bark at her from their fenced backyards, growling & barking at any dog who dares to approach her. She wasn’t like this when we first got her, but my guess is that even tho she was well socialized to humans when we first got her, and even tho she lived in a couple of homes with other dogs, she wasn’t well socialized to other dogs as a puppy. She was 10 months old when we got her.

So we’ve been working on it with her for months. It’s tiring and frustrating sometimes, and I admit sometimes I’ll take a route that I know won’t take us past many dogs just so I don’t have to manage her so much. But most of the time I’ll deliberately take her past her trouble spots. And she knows every single yard that houses dogs!

She has been much, much better recently. Except for her nemesis: the yard with the chain link fence, with several large dogs chained in the yard, all of whom sound like they’d like to eat her as we walk by. She just can’t seem to control herself at that house no matter what I do.

Until today! She started to lunge before we got to the house. I had her stop, and then walked slowly backward in front of her all the way past the house, stopping several times to click and treat her for walking nicely on the leash. And she did! No lunges at all after the first time I had her stop and sit. The same on the way back!

And now it’s time to step it up and go into phase two: I need to bring her to the hike and bike trail, where there are lots of dogs, more often. Unfortunately, that’s harder during the summer, since it gets hot so early in the morning.

It will be frustrating again, I’m sure. And I’m sure I’ll got lots of looks as I walk backwards in front of her — which actually may not be so easy there. I think the walking backwards worked for her because it allows her to focus on me. I found that I could move from that to walking sideways by her, and then to just having her walk normally with me — still click and treating several times past her trouble spots. Until I can just tell her “walk” a few times & click and treat after she’s successfully walked calmly past a trouble spot.

Someday, maybe, I’ll be able to walk them without her reacting to dogs at all.

Technorati Tags: leash, click and treat

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Lola is really coming along with not reacting on her walks. Which is not to say she’s a perfect angel, but she’s come a long, long way. I think using the clicker has helped a lot. It clearly told what behavior she was being rewarded for.

What also worked was getting in front of her. She would be so distracted by the dogs in people’s yard that she just couldn’t even hear me. So I discovered if I got in front of her, had her stop, and then walked backwards while she walked, she had something to focus on. Now, usually, I no longer have to walk backwards. Except for her nemesis, the yard with the large chained dogs who sound like they want to eat her.

Still, she is now able to mostly walk past the barking, running chihuahua by our mailbox without lunging at it (and without me walking backwards in front of her). This is huge.

However, she still can’t tolerate dogs that come up to her while she’s on leash, for the most part. A nice, calm lab came up to her this morning, and she was back to running around and growling. I think the next step is to try going back to our hike and bike trail, where there are a lot of dogs, and work on her there. There’s always another step!

I also recently read How to Keep Your Dog Calm When the Doorbell Rings. This is something we have worked on, but nothing so far has really worked, although they have been getting better and I was actually able to let the Fedex man in with a large package one day while they were out loose.

I had a hard time shaping them to move backward, altho we had some small success with it. What really helped for me was to put a mat down a little way from the door.

Now, we had worked before on having them go to their “place” (a raised bed near the door). Since then we’ve bought new furniture and rearranged our living room, and there was no place for their “place”! The mat is working nicely, though. I think one of the reasons this is working is because we’re adding the cue “just a minute”. Or maybe we’ve just done enough training that they’re a little calmer.

Today, someone came to the door & rang the doorbell. I was able to get them to their mat pretty quickly, and while they tried to inch up a couple of times, they didn’t run out the door and they went back to the mat easily. The woman at the door was very impressed at how they well they listened.

I have to be careful, though, because I sometimes say “just a minute to them” when they’re getting antsy, and I can just envision them tearing through the house at an inadvertent slip of the lips. I have to try and remember to use “wait” and “soon” more often.

They are not perfect little angels yet. Training doesn’t end when they’re finished with puppy kindergarten, or when they’re one or two or three. It’s a lifelong process. And I have to keep reminding myself that they’re really pretty young still; less than two years old.

Technorati Tags: clicker, shaping, cue, Training, puppy kindergarten

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