My dog looks funny

I have come to the conclusion that my dog looks funny.



So many people compliment him, saying how nice he looks, how handsome.

I just find him funny looking. Sorry Pallo.

One thing that almost every person who comes into contact with Pallo asks me is "What breed is he?" I have my normal answer of "who knows?" or my slightly more creative answer of "Linn County Pound Special" which references the shelter I adopted him from. But, many people are not satisfied with this answer. They want to guess. Is he German Shepherd? Does he have daschund in him? What about some Corgi? Doesn't he look like that Swedish Vallhund that comes to the park sometimes? Maybe he has some Rottweiler in him, or Chow, or some Shar Pei?



People expect me to be able to say something in response to these guesses. But, really, Pallo was a stray before he was picked up by animal control and adopted by me, so I have no more authority to guess about this than any other person familiar with dog breeds. In fact, I have started telling people who ask about his lineage at the park that I charge for asking the question so that I can pay for a breed DNA test. When a few of them said they might actually consider contributing to that, it made me wonder: Is it such a silly idea?



On the prompting of a friend of mine, I have officially set up a ChipIn for Pallo's breed profile test. Yes, I feel silly setting it up for this when most of the ChipIns I see are for surgery money, or a rescue dog, or some other serious business. But, I figured, I might as well give people a chance to spend money on finding out my dog's breed, if that is what they really want to do. So here it is. Your chance to contribute to the cost of a $70 DNA profile test for Pallo.



The donation widget is both below and is on the sidebar of the blog. Feel free to ignore it if you think this is a silly thing to do. Feel free to contribute if you have a burning curiosity about what breeds make up the funny looking dog we love to call Pallo.

Working Through Fear

If you are a long-time reader of my blog, I am sure you have read the posts and references to Koira's fear of garbage trucks, which extends somewhat to include all large vehicles and, in some cases, all vehicular noise. This amounts to her basically not being able to walk calmly downtown or within hearing distance of major roads or streets with large trucks.



Recently, my vet had to give Koira some tranquilizers to keep her quiet in her crate while on crate rest (for her shoulder injury). Acepromazine was the first prescription we tried, but resulted in some bad side effects including aggression towards my other pets (likely from the inability to flee, forcing her into a fight response instead). So we tried lorazepam instead of the Ace. It works for the crating problems (though she no longer needs it while crated since she is ramping back up to normal exercise so isn't going so stir crazy as to chew on her kennel and break her teeth).



While she was on the lorazepam, however, I found out that it not only kept her from wigging out while crated, it helped bring her down from scared-out-of-her-mind fear level to a ear-flicking, I-wonder-what-that-sound-is-and-if-I-should-be-worried-about-it level. It was an amazing difference to see, and so I talked to my vet about getting a prescription for anti-anxiety meds for Koira. Instead of putting her on a regular dose, however, we decided to just go with an addition prescription of the lorazepam. Koira can now get a dose about an hour before we go out for a walk or a training session, and it helps keep her fear level below threshold, so that she is willing and able to accept treats, praise, and play and is able to think clearly enough to realize what these rewards are for.

Yesterday, I drove a friend to a job interview and brought the dogs along in the car. I forgot to give Koira her pills before hand, but decided to see where we were with no medication, since I had to wait in the downtown area anyway. It was awesome. While obviously worried about the traffic noises, and more fixated about them than she is when medicated, Koira was able to redirect. She was able to tug with me. She could think clearly enough to follow directions. She didn't hit the end of the leash in a full-strength pull to get back to the car or into a safe building (or rather, when she did hit the end of the leash, I was able to call her attention back to me without having to physically redirect her by grabbing her collar or physically turning her).



We will continue to work while using the medication. But, yesterday has given me the hope that the work we are doing is making a difference. That Koira will be able to be in high traffic areas without losing her mind to fear. And that maybe, someday, I will be able to wake up on Friday without my dog in a melted pile of garbage-truck-fearing goo, desperate to hide under the covers.

As a mark of our triumph, all of these photos were taken downtown around 4:00 in the afternoon- traffic wasn't crazy, but it was there. Koira was able to tug, to perform a sit-stay, and was able to even appear to be enjoying herself. I can tell by her ear set that she is worried. She will probably always be worried about traffic (which is not necessarily a bad thing). But, my dog is no longer paralyzed with fear. She is no longer filled with the single thought of getting away from it.

Koira earned her CGC!

I had the day off from work today and took the time to go support a friend of mine at the local dog show. It was her first ever time competing in Novice Obedience with her dog Maverick, who is an 11 year old Belgian Tervuren and was retired last fall from our flyball team. 

We spent a LONG time waiting around, but took the opportunity to walk around to see all the booths. I watched the Ibizans show and saw Wilbur again. (He was the adorable wire Ibizan puppy I spent so much time taking pictures of last month at the show.)

Koira thought the dog show was boring. But, I enjoyed the shopping around at the booths. Finally, after hours of waiting and a lunch break for the judge, Mav got his turn in the ring. And together they pulled off a Q and third place for the day. I was very impressed and very proud. We have been practicing a ton after flyball class every week for just this day. Very proud of the Mavvy boy.

I also decided I should go ahead and finally enter Koira for her CGC. They offered it in the afternoon after Best of Show (won by the little Maltese). Koira was on her super best behavior, right up until we entered the ring. Unfortunately the ring chosen for the CGC testing was the same one all the groups had shown in as well as Best of Show, which meant that there was bait (treats, cookies, awesome bits of food) all over. Not in the ring, they swept it before we went in, but all along the edges. And Koira wanted every single little bit of it.

In the end, we did pass. The greeting from the evaluator went just fine, as did the brushing, ear touch, and foot pick up.Then the disaster started when we did the "out for a walk" part of the exercise, because Koira had spotted the cookies galore on just the other side of the ring gates, and she WANTED THEM. When I say cookies, I mean there were pieces over there from thumbnail size on up to the size of my thumb. I redirected Koira about three times and managed to complete the exercise, though certainly not in the best graces. The through the crowd was just as bad, done in the same location, and Koira wanted nothing more than to go snag those treats over there.

The sit, down, stay, and recall all went well. The recall wasn't as nice as I normally see, I think the long line attached to her made her hesitate a little. The walk by greet a stranger with a dog went smoothly, mostly because Koira had spotted a huge (as in the size of my cell phone) piece of what looked like dried lamb lung on the other side of the ring, straight past the person and dog. So she zeroed in on that, waited for me to greet the person without breaking concentration on that treat, then made a beeline for it straight past the distraction person who had a walker and was banging metal bowls together. Not even an eye flicker. 

When I left her with a stranger (the strangest part of the test to me, because seriously, when am I ever going to leave my dog with someone we don't know?), she spent the time cleaning up the ample supply of treats fallen below the table they stood next to, and only noticed I was gone when I was within about three feet of returning to her. 

The evaluator passed us. She saw the huge pieces of bait that Koira was going for, and while she said we technically had a tight leash too often, she thought the distraction of the bait left over from conformation was more than should be expected for the CGC, especially since we did really well on the other parts of it. I think she also had seen Koira doing perfect heeling up and down outside of the ring while we waited for our turn. 

So, we passed. Not the way I wanted to do it, really, but we passed. I'm a good bit more worried about what will happen when we enter the obedience or rally ring for the first time. But, hopefully there won't be treats scattered all over the floor in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. And we will now be working on walking past such distractions.