(I'll do a real retrospective at the end of the year.)
Showing posts with label gremlin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gremlin. Show all posts
Monday, December 12, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
"But isn't it hard to let them go?"
Easily the #1 response when people find out I foster dogs is: "But isn't it hard to let them go?"
Yes. It is.
(Well, actually, it isn't always. If you're lucky enough to find a great adopter in the first couple of days, when the dog is still pooping everywhere and crying in its crate and hasn't yet wriggled its way into your temporarily flinty heart, then no, it is not hard at all. But that's only happened once, and since I've raised my personal goalposts for successful fostering, it's unlikely to happen ever again.)
I'll (probably) elaborate more on this later, but I think another foster blogger put it best when she said: "the amount of love it takes to do this well exceeds the amount of love it takes to get attached... so yes, it hurts to let them go." But you do it because there's always another dog who needs you, and because your foster dog deserves to be someone else's forever dog -- not just a work-in-progress or a training project, but a beloved companion.
No matter how much I like a foster dog, it can't compare to someone who loves that dog. And when you see someone really love that dog, and the dog loving them right back, all the hurt just melts into happiness. So much happiness.
Yes. It is.
(Well, actually, it isn't always. If you're lucky enough to find a great adopter in the first couple of days, when the dog is still pooping everywhere and crying in its crate and hasn't yet wriggled its way into your temporarily flinty heart, then no, it is not hard at all. But that's only happened once, and since I've raised my personal goalposts for successful fostering, it's unlikely to happen ever again.)
I'll (probably) elaborate more on this later, but I think another foster blogger put it best when she said: "the amount of love it takes to do this well exceeds the amount of love it takes to get attached... so yes, it hurts to let them go." But you do it because there's always another dog who needs you, and because your foster dog deserves to be someone else's forever dog -- not just a work-in-progress or a training project, but a beloved companion.
No matter how much I like a foster dog, it can't compare to someone who loves that dog. And when you see someone really love that dog, and the dog loving them right back, all the hurt just melts into happiness. So much happiness.
Monday, September 5, 2011
GREMLIN LAUNCH 2011
Yesterday, Gremlin finally went home.
Quick recap: Gremlin, formerly known as Annie, was a foster dog who came to us from North Carolina, where she had been found as a stray, taken to the local shelter, and eventually ran out of time because her eccentric appearance didn't immediately endear her to potential adopters. Essentially, she was about to be put down because she wasn't cute enough.
We agreed to foster her. She turned out to be a feisty, funny, bold little dog, although not without a few minor issues -- mild separation anxiety in the beginning, then a later episode of on-leash reactivity toward strangers that occurred (I'm pretty sure) as a result of a tense encounter we had with a stranger at the park. But we worked past these problems and taught her how to live in a house and obey a few basic commands, and in the meantime we tried and tried to find the right person to adopt a Gremlin.
Finally, that home appeared... in Minneapolis, a solid 20 road-hours away. But the (awesome) adopters were undeterred by this, and so over Labor Day weekend we coordinated an epic Gremlin Launch.
We drove from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to shave a few hours off the adopter's driving time.
Pongu came along for the ride too, of course. We could hardly leave the needy little nerdpuppy at home.
Upon arriving in Pittsburgh, we met Jeff (the adopter) at the Station Square Sheraton, which (hooray!) allows dogs. Gremlin liked him immediately, which was a huge relief. She doesn't like everyone she meets (in fact, Gremlin torpedoed two prospective adoptions back in July when she made it very clear that she did not care for those people), and it would have been disastrous if she'd reacted badly to Jeff after all the trouble that everyone took to make this happen.
Luckily, it was love at first sight... possibly encouraged by my suggestion that Jeff greet her with a generous pocketful of treats, but even so, Gremlin seemed to take to him with an unusual quickness. Maybe she sensed that this was, at long last, Her Person.
Two weddings and a large family reunion were going on at the hotel on the same day we were there, so there were a LOT of people (who were drunk, rowdy people by the end of the night) wandering around in big cheerful herds, creating a little bit of a trial-by-fire for Gremlin with her new owner. Fortunately, she maintained good manners throughout, and didn't get overly stressed or reactive.
That night also turned into a trial because the room next to ours was occupied by a group of very loud, very drunk girls who partied noisily until 2 am, causing the dogs to alarm-bark every once in a while. But, despite a somewhat less-than-perfect trial night, Gremlin's adopter decided to keep her. Hooray!
They went home the next morning... and I have every confidence that this will (apart from the usual bumps and lumps of dog ownership!) be a happily ever after.
It's always a little bittersweet to give up a foster dog, especially one you've had for a while. Gremlin was with us for two and a half months -- more than enough time to move past the "omg you little monster you are destroying my house" stage and get attached. But seeing how happy she was with Jeff, even after just one day, takes a lot of that sting away.
Would that every dog could be lucky enough to have a home like this.
Quick recap: Gremlin, formerly known as Annie, was a foster dog who came to us from North Carolina, where she had been found as a stray, taken to the local shelter, and eventually ran out of time because her eccentric appearance didn't immediately endear her to potential adopters. Essentially, she was about to be put down because she wasn't cute enough.
We agreed to foster her. She turned out to be a feisty, funny, bold little dog, although not without a few minor issues -- mild separation anxiety in the beginning, then a later episode of on-leash reactivity toward strangers that occurred (I'm pretty sure) as a result of a tense encounter we had with a stranger at the park. But we worked past these problems and taught her how to live in a house and obey a few basic commands, and in the meantime we tried and tried to find the right person to adopt a Gremlin.
Finally, that home appeared... in Minneapolis, a solid 20 road-hours away. But the (awesome) adopters were undeterred by this, and so over Labor Day weekend we coordinated an epic Gremlin Launch.
We drove from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to shave a few hours off the adopter's driving time.
Pongu came along for the ride too, of course. We could hardly leave the needy little nerdpuppy at home.
Upon arriving in Pittsburgh, we met Jeff (the adopter) at the Station Square Sheraton, which (hooray!) allows dogs. Gremlin liked him immediately, which was a huge relief. She doesn't like everyone she meets (in fact, Gremlin torpedoed two prospective adoptions back in July when she made it very clear that she did not care for those people), and it would have been disastrous if she'd reacted badly to Jeff after all the trouble that everyone took to make this happen.
Luckily, it was love at first sight... possibly encouraged by my suggestion that Jeff greet her with a generous pocketful of treats, but even so, Gremlin seemed to take to him with an unusual quickness. Maybe she sensed that this was, at long last, Her Person.
Two weddings and a large family reunion were going on at the hotel on the same day we were there, so there were a LOT of people (who were drunk, rowdy people by the end of the night) wandering around in big cheerful herds, creating a little bit of a trial-by-fire for Gremlin with her new owner. Fortunately, she maintained good manners throughout, and didn't get overly stressed or reactive.
That night also turned into a trial because the room next to ours was occupied by a group of very loud, very drunk girls who partied noisily until 2 am, causing the dogs to alarm-bark every once in a while. But, despite a somewhat less-than-perfect trial night, Gremlin's adopter decided to keep her. Hooray!
They went home the next morning... and I have every confidence that this will (apart from the usual bumps and lumps of dog ownership!) be a happily ever after.
It's always a little bittersweet to give up a foster dog, especially one you've had for a while. Gremlin was with us for two and a half months -- more than enough time to move past the "omg you little monster you are destroying my house" stage and get attached. But seeing how happy she was with Jeff, even after just one day, takes a lot of that sting away.
Would that every dog could be lucky enough to have a home like this.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Rainy Day Games: The Paper Ball Game
The Paper Ball Game was originally invented for our hamsters, many many years before we ever thought of getting dogs. It was pretty simple in that incarnation: put Yogie in brown paper bag, crumple bag into a ball, drop bag in hamster cage.
The dog version is basically the same, except that there are a bunch of paper balls and they are piled up together in a container. This allows you to sneak in a little variation, if you're so inclined: put low-value treats in one kind of paper bag and high-value treats in another kind of paper bag, and watch how quickly your dog differentiates between the two when deciding which paper ball he's going to grab first.
Here, the white paper balls contain Wellness Pure Beef jerky treats (each one cut in half so there are actually two smaller treats inside each paper ball, which gives the dogs about 0.05 seconds more entertainment as they sniff out both halves), and the brown paper balls contain scraps of roast chicken from yesterday's dinner.
The dogs wait for the signal to start playing (they're not on a firm "Stay" here, they're just not allowed to take any balls until they get permission):
...and, once released to do so, both immediately go for the brown paper balls. (Then they scurry off with their treasures to opposite ends of the house, which is fine because it prevents them from squabbling.)
Pongu used to be terrified of even approaching the cardboard box, let alone touching a paper ball and risking its terrifying crinkle noise, but he got over that pretty quickly after watching the foster monsters take all his treats the first time. Jealousy's a powerful motivator. Now he loves the game.
Mostly the dogs are pretty polite about unwrapping their treats instead of ripping the bags to shreds, so often you can get multiple uses out of each wrapping. I also use packing paper if it's clean and not too flimsy.
The dog version is basically the same, except that there are a bunch of paper balls and they are piled up together in a container. This allows you to sneak in a little variation, if you're so inclined: put low-value treats in one kind of paper bag and high-value treats in another kind of paper bag, and watch how quickly your dog differentiates between the two when deciding which paper ball he's going to grab first.
Here, the white paper balls contain Wellness Pure Beef jerky treats (each one cut in half so there are actually two smaller treats inside each paper ball, which gives the dogs about 0.05 seconds more entertainment as they sniff out both halves), and the brown paper balls contain scraps of roast chicken from yesterday's dinner.
The dogs wait for the signal to start playing (they're not on a firm "Stay" here, they're just not allowed to take any balls until they get permission):
...and, once released to do so, both immediately go for the brown paper balls. (Then they scurry off with their treasures to opposite ends of the house, which is fine because it prevents them from squabbling.)
Pongu used to be terrified of even approaching the cardboard box, let alone touching a paper ball and risking its terrifying crinkle noise, but he got over that pretty quickly after watching the foster monsters take all his treats the first time. Jealousy's a powerful motivator. Now he loves the game.
Mostly the dogs are pretty polite about unwrapping their treats instead of ripping the bags to shreds, so often you can get multiple uses out of each wrapping. I also use packing paper if it's clean and not too flimsy.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Rainy Day Games: The Hallway Kibble Game
With August 2011 being possibly the rainiest month Philadelphia has ever seen, we've had plenty of time to play indoor games lately.
I learned about the Hallway Kibble Game from Leigh Seigfried of Opportunity Barks, who taught it as a method of doggy life enrichment. This game is ridiculously simple -- like, so simple that I didn't even try it for weeks because I thought there was no way dogs could conceivably be entertained by this -- but so far every furball I've tried it on has loved it.
To play this game you need: a handful of dry kibble, a dog (or dogs), and a hallway.
Then you...
(ready? ready??)
...throw the kibble down the hallway, a few pieces at a time, and let the dogs chase it down and eat it.
That is the entire game.
You can feed your dog's entire kibble ration this way. They just don't get tired of it.
Also, while I definitely would NOT recommend playing this game with a dog who had serious food guarding issues, Gremlin exhibited minor food guarding when she first came to us, and I really feel like playing the kibble game helped her get over that. Having a consistent supply of good food that she could eat safely in her crate probably helped a whole lot more, granted, but I think the kibble game helped too.
Playing this game taught her that she didn't have to fight Pongu for the kibble because more would come along seconds later, and if she wasted too much time trying to guard the kibble that had already been thrown, she'd miss out on fresh waves of food. The constant distraction of new food being tossed down the hallway also helped her ignore the presence of another dog nearby, and the fact that kibble is a fairly low-value food made it not really worth getting snappy over. Almost before she realized it, Gremlin was eating right alongside Pongu with no conflict whatsoever.
Obviously you would want to be very careful about playing this game with newly introduced dogs, or those with even slightly serious resource guarding behavior, but I did find it helpful in getting Gremlin desensitized to eating with another dog nearby. So, depending on the dogs you're working with, that may be a side benefit of playing the Hallway Kibble Game.
I learned about the Hallway Kibble Game from Leigh Seigfried of Opportunity Barks, who taught it as a method of doggy life enrichment. This game is ridiculously simple -- like, so simple that I didn't even try it for weeks because I thought there was no way dogs could conceivably be entertained by this -- but so far every furball I've tried it on has loved it.
To play this game you need: a handful of dry kibble, a dog (or dogs), and a hallway.
Then you...
(ready? ready??)
...throw the kibble down the hallway, a few pieces at a time, and let the dogs chase it down and eat it.
That is the entire game.
You can feed your dog's entire kibble ration this way. They just don't get tired of it.
Also, while I definitely would NOT recommend playing this game with a dog who had serious food guarding issues, Gremlin exhibited minor food guarding when she first came to us, and I really feel like playing the kibble game helped her get over that. Having a consistent supply of good food that she could eat safely in her crate probably helped a whole lot more, granted, but I think the kibble game helped too.
Playing this game taught her that she didn't have to fight Pongu for the kibble because more would come along seconds later, and if she wasted too much time trying to guard the kibble that had already been thrown, she'd miss out on fresh waves of food. The constant distraction of new food being tossed down the hallway also helped her ignore the presence of another dog nearby, and the fact that kibble is a fairly low-value food made it not really worth getting snappy over. Almost before she realized it, Gremlin was eating right alongside Pongu with no conflict whatsoever.
Obviously you would want to be very careful about playing this game with newly introduced dogs, or those with even slightly serious resource guarding behavior, but I did find it helpful in getting Gremlin desensitized to eating with another dog nearby. So, depending on the dogs you're working with, that may be a side benefit of playing the Hallway Kibble Game.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Nuts and Bolts: Proofing
"Proofing," in dog training, is the concept of practicing a trained behavior in new and gradually-more-distracting environments until the dog can reliably perform it out in the Real World. It's a critical part of getting a foster pup ready for adoption, because adopters expect that a dog who's advertised as "knowing how to Sit and Stay" will be able to actually do these things out on the street, not just in the quiet of his own living room.
Fortunately, it's very simple to do. It just takes time, patience, and repetitions. A lot of repetitions.
I ended up accidentally recording a demonstration of proofing in action when I started making a series of short Youtube clips to show Gremlin's basic obedience training.
We started with "Sit." By the time I recorded this clip, she had a pretty good Sit inside the house. But when I took out the camera to record it, suddenly Gremlin's response became a lot slower and more unsure -- because having the camera blocking my face was a new, alien element that puzzled her mightily. Behold:
However, even though she was confused by the camera, she still performed the command. Bravo!
When you're proofing something (or somewhere) new, you can't expect the dog to execute a command as perfectly as she did in the old familiar place. Substantial compliance is all you're looking for, initially -- you can always raise criteria as the dog gains confidence. But in the beginning, even a halting performance deserves praise and treats.
So we spent the rest of that session getting used to the camera, and the next day I raised the proofing criteria by moving our practices to the condo hallway: a place that Gremlin was familiar with, having walked through it many times each day, but where she had not previously been asked to do anything.
Again, a little bit of hesitation and confusion (and an awfully lopsided Down that would win no awards in competition, but that's okay, perfect form isn't my goal here). But, again, she does it after a moment's pause.
And then, finally, I moved from the condo hallway to our local dog park -- a very distracting environment filled with freely roaming dogs (including Pongu!), other people, lots of things to smell/chase/bark at/play with -- and asked her for a Stay. And because we had gradually increased the difficulty of the practice sessions, Gremlin was able to maintain discipline even in the face of all those distractions. Could she have done it the first day? No, absolutely not. But by slowly adding to the environmental demands and building up her confidence, Gremlin was able to keep self-control even in the dog park.
What a good dog.
Fortunately, it's very simple to do. It just takes time, patience, and repetitions. A lot of repetitions.
I ended up accidentally recording a demonstration of proofing in action when I started making a series of short Youtube clips to show Gremlin's basic obedience training.
We started with "Sit." By the time I recorded this clip, she had a pretty good Sit inside the house. But when I took out the camera to record it, suddenly Gremlin's response became a lot slower and more unsure -- because having the camera blocking my face was a new, alien element that puzzled her mightily. Behold:
However, even though she was confused by the camera, she still performed the command. Bravo!
When you're proofing something (or somewhere) new, you can't expect the dog to execute a command as perfectly as she did in the old familiar place. Substantial compliance is all you're looking for, initially -- you can always raise criteria as the dog gains confidence. But in the beginning, even a halting performance deserves praise and treats.
So we spent the rest of that session getting used to the camera, and the next day I raised the proofing criteria by moving our practices to the condo hallway: a place that Gremlin was familiar with, having walked through it many times each day, but where she had not previously been asked to do anything.
Again, a little bit of hesitation and confusion (and an awfully lopsided Down that would win no awards in competition, but that's okay, perfect form isn't my goal here). But, again, she does it after a moment's pause.
And then, finally, I moved from the condo hallway to our local dog park -- a very distracting environment filled with freely roaming dogs (including Pongu!), other people, lots of things to smell/chase/bark at/play with -- and asked her for a Stay. And because we had gradually increased the difficulty of the practice sessions, Gremlin was able to maintain discipline even in the face of all those distractions. Could she have done it the first day? No, absolutely not. But by slowly adding to the environmental demands and building up her confidence, Gremlin was able to keep self-control even in the dog park.
What a good dog.
Gremlin Finds A Home!
You just never know what's going to work in advertising a foster dog.
We try lots of things. There's the stylish "Adopt Me" vest that they get to wear when they're out on the town.
Gremlin had listings on Petfinder.com and the rescue organization website, where she was the featured pet for several weeks. I put up an ad for her on my office's online bulletin board. We made "Adopt Me!" flyers for Gremlin and enlisted friends to help post them in local coffee shops, pet stores, and anywhere else that got a lot of foot traffic. And then, of course, there was plain ol' word of mouth.
But what ended up helping Gremlin find a home, unexpectedly, were the posts I made complaining about her on an Internet message board. All the rants and whines about the day-to-day hassles of fostering -- the ominous carpet puddles, poop-ruined shoes, exasperated neighbors, and cranky resident dog issues so familiar to everyone else who's walked down this particular road -- happened to catch the attention of a friend all the way over in Minneapolis who'd been thinking about getting a dog. (Well, to be fair, I'm told the Youtubes of Gremlin looking cutely monstrous, or monstrously cute, helped too.)
I definitely wasn't expecting that, but I surely can't complain. This will be a great home for Gremlin, and I very much hope she'll be a great dog for them. And it just goes to show: might as well try everything, since there's no way of knowing what's going to work.
So in a couple of weeks Gremlin will be leaving us for her forever home, and some time after that, a new mutt monster will come along to take her place.
We try lots of things. There's the stylish "Adopt Me" vest that they get to wear when they're out on the town.
Gremlin had listings on Petfinder.com and the rescue organization website, where she was the featured pet for several weeks. I put up an ad for her on my office's online bulletin board. We made "Adopt Me!" flyers for Gremlin and enlisted friends to help post them in local coffee shops, pet stores, and anywhere else that got a lot of foot traffic. And then, of course, there was plain ol' word of mouth.
But what ended up helping Gremlin find a home, unexpectedly, were the posts I made complaining about her on an Internet message board. All the rants and whines about the day-to-day hassles of fostering -- the ominous carpet puddles, poop-ruined shoes, exasperated neighbors, and cranky resident dog issues so familiar to everyone else who's walked down this particular road -- happened to catch the attention of a friend all the way over in Minneapolis who'd been thinking about getting a dog. (Well, to be fair, I'm told the Youtubes of Gremlin looking cutely monstrous, or monstrously cute, helped too.)
I definitely wasn't expecting that, but I surely can't complain. This will be a great home for Gremlin, and I very much hope she'll be a great dog for them. And it just goes to show: might as well try everything, since there's no way of knowing what's going to work.
So in a couple of weeks Gremlin will be leaving us for her forever home, and some time after that, a new mutt monster will come along to take her place.
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