Halti collar

I put a halti collar on Ryan this morning and took him for a 1.5 mile walk. The thing just plain works. Ryan didn't seem to mind putting it on too much, but when we left he was trying to figure out why his head was whipping around. He put up with it for about .5 miles and then he started the "try to scratch it off my face" routine. I stopped him and he did it again half a block down but then he seemed to resign to it and the whole walking experience was much better for me. I need to give him a bit longer of a leash as I was walking right up behind him since he didn't seem to settle into one side of me. I need to work on that, but it was nice not having him choking himself trying to drag me back to the house.

I have got to get Ryan on a better schedule

I have the eating/drinking = peeing/pooping thing all down with him. The shelter system off putting the food out to eat twice a day for 30-45 minutes and letting him eat if he is hungry and then making sure to get him out for the output a while after that is working just fine. What isn't working is that Ryan doesn't sleep the night. He gets up in the middle of the night and comes over to the bed and scratches at the sheets or jumps on the bed. I have putting him off the bed and praising him when he is off,but the scratching at the sheets won't take long to do a number on them. I am not sure if he is sleeping during the day or if I am just not getting him enough exercise. My foot has been bothering me a bit and he is not great on a leash (I need to pickup a gentle leader to try with him), so we haven't been going for a lot of long walks. I need to get that into the routine so that I can get my sleep.

Ryan has become more comfortable going outside on his own if there is something out there that interests him. He will bound off after a squirrel or bark and jump up at the tree to try to get at a squirrel. If I go out on the deck with him, he often jumps up on the deck bench seat with me for some petting or will go over the top railing to go after something. Now I need to add in some obedience work and get him out into public situations. The shyness hasn't gone away, he is just becoming comfortable with me.

I left him this morning to go drop Ben at school and was coming back. I spent a few more minutes at school than usual and when I parked in the driveway and was getting out of the car, I could hear him whining and howling in the house. Once we get some obedience going, we also have to work on the separation anxiety. The wonderful thing is that he isn't destructive while I am gone all day. I think he gets on the sofa and the other day the kitchen table was all swished around like he had walked across it, but he hasn't chewed anything. We have had a few mini blinds that he whacked in the back where the backyard is, but I think that was more him being excited and going after a squirrel bu tnot able to get out.

A burst of energy

Ryan got up early this morning and I went to let him right out so that he could go to the bathroom. He went and then he started running around the yard. He had some steam to blow off. He was just running and running. It was kinda funny. He finally ran up to me and jumped up against me and I set him down and we went inside.

Another day, a bit of washing

Nothing much at the shelter on Saturday. Mallory checked out Ryan and he needed to be "expressed". Enough about that. I bathed him on Sunday and he is smelling a bit better. Sunday, I was busy so didn't take him to the shelter.

Ryan chases squirrels. Not a big deal except that he will lay in the dining room at the front of the house and if he sees something in the backyard, he will run to the backdoor and when I open it, zoom he is after the squirrel. This is a dog who won't go outside by himself otherwise.

Ryan can jump. He has hopped up on the bed with me when I let him out in the morning and then went right back to sleep. Ben also said he jumped up onto the office desk. He also can get bored and chew a little. He chewed on the tip of one of my slippers (actually, the last of that pair because Hermes chewed up the other one in that pair) and he chewed on a cheap pair of sandals I left out. For most dogs, I would get them more exercise, but Ryan doesn't like to go for a walk. I took him for a longer one on Sunday and it went okay, so I will have to do more walking with him.

Small update

So, Ryan is coming out of his shell a tiny bit. He is not only shy/fearful, but he also attaches to the person he is with and then has separation anxiety. He does not like to go out for walks. He is shy about going out the door and then will be fine heading out but if he sees anything going on outside in the street or down the block, he is freaked and wants to head back to the safety of inside.

He does fine sleeping on his dog bed next to my bed. He settles right in when I am getting ready for bed and then stays there when I go to bed. He got up this morning and I was concerned from yesterday's throwing up so I got up too. He started jumping up on me and running around. He is in a good mood in the morning and almost playful. I took him straight out to potty and he went. He even wags his tail sometimes in the morning. He climbed in my lap for some petting too. He is fully house trained, though he did pee in the house the first night when left alone for a while. Other than that, no accidents and if I take him outside, he goes and does his business.

He is getting a little less timid about going into the backyard. I can't just open the door and out he heads to explore, but when I opened the door this morning he headed out ahead of me. That is progress as he usually tags along and then when I sit on the bench he will wander around a little bit.

Last night, observing his behavior, it struck me that he is like a cross between a dachsund and a meerkat. I only know about them from some tv shows and not in depth, but he has that way of holding his head and looking around, a long sleep body, etc. I am sure it isn't genetically true, but it struck me funny.

A day at work

Ben and Ryan seemed to get along well last night. Ryan let up his fear a little bit. Enough to let Ben do a small amount of petting. I went to the office today and wasn't sure what would happen. Ben was asleep and I left the house. Ben tells me that Ryan was fairly vocal. Aside from all around fear, he seems to suffer from separation anxiety. Ben called to tell me Ryan threw up a few times. I am guessing it was stress because the cleaning lady was here today. When I came home, Ryan didn't want to come to me and didn't want to leave Ben. I took him for a short walk. He gets scared and wants to head home. He starts pulling at the leash, hunkering down and paddling with his front legs. Since we got back home, he has stuck with me. I gave him some rice with his food and I will just watch to see how he is.

On NPR today, they had a story about the smell of fear. Apparently many animals let off an alert pheromone when they get frightened. Perhaps Ryan's smell is because he is always afraid. Perhaps.

This is one scared dog

Ryan has settled just a tiny bit. I worked from home the last 2 days from my dining room and I threw a comforter in the corner for him and he lays beside me. If I get up he follows meekly and is under foot or turns and runs away when I go in the kitchen. It may be from me crating him in the kitchen and using the doggy gate in there. I moved his food and water out of there so he would have access. I broke up some pupperoni and got him to come take it from my hand. If I sit on the floor he will come over and stand beside or behind me and let me stroke him, but he won't come sit in front. Walking with him seemed like it was getting a little better, but then we saw a neighbor down and across the street and he pulled the entire way home to get inside where it was safe. We have a long way to go. Will be interesting to see how he and Ben get along tonight.