Nothing In Life Is Free

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Paul

Beanie, Biggles and the two of us are all feeling a lot more relaxed after our session with Heather Smith this morning:

A fully chilled Bigglet, for the first time in several days

From our description of recent events and past Beanie/Biggles behavior, and from her own careful observation of our two in their home, Heather agreed with us that Beanie’s attacks all seemed to have a resource motive, and prescribed a two week course of NILIF – Nothing In Life Is Free.

In a way this programme applies almost as much to us as to our Beagles. Beanie and Biggles will now have to perform a trick or other desirable behavior for just about every good thing in their lives, even things like being released from their crates. The flip side of this is that we have to be vigilant toll-keepers and not leave anything lying around (toys, plates, cups etc) that our pups could get for free. Treats, cuddles, strokes and other demonstrations of affection only happen when we decide they’re appropriate, not when Beanie and Biggles come looking for them, and all doggy meals will be hand-fed rather than served up in a bowl. As an aside I rather suspect that Biggles and most especially Beanie will see the hand feeding as a huge and unexpected reward rather than a restriction. During her puppyhood she once went on hunger strike and would only accept the very tastiest morsels from our fingers; after all, bowls are for commoners! Still, it’s in the programme and we’ll stick to it. Also in the programme is a temporary ban on access to the sofas and our beds, and on play sessions between Beanie and Biggles, but they can play with us. In fact Heather showed us a tuggy game designed to increase our two Beagles’ self-control and help them quickly calm down from an excited state. We’ve needed something like that for them for a while, and it’s fun for us too.

To ensure that Beanie and Biggles recognize that we are both equally in charge we’ll now be swapping dogs on a regular basis. This will make our next agility lesson very interesting; I’ll have to be much faster with my verbal commands and footwork when I’m handling Beanie, and Susan will certainly have her hands full with the Bigglet. Also, when we’re out canicrossing Susan and I will either run along side each other or one of us will take both dogs – we won’t have either one of our Beagles trailing behind the other and possible feeling excluded from the pack any more.

Finally, if Beanie should attack Biggles again, we’ve been given tips on how to deal with it. Specifically:

Refrain from shouting; it’s instinctive to shout to try to break up the fight, but at best it’s ineffective and at worst it could actually spur on the attack
When pulling the dogs apart, avoid any lifting motion on their collars; just try to draw them apart horizontally
Either put Beanie on her side (partly to give her the message that the attack is unacceptable, and partly to calm her down) or put her in a sit, and exclude her from the group for 20 mins or so.
Don’t make a fuss of Biggles, and don’t force him to stay near Beanie either, but make sure that it’s Beanie who feels excluded after the attack and not him
When things have calmed down, a side-by-side walk outside is a good idea.
When reintroducing them to the same room, try to have Biggles enter the room and settle first, then allow Beanie to enter.
Position Biggles so that he feels he has an easy escape route if he’s acting fearfully

Looking through all this, it seems like we got some things right over the few of days prior to Heather’s visit. Using the baskets to give our dogs a set location to stay in was a good move, as was walking them together after each attack (although we should have had a longer cooling off period before starting the walk). We did try the NILIF approach too, though not as comprehensively as the one given to us by Heather. That said, we didn’t have much confidence in what we were doing, and that’s where it really helps to call in an expert that we both trust: we’re now more confident in our dealings with the two Bs, and this in itself helps put them at rest.

By this evening Biggles was behaving much more like his normal self, and repeatedly tried to invite Beanie into a play session. She would have been happy to accept, but of course we didn’t allow it. Still, it brought a big smile to my face to see him back on form! He really should be getting “danger money” though. It reminded me of the Monty Python sketch in which a dim-witted accountant thinks he’s ready to become a professional lion tamer.

[Please note that Heather has no problem with us sharing what she told us, but it’s important to remember that her advice in this case is specific to our situation and our dogs]

Go directly to basket. Do not pass “go”. Do not collect crumbs, socks or anything else.

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Paul

We’ve now made it through three days without any more snarling episodes, but this must be due in part to the restrictions we’ve placed on our two. Basically most privileges have been withdrawn. No sofa time, no freedom to wander about the house unless escorted by a minder, no drinking out of our cups, no humping Susan’s leg and having a pee-gasm, and no free interaction with each other. On top of this, we’re running a strict “nothing in life is free” policy. This is extremely time-consuming for us, and extremely boring for our pups..

Lounging around on the sofa is a thing of the past..

Into your baskets, and stay in there!

It’s our own version of Dog Borstal, and it’s almost certainly overkill – in fact our behaviorist cautioned us that we could be creating an unnatural situation which could itself increase tension – but it’s only been for a couple of days and it has kept the peace, breaking the cycle of attacks. Tomorrow Heather Smith will come to see us and we should have a less draconian but equally effective plan for managing our two Beaglets.

There have been some encouraging signs that the storm has passed though; any time Beanie and Biggles lock eyes, they look like they’re on the build up to a play rather than a one-sided Fight Club session. What’s more, we’ve discovered that we can have a lot of control over our Beagles if we really get serious about it. This morning I sent Biggles to his basket while I got my breakfast, and he stayed put despite all the interesting sounds coming from the kitchen. Even more amazingly, when we all went for a group canicross run later on there was no woof-fest from our two. Until we actually got running, we had the quietest, most obedient dogs of the group.

Trouble at’ mill!

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Paul

Our first couple of years with Beanie were beset by all kinds of problems; she got sick, she ate things she shouldn’t, she ran off to the point that we could hardly ever get her off lead, and she started having very cross words with other dogs. We got through all these problems of course and the last year or so – in our new house – has been bliss. No medical issues, no non-edibles getting eaten, no off-lead worries due to having a big garden for Beanie & Biggles to romp around in, and for some months, no sign of grumpiness towards other dogs. So, obviously, it’s high time we had a new problem to deal with, and our little girl has come up with a really good one. A few days ago she attacked Biggles!

The attack came after a short and very pleasant game with our Burns frisbees. I was throwing the frisbees out in the garden and our two pups were happily retrieving them and bringing them back to me for a little reward:

Don’t be fooled by the photo – neither of our Beagles try to catch the frisbees while they’re in flight

But they run after them and grab them as they land

The frisbees aren’t always easy to keep hold of

But it seems like fun

We’ve found that Beagles tend to lose interest in a game if you play for too long, so I stopped while they were still having fun, tidied away the frisbees and sat on our garden bench to review the photos I’d taken. Beanie clearly wanted to play more and kept bugging me for another round, and tried to nick treats out of my pockets. I wasn’t having any of that, and I gently pushed her away a couple of times until she got the message. Then Biggles wandered up to me and as I often do, I started stroking him under his chin. Almost immediately Beanie flew into a rage and leaped on him. She did no physical harm, but she was like a Tasmanian devil, snarling and pinning little Biggles. He offered no resistance; he just squealed and tried to escape.

Once we’d managed to get hold of them we pulled them apart, and took them on a short walk together to calm things down. On the walk, they immediately became friends again, but once back in the house Biggles was still fearful, or at least painstakingly respectful, of his sister to the point that he didn’t want to be in the same room with her. It was as though she was claiming whatever room she was in as hers. Not content to let this happen, we put leads on both of them and made them sit together in the same room. By the next morning all seemed well again, and we were ready to put this unfortunate incident down to “one of those things” that happen occasionally with dogs, but then out of the blue Beanie attacked again, and again. In all there were four attacks over three days. Each time the attack seemed to have some kind of “resource guarding” motivation, and each time they were perfectly fine on walks outside the house.

All our walks have been uneventful

As long you don’t count Biggles losing his footing..

getting an unexpected bath…

and coming out smelling like a mucky pond!

Currently we’re managing the situation by keeping them on lead and under close supervision in the house. We’ve now gone two days without further attacks but we’re fearful of allowing them freedom in the house, or even the garden, in case there’s another incident. Help is on its way though – we’ve contacted behaviorist and heelwork to music expert Heather Smith to help us through this current and distressing problem.

Apparently most multi-dog households experience something like this at one point or another, even with dogs that generally get on very well. Still, it’s been a hell of a shock to us because Beanie and Biggles have been getting on so well together for so long. We’ve thought up lots of theories as to why the attacks happened, and had even more suggestions, among them:

We’re way too lax about discipline in the house, and don’t really treat the two Bs sufficiently like dogs. Regardless of whether this is the root cause, it’s certainly true!
We’ve fallen into the habit of each favoring one dog; I tend to do most activities with Biggles, while Susan usually pairs up with Beanie. We have noted a bit of discomfort, possibly the beginnings jealousy, when we swap dogs.
When we’re out running with our pooches, I generally run with Biggles and Susan with Beanie. Since I’m the faster runner (and Biggles is the stronger puller) we’re always in front, while Beanie, who is certainly the fastest and most athletic dog (and knows it!), is forced to bring up the rear.
Although spayed, Beanie is going through a bad time hormone-wise.

It may not be one specific thing that’s caused the problem but rather a combination. Regardless, we’ve just got to sit tight and hope that Heather can help us restore peace between our two little buddies.

Hopefully by the time I next post to the blog, the only fighting will be the playful kind.