Week 6

Stuck will have been here for 6 weeks this week.

Everything has been going really well, apart from my own poor self esteem and feeling frustrated with myself.

Last week I was just feeling really down. I felt very inadequate as a dog handler.  I have tried at various times to teach Stuck things. I have been trying to teach her a 'front' as well as have been trying to teach her to hold a dumbbell. Every time I have tried to work with her on something new, I feel like she looks at me like I'm speaking spanish. I have gone through periods like this with Seppel and Seth. He has been very frustrating at times because I can work with my dog Seth and whatever we are doing, he figures out immediately. With Seppel, it always seems to take more time. Anyway, it got me thinking and wondering if this was all really normal. I know when I got Seppel it took me almost a year to really connect with him, but I credit some of that to us just not having a training focus.

I like Stuck a lot. I can't say that I 'love' her yet, because it's still new and I don't feel like we are fully bonded. I think it is harder for us to form a relationship because she was well started and trained with someone for almost 2 years. We are still trying to figure each other out and I think in a way it's even harder for her because I am trying to pick up where she left off and I am not the handler she has known her whole life. I know that as we spend more time together our relationship will grow and I know it isn't impossible because I have seen it with Seppel.

I guess in some ways I just thought things would be easier, and in some respects Stuck is VERY easy.

I just worry a lot that I will screw up the awesome training she has or bore her to death when we are working.  I compare myself to other people, feeling like if she were with someone else - someone more capable or with more time, she would know 20 behaviors or something ridiculous.

Luckily I have some awesome friends who talked me back down. They made me understand and realize that just having her in my house is enough. The things she has learned are enough. Tricks are cute, but we are working towards a pretty serious dog sport and just working on those things is enough. They also reaffirmed that 5 weeks is NOT a super long time!

All that being said, today I decided to try to teach Stuck and Seppel 'rewind' or 'reverse circle'. It's where the dog circles you backwards. I don't have video of it yet, but I would say that both of them are on their way to learning this behavior! I am super excited because it is something I can say I actually taught Stuck, and it was something she picked up really quickly.

I'm hoping this is just the beginning of our training relationship developing. She really is a wonderful dog and a great fit for my household, but even though she's a super smart dog and came with some awesome training, that doesn't mean that she doesn't come with some challenges.

A day of firsts.

Wednesday was a big day for Stuck. She got to try swimming and finally learned how awesome the treadmill is.

Wordless Wednesday

Successes and Challenges

Stuck has been doing really well adjusting to my home. This past Saturday friends at my club were asking how it was going. I explained it was going well except for her being really bad about coming in the house with me and that it was really irritating. Her recall needs some serious work too.

Initially I thought I caused this issue because when Stuck first got here, I was so focused on adequately exercising her that I thought, okay, she doesn't want to come in because we do fun things outside.

That thought morphed into me thinking about it and realizing she probably didn't want to come in because she felt more comfortable outside. I can keep a long line on her, but she knows it's on her and she comes in no problem.

Saturday evening, I tried calling her in and she came inside! From that moment she has been coming inside after going outside no problem. She seems to understand that she can come in and she's really good about coming inside and getting on her bed.

She is also really good about going to bed at night. I give all of my dogs a dental treat as a bedtime incentive, I'm not usually one for bribery, but it's pretty awesome when they go flying back there for bedtime. I think it's just nice to have a good bedtime routine. She goes running back to her crate and is excited to go in.

Another awesome thing we have been working on is releasing the flirt pole. Stuck does this hilarious thing where when I tell her "loose" she buckles down and grabs the end with her paws and doesn't always release with her mouth. I was afraid I was going to give her rope burn, so I started asking her to out it and then re-releasing her to bite it.  So far it seems to be working and I am getting quicker outs.

I thought when I was going to write this post it was going to be all positive, but we had a bit of an issue this morning.

Yesterday I was joking about how when Stuck came to me she was really good about waiting in her kennel to come out when released and was really good about sitting and waiting at doorways. I have no been reinforcing these behaviors and progressively she has gotten worse over time about waiting. This morning she flew out of her crate and took off down the hall.

Now, most dogs if you give them a little wiggle room they will take advantage of it but I honestly think it is a whole other ball game with a highly driven dog. I am not saying this is limited to Belgian Malinois, but any intelligent, highly driven breed. I can see how people who are not into dog training can quickly become out dogged or overwhelmed because a smart dog will totally take and keep taking. That said, we are going back to the basics and she absolutely needs to wait before coming out of her crate and she is not allowed to bolt out doors. This is completely my fault for becoming complacent. Something that stands out to me is something a dog friend said, you have to decide if a behavior is acceptable and if it's acceptable today it needs to be acceptable tomorrow. It's important to be clear and fair.

On another more positive note, I took Stuck running with a friend last night, not only was she really great out on the track with a lot of background stuff going on, she did great in the car there. I let her sit in the passenger seat just to see how she might ride in the car. She was really good in the car, I wouldn't leave her in there unattended, but she was very well behaved riding up front so I consider that a good win.

Two Weeks

Stuck has been at my house for two whole weeks! Everyday the transition to having her gets better and better.

I will admit to sharing this article: Belgian Malinois Look Don't Touch

After having a malinois in my house I do feel like most of what people say is true. Belgian Malinois are not for uninvolved pet owners. I also think it is really important to research your breeder and bloodlines because Belgian Malinois seem to vary in appearance and temperament depending on how they are bred.

I think if a person does not plan to do bitey things with their malinois they probably should not be buying working line mals bred from generations of bitey dogs.

Stuck is my very first real working/sport dog. I am a pet owner. My three other dogs run loose in the yard together, two of them sleep in my bed, they pretty much have run of the house but are not allowed on the furniture. 

When I got Seppel, my pit bull, some things did change in my house. He is not left out unattended with the cat. If he cannot be supervised he is crated. He sleeps in his kennel when we are not home. My other two dogs can be loose in the house when we are gone. They don't bother the cat and for the last 8yrs have gotten along fine. I was more strict with Seppel when I first got him, but he can now be outside with the other dogs unsupervised and they all get along fairly well. Having Seppel really changed how I manage my dogs, after my other two dogs (Seth and LiLo) are gone, I will always keep my dogs crated when I am not home. I doubt I will ever have dogs who can be loose in the house when I am gone again.

My experience would probably be different if I was raising a puppy. Please keep in mind this experience is based off of acquiring an adult dog who was used to primarily living in a kennel type setting.

When I brought Stuck home she was kind of wild and couldn't settle. The first few days she spent quite a bit of time in her crate. I took her out for potty breaks/exercise/training but then she would need to be crated again. I decided if this was really going to work I should buy a dog run. I felt bad that she was spending so much time crated. A LOT of people in the working world keep their dogs crated or kenneled all of the time. There is nothing wrong with housing dogs this way, but I would prefer not to keep a dog that way.  I purchased a chain link dog run that my dad helped me set up. I put Stuck in there when she cannot be supervised in the house and when I have things I need to do and need her to be contained. Putting her in the kennel run makes me feel better because she can at least move around, but it doesn't leave her loose in the yard to get into things or try to escape.

My initial plan was to get an x-pen to section off part of our living room, but as it turns out Stuck does really well when I put her on a dog bed. She is to the point now that she can sleep and settle while I am making breakfast in the kitchen or sitting in the room with her watching TV. Generally speaking she doesn't leave the bed unless I release her. She cannot just be left loose in the house because she will not settle down. She is still a little too curious with my cat. I think she thinks he's a small dog (she greets him like she does the dogs) but I have to keep a close eye on their interactions.

The only real "issues" we are having right now is that she will occasionally play keep away with toys which is extremely irritating. She also does not want to come inside when we are 'done' and she will run away if I call her to come in with me. She is not impossible to catch but it is really irritating. What sucks is that she is very intelligent and if I put a drag line on her she won't pull this crap at all because she knows I can catch her.

She has only been here for two weeks and I know our relationship is just starting. I anticipate things will continue to improve as we start working together more and more.

I have to repeat, everything they say about Malinois is pretty much true. Having her is not difficult, but I have had to make some changes to accommodate her in my life. While it might have been different had she been more of a house dog, I know several people who have raised mal puppies who still spend a lot of time crated or in kennel runs. A friend asked for advice on preparing for her new mal and most of the responses mentioned some form of crating.

Stuck wants to do things ALL THE TIME. Even when she is sleeping on her bed near me, she's just waiting for me to be like "Let's do the thing!" She is always ready to spring into action. I thought my pit bull was very driven, but he is totally lackluster compared to this dog. I am not sure anything really could have prepared me for having a malinois, however I feel like Stuck's energy level is kind of mid-way, she is more dog than I have had before, but not so much that I feel overwhelmed. She also at this point has shown me no handler aggression or issues with redirected aggression, which was part of why I was very anti-mal before. She has great nerves and even if something weirds her out she recovers really well. Her world was kind of small before she was brought up here and she has really great genetics to help her get through "scary" things. Stuck seems at this point to be the perfect match for me, I just hope I can be a good handler for her.

Wordless Wednesday

A pointy brown dog.

April 12th, 2016 my dad finally relented and told me I could get another dog specifically for the sport of Schutzhund. I have been pestering my dad for several months, basically since I joined a new IPO club to get another dog.