Our new girl, Piper, has adjusted really well in a lot of ways. She learned her name within a few hours, she decided to trust me that first day- at least a little bit, with many gains since then. She and Odie have gotten along like a house afire since the first day, and she figured out how to use the dog door within moments of getting her Cone of Shame off.
One thing she hasn't totally learned yet, is to trust us to decide who gets to come into the house/property- she still feels like it's her job to protect the homestead from strangers. Some of the tricks she has learned to accomplish this task include standing on the back of the couch and looking out the front windows (she got that one from her brother), as well as peering through the slits in the backyard fence to spy on the neighbors. Both of these have become fairly entertaining to watch, I have to admit. She's also become quite good at sounding off when something feels wrong. She's got a good strong bark to her, and doesn't use it like a lunatic- unlike some other canines I live with. A few distinct barks, with maybe some rumbling growls thrown in, and she's made her opinion known.
In some ways, I kind of like this trait. I mean, who wouldn't want a natural deterrant in the house? She sounds threatening, and no one needs to know that she's locked in a crate at night. The problem is when people actually come over to the house, having been invited, and her doggie brain just shorts out.
We had a few friends come to the house a few days ago. They have been to our house any number of times and know to just come on in. We did not even think twice about this, until we started to introduce the new dog, and she lost it. She snapped and did a mini lunge. I feel pretty strongly that she was not trying to actually bite, but more just reacting and trying to get this strange person to give her some space. At this point we couldn't get to out of this mind state of "strangers! must protect! go now!" and she kept growling even when we had the new people give her treats.
Seriously, she took the treats, and then growled some more.
That's just rude.
"I'll take that, now leave"
So, we learned we need to introduce people to the house environment differently at this point. At least until she's decided that we are the ones to determine who is friend and who is foe. We also learned that once she's in that state of mind, putting her in her crate does nothing but poke the bear. We tried that to get her to calm down, and it just made her worse. When people came by her crate she went even more mental then before.
I feel bad for her, I mean, clearly she felt she needed to stop something unnerving from happening. There's no trust there yet. At the same time I wanted to clock her one- I have never had a dog bite a guest, and it is unacceptable. Made me wonder for a moment if we'd made the wrong choice. Then I remembered, she was left mainly to her own devices for the first year of her life- very little human contact. No wonder she was put on edge when strangers just barrel into 'her yard' unannounced. Part of it was our fault too- we should have realized this was a new thing for her, and taken steps to lessen the impact.
Basically, she ended up spending the evening in the back yard by herself- with us occasionally checking on her and making sure all was well. She could see and hear us the entire time, as we could her.
If only she could have seen her little brother in action. That slut spent the evening literally walking from lap to lap getting cuddles from everyone that was there one at a time. I wish I could even say that was an exaggeration, but no, he climbed from one chair to another, into laps. The most shameless display of dog ever. If Piper had seen that maybe she would have realized that the people there were good, friendly people who's only ill intent was to good naturedly mock each other. And damage their livers with beer intake- although that being 'ill intent' is arguable.
I know she's thinking she's protecting herself, and us, but man- somehow we have to figure out how to let her know that's not her function in this new family. We have people over a decent amount, and she's gonna have to learn to deal with that fact.
How cool would it be if we could train her to only let certain people in? I mean, think- to never again have to put up with someone you don't like very much coming to a party you are hosting?
Hm.... Maybe I've figured out the key to this...... Can dogs understand photographs?
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