08/09/2020
Tuesday September 9th 2020
I picked up Reno around 9am this morning and my first impressions were as follows:
She is under socialized, especially in a house environment, she had been kept outside. Being kept outside isn't a bad thing, it actually tends to make potty training easier, but it was apparent that she was very uncomfortable in the house so that is one of the first things we will have to work on. Overall she is not a very confident dog, tends to move with a low slinking gate when she is worried and she is worried by quite a lot. Interestingly enough strange noises don't make her bolt, instead she freezes, perhaps its the pointer...
Structurally she is a nice dog, currently she is very tall with a lot of leg, we shall have to see as she gets older if the rest of her body will catch up, otherwise she will be a very square dog.
The ride home was uneventful, I let her ride in the front seat for the first half hour, then I placed her in a kennel just to see what she would do. She did awesome in both places, curled up on the seat and was quiet in the kennel. She did get car sick at the very beginning but it was nothing major.
She spent a good chunk of the afternoon in her crate, I had one to many things going on to be watching a puppy. Honestly I forget she is here most of the time, she is silent, clean, and easy going.
We had our first session out on the back deck this evening. It was more of what I had been seeing when I picked her up, she needs confidence and the only way to achieve that is to start small. Our main focus was just getting her to take food out of my hand, by the end of the session we were about halfway there. For the foreseeable future she will be eating exclusively out of my hand.
One thing that did concern me a little is the fact that she has no natural desire to follow or be with me, it seemed as though she was adrift with no purpose. Given she was raised in a kennel I guess I shouldn't be to surprised I just made the assumption everyone raises puppies how I do ie puppy walks. I'm thinking this is something that I can build in her though, she is really a very sweet dog, just unsure how to behave.
I believe stairs were also a new concept for her as it took much encouragement to get her to descend. She is a different dog on grass. On the wooden deck or the tile in the house she is that crouching fearful pup, but put her on grass and a whole new playful puppy emerges. Playful grass puppy, I believe, is who she really is inside, we just have to work through the uncertainty to uncover her.
One interesting thing, I rolled her on her back in my lap mostly just to see what she would do. I had learned earlier that she didn't really know how to be held (many flailing legs). She was stiff as I rolled her but as she settled she became soft very quickly. My deduction from this would be that she is inherently compliant, she is just trapped in fear.
Goals:
Every meal from my hand
Build handler engagement
Surfaces
Noises
