I thought I should update you all on the dog that turn our lives upside down for a bit, especially since I’ve talked to quite a few of my clients about her! I just did a search of my blog archives to link to another post on Lily, and I called her the most perfect dog. So funny…I obviously didn’t know her yet! (see that post here) But, now that she is settled in and we’ve adjusted, she is once again a perfect dog. However, there were a few months there…

The problem is, we’re spoiled. We’ve only had greyhounds. They are such EASY dogs. Seriously. They don’t need exercise, they sleep practically all day, they like you but aren’t clingy, they don’t maul visitors, and so on. They are really fabulous dogs and I can guarantee at some point we’ll adopt another (right now we still have our senior grey, Tyler). I know that greyhounds are the perfect breed for us. But, if they have one drawback, it’s that they do not really play a lot. Well, they play when it’s their idea. For maybe 1 minute. So, we were on the lookout for a dog that would be fun for Evan, and at least like him (Sonic and Ty always avoid(ed) Evan like the plague).

So. Little Miss Lily, once she showed her true colors, threw us off, with her need for attention and exercise and discipline. I cannot recall the order of the issues as they sprang up, but once fall hit and Lily was alone for several hours a day, things started to get interesting. Housetraining was a problem from the get-go, and got worse. Oddly her accidents were only when we were home, and then they became to be more frequent when she was upset with us, as in, “How DARE you kick me off the couch”. She escaped a crate. She carried our clothes all over the house. She bullied Tyler. She escaped the yard, leaping our 4-foot fence like it was nothing. She didn’t even take a run for it. We wanted a dog to play with Evan, and she did. She ran after him, tackled him, chewed on him, etc. She seemed to have a constant need for activity. She barked her fool head off at other dogs and was pretty much uncontrollable around them. I was at my wit’s end. My motto has always been “pets are for life” and so I was determined to make things work, yet getting more & more frustrated.

Here’s what we did. I’m sharing these in case you have an overactive, hyper dog like our Lil. First off, I started watching The Dog Whisperer.  I had not really paid attention to this show before; I hadn’t needed to.  Cesar’s three principles are exercise, discipline, and affection.  As I watched the show over & over (on DVR) I noticed that on 90% of the cases he told the clients to exercise their dogs more.  On one episode in particular, he was helping a lab/greyhound mix. By the way, I don’t think I recommend those…a couple others have been on the show and there’s something about that combo that seems  to be a hard dog to handle!.  Anyways, with this greyhound mix he said, “This dog doesn’t want a walk; it wants a RUN.”  This clicked with me. Our walks, even though they could be up to an hour in length, were not wearing Lily out.  So, I started taking her for runs on my bike.  There is a bike path near our house, and it took her between two and three miles at about 80% of her speed to wear down, depending on the temperature.   The runs made a HUGE difference in Lily’s behavior. HUGE. The problem was, I didn’t always have time for them, and the weather did not always cooperate. We needed to teach Lily to get a grip even when she was feeling a little springy.

The other tip I gleaned from the T.V. show was that you should never give your dog affection when they are misbehaving.  For example, when I get home, Lily is nutso excited to see me.  I now ignore her unless she is standing quietly beside me (calm submissive, Cesar calls it).  If she tries to jump, I correct her without using her name (another Cesar tip) and without getting excited.  She almost NEVER jumps on me now, no matter how long it’s been. She will still jump on other people, and we are working on that, but when they start talking to her and leaning over, she just can’t deal with it.  My current strategy for visitors is to keep ahold of her or put her outside. I think this is called the avoidance method, haha.

Cesar always talks about being a pack leader.  We needed to establish ourselves as being in charge. Lily is a dominant dog, and she responded very well to me taking charge.  I really worked with using my body position to control hers, and in keeping control of her head.  I was using a harness at first because she can slip out of most collars, but I realized from watching the show that I needed control of her head to keep her doing as I wanted. So, I started to use a martingale-style color that was adjustable, so I could tighten it even more after slipping it on her.  When she misbehaves on walks, I pull UP and pull her head away from whatever she’s looking at.  If she won’t listen, I lay her down on the ground and hold her down. Usually I only have to do that once.   Does she walk perfectly? No…but she is much, must better.  Occasionally she will bump into a dog that is irresistible for one reason or another, and she loses it. But, it’s relatively easy to pull her back together. Recently, we’ve starting using a halti-style collar to control her. She is so well-mannered with it on that Evan can walk her. Another way we established dominance was with food. I made her sit and wait for her food until I gave her permission to eat.  It seemed to be small, but it did help her respect me.  I made sure I went through doorways first, etc. She understands that her crate is “bedtime”, and if I tell her “bedtime”, she will usually snap out of it. If she doesn’t, she goes to “bed”. I know the crate is not supposed to be used for punishment, but for Lily, it really works well to isolate her for 5-10 minutes, as her main misbehavior is hyperactivity.

The fence jumping. Another new one.  We ended up putting an underground fence wire right underneath our existing fence.  Because the fence was there to establish the boundary, Lily learned this almost immediately.  We did have a couple of mishaps where she escaped areas we didn’t think we had to wire, like the greenhouse, but now she’s been doing just fine in the backyard.  For the record, buried fences do not work for sighthounds, as a rule. They can run so fast that they will just run through. However, for Lily, the combination of the actual fence and the warning jolt keeps her in.

Lily is still not 100% reliable as far as housetraining, but she is down to an accident about once a month or so. To me, this is an accident and not a habit, but of course we are still working on it.  My method was the “umbilical cord” method. She was on a leash with me, in her crate, or outside 100% of the time for about a week straight.  To make this work, it has to be 100%.  On the crate topic–we did buy a hard plastic one that she cannot escape.  The wire ones she bent and crawled out of.  We gradually gave her more & more freedom.  I was asking a friend of mine how long Lily had to be “attached” via the “umbilical cord”, and she said, “as long as you can stand it and then a few more days.” LOL  It just depends on the dog, I suppose.  Lily is a slow learner. She is much more intelligent than our greyhounds but much more stubborn.

And the exercise, now that it’s too cool for biking?  Well, we take her for walks when we can, but I have to thank my mom for most of this. She watches Evan two mornings a week, and she takes Lily on those days. While Evan is in school, she takes Lily to the ball diamond to let her run.  We try to do this once on the weekend, too. So, three good runs a week seems to be enough to maintain a level of decorum around here.

Am I a dog expert? NO WAY. But, I do love dogs, and I do love our Lily. She is the most affectionate dog ever. She will cuddle on the couch as long as you want her to. You can squeeze her and love on her for hours.  She rarely pants, which I find nice, as dogs panting in my face get on my nerves.  She’s extremely quite and clean.  She travels well. She loves to do anything, as long as we’re there. Now that we’ve learned how to handle a dog that needs to be actually handled, I think she is working out quite perfectly.  We love our Lily-bird!!

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