AllieBaba
Rookie
- Oct 2, 2007
- 33,778
- 3,927
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- Banned
- #1
Well my little family spent the weekend at my mother's home some miles away. My initial plan was only to take the saint pup but at the last minute we decided to take Mylo the Terrible as well. My kids have been bugging me because we take the pup everywhere but we always leave Mylo at home (and for good cause..she's a pain in the butt when it comes to travel.)
She's hyper, she can't be left in the car safely (for fear of shitting, puking, and tearing the car apart). She barks and pants and exudes nasty smells. Car trips heighten her anxiety to the nth degree, and she's not that great in public, either. She wants to fight with other dogs, she runs away if she gets the chance, she barks insanely and a LOT....
But the vote was in, I am a neglectful and cruel mother for leaving the frothing lunatic at home when we go hiking, visiting, etc. So I stuck her harness on her (she gets out of collars) and off we went.
And really, she was quite good. Having another dog seems to make it less stressful for her, though she still was a little anxious in the car. I'm sure she has a good reason for being stressed in vehicles, but it makes it quite difficult. And when she's stressed she's stinky. I don't know why. I think it's the dog equivilent of fear sweat.
In fact I accused my poor son of being the source of the stinkiness on this trip, poor kid. I gave him a 15 minute spiel about how important it is to take charge of the state of one's underwear and act upon it...and in the end it wasn't him at all! And Mylo just sat there and didn't say a word, naughty girl.
We went to my mom's house, and she has a huge fenced yard, though with lots of places for any motivated dog to get out; Mylo doesn't challenge fences, though. The only way she'll get out is if there's another dog on the other side of the exact spot where the fence has a gap or hole.
Mom also has 2 poodles, one of which can't spend any time with Mylo because they fight (female of course) so we have to keep them separate. The first night, I slept in the living room because my sis was also there, so Mylo was completely wired. Mom has two housecats and Mylo would like to hunt them all night. So she quivered like a tight strung bow all night on the couch (and I kept ahold of the leash). The next night we had the bedroom so I could just shut the door and let her go, that was much more restfull.
She did chase down one of Mom's cats and flip him on his back but she didn't hurt him. He's a particularly crazed animal anyway, I can't help but feel it's poetic justice that he was flipped like a pancake and ruffled. Nobody can do anything with him, my last close interaction with him was when he was a baby and he attached himself to my face with all 20 claws; it was like a painful cat mask. Not pleasant. He's scratched all the kids and the dogs as well. You can't pick him up or pet him...though he will come to you to be petted, but even that is scary. So I didn't feel too bad about him getting his fur messed up, it was funny and since he wasn't hurt, no harm no foul.
Mylo was surprisingly good while out and about on the leash, I was quite happy with her. So we are ready to take Mylo into the next stage of her dog life, which is the stage where she gets to go everywhere we go. It's a stage I've avoided until now based upon her neurotic nature, the age of the kids, and the fact that she does quite well just staying at home when we go; I have someone who lets her out several times a day and she's a little dog so that's enough exercise...but since we're training Klaus we might as well drag Mylo along. She's 7 years old now and I've noticed that tho she's still an obsessive compulsive pup, her anxiety level has decreased noticably over the last year; most of that within the last few months, even. Having the other dog seems to keep her grounded, I don't know if she feels more like she's got a pack around her or what, but she seems a lot calmer now. My daughter let her off the leash at my son's new place and she immediately charged the fence to fight with the neighbor's dog, so that's still something we will deal with. I have yet to see if she will ever be a dog that can be around OTHER dogs in public; when we took her on vacation a couple of years ago, she never quit barking at and trying to run after strange dogs, and there were A LOT of strange dogs. She'd go nuts from the balcony at dogs on the beach and being on the beach with her was a flipping nightmare. It was all a nightmare. But this trip, she really didn't do that..though honestly, the situation was a little different.
So we'll keep pegging away at it. By the time she's 15 or so she might be a really good pet! Right now it's sort of like having a semi tame weasel or raccoon!
She's hyper, she can't be left in the car safely (for fear of shitting, puking, and tearing the car apart). She barks and pants and exudes nasty smells. Car trips heighten her anxiety to the nth degree, and she's not that great in public, either. She wants to fight with other dogs, she runs away if she gets the chance, she barks insanely and a LOT....
But the vote was in, I am a neglectful and cruel mother for leaving the frothing lunatic at home when we go hiking, visiting, etc. So I stuck her harness on her (she gets out of collars) and off we went.
And really, she was quite good. Having another dog seems to make it less stressful for her, though she still was a little anxious in the car. I'm sure she has a good reason for being stressed in vehicles, but it makes it quite difficult. And when she's stressed she's stinky. I don't know why. I think it's the dog equivilent of fear sweat.
In fact I accused my poor son of being the source of the stinkiness on this trip, poor kid. I gave him a 15 minute spiel about how important it is to take charge of the state of one's underwear and act upon it...and in the end it wasn't him at all! And Mylo just sat there and didn't say a word, naughty girl.
We went to my mom's house, and she has a huge fenced yard, though with lots of places for any motivated dog to get out; Mylo doesn't challenge fences, though. The only way she'll get out is if there's another dog on the other side of the exact spot where the fence has a gap or hole.
Mom also has 2 poodles, one of which can't spend any time with Mylo because they fight (female of course) so we have to keep them separate. The first night, I slept in the living room because my sis was also there, so Mylo was completely wired. Mom has two housecats and Mylo would like to hunt them all night. So she quivered like a tight strung bow all night on the couch (and I kept ahold of the leash). The next night we had the bedroom so I could just shut the door and let her go, that was much more restfull.
She did chase down one of Mom's cats and flip him on his back but she didn't hurt him. He's a particularly crazed animal anyway, I can't help but feel it's poetic justice that he was flipped like a pancake and ruffled. Nobody can do anything with him, my last close interaction with him was when he was a baby and he attached himself to my face with all 20 claws; it was like a painful cat mask. Not pleasant. He's scratched all the kids and the dogs as well. You can't pick him up or pet him...though he will come to you to be petted, but even that is scary. So I didn't feel too bad about him getting his fur messed up, it was funny and since he wasn't hurt, no harm no foul.
Mylo was surprisingly good while out and about on the leash, I was quite happy with her. So we are ready to take Mylo into the next stage of her dog life, which is the stage where she gets to go everywhere we go. It's a stage I've avoided until now based upon her neurotic nature, the age of the kids, and the fact that she does quite well just staying at home when we go; I have someone who lets her out several times a day and she's a little dog so that's enough exercise...but since we're training Klaus we might as well drag Mylo along. She's 7 years old now and I've noticed that tho she's still an obsessive compulsive pup, her anxiety level has decreased noticably over the last year; most of that within the last few months, even. Having the other dog seems to keep her grounded, I don't know if she feels more like she's got a pack around her or what, but she seems a lot calmer now. My daughter let her off the leash at my son's new place and she immediately charged the fence to fight with the neighbor's dog, so that's still something we will deal with. I have yet to see if she will ever be a dog that can be around OTHER dogs in public; when we took her on vacation a couple of years ago, she never quit barking at and trying to run after strange dogs, and there were A LOT of strange dogs. She'd go nuts from the balcony at dogs on the beach and being on the beach with her was a flipping nightmare. It was all a nightmare. But this trip, she really didn't do that..though honestly, the situation was a little different.
So we'll keep pegging away at it. By the time she's 15 or so she might be a really good pet! Right now it's sort of like having a semi tame weasel or raccoon!