Spring in New England

Growing up in New England and then being privileged enough to travel around the country, you hear the the phrase, "If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes," in pretty much the west coast, mountain zone, and Florida if that counts for the South. What people can't believe is that in New England, it is actually true, and I've seen it go from say 60 degrees (F) to 20 in a day or day and a half. The past few weeks have been a testament to the old adage, and here is Coco sporting her new hand-knit sweater that Eliza made for her. Eliza gave me this sweater last Friday when it was freezing outside, and then the next day it was too warm for Coco to wear a second time.. until.. it SNOWED this week and then I had an excuse to get her all cozy. It's been warm and cold and warm again so many times it's making my head spin.

Coco has had a good week. I've stuck to the ball and music regime and so she has seemed pretty comfortable. This week we ordered her a cool bulldog collar. It should get here in the next couple of days! I can't wait to see her in it, I bet she will look pretty tough. Her old collar is starting to look like it will fall apart at the next big meeting with another dog. I think she needs a wider one, even if it wasn't on the verge of annihilation.

On a cute note, as anyone with pets knows, they get you up on weekends at the same time you usually get them up on the work week. Well, I had the audacity to sleep in till 9 today, and when I woke up, Coco was not in the bedroom. This is weird for her, she never sleeps alone, and when she gets up, she makes sure to get me up, too. I thought maybe she had to gone to wait by the door to be let out and so I went into the living room. There was Ms. Coco, sitting like a spinx in a huge sun-spot that comes in that time of day. She blinked lazily and gazed at me with no interest of getting up to say hello. It was so funny! Miguel sees her in that sun spot when he is home from work during the week and she'll sit there while he uses the t.v. She obviously remembered the warm spot to get up on a Sunday morning to seek it's solace! It's good to know that my fierce bulldog is showing more cat traits by the hour. First chasing birds, enjoying salmon flavored treats, and now dosing in the sun? I better go this week to buy some catnip.

One-Two-Three Combination

The last week has been a non-scientific experiment in the respect that I have changed multiple variables of Coco's day to day existence rather than just one to see if we would modify her behavior. First, I've changed her food over completely to Wellness Superfive mix lamb. Second, I've been playing her a new classic music mix for pets CD given to us from Ogdog. And third, Ive started playing ball with her after her morning walks. I think that the extra exercise and the other changes have mellowed her out a bit. This week, she's only charged the door maybe once a night, and a quick "uh-ah" is enough to get her to come back to the couch or her bone and settle down. Now, that being said, she isn't cured of her dog aversion, but her level of stress in the apartment has gone down considerably. A guy was on his cell phone outside my door for a good hour last night and Coco was lying at my feet ignoring him. Another good barometer of Coco's mental state is birds on her daily walks. She can either watch them when she is settled, or she wants to eat them and pulls and whines at her leash to get over to them. This week she was aroused when she saw the birds, pulling a little, but was able to be coaxed to continue on her way. I've also been training her to do a new trick (shake), and if I saw her start to get nervous or bored I would pull out the clicker and do a short session.

The other notable news for this week is that I decided to try "rescue remedy" a flower extract suggested to me by Ogdog and a friend. I thought it was snake oil, to be honest, but it had a significant impact on her behavior. I gave her a full dose on Thursday after she had a dog encounter that morning with Miguel and seemed particularly bent. I sprayed the extract onto a biscuit which she happily ate. Within 20 minutes she was snoozing on the floor, then snoozing on the couch. She could be enticed to chew on her favorite bone or kong for a few minutes, but in general she just wanted to stretch and be pet. It was a bit weird, and part of me missed my rambunctious bulldog. About 4 hours or so later she started chomping away on her nylabone like nothing had happened. Thinking that I had over-dosed her, and feeling like a bad fur-mom, I gave her half a dose when I took her to the vet on Friday. It did absolutely nothing, so I would say this medication is an all or nothing way to calm down your pet. This really opens up a new world for Coco, one in which I feel like I can stop the cycle of her being totally over-stimulated and scared and get her to calm down.

Miguel has been taking her on rides with him during the week. Coco loves riding with Miguel so here are some pictures he took of her. Against mom's personal convictions, Coco prefers a comfy SUV to a nice economical commuter car, and will happily settle down in the back for a snooze or sit up front and watch the scenery.

Coco the pet detective

Okay, I've told this story a hundred times this week but it's still so funny that I wanted to record it for future generations.
On Monday, I went to the grocery store to stock up on human supplies, and of course detoured to the pet aisle. There were stuffed toys on sale for 2 dollars, and knowing Coco's knack for destruction, I felt this was a fare price to pay for 10 minutes of glee. I came home and Coco was whining to be let out of the kitchen, so I put down my 8 or so grocery bags and let her out, where she promptly began her game of running around the apartment in her post-kitchen ritual. The bags were full of groceries: chicken, milk, cheese you name the dog temptations, but Coco was so distracted I thought it was okay to leave them on the ground for a minute while I went into another room. I was gone for a few moments, and when I came back to the bags I bent down to fish out her toy. Behind me I heard, "Squeak squeak..." There was Coco, toy in her mouth, looking very proud. How did she know I had bought her a toy? How did she distinguish it from the strong scent of the plastic bags and the chicken and cheese within? How had she known to trick me with a frisky romp so that I would ignore her and she could go to her prize? She is truly an amazing dog; silly one minute, calculating the next, and as always, snorting and snuffing her way to a good snooze. And, true to form, the toy was destroyed in about an hour. For some reason she let this one live longer; maybe she was savoring her victory. Check out a quick movie of her and her trophy below:

Spring showers bring...

It's raining outside and so I thought it was a good time to update the world on Coco. So, we'll do a good story and a bad story. The good story is that earlier this week we were on a walk and we met a neighbor of mine that has experience with bull breeds and who loves Coco. For the first time, Coco ran over to her and let both her and her daughter pet her without a fuss. Now, let me say that again, a CHILD pet my fierce dog! Coco sat at her feet, threw her shoulders back, half closed her eye and looked ever so pleased with herself. It was so cute and so funny that I have the image permanently burned into my brain. Good for you Coco!

The bad news is that Coco's aggression, which seemed to be on a downswing since the end of Rowdy Rover has come back to the surface. Today, she saw some birds, and wanted to eat them. Even though she was on her no-pull leash, it took both hands to hold her back from the bush and no pleading or scolding could get her to knock it off. I gotta say, we didn't talk for a little bit after that episode. I really feel frustrated with the dog training books and the advice I've gotten from trainers. Distracting her works when she is say at a "7" on a scale of 1-10. Then clicking and touching and sitting and "find it" work great. But when she makes it to 10, like when there are birds, or another dog barks at her on her walk, I can't break through. Her eye turns red and she just looses it.

I read in a dog book today that stress hormones take a week to get out of someone's system. And that reactive dogs in apartment complexes are almost impossible to treat because they are constantly agitated so they constantly have stress hormone in their blood. I think my next idea is to try these calming pheremones and see if I can get Coco to be more relaxed at home. Then maybe when she sees stimuli outside it won't be so shocking to her.

Bulldog props!

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