Step Up

Currently I'm not at home(which is being protected by three fierce attack cats for any burglars reading this), I am house sitting for some friends of the family who have three Pulis and seven Duck Tollers. It's been a pretty relaxing weekend so far - being away from home means I'm not being stared in the face with all the things I'm putting off (like painting, moving things around, and tolerating a plumbing issue that is quickly becoming un-ignorable).

The dogs travel so well, they are currently scattered through-out the house on various soft surfaces. Halo is in love with the property here since it's almost entirely made up of forest. Forest means creatures and creatures mean glorious smells and tracking hound heaven. I have only lost her a couple times to the under growth but that's likely because I'm so diligent about "Where's Halo?" Raimi and Leeloo a troopers and embrace this sort of adventure with gusto - Leeloo needs only know where the food is at and Raimi ... well, he just needs to know where I'm at.

We encountered a couple obstacles(literally) that I had not anticipated. In his short past Archer has only ever encountered stairs that were less than 5 steps high. This is a two story home with hardwood stairs and the TV and comfy couches(important) and the spare bedroom on the second floor. Going up was no problem, they followed me like it was the stairway to heaven. Down however, presented a couple issues that needed to be overcome.

Pretty much everyone in their life has seen what blind panic looks like. All the dogs were up when I decided I needed to go down so after a moment or two of 'hmmm' by Leeloo and Raimi(Halo never hesitates - she's seen it all) my entourage clambered down and followed me to the kitchen. Except of course Archer who I could hear whining at the top of the stairs. Huh.

So up I went, dog cookies in hand, large dogs shut behind a door to keep them out of the way. People who know me know I'm short on patience and not much of a coddler when it comes to wussy behaviour regarding things that pose no significant danger(except to me - like moths and spiders in trees or crawl spaces). So I grabbed Archer's collar, spoke gently to him and dragged his ass to the edge of the stairs. He almost choked himself but since it was the martingale the worst he could do was scare himself. I manhandled his feet to the first step and put my hand behind his bum.

Ever so gently we slid from step to step. I even commented to him that this would be a lot harder if the stairs had carpet on them(however he would probably not be so reluctant to go if it was carpet - the wood must feel a little unsafe to dog feet - and socked feet for that matter). I spoke calmly to him the whole time, how silly he was being, how it was not scary, how he was perfectly safe, how he could trust me to not let anything bad happen. At some point he started to believe me. By the time we were halfway down he had relaxed quite a bit and when we were about 6 steps from the bottom he was perfectly fine and walking down on his own. He got a bonanza of treats and has not hesitated since.

Tonight he balked at the stairs from the garage to the basement so we could go from the kennel to the house dry rather than heading into the torrential monsoon outside. Same technique again except this time he started to go down on his own after the second step. Sometimes a person(or dog) needs a little push (and a lot of gentle encouragement) to show them how brave or capable they really can be.

I guess my point here is that a lot of the time the more you coddle the more they think something is really wrong. The tone of your voice and the confidence of your actions plays a huge part in how a dog (or most animals) percieve a potential threat. Who would you trust more - someone who was cooing at you and acting submissive or someone who spoke confidently and enforced action? A mistake a lot of people make is giving in to the 'big show' of irrational fear and allowing it to direct their course of action. Pity for the sad eyes, whining and show of "I'm so scared" can cause more fear problems than it fixes. Just ... you know ... pick your battles.