Lexi’s (Lucy) Story: Day Seven

In knew Lucy has been whining, barking, and howling after I leave the house, but she is usually in her crate when she does that. Today, I had to take Lucky to the park to work with him. It was a beautiful day, so I opted to leave my dogs out in the yard and let Lucy roam the front of the house with the office door open so that she could get to Aaron if she wanted. As soon as I got to the park, he texted me to let me know that the howling had begun. I was shocked. I asked him if she could get to him, and he said, “She walked to me while howling.” He then called me to tell me the rest of the story. When she got into his office, she sat there whining. He decided to try ignoring her. Eventually she stopped, but then she sat staring at him. He ignored her. She lifted her paw and put it on his arm. He pet her. Haha. When I got home, she was in her crate again, because Aaron couldn’t get any work done.

The more time we spend with her, the more I see that she needs lots of structure. She knows how to push until she gets what she wants. This means she is not going to be getting much of what she wants at all. Instead, she will only be doing the things she wants with permission. Her life is going to be a very strict permission based lifestyle for the next 90 days (if she’s with us that long).

I allowed Lucy to be outside with the other large dogs (Marvel, Shoshi, and Goober) today. She did just fine. We transferred that into the house with everybody in their place. There were zero issues. I will continue this, but it will always be under very close supervision.

Lucy started formal training today with both the prong collar and the e-collar. My intention was to only work on heel and sit, but her pushiness has caused me take it further. Today, the e-collar was incorporated into all commands. We worked on heel. She did wonderfully. She picked up very quickly on the idea of sitting each time we stopped. We worked on sit. I introduced her to place and we began working on distance and duration. Everytime I tried to leave the room, she tried to follow. After about the third time, she finally gave up and just fell asleep in her place.

When she is in her crate and thinks she’s been in there long enough, she stands up and whines or barks. Today she has been corrected with a no, and a stimulation on the prong collar until she lies back down. (A calm body = a calm mind.) She insists the e-collar level be a little high, but there is plenty of room to go higher for the major offenses.

Lucy’s ears and arm continue to heal. Up until yesterday, I was spraying them four times a day with dilluted apple cider vinegar. Yesterday I only sprayed them three times. Today, twice. I’m going to keep it at twice a day for a while (maybe three times for her leg). I can now see into her ear canal without lifting her ear up. It’s amazing how much the swelling has gone down. Her canal still has a “wet” look to it, so I know there is more that needs to happen. Once it seems that has gone away, I will use the vinegar at night, before bed only.