Hello all,
Sorry I didn't answer earlier; another migraine plus we have been busy introducing the new girl.
I had intended originally just to treat her as a playmate for Kim: to take him around there (or get Alan to) every day so they could enjoy each other. I had not a thought in my head of adopting her, and had said no when Alan had tentatively suggested it. But even in that first play session I could see she was good for Kim, and just a great dog to be around. She earned her stripes.
Within the first fifteen minutes of her being in the house, a whole string of things which people had said about 'RRs this' and 'RR's that' started to make sense. She's got brains — real brains — and wants to learn how to please us, something which Kim has never wanted to do. Alan had her sitting on command within the first ten minutes, and Kim came over for a bit of the action and started actually copying her. They are now both more obedient already than Kim has ever been, and she especially is learning in leaps and strides. She is also much more food-oriented than Kim has ever been, which helps. She'll do anything for a snack, and is a quick learner. I still love Kim just as much, but I now view him as a loveable thug compared to her light, bright, sensitive ways. She's game too; He's 8 Kg heavier than she is, and much fitter and stronger, but she holds her own and doesn't back down. Though only an inch shorter, she's much more flexible, physically and mentally: I've seen her bend her legs a bit and walk right under him like a doorway rather than bother to go round, more than once. I wish I'd had my camera …
A huge stress has also been removed from both of us. When we were Kim's only pack members, he wanted attention, playing and interaction with us, naturally enough. And on dog terms, which as it involves play-biting, play-fighting, jumping and various things which are fine 'dog to dog' but which we try to train our dogs not to do to us. All these things are now enjoyable by their absence. Now he's playing with her and they're fulfilling each other's needs in those areas, we aren't being bitten or jumped on and we aren't feeling we should be spending more time with Kim; he's got a playmate who is far better than either of us, and is content to follow her around the way he used to follow the poor cat around (Gipsy was fine with the cat right away, polite and not chasing, if a bit unintentionally rough, despite her background which had not included cats; is it a RR thing?). They follow each other around most of the time, and tire each other out emotionally as well as physically in a way we've never been able to do for Kim.
We were very careful not to trigger off jealousy, treating Kim the same as always and not just focussing on her, and for the most part Kim was fine with her moving in and enthusiastic to have his new playmate at closer quarters than around the corner. He even accompanied her on an unofficial guided tour of the house. She, like he, has also bonded especially with me though (perhaps it's the fear of men thing), and there's been a bit of friction over who gets to lie closest to me on my bed. But it seems to have been almost sorted, with only the occasional spat now. I have pics of them both lying on the bed keeping my feet warm.
I had thought Kim was bright, and he is quite bright compared to other dogs I've had/lived with; he certainly does a lot of thinking, anyway. But he's not interested in obedience training. Gipsy, the new girl, is interested in anything which will please us, and she is a straight A student, not the basket case cum hooligan we'd been half expecting, and which we wouldn't have adopted.
Several doses of Homoeopathic Aconite have cleared up the initial fear which made her not want to come into the house, and a dose or two of Pulsatilla has cleared the clinginess, just as both medicines did with Kim. She's so much more responsive to us and quick to pick up meanings and read body language that Kim has ever been, seeing her doing basic obedience training, is starting to copy her, just to get the treats probably, but still at least he's getting a lesson in the advantages of being obedient. E.g. I'm still often having to shove Kim's bum down, sometimes with all my strength, to get him to sit, which was the first lesson he was taught five months ago and one which he should know by heart. I had to do that only twice with Gipsy and now, if she needs reminding at all which is rare, I only have to point over her head at her bottom and she remembers and sits quickly; she's picked up a hand signal and it only took her fifteen minutes from arriving in the house before she had learnt that.
And there's a soft, gentle nature in her, a tenderness I never thought to meet in a RR, especially a bitch, as I'd heard they were tougher-minded, having to be responsible for pups etc. I had thought Kim used his paws a lot, but she uses hers more, and more carefully, in all sorts of contexts, just like a cat. She'll lay a paw on my hand gently, just to get my attention or because she's curious about my typing movements.
She spent the first night near me in my bed. At one point in the wee hours she sat up to cool herself off, having been panting for a while due to the warm room (approx. 22C/75F - it's mid-winter here but I still had to open the window all the way for her). I opened my eyes to look at her and she was looking down at me intently. As I watched, she gently reached out a paw and placed it, not quite gently but not roughly, against my left cheek, holding it there for several seconds and gazing into my face. Then she removed the paw and studied me for about 10 seconds before lifting the other paw and placing it, very gently this time, against my right cheek and holding it there for several seconds, gazing into my eyes all the while. It was the most intimate thing I could imagine a RR doing, given the very rough fighting she'd been doing all day with Kim, and my heart went out to her even further. She's always gentle with me, so far anyway.
It's a lot more relaxing now emotionally for both Alan and me, with Kim contented with a playmate. That's an advantage I hadn't predicted. And as she likes my bed and he likes her, I'm getting more visits from both of them than I was just from Kim before, which is really nice. He prefers the floor, as it's cooler.
As for Kim considering me a mother figure, I think he's grown out of that finally, or most of it anyway, but Gipsy certainly considers me a mother figure, licking at my nipples and frantically washing my face to get me to regurgitate food for her. Kim hasn't done anything like that for months.
With Gipsy I'm starting as I mean to go on; affectionate but firm, as it's in these first few days and weeks that she'll pick up most quickly on the ground-rules around here, and might consider them breakable if we allow them to be broken. That didn't work too well with Kim, bull-headed boy that he is, but Gipsy's already calming down with the face-licking (probably the powerful combination of the Homoeopathic Aconite and Pulsatilla for fear and clinginess respectively, and the regular meals; though she's had those for six weeks from the rescuing neighbour and they in themselves didn't do it). She's learning to trust more quickly than I'd anticipated (again, probably the Aconite; I've seen it work wonders draining fear away, and all the fear-driven behaviours with it). She's even making a start on 'stay' insofar as being less hysterical when I crackle the treat bag in reaching for a treat, and more able to concentrate on my command rather than jumping straight for the treats (a lifetime of starvation isn't going to be fixed in a day, but there's been real progress and I'm well pleased.
We'll have to agree to disagree re teaching a pup or dog to accept being left alone and not complain. It has all the hallmarks of 'controlled crying' for human babies, and although dogs are not humans, both are social mammals who care personally for their young and whose young don't expect or naturally accept being left alone, and who live socially as adults. They wouldn't need to be trained for it if it were natural and, especially with the young, being left alone, particularly at night, spells death, either by exposure or predation. Hence the powerful instincts and the emotional trauma most of us carry unwittingly, as it was done to us. No pup would sleep alone in the wild any more than a human baby would, and puppies are very capable of being traumatised, as I can testify with my two, even if I didn't already know. The crate and any toys in it will be the equivalent of the dummy, the teddy bear and security blanket; mother substitutes to cling to. Kittens, yes; they're born to it. But I won't do it to a puppy, nor to a full-grown dog on a regular basis.
As for surfing, we had hoped and even expected that he could play in the surf with us when we first got him. But Kim was terrified of the surf and even now after five months of daily visits to the beach and being taken into the surf by us, still won't go in very far willingly, though he can dog-paddle and is much better than he was. He seems to hate getting hit in the face by waves. We took turns for a while; I'd go in while Alan minded Kim, then vice versa. But he'd howl and whimper and try to come and rescue whoever was swimming, but be too scared to come out far and too upset by waves in the face to try hard. The surf here isn't strong (about 3 feet on a good day, with little undertow and no rips) and the drop-off is shallow, but it's still too much for his liking.
We haven't tried Gipsy down the beach yet, but the fellow who rescued her when she was deserted by her abusive owner has taken her down there a few times and says she is terrified of the surf. Either way, despite the beach being very long indeed (varying, but up to 20 Km), all the places where there is access, especially for me, tend to attract other people, and if we are swimming/surfing and neither dog comes when called, that's a recipe for trouble, even if we do see it coming. We can drive up it sometimes in our 4WD, depending on conditions, tide height and erosion, but it's a very dangerous beach to get stuck on, and we don't as yet have sand tyres. Anyway, lots of people do the same thing and kids charge around on motorbikes, so there's no real guarantee of privacy.
The wire I mentioned actually worked well. It ran from one end of the yard to the other like a long, straight, taut clothesline, well above the dogs' head level. Each had a light chain hooked to their collar with the other end attached to a swivel and a loop which ran freely along the chain from one end of the yard to the other, as the dogs ran, meaning they had a long run and couldn't tie themselves in knots as with a fixed tether. A swivel arrangement prevented any tangles, and if there had been any problem with its function my mother wouldn't have tolerated it for a day, given her extremely high standards of animal welfare. But it was her idea in the first place, and it worked.
The fence will be built once we have a better idea about what will go where re pond, plunge pool (submerged water tank for cooling off in the tropical wet), garden beds etc. I expect we'll be there within the month and we'll fence as big an area as we can afford to, as although they play rough and tumble quite happily inside and Kim has dropped what few destructive behaviours he had (he has another dog to chew now), they do so like to run. We have seen them running together twice now, and it's a joy to watch. But I'd want a fenced yard or an empty stretch of beach, as neither even hears us when we call or whistle (I don't think Gipsy understands yet that she should always come when called, given that no-one's ever tried to train her to, but if either is going to pick it up, it'll be she. The fellow who rescued her said she came when called during their beach walks, but then he didn't have Kim chasing her across the field to contend with, so I expect she wanted to then, and will get better with us as she recognises us as her owners/pack leaders.
Kim has certainly been testing us over the months and I'm sure that's not helping at all with the training, but I think his independent attitude is more responsible for the difficulties than I'd guessed, not having any RRs to compare him with before. Gipsy is completely untrained and she displays the willingness to learn, the dislike of nasty tastes, the strong food focus, the extreme intelligence, the preference for comfort (Kim prefers the floor to my bed) and a variety of other characteristics which make her sooooooooooo much more responsive that it's made me realise just how easy it *can* be to train a RR if it's not a really hard-headed one.
We don't regard Kim as a 'bad' dog; I don't judge anyone in terms of good or bad – just as more or less fortunate products of nature and nurture. And it does seem in his nature to be an independent thinker. He's worked out how to get my wardrobe open so he can chew my leather boots (not at issue since Gipsy's arrival).
Kim was harder to train and more stubborn at 4 1/2 months than Gipsy, who has had no training and very little human interaction on top of abuse and starvation, is now, at 10 months old; by far. Training her is a pleasure, as I can see real results and willingness, and I don't feel as if I'm banging my head against a brick wall. And I can see Kim watching, watching … and then sometimes joining in, either because he wants the snacks a little more than he wants to sit around being lazy, or because he wants to be with Gipsy. He's still much slower than she is at things he's known for many months and which she's only just learnt. But I'm sure that if she's an influence on him at all re obedience, it'll be for the good.
I know how wrong it could have gone, both by theory and because I've been there before with my last pair of dogs (and it was an alert, willing Lab X Alsatian I was training then; an easy dog to train). But I'm so glad I went with my gut feeling on this, as I now couldn't imagine a life without my lovely, sweet Gipsy. She's got such endearing big brown eyes, and that's just the start of her charms …
rrblexus, I'm not sure what you're getting at with, "Or, since the man that owns the sister has done a "nice" job of training her …,". He hadn't trained her at all; just rescued her from what would have been almost certain death at the pound, fed her and treated her with kindness, but left her to her own devices in his backyard, as she was too big and rough for his lapdog to play with.
She's almost a dead ringer for Kim from the front, so we've had to colour-code her with a strip of tape on the collar. The vet gave her a clean bill of health today when she went in for her shots, dog rego, etc., and she was apparently a model of good behaviour whilst having things poked into her, unlike wriggly Kim. She'll jump into the car of her own accord; we still have to lift Kim in though he likes car rides (just has an issue about jumping into or onto things).
It's not often that you get to break all the rules and thank the powers that be that you did. I wouldn't part with her for worlds, and things are so much clearer now I've experienced a RR who's recognisable from other people's descriptions and will clearly respond to training, and might even be a good influence on Kim, the loveable thug.
I'll put some videos of her up on YouTube as soon as I get the chance, although as they're almost inseparable, it'll probably be of both of them … play-fighting as usual.
best, Lachlan
