Walking the Dawg - Neighbors

During the week that JayDee was 11-weeks old, she started something new, I discovered that she could inhale pebbles, stones, and tree-dropped nuts off the pavement without breaking stride! One book talks about a $800 (vet bill) rock. A recent Dog Whisperer episode mentioned a $5,000 vet bill to retrieve a swallowed something or other. I certainly wouldn’t want either of those! One morning, midway through the walk, JayDee totally lost interest in the treats, What’s up with that? Then I saw her jaws move. Stop we did. Open her mouth we did. Found a large green nut – a hickory nut(?) we did. What to do about this difficulty? One solution, which I tried the very next morning was to walk in the center of the approaching traffic lane, away from all the debris near the shoulder. Not the safest solution, I suppose. Cars approaching during the morning commute sometimes were “cooking” but my hearing is still adequate, so I was able to anticipate them and move to the side – back where all the debris was. Since I was utilizing the Sit/Stay/click&treat JayDee would be distracted from the cars and the stones. Whether this would ultimately become generalized when treats were gradually withheld, only time would tell.

Time and again I was reminded that this was more about training myself and less about training the pup. The treats are the primary reinforcer. The click was, at first, an event marker, but it should become a secondary reinforcer. To ultimately wean ourselves off of the treats and off of the clicker, we needed to connect the treats with a verbalization. I chose “Yessss” and “Goooood girl”. I found that the click and treat part was easy, adding the verbalization was a training requirement that I had to work on.

During the middle of the week when JayDee was 11-weeks old, I added Down during the walks, and an occasional Hi Five. Since dogs do not generalize, and previously these behaviors took place only in our kitchen, this change in locale was profitable. The addition of these behaviors to our walk only lasted a week or so because they became too much of a distraction (for me, not the pup).

Also during one of our evening walks, JayDee suddenly went “ballistic”. Reminded me of the Disney cartoon when Ferdinand the bull was stung by a bee. It wasn’t that JayDee was spooked by anything, or that she saw something to pursue. She just took off, full speed, straight ahead. I stopped and held onto the leash. When the 6 feet played out, JayDee flipped herself by her collar and her body did a 180^o mid air pivot – ouch! She gave me a wide-eyed stare and I said, “Walk” at which point I stepped forward and she stuck with me. This scenario was repeated four or five additional times, each time with a slightly reduced intensity. I didn’t have a clue. When I went to the initial handler’s meeting for Puppy Kindergarten, later in the week, I asked Valli Rovenolt what this could be all about and she called it “puppy joy” or “a puppy rift”. We called similar behavior that we had seen periodically at the house, the “puppy flakies”. JayDee would just start to scamper around the porch or kitchen. (They say that dogs don’t generalize very well. In this instance, neither did I.)

On one morning walk we ran into our neighbor, Tim, and his Whippet mix, Maddy. Although the initial meeting was a bit tentative, in short order the two pooches were romping about. I shortened the walk because JayDee had definitely gotten her exercise.

The next morning, during our walk, a college student came out of her house. Although I had never met her, she must have seen us and she wanted to meet JayDee. I let go of the leash and JayDee ran to her as if she were a long lost family member. The girl crouched down to receive JayDee and the pup did not moderate her approach. The girl was pitched back on her butt, but fortunately she thought the whole experience to be wonderful! Pups and people definitely go together. JayDee showed herself to be genuine representation of her Golden heritage. I realized that as a handler I had totally failed to control my puppy and that was the last time I let JayDee overpower anyone.

Over the next month, our twice daily walks lengthened so that by the time JayDee was 4 months old, each walk was 45 minutes in length. I found that particularly in the morning, my bladder capability was inadequate for this length away from a porcelain facility. Fifteen years ago, when I started riding a mountain bide, I prided myself that I could complete a two hour ride and not require any beverage. But then I read an article that informed me that staying adequately hydrated improved performance. I soon acquired a Camelbak, a backpack device for carrying up to 70 ounces of beverage. I trained myself to sip about every five minutes and over the course of time concluded that I would drink five cups of fluid for a two hour ride. I found that this much fluid in, required at least two or three potty breaks! I came up with a way of dealing with this, that I called “The Solution, Solution.” I wrote an article and submitted it to Bicycling Magazine, and it was actually published; I even got paid! Briefly, my solution was a 1 pint plastic bottle, shaped somewhat like a hip flask, that had a wide mouth opening and a cap. When the urge was irresistible, I would stop on the shoulder of the road, insert the bottle under my bike shorts, and relief was just a smile away. This became my personal porta-potty! Walking JayDee in the morning, after two, 10 oz cups of coffee, I could not go the distance, so I always had my Solution, Solution bottle available. I haven’t checked with any legal authorities, but my thought was that I avoided any possible charge of urinating in public! Ladies will have to find their own “Solution, Solution!”

Also during this time frame, JayDee being 4 months old, I started using a 4 foot leash which I found to be superior for this particular activity. I tried several weeks without the treats and clicker, but came back to carrying kibble-treats in the fanny pack. I began to transition to intermittent reinforcement and the schedule of reinforcement was much reduced. I also began to introduce the Leave It command, but I doubted that JayDee had a clue as to its true meaning. I also began to be able to “read” my dog. She’s learned to time her snarfs off of the road with the passage of cars. She’s learned that I monitored the cars to determine whether we needed to dive for the shoulder. But I was on to her, the little sneak! I started bringing along a braided rope chew toy that had pompoms on each end. I combined this with the Take and Give commands. JayDee carried it with pride, head and tail high. I also noticed that she must have thought she was the flag bearer for the infantry, because she smartly moved into the forward position. When she tired of this and dropped it, I would pick it up and carry it for a while (in my hand, not in my teeth) and when I would reintroduce it, she was again pleased to carry it.

Since the walks were getting longer, I determined to get JayDee up and out the door by 6:30 in the morning. Since this was October, it was dark and sometimes foggy at that time. Several times the early commuters may not have been aware that we were even there! Scary! So I got out a battery powered flashing red light that I had used for this same purpose when I went on early morning bike rides. It definitely grabbed drivers’ attention and they would then give us a bit more berth.

As the nights became longer, it was so dark in the mornings that I could just make out the double stripe in the middle of the road. The good news was that there was a minimal road debris in the center. One morning as JayDee and I strolled along, I suddenly heard a dog barking, and the dog was close! I nearly jumped out of my skin. As I looked to my right, I saw the silhouette of a person against the faint light of a distant house. The person was leaning slightly back, the appearance of one who was restraining a dog on a leash. Since we were near his house, I quickly realized that it was my neighbor Tim and his dog Maddy on a flexi-leash. Nothing bad actually happened, but I was momentarily scared out of my wits!

Now that we had extended our walking distance, we twice crossed through a section I called “The Gauntlet”. On our left was a house where they had two dogs on doghouse chains. You guessed it, bark, bark, bark with the larger black lab type dog lunging (fashioned himself a song and dance man). For some strange reason, the folks who owned this property had recently moved the lab’s dog house even closer to the road so that the dog could almost come onto the right-of-way. This dog frothed at the mouth and bared her teeth. The owners assured me that the dog wouldn’t hurt anyone. Right. That’s what all owners say just before their dog takes a chunk out of somebody. Since these dogs were outside most of the time we walked by, I named the dogs, the owners, and the house “the Barkers”, no disrespect to anyone who carries that moniker. Directly across the road, way up the hill was a yellow lab, also chained to a dog house, who was also quite vocal. Then down the street was a Golden retriever who was connected to an overhead cable. This dog was not shy about making her presence known. Finally, there was a house a bit further down the road with three toy type dogs; definitely barky and territorial who were occasionally chained outside. Walking JayDee through the Gauntlet and then turning around and retracing our steps was a noisy training opportunity. I utilized a periodic stop, with what had become an excellent automatic sit, and then proceeded. It was not until we were quite close to the black lunging lab that JayDee also lost control, primarily to play, but this too would pass (trust me, it would pass).

Because the morning temperatures had been dropping, it often required gloves, and this eliminated the dispensing of kibble treats. Not a big deal actually. Because we had been working on the Leave It command in Puppy Kindergarten and then in Canine Good Citizen classes, it began having some impact. Nevertheless, we still had a way to go. By this point, the majority of the walks were a cooperative affair – quite pleasant actually.

Another totally unanticipated benefit of walking the dawg has been an improvement in relationships with some of my neighbors. Over the years, having lived in various locations, I’ve interacted with many different neighbors. The first house we owned was bordered on each side by retired couples. On one side was a couple whose house was a mirror image of ours and their kitchen looked over both driveways into our kitchen. When we moved into the house, we put sheets up to cover the bedroom windows until we could afford definitive window treatment! One morning just after we arrived at the office we received a call from our neighbors that we had left the light on in the kitchen! Attentive neighbors, perhaps a bit too attentive! This same neighbor had a snow blower, and wouldn’t you know it, that winter was one of the heaviest snowfalls in recent memory. That man would blow out his driveway, my driveway and the sidewalk in front of several houses. What a nice man.

On the other side was another retired couple. I never saw the husband, apparently he was sickly, but his wife was one of those people who would complain about everything. She complained that when the other neighbor would blow the snow off her sidewalk, he left a thin film of snow that she had to shovel off – her husband being too sick to help! During the summer I brought over several vegetables I had harvested from our small backyard garden and she said she didn’t like vegetables. (She was the only person I have ever encountered that rejected the gift of home grown vegetables. Even if she wasn’t going to eat them, she could have graciously accepted them and given them to someone else.) Her backyard was enclosed with a chain link fence and it was positioned 6 inches on her side of the line so that she could maintain the grass on both sides. We had a large oak tree in our backyard and when the leaves came down in the Fall, some of them fell on her side of the fence. She would pick up those leaves and throw them over onto our side of the fence. Wow. I contacted a tree surgeon to determine what would be involved to trim those branches that allowed leaves to fall onto her side of the fence. The tree surgeon said that the tree was so beautifully shaped that to accommodate my “ugly” neighbor, it would result in an ugly tree and he advised against doing it. I often seek expert advice, and whenever possible I take that advice. So that’s exactly what I did in that case. Sorry lady, they call the season Fall because that is exactly what the leaves on the trees do during that season! We only lived in that house for a year and a half, but as we were moving out, the cranky lady next door came out and told me what wonderful neighbors we had been and that she would miss us! Astounded, I was absolutely astounded. Never had a clue she liked us at all!

This brings to mind that at my Dad’s funeral, many, many people had such nice things to say about him. During that part of the service when I shared, I mentioned that it was too bad that Dad wasn’t present to hear all of the nice memories. When former President Gerald Ford died, I heard, for the first time, some very nice things said of him by people who never had a kind word while he was alive! Seems a shame that it takes death for compliments to be generated. The lesson I appropriated from these experiences was to determine in my heart to compliment people this side of the grave. When I see something positive about someone, I tell them. Recently a young man in our church got engaged to a divorced gal who had two young daughters. I went up to him and told him how proud I was of him that he was willing to marry a family and become a dad to these precious young girls. He looked shocked that anyone was proud of him.

When Pam, Shana Bana, and I lived on the farm, our nearest neighbor, Malon, lived almost a mile away, and although we would exchange pleasantries from time to time, we never had a significant relationship. One time, after we had completed major renovations, I was doing the very last electrical hook ups. We had ordered fancy deck lights and they took a number of months to finally arrive. After they were installed, I couldn’t get them to light up. It was after supper and I called Malon because I knew that he was a certified electrician. He immediately came up and diagnosed a bad light switch. I told him that the switch was brand new, right out of the box. He said it was defective, new or not. He went down to his house and brought back a replacement, which he installed and the lights came on bright and true. Now that is a good neighbor!

On another occasion, Pam was incredibly pregnant. It was the last weekend in March and a late winter, heavy, wet, snowstorm came through. Our half mile dirt lane up to our house was lined with pine trees. Not huge mature pine trees, but trees that were 6 to 12 inches in diameter at their base. It was late evening by the time the snowstorm abated. I got out my John Deere farm tractor with a pull-behind plow blade. I started to clear off our lane, only to find that the snow broke over 100 trees and they blocked much of our lane. I motored back to the barn and got my chainsaw and began to slice up the trees. By this time it was closing in on 10:00 o’clock. I was concerned that if Pam went into labor, I would not be able to deliver her to the hospital before she had the baby. Then Malon appeared, chainsaw in hand. He said he had heard the sound of the chainsaw and he figured that I was in trouble. He helped slice, dice, and remove the deadfall. Now that is a very good neighbor. Pam went into labor three days later and Daniel was born into our lives.

Now about our present neighbors. George lives across the street, and over the years, I have gotten the clear message that he preferred to be left alone. But the puppy created an opportunity that hadn’t existed before. JayDee likes George and he calls her “my girl” even though he always greets us by asking “How are you guys doing?”. Whenever I am out with JayDee and we see George, I walk JayDee over to him. Well, that’s not quite accurate. JayDee tries to walk me over to George! I require a calm Sit before moving ahead, and this can take a bit of time. When we get pretty close, I ask George to approach JayDee who is not quite as calm as I would like, but definitely calmer than she would have been otherwise. After a few pets, JayDee does calm a bit. One day George asked JayDee for a Hi Five and a Shake. When she didn’t respond, I showed him the exact hand positions and when he did that, JayDee gave him the behaviors he asked for!

Nancy is a retired widow who lives down the street in the opposite direction. During the warmer months she works from sun up to sun down, tending her lawn, flowers, and shrubs. Nancy has shown herself to be a dog lover and JayDee obviously loves her! Prior to getting a puppy, my interactions with Nancy were an occasional wave as I drove by her house. Now, because of JayDee, our interactions are much more friendly.

Roger is my next door neighbor and over the years our interactions have been pleasant, but I have felt a slight, continual tension. One late spring, not all that long after we had moved in, I noticed that Roger’s grass was getting higher and higher. It was obvious that he and the family were away. I had read somewhere that uncut grass was a sign of an unoccupied house and this could be a welcome sign to thieves. Mowing the lawn was never my favorite activity, and mowing Roger’s lawn was something I really didn’t want to do, but after wrestling with myself, I decided to “do the right thing” and proceeded to mow Roger’s lawn, even as I muttered to myself. Three days later, the heavens dried up and we experienced a long dry spell. Roger came back from wherever he had been, and his lawn, and everyone else’s for that matter, went dormant and turned to crackly straw. At that point, Roger let me know that he did not appreciate me cutting his lawn. He said that he liked to cut his grass higher than I cut mine, and cutting his lawn shorter made the burnout worse! Needless to say, I never mowed a blade of his grass ever again!

One winter we had a very heavy snow fall, so after I used the blower on my own driveway I motored next door and began to blow off Roger’s drive. Roger came running out of his house waving at me to stop. It turned out that he and his wife enjoyed shoveling the snow by hand! Who’d a thunk it! Needless to say, I never removed a flake of snow from his driveway, ever again!

Now about JayDee. One day as I was walking JayDee past his house, Roger was in front so I made a direct left turn so that he and JayDee could meet. At the time JayDee was four months old. As would be typical, she was still a bit mouthy but Roger’s response was “Don’t you nip me!” I don’t think she really nipped him, but since that was his response, I realized that once again, totally uninvited, I had violated Roger’s space. Totally my fault. But in the future, should Roger be so inclined, he would have to come to JayDee, because I made a commitment not to inflict her on him! There is a happier ending to this story, but it took a year to play out. Roger is a road walker and from time to time our paths would cross. I would keep JayDee by my side and sometimes Roger would come over and interact with her. During the winter when JayDee was a year and a half old, we met Roger during one of our walks and were able to walk side by side for about half a mile. By this stage JayDee was totally off leash. Although JayDee was a bit demonstrative for the initial petting, as soon as we started to walk, she was the picture of self control. Roger was very complementary. Yes! 
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