Trying to be Cat Friendly

We've had Angie, our tabby cat, for 12 years now. She's about 14 (we don't know her actual age because we got her from the Humane Society), so she's a bit of a senior citizen.

One of our biggest concerns in getting Cabana was how Angie would do in sharing her territory. Angie has beat up pretty much every cat in a 1-mile radius of our house. After umpteen skirmishes, though, the neighborhood cats now know to keep their distance and remain on the borders of our yard.

Cabana is very curious about Angie and would love to be friends. But Angie isn't lowering herself to that level. She doesn't even want any cat friends, so at this point, a dog friend is definitely out of the question.

But they have had some close encounters with each other. Angie is allowed on furniture, while Cabana is not, which enables Angie to stay a little out of reach. Eventually, though, I hope to find them cuddled up together on a pillow. If that ever happens, I'll be sure to post a photo of it!!

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Slow News Day

Today was a dreary, rainy day--good for napping and being cozy indoors. And that's just what Cabana did all day. I have a little space heater, and her favorite place is laying about 1/4" from it. Who can blame her.


But when it's sunny, Cabana likes to follow the sun across the carpet. She starts on one side of the room, and as the day and the sun make their journey, she does as well.

Another day of walking with the head collar this morning. I don't think I have it as tight as I should because it wants to slide around a bit. Tomorrow, I'll try it tighter and see if we have better results. Today, I tried clipping one end of the leash to her flat collar and the other end to her head collar. I felt this gave me more control/options.

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Muzzle or Collar?

Last night, we had a puppy training meeting. We haven't had many since getting Cabana, due to the holidays. About a dozen of us gathered outside Costco with our Guide Dog puppies, to catch up and to practice walking through the aisles. Cabana was extremely excited to see all the other dogs, as well as the numerous humans. Even on our walks, she will pull and strain to get over to a passing person, with or without a dog walking alongside--she just loves people and wants to get everyone's attention.

Well, our puppy group leader found Cabana's excitement a bit overboard, as she pulled on her leash, tried to jump on everyone, and barked loudly. We pulled Cabana away from the group so that she could get calmed down, and our puppy group leader said that we should try a head collar on Cabana, to help keep her under control.

A head collar is a collar that goes over the dog's muzzle. It isn't an actual muzzle, which keeps the dog from being able to open its mouth. The head collar just goes around the "nose" and up over the head, with a ring at the bottom to clip on the leash.

Although the head collar is a handy tool and does give the human more control, it's got to be the most pathetic piece of equipment you can put on a dog. It's almost embarrassing!

Poor little Cabana. At the meeting, other raisers called her "feisty", "strong willed", "overly active", "headstrong", and other such adjectives. They don't see this peace-loving, obedient little creature when she's in our house--how sweetly she licks Olive's face (the boxer at my office), how she almost never has an accident, how she ignores our shoes and other off-limit items.

But on our walk today, the head collar did do the trick. Cabana pulled a lot less on her leash, wasn't as excited about passersby (although it was a little rainy so there weren't many passersby), and actually wasn't as excited about anything at all. It's hard to be excited with that weird thing on your face. She sat down a lot and needed to be coaxed to continue walking, maybe her way of rebelling. But I gave her some treats and praised her when she walked well, and there's always room for improvement tomorrow.

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At 15 Weeks

Here's a pic from when Cabana was about 10 weeks old. Can you see her "beauty mark" below her left eye? I love that mark because it will help us identify her, even in a sea of similar yellow labs.

Cabana is 15 weeks old today. Only one more week until she gets her final shots--yippee! After that, she will be eligible to go anywhere. We haven't been allowed to take her to places where a lot of unknown dogs frequent. Parvo is a highly contagious disease, and if other dogs are not up to date on their vaccinations, Cabana could become infected. With the winter warm-up these past few weeks, I'm hoping it will last for another week or two after her shots. I'd love to take her walking in some regional parks and hiking trails. For now, I've been confined to a few blocks around our house, which gets a little boring day after day.

A recent breakthrough with Cabana is that she is not waking us up in the morning with her pre-dawn barks. She has always been pretty good about sleeping through the night--but she is definitely an EARLY riser. I have wished that she would make it until after 6am--but she seemed to be stuck at about 5:50am. She didn't bark a lot--just a few intermittent barks until she could hear one of us getting out of bed. The past few mornings, she's been making it until 6:20am. Very nice!!

Winter time with a puppy can be tough. Not only did I spend a great deal of time in the cold, wind, and rain during those first few days, waiting for her to do her business, but these cold winter mornings are no fun. I know that we in California don't have much to complain about, though. 40 degrees would seem like a heat wave to people in Chicago right about now. But there's definitely a frost on our lawns and rooftops around here.

Cabana is learning sit, stay, come, wait, and down. With everything, the command is to be given once. If she doesn't obey it, we have to physically help her to do it. No command should be repeated--which is difficult for me, given that I like to say most things 3 times. Cabana's reliability on these commands is: sit 80%, stay 80%, come 80%, wait 100% (she's good at this one), and down 0% (she's not really getting down yet). Our older daughter has been teaching her "paw" and my husband is trying to teach her "where's your tummy" and "kunda kunda kunda" (this is a whole other story).

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Beginning the Journey

Cabana was born on October 5, 2008. We brought her home on December 10, at 8 weeks of age. I went to get her at the Westin St. Francis, at a fundraiser for Guide Dogs for the Blind. All I knew was that we were getting a female yellow lab, name starting with a C. I walked out on the runway stage, and they brought Cabana to me. She was a sweet warm bundle in my arms.

But don't confuse me with those who gush and rush for every dog in sight. No one would call me a "dog lover", but Cabana had me at first lick. I do LIKE dogs--but LOVE? That just wasn't my way. I thought that this was a good thing, though, because it would make giving her up after a year much easier. But even after the first few minutes, Cabana started pulling at my heartstrings. I felt like she trusted me from the first instant, as she sat calmly on my lap while throngs of people came to pet her. Although I worried she might "relieve" herself on stage, my worries were unfounded.

My husband and daughters were unable to accompany me to the fundraiser, which turned out to be a little tough. Guide Dogs gives puppy raisers a bag of dog food, numerous leashes and collars, medications, and paperwork. After the luncheon and all the petting from strangers, I put the leash on Cabana and prepared to walk the 3 city blocks to the parking garage. But Cabana, who had only just had a collar put on her 5 minutes before the luncheon, didn't know what to make of the leash, and gave me a look that said, "What IS this you're putting on my neck? I can't possibly move with this thing on!" So, I not only had to carry my purse, the dog food, the other bag of accoutrements, but also this 15-pound puppy! To make matters worse, I couldn't find the parking garage where my car was parked. I had worked up quite the sweat by the time I finally found it.

But things got easier after we finally made it home. Cabana learned to "do her business" outside in about 4 days--such a smart dog! Although I confess that I made it my mission in life during those 4 days to get her housebroken. I knew that was the only way I'd finally be able to relax.

Cabana cried in her crate for the first week or two, sometimes carrying on for 45 minutes, barking and howling and yelping. We worried about our poor neighbors, who were probably also being kept awake by the noise. But now, after a month, she totally gets it. Not a peep from her when we put her in her crate.

Since I've got a lot of catching up to do, tomorrow I'll talk about walking and other commands we are working on.

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