On March 12th, we met at the home of the Tom & Donna Winkler. Their daughter, Heather, has recently returned from a long stay in Arizona where she aquired our client of the day, Shaggy. The Winklers have a dog of their own, Clarence, a real sweetheart in his senior years.
Due to Heather holding jobs that keep her away for up to 12 hours a day, Shaggy lead a relatively sheltered life in Arizona and was not exposed to much of the every day life of a dog. There was originally a 2nd dog of Heather's, named Fred, who caused enough conflict at the Winkler home that they felt it best to re-home him.
Tom works out of the home in his own business. With Donna and Heather away at their respective jobs, Tom was trying valiantly to manage the intigration of Shaggy which was causing much frustration and the main reason for our visit. I need to mention here, that I applaud this family for the courageous attempt at resolving this situation. Each one of them is uniquely different, but unified in their sincerity to make this newly blended family work.
Shaggy's nature is on the skiddish side and he runs to Heather for shelter when he is confused. Heather is sincere in her dog ownership, but was sorely lacking in the skills and knowledge of how to raise Shaggy as an animal/dog. Instead she was giving him affection regardless of the situation and he was playing the role of stuffed animal to her. There were no rules, boundaries or limitations when Shaggy first arrived with Heather which contributed to the bedlam.
Tom on the other hand would try to instill the rules and boundaries along with a good structured walk, which was great. Only one thing. Shaggy was confused and felt intimidated by Tom's strong leadership skills. He and the daughter whom he loves were on complete different ends of the spectrum. Donna would feed and care for Shaggy predominatly and he was starting to look to her as his owner. With Heather only walking him on the weekends, she was quickly losing any Pack Leadership she had. We need to restore balance to this home.
We did alot of listening in this session as the family had alot to say. Shaggy warmed up to Michelle and I on the strctured walk and calmed down so much that I was able to give him some lavish affection at one of our rest breaks, demonstrating to Heather what an appropriate time for affection looks like.
When we had the walk mastered with Heather and Donna, we left them at home and went out separately with Tom and the 2 dogs. Whereas Shaggy would not come to Tom in the house, he was very comfortable being walked by him. This is how important the structured walk is for a dog. A pack isn't a pack unless they migrate-or-move forward together. This is the language a dog speaks: W-A-L-K.
The solution for how to help Shaggy become comfortable coming to Tom, came to me when we were showing the Winkler's how to make feeding the dogs an event for them. We decided to restrict Shagggy to only receiving food from Tom. Until he accepted the food from Tom, he would not be allowed to eat. Hunger is a terrific teacher, as it is a dogs #1 drive.
I was in my bank last week where Donna is a teller and she came bounding up to me with a radiant face. She reported that things were going much better at home and that Shaggy is coming to terms with Tom's leadership. (You can safely conclude that Shaggy is also eating again.) I was delighted to see her so happy. Quite a contrast from the first time we met. It was apparent that things are changing for the better.
I look forward to the follow up appointment we have scheduled in one week with this family. There will be more tweaking to do at that time, but the Winkler's are grasping the foundational concepts we left them with and they are on their way. Tom, Donna and Heather, I am so proud of you!
~Candiss DelCastillo
Walks & Wags Pet Service
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