Zane and other Dogs

Zane and other dogs is still a bit hit or miss.

We've taken in a foster collie whose owner died. At first, Zane got as far away as possible. The collie is not pushy at all and didn't try to force his way onto Zane. So the next day Zane started chasing him around and biting at his butt (in play). Today he was laying beside him for a nap.

This evening Zane went to a class. His only goal was to sit quietly in his crate with a nice stuffed Kong. One of the students was one of my 4-Hers and they wanted to see Zane. Their dog, a young Aussie mix had already been by the crate Zane was in and he did fine (and had food tossed in for being good). First intros went well, with me passing him an occasional piece of food. But the other dog wanted that food too and got a bit pushy. Zane growled, snapped, lunged, and went after her. She didn't back down and came right back at him. I ended up picking him up and getting him out of it. He did not want her near him after that.

It's so hard to find stable dogs to introduce him to - ones who won't get in his face and get too pushy too fast. Once he's comfortable with a dog, he tends to be fine and plays with them.

With the dogs at the house, he quickly learned to read them. He knows to never bother Travis. He doesn't even try. He'll try to bounce on Emily, she'll give a lip lift or a light growl and he'll leave her alone. He knows he can get away with anything with Bella. Those two play together non-stop. And now with the collie, he knows the dog won't react to him, but the dog also won't play with him, so he's not sure what to do, but sure is trying to get him to play.

Zane is learning to sit at the door until released to go through (that was easy with the sit/maintain training).

Today we also had fun with a little table - it's only about 4 inches high and I worked to shape him to get on it. He never got on it all the way - I think it's a bit small for his whole body and he's not willing to try. He'll get front paws on it easily, so maybe we'll start brickwork instead.