A Lovely Cheese Pizza, Just For McGee

When we first began our Reactive Dog training class five weeks ago, one of the first questions the instructor asked was "Is your dog food motivated?" Dog Dad and I simultaneously shook our heads in dismay. Though The McGee does enjoy her mealtimes, no treat seems to be important enough to keep her attention when she is reacting to another dog.

The list of foods we have tried is starting to sound like fodder for a Shel Silverstein poem:

What's in the fanny pack today, Boss?

Chicken Sausage, Spinach, Lamb,
Broccoli Tops and Cubes of Ham,
Hotdogs cut in bite size nibbles,
Ground Beef mixed with Doggie Kibbles,
Zukes, Cloud Star, Buddy Biscuits,
Tortilla Chips or maybe Triscuits,
Parmesan and Sweet Potatoes.
No Dog, you can't have Tomatoes.

I could go on and on here, but you get the idea: this dog is not easily pleased.

We chuckled during our week one class meeting when the gal in charge mentioned that she has seen people resort to ordering a pizza for their dog. Hahaha, isn't that so funny that someone would be that desperate to get their dog's attention?

Knock on wood people, knock on wood. If there is one thing we are learning from this class, it's that when the teacher speaks "hypothetically" or talks about that "1 dog in every billion", she is speaking directly to us. It's like if you were a middle school teacher who needed to address the issue of one kid who really needs to start wearing deodorant, you'd address the whole class so the kid doesn't feel embarrassed and hope that your point gets across. That's us with the pizza.

Yeah, McGee, you heard right. You really need to start taking this pizza eating thing more seriously for the comfort of everyone around you.

So this past Monday evening, we loaded up the car and I sat for the entire hour drive with a pizza box in my lap and a pair of kitchen scissors in my hand. That's right friends, I cut up an entire medium sized Papa Johns pizza into bite sized morsels for my dog. Then I bagged that sucker up and put my Ziplocs on the dashboard to warm over the defrosters. This is what it means to LOVE YOUR DOG.

Overall, McGee wasn't super ecstatic about the pizza like we hoped she'd be. The distraction of hearing or briefly glimpsing another dog was still more powerful for her than the alluring offer of some gooey pizza bites. While all the other dogs in class are now walking from cone to cone in an orderly follow-the-leader fashion in the center of the room, our little crew is still huddled behind baby gates and a tarp in the corner bracing ourselves for any moment that another dog might bark.

Though we don't feed her on class days so that she's extra hungry and ready to focus, McGee still had quite the food baby in her belly when we finished up on Monday night. Keeping her attention for a whole hour with other dogs in the room, as well as pre-class work with her buddy Mr. T, meant that McGee ate THE WHOLE PIZZA. I am so grossed out by this, I can't even tell you.

Since the pizza wasn't the enormous hit we thought it would be, not to mention the fact that I'm worried about the long term effects of letting my dog gorge herself on Papa Johns, I don't think it's an experiment we'll repeat. The good news is that, when we ran out of cheesy, doughy bartering chips, we still had a few minutes of class. In those few minutes, I think we may have discovered OUR NEW SECRET WEAPON. But more on that later...

How do you keep your dog focused on you when other dogs are around? What treats have you found work best?

The 100 Mile Pact

So here's the thing: I like walking my dog, but most days it is exceedingly difficult to convince myself to actually saddle up and get out the door. I'm likely to procrastinate until I only have 30 minutes left until I have to be somewhere and then, by the time McGee and I hit our stride and I'm really enjoying the walk, it's already time to wrap it up and leave for work.

And The McGee knows when she is being ripped off on walking time. She has a very special look she gives me (eyelids slightly lowered, bottom lip pooched out) along with a special huffy sigh as if to say, "Weak effort owner lady, but there is no way you helped me meet my sniffing quota for the day."

For the longest time, I also struggled to walk McGee "by myself". Because of her outbursts upon seeing another dog, I felt incredibly intimidated at the thought of venturing out on my own without Dog Dad along for re-enforcements. Ok, that's a lie, what I really mean to say is that I wanted Dog Dad to be there to do ALL the enforcing. I just didn't believe that I had enough sway to convince McGee to do any behaving whatsoever.

I'm happy to report that lately my little pup pal and I have been partaking in many more walks on our own. While she still scowls and gives me her most unhappy face when I put on her Gentle Leader, this fleeting moment of cranky face cannot overshadow the ecstatic and elaborate tap dancing routine she treats me to when she knows it's time to go for A Walk.


"Oh excellent, I see you are wearing The Fanny Pack."

Little by little, I think that we are building a better bond and that she is coming to trust me more and more as a leader. I'm sure it also helps that I carry THE GIANT FANNY PACK OF BRIBERY full of delicious things for her to eat along the way. But you know how you can really tell when someone is your bestest friend? When you know all their favorite pooping spots by heart.

In honor of our newly forged girl time relationship, McGee and I are making a pact (she's just finding out about this right now as I type). We are making a pact to walk 100 miles together, without Dog Dad, by the end of 2013. Today we busted out 1.32 miles, so that gives us 47 days to conquer the remaining 98.68.

Hopefully this quality time is going to solidify my role in The McGee's life as someone she looks up to. She and I have a lot of work to do together so that both of us can be more confident and less worried when we're out together in public. We'll just have to take it one step at a time.

Ambassadog vs Reactive Dog: Can McGee be both?

Ever since I fell in love with pit bull type dogs, I have dreamt of being the proud owner of an "Ambassadog". In my daydreams, my Ambassadog and I would flit from social event to event. We would run pet friendly 5ks together, she would calmly sip from a bowls of water while I read novels at outdoor cafes, and my stocky little breed ambassador would elicit adoration from all her onlookers by, you know, kissing babies and stuff.

Flash forward to reality. While my blockheaded McGee and I both enjoy kissing some babies, we've got a long row to hoe before we're frolicking light-heartedly in a road race or sipping anything other than a stiff drink. But Dog Dad and I are realistic human beings with reasonable expectations for what our pup can accomplish, right? We try to be.

The McGee is currently enrolled in Reactive Dog class. Our goal for the class is simple: help McGee learn to ignore other dogs. That's it. Not live with other dogs, not play with other dogs, not sniff other dog booties. Just ignore other dogs. Notice a dog, look at a human, get a most excellent treat, carry on with life. Piece of cake, right?

Not so much. Asking The McGee to ignore other dogs is like asking our 5 year old niece to ignore her bag of Halloween candy on November 1st. MUST EAT ALL OF THEM RIGHT NOW...

Last night was our 4th class in a series of 8. The trainers we are working with have been so compassionate and are constantly brainstorming with us to try and figure out what is going on in our little dog's brain. At this stage of the game, our McGee is still working behind her barricade while the other dogs happily munch their treat and watch their owners in full view of the other doggies. It can be challenging to keep your chin up under such circumstances and I often wonder whose confidence it is that we are really trying to build.

We did decide to do some pre-class work with our girl to see what would happen if we dropped the leash and let her approach the fake dog on her own. My heart dropped past my stomach and all the way to my toes as I watched her confusedly pin the fake pooch to the ground. It didn't take her long to walk away, but I could see the adrenaline pumping in her little body and feel hot tears welling up in my eyes.

The fake dog interaction over, we decided to bring a non-reactive, playful dog into her presence and see how she would manage it. Don't worry, our capable trainers took all the appropriate safety steps: two points of leash attachment, 3 experienced dog handlers, lots of space to move around, oodles of super yummy treats, and a muzzle for McGee (insert more tears here). Two different dogs each took a turn, one male and one female. As expected, another dog in her space elicited some of the most deafening sound effects yet produced. The trainer handling McGee spent several minutes working to turn her away from the other dog and help her come into a more relaxed state of mind. McGee couldn't get there and we had to call it quits for the day.

What was the point of all this drama? Well, it was important for us to see what would happen if she ever had the chance to approach another dog on her own. The fake dog gave us that opportunity without putting any other dog in danger. And bringing another dog into her space so that she could see it fully gave our trainers some insight because now they know what we deal with on a daily basis.

Ambassdog? Well, maybe not in the same way that Johnny Justice or Handsome Dan or Wallace the Pitbull have made great strides for pit bull type dogs, but I still believe that all our hard work is cultivating an ambassador for the breed.

Interested in reading more about different levels of dog tolerance? Check out this invaluable resource from the dog savvy folks over at BAD RAP: Undertanding Different Dog Tolerance Levels.