7:11 PM
| Sunrise at | 5:26 AM | in direction | 50° | Northeast |  |
| Sunset at | 10:23 PM | in direction | 309° | Northwest |  |
We are adjusting to a dog that has been a kennel working dog his whole life. If I recall correctly, Cutter is 5 years old. I don't want to draw any conclusions based on my observations of him yesterday because he is in transition. He is learning what is expected of him in his new life and has not yet began to ask for what he wants of us, but he is beginning to define his relationship with the girls.
I decided to have him sleep in the garage in a pen with a crate. The crate does not have hay in it, but a dog bed and rug on top. I have not seen him use the dog bed. He was very happy to see me @ 5:00 am when I let them all out. While I was standing outside waiting for them to finish - because I wanted to be sure to watch him instead of assume all would be well - he jumped up to say hello. He used to jump up on me all the time when I visited him at the kennel. Here he does that rarely.
I went back to bed and he was allowed to remain upstairs. He did not approach the bed, but every time I checked, he was lying on the carpet looking toward me. We have dog beds around, but he has not used any of them, nor has he gotten on the furniture.
He put his paws on the railing to the deck once, as if he were considering the possibility of making an escape, but has shown no interest in leaving since. The weather is very warm, so we left the front door open to the deck. He has gone in and out with the girls at will. When inside, he chooses a place near the open door to lie down.
My plan is to give hime time out in his pen when it looks like he might be getting overwhelmed with the girls. Yesterday, I noticed a few of the empty, orange plastic pill containers that I saved for reuse by our vet were in his pen. I figured he hit the bag and they spilled out accidentally. I picked them up and put them back in the bag, leaving them next to the pen. When I came home today after errands, the bag was in shreds and the pill containers, intact, were spread out around his pen. Apparently, they are a good toys for a bored dog. I moved them farther away.
He is a counter surfer. He did not live in the house at SP Kennel. He was in the garage at times, but not in the house. The counters are tempting. We watch him and tell him to "get down" or "off" each time. He obeys, but it's possible he will explore when we are not around to stop him. The counters are usually clean and clear of clutter, but we are redoubling our efforts so no mishaps occur.
I trained him to run next to the bike today. When I attached him to the flex trainer on the side, his reaction was exactly like JayJay's was her first day. He would go forward, realize the bike was following him, get scared and stop, then try to go back only to realize the bike went with him. I made him stay right with me and walked him around the circle of trees in the center of the driveway a few times. Instead of training him to haw and gee, I only had to say it for him to go in that direction. That was fun! When I trained JayJay, I walked her about the same number of times and then biked her around those same trees, but after the walk, he seemed willing to go at my pace, so we walked down to the bike path. I didn't want to risk taking him down hill in case there was scree at the bottom near the road.
We went up McGrath about a mile and it seemed to me I was working harder than I do with JayJay. I noticed he was not pulling ahead of me, nor was he pulling to the side away from the bike. He stayed right at my pace. We came back and still he stayed right at my pace. I took him down to the bottom of McGrath where it meets Farmer's Loop and the sun was warming considerably all of a sudden. I worked as hard up the hill as he did. I remembered I should encourage him as we climbed and that helped, but near the house, I just walked with him. I let him off the flex leader so he could return on his own to the house. He surprised me. I walked straight toward the house, but he ran along the outer edge of the driveway. He looked a little worried that I wasn't coming the same way and I was definitely worried that he would not come to me until I realized he was running in the track that I had just trained him in. He completed the circle around the trees and returned to the man door of the garage.
Although the outcome was roughly the same as when I taught JayJay, the way in which they responded to the instruction felt different to me. I felt that JayJay was willing to do what I asked, but was not especially tuned into the mechanics of traveling together. But Cutter seemed exceptionally sensitive to what I wanted, to the point that since I'd praised him for staying right with me, that is exactly what he did.
If I move somewhere in the house. He follows. The dobermans are very people oriented. They will always be within 10 feet of the human in the house. I did not expect that from Cutter, but if I were to get up and move right now, I am pretty sure he would follow.
Yesterday, he would not look any of the girls in the eye. Today, JayJay tried to put her neck over his - silly upstart. He let her know that was not appropriate and I doubt she will try again. The other two have made no attempt to be top dog with him, but he seems to respect both Mira Bai and Aria.
He has not mistaken the house for a toilet.
When I brushed him yesterday, he stood patiently and waited until I was ready to release him. He turned this way and that to let me comb out the remaining scraps of winter underfur and dander off of his back and sides. He seemed to actually enjoy it, like it felt good.
When JayJay first came to us and realized she lived in a house with two other dogs instead of a kennel with lots of other dogs, her whole demeanor changed. She was a puppy, so her energy level reflected her youthful exuberance. She grinned non-stop for days. Cutter is more stoic. I have heard him sigh as he relaxed into a prone position, but no joie de vivre, rather calm acceptance and gentle touches to my hand when I come near.
He does not appear to be completely comfortable with the way the girls dash outside at the slightest noise like there are going to tear whatever is out there apart. He won't join in that game and can be startled awake when they get excited. He looks a little confused then - what are they doing?
He growls when he is chewing on a bone and another dog wants to muscle in, but will let me take his bone without issue. He does not recognize, though, when they are close because they are interested or close just because they are. Our dogs each focus on the bone I give them for a while; after they have had their fill of the first go at it, they casually gnaw on whichever bone is handy. What is whose is pretty casual.
When he got a little too concerned and there were three warning growls, I put him down stairs with his bone. He didn't want to go down there - a conundrum. I isolated him so he is not so defensive, but he didn't want to be isolated. I could hear him move the pen around and the crate with it. Eventually he began to whine, so I brought him back up and put all the bones away for now.
He has growled twice when they all gathered around me. I have had no problem stopping it with one sharp word. I don't know if they are invading his space or he thinks they are invading mine, but I will definitely keep an eye on that to be sure it does not progress into more than a simple assertion of his space while he adjusts. We do have baby gates that we use to separate any of our dogs when there seems to be a bit of irritation between them; right now the three dobermans are upstairs with Gary and Cutter is down here with me.
I think Gary hit upon the subtle difference between his former life and the one he is moving toward. At the kennel, he was called in to be part of a working team. When work was done, his time was his own. Here, he will need to blend into our unit, a shared living arrangement. Our dobermans do have their jobs - to protect us, protect the house, and to offer the comfort of their cuddles.
What will Cutter's job be? He and I, and the other dogs will define that over time.
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