Oogy Dog

As a Christmas gift I received a book entitled Oogy. Oogy is the story of a dog and his incredibly loving family. A little bit about Oogy: http://www.animals-abused.org/oogy-story.htm

From Shephard Meets World

I was so touched by the gift and can not keep a dry eye when I read about Oogy's story and the love he shares with his family. It's so wonderful to know there are other families like ours out there--families with more courage than us to help animals with bigger issues than our boys'.

I've made reference to the fact Shep joining our family has done more for us than just allow us to have a pet. In reading Oogy's story and seeing some of the similarities between the two dogs and reading the love Oogy's family has for him I am again reminded Shep joined us for a very important reason. We will always be grateful for our Oogy dog, even if he drives us crazy.

Although, knock on wood, our Oogy dog has been great! We started him at doggy day care once a week and he is rockin it! We think we are beginning to see a difference in how he greets dogs he doesn't know as well....here's to a happy, healthy 2011 with our Oogy dog and all the Oogy dogs of the world!

Happy Anniversary Turkey Dog

A year ago today, our turkey of a dog joined our family.

Here's to a year of chewed shoes, snuggles, meltdowns, terror chases, anxiety attacks and most importantly, love.

Thanks for choosing us, for opening our world, introducing us to some special new people and for making us a stronger team!

From Shephard Meets World

From Shephard Meets World

From Shephard Meets World

So He Sits

As many of our family and friends know, Shep began to show fearful signs when around dogs he doesn't know over the summer. This really caught us off guard as we dont call him friendly to a fault for the fun of it. He has always been very friendly with other dogs and loves to play and certainly always friendly with humans. Shep has several very good dog friends that he loves to play with and has never met a human whose face he couldnt spend the entire day licking. Moreover, if we introduce a new dog to him in our home, he's good to go. Its just something about uncertain situations that makes him anxious.

What does he do when he sees a dog he doesnt know? We refer to it as "losing his marbles" but really, he barks, jumps up, backs up and lets out his unsure throaty growl. If we are in the house and he sees the dog walking on the street, he will anxiously trot back and forth back and forth and back and forth (repeat 50 times) between the front and side doors. We know exactly what it is, but understand how it could easily be misunderstood by a passerby. We know in our heart of hearts Shep would never hurt another being, but this behavior stresses me out. There, I said it. It's not helpful to Shep if he can tell I am stressed out by it, this I know. Our trainer, amidst my anxiety about it during a session, has assured me he is not an unfriendly or an aggressive dog. Rather, a dog whose past in uncertain. I have learned to just buck up and poker face him to get him through the nonsense. I have been hesitant to blog about it because I dont want the wrong impression of our anxious dog to be given; however, in an effort to remain truthful to the spirit of our blog-- sharing the trials and tribulations of an abused rescue dog-- we opted for disclosure.

To combat the marble loss we take a 2 pronged approach:

1. Shep likes to sit in our front door and overlook his kingdom. Our house sits on a hill so he is afforded a throne like view. We keep hot dogs, cheese, Pirate's Booty (discovered out of desperation one day!), you name it by the front door. Whenever a dog walks by, regardless of if he knows the dog or not, we give him treats for being calm. Not calm? No treat. The whole idea is to get him to a. realize its good to be calm, b. no one is going to hurt him, c. focusing on Maggie and Jeremy is way better than focusing on that other dog. It's actually really working, just a VERY time consuming training method for us. He has significantly reduced the marble loss in this situation. We will continue to work on it with him to get him where we know he can be. What's really cool is that if we are in the other room and an unfamiliar dog walks by, we will hear him let out one gruff and then he promptly comes running to find one of us to get his treat. We take the show on the road and take these special treats on our walks. Today was a particularly frustrating walk for me, but actually great progress for Shep. A man was walking two, count them two dogs. Shep was able to keep 75% of his marbles. That is progress.

2. Several posts ago I described Shep's snoot loop, a new head collar we put on him for walks to reduce his pulling. If he pulls on a walk, he essentially stops himself. We then wait until he gives us slack, or ideally, eye contact before we move on. When we see other dogs out walking, he of course pulls and stops himself. And then we wait until he is calm and we give treats. And then we wait until we get eye contact and we move on.

To shed some humor on the situation, one of the funniest moments to us is when we are on a walk with him and he looses his marbles all over the street in a pool of anxiety if another dog approaches. We wait him out and reinforce as appropriate while the other dog walks by and looks at Shep like: "WHAT is your problem?" Ah, if only we knew.

It can be unanimously agreed upon that animal abuse is wrong and people support the eradication of it and getting abused and stray animals into homes like ours but we have realized that what people seem to be much less comfortable with is the reality of the long road ahead for the lucky animals who make it out alive. People sometimes look at us like we are crazy for dealing with his issues,or, on good days like we are making a mountain out of a mo hill but we know it would be irresponsible of us to ignore any of his behaviors (that is unless we are purposely ignoring him!). Shep is one of the lucky ones. We also realize that in the grand scheme of issues stemming from being a stray or abused animal, Shep's marble loss is manageable albeit time consuming. We are grateful for this. He really has taught us we need to be a team.

After coming home from our two dog encounter walk, Shep and I fell into our routine. I undid him from his contraption of a leash, took off all his gear, got the hot dogs out of the fridge and opened the front door for him to look out and train.

So he sits. Waiting for a hot dog.

From Shephard Meets World

Take Down

Shep was just running around our house like a MAD MAN. MAD MAN. Garbage can knocked over, rugs kicked up, all the sheets off of our bed, the whole nine yards.

We call it the Terror Chase.

The Terror Chase usually happens at night just as Jeremy and I are winding down for the evening. Its as if a bell goes off REALLY loudly in Shep's head that its time to make waves at Casa Techtmann. He runs and runs and runs and runs and will run you OVER if you get in his way. Then,after 30-45 minutes of insanity, very abruptly, he will drop down on our bed and fall asleep. The first time he did it we seriously thought he was dead. We had never seen anything like it before! He is virtually unstoppable and if we dont catch it when it starts its like a tornado whips through our house. Our trainer taught us some pup calm down techniques (http://www.ttouch.com/) that work beautifully, but again, only if we catch him on the front end.

Surprisingly, I caught him in time, despite the garbage can, rug and sheet debacles. TTouch has been a miracle for Shep, but sometimes he is resistant at first. Tonight was one of those nights. We have had discussions recently about how it is almost like Shep has no self awareness and I know this sounds crazy, but isnt really "grounded". So, a thought occurred to me as I am taking down my dog to TTouch him. People, like myself, who has sensory issues often respond well to deep pressure and it makes them (and me) feel a bit more grounded. So, in an trial run effort to ground/calm S, I wrapped him in my arms in a deep hug and just held it for several minutes. Not only did he stop resisting me, he was asleep and snoring within 5 minutes.

Its a beautiful thing:

From Shephard Meets World

Happy Halloween

Shep has a costume, by accident.
He kinda looks like he's wearing a Hanibal Lector outfit ala Silence of the Lambs.

He is a massive, massive puller on walks, so our trainer hooked us up with a new method...including the "snoot loop" which is a head collar, that you guessed it..goes over his head.

We hook a loop leash to the head collar and then his regular easy walk harness.


Our trainer initially offered us a bright red snoot loop...Momma T however insisted on a black one so as to not call additional attention to him on our walks.

He always gets very very nervous when we hook him up to his easy walk harness and now even more so with the snoot loop addition. We think it may have something to do with being tied up before joining our family and the visual he gets when we go to put his harness on him. He literally lets out a nervous, big gulp. Poor guy. We work with him everyday to check out his harness and try to find the least anxious position. We're getting there.

Here are some visuals of how silly Shep looks all geared up, ala Silence of the Lambs, to go on a walk.

From Shephard Meets World

From Shephard Meets World

Shephard's Tell

Shephard may be many things, but a poker play he is not. This dog has absolutely no poker face. It makes it really easy for us to know if he is being naughty or minding his own business.

Several weeks ago, Shephard chewed a hole in our rug in the living room. Its not too terribly heartbreaking as it is a cheap Target rug. We wont replace it until we are certain this too has passed, so for now, we have a semi naked rug in our living room.

From Shephard Meets World

Last night Jeremy was sitting in his office and it was a "too quiet" moment. He got up to investigate and found S strangely close to the original hole in the rug. Jeremy approached and S quickly put his head down on the rug to cover the hole (that he was ahem, chewing on again) and looked up at Jeremy with what we call the "sad eyes", like he had been doing nothing wrong, as evidenced in this picture:

From Shephard Meets World

Jeremy redirected and moved on. "Too quiet" quickly rolled around again and this time the minute Jeremy stepped into the living room, S hightailed it away from the rug and looked at Jeremy like: "who me? I wasn't doing anything!".

This morning, S found an errant sock in our bed. S likes to sit at the top of our staircase as it affords him a good view of me straightening my hair and getting ready for work in the morning. I however, need to bend down to see him in this position. Today I could see his paws but again, "too quiet". I bent down to catch a glimpse and barely saw the sock in his mouth as he hightailed it into our bedroom. Now, I am a bad owner and decided I didn't have the 30 minutes I knew it would take to retrieved said sock, so I just let him go. Several minutes later out of the corner of my eye I catch him army crawling down the stairs so he was fully in my view, sock in mouth. I turn and look at him. This dog literally shakes the sock at me. Yes, my dog knows how to push my buttons. I flinched at him and he ran away with it again. My lazy tactic may have worked because he eventually forgot about the sock and I didn't engage with him when he was being naughty and clearly wanting me to run after him. I had forgotten about the incident until he just wandered into the living room with it.



A dog bored and not getting enough exercise? Seems so on the surface; however, this is an example of the challenge of Shephard. Even after an afternoon of playing with Stella he will do this. He is a constantly anxious animal. Dubbed "busy" by one of my coworkers in fact. He is a busy, busy dog.

The moral of the story here is that although he may present us with challenges we will always know when he is being naughty. No poker face.

Sassy Stella Face

Mike, my brother, and his wife Amy have a Boston Terrier, Stella. We love Stella, but I don't think any words can begin to describe how much Shep loves Stella and she, in return, loves him. I am an Anxious Annie in general but was a little concerned how our 55lb of muscles dog would play with teeny tiny 12lb Stella. He's great! Dubbing Stella as Sassy is an understatement. She's more Street Fighter Stella. She literally tries to insert her head into Shep's mouth as they race around. Its pretty amusing to see Shep put Stella's head is his mouth and great to see him be gentle with her.

Jeremy and I had a late night at a benefit for HAWS Waukesha-www.hawspets.org (one of our favorite places!) so when Amy suggested a puppy play date today, we were on board! Although Shep didnt come to us via HAWS we have found a great friend in them. Shep and Stella are always tuckered out after a good romp and it provides great entertainment for the humans. Jeremy and I love seeing Shep let loose and just be a dog with Stella.

This is a picture of S&S from a vacation this summer:

From Shephard Meets World

And a video from a summer play date:



Shep and Stella, BFF.

Shephard Falls

We dont know that Shep got to experience Fall last year, so its been fun to watch him interpret it. So far he hasnt been one to kick any type of weather out of bed, but fall seems to be his favorite. He is digging all of the leaves on the lawn and loves to roll around in them. At first he was frightened by the leaves and the noise they made when they hit the pavement, but in our neighborhood, you quickly get over that. After encouraging him to "check it out" (aka getting next to whatever object he is afraid of and totally praising him for approaching it and investigating) on several walks, he's realized he's got the leaves by the stems, and will literally walk around with leaf stems hanging out of his mouth.

Since we got him, he will plant himself firmly if he doesnt want to go inside or turn/move forward on a walk. Our trainer (who is one of our favorite people!) taught me this awesome technique last winter that is used with horses to move them. Essentially, you take the leash, extend it as far as it will go and walk in an arc in the opposite direction that you want to dog to move in. Historically this has been my go to move to outsmart my dog but apparently the crisp air has brought an increased level of cunningness to Shep. Late for work the other morning, Shep decided we weren't done rolling around outside. I "arc'd" him. Instead of him moving as expected, he simply looked at me walking around him in a half circle like a fool, and promptly layed down in the grass and batted at leaves, rendering my "arc" maneuver useless. Shep 1, Maggie 0. It was a "Seriously Dog?" moment, but all I could do was laugh as I had to physically put him on all 4s. Thanks for making me realize it's okay to be late once in a while.

Also, bonus: we are finding the leaves are covering up the errant twigs and sticks that Shep will obsessively eat until the point of no return--puppy puke at 4am. He may;however, be employing this as a tactic to engage Jeremy and I in team building skills while half asleep...

Despite his cunningness, Shep tries to be helpful in the weather by distracting us from yard work:

Joining Our Family

In November of 2009, we had just purchased our first home. We were beginning to settle in and tackle projects, some needed, but mostly projects to make our house our home. Our biggest project was to be a total gut of our one and only bathroom.

 One Saturday afternoon after visiting Jeremy's Dad's new puppy, I mustered my best poker face and suggested we visit our local shelter.

We signed the papers and brought Shephard home the next day. We had vague knowledge we were in for a challenge as the shelter shared with us they suspected abuse and/or neglect of some sort in his short 5 months on earth. S has a bald patch on his side our vet believes is the result of a burn. Our trip home involved 4 puppy  puke sessions because he was so anxious.

 Acknowledge this information as you hear the tales of Sir Shephardton, but dont dwell on it. It's a significant data point, yes, and it often guides our tactics with him- but trust us, there is much more to Shephard.   Friendly to a fault, Anxious, Loyal, A Teacher, Sassy, Scared and Highly Intelligent are about right. In fact, as I sit here writing, he meanders around the office, anxious. I scoop up his bed from the other room, lay it down next to my chair with a bone and state: "Find your bed", aka, go lie down and settle yourself. He looks at me, looks at the bed. Approaches the bed and instead of lying down on it and enjoying his bone, he takes the corner of it in his mouth and glances at me cross eyed and begins to slowly drag the bed as he backs out of the room, much like when I try to sneak cookies without Jeremy noticing. I should stop and redirect, but alas, I've learned to choose my battles with him. 

Many people meet our dog and assess him as a typical dog with obsessed owners. Trust us, we've heard it all! There may be some truth to the statements we are a bit preoccupied with him, but we also see the anxious, scared side of Shephard that most dont. We are acutely aware of his uncertain past and know we will likely always have work to do with him to keep him confident enough to be a typical dog, at least in public:) If he must, he can wear a hole in our floors pacing anxiously back and forth at home, but we'd prefer he just get his play on with his friends when we are out with others. But isnt that true of all of us? We work to manage our insecurities and idiosyncrasies to get the job done in public and relax a bit in the comfort of our own home. 

When we talked about starting a blog, we acknowledged that we'll likely take more flack for being "obsessed".  We'll likely get some grief  that we are bad trainers with an untrained dog. That's okay with us. We can agree we love our dog a lot and if some need to label it an obsession, so be it. We also know that we are great trainers and that we work with him all the time. S not knowing his commands has never and will never be an issue. We started the blog because something became clear to Jeremy and I when we adopted Shephard. The longer he stands by our side the more clearly we see in ourselves the recognition of the place in the world animals hold and the special relationships they can have with humans. We realize the responsibility we have to this animal and the responsibility animal organizations take in advocating for and finding homes for animals. This is great work that has commanded our respect and engaged our passions. We wanted to share our journey with shelters and other families that have adopted these amazing dogs.   

And mostly, we wanted to share the stories of Shep because he IS funny. He's brought great humor and teaching to two serious humans. 

Almost a year later, the bathroom still isnt 100% finished. Its okay. That's one of the things Shep being here has taught me. He's also taught me my home will be wherever he and Jeremy are. 

By the way, an hour after I directed him to "Find your bed"--after 2 trips outside, 3 trips up and down the stairs, throwing his toys down the stairs, knocking my hand off the keyboard for attention and 3 barks at dogs he doesn't know walking by requiring hot dog attention to assert its okay, the dog rumpus has finally made contact with the bed. Ahhhh. 

Here are some pictures of our first few days with Shep:

From Shephard Meets World

From Shephard Meets World

From Shephard Meets World