So ummm... Hank the cow dog

[Laurelin]

I have been told by agility folks I cannot have a Hank the Cowdog because there are so many of those out there and it's lame. So far I can't come up with better though.

Really seems like a good dog. He just has so much energy and my dogs are party poopers who don't want to play with a wild man. They seem to coexist in calm time well so my goal right now is to teach Hank when to be calm and when to be wild. And exercise him and Mia away from each other. Only keep then around each other while we are just hanging out. I may try walking both at the same time. Hank walks well on a leash with minor pulling.

 

[Fran101]

HOW DID I MISS THIS THREAD??!

He is so cute!! THE FRECKLES!! and the ears match the crew!

 

[Laurelin]

Also he will have a great home wherever he ends up. Agility folk are jumping up telling me they want him if I don't. Dogs his size with his drive are very desirable.

Also in Hankscapades I realized technically Trey (and all the shelties) was bigger than him and that freaked me out a bit. hank feels like such a bigger dog. It must be personality.

He can curl into teeny tiny balls and fit in places Summer barely can.

When he gets to wrestling on the floor he rolls around and bites his nubby tail. So weird.

He can't have anything without first sprinting and prancing through the house with it usually he also throws it around and flails. Kind of hilarious.

He has tried and almost succeeded in hopping the fence. It's a 6' privacy fence. Guy has springs for legs and lots of determination.

I really hope he works out. He is going to be a challenge in a fun way and will be a joy to train.

 

[Ozfozz]

I hope it works out! He sounds like a great little dog.


Also I'm pretty sure he's the result of Crossbone and Ruby secretly breeding at some point lol

 

[Elrohwen]

So stinkin cute! I am really excited for you and I hope Hank works out. He sounds like a nut with a big personality.

 

[xpaeanx]

I have a feeling he'll be staying.

Which is good... because we need pictures of him forever.

 

[Shai]

He sounds so so fun.

Also we need to live closer together so we can get Monkeybean & Hankscapades together for a wild and crazy romp haha

 

[Dekka]

Poor Mia. Hopefully they learn to co exist. He is super cute (moar pics!)

 

[sassafras]

If Pip and Squash can live in peace and play in the backyard together, Hank and Mia can adapt to one another. It will probably be just fine.

 

[TheDarkestMinds]

He is so ADORABLE!!! Congrats! I also agree that he looks like he has some terrier in there. Maybe I am biased but he looks like he has some Fox Terrier to him. But I could be wrong. Either way he looks like an awesome dog. I hope it all works out for you! *Fingers crossed*

 

[Dagwall]

Hank sounds like just what you were looking for, hope Mia decides he can stay.

Reminds me a LOT of the ACD/rattie cross who just got adopted from the rescue I volunteer with. When I took her out to an adoption event I thought she would be perfect for you if we lived in the same area. You seem to have found a dog just like her though.

Video of the crazy girl Suzie Q at the adoption event.
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWX9PoH0zxE[/YOUTUBE]

 

[LostAndConfused]

Also he will have a great home wherever he ends up. Agility folk are jumping up telling me they want him if I don't. Dogs his size with his drive are very desirable.

Also in Hankscapades I realized technically Trey (and all the shelties) was bigger than him and that freaked me out a bit. hank feels like such a bigger dog. It must be personality.

He can curl into teeny tiny balls and fit in places Summer barely can.

When he gets to wrestling on the floor he rolls around and bites his nubby tail. So weird.

He can't have anything without first sprinting and prancing through the house with it usually he also throws it around and flails. Kind of hilarious.

He has tried and almost succeeded in hopping the fence. It's a 6' privacy fence. Guy has springs for legs and lots of determination.

I really hope he works out. He is going to be a challenge in a fun way and will be a joy to train.

Bolded bits sound like Hudson. He sounds like such an awesome dog

 

[Snark]

What a cutie! I hope Mia accepts him.

 

[Laurelin]

He is insisting on charging and biting and growling. I think the trigger is guarding me. Any ideas to work through this?

I love him on his own but the other dogs are the issue. Poor Summer is now being scared.

 

[stardogs]

Have him wear a dragline, immediately interrupt the charge and isolate him from everyone for a few minutes. Rinse and repeat.

That's what works for me with guardy fosters. If it only happens in specific locations, you might consider revoking couch or 'by your feet' privileges as well.

Praise for allowing other dogs to move unimpeded is also advised if he seems to seek it. Food isn't suggested to avoid further guardiness.

 

[Dagwall]

With the only foster I really had an issue with resource guarding me I was lucky she was only 10 lbs and Jubel trusted me to handle her and just ignored her snarking. What I did was give her a time out in the crate when she would guard me and go after Jubel. As she got better and didn't go after him but still snarked or reacted negatively I would move her away from me and give Jubel attention ignoring her.

This worked really well with her. She was just a vacation coverage foster and I only had her for 10 days. She was much better by the time she left.

 

[PWCorgi]

Have you thought about doing the Two Week Shutdown (sorry ifbjt already came up, I'm on my phone and sometimes miss posts), it might give everyone some time to settle in before intros.

 

[SpaceMutt]

He is insisting on charging and biting and growling. I think the trigger is guarding me. Any ideas to work through this?

I love him on his own but the other dogs are the issue. Poor Summer is now being scared.

Tulip and Hank are two peas in a pod aren't they? I was really amazed at how little time it took for Tulip to start guarding everything from me to the couch to the hallway entrance.

I will say, since PWCorgi already mentioned it and it was so prominent in the suggestions that I got for my girl, that the shutdown is helping and I expect the next introduction to go better, if for no other reason than everyone will be more used to the environment, and I will have built behaviors in the new dog that are excellent to have on task (recalls, leave it, off, and if you use them, a negative action marker like "too bad"). Could help in this case too?

 

[Laurelin]

I will have to look up 2 week shutdown. I am not very familiar with it but I have heard of it. Been researching ACDs and see NILIF brought up a lot so we are going to try implementing that.

Right now I want to give it my best shot that it will work. That said, I'm not convinced it will. I hate seeing Summer and Mia so stressed out but I think no matter what dog I bring in, some of this will happen. Especially any high drive dog. Maybe a sheltie puppy was the best choice though and I should have done that. Hank is just so powerful for his size. There is a lot about Hank that is so new to me. Things that worked with other dogs, don't work with Hank. There is like 10 new levels of management I need to do. Just baby gate the dog? No you won't! Hank can jump over it from a standstill before you've got it put up.

It is less than 48 hours out of the shelter and he's a confused young herder boy. I am reminding myself of that.

Last night I thought maybe some of the issue is he had been in a cement cage since Sept 8th and his energy was just bottling up. I took him to a fenced in field and let him run off leash. It was a few acres. He ran and ran and ran and ran for almost an hour straight. He is so FAST. He looks like a spotted jackrabbit running or just a cowdog bullet. It's amazing how fast he is. He ran for about an hour until he just flopped over with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. And the best thing is he connects back with me well. He'll come when called and recalls well (though he ends it with slamming all of him into your crotch, which is no good). I wouldn't trust him outside a fence but inside he is doing very good. He will chase the ball a long time.

I also took him for a leashed walk around the block just to see what I'm working with. He wants to circle me 24/7 and goes berserk at the sight of dogs, kids, or cars. Anything that makes a dashing movement, he wants to chase. Which brings me to the problem in the house: Mia. Mia has some behaviors that in the past were not GOOD behaviors but were more annoying than an issue. Summer is not high drive so things like that were not a problem. Hank though... if Mia screams he's over the top. Mia screams during routine things like me closing my makeup kit or me letting dogs out. I need to work from both ends. Desensitizing Mia to not screech when I do things and Hank not to want to chase and bite small screaming dogs.

So the only real issues are chasing and resource guarding. The guarding so far seems mild. It is mostly noise and teeth clacking. And it is guarding ME and not things though I bet if they had access to each other around things then he'd probably guard those too. Most the guarding happens when I sit and they are all near me.

On the plus side: No accidents since yesterday. He already knows sit and leave it. We are doing a lot of doggy zen and that is picking up. When I locked Mia up to work on Hank, he was calling off of her screeching in a crate. He's tugging now with vigor and is chasing rolling discs. Food drive trumps toy drive at this point. If food is present, he does not want to play. But if food is not present he will work for play or even praise. He will choose to turn off, which I like. He will just curl into a ball and sleep if not being worked with (provided the other dogs aren't doing things like walking and setting him off)

I see pretty well limitless potential in this dog. I really want it to work out, I really really do. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed right now.

 

[stardogs]

Please do remember that Hank's been out of the shelter for all of two days. Two. DAYS. I know you mentioned that above, but it bears repeating/confirmation.

Ziva, my perfect dog, was a TERROR for the first two weeks I had her because she had been in a kennel 24/7 for months prior to me pulling her; I wanted to place her with someone else for every day of those 2 weeks. To use another related example, Crossbone was a complete nut for the first 2 weeks as well - 2 days is NOTHING.

Tethering indoors, working on reinforcing calm, limiting the chances for over stimulation, quality exercise, and reasonable expectations are key with absolutely any dog you get, especially those from a shelter environment.

Please, sit down and come up with a concrete plan to help ease the transition - whether that's a 2 week shut down or just a nice structured schedule and lots of management to encourage appropriate behavior, just come up with something solid you can refer to when you are getting frustrated. It's ok to crate them a lot the first few weeks, too - management is a great thing!