Addiction, Freedom, and Letting Go

Joey spent his second peaceful night in his crate last night. I crated him at 10:30 pm, and his initial panting/worrying behavior was very brief, just a very few minutes. I've learned that if I blow gently in his kennel when he starts to hyperventilate, this interrupts the behavior and he settles down. Then he sat and quietly stared (quiet breathing) for maybe 15 minutes (I stayed beside him on the couch, completely ignoring him, which was easy, as I am engrossed in James Hayman's book, "The Cutting") then he went to sleep. He wiggled around a little bit at 3:15 am, went back to sleep, and he was sound sound asleep when I opened his crate door at 4:45 am. He emerged from the crate very calm and sleepy head, and after breakfast (my whole family has just taken our little boat out into the fog and rain to get a guest to the airport on time) he went into "his" chainlink kennel, lay down in the new gazebo/doghouse that Ryan made for him, and went happily into his doggie reveries. 

I've learned so much from Joey, the biggest lesson being that too much freedom is not only an obstacle for training, it can become a stressful thing for dogs. I'm not sure what the story has been with Joey. People tell me that Samoyeds are known for their escape behaviors, and Joey has been rehomed many times over his 8 year life, but today I'm really not sure if he was used to constant freedom, or to no freedom at all, since he was perpetually anxious when he thought that since he could, he probably should escape. Now that we have completely reeled him in (he is always on leash, or in the super-max kennel) and taken away any possibility of him escaping, to my amazement, he is relaxing more. 

Almost our entire property here is fully fenced in, and no other dog has escaped from our yards during the time we've had Joey here (not counting Lion, who did follow Joey one day out the gate). Something about the way Joey was able to get out of a crate, and jump out our windows while we were sleeping, and magically disappear out of confinement was making me feel very discouraged and worried about him, and it felt like there was nothing I could do. Many dog owners come to me in this frame of mind, that there is nothing anyone can do. Joey has reminded me of how real that feeling can be, but how false it actually is. It took this little bit of effort -- his owner bought and brought a special Joey-proof crate, we made some modifications to the kennel (Joey's owner spent last week building her own fortified fenced in habitat), and we modified our training plan, and now we should all take our little bow, including Joey. He is showing us that he has what it takes to be a happy dog in his forever family. Now that he can relax enough to sleep in a crate at night, and to be contented in a kennel during the day, he is letting go of his drive to escape. Being held, and confined, is comforting him. You can see it in his face and body language. It is obvious to all of us that Joey wanted this.   

When Joey went

All day yesterday, from when I popped out of bed at 7:30 a.m. am discovered Joey Houdini missing (he'd jumped out a window plus two fenced enclosures while we were sleeping), till I found him tied to Barry Shaw's porch railing at 3pm, Joey was missing. Last night I found out more about Joey's adventure from Mayo from Awayo, a local fisherman and musician friend who has fished off Alaska, and Canada as well as off the coast of Maine and of course that's where Joey had spent most of his day yesterday. 

Mayo says he got up, stretched, stepped out on his porch and nearly stepped on this big fluffy white dog, who looked up at him, like it was a question, and Mayo says like "Fine with me man, stay as long as you need to."  Mayo says he read his tags, but couldn't figure them out (Joey has four tags, including one that says "Whole Dog Camp") and anyway he admits he was in a hurry and had to be someplace and  kind of liked having Joey laying there on this porch. "He wasn't going anywhere, man," Mayo says, "He was flat out."

I actually collected Joey off Barry Shaw's porch. Barry is a mason who believes that dogs should be free, and so he is not the sort who wants to leash a dog. Barry also didn't look at the tags, but the only reason he collected the dog, tied him up and called the cops (who called me) was because Joey tried to get into his chicken coop.  Barry released Joey as I got out of my car, so with all the build up I practice dove on Joey. Barry says, "He's not a runner. He's not going anywhere. He's been hanging out here all day." 

Um, yeah, that's what Joey does. He hangs around, until something in his spirit says it's time for leaving. 

Joey the escape artist

It took me about a week from the time Susan introduced me to Joey Houdini for me to begin to understand her concerns. Though he is an older rescue, and has been rehomed many times, at first he seemed like the perfect dog. But at 8 years old, he's never been taught how to be alone anywhere, not in a crate, not in a kennel, not on a tether, not in a house or car.  He's learned that he can have complete freedom, if only he fights for it. A master escape artist,  his anxiety builds if he feels that he can't go out of the house (or kennel, or yard) whenever he wants.  So, he is smart about it, and he sneaks. When he gets it into his head that he wants to be somewhere else, he waits till you're not looking, then doesn't give up until he's gone. 

So in the two weeks he's been here, he's gone over, under and through numerous fences, gates and buildings, partly destroying one crate, one window, a window screen and a door in the process. All the damage has occurred while we've been right here in the house with him, during what are normally our sleeping hours. 

Yesterday he stayed and relaxed for several hours  (with raw beef bones to chew) in our various chain-link kennels with no complaints, which gave me a lot of hope.  But when we are successful in  confining him, in spite of all the various fenced in environments we have here, he get anxious and unhappy. That anxiety is expressed in incredible escape behaviors. Last night, after a couple of hours chewing a beef bone in our 12x24 foot "most secure" kennel,  he was brought into the house for dinner, some games, and to sleep. Albert and I were exhausted, and as we were falling asleep, he pushed a partly open window open further,  jumped through the screen onto the fenced in porch, out of the fenced in porch into a fenced in yard, and then out of the fenced in yard. It took me 8 hours of searching to find him sleeping happily on a neighbor's porch down the street.  

So, to make a long story short, it's really too bad he didn't learn that confinement is an okay thing  back when he was a puppy, because now it is much harder for him to trust it, or to trust the people who attempt to confine him in even the most benign ways. 

 

Joey Houdini

Peaks Fest was a blast. Here the dogs appear to consider what condiments they might like on their Whole hotdogs. And pictures of Joey, who would MUCH rather go under a fence than through a gate. 

After my report, Susan came to see Joey (I think checking to see for sure to see if he still has his head on, and give him lots of kisses!) and below, Sophi and Travis's kitty, Francis. Tigerlily and Charlie both had to chill in their crates for 1/2 hour before they were able to calm themselves at all around Francis, while Joey shows us that kitties are almost as nice as escaping.

 For those of you who have been following the saga of Joey Houdini, he's the guy in the white coat. Everyone has asked "why didn't you take pictures of him sticking his head through the wire crate," and but at the time, I was wondering, how come there's no blood?  It looks like he cut his head off! The camera was not at the front of my thoughts.  If only I had taken pictures, they would have become an internet legend, sigh, so it will have to suffice to share these other pictures of a dog who doesn't really care ALL that much about freedom, but he really LOVES escaping!  A big part of the reason he came to Whole Dog Camp was because he is an incredible escape artist, and once he escaped and stood in the middle of a train track while a train was coming, and nearly caused his family to have heart attacks! And he looks so mellow, eh? We're crazy about him, and obviously, so is his owner!!

Whole Dog Campers after a very big rain

I'm still fiddling around, learning to use my imovie editing software, and thought I'd try to show my Whole Dog Campers at play -- in the hours right after our torrential rainfall. Somehow Joey Houdini (Susan, you need to spell his real nickname for me! heehee!) didn't get into these clips very well, but I'll post some cute pictures of him later. These clips were right after torrential rains. Our gardens normally don't have a water feature!!

I'm recovering

I'm recovering from the scare Joey gave me last night, and it helps that tonight's training session went so well. Not long after we recorded this session,  Joey was trying to push past the gates to break INTO this crate. That's super good. 

So, this is how I am handling the dangerous scare of last night, when Joey forced his head through the bars of a sturdy wire crate. First off, I will NEVER use a wire crate with a dog who isn't perfectly crate trained  ever again. I guess I did have an idea that some sort of crate destruction was sometimes possible, but I thought that would be more of a loud big frantic dog, not a quietly determined lightweight. 

And two, I'm carrying on with our mission, but tonight he will be in the big plastic crate, with me sleeping right beside him on the couch. Duh. So, look who's getting used to sleeping in the crate. Me!  And the world's most ambitious samoyed. Joey Houdini. 

Another Joey clip

The thing about Joey is, what will he do when you're not looking? The more he is practicing relaxing in a crate-like or kennel-like or fenced in setting while we ARE looking, the more likely he will behave in the same way when we aren't looking.  Joey is an older dog, who gets anxious, so  he needs lots of stress relieving free time. Right now he practicing being alone in a space under the outside stairs, curled up in the shade relaxing.