The long awaited consultation with Dog Behavioral Professional

I really lucked out with Carli – she is the most loving dog and quite entertaining. However, as she was 4 years old when I got her, she had instincts and preferences from her previous life that were not known to me. I was particularly vexed by her unwillingness to consistently respond to commands to “come” and her frank reluctance to walk for any distance on the blacktop driveways in this condo complex. It is a quarter mile from the entrance to where I live in the back and you can double the walk on streets just outside of the entrance. This is how many dog owners exercise their dogs (and themselves). Carli has not like walking on the driveway from the beginning. She will occasionally get engaged with “foraging” in some of the grassy areas. I could understand this in July and August when it was brutally hot, but it has been pretty pleasant for the past month and this has not made much of a difference.

I also struggle with her peeing in the house on the rugs about once a week and her complete lack of any signal that she needs to go outside. I have gotten pretty good at getting her outside often enough to avoid most accidents inside. I tried bell-training but the bells scared her. Since she does choose to respond to my “Come” commands much of the time, I end up picking her up to take her outside to pee. Carli is very treat responsive and I could get that to work sometimes but not always and I was unsure how I could take advantage of her “treat motivation” and get her to lose weight.

When we saw the vet at the end of August, she suggested and in home consultation with a Dog Behavior Professional and it took 6 weeks to get an appointment. The consultation was $175/hour which did have a sticker shock effect but I hoped it would be worth it. There was an extensive pet behavior questionnaire to fill out ahead of time.

I cleaned up the apartment and got all of Carli’s foods, treats, control devised laid out as requested. Julia spent about 80 minutes with us and I would say it was worth it. She demonstrated how to teach Carli to come and was very clear about how long this process was going to take and that we would need to practice this many times every day. I will need to get a new highly valued (from Carli’s perspective) treat for this training – perhaps chicken. The size of the treat can be as small as I can get it to help with the concern about Carli’s weight.

She found it interesting that Carli walked so well on a leash in neighborhoods and suspected that is how she was trained as a young dog – Carli likes the structure of sidewalks.

From my description of Carli’s indoor accidents and lack of a recognizable behavior to go outside, she guessed Carli had been pad trained. She was peeing on the indoor absorbent surfaces (from her perspective) – rugs. She doesn’t show any sort of remorse because she is doing what she was trained to do.

She suggested “foraging” is Carli’s primary play activity and that I could hide treats for her indoors and outdoors to encourage activity. She is not a fan of dog parks and thought doggie day care or finding a compatible dog for play dates would be better options for “socializing” and activity. She was not overly concerned about Carli’s “air snapping” towards my son’s dogs. If we really want to work on the relationship between Brady and Carli, she would need to come back and see them interact to provide some specific guidance on their relationship – at the minimum Carli tolerated Brady’s exuberant behavior better and at the maximum they become playmates.

She also recommended that I get Carli used to using steps or a pouf to get on and off furniture to minimize wear and tear on her joints as she ages. Carli slept on my lap for much of the consultation. Julia did not think she had any significant anxiety but gave me things to look out for with respect to her behaviors. It does not appear that I am doing anything terribly wrong with Carli. I feel validated and have a plan for moving forward – it all starts with getting her to believe there is always more “gain” than “pain” for response to my command to “Come”.

Recognizing the value to me of Julia’s time for education, tools, reassurance and validation MAY help me on my journey to get comfortable with charging for services as a health advocate. Time will tell.