And We're Back!

We've had a very busy six weeks here at The Dog Geek, so busy that I haven't had time to post about it! The dogs and I have been competing, traveling, and taking care of a whole lot of sheep. Here's a few of the highlights from July and August"

AKC Herding Trial!

We competed in an AKC herding trial at the end of June! I also helped set up and run the trial, and Zip and I helped set the sheep up for each run for the classes we weren't in.


I entered Zip in the B course class long before the trial, and two weeks before showtime I realized we had never actually done the B course. I didn't even know how? With two weeks of practice we somehow managed to get first place on our first ever B course run.


Zip brought home a first place, second place, third place, and fourth place from the trial. She is very, very talented.

Godzilla earned qualifying scores in both of her A course runs, to the great surprise of nearly everyone watching that remembered her being excused from the ring for excessive sheep biting last time we trialed. She earned her Started A herding title, which is somehow more impressive than Zip's ribbon collection.

One Year Without Brisbane

 I lost my beautiful and beloved Brisbane on August 6th of last year. He was the dog that changed everything, and I'm still adjusting to life without him. I miss his giant fluffy ear, his long silky tail, and the way he could read the tiniest cues and figure out exactly what I wanted him to do.

I will have dogs that are better bred, better built, and better raised than Brisbane, but I don't think any dog will ever influence me as a person they way that he did.

The Great American Eclipse

The dogs and I drove up with some friends to Idaho to see the 2017 eclipse in its totality. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen, and well worth the 14-hour drive. The dogs got to swim in the Boise River, and visit with some of their favorite people.

On the way home we decided to drive through Yosemite just to appreciate the scenery. Dogs aren't allowed anywhere but the parking lots, but we did get to see the Bridal Veil Falls!

Remembering Brisbane

Brisbane would have turned 12 years old a week ago. I did a birthday candle picture for him for each of his eleven birthdays. Tomorrow I will be making the last payment on the vet bill for his palliative cancer treatment. He was a beautiful, brilliant, fantastic dog and I miss him every day.

Finding Words.

It has been four days since I said goodbye to Brisbane. The grief comes in waves, and the smallest things feel like a punch in the gut. Preparing for agility class and realizing I'm still set up to take two dogs. Realizing that I no longer have to read ingredient labels carefully. The good memories come in waves too, though. Briz pushing his head into my chest and leaning hard when greeting me. Kissing his ginormous floofy ears.

Here's a happy picture of Sisci and her buddy Ernie that I took yesterday.

The first couple of days, I had a lot of disorganized thoughts running around in my head. Some of them surprised me. I think it's important to maintain positive self-talk, and give myself space to feel all of these big feelings. Humanely euthanizing a suffering animal is an absolutely agonizing decision, and it hurts a lot.

"I killed my dog." I think everyone who goes through it thinks this at some point. For me it is an extremely intrusive thought that I find quite distressing. I cope with it by calmly telling myself, "Cancer killed my dog, I chose to end his suffering." I don't deny the original thought, just accept it and respond with that affirmation.

"It's not fair." This is a relatively weak feeling for me. I'm pretty accepting of the ephemeral nature of life, and I feel that by choosing to have dogs in my life, I must acknowledge that they will eventually pass. I was expecting 4 or 5 more years with Brisbane, but I don't feel wronged by the universe or anything.

"My baby is gone." I don't have a good mental response to this one because it simply is. This feeling doesn't come with any pent up rage or frustration, just a deep and weighty sadness. Not so much sadness that it stops me from doing anything, but more sadness than I've ever felt before.

There will never be another dog like Brisbane. I am immensely relieved that Sisci came into my life before he got sick. She got to follow his lead and learn how to be my dog, which is a very big job. For me, having an old dog and a young dog is ideal. I can't imagine not having a dog to do activities and sports with (sorry Ru, you don't count), and Sisci is really helping me keep myself together.

Brisbane's Cancer Treatment

On Wednesday, Brisbane's tumor went from annoying to serious. The outside lump grew an entire centimeter in one week. Inside his mouth, the mass got even bigger. It started getting in the way of his teeth, got infected, and on Wednesday started bleeding a whole lot. Did this bother Brisbane? Not particularly.

I've always said I wouldn't do tons of unpleasant treatment to try to keep a suffering animal alive, but Brisbane isn't suffering. I had thought the tumor would be painful, but it clearly isn't bothering him much because he happily chews bully sticks with great enthusiasm even when he's bleeding everywhere.

So we're doing palliative surgery to remove as much of the mass as possible. This definitely won't be a cure, this type of cancer is very invasive locally and makes a mess of things, with tendrils all over the place. There may be some nerve involvement, and he could lose some facial control on that side. He will definitely be losing at least one tooth in the process, and that's just fine. Heck, he could lose that eye and it would be fine.

This surgery is all about balancing cancer removal with recovery difficulty. The goal is quality of life rather than cancer eradication, so the vet won't be trying to get good margins. Only as much as can be removed with a short and easy recovery.

I spent a lot of time this week worried that this was the end, that Brisbane's quality of life would get so bad so fast that I would have to say goodbye way too soon. I don't want to put him through painful treatments and make him miserable in order to prolong his life. I just want him to be happy and comfortable.

Is Brisbane happy right now? Hell yes! He is the happiest dog. On Tuesday we went to our first Barn Hunt class and he got to search piled up bales on hay for rats safely hidden in plastic tubes. Most of the dogs there found the rats because they expected to get a food reward for their efforts. Brisbane's reward was finding the rats, each time he located one he would pounce on the tube with glee and ignore food entirely. A few days before that we went out to practice herding and he screamed with delight at the sight of the sheep. A couple of weeks ago we went lure coursing and he ran as fast as ever.  His appetite is great, he loves doing tricks, and aside from the tumor he is a very healthy dog.

So now we're going to fight the cancer in order to keep him happy. He will be hospitalized for a few days so the vet can monitor his recovery and better tailor the treatment plan. We're trying high-dose vitamin C because there are apparently some promising studies, it's inexpensive, and won't make him feel sick or hurt him if it doesn't work. The vet has also been reading studies on experimental treatments involving injecting the tumor itself with chemotherapy drugs. We are hoping that this type of treatment will help slow the cancer down for a while without making Brisbane feel sick.

Keeping him happy is the entire point, and when he can no longer be kept happy I'll know he's ready to leave me. In the meantime, we have a GoFundMe set up to help with his vet bills. We're getting donated chemo meds so the bills aren't going to be crazy. We would appreciate as many shares as we can get, please help Brisbane keep being awesome if you can!

The Naming of Dogs

Naming one dog is pretty easy. I like to use names with easily recognizable two-syllable calls, and one-syllable attention-getters. Vowel sounds are very important, dogs aren't great at telling consonants apart. Neither am I, sometimes I can see a person's mouth making one sound while I still here a different one. For me, it's called an auditory processing disorder. For the dogs, it's perfectly normal.

Photo by Erin Koski

Brisbane's name is pronounced 'briz-BAIN', because I am an uncultured American. Also because it's a really easy sound to shout very loudly. I call him Brizzy or Mr. Bane for fun, and just Briz when I need to get his attention to give him a command. He is very tuned into that 'short i' sound.

Ru is pronounced 'roo' like 'kangaroo', but I decided to spell it weird because I didn't want a stupid little Winnie the Pooh dog. Turns out spelling had nothing to do with it, and he was a stupid little Winnie the Pooh dog all along. I call Ru with repeating vowel sounds, "Rurururururururururu!" He actually comes to any repetitive sound though, "bababababa!" "kikikikikikiki!"

Sisci came with her name, and it's a good one. Names that end with an -ee sound are great for shouting over long distances, and easy for dogs to recognize. The only problem is that I end up calling her 'Sis' for short. This is a great attention-getting sound. "Sis, come!" "Sis, up!"

What's wrong with "Sis"? It uses the same 'short i' sound as "Briz". Now my cattledogs have no idea who I'm talking to unless I say their entire name. Brisbane knows he's "short i, long a", Sisci knows she's "short i, long e", neither of them can tell the difference when I use their abbreviated names.

The solution for this is clearly to rename Sisci. I've always planned on calling her Godzilla, I just need to work on making it stick. She already recognizes this as a name, so it's really just a matter of habit for me.

Herding Capability Tested

Brisbane, Sisci and I participated in an American Herding Breed Association trial this weekend, and the dogs each earned their Herding Capability Test title. These are our first herding titles ever! I also helped set up and run the trial, which was a wonderful and also exhausting experience. Our venue had horseback riding arenas, which required some modification in order to use them for sheep. The biggest project was tying snow fencing along the rails, and shoveling dirt onto the bottom of the new fence to hold it securely in place. We had a wonderful crew comprised of many of the handlers in the trial, but it still took several hours to get everything set up the day before the trial.

Photo by Candy Lidstrom

In order to earn the Herding Capability Test title, a dog must pass the test twice under two different judges. This is a pass/fail test that basically differentiates between herding the sheep and just chasing them around. The test is done in a small pen so the dog and stock can't go very far if things get out of hand.

The requirement for the first leg of the test is to move the sheep around in a controlled fashion, which is something I've been able to do with Brisbane, Sisci, Ranger, Annie, and even Ru occasionally.

Photo by Candy Listrom

The second leg of the test requires a bit more control. The dog must be able to stay still from the time the leash comes off until the judge gives the ok, which is not very long. Then the dog and handler need to move the sheep back and forth between two cones a couple of times. It is not necessary to go around the cones, they just give a nice point of reference to move between. Finally, the dog must have some sort of stop, usually 'down' or 'sit', and recall to the handler on command. These are fairly loose requirements, even a step towards the handler counts as a recall as long as you aren't making a flying tackle as you dog blows past you toward the sheep.

Brisbane did awesome on both legs of his test. He is no longer having foot issues, but he often gets tired easily and doesn't normally like going all the way around the sheep if he can avoid it. At the trial he was in good spirits and happily ran circles around the sheep for as long as I let him. He has always had a nice stop and recall, and waits impatiently for me to let him work as soon as we get into the pen with the sheep.

Photo by Candy Lidstrom

Sisci is still pretty sure that herding is all about biting the sheep, and training her is basically a process of stretching out the time she behaves herself in between taking cheap shots. The judge for our first leg on Saturday said I could stand to relax a bit because my dog does good work. He has border collies.

She was much better behaved for the second leg of our test, but decided to scream at me the whole time because she knew I wouldn't let her bite the sheep. That judge said I knew what I needed to do to keep my dog from hurting the stock. She has Belgian sheepdogs.

Photo by Candy Lidstrom

On Sunday we also got a much-needed California rainstorm, complete with high wind and occasional hail. The trial went on as planned, and everyone got completely soaked because there's just no staying dry when it's raining upside down and sideways no matter what kind of rain gear you've got. My dogs got to do their tests during a short break in the rain, but nearly everything else happened during the downpour. Everyone did surprisingly well, including the dogs that did their tests in the hail.

As soon as the last dog finished their run, the sheep were whisked back to their nice warm barn. The dogs all rested snug in cars and RVs. The utterly sodden people went to work rolling up snow fencing, loading posts and panels into trailers, and returning the site to the condition in which we found it. The sun came out just as we finished loading up, and shone on our very drippy handing out of ribbons and awards. At that point it had been raining almost nonstop for six hours. It was beautiful, and wet.

A Briz-Face Update

We went to see our favorite vet today, and she poked around at Brisbane's face and said the bump was very likely a tooth abscess. However, she couldn't rule out cancer without tests. She decided that the most cost-effective test would be a two-week course of a type of antibiotics that target abscesses well. From there, one of three things will happen.

Brisbane and Sisci hunting gophers, just because.

1. The bump will go away for good.

If this happens we will know it was an abscess that resolved with conservative treatment.

2. The bump will go away temporarily, and then come back.

If this happens, we will know it is a dental abscess that did not resolve with conservative treatment, and Brisbane will need a full round of x-rays and a tooth extraction.

3. The bump will stay the same.

If this happens, we will know that the bump is not an abscess and can begin doing biopsies to figure out what exactly it is and how to treat it, without having spent a ton of money on unnecessary dental care.

So now we wait and see what happens. Ideally the bump will go away forever, but I think we can handle a dental extraction if necessary. Brisbane has lovely clean teeth, but I guess sometimes the roots of a tooth can just go bad.

We're on YouTube!

Brisbane, Sisci and I are working on their novice Trick Dog titles. These are titles and certificates awarded for doing a variety of tricks and behaviors. These are a lot of fun, and something that can be earned even by dogs with serious health issues and behavioral problems. Brisbane has had back issues since he was a baby, so he won't be able to do every single trick on the list. That's ok though, he doesn't have to do all of them to get his title.

The lower-level titles are earned on the honor system, you perform them for a witness who provides their information to the organization. I'm told that when the form is submitted, they usually contact the witness to verify that your dog can do everything you claimed. Do More With Your Dog also has support groups or teams that can be joined via Facebook. Rather than performing tricks in front of a witness, you can upload videos for your team to watch and have them sign off on your titles. I have friends who would happily sit and watch my dogs do silly tricks, but I like the feedback I am getting from the Facebook Spark Team.

I uploaded a few videos to YouTube and wanted to share them here as well. We're not as impressive as some of the really amazing trick dog teams out there, but I'm having fun with the challenge of performing with two dogs at a time. Here's our first video:



The trick is "Paws Up", I'm asking them to put their front feet on something. We started with the little stools because those are slip-proof and stable. From there, they had to learn that "paws up" means to put their feet on whatever I am pointing at, even if it is small, unstable, or weird. In this video we used a small balance disc and a jaguar skull aquarium ornament. When I take the dogs on outings, I often ask them to put their paws up on fences, rocks, tree branches, and whatever else we find.

What tricks do your dogs know?

In Which Brisbane Gets a Haircut

Brisbane has been itchy since we returned from Lake Tahoe, and none of the antihistamines were helping. He had been getting progressively more scabby, and last week when I gave him a bath I realized he was losing hair all over the place.

This morning we went to the vet. The doctor asked if it would be ok to shave some of the worst areas to get a better look at them.

Shaving hot spots is not usually necessary for healing. Normally, they heal up just fine when kept clean and dry. For dogs with thick fur, impacted undercoats, or stubborn sores, shaving can help get air to the skin.

Hairless areas are also significantly easier to treat with topical remedies like shampoos. The stuff can really be scrubbed down into the skin where it can be most effective.

So we started shaving Briz. We started with the red oozy areas, and kept uncovering older, darker spots from lesions that had healed up a little. In a few minutes his entire belly was hairless, and there were still more oozy spots trailing up his neck and shoulders.

My herding instructor really wants me to get Brisbane registered as an Australian cattledog with the AKC so we can do herding trials. We have been tossing around plans that involve slicking his floof down with hair gel, or cutting his hair. Knowing that he was likely covered in sores, and that I wanted to cut his hair anyway, the vet and I agreed that shaving him down would be a good idea.

Dr. Rugg said she started out with a longer comb on the clippers, intending to leave him with mostly longer hair. She was only going to shave the sore spots down super-short. Before long though, she realized that he was basically covered in sores.

See those dark spots all over Brisbane? Each of those is a sore or lesion. There are quite a few red ones as well. The vet said that his skin started looking better within an hour of the big shave though. Hopefully he's on the way to feeling much better.

Does you dog have skin issues?

Brisbane Goes to HydroPaws

For Brisbane's tenth birthday, I booked him an appointment at HydroPaws Animal Rehabilitation and Performance Center. He didn't have any specific injury, but he has developed some hip arthritis in the last year and I want to keep him as flexible as possible. This was an initial consultation appointment, so the physical therapist spent most of the time evaluating Brisbane.

The first thing Karen the physical therapist did was assess Brisbane's range of motion. We did this mostly with treats to begin with, luring his nose around to the side to see how far he could stretch it towards his hip. Karen gently probed his muscles while watching for signs of discomfort.

Next we had Brisbane lay on a cushy pad on the floor so Karen could measure his flexibility. This was highly technical. There were tape measures. And protractors.

What we learned is that Brisbane's entire back end is very tense and sore in a way that indicates chronic lower back pain. Given that I've been pointing to a problem spot on his lower back since he was a puppy, I'm not at all surprised.

Knowing that Brisbane is always tense and ouchy is pretty sad, but I'm pleased to be able to do something about it. Karen showed me some stretches and exercises I can do with him.

Stretch 1 is to extend his knee while preventing him from rotating it outward. He likes to swing his hind legs out when he walks. Stretch 2 is to gently pull the base of his tail and then very slowly release the pressure. We're supposed to do these stretches five times each.

We're also going to do some exercises to help Brisbane engage his core muscles. This should help him better support his back. For now we're just working on balancing, I need to get him a FitPaws peanut for this part.

Food Friday: Bacon Applesauce Peanut Butter Cake

I bake a birthday cake for Brisbane every year. It is always frosted with cream cheese, and usually made from whatever I have around the house. Last year was applesauce banana oatmeal hamburger cupcakes. This year I made a bacon applesauce peanut butter cake.

Cooking for dogs pretty awesome because it's basically impossible to mess up. Like my husbands co-workers, dogs are happy to eat whatever you make, no matter how it turns out. Soggy? Cool. Crumbly? No problem! Greasy? Awesome! Tasteless? Tasty!

I often make cupcakes for Brisbane's birthday because I can just slap a pile of cream cheese on top no matter how they come out. Add sprinkles and they look deceptively like regular old cupcakes.

Following my foolproof method for making dog cake (something tasty, something wet, something dry) I started by browning several strips of bacon. I like maple-flavored chewy bacon, Brisbane is significantly less picky and likes all forms of bacon and bacon-like foods.

Next, I added a few spoonfuls of applesauce and peanut butter and whizzed it in the food processor with the bacon. I used rice flour for this cake, adding a little at a time until I got the consistency of cake batter. Had I wanted to make a grain-free cake, I could have used potato flour, garbanzo bean flour, almond flour, etc.

My goal for this cake was to end up with something I could frost and decorate like a tiny sheet cake. I baked this one in a loaf pan, so it came out long and skinny. Once it had cooled enough, I dumped it onto a cutting board and sliced it into a more pleasing rectangle.

Cream cheese spread makes a great non-sugary frosting for dog cakes. Some years I add food coloring, this year I left it white to keep up the sheet cake appearance. It spreads best when the tub has been left out of the fridge for a couple of hours to warm up.

The decorative touches on this cake are made from store-bought decorator frosting. I might be able to pipe cream cheese like decorator frosting, but it's tough to get the right consistency and this year I was feeling sort of lazy.

I think this year's dog cake came out rather well. It still looked like a miniature sheet cake when sliced. It did have five or six strips of bacon in it, but nobody here has had any tummy trouble after eating it. If my dogs had any history of sensitive stomachs or pancreatitis I probably wouldn't be feeding them bacon and cake frosting. This is a once-a-year treat.

Happy Birthday Brisbane: Double Digits!

Brisbane turned ten today, he has now graced the world with his presence for an entire decade. He has developed a bit of arthritis over the last year, and might be finally starting to slow down a little, but he's definitely still going strong.

For his birthday this year, I decided to book him an appointment with HydroPaws Animal Rehabilitation and Performance Center. We've been doing lots of core work and body awareness exercises to help mitigate Brisbane's lifelong spine issues and help keep him as active and comfortable as possible as he ages.

I joined a Canine Conditioning and Body Awareness group on Facebook last year. Since then, Briz has learned how to target things with his rear feet, walk over cavaletti poles, and perch on a small stool. We're working on handstands and holding beg and bow positions.

The Facebook group encourages everyone to visit a rehab professional at least once to learn as much as they can about their dog's structure and abilities. I've got plenty of ideas for things to do with Brisbane, but I'm a little fuzzy on the specifics. How much core work is too much? How often is too often? I'm looking forward to having a rehab professional look at him.

As I mentioned last year, the Briz-cake picture in an annual tradition.

Brisbane and Pizza Hut

A Pizza Hut just opened in our town a few weeks ago, not far at all from our house. Cheap pizza can be pretty awesome, and they've really expanded their menu range in the years since we lived within delivery range. This led to use ordering pizza from them three times within one week.

Brisbane at a trim 40 lbs.
Photo by Erin Koski

Brisbane is a diabolical mastermind dog, fortunately his trainwreck of a build prevents him from causing too much havoc. Briz can't jump high enough to get onto the counters (without help) so it's usually safe to leave food out as long as it's pushed all the way back against the wall. Except pizza. I'm not sure exactly what he did, but Briz recently expanded the "unsafe zone" and now things have to be put on top of the toaster oven to be safely out of range.

Briz also figured out how to get pizza out of a box on the stove without actually disturbing the box, leading my husband and I to accuse each other of hogging all the pizza until we caught him snarfing down a slice.
"Did you feed that pizza to Briz, or did Briz feed that pizza to Briz?"

Our pizza binge began the week Pizza Hut opened, and the new business obviously had some growing pains. We're basically dream customers for delivery drivers, we tip well and understand that no matter what goes wrong, it is rarely the driver's fault. I'm hoping this made life a little less stressful for the ones stuck being the only driver on a busy night. One time our order was an hour late, and they brought us entirely the wrong pizza. We tipped both the original driver and the one who brought us the corrected order.

40 lbs + 4 lbs of pizza.
Photo by Erin Koski

We also enjoyed trying the wide variety of crusts, sauces, and other random stuff they put on pizzas these days. Not everything was delicious, but the experience was a lot of fun. All this is to say that, between ordering an ungodly bacon-stuffed-crust monstrosity, and getting extra free pizzas, we had a lot of extra pizza laying around. We sort of use Brisbane as a garbage disposal and feed him all sorts of fun stuff, but I'm smart enough not to feed him entire pizzas all at once. Brisbane, however, is smart enough to figure out how to feed himself entire pizzas.

By the end of the week, Brisbane has stolen and devoured most of a large pepperoni pizza, half a bacon-cheese-stuffed-crust pizza, and random assorted slices. Basically enough to make up at least two entire pizzas. In a week. He gained four pounds. Briz is now on a diet, Pizza Hut has lost a bit of its novelty, and we've been sticking stealable food in the oven for safekeeping.

Guilt-Free Dogs

The internet is in love with guilty dogs, and it makes me sad. Countless videos and pictures flood blogs and social media, featuring a mess or an angry human along with a dog that clearly know he's been bad. The thing is, dogs don't feel guilt, they just anticipate bad things happening. They don't even have a concept of "wrong". That sad-but-hopeful look isn't a dog that knows he's done wrong, it's a dog that is expecting something bad to happen.

Dogs are pretty amazing, they are sensitive, emotional creatures who rely on us for absolutely everything in their lives. Food, water, sunlight, even life are in our power to give or take away. While they often amaze us with how much they understand, some things are simply beyond their grasp. Take, for example, a dog that pees on the carpet. The dog may understand that, when humans come home and find a yellow spot on the rug, they yell, point, scruff the dog and drag him to that spot, and perhaps even hit him, They may shove him outside and leave him alone in the yard after all those hours of being alone in the house. Two hours ago, the dog knew he had to pee and that this spot smelled like the bathroom. Now the humans are walking through the door and that yellow spot means bad things are about to happen.

The thing is that dogs don't make the connection The presence of pee on the floor makes bad things happen, therefore I should not pee on the floor. They only know that pee=bad, they don't even have to be the guilty party. The dog doesn't regret his actions, he is just scared.

A "guilty" dog is actually a frightened dog that is desperately trying to appease his superiors. He doesn't know he did wrong, he is just begging for mercy and asking his people not to hurt him. Knowing this, I decided that I do not want to have "guilty" dogs. What I want is completely shameless, confident dogs who know they are safe with me. While I can't prevent all bad things from happening to them (a baby gate fell over on Brisbane today, it was very traumatic) I can make sure that they do not see me as the source of those bad things.

Does this mean that my dogs live completely out of control lives with no rules or limits? Nope, they have definite rules and acceptable behaviors, I just don't enforce those by doing scary things. Does this mean I never shout or scold my dogs? Nope, I am expressive to the point of being melodramatic, I just don't direct that toward the dogs without mitigating it in some way.

Dogs don't learn a whole lot from being shouted at, so I reserve shouting for two occasions. I might give a quick "no!" or "hey!" when someone is about to pee on the floor or steal something off the counter, followed immediately by switching to a happy voice and directing them to go outside or come or sit, or otherwise do something good. I also shout when I am angry or upset, but in a very nonthreatening manner. I don't loom over Brisbane when I appeal to the sky for an explanation as to why I have been cursed with the worst dog ever. I look up, I walk away, sometimes I even give him treats while bemoaning his horribleness. I often use a sweet voice to tell Ru was a dreadful little rodent he is.

Four years ago I walked into my kitchen to find Brisbane standing on the counter. He is incapable of jumping up there due to his abysmal build, so this was an unprecedented sight. It turns out he had rearranged some of the furniture to build himself a little staircase. If he was a "guilty dog", afraid of my response when he was clearly in a place he had no business being, he might have attempted to escape by jumping off the counter. He could have broken something or hurt himself in the process. Instead, I told him to stay while I grabbed my camera from another room. I snapped a picture of him on the counter and then gently lifted him down and then rearranged the furniture to keep him from getting up there again.

I love this picture because it is a perfect, unstaged, "caught in the act" pose of absurdity. I often get asked how I got him to stay for the picture, and the simple answer is that I told him to stay, and he didn't have any reason not to comply. He knows I don't want him stealing stuff off the counters, but he also knows that the penalty for doing so is a quick "hey!" or "what the hell are you doing?" followed by immediate praise and release of pressure when his feet hit the ground. With nothing to worry about, he had no reason to bolt off the counter.

I might be missing a bit of what some handlers call "respect" in my quest for guilt-free dogs, but as Eric Brad so effectively points out in this 2011 article, I don't need respect. I have thumbs. While I've done plenty of things wrong in the process of raising the Worst Puppy Ever, I feel wildly successful at raising a dog that is not afraid of me.

Brisbane and the Window

In the front room of my house there is a 4' wide, 3' tall plate glass window. Below that window sits the couch, where the dogs spend a good chunk of their day lounging. The back of the couch is the perfect place for Ru and the cats to catch the late afternoon sun's rays. My house is perpetually decorated for Halloween, and this includes bat decals on the windows. I've always loved those bat stickers, and now I have one more reason to appreciate them.

Photo by Erin Koski

About three weeks ago, I arrived home from work to find a trail of bloody pawprints leading to the window. The glass was cracked all the way across in multiple places, and was hanging in the frame. The only thing holding it together was my beloved bat stickers, which had prevented Brisbane from going through the window and seriously injuring himself. Instead, he had some sort of minor injury that I never located. By the time I got home for work, the bleeding had stopped and I could only find a tiny scrape on one of his feet.

My immediate response to this event was to begin crating Brisbane whenever he was unattended, crating him when the mailman or delivery people were most likely to send him into a barking frenzy, and moving the couch a couple of feet away from the wall so he could not leap full-force against the glass. I also had the pane replaced as quickly as possible, $200 later we have thicker glass and no more bats. Since I was already crating and rotating Brisbane and Ulysses, this wasn't a huge change in our daily routine.

Photo by Erin Kosk

While discussing the whole situation with various behavior and training enthusiasts, someone brought up the possibility of putting him on medication. Brisbane and I walked half a block to his vet and jotted down a quick note asking about a prescription for something like Prozac. A few minutes after we left, Dr. Rugg called back to say that she had already written him a prescription.

Three weeks after starting the medication, Brisbane no longer loses his mind at the mere sight of the United States Postal Service logo. Now he actually has to be on the same block and within a few houses of the actual mail carrier before he reacts. Briz can actually settle and relax around other dogs, he takes naps when I take him to daycare with me instead of screaming all day. While he still barks at the occasional skateboarder, he doesn't turn into a raving psychodog and flood his system with stress hormones. It feels like nine years of training has suddenly clicked into place, and all of the ways I've taught him to manage stress suddenly make sense for him.

The effect has been rather dramatic, and has certainly taken some getting used to. Brisbane has always been a clever problem-solver, but he no longer gets frustrated to the point of screambarking when he can't immediately figure out what I want. Shortly before the Prozac and the window incident, Brisbane also began limping intermittently, and with the lack of hysterics it feels almost like he has aged suddenly. We'll get to the bottom of the lameness so we can go back to Brisbane's normal wild activities soon.

Crate and Rotate

I am currently managing the issues between Brisbane and Ulysses, but for the first couple of weeks after I got bit, I had them on a crate and rotate routine.

What is "Crate and Rotate"?

Crate and Rotate is a management technique for keeping two dogs in the same house separated. It is most useful for preventing fights between dogs. 

How does it work?

The idea is that the two dogs are never unrestrained in the same space at the same time. When one dog is a liberty in the house, the other is contained in a crate or xpen, behind a door or baby gate in another room, or outside. The dogs take turns being loose in the house and being contained. At my house I generally had either Brisbane or Ulysses in the crate in my living room. I also have two crates in the bedroom, a baby gate across the doorway of my office, a bathroom, and a fenced front yard in which to stash dogs.

What are the benefits?

Crate and rotate allowed me to keep both Brisbane and Ulysses in my house without giving them the opportunity to fight. After Ulysses bit me, I initially felt that I could not keep him in my house because I could not prevent him from fighting with Brisbane. Our options were to find him another foster home (always in short supply) or euthanize him. While I discussed the issue with my rescue peeps, I decided to crate and rotate the dogs. Briz and Uly both like hanging out in crates, so the urgency to make a decision quickly faded. After a couple of weeks with incredibly tight management, I started to feel more comfortable working with him.

I now feel comfortable having them loose at the same time with close supervision, so I can let one out of the crate and put the other one in without worrying that they'll suddenly erupt into violence. I'm still doing a lot of crating though, as it allows me to use various food puzzle toys and long-lasting chews that could start a fight if both dogs were loose. To keep the boys happy about being crated, I always send them in with a chew, stuffed Kong, or at least a cookie. Sometimes I even toss something super exciting in there and then close the crate without letting them in, they stand there staring at that knuckle bone for a while and are extremely satisfied when I finally let them in to have a good chew.

What are the drawbacks?

When we're all just chilling in the living room, nobody minds being in a crate. It's a much harder system to maintain when I've just gotten home from work and want to greet everyone and let them out to pee. It's tough when someone has to wait their turn. Playing musical dogs was also sometimes irritating, since I was doing total separation I couldn't just let Ulysses out of the crate and send Brisbane in. Instead I would have to shut Brisbane in the bedroom, let Ulysses out of the crate and put him outside or in the office, then put Brisbane in the crate before letting Uly back into the house.

The biggest drawback to crate and rotate is that it is a management system that relies entirely on not messing up. One person who is always alert and vigilant might be able to pull it off flawlessly, but the reality is that there are two people living in my house, and sometimes we are tired or distracted, which increases the likelihood that someone is going to forget and let the wrong dog out at the wrong time. The risk for our situation was relatively low, since neither dog had hurt the other, their fights were not occurring on a daily basis, and they could at least tolerate each other almost all of the time.

If I was dealing with a much more serious aggression problem, the risk of messing up would be significantly higher. I would not be comfortable using crate and rotate to manage two dogs who were at serious risk of hurting each other, or two dogs who disliked each other enough to have a conflict every time they interacted. I would not use crate and rotate if I didn't trust my husband to maintain this system or just leave the dogs where I put them when I'm not home. I wouldn't use this system if I had children or other irresponsible/unpredictable people in my house.

Does Crate and Rotate Really Work?

This management system allowed me to keep Brisbane and Ulysses in the same house with a barrier between them at all times. It allowed both dogs to participate in family life without the stress of trying to deal with someone they don't like. It gave me time to analyze Ulysses and the bite he inflicted, and make a well-thought out decision instead of euthanizing him in despair. Crating and rotating also provided Brisbane and Ulysses with some much-needed structure and routine, and some practice at waiting their turn. It is currently allowing them to enjoy both the company of our family and high-value chew items at the same time, without fear that another dog might take their prize. Crating and rotating allows me to have training sessions with one dog at a time, and allows both dogs to have rambunctious play time without the other policing their activity.

While it's not the solution for every household dog aggression issue, crating and rotating is an excellent way to manage dogs that don't get along.

TBT: Herding Instinct Test

When Brisbane was nine months old, my best friend and I took him to a herding instinct test. This test consists of turning a dog loose on a few sheep and seeing what they do.

 The event was being put on by a collie club, but it was hosted at a ranch run by Australian cattledog people. Their dogs were herding champions as well as working stockdogs, and they knew exactly what Brisbane was as soon as he arrived. Most of the big foofy Lassie-dogs ran into the middle of the sheep and scattered them like bowling pins. A German shepherd even tackled one and tried to bite its neck. Of course, all of these dogs count as having herding instincts. Any desire to chase the sheep counts, as far as I'm aware.

When it was Brisbane's turn, they tied a rope to his collar because they recognized him as a mostly-heeler "cattle-doodle" and expected him to bite the sheep. This was before the designer dog craze, and we called any obvious mix a cattle-doodle. Nowadays we worry too much about people thinking we're actually talking about a deliberate poodle cross, so the term has been quietly retired. At any rate, the heeler folks were happy to see my bat-eared puppy, and Brisbane was happy to see the sheep.

Upon entering the pen, Brisbane immediately backed out of his collar and...herded the sheep. The guy in the cowboy hat just stood there and watched him at first. "He's actually herding them!" The collies were mostly allowed to chase the sheep for a couple of minutes and then rounded up. Brisbane got a ten-minute herding lesson on staying on the opposite side of the sheep from the humans. The pole with the milk carton on the end was used to thump on the ground and make the dog back off the sheep a little. The reward for herding the sheep nicely is being allowed to herd the sheep.

Since that test, Brisbane has gotten to work sheep with two other experienced trainers. Everyone with herding experience has been impressed with his natural ability to herd sheep. We are probably a couple of lessons away from competing, but I had to stop lessons to have surgery a couple of years ago and didn't start again.

I know that Brisbane's mom was a working cowdog, but his natural herding ability always amazes me. After learning that his dad was definitely not anything remotely close to herding stock, I am even more impressed. Dogs with instinct can learn to herd well, but not every herding breed or mix is as naturally talented as my amazing boy.