Ttouching Bonita

Hi,
We'll be leaving here in less than two days. In January we met Bonita, a scared little pup of less than six months. Initially feeding her was difficult. Her mother, Blondie, and Stormy the resident street dog had her so terrorized she would not try to take the food we offered. She was starving to death.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about her progress. She has been remarkable. Her beautiful brown coat and her confidence has blossomed.
A big thank you to our kind hearted friends who came by to sweet talk and hand feed her. All of the little bits and pieces have come together for Bonita.
Each week she got closer to us.
Bonita now plays with toys, which is something the older two dogs do not do. At 3 am when I hear the cylinder rolling with the clothes pin inside, I know it is Bonita playing, smile.
The last couple of weeks her soulful brown eyes follow me where ever I go. She wants get close, but is so afraid. When Bonita put her front paws on my leg, she looked like such a big girl. I was so proud of her.
Each time she improves, there is always a little back slide. At first I found that disheartening, then it became just the way she deals with the stress.
Other than when we took her to the vet to be spayed, we have not compelled her to do anything. Building trust has been my most important goal with her.
Today we put all of that to the test. I put my kennel lead around her neck. The look of sheer terror as the rope tightened around her neck was fairly quickly dissapated. We talked to her, telling her how wonderful she is. Dogs love to be talked to even when things are bad; it calmmed her down.
I stroked her sides. If she just felt how good it is to be pet, I knew she'd like it. When my hand went near her, she opened her mouth to bite. She thought better of it because she stopped herself. No tug on the leash required to save my hand, oh happy day.
She did a big sigh of resignation, then laid stiffly whild I began to softly caress her the way I've been wanting to for a long while. She closed her eyes. The tense body told me I could do what I wanted, but she wouldn't like it. I worked quickly to apply the Front Line to her skin. We had no idea if the stress would be too much for her, she could blow up at any time. After all she had no handling during the imprint phase, this was an unknown.
Once the flea preventative was applied we relaxed. She was still shutting it out, but when I did some ttouch (A Linda Tellington Jones technique) she melted. I did the circles near her tummy; she rolled over exposing her belly. Her rear legs kicked out, the way dogs do when they are enjoying a belly rub. My husband was at the ready, but not needed. I cut her sutures out unassisted! What made this particularly remarkable is that I took the lead off her after I did the flea repellant.

She took in the petting and ttouch for another ten minutes. Occasionally I'd stop, she opened an eye. I'd pet her again, so she closed her eye. When we were finished, she took a couple of steps, then plopped in the corner for a long nap.

Thank you, Linda Tellington Jones for some great techniques. This would not have gone as nicely without it.

Bonita & The Cheeto

Today Bonita is a bouncing adolescent dog with a happy tail. The last three months Kirt and I have gotten her to trust us. I’ve played positive and negative reinforcement games with her. She likes us. When we come home Bonita looks as happy to see us as her mother Blondie or Stormy does. She still does not want to be touched.

Yesterday I introduced Bonita to Cheetos, she loves these things. Before long she is taking them out of my hand when I held six inches away from my face. She would look directly at me as she reached for it. She was reading my body language for movement.


Once she was going to town on the Cheetos, I stopped giving them. You know how it is after you’ve had a handful of Cheetos. You must have more. Before long Bonita was circling our chairs trying to figure out how to get to the bag. It was so unfair, smile.


With my hand hanging over the side of the chair Bonita grabbed a couple more out of my hand. She was getting so confident. I put a couple on the floor just under my hand, slowly she gathered her courage. How her little teeth crunched the prize.


The next time she reached for the Cheeto, I gently stroked her back. She ran back no more than three feet, ate the Cheeto and then stretched. Initially it looked like she was coming back for another. She stopped, looked at me, looked at the Cheeto and then started an infantile sounding “rraaughrr”. She circled the chairs looking for a way to the goodies. She became so vocal, that she sounded like a chimpanzee.


Then Bonita took a drink of water, the Cheeto spell was broken. About ten minutes later, she is back looking for the Cheeto.


She takes it out my hand again; we are back to where we were before. She sees how I have changed my position so I can stroke her. She is having none of it. Bonita barks another puppy sounding, “rraaughrr”. She is chewing on her bed to relieve the frustration.


Except for the day we took her to the PetVet in Isabela to be spayed, we have never used any kind of force with her. She seemed to get over that quickly enough.


My agenda has always been the same, to get her to let me touch her. This afternoon I took a different approach, we just played. I’d give each dog a treat. The next round I’d give Stormy his treat, then Blondie. Bonita knew it was her turn. She started doing the things dogs do when they know it’s their turn. The eyes, the little bark, and then she put her front paws on my leg. Needless to say, I reinforced the heck out of that.


For a dog that was never touched in the first six months of her life, this is a pretty good victory. I’ll take it. In fact,”Woo-hoo”, she touched me. That’s pretty cool.

Early Learning K9 Style

For a good beginning the litter should be together with mom or a surrogate for a minimum of seven weeks. Around five weeks when the litter is eating well, I would remove mom. There is no need for the pups to continue to nurse.


The best surrogate we ever had was a male Rottweiler named Spunky. He would even get into the whelping box when the moms were out to potty. He stimulated the neonates. Spunky was the best Mr. Mom.

Spunky was a fun dog who would offer a fire hydrant a play bow. Over his life time Spunky was surrogate for our litters as well as clients. Rottweiler, Bullmastiff and Giant Schnauzer puppies raised by Spunky all gave lots of play bows. Coincidence???

The Puerto Rican island puppies that make it are very street smart. They learn early who their friends are and the hostilities of their world. The learning curve here is very steep or they don't make it.

After weaning, in the independent feeding stage is where we start to see the differences between our pets and the satos/island dogs.

At four to five weeks the litter will stay where mom tells them. A few weeks back a pretty spaniel cross approached me in the parking lot of our local bakery. Her litter waited in a nearby field as she returned with a crust of bread.

I have never seen a pet dog control her puppies that well. They don't have to, my girls knew it.

While the satos are learning about the three resources, our pets are learning how to play. The dogs here play with each other; our dogs have toys.

Our puppies grew up in an enriched environment. Our puppies had a 15 x 60 foot play yard with an old tractor tire 1/2 buried on its side. The center was filled with sand. Another tire on rim was 1/3 buried so they could go under and around. My husband made a low swinging bridge and a little rocker board. There was a little platform a few inches above the ground.

Post weaning, dogs require a lot of experiences. The Puerto Rican island dogs have their world in their face every day. Our dogs rely on us to introduce them to their world.

Canine Temperament Develops Early

Mothering in the whelping box begins the shaping puppy behavior. Mom sets the tone.


Once the eyes open around three weeks, the squeaky little barks and the mouth duels begin. Puppies learn to control the force of their bites gradually during the litter phase and beyond.


During the litter phase it is so cute to watch pups learn. One puppy will be on top, just feeling so full of himself that he bites the puppy on the bottom too hard. The puppy on the bottom then becomes fierce, telling the offender off.


The rule of keeping litters together for seven weeks while the nervous system myelinizes is the minimum acceptable time. The myelin sheath is the outer covering of the nervous system until this grows the puppy isn't "firing on all cylinders".


Some breeders take the mother away as soon as the pups can be weaned. A Bull Terrier breeder I know took the mother away because she was afraid the mother would harm the puppies. She was with the pups just long enough to feed. The breeder cleaned and stimulated the neonates; the mom was muzzled when she fed her brood.


The breeder kept a beautiful bitch out of the litter. She had that gorgeous turn of head that B.T. people love. She also happened to be the dominate puppy in the litter. By six months she was dominating the other dogs in the breeder's house. Her dam wasn't as dominant as the breeder thought and soon submitted to her daughter.


At ten months the breeder brought the bitch to me for social rehabilitation because she behaved aggressively at dog shows. This poor animal had not learned that she could submit and nothing bad would happen to her.


Had the breeder put her with a dog she trusted to correct the litter, this would have all been avoided.


The purpose of childhood is to have an opportunity to learn how to be a successful adult.


Puppies learn a lot together, but they need an adult to guide them.

Where Does K9 Behavior Type Begin?

Sometimes I think communication styles would be a better way of referring to dominance or leadership styles, maybe it would be personality profiles.
Anyway here's what I do know:
A dog's behavior is how they get across their wants and needs; when these have been met there is social/recreational behavior.
The innate abilities of the neonate become honed by the puppy's life experiences. They all get similar gifts, great hearing and sense of smell, etc.

I remember reading an old Swiss study of mothering styles and behavior. If you want to change behavior; there's the place to start, right out of the box.
The study focused on how the mothers corrected their young when they suckled too vigorously; scratching or biting mom when they got those annoying little milk teeth.
Some mothers deliver inhibited nips, flip the pups on their backs & lick aggressively enough to make their babies cry. Other mothers will lick the puppies into submission in a way more gentle fashion.
It seems reasonable to conclude that the offspring of each of these styles of mothering will start out with different views of the world.
Years ago I had two rottie bitches whelp litters at the same time. They were half sisters, same father different mothers.
Belle was the sweetest mom, she lovingly did long licking sessions. These babies were exhausted after Belle licked, they slept well. By the time their milk teeth came in, all she had to do was put her nose by the head of an aggressive suckler to get it to ease up. She had licked them into submission. If one didn't get it she would go into her licking thing; it was beautiful.
PeggyO would do the front teeth nip thing, when she would lick them to stimulate urination they would cry. She was a fastidious mother, her babies were clean. Peggy rolled them all over the whelping box when cleaning.
Later, all the puppies played together. Belles' puppies were a few days older. I sometimes wonder if play would have been different had Peggy's puppies been the older.
Belle and Peggy O were wonderful, wonderful dogs. Peg lived with us for the rest of her life. If she could talk I'm sure she would have said, "Gimme the car keys, I want to go for a ride."
Belle went to live with a family. During that time she attacked a man who grabbed the five year old daughter as he tried to get the child over the back yard fence. I heard all about how fierce this loving creature could be and was glad to hear it.


So what do you think about that? Any breeders with a story about your dam's mothering style?