If Banjo was shooting for the regal look with those eyeliner eyes, I'd say she nailed it. Keeping her regal eyes focused on a task is a different story. She came to us knowing only the command, "sit." The first thing Mi Miguel and I taught her was to do her business outside never inside. So far she has had no accidents.
When were outside everything around her has her attention. A bug, a stick, a leaf. I've seen her squat, pee then stop midstream just to chase a butterfly. If we're inside anything she sees through the window is a distraction. Any speck on the floor or carpet is a distraction. Every noise is a distraction. Keeping those eyes focused on me has been more difficult than getting her to stop pulling on her leash.
Each and every day, little by little, I can tell that I'm getting through to her. And I have to say, she has been teaching me how to understand her too. The puppy training process has taught us both to have patience. There are times that we both just look at each other, tilt our heads and try to figure out what the other is trying to convey.
When she gets bored with trying to figure out what we're learning today, she can easily do the puppy dog eyes with the black markings and the wrinkled forehead. It truly does melt my heart and the training session ends. Like I said, she does pull on her leash when we go for walks.
The concept of having a non-pulled loose leash just doesn't interest Banjo. She'd rather pull and pull with those strong neck muscles. I was just telling a friend, "Banjo could plow an entire field with those neck muscles." It's hard to teach a hound dog to stop sniffing the ground. She is constantly on the trail of a squirrel, a June bug, another dog, a wasp, a worm...just about any scent or movement brings her nose to the ground and the impulse to chase whatever has her attention usually overrides the importance of having some slack in her walking leash.
Banjo is always on the alert. She has learned to sit, stay, heel, walk on command, run on command, stop on command, jump on command, do a group hug, shake her paw, lay, get in her bed, lay on her rug and look me in the eye when I say, "Look." I've learned that her wrinkled forehead usually means she doesn't know what you're talking about or she doesn't understand something that is going on around her.
One command Banjo has learned without much prodding at all is sitting at the helm. In fact she did this trick all on her own. The minute we got our new pontoon, she immediately had her eye on the captain's chair.
One of Banjo's favorite things to do is sit along the seawall and watch the boats go up and down the canal. She also likes to wag her tail at other people and other dogs that are sitting along their seawall watching and waving at everyone.
We didn't realize when we bought this house that everyone would be so kind and welcoming. This month I want to give notice to our great neighbors, all of them.
We've definitely met some fabulous people right here in our own neighborhood.
We literally talk over the fence with our neighbors. We visit them, they visit us and we try to knock on each others door rather than text or call. It reminds me of the neighborhood where I grew up in Indiana. Back when everyone was friendly and knew that reciprocating kindness is what makes for a perpetually great neighborhood.
It turns out that Banjo loves getting a bath. That's just one more hurdle that we've managed to accomplish.
At first she hid from me. But I sat down with her behind this chair, hid with her and talked gently to her. In no time, she was in her tub getting a bath.
So far, Banjo has had fresh breath every day just from eating healthy and from chewing on her bones.
Even though her teeth look super white and shiny now, I know they won't always stay that way. Learning to brush as a puppy is very important. I was thrilled when she let me brush her teeth this morning, that's one more hurdle of oh so many more to go. She did hide again when she saw the toothbrush. But she finally relented and let me brush them as long as her chew stick stayed nearby. She's always with that chew stick hanging out of her mouth like a cigar. But you can still see those pearly whites.
Black Mouth Cur and Belgian Shepherd (Malinois) is most definitely her breed. She is very receptive to learning new commands like a shepherd. Yet, she never misses a single scent like that of a Black Mouth Cur. That tail though is a telltale (punny) sign of a Malinois.
This evening our goal is to slowly introduce her to the hiking trail. We've been easing her into to meeting new dogs and people due to her shelter background and not knowing exactly what she has been through. For our first few trips we'll be taking her in a bike trailer, to avoid stressing her out with other dogs.
Now that we have our girl Banjo, I feel more comfortable working in the back yard. She let's me know whenever a critter is approaching me. I'm not afraid to turn my back on the canal with her keeping guard. We've been laying out pavers to see if we like the size and color for the pergola patio.
Before we can permanently lay them out, we need lots of dirt to back fill our yard. I dread all the shoveling and hauling that will be involved with this yard leveling project.
The time span of all that bathing and brushing will be short lived. As you can see Banjo is ready to dig in and help lay those pavers. That digging paw though.
We'll also be planning out anchors and bumpers along the seawall for a future boat or pontoon.
This is what Mi Miguel and I were dealing with last Friday evening. After six days of working with Banjo, she gave me complete chaos come Friday evening. I felt defeated because we just didn't seem to be "clicking" like we should've been at this point. She became a blur, out of control and what we thought to be aggressive.
When we're indoors, she obeys the sit command at her leisure. But other than that she doesn't listen. The connection of her eyes on my eyes was a rare thing last week.
In the middle of the week, I found this beetle clicker in my desk drawer. One of my kids got it a birthday party as a favor years ago. I've heard of "click" training, yeah there's that "click" word
again. I wasn't sure what the click method was all about but we were desperate because she didn't seem to want to respond to repetitive commands.
This party favor clicker isn't loud at all and I've made a clever contraption to keep it on my hand and ready to use at all times. Banjo took to the click training really well and after just one day, she would sit, stay, come, heel and lay all on command with a simple click for approval of her good behavior.
By Friday evening she started doing her own thing. I let her off of her leash in the confines of our yard. The hound in her innately makes her constantly sniff the ground since everything is new to her.
Banjo became obsessed with the tree trunk. First she wanted to pull up the Sansevieria plant. That in itself isn't a problem. We were getting a handle on that with no problem.
It wasn't so much the Sansevieria that was luring her to the tree trunk, there was something else that triggered her sniffer to complete distraction.
This root is the bane of her existence. No matter how much we tried to get her away from it, she kept going back to it, digging and chewing at it like a puppy possessed.
This root does to Banjo what catnip does for cats. She was becoming out of control. She wanted to chase and bite at me rather than listen to any kind of training.
We put a barricade over it, but with her being persistent, she went right back to it. We put a chew stick by the tree trunk and kept distracting her with it.
Each time she was lured to her favorite digging spot, the chew stick eventually became a worthy enough trade.
We were just hours away from having her for a full week, both Banjo and I were exhausted. The aggressive chasing and wanting to bite was a concern for me. There is no way I can work with an aggressive dog. They sense and smell fear, and I wreak of it when it comes to certain breeds of dogs.
Bright and early Saturday morning, Mi Miguel and I headed back to the shelter where we adopted Banjo (Billie as she was formerly known as). We didn't take Banjo with us, because we love her and at that point we simply wanted to know what our options were and to get advice on what we could do to make Banjo a more pleasant and happier pet. We weren't looking to get rid of her in if we could avoid it.
We came back home to this sad and remorse little face, I sat down on the front porch and had a little talk with Banjo. Mi Miguel and I both gave her a lot of loving attention. I doubt she understood anything I was saying but she has been a lot more connected to us since then. If you can't connect with a person, an animal or whatever then it's like talking to the wall when it comes to communication. I know she has no way of knowing that we were having doubts, but my goodness look at that face.
She has found new spots in the yard to sniff and has learned to stay away from the grapefruit tree trunk roots/Sansevieria danger zone.
The wrinkled forehead has become my cue that she is feeling stressed or confused.
We've
traded "not allowed to chew things" for chew sticks so much that she
just keeps the chew stick in her mouth most of the time now to keep from
being tempted to chew the "not allowed to chew things".
No matter which way you look at it, the chew stick has become a terrific distraction for her. We've learned that she was merely doing a puppy play aggression and it was in no way a growling, vicious biting or any other bad behavior. She was just trying to get our attention by "mouthing" and nipping at me.
She is back to being that sweet little puppy that we were looking for when we adopted her. Our first week, she didn't trust us and once I found out she was a shepherd mix, I didn't trust her. But we both put ignorance aside; her by giving up her aggressive root digging and me by not labeling her an aggressive dog by virtue of breed only.
She still has her moments of disobeying. Like in this photo when I said, "Walk." She just sat there and looked away. We've come leaps and bounds over the weekend though. I can honestly say that ninety percent of the time she listens. For being four months old and being difficult to handle at 35 pounds, she is an excellent dog.
The comfort of knowing that she has now bonded with us, makes training much more enjoyable for Banjo and for us.
Banjo was so calm over the weekend that Mi Miguel and I finished the exterior painting. After an entire week of adjusting, our home has become Banjo's home. Banjo's freshly and completely painted home.
This week the goal is to keep reinforcing what we've been learning and to visit the beach trail a few times this week. She has been a wild ass monkey the last few times we tried to take her. Socializing with other dogs is a good thing for her and for me. This too we will baby step until we both feel comfortable with it.
Now that she is trusting us more, we're going to attempt to give her a bath this week. Come Thursday, I'll blog about how that all went.
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This happened four days ago: Well we jumped a huge hurdle today. Even though we don't have a fence yet, I had her in the back yard with a leash. I let the leash handle go because she does really well staying close by my side while sniffing the grass and looking for lizards. First thing in the morning she is very rambunctious. Before I knew it she darted off into the next door neighbor's front yard. I didn't dare chase her. I called her by her name but she is still trying to get used to being called Banjo. She ignored me.
I did my Indiana thing and made the "AET" noise through my nose and mouth. It stopped her for a minute but then she heard dogs barking and ran towards the street. She stood in the middle of road and tried to figure out where the barking dogs were and what she should do next. I called her name again. She turned and looked at me. This was progress because she acknowledged that she recognized her name.
Part of me wanted to run, chase her down and grab her leash to stop her but I knew that it would forever be a game to her. I started to walk inside the house to get a piece of hot dog or some other tasty lure to coax her back into the yard. But again, I stopped myself. I knew it would start the game of running off just to get a special treat.
There she stood in the middle in the road waiting to see what I would do and still trying to figure out which way to run. Because the garbage truck and the recycle truck were both collecting refuse on our street, it made her even more confused as to what to do next. Even though both trucks were many houses down, the noise kept her from focusing on the barking dogs and unfortunately on me.
Watching her stand there smack dab in the middle of the road, I knew it was a pivotal training moment for both of us. For her, it was a defining moment of whether or not she would allow me to be the alpha. For me, it was a defining moment of whether I should panic and go ahead and chase her down and then deal with the consequences of her constantly running off every chance she got so she could lure me into a game of ridiculous "catch me if you can." Or, should I own this moment and take a chance by commanding and demanding that she follow me.
There we were at a stale mate. Her watching me stand by the front corner of our house and me watching and waiting for her to make a run for it. I called her name again firm but not angry or hateful. , "Banjo." She looked at me, I turned and walked along the side of our house, She couldn't see me. "Come!" I commanded her as I continued to walk at a confident pace. I've worked diligently with her the last three days. This was the moment that would determine how much she respected me as her alpha.
Within seconds she came full throttle running up the driveway and around the house. She is only four months old with gangling long legs and huge paws, very much a clumsy puppy. Without turning around and looking at her, I commanded her, "Heel!" I've been drilling this word into her to keep her from walking ahead of me. It worked! She stopped running and fell in behind me and walked at my pace. I didn't grab for the leash just yet. I wanted her to know that I trusted her to stay by my side.
Standing now in the back yard, I slowly and gently picked up her leash. I petted her and said, "Good girl." She turned her mouth into her awkward puppy smile and accepted any and all praises that I would be willing to give her. Yes, she is a good girl.
So far, I've been training her without any treats. I praise her for her good behavior and admonish her and then ignore her for misbehaving. She is a Cur and after reading up on this breed, I've found that they are eager to listen and willing to learn. This particular breed loves to please their master. Of course, it takes a lot of training, a lot of dedication and a lot of repetition and a lot of consistency but she really does want to learn to please.
Yesterday was a rough day with trying to get her to walk on the beach trail and hoping that she would be well behaved enough to take her to the actual beach to frolic in the water. But she isn't ready. She also lowered her hind quarters in hopes to pee on my dining room rug yesterday. Mi Miguel and I both caught her. Just as she lowered herself, I shrieked to high heavens scaring her back into a standing position. I immediately took her outside to her favorite potty spot. She peed, I praised her. This morning I took her out for her first thing in the morning pee. A few hours later she went to the door to let me know she had to go potty. Because she was caught in the act, she now gets it. We don't pee on the floors, ever.
Today, with her choosing me over running free, made me realize that she loves being with us and she is catching on and learning our ways as we learn her ways. Banjo has a vet appointment today. Hopefully all goes well and they find
her to be in good health. She seems happy and healthy to us. I sure hope she is because we're getting incredibly attached to our sweet girl.
It's been four days, like I said since I drafted this post. We've been to the veterinarian and found out that she is most likely Black Mouth Cur and Malinois mix. Oh my what a combination this is turning out to be. We are having a difficult time getting her to calm down. It looks like puppy training classes are up next.
