Banjo, Chaos Or Companion

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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