On Saturday, without getting into too much detail let's just say I had a loud episode. I guess it's just one of the ways my depression expresses itself. Something tiny and annoying becomes the straw that breaks the camel's back (to use a horribly overused metaphor—please accept my apologies) and the energy has to go somewhere. About the healthiest thing I do during one of these is to scream bloody murder into a pillow or blanket, which is what happened.
Well, Kaline got completely terrified by this. I'm fairly certain it's not the first time this has happened since I got him 6+ months ago, but it's the first time he reacted like this. When I had collected myself, Kaline had run to the top of the stairs and was lying there unhappily. Whenever I'd get him down into the family room (where I'd had the episode), he'd walk around in a crouch, not want me to touch him, and not want to come away from his corner where he used to have timeouts for inappropriate barking. He wouldn't take treats from me. He wouldn't do any of his little tasks that usually get him pumped up.
I was totally heartbroken seeing him like that. I was convinced I'd wrecked our bond forever, even though the whole thing was about me being mad at myself, not at him. Thankfully, I have wonderful friends, especially Sonja. She assured me he'd live, just ignore him till he got over it—and then even made me videos so I could see the kind of loudness to practice with him in order to desensitize him.
An hour or so after the episode, Kaline seemed a bit more normal. When I asked him and Juno if they wanted to go out, they both ran briskly downstairs to get their jackets and leashes put on. He was great on the walk, and then when we got home, he and I had a lovely, gleeful roughhousing session, with Juno egging Kaline on whenever he flagged. I was very relieved to see he was fine.
We tried working on loudness Sunday—while the Republicans were repeating “The problem is spending cuts” like broken records on the morning news programs. Perfect, I thought. Oh shit, thought Kaline. He was fine when I was loud with a deep(ish) voice, but when I made my voice a bit high, suddenly he got that look back on his face—huge scared eyes, ears flat back, etc. He came out of it so much faster, because when I saw the scared face, I immediately switched gears and we played Up-Down, did touch, did high five/other hand, and then opened the fridge and various cupboards. We finished up with a snuggle and all was well.
Loudness desensitization: another daily exercise to add to our list. Soon it'll be just as ho-hum as the "naughty bad dog" exercises that Sonja and I do with Kaline and Chief, where we pretend to be drunk or rude people being nasty to the dogs.
Showing posts with label scary people. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scary people. Show all posts
09 January 2013
19 November 2012
Our Sunday
Kaline had another mostly excellent Sunday. We walked downtown with him in his vest, which is not the usual way of things but turned out to be a good idea. On the corner of Santa Cruz, we ran into a barefoot man who seemed ... off. I did what I do with Juno when I feel very wary of a person—I told Kaline "break" when we got to the corner, instead of making him sit beside me. That way his back wouldn't be to this man, and he could move around.
Kaline made a circle around me, and then just stood staring at this guy. For all I know, it could have been his regular, "A new person! Do you want to be FRIENDS?!" look that he does to a lot of people. But anyway, it made me feel better. And then the guy asked to pet Kaline, and I was so grateful he had his vest on, because I could say, "No, he's working right now."
Which sent the guy into a rant, yelling at me about how could I not know he's a dog lover, does my dog work for the government, something must be very wrong with me, etc. Luckily we got the walk signal right as the rant started and booked it across the street. I was panicking, bigtime.
As soon as I saw an empty chair outside Stacks, the restaurant on the corner, I plopped down in it and with the tiniest invitation, Kaline practically threw himself on me, paws on my shoulders, leaning his whole upper body into my chest. Such a good boy! Right at this time a veteran saw him and started telling me about this Paws For Purple Hearts program they have at the VA nearby, and how he's training a service dog. Which is awesome, don't get me wrong. Big yay for programs that train dogs for vets, because there aren't enough and the VA makes nothing easier.
But jeez, dude, you're training dogs to respond not just to physical problems but PTSD and other mental issues. And you see a baby SDIT clearly doing a task ... maybe not the best time to try and engage the handler in conversation. I did the best I could responding, because I knew he meant well, but still.
Once Kaline had calmed me down, we headed off to the Farmer's Market. It was the first time in a long time we didn't have to deal with pets in there—so nice. Kaline did good blocking, didn't pull as much, paid attention, etc. He was not as good in the bagel place, where he was very antsy for the first ten minutes or so before settling down. It was kinda tight quarters, so at one point he was down but blocking the tiny aisle. This kid had to get through and just stepped right over him—sometimes I love kids! Cause Kaline stayed perfectly still and it was nice practice.
Trader Joe's went really well. We were in the meat and cheese aisles and he showed no interest in sniffing anything. He did a little bit of blocking in line, even though it was again a very tight space and there was another person right next to him that he was keeping away from me.
Later in the evening, we had a bunch of tiny fridge sessions. (Kaline also amused himself at times by just opening and closing cabinets.) Kaline got the fridge door unsealed (he doesn't quite open it the way Juno does, to the point where you can reach in, but it's early) twice all by himself. I worked with Juno on retrieving metal objects (in this case, a butter knife). She hates to have metal in her mouth so it's an ongoing thing. She could get the knife off the bed, but had a harder time getting it off the rug or the floor. She did fine retrieving my keys, because they have two leather strips (from BLD!) as keychains.
I'm not going to be hard and fast about the one task per week resolution. I'd rather get Kaline's fridge-opening skills to be very reliable before we move on.
Kaline made a circle around me, and then just stood staring at this guy. For all I know, it could have been his regular, "A new person! Do you want to be FRIENDS?!" look that he does to a lot of people. But anyway, it made me feel better. And then the guy asked to pet Kaline, and I was so grateful he had his vest on, because I could say, "No, he's working right now."
Which sent the guy into a rant, yelling at me about how could I not know he's a dog lover, does my dog work for the government, something must be very wrong with me, etc. Luckily we got the walk signal right as the rant started and booked it across the street. I was panicking, bigtime.
As soon as I saw an empty chair outside Stacks, the restaurant on the corner, I plopped down in it and with the tiniest invitation, Kaline practically threw himself on me, paws on my shoulders, leaning his whole upper body into my chest. Such a good boy! Right at this time a veteran saw him and started telling me about this Paws For Purple Hearts program they have at the VA nearby, and how he's training a service dog. Which is awesome, don't get me wrong. Big yay for programs that train dogs for vets, because there aren't enough and the VA makes nothing easier.
But jeez, dude, you're training dogs to respond not just to physical problems but PTSD and other mental issues. And you see a baby SDIT clearly doing a task ... maybe not the best time to try and engage the handler in conversation. I did the best I could responding, because I knew he meant well, but still.
Once Kaline had calmed me down, we headed off to the Farmer's Market. It was the first time in a long time we didn't have to deal with pets in there—so nice. Kaline did good blocking, didn't pull as much, paid attention, etc. He was not as good in the bagel place, where he was very antsy for the first ten minutes or so before settling down. It was kinda tight quarters, so at one point he was down but blocking the tiny aisle. This kid had to get through and just stepped right over him—sometimes I love kids! Cause Kaline stayed perfectly still and it was nice practice.
Trader Joe's went really well. We were in the meat and cheese aisles and he showed no interest in sniffing anything. He did a little bit of blocking in line, even though it was again a very tight space and there was another person right next to him that he was keeping away from me.
Later in the evening, we had a bunch of tiny fridge sessions. (Kaline also amused himself at times by just opening and closing cabinets.) Kaline got the fridge door unsealed (he doesn't quite open it the way Juno does, to the point where you can reach in, but it's early) twice all by himself. I worked with Juno on retrieving metal objects (in this case, a butter knife). She hates to have metal in her mouth so it's an ongoing thing. She could get the knife off the bed, but had a harder time getting it off the rug or the floor. She did fine retrieving my keys, because they have two leather strips (from BLD!) as keychains.
I'm not going to be hard and fast about the one task per week resolution. I'd rather get Kaline's fridge-opening skills to be very reliable before we move on.
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