Week 10: Cody Goes To School
‘A wizard is never late’ but I sure am. I fell behind on my diary writing this weekend. I hope you can forgive me, as you can imagine a lot of my preoccupation was caused by the subject of this diary who is now calmly lying next to me on the sofa waiting for his morning walk. Calmly is a fairly strong word for burning a hole into the side of my head with his unrelenting eyes. We will go for our morning walk as soon as I finish writing this. This sentence in itself is a solid cool proof of how far we have come with Cody. He is not pestering me to play and is clearly not having a big issue holding his bladder for a little while longer. It’s too early for his walk. He doesn’t realise that none of his friends will be at the park yet so I am actually doing him a solid.
This week has been a pretty busy one. Let me start from Sunday with a big playdate with Ziggi. Cody loved making a new friend and enjoyed chasing Ziggi up and down the court we booked to make sure they had safe space to run around in off lead. We saw a couple more doggies that Cody loved meeting too and we were buzzing on the way back. Unfortunately, on the way back, just outside our building I missed something in the road, most likely broken glass because I looked down and saw my sweet boy limping. When you have had a dog for a while you can instantly notice changes in behaviour or movement. He hid it very well though.
For a moment I thought my eyes were fooling me until I got him to sit in the lobby and had him lift and show his paws (thank you, cooperative care). I noticed a cut at the top of his right pad. It had not been deep, thank goodness, but the skin was still partially attached and it was obvious he was in some degree of discomfort. As someone who is always so alert, especially in my area of London which has pavements made of broken glass, wires and chicken shop bones, I could not help but beat myself up for not preventing this from happening. I felt so responsible for not protecting my sweet Cody from this injury and I did everything I was taught and told to do in my first aid training.
Cody did not dwell on his minor injury as long as I did, he had other business to attend to in the afternoon. When I came back from running my puppy class, we headed over to my sister’s house which features all Cody’s favourite things: a boy, a cat, toys and a lady that sneaks him secret fridge ham (my sister). I was so impressed how quickly Cody and Jo (my nephew) became fast friends. For a pup that hasn’t napped all day with a cut paw he kept up with a nine year old and managed to steal my sister’s slippers - while she was wearing them. The paw cut has inevitably cancelled our plan to the seaside on Monday. We did however go out for a cup of coffee and sat in the sun at the local caf with Cody’s auntie Harriet.
It turned out to be just as neat as a beach walk. I was very happy to see Tristan and Cody getting into the groove with frisbees. We’re beginning to tap into that Entlebucher drive and it’s so exciting. I have started teaching Cody foundations for Treiball which Tilly only got into just before she turned two so unfortunately we never got a chance to advance into the proper sport itself. He is doing very well and still needs a lot of motivation and guidance but this week we will graduate to the large ball pushing and that is a big progress. We are being coached by a professional in Czechia so Cody is all set up for success if I do my part right. He has all the makings of a Treiball dog.
In other highlights, Cody has become a true goofball of an Entlebucher. Whenever he is asked to go out by one human, he runs to the other person and cuddles up to them on the sofa. His unyielding desire to meet all the other dogs in the universe has not decreased and he howls his face off over every dog he doesn’t get to meet. It’s OK though the adolescent dog in him wants to check out the local dating pool and see who has the ‘good stuff’. It’s a lot being a boy dog of six months and as stressful it can be, I remind myself that a lot of people I know and work with have to experience similar challenges with their dog on a day to day basis.
The difference is we can support Cody through it, ensuring he has lots of positive encounters while waiting out the hormone storm inside him. His reactions to other dogs is not founded in fear and negative history which is what many people have to work on with their dogs day in and day out. It’s an incredibly challenging place to be. Owners of dogs that have needs that exceed regular dog owner’s expectations and capacity need to be given more grace and understanding. There are shelters full of dogs that have been surrendered or just let go because people did not have the strength, resources or time to give their dog that additional support.
There are dogs like Holly at All Dogs Matter, who has been returned from foster repeatedly because the people had one picture built in their head about her before she came home with them and that picture has been erased by reality upon arrival. I love groups and movements such as Barking Up The Right Tree, which are formed to support the guardians of these dogs so they do not feel alone and can embrace and empower owners to become their dog’s Wonderhuman. Compassion is what some ‘trainers’ lack. If there is one thing I would like to lay out for owners of dogs who need more space, less human or dog interaction, it is this: do not work with someone who pushes you and your dog into discomfort and makes you feel like you or your dog failed.
A good behaviourist or trainer will acknowledge both your journeys and offer to be your guide, not a conversion camp counsellor. Speaking of great trainers, my favourite part of this week was on Friday when I got to take Cody as a puppy volunteer to the Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy Instructor course. I passed this course last year and now I am running my own classes with this methodology which emphasises evolving foundations and understanding dog’s needs especially in fast paced overwhelming London. We attended the course as class students and from a trainer perspective, standing in as a dog owner with a pup like Cody who is not necessarily built for a class set up, I was learning as valuable a lesson as the future instructors in the course.
More often than not as trainers, we have a pup or two in class who struggle to focus, be it from distractions, tiredness or being overwhelmed. Standing on the other side of the class as an owner of a dog that was doing well but struggled to focus here and there for all the above reasons, I knew exactly what I wanted to hear to be put at ease. I felt instant relief when I was given guidance by trainer Tania, who ran the course. A good trainer will help you work from a place of trust and clarity. If a trainer tells you the course is not for your dog or that your dog ‘can’t hack it’, bin the trainer. Next!
I was shocked to read people’s experiences from the past where they have been made to feel awful because their dog was not as focused or progressing as well as the other dogs in the class. I even heard that people have been told to leave a course for those reasons. Excuse me? The show class we did with Cody was of course quite the contrary. As an owner I felt supported and as a trainer I felt inspired. When I try to be encouraging with humans in my class I aim to deliver the same reassurance when they appear disheartened and I hope they get to feel as validated as I did in the class with Tania on Friday.
I am wrapping up now having come back from our Sunday morning walk with Cody zooming up and down the flat after having played with doggies in the big park and enjoying a sneaky Puppuccino on the way back after a quick bus ride. I am off now to teach my own puppy class, boosted with extra motivation after Friday and I cannot wait to see what the new week brings for us and Cody. See you next week!