Lola is settling in. I thought the honeymoon period lasts just 2 weeks, but it seem for Lola it was more like 2 months.
After the first month, she began to growl and act up when she saw other dogs while on leash — sometimes. My solution, so far, has been to have her do a sit stay and watch me, hopefully trying to get her before she goes ballistic — although sometimes there’s little warning.
One person suggested that a down stay would be even better, as it’s a less dominant stance, but alas, she doesn’t have a down stay yet. I can’t get her to down on cue, yet, which is puzzling, since she learned most cues relatively quickly. It’s not that she’s balking; it just seems she still doesn’t understand what I’m asking for.
Another person said they went through a very similar situation with their rescue dog, who was 21 months when they got him. They did what we’re doing, but in addition, also make a sound to try to distract him before he’s out of his comfort zone, so I’ve incorporated that, too. They said it took about a month, but he’s now mostly over the behavior.
Lola actually seems to be getting worse instead of better, but I’m hoping that it’s what’s called an extinction burst — or perhaps she’s still just trying to test her boundaries.
Further proof that she’s settling in: my husband discovered the ends of his shoelaces had been chewed off his sneakers. Since Chester has never done this, we’re assuming it was Lola — although she doesn’t get a whole lot of freedom, so it’s puzzling when she’s managed to do this.
Today I was letting her roam around, after she’d gone outside, when I heard some odd noises. I went to investigate, and in trotted Lola, with the aforementioned sneaker in her mouth. She’s been here 2 1/2 months, and never even looked at a shoe before! 5 minutes later she came in with one of my shoes. We often have to switch outside shoes for inside shoes when it’s wet outside or dewy, so we do have a variety of shoes out by the back door.
Finally, she’s also begun to dig holes outside. Pretty deep ones, too.
Even though Lola is 1 year old and Chester is 14 months, maturity-wise, Lola reminds me strongly of Chester as a little puppy. Chester did many of the same things: he dug holes, he would drag my shoes around (but luckily didn’t eat them).
However, while Lola can occasionally get mouth, she is not the piranha dog Chester was as a puppy. She is much, much better in her crate than he ever was (or probably will be), even occasionally going in for a nap all on her own. And while she sometimes won’t settle down during the day, she’s pretty good about relaxing at night now — assuming she got enough exercise during the day.
I still believe, that given time, she’ll become just as excellent a dog as Chester has become.
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