Rylee Gretta

     Its Memorial Day Weekend and yesterday, Saturday was gorgeous. I took the dogs to Fiesta Island to relax and to play. When I got there, I realized this wasn’t exactly going to be relaxing. It was packed. When I am in the mood to help introduce Rylee to dogs, I will bring her to the fenced in dog park, but I wanted to sit on a towel by the water and toss the tennis ball for Rylee and a stick for Bean.

     We found a section that was fairly open and I parked the car and quickly let the dogs out. I knew it would soon fill in and we had a little bit of beach to walk before it did. And how the sun felt so great.

Saturday Rylee and I got up early to go to her dog training class. We got there a bit before it started, and a conversation between me and one of the owners, Lisa started. She is pro the raw food diet for dogs and was telling me about it and showed me the freezer full of ready to go raw food instead of the typical kibble. I wasn’t sold on it, but I was interested. Lisa said the dogs bowl movements should be smaller, eye boogers less, skin healthier, and improved mental health (low energy dogs more energetic, hyper dogs more calm and alert).

(By the way Rylee was more confident and comfortable at training. Usually we sit in the corner behind some chairs so she can feel safe and separated from the group of dogs and Saturday I sat in the chair and Rylee didn’t have the chairs separating us. She was able to relax for the majority of the hour and we got an oppurtunity to practice “leave it” when it comes to another dog. Since it was a small dog, Rylee was fine with it and her “leave it” looked terrific. Later in the day when other dogs tried it some more, going around in the group, Rylee did growl a little at a golden-doodle who came a little too close to where we were sitting. They were practically nose to nose which is also an instigating hello. I’m excited because I think the owner of the golden doodle wants Rylee to like his dog, and if she gets a chance to understand the golden doodle is safe she will, and it will be one more dog that is a friend. That will make it 5 dogs down and a world of dogs to go).

This morning I did some research. Seems as though dogs have survived for centuries eating chicken bones and its a myth that we can’t feed it to them. Thing is we just need to make sure we feed it to them raw. The cooked bones are the ones that are brittle and can puncture their stomachs. And simply empathically, I would hate eating dry kibble everyday that doesn’t even resemble the food parts it came from.

So after our evening walk at the beach, I stopped by the butcher. Six pounds of frozen chicken necks, 1 pound of chicken liver, 1/2 a dozen of cow marrow bones and a flank steak for myself, we were pulling away and I was ready to try our first evening of raw.  As I prepared the vegetables for my dinner, I put some chopped carrots aside for the dogs, and a small clove of garlic for each of them (too much is toxic, but a small amount repels fleas) and let the chicken necks and livers defrost in a sink full of water.

Halfway through I got impatient and decided to give them the marrow bones which were not frozen together and could defrost much faster. So against the warnings I read, I gave them 2 different proteins (beef and chicken) in one evening.  I rationalized that bones are supposed to stir up the dogs digestive juices, so if their systems aren’t used to the solmonella and e.coli then this would help them digest.

The dogs happily did tricks (sit and lay down) to get their bones. While they were chewing, enough of the chicken necks defrosted to give them some and some liver. I mixed 2 necks and 1 liver with the carrots and the garlic and some of the steak (cooked) that I had made for myself. Rylee devoured the chicken necks like it was what she did before she came to me (and who knows what she ate on the street, she very well may have). Bean on the other hand was totally into the marrow bone, ate the steak and a carrot piece or two and totally turned her nose up to the chicken necks. 

Bean is the dog who finds dead seagulls on the beach and rolls in them, the dog who finds bones on the beach she shouldn’t eat (and old sandwhiches) and this dog who will eat anything wasn’t into the chicken??? I can’t believe it. I’m not sure if its because the beef was more appealing to her or if she only likes my cooked food and raw isn’t her thing. She left it there and went back to eating her bone, and Rylee ate her chicken.

Curious to see if Rylee has bones in her poo tomorrow (4 chicken necks later) or if her digestive system is already used to this from her time on the street. I will try to remember to update the blog and let you know if her bowel movements shrink, occasional blemishes go away, if her eye boogers become less constant and if there is any change in her personality. Exciting new day!

Met up with Jessica, Kelsey, Taylor and their dogs: Maya and Odie today. I took Bean and Rylee to meet up with them at Jessica’s house. While they were finishing getting ready inside, I let Bean and Rylee out (Rylee on leash) to see if they needed to go to the bathroom before our hour plus road trip. While we were doing this, the girls let Maya (a black lab mix) out of the house and she went running up to Bean excited to say hello, and then to Rylee. Rylee, very defensively (she doesn’t like unfamiliar dogs charging at her, she thinks she is going to get attacked) growled and lunged at her. Because she was on my leash and Maya is dog savvy and unaggressive, nothing happened.

But what kind of a start of the hike is this? Rylee has seen Maya and Odie on two other occasions. The first time was at Fiesta Island right before Rylee had her “relapse.” She was running around and greeting all of the dogs, free of anxiety and having a blast. Maya seems to remember this fun time with Rylee and runs up to say hello whenever we see her. The second time we saw her was at Balboa Park, we went for an “urban hike” (a trail with the freeway on one side and some woods on the other). This was right after Rylee’s relapse. She was growling at Maya and Odie at first, but was okay after 15 minutes and was able to run up and down the trail with Maya without any problems and Odie (a small hotdog mix breed) stayed on his leash. From these other two experiences and from being familiar with their dogs and knowing they aren’t interested in any sort of aggression, my anxiety for these experiences is less than other experiences (such as the canine class we did on Saturday morning. Rylee I am proud to say was much less anxious this week while we were there).

Anyway, Kelsey got in my car and Jess, Tay and their two dogs got in Jess’s car and we went up north to meet another friend at a mall. Stopping at the mall and waiting for the friend, I took a minute to have Rylee look at their dogs and clicker train. Meaning, when she sees the dog, I click and treat. This communicates to her that looking at a dog in a non-aggressive way is the desired behavior and it also changes her emotional reaction to dogs. Its hard to be aggressive when you are getting a delicious treat every time you see a four- legged, furry, tailed creature. After an hour or so of driving and Bean and Rylee getting excited for cow smells and smells as we past the Wild Animal Park, we finally arrived. It was a little past 1. Alysa and her friend Ron were waiting for us, and we all began to get out our gear. I grabbed my backpack and put the dogs in theirs. I do this for 4 reasons: 1) Bean and Rylee are both working dogs, so giving them a job increases their self esteem by giving them purpose 2) it is great conditioning training 3) why should I carry their water, treats, water bowl, and poo bags, and 4) a working dog is less likely to be aggressive.

While Bean and Rylee were getting saddled up in the trunk of my Jeep, Maya and Odie ran by twice. Rylee looked at Maya, and I said in my best positive Mom voice “Good girl Rylee, see the puppy?” When Odie ran up to us, Rylee was already wearing her sack and she gave Odie a growl (the working thing is not fool proof). I think I jerked her away a little bit, and that was the only correction. By the time we got out of the parking lot and towards the trail head, Maya passed Rylee in her space about 3 times and Rylee had no reaction. Rylee went and sniffed right next to Odie and was fine. After 2 minutes of having the dogs on trail, both my dogs were also let off the leash and running with Maya and Odie like it was nothing. Success! As we walked we saw several other people walking back from the falls and carrying their small dogs. They would joke about how its hard to get places with short legs. It never occurred to me that it could be something else, like the unplanned bummer.

The trail is in Julian, a desert, and it is June 6. It was about 92 degrees out there. Bean kept hiding in and out of the bushes trying to get as much shade as she could, but there was none. The trail is on the side of a mountail and the sun beats down on you and dirt path you are working at. At one point Bean ran up next to me and started doing a whimper dance. I thought “was she bitten by something while she was hiding in the bushes” and I started to look at her legs for bite marks. As we walked farther and farther, Bean started refusing to leave the Bushes and I thought “geez, if she was bitten by a rattle snake, I can’t have her walking and spreading the venom” so we stopped and I sat beside her to look.

Then it dawned on me. Bean hid in the bushes when we went on 4 hour hikes in San Diego when she got too hot. She was overheating! So I took off her back pack and continued walking down trying to catch up with our group. She would go a little ways and then hide in the bushes. Then I looked at Rylee who was also huffing and puffing and after a while I took off her pack as well. Then Rylee started hiding in the bushes. They were refusing to go any farther. I gave them water and dumped it on their bodies, but they still would not budge. I wondered if they had known there was a beautiful waterfall and ice cold water only a mile further downhill, if they would have gone, but they refused. The group was getting much farther ahead of us now, so I tried to call them to tell them I was going to have to turn back. No answer. I felt stuck between wanting to catch up with my friends and having dogs stuck in the bushes. To my luck, Kelsey and Jess doubled back to come help us.

They at first thought I should try and coax the dogs back down cause we were almost there, but I didn’t think we would ever be able to make it back up. They were really refusing to leave any bits of shade. And this is not how my dogs are. Rylee may ignore me to chase a rabbit because she gets into her zone, and Bean may ignore me if she is sniffing out gophers, but to fall this far behind the group is not something they do.

Then I realized their paws were burning from the hot dark sand/dirt on the ground. Jess at first thought we should try to go down with the group, and then she changed her mind when she saw the state my dogs were in (my dogs who get exercise everyday and Rylee who is a pitbull and doesn’t know how to stop running ever). I was afraid they were going to overheat. We started to walk back, which is all uphill and was much harder to do. It actually made me dizzy, and I wasn’t overheating going downhill.

So now there is Kelsey and Jess holding both dog back packs and me in the bushes trying to get undizzy while giving the dogs water to drink and rubbing it on them with a cloth so the water could get under their short fur. I wished I had a knife to cut the rag up and wrap it around their feet to protect the pads, but I couldn’t find it this morning when I was packing my things. We probably stopped every minute to catch our breaths. Up hill in this heat had us moving so slowly. I was nervous that I was going to be at the animal hospital with both dogs with 3rd degree burns on their paws and Rylee’s eyes looked puffy like she was getting her retina’s burnt. I am going to call Jess and Kelsey to see if I am being dramatic, but the dogs were so refusing to budge from the bushes and I was dizzy, that now I was wishing there was a ranger I could call who could carry my 50lb dogs the mile and a quarter back to my car.

 Eventually we made it and Rylee collapsed at the feet of a couple in the shade of a tree and Bean curled under a truck for more shade. Both were panting harder than I had ever heard them pant before. It was really scary. Especially for Bean, who is a little overweight, a little round by natural build, short stature and more of an eater than an exerciser (sometimes I wonder how she got to be Mike’s dog cause she sounds more like me). Anyway, I left the dogs in the shade with Jess and Kelsey and walked the rest of the way up the hill to get my car. I couldn’t even ask the dogs to do it again because I worried for their feet. I turned on the a/c and drove the car down to them. They hopped in like “get us the heck out of here” and I offered them more water. They panted for at least 40 minutes and I was still really worried about them. At one point I looked in the back seat and Rylee was sleeping and not responding to her name and I panicked, unsure if she had heat stroke or something (pits are known for overheating because of their short noses). Finally she stirred. I thought about taking them to Fiesta Island for a swim when we got back, but it was overcast and cool here and I wanted to cook dinner. We made it back the dogs turned out to be fine. For not being purse dogs, man these bitches come with a lot of gear. I’m going to add hiking booties to their accessories now for occassions like this.

     I woke up from a nap and called Corinne to see if she wanted to walk on the beach with me and the dogs. Sounds relaxing doesn’t it? I guess what makes a good con-artist is believing that it actually will be relaxing. Corinne agreed to come and met us at my house. 

     Then I saw Amanda is on facebook and thought 1) I need to see Amanda, I haven’t seen her in a long time and 2) Amanda has dogs! Lets get them together and work with Rylee and 3) it could be a win-win. Amanda works a ton too, so days she will have to work late, she can bring the dogs here and they dogs can have a play date, giving her dogs something to do and to get out of her back yard and Rylee can add some new puppy friends to her repertoire. 

      Corinne and I got to the beach first. We parked at a place where we had room and where there weren’t too many dogs around us. Amanda came shortly after and I put Rylee on the leash and she had her dogs on theres. Bean of course ran up to them and greeted them like it was nothing. Oh, how I long for the day that Rylee is able to do that. Amanda brought her dogs within a foot of us, and Rylee snarled and snapped at the dogs, particularly at the female basset. I did my usual, of rolling her over on her back. When she is scared, I don’t usually roll her over, but this growl it was hard to tell if it was a dominant aggression or a scared aggression, so I rolled her over just to be safe. She got the message.

      I didn’t want to end the encounter this way. So far there is nothing healing here.  So we took the dogs (Bean was free to run up and down the beach) and parallel leash walked with them for a bit, with me giving Rylee a treat every time she looked at the dogs. This helps warm her up to them and is doggy language for “I look at dog and get a treat, look at dog and get a treat, look at dog and get a treat” which eventually is learned to be “dog is good.”

     Bones (the boy) is more laid back and less in other dogs faces. Plus he’s just a boy and sometimes male and female dogs just get along better. But this of course is not good enough for me, I need Rylee to get along with all dogs, bitches included. To be able to go on a camping trip with me and my friends and their dogs and to be “normal.” Now of course she is “normal.” She is completely normal for having been through abuse and she is completely normal for almost being a bait dog/ dog fighter. From her history everything she has been through makes her normal. But now that she is with me, she needs to be “Lauren normal.”

     At one point of the day Rylee, Bones, and Bean were all sitting in a semi circle at my feet doing tricks for treats. Bones put his face right in Rylee’s and although she was uncomfortable, she let it happen. I told her she was a “good girl” and pushed Bones out of her face before he tested her comfort limit. But they sat there having some treats for awhile. Looking back on it, I should have invited Amanda to come over to us and be at the far end of the semi-circle with Lola (the female basset) with her. This would have helped Rylee get used to all of the dogs being together. But who knows, maybe one dog was enough. And besides, I believe its the weekend after next that she gets to be in a circle with 8 at her Canine Good Citizen class. 

     I let Rylee off the leash for a little while and Bones chased her as she chased the tennis ball. There was a moment where they came nose to nose and I said “good girl Rylee, thats a nice puppy” and they had a successful moment together. When Amanda was getting ready to take her dogs to the park (so they could run without Rylee worries) she had Lola and Bones on the leash and they were starting to do the “play bow” and Bean was starting to play with them. (Bean is not typically a huge play dog. Mike saved her at ten months old and she didn’t have much human contact or dog contact until he got her, so she is a little aloof). I love seeing Bean ready to play. Lola and Bones and Bean started to get tangled in the leashes and rolling around on the ground. Rylee was 50 feet away (off leash) and sniffing around. When she saw them playing, she actually had a moment of wanting to be involved and came dashing over. For a moment, she forgot her fears and jumped in the play. And then the moment was over. Rylee jumped back as if in shock that she was in the middle of rough housing with 4 dogs. I put the leash on her and told her she was a good girl, but got her out of there before she was overwhelmed.

     Amanda left with her dogs and Corinne and I walked up and down the beach for another hour or so. By the end of the day, Rylee got too tired to pick up her tennis ball and Bean had found all of the scraps of food on the beach she could it. Eventually, Corinne and I did get our relaxing walk.

What a busy day! I spent the day counseling a few teenagers at the high school and I thought 1pm would never come. When it did, I went straight to get fingerprinted for my other temporary job for the summer and then stopped by a few doggy places to market. The first one seemed like they were interested in expanding the business, but the second one, a dog wash said we could use her space, and now its official, tlc pet training can officially take off. (to see the website please visit http://tlcpettraining.webs.com )

After conducting some business, I went back to the house. I got there around 3:30 and decided not to rest for a moment but to grab the dogs and go straight to the beach. After rolling up my jeans and being equipped with the chuck it we began our walk. The beach was gorgeous and I was starting to be able to relax for my first time in a few days. Monday I worked 10 hours and Tuesday I worked 13, so I was completely burnt out from healing so many people and it made the calm of the beach all the more wonderful. It wasn’t 15 minutes into our walk that the phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number, and usually I don’t answer these, but today I did. It just so happened to be a job offer, and after speaking with her for awhile, we had no other time to meet but just then. So I quickly loaded the dogs back in the car, went home and got changed really quick. I called Mike to let him know I was only able to walk them for 15 minutes and went to my interview. 

After being offered this job (which now creates a conflict with the job I just got fingerprinted for and I don’t know which one) I called Mike to see where he was. He was with the dogs on their way to hike Tecolote Canyon. I ran home, re-changed into my 4th outfit today, now gym clothes so I could jog the hiking trail and meet up with them. When I got there, they were pretty close to the entrance and Mike was introducing Rylee to a Viszla that was being jogged next to his Mom while she rode her mountain bike.  

I learned this trick from Mike from observing him doing what he was doing here with Rylee and this new dog. He was in between both of them, petting the Viszla and telling Rylee it was okay. He was setting the tone and his body was between the dogs so Rylee felt safe. After a while, Rylee understands this is a nice dog and she will actually play with it without any problems. Some people may think when we do this that we are letting Rylee rely on our feelings too much, but 1) if we don’t do this she will lunge at the dog and 2) the more we do this the shorter the time is she needs us there when we introduce her to the dog. We do not want her to always be dependent on us like this, but for now it is a good transitional technique for us to use. 

We continued hiking and ran into two small chihuaha/terrier mixes that Rylee approached with a wagging tail and Bean absolutely adored them. Small dogs Rylee tends to be pretty good with because she doesn’t find them threatening. As we continued walking, we also came across a beautiful shepherd/husky mix that was jogging with his mom. This dog I thought for sure Rylee would not like. He was bigger and he was a german shepherd mix. Beautiful with a dark face and crystal blue eyes. (The dog psychic I went to last week said the scars on Rylee’s back right leg is from being bit when she was a stray from a German Shepherd and that she doesn’t like German Shepherds). And Rylee really doesn’t usually like German Shepherds.

Mike has a friend he goes dirt biking with who has a German Shepherd we call Beaker (I think his real name may be Milo) and Rylee hates him. She doesn’t bite him or anything, but she is constantly in his face snapping and acting weird. At first it seemed like she was giving him warnings, but then it sorta became intense testing of him to see if he was really going to ignore her. And he does. He doesn’t even give her weird dramatic dance a glimpse, he just goes on with his own business. 

So anyway, I was nervous when this dog was coming up to us, but trying to get my dominant “pack leader” energy up. But let me tell you something, when you are looking at a thin girl with a shepherd/husky mix walking towards you and it look like she is struggling to keep him under control, and it looks like she is trying because he has dog aggression its pretty hard to keep a dominant energy strong. This is where I am blessed to have Mike in my life. He is almost masochistic in how good he is at getting between 2 aggressive dogs and not flinching. 

And this is why Mike is so good. He crouched down and greeted the other dog and Rylee came running right up to his side, and put her face straight in the other dogs like it was nothing and she didn’t even flinch. 

I consider this day a huge success. Ever since her regression from the incident with the mean boxer, she has reverted back to not being confident with dogs. I still feel guilty for that incident, especially since she was pretty much healed from all her past trauma and a normal dog before this incident happened…