This book
collects my daily journal entries chronicling
my training sessions with Shadow, a human aggressive
Border Collie. My book starts with Shadow’s
less than wonderful homecoming and ends with Shadow
being confident, trusting and calm enough to attain
his Canine Good Citizen title.
How It All Started
There is no doubt in my mind that I am crazy. Who else but a crazy person would look at a Border Collie rescue site on the internet, email the contact person back and forth for weeks, ask all sorts of questions about one of the dogs, while telling herself the whole time she wasn’t really interested in the dog? Who else but a crazy dog person would make a firm decision not to take the dog, then drive four hours each way just to “go look at him,” all the while wondering, “Just what am I doing? I don’t want another dog!” So, here I am now, a crazy person with an
equally crazy dog. I am Pam Dennison, a dog trainer, and Shadow is my sixth rescue dog. I assumed, with a history of five dogs to my credit—all successfully rescued and rehabilitated—that I could quickly and easily turn this dog into the competitive obedience, agility and sheepherding dog that I wanted him to be.
Unbeknownst to me, I had a human-aggressive dog on my hands. I did not truly realize or comprehend the magnitude of the work, total dedication and commitment required to help him. I had been humbled by a forty-pound Border Collie.
This journal chronicles our struggles together, from recognition of the aggressive behavior to the painstaking efforts to turn Shadow into my dream dog: confident, calm, focused, and friendly. It is the story of taking him from a human-aggressive dog to passing his Canine Good Citizen test. I have included my actual journal entries as well as training concepts and comments on what I learned in hindsight as I went through this experience. You will see that I made quite a few mistakes, especially in the beginning of the retraining process. I could have, quite easily, edited out all of them to make myself look better, but that is not what this book is all about. The purpose of this book was not only to show the mistakes, but also to highlight them so that you might learn from my errors. Part of my intent is to demonstrate to you what does not work as well as what does when retraining an aggressive dog. I understand firsthand the denial, frustration and anguish that comes with living with an aggressive dog. I want you to know that I feel your pain, but there can be a light at the end of the tunnel.
Working with Shadow quite literally changed my entire life for the better. I started out my dog training career focusing on pet classes and competition obedience. The addition of Shadow has enriched my life, and my attention now includes working with aggressive dogs. There are days when I get so many calls for help with aggressive behaviors that it scares me and yet I am grateful that I am now able to help these people. It has made me a better trainer and a better person and I now hold aggressive dog classes and camps based on my work with Shadow.
Every night, I thank him for coming into my life.
If just one person learns from my successes, I will be pleased. If just one person learns from my mistakes, I will be overjoyed. And thus began the greatest adventure of my life. This is Shadow’s story...
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January 19, 2009
I just thought I would update everyone on Shadow's progress since 11/21/01 (the day he got his CGC). He now has his CD (3 runs, 3 legs, 3 placements - two 2nd places and one 3rd place), NA, NAJ (all 1st places), ARCHX, RL3 and TSW (Team Swim Certificate – Shadow (and my other BCs, Beau and Emma were the first of their breed to earn this title), Novice Head Submersion and Novice Single Retrieve and he has only 2 more QQs to get his ARCHEX. Shads is continuing to do well and still surprises me with his good behavior. He is starting to go blind (black film on his eyes), so I decided not to go on with his competition obedience career or agility (although I do still train for it). He is 9-1/2 years old now and still going strong and I am doing quite a bit of trick and freestyle training with him, although I refuse to dress up so will never compete. I did it once (with Cody) and I will never again appear in public in a poodle skirt! He is almost ready to get his TD (Tracking Dog Title) and I plan on doing that and then onto TDX and VST. He is an amazing tracker and it’s really cool to see him work.
In October 2008 I went to speak at the APDT conference in Australia and had to leave my dogs with my friends John and Cynthia in Ontario Canada (I live in NJ) for 10 days. To say I was completely and utterly stressed would be an understatement. I had never left my gang for that long and while I knew they would be fine and safe, me, being the worrier that I am, worried.
I did have some internet access and Cynthia sent me a few updates – a few strangers came to her sheep farm while my gang was outside and Shadow did NOTHING! Trick or treaters came and went and Shadow did NOTHING! A few of her friends came to the farm and Shadow jumped in their laps for petting!
Fast forward to 4 weeks ago, when I met the man of my dreams <giggle, giggle, blush, blush>. Not only was I nervous when meeting David, but very nervous about how he and Shadow would get along. For you all know, if it wasn’t good, I would not have been able to pursue this relationship. Within the first few hours, Shadow was madly in love with David! So much so, that 1.5 weeks later, I ended up in the ER and had to stay overnight in the hospital. David stayed at my house to care for the dogs and Shadow was fine! (he did muzzle punch David once, David asked him what he thought he was doing and Shadow went belly up all on his own and then they were all fine together!)
Fast forward another 2 weeks when we drove up to David’s house. Shadow didn’t bark at David when he heard his voice (Shads was in the crate at the time and is still crate aggressive) and in fact got all excited and raced into David’s arms! David can leash and unleash Shadow, cuddle with him, throw toys for him, touch the toy in his mouth, kiss him on the face and pick stuff up off the floor!
Fast forward to a few days ago – David’s daughter came over and within a few minutes, Shadow jumped in Sarah’s lap and she pet him and he was completely FINE!
I am reminded of what Ted Turner told me back in 2001 when Shadow got his CGC: "perseverance and positives do pay."
Yup :o)
March 18, 2009
So, easy come, easy go. David is no longer in my life - yeah I know, that was quick. Don't ask. (JERK...his loss).
But...I am heartened. For years after my divorce I thought a new relationship was going to be out of the question for me because of Shadow's aggression. Now I know that he can warm up to new people (and not only warm up but really like that person) much faster than he used to - as in a few hours (or even minutes in some cases) rather than the months he used to take. He seems to have completely turned that final corner. We were at the local park the other day. I had just let all of my dogs out of the van to play fetch. All of a sudden a person jogged by and I instantly called Shadow. It was a rare occasion, but he didn't come when I called. Shadow saw the man and chose to ignore him, wanting me to throw the ball instead. So, I did. Even though he didn't come, he didn't care about anything except interacting with me and I realized truly how far he has come.
So, while I may not trust him completely in 100% of life's situations, (let's face it, he will never be a Therapy Dog), the last two months have been a great learning experience for Shadow and for me.
