Dutch Shepherd Forum

This is a totally random thing I wanted to tell you guys to illustrate how awesome these dogs are! So H has this wound - lesion - injury - whatever you want to call it - where basically he ripped out his fur on his shoulder due to some irritation. He of course licked it, made it worse, was told to wear a cone, but he took that off, tried a muzzle, that came off too (two types), ate through gauze, licked bitter apple off his non-damaged fur, became addicted to zymox.... Basically nothing stayed on him. So as I was looking for a sweater to put him into, I decided to make him wear the Cone of Shame for the day as a SOMETHING to get him to stop licking.

Now H decided the only way to wear the cone was to stand still and stare at a wall for hours. So after some convincing I got him out the door and outside for a walk. Well let me tell you, he was a different boy. I fully expected him to be freaked out, turning every which way to see everything, and totally ready to rumble with any poor soul that happened by us; I wouldn't blame him since he had a cone on his head. Instead I had a dog that walked willing by my side, bashed into objects and would look at me to ask, "what was that? I don't need to be worried right?", shoved his head into the ground to smell things, and generally relied on me to watch his back while he figured out how to maneuver with the Cone of Shame around his head. It was the total opposite of my usual vibrant "let's go everywhere OMG there's a person - oh okay you said he was fine" little bodyguard. I could see that he was clearly placing his trust in me; he wouldn't react to a strange noise, not even to look at it, if I didn't make a move or a noise about the noise, if I encouraged him after he got bumped by invisible (to him) trees he would keep going without startling or shying away, and he didn't even blink when several joggers, kids on scooters (his favorite type of not-prey-but-it-is item), and an old lady trying to pet him came up. You could tell with every step he took he was placing his trust in me and didn't mind or doubt it. At a time when he was at a disadvantage, and knowing how much he hates being at a disadvantage, he made it seem like him giving full control to me while he just existed was just natural. It was a very rare and humbling glimpse into how much these dogs value us as handlers and how much trust they place in us. They may never show it, or do so in bizarre ways, but they value us as much as we value them. Love these guys!

That speaks to your endless work with him, Kira.

An atta-boy to Mr. H, too.

Ditto what Sharon said!!!!

That is an incredible story. It is amazing how much they trust us. On that note, I have noticed that when me and Xander are out and about and something new pops up, a noise or strange object he looks at me as to ask "is that ok momma, is it nice". He will look at the object and back at me. Once I tell him "it's ok, it's nice" he is fine and we keep going. I do the same when people come to the house. I let him bark and growl until I see who it is and then I say "it's ok, they are nice" and he stops. So evidently the do trust us alot.

Thor, as you know, is hyper-vigilant, reactive, blah-blah. We have a retired neighbor who snow blows our drive and the walk along the front of the house if the husband's at work, and he bundles up like the Michelin Tire Man, including a HUGE hood that juts out a few inches past his face, which you can't see.

I get in front of the window and give Thor the sign to get up on my arm. When he sees this apparition amid flying snow and the loud waaaaaaaaaaa of the snow blower, I say, "It's Uncle Gary."

Oh. Okay.

He doesn't even tense up or want to keep his eye on the intruding apparition. Mom says it's Uncle Gary. Okay.

It took a lot to get there, and it's really not prize-winning behavior...except for Thor, it is.

Raven wrote:
It took a lot to get there, and it's really not prize-winning behavior...except for Thor, it is.

Umm..yeah it sure is prize-winning behavior!! When Tyson hit 2 he went from "OHMYGOSHILOVEALLPEOPLE!!!" to "I'm pretty sure it's my job to protect this place called 'home' (which includes yard and truck)." It has taken a lot of work for me to get to the point that he will allow workmen in the house. Of course, the training was fun, because I told everyone coming into the house that we were using them as training. So there was me and this stripey beast with full-fledged "hair puff" going on accompanied by gutteral growls following them all over the house and yard. 'twas funny stuff. Needless to say, I never have to worry about workmen casing my house and coming back...LOL.