8 State Hurricane Kate

Cay still has problems with peeing in the house, partly due to submissive nerves and partly because she has mostly been crated when inside. I don’t think she’s had much run of the house with anyone yet. She is still mostly crated while inside here too because I don’t have her fully integrated with Bandit and don’t want her to pee in the house every time something scares her. I usually let the boys out first, then get her to go out. She won’t always come when I call her or say “cmon”, although sometimes she does. So I need to grab her by the collar or snap the leash on and bring her near the door while I put my mud boots on. No matter how careful I am, she often pees when I bend over her to put the leash on. She’s doing well outside with the boys, except when she gets to the door (where Bandit has picked on her in the past) or feels cornered. When coming back in, I put the boys in a sit stay in the middle of the deck and let her in first so that I can get her cleaned off and in her crate before I let them in. This upsets the pack order somewhat, since Bandit always wants to push through first. But I think it helps to reinforce with him that he has to go by my rules with respect to Cay.

When Cay first came here, I could tell that she wasn’t used to being alone. She had always been around other dogs. She has been sleeping in her crate in the living room at night here. Last night I brought an extra crate into the bedroom and let her sleep in there with us.

Yesterday we had sideways sleet for much of the day—winter was back! Today things have dried out a bit. We went out for a walk/run in the pen and she did well with the boys. They usually play with the jolly balls and other balls for most of the time, then at some point drop the balls and chase each other full speed down the length of the field and tumble around together. Today when the boys took off, Cay took off in hot pursuit. Her legs are longer than theirs and she’s lighter. I think she could outrun them both if she wanted to. All three of them ran the length of the pen and then the boys wrestled each other while she stood by. Then they took off again and raced back. She’s starting to join in more, yet easily yields to Bandit, which is good. She chases him when I throw his ball and sometimes tries to grab it from him. Then he growls and she backs off. I think it’s become a game for them.

Cay has learned to run up the hill with the boys (inside the chute) when I open the gate. But when we come back from the pen, I’ve had to catch her and put the leash on. She hasn’t learned to come to me consistently and is scared when I try to catch her. Well, today I followed the boys back down the hill and gave her the chance to follow. This time she followed us back on her own and even went through the gate without spooking. We’re seeing progress and I’ll be glad for the day when she no longer pees when I bend over her.

Tomorrow we go to the vet. I want him to check Cay over, including her ears, back end (which is loose), and ask him whether her tail has been docked so short as to possibly give her nerve issues. Christa (a vet tech friend) told me that sometimes when tails are docked too short, incontinence can result.

Cay has been warming up to me when I give her time loose in the house with Chase. She loves to be petted now, even though she used to be hand shy.

Chase tried to play with her out in the back yard this evening. She’s not so sure about the one-on-one play yet (other than running/chasing), but she’s thinking about it. She also came to me outside this evening when I patted my leg and called her and faced the direction I was going to go (away from her). She shies away more when I call her and look her in the eye. But she wants to come and be a part of everything the boys and I do now. She’s developing more courage every day.

Posted on April 27th, 2008 Filed under: Cayenne/ Zulu