Poo Crisis

I think I’m going to need to create topic tabs. This post is a bit of a digression from the promises I made in my first post, about creating a place where I would share the myriad of health wisdom I’m hopefully acquiring. However, this is the most current event in my life that is serving to eclipse most other happenings at the moment.

Yesterday was full of poo. Lots and lots of it.

Backing up: Tilki, the year old Fox Terrier we adopted in May, and Andy do not get along. Sure, Tilki will sleep blissfully for hours on Andy’s lap, snuggle all night in his sleeping bag in the mountains, and run triumphantly around him at the dog park, but each evening, when Andy walks through the front door of our home, terror seizes Tilki. Terror that is worse with him than unknown visitors.

Tilki

It is beyond me why they continue to have so much difficulty after many months. We have tried different techniques to no avail: being gentle, being firm, giving attention, ignoring fear, tying dog to human, etc. Tilki is vivacious, bouncy, and all things a Fox Terrier should be during the day with me, but when afternoon rolls around she is a fearful, avoiding, shaking mess.

I have had enough of it. Nothing was working. So I enlisted the counsel of a professional behavioral trainer who visits the home… for a steep fee. But, by this point, I was willing to try a couple sessions for life at home to normalize. We had our first session on Monday night. The trainer reiterated what I already knew, but was at a loss of techniques to correct: for whatever reason, Tilki does not feel Andy has accepted her into the pack and is therefore fearful and doesn’t know what to do. He gave us some exercises to work on to help her feel acceptance and like she can meet Andy’s demands.

We also decided to address her incomplete potty training (no pooping on leash), which is also somewhat tied to her fear issues. What I have been doing works 95% of the time, but Tilki has occasional accidents when I want to be able to trust her all the time. It also is situational training, which doesn’t translate well to other locations, if we are not at home.

Tilki was to be left in the cage, unless we were training her, until she peed and pooed in the morning and then the pattern was to be repeated in the evening. I began yesterday morning with great confidence. This dog has beaten me before in the battle of wills over potty training, but I was sure this time I could hold out and be victorious. Besides, I had previously gotten her over her fear of peeing in front of people (assuming its in the AM and she really has to go). As usual, we had success in this area, though no poo was to follow. I did as instructed and visited the back yard with her every half hour or so for fifteen minutes at a time. Big breakfast = BM. Supposedly. After several repetitions I needed to leave for women’s group. I wished Tilki luck, as I would be gone for about three hours and figured surely, she would hold it. Can you guess where this is going?

I returned home and was greeted at the door by a powerful aroma. No, not only did she not hold it, but she also managed to flick chunks out of the cage, all over the carpet. I, as a responsible dog owner, took her outside and gave her every opportunity to relieve herself (as if she needed to anymore) before returning her ot her cage. In agitation, she paced her cage and occasionally whined. Again, we visited the yard. At this point I decided she was frustrated about being left in her cage during the day and needed to get over it.

All of this was making me stressed, so I went upstairs for about 45 minutes and worked out, hoping that not being in the room would show her she needed to relax and accept her fate for the next few days. When I came down, I was again greeted by poo. Again. Really! I’m not sure how it is possible. With dogs:

meal in = meal out

0 meals in = 0 meals out

I decided she was protesting and wanted her to experience the consequence of her actions. Of course, not wanting the mess in my house, her cage was relocated to the garage where she was required to wallow in the filth she created for the next two hours, till Andy got home. She was not happy and vocally informed me of this. That was good.

Upon arriving, Andy found me in the fetal position on the couch, ready to create a Craigslist post for a little white dog. After talking me down, he practiced his exercises with Tilki while I, again, cleaned poo from the cage and ran another load of laundry.

As it currently stands, Tilki’s cage has been reduced to half its size. I am waiting for breakfast to settle and we will be making attempt #2 of the day. This dog WILL poop on the leash for me. When she does there will be much rejoicing and less fetal rocking.

The trainer has assured us that this too shall pass.