During his pre-surgery house arrest, I started seriously crate training Mac – not just busking it! With his fear of “metal”; we surmise from being caged for the first 7 months of his life ……… and maybe having the door slammed on him ……….. and ruining his teeth from chewing on the metal, this was always one of his “issues”.
On the other hand, having a “biddable” nature, i.e. doing what he was told to do whether he wanted to or not, he would always go in on command but immediately leave it if the door was left open. This continued during this 2 weeks session even with the best rewards, sometimes even refusing when he felt pressurised.
On his return home from surgery I put him on a TMT mat (leant to me by Lorna) next to his crate (with the door open). Within 10 minutes, I watched him hobble and fall into the crate where he slept for the next 2 hours. He had conquered the crate and accepted it as a safe place. Yay Mac-a-Doodle!
During the day he slowly started being more alert which meant collar time. Someone needs to invent something more comfortable and less scary than this thing. Victorian Collar, means exactly that, Victorian Ages! Needless to say, Mac was terrified by the noise while I put it on and being doff about how to go about it didn’t help. He very quickly “shut down” and couldn’t even wee when I took him out as he kept his head so low it dug into the ground. To add to his discomfort, this particular one has pink paw prints on it and he keeps trying to “get away from them”.
Marinette to the rescue; leave it off while weeing and while he was in my eye sight. Now if he turns to lick his wound, he gets an Oi! and stops immediately – so biddable!
It’s now bedtime and I am going to have to put it on him for the night as he sleeps in the closed study, (why? that’s yet another blog) and I can’t watch him in the dark.
Mac and Me
C’est-La-Vie
C’est-La-Vie
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