My latest guest star: Tibor the Border Collie (or "How I Became a Seeing-Eye Human")

I'm starting this thread somewhat out of self-preservation as I have a feeling it will take a (Labrador Forum) village to help me survive this foster dog. Tibor was rescued three months ago from Romania. He is about 10 years old, some sort of Border Collie mix, smart, stubborn and totally blind. I'm his third foster home in three months.

In the three days we've been together, I've learned that he has never been on a leash so he pulls, lags, drags and otherwise goes where he thinks he wants to go. He wees/marks every three or four feet (or at least it feels that way) and because of this, he walks extremely slowly. I have tried luring him to go faster and so far, this has been a complete failure.

He also marks his food, water and chew toys. Yes, he wees in his own food. I have NEVER seen a dog do this.

I've crated him the first two nights as I really don't want him weeing and chewing my apartment. The first night went swimmingly - after two "treat" sessions to get acquainted with the crate, he went in and fell asleep for the whole night. The second night (last night), he went in, dug, moaned, cried...at intervals all through the night. I just kept thinking, "I can't let him out while he's crying or he will learn crying gets him out".

On one hand, I want the crate to be positive, not negative, so maybe I was wrong not to let him out. On the other hand, I did feel like we were playing "Who is the most pig headed" last night - me insisting on the crate, him not giving up the digging/moaning rotation for five hours. But seriously - I've never had a dog or foster dog kept up the arguing that long. The little fuzz ball has stamina, I'll give him that.

The blind thing is almost incidental. It's me that has to improve my skills there as Tibor is quite good at being blind already. The first day I accidentally let him hit his head on a bike tire in the street...twice. Way to build trust, Emily. There are a LOT of parked bikes here on the streets, so I seriously need to step up my seeing-eye-human game. He also needs to be verbally alerted before every curb or step.

Oh, and did I mention the "Border Collie" part? I've had one other foster BC in the past and she did precisely what Tibor is doing...constantly herding me around the house. When he can be bothered to move fast enough, he does it on walks too, circling around me to get me going where he wants. Or at least trying.

So I do believe this is going to be a battle of wills. Who is going to herd who, who is going to end up in the crate or sleeping on the sofa, who is going to be faster so the food is wee-ed on or not. At this point I'm thinking this was a way bad idea to take him on...but to be fair, I think that nearly every time.

Let the games begin.

 

Awwww bless Tibor, he's lovely. You have got your work cut out with him Emily, but you will help this lovely boy to enjoy life, no doubt about that because you're an old hand at it now xx

 

I agree about waiting for quiet before you let him out.

I sense that you are going to enjoy the challenge and I hope his marking decreases as he begins to feel safe and at home.

 

Thanks, Mags. We'll try it again tonight. I bought liverwurst and he's going to get a very Bavarian stuffed Kong tonight. Hopefully that will improve his idea of quiet time in the crate.

 

Good luck Emily, there's a whole lot of tricks you're going to have to teach that old dog

 

Tibor and I had a better night last night. He went in to his crate with his Kong, spent about 30 minutes in Kong heaven and then did do a bit of digging and whining. To his credit, that crate is totally flimsy and he could get out of it in no time if he really wanted to. I don't think the digging and whining went on very long, but frankly I'm not sure - I was so tired last night that I must have fallen asleep pretty much instantly!

I'm trying something different today: splitting his food into three meals and feeding them all in the Kong and all in his crate. I set the timer for 30 minutes and (if he's being quiet and has finished his Kong) I open the door to the crate after that amount of time. Kong comes up immediately. My goal is to get him to associate the crate with yummy food and being quiet. And to prevent him from wee-ing on his food. Ick.

Still not sure how to tackle the other problem I've prioritised, which is that he marks constantly on walks - so much so, that if left to his own devices he would walk about 10 meters every 20 minutes. He's not interested in any lures yet (though this could change as he settles in) so at this moment I'm dragging him on his harness when he tries to stop to wee and praising the heck out of him when he is actually moving.

I know this isn't 100% positive (the dragging bit) - does anyone have better ideas on how to shape a "no wee" walk?

 

Do you reckon he has a health issue? That is an awful lot of weeing....

 

Is he actually weeing that whole time, or just sniffing with the odd wee? Will he take food when he's not nose-deep in a smell? If so, you could just wait for him to turn away, mark and reward. Trying to capture him moving away from the wall. You may be there for a while at first, but that's OK. Make it a jackpot treat for moving away and then release him to go back to sniff again. I imagine that, for a blind dog, there's nothing more exciting in the world other than those smells, and, of course, being in a new place will mean all the smells are new and exciting. Plus, he may be demonstrating some displacement behaviour if he's a bit anxious.

 

The rescue group had him completely checked over and he seems very healthy (except for his eye), so I don't think it's a health problem - but I guess always possible. I think it's a bit of an ex-street dog behaviour - another dog I've dog-sat for, Mickey, is the same way.

It's a lot of what I'd call "desperate sniffing" - lunging for a wall or post so that his nails scrabble on the cobblestones. If he can get to a wall, he'll hike his leg. In the centre of the street, he'll come to an abrupt stop, scratch at the ground, turn in circles, then walk and wee as he goes for several feet. Kind of a on-purpose dribble. Not a ton of wee each time and he has very good control, I have to give him credit!

I thought about that, but wouldn't it be rewarding him for weeing on the wall in his mind? "Hey, I wee, move a little and get a treat - yay!"? I'm willing to give it a go, I was just worried about what I was re-inforcing.

Plus - and this may be too harsh for a first step - I do not want his nose glued to the ground sniffing. Having a slow stroll, sniffing as we go but keeping pace is fine - but turning in circles, scratching at the ground and generally acting like the cobblestones are catnip...argh! We get no more than a few feet, he obstructs traffic (I live in a part of town with narrow medieval lanes) and well...it is driving me a little batty.

My end goal (which I realise is a long way off) would be to have designated potty spots where he has lots of time to do his thing, plus walking time with "sniff stops" along the way to make it interesting for him. But when we need to walk, we walk...not sniff and wee.

 

It's the early stages of LAT. You're rewarding him looking away from his distraction is all. If he's that motivated by the smells and the wall then moving away is a big deal and should be rewarded. As he learns the game, you up your criteria, so eventually, he won't get paid if he pulls towards the wall. But, first things first, he has to learn that looking away from his distraction is hugely rewarding.

Think of it as good training for a puppy!
Yup, you have to make very, very small steps at first. You may not like it, but in order to change his behaviour, he has to be motivated to change. And that means he needs to learn that moving away from the very thing he finds most rewarding, is rewarding in itself.
So, for now, when you go out, you'll only be moving a few feet. So what? Who is the walk for, anyway?
Go find somewhere suitable to practice, where he won't be obstructing traffic. Then it doesn't matter how little or how far you move.

 

Ah!!! OK, if I think of it that way, I can understand the logic. Thanks for the enlightenment!

The walk is for me...totally for me!

No lie, I'm going to have a hard time with the "we're only going a few feet" thing. And I need to figure a way to get him to his potty spot (which is about a 2 minute walk for normal dogs) before he whizes all over every wall in sight.

Challenge - getting him somewhere like this BEFORE he wees on everything! I live in the heart of the medieval city. Normally a plus - maybe not so much in this situation.

You're not kidding!

 

I assume you don't have parking by your building, then? Hmmm. How about a doggy trolly?

 

So as not to give the impression that Tibor is a total basket case, he is (food weeing aside) an angel in the house while I'm working. Just wants to lay at my feet and snooze. He's very easy.

And today he has not marked indoors one time. Feeding him all his food in a Kong is working.

 

Also, I have no idea how busy your road is, but if it's just a car every now and again - I assume not moving quickly on a road like that - then walking down the middle of the road will be far easier for him than against the wall.

I reckon a trolly, though.

With pictures. And video.

 

Talking about nut cases, there were two bodegueros at the agility competition I went to. I immediately thought of you.

They looked ..... fun?

 

Nope. My apartment is in a 15 century building smack in the old town. Very quaint and adorable. Absolutely no parking. My car is in garage about 5 minutes away.

Well, I've been thinking about a doggie trolley for the puppy anyway...maybe this is a good time to go shopping!

 

I can see you with this one:

 

NO, NO, NO it's just time to give up, right now!! xx

 

Don't worry @charlie , being in Germany, I'd have to go with one of these babies...not that I've been researching these already or anything.