Zephyr
After some consideration, I decided that the written word might be the most efficient way to chronicle my animal training endeavors, at least for my own benefit. It’s nice to be able to look back and see how far my little entourage and I have come!
But there is a lot of catching up to do. Zephyr has been blessing our lives for the last three years now. I can’t believe it. I’ve been a Dog Mom™ for 3 whole years. 3 years of belly rubs, grumpy grumbles, and barking. So. Much. Barking.
I have a lot of ground to cover, so while most of my Dog Training Diaries going forward will have all four dogs in each one, I decided to split the Up Til Now series into one post per dog. We’ve got stories, history, goals… a lot to watch up on!
So here we go.
As you may have read in Zephyr’s bio on the “Dogs” page, we adopted him on a whim in September of 2021. We wouldn’t get married until August of 2022, so we affectionately say that Zephyr, and his subsequent sisters, were born out of wedlock.
We were not really ready for a dog. I mean, we knew we would get one, and probably sooner rather than later. I’d been talking about wanting one for the better part of our relationship. And now we had a house, an acre of land, and I was itching for a four legged child.
The guy at the shelter said Zephyr (then Brian—why!) would be one of the only two dogs suited for beginner dog owners. The other was Rusty, a small reddish-brown dog that looked remarkably like our Anore. Zephyr was about 10ish months old, and had just been fixed.
At the shelter, I watched my husband play with him. And he ran around me, stopped right by my side. I looked down at him, his long panting tongue, his waving tail. And something felt so natural about having this dog by my side. When we drove home, we decided not to get him, and for reasons I didn’t understand (I wasn’t sure I wanted a dog, I wasn’t sure I was ready for the work a dog would require, I liked my simple life being my husband’s sole focus…) I cried. This dog belonged to us, I just knew it.
I called the shelter as soon as I got home. We couldn’t put a hold on him, but I assured them we would be up as soon as the shelter opened to get our boy. The time was creeping close to 8, so we ran to the local fleet supply to pick up a crate, dog bowls, toys for the dog we weren’t sure we should get.
The next day, we got breakfast, and drove Northwest an hour to the same shelter. We filled out the paper and the worker helped us lift Zephyr into the car. I told my husband he could choose his name. We had a list of names we both liked (I was pulling for Summit—thank goodness my husband didn’t pick it! We wouldn’t have the Four Winds Haven if he was Summit). We tried different names on him, before my husband ultimately picked Zephyr.
In that moment, without us knowing, the Four Winds Haven began.
It wasn’t long for us to figure out that Zephyr was a bit reactive. He did not do well with people in our house (sames, buddy). He was okay with people outside the home, but very excitable, very loud, very strong. And the people we passed couldn’t get too close to us, or he would get quite stressed out.
He did, however, pass his puppy class at the local PetSmart, so, there’s that.
We explored a number of training options for him. PetSmart used positive reinforcement training, which is what we wanted, but it was very clear the trainer thought we should we use aversives on our boy. He suggested them a few times, off the record for PetSmart. He was a very good trainer, but Zephyr was so stressed by anything aversive, even a harsh look made him nervous. I couldn’t imagine adding a prong collar, a shock collar, or anything else to his already fragile mental state.
I did some searching, and had no luck finding a trainer that would only do positive reinforcement. Even now, looking at my anxious boy resting in the chair, I can just hear his whimper if we were to use a shock collar. I’m not here to debate balanced vs R+ (positive reinforcement) training, even if it sounds like I am. I’m here to say that when it comes to training the dog in front of me, the dog in front of me was not well-suited to aversive training methods.
By then, we had Anore, and plans to eventually get two more dogs. Dog training was so expensive. Equally as expensive, though, was the online classes to get an Associate Dog Training Certificate, which could lead to getting certified to be a dog trainer. With the idea of a career in my head, I embarked on the gen. ed. requirements for my certificate.
And then gen. eds. also happened to be about where I stopped. Turns out, it is a bit too expensive. At least right now. But reading and studying and practicing is mostly free.
So what have we been working on up til now?
Our original training goals with Zephyr included things like not barking at walkers, a good recall to reliably be off leash in our yard, comfort in crowds, and allowing people into our house like, I don’t know, our families. And, perhaps, he would be able to go biking with us, pull a sled around our little acre. Things he might enjoy.
But me oh my, he was so stressed out. At PetSmart, on walks, everywhere. At some point, we had to decide if the stress he had to undergo for his training was worth the small joy we would get out of the things we wanted to do with him (not necessarily having visitors, that’s a different battle altogether.)
So we made some changes. I put up lace on the windows so he couldn’t see out of them, and got him a 50 foot leash so he had room to run around while we could stop him if we needed to. We built a 600 square foot dog run for him (it’s actually rather small and he hates being in there now, but the other dogs love it!) We found secluded spots to take him on walks where he wasn’t as likely to run into other people.
As for visitors, well, they don’t usually stay at our house. But we go out to dinner with family, or they stay at a local AirBnB, we put Zephyr in doggy daycare, or he goes in the run. We’ve found ways to manage with minimal stress to him.
And our training plan has changed. Our training plan was about what we wanted from him. Now, it’s about what he wants. Sometimes, that still means learning manners. But a lot of times, it’s more about managing his anxiety and bringing joy to his life.
These are our current focuses:
- Good walking skills
- Minimal pulling on the leash. I don’t mind some. He’s a husky, and he enjoys the pressure on him when he pulls. But he can’t be pulling my arm out of it’s socket!
- Minimal barking and pulling at people we pass. I’d like for him to see someone, and then focus in on us. However, we have been working on a “fly” command, where we just run past other walkers to keep him from getting fixated on them. That works well, and I’m happy with that option
- I still want a recall, even if he is almost entirely on-leash
- Bikejoring/Sledding
- The halt/right/left/slow down/speed up commands
- Getting used to pulling dead weight
- Cooperative Care: This is the idea that, in some circumstances, we can let our dogs “opt in” to routine care, like brushing, nail clipping, etc. There’s also frequently a cue word “sorry, you can’t opt out” moments like vet visits. But being able to “say” yes or no to certain things can help a dog’s anxiety about them. We’ll mainly be focusing on brushes, and eventually shots. Nail clipping is his biggest issue, even more than vet visits, but he bites his own nails down sufficiently now, and doesn’t make them bleed. As long as he’s doing that, it saves us all the stress of his nail care!
I can’t tell you how good of a boy he is. I wish the rest of the world could see him as we get to. This dog is so empathetic. He tries desperately to help us calm down when we’re upset. He snuggles us at night, and won’t go to bed without us. He loves our ducks. He worries about the other dogs when he can hear coyotes and they’re outside. We didn’t adopt him to have a job, but he’s taken on jobs himself. We didn’t need to give him a little backpack to carry on walks. It sounds weird to say, but he knows his roles are emotional, and he takes them very seriously. We are his family. He may not always like every single one of us, but he knows we belong together. In a lot of ways, he’s the center of everything for us. He is the star around which the rest of us orbit.
I look at him, and I see my heart beating outside of my chest, and I am so confused how I could love something so deeply.
I don’t need the most well-mannered dog on the planet. I just need to know that he’s happy. That’s what our training goals are now. Him being happy.