New post on Wordpress!

https://lunathegrey.wordpress.com

Luna's blog continues at a new site! Check it out!

Movin' on up!

This blog has moved to the far superior blogging site, Wordpress. Keep following at:

http://lunathegrey.wordpress.com

Hope to hear from you at Wordpress!

(This blog will still let you know when the new blog has been updated until everyone has gotten the memo)

Well played, dog.

Working in a psychiatric ward, we see plenty of anxiety and neurosis, but rarely did it manifest itself in our home. And then we got a greyhound.

Luna can be the most charming, sensitive, sweetheart of a dog, inviting you to pet her with playful nibbles and nose nudges and pulling out all the toys from her kennel to the living room just to show them to you one by one. She is patient as can be and rarely complains when she needs a bath, her teeth brushed or her nails trimmed. She can be social and outgoing, leading other dogs in playful games and leaning her cheek up to a familiar human for some ear scratches. But despite all the times when Chris and I gaze into each others eyes and say with a rose-colored sigh "We have the greatest dog in the whole world", or "How did we get so lucky to have such a perfect dog?" (this usually happens when she is soundly asleep, much in the same way children are best appreciated) - despite all of that, her temperament has proven itself to be quite fickle. We keep trying to interpret her quirky moods and decipher just what it is that we're doing right or doing wrong, but I fear our attempts at understanding this one are futile at best.

I wanted to sit down and write about some of the amusing things that have happened to us recently. For example, Lu got "lost" at the dog park yesterday after running into the wooded area with Annie on her tail (like they do). Out popped Annie from the thicket at a gallop to catch up to us, and as we waited for the other trouble-maker to pop out, no Luna. Chris, Seth, Jessica and I all searched for Lu in the 25 acre fenced-in dog park, calling her name, making kissy sounds and clapping our hands like idiots who lost their dog. I even ventured into the woods along the tiny little trails broken in by thousands of curious paws trampling the brush over many years, and I even stayed very calm as that little voice in my mind tried to convince me of the catastrophes that could have possibly occurred - the longer I searched, the more creative the catastrophes became. But all I had to show for it was a small, unidentified rashy patch of skin on my arm that still itches. To make a long story short, Lu wasn't lost at all. She had just found a new family to trot alongside, walking in the opposite direction - a discovery she no doubt made immediately upon bursting out of the small thicket behind Annie: "I'm chasing Annie through the woods! Yay! I'm chasing -- Ooo! Look at that dog! I will walk alongside that dog!"

I have been collecting stories in my sketchpad that I carry with me, jotting down tidbits to remember for the blog when I think of them: funny little idiosyncrasies that we've discovered or new words or commands she's picked up on. Humorous little events like when she was sound asleep last night and fell off her dog bed with a loud, clumsy thud and then gave me the most stunned, confused and innocent look that melted my heart. Then 10 minutes later the event repeated itself. But it has been a difficult week with her - her anxious days outweighing her happy, carefree days - so many of my notes were about trials rather than tribulations.

Therefore, I had decided to sit down and share some of these tribulations with my loyal readers, hoping to somehow extract a lesson or two to harmoniously complete the entry. I wanted to share how she reacted to us getting ready to leave for the Twins game (pacing, whining, and staring at me with eyes full of anxious desperation as she experimentally clamped her jaw right onto the wood arm of our futon frame, just to see if that was an acceptable way of expressing her anxiety. It was not). I wanted to share what a complete transformation we witness of her every time she gets a good walk - like night and day. I wanted to express my concern that she had not been left alone for a full 9 hours (for work) in 7 days until today and, even though I came home on my break to take her out, we discovered upon returning home that she had been too anxious to even touch the pig ear she was given when we left.

So I set out tonight to string together all the tidbits I'd been saving, getting my chance to complain and express concern and frustration. But as I was writing the first paragraph of this entry, preparing the reader for a journey through the trials of the week and the tiny pieces of surprising, yet informative, nonsense I've learned, I suddenly skipped ahead and started writing my "end paragraph" which was just then coming to me, and my last paragraph (which you will presumably read last) suddenly shaped the body of my entry. What had started out as an expedition to scatter my witty anecdotes and whiny frustrations into, what would have been, a sufficient outlet for such things, became an answer to my own overly rhetorical questions before I had even metaphorically posed them. It's as if building up the first paragraph, preparing my audience for the crescendo of "Just when you thought you had the worst dog..." was enough to sweeten my bitter words and ease me back into a more compassionate perspective. My heart began to sing her praises once again, thinking of her little origami ears and the cute little sprinkles of individual white hairs that are starting to sprout up on her face and body. How could anyone not love this dog?

Luna is still magic to me. She projects a sort of charming demureness with undertones of both great intelligence and naive innocence. She can be too smart for her own good and dopey enough to warrant all kinds of laughter and eye rolling from her doting humans. When I think of her potential for greatness, I simultaneously understand the great role of responsibility I play in the equation. But I realize that she, too, makes me greater than I ever could have been without her. Despite the frustrations and anxiety (on both my part and the dog's), I always come back to remember that she and I are in this together; I am trying to figure her out just as hard as she is trying to figure me out. I am trying to figure out what in the world she needs as she is trying to figure out what in the world I want from her. I am trying to communicate with her while she is trying to figure out how to communicate with me. I see how far we have come in this journey as a family, and I know that, in the end, we will all three of us be better beings for having helped each other learn about life - together.

So I leave you with this:

World's Greatest Dog (in Training)

My little shadow around the house and the world's best snuggle bug

My dear blog followers, I have failed you; I have left you stranded in suspense through the entire month of June. I do apologize, but life with little Lu is very fast paced, leaving me with an overabundance of potential content for the blog and very little free time and motivation for actually blogging. However, I have been taking lots of pictures and short videos to share with you all and I will try to hit the high points while giving you a general picture of what Luna is like these days. I have more pictures and videos to share so I will continue to post more often in order to share everything I have, including lots of cute stories.

Sleepy girl, but always ready to pose for the camera.

These pictures make her look deceivingly calm and quiet... She is calm and quiet about half of the time.

"Please pet me?"

"Okay, I will wait patiently right here..."

Lu is only a year and 4 months and you can definitely tell. She has such a carefree attitude and can be extremely outgoing and energetic. She loves to play and loves to do tricks. She loves clicker training and treats of any kind. She'll do anything for some snuggles or petting and thrives on attention and physical contact with her humans. She learns very fast and catches on to new words faster than you can imagine. She knows what so many different words mean and she is happiest when she pleases her humans by performing the behavior that is asked. She is extremely obedient and is even pretty responsive when she's off-leash at the dog park.

(Left to right) Annie, Chris, Jessica, Maya, Seth, & Luna at the Bloomington dog park. What a blast!!!

Lu loves other dogs and is interested in meeting and playing with any dog. When other dogs chase tennis balls that their owners throw, she speeds after them and returns back along side them, just to run alongside another dog - that's all she wants. Luna's best friends are Maya and Annie, owned by Seth and Jessica. Annie and Luna are partners in crime. Today Lu got Annie into mischief at the dog park, inviting Annie to run off exploring in the woods (in the fenced in dog park) and pop out the other side while the humans (and Maya) continued walking along the path!

Lu's favorite part of the dog park: the pond! While other dogs explore and drink the mucky water, Luna jumps in and belly flops down into the water to cool off.

Here's Luna and Annie in action

Here's Luna and "the girls", Maya and Annie.

This is also typical behavior for Luna when she's with other dogs: very happy, gentle with others and always leading others in play time and activities

We live next to protected wetlands so there are lots of frogs hopping around in the lawn and parking lot where she potties. It's delightful to see her childlike wonder when a still frog suddenly starts hopping, startling her into a fantastic state of wonderment. She follows them with tiny little hops of her own, like a frolicking fawn, ears perked high and eyes locked on these unpredictable little play things. Soon the frogs figure out that the only way of survival is to hold still, hoping their predator won't see them anymore. But this is the perfect opportunity for Luna to smoosh her wet snuffling nose right up to their bodies and check it out. When she finally gets bored and walks away there is a slick coat of moisture on the frogs' backs from her curious nose.

Tonight she followed a frog excitedly until it stopped hopping, then she stared at it intently, waiting for it to move so she can play again, but it wouldn't move. The solution? After a loooong pause staring at it, she let out a playful "WOOF!" with her mouth only a few inches from the frog. The vibrations (or sound?) of the bark startled the frog into hopping again, which reignited the playful game that she so dearly wanted to continue.

Such a pretty girrrrl. I think she poses.

Lu still LOVES water. She goes out of her way to walk through puddles (and pee in them) and her very favorite part of the weekly Gassy walks at Lake Harriet is the part where we wade into the water. She trots right in and flops down, though sometimes she slowly lowers herself down and her hindquarters quiver as she sinks into the chilly water, depending how chilly it is, but she'll lie in it anyway. Last week there were waves, which made her stop and step back for a second, but I walked right in so she saw it was no big deal. She followed me in and laid right down on my feet with a happy, dopey open-mouth grin, complete with tongue hanging out the side of her mouth (very typical expression to see on her face). She is such a happy dog.

Tonight Luna got a bath. We give her a bath every other week and it has done WONDERS for her skin and coat, which both look extremely healthy now! No more flakes! She has become so soft and the shedding has gone down significantly. Tonight was her third bath and while I was setting the tub up, she knew exactly what was going on. She walked right up to the tub and quietly, gently stepped into the tub all by herself, one paw at a time and then looked at me like "Okay, I'm ready". My heart soared when my little girl did this! All by herself! We have taught her well (and she's very smart).

Lovin' the spa treatment!

What a good bath time!

After her baths she must feel GREAT, because once she is excused from being dried off in the bathroom, she trots out to the living room, does lots of shakes, and then runs around happily, grabbing toys and doing more shakes. The best is her tail shake, seen below:

I love her little cowlick

Another thing I love are her long, thick whiskers that sprout out of her chin and cheeks, like a menacing catfish. And who can resist those floppy, expressive ears? When I stick my finger in her ear to itch the inside (wiggle my finger a little) she will tilt her head to the side the ear is on, then I switch ears and she tilts her head way to the side on that side. Must feel gooooood.

Car rides are the greatest! She'll often try to lead me to where the car is parked, near her potty spot, then look up at me like "Can we go?"

SQUIRREL!

Lu had a blast at Greyfest. She ran and ran and ran, and when no one wanted to run with her anymore, she ran by herself in big circles. Then she'd speed over to the pool and jump right in, flop right down. Often there would be 5 or 6 other dogs trying to use the pool too, standing room only, until Lu came barreling in and splashed right down on her tummy, pushing some of the standing hounds out of the pool. She seemed oblivious of her intrusion.

Back and forth: run run run, pool...run run run, pool.

Pool all to herself! You can see that other pups have already cleaned off in the water.

She is the greatest dog in the world (to us). She is so full of life and energy and personality. She is gentle and sweet, curious and playful, smart and enthusiastic about learning to communicate. We have worked so hard with her to help her settle in to human life and she can still be a little jumpy at times, but we try to be very persistent and consistent, never giving up just because something makes her uncomfortable. For example, a toddler pushing a toy baby stroller for her doll was making lots of noise while walking in the same parking lot as us while on our walk, startling Luna into frantic jumps and yanking on the leash with her gentle leader on. So instead of feel frustrated and embarrassed, I followed through with the opportunity at hand and I took Luna up to a brisk jog as we passed the stroller-toting toddler and her mom. I then kept jogging with her and correcting her every time her attention was pulled to the toddler with a leash tug and a sharp kissy sound, and we proceeded to basically jog in big circles around the toddler and mom until she ignored them on her own. I told the mom "We're practicing," and the mom laughed and said she completely understood. When we're out of the house it can be a constant effort to praise and soothe and correct and it has taken a LOT of practice to be in tune to her, in order to respond appropriately to her and know what she needs in order to keep her moving forward psychologically. But it seems to be paying off.

Here are two of her tricks. She has perfected the "shake", and last night during a clicker training session with her I taught her "high five", or "five". It took about 5 minutes to teach her with the clicker.

Currently our biggest challenge is still just the shyness with strangers. She will now sniff people when they put their hands out to her and she will let about half of the strangers she meets to pet her right away, but if we give her a little time (maybe 3-5 minutes) she warms up to the people we're with and will let them pet her (especially if we give them treats to share with her) and eventually she'll be nudging peoples' hands for some ear scratches. Children are still very peculiar and unpredictable to her. She is more tolerable of them now from a distance, and is letting them get closer in proximity, but still keeps them at a distance. She does not like the high pitched noises they make. But we'll get there someday, I hope.

Pig ears are Daddy's special treat to give to Lu, and there is nothing more sacred in the dog world than a pig ear. She is in the zone when she's got a pig ear in her mouth. But she does like her privacy while enjoying this delectable treat.

We have worked SO hard with Luna. I can't believe it's only been 7 weeks! There have been so many payoffs, though. It makes the hard work worth every challenging moment.

Stay tuned for more from Luna the grey! Comments and suggestions are welcome!

Is it bad if my dog's social calender is busier than mine?

How can I sum up the last few days? Well, Luna is definitely coming out of her shell...maybe a little too much. She is in full puppy mode: exploring, jumping around, jumping up on us, wanting to play play play, running full speed in circles around our tiny apartment, peeing on the floor, peeing on the kitchen floor, peeing in the stairwell on the WAY to go outside to pee, eating cardboard, eating pillows, eating her hair from the brush, eating anything that falls on the floor...

Friday and Saturday were work days for us so it was a work routine day, meaning less time out with us and more time in the kennel, but she did well and I was able to come home on my break to let her out, which she LOVED. She was extremely happy to see me, like "Hey! I wasn't expecting you for a while! What a great surprise!!"

Sunday was a BIG day. I took her to the meet and greet at Urbanimal, which is basically a big play group. Everyone loved her and she tried to get all the other dogs to play by trotting alongside them and rubbing/bumping up against them to instigate. Pretty soon all the other greys were lying around and she was still going - little energizer bunny that she is - trying to get anyone to play with her. But she got plenty of attention from the humans, which she soaked up. She was also the only dog to "do the 2" in the playroom. Of course.

Lu pretty much copied whatever the other dogs did. Here she is up front greeting someone approaching, though I'm pretty sure she had no idea what she was looking for, just as long as she was standing attentively along with the other dogs, who seemed to know what they were doing. She's the black dog in the middle with the green collar.

After the "play group" she and I headed over to the Gassy walk at Lake Harriet, where she had a GREAT walk on the gentle leader (she and I have been working very hard on that - lots of practice paid off). She had so much fun and was so relaxed. I think she is her best self when she is at the Gassy walk. After the walk, I got her in the car and she flopped down and fell asleep before we pulled away. She slept all the way home, but I stopped by my parents' house on the way so they could say a quick hi and she did so great! She went right into the house and was a little tentative for a minute but warmed up very fast and approached both my parents for attention. She even did tricks for my mom (for treats, of course). She seemed to feel very safe.

Life is tough.

To top it all off, after a good hardy nap (for me and Luna), my sister came over in the evening to meet Luna and Luna did SO GREAT! She warmed up quickly and was very cute and relaxed, enjoying all the attention and cooing. We went to take her outside to potty and she stopped at the top of the stairs in the stairwell and peed on the carpet. We only had a dozen steps left to the door, of course. So I used the Mighty Bissell in the stairwell and the carpet there still doesn't look the same.

She just loves her new tank top from Katrina. Can't you tell? ("Why must you make me do these things?")

Pretty new collar, too!

Lu slept the rest of the day and soundly through the night. I even woke up early in the morning to find her "roaching" (or "cockroaching"), meaning she was lying on her back with her limbs sticking up, crumpled in the air. She has been sleeping soundly ALL NIGHT until we get up. Yesss!!

This is an action shot. She was half roaching, half pawing the air in her sleep.

Monday was another work day, though we got in a good walk (as usual). Tuesday was a special day because I got to spend the whole afternoon and evening with her all by myself .We snuggled on the couch (a special treat reserved for my alone time with her) and she slept with her head on me all evening. She was such a good girl, so sweet and affectionate. We really bonded. Later, around 10pm, she was kind of pacing around (which is becoming an excellent warning sign for us) and decided that right in front of the door looked like a great spot to pee. I jumped up from the couch and clapped loudly, yelling "AH AH AH!" She looked up at me and kept peeing. I lunged toward her and she stood upright, hung her head very low and evaded me as she scampered to her bed and laid down, looking up at me with those big brown eyes from under her eyebrows.

Girls night on the couch :)

Wednesday was a work day, but she got a good walk beforehand and I came home on my break to play with her and let her out. After work we did something very special to try to help with the excessive shedding and dandruff: HER FIRST BATH! We'd had her in the bathtub before to rinse her off (after she laid in the puddle) but this was her first real bath with us. She did VERY well. We could tell she completely trusts us. She seemed unsure but she completely went with it and she just...well...trusted us! She seemed equally fascinated and confused by what was going on but she was a champ. When we got her all dried off (she stood patiently while we did so) her alter ego, Spazzy, decided to pay us a visit. She TORE around the house, full speed, running in circles, back and forth, round and round, for a good 3 minutes. She would run full speed through the living room to the kitchen, then trot carefully across the tile floor, then tear through the living room to the kitchen again, then trot carefully across the tile floor, and so on. It is the second time we've seen her run in the apartment like that but it was NOT like this before. This was a full out Spaz attack.

She also took the empty paper towel tube from me while I was cleaning up the bathroom and trotted to her bed proudly, showing off her prize to Chris. Then she plopped down and started to eat it. Sometime in the window of 10 minutes after the bath, after the spaz attack, she performed the grand finale by peeing all over the kitchen floor. Ta da!

Big day.

She has definitely come out of her shell. She is a different dog every day. We still have to constantly work on things with her but it seems more and more like issues related to just being a puppy still. She still walks around and whines for no reason but usually responds to a "shhh!" We have also been giving her Rescue Remedy, which I got yesterday, and it seems to work nicely when she starts getting anxious around the time we leave for work or the time we are trying to wind down for bed.

This weekend Luna has a full social calender! Friday evening we have a playdate with Lori (her foster mom) and her two greys! We are very excited for her to reunite with her foster family and are looking forward to her having some time playing with her greyhound friends. On Saturday we are going to take Luna to the Richfield meet and greet from 12-2, though we will need to leave early because we have to work at 3. We are looking forward to her having the opportunity to observe her greyhound buddies letting total strangers approach them and pet them. She will catch on quickly. Letting strangers approach her is something we've been working on. She's getting it - slowly but surely. Then Sunday is the Gassy walk! Yaay! It's my favorite part of the week and I think it's hers too. She is the happiest dog on Sundays.

Home on my break from work to play with Lu

I can't believe we've only had her for a little over 2 weeks. It seems like months. I really is unbelievable. We love her more every day and we can see her trusting us and getting to know us better every day, too. You can just see her recognize us as "her humans" - her "pack". Whenever Chris and I hug she always tries to jump up try to get in on the hug too. It's very cute (but we still tell her "no" - through the giggles).

It's like having a toddler in the house and we get irritated with her at times (especially when she's being my shadow, following me everywhere, and knowing exactly where to be so she is the MOST in my way), but it's worth it. We're all learning. Tomorrow she will have the whole day with her Buddy (Chris). On a side note, Luna knows that Chris is called "Buddy". I tell her to "go find your Buddy", or "where's your Buddy?" and she goes and finds him wherever he is and goes right to him, then stares back at me proudly. I feel like it's less cliche than saying "where's daddy", which kind of makes me nauseated.

What a special girl. We are so lucky.

Pretty girl with a pretty new collar from my sister, Katrina

God Bless the Bissel

Lu had another potty incident, except this time it seemed out of nowhere, though probably a result of her anxiety this evening. She was lying on her dog bed and I was petting her and brushing her and just having some quiet time together and she couldn't settle. She was very restless and wanted to be up and pacing. She obliged and laid on the bed while I brushed her but very restless and changing positions a lot and not settling in. When I was done I got up to go to the sink and she popped up and followed me. I saw on the floor there were splotches of water and I thought I had just splashed some water on the floor. Then I heard what sounded like someone pouring a large pitcher of water onto the carpet and turned the corner to see her letting loose. I clapped my hands and shouted "AH AH AH!!!" which prompted her to WALK AWAY WHILE PEEING (still squatted, I might add). I got her to stop after another sharp "NO!" and she hung her head low and sheepishly scurried to her bed. But the second she got there I snapped the leash on her and dragged her outside to her potty spot where she immediately finished pottying, after which she got lots of praise (which was hard to fake). So we kenneled her when she got back in. She seems pretty comfortable there if she can't see us - safe - and it is good practice for her. It feels really nice to have a break from her. We should do this more often.

This is Really Hard.

I have to add that this anxious, fussy behavior has only really developed in the last couple of days. Multiple people have said how great it worked to get another greyhound, which I'm sure would solve the problem because when we went to the Gassy walk and there were other hounds there, she was a different dog, letting everyone pet her and greeting everybody, which is not like her otherwise.

We took her for a walk today at Medicine Lake and we had to cut it short because she was too jumpy. There was a lot of commotion - kids swimming, people playing volleyball, kids at the playground - and she would start hopping around like a scared rabbit, pulling on the leash and trying to escape the situation. We hung in there, staying calm and quiet and not letting her escape from the situation, instead just stopping and letting her settle/regroup before continuing on. Finally we just sat on a bench near the playground and once we just sat quietly she started to become more relaxed, though still pretty alert. Kids make her nervous, but generally she is very shy when meeting other people. She backs away and seems really unsure. We try to encourage her or have the people offer her treats and wait until she comes to them but she usually doesn't warm up in the short amount of time we have as we are usually just greeting people in passing, so she gets away with not having to let anyone else pet her.

But like I said, at the Gassy walk she was so happy and comfortable with everyone, wanting attention and feeling comfortable greeting everyone, and we have not seen her like that since then. When she's timid and shy or freaked out by noises she does NOT want treats. She is too focused on whatever it is that is bothering her. When we meet people she is more likely to eat a treat, especially if it is just tossed near her on the ground, but when she's stressed by an overstimulating environment or things that are making her nervous there is no way to reward calm behavior because even when she gets calmer she still doesn't want treats. She doesn't even sniff them.

I know another greyhound would be great for her and would probably solve our problems, but I cannot convince Chris to get another one right now. I know it would not be more work having two, but it does double the cost, which is where we would probably get stuck. Also, we live in an apartment so she has to go potty on lead and having two dogs to potty on lead would be tricky.

Is it possible for her to still be happy and well-adjusted as a single dog? Or will she always be neurotic and anxious being the only one? What if she absolutely can't handle being the only dog but we can't get another one?! I feel very discouraged and stressed out. This is really hard.