serenissima | Dog, week 3

It's been an interesting week with the dog.

Mungo has been scooting his butt on the ground every now and then since we got him, so last Friday, I took him to the vet clinic to have his anal glands expressed. It was a very stressful morning for him. Since he's uneasy about getting into the car, and the clinic is nearby, I decided to walk him there. This turned out not to be any better than driving him. We walked beside busy streets with large trucks and plenty of cars, and that stressed him out. Part of the time, we walked across coarse gravel that may have been uncomfortable for his feet. Then I switched to walking in the grass, thinking that would be softer for him, but he picked up burrs in his feet, and it took me a while to realize he might be hurt and check his feet.

By the time we arrived at the clinic after 40 minutes or so, Mungo was already scared. I wasn't immediately sure how to get him to stand on the scale, so the vet tech lifted him and placed him on the scale. He peed on it. Then the tech lifted him and placed him on the three foot tall examining table. He peed on that too, and jumped off. The tech put him back on the table — without first mopping up the urine — and I held him there while the tech did uncomfortable things to his rear end. When

aristeros showed up to drive us home, it only took a little encouragement to get him into the car. I guess he was eager to leave that place... and it wasn't even a full checkup with a veterinarian, which I still have to schedule. (And he's still scooting, so I'll have to bring him back to have the same procedure done before long.)

We had a couple join us as guests for dinner that same day. Our dog did not come over to greet them, but he did lurk in the corner of the room where we sat, rather than hiding in the other room. Towards the end of the evening, though, when I mentioned it was time for me to let the dog out, the husband lifted Mungo from his blanket and brought him to the door. Well, Mungo peed on the blanket, a detail I don't think the man noticed. He was very hesitant to come back inside from the yard, almost as much as the first night he was here. I still feel bad for not preventing our guest from picking him up.

He seemed fine over the weekend. But Sunday night, he growled at

aristeros for no readily apparent reason, and he barked once and growled at me on Monday morning, before I left for class. We think he may have decided he was in charge, because we petted him pretty much whenever he asked, and when he felt he wasn't getting enough attention from us, he tried to force us to pet him. Since then, we've made an effort not to yield to all his demands for attention, and he hasn't growled at us again. However, an acquaintance came over to pick me up Wednesday evening so we could carpool to a meeting, and when she stepped into the living room, Mungo growled and barked at her like mad. Previously, before the trip to the clinic, when a maintenance worker from housing management stopped in, the dog simply stayed away from him but didn't make any noise. He also hides from the pizza delivery man.

Obviously, we're going to have to work on meeting strangers. But how do I accustom our dog to visitors without subjecting our visitor to a hostile reception from an unfriendly dog? Do I need to recruit volunteers to come into the house to be barked at, by way of desensitizing Mungo? He's been timid, although not panicky, when we meet other people while out on a walk. I have in mind to crate-train him first, and then put him in the crate when visitors arrive; I'm hoping that eventually he'll calm down enough that I can let him out of the crate while the other person is still in our house.

Otherwise, he continues to be a Good Dog. We've left him in the living room while I'm at class and

aristeros is at work. So far, my dear housemate has been able to come home at lunch time and let him into the yard for a few minutes. That won't always be the case. But, no house training incidents, no annoying barking, no stealing our stuff or eating bad things indoors (outdoors, I have to watch him). He's even starting to play with toys with us: if we run around with the rope or the squeak toy and then toss it, he'll usually chase the toy and pick it up. He just doesn't know what to do with it afterward.