Happy New DAY!

Or maybe NOT... :*(

It's a new year and a new mixing bottle. After the feedback to Zoe, this is the new concoction we are using for the mixing bottle

Vine - Allows animal to be determined not domineering

Walnut - Helps the animal ease into its new surroundings or situation

Water Violet - Produces a compassionable and sociable animal

Mimulus - Animals become more confident and courageous, can enjoy life without fear

As you all know, we can never hope to know exactly what's going on in those heads of theirs - not unless you are Dr DoLittle. I am not. - so it's still pretty much a "trial-and-error" experiment for us in the current stage of things with the Flowers (although we all try to make it as informed a "trial-and-error" experiment as possible) but still, you just never know.

But what I DO KNOW is, whatever he is thinking now, it's aint' good! :(

So bad that I actually have to stop using  the mixing bottle ONLY 2 days after we started it.

I don't know if it's the lack of Impatiens in the new concoction or maybe it's the added confidence from Mimulus, but the situation we have on hand now is really not pretty! On a really bad day, it feels to me that we've gone one full circle and come smacked right back to square 1! (Or maybe square minus 1!)

For the last 2 weeks or so, due to the holidays, we were kinda out of a routine. Don't get me wrong, I didn't lock him at home and forget about him. We still do our 3 walks a day diligently. (sometimes even 4 or 5!) The only difference is that, it's just not always at the same time, on the same routes, that's all. And believe me, Mr Tristan ain't a fan of NEW things.

I've noticed that he seemed to find find comfort and calmness in the sureness of a routine. New things stress him out. B.I.G.T.I.M.E. New dogs stress him. New venues stress him. New routine stress him. You name it. Pretty much ANYTHING new stresses him. Is it because he's so insecure that his mind just goes into overdrive at anything that's just not his norm?

I guess I'll never know.

One thing I DO know is, the lack of structured existance for this boy has returned me the all too familiar stress ball who lunges at 90% of men, park vehicles, bicycles AGAIN!

I have NO intellectual explanation whatsoever for this sudden regress.

My only best guess is that the lack of a schedule during the long holidays have made him jittery all over again! It might actually be true considering since we started our regular routine again the last 3 days, he seemed to have gotten better as the day goes by. Everyday, he lunges alittle bit less. Everyday he seems to find his footing back alittle more. But still, that's just so disheartening! It's like a chronic disease that wouldn't go away! :(

Ok, so now you've heard the really bleak part. If you are still reading, there IS one silver lining. Believe it or not.

The new concoction seemed to have improve his inter-canine relational skills. I'm not sure if it's the Mimulus working its magic here, afterall it's supposed to make him more "confident and courageous" but last week, we went for our weekly swim and I took the chance and allowed an offleash MALE Retriever to come right up to his face (Before you stone me, this Retriever is friendly and I knew that beforehand) That said, I reckon I wasn't prepared for the guy to plaster his face to him for 20secs - even though Tristan kept trying to walk away from him! - So urm, I might have push it alittle too far there. Anyhow, by that time, Tristan was so way above his threshold that basically all you can see is just the whites of his eyes and I knew he was going to snap at him anytime soon if the guy wouldn't leave him alone.

Nothing dramatc happened. Thank God. But from how he reacted, it affirmed to me that his reactivity to dogs might really be a byproduct of Fear. If that's the case, Mimulus might actually be helping him with that. Oh. did I mention too that he can pretty much ignore dogs during our walks these days? Though he's all nutty over anything else that moves?

*Double Sigh*

Now, all I need is to someone to tell me how to make him love life the way he loves swimming?

Day.......

Whatever.

So SORRY for the lack of updates. Yes, yes, you guessed right. It's the usual excuses of a crazy work week, mad schedules etc etc.. I know. I know. I'm sorry. I really am. If you've been stopping by to a "stagnant" page, make it very S.O.R.R.Y!!!

Though, through the incommuno, I wasn't lazy. I have been and still is faithfully adminstering the 4 drops single flower and 7drops mixing bottle concortion to Mr Tristan, 3 times a day, 7 days a week.

Geez. It can get rather tiring.

BUT.. as the saying goes, what you sow is what you reap.

And so, I'm happy to report that 4 weeks into the programme, there really has been significant progress in the little black white head.

1) He can still go nuts when he sights a motorcycle zoom past. BUT the major milestone is, he hasn't been going for EVERY motorcycle. If the motorcycle is not right beside him, he CAN be called off the offending object. Believe me you, that's pretty awesome.

2) He has not barked at a single motorcycle while travelling in the car, for at least the last two weeks. Now, that's a pretty amazing feat. Considering that in the past, he was hurling himself against the windscreen(yes, I'm not exaggerating!) whenever a motorcycle stops by us or drives past us. Yes, we DID have a budget planned for shattered windscreens.

3) With dogs, I think he's shown the most significant improvement. In the past, he would just STARE DOWN and LUNGE at a male dog. These days, even when they bark their lungs off at him, he will pretend they don't exist and either curve away from them or come right to our side and STARE at us. That's rather impressive too!

All in all, I'll say that he's really make marked progress in most areas. He's gotten much more calm and patient during our daily walks. Of course, it's not perfect yet; there is still that occasional leash pulling especially when he's trying to steal the cats' food in the park!; but it's all episodes far and between. There is still that occasional lunge for the motorcycle, but hey! Rome wasn't built in one day, and as long as it's NOT indiscreet lunging for each and every motorcycle, that's improvment. :D

There are times, I swear,I can see the cartwheels turning in his little head, while he navigate his choice of lunging for the sheep-camouflaged-with-a-motor-engine OR the cookie in my hand. And when he chooses the "right" thing, the experience is truly priceless. It is really very gratifying and satisfying when you see an animal exercises their choice right infront of your eyes and make the right one, with no coercion or aversives whatsoever.
So here we are, almost at the end of our 4th week, and also almost at the end of our mixing bottle (help Zoe!)

I'm not sure if we should go for another dose of the same elements, but some of the areas I would like to see more improvement with him is territorialism and insecurity/intolerance.

With territorial, most things he does not like gets amplified within the premises of the condo. The postman's scooter (simply the sound of it!) drives him nuts. We haven't had a face-to-face encounter with the neighbour's Retreiver since we started on the Flowers, but at times Tristan does see him from our balcony; he doesn't growl or bark or do anything at the Retriever; but the way he is staring at the Retriever from upstairs, you know he isn't really happy about him. His demeanor is so tensed and completely different when he sights other dogs outside the condo, even male barkish ones.

As for his insecurity/intolerance issues, he still doesn't fancy it if other dogs come butt-sniffing. Although he can walk away from a dog (which is great) but if the dog follows or if we lead him closer to the dog, he gets really really stressed and will try to snap at the other dog.

With all that said, credit is where credit's due. He HAS improved tremendously and I am proud of him. It's not easy for him too I'm sure. As a high strung herding dog, all these sights and noises in the big city must be rather stressful for him. But he's trying hard. I can see. For that, he deserves a pat on the back.

Or maybe.. on his butt.

HA HA

Day 14

Today (YES today!) marked the 1st time in Tristan's 21 months life that I could call him off a motorcycle!!!

WOAH!!!

As usual, the closer the motorcycle came, the more fixated he was, and then as it came really close, I yelled "Tristan!" and he looked at me, it, me, it, ME!

The motorcycle zoomed past, his face was stuffed with treats and needless to say, I was ELATED.

During the evening walk, however, all fell to pieces. :(

I was really tired and not in a particularly good mood. I wasn't big on dispensing treats and Tristan went into "I-am-in-a-hurry-so-let-me-take-you-for-a-walk" mode.

He pulled, I yanked, he pulled, I yanked...

It was a horrible horrible vicious cycle.

*I* need some flowers myself.

Day 13

Saturday the 13TH!

Everything was peaceful, everything was calm.

No barking at people, no barking at dogs, no attempting to murder motorcyclists.

Yay!!!

Day 12

This morning, we went to Hort Park for our morning walk again. When we were about to start our walk, a motorcycle reached to a stop right at the park entrance. Tristan was transfixed. He wouldn't bulge, no matter how I tried to tug on the lead. I'm sure I could have at that time yank his head off his lead and he wouldn't have noticed. Thank God the motorcyclist turned the engine off while unloading his passenger. And then, like magic, he turned his head back towards me and carried on the walk like nothing has happened.

This boy is so sound sensitive!!!

Our "highlight" 6pm evening walk outside the condo. It's always encouraging when we survive another of those walks. (I'm serious.You don't know which day he or I or the motorcyclist will fly across the road)

As usual, we have our TONS of motorcycles ZOOMING past us at high speed. It is really really not easy for the poor boy. (I imagine if those motorcycles were all giant cockroaches rushing at me, and I'm supposed to continue walking and pretend nothing is happening?!? I guess everybody has their own demons)

And so every time after our (20metres short) walk, he will be so stressed that the whites of his eyes has all turned red, those tiny capillaries seemingly ready to pop anytime. It is rather scary!

Today he lunge at one or two - not perfect but nevertheless a very very small percentage - that's good enough for me. As long as there's no regress, there'll always be progress.

Right Tristan?!?

Day 11

This morning we ditched West Coast park and went to Hort Park for our morning walk instead. The weather was good. The park was beautiful. Serene in that hour with hardly a soul around. I took a chance and let Tristan walk off leash and run pretty much free. He proved himself worthy of that chance. We passed by a few walkers. He didn't even bother. As we left, I saw a helper with a Retriever. She avoided us and disappeared into another lane, hidden by shrubs. I doubt Tristan saw the dog though and if he did, he certainly did not show any bad feeling towards "it". Fortunately(or not), Tristan is a Border Collie with very strong olfactory capabilities as far as dogs are concerned. He can literally smell dogs from afar, way before he could even sight them. This morning though, he made a good choice. :)

Our 6pm walk is always the "highlight" of the day, as NOT herding motorcycles still proves to be one of his toughest nut to crack. But this boy has done me proud, time and again. It's a slow and drawn out process, I will not deny that, but daily he reassures me in his own little way that the choice of management I've chosen is making progress, albeit ever so slowly. But that's ok. As long as it's working, as long as he gets less and less intense around them, as long as he can display some semblance of self control, therein lies Hope.

Today's 6pm walk was much more challenging than usual. It was raining. We walked in the rain and I made a really really dumb choice. I wore my flip flops which has totally no friction. None.

Thank God Tristan did not make a beeline for every motorbike that passes and so I did not slide/flew across the road in a best case scenario. Like I said, he's not completely "exorcised" of the motorcycle demon but he's trying hard, really really hard everyday ;and I can see it; to offer some other behavior other than herding the moving bike. He's trying so hard to go against his instinct. That must be mightily tough.

Good boy Tristan!

 We made it through another day! :)

Day 10

We met one of these during our walk this morning.

Regal, aren't they?

We were head-on. Uh-uh. That always spell bad news to me. I stepped off to the side of the path and called him. The good owner of this big guy stopped about a metre away too as his dog was starting to really pull towards us.

The great news is, throughout the entire encounter, although Tristan knew very well that the husky was there and not too far away from him, he totally gave me his complete unwavering attention and didn't even steal a glance at the guy, WITHOUT my prompt. *gasp!*

Another day. Another victory.

(Obviously he gets A TON of cookies for THAT effort :))

Our 6pm walk was equally victorious!
Yay!

 
The multitude of motorcycles whizzed past us (what's new?) The news is, he did NOT lunge at any. I repeat, NONE. He did look, he did got interested, VERY interested in fact (which is fine - I know that this little demon called motorbikes will always lurk somewhere in his subconscious) but what I was most happy to see was, despite his crazy obsession with these objects, he could find within himself that little ounce of self control to NOT lunge at them when they past him by!
 

Self control in an animal is really an awesome sight to behold.