Here are some of the pictures I took at the Candiac Dog Park, it's the one I go to with Finley.

To view the rest of the set, click here to visit my Flickr page. 

pouting in bed after watching Daddy leave for work without her

using the purple bag as a pillow

the blanket must be a comfier pillow

or maybe the purse is

Finley with the loot we collected from 3 PetSmarts, 1 Petcetera and 2 PetValus
includes 1 bag of food, a box of dog biscuits, Northern Biscuits dog biscuits, Fruitable, Kong toy stuffers in peanut butter and bacon n cheese, water bottle for her crate, soft pin hair brush, a leash, three collars, a clicker, Blue Buffalo wet dog food (the chicken dinner kind for christmas), Zoe sticks, Zuke's mini in peanut butter (3 bags), Blue Buffalo soft treats (2 different kinds) and a Greenies Dental Chew

I love drinking ice cappuccinos (from Tim Hortons). Apparently, Finley shares this affinity. I knew she liked the smell of it and would probably love to taste it. I’ve known this since I got her. I had one in the car the day we went to adopt her and she obsessed over sniffing it and trying to stick her nose in the opening to get at it and by stealing the straw.

I often get one when we go out and now that I have the seat belt, I have left one in the cup holder while I ran into the store a couple times. I will no longer be doing this. Today, I bought a small one and left in the car with her while I ran into Omer DeSerres (art supply store) and then Staples. I came back to the car and my ice capp was untouched.

Then we went to the pet store to get her shampoo and a pet water bottle. It was safe again but only because she gets to go into that store. Then I ran to Wal-Mart to get a different shampoo for her. So while I was in there, somehow she managed to step on the seat belt latch and undo her seatbelt. I was surprised when I walked out the store and she was lying down on the seat, instead of watching for me or barking at strangers.

I got to grab my drink when I realize that something is missing. At first I thought I might have knocked it over with my purse since I’ve done that before but no. Then I notice that someone is playing with a plastic cup that’s been licked clean. Intense panic sets in. There’s coffee, chocolate and loads of sugar in these drinks...all things dogs aren’t supposed to have. I immediately call my dad who calls the technicians at the vets. They have to go and consult with the vet on this, apparently this doesn’t happen often.

I was told not to worry about the chocolate and coffee in the drink, it wouldn’t be toxic to her since she only got a small portion of the drink. Thankfully I drank most of it by then. The sugar however worried the vet because it can affect her pancreas. Just have to watch her for the night, feed her a smaller supper and make sure she doesn’t throw up, if she does  I have to take her to vet’s. After hearing this I started to feel calmer and a little less worried.

It’s been almost 4 hours now and she isn’t showing signs of being sick, so I think she will be okay. However, we just feed her supper so it’s still wait and see with her. 

"Mamma. this is not what I had in mind when I wanted to help decorate" -Finley

Finley "helping" with the Christmas Decorations

After that first experience at the dog park (in Brossard), I wanted to find a different one to go to. Some research online showed that there was one nearby in Candiac. I drove by it first with my dad to see if it totally fenced in and after seeing that it was I took Finley later that week.

The second visit to the dog park went better than our first; the Candiac dog park is by far my favourite park and I think that after going a couple times for about 6 weeks now, we are comfortable there. It’s not that big but big enough that Finley can go off and does her own thing if she doesn’t want to play with the other dogs. She spent most of her time sniffing stuff and pretty much ignoring the other dogs when we went the first time. Since we where there in the afternoon there weren’t any dogs there for part of the time.

She wasn’t too keen on the dogs when she did see them and she spent most of the time running away from them and hiding in the corner behind the garbage can. I would then retrieve her and bring her back into the middle of the park. After a while I sat down at the picnic table with her in my lap so she could watch the dogs, since she did seem to have interest in them...albeit from a distance.

When I left that day I knew something would need to be done since I wanted to be able to take her to dog parks. Now I realize that not all dogs are social butterflies when they are around other dogs and for a while I thought this might be the case with her. However, when she saw other dogs when we were on walks or through the front window, she wants to go see them. Same with at the park, from a distance she acted like the wanted to be around them, until she ended up in the middle of a pact.

I don’t think she was properly socialized when she was a young pup or something happened with one of the owners (or between owners) since she seems weary of other dogs. Other dogs parents at the park noticed she didn’t seem to happy and had her tail between her legs a lot. Thankfully, a couple of owners were nice and patient with us and brought their dogs over, away from the crowd, so she could meet them and just give a butt sniff hi. This did help a bit but it didn’t make her want to go hang out with the other furballs.

While this dog park trip wasn’t a huge success, it did end better than the first time we went to one. This was encouraging enough for me to try to help my little girl socialize better and go back to the park. I just wasn’t too sure what I should do or what would work. To this day, I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing but I have seen some improvements, but I will save that for the next part of this series. 

Paper is thy enemy! *shakes fist in the air* Alright so that might be a little dramatic, but paper and Finley equals trouble for me. She loves it to pieces, quite literally. I can no longer leave paper lying around, if I do there’s a good chance that she will come along and turn it into a “toy”. Toy might not be the right word, since she it gets destroyed immediately.

There have been many times that she’s swiped a piece of paper, only to carry it off to hide under a table, bed and even once the couch before ripping it to shreds. After seeing this there have been a few times that I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened to my homework. I mean “my dog ate my homework” has got to be the lamest excuse for not having your homework but how often was that actually true. I could have even brought the little bits of paper with me as proof that it was true.

Last week I was sorting through the 15 or so boxes of miscellaneous papers I’ve accumulate in the last few years – Finley must have thought she hit the paper jackpot. The job could have been done in a day and a half if she hadn’t been so helpful. Instead, it took twice as long since I ended up having to chase after her and collect the little pieces of papers she left in her wake. She must have been really sad when most of it made its way to the recycling bin outside.

Her paper addiction is also displayed when the front hall closet gets opened. We keep a smaller recycling bin there and empty it out occasionally in the huge one that sits in the yard. Well, after getting Finley I had to reorganize some of the shelves to keep the more dangerous stuff out of her reach, so now the paper recycling bin sits on the lowest shelf- at Finley height. The second my dad gets his coat to go outside to smoke (tsk, tsk), she beelines for the recycling bin. We’ve actually shut the doors a few times with her inside the closet, not that she noticed. She was too busy rifling through the bin for paper.

She also does this to toilet paper, stealing the whole roll from the bathroom, so now we have to keep the bathroom door shut. She’s only destroyed 4 rolls to date, which is alright with me since my dad had gotten the wrong kind when he bought it last time. At least when she steals some paper, she has the good graces to look guilty when caught. 

Miss Finley is a barker. It drives me absolutely insane sometimes but I hate not letting her partake in one of her favourite activities: window-watching. I don’t mind if she barks when someone comes on our property, I like the early warning system, but she will bark at people walking by, neighbours out in their yards, neighbours getting out of their cars, heck sometimes I swear she barks at air (or the squirrel sitting in the tree that I swear was taunting her into barking more). I’ve done a lot of research into curbing this bad behaviour and all I know so far is that there is no quick or easy fix. It’s just a matter of time and patience. There’s also a bunch of different methods that I’ve seen and I’m not quite sure which one to start with. I’ve dismissed any of the methods that use physical punishment, although I am not against the one where you squirt them with water.

One of the basic rules I’ve noticed in my research is to not yell or raise your voice. While I do like this concept, I do have to wonder something. Can Finley actually hear me when she barks? I sure can’t hear myself speak when she does bark; in fact she’s so loud I can’t even hear myself think. This “rule” is so hard to follow. I get frustrated really easily at times, I think it has to do with not seeing much in the way of results so far and she barks so much. Also, barking is one of those annoying sounds that will grate on your nerves and drive you nuts in no time flat.

Getting Fin’s attention when she barks is the biggest hurdle right now. It’s like she gets in this bubble and is aware of nothing else except what is causing this reaction from her. I tried just about every trick I can think of: clapping my hands, knocking on the wall or coffee table, using her clicker, whistling, walking into the room, looking out the window and then walking out the room, waving a treat in front of her and even a few times putting my hand in front of her face to signal her to stop. Yeah I don’t recommend that last one, I almost got bit.  I haven’t tried squirting her with water yet but maybe that will work.

The first thing I really tried was checking out the window to see what she was barking at and then showing no interest in it. I would even leave the room and not come back until she stopped. I did this for 7-10 days and then gave up because I saw no results. She would bark just as long and as frequently as when I started. To be honest, I was getting tired of missing parts of whatever show I was watching on TV or getting pulled away from work I was doing on the computer.

Then I tried using treats and her clicker but that didn’t work to well since I have trouble getting her attention and she would just inhale the treat so she could go back to barking. I started going to her and telling her stop, rewarding her when she did but I think this worked against me. I don’t think she clued in that the treat was for the silence. I also got tired of having to wash my hands after giving her a treat.

Now I’ve moved on to my third technique and I’m hoping this one gets results but I’m not really seeing any yet. I’ve started giving her timeouts. Whenever she starts barking, I call her name and tell her stop or “shhh” (I’m trying to find a word or sound that works, i.e. is nearly identical, in both in French and English- so hard). I then give her a couple seconds or two barks to stop. If she doesn’t then I pick her up and carry her to the kitchen and make her sit on the mat in front of the stove. She then stays there for 30-60 seconds. That’s about the amount of time it takes for anyone walking by the house to leave her line of sight.  Usually this works quite well and when I release her from the stay, she heads back to the window but rarely barks.

I know consistency here is the key and I will admit that I’m not always consistent so it’s likely taking longer than it should but I’m hoping it works but I’ll keep you updated on this.