Chloe - 2005

This is just a short "work-in-progress" journal on our newest member of our family, Chloe. This page is definately not pretty, the HTML is not what it will be in the end (I hand-code with a text editor), and the pictures have not yet been resized, touched up, etc., as I just wanted to get something up fast as a semi-intoduction for a dog training list I joined recently.

Changes and additions will be incorporated as time allows in the coming days/weeks that will highlight our experiences with this delightful girl, and on my newfound knowledge in learning how to train her using a clicker, some truths I've learned about some of the dog food I've regretfully fed in the past to our other girl, Peaches (a Shi-Tzu/Poodle mix), and a previous family member now departed, Penny (a Miniature Schnauzer/Lhasa Apso/Pomeranian mix), and more. Stay tuned!

February 26^th – Rescued Chloe from her apparent abandonment.

While driving back from Abilene, TX where I had picked up my wife, Kathy, we had some car trouble and pulled off I-20 a little west of Ranger. I was suspecting the car's fuel filter, as when going up an upgrade the car would slow down to about 45 mph and would not accelerate beyond that, even when back on the level. If I stopped and turned the car off for a few minutes, it would operate fine for a while, at least until randomly one of upcoming upgrades came along.

The exit where we found Chloe was at the end (heading east) of a 10 mile stretch where the Interstate was undergoing construction and cordoned-off to two lanes. I had a good deal of traffic parading slowly behind me for about the last 10 minutes at the end of this stretch, which happened to be one of those inclines, and I just couldn't go any faster. I exited to let the traffic pass and drove through the service road intersection, stopping on the shoulder and turned off the car.

It was raining and chilly, and there in the middle of the service road intersection was a small dog. Having stopped just past the intersection, I noticed that the dog came trotting up to the back of the car on my side, stopped, cocked its head, and looked at me in the side-view mirror. It trotted over to the passenger side and did the same thing. Kathy opened the door to offer it a cheese cracker. It approached and munched down the cracker, but was trying to climb up in Kathy's lap almost at the same time. The dog was soaking wet and shivering, so Kathy put her coat on her lap and the dog climbed right in and laid down on it. I saw that the dog was a female, but she had no collar on and there weren't any signs that she may have had one, and suspected that perhaps she may have wondered off from somewhere close by.

Across the Interstate there was only road-building equipment and mountains of dirt and gravel, but on top of a little hill above us was a double-wide trailer and thought she must have come from there. Since we feared the dog might get hit by a car, we drove up the muddy, pot-holed dirt driveway and found the trailer's owner out in front, working on his truck. We asked him if she was his dog, and he said no. She certainly didn't recognize this man either, though she rose to stand up and look around, so we asked if he might know who she belonged to, a neighbor perhaps. He said he didn't, and that she was probably abandoned and should take her. Since we didn't see any other houses or trailers for miles in either direction, we decided to at least take her back to Arlington and turn her into the SPCA, as we didn't want her to get hit by a car with all the Interstate traffic so close nearby.

Back down at the intersection, Kathy gave her some water, and she gulped down almost an entire 16 oz. bottle of it. She then got comfortable in Kathy's jacket and slept almost the entire 1.5 hour ride home. She handled riding in the car with ease, though we knew a part of it must have been due to exhaustion. When she was awake she had a very sweet disposition, but we had no idea what breed or mix she may be other than perhaps Corgi or Beagle, as she had short legs proportionate to her body, and was tricolor with black, brown and white. She looked by appearances to be in good shape physically, and although her breath was a little on the foul side, she appeared to have good teeth and no skin or coat problems that we could tell, just wet and dirty.

When we arrived home, we were careful with the introductions, but the dog wasn't at all aggressive towards our other dog, an 11-year old Shi-Tzu/Poodle mix named Peaches, or even our guinea pig, Jasper (who we had rescued from apparent abandonment almost a year earlier when Peaches found it wandering outside our apartment one night... but that's another story). I gave her a bath and scrubbed her good, noticing that she had firm muscles and no cuts, scars or lumps. She didn't care for the bath, of course, but wasn't overly fearful of it either. After she was dried off, we fed her and she ate like there was no tomorrow (another indication that she probably hadn't had a good meal in quite a while). She was adorable, and actually acted like she had been raised in our home, it seemed, “plopping” herself on the couch next to us and giving an audible sigh (of relieve perhaps?) as she lay her head down after her meal. Later, she explored the apartment and was curious as to what this “guinea pig thing” was, but was not aggressive towards it, Peaches, or us. Not even once.

She slept on the bed next to Kathy during the night where she had put a pillow down for her. We had kept the bedroom door closed as our guinea pig is housed in an homemade open-top pen approximately 3.75 feet wide x 6.25 feet long and 15” high manufactured from “stack-n-rack” grates around a coroplast flooring with 6” walls in our living room. We didn't want to wake up to any surprises and find she had jumped the “fence” and helped herself to an early-morning breakfast at Jasper's expense! As well, we had learned that dog saliva is harmful to guinea pigs and didn't want Chloe to lick Jasper out of curiosity or affection, either.

Kathy had noticed that the dog's belly seemed extended, and suspected worms. That was confirmed when we took her out to poop the next morning. She had already pooped once (in the house) the previous evening when we had first brought her home, and noticed that it was very compacted and made up of various alternating “layers” of very dark and light materials, which suggested that she hadn't had a steady diet. And, whatever her diet consisted of, it didn't look too healthy and smelled extremely foul. It didn't have any visible worms in it, but when she pooped that next morning after her meal from the night before, a massive amount of worms was clearly visible. By this time however, we had already decided that there would be no SPCA in her future, and would take her in and care for her ourselves.

February 27^th – Took Chloe to the vet for a full check-up, vaccinations.

Kathy called our vet that morning and made an appointment to bring her in that afternoon. We told the vet how and when she was found, and he scanned her to see if she might have a microchip ID. There wasn't one, so he proceeded with the check-up and vaccinations, noting that she had good teeth, seemed to be about a year old, and appeared to be a Beagle/Border Collie mix. He also mentioned that with that kind of mix, she should be a very smart and agile dog. We had also brought a stool sample with us, but of course would have to wait for the test results before putting her on any treatment for worms.

Since we had decided the night before to keep her, we spent some time going through every pet name we could think of and found that she didn't respond to any of them. We weren't sure if perhaps she had a Spanish name, or no name, so we spent some time thinking about what seemed to fit her, and her personality, the best. It came down to “Chloe” and we settled on that name. With the visit to the vet and her records started, it was made “official” that she had become a part of our family.

March 1^st – Spool sample tested positive for hookworms. Treatment started with Panacur oral suspension.

We were given five syringes (___ cc's each) of Panacur, to be given to Chloe once daily for the next five days. By the end of the fifth day, Chloe absolutely hated taking her medicine, even when it was followed by a tasty treat. Nasty stuff, I'm sure, but it did the trick and we noticed a rapid decline in the worms present in her stools until there were no more by the time treatment ended. We were instructed to bring in another stool sample fourteen days following her last treatment for a re-test.

During this time we did more research on both Beagles and Border Collies, and found that everything seemed to also agree with the vet that these breeds are very smart and easily trained. We had never attempted to train any of our dogs beyond what I consider “the bare basics” (Sit, Stay and Come, as well as general manners such as walking on a leash), but decided that I would see what advances or changes in training techniques had come about since Peaches was a young pup and scoured the Internet in my spare time. Kathy had taught Peaches a few other “tricks”, such as Beg, Stop (used before crossing a road) and O.K.!, but neither of us were trained or very knowledgeable in dog training, and just used what we considered common sense.

At PetSmart I had seen “clickers” for training before, but had never ventured to explore them further. That is, until I started reading a magazine on Clicker Training while waiting for a flat tire to be fixed at an automotive shop next door. Reading through the material intrigued me, so I bought the magazine and a clicker to bring home and experiment with. The clicker was a $3.99 version with a “variable loudness control” slide-switch. At home, and out of the packaging, I found that it didn't really control the loudness at all, and was very easy to “miss” clicks if not positioned the right way. I used it for the first session of “conditioning” her to the clicker that evening, but wound up exchanging it for a Triple Crown clicker that cost a dollar more the next day, and love it.

I continued the conditioning session that night, but found the the louder “click” was more distracting, almost to the point of startling her every time I clicked. I had read that there are several ways to overcome this, one being to click from behind your back or in a pocket. I found that holding the clicker to my chest to muffle it just a bit did the trick quite well.

I repeated the routine from the night before, but about a third of the way through I decided that since Chloe loved to sit for her clicks and treats (she had sat almost the entire conditioning session the first

night, and was doing the same this night), I would move to the other side of the bedroom and wasn't surprised that as soon as I stopped and turned around, there she would be sitting right in front of me. I used this opportunity to work on her “Sit”, alternating from one side of the bedroom to the other, each time clicking and treating as she eagerly sat down, without me even saying a word.

We had fun, but since all we had accomplished so far were the “conditioning” sessions the get her conditioned to expect a treat each time she heared the click, I certainly wasn't expecting anything, at least not at this point, so early in the game. But then something I was to later consider remarkable happened... the following day, when I was about to take Chloe outside and grabbed the leash, she as usual was jumping up and down with excitement, nipping at my hands and leash. I had the leash in one fist and the clip in the other, so I placed both of my fists up and out of her reach by placing them on my chest. All of a sudden Chloe sat down pretty as pie and just looked up at me. I didn't know quite what to think, but welcomed the act as it had always been a chore to leash her up due to all the jumping and excitement.

Later on that evening, when it was once again time to let her out (we're still house training her, so we let her out often), I noticed that she once again did a beautiful “Sit” when I held both of my clinched fists holding the leash and clip to my chest. I pointed this out to Kathy and we both thought it was wonderful. We didn't have the slightest idea where she had picked up this “trick”, but weren't going to look a gift-horse in the the mouth, though! I repeated the “procedure” each time, and she dutifully complied. Boy was I happy!

Then, the next day, when I was thinking back to the conditioning sessions with Chloe, it hit me. I had been muffling the clicker in one “fist” by holding it to my chest, and holding the treat ready to give after the click in the other “fist” (actually, between my thumb and forefinger, but having the other fingers closed over my palm), which had also been held up to my chest. This was the “visual clue” that Chloe had picked up on, without me even knowing what I was doing! Kathy and I both had such a laugh it brought tears to our eyes!

Needless to say, I was instantly “sold” on clicker-training, and also to the fact that Chloe is quite a smart pup... in many ways smarter than me! Her “Sit” for the leash is still not perfect (she sometimes wants to jump up as the leash is being clipped to her collar), but it's far more pleasant than it had been, and is something I'm confident she'll get down in no time at all.

March 18^th – Spool sample tested positive for Coccidiosis (Coccidia parasites). Treatment started with Albon 500mg (oral tablets).

April 2^nd – Final spool-samples submitted for both Chloe and Peaches. Both tested negative.