Boone-My Anatolian Unicorn

[peteyfoozer]

So NOW Fen wants your attention, Boone derails him. I have a hard time with poor little Fen, he dumped you. He chose Randy and phooey on you.

This is true. I love to sneak Fenny snacks and tell him what a poor choice he made

 

[peteyfoozer]

Boone has started using Fen’s underhanded tactics of getting a treat. He climbs in his crate and stares at me. If I don’t pay attention or comply, he either taps his feet, whimpers, or make scary faces at me (he’s resting his head against the bars with his nose smushed up, not growling )

 

[peteyfoozer]

Randy gave the bois some kibble with leftover pulled pork mixed in. Fen ate all his in his crate. Boone gets his bowl outside the crate door, because his crate is so huge, if he moves his bowl around, we can’t reach it. Randy “psst”-ed me and I looked up to see Boone in his crate with his head down in the doorway, watching Fen eat the food out of his bowl. Once Fen had his fill and walked off, Boone stood and ate the rest.

Zero resource guarding.

We raised him right…

…also, it wasn’t a freeze bone….

 

[SageHill]

View attachment 115726

Boone has started using Fen’s underhanded tactics of getting a treat. He climbs in his crate and stares at me. If I don’t pay attention or comply, he either taps his feet, whimpers, or make scary faces at me (he’s resting his head against the bars with his nose smushed up, not growling )

View attachment 115727

Learned by example! Smart boi

 

[peteyfoozer]

Boone made it pretty clear again today, that he just really would rather not do public access anymore, so he stayed home, out back and Fen came along with me again instead. This is the third or fourth time now, that Fen has worked for me, in Boone’s place. It’s a trade off. It’s inconvenient because I have to use the big upright walker as Fen can’t help me walk safely, but on the other hand, it’s a lot handier to tuck Fen under a restaurant table than to battle with Boone, who takes up way too much space and still tries to sit and rest his chin ON the table.
Plus, ever since the incident at the bank, I have been an absolute wreck taking Boone anywhere as there are just too many illegitimate SD’s out there. Fen is still somewhat dog reactive (moreso than Boone) but he’s light enough that I’m not worried about not being able to manage him if he tries to become aggressive. So Boone will task for me at home and on low pain days help me navigate out to see Mister.

Fen has improved every trip…until today.
I have told Randy, since I first began training Fen 2 years ago, NOT to engage with him while he’s working. Yet, he continues to do so, encouraging Fen to vocalize and do his happy hiney dance in public. He also distracts him so Fen breaks from his heel and has actually rope burned my neck with the no hands leash. He totally untrained him after I let Fen start going to work with him to the point Fen wouldn’t listen to either one of us and it has been frustrating for both Fen and myself, trying to reeducate him.
Fen gets anxious very easily so I’ve been really careful as I have been helping him learn to separate himself from Randy when I need him to do public access for me.
Today, he was awesome. He was relaxed, attentive, only made a few mistakes by trying to sniff people close by (he has a very sensitive nose and used to be fixated on my cancer) and a couple of times he wasn’t paying close enough attention and nearly got his paw under my wheels, and a couple of times he didn’t stop quickly enough and was out of position, (but he did back up when I asked, all his mistakes were just from getting temporarily distracted and he IS getting better) but he’s doing so well, his auto sits and down stays were perfection while we waited in checkout lines, and he went under the table at lunch and handed me 2 paper napkins that had fallen on the floor.
The pharmacist said it would take 5 more minutes to refill my meds so we went to sit in the waiting room. While we had been in the line, both the pharmacist and some clients commented on his manners.
We went and sat down, then Randy came…started teasing him, playing with hin and scritching his butt, which puts Fen over threshold instantly.
This time, Fen was not only flopping around like he was seizing, he started barking and vocalizing loud enough that EVERYONE was staring at us. I. Was. P;ssed. I got Fen to come away from him and let him know that it sucks I have to ask him not to engage with his own dog, but either ignores him completely while he’s vested and working, or he will NEVER come to town with us again. I let him know it’s unfair to Fen, confusing him and causing BOTH of us extreme anxiety, but also puts me at risk. It took several minutes to help Fen calm down again. Fen’s behavior this time was so abhorrent because of his interference that I think he finally “gets it”.
He knows Fen enjoys going with us now and doesn’t want to be home alone so hopefully, he will cooperate with me.

 

[SageHill]

Wow. And grrrr. So inconsiderate to say the least.

 

[peteyfoozer]

Wow. And grrrr. So inconsiderate to say the least.

He’s a really good guy, except he has a habit of just not listening or taking me seriously. He’s terrible about not being responsible with animals beyond feeding and playing with them, and raising his kids was hellish!

 

[Baymule]

Randy is in that class of men known as thick headed. Once he gets an idea in his head, a jackhammer can’t dislodge it. Kudos for you, he finally got a glimmer. Hopefully you made enough of an impression that he will behave in public with Fen now.

 

[peteyfoozer]

I told Boone it hurt my feelings last night when he joyfully ran in to greet FEN, then Randy before going out back with Fen to play for an hour…and not even saying hi to me until after all that. This is the look I got.

I think he’s sorry.
It’s hard being the bottom of the food chain

 

[Baymule]

I laughed out loud at that. Bottom of the food chain! Haw! Haw!