Frodo, the Puppy Professor

Zuni is everything that makes a terrier puppy great. She's goofy, wild, sassy, loving, a bit crazy and always cute to the nth degree. This combination is also the reason she and so many other terrier pups end up in the shelter. Not that she's done anything wrong. No, she's just being what she was born to be: an overdose of smart and sassy. The problem is the humans. They see these little spotted chub balls of cuteness and develop a bad case of puppy fever. Once they give in to the cuteness they can rarely think ahead to how 5 pounds of sweetness is about to turn their entire lives upside down - at least for 2 years, but lets be honest we are talking terriers and sometimes they don't grow out of their puppy wildness till they hit 10-12 years old!

Let me tell you that cuteness can wear out very quickly and the worst part is a lot of times these dogs seem to be smarter than their new owners. They push boundaries and learn their humans' every weakness and without some calm, loving leadership on the human's part it is very often a recipe for disaster.  That's how you end up with a Zuni - this bundle of sweetness who has likely been smacked around by a frustrated male and has learned to bite to avoid a man who reaches for her without her first showing she wants to approach him.

While I do my best as a foster parent to repair the mistakes that well meaning and not so well meaning humans do to mess up these little ones, I have found that nothing teaches a wild puppy manners quicker than an adult dog. At our house the best puppy teachers are my personal dogs. While old girl Tilly can handle the mildly rude puppies, for one as energetic and ignorant of doggy good manners as Zuni is, I let Frodo the Puppy Professor take them on.

Frodo the fun police: supervising past foster pups, Astro and Nova

Frodo is very conflicted about puppies. On one hand he detests them because they are pushy and rude.  But on the other hand, when a puppy is in the house that means that there's a lot more training happening and that means the treats start flowing. Frodo will never leave the room while there's a chance that food is going to be handed out. This means that when puppies are out having their supervised play time, Frodo is supervising right there with me (aka snagging their treats).

Zuni attempting to get Frodo to play with her: she starts by respectfully licking his mouth but that can quickly turn into excited muzzle punches

While I'm not an advocate of people just letting their puppy drive all the adult dogs of the house crazy with their rudeness, I do feel it's necessary for the adults to deal with small doses of puppies if they can handle it. Frodo has learned that if he makes it through one of these 5 minute teaching sessions there's a large delicious, chewy animal part in it for him so he has learned to stoically endure them.

Frodo giving Zuni the appropriate "I SAID I don't want to play" signals. Note how Zuni's body is pulling back in surprise? Also notice that Frodo is looking away. He's not preparing to attack or anything, just letting her know she needs to back off by showing his teeth. This time he didn't even have to make a sound.



Zuni, taking the message and backing away for a bit but still pretty interested in Frodo, who she just adores, much to Frodo's dismay

As rude as Zuni was when she arrived, man has Frodo taught her quickly what is expected of her. That doesn't mean she doesn't regularly go back for more and get multiple corrections from Frodo, but the length of time she can respect his wishes and just adore him from afar is lengthening. Yesterday nothing stopped her from coming back for more - not his showing teeth, snarling, or pinning. But today I watched once after a correction and she scooted back, laid down and watched him for about 5 seconds and then tore off looking for a toy. She left him alone for over a minute after that and this is becoming the norm. What a great teacher Frodo is! Below you can see a video of one of their interactions. BTW - this is Frodo's favorite spot to survey the room from - comfy, but ready to spring from the couch should a treat get dropped somewhere in the room.

 

 

 

Now check out this video. Watch how badly Zuni wants to bug Frodo but she knows she needs to leave him alone so keeps checking herself and backing away to do something else. The best example starts at 23 seconds.  Good girl, Zuni! Looks like Frodo is doing a great job at teaching Zuni some early impulse control lessons. 

Not all adult dogs can handle the bad manners of puppies though. Langley gets overwhelmed and feels under attack and he can lash out so he and puppy get the "crate and rotate" routine. Tilly can handle the pups but does show signs of stress and anxiety when they don't listen to her corrections and I don't want her to have to deal with that. Hobbs also gets anxious around her but I had to high five him for the awesome full speed, rolling, wrestling pin that he gave her outside when she ran into him. It was like some awesome Judo move that ended up with her on her back looking into his snarling face and wondering what just happened. After that experience I decided that when Zuni is on the loose, Hobbs get to hang out in a Zuni-free area. He is structurally a bit fragile due to his former injuries and he doesn't need 7 pounds of puppy running into him full speed.

For those of you who feel sorry for Frodo, let me assure you that no Frodo's were harmed during the making of this post. After 5 minutes with Zuni, he was allowed to retire upstairs (sans puppy) with a bison scapula and we didn't hear from him again until he heard me setting out dog bowls at dinner time.