Loving Langley

I've waited fourteen months to write this happy/sad post. You see, our long term foster Langley, aka Langster, aka Crazy Train, aka Langalanga Ding Dong, has been adopted.

Asking for a belly rub - one of his favorite past times and a reason I have so many photos of him lying like this

Over the last 14 months Langley has had about 6 or 7 applications, I believe. Families with kids, people with small animals (snack food for Langley), guys looking for an off leash dog to take to work at their outdoor job with them (which would last about .3 seconds as they watched Langley tear down the road after a bird), and then an adopter who seemed like the perfect person/personality but the place they were in their life around housing was not a fit for our anxious boy. I was tougher than normal on the applicants because it was so important that they saw past the beautiful exterior that Langley has, past his supermodel legs, to the inner beauty but also the special needs he has. Because of his anxiety and compulsions he needed a calm, quiet home in a calm, quiet neighborhood, with calm, quiet, and most importantly patient people. With that in place Langley could not just succeed, he could shine. 

Working on relaxing around foster Chihuahua Bo.

Ready to work: Langley loves our impromptu training sessions and really enjoys learning new things. We play lots of clicker games and learned many a trick to help him have ways to refocus his attention when he was feeling anxious.

Our home has never been a good fit for Langley. We knew this and did our best to rearrange our life and our home so it was a better fit. But in the end, I knew that a lot of Langley's anxiety came from living in a home that had random dogs coming and going, lots and lots of dogs, and a pretty variable schedule. I could give him the impulse control learning games, the positive reinforcement of behaviors he needed to be a house dog, and a person who was dedicated to doing their best for him, but in the end, I knew that my best was still not going to overcome the issues of Langley having to live in a houseful of outspoken terriers.  He needed to be someone's main focus, and in this busy house with so many dogs sharing my time that wasn't possible.

With a patient dog who Langley trusts, he can do quite well. Here he is in his Thundershirt playing with former foster girl, Neah, who was fair, had no fear of Langley's wildness, and refused to let him bully her. She is a strong, confident girl with a very terrier tude.

Langley was also pretty good with puppies as they didn't catch and rebuke him for his social gaffes like adult dogs did.  This little girl, Apple, had him wrapped around her paw (when she didn't have her mouth wrapped around his.)

I'm very proud of the distance Langley has traveled in his ability to manage his compulsions and to look to humans for guidance. Learning to calm oneself is something that even we humans struggle with when faced with scary places and situations. Getting angry at a dog for being out of control in the face of fear and anxiety is ridiculous and wrong. Instead teach them impulse control. Teach them self soothing behaviors they can turn to when nervous. Teach them that you are a person they can trust to look to for assurance and guidance. And above all, be patient and understand that fear is an emotion, no matter how illogical the fear seems.

And the "most patient dog" award goes to.......Frodo! Our personal dog Frodo really struggled around Langley over the past year. He did his best to adjust to life with the wild man, and learned to hoard his favorite toys down in the recreation room where he was the only dog who had access to them.

Langley visiting with our son Hunter when he was home from college. Langley adores Hunter and went through a fairly anxious adjustment when he went back to school.

At the park practicing focus and self control: There are lots of geese at this park and it was a good place to practice the cue "check in" that I use to get Langley's focus back on me. Here there was a new dog entering the park so we were about to head home.

Another favorite past time: watching birds and critters through the window. We let him do this for short periods of time but allowing him to do it for long periods would feed his compulsive behaviors and he would start to unravel emotionally.

He has taught me so much about myself and in my quest to help him relax I've become a learning theory junkie, attending all sorts of seminars and classes and completely overhauling my understanding of dogs and how they learn. After 14 months with Langley I am smarter, more patient, and my yard has never been more clear of dog turds. 

Attempting a group photo session with the other foster dogs, Salinas and Chima. They were pretty new to the house and as you can see Langley isn't too sure about sitting so close to them, especially since he learned the hard way that Salinas does NOT like to be humped.

I rarely cry when my foster dogs go home now - after fostering 80 or so dogs, I've learned to protect my heart from the goodbyes. But I will be crying off and on for the next month or so as I prepare for goodbye and then adjust to life without Langley. 

Tomorrow's post: Langley getting ready for his new home...