The last month or so has been really challenging. I started really long work hours to add to the lack of dog-park time. Pierre's had a hard time adapting to this weird new routine that has been leaving me exhausted, without the time and energy to dedicate to adventures with him or training, and where he doesn't get much, if any, play time with other dogs.
Some new rebellious behaviours came up but have since been resolved, and some things we are still working on. Can't blame him for acting out though.
For one, he had a weird bout of fearfulness, during which he was fearful of me at certain times of the day. Seemingly because there was a stretch of days where my time at home with him was solely doing things like cutting his nails and cleaning salt out from between his toes in the bath. So, if I called him over, he would look nervous and run right past me to jump on the couch as if to say, "no, don't make me do the thing". He was scared of our bathroom for a few days too, likely due to associations with the bath, noises from someone working on our roof recently, and because our shower curtain had been falling down noisily and regularly.
The other fun new thing he started doing was alarm barking. He had been first been growling at noises in the hall. I thought it was endearing at first, and it could be easily stopped with a verbal cue from myself or my partner. Ultimately, it grew into having long bursts of barking while we were out and when we were sleeping, which wasn't so great. We had a hard time not yelling at him in frustration but we all got through it alive.
Both of these things were mediated quickly with more attention to his needs, more exercise, and more training practice. Something that I can do now that I'm past the point of adjustment to my own new schedule. A good friend of mine takes Pierre out for a quick pee and hangs out with him during the day when he's alone for a long time, but his exercise and mental stimulation hadn't been nearly enough for a number of weeks. Though Pierre was flexible and happy to sleep most of the day at first, his acting out was a good reminder that he's still a Border Collie mix that needs to be very active within a solid routine.
One strange new behaviour that we still have yet to curb, is that he has started trying to mount certain friends. This may be in part because we used to have people over a lot more than we do these days, so his excitement is just TOO much when he sees them. I'm curious if this behaviour will be extinguished now that his days are less boring.
I have since discovered a wonderful new off-leash space for him to explore: a track field behind a high school near our place. We chatted with one man who brings his dog there regularly and he told us that there's only an extremely small group of dogs that come and that it's a very respectful group of owners. It's a great place! Pierre and I go there about once a day to give him running time while I walk around the track or engage with him for play. We also started going to the nearby dog park before 7:30AM to change it up and have occasional dog-play-time (some other dedicated owners will bring their dogs this early but it's never more than two other dogs).
The most exciting positive change that's happened lately, is that his heeling has drastically improved! Despite being less present and exciting to play with at home, I have been working really hard on being more consistent about my expectations and the cues I give him during walks. I've also started using a shorter leash so that even when I'm distracted, which I am 70% of the time, there's no extra slack or leash position changes to make him confused about where he should be walking.
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