I find it fascinating how differently she has taken to Tika versus Koda and Hailey. Like I said, Koda is VERY assertive and I think she recognized that from the start. I could definitely see her stubborn side. She held her ground against him in the two minor scuffles, but she would never instigate it. I have to say I'm surprised she guarded even a little because she never exhibited that at my house, then again... she's MUCH more comfortable with Tika from the start and I think she senses that she can be a little more assertive in front of Tika than she could with Koda and Hailey. One thing I found is that Feather is an EXCELLENT reader of body language both in human and dog form and I think that is showing in how she has related to Tika vs my two.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it-- I think I did?-- but one thing she started doing at the end of her stay with us was counter surfing. She didn't get all four up, but she definitely put her paws on the counter. I think this is just all related to her INCREDIBLE food motivation.

Her reaction to the cats is exactly what her previous owners told me (which is nice that they were honest). She is calm and couldn't care less when the cats are calm, but when they run, she chases. It sounds like your cats are just the kind she needs! Did your one come downstairs?? Or is he/she hiding again?

I am SO GLAD I met the two of you! I had so much fun and I look forward to visiting John's family and hopefully seeing the four of you again. I have to admit I teared up a little hearing that she slept on our blanket. A friend of mine who fosters huskies told me that each one takes a bit of your heart with them, and Feather definitely took a piece of mine. I can't wait to see pictures

Keep me posted either via the thread or PM I'm always here!

Also- she was very pacey at our house as well. Totally normal for her I think... it definitely subsided as the days went on.

OK, I saved my phone pics so I could upload a few from the road trip I will try to upload the good pics from my camera tonight.

Tika: Thats my spot.....


Almost HOME! Tika trying to squeeze her way into the front



Chris walking the two pups, "husky heeling"



She did have a great night, she got caught counter surfing twice, which we are watching VERY closely like Chris said, the food guarding too. But she did get very cuddly as the evening wore on, and Tika snoozed while she got some love. The tone-deaf thing is kind of weird, but she really hears me much better than chris,

Have to say, looking at the two of them, two redheads together are very cute, but this will take a decent amount of work to get her out of her less than stellar habits concerning food.

On the docket now, renaming......we agreed Feather doesnt fit, and she barely answers to it, got to find a good name that suits her.

Will post more pics later
Kelly

GORGEOUS GIRLS!

I hope she fits in, and everything works out! She looks happy!

If the tone deaf theory is true, I would suggest a name beginning with a vowel. It creates a more high pitched sound from the start, which would help her attention

You two are consistent and firm, so the food motivation should subside as soon as she realizes that she won't get it from you. I would begin with boundaries. If you don't want her in the kitchen while you are cooking to beg, then baby gate her out of it. Eventually you won't need the gates. The good thing is that you know all this going in so you can set the proper boundaries from the very start.

Even after a few days with us, she stopped begging at the table as much because she knew we wouldn't give it to her.

As for when you are not home-- I would just keep crating her until you can work on it more. She is SO GOOD in the crate, I truly don't think she minds and when she was home all day with me, she was honestly just sleeping.. so I don't think you're doing her a disservice.

Stay firm, stay consistent, and I think you'll get on top of the problem sooner rather than later.

Although, I might consider moving the cat food to a much higher location than a table Maybe a bookshelf or something, lol.

I asked a friend of mine who isn't on the forums for her advice... she has several huskies and is someone I consider my mentor and friend on training. She had a different approach and I thought I would share. She is someone I trust COMPLETELY:

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Personally i think gating her away while you are preparing food is the wrong way to go......its just going to make her feel pushed out and more inquisitve of the food. If you get me.
You need to make her realise that human food isnt really that big a deal.
Also ( im sure you have) make sure she is wormed....they get extra hungry when they have worms [:/] [Chris, Kelly-- we talked about this and I definitely think she should be checked by a vet and dewormed... this could definitely be a part of the problem and might contribute to her stools and how OFTEN she goes]

How bad are the food based manners ?
Jumping up at counters and stealing is easy fixed by simply retraining her that the counters are off limits .
If she is begging for food whilst they are eating...feed her at the same time so she ( again) feels included in family time.

You want to keep the food motivation for training purposes but they do need to remember that she only ever needs two different types of food.............dinner ( kibble maybe ) and training food ( cheese/ sausage ..whatever they use ) and not to add anything extra for at least 6 months.

Of course never ever feed her from your plate or chip bag ...EVER !
This just encourages her that mmmmm mums got food , its share time .

Tika wrote:

Quote :

On the docket now, renaming......we agreed Feather doesnt fit, and she barely answers to it, got to find a good name that suits her.

Koda wrote:

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If the tone deaf theory is true, I would suggest a name beginning with a vowel. It creates a more high pitched sound from the start, which would help her attention

Chris is there any other female names in the Dragonlance books that would fit that start with a vowel??

They are beautiful together??

We have one baby gate in the house, and we just bought it. With Feather coming in we decided we wanted one gate to allow the cats a safety area... So we set it up a bit off the ground so the cats can pass through easily but the dogs would need to jump to get over.

We didn't and still don't foresee a need to get another.

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Personally i think gating her away while you are preparing food is the wrong way to go

Kelly and I use position, timing, and Motion to keep our dogs out of areas we don't want them. the only hitch is we need to be there to do it. Tika is allowed in our kitchen, and so is Feather, but when preparing food we ask they stay out. Accidents happen, food or tools fall, and you don't need someone under you that can get you hurt or you hurt them.

Kelly or I will walk slowly towards them until they back up to an acceptable location and stand right in front of them until they sit or lay down. Never any touch, and it's just a mental barrier. If they cross it we stop what we are doing and walk forwards again slowly until they sit.

It's worked wonders for Tika, and while unpacking food (we were too tired to cook last night so we got take out) Kelly used it on Feather. It took a couple of times but by the end she just sat there, in view of the kitchen drooling, as we passed food right over top of her.

While we ate she STARED into our souls as if to say "Your starving me" but a couple of taps on the floor and telling her to lay down seemed to work after a bit and she just laid down close to us but not "in our skin" so to speak.

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Also ( im sure you have) make sure she is wormed

We'll try feeding at the same time as we eat, that's a good idea thanks. And we do indeed want to take her to a vet as soon as we can. Not just for the worms check, but the nails have to be done.... as bad as thats going to hurt.... It's just all quick.... I'm not looking forward to that day.

We're big on no scraps here. It's RARE Tika will get anything freehand that isn't kibble or treats. Even the treats tend to be only a Kong or nighttime thing now. We haven't used treats in training for some time (though we will be starting to with Feather again). every now and then Tika gets a piece of cheese, a veggy, or a fruit. But those are by far the exception.

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Jumping up at counters and stealing is easy fixed by simply retraining her that the counters are off limits .

We're staying vigilant on this one... Shes not the most quiet dog in the world so catching her in the act is easy enough. She however doesn't startle, is too stubborn, or just doesn't hear however as when I clapped and walked into the room she didn't even turn to see me. I'm confident she'll get it though.

We would also place the food up higher or somewhere else, but the diabetic cat has a hard enough time getting around as it is. limping more and more and is the most thin I've ever seen her (though still a bit chubby).

Reinforcing the cat food is off limits is the way we need to go in the end anyways, so instead of avoidance I think we are just going to tackle this one head on.

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Chris is there any other female names in the Dragonlance books that would fit that start with a vowel??

The only one that comes to mind is Usha Majere. Palin's wife in the later books. Kelly has however put her foot down exclaiming "I GET TO NAME HER". Apparently I've named the rest of the animals still alive in our house , though I'd argue that the cats have simply lived longer than the fish and hedgehog she named .

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Did your one come downstairs?? Or is he/she hiding again?

All cats were on our main floor last night. Guenhwyvar, the one who has been hiding since Tika was brought home even came up to see Feather for a little over 10 seconds, and quickly ran off downstairs when she saw her... The other two did their normal thing all night and we had no issues with them.

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I have to admit I teared up a little hearing that she slept on our blanket

100% true too ... it was really cute.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions... It's the reason Kelly and I come to this forum so often. You all care so much and just want the best for everyone on this forum. We aren't the type to give up and though it maybe alien to us, if we are stumped we value all the input .

Just knowing other people are dealing with the same issues is amazing to us.

She's a really good girl, she just needs some direction.

~Chris~

Tika wrote:

We're staying vigilant on this one... Shes not the most quiet dog in the world so catching her in the act is easy enough. She however doesn't startle, is too stubborn, or just doesn't hear however as when I clapped and walked into the room she didn't even turn to see me. I'm confident she'll get it though.

Have you thought about using a squirt bottle to get her attention? That's what we use with Ghost and Lulu. We have about 5 of them scattered around the house and whenever one of the dogs does something they're not supposed to they get a quick zap in the nose and told "no ____" or "enough" (for Lulu's incessant barking).

I wish we could fix Lulu's food fixation. We've tried everything mentioned in this thread, and we can't stop the begging. She'll slink into the kitchen whenever we're cooking with the look of "I know I'm not supposed to be in here but I'm doing it anyway", and she'll sit and stare daggers into our souls whenever we have food. I force Aaron to enforce the begging rules, and after a year of this she's no better. She will still try to steal food if she thinks there's a chance too, and she gets super underfoot when I'm chopping which scares the crap out of me. I'm afraid I'm either going to hurt her or myself tripping over her.

I used these to break my Blaze from counter surfing. He would do it for anything, pens paper, fabric, not just food.

http://www.amazon.com/Snappy-Trainer-Pet/dp/B000WP4R52

If she doesn't startle easy it might not work.

EDIT: Amazon was out. Here's some in stock.

http://www.jefferspet.com/snappy-trainer/p/SNA-S1/

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Have you thought about using a squirt bottle to get her attention?

You know Meredith that's an excellent idea we haven't thought of.

One issue I'm dealing with during all this is Tika's submissiveness (or a better description is she is worried SHE has done something wrong)

I try and use a Gruff, firm, loud voice when I'm disciplining. Tika is BY NO MEANS scared of me, but she doesn't like it when I raise my voice. When we discipline the cats it's never really been an issue, as we used a more annoyed "You should know better" tone. Our youngest cats are both 9 so they know how to push our buttons .

So that tone has pretty much been reserved for Tika's training. She has turned into SUCH a good little pup we rarely need to chastise her anymore.

With Feather I, and Kelly too, have been using our "I mean business" voice. Maybe more so then before as we both believe she is hard of hearing or at least beyond stubborn . As I corrected her last night for the cat food (Clapped, Verbal "HEY! NO! LEAVE IT", positioned myself between her and the table) I could see Tika was looking at me wagging the tip of her tail very fast, as she does when she is nervous or unsure.

Something like the squirt bottle may help us in that regard. If the bottle gives us a reaction, we can cut down on some of the verbal (not all we need her to understand the commands) but it might go a long way.

Thank you!!!


Brian I have never seen those before We'll keep it in mind thank you . I'm not planning on making any purchases until we can get a firm understanding on how quickly she picks things up. 1 day isn't enough for us to fully understand how far she is willing to go to get food yet, or have fast she can learn to leave it alone.

Those might be enough to stop her if we can't control it ourselves.

~Chris~

Tika wrote:

Kelly or I will walk slowly towards them until they back up to an acceptable location and stand right in front of them until they sit or lay down. Never any touch, and it's just a mental barrier. If they cross it we stop what we are doing and walk forwards again slowly until they sit.

~Chris~

This is exactly how I trained my three. Piper and Aspen got it immediately. Willow is stubborn so it took a few times before she gave up. I have no doubt she knew what I wanted, she just likes to see if I enforce it.

I love reading your updates! Keep up the good work!

Tika wrote:

Something like the squirt bottle may help us in that regard. If the bottle gives us a reaction, we can cut down on some of the verbal (not all we need her to understand the commands) but it might go a long way.

Thank you!!!

You're welcome, and good luck! We just went to Target and bought a bunch for like 99 cents each. We were taught to use a little bitter apple mixed in as well, but honestly we haven't done that since Ghost was really little. As soon as she figured out what she wasn't allowed to chew on, we pretty much quit buying the bitter apple. It's definitely something to consider though, because in addition to tasting bad it's a very mild irritant.

26nikita wrote:

Tika wrote:

Kelly or I will walk slowly towards them until they back up to an acceptable location and stand right in front of them until they sit or lay down. Never any touch, and it's just a mental barrier. If they cross it we stop what we are doing and walk forwards again slowly until they sit.

~Chris~

This is exactly how I trained my three. Piper and Aspen got it immediately. Willow is stubborn so it took a few times before she gave up. I have no doubt she knew what I wanted, she just likes to see if I enforce it.

I love reading your updates! Keep up the good work!

That's exactly how I was getting her out of the kitchen for meal times as well. I make Koda and Hailey sit in the dining room and wait while I dish out dinner. Feather was excitable to say the least, but she was held to the same standard. The only time she got different treatment was after she jumped on Koda, he told her how much he didn't like that, and then I let her sit just inside the kitchen so she was away from the other two. But she was always forced to sit and wait. Meal times took 2x as long with Feather.

We dealt with that with Hailey too... and Hailey STILL doesn't quite get it. But we're actually getting Hailey's eyes checked because after years of observation, I'm pretty sure she doesn't see well (Chris- you and I talked about this yesterday).

FWIW- Squirt bottles worked with all our other dogs/animals. Haven't had a super need to use it with these guys, but when we have-- they barely noticed. Koda loves water though, lol... so he would try to drink it. Like "Thanks, Mom! I WAS thirsty!"

Love the updates and pics - they're so cute together! If they're getting along this well now, things are going to fine!

I cracked up at the comment about staring at you while you eat - Chili is super food motivated and does this "I haven't been fed in WEEKS!" look! I never give him food at the table, but I do ask hubby "Did you feed them before I got home?" even though I know better that he did! :LOL:

Can't wait for more updates! Congrats on the new family member! and Kudos to Tori for saving her and transporting her !

Thanks for the updates.. Love reading them..

Now I need to find some squirt bottles because Kerian is very food modivated. She is in the kitchen everytime you go in there when you open the refrig. she gives that look like She hasn't been fed in weeks. I am not sure the squirt with water will work with her she like water you turn on the garden hose she is right there wanting a drink from it.

Alright, here are some of the pics I took at the park and a few at her new home! Tika and her ran around the pool with MAJOR zoomies before. Feather chased her, albeit lagging behind seriously, but it was great to see them interact. We put both in the pool and watched, Tika like last year was great, but Feather seemed a little less interested. She didnt stay in long.
Working on the food fixation, tonights dinner prep went great, I managed to keep her out of the kitchen, though she sat right at the entrance, it was at a good distance. Dinner went Ok. we had to correct her a few times, but she eventually lay down near us and just stared...again....lol



Tika sharing her water...




Checking in with Tori




Checking out her surroundings at the new house


Watching Chris as he eats.....lol


teaching Tika how to beg......it takes puppy dog eyes and standing REAL close




We have a video of them playing, they just spent 5 minutes bouncing around together.....

I love the sad eyes watching Chris having dinner!

Nope... Tika and Feather obviously aren't getting along at all..........



please excuse the mess, we've been a bit busy lately.

Loki also expresses his displeasure with the fun near the end.

~Chris~

She is so damn happy. I. love. this.

Thank you guys for giving her such a good home!

Haha, that's too funny. Rio heard them playing, jumped on the couch, and tried to join in, via pawing and barking at the computer!



Feather and Tika are BEAUTIFUL together! I'm so happy things seem to be working for you!

Love it! All of you guys ROCK for saving her!

Glad to see everyting is working out so well!