ALLVVIIIIIINNNN ---and other things.

I'm turning into Dave from Alvin and the Chipmunks. Someone once told me dogs live up to their names, so be careful what you name them. I got exactly what I named Alvin. The annoying chipmunk.

I admit, I'm not the most patient person in the world, and perhaps I have too many buttons capable of pushing, but I've never met a dog that's been able to push all of them at once, and by just being plain ANNOYING! And I thought Graelee was annoying. Alvin is a whole category to himself of annoyingness. Alvin might just be killable annoying.

Alvin has his stupid little head everywhere. If he isn't sleeping (which thankfully he does a lot of) he's bugging somebody. He walks on top of Beckett, -like 'hop on pop' walk on him-, pesters the heck out of Lemon, and always seems to want whatever spot Alphie has made himself comfy in. I'm somewhat regretting I was hard on Alphie the first day or two, cause Alphie had a good hate-on and I don't allow any form of being a jerk here, but I'm beginning to understand why Alphie was a douche-bag. I'm starting to develop a serious dislike of this little idiot dog. I admit, there have been a few times I just have to put him away or I might just kill the little bugger. Better for his safety that he's crated than throttled.

He doesn't get anything. Not that he's stupid, but that he seems, well, like he's broken. He doesn't understand dog body language, he doesn't understand that he's not an entitled prince. Before us I'm almost 100% sure he'd never been told "NO". No is not in his vocabulary. Neither is stop, away, get out, get up, or MOVE. He just isn't phazed by anything -except food. Still, that has a rather limited effect ---GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME. Then the food goes away and he's GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME for the next hour.

And he has the most annoying habit that if no one is paying any attention to him he just sits in the middle of the room and squeaks. Like a mouse squeaks. And he squeaks until you pay attention to him -nicely or not-.

I've done the nice route, I've done the quite physical route (as far as you can go with a Chihuahua anyway), I've done the positive reinforcement thing, I've done the completely ignore thing, I've gone the dog-signals type of information route, and the "I mean business" route. Hard, soft, cool, calm, angry, frustrated, nothing. It all yields the same result: ANNOYING!

He's not a bad dog. He really isn't. He's just making me pull my hair out because I expect stuff from the dogs here, and Alvin expects that the world revolves around him and that he shouldn't fit into any of the rules. (The rules are minimal by the way. Although they now include: don't be a complete pest!) It's also slightly frustrating that the harsher I am on Alvin, or the more frustrated I get with him, the energy rubs off on Allie too and she gets back in her 'OMG, back to my crate' mode.

But we've made some progress with Allie. She is now "I will come for Cheese" dog, and if I move, she's heading to the kitchen figuring she'll be getting some tidbits of cheddar. She won't take them from me when I'm standing (leaning over her still makes her skitter backwards, and it probably will for a bit yet), but if I sit down, she'll come up and grab a piece. Slowly she's becoming aware that I offer more than just one piece and doesn't dart away with her spoils as much. I will take 'will come for cheese'. I just wish she'd like something a little cheaper :P.

I've also done a couple of 'couch sessions' with her. Perhaps a weird idea, but I bring her up on the couch with me, and I don't ask for anything except that she stay there with me until she's calm and relaxed. Throughout the session I move closer to her. She likes when I stroke her paws. I'm even getting kisses to my hand. At first it was a struggle getting her up on the couch (we're still using a leash at all times, I won't be taking it off until she's comfortable with me handling her enough to put her leash on and off) but after a few times she now knows 'up' and will get up on the couch with relative ease.

Now that she's relatively 'settled' I want to try to move her forward a bit faster. If left to her complete own devices, she'd have nothing to do with us unless it involves one of her walks, a pee break or cheese. I don't mind if she isn't an overly peoply dog, but I do need to make her comfortable to be approached, and to be petted, and to not feel people are going to hurt her. These are basics and I need to make sure she's okay in her own skin before she goes wherever it is she eventually goes. Not that there aren't people out there that are willing to work with how she is now, but I think I'd be too nervous to see her go without the basics. She has so much potential to be an awesome family pet, but at the same time she has a lot of potential to regress.

As always, the right person(s) for the right dog. Matchmaker matchmaker, make us a match. (But first, please find Alvin his match okay.)

Emily Out