We all went down to visit my sister’s farm in Pennsylvania Sunday- Weds, and she could tell you how freaked out I was about bringing Sage down there, and likely how exhausted she was of hearing about it. 
Sage and Laura’s cutest, fluffiest smallest, most adorable dog are uncomfortable around each other, and when thrust into social contact such as being in the house with nothing going on begin to negotiate around each other, eyeing, avoiding, tensing, hiding. They can take walks together, but we recognize that these two are not a good match now that Sage is older and bigger and has settled his opinions about other dogs.
A major piece of Good SageKeeping is management and not asking him for things he can’t do. But here I had to ask him to ride in the car for 7 hours (boring and confusing), get out at rest stops and pee (where ARE we?- he has always been terrified at rest areas, crouching, wary, and definitely not peeing), arrive at a strange place wherein resides a dog he doesnt love. Furthermore, Laura had told me about the horses and buggies going by 5 or 6 times a day (we had recently discontinued horse-desensitization training.) and the Amish farm across the street with three dogs on the porch, cows and chickens.
We decided that I’d base my dogs in the finished basement which walks out into the fenced yard, and Jeff and I slept on the sofabed down there so he and Rei could understand we were all denning there. We also kept him on leash when he and Cody were out at the same time but mostly we just kept those two out of each others way and let Cody roam, and when they were together they didnt look
sideways at each other. I think by expecting much less of them we were able to succeed. Sage spent a lot of time in the dog yard, and did not go into the house proper, just the basement. We also took all of them for walks in her fields and woods together.
A watchdog, Sage.
Interestingly, the dog yard provides a view of the Amish family across the street and all their chickens, three dogs, two calves, and at least 4 working horses. Occasional bonneted children and suspendered men appeared to do farmwork. But Sage was captivated, he DID bark, but
he never got angry, and best of all- nobody across the street cared a bit or reacted to his bark in any way. I guess they expect dogs to bark- imagine that. Laura also had workmen at her house the whole time, building a chimney right next to the dog yard and on the other side using small backhoes to fill in some drainage work they had done against the basement. The chimney guys ignored the dogs perfectly, and
the backhoe guys came over and petted Rei and Sage. Because there was SO much to look at, and because nothing in the environment responded to any barking, he sat on the hillside of the yard and just watched. He could not get enough of watching “Amish TV” and after a short time he didnt bark at the chickens at all, or the calves. The horses still set him off, but he calmed quickly.
He was SO busy watching the farm animals, I had a hard time tearing him away for things like dinner. Next to the Amish family was a whole field of cows. they were far away and even if they look up at him, they are hard to make out their faces, and unlike horses, their ears do not go up, and their heads stay low relative to their body. Sage vastly prefers cows to horses. I am very very proud of him for maintaining his cool in the presence of so many strange things!
Sage loves cow watching. He also likes to hear soothing moos.
Sage laying down watching black and brown cows across the road from Laura’s dog yard. The accidental genius of this set up is that the times that he did intially run and bark at the Amish, the closer he got, the less he could see because the fence is downhill and has slats. His best opp to watch-dog is from the middle of the yard where the ground is high and he can see over the fence. Staying on the hill and watching calmly is rewarded with more viewing, running closer and barking results in less livestock viewing.
The last night at Laura’s farm, we had thunderstorms in the afternoon, and fireworks in the late evening- not a problem. So we ended the trip with another 7 hours in the car home, and more rest stops- he was not very reactive at rest stops, to my delight, just watching a white husky at a stop on the way down and just making grumbles about a small dog we saw at another. No tantrums.
To what do I owe this improved response? I don’t know. It could be that it was all new to him and he was learning that the farm animals are “normal” for ths place. I am sure a lot of it is reading him and managing him correctly- not forcing him to be with Cody, for example. Another good piece was that I was relaxed that nobody cared if he barked. So I let him- in the big valley his voice was little and the Amish family didn’t even look at him. The Amish DOGS didn’t even look at him. ( my nightmares of three Amish dogs coming over to fence-fight him did not come to light) I think because nothing engaged him and things were far enough away he stayed below threshold.
He did not seem overwhelmed- as in a flooding sense- he was not shut down, he was alert and very curious. He was fascinated. (I described this to my mother and she exclamined, “He must be a Farm Dog!”) Since he would not come in to the Den for dinner, I brought the bowl outside and played Voluntary Eye-Contact with him- to see if I can get him to split his attention between the farm and me, which he did, breaking his view to look at me- count one two- THEN I hand fed some kibbles and allowed him to watch the farm proceedings and waited for the next eye contact. (Fresh off my Suzanne Seminar!)
Additional stuff in play- he is still on 75 mg sertraline a day, but this just takes the edge off, allowing time for training to happen. I was rather worried before leaving and bought him a “Good Behavior” collar- a green rubber collar infused with lavender and chamomile and synthetic Mother Dog pheromone- it claims adult dogs are calmed by the pheromone they remember from being with their mother as tiny puppies and that it means they are safe. I don’t know if this collar is to be given credit for his improved calmness- but since it lasts for 30 days, I guess I can keep it going here at home and see if it has any effects on him here.
On walks, both Reilly and Sage pulled a lot (Laura has groundhogs, LOTS of ‘em) and I cannot to my loose leash walking successfully under these circumstances- we took one walk through her field and I spent the whole time getting dragged around and trying to keep the beasts from rooting out groundhogs, that I decided this was completely unfair of me to expect both of them to walk nicely through a field this way. After that I walked them down the gravel lane, where there were rabbits, but it was clearer to stay on the road.
