Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

What? It was just one piece of dog food.

Our kitty, Luke, has food allergies, which is something we've known since before we adopted him. But until this week, we haven't had to deal with an outbreak.

We've been buying him his hypoallergenic food and managed to teach him not to get up on the kitchen counter, not to take food off people's plates. The one thing we haven't been able to scare him away from is dog food.

It doesn't help that Una is a very generous dog who doesn't mind sharing. This is a trait we like to encourage, because if Luke takes a liking to one of her small toys, I'd rather that she allow him to play with it and find another toy to occupy her. But it also means she won't help us in our efforts to keep him away from her food. In fact, if he comes up while she's eating, she just walks away, as if to say, "Oh, you want some? Go ahead."

Still, we've been trying, with little success. We put the dog's food out only when one of us is able to supervise. But if, say, we fall asleep on the couch, Luke gets free reign. Fortunately, he has a very small mouth and can't just swallow the dog food. He needs to break it into smaller pieces first, which makes noise and generally attracts our attention.

I can't tell you how many times I've woken up shouting, "Luke! No!"

Even though he's managed to get a small bite here and there, he never had a reaction until this week. Monday night he stole an entire piece and ran off under the couch. At first, I tried to move the couch and get it away from him, but then I gave up. After all, dog food hadn't done much harm so far, so what was I worried about, I reasoned.

The next morning, I realized my mistake. When I picked Luke up to hold him (he's always affectionate in the mornings), I noticed something funny about his lower lip. It looked more prominent than usual. Sure enough, throughout the day it got more and more swollen and turned from a healthy light pink to an unpleasant angry dark pink. I called the vet first thing in the morning and set up an appointment.

If you look closely, you'll see that Luke's bottom lip is swollen and pink

I made certain that he ate some of his own food and had fresh water, while I kept an eye on him until the appointment. Poor little guy. He wasn't eating as much as normal. Maybe the swollen lip got in the way. He seemed to know what was coming; he readily got into his cat carrier and only protested briefly in the car, when we hit a particularly loud bump.

At the waiting room at the vet's, a couple who were waiting for their 20-year-old white kitty cooed over how pretty and sweet he was. While I waited, they told me stories about their cat, and I shared some of mine. The one I particularly liked was when the man told me their cat insists on 10 minutes of "baby time" in the morning, where he must be held like a baby and get some TLC.

"I have to hold him like this," the man gestured, cradling an invisible cat in his arms. "And hold his tail and his feet." Funny, that's almost exactly how Luke likes to be held. I guess he needs "baby time," too.

The vet and her assistant also cooed over Luke. He cuddled up against the assistant, probably because he knows the vet is the one with the needles.

"It happened again?" the vet observed, cheerfully. "Let's take a look." She agreed that he was, indeed, having an allergic reaction. After consulting her chart, she gave him a cortisone shot, "So that he doesn't get mouse face." The foster mother who had Luke prior to us told us that Luke's first allergic reaction made his mouth swell up so that he looked like a mouse.

The vet said to keep an eye on him and if it didn't get better in a couple days, to call her.

Already this morning, the swelling is reduced and his lip has returned to a healthy pink. And while I've been waiting, with a spray bottle, to spray him with water the next time he goes for the dog food, he hasn't tried yet. Maybe he's decided it's not worth it. After all, what cat wants to look like a mouse?

I just realized that I'm taking Una to her obedience class tonight and never wrote about last week's class. That was the first week we actually had the dogs with us.

We had been instructed to keep the dogs away from each other, to not let them greet or sniff each other. This was partly because we couldn't predict the results and partly because the dogs could be too easily distracted from their lessons.

So my normally friendly doggie was prevented from saying hello to potential new friends. She objected; whining and looking at me with a pleading look. She seemed weirded out by the situation. The only place where she's not allowed to greet friendly dogs is in the veterinarian's office, and while this didn't look like one, maybe that's where we were. So she started to bark.

The instructor came over, a sympathetic look on her face.

"This is one of the problem behaviors we're trying to correct," I said with exasperation.

The instructor handed me a small water bottle and said that if Una barks, I should tell her "Quiet." If she continues, I should spray her in the face with water. Dogs apparently hate that as much as cats do. As soon as she got quiet, I was supposed to praise her.

Another technique is to make the dog face away from whatever they're barking at and make them sit. After a little while, Una cut back on the barking and got quieter sooner. By about halfway through the class, she was only barking sporadically, and usually only when another dog started it.

This week I picked up a small water bottle that's easy to carry around, unlike the large plant and garden sprayers we bought for cat training purposes. When she barks at people at the door, she's been getting squirted. Likewise, when she barks when we're going out for a walk. I think she's beginning to understand the command "Quiet." In her mind, it means "shut up or you get sprayed in the face."

We worked then on "Sit." This is a command that Una already knows pretty well. She did occasionally get distracted, though, by the other dogs. I think she was fascinated by the idea that they were all being told to sit. Maybe she never knew other dogs had to do that before. After awhile, she paid closer attention and improved.

Next, we worked on the dogs staying within a circle around the owners without pulling. We'd all purchased training collars, which the instructor sized properly for each dog. They're the simple chain collars some people call "choke collars," because if the dog pulls they tighten.

What we were supposed to do was give the leash a quick tug if the dog started pulling. This gets their attention and is more effective than simply letting them pull. Otherwise, the dog's necks simply toughen up, and they'll drag you, even with a training collar.

It didn't take Una long to learn to do this. She's usually pretty good about standing near me, although she did start barking again when another dog started. This time she responded more quickly to the "Quiet" command.

Then we worked on walking on a loose leash. The command for this is "Let's go." The principle is the same as standing with the dog. The dog can walk ahead or behind but can't pull or yank the owner around. If they do, you give them a tug on the leash.

We did this, everyone walking in a clockwise circle and then turning and doing a counterclockwise circle. One of the assistants gave me some pointers on technique, which helped.

Una got lots of praise from me because she wasn't tugging much. She got a big smile on her face, happy for the attention. If she gets this much love for being good, maybe it's worth it, the smile seemed to say.

We also learned what to do about dogs that jump up. If it's in the house, and the dog is not on a leash, you put your knee up in their chest or step on their toes and say "Off." If they're on a leash and jumping on someone else, you yank the leash downwards and say "Off."

They demonstrated the leash technique on a few really jumpy dogs, and it definitely seemed to work. They only tried jumping on each person once. We tried to see if Una would jump up, but she wasn't in the right mood. She has to be really excited, which usually only happens after she's been home alone for awhile.

Lately, she hasn't been doing it, since we've been coming home calmly and ignoring her until she calms down and greets us politely with a toy in her mouth. Then we praise and pet her. This works fine at home, but at Dad's place people were still coming in loudly and shouting, "Hello!" She got excited and jumped up on them. The instructor said she'll give us strategies for dealing with that sort of situation.

On our way out, we received homework sheets for what we needed to work on that week. Basically, we were supposed to work on "Sit" and walking on a loose leash. Una and I have been practicing every day when we take our walk. She's doing much better. I don't know how well she'd do without the training collar, but I think she'd do better than before.

Una has been fairly good on walks for awhile, because it's one of the things I've tried to teach her, although she occasionally gets in a mood where she pulls, especially when she's around my family members and their dogs. I'm hoping that this will help.

I can't wait to see what we learn tonight. Una, for her part, is enjoying the praise and would probably like to learn more ways to get praised.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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