The Search for a New Dogwalker

Mumble is notorious for being resistant to staying at home alone. He has been known to escape confinement behind a dog gate (pushing it out of the doorway, climbing a bookshelf to get over it, and then climbing the moved-bookshelf to get to the kitchen counter and then over the gate) at the young age of 4 months; he moved a crate across the room while inside of it (resulting in a scrape on his back that caused a permanent scar), took a screen out of a window, ate / chewed through two doorknobs (mine and one at my sister's house - both have puncture marks from his teeth and are warped), and various other things to attempt to get out of any type of solitary confinement (or what he sees as such). More recently, he escaped out of a crate completely while we were visiting my sister for Christmas (my brother checked on him that day and called to say "was he in this pen-thing when you left him here? he's not now"). And then of course, he has rearranged my furniture... As in, pulled a large arm-chair several feet across the room so that it was behind the couch instead of next to it. I guess he thought it looked better there, or else was trying to move it to the window (when it use to be under the window, he loved to sit and look outside).

So figuring out what to do with him during the work day has been a constant source of stress for me. Originally, he was able to come to my office during the work day, but eventually the building owners put their foot down about that (although they seem to look the other way for smaller dogs). He started daycare at The Loved Dog at age 5 months, and for a while he was doing a combination of daycare there or in a pet sitter / dog walker's home during the week. Eventually this didn't work because unbenownst to me, Mumble had decided to be a "guard dog" at the pet sitter's house, and basically barked at the door most of the day.

Several months ago I found a great dog walker, named Lyn. You can read all about that process in an earlier post about Mumble staying home alone. Lyn was great because she was willing to listen and to work with Mumble according to the techniques / methods I already use. I showed her, for example, Mumble's "routine" for when I leave the house, which is something we learned in our training with Tamar Gellar, and she implemented it. I told her she had to be willing and able to say "no" firmly to Mumble if he was barking or pulling on the leash - that he knows how to behave but will "test" her. When Mumble started a Tricks class, I gave her a list and instructions of what he was practicing and she would try out some of the tricks with him when she visited. She was flexible, able to come multiple times during the day (more when he seemed hyper or anxious, for example).

And over the last several months, my life has become infinitely less stressful as Mumble has become more and more calm about staying at home. Of course, I know some of this is attributable to the fact that during this time period, he has had constant agility and tricks training, giving him ongoing and consistent "mental stimulation" which makes him better behaved in general. I know some of it is just due to maturity - Mumble at 1 year 5 months is just now starting to get out of the destructive puppy phase. But I also know a lot of it is because of Lyn, because she has been a constant in Mumble's life, and because she was such a perfect fit for what he needed in a dog walker.

So you can imagine the panic I felt when Lyn informed me that she is now moving away. She's very happy about this next step in her life, and I want good things for her! But selfishly, I of course wish she were staying nearby.

I'm faced now with the search, again, for the perfect dog walker. Perfect means available when I need them, flexible in terms of scheduling (it's not the same week by week), reasonably priced, experienced with dogs, and not too opinionated about how dogs should be walked / worked with. It is a time-consuming and exhausting task, one that took me a few months the last time around. I've google'd, searched through craigslist, talked to people referred to me by trainers and others, asked everyone I know if they know someone. I've emailed any and all persons who seem like they would be a good candidate and asked them my laundry-list of questions. You'd think this is a simple matter of availability + reasonable rate, but it's not so simple. The hardest part is finding the person who's personality is a good fit for how I want someone to work with my dog.

I've found that really experienced dog walkers, like "trainers," tend to be very opinionated about what works and think they know all about dog training already. And I'm sure they have great techniques, but I've put a lot of time and money into Mumble's training and I am more concerned with someone being able to do things my way than whether they can bring in their own training experience and techniques. My biggest pet peeve in this has been when I say "Mumble needs a lot of exercise and mental stimulation..." and I get cut off because the dog walker wants to show what they know and starts in with "oh yes, all dogs need at least XX number of hours of exercise" or "dogs really need activity and structure." It's not that they are wrong, it's that they are not listening. I know all healthy dogs need exercise and activities, but when I say Mumble needs that I am not just referring to what dogs need in general. Mumble is unique among all of the dogs in our little pack of dog-friends in terms of how much exercise he needs a day, so I think it is safe to say his needs may be beyond what the dog walker thinks of as "typical." On days he is at home now, he gets an hour long walk in the morning with me, two thirty minute walks with Lyn and another 30-45 minute walk with me in the evening. 2.5 or more hours of walking a day is probably more than the average dog gets / requires.

I'm not willing to risk, by having someone who is not right for Mumble, back-tracking to the days when he hated staying at home. When I leave him in the morning now, he is calm as he lies in his "stay" position waiting nicely until I get out the door and tell him "take it" (at which point he gets to get up and get the treats and toys I've put on the rug for him). He doesn't try to get up and follow me out, doesn't dry at the door. My neighbors no longer complain about crying or barking during the day. And when I come home, he is just happily waiting for me. As it should be.

So the search is on, and in the next week, Mumble and I will be meeting with a few candidates to see if they are a good fit. I'm hopeful we'll find someone quickly this time, so we'll see how it goes!

Doggie Daycare

Whoever had the idea for doggie daycare is genius. Without daycare, I don't know what I would do everyday with Mumble, who has endless energy, doesn't like to be home by himself, and is capable of eating through wood doors, puncturing brass doorknobs, and destroying rugs when he is bored.

I pick Mumble up around 7:00pm from The Loved Dog, after my long day at work and his long day playing with other dogs. The Loved Dog is a cage-free daycare and boarding place, and Mumble absolutely loves it there. He runs around this big room all day, where there are things for them to climb on and (most importantly for Mumble) lots of dogs to play with. When I pull up in the parking lot, Mumble is usually over near the big metal-gate-type doors on the side of the building with a gang of other dogs. When he sees me, he either barks and gets all the other dogs barking excitedly too, or he runs over to the gate to where I'll be waiting in the lobby. For a while, Mumble had decided he didn't need to be "let out" into the lobby to me because he could do that himself - jump the small gate and the taller one, push the handle on the door down and attempt to let himself out into the lobby to greet me. They basically implemented a behavior plan (like something that may appear in an IEP for some of the kids I represent!) to correct this and teach him to wait, both going in the door in the morning and coming out. Still, he usually doesn't need them to open that first gate for him, someone just calls his name, and he goes right over it.

Yesterday, when I picked up Mumble I also picked up his friend Charlie, who lives down the street from us. Charlie is new to The Loved Dog, but seems to be enjoying it thoroughly. Mumble was, as usual, completely exhausted from his day of play. The staff say that Mumble goes full-on all day long, even continuing to play when the other dogs stop for a mid-day nap. Mumble was asleep in the car before we even got home. Charlie, however, was looking at me inquisitively in the car, and when we got to my place, she just wanted to run around the apartment smelling everything and looking for my cat, following me around for treats, checking out the toy box. When her mom picked her up, she was leaping with excitement and then trying to engage a sleepy Mumble in playtime. Mumble has days like that too where he is still full of energy, and I just look at him and think "why aren't you exhausted yet?!"

We call it "going to school," and in the morning I say to Mumble, are you ready to go to school, and he runs to the door and sits to wait for his leash. Oh what lucky dogs they are, getting to run and play with their friends everyday! I highly recommend doggie daycare to anyone with a busy work schedule who has to leave their dog at home. Get as much information as you can about the facility, how it is run, and what the clients say about it before you go. Some questions I had were How many people are in the room with the dogs? What is the training of the staff? What happens if a dog is overexcited or shows aggression? What is the screening process for new dogs? What vaccinations are required? What is the procedure if there is an emergency? You need to talk to the staff and make sure you are comfortable with them and the facility before you leave your dog there, but if you find a place that works for you and your dog, it can really be a great option for busy dog-owners, especially in urban areas where the dog may not have as much access to "running-around space," like a big yard.