Introduction

This is Mochi in January 2012, shortly before he turned 4. I'm not even sure where to start to tell his story, surely it will come out as we go but I want to get the basics down at least once.

Mochi came to us from his breeder who was local to me but the President of the local kennel club. She talked a good talk and we decided to put a deposit on her upcoming litter. The puppies were born and.. BOTH litters were all females! We'd decided to get a boy because we already had an older female mixed breed rescue, Arya. Corgis can be pushy little jerks and tend to do best in mix gender pairs. We went down to say hi to the babies and consider our options.

The breeder took us back and we oo'd and aw'd over the cute little bundles and the breeder said, "well... I know you want a boy. I don't know if you'll consider this but I have a boy I kept back from a litter in February but for various reasons I'm thinking about not keeping him. He's a bit too close to the girls in my line anyways."

So we went and there were 3 bouncy puppies, his very pushy cousin, her boy littermate who was absolutely darling and the puppy who would become Mochi. The other boy already had a home but we brought them both inside. They raced around and the breeder brought out some puppy toys. Mochi engaged and then cuddled with my husband and I as if to say "let's go home now!" We all agreed he had picked us and we wrote a check...

After 2 weeks I had a moment of "what in the hell did I just do!?"  He wasn't interacting much with Arya, didn't want to play and was just generally in his own (extremely cute) world. I remember panicking and considering returning him to the breeder, but finally he broke down and played with Arya.


That's them when they finally played, I grabbed the camera as quickly as I could and took pictures. It's weird looking back to pictures from then and knowing how everything has evolved to see signs of what was to come.




Things progressed somewhat normally for a few months. The dogs played and we took Mochi (and Arya eventually) to a puppy class at Petsmart. The trainer we went to was awesome and very encouraging. He was fine the first few weeks of basic then suddenly shopping carts were the! scariest! thing! ever! Yes, that punctuation was required. We forged through and brought him in for some serious counter conditioning  between classes.  It was a sign of things to come.

Mochi says, "Hi! I was a ridiculously adorable puppy!"





We had scheduling conflicts with the intermediate class and then the trainer we liked quit (aka had her hours reduced so much she had to get another job when the other trainer was not nearly as good as her, a pity!). We were at a loss for training classes for the time being and did what we could ourselves. That winter I started noticing he had a clicking in his hips. Part in denial and part hoping he would grow out of it, I ignored it until April. He kept alerting on things larger than him, the ceiling fan and was showing signs he didn't want to be social with other dogs.

Finally an xray in April of 2009 at 15 months old showed us Mochi had hip dysplasia and already had arthritis in his right hip. Immediately all our plans of agility and fun were put on hold and life became suddenly all about how to manage this condition.

Shortly before the xrays, he was limping on his front right and acting painful but not showing any signs of orthopedic issues. His shoulder was in pain, but the muscle. His microchip had embedded itself and was causing him pain. We did a local shot of steroids to try and loosen the chip and the day of his surgery to remove it we discovered it had finally done it's job and the chip had moved off to his left leg. Well, as you can see by the photo there was some miscommunication on that and he got shaved anyways!

It didn't help that at this exact time we took on a foster through craigslist listed as a "corgi mix". I had been intent on getting involved in corgi rescue. As you can see up there, Mr Trini was not part corgi. He was a very sweet terrier mix who was slow on the pick up but loyal to the core. Because this blog isn't about him I'll briefly say he was adopted out later that summer then came back but I asked them to find another foster home before Mochi's next surgery.

Mochi started supplements and played with the foster though we saw our first signs that he was dog selective when he would snark the foster for seemingly small transgressions. Foster learned and they buddied up, playing bitey face all having lots of fun. However, Mochi's attitude, already not that great because he'd stayed in his fear period I mentioned with shopping carts, kept tanking.

That may indicate when he started feeling his condition, I know for a fact nothing happened to him with a cart to start it. Who knows, really, except that behaviorally he was deteriorating and I could just tell he was in pain. We started needing pain meds daily, in a young dog not something you want! His behavior also became worse - he was guarding areas of the house and snarking Arya for things like bumping into him slightly.

He also started the signs of barrier frustration. We'd gone through some resource guarding as a puppy but it was resurfacing with a vengeance. He was (and remains) fine with people and resources but dogs are a different story. He also started avoiding my parent's dog, whom he had played with fine until that summer. The only thing that kept him relatively stable was liberal doses of pain meds. I resolved to go to the local veterinary college and see what could be done. We were prepared for a FHO (femoral head ostectomy) or THR (total hip replacement).

Instead, Dr. Martinez discussed a new procedure with us, a hip dennervation. Wikipedia tells me they now call this a capsular neurectomy. In short, the nerves in his right hip (his worst) are shaved off so he cannot feel the pain of his condition. The recovery was significantly shorter and if it didn't do enough to help, we had the option left of a FHO.

As you can see, two very small incisions and this photo is from the day after of his surgery! Yes, he had to rest but I wasn't needing to walk him to potty and such. The doctor also advised on supplements and suggested we start a new brand. If your dog has orthopedic issues, the amount in the pills is very important. You need a constant level of supplement to remain effective. The problem in brands like Kirkland which we had been using is that they are not regulated to have at least X amount in each pill. One of the ingredients (I can't remember which, sorry!) is water soluble and in lower quality products tends to go up and down in how much is in each pill.

The combination of these 2 - surgery and Cosequin DS - were effective. He was off the pain pills but still grumpy. The behavioral problems were still there. They did regress a bit during this time post surgery but not much. So this brings us into Winter/Spring of 2010. That summer, we went back to my parent's house. The resource guarding was an issue (though manageable thankfully), otherwise things were better. We decided he'd come along enough to take him to our local off leash park. He was until this point much better off leash with other dogs. Things were great, he greeted and was around different types of dogs.. and then there was the boxer. This boxer was obsessed and would not leave him alone. We moved away for a while while the owner chatted with my Dad.

The dog kept bugging Mochi and to his credit, he was doing a good job of saying "please leave me alone" without being rude. The dog finally pushed him despite my best to run interference and he snarked. The guy finally got the hint, which I had been saying the whole time for him to please call his dog off Mochi, and walked off. The frustrating part here is there were 3 other dogs in the area yet this boxer was focused on Mochi. I should have walked away with Mochi, I know that now.


That was kind of the beginning of the end. Mochi learned that growling works and works really well! It wasn't immediate. That summer we did a CGC class and passed with nearly flying colors. My mother in law was in the building and he was so worked up he struggled with his stay but did fine once she left the building. He had signs that he was becoming leash reactive and I was stupid to the entire thing. I'm sure I made all the novice mistakes - tightening my leash when another dog approached and the like.

That fall I joined the club and started assisting. Arya got to do agility, but poor Mr. Bo (his other nickname) had to stay home. I tried to get him out more and it seemed the more we went out the worse he got. He was also getting snarkier at home with Arya, guarding the back door. Around this time I read a blog asking if we were fans of our dogs. I wasn't Mochi's fan, not by any stretch of the imagination.

I resented that he had overtaken our lives with his issues, both physical and behavioral. That we had to worry about him constantly and carefully manage him. I loved my dog, but I didn't like my dog and I wasn't even trying to. He was my "husband's dog",when my husband invested little in his training. Reading that is hard. It's tough now knowing that I felt like that but it's important to be honest.

I resolved to become his fan. I let go of the negativity I'd harbored against him and did my best not to let it creep back in. There wasn't an immediate change, but it did happen. He slowly trusted me more. He was more willing to work and play. Our relationship improved and his reactivity started to just slightly decrease. His relationship with Arya started improving. There was still reactivity, there was still resource guarding but it was less.

It amazes me now how much impact my attitude had. Simply flipping a switch in my brain flipped something on in him. This was not a cure - he was still behaviorally a mess and despite counter conditioning (cc) attempts on my part his dog reactivity remained but at home he was better.

2011 was a rather unspectacular year in terms of Mochi. I continued my attempts at behavioral modification (bmod). Finally in the fall I realized he'd just had it. He wasn't responding at all so he became my stays at home dog. Things still weren't 100% but hey, he had a good life sniffing and barking outside in our large yard. He enjoyed playing tug and lazy (laser) pointer. More importantly, the guarding was better when I wasn't pushing him with bmod.


Our relationship continued to get better. I purchased and started making use of a thundershirt. It helped him relax. This video isn't the best, but it shows how he goes from being very uncomfortable, putting distance between himself and me to able to concentrate and work. Oh and please ignore the mess in the background. I rewatched this and I am so embarrassed. Why didn't I pick up that damn towel!? 

In terms of what was going on with me, I started off 2011 teaching a rally class and then began assisting the basic obedience classes. Eventually I started teaching. I was also elected secretary of the club for 2011. In October, I stepped up again and was elected training director. I was teaching our remedial behavior class mostly. I participated in Susan Garrett's Recallers course which was my first "lightbulb" moment with both dogs. I started shaping with a clicker that summer. This had a huge impact in our continued growth. I got interested in bmod and started devouring all the materials I could get my hands on.

Elk antlers are difficult for short legged dogs!











A goofy moment in the grass.

His thundershirt the first day we had it on.










Which brings us more or less to present day. While 2011 was an unspectacular year for Mochi I consider that a good thing. Not good that this bmod failed, but we had no major bombs go off otherwise. As we came to 2012 I went to Clicker Expo in January. I attended a few reactive dog lectures, where I encountered Julie Shaw, Ken Ramirez (swoon) and Kathy Sdao. They talked a bit about medication to help with behavioral modification if it had been unsuccessful otherwise. It clicked in my head, it was that time. We also committed to a new puppy who would be coming home in April. In early February he began fluoxetine (prozac).

A few more recent photos from our big snow this year:

Last updated 2/26/2012