The Warrior Princess

It occured to me today that I hadn't really written about our dog since right after we'd gotten her, so I thought I'd give a quick update and give some photos.

Her name is Xena, as in Warrior Princess. Don't make fun of the name. We didn't give it to her; it was from her previous owners. We did, though, keep it, which I guess we didn't have to do.

I just re-read the last thing that I wrote about her, and it almost made me laugh out loud. I didn't really know the dog very well back then. In that post I described her as "a dominant dog" that tried to run the show...

...This is the most submissive dog I've ever seen.

Here is a short list of just some of things that terrifies this dog:
1. Garbage trucks.
2. Any plastic container, like a bucket or a trash can.
3. Any other dog, no matter the size.
4. Me.

The last one is my fault, I guess. I really did think that she was a dominant dog when we first got her. She wasn't a dominant dog at all--she was just an enthusiastic puppy, but I decided that it was my job to try to break her. So I read some books about dominant dogs. Never mind that the photo on the cover of one of these books was of a Doberman Pinscher, and that on another was a huge Rottweiler with its teeth bared, and never mind that my dog looks like a black lab puppy and is smaller than a beagle. I assumed these books could help me. One of the books suggested that the next time that the dog did something I didn't want her to do, I should point at her and shout "No!" as loudly as I could. Seemed a little extreme to me, but I thought I'd give it a try.

The next day I came home from work wearing a suit. I let Xena in the back door and she ran over to me and jumped up on me. I shoved her roughly away, pointed a finger in her face, and shouted "No!" as loudly as I could. I literarlly hurt my own ears I shouted so hard. Xena's ears fell back on her head, she crouched down, and promptly emptied her bladder on the hardwood floor.

For months after that this was the kind of greeting I got from Xena--an enthusiastic greeting, but when I bent down to pet her she'd squat and pee. I knew that I had to be patient with her. If I got frustrated and yelled at her it would just reinforce the situation.

Eventually she got to the point that she quit peeing, but she still didn't want to be around me when we were alone together. I told my family about it, and they thought I was lying, I think. She acted absolutely fine when anyone else was around, but the moment she realized it was just the two of us she'd run into Natalie's room and hide under her bed. I finally proved to Lisa how she acted one afternoon when the dog and I were in the back yard and everyone else was inside, and Xena didn't know anyone else was inside. "Don't make any noise," I told Lisa. "Just look out the basement door and watch this." I then went out and threw a rope bone to Xena. She merrily went and got it, but when I approached her to take it from her she dropped the bone, rolled over onto her belly, tucked her tail into the air, and peed on herself. I looked over at Lisa. I think she finally believed me.

For a long time it bothered me, but then as I got to know the dog better I noticed that it wasn't just me--she was just one terrified, insecure dog. As I mentioned above, she's terrified of plastic containers. She loves to go for a walk...except on garbage day! Then it becomes an experience similar to you or me going to a haunted house. All those empty garbage cans!

She's actually gotten a lot better, though. She hasn't peed on herself when I've approached her since Halloween night (when she was about to pull out of her leash and run off and I leaped toward her to keep her from getting away), and she no longer hides from me when we're alone in the house. She's still a pretty timid dog, though.

The video below was taken back in July at a "dog park" in Covington. This dog park is basically just a fenced off area where you can let your dog run free where other dogs are so that your dog can get worms. We took Xena to the dog park twice, and she spent the VAST majority of time hiding under the legs of whatever human she could find. If she wasn't doing that, she was literally foaming at the mouth from anxiety. The only time she played AT ALL with any other dog is in the video below. She played with this dog for the length of time in the video and maybe a minute and a half more before a larger dog raced into the fracas and got in between them. At that point Xena ran back over to where we were and got between Natalie's legs.