A trainer, a dog and the world: Transitions...

Beanie is a big baby! No, I don't mean my baby, he certainly is that, I mean if he were a human child he'd be a whiny, scared, moody child that frustrated you to no end! Alas, he's not a human which makes it even more difficult and frustrating as I can't reason with him about the absurdity of his "quirks" (I'm still in a bit of denial and refuse to call them true phobias). He had this one "quirk" back in MO. that I attributed to him being afraid of his food dishes because they had been knocked over a couple times and scared him. What he would do is carefully come down the stairs to the front entryway, but only if I was at the front door to receive him, and then he'd turn himself around and launch himself by his dishes into the living room. It didn't dawn on me there could be another reason for his weird behavior. It confused me because it wasn't always consistent.

The problem became clearer to me recently. What I discovered, through the process of us moving and him staying at my friends house while we got settled into the new house, was that it wasn't his dishes he was nervous about, it was the flooring! The entire house in MO was carpeted except the front entry, the kitchen and the bathrooms. He hated the wood/tile floors. My friend had to make a rug path for him to get him into the house once he went outside! Of course wouldn't you know this new house we are in is entirely wood flooring except the upstairs bedrooms! Before he came home we spent $300 on area and runner rugs making a pathway for this 127lb. baby! We encourage him if he steps off the rugs and applaud his success. He has a DAP collar on and a plug in by his crate in our bedroom, he's getting more walks now than he was in Mo. because we don't have a fence yet. He is getting more comfortable with his little pathway but prefers to play with his toys upstairs where there is no possibility of the rug moving out from underneath him. For Christmas he got a new giant hedgehog and first chance he got he took it upstairs and began his play with it in earnest.

We are still working on being patient with his issue and try really hard not to make it worse. There is a LOT of "GOOD BOY" being said in my house right now!

Here he is with his new "baby" heading upstairs