Problem being, the car terrifies him. I understand his aversion to the back of the truck(it's enclosed, don't worry, no risk of jumping out); Buck gets overly excited because he LOVES going places. Half the time Jake won't get in by himself, he has to be lifted; rather than hopping in he'll hop up to put his paws on my back and just stay like that. It's quite odd.
But I went to see how he'd do in my car, which is what I'm posting about. Note: I WILL be buying him a seat belt harness before I take him on the highway, both for his safety and for mine. Anyways, the first time I tried to get him to in I had to crawl in back first, and he'd inch in after me, pressed as close to me as he could manage. He gets very clingy in the car. I sat with him a while, then went inside and got a clicker and some ham and cheese.
I clicked him for hopping in of his own volition, and he caught onto that quickly. No problem getting IN the car now. So I shut the door, get in front with the heat and radio on, start feeding him ham and cheese. First any time, then only when he's sitting, as I'd rather him be seated while riding in the car and I want to reinforce that.
He shakes and trembles and pants and sheds visibly MUCH more than usual, whines, and is obviously stressed out. He'll take food that's handed to him, so that's a good sign.
I want to get him used to riding, even if he never LOVES it, I just don't like seeing him so stressed out. Any suggestions? When I get him a car harness I think I'll take him through McD's a couple times and get him a hamburger. A lot of the coffee places and banks and such have dog cookies to hand out now too, so that will help once I can take him along.
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Chels brought Kali over this weekend for an overdue playdate. Jake was jazzed. So was Buck, but I wasn't willing to let him run after her and wrestle her too much because he seemed to have hurt his paw on Saturday(we took them both to be in the family pictures we were having done) when he was getting out of the truck. He was favoring it a little bit(it seems to be fine now though, so no worries).
Jake is quite a bit shorter than her...
Kali apparently claimed Jake's hole to China, lol! That hole is really deep, like a foot and a half deep by 3 feet wide... but Kali was obsessed and kept standing in it and ducking into it , like so:
I just really like this shot.
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Continuing to gain Bella's trust. Saturday when I went over to help make some cards she was out, so I hung out with her. She followed me to the sliding glass door, and Grandma took some pictures. That made Bella nervous at first, but she didn't run away. Instead she stuck by me, and relaxed when she realized that my grandma wasn't going to come closer or threaten her. Just gives a bit of a size comparison. I'm about 5'3, so here's Bella and I.
And this is how she reacted when my grandma first appeared in the door; a less severe form of that head thing that she did when first approaching me.
She ran to me when she saw me going to my car to leave today. I hung out with her a little bit. I would steal her in a heartbeat... honestly, I think somebody needs to just whisk her away or call animal control. It was -10 this morning, I don't know about this afternoon, and she was outside. She was shivering when I was with her. My Grandma's watching to see what they do with her this winter... I'm worried for the poor girl.
