Running for Your Life: Thurber Sketch

It’s May and I’m back to running Thurb, our impassioned manic mutt, Old UnReliable (That’s him at right), for the past six days, he’s been in “school” with the redoubtable Tyril, the dog whisperer of Brooklyn http://bit.ly/JcOKY4.

We’ve tried everything, of course, well everything but Tyril and the e-collar, but now that's what we're doing: paging, nicks and constants – not shocks, you understand, but carefully chosen mood adjusters, with an agreed-upon outcome that will satisfy not only M and me but Thurb and Tyril. Because if Thurb is going to be our dog then he has to be a pet we can manage, not one that we walk with trepidation, eyes in the back of our head, anxious in such a way that Thurb picks up on it, because dogs, especially finely bred hounds (or so says our pal, Tyril) like Thurb sense everything, don’t they? Body smells of anxiety and fears, such that only ramps up Old UnReliable’s own innate fear, because on the first day of school Tyril diagnosed that that was what was setting him off: fear. Not feeling secure in his body when confronted by anyone or anything that stirs his poor anxious soul. (And even in his own home, or in our bedroom, you know when he gets that look, it can only be a second and then .¤.¤. Watch out !!)

So far, so good, on the Thurb running front. But a word of warning. If you happen to see a skinny bearded man being dragged comically along a trail (I tend to avoid high traffic areas, which is good for everyone involved), keep a wide berth.

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I’m in school too, of course. Tyril, the teacher, doesn’t as much as say so, but everything about what he has to say smacks of Grade 3: Sit still and listen, Larry. There’s a lot to learn in class and only so much time to learn it.

Take my Thurber distance runs, the ones that I stopped doing, in part, because my companion was acting so badly when after a five-, six- and seven-miler, he’d sit when asked but appear anxious – not at all the relaxed way he had during the run itself. More than once after a run he snapped and bucked at me, only seconds after I’d stopped to smooth my hands down his soft back.

What I didn’t know (until Tyril taught me) was by touching him gingerly I was very likely transferring my own anxiety about, well, the potential for him to attack me in what seemed to be a stressed condition, making him even more agitated – as in here comes the lunge and drooling, snapping jaws howlfest.

Instead what’s called for at that moment is to help Thurber de-stress. Rather than stroking him, cooing as if he’s a child or a lover rather than a dog, the appropriate response to that nervous-making end of the run, when the walking leash is reattached, is pat him hard on both sides and give him a firm stroke under his chin. Then see if he’ll take a treat; but don’t force him to do so if he at first resists. All that, Tyril says, helps him de-stress. Lets him know that something good has just happened and that the expectations on him are changing (that he is moving from the run to the walk, which of course he enjoys but in a different way).

Here, of course, it is my job to be aware of these critical moments. When he stops to stare too long at something or someone, his hackles rising. What degree of behavior response is likely, given my (now ample) past experiences. What will guide my choice of e-collar behavior stimulant: page, nick or constant. And above all, be consistent. Don't give him mixed signals.

Yeah, Thurb and I, now in the early stages of our e-collar relationship, have to be on the same “page.” Tyril goes to some length to stress my responsibility: to best imagine what the dog is thinking. (Tyril can’t read Thurb’s mind, but he gets as close as I’ve ever seen .¤.¤.)

The choice of stimulant is important because the dog, whose brain works through events in simple, conditioned ways, will always ask these three questions when he’s in training (being paged, nicked or constant-ed by the e-collar):

• What just happened?
• Why did it happen?
• How can I avoid that ??

Will Thurb and I get it together? Stay tuned .¤.¤.

Running for Your Life: May Beckons