Traditionally, when Kody sees another dog he gets so excited that he can't help but bark. In the past, he has felt insecure, but recently it's mostly about excitement. But he has noticed that his barking tends to put other dogs on edge and I don't think he likes that.

Today, when he noticed Winston was out by the pool instead of barking he whined politely. Then when we went out he stayed quiet and Winston felt good about coming to greet us. Even after I opened the gate and we went into the pool area Kody was a gentleman.

He didn't try to engage Winston in play, but he also didn't seem at all shy. There was lots of sniffing by both dogs. It was really good. I guess I would describe it as normal, and more importantly fun and relaxing.

A dachshund will never be a lab, and a lab will never be a poodle. This is okay. I've been working with Kody long enough to know there are some things that are just traits I need to learn to live with. He's a barker, that's his natural response to new stimuli. I can't change that.

For a long time I've been trying to train Kody, but I've also been trying to change him. I am beginning to see the parts of Kody that can't be changed and I'm starting to find ways to work with that and appreciate him for who he is. I know he's great, but like the straight parent of a gay child, I don't fully understand him.

Most parents get this, but I think with dogs, humans are still at the very beginning of the learning curve on how behavior, personality, and training interact.

For me, what I do know is that Kody can go from alarm barking to calm. So it's less about eliminating the barking and more about learning to communicate to him that whatever his requirements are for calm have been met. And that's the big thing, I still have to learn what those requirements are, and Kody's the only one who can teach me.

I'm so thankful to Kody for helping me learn all this.

Today Kody and I faced our biggest challenge yet. Right outside our back door five construction workers were making repairs to the siding and the fences. They were hammering on our walls and using nail guns. They were ripping down fences and dropping them on our patio and they were climbing up ladders. We were in quite a situation… this is our story.

I was shocked into the situation. Shortly after we got out of bed, Kody noticed the men. Kody is already accustomed to the leaf blower guy, but five guys at once, who don't leave? This was big. I had no choice, I just immediately started playing "look at that" and clicking and treating.

At any moment for two hours there was either a new sound or a new person or a new object present. We went through more treats than ever, which honestly, is totally okay. When doing positive training, treats aren't like ice creams sundaes, they're just really good food. So to make up for it Kody had a small dinner.

However, I will say that Kody is totally full. I set out some small watermelon pieces for him a little while ago and he just ignored them, I've never seen him that full.

He had his special cooked lunch, training treats, and a chewy treat all right near the construction. It was taking so long we added some mat training in too, so when Kody did get a treat, he was expected to be on his mat when he got it.

Two hours in, I was done and tired, and I just had to hope he could contain himself. And he did. He just laid by the window and watched the men hammer and build. Oh my gosh, was this my dog?

A funny thing happens when you do this kind of training right. The goal of course, is to say, "That thing you think is scary isn't scary at all, it's awesome because good things happen when it happens." So Kody had switched from being scared to being intensely curious about the men. He liked them. He wanted to meet them. He was sad when they left for the day.

No, he wasn't 100% sure they were awesome, but he was 90% sure. He was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

We did go outside one time on leash to pee, and he did well. I didn't want to bother the men and there was too much dangerous stuff for Kody to get into to stay out long. But I was happy with it.

I find it fascinating to watch the changes in Kody. He's a tough case, but I'm learning how to communicate with him in these tough times.

I've realize that dogs survived because they knew that being nice to humans would get them food. They knew that helping humans would get them food. Dogs have it built into their core to work for food, and it's on that basis that I communicate with Kody. It makes sense, and it works.

There's a pond behind my house and consequently this spring my backyard has been filled with wildlife: baby ducks, a rabbit, a raccoon, squirrels, chipmunks, a mouse and most often, this baby goose and its parents. Just about every day in the morning the parents and the goose are eating grass in my backyard.

Kody, my dachshund, usually alerts me to their presence by asking to go outside. He's been conditioned to be fairly used to them so he doesn't bark, but he's still very interested.

Once we get outside, though, he's reserved and keeps his distance. He was taught a lesson last year by a mother goose, luckily he was not injured. When we're outside we both keep to our areas and the geese let us know to keep it that way by hissing at us.

I put Kody inside and went out to take some pictures. The geese will usually head into the water if I get too close. Which is what happened today.

I figure it must be a raccoon because Kody doesn't get quite that excited over squirrels once they are gone.

Last night, we went outside and again Kody rushed over to the area where the raccoon has been. All of a sudden he let out a series of barks and I heard the sound of something scampering up the tree.

I went over and used the flashlight to look in the tree. Sure enough, the raccoon's bandit face was looking back at me.

Now I keep Kody pretty close to me at night. I don't think the raccoon is much of a threat with me around, but I do think if somehow he felt it was safe he probably has better fighting skills than Kody and I don't want anyone getting hurt.

Kody will definitely act as if he can win a fight, true to his dachshund heritage. However, as he learned with the mama goose last year, he can't always back it up.

He was better when we got into the vet, but was still pretty shocked. Inside, he is fascinated with the other dogs. There was another dachshund he was very curious about.

The trip did have some lasting effects though. He was a little more barky this evening, as happens after he's had a traumatic event.

I've been really busy, and we've solved a number of other issues, but I'm going to start working toward making our vet trips a bit easier. The next step for us is getting the leash thing down. I've been avoiding this by going out in the back yard, but it's time to get started again. We're going to have to take super small baby steps, but that's what works.

I was able to cut up some hot dogs and talk to the guys and he was so good. Then I went and threw hot dog bits to him to reinforce how great it is when guest come over.

Its nice to have such positive and stress-free experiences.

I’m not sure if he’s barking to warn other people of the snow, if he’s warning them that he’s still protecting the two of us (from them), or just complaining that it’s too darn cold!

To a point, it’s kind of cute. Whenever we have a guest over and go outside he does the same thing. I’m fairly sure that barking is because he’s excited to show them off or letting everyone know he’s protecting them too.

Wolves rarely bark, so this behavior must be new to dogs. Since dogs have really become dogs because of their interactions with humans it’s hard to say why they bark, although researchers are studying the different types of barks. Kody definitely has different types.

Kody got excited. A few times before I had brought out the hot dogs to train Kody that the leaf blower guy was a good thing. Well, today, he was ready to start the party! He did a quick little report bark to me to remind me it was time for some fun, and looked excitedly out for the leaf blower guy. I have some lower value training treats at the ready, so I asked the person on the call to be patient and explained to them what I had to do.

I made sure there was a party while the leaf blower guy was nearby and outside the slider. But Kody was so excited, he really wanted to have some fun. After leaf blower guy left he was throwing out behaviors to try to keep it going. He even went over and sat patiently on his mat. Oh my gosh, I had to get up and give him a treat for that.

It would have been a disaster a year ago, but this time it was simply a responsibility to parent.

As a sign of our training progress a gardener with a rake just started raking outside our slider and Kody just calmly watched him. I grabbed some treats to give him to reinforce the good behavior.

It’s nice to be surprised by such things.

Kody is still a bit of a hand full, and there are still situations now and then that confound me. Last night Kody asked to go out a couple of times but then didn’t want to go out because it was raining. I don’t blame him, but I wasn’t sure what to do? Did he have to go to the bathroom really bad? I guess if he did, he would have gone out, but I can’t help but worry.

The door knocking is moving slowly but surely. When someone knocks at the door I just have to freeze in place until Kody is calm, only then will I move to get his door treat. If I move before, he won’t stop barking, my movement seems to encourage him. If I stop, he calms down, comes to me as if to say, “Why aren’t you reacting to the door?”, and then runs to the mat and will stay calm while I answer the door.

Well, he’s looking at me to go outside right now, let’s see if he goes.

Whether you believe in God, spirituality, or the flying spaghetti monster, I think we all feel the same way about our dachshunds. They bring events into our lives that help us process and get through some tough times.

I personally can’t imagine my life without Kody. The way he interacts with the world is full of lessons for me.

FURRY FRIENDS: The Dachshund And The Dragonfly

If he sees another dog, he’s fascinated, but quiet… unless the other dog moves. It doesn’t matter if it’s away from him or toward him. He’s not mad at the other dog or scared, it’s his excitement bark. He wants so badly to interact, but he has no idea how. But the fact that we can be relatively near another dog with some bit of calm is great progress.

Along with the calm I’ve already described, his is a little more calm about toys and treats as well. He still likes them, but unless it’s something really special, he doesn’t get too excited.

This has been a bit of a tough week as I’ve been sick. It’s made me realize that my stress level is way way too high. So I’ve been thinking of things to drop from my life and it feels great.

One of the things I’ve decided to drop is any and all frustration with regard to Kody. I now know that the vast majority of my readers will luckily never know what its like to own a dog like Kody. They will never need to know and understand complex training methods just to make it through breakfast. I was taking Kody on a walk last night and without warning he barked loudly in alarm. Not at anything in particular, just his usual barking at nothing. In my bliss of feeling better for the moment I realized that it’s just not that big of a deal compared to constant stabbing pain in my neck. In fact, it’s comparatively pleasant.

Kody is who he is. He’s a crazy dog that was badly bred who is afraid of everything except giving me kisses… and food. We can and have worked on many issues successfully but there’s one issue I can’t fix: Kody is crazy.

At this point I can, at the very least, gracefully handle any worst case scenario we get ourselves into. And the truth is those just don’t happen very often anymore. But if a nice stranger tries to talk to me, Kody will sometimes let them know who’s boss despite the fact that he should know by now that strangers mean treats. He is the approver! If some is doing something he hasn’t approved he will let them know. In turn, they will often run, which I’m sure is just what Kody wanted.

There’s no point in trying to explain or apologize or lamenting the loss of pleasant conversation. The best thing to do is to quickly get us to a place where both of us can enjoy our day. Just let it go, because that’s life with Kody.

Since the walk he’s been a wild dog wanting to go outside to collect pine cones (a game we play) and sprinting all over the house with wild abandon. He’s even getting excited about getting his teeth brushed which right now is just me touching his back teeth with my finger and then giving him a treat. We’ll add the toothbrush later.

Kody loved being outside, it was like a calming drug for him. He would just lay in the grass and get so relaxed and mellow. Sometimes if he got too hot, he’d move into the shade for a little while. He was so happy.

I got the barbecue cleaned and the propane tank hooked back up and decided I may as well barbecue while I was at it. So I threw a couple of bratwursts on the grill. It was a beautiful day, Kody was happy on the grass, the grill was letting out the great aromas and sizzling sounds, the pool was to my right glistening in the sun, and the lake was right in front of me and its fountain was gushing.

I had this great moment of happiness and comfort. I feel so lucky to have found this apartment, I’ve never seen another quite like it.

The complex I live is built around a system of connected ponds and streams and there’s a path that crisscrosses the water running right through the middle. Basically almost every apartment is on a stream, pond, or lake. The water is obviously not a real lake, but I live on the largest lake and the effect is real enough to give the same emotional effect. The smaller ponds and streams have a sort of bayou feeling.

A few days ago a mother duck was in the lake with over 10 ducklings that were so small they must have just freshly hatched. By the way, Kody gets along fine with ducks, which is interesting to me. Later that same day I was walking on the path and there was a Great Blue Heron standing in one of the streams about 6 feet away from me. It just looked at me.

Today was great, too. Kody saw another dog and only barked twice and then pulled me to try to get a better view of it. We played “look at that” giving Kody a training treat each time he looked toward the dog. Then he was still so calm, and he led me on a long walk around the complex. He’s really making progress. It used to be that just seeing a dog would “ruin his day” but now he’s ready for an adventure afterward. Amazing.

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone, especially my own Mom.

It was one of our neighbors that Kody really likes. Kody was calm, but he always likes greeting humans better off leash, so I dropped the leash. He started running and I thought he was going to go for the mailman, but he went for the front door. He didn’t make it too far before he turned around and waited. Then he just wandered in the area calmly while I talked.

The mailman said he was one of the best dachshunds he’d ever seen, and that normally they’re so aggressive. I told him that Kody wasn’t always so well behaved. Our neighbor, knowing how hard I work laughed and told the mailman how much I’d been working with Kody. The mailman asked what I was doing with Kody and I talked about working with a trainer and just in general doing a lot of work in general.

My neighbor got down to pet Kody and Kody seemed to love it.

Then we went inside. What a good experience!

So today, before I let the guest in I got a little rawhide swizzle and called him to his mat. He definitely went to his mat for that. I gave it to him and asked the guest to come in (I knew who it was) and Kody just stayed on his mat and chewed his toy. It was perfect. We’ll get it down.

I just thought it may be that he doesn’t like to be laying on the floor when people are walking around him. I’ll move his mat more out of that way and see if he likes that better.

But a similar thing happened tonight. He went to show me he needed to go out, and then when I acknowledged and got the leash, he ran to the couch. He didn’t run when I approached and was happy to get his leash on to go outside. So he seems to prefer getting his leash on when he’s on the couch.

He seems in general not to want to sit around by the front door. I don’t know exactly why that is, but it’s not really a big deal. Things are going pretty well.

This cute black and tan dachshund was being trained not to bark when people come to the door. Coincidentally, Kody and I are working on the same thing now. Kody is making good progress. I knock on the door from the inside and click and treat. At first he would bark a lot then quickly get quiet, but he would still be nervous about the implications of the door being knocked on. Now he’s getting into the game and today he didn’t even bark the first time I knocked. We play this game every time we go outside, and he’s starting to finally see it as a fun game, which is the whole idea. Tomorrow we have a guest coming so that will be a good next step for him.

Another thing I love about having the dog trainer over is getting answers to my technical questions. I had a simple question today, what exactly is the correct process for associating a word with a behavior. I didn’t know when the word should be said during training. The answer is: “antecedent, behavior, consequence”. For instance if you know how to lure a dog into a sitting position:

• antecedent: say the word “sit”
• behavior: lure the dog into the sitting position
• consequence: reward the dog for a job well done, for instance with a treat

For some reason even after attending a training class, I didn’t get that. They didn’t explain it quite as well. It seems like a pretty important process to understand, right?