Cheetah - a complete history

For all of you hard-core Cheetah fans out there - I thought you might enjoy this slightly redacted letter that I wrote to Cheetah's prospective adopter after she asked me a few initial questions. (I do nothing half assed.)

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OK here we go.

History:
I do not know very much about Cheetah before she came to me. All I know is that she was pulled at the last moment by the person who does our pulls for us. I tend to stay out of the shelter side of things or I would have a pack of 500 dogs. But she was not a scheduled pull, I do know that. We always pull from high kill shelters and she came from North Carolina. The person just thought she was sweet and grabbed her the night before she was due to be euthanized. She was adopted right off the transport by a woman named ["FO" first owner] who fell in love with her right away. A few days later I got a call from Kristina, the Exec Director of the rescue telling me that surprise! Cheetah was pregnant with "no less than 7 puppies" and what in the world were we going to do. FO had no intention of giving her up, but she could not handle the puppies in her apartment. Somehow I talked my husband into letting me take her in and help her whelp. I immediately bonded with Cheetah and she trusted me from the get go. She came a few days before she whelped so she could get used to the place. I had the spare bedroom all set up for her, but she decided my bedroom closet was more to her liking and started nesting in there. So at the last minute I cleared out my closet and threw a tarp and some newspapers in there and gave the closet to her. I had never whelped puppies before so it was quite the experience for me! I read everything I could get my hands on and she had 9 beautiful little puppies. The entire time she laid in my lap and had no problem with me handling these strange little things coming out of her. The vet estimated her to be about a year old at that time - it was probably her first heat cycle. We took her to the emergency vet when she continued to push for over an hour after the last puppy with no results, but it turned out she was just pushing. Unfortunately while we are at the vet, one of the puppies stopped breathing and we could not get her going again. But the other 8 thrived. Cheetah and the puppies lived in my closet for 4 or 5 weeks before moving to the spare bedroom when it got too cramped for them. I would often sit in there with her in my lap while she nursed. The puppies really tore her up nursing so it must've been painful but she would lay there if I stayed with her.

Once the puppies weaned, she went back to FO. As I mentioned briefly, FO lived in an apartment. At this point in time, Cheetah still had raging hormones and had been through a lot of transition. When left alone in the small apartment all day she tore up the carpet and ate a bunch of school books. She also barked a lot. Then when FO came home, she was not very active with Cheetah and Cheetah did not get enough exercise, which exacerbated the situation. She became leash aggressive and snapped at any man or child she came across, and wasn't too thrilled with strangers in general. So, upon threat from her landlord, FO made the heart rending decision to surrender her back to the Rescue, knowing she would end up back with me. She went into boarding for a week as the last of the puppies went to their new homes. I took her back right after her spay surgery. She had some trouble with her incision (she should not have been spayed so close to having just whelped) so I was applying warm compresses to her twice a day and giving her antibiotics. She was very cooperative and extremely easy to pill.

Thinking back to when she first returned to me, she is not even the same dog now. Her fear of most people is gone. I do take control of the situation when she meets someone and tell them how to approach her. I have read a ton and went to 16 hours worth of seminars on how to work with fearful and/or hyper dogs. I have desensitized her to many things, changed her food, and she is well trained in a few key areas. We have a little way to go, but taking her to the dog park, I always get compliments on what a sweet, well-adjusted dog she is. I love her very much.

Dog Door/Crate Training:
She has neither a dog door, nor a crate. Despite FO's experience with her, Cheetah has never destroyed ONE thing in my house. In the beginning I was completely paranoid and she always had a treat ball and a bone of some sort and a new stuffed toy every day to keep her busy. But after changing her food and learning a few other calming techniques, and after she got into the routine of us going to work every day, I have noticed that she spends most of her time sleeping during the day. She likes behind the couch, in the bay window, and in our bedroom on the floor the best. So now, while I do try to rotate out her toys to keep her occupied, and I still give her a treat ball and the occasional chewy, it is not with the maniacal fear of her eating my furniture I once had. In other words I do not dump a truckload of stuff on her every morning anymore. She likes to have the room to move around in the house, and we have a finished basement to which I can shut the door (ranch style house). She she hangs out on the main floor all day (about 1500 sq ft) and Swiffer and Lexy, my Pomeranian and kitty, hang out in the basement. I am comfortable enough to leave Cheetah and Swiffer alone, but I still don't trust her alone with my cat (who is elderly and doesn't need the stress so I just keep them apart). We don't have a dog door but if we did I would not use it with Cheetah. This is because while we have about 1/2 acre fenced yard, the fence is only about 3 1/2 ft tall and she could go over it any time she felt like it. She generally doesn't, but I wouldn't leave her unattended with a fence that short. Initially I might be concerned about her barking until she got used to the environment.

Kids and Men:
Right now I am not worried about men at all. I would show you how to have people approach her to make sure she doesn't feel cornered or threatened. I feel pretty much the same way about children, but I don't get to observe her around them as much, and am just plain old more cautious when it comes to kids, so I would make sure she looks comfortable and relaxed. If there are a ton of kids running around that might be a situation for her to get used to. In my opinion, children are freaky to her because they tend to move quickly and unpredictably. They also tend to be higher energy than most adults. That is what a dog might pick up on and get riled up about. Cheetah is also a herding dog, and might try to herd them. She definitely prefers it when Me, my husband and Swiffer are all in the same room. When a dog herds sheep, they nip at their heels. If she tries to herd a bunch of kids, I could see that happening. But she hasn't been tested with that many kids, so I can't say exactly what would happen - that would just be what I'd watch for as it is common behavior in a shepherd breed. Introduction is everything for her I think.

MOTIVATION:
Cheetah likes treats, and loves her toys, but I would say her primary motivation is praise and attention. She responds very well to positive reinforcement methods. I do use treats for training, but generally I determine what she wants the most in that circumstance to get her to do something. For example, when she was torqued up on the gentle lead the other night, and barking her head off, she quickly learned that barking meant stop and silence meant we could proceed. Since that's what she wanted, she figured out within about 1/2 a block that no matter how excited she was feeling, she was not going to bark. By the way, since then I have determined that the gentle lead is more of a distraction than it is worth because she HATES it on her face, so I switched her to an Easy Walk halter with good results. She is a puller on the leash so she needs something to discourage her from doing so - I am not a fan of prong collars or other pain based deterrents. She absolutely knows I am in charge and I am the leader, but I do not pull "dominance" moves on her. I am very aware of my body language and of hers. I anticipate her and control her environment. She trusts me and feels I protect her, so she is obedient.

SLEEP:
She is a love bug and if I am home, she is at my side. She is not allowed on furniture and does not understand why Swiffer, her foster sib, is. I just try not to allow fosters into situations future owners my not like. She will make a play for the bed if I am in it alone (I admit that I have let her up there). But has never tried to jump on the couch or anything like that. She sleeps in our bedroom on the floor. She has a bed made for her, but she more often sleeps between the wall and the bed over by my husband. It must feel safer over there - she tried to move her puppies there once too. If she has any trouble calming down, turning out the light does the trick. She will stay put in the morning until my husband gets out of the shower and let's her out in the back yard at around 7:30. We go to bed around 10:30 or 11 most nights. Around 10 she is likely to head into the bedroom, assuming she has had enough stimulation during the day.

TOYS & PLAY:
She loves stuffed squeaky toys - she likes to play with them for anywhere from an hour to a few days and then rip them apart and extract the squeaker. She has never swallowed a squeaker. So I spend a lot of time at the sale bin at the pet store. :-) She never rips apart my stuff, so if she wants to rip apart hers, I figure that is her prerogative. This is something to keep in mind if your little girl has stuffed animals though - she is not likely to know the difference. Keeping them off of the floor will probably be enough of a deterrent. She doesn't even pull her own toys out of the box i keep them in, which is easily accessible to her. But anything on the floor is fair game.

She also likes plastic squeaky toys and balls - she doesn't rip those apart. She likes a variety of treats - I usually get a selection and stuff a treat ball. I have a few of those and she LOVES them. I think the molecule ball is her favorite. She has some rope toys she likes. Her favorite chew is a jerky stuffed pork bone. She'll spend quite a bit of time on those. She likes bully sticks too. She is a smart dog, so I focus on changing things out for her often and giving her variety.

She adores it when you get down on the floor with her to play. She likes to fetch, but really loves a good game of tug. Note: I like to "play rough" a little bit and wrestle around. She likes to use her mouth and has never once clamped down on me inappropriately. However, we all make mistakes and she has amazingly strong jaws - she can crack apart her bones like they are crackers. So I do not allow her to put her teeth on me, even gently. I am not worried about myself, but if she were to get carried away playing with a child it could end tragically. I do not believe she would ever bite on purpose, and like I said - so far she has never made a mistake. But I strongly recommend if you take her, that you continue this no teeth policy 100% of the time. She understands "no" perfectly well and stops what she is doing instantly if you say it.

Another game we play is chase. I never play this with her outside. But inside I will do a play bow and take one of her toys and run with it. She will chase me around and I will eventually throw it, and then I will chase her for it. Then I will do things like hide behind a door and jump out at her as she creeps by looking for me, and chase her for the toy. She LOOOOOVES this game. I never ever ever ever chase her outside bc I do not want her to get the idea it is ok for her to run away from me when it is important. I give her very clear signals as to the beginning of the game when we play inside so that she knows when I am playing and when I am serious.

FOOD:
We have been experimenting with food. She is currently on Solid Gold, which contains no corn or byproducts. Since switching her off of Science Diet (a corn based kibble) she has become a much more calm and stable dog. I am currently playing with the ratio of canned to kibble she gets.

Breakfast: I've been changing this up lately for various reasons, but right now she gets about 1/2 cup of high protein kibble, mixed with about 1/2 can of either Trader Joe's wet dog food or 1/2 can Solid Gold wet dog food. I add 2 capsules of probiotic supplement whenever she seems a little "off" or if I know she is going to be in a stressful situation that day and (sometimes) a dropper full of Rescue Remedy. The canned food is significantly lower in protein (9%) than the dry food (44%). There are unofficial implications (not scientifically proven) that lower protein levels promote a calmer dog. The corn/serotonin correlation has been scientifically determined. Canned food is historically nutritionally sub par to kibble, so I try to strike a balance as I continue to study this stuff.

Dinner: 1 to 1 1/2 cups (depending on activity level that day) Solid Gold kibble at a regular protein level (22%) topped with 1/4-1/3 cup (I eyeball it) nonfat yogurt (either Greek or Vanilla flavored).

She is significantly calmer and easier to manage since I switched her away from a corn based dog food (I am happy to tell you about that if you are interested). For a while she had some awful gas but as I have played with her diet, that has mostly subsided. So I think I am at about the right level now. She is eating less lately too (reflected in the amounts mentioned), so I think she is self regulating after recovering from nursing the giant puppies and trying to gain back some weight. She looks to me to be at a healthy weight now. She burps after she eats, which is pretty hysterical.

She is well behaved and so far does not beg. She did counter surf one time, but a) we should not have left it out; and b) she was still nursing and ravenous all the time. Overall, she is not that food motivated and has not done it again.


Routine:

• (my husband) lets Cheetah out in back yard after his shower. She doesn't go out alone bc she could jump the fence if she wanted to, but won't if we are watching her. She is less inclined to do so when Swiffer is out there with her, and now that it is summer and there is more shrubbery blocking the view. She also knows it makes us very unhappy when she does it (it's only happened a handful of times and she always comes back).
  
• After 9husband) lets Cheetah back in, he takes Swiffer (my dog, who is meak in nature and generally does not enjoy Cheetah, despite Cheetah's attempts to play) for a walk - Cheetah watches them leave and then comes and complains to me that they went without her. Sometimes she tries to get in bed with me.
• I get up and feed Cheetah breakfast (Dan feeds Swiffer and Lexy, my cat) and freshen her water bowl in the kitchen. I prefer to feed Cheetah myself (Lexy and Swiffer are often covered by Dan - esp in the morning). Before she eats she must sit until I put down her bowl and release her. If she jumps the gun we start over. Occasionally I interrupt her feeding by making her sit, petting her, sticking my hand in her bowl or taking her bowl away, just to make sure she is not developing any food aggression issues (she's not). However she will take assets away from Swiffer. She doesn't mess with her bowl, but the other day she stole a pizza crust from Swiffer and barked at her. So just keep an eye on that sort of thing. I corrected her and she didn't fixate at all when I took it away from her. But purely dog on dog, I could see her getting possessive with a bone etc.
  
• I play with her while I am getting dressed. This usually consists of some tug of war and or/fetch. Sometimes she just sits and watches me, follows me around, or goes to her post at the bay window.
• I fill her treat ball and leave it on the kitchen floor
• I rotate out her toys or sometimes add in a new one - she loves to destroy stuffed toys. Lately I have noticed she doesn't play much while we are gone. She sleeps. All of the playing and destruction happens while I am there to supervise :-)
• Sometimes I leave her with a jerky stuffed pork bone or other chew. Again, she usually waits until we come home to actually eat it. Chewing is a great way to relieve excess energy.
  
• I often turn on her CD "Through a Dog's Ear" and leave it on low volume/disk repeat. If I remember to do this at breakfast, I do, as I do not want her to associate it solely with me leaving.
• I tell her good-bye and that I will be back later. She usually just looks at me (unlike later in the day when she would show interest in coming with me.)
• She hops up into the window and watches us drive away. Based on the times I work from home, she spends her day wandering to various nap spots. She might play with her treat ball a little or grab a drink, but that's about it.
• Most of the time she is in the window when we return from work. She greets us at the door when we come in. She clearly knows our car because she will bark at a strange car.
• I let her out in the back yard and she hops around for a while, chases any birds dumb enough to stick around, and does her business. Lately we let Swiffer out with her and they have a good game of chase. Cheetah then helps me get Swiffer to come back in the house! (It is my one failing with Swiffer - she does not come reliably.) Cheetah responds very well to calling her and especially whistling.
  
• (husband) or I feed the cat in the basement and I feed the dogs in the kitchen - they eat the same thing and I set them up at different ends of the kitchen at the same time. So far no problems or thievery with this system. I stand in the middle in case anyone is tempted, but I can walk out with no problem.
• If it is dog park night we get in the car, which Cheetah is always raring to do. I limit dog park to 2 or 3 times a week to control adrenaline levels. Note: she is a nutball in the car. She loves it (she used to hate it) but she barks at everything. I tried a citronella bark collar and that had some effect, but the battery immediately died after the first use, so there wasn't consistency. Since I can't really pull over and stop every single time she barks I am looking fro other motivators. It has occurred to me recently that she loves having the window open. SO I am going to try closing the window every time she barks and putting it back down when she stops to see if that works.
  
• If we do not go to the dog park, I will often let her back out in the yard to play a little more. She never goes out unsupervised, as she has proven ability to jump our fence if she feels like it. However she is well trained in recall when I whistle.
  
• At some point during the evening I usually try to take her for a significant walk. I had been using a Gentle Lead and I use a very light weight cat leash to avoid unnecessary pressure or pulling sensation on her face. She usually expresses a lot of frustration for about a block (she rears up and does this high pitched bark, as well as dipping her head trying to get the thing off her face). I simply tell her no and continue walking when she struggles and stop walking if she barks. Lately she is controlling herself in the presence of birds when we walk!! This is a huge deal. She is also getting the idea about sitting at a curb. We will stand there until she does it - sometimes she is more ornery than others. I just say "sit" and if she doesn't initially do it i will gently touch her about where her tail is attached. (I do not push her down.) I do this once every 30 seconds or so until she sits. Then she is rewarded with verbal praise, petting and progress. I JUST started her on Easy Walk harness and since we have such an easy back yard, I have not walked her on leash enough yet to tell you how well it works, but it is promising and I would recommend it for her.
  
• If it is crummy out I make a point of running through extra training exercises. Sit, Down, Targeting, Paw, Up (on hind legs), we are working on Stay (I forgot to release her the other day and Dan called my attention to the fact that she was still sitting in the kitchen! haha), and we are just starting Off (don't eat the treat sitting in front of you until I say so).
• She usually takes a bit of a nap near where I am sitting. At some point I turn off her CD.
  
• I play with her or sit on the floor and cuddle her
• more sitting and napping or she self entertains.
  
• I get ready for bed and she usually plays around or sits in her bed. She usually follows me back and forth as I prepare for bed. I freshen the water bowl in the bedroom.
• I tell her it is bed time and most of the time she lays down. If she is restless, this is usually remedied by turning out the light.

Remaining Triggers:
I think we have narrowed the field of triggers quite a bit. Things that still bug her seem to be as follows:

• someone running will often bug her, especially if she cannot investigate or attempt to herd (is on leash or behind a barrier). Note: *I* do not like to run, so I have never run with her. But I strongly suspect she would be fine with it if I did it and she could be with me while I did.
  
• things that look out of the ordinary to her - bicycles and motorcycles are particulalry offensive but cement trucks, a pick up that has something big in the back, an open window in the car next to us, a man in a business suit... all fit that bill. She doesn't really care for seeing people move from one place to another under any power other than their own two feet, at a walking pace. However, they laundry list of things that look weird to her is shrinking.
  
• most wildlife: birds, rabbits, squirrels (I don't expect to ever fully remedy this one as it is based in pure instinct)
• territorial: no one is welcome in our house unless you live there and certainly not if she has not met you before (she has been fine with Kristina, the Rescue Exec Director, entering our house in the past and she did great when one of her puppies visited with owners so we are making progress.) This is a tough one to desensitize bc we don't have people over very often except cleaners every 2 weeks and occasional family visits. This is her worst remaining problem from our perspective. In a new house I would recommend having a lot of people over initially before she decides the house is hers, to get her used to the idea. Part of the problem may be that she had her puppies in my house. She was not territorial until the cleaners scared her and she felt the need to defend them one day. I saw the whole thing on webcam.
  
• She is generally excited beyond belief in the car and barks at "everything" - other dogs being walked, the things that look out of place as mentioned above, people, etc. My theory on this is that it is not unlike the fence or the leash - she can't get to the thing that is exciting her. AFTER the dog park she is less barky than before.
  
• Big thunder and lightening storms - not as bad as Swiffer but seeks comforting. We use DAP spray, dryer sheets, Rescue Remedy and a calming collar. In my opinion only the Rescue Remedy is significantly effective.
  

Former Triggers (or at least mostly former) and other accomplishments - hooray!

• Men - seems gone
  
• People of any ethnicity other than Caucasian - seems gone
  
• Children - huge strides, not yet sure if it is gone but she has been doing great - it might be gone
  
• More responsive to recall under excitement or distraction (she has always been good under no stress to a recall command.)
  
• More self control on a leash in the presence of exciting stimulus (like a bird)
• More well behaved on a leash (still needs work. she is of course more likely to be well behaved if she has had a chance to blow off some steam)
  
• Faster sits at the curb (still needs some work)
  
• Reliable automatic sit/stays until release before eating
• Generally not hyper anymore
• fences - if there is a fence and there is someone on the other side of that fence - it was offensive. I think this was a subset of the territorial problem, but I am not quite sure how it fits. Anyway, she seems much better with this at places like the dog park. She definitely likes one of our neighbors better than the other (but so do I so she is probably picking that up from me)
  

HOUSE TRAINING & CRATE:
She is very well housebroken - the only time she has ever had an accident in the house was right after she had the puppies and she had very little control. She will tell you when she has to go out - if she has to go badly, she will come up to you and bark. I just sort of know now when she has to go. She mostly goes twice a day and that's it. She always poops the second she gets to the dog park no matter what so be prepared for that!

She has never been crated while with me. I have never seen a need. She spends most of her time looking out the window or sleeping. She is alone for 8-10 hours a day. She adores sitting in the bay window. She absolutely needs stimulation and exercise after a day of inactivity, but she does fine on her own.


HEAT & DOG PARK:
She does OK in the heat - the dog parks I take her to always have water available and she will drink a lot if she is hot. She does like the water, but she has not shown an interest in full out swimming - once she got in up to her chest, she turned around. She is terrified of baths - i must have done something wrong there. I took her in the shower with me (something her pups have done with their new owners all on their own so I thought it would be less traumatic. No dice.) I don't think she would mind if you put water on her though, as long as you do it in a non-confrontational feeling way. If she gets hot or tired she will take a break and lay down as long as she feels safe.

She does very well at the dog park with most dogs and most people. The only time she has gotten into a skirmish is if she feels she has no escape and the other dog comes at her. There has never been a time when I have been unable to predict that response coming. But overall she has good social skills and will avoid confrontation when possible. I keep a close eye on her, but I try to see what she is going to do before I call her off or step in. Usually she makes a good choice. She likes to stalk other dogs and then leap out at them. But she doesn't attack them, she pulls back before she reaches them. It's a throwback to her herding instinct. It freaks out the owners of little dogs, but she never hurts them. I only call her off if the owner is getting freaked, never because she has hurt or threatened a little dog. The owners are way more freaked out than the dogs. When dog fights break out at the dog park, I always call her to me (dogs all go running when they hear that happening just like people) and she will do a u-turn on her way to the show to come back to me. Of course I always praise her like crazy for that.

TOWNHOUSE:
One of her puppies went to a townhouse so I asked the owners what they thought about that now that they have had her a while. Here is what she said. I will tell you up front that Cheetah is not as hyper as her puppy, who is about 5 1/2 months old right now.

"I've been thinking about how to answer this. It is really hard to separate [puppy] from being a puppy and her being a very high energy breed. But, for what it's worth, this is my two cents:

As far as having [puppy] in a rowhouse, it is not a problem. I don't feel that it is too small of a size for her. However, we do have the benefit of having a nice, fairly large (for a row house), fenced in backyard that she can play in whenever she gets too crazy. Also, we live 1.5 blocks from [a park], which is a hopping dog park. She goes there almost every night. And, when we don't do that we're taking her running in the Arboretum or to Shirlington. We have found that we HAVE to do something very active with her every day or she goes crazy. She hasn't destroyed anything, but she drives us nuts until she gets at least 1-1.5 hrs of activity. We don't have a dog walker that comes because [husband] works from home and can let her out/spend time with her throughout the day. She may benefit from several long walks throughout the day instead of one big block of play time, but we've found it works better for us to spend and hour or two doing something very active with her.

Also, we've found that several people at the dog park also have Aussies. They have similar sized homes and it sounds like it hasn't been a problem for them either. But, they are all runners and take their dogs for a long run each day.

I'm not sure how active Cheetah is, but if she's high energy and the potential owner can give her a good bit of exercise each day, I think she should do fine in a rowhouse. "

Please let me know if you have any other questions. As you can see, I am happy to answer. No matter what you think of anything I have said here, I hope you will meet her and get your own impressions, and make sure that nothing was lost in translation.

Oh, one more thing. When Cheetah had her puppies I had her on a webcam so we could watch them from work. As such, she has a VERY devoted following (as you saw from all of the updates). Would you be open to keeping us updated on her progress and how she's doing if you adopt her? I am also planning to do a litter reunion in April 2010, and she would be invited to that.