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moving with dogs

Washington to Virginia | Day 5

June 12, 2019 6 Comments

A recap of day five of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing

Phew, day five done! Today, we traveled from Davenport, IA to Dayton, OH with a stop in Indianapolis.

*Note: I’m writing these at the end of each day, so I’m pretty tired when I do. I apologize if I rant or things read strangely.

We got up fairly early since it would be about a five hour drive from our hotel to my sister-in-law’s house in Indianapolis. Plus, we try and take fairly long breaks every two to three hours to let the floofs stretch their legs.

Kaani did pretty well at relaxing when he saw people during our breaks. He was still very alert, but as long as people were at least 50 feet away, it was fairly easy to redirect his attention.

Great Pyrenees snuggling during a long road trip | It's Dog or Nothing

But, it’s definitely not all good.

A few times, people walked by the parked car and made Kaani extremely upset. At this point, if he barks at someone, it’s usually just an alert bark (it used to be a very ferocious bark/growl). When the people came within a few feet of the car, the ferocious bark came out.

Once we’re not in the midst of moving, we’ll be able to actually work on these behaviors. Right now, we’re just trying to manage them. There’s only so much you can work on when you can’t create a stable, manageable training environment.

But, we’re still trying to turn every opportunity we can to create positive training experiences for Kaani.

Visiting relatives

We were able to take about two hours this afternoon to visit Nick’s sister, her husband, and their kiddo (who will be two later this summer). Luckily, they have a fenced in yard, so we were able to let everyone run around for a bit and burn off some energy.

Kaani didn’t meet the family because we knew it would be too much for him at this point. But he was happy relaxing in the shade in the yard after a quick zoomie session.

Two Great Pyrenees on a road trip | It's Dog or Nothing
“Hey, lady. We gonna hit the road or what?” – Kaani

Indie was in the house with us and wasn’t too sure about the miniature, squealing human, but she warmed up quickly. She even let him give her kisses—which was beyond adorable.

Here’s where I completely failed. I didn’t get a video of the adorable kisses. I didn’t get a video of the floofs running zoomies and checking out the neighbor’s chickens. I didn’t get a video of the adorable toddler holding Mauja’s leash and walking her around the house.

Mauja absolutely adores kiddos. She’s so gentle, relaxed, and easy-going. She’ll gladly follow little ones around, wagging happily the entire time. Atka and Kiska are also great with kiddos, but I thought they had too much pent up energy. My nephew loves dogs—and would even “woof woof” with them—but I still didn’t want him getting knocked over!

I went from, “I need to document everything!” to “I just want to enjoy this moment.” So, sorry I can’t share the adorableness with you, but we all have to take the time to be present.

Great Pyrenees tuckered out after a long day
Tuckered out after a long day

Since we’re going to be living closer, I’m sure we’ll get many more opportunities.

After a few hours, we had to hit the road again to finish our day. Thankfully, we only had about two hours until we hit the hotel.

Tomorrow, we head to my in-law’s house for the evening. They have a house on the lake and Atka absolutely loves the water. He’ll be excited to get to swim for a bit!

Learn about the rest of our trip

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

A recap of day five of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing

Filed Under: What's New Tagged With: moving with cats, moving with dogs

Washington to Virginia | Day 2

June 9, 2019 Leave a Comment

A recap of day two of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing

We decided to keep day two fairly short because we were expecting a call from our realtor that evening. (Our house in Washington just went on the market, and he wanted to give us an update.)

*Note: I’m writing these at the end of each day, so I’m pretty tired when I do. I apologize if I rant or things read strangely

The drive itself was smooth—and we had another great experience with Kaani.

Mid-drive, we stopped at a gas station to fuel up and stretch our legs. I beat Nick, Mauja, and Atka there, so Kiska, Kaani, and I went out for a walk.

A recap of day two of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing
Ready for day two!

What normally happens on a walk?

You run into people.

Kaani’s threshold is about 50–100 feet away—depending on the situation. Any closer and he starts to bark, then growl (at about 10 feet), then lunge (between two and five feet)—unless he can get away. He also typically does better when I have his Gentle Leader on.

A woman walking toward us, and I wanted to start testing a new method for fear reactivity that I learned from Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0. We started walking in her direction, and I watched Kaani’s body language very closely. As soon as he started to get too alert (but before barking started), we gently turned and walked the other way.

He made it within 15 feet of the woman without making a sound.

I could have jumped up and down squealing, but that probably would have freaked him out 😉

He got all the treats and praise as we got everyone back in the car and ready for the rest of the trip.

A recap of day two of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing
Miss Independence is not nearly as enthused with the long car ride as Atka 😉

We finished the drive and everyone was amazing again. We had about an hour and a half before we needed to chat with our realtor, so we found a nearby park to go for a walk.

That had its own set of challenges.

Turns out this park in Wyoming is full of prairie dogs—who I’m pretty sure are used to dogs and like to taunt them. This meant we had a lot of training opportunities for everyone!

The biggest struggle today was acclimating Kaani to a Gentle Leader. I had a Freedom Harness for him (which I love), but this was before I knew he had a shoulder injury. We searched for a new harness, and decided on the Hurtta Padded Y-harness.

This harness has been great, but I’m still not 100% confident in the fit for him. The location of his injury makes wearing a harness difficult. So, we switched to a Gentle Leader. We’re still training with him—because he’s definitely not comfortable with it yet.

Kaani’s confidence

I’ve noticed Kaani becoming more confident in the few weeks we’ve had him. The first few times I took him outside, his tail was tucked and he was over-alert to his surroundings.

A recap of day two of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing
Kaani makes a great co-pilot!

Now, he’s definitely more eager to explore, but he has his limits. It only takes a 15 minute walk before he’s ready to hide out in the car (or hotel or wherever his space is at that time).

And that’s what happened tonight.

He was fairly eager to explore the new area where we took them for a walk, but after about ten minutes, he was over it. Once we were walking in the direction of the car, he started dragging me. At one point, he even laid down with his head under the car begging to get in.

A recap of day two of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing

He just breaks my heart sometimes.

We loaded everyone back up in the cars and headed to the hotel to relax and waited to chat with our realtor. Everyone was pretty exhausted from the walk and settled in quickly.

After a late night potty walk, we got everyone settled in to bed. At about 1 am, Kaani started yipping in his crate. It’s unlike him to do this in the middle of the night, so we got up and went outside. He did his business and everything seemed fine.

Then about two hours later, he had me up again. Like last time, he did his business and everything seemed fine.

After another two hours, he had me up again. This time, he went outside and just laid down in the grass. At that point, I realized he didn’t need out in the middle of the night. He was hot.

The a/c at our hotel was out, but the evening was very cool, so we put a fan in the window to bring in the cool air. We also had a fan in the room to help everyone stay cool.

I was more coherent the third time I took him out, and I could immediately feel the temperature difference. We were able to put a fan on him and get a few more hours of sleep before we had to hit the road for day three.

Learn about the rest of our trip

Day 1
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

A recap of day two of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing

Filed Under: What's New Tagged With: great pyrenees, moving with cats, moving with dogs

Washington to Virginia | Day 1

June 8, 2019 2 Comments

A recap of day one of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing

Day one of our move from Washington to Virginia went well! We had some good experiences, some not so good experiences, and some frustrating experiences.

*Note: I’m writing these at the end of each day, so I’m pretty tired when I do. I apologize if I rant or things read strangely 🙂

On day one, we traveled from our house south of Seattle to Boise, ID. With four dogs and a cat, we’re taking our time getting across the country. This gives us time for long midday walk breaks and early evenings to get them out moving again.

We took the dogs on a quick walk in the morning and then hit the road. We have an SUV and a car, so we had to decide how we were going to transport the animals.

The logistics

It made the most sense for Kiska and Kaani to ride in my car—partially because they’re the smallest, but also because Kaani is closest with Kiska. We figured that pairing would be less likely to have issues.

Plus, Mauja and Atka wouldn’t have to deal with puppy shenanigans in the SUV and could relax. With the extra room, we decided it would also be the best place for Indie.

A recap of day one of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing
Kiska started the trip as a seat hog, but Kaani always sleeps in odd positions.

About 30 minutes into the drive I got a phone call from Nick.

“Indie got out of her crate.”

Awesome. At first, we thought she chewed her way through. But we stopped to check, and the little nugget managed to work the zippers!

It ended up being the easiest to leave Indie out of her carrier. She was much calmer and happy being Nick’s co-pilot, relaxing quietly on the passenger seat.

The drive went smoothly, and we arrived at the hotel fairly early. This meant we had more time to walk around. And that’s when things started to get interesting.

A recap of day one of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing
They figured it out and napped the day away.

The good, the bad, and the frustrating

When we arrived at the hotel, we decided to take the dogs for a quick walk. Nick, Mauja, and Atka wandered off, and I was a bit behind with Kiska and Kaani.

All of a sudden, I saw two kids sprinting toward us squealing about the dogs.

I immediately put Kaani in a sit behind be and told the kids that he was nervous around new people, so they couldn’t pet them. It took a few times, but eventually, they nodded and walked a few feet away—where I saw their mom.

The kids then ducked behind the cars to stare at the dogs while calling them and making noises. I kept Kaani close and we continued to walk away.

I was extremely proud of his behavior here. While he was definitely upset, he stayed composed and mostly focused on me. I was frustrated that the mom never stepped in and told her kids to walk away.

Later that evening, a man really wanted to pet the dogs (I’ve noticed that Kaani is best with kids, followed by women, and worst with men). He walked toward all of us, and Kaani immediately perked up and started watching the guy as he came toward us.

He redirected away from the man very well, and we were able to continue our walk.

The not so good

The “not so good” part came when we were relaxing in the hotel (and it was totally my fault).

Kaani has to be crated in the evening because that’s when he tends to get “grumpy.” He was in his crate and kept yipping at me. This is something he does frequently, so I wasn’t too concerned.

But looking back, I imagine like the conversation went something like this.

Kaani: Bork, bork.
Me: Shh, it’s okay. Relax puppy.
Kaani: Bork, boooork.
Me: It’s okay, sweet puppy. It’s bedtime.
Kaani: YIP!
Me: *sticks hand in crate for comfort*
Kaani:
Awooooo, yip!

At this moment, Kaani stood up in his crate and started peeing. Welp, that’s what I get for not listening to him!

Nick ran him outside while I cleaned up his crate. The amount he pees versus the amount he drinks just doesn’t add up to me— but I had the vet run tests on him, and everything came back normal.

If you’ve had a dog that pees way more than they drink, let me know. It could be normal for him, but it could also be something I’m not thinking of.

During that walk, we ended up passing a large rock (probably about three feet long and two feet tall). The second Kaani noticed the rock, he started barking. Then he flattened to the ground—tail tucked—trying to get closer and check it out.

We backed away and let Mauja and Atka walk up to it to help him realize it was no big deal. Kaani slowly crept toward the rock, and after a few seconds, decided it was completely okay.

It seems little, but that’s a huge step for him.

After a late night walk, everyone settled in for the evening and slept the night away. We definitely needed a good nights sleep to prep for day two!

Learn about the rest of our trip

Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

A recap of day one of our move from Washington to Virginia with four Great Pyrenees and a cat! | It's Dog or Nothing

Filed Under: What's New Tagged With: moving with cats, moving with dogs

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