Zooka was most definitely in full adolescent mode this month. Adolescence can be tough no matter what, but when outings and social activities are reduced, and when an injury limits things further, it puts ALL of us to the test!

While activities have started to open up a bit with this current pandemic, it is still safer for everyone to stay at home as much as possible. Which meant that we still were not getting out regularly as we normally would during this stage of development for a teenage dog.

In addition, since very few people are traveling, we still are very limited in our boarding dogs. Our foster dog Presley, who we mentioned last month, got his new home on May 9th! We are happy for him, but also a bit sad to see him go. One less companion for Zooka to annoy, which means more directed at us. . .

On May 2nd, Zooka started limping. By Sunday morning, his paw was swollen considerably. Of course, these things always happen on the weekend, right?! So I spent all Sunday morning at the ER with him. Normally, I do not allow anything (other than x-rays or surgery) to happen without me right there. But with the pandemic, vet offices and ER's are not currently allowing anyone in. So they came and got Zooka and took him inside while I had to sit outside.

We were at the ER for quite a long time, but most of that was waiting and waiting and waiting. Physical exam did not indicate what was wrong so they did x-rays and an aspiration to check for possible broken bones, venomous bites, etc. Both were inconclusive. Nothing stood out on x-rays. Nothing infectious showed up in the aspiration. Best guess is that he might have been bitten or stung by something that caused a reaction but was not venomous.

So, he was sent home with anti-inflammatories and restricted activity instructions. By the next day, he seemed to be feeling a lot better. We had instructions to get re-checked at our regular vet the next week. While swelling had gone down, there was still some swelling over two toes. But he did not indicate any pain and had been walking on it without limping all week.

The vet recommended another week of limited activity – no walks, no running, no jumping, etc. Just out to potty in the yard and back in. And continued anti-inflammatories for another week as well as a few laser therapy sessions on his foot.

After another week of that, he seemed back to normal and good to go!

But those two weeks were a little rough. Without our TWO off leash walks per day, and with no play dates, Zooka had a LOT of energy that he did not know what to do with.

We did more training and lots more puzzle toys. And he resorted back to many of his “puppy” antics that we used to deal with back when he was just a wild youngster experiencing those “zoomies” or that “witching hour” in the evening when he had energy to  burn and no place to burn it off. He resorted back to some of his humping behavior that we had not seen much of for a long time.

We did lots of playing like we did way back when he had those sharp puppy teeth. We did lots of redirecting that mouthy jumpy obnoxious behavior.

It was rough, but we got through it!

He is doing much better now that he is back to his normal physical activities. All puppies and adolescent dogs and adult energetic dogs do better when they have appropriate outlets for their level of energy. The right combination of physical and mental stimulation will make dogs much more pleasant to live with. If they are too wild and out of control, it is usually an indication they have a need that is not being met.

We mixed in lots of mini training sessions throughout the days during this time. Continuing with the basics plus things like Crawl, Shaping with a large box (getting him to climb IN it and other things), Weaving through my legs, and other things.

While we continued with lots of the things we'd been doing, our main priority this month was getting him acclimated back to his crate while we are gone. Last month we mentioned that he was destructive when crated for an hour. In a matter of several weeks while we were at home under the government's Stay-At-Home Order due to the pandemic, he clearly lost much of what we'd worked on all those months prior.

So we worked on short spurts of going into the kennel and closing the door and sometimes us leaving and sometimes not leaving. He is doing much better, but we need to keep up the work so he's perfectly comfortable for a few hours if needed.

Zooka is getting used to me leaving again for appointments. Much as he would love for me to do all of my training via Zoom from now on so he can hang out with me, I do have to get back out there! He is always terribly happy to see me when I return. The only time he ever growls is when he greets sometimes. It is almost like a cat's purr. He's so happy! But mostly he's just very very wiggly and MUST have something in his mouth.

One other problem cropped up during this time. Normally, we make big efforts to ensure that the majority of places we take our dogs are FUN for them. We want our dogs to enjoy going places and not hesitant to get into our van. But with a couple of months of not going anywhere, except for two weeks of vet visits. . . When I did finally get to take him someplace more fun, he did NOT want to get in the van.

While we spent months going to fun places, all it took was a couple months of going no where and then two weeks of vet visits for him to decide he no longer wanted to get in the van. So we will be working hard at getting out to fun places the next month so he once again is wanting to go places with us and not worried about where we are taking him.

At the end of this month we finally did get out a few times. We did get to the local park with hiking trails a couple of times to walk someplace away from home. He really loves those outings.

We made a trip to the Outlets at Castle Rock. There were quite a few people there but most people were being good about social distancing, following the one-way walkways and wearing masks in the stores. We stayed outside the stores and just walked the aisles. It's been quite a while since we've been there, so I was not holding high expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised. That might actually be the best he has done at that location!

We hope this next month allows us to get out more in public so we can begin getting back to his manners in public settings. It will take some work to get that going after such a long break, but we've got lots of patience!

So this month showed us a couple of problems that cropped up during this period of not being able to get out like we normally would and that we are working on and will need to keep working on over the next few months.

It just shows us that all the work you have done during puppyhood and into adolescence can be easily lost if we do not keep up what we are doing. We will be working hard to get Zooka back on track with those things.

Over all, though, he is still a very good boy and we will get things back on track here!

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