It’s been a busy few weeks since I last posted, first we thought we were buying a new house, then we weren’t, the youngest (The Boy) moved out to his first apartment, the start of another school year at Miami University (that’s were Ben works), and all the usual end of summer start of fall business that engulfs a dedicated (obsessed?) gardener.
It’s bad enough he’s leaving, but does he have to take the beanbag too?
Indy has been our constant companion/supervisor. We continue to work on his behavior around food, socialization with other dogs, socialization with smaller humans (to a lesser extent), and his leash manners. After more rides in the car, both short and long, Indy is much less anxious and just seems bothered by that short leg problem of not being able to see everything. He is no longer scared of the goldendoodle at the farmer’s market, and is quite agreeable to checking each other out. She even barked at him this weekend and he wasn’t bothered. A huge improvement over the shaking and cowering that happened the first time.
Ruby and Indy
Indy is becoming much more loving and will hup right up in the bed with us before bed or first thing in the morning to get his cuddles, but he still does not sleep with us. The boy who did not like to play when he first came to us a few months ago now initiates play himself. If he wants to play tug and fetch he brings you “Foxy” (he knows the toy’s name!), but of late we have been playing chase which starts with a crouch and one of us running at or away from the other. And I said I wouldn’t run anymore after knee surgury last year, lol
Now to teach him to put them away when he is done.
Indy continues to supervise all gardening activities, to include sniffing all the flowers (even the one daddy brings mommy), and his apparent mission to “water” every shrub in the yard. He is a regular hanging out in the garage with daddy and even has his own pillow now, so as to supervise in comfort.
Hah! Daddy showed me were to sit to watch you at you potting table, mommy! 
Those will do! 
First a master gardener, now working on his master mechanic certification… 
…in comfort, of course.
He spent a few heavily supervised hours with some very good dog-mannered girls (and one very interesting smelling baby, lol).
And of course, he is derpy at times, he’s a corgi after all…
Big brother came home to see MEEEEE! 
Scratch my floof! 
I like totally meant to catch that spaghetti with my ears.
Indy has been a wonderful addition to the family and by far the most obedient and well behaved dog we have had (of four). But then Monday night happened (Sept 9). One of the things we have been doing in regards to the resource guarding training is touching and petting Indy as he eats. Indy has shown no issues toward me, but a few times has stopped eating when Ben has petted him, at which time Ben stops touching him, and Indy resumes eating. It seemed to us that the instances of Indy stopping eating were becoming fewer.
We had just finished eating dinner, and after rolling over Indy got Ben’s plate to lick. I petted his rump as he licked and he finished up. Indy gave me a big sloppy kiss to win the chance to lick my plate. I put the plate on the floor and Ben started to pet his rump. After a few moments Indy turned his head to look at Ben and curled his lip so Ben stopped petting him. The curled lip was new, but should have been the end of it since the hand was removed. But after another few moments Indy leaped up and grabbed on to Ben’s forearm with his teeth and would not let go. Ben knocked him off and pinned him to the ground and after some snarls, Indy seemed to calm. Ben let go and Indy leaped up and grabbed his arm again. Ben was able to knock him off again, but this time carried him to his crate and placed him inside and closed the door. Indy calmed immediately and laid down, watching us as we tended to Ben’s wounds and cleaned up the mess. I am not going to share any photos of the wounds, except with SECR if they want them.
After Ben and I had calmed, mostly me, Ben stayed remarkably calm, Ben opened the door to the crate and called Indy to him. Indy came to him very submissively and sat at his feet as Ben stroked his head. When Ben stopped petting him, Indy nudged his hand and started licking it. For the remainder of the evening Indy was very quiet and submissive, not his attention seeking bossy self at all. It is now Thursday morning and Indy has been back to normal with me since Tuesday morning, but had remained timid around Ben, until yesterday afternoon when he was back to giving Ben his enthusiastic greeting when he got home from work.
Going into this foster situation with Indy we knew that he had had food aggression issues in the past and had bitten others previous to us.He has been with us for three months now and up to this point has demonstrated that he is a very smart, trainable, loving, GOOD dog, and we are still committed to working with him to overcome what is his only flaw, although it is a frightening one. We are still awaiting a call back from the trainer to reassess the training we are doing, but in the meantime Ben has stopped touching him when he eats, while I still am with no issues.