Keith..again

Following on from Wednesday’s journal about Lòki, Thursday was all about Keith the Labrador.

He stayed by my side, on a walkless day, and constantly had a paw and stared up at me. He has come a long way since day 1.

Keith was the 3rd dog I took on and trained 3 years ago. His owner got him as a pup, he was told he was 12 weeks old but he wasn’t. I knew he wasn’t because of his behaviors.
Dogs learn so much from their Mother and siblings in the first 12 weeks. They learn boundaries, how to play, how to communicate, the difference between a nip and a bite (through play fighting) how to be comforted, what brings them comfort. Keith knew none of this because he was taken from his family too early. The only thing he knew how to do was bark. He would bark when he was hungry, thirsty, needing the toilet, tired, needing a cuddle, if he was in pain and if I left the room. It was constant!
I took him to a dog behaviorist and she aged him at about 7 weeks because of his teeth. She gave me advice on how best to train him and I followed it to the letter. Gradually over time and with a lot of help from Joey and Lòki playing ‘big brother’ to him he started to learn boundaries and how to communicate from watching them and how they did it.

There were many points when both me, and his owner, were ready to give up on him. His owner would wake up to ‘parcels’ all over the house every morning (Keith didn’t know how to say he wanted out) but at around 16 weeks he started to settle down. He got used to the routine of coming here in the morning, we would do 1 hour of training then he would sleep for an hour, then another hour of training, then sleep, etc etc. He needed that stability to thrive and thrive he has.

He can still have his daft moments but he was one of my biggest tasks ever and I am proud of who he is and where he is today. He has learned empathy and love in abundance and now shows it whenever possible.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thursday!