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| Cesar, Junior, and Mr. President help Sahzi Relax |
While filming our Dog Whisperer episode on January 13, 2011, the second phobia of Sahzi's Cesar tackled was her fear of certain hallways. You can see a brief shot of her circling in our hallway at 28 seconds in this preview video.
Sahzi refuses to go in certain rooms and has to scurry
through certain hallways when she does get up the nerve. Cesar told us that Sahzi is insecure about
everything which is different from being fearful. If we can get her feeling safe and comfortable
in her own house, she may get over her fears of her water dish and eating her
food in tight quarters.
First Cesar had to get her on a leash. He uses a lightweight nylon leash similar to
a show lead which is just a ribbon of nylon with a metal loop on one end. You pass the leash through the loop and have
a ring for the dog that can tighten or loosen like a choke chain.
He made a large loop and tried to slide it over Sahzi’s
head… for about two minutes. One of our
chairs swivels and Sahzi kept going around it.
Every time Cesar thought he had her cornered, she nudgef the chair and
slid through. She looks much larger than
she is because of her thick coat. Mike
and I both found this very entertaining to watch, and I hope it makes it to
broadcast. Cesar never said anything
during this process, and finally he had her on the leash.
Then he asked his crew to bring his pit bull Junior
inside. Junior took over as his doggie
sidekick when Daddy the red pit bull passed away last summer. Junior is solid gray with white socks and
very muscular; he has a very sweet disposition.
First he let them meet. Sahzi was
very curious, but did not do her standard nip with Junior. That confirmed Cesar’s diagnosis that Sahzi
was just insecure not fearful. After a
brief sniffing exchange Junior was looped with the other end of the leash and
the two were tied together with about one to two feet of leash between them.
Hurdle number one for Sahzi was the space between our dining
room table and the kitchen counter which leads to the front hallway and living
room. She is fine in all of this area
except a small section right where the kitchen counter begins. To go through this section of the house, she
will usually circle several times, always clockwise, then scoot through. A few steps later, she’ll be normal.
Cesar walks through the hallway and told Junior to bring
Sahzi through. Junior led the way. Sahzi started to follow him, then sat and
pulled back. Junior stopped. Cesar urged him again to no avail. Cesar said, “Junior, you’re a pit bull.” He later confided to me that Daddy wouldn’t
have been stopped by Sahzi – I think he misses the big red dog.
Cesar went to the dogs and, only touching Junior, led them
through. He told us that he wanted Sahzi
to learn from Junior, another dog, that there was nothing to fear in the
hallway. They repeated walking back and
forth several times until Sahzi would follow Junior with no problem.
Then Cesar took the leash from Junior and his crew returned
Junior to the RV out front. Then Cesar
walked Sahzi through the hallway over and over.
Whenever she started to quicken her pace, he purposely slowed it down.
He then gave me the leash and told me to do it. I had to hold the leash very gently straight
over her head. Cesar explained that to
Sahzi, our house was an obstacle course.
She saw fence number one in this spot, even though none of the rest of
us saw it.
Once she was comfortable going over “fence number one” with
the leash, I released the leash and had her follow me back and forth with the
leash dragging behind us. Then we were
ready for “fence number two:” the
hallway to the bedroom. Sahzi used to go
through this hallway with lots of circling and urging, but now she’ll only go
through it on a leash. This is how I get
her to the bedroom to sleep for the night.
She will exit the hallway with only minor hesitation but never enter it.
Cesar, one camera man, Mike and I all accompanied Sahzi
through the hallway and into the bedroom.
Whenever she tried to speed up or switch from the left to the right,
Cesar stopped or slowed down and stayed in control. Then it was my turn. Repetition was definitely the key. I also had to hold the leash just over her
head. If I tried to pull from behind,
Cesar said that just made her mind resist more.
Eventually, she was going through the hallway with the leash and when I
dropped the leash.
“Fence number three” was our back bedroom. When Sahzi first came to live with us, she
saw my two older cats in this room, so to her it was the “cat room” and dogs
weren’t allowed. Cesar called it the
“cat room” all day. We led her into the
room, out of the room, into our bedroom, down the hallway, up the hallway,
always changing it up and slowing down if she wanted to rush. He also taught me to use my legs to block her
if she got nervous and tried to go in any direction that I didn’t want her to
go. She has certain sides of the hallway
that are less scary at certain points, so she would often try to dart between
me and the right or left wall. Eventually,
she was able to do walk steadily where we wanted her to with the leash dragging
behind her. She had never been in the
“cat room” without a leash so that was a huge triumph for the day. (When you have a dog as obsessive as Sahzi,
you really savor the little victories.)
All day, Cesar kept encouraging us to “love her up” whenever
she completed a task up to par. At the
very end, he walked her to the piano and sat down. She was nervous but willing to stay with
him. At this point, he told us to never
give her affection when she is nervous, but to give her back a slow massage to
help her relax. If she relaxed, then she
could have affection which to Sahzi is the highest praise.
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