The Junah Journal: Intro
Part One
Meet my mum Carol's dog Junah. She's a four year old Jack Russell and staffy mix who lives at home with my mum, two kitties Meeko and Beans, and my siblings. Junah is an awesome little companion and deeply deeply loved, but her energy and attachment to Carol can be really overwhelming and cause some tension. I wanted to see what I could do to help!
Carol's main concerns are as follows:
Junah's super high energy,
her extreme attachment to Carol, and difficulty being separated from her,
her attention-demanding behaviours (especially vocalising), and
Junah's agitation when disturbed in bed.
I'm recording this process for Carol's and my own reference, and to open others to the concept of involving an animal professional in your pet's behaviour and training. It can be really daunting especially when you feel you're starting from zero. Also, Junah's just a beautiful dog and an interesting case! This first post in the series will cover my visit to the home for our behaviour assessment on little Junah.
Before even getting to the questionnaires, I should mention that throughout the visit, Junah was doing everything she possibly could to command our attention. From the moment I arrived to after I left, Junah displayed endless excitement. While Carol and I were sat for the questions, she almost never stopped. She was jumping up at the table, running underneath the table, presenting us with toys, greeting the cats excitedly, rubbing her flank against me, licking my legs, and trying to nose my hand for scritches. When we ignored her, she often began to whine, then growl and even bark. In order for us to focus in, Junah either had to be held in Carol's lap, or playing with a rubber bone stuffed with treats.
I had known firsthand from previous visits that Junah could be a bit much, but this was one of the first times I'd exerted efforts to actually ignore her, and to gather concrete data about it. To experience Junah's behaviour at home to this extent was a little confronting. It reminded me that of her intensity and persistance, and that this was almost 24/7 for my mum.
Anyway, we began with some questions from Dr Seksel's Dog Questionnaire and Dr Overall's Preliminary Client Questionnaire to put together some information on Junah's home and lifestyle, past and present. To create a fuller profile on her behaviour though, we needed to go further in-depth. I love creating my own structures and tools, and I toyed with the idea of creating a bespoke assessment tool for Junah, but eventually just landed on the C-BARQ. Clocking in at a whopping 100 questions, it was a ninety minute labour of love....and it gave me a massive breadth of information to begin working from. I learned so so much about little Junie.
Animals' behaviours and disposition never just manifest out of nowhere. My biggest conclusion was that Junah might be exhibiting signs of generalised anxiety and separation-related distress, though these would require a formal diagnosis from a vet. I believe her emotions and temperament stem from a variety of different factors, including the following.
Her breed mix (Jack Russell x Staffordshire Bull Terrier) is inherently quite energetic and requiring loads of stimulation for their wellbeing. She might also just have certain sensory sensitivities.
Her history: Junah had two previous owners in the three years before my mum.
To begin, the frequent rehomings in themselves could cause stress and create issues.
We don't have any information on the first owner. It's possible Junah's puppyhood was stressful, traumatic, or even just limited in certain ways.
The second involved being housed with several children and three other dogs. She was rehomed as her owners were unable to provide her with proper care, which in itself may have been traumatic, plus it's possible she had little to no time by herself in this more busy and crowded household.
Her home life changing: the social structure of the household has changed a few times, as have the family's routines. This has potentially signalled instability to Junah.
As for moving forward, Junah could really benefit from a range of different interventions, ranging from short to long term, and from low to high involvement.
My first recommendation was to bring Junah to a vet to rule out a medical cause for her temperament. Junah hasn't been to a vet for a little while. Generally speaking it's best to bring your pet to a vet at least once a year anyway, and the vet is a pet owner's first point of call for any behavioural changes you can't seem to explain.
Secondly, we should begin gathering some concrete information on Junah's behaviour during Carol's departures and absences. We know she gets agitated and anxious during Carol's departures, but how does she cope when by herself? In our digital age, there's no stopping us from being in two places at once. There are some great options for cheap pet-monitoring cameras online, but the easiest and most accessible option is using what we already have at our disposal. I have a couple of old devices I can lend to my mum.
I'd like to give the household members some in-depth education on Junah's body language. Junah's family are observant, and deeply love and respect her. Many pet owners (including me!) often aren't aware of their blind spots with their animals' body language, so bringing everyone to a baseline of what an uncomfortable Junah looks like might help everyone understand her boundaries a little better.
Junah's an excitable girl with a very active brain! I believe adding some more enrichment into her day-to-day life would provide her mind with some much-needed stimulation. I'll expand on some strategies in upcoming posts.
We should introduce some basic obedience training at home as soon as we can. I feel this would produce so many benefits. It can be an enriching activity, provide her with a little more structure, give some direction to her manic energy, build a stronger rapport with those training her...not to mention it'd make my mum's life a little easier to be able to cue key behaviours. Some basics we should begin with are loose-lead walking, sit, and place.
Home for Junah seems to be considered anywhere my mum is. It's possible she could really behefit from having a more private, secluded space to nest and relax. Somewhere enclosed, with comfy bedding, toys, perhaps an electric blanket, and of course some things that remind her of my mum. It would likely take lots of work and consistency, but ideally this would be somewhere she could feel confident enough to retreat to independently.
Junah does seem to be a sensitive gal; perhaps altering her environment would benefit her. Her household and the family's routines have changed a few times over the past year or so. Creating stability wherever possible could potentially help a lot.
There are of course so many other directions we could go with little Junah! She is such a lovely dog. I truly see so much opportunity to reduce her stress and the stress of her family.
Later down the track, we can focus on many other different behaviours and difficulties, such as her thunderstorm phobia, barking at visitors, and her inability to toilet in the rain. In the meantime, I'll be updating the Junah Journal every few weeks to track our progress and learnings with her.
