Previously we took a chilly walk and Cody had on a rather feminine fleece and nylon jacket that didn't give him the full coverage this big boy needs. I had another coat for him, but it had the added challenge of a second strap on his underside. He did so well with the first one I decided on another chilly day to give it a try and see how he does.
We start out strong and Cody is doing some serious thinking as he moves along. He's still very happy to be on his walk and to interact with me though and isn't giving me any stress signals. The only way I know that this is making his brain work is his incredibly expressive ears. He'll rotate his ears so that the back of his ears face towards each other and sometimes partially lay them back. An ear will sometimes rotate forward to catch a sound or examine something interesting and then go back to the back-to-back position. I keep track of his ears because that, along with how big his eyes are, are the earliest signals to his stress level. Big eyes and that specific ear position aren't bad, but part of my responsibility is to regulate how long I ask him to remain in that mode. Imagine if you were asked to walk with a shallow bowl on your head all day. It might not be uncomfortable, it might not be too hard to keep it up there, but you have to maintain awareness or you'll tip your head to one side or throw your head back laughing, and there goes your bowl. After a while you'd want to take a break! It's the same with dogs - we push them a little, we walk that with them as much as we can, and then we take the pressure away. They're still thinking and processing even after the pressure is gone, but a body under stress (even very mild stress, which can be beneficial to our brain growth) isn't as able to freely process as a brain relieved of that stress. It's a give and take like so much of our relationship with our dogs.
Cody gave me a shake, and I decided it was time to release some
pressure. The shake isn't a big deal - it, along with many other
behaviors like yawning, tongue flicks, sniffing the ground, penis
checks, or other displacement or self-soothing behaviors, are simply
another indicator as to the dog's state of mind. Sometimes it's a signal
that something needs to change and sometimes it's the dog handling it
themselves and not needing our assistance.
You gonna finish that treat Sappho?
Because I knew that we were pushing his comfort zone, and we had been doing this about 20 minutes, I stopped to undo the strap closest to his rear end. I couldn't allow it to flop around (it's a metal connector!) I reversed the direction and laid the strap over his back rather than under his belly.
This made the back poof out a bit and present it's own challenges. Since it isn't strapped down it moves much more with his body motion and as he walked the sides would touch his flanks. On the plus side he had been unable (in his mind) to lift his leg to pee, so at least this made it so he could go back to marking again!
After that we did much better. He was still aware of the coat and I believe the pressure of the coat was much the same except he didn't have the strap under his belly. The contact between his body and the coat changed but both had their own pressure - one, the constant touch against him, and the other, the repeated touch against his flanks each time he took a step.
He did great for the entire walk and he wore the coat until we arrived back at the car. I had dressed him last, and I undressed him first. Movement is an anxious dog's friend and so moving in the coat, outside, exploring, is very different than asking him to stand in a parking garage in a spot, and by a car, that he knows very well, and remain still. So off came the coat, in his mouth went more treats, I gave him verbal praise and pets, and as always we finished off his walk with a frozen kong in his kennel inside the car.
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