Just got back from our morning walk. Shane and Woody had been playing and were pretty cranked up. I haven't seen Woody engage like that in a long time. Shane had a chewie and Woody wanted it. I took them out back to burn off some energy before attempting our walk. I decided to do Woody first to see if that made Shane jealous. I've been having trouble getting him to come to me to put his leash on.
Woody did great. We made it past the noisy dog with the windows in the fence without one issue. Woody was his old self. Maybe the grief has passed. I'm doing pretty well on my New Year's resolution. Had a moment on our walk when I saw a garage packed with junk. I thought back to our garage cleaning and sale. Remembered the pink neck cone that we had put on Jake when he licked his paw into an infection. Thought about what to do with it. Then I thought about the cone on his paw when he was in the hospital and how they had removed it for the day we put him down. My brain is my worst enemy. Got a little choked up, but I did not cry. Getting better.
Back home and Shane is going nuts in the house. Get Woody inside and Shane is right there for me to put his leash on. Yeah! Treats galore. Out into the garage. Up goes the garage door and I throw treats on the ground. Shane is so busy eating that he doesn't even react. This stuff works! Same thing when the garage door goes down. Off we go in a new direction and he's excited. Start our games and he makes it past several houses with dogs. Good with cars as well. We took a really long walk and Shane was perfect the entire time. Maybe today is the day to buy a lottery ticket. My tired little poopies.....
Monday night I went to a reactive dog seminar. Turns out it is for dogs that have a problem with other dogs. My problem is barking and fast moving dogs and cars. When the instructor said all dogs had to wear a muzzle to class, I decided this wasn't for me. Shane does great with other dogs, just not fast moving dogs. So, we'll keep working on out techniques and maybe we'll do a private lesson at some point. Played hide-and-seek last night and Shane loved it. Going to do more of this to build up our relationship.
2 comments:
Susan, I too own a little reactive dog and live in Dallas Texas. His name is Beacon and we have been doing counter-conditioning work with a local behaviorist since he was 4 months old. He is enrolled in Pre Agility 3 and doing better. We too can now walk past fenced in or housed in "doggie crazies" without much incident. Went to pre-agility last night and he temporarily did his barking and lunging thing when two new dogs walked up to us but then settled in as usual and was great through class (sits, stays, recalls (20'), circle work, etc.). We do not have any reactive dog classes here and wish we did. Beacon too reacts to quickly moving dogs - anxious and barking although he does not aggress towards anything just alarm barking and pulling (ughhhhhhhh!!!!) I read your notes and thought finally - someone who can relate...hang in there it takes a great deal of time. Crystal
Crystal,
Thank you so much for the encouragement. Sue
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