since i'm always asking questions, thought i'd just post some positive improvements for luc in terms of his comfort level etc.

when we were away last week on our hiking vacation, climbing up one trail all of a sudden two yellow labs came down - off-leash and no people with them. they immediately headed towards luc; i didn't see the point of retreating down as they were off-leash and uncontrolled. i put luc into a sit and tried to stand between him and the labs. one lab was around at his side moving and the other by his head. just as two people, followed by an off-leash black lab came over the trail, the lab at luc's side picked up his movements so that i had to really work at blocking him; that's when the lab at the head went in for luc. i deflected him by kneeing him in the head - not to hurt him, just to move him off-course. four more people came over the hill; one woman exclaimed 'we didn't know YOU had a dog'.
the dogs continued pacing around us; the one yellow lab and the black lab focusing on luc's side and the more aggressive yellow lab at his head. the people who owned the dogs - i saw no signs of any leashes - said things like 'don't do that' but obvs. the dogs paid no attention. same thing happened again, except this time i kneed the lab in the head harder and really deflected him. one of the adults quickly said 'we should probably go' and the party took off down with the dogs. the only person who apologized was the one child in the group, a twelve year-old boy. BUT....luc stayed calm through the whole episode! he seems to go into flight mode easily around other dogs, so i was so proud he stayed totally calm throughout this.

and luc did great tonight! he goes to the washroom in a corner of a large park near us; i've been practicing his obedience outside there so he has distractions. tonight, he had a man and woman, the man was putting his ankle on the woman's shoulder and stretching; 5 bike cops going by one after the other, all with their radios on; several other cyclists, 2 cars, as well as a couple with a dog - luc once growled at them and i'd corrected - i've mentioned elsewhere that this woman told me not to correct luc - he completely ignored them - and he also stayed relaxed when another dog, a large bulldog type, went past snarling and straining at his leash towards luc. his sit stays and down stays were really good!

and he heeled well less than 5 minutes after passing the park when we had to pass a police cruiser blocking a car/lane of traffic and partially on the sidewalk, with two officers outside and the radio going again; he also stayed focused when we caught up to and passed another dog - i had been avoiding those situations, but decided to try him - he was more alert, but remained calm.

i'm so proud of him! and he is thrilled with himself, he's been wandering around with a big doggy grin on his face.

Be proud of yourself while you're at it. Sounds like great teamwork!

He deserves a big doggy grin on his face . What a good boy! Congratulations to you too Jennifer, great job, really. I'm impressed, how cool!

thanks! i can't tell you how great it is we seem to be doing well as a team.

and just cause, here's a picture from last week when we were hiking on lake superior (not me in the background)

Jenn!! That's awesome! He looks fantastic! I'm thinking you should have kneed some owners in the head. In any event, congratulations, you rock, keep up the good work, and keep the updates coming!

thanks! all the help is much appreciated.

i didn't realize until after i adopted luc that we have to function as a team (i mean, i knew the pack concept, but the theory, not the practice) and it's so cool to me to see that we're gelling that way.

it's also interesting to see how he changes as he gets more confident. he used to growl at people, but not dogs, and twice now he's growled, i'm pretty sure at the dogs the people with as much as/more than the people.

again, luc did amazing at the outside obedience today!!!!

after work he held a 3 minute down/stay (i wanted to do longer, but went to him and broke it b/c a wee little terrier named spike (she's 12 yo), the only dog luc associates with, was coming into the park with her dad. but there was lots of people, joggers, rollerbladers playing hockey, bikes, cars, and he did great.

and then on our walk just now - i'm sick, we actually missed obed. today b/c of it, we've still only had 2 classes (aggression control/obed), i wasn't feeling well enough for a big walk so we did more obed. - luc's sit/stays were not so great, he held a minute and a half once before breaking it (not me), and then most of the others he'd break after 20-30 seconds, though he'd sit again immediately for me, i was happy he'll do a remote sit on the bright side.

but - he did a 7.5 minute down!!! 7 minutes of me away from him, at the 7 minute mark i went to his side but didn't release immediately. the distractions weren't as big as earlier today - around 4 cars, same number of cyclists, 2 pedestrians - but one of the pedestrians was a man who walked maybe 5-6M behind me, i had my back turned - luc has been aggressive (growling, alert aggressive forward stance) previous similar instances, he eyed the guy, but held. i was encouraging him the whole time, to keep him focused. i'm so proud of him!

 Quote: Jennifer Mullen

after work he held a 3 minute down/stay (i wanted to do longer, but went to him and broke it b/c a wee little terrier named spike (she's 12 yo), the only dog luc associates with, was coming into the park with her dad. i'm so proud of him!

FANTASTIC!!! I am so glad you two found each other. Real smart move on breaking the stay. 3 minutes perfect is better than 15 minutes and he decides he doesn't want to do it anymore I'm so proud of the both of you! Keep up the good work!

thanks! yup, i thought it was better to set him up for success than failure.

he did a three minute sit/stay this morning!

this afternoon, not so good, but there was a shepherd/blue heeler X in the park as well "playing" with its owner (she was all excited, high pitched voice, and would waive the toy around until he jumped up on her and grabbed at it - looked like a bite waiting to happen to me). spike was brought into the park with spike's mom, who i've never met, but they talked to the X so we didn't go over and kept working, but i think luc found 2 dogs mildly distracting, plus people were just bizarre. there's a whole park - one guy walked on a trajectory that would have brought him within a foot of luc - i dunno, luc's leash was dropped, i wouldn't walk that close to a strange dog not held by a handler, no matter how good the down looked - i kept thinking the guy would change course, but no - at 3-4M luc broke his down and went towards the guy - not friendly, but not growling either - ears forward with a 'WHO ARE YOU' kinda expression, i took him up by the leash of course and moved him off. can't say i totally blame him.

and then there was the young girl who wanted to pet him, i had to explain he was in the middle of an obed. exercise (i mean, he looked busy to me, maybe she thought he was just chilling out while i said 'great down!' *sigh*, and another young boy who came by to find out what kind of dog he was. it truly was a weird afternoon! we left it and went for a walk instead after a couple of 1 minute sit/stays and down/stays and some 'come' practice, just to finish w/success.

anywho....i'm pretty impressed with him now! i think we're going to start really focusing on a couple of weird ticks he has with the heel sometimes.