"1/2 a block from home I see a new puppy being walked right past our house. I took evasive action and moved Jethro across the street before he saw it and by the time he saw it and registered it as a puppy we were heading east putting more and more distance between us and them. Jethro tried to get up a reaction, but I kept his head in my direction and we got through it without a growl or a bark, let alone a lunge. I count that as success."

So do I.

On top of all that you describe, he did not fuel and strengthen and practice and hone his new reaction/obsession.

Puppies are going to gradually become background music only .... with no attention paid, no focus on them, and no deciding about them, life still went on. This registers in that doggy brain.

JMO!

 Quote: David Winners

".... Because it made me envision a future where he is under constant control, and I don't feel guilty about it, thinking he doesn't have enough 'freedom'."


You're getting it Jenny!


Good job you!

I concur! Some dogs simply need strict rules and less freedom. I tried so hard to make my last dog, Solo, an agility competition dog, but he absolutely hated the trial atmosphere. Sure, I could have pushed it and he would have done it, but neither of us were enjoying ourselves. He stays home when I take my Mal places, and that's okay. He is happier in his controlled comfort zone and daily routine.

As a different kind of success story, I present Panzer, my Mal. Last summer when she was a puppy, I was trying to train her in the foundations of French Ring. We traveled all over the province to train, and she did not like it. She has been very uncomfortable around strange people from the day I got her and I could not even get near a training field without her going into defense mode and reacting at people. I eventually realized that trying to do bite work in that frame of mind was counter productive, and her reactivity was only getting worse. As I mentioned before, I did a lot of counter conditioning, but did not really make progress until I realized that enough was enough, and that she was old enough to listen to commands and respect me.

Fast forward to present time and I have an amazing agility dog in training! This past weekend we went to an agility fun match full of strange people and dogs and she was the best behaved dog there! I was so incredibly proud when she held a sit stay at the start line with the row of crates and people right behind her.

Video of said start line stay...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdFHRnsc2pk

I guess the moral of my story is that success looks different to every dog & handler team. I look forward to a great agility career with Pan, yet still consider it a great success when 11 year old Solo calmly walks past another dog on the street. Not every dog needs to be comfortable in action packed settings.

Beautiful, Tabatha!

I had a funny incident today on the soccer field. Skipper is a much happier, calm dog (and he sleeps through the night!) when he gets to chase a ball on the soccer field for a half hour or so. He just goes and goes. I keep two balls going, so he can keep the run on. Today I tried something new, going in the late afternoon on a beautiful day. Of course there were other dogs there, but Skipper is very business like about his game and he doesn't socialize. Any dog that makes the attempt is ignored or curtly rebuffed.

I was standing near a couple of dogs I admired from afar and started talking to their owner. By this time I had Skipper on his leash, cooling down from his run. The owner let me know that he was a trainer who specializes in DA dogs. He said he worked for some of the local shelters and had helped 100s of dogs.

We were talking away, I was asking him about his approach, what techniques he uses and all of a sudden his dog, Harley, attacked Skipper. I quickly snaked Skipper away while the 'trainer' threw himself on his dog and got him under control. He said, "Harley is a little ball aggressive". Ummm. Okay, but not good PR. Don't expect that call from me. What I did say was, "Time to go! Thanks for the chat!"

You see, Steve, I am trying to find new trainers to work with...

Success this morning. Jethro has been highly reactive to one of our carpenters, who has been working here 5 days a week for 7 months. This morning as we came in from our walk, he was measuring up the front stairs. Jethro walked right up the stairs and didn't even give him a look. It was as if the carpenter wasn't there. Wow.

Awesome!

The light bulb has come on.


You just had to establish a new set of rules.

 Quote: David Winners

The light bulb has come on.

Yup! The old "Oh, wait. I'm not the one in charge here?" light bulb.

My dogs don't have balls, toys, chewies, or actually anything at all where there are or might be strange off-leash dogs.

It would be a pretty rare situation when I'd have those things out in any group of dogs .... strange or not.

JMO!


"Harley is a little ball aggressive" .... Harley isn't alone in being ball aggressive.

But yep, I agree: Okay, but not good PR. Don't expect that call from me.

Having to throw myself on my dog is so not my management goal ....

Well, you were all right about something else, but I just had to check it out for myself.

Circumstances at the end of the day dictated that both dogs needed to go out at the same time, and I was home alone. So I decided to risk taking them out together. I was determined to have a successful walk with both dogs. I should have stopped after 1, 2, 3, 4 blocks, but oh, no, we were doing so well!

Yup. I went too long, lost my concentration, and Jethro got in not one, but two reactive incidents. I handled them, but I can see the difference in my attention level. Especially after a nice rolling walk where everything is going well, I got lulled into over confidence and misread a couple of oncoming triggers and then mistimed my corrections. *sigh*

The good news is that I knew why it had happened, I knew what errors I made, and I was not crushed, terrified, nor frustrated by the events. I just controlled Jethro and got us all home in one piece. No injuries, except to my pride.

There are a few lights going on over here.

And a few Snoopy skips here... Grrreat for you!!!