Two Best Dogs! Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 (edited) I feel better this morning I certainly dont blame Thistle and have given her lots of love and attention, just frustrated because she's making my head hurt and I'm upset over my grandmother. I checked them out but I'm iffy about how the kennels are set up so the dogs can see each other through the fence? IDK, she's doing well but I'm not at the stage where I want unsupervised interactions with other dogs even through a fence, especially when she's stressed and away from me. Too much potential to undo all our progress of the past month when we're still reinforcing it. Unfortunately I dont know if we will ever progress much on the stranger-danger side. I'll wait and see what the dates are and all the prices, then see if I can get A (her emergency contact) to drop by the house and feed her. At least then it is not different to when I'm at work, which she handles fine. I only get 3 days leave for death I think so not overly long. Thanks all quiet day today for us I think Edited January 19, 2016 by Thistle the dog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ness Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 - was at the school last night running dogs and guess who showed up. Kenz made a beeline for the car and then I grabbed Lira and put her away. Freaking owner had the dog off-lead as well . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Best Dogs! Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Oh no Ness Is Lira okay? Thanks Snook, we did some quiet LAT at the store today to, idk, reinforce our "bond" or whatever you want to call it. To remind myself she's doing well, that leaving her alone with different people is not something we have worked on so of course she's hesitant. She let strangers walk past her with minimal side eye and no trying to move out of sit or behind me. She sniffed a dog that looks like this. But it had I think naturally short fur? It was a cute dog, I feel like we're slowly getting down to polite on lead not-squashing greetings with littler dogs. Dididog is going to practice long lead doggie recalls since Didi has amazing recall and I can use the guidance :p It's also nice that I can take the time to actually look and admire another person's dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ness Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Thanks Thistle - yes Lira is fine fortunately the dog didn't approach but I was in a blind panic I can tell you until they were all back safely in the car. All I was thinking is what if it had been 10 min earlier when we were away from the car in another part of the grounds and my two were running. Not that they would approach the dog but the guy has already shown he has no control over it and its dangerous. Rang council to follow up and the ranger is still on leave. I want his job if he can take 2 months off over Christmas . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ness Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 went up to the school tonight once it had cooled off and Kenz got out of the car and would barely run around anywhere was just constantly scanning the environment. So sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ness Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 (edited) Grrrrr off the phone with council and as their was no witness they can't do anything about it so despite the dog having previous history there is nothing that can be done. Seems that unless a dog does serious physical damage they aren't much interested. Just hope this dog doesn't badly injure another dog or a person get injured trying to separate a dog attack. Edited January 21, 2016 by ness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simply Grand Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Oh Snook, that's so exciting! I just saw on Gruf's FB page that they'd made friends and had to come and read about it :laugh: I reckon Justice smelling that Gruf what there every time he had the positive experience of visiting has probably helped him feel that Gruf isn't a threat so he was comfortable actually seeing him. I so hope they can be good friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dididog Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Dididog is going to practice long lead doggie recalls since Didi has amazing recall and I can use the guidance You do realise now that you've said this Didi is probably going to be a massive dickhead and make me look silly! We'll try our best though :p Snook that's so nice about Justice having some doggie interaction without getting upset! Hopefully working with Gruff keeps paying off :) Even though Didi has reached a pretty stable point atm we've had a couple of experiences that really tested our progress and she did wonderfully! The first was when I was letting her run around a fenced in playground at night. I never used to let her offlead in fenced in parks because Didi would guard the area and bark at people coming in but while we were in the playground a girl a bit older than me came in with her boyfriend to use the swings. And at first I freaked out because it was dark which makes her more cautious than usual and by the time I noticed the girl opening the gate Didi was on the other side of the playground to me. But Didi just looked up and ignored them and kept doing her thing. And then last week I took Didi to a brand new beach that we've never been to before. The last time I took her to a new place was over 6 months ago and she was so overwhelmed and nervous that she just shut down and was so paranoid the whole walk back. So we got out of the car at the foreshore which is offlead and I was a bit hesitant but she seemed excited and not nervous so I let her off lead and she was great! She was really confident and explored everything without hestiating and her recall was really good which was great because I haven't really tested it in new environments for a while. Then when we were swimming there was lots of people and children, one was actually swimming right next to Didi for a fair bit and she was so calm about it all. I do think the water helped a bit, she is so at ease and in her element at the beach. When we were back on the foreshore a family stopped to talk to us and kept trying to convince Didi to get pats. I could see she was a bit unsure of them but instead of barking or getting upset she just gave them a few sniffs and walked away (had to reassure the kid not to take it personally because he really liked her and wanted a pat!). The only time I did not feel confident for her to make the right decision was when we were on a narrow path and had to pass a family with a toddler that was running ahead with their golden retriever. I could tell the golden would probably approach us and didn't trust Didi to not get freaked out if the toddler joined in so I just popped her on lead and gave them a wide birth. Im glad I did because later I saw that toddler do exactly what I thought it would do and started patting a staffy that the goldie had gone to say hi to. I know to most people that day probably doesn't sound too exciting but for a dog that used to get very paranoid in new environments with fear issues around strangers and kids, being able to go do fun things together without either me or the dog being stressed out had always been the maim goal for me so it really did mean a lot :) Not going to push my luck with her and go right back to catching trains and hanging out in the CBD like we used to or anything but it was a really good experience for both of us and has shown me how she has learnt to piece together all our training and conditioning in real world situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Best Dogs! Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 OMG go Justice!!! And we'll done Didi, she is such a gorgeous dog <3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ness Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Yep Snook other than ringing the guy again and stressing the need he should have his dog under effective control not a single thing more . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Best Dogs! Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 (edited) A minor setback in terms of confidence for both of us: Mobile vet made it 2 steps into the house and Thistle immediately started cowering, peed all over her bed, started barking, peed next to the bed, moved far away into the corner, peed more then started growling from her cower. I leashed her and managed to encourage her to follow me into the yard. Poor pup was so scared almost into nonresponsiveness and seemed to struggle with being frozen. Hasn't overreacted to this level before, she went from perfectly happy to almost shutdown in the split of a second. Usually she just goes to her corner bed, no peeing or barking, and looks worried. Never had her growl at a person before :C Can’t believe she was that scared, even the behaviourist (big man, beard, beanie) isn't that scary. But I am glad that she growled, she's so quiet normally I was worried I had a dog who wouldn't warn when at end of the tether. The vet (here to vaccinate the bunnies) was understanding and is thinking she smells a lot like clinic/sick animals/the vet + it being in Thistle’s home versus a clinic where she expects it. (In the clinic she is tense, but not overly so, and stays quiet/calm. Later on we may try Thistle meeting the same vet BUT in the usual vet surroundings to see if it was that vet in particular or the "clinic smells invasion" or the typical vet outfit in Thistle's house. (Thinking it being home ground made her fear so extreme?) After vet left, Thistle took a lot of coaxing to get back in the house and has been slinking around making sure the vet is gone. I am just so sad for her. Not even 2 years old and so scared. I keep forgetting that what she might be okay with on the street/outside the house is different when brought into her own home. I feel so bad for inadvertantly contributing to her being so scared. She peed 3 times! in like 30 seconds tops! On the plus side, rabbits are vaccinated and in good health. If old, with old age related mobility issues. - Edit, had a chat with the behaviourist. Going to start really working on her guest behaviour. The run down is this: - she goes to her bed and she stays on the bed, calmly and quietly - shove treats in mouth, like a bed based LAT - when dog is on the bed guests do not talk, look or interact with her (i already have this rule but worth restating I think) He did agree the peeing as soon as the vet came in the door is a bit abnormal. I also just realised her bed, the safe place, wasn't available for her to retreat to as it's currently still being fixed - so is in the middle of the floor. Edited January 25, 2016 by Thistle the dog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simply Grand Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Poor baby girl thistle sounds like you are spot on about why it was so overwhelming for her, she must have felt like her safe home base was being invaded and she couldn't get away. I'd also say smell had a lot to do with it, I think it's really hard for us as humans to have any idea of just how sensitive there sense of smell is and how much they use it to pick up all sorts of things we are completely oblivious to. People can be so weird about ignoring dogs can't they? It's like as soon as you say "please ignore her" they just can't help but do the opposite. I actually quite like Cesar Millan's way of saying it - "no touch, no talk, no eye contact"- simple and clear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottsmum Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Poor Thistle. How awful to be so frightened and utterly heartbreaking for you to see her in that state. It's great that you've been able to work through it to get an idea about why it happened and speak to her behaviourist about strategies to try and prevent it from happening again. I hope you're both feeling much better now. Yup. Sorry to read about this. Hope you're both feeling better soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Best Dogs! Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 about 30mins later she was back to her usual self! I've been focussing so much on proofing her behvaiour in places I take her to, I have overlooked proofing guests who come to us! The last set of guests were back in october x_x and not scary vet types. Major shock to her system i guess, silly baby. Looks like I will be having preapproved people over more often to practice with. Step 1: Ordering pizza delivery :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Best Dogs! Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 I was dumb and dropped Thistle's lead while talking to a stranger in a new location, she immediately backed off about 3 metres - heart attack because 15 metres away was a pretty busy road! The stranger was very understanding when i told them to slowly back up about 4 metres and stay quiet/not a distraction so I could recall her. The little heart-attack inducer did recall perfectly once the stranger was over, albeit in a an uncertain belly crawling cower. Not because she was in trouble, just at the end of her confidence I think. Been a hell of a week for both of us and strangers in and out, wouldn't be surprised if she's picking up on my general unhappiness this week. Have to say, I'm really looking forward to classes returning in a steady manner, so we can get some kind of routine back and keep working on that confidence/obedience under "stress" Keep putting my feet in it with her this week, sorry Thistle. I'll be a better best mate now and let you relax some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Best Dogs! Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 She's not normally so skittery in public (these days) but she was giving some pretty clear "can we go back to the car now!" signs that I was ignoring: standing behind me, back to the person, pretending like they're not there. Not stiff as a board but personal space bubble bigger than usual. Her "I'm tired and at end of confidence lets go" stuff so I should have just respected that and ended the conversation and gone home but still a bit frazzled myself Will do that next time. I usually try to end before we get even close to that stage sorry thistle. I won't ignore you next time, you did great earlier in the day at the store and walking past construction workers and other dogs. A+ try Fingers crossed for justice and gruff to have a great relaxing time! You can do it justice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simply Grand Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 It's really interesting (and frustrating!) how much everything else that's going on effects their tolerance of things that they may have been able to cope with at one stage. I've missed that a couple of times with Riley because he's improved so much with his reactivity towards dogs, but a couple of times when there have been several of the dogs that trigger him around rather than just one, or there have been issues between other dogs nearby, or even the other week when Riley had randomly joined in a game of fetch with a stranger and his dog an found it really exciting (he doesn't normally join in with strangers), so his stimulation level is that bit higher or tolerance level is that bit lower - then he has shown his reactivity (dog aggression) when I hadn't expected him too. I have to remember not to take his progress for granted! Oh, and I saw an awesome video on Gruf's FB page Snook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Best Dogs! Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 (edited) I've been hoping silence meant good! Oh look at the two darlings! I hope the regular catch ups go well. What a set of champs. So glad for you two! Go blinkblink They're totally a matched set, and the little scampering at the end... Edited January 27, 2016 by Thistle the dog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Best Dogs! Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 I have woken up and immediately come to this thread to smile over Justice and Gruff. You go, little guys. I think blinkblink and dididog should get special "therapy dog for other dogs" medals or something XD For having such standout helpful pups with helpful owners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottsmum Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 I've never realised this but they're like the wiry and short haired version of each other. Gruffy just wanted to PLAY! So glad it went well - here's to moving forward! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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