Alright, finally going to start one of these. There are a few things we really need to work on. 1. On-lead impulse control 1a. Passing closely by other people/dogs without going bonkers (he does excellent from a distance) 1b. Staying calm when other people approach us 2. Car anxiety (hates riding in car...foams at mouth, heavy drool, etc) 3. Off-lead recall (we haven't really been working on this, mainly due to needing to drive to areas to work on it. See #2 above) So will start with 1a. Myles walks very well on lead. He looks like a very well behaved dog from a distance. But if someone even looks like they are going to give him attention, he goes over the threshold quickly. Soooo, we need to practice and this is where I need advice. Yesterday we walked to the park during the hour where kids and parents were walking to school. Great opportunity to practice with a lot of people walking by. So Myles and I stood off to the side of the sidewalk (in the grass) and when anyone walked by (sometimes just kids, sometimes families with dogs) I would have him "look at me" and then shove chicken into mouth. It felt all a little clumsy and awkward. I could see people approaching from a distance, so should we be doing other things until right at the moment they are passing by? It felt like we were waiting for them and even Myles seemed unsure of what we were doing. My thought was if he can allow them to pass without reacting, then I start closing the distance until eventually other people (and dogs) can pass by on the same sidewalk. 1b. As far as working on other people approaching us... I suppose I have to set up that scenario with another willing party. So my question is....how does this practice look? Am I trying to approach the other person and as soon as Myles starts to pull, do I stop? Or turn back the other way? Or are Myles and I standing still while the other person approaches us, and then I have them turn away if he starts to get excited. Is there a place for clicker training in all of this? So this was all supposed to be part of Puppy School 2 that we had to cancel due to car issue. We finished Puppy School 1 but his anxiety kept getting worse. Maybe there's a good youtube out there that demonstrates this, please forward if you know of one. Ok that's plenty for now, thanks in advance!
