I think I've mentioned the steps to my veg garden before.....Charlie will not go up them! Well, until today - Yay! He has no problem with steps in general, it's just these particular steps. He fell off them as a puppy. Not far, he fell off the 3rd step when he was about 5 months old. So a fall of about 2ft for a 20kg puppy. He wasn't hurt. Charlie is not a nervous dog - not a all - but he is not a brave one either! Anyway, for about the last 2 years I've been working on and off on his fear of these steps. Feeding him on them, clicking for approaching them. Feeding fresh sardines if he put his paws on them. And so on. Well, today, we continued. With roast duck. A LOT of roast duck. I don't think we'd have done it without the great deal of work before hand desensitising him to the steps, and I don't think he was thrilled going up them (he seems to come back down them fine). But we did get him up and down the steps several times. Yay! But gosh. It makes you wonder just how their furry brains work, sometimes.... Now, off to work in my greenhouse and with a bit of luck, the dog will be coming with me.... steps by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr
Huh. The celebrations were short lived. He got back from his walk, I was my little greenhouse (doing my pumpkin, cucumbers, courgette, dwarf purple beans and sweetcorn seeds) and he refused to come up the steps! Obviously only will do the steps when roast duck is involved. He is now known as "Mr 3rd step". If OH lifts him over the 3rd step, he is fine.... Mind, I quite like him not weeing on the asparagus. So him not doing the steps has advantages.
Bwahaha! I think it's wee smells like asparagus! Oh gosh, how awful if the asparagus smells like dog wee! It's not above the ground yet, so hopefully the risk is small....
