Some days it feels like I'm fighting a loosing battle with Scott and Scouts nervousness. I keep going because they have made a lot of progress when compared to what they were like and I hope : they will continue to improve despite driving me to despair sometimes. Some days it feels like I'm fighting a loosing battle against the rest of the world. To be exact some people we meet on our walks. Monday morning we did a BAT set up with my sisters dog. I was really pleased with Scott and Scout they did very well. Monday evening just as we got near the bottom of our drive a loose spaniel darted around the corner of our hedge into the gateway. My dogs shot forward barking. The owners eventually appeared and put it on a lead without speaking !!! I was not happy and thought anything they'd learnt in the morning now ruined. This morning on our walk we were heading down towards a culvert along a narrow lane. I saw a lady coming through the culvert with two beagles. When my dogs spotted them I cued look at me, turned around and went back to the gate way of the only house. They sat nicely waiting and I had their fish treats ready. Unfortunately the woman allowed her dogs to pull her to our side of the road barking. Scott and scout barked back although I'm pleased to say stopped when told and not as bad as hers. She just laughed !!! We did have a good loose dog incident though. Toby the wippet who we've met a couple of times and is a quiet, calm little dog managed to get within a couple of feet of Scott and Scout. They were sat nicely waiting for their fish treat while I spoke to Toby's owner and I think Toby quite fancied a bit of fishy treat so slowly sneaked nearer. Scott and scout didn't bother at all. Initially scout was a little bit twitchy but calmed down and I think Scott would've liked to play with Toby. He was doing his play whinge. Maybe there is hope. ???
Re: Is there any point !?! Hi Jen, reading your posts, I think you are making a lot of progress. But it is truly hard to see where you are going when you are in the thick of it. Are your dogs better or worse if you take them out separately?
Re: Is there any point !?! I am not an expert but my advice would be to find a good dog trainer and have the dogs attend lessons. This way you are with other owners whose dogs have similar problems and you get good advice on how to handle you dog's particular problem. Good luck! Roger
Re: Is there any point !?! Don't be discouraged, Jen. From what you have described here I see far more good than bad. You have worked very hard with your two to get to this point, you should be proud of them AND you! The real world is always going to have other owners who allow their dogs to do all sorts of things that we wish they didn't, and these will happen before we think our dogs are ready to handle them, unless we keep our dogs completely isolated from everything, which of course is not what we want either. Your two have come a long way with your help, and I'm sure they will get even further!
Re: Is there any point !?! Just to say that I think you have and are doing well Jen , hard to think when you`re inside the box at times I know, but honestly you are
Re: Is there any point !?! I too hear a lot more good than bad, you're doing brilliantly! Hang in there
Re: Is there any point !?! Come on, Jen - it's just a bad day. On days like this you need to be your own best friend and tell your friend all the wonderful things she has achieved and how much progress has been made. And it's all true!
Re: Is there any point !?! YES there is every point Jen, you know as well as I do we can't give up, not now, not ever. Today was a bad day, tomorrow will be better. You are doing an amazing job with your boys and believe that because Heidrun said so if we didn't have bad days we wouldn't know what we need to improve on. Come on pull yourself up by the bootstraps and keep going, you can and will do it xx
Re: Is there any point !?! Thank you all very much. You are right Julie and Helen I need to pull myself together and get on with it . ;D To be honest Pippa there isn't a lot of difference whether I walk them together or separately. If anything, surprisingly , they are probably better together. They, again surprisingly, don't seem to set each other off. One can bark at something the other will appear not to be bothered. A mystery my dogs. ??? PS. On a plus note both very good with their training today.
Re: Is there any point !?! Ah Jen glad you feel better today,you really are doing marvelously,when you have had a bad day it's really hard to see the value of your achievements. Glad to read training went well today x
Re: Is there any point !?! Jen, you're doing a brilliant job. Honestly, your dogs sound 10 times better than half the dogs you meet. Don't be discouraged by other people's thoughtlessness. You're doing this for your dogs and are giving them the gift of calmness and self control.
Re: Is there any point !?! Thank you all again for all your encouragement. I think because I'm so used to Scott and Scouts over reaction to things I've forgotten how 'normal' dogs react. In both situations I think a 'normal' dog would've reacted in a similar way and at one time Scott and Scout would've reacted a lot worse and wouldn't have stopped barking. It's just when I meet people like that who aren't particularly bothered how their dogs behave it annoys me because we are trying hard and I worry those sort of meetings set us back. ??? Your right though Rachael I'm doing it for my dogs. I don't like them being so stressed and I'm determined we will get there one day.
Re: Is there any point !?! Hi jen i soooo know what you mean about feeling disconbobulated about other folk setting things back. But Ive decided not to think about it as its wasted energy, nowt we can do about that...but Scott and scout have come on leaps and bounds with the care and effort you have poured into them, and will keep doing so. Ive found that cuilli gets over wee setbacks much quicker now. A GSD ran at her from the darkness last night while she was having a quiet bedtime poo :-\.she was understandably most put out and just wanted to go home. I feared the worst tonite when it got dark but shes just been out and looked fine. A few months ago she wouldnt have wanted to go out in the dark for days.. and i reckon scott and scout will get over setbacks much quicker now too...lucky pups that you are their Person
Re: Is there any point !?! Thank you Debsie. Poor cuillin in the middle of her ablutions how rude. Scott and scout chose to look at me twice on our walk this morning, without a cue, when we met walkers. They weren't overly high stress situations but I figure if they look at me in any reactive situation it can only help when we hit a high stress one. :. I think I might cue too soon when I have to cue because when they look at me automatically we are quite near the trigger. ??? Evenings seem to be worse. I guess they aren't used to meeting people on their evening walk because it was dark . Now it's light and nice weather every man and his dog seem to come out. I will look at positively the more we meet the more practise we get and the sooner we will be fixed. some evenings I wish it would rain though so the fair weather walkers will stay in.
