I think lots of people must have been watching me take Red for her daily walks as there have been quite a few comments from people the past few days. All very positive and lovely to hear. Nice one today from someone who lives near me but has never spoken before. He was coming out of his front door as we were going by and said 'Coming along very nicely' looking at Red. I said 'Yes she is, thank you'. . Bless her she was trotting along on a lovely loose lead. He must have seen our first awful weeks when I really struggled with her! Yesterday a man we know cycled by with his daughters and called out 'She's behaving herself today'. Crikey, that irritated me - the last time we saw him was over a month ago when Red was pulling on her lead. I just said as nicely as I could 'Yes, she's growing up'. My son who hasn't seen Red for a few weeks called by yesterday. He said how she well she is settling down. Red was excited to see him and jumped up but he said 'down' and she went down - she's knows she won't get her much liked belly rubs unless she does .
What a nice post to read, its so lovely when things start to come together , when hard work and patience pays off , well done to you both x
Thank you @kateincornwall. I know it is very early days and we have a long long way to go and really we are only just beginning. It's just interesting that we are being noticed and kind when people say positive things - think we all need encouragement
That's great - so nice to hear the positive things and to know that people notice when things are going well, not just when they aren't! You're doing a great job, keep up the good work
That's so lovely to read and you have very well in such a short space of time. All we get is "is Charlie still crazy" Keep up the great work x
Nah, plenty of people have adult Labs who pull on the lead and generally act the fool. More like "Yes, all my hard work training is paying off".
Good to read your post, after all your worries with Sky and Red, and their individual health issues especially. The mist is beginning to lift
Congratulations. What a lovely post to read I am so pleased for you. Keep it up - we are all on the never ending training sessions, but they do pay off, even when we can't see it! Today at work my coffee machine was serviced (every 6 months) and the guys that did that said how much more settled Bailey was. That pleased me, although he is still my adorable nutjob and when its just off and he is off lead we have a wonderful game of find and chase!
Nice to read, thanks for posting. Great that others are following your progress and are interested enough to comment directly in public.
@Atemas this is such a nice post to read this morning, but I must admit my real enjoyment of your posts has been your courage to be so very honest about the struggle it has been, at times, to have lovely Red join the family. Your perseverance through bad and celebration of the good is a real inspiration. Thank you so much for being authentic and real about this journey in your life. Every day I open this forum and I wonder how Sky did last night with Red and how things are going. I am not training to the degree that I am utilizing everyone's training logs yet but I am looking forward to the archives of valuable info on this forum. You guys rock! When something happens at home with Harls the first thing DH says is "have you asked on the forum?" or "is there something on the forum about this?". So everyone here, know that we learn so much but I also share the photos with DH - the hilarious lab vs pug video from MF the other day, Vanilla's photos from her spay (this was last night) but every day the photos and videos from everyone (the Beanwood pack and their regal feline sibling). So, after a tangent, thank you @Atemas and everyone on here for sharing your lives with us!
Thank you all for your lovely comments - I really appreciate it. On the second walk of the day, a neighbour came to make a fuss of Red. I managed (after she has leapt up ) to get Red to sit and I chatted to the neighbour for quite a few minutes. I did reward Red for sitting so nicely. We then set off for our walk - don't know why but she did a lot of pulling so I cut the walk short and we finished off with her sitting calming by the front door waiting to get her signal to come in. At training the other week, we were shown 'turn and face' for when you get inside - dog has to then sit. You can then shut the door, lock it etc whilst they sit calmly. She has just taken to this automatically and I hardly need to say it. Yet other things, it's as if I am asking the impossible.
Bless you @Harley Quinn for this. I sometimes feel like a whinging pathetic thing as yes I have struggled since we got Red. I so wish I had found this forum before we got her as I would have been so much better prepared. I would have considered Sky more (she was my first dog ten years ago - a very different scenario as she was 5 months old when we got her - and I now realise an easy dog in many ways). I feel so much guilt about bringing a puppy into our house and Sky's lack of interest/needing us to step in. Fortunately, DH does not share my feelings but understands how I feel. He is also prepared to play with Red (almost like the other dog )! He is always positive where I get upset very easily. I so concur with you about this forum - I am just discovering all the other aspects to the forum and I too am grateful to everyone for sharing their lives. Quick update on Sky/Red. We are spending our evenings all together now. If Red is a pain with Sky, she goes in her crate for 5 minutes. She wants to bite Sky's collar too much for our liking and Sky does nothing to stop her. She is learning to leave Sky alone - tough when you a puppy and want to play. Red now has a bed similar to Sky's and they either go in each other's or their own. Neither seem fussed about which bed they go in. Hopefully one day, they will share the same bed. I would never leave the two dogs alone but I can if they know I am going to fetch kongs. We have come a long way but I am realistic enough to know that this is not a normal situation with dogs and I pray they will at least be able to live in harmony.
You will get there You've made a lot of progress in what's really a short time (though I'm sure occasionally it doesn't feel like it). Training takes time and all you need is 1% progress at each step (with the odd slide backwards...because we're only human and our dogs are dogs!).....eventually you're where you want to be. You're doing really well! And you're sounding happier too, which is really great to see.
I have a problem with Mollie when we go on free runs together, which is only once a week - Mollie's free runs and training are mostly separate. What happens is that Mollie gets over excited and jumps on Tatze, then Tatze pins her down - this never happens at home or in the garden (thank goodness!) I'm sure it looks worse than it is but it worries me. On Saturday mornings Mr Boogs has a lie in and I take both dogs to the reservoir. I've been keeping Tatze on lead because, that way, I can control the pup's interactions with her. Tatze is good as gold on lead. Mollie is beginning to learn to leave her alone - so today I let Tatze off where it was quite a narrow path and I felt I had a bit more control. Success! Mollie ran alongside Tatze and jumped over her (!) but she didn't jump on her. Small steps - so I understand how you feel when progress happens. Of course, I'll just have it sorted when Mollie leaves and we start all over again lol
Puppy's are challenging and it is really useful for everyone to share their stories as there will always be someone who finds them useful. I'm glad Red is now able to spend more time with the family and I'm sure over the coming months it will all come together more.
It is lovely to hear when things are going right. Well done. And thank you for sharing. There are loads of users of this forum, and only a small proportion of them ever post, or even get to the stage where they share their successes (rather than failures) with other members. I love to hear positivity and I'm sure Pippa is made up that her forum has made a difference. So good on you.
