Woop Woop! Great achievements everyone!

Well, today Kia did me proud I usually let her trot round the side of the house to the back gate off lead after our walks as she's usually tired and just wanders to heel anyway, but today cos of the wind (she gets a bit excited ) she ran ahead of me. Not really a problem as we're in a quiet cul-de-sac but today there were 3 elderly ladies walking past my house just as Kia bounded round the corner I called her and she looked back at me and just skirted the edge of the group with her head bowed in a "I'm scared - please don't touch me" kind of stance. But - NO WOOFING!

I don't mind if she ignores every single stranger we ever meet so long as she quits woofin' at them! And today, with the wind and everything making her so excitable I was sure she was going to bark at the ladies which is why I called her but nope, she just crept past and went and sat by our gate, tail wagging like a good girly

As the ladies passed me they said "aww, she's not speaking" My reply: "nope, she doesn't speak"
Don't think they would have appreciated Kia's rather loud impression of "speaking"

But, another step in the right direction!

xoxox

Last night I saw my son Luke playing with Razzle.
The game is: luke crawls round tapping the floor like he`s going to grab Razzle`s paws and Razzle pretends to be going to bite his hands as they come at his feet. All accompanied by much huffing, bouncing and wagging.
So funny.
And so nice to see a playful interaction.

That's really news Sarah, you must be so chuffed with her! Clever Kia Is she enjoying her walks a bit more now? Is she better at leaving the house?

Awww Razzle That's so cute! Cain loves that game too, my be a GSD thing! SO happy to hear Razzle is relaxing enough to play....next stop....walks!

I just love reading this thread, it's so inspirational, and makes me appreciate how easy I have it when the teens are driving me crazy . A small one for Griffin but we went for an off lead walk last night and we bumped into a boxer and a working springer and my whistle had him rushing back to me each time,I let him have a play with each as they were both dogs familiar to me as I've bumped into them with Chester but he had no problems with me calling him away and following me instead of the other people, I was very proud, especially when we got the stile at the end of the walk and when I called he trotted back and waited for me to put his lead back on with no drama at all.

And Claire Chester and I do that too, it invariably ends up with me being pounced on and talked to with a very waggy tail and a big grin!

Well done Griffin

Went on another GSD walk with Cain today. There were around 40 dogs so we hung out at thr back and on the outskirts so as not to overwhelm Cain too much. However he was very well behaved - he almost seems better in groups as he can't fixate on only one dog. He only jumped at a couple of dogs - mostly playfully as they ran by. And he only dropped onto his "stalky belly" once He greeted several dogs politely. I only allowed a nose sniff and a butt sniff then encouraged him to walk on while it was positive. Rather than hundreds of interactions, I was just happy to see him walking calmly and relaxed and not fixated on the other dogs

Afterwards we stayed on for a little run about with Krlyr's Kiki and Casper and I definately witnessed some play behaviour between the boys He was very well mannered (aside from when Kiki and he decided they both wanted the same giant log ) and I even dropped the longline for a bit. He eyed up a few dogs in the distance but didn't leg it and he even did a few good recalls.

All baby steps but I feel pleased with him. Definately progress

Here he is hanging out with Kiki and Casper

Blimey 40 dogs That's absolutely brilliant news about Cain, you must be over the moon (pardon the pun there!) Lovely piccy, and that's some serious armoury Kiki has on there

Well, I sooooo wish I had my camera out on our first walk this morning, coz not only did I meet up with my friend who had the usual 6 dogs (one of which immediately took Zena's ball of her ), but the whole world seemed to be up there today, so we stopped to chat with people, Zena met all the dogs, 3 red setters, a collie, and a couple more, so there must have been about 20 dogs all running around having great fun, and that included Zena She was soooooo well behaved, I am so very proud of her now.

I chatted with the bloke who owned the red setters, told him about how Zena could be with those dogs with attitude, and he turned around and said "there is NOTHING wrong with your dog, look at her"!!!! I think he's right, coz he then added "unfortunately, there are a few up here you've got to watch out for, but that's the owner's faults, not the dogs"!!!

I'm over the moon, her tail was wagging the whole time she was trotting along just sniffing with my friend's 6 dogs on a very long walk, even though the labradoodle had her ball in his gob as he always does, she couldn't care a less, I'm sooooo proud of her, I almost trust her again (almost!!)

I know, it's an awful lot and nearly all were off lead and most were GSD. I was careful not to let Cain get too much in the middle of it as I didn't want to scare him, he seemed fairly chilled about the whole thing though. I'm glad I was part of the group because I tell you, if I'd been out with Cain by myself and met them coming the other way, I think I'd have run away screaming It would be my worst nightmare! It's done me the world of good though, we had a set back and I lost confidence but now I can see that Cain is still making good progress so I'm ready to throw myself back into socialisation again. Must be quite a sight for the general public! Yeah both Kiki and Casper have really cool harnesses.

Great news about Zena, bit by bit you'll get more trust back in her and soon walks will be lovely and relaxing again. It's probably just a phase she was going through, she certainly coming back out of the other side now

Yay, well done Zena and Cain, onwards and upwards! Must just share how proud I am of Chester after this weekend, we got all the way to Landsdown on Sunday in the car, that's pretty much half an hour, and this is a dog that would freak out at the sight of the open door of the car before, it's still a work in progress, he is very droolly the whole time but that's now the only thing left to conquer, and now he waits behind Griffin to get on the car like a superstar!! Could not be prouder and it's so great to be able to take him to more of the places that are not in walking distance, Westonbirt for dog days at the end of the month is now looking possible which I would never have said 6 months ago!!

its amazing to hear of everyone' successes. Well done to you all. My hearty warms everytime I hear of someone or somethings improvement or achievment. For that is life. In its fullest most meaningfull living moments.

Thanks to a forum member, I have found the motivation to finally write my first dog book. Mirk is coming home thread.

And i really feel good about it. Thank you to those that have pushed me this far. I love you all. Dxxx

Had another very good walk with Cain last night. Went to the secure park again and met a gorgeous White GSD, all went well until the other dog tried to hump Cain and he objected, pity. Anyway, they left and just as I wanted to let him off lead, a man and his terrier turned up. At first I was going to give up and leave but I decided to work with it.

This particular guy drives me nuts when he's in the park as ge sits there, drinks larger and chain smokes while his terrier yaps around his heels. I wouldn't mind but he'll sit there for hours, preventing me being able to let Cain off lead but NOT ACTUALLY walking the dog, it just hangs out by his feet. I know he has every right to be there, he just winds me up.

Anyway....I know the bloke and the dog enough to know they keep themselves to themselves and the dog won't run over to us. Also I know my dog walker let Cain off lead around this dog before and they ignored each other. Being dark I didn't want to let him off but instead there is a sports pitch that is 90% enclosed by chain link fence, so he could see them but not easily run over to them. I took him in there, on a long line, and trained him. I got him to sit/wait while I walked off, then I recalled him and rewarded with his squeaky ball. I was a mean mummy and he didn't get his ball unless he did something to earn it. He did sits, downs, stays, recalls. I got several good "watch me's" our of him, one when a man walked past the park talking very loudly, and another when the terrier and owner were only about 10 feet away barking! This is huge for Cain as for almost a year he's been too highly strung to focus on anything outside! Yet here was a dog and man, which he'd clearly seen, but he managed to focus on me instead. He looked at them once or twice but made no attempt to go over to them.

Finally the man and the terrier left and I let Cain off lead for a few mins. He went off into the bushes but recalled beautifully when called (he ignored me last time he was in them!). He even did some off lead heelwork. Basically he sid pretty much everything I asked him too Ok, he was a bit "can heel, won't heel" on the way there, but walked beautifully on the way home.

This is the first time I've been able to practise training in the park around distractions (even if he wasn't directly in contact with them) and I think he did great! He's almost 20 months now and I can finally see a smidgen of maturity sneaking in, and a weeny bit of focus Maybe it's a sign that he's finally feeling a bit more relaxed outside, enough to concentrate on me instead of everything else Again baby steps but clear progress. I'm proud of my boy