Well done Helena!


I met a lady we see infrequently who has one large dog (Foxhound) and 2 small dogs (JRT and terrier-cross) & Cherry was sociable with them all! She even looked pleased to see the Foxhound as she was wagging her tail nicely when she approached it. Trouble was all the dogs wanted to come with me as I had some home-made cheesy dog treats! Still, good practice for Cherry.

That's such fantastic news Helena, you must be so incredibly proud of Zena. She did so well Long may it continue!!!

And sweet old Cherry too, well done, I'm really pleased for you

My big achievement this week is to read all of the latest e-collar thread and not post reply

Well done Wilbar.. That was som e strong willpower...

I thought Id share... Regardless of my and others reservations about the training methods of the walk Kismet and I now attend.. Its certainly doing her the world of good We go twice a week and she's getting better and better...

This is a picture of her playing with her new bofriend Prince the bordercollie and partner in crime Jack the Jack russell. This was my girl who would have screaming rage is a small dog so much as looked at us funny,,, I am very proud of her.

Razzle has turned the corner. Last night he started chucking my slippers round the room in excitement at the prospect of supper. He was like a great big happy bunny wabbit.
He`s now sprawled in front of the fire beside the PC contentedly noshing a chicken leg. And we can ruffle his fur and he doesn`t flinch.
Bless.
The odds on being able to take him walkies one day are dropping.

Awww look at Kismet....thats soooo sweet You must be so happy! I'm glad the walks are working for you. We are trying it with Cain, only been on one but will continue and hope for success. LEt me know how Kismet does with future walks, I'm really interested

Awww sweet Razzle. Baby steps, but getting better every day

I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (I hope) with my little girl.
She came to me underweight,unsocialised & very scared of everyone & everything. I worked so hard with her & after a couple of Months she was happy & social
UNTIL the Dog of an aquaintance chased her & scruffed her quite hard. She then went onto the defensive off lead & I've had a real hard job sorting it.
She's fine on group walks (safety in numbers I think & one of the reasons I'm not a fan of them for many Dogs with "issues")
But recently she's stopped being on the look out for Dogs & returning to me if we see some in the distance.
She'll ignore them if we're in working mode, but I want her to be off lead & relaxed & not working all the time.

Really pleased with Polo, (my reactive collie), today.

Every time he saw a dog on his walk he turned to me and came for a 'good boy' and a treat without me saying a word to him beforehand.

Then I spotted a woman with a collie that I know can be a bit reactive too. The collie was making a beeline towards us and his owner realised and spotted us and blew her whistle. Her dog ignored the whistle and continued towards us. The owner was whistling frantically at this time as she has only ever seen Polo in full reactive mode!!

Polo had seen the dog approaching and came to me obediently. I then had a quick decision to make. Put him on a lead or not?

My decision was leashing him was more likely to create a problem. So I allowed him to remain off-lead and deal with this fast approaching collie as he must. He was tense initially, but not one growl and after they had a sniff he followed me and the other collie returned to a very relieved owner.

I am so proud of my boy!

I have a dog curled up on the rug beside me, and a cat curled up on the sofa at the other side of the room - neither on a lead. In no way shape or form do I think we're there with the dog-cat thing yet, he still tries to go after her when she flounces out of the room - but it's not in an aggressive way - it's in a "plaaaaaayyyyyyymaaaaaaaatteeeeee" bouncy tigger type way - which isn't appreciated by miss prim, proper and perfectly groomed... the direct antithesis of the shaggy round the edges, totally slobbery ball of bounce that the dog is - plus she waits till he's asleep to wander up to him and hiss at the sleeping defenceless dog too (nice and brave there Suki huh?).... I do have the lead beside me and if the cat wants to move around the room I'll clip it back on him - not taking any chances with a cat that's already on life number 8 of 9 already.

Oh and he walked perfectly to heel on a loose lead all the way back from the field this morning (won't do it when my husband's around though).

Oh and MY dog poo is in the poo bin unlike the snooty woman showing off perfect downs and stays in duo on the field and leaving a trail of dog poo in her wake - the latest to sneer that I'm not stupid enough to let a rescue dog (who I don't believe is at all aggressive but who I've not fully figured out yet and don't fancy taking the chance with) with questionable recall off the lead in an open area. He might not be perfectly trained (he adopts the "if asked to do something try sitting, offering a paw and looking cute" school of pleasing humans) but he's not left three fresh steaming turds on the playing field.

Well done folks!!

Well, the ice is gone today! (well enough for a more decent walk anyway)

I thought since its been so long since he was able to have a 'proper walk' that he may go a bit crazy, but no he was fine, in fact very attentive. I'd though since he is usually used to quite a bit....but no he was great

At one point we seen a dog ahead and he had noticed and lay down stalker fashion, well I called and he was still staring, the woman shouted over that she would go the other way and I thought, right to break his down the best way is to say 'up' but that could go one way or the other, so I said 'here - up! here' well he just stood up looked straight at me and then came over, no problem at all I did think to myself, hmm, maybe its a female, but no it was a dog aggressive male! (which he normally picks up on....) then I called and told her hes on the lead if she wanted to carry on, she explained her dog goes nuts as he isnt socialised so we both went round each other with a very wide berth, well, he just walked right along even when the other dog reacted he was fine. So chuffed, I wouldnt class him as dog aggressive but he has recently had these little 'tendancies' with males and I was just so proud of him, after weeks of boring little 5-10 min road walks and he was so well behaved
Normally I would just tell him to wait and then take hold of him to put the lead on but I didnt want to risk it as she was pretty quick to say she'd go the otehr way. Well my chance paid off.

I suppose I should really put more faith in him!!

To cut a long story short on the second part of this, he had been very ill for a long time and this is two years later, he is fine now, after that part of the walk, I let him off in another park and he just strode around in front of me, perfect gait, head up high, ears up, the lot, he looked so goregous. I thought back to the image of him all bones, head down, back roached up, shoulderblades sticking up and down, foaming at the mouth and I just couldnt believe how well behaved and how stunning and content he looked, in fact I'm sure he may have got in a bit better condition since the last pics I posted here, so I will need to get some photos up as soon as it warms up enough to get that coat off him!

Roll on the ice free walks!!