Massive progress since our workshop

Remember T and I did a workshop in Gloucestershire??

OMG! What a difference.

It couldn't have started off worse that day. I was late getting away from the B&B, it was terrible weather, my Sat Nav couldn't find the place, I had my dad on the phone telling me where to head towards...

Then I got lost, it went past 9:30 (when the workshop began) and I was driving up and down country lanes totally lost - on the phone to dad crying my eyes out and saying 'I'm coming home - I can't go in late!).

Finally found the place and was an emotional wreck.

I knew I couldn't take T out of the car until I knew they were ok with me being late as my own anxiety was through the roof.

Joyce met me at the door and instantly put me at ease - I went and collected the dog who seemed fine despite my obvious panic and went in.

Stepped in the door and there was a great big longhaired black and tan GSD.
Takara's terrified of GSDs, she sees one and will just run straight back to the car. She was bitten by my aunt's long haired black GSD when she was 10 weeks.

It went really well and it was basically just letting them learn - we did very little training wise.

But the difference since we went is just amazing. I'm much calmer - knowing just how to deal with her and Takara's so much more relaxed knowing that I'll look after her and she has learned to look to me and see if I look worried before she reacts!

She learned how to manage her own frustration and learned some real self control.

We have carried it on and we're walking in areas with big dogs who she's either greeting in a friendly manner and walking by, showing fear and coming to me or running around with them!

She met a labradoodle the other day (a crossbreed she's just not keen on - she's only ever been friendly with one labradoodle and even he is too big for her now!) that she had never met and instantly they just started a chase game.

She met some children the other day and actually played in close proximity to them in the river - she usually avoids kids like the plague.

She's also listening to me much better, bin raiding is rapidly becoming a thing of the past and she walked straight past someone's cool bag the other day showing minimal interest.

I'm so so proud of her but so grateful to Kay Laurence for giving us the opportunity to practice these self control measures in a controlled environment! Not to mention for teaching me to relax!

Thoroughly recommend the workshop to anyone!

Sounds fab, which workshop did you do?

The Lifeskills workshop - I think she runs one every Sunday morning - I'm tempted to do another just to keep doing it with all different dogs...

I'm majorly impressed - this morning not only did she leave an overflowing lidless bin in the park but a weimy then came running over to her (we were in the same place where she got attacked from behind by a weimy) and she was really good! A bit nervous but relaxed and didn't react at all.

Edit - it could be once a month actually...

Brill, shame its so far really Maddy could do with it.

Aww, it would really suit Maddy too...

If you can get her on a train your welcome to come to ours and go with us! Make a weekend of it, stop somewhere nearby and even see Pidge while we're there!

Sounds great Lottie. I know what it's like driving up and down country lanes! trying to find somewhere

The workshop sounds really worth it.

Wys
x

Will have to try and work something out!

It was Wys,

To be honest, it's really not something I would've done with her. We parked the dogs by standing on the leads and just ignored whatever they did until we picked the leads up to start working them.

If they reacted we just ignored them unless their arousal got too high for them to self correct - then we did circuits in our own little corners until they were ready to park again.

I would've considered it too much for Takara but it was so well controlled that it wasn't really flooding because although they were left to get wound up and then learn that reacting didn't get them anywhere, they weren't put into a situation they really couldn't cope with.

We did a lot of teaching them to look to us to see what to do next and that's definitely rubbed off - she's regularly checking to see if I'm bothered now.

It's also given me a way to deal with it. We saw a large GSD in the park just a couple of days after the workshop and Takara was near the gate - she normally would have sped off to the car but I called her and she came back (in the direction of the GSD!) so she must trust me more not to let her get into trouble.

At that point I rewarded her and clipped her lead on but I parked her so that I couldn't tense the lead and stress her out. GSD went her way (they weren't coming in our direction, they were parallel to us and then off in the opposite direction) and I picked up T's lead and walked her back to the car. Both of us, totally relaxed!

Ha.... would we get discount for a group booking!? Sounds like Max and I would benefit too!

hehe... there was only 4 people in the workshop when I went so not sure how much of a block booking you could do...

I'd say it would benefit absolutely anyone to be honest but moreso those who's dogs do have reactivity issues or are a bit pushy.

And Kay's not as scary as I was expecting Just don't mention DAP!