Well done Cain I think some dogs just take longer to settle in to a new home and getting used to it, I think I've made more progress with Casper in our second year than our first - not that he was terrible for all of year one, but I think his behaviour is a lot more settled now.
I'm sure the fact that you're now exposing Cain to a lot more probably helps too - after a walk with 40 GSDs, a park with one other dog is probably quite a low-distraction environment for him now

Oh wow, well done Chester, half an hour in the car, and eager to get in there too, brilliant!

As for Cain, well he's coming on in leaps and bounds, to get a watch me with those distractions (yappy dog!) is just brill, and I think you're right, maturity clicks in along with all that hard work you're putting in, so give yourself a big pat on the back, long may this progress continue!

On the start of our walk, the little manic spaniel came hurfing over to us and I know Zena likes this dog, so I didn't put her onlead, and this is the first time since her ruck, that she actually played with this dog with her bouncing running steps, turning sideways to smile at this little doglet running alongside her, a sheer joy to watch We then met up with the 3 setters, the lab and collie coming on our track towards us, so I thought, I'd speak to her in a gentle voice telling her she knows them, and good girl, blah, blah, blah, and she didn't bat an eyelid as we walked through them, her tail was swishing and she trotted past them, perfick! Then on our way back through the middle of a big field, a bloke was chucking his ball for his dog that we haven't actually met yet, and Zena decided to walk tight to my side staring up at me for some strange reason, great big smile on her face, so I took this as an opportunity of practicing the "with me" command and telling her how absolutely brilliant she was by ignoring a running dog chasing it's ball, and if she could speak, she would have been saying "look at me mum, I'm happy to be here with you, I'm not interested in any other dogs, you're far more exciting than them" I think! Lol! So she got a huuuuge fuss and a tug on her ball and she went ballistic, so I sent her on, she'd done enough training having walked the whole length of the field like that, just because SHE wanted to!

I took Anton, my fairly-reactive-when-on-a-lead GSD, on a group walk today and he was really, really good. Not a single temper tantrum and he greeted all the dogs there quite politely and allowed them to give him a good sniff too. Didn't let him off lead because he was bigger than all the other dogs there (and can play quite rough) and his recall away from other dogs leaves a lot to be desired, but all in all I was very impressed and proud of him.

Well done I was soo nervous at Casper's first group walk (he's a reactive-on-lead-GSD too!) but it was soo lovely to see him mingling with all the other dogs I don't attend weekly but do go on as many as I can get to and I really think it's helped his overall behaviour so I hope it helps Anton.

Well done Anton, Cain, Chester and Zena! Sounds like everyone is doing really well

Had a particulary good week with Ted Tuesday morning we had a walk in the woods and met two dogs he gets on with and i could leave him off lead to greet them. He had a sniff and then disappeared off into the woods again. Then on the way back to the car i saw someone coming i didn't recognise so popped Ted back on the lead and moved him over to the side and got him to sit while they went past, the bloke put his dog on the lead obviously a young dog that was straining to say hello. But Ted just sat calmly beside me and didn't react at all! Normally the straining at the lead sets him off.

Thursday we went to the playing fields and we bumped into two women who have a couple of colliex's. Ted and Jake seem to get on well but the bitch is a bit snappy so i usually keep Ted on a lead as he will insist on going over to her even though she has told him off a couple of times Anyway this time they had a cocker spaniel with them who started barking as soon as she saw Ted but they greeted each other nicely and as we where going the same way i followed them. I decided to let Ted off and apart from running straight off to have a fuss from the women he came back everytime i called him and walked with me tail wagging and walking almost to heel looking for his treats for being such a good boy

We met Jakes owner again on Friday morning and walked with them most of the way round. She even commented on how well behaved Ted was if only she knew
Sat we went for a walk to the park with my friend i knew it would be busy being a sunny afternoon but there was a lot of dogs and people about but Ted was great he was happy to just sniff and plod along and ignore the other dogs. I wouldn't of dreamed of doing that twelve months ago and he really made me proud

Well done Anton, glad he got to walk with a large group and behaved himself impecabbly that's so nice to hear with a gsd. Well done to Ted too, all your hard work is paying off over the past year then

It's still all good here, I can't quite believe it myself Maybe my theory of having so many dogs about where we walk now, she gets to know that not all dogs are going to charge over and attack her, and I have to say, everybody has been soooooo good when they see me put her onlead to walk past them, they are keeping their dogs with them or doing likewise, but thankfully, it's always been fine when the dogs have had a sniff!

The very best bit for me is the fact that Zena has gone back to how she was before her big punch up, in that she doesn't stop and stare at other dogs anymore, she's quite happy to stay with me when I ask, and walk on past sometimes totally ignoring them which is fine by me even though I haven't put her onlead because of course, I know most of them now and so does she.

Yesterday she went for a walk with her favourite buddy the young choccie lab who has been round our house for a garden play a couple of times, and the pair of them went charging round like a right couple of loons, she absolutely adores this dog coz she's quite choosy as to who she will actually have a play with, but he's definitely one of those! Anyhoo, on this walk, we met another choccie lab and I did have my doubts because of the way it came charging over to us, also because I wasn't quite sure if she might get jealous of her new boyfriend, but they all played together, phew! Then we met a little spaniel who came to say hello and have a little play with them both, it has all been so very positive for me of late, I honestly think I can put that horrible incident behind us now. A great big gsd came over to us very stealthily, so I held Zena's rope with the ball in her gob, and the poor choccie lab was very submissive to it, so it got me a bit worried, but then it came over to Zena and she let is sniff her all over but she didn't really want to have anything to do with it, so we walked on. Obviously, there's going to be a dog that will give her that same attitude as before when she retaliated, but so far so good, these must be proper dog walkers where I go now and I'm very lucky that we haven't as yet met anything nasty, offlead and out of control. Except for those two collies last week with that moron young girl who told me to put my ball in my pocket (I had it under my armpit so that Zena would sit nicely in front of me) when her two dogs were running around Zena barking and snapping at her Yeah right, you can imagine what I said to her!!!!

As most of you know, Loui is pretty sociable but has become a bit intolerant of certain types of males.....which has overall been escalating. Well he was getting on fine with a male today The first sniffing part I seen his (yes I know it sounds weird but it's something I notice) head go all muscly and tense and I wasnt sure so I stepped back and explained to the woman I that he sometimes react....he seemed to know everything was fine and just relaxed, then they went off sniffing and then next thing he was wanting to be chased by this dog! Was really good to see him have a positive experience with another male, the male tried to follow us so looks like they may remember each other in future

Was really nice to meet a friendly male and him have the chance to socialise without anything kicking off, the other dog was lovley, a friendly, sociable boy giving off no threats at all and it was just so nice to see him relax and enjoy pottering around with a male AND trying to play with him

Oh well done Loui, let's hope he gets to be comfortable around all males soon. I have also found that it's the females that seem to take exception to Zena, and I know 100% that she will be fine with any males now,just something I've learned over the past few months. I'm beginning to wonder whether females might still give off hormones even after they've been speyed, but only at the times they would have a season, because that was the time of her last punch up, so I'll be looking out for more trouble around May!

Thanks Helena, yep I hope so, I think he just wont tolerate the staring, growling etc that some males will walk past with, the slightest bit of tension and he just goes..... he used to ignore it but isnt up for that anymore. Saying that he will stay by me so it tends to be if they 'invade us' BUT he will get on with some males if they are respectful, so if I can keep him socialised with males like that one then it would give him more chance to get better so I can distract him...Helena, that would be interesting to find out. Maybe you should keep a little log and put her would-be season times in? see if theres a pattern...?

It was so nice to see him running around trying to entice him to play though Its a wee bit hard though as some folk dont really want him mixing with thier dogs, think they are a little intimidated by the breed maybe - do you get that with teh two GSD's much?


OHH, and another (sort of) achievement, loui was ill for a long time and lost a LOT of condition - well he has since then put on over 10kgs and is looking great!!