Sophie, Kestral did great with my mum, instant buddies Infact I think we got through that whole walk without a single bark from her, didn't we? She's doing so well

Helena, so happy to hear that Zena continues to do well, you've done so well with her and I'm glad you can enjoy walks with her again.

Chin up Emma, progress is never a straight line but it's bound to pick up soon. I'm sure it will

Cain's enjoyed his walk with Kestral, and aside from getting a little over excited when wet and decided that bounding up in her face is the best way to incite her to play he mostly behaved very well. He even sat nicely and took some treats off of Sophie.

A different sort of achievement tonight. Started to train his to put pieces in a shape sorter. It was the first time we'd tried it and he did even better than I thought he would, he can already get the circle shape in the hole The other shapes will be harder but a good start. He seemed to really enjoy it too.

Love the pics of Cain and Kestral...they're both doing so well. Cain must be so bright being able to crack the shapes game. My two would look at me with a blank expression if I tried anything like that.

Great news Helena! That was a big test to have an off lead barking dog, and to walk past nicely shows things are going great for you Keep up the good work with Zena

Hope things pick up for you with Ted - these things always seem to have ups and downs
Great that he managed to relax a bit around the horse

Thanks Amanda, yes it was a great bark-free walk!
Cain was very good at sitting for sausage from me, hopefully I will get to know him properly soon

Big well done to Cain for doing well at the shape game - sounds like you both have a lot of skill and patience. Kestral can't even work out that Nina Ottoson tornado game!

Thanks Things are coming along very well.

Just been catching up. Great to see pics of Cain & Kestral.
Ted sounds like he did well with the horse. Onwards and upwards.

I thought of you today, Helena, when I was walking a reactive collie. Two labs came running out of their driveway and down the road towards me and the collie. The owner was calling to no avail and the one stopped but the other carried on towards us barking and growling. I turned on my heel but it continued in hot persuit so I turned to face it stamped my foot and yelled at it to go away. It stopped immediately and I carried on with the collie that did not react.

Perfect hey, I bet you are feeling as good as I did that day last week when it happened to me

I can't believe how well this theory works, these dogs listen to US soooo much better than their owners don't they!! We're definitely starting a new trend, as in, let's fight back at them!!! p.s. Don't bother with the foot stamping though, coz I did that one day and I managed to do something reeeeeally bad with my leg, high up in my groin (I must have stamped it so hard in anger!!!) it hurt for weeks afterwards!! Remember that bit, I'd hate for it to happen to you, it seems your voice is enough!!

My very best effort was when I was down the beach one day this summer, actually IN the water waist high with Zena who was enjoying her swim, when I looked up and saw this woman with two gsd's, one onlead, and one off, who had broken away from her and was headed our way, with it's head down in stalking mode She was right up on the walkway, almost TWO beaches away, but I saw it (coz I'm very aware!), and this black gsd came down that beach still honed in on Zena, head down, it came across one beach, jumped the groin on the stones, then came heading across the next beach to us with it's head long and low, totally focussed on Zena I had to think fast, so I yelled up to the woman to call her b***** dog back but could see she was desperately yelling to get it back with no response, so as it got to our breakwater (where I was in the middle of that beach with the tide in) I yelled in my loudest voice at it to "go awaaaaaaay"! It stopped dead in its tracks and stared at me for a few seconds, and I thought to myself, hang on, this is working here So I yelled at it again to go away (I don't know what the people on the beach must have thought ) and this second outburst caused it to put its tail between its legs, take its front foot off the breakwater it was just about to climb over, turn away, turning it's head back towards me as if to say "alright, alright I'm going" and it slunk back to its owner like that!!!! Oh I did NOT like the look it was giving us as it was heading straight for us, it scared ME let alone Zena, and it was definitely NOT a friendly look I can tell you that! We've had stalkers before, but I do know the difference from a friendly dog and a not so friendly dog! I bet that owner was pleased I had shouted like that, and I strongly suspect it had broken away from her originally from the way she chastised it when it got back to her!

Onwards and upwards then all!!!!

Fab Helena!

I am definitely going to be more proactive in driving away unwelcome dogs approaching. I'll try to remember to omit the foot stamp though. Ouch.

So nice to read about everyone's progress! Well done everyone.

Anton is still responding well to strangers in the house when greeted 'properly'. He recognises my OH as the bringer of treats and good times now, so progress is going well there too.

The man who stayed at my grandparents earlier this year has been back for the past couple of weeks and Anton has all but ignored him for the majority of the time.

Well done to Anton, sounds like he's doing very well. Just goes to show, if you work on a problem enough, 9 times out of 10 you can greatly improve it if not eliminate it altogether!

I don't get enough visitors, but when I do, I find the more it happens, the calmer my youngster is, it becomes no big deal, so let's hope this is how Anton will be for the future with all your hard work.

Well done Cain such a clever boy and well done Anton sounds like he's doing great

Socialisation class went well today. Not perfect, Cain did get into a few scraps but there were some new dogs and some strong personalities in the field together. However he was quite good with some of the new dogs, listened to a few of them, although he's still getting involved in everything There is one dog who's been out of group for a bit and came back last week, Cain is a bit fixated on him They did have a scrap this week although randomly they were also caught play bowing at each other at one point! We still broke it off as the play would have tipped over into a fight.

Anyway I spent a lot of class trying to keep Cain away from annoying this particular dog. He would bolt across the field frequently and I would have to recall him. I did this at least 8 times and he came EVERY single time, even when in full flight I was really impressed as I've never had a chance to train/proof his recall off lead around other dogs and I'm so pleased he responded so well. It's a real shame that I can't carry treats or toys in the field as I would love to have given him a super huge reward!

Now recall away from the horses....that still needs some work