Well done Moon's Mum and Kiing!

well done everyone, sounds like everybody is doing really well


i was at paws in the park on Saturday and put my mum's bitch emmy (who i take to training class) through her paces for her bronze kcgc and she done everything i asked first time and passed with flying colours she even done her wait when i was starting her recall ( she has been a bit out with this lately and getting up and slowly walking towards me)

Awww, congratulations to Emmy

I was quite please with Cain today at agility class. It's only his 4th week (he started about 8 weeks ago but his course attendance has been disrupted for several reasons), but he has come on dramatically. He happily tackled all of the equipment Unfortunately he did pitch off the side of the seesaw once the was reluctant to go on it again Such a shame as he had been really happy learning it, hopefully he will manage to get over his worry quickly.

But the main thing is that he found the class environment quite stressful. I spent the first two classes ready to quit as I felt it was too much for him. But with careful spacial management, many many treats and a clicker, and some Ttouch, we've managed to calm him right down.

Today he got through almost the entire class without reacting to another dog! He was definitely aware of them, however he was willing to focus on me for a treat instead of reacting. During a break he even chose to sit down with his back to them, even when two started barking at each other, he ignored them! As the class got towards the end, he was getting tired and started to lunge at his collie archenemy who was eyeballing him, but I think it was just because he was getting cranky as he was knackered.

He had 5 mins off lead once everyone had left. He did fairly well but he really had had enough by that point so it was very brief. All in all, I am dead chuffed. He was showing clear self control around other dogs, defiantly progress

Photos here (not exactly action shots as he's mostly on lead for obvious reasons. But considering it's only his 4th week, I thought he did great!)
http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=154221

Well done Cain.

Another positive GSD type meeting. Did start to cringe out of the way but changed his mind and went back for a second sniff/ greeting and ended up happy so another one chalked up against the deficit.

A mixed few days for Anton and me.

Anton and my partner are still getting on, so we're going to start having more interactions between the two of them in the house now - as Anton associates him with special treats that he never gets at any other time, we're hoping Anton will start to see him as a welcome vistor rather than an intruder. We're going to continue applying all the techniques Attila showed us as usual.

On the other hand, Anton got into a bit of a scrap with another dog tonight for the first time in over a year. Some young girls (oldest one couldn't have been more than 11) bought their terrier cross into the field where I was doing some onlead wandering with Anton - I didn't see that they had a dog with them. They let their dog offlead, it immediately rushed from the side of the field the girls were on straight up to Anton. As per Sod's Law, this was the one night I had forgotten his muzzle.

I tried to remain calm (Anton can be reactive onlead) and, for a while, Anton did not react, despite the dog running circles around him, sniffing. The girls were calling their dog, but it wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention. Then the dog started growling which triggered Anton. By now, the girls were close, and I was stuck trying to hold back Anton, who was, by now, snarling and snapping and generally looking terrifying, whilst holding onto the other dogs collar and trying to pass him to the girl. I eventually managed to get the dog to the girl, who was very upset (Anton shows a lot of teeth, so it must have looked very scary from where she was). Both dogs were physically fine.

It annoyed me in a few ways; the young girls shouldn't have been walking a dog, let alone one with no recall; I should have remembered Anton's muzzle so that the girl would not have been in danger if she had rushed in to get her dog (Anton is not generally aggressive to people outside of the house, but never say never) and I should have given Anton a command for him to focus on so I could've dealt with the other dog easily.

Live and learn! That'll teach me to go out without a muzzle, I suppose.

Awww, I know it is disappointing but these things do happen. You're puttering quietly doing your own thing and suddenly you get mugged by an out of control dog just sounds like a chain of unfortunate circumstances so try not to let it get you down. Sounds like Anton continues to come on leaps and bounds in his house training though, which is brill

I am H-A-P-P-Y today *does a happy dance* Just got back from a really good walk. I bit the bullet and arranged a walk with Whichpets and her little darling Kestral.

I haven't walked Cain with a dog he doesn't know in months, we spend all our time avoiding dogs on walks as following the rules from our dog socialisation class. But it's the random popping up and leaving of dogs which really winds him up. Once he's greeted a dog and walks with them, he tends to calm down and ignore them.

When he first saw Kestral and realised he was going closer rather than away, he went nuts Whining, pulling, manic play bowing....he was soooooooo over excited, but in a totally non aggressive way. We did parallel walking until he calmed down a bit, muzzled him then let them meet. Cain was quite boisterous and intimidated poor tiny Kestral. Cain was too busy bouncing to read her "bog off" signals . However as we walked and everyone calmed down, it went really really well

Cain stopped trying to pounce on Kestral and many times they ended up walking calmly next to each other. Towards the end, Kestral was even bravely sneaking up behind him for a sneaky butt sniff I think if they meet a few more times and learn to understand each other, they'll be fine.

Cain didn't really get properly introduced to Sophie as he was soooooo preoccupied with Kestral and I didn't want to overwhelm him. However he knew she was there, didn't react, walk calmly near her and once or twice gave yer a quick sniff so that was positive too We had a few off lead dogs bolt up without incident, he also calmly watched some horses walk by.

All in all (aside from his uber excitement at the start) I really couldn't fault him today. VERY pleased with him Kestral did great too, including a spectacular recall, but I'll let Sophie brag about that

Brilliant!

Well done lisa01uk87 for passing the KC award

Well done Kiing, sounds like things are going great especially in the house. Dont worry about the other dog incident - sounds like the dog was completley out of control anyway which wouldnt have helped

The walk with Moon's Mum went fantastically well Cain was briliant - very over excited to start, and he did scare little Kestral a bit trying to play but he calmed down and they did some great walking.
Although I didnt get to say hello he was totally unreactive to me and anyone else so seemed to go really well

Kestral has been doing quite well recently since my downbeat moments - she made friends with Amanda
She has also been much less reactive. This week she has sometimes run towards people (people popping out of hedges again!) but she hasn't barked at the same intensity and has been able to be called away.
Had a scary moment similar to Kiing - where a totally out of control JRT was being chased by a child. They were screaming recall and the dog ran over to Kestral. We tried walking away as the child was approaching. I put her on the lead and when the child came I passed her her dog - and Kestral was great - not even a grumble!

Also yes as Amanda mentioned - Kestral had a brill recall moment today when she discovered some deer that needed herding. She was pelting after them at least a few hundred metres away from me when I whistled. She did the quickest about turn back to me... very proud