Izzy (who we 've had 6 weeks now) absolutely HATES people wearing fluorescent yellow clothing. She also hates cyclists. Her response is to give forth a tirade of loud barking at them.

On my way back home from visitiing two "Pets at Home" stores to purchase some bargain agility equipment (thank you Dogsey member for mentioning this) I stopped at a charity shop in aid of rescued dogs. You can take dogs in there and the man in the shop wanted to make a fuss of Izzy but I warned him she was nervy (she usually backs away) but she really liked him and was happily having her ears scratched and having a fuss made of her by this man.

We walked out and I pressed the pedestrian crossing button then I noticed a man with a cycle standing next to me wearing a fluorescent yellow top!! AAH!!! He was only about a foot away so Izzy couldn't have missed him.
She did not bark at him and went up to say hello so I explained to him about her hatred of people wearing tops like his and he made a fuss of her. I asked him and he was happy to give her a bit of cheese.

I was so shocked about this that I forgot to cross the road and I guess the cars weren't happy that had stopped as nobody else was waiting to cross-just me!

After thinking about Izzy I decided to let people give her small bits of cheese if she is happy to go and have a fuss as I do think it gives her confidence that people are nice and not something to be afraid of and she will never be the sort of dog to go and pester people for food (as Parker would-no-one is allowed to feed him when we're out! ).

She is definitely getting more happy and confident now and I think it is down to Parker mainly as he is calm and confident and I think it's rubbing off on her. She used to walk along with her tail right down but now she is waving it a more Kerry-like angle!

Great news about Mia at the agility and also Kismet on the walk with the bouncy labs.
Also sounds like Izzy is coming on loads to enjoy attention from 2 stranger men

Only a small brag here but at tonights group training class there were a crazy amount of people (11 dogs and 20 people including me and kestral).
She did not bark once at anyone!!!!!
She was a bit skittish at the start but calmed down. She had a little fearful bark when the gate came out, but I took her in to a corner and got her to look away from it, and by the time we came back towards it she was fine again.

So all in all went really well and she even took some treats and had a little fuss from someone

Well done to Izzy. Cain used to react to flourescent jackets too. Sounds like she come on leaps and bounds in short time that you've had her

Well done Kestral, what a brave girl Don't underestimate it, that's quite an achievement! But now you can see why I don't bring Cain to Kingston, sometimes far too many dogs show up for us!

Thanks Yes I was very impressed - seems that shes coming on quite well and that a lot of her barking at people in the park and that come to the house is probably a bit of a habit based behavior as much as anything!

Yes it was crazy busy, I'm not sure there would have even been enough room for the lovely Cain to even fit in there

Millie is making tones of friends now and big dogs no longer frighten her!!

So far she has befriended crossbreeds, sky terrier (I really want one now :>o.0'')) an Australian Skilke terrirer and a number of labradoodles she seems to really enjoy breeds that are her size or smaller (mostly the smaller ones)) she has also gained some children as friends too she has a few fans now ^__^

well done everyone

well me and xeva took her new ball on a rope up to the park yesterday ( i dont normally go to this park as its tiny and the feilds are usually taken up with kids playing football etc.. but because of the weather i had a feeling there wouldn't be any kids there, i was right)


we saw about 12 dogs and she only barked at 4 of the dogs.
i think ignoring 8 out of the 12 is good going

she barked at a westie, which was a chance meeting the owner was coming round the corner as we were getting to the corner (both dogs onlead) but she wasn't bothered till the owner pulled her dog away so i brought her back into my side said to the owner she was friendly, just over excitable and on we went.

a crossbreed offlead (this was in the street, owner crossed the road, had headphones in, dog was walking ahead)

a staffy that was onlead in the park

and the rottie that came bounding over initially to play, though he took exception to xeva's barking and his demeanour changed and he was trying to get at her growling and trying to bite her back, his owner stepped in, got himself inbetween me/xeva and his dog to get his dog to back off which he did eventually, next thing i know his dog is on his back all 4 paws in the air(owner never touched him, dog done this himself) by this point i had xeva nice and calm, in a down, dogs owner came over apoligised, said he had never done that before and normally he wants to play, told owner, she just wanted to play aswell, but i think your dog took exception to the way she was being, no harm done, owner was mortified that his dog had behaved that way and stepped in to stop it


she ignored 2 N.I's (i think, they were too big to be husky's and too slim/shortcoated to be malamute, 1 was offlead the other on a flexi), 2 border collies (both offlead) , 2 rough collies(both offlead) , a staffy (which was onlead this was on the way home) and a crossbreed who was also offlead (all of which she saw) was well chuffed with her and she got a good run around with her ball on a rope

Well done to xeva and Millie

Sounds like they are both doing really well.. That's great Millie has some doggy friends now and she's not so nervous of meeting new dogs.
And that's great that xeva didn't react most of the time on your walk the other day.

You should keep a chart of your progress, you will be able to see how much you progress and improve

i started doing that yesterday ( i ordered a notebook, with a gsd on front specially )

Well done Kismet staying calm around the labs! Well done Izzy certainly sounds like she's settling in and becoming more relaxed Sounds like Kestral is doing great with the training classes Well done Xeva sounds like a great walk in the park

Had a really good day with Ted yesterday we passed several dogs on our walk in the morning without any issue we even had a dog come out of its front garden to say hello Ted refused to budge until the other dog went but he seemed fairly relaxed. He also passed several discarded sandwiches (we went past a couple of schools) and left them a couple he didn't even try to grab .

I was really pleased when we had to pass a cat who was standing its ground he chose to walk as far away as possible (almost into the road) to avoid it and no lunging at it

We also had to go to the vets which i was a bit nervous about as he started growling at a dog in the waiting room last time. There was three dogs sat when we got there and he was fine tail wagging relaxed even had a quick nose to nose greeting with a springer spaniel

What i'm really chuffed about though is in the afternoon we walked down the river and playing fields coming back across the field we crossed paths with four people with several small dogs between them some of the dogs where on lead but three weren't and where sniffing about where we were going. As they where blocking our path i got Ted to sit and wait for them to go back to the owners who where calling them. Two went back eventually but the one was coming towards us barking i was really pleased with Ted as he managed to keep most of his attention on me while we waited for the dog to finally go back to its owner who where still calling and squeaking a ball but didn't come and fetch it It did eventually move for us to go past and then followed us up the path (owners still calling) Ted normally grinds to a halt when they come up behind him but he kept walking like a good boy

So a very good day yesterday

Fantastic for Ted Sounds like hes doing really well being calm around other dogs.

It is really helpful to know where you have been and if things are getting better.. I started by making a notebook but it got a bit messy and confusing so now I have a big excel sheet!

Just to show (and as a little brag on behalf of Kestral) I discovered a trend line on excel which shows your progress in a chart - her trend line is going down - and pretty fast
She hasn't barked now in 7 days/11 outings (which coincides with when her DAP collar went on but I don't know whether its related)..

Chart showing barking intensity by walk number and by date:


Not sure if it will make sense to anyone but there it is!!!