Fabulous achievements everyone! I love catching up on this thread every so often... It always makes me smile

Kia was brilliant on our walk today She played nicely with a whippet but came back when called as the owner wanted to move on, then said a not-too-playful hello to an onlead miniature dachshund but those aren't too unusual... Her big achievement today was three brilliant hello's to fellow dog walkers! The first was an old lady and Kia even took a treat from her, the second was a woman I walked with for a while, she knelt down and Kia went to her! She was still slightly aloof and wasn't up for a proper fuss but - she went to her willingly!!! Lastly was my cousin who we met on the way home, again Kia was slightly aloof and didn't go too near her but there was no grumbling or barking!

I was so proud of her and she got a whole lot of praise! But none of the meetings today were with men so I think that could be a pointer as to what sets her off... We'll see! Step by step as always!

xoxox

Awwww yay! Well done Kia, that's such great news. She's such a sweetie. You must be really proud of her Sarah when's my favourite mimi collie coming back to London? Cain misses her

Well done to Ted and Kia this thread is soooo uplifting!

Well, I'm over the moon!!! I walked with a friend who boards dogs, and she had 6 of them with her when I met up, two of which Zena knows which are her own dogs, the pointer and the labradoodle she rescued, but we also had 2 labs and a couple of bitsa's. Initial greeting was fine, but I worried about this black lab who seemed more than interested in Zena's rear end, and almost tried to hump her and she would have got aggressive about that, but I held the rope on her ball in her mouth and she ignored him (my friend said he was entire and that's why!).

Anyhoo, off we went, the labradoodle got Zena's ball straight away, but she didn't mind, she just ran on ahead with all the others and that lab seemed to leave her alone. Had a great walk, she spent her time alongside the others in turn, not bothering that this blooming dog still had her ball, but when we were coming back down to the car park, 3 gsd's were approaching us up ahead all offlead and barking for their ball. I put Zena onlead, the black lab thought it was a good opportunity for him to try again whilst she was tied to me, and although Zena didn't have her ball, she tolerated him, I shoed him off so did my friend and I was desperate to get that ball back for those 3 sheps coming closer, coz if I hold the rope with the ball in her mouth, she would totally ignore them, but as it happens we couldn't get her ball off him, and she walked passed them offlead, but showing NO signs of aggression towards them, not even the slightest interest in them!

On our 2nd walk with Georgie, I met a young girl with a young version of Georgie a white gsd, and she was telling me how he is fear aggressive and would attack any dog, and he didn't stop barking at my two (both onlead at this time) but they both ignored his barking and just sat there next to me. He was backing off at every bark he made, but I was most impressed that Zena didn't take umbridge to him and lunge or bark at him, so all in all, both walks today have been very positive! Onwards and upwards here then!

Well done Zena! See,she CAN do it! Definately sound slike you're making head way. Hopefully you can squash this before it really starts. At least it's only the occasional disagreement.

Well I took Cain on our first GSD walk. On the whole I was pleased, although I'm not entirely sure how productive it was as such. On the good end of the scale he met Krlyr's gorgeous girl Kiki (who's he's met several times before) but also her white GSD Casper, who he has never met before. Cain had impeccable manners and didn't even try to jump on Casper when he first met him, which is unusual! Both Casper and Cain tried to jump on each other in play at different times during the walk, but a simple "no thank you!" bark and both respected the other and stopped, walking politely next to each other. I am DELIGHTED that he got on so well with Casper because now we can walk all three doggies together

The other dogs were interesting.....! It was all a bit crazy and manci, a lot of running and barking and jumping and grumbling. It was a whirlwind of 10 GSD's belting around. Mostly they we too busy running as a group to pay much attention to Cain who was on lead. However although he didn't really directly interact with a lot of them, he did learn a few things.

At first every time they dashed by he was trying to jump at them. Eventually he got tired of the whirlwind and gave up trying to chase them. He even ended up walking along side strange dogs and didn't even try to sniff them, just casually walked along side them. One GSD kept running up, growling in his face and running off (all mouth and no trousers!) and I was proud that Cain never bothered to react to him once. He had one spat with a husky when Cain went to greet it but got his lead wound around the husky's lead, Cain then tried to hump his head (I've NEVER seen him try to do that before!) and I was slow pulling him off as the leads were tangled and they had a bit of noise, nothing major.

On the whole though Cain was good, and although didn't get as much direct interactions as I'd have liked, he did learn to walk calmly alongside dogs - noisy, crazy and occasionally scrapping dogs! I'm hoping that despite the chaos it was actually good for him rather than too much for him. Two people tried to convince me to let him off lead but I didn't want to, perhaps if the pack had been a bit calmer but I don't think Cain was ready and I don't want to freak him out. My bf even managed to walk him for a bit, right in the middle of the pack, and he's not used to handling Cain around other dogs.

Here's a few photos. Thanks for taking photos Karly!

Cain and the handsome Casper





And with the group



Cain has slept the WHOLE afternoon, he was shattered afterwards!

Yay well done Cain, Zena and all, it's all so great hearing how well everyone's doing. Another recall achievement today for both the boys actually, was out for a field walk this afternoon and a boxer appeared in the opposite corner of the field, I thought I'd spotted him first but Chester zoomed off with Griffin in hot pursuit, I used my whistle and Griffin paused so I used it agin and he pinwheeled and came haring back toward me and Chester soon followed, needless to say he got the chickeny jackpot of the century, the field was I think about 500 yards wide so I was a verrry proud mummy!!

Well done everyone

Ahem... a little brag... Took Ben and Poppy over the fields yesterday. Ben off lead Poppy on. Ben ran onto the field and we were just going to let Poppy off to follow when a family of hubby wife and two small kids came riding down the lane on their bikes

Uho! I thought ..here we go. lung bark stalk But guess what> she never She looked but did not react...good girl. Now whether that was because she was about to go onto the filed or not I don't know, but it was soooo soooo nice to see them riding by while Poppy just stood there, she didn't react at all...Yaaaaaa well done Pops.

xx

well done everyone!!!

Moon's mum - I think it sounds really succesfull with cain - your putting a lot of care and attention into him and your seeing it paying off too. I actually think its a good thing that he had to walk without interacting too much, it teaches them that they dont always have to go running up to see a dog etc and IMHO helps them watch and learn from others without having to make too many mistakes when they first meet others. Sounds like he done great!!

Although it was a bit more manic than I was quite expecting (I'm pretty confident the properly organised ones won't be quite as scary for you!), I agree that I think it did Cain good to see dogs rushing around and him to pretty much ignore them. Shame about the incident with the husky but I think Cain did very well in the situation and he bounced back pretty well considering he didn't have the same reaction to Casper trying to climb on him a bit later I think some dogs just rub each other up the wrong way and I think that husky was Cain's achilles heel - a bit like the husky cross girly who kept setting Kiki off. Plus with both Cain and the husky being on-lead and then getting tangled, it may not have helped the situation or let them act quite as naturally as they wanted to.
It was great to see Cain pretty much ignoring the grumbly GSD (was it Jake?) despite the constant gobbing off.
And really pleased him and Casper got on! Part of me was pretty sure they'd be fine, because Casper takes a telling off from dogs and doesn't take it personally (just look at Cain with Kiki - Casper has to put up with that permanently ) but a little part of me was worrying that Casper might jump on Cain and Cain might take offense and them hold a permanent grudge! Casper upset our neighbour's dogs in his first week and the lot of them have never forgotten it Glad they were just as nonchalent about the odd bit of forgetting manners as each other!

Also have to say well done to you to sticking with it - I remember my first walk there with Casper and I was wondering what I'd gotten us into and wondering how quickly I could escape but I think it helped build my confidence a lot too because on the whole everyone tends to be pretty good about stopping their dogs from being a pest or whatever. The official walks should definately be a bit calmer and more controlled because they're keen to make a good impression on the public, especially as there's usually rescue dogs tagging along trying to find new homes, so bad behaviour tends to be picked up and owners asked to keep a closer eye on their dogs if necessary.

Thanks I was dead chuffed with Casper and Cain together, Casper is a real sweetie. And yeah that was Jake gobbing off and Cain was all like "yeah...whatever...am I bovvered?!" lol. In the end Jake was just running up, looking at him and leaving. Not too worried about the husky spat, it was minor and just one of those things. I was a bit crazier than I thought but I really do think it did him good and he copes well and it's given me confidence. I will take him again

I'm back!!! Oh this thread is fantastic reading about what great improvements everyone is making, especially Cain on that gsd walk, and Griffin and Chester there with Griffin's fantastic recall (at 2nd whistle yes, but that doesn't matter!!!). Well done to Poppy as well with the bikes, that's fantastic Elaine

Well, at the start of my morning walk, I met that friend of mine again with all those dogs, so I took a spare ball on a rope for her labradoodle that always took Zena's off her and we set off together. That blooming lab was running alongside Zena all the time and trying to mount her, but she NEVER got nasty with it! We stopped his antics anyway, we told him off and off he went! We walked for one and a half hours, during which time, Zena had one of her balls, and ran around a LOT with all the other dogs, which is unusual for her. Then we met lots of different people that my friend knows with lots of different dogs, and Zena met and loved them all, there was NO time that she showed any aggression towards any of them whatsoever, even though we had a little whippet come up to us with a muzzle on the labradoodle who was with Zena growled at it, but Zena never got bothered by it, she just ignored it and went up to greet another one in the mix. She wasn't put ONlead once!!! Then we had a little king charles youngster who came hurfing over to us, Zena went to chase it, but it laid down upside down, she sniffed it, then it followed her running after her ball, and she played with it! Oh I just can't begin to tell you how fantastic this is for me, and I honestly think, the more I do this, walk and meet lots and lots of dogs, the more she will forget about that nasty attack, and not be so willing to defend herself if a nasty dog does turn up, I'm hoping for the day that she will just ignore it and move on instead of gobbing off at it or worse!

Oh I'm on cloud 9 today!!!!