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I am very pleased to report that Renji is making tremendous progress. I think it's because my laptop crashed so I'm not nearly online as much as I usually am.
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Yeah, I'm a hopeless geek. anyway, back to Renji.
Last weekend, my fiance took Renji down to visit his parents. I was worried about how Renji would react to his parents (though he did meet his dad) but especially how things would go with their 12 y/o, oversized, overweight, over-ornery beagle. Amazingly, things could not have gone better. He was fine with both his parents and even was able to be introduced to the beagle! They both did posturing, some attempts at mounting which were controlled, and then they PLAYED. Eureka moment- Renji's not dog aggressive so much as he REALLY REALLY WANTS TO PLAY WITH DOGS BAD. So they got on great. Of course, the beag is dominant, stubborn, and very used to getting his way, so it was he that ended up being "top dog" and it was he that eventually told Renji, in no uncertain terms, to bug off. They eventually had to be separated but only because Renji kept bugging the hound and the hound was escalating his snapping. The beagle is also allowed up on the furniture and Renji is not and amazingly Renji didn't even try to hop up. At one point they even drank out of the same water bowl as if they'd done it for years. Huzzah!
So we're having our ups and downs, of course. Some days things are great, other days it feels like we took a huge step back, but the progress over time is definitely up. We've been going to training and this morning was our.. fourth group class I believe. Renji did AWESOME! There were SIX dogs, some of which were puppies and one of which was reactive (much like Renji), and a bunch of people because most dogs had two handlers with them and one dog had brought his whole family (two adults and three kids). It was a lot for Renji but right off the bat I decided that enough is enough, he's going to deal with him and pay attention to me and I'm going to stay calm and act like this is the most normal thing ever. Whereas in all other classes we initially began way across the training field and only towards the end moved in, today I put him 10 feet away from two other puppies, right in the middle of them but a bit back. And he did great!
We had some excited lunging but they were easily dealt with by moving away, redirecting, refocusing. It was a bit much, but Renji did beautifully. I praised him when he was quiet and just observing or when he kept calm when other dogs were making a fuss. I praised him muchly when the kids were near him and the kids moved just a couple feet away from him and he didn't care! When one dog got reactive and aggressive, Renji did very well and didn't escalate as much as I thought. At the end of the class, I had Renji out of the training area, sitting between my legs, and we were just a few feet away from the lady with the reactive dog, and both of our dogs stayed very relaxed- hers even ended up laying down! It's great to see handlers and dogs progress a lot just in the time of one class. :thumbs:
The trainer and her assistant both told me that Renji is doing fantastic, that he's progressing amazingly fast and we're doing awesome. I'm very proud of my goofball! He did show much better focus at this class than others but this time I brought his Kong. I have to get it on a rope by next class to make an even better reward for Renji. The trainer is also going to set up a doggie "play date" with a good match for Renji so he can just go play and be a dog; my guy said Renji just couldn't get enough of playing with the ol' hound dog. In any case, I have an awesome dog (who is way smarter than me), I have the best trainer possible (who is worth her weight in gold and Kongs), the class students are also great (and they have the cutest dogs), so all those elements make up for my training skills which do leave a lot to be desired, but it's getting there.
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Last weekend, my fiance took Renji down to visit his parents. I was worried about how Renji would react to his parents (though he did meet his dad) but especially how things would go with their 12 y/o, oversized, overweight, over-ornery beagle. Amazingly, things could not have gone better. He was fine with both his parents and even was able to be introduced to the beagle! They both did posturing, some attempts at mounting which were controlled, and then they PLAYED. Eureka moment- Renji's not dog aggressive so much as he REALLY REALLY WANTS TO PLAY WITH DOGS BAD. So they got on great. Of course, the beag is dominant, stubborn, and very used to getting his way, so it was he that ended up being "top dog" and it was he that eventually told Renji, in no uncertain terms, to bug off. They eventually had to be separated but only because Renji kept bugging the hound and the hound was escalating his snapping. The beagle is also allowed up on the furniture and Renji is not and amazingly Renji didn't even try to hop up. At one point they even drank out of the same water bowl as if they'd done it for years. Huzzah!
So we're having our ups and downs, of course. Some days things are great, other days it feels like we took a huge step back, but the progress over time is definitely up. We've been going to training and this morning was our.. fourth group class I believe. Renji did AWESOME! There were SIX dogs, some of which were puppies and one of which was reactive (much like Renji), and a bunch of people because most dogs had two handlers with them and one dog had brought his whole family (two adults and three kids). It was a lot for Renji but right off the bat I decided that enough is enough, he's going to deal with him and pay attention to me and I'm going to stay calm and act like this is the most normal thing ever. Whereas in all other classes we initially began way across the training field and only towards the end moved in, today I put him 10 feet away from two other puppies, right in the middle of them but a bit back. And he did great!
We had some excited lunging but they were easily dealt with by moving away, redirecting, refocusing. It was a bit much, but Renji did beautifully. I praised him when he was quiet and just observing or when he kept calm when other dogs were making a fuss. I praised him muchly when the kids were near him and the kids moved just a couple feet away from him and he didn't care! When one dog got reactive and aggressive, Renji did very well and didn't escalate as much as I thought. At the end of the class, I had Renji out of the training area, sitting between my legs, and we were just a few feet away from the lady with the reactive dog, and both of our dogs stayed very relaxed- hers even ended up laying down! It's great to see handlers and dogs progress a lot just in the time of one class. :thumbs:
The trainer and her assistant both told me that Renji is doing fantastic, that he's progressing amazingly fast and we're doing awesome. I'm very proud of my goofball! He did show much better focus at this class than others but this time I brought his Kong. I have to get it on a rope by next class to make an even better reward for Renji. The trainer is also going to set up a doggie "play date" with a good match for Renji so he can just go play and be a dog; my guy said Renji just couldn't get enough of playing with the ol' hound dog. In any case, I have an awesome dog (who is way smarter than me), I have the best trainer possible (who is worth her weight in gold and Kongs), the class students are also great (and they have the cutest dogs), so all those elements make up for my training skills which do leave a lot to be desired, but it's getting there.
