SaharaS
Well-Known Member
This is the All About Dogs/New Lounge version of a CR report with a food twist! I posted a while back about a cake/pudding/curry meet ups..with a hidden agenda, to help my rescue boy have lots of positive experiences and learn that new people & visitors can be good and not scary...had lots of interest....and went for it! It might be long, so be warned if you are prone to glazing over!
Had a very small meet up on Fri eve with three very unscary new people who came over for feeding in return for being as unscary as possible!
I am really pleased to say that this was a massive hurdle for him to overcome and I was very careful to not be nervous as obviously they were all highly terrifying forum members and I didn't want my nerves to pass to him..despite the fact that my oven committed suicide & I'd had a minor kitchen fire issue 2 nights before just to add to the drama!
So a big thank you to Fools Motto, Be Positive and Julia P for coming, the Polar Bear & I had a great evening and hope you did too!
We had alot of vocals and huge scary barks, but everyone came in slightly appart so it was nicely timed with no massive invasion of new people..he has frequently reacted to door knocks/visitors with immediate fur loss in clumps and stress diarrhea or a chocolate rabbit pellet being fired out with every bark...but nothing! Totally poo free!
When he eventually settled down he got brave and with some edible bribery and lots of ignoring, he braved a good investigative sniff and decided everyone was actually pretty cool!(esp as they had hands full of treats!) He managed to sleep a bit and lay with his paw curled in (relaxed) and i don't think he did his usual shaking even once..AND....the best bit, he even decided to try & get Fools Motto's attention by surprising her with his favourite "peekaboo" trick that I taught him, to help him get over his nerves of movement ..which used to send him scrabbling scooby doo style for the nearest sofa to hide behind..this could have been drawing a curtain, opening a cupboard, picking up a plate of baking tray, roll of foil,piece of paper -anything. He picked up peekaboo in under ten mins and within an hour I'd noticed the difference..he now uses it as a his favourite fun way of asking for attention (creeps up behind me when i hold a treat infront of me and pushes his nose thru my legs and sits ad gives his paw, gets treat, wiggles thru, happy dog)..we've progressed this to no treat just praise and its his party trick.. but never did I expect him to get brave enough to ask so openly for contact from a very new friend as he was still very weary of being touched without shaking or darting off without initiating it himself...so Fools Motto managed to stay on her feet(he's not the smallest bear!) and he's made a massive step!
I'm sure some of you will be yawning & thinking how pathetic, but over the last year I've had him, he's really had so much baggage to work thru that I'm so thrilled and just wanted to write a happy positive post as I had a lovely evening, the Polar Bear made a huge step and is one bit closer to becoming the happy relaxed dog I know he can be...
Thank you for coming, it was lovely to meet you all and hopefully we can arrange more foodie HHO'ers meet ups in the near future..How cool we managed to chat about horses for hours and nobody glazed over!(can you tell no OH's were present!) Come on weather, please get a grip, its meant to be BBQ season!
Had a very small meet up on Fri eve with three very unscary new people who came over for feeding in return for being as unscary as possible!
I am really pleased to say that this was a massive hurdle for him to overcome and I was very careful to not be nervous as obviously they were all highly terrifying forum members and I didn't want my nerves to pass to him..despite the fact that my oven committed suicide & I'd had a minor kitchen fire issue 2 nights before just to add to the drama!
So a big thank you to Fools Motto, Be Positive and Julia P for coming, the Polar Bear & I had a great evening and hope you did too!
We had alot of vocals and huge scary barks, but everyone came in slightly appart so it was nicely timed with no massive invasion of new people..he has frequently reacted to door knocks/visitors with immediate fur loss in clumps and stress diarrhea or a chocolate rabbit pellet being fired out with every bark...but nothing! Totally poo free!
When he eventually settled down he got brave and with some edible bribery and lots of ignoring, he braved a good investigative sniff and decided everyone was actually pretty cool!(esp as they had hands full of treats!) He managed to sleep a bit and lay with his paw curled in (relaxed) and i don't think he did his usual shaking even once..AND....the best bit, he even decided to try & get Fools Motto's attention by surprising her with his favourite "peekaboo" trick that I taught him, to help him get over his nerves of movement ..which used to send him scrabbling scooby doo style for the nearest sofa to hide behind..this could have been drawing a curtain, opening a cupboard, picking up a plate of baking tray, roll of foil,piece of paper -anything. He picked up peekaboo in under ten mins and within an hour I'd noticed the difference..he now uses it as a his favourite fun way of asking for attention (creeps up behind me when i hold a treat infront of me and pushes his nose thru my legs and sits ad gives his paw, gets treat, wiggles thru, happy dog)..we've progressed this to no treat just praise and its his party trick.. but never did I expect him to get brave enough to ask so openly for contact from a very new friend as he was still very weary of being touched without shaking or darting off without initiating it himself...so Fools Motto managed to stay on her feet(he's not the smallest bear!) and he's made a massive step!
I'm sure some of you will be yawning & thinking how pathetic, but over the last year I've had him, he's really had so much baggage to work thru that I'm so thrilled and just wanted to write a happy positive post as I had a lovely evening, the Polar Bear made a huge step and is one bit closer to becoming the happy relaxed dog I know he can be...
Thank you for coming, it was lovely to meet you all and hopefully we can arrange more foodie HHO'ers meet ups in the near future..How cool we managed to chat about horses for hours and nobody glazed over!(can you tell no OH's were present!) Come on weather, please get a grip, its meant to be BBQ season!
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No pics of the boy? 
*wanders off muttering to evict badgers and make mobile foaling box into cake ark*