Hurrah! (long and yes, self-indulgent!)

CorvusCorax

CorvusCorax

Deary me...
Joined
15 January 2008
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Was wondering if anyone would like to offer Boydog a pat and a 'good fella!'?

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I hope/think he and I are making real progress with his behaviour towards other dogs.

Mum took him to training last week without me and apparently he was good as gold, so it became definite that his problem was me and my nerves being transferred to him.

I took him today and my attitude was 'oh look, other dogs, I'm not scared, I don't need protecting' rather than before, which was 'oh bugger, dogs, what's he going to do?'.

I still have him on the pinch collar, he took a 'look' at one or two other dogs and I checked him, but overall he was brilliant.
We even walked right up behind and very close to a little 12-week-old puppy (who he probably would have tried to eat three weeks ago) and lots other dogs, to the extent that I could take the pinch off and walk him on the normal chain.

He also cleared the 1m fence and the A-frame at full height so I was very happy today.

If anyone would have told me that we could have made this progress in such a short space of time, I probably wouldn't have believed them.

I know this behaviour is situation-specific and it might be a different story at the beach or in the forest, and I realise that it will be a long time before he is gambolling about happily with other dogs, but I am so pleased we are starting to improve.

Massive thanks to Cala and Murphy's Minder for your help and support on this.
I am also pleased because his sister will finally get a chance to go to class, as her delinquent brother will hopefully not be taking up so much of our attention!
 
Yay, well done, its so rewarding when they start coming good isn't it. Its typical Shepherd isn't it, wanting to protect their "mum". Evie has recently started having a woof when we meet other dogs out walking (which happens rarely). If she was off lead I am sure she would be fine but I feel myself tensing now when other dogs are about, which I know is not good. Trouble is if a shep has a bark at something it always looks bad, even if the other dog is being far more abusive.
I hope Bodo continues to come on in leaps and bounds, are you planning to do schutzhund with him competitively ?
 


Thanks for your comments and pats, guys
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MM, too true - me worrying about the reputation of the breed basically caused this problem and I shot myself right in the foot.
I think I am going to stick to the agility side of things, he is still not interested in taking the rag or the sleeve.

Slinky, a potted history - his initial play behaviour turned to sharpness because I was panicking about how people would interpret it, as a big scary 'Allusayshun'. He, understandably, picked it up that I was 'scared' of the other dogs and would try and defend me.


Fingers crossed we're starting to get it cracked.
 
That's great - good for you!

It must be scary having a big aggressive dog so I can see why it would be hard not to give "negative" vibes.
 
Well done you.....you never gave up, and you really needed no help, u had it all their hun, you just lost a little confidence along the line..........what a lucky boy to have such a loving caring mammy, who will do what ever it takes to work through his behaviour
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more owners like you please
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