dididog

So we just had our consult with Judi and my brain is a bit mushy but.... SO GOOD! I now have a plan and know how to follow it through in uncontrolled scenarios plus she shed some light on how certain things with my leadership/the way I conduct myself are having an effect on other aspects of her and addressed various other little issues I wanted to iron out... was very much me needing the training! I already saw an instant improvement in both leash walking and handling strangers nearby Good news is Judi agrees it's most likely a fear period thing and that Didi is not on the bad scale so hopefully since we're nipping it in the bud we should be able to make good progress. I'm really glad I made the move to get her out, in the few weeks since the vet incident she got a lot worse so I can only imagine what a train wreck we would be in a few months like that. Actually excited to go for our next walk :)

No that would be really helpful, to track what happened, their reaction, how you managed it and if it worked, how they were after an encounter etc. and also your progress with becoming less reactive. I did something kind of similar when Didi was much younger, tracking her height and growth and any medical/food issues and there was also some tracking of her socialisation progress and training. Was really good in those first few months where there is so much going on that you've got to work on at once. Might be an idea to start it up again :)

Will be a pretty long list then :laugh: That's a good idea, I have the impression it might be a bit of an information overload.

Poor Justice that sounds terrible I bloody hate people tethering aggressive dogs, they have no way of controlling what they do when they're out of sight I probably would've been just as shaken up as you but good on you for being able to report this guy. I've been taking Didi to the park more instead of walking her due to her onlead issues (Judi comes tomorrow! excited but nervous because I can tell there will probably be loads of other things I need to correct) anyway we went yesterday evening and approached a group with one of Didi's usually playmates and a curly coat retriever pup and there was also a border collie that was on lead and Didi walked past it to go to the other dogs and it lunged and growled at her. The owner was all 'that's not how we say hello' in a happy voice and I was just like why are you bringing a reactive dog to a busy offlead dog park and purposely standing with the only group of dogs nearby??? It stayed for a bit longer and was constantly eyeing the pups off and stiffening when they looked they looked like they were come towards it. Anyway they left and Didi and the curly coat had a huge play and were really good for each other, Didi is such a sweetie with pups/smaller dogs and lies down and sniffs nicely before she starts her crazy puppy play. The owners said their pup was usually very timid around bigger dogs and didn't like to play with them so it was nice to see him bouncing around with Didi. She's a completely different dog offlead around other dogs and will seek out pats and sit down on people's feet looking blissed out while they rub her sides. Do you think I should write a list of all my concerns down tonight so I don't forget anything during our consult?

That last one of Fritz is my favourite... he looks so unstoppable and focused. You must be so proud all of the training is paying off :) And yes oh my those thighs! Didi is a delicate little weed in comparison

Like everyone else I love everything about my dog, I even think her burps are the cutest things in the world. One of my favourite things though is when we wake up in the morning and she's laying beside me and she looks up at me and sighs before snuggling into me... how am I supposed to get out of bed in the morning's when this sooky baby just wants to snuggle?

Is there anyway you'd be able to round up some crutches or walking sticks and a few friends/family members and do some positive associations around those types of items with Didi? And then perhaps move onto the friends/family assisting with familiarising her with people walking with assistance. I don't think it would be a great idea to start any kind of counter conditioning and desensitisation work like this prior to Terri's consultation with Steve next week. There is a reasonable chance that Didi will be pushed over threshold in the process and it may end up back firing, worsening Didi's behaviour. Based on what Terri also posted in another thread about Didi's response to a vet receptionist trying to check for a microchip (although granted this was done very poorly) and when another person in the clinic tried to pat Didi, I suspect the issue goes beyond being about the walking sticks and needs to be assessed by a professional before any training programs are implemented. I'm actually seeing Judi from proK9 in Melbourne not Steve but yes you're right Snook, I also am not doing anything until I meet with her and she assesses the situation. It's very delicate atm and I think we are balancing on the edge of this behaviour becoming very ingrained in Didi and I don't want to be working against that.

Thanks, I read this thread quite a bit so I had a vague idea what to do when the second man walked past us and she almost didn't react but I think his walking sticks and weird gate just pushed her past being able to let it go. Will probably stick to the oval from now on although it's a no-go on weekends so might have to drive her somewhere else. I can't wait for Wednesday!

I am so glad we have a behaviourist coming out next week, it's scary how fast these things unravel. Last week before our vet incident Didi was a little headshy and flighty but otherwise okay. Now she is a completely different dog outside our house I took her to the oval for a run around and we were having fun and she was enjoying herself when it was only us there. Then an elderly man with a stick started walking around the oval and she caught a glimpse of him while still 200m away and just froze and stared at him intensely and not wanting to risk anything I put the lead back on and we wandered around. While normally she'd have her nosed glued to the ground sniffing she would only sniff for a few seconds and then look over her shoulder at the man for the rest of the time he was there. Then since she hadn't really gotten to run aroynd at the oval I had to take a spin around the block. We passed a few people and I just took her right to the edge by the road and she was fine. Then when were nearly home I could see a man with two walking sticks and appeared to have some sort of muscular disease as his movements were erratic walking towards us. I couldn't cross the road because there was a constant stream of traffic so I moved to the very furthest side of the verge and got Didi to face me and stuck a handful of treats in her face. At first he just seemed like he would keep walking past but then at the last minute he spoke to me and asked if she was a bulldog and Didi whipped around and backed up into me so I said 'please ignore her and keep going, she doesn't like strangers' and tried pulling Didi as far away as possible but of course now she was on alert and even though he stopped approaching us he still had to walk past us and Didi started barking and jumping backward. I got her attention once he'd passed and waited till she was not as tense, did some high-fives to get her mind off it and kept going and we passed some other people with little to no reaction. It's just the moment she thinks they might approach her that she gets worried. I'm supposed to be making sure she has no chance to have more reactions til our behaviourist sees us but it's so hard to completely avoid people even on quiet streets at non peak times. :/

Or not? :D Ahh that looks way better thank you! Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 2

Oh no! I shouldn't laugh but :laugh: Well never mind there's plenty more tricks out there :) It was a little funny after the initial panic of her about to pelican swallow it whole! I think we'll stick to spin and bow at the moment which are coming along nicely :)

We bag all of our garbage as well but we eat a lot of fruit and veg so lots of scraps (no chickens or garden compost for me ) so end of the week is a bit stanky, especially with Didi's many kilos of poop piled on top. So while I wouldn't put poo in someone else's bin unless awaiting collection, don't really mind if someone puts the occasional bagged poop in mine instead of leaving it on the nature strip in front of my house.

I don't really get the smelling bad logic... bins smell bad. A week of rotting food matter would probably be just as festy as a single poop, especially if the poo is underneath the decaying food. I do agree having to clean poo out of the bin would be disgusting but if your dog's poo isn't a sloppy mess and has been double bagged I highly doubt that will result in poop smeared all up the sides of the bin. In saying that though I'd still find it a little intrusive and I'd only put poos in bins awaiting collection, not when they're empty but Didi literally never poops on walks and I live in a busy area so I'm fairly sure I would bump into a council bin before I would a private bin. So many people let their dogs poop (even on the pavement of the shopping strip ewww) around here that I would probably prefer a bagged poop in my bin than under my shoe or in my dog's mouth. Really pisses me off at our local reserve that people will go to the effort of bagging a poop but then just leave the bag on the ground?? THere's plenty of bins around there so really no excuse and only mildly better than leaving the poo in the first place.

Things I achieved today: Possibly made Didi hate the sound of stickytape being unwound for life. Fished a clothes peg out of the back of Didi's mouth after she decided using her tongue was a better idea than her paw. Think I might put this on the back burner for a while!

List of Dogs Snout Girl- Bert, Sally, Bruce and Poppy Steph M - Gus and Rosie pip 1981- Dakota (and human baby Elliot- maybe Daddy Ed and big brother Jeremy) Leah82 - Collie and Sarah Terri - Didi List of Food Snout Girl- something vego for bbq, meatballs, pasta salad Steph M - Potato Salad and Sausages. pip1981- crunchy noodle salad, soft drink (I can bring my supplies bag if that helps SG?) Leah - Soft Drink in the car fridge Terri - Bread + something of the cake/slice/sweet variety

Awh I can just imagine Digby's confused face at that last bit. I think I'm marking the behaviour at the right time but might be a bit slow on the treats. This is the first trick we've done that doesn't use a food lure to get the desired movement so if I'm holding the treat she'll just stare at my hand and wait for me to ask her to do something so I usually have the treat away from me so she notices the thing on her face. Will have to find a better place to put the treats where I can still grab them quick enough. We will keep going though! Not sure how well the sticky notes will stay on, even sticky tape has trouble stick to her fur but will give it a go, thanks raineth!

I need some help! I'm trying to teach Didi the 'oh no' cover her face with her paw trick and so far ... well :laugh: I've been putting sticky tape somewhere slightly annoying on her face while she sits infront of me and then waited till she made any inclination to scratch it off and marked it. We've gotten to the point where we've gotten about 6 or 7 full face swipes but the problem is Didi is a bit too tolerant and will just ignore the tape and I have to sit there for ages until she decides to swipe it off. Now every time she sees me getting the sticky tape out I can practically see her rolling her eyes at me while I smush it onto her nose and she will just stare at me for ages and gets disengaged and leaves instead of scratching because she doesn't know what I'm waiting for. I don't know if she thinks I want her to keep it on? How have you guys taught this trick and what should I do if she isn't taking the bait to scratch it off? Normally Didi gets tricks quite quickly but this one is stumping her... and I'm wasting a lot of tape!

Good news, proK9 (erny) should be coming out in less than two weeks to see us. Til then we are lying low and avoiding unpredictable public spaces. Also I am worried that Didi doesn't trust me as much in public now so I am going to be doing a lot more trick training and play to help strengthen any damage I may have made with our connection.

thanks jo! she is another one I think I will contact, she has given me some advice on here in the past that was very helpful.

Sorry if I was a bit defensive, I construed your post as a bit of undermining my decision since it was the most recent thread of this nature. Please don't think at all though that I want Didi to not warn people she's uncomfortable, hence why I've never corrected her, a bark is much better than a bite (not that I think she would do that). Also I don't think her reaction in the vets was 'wrong' I see it as completely reasonable and it's not her reaction toward the vet nurse I am even concerned about but more her fear of being approached in general that has popped up that I am worried about and I'd like to find someway to manage or work through that fear than just avoiding all strangers and expect her to just never have an interaction with a stranger on lead. I can't guarantee that I will always be able to protect her from things that scare or stress her and it's because of this and that as you've pointed out even if it is 'normal doggy behaviour' it's no longer socially acceptable, that I think I need to do something. Not because I expect her to perfect... but because I can't expect every surrounding she's placed in to be perfect.

I assume my thread probably acted as a bit of inspiration for this and I agree with the sentiment that society in general views dogs less and less like the animals they are and the respect and understanding for less than perfect behaviour doggy behaviour that existed in days gone by is severely lacking. I remember being 5 or 6 and at a crowded market and I lent over a dachshund to pat it and it snapped at me. Bother the owner and my parents placed the blame on my shoulders since I knew not to pat dogs without asking and you know what I never did it again and have never been bitten. Fast forward to now and I'm fairly sure the same dachshund owner would be apologising profusely while being berated by the parents while the child learns it's the dog's fault and not theirs. But because this sort of understanding with the general public is lacking, that's exactly why I think it's well worth it to 'over react'. If I didn't live in inner city suburbia surrounded by people who don't get dogs then maybe I'd be less concerned about Didi's recent behavior but the fact is I don't live somewhere else. I don't think being hyper vigilant of the fact my dog is large and potentially dangerous will make owning her less rewarding... I think ignoring her behaviour, having her bite a stranger (even if they provoked it) and potentially having a dog slapped with a Dangerous Dog order or worst euthanised will be a marginally less rewarding experience. So yup while it would be nice if people just didn't pat my dog without asking or backed off when she showed she was uncomfortable, I can't and won't rely on that to happen and will try my best to 'fix' her fear, or at least how to manage it.

Thanks hankdog that's very helpful! We use LAT for her issues with lunging at birds which has helped a lot. I try using it when she's scared but I think we've been too far past her threshold for it to work so I will work on toning it down. It bugs me because in all the times she's reacted she's chosen flight first but everytime the person causing this response has ignored it/I've been unable to get away quickly and by that time since she's onlead and can't run any further she has then reacted vocally though still not confrontationally, she's always moving backward when she reacts and tries to go behind me.

Thanks, though I can assure she only looks elegant... she's really the clumsiest and goofiest pup 99% of the time :) Yes she has definitely gotten taller recently (like 5cm in a month). The little weed! Thank-you, making her happy makes me happy so it's a win-win :)

Thanks for the reassurance guys :) Didi means everything to me so I don't like it when something's wrong. You know this has made me think, Didi has always been kind of timid and flighty. I would compare her to a horse in that she, especially as a pup spooked easily and her first instinct was to run away from what ever it was or dance at the end of the lead. I wasn't really sure what to do when she got scared, all I knew was I wasn't supposed to reward it by praise or patting her and would generally just ignore it, move a bit away until she was not actively scared and give her a minute, then praise her for being calm. I thought that this flightiness had gone away but I've realised it's probably more that she's really used to the things that scare her so doesn't react to it but her weak nerves are still there. Like how even though I have walked home late at night plenty of times and even though nothing bad has come of it, it doesn't mean that I'm not very wary in that situation and wouldn't feel scared while doing it. I went for a walk just now and I tried to remain neutral and I think I was but Didi looked a lot more stressed than usual and I had to stop to give her a minute when we got surrounded by people waiting to cross the road as she was trying to back away from them. I am lucky that I have an oval down the road that is practically always deserted and I usually am able to walk her at non peak times so I will still be able to get her out and about till I know more. While I can understand the sentiments that she was just feeling out of sorts/very scared at the vet, I do feel this is serious, I just needed some affirmation from experienced people so that I knew I wasn't over reacting. I trust Didi and usually feel comfortable in public with her but having her react like that and taking into consideration past behaviours, I can't ignore it and I don't feel confident she wouldn't do it again if pushed. Even though there's reasoning behind her behaviour I don't believe they make her response OK. I will try and talk to my parents tonight, although they probably won't see the big deal. My mum likes the fact that Didi could be a deterrent/is perceptive of risks and I always have to tell her it is our job to protect Didi, not her job to protect us so I'm not sure what they're thoughts on the matter will be but in a months time I can do it without their help anyway.

Because Didi was scared..and she reacted automatically. Why do Doctors/hairdressers use all sorts of distractions when little kids have to have something done for the first time ? So they don't suddenly back away & scream .... Oh, I definitely understand why she reacted how she did and am not treating it as if she'd reacted like that to a stranger on the street, I'm really pissed the receptionist ignored me and my dog's obvious signals to wait and I hope she does not view the vet negatively from now. I meant more that I can't understand why else other than maybe a fear period why her behaviour around strangers has become more wary, to the point where she's felt it necessary to growl at them in some instances.