Gustav has been pretty tense recently, and we don't know why. He's bark/lunged at two people in the last few days: one was while I was jogging with him, as we passed a house a guy came out of his front door suddenly. The other was with Justin. Justin reports that they were passing someone and Justin said "howdy" and the guy nodded, or vice-versa I can't remember (does Justin ever say howdy? Hmmm). Then at the last possible moment Gustav growled and moved towards the guy. Could be the guy made eye contact; any possible sign that the person might actually come over seems to be a trigger for Gustav: eye contact, walking quickly right towards him, and talking between the humans involved.
He had been so relaxed, I don't know what this little regression stage is all about. Maybe he found this kind of behavior useful recently and has increased it in his repertoire. We were on a good path of extinction up until now. Dottie has had a similar situation with her dog thing, but I'm pretty sure it's from that one time with the off-leash dog. I've taken a step back and heavily counterconditioned even the sound of barking dogs, plus leaving extra room between us and other dogs. I also hadn't had to use Dottie's watch cue (her name) for a while, since she was autowatching so reliably. I've had to go back to getting her attention proactively, rather than it being an automatic response from her. Sigh.
Oh well, I've been here before and I know what to do, we'll just keep chugging along. On the plus side, Dottie is improving in her sit-stay in the kitchen while I go in and out the door. I can now close the front door completely and she has about an 80% stay rate. Next I'll be letting the screen door close as well-I'm sure that will take a few weeks. Then I'll add knocking or the sound of the mailbox lid going up and down. Once that's solid it's time to take the show to other visitors. Maybe I'll start with Justin, then the band boys, and so on.
Also, their "bow" is coming along, despite my delinquency in practicing a lot.
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