Took a jog with my brother and the dogs today. Dottie thinks Christian is the most exciting human being ever to walk the earth, but managed to greet him with only one bark, thanks to my big bag of chicken. We met at a park and it was interesting to see Gustav switch from "stranger!" mode to "friend" mode once he recognized Christian. His whole body changed from being forward and hackled and tail up to being much more relaxed and a lot less offensive. When I let Dottie off leash during a certain part of the jog she went up and jogged next to Christian, looking up at him adoringly. Also when we got to my house and he walked away, they couldn't stop looking at him and had to watch him walk away for a few minutes before I could coax them towards my house. Awww.
Jog went great. Once Dottie barked at a dog across the street. I was busy keeping Gustav good, so after Dottie barked I just let her bark it out. She never was hysterical, and I didn't want to give her chicken for barking. If it had been just her I would have had her sit or do a trick and then reinforce her, but I just couldn't manage. Sadly she was still reinforced since the dog went away, but oh well. Also Gustav growled and sort of lunged towards a woman on a bike, not a proud moment for him. But otherwise they were both great and we saw lots of dogs and people and got all tired out.
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It's so adorable hearing their crush on your brother!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good day to me.
I doubt I'll ever extinguish George's bark at other dogs or people. It's who he is, and as long as I know what the difference is in his tone, and what it means, I'll let him have a good bark if it means the rest of the dogs I'm walking with aren't going crazy from time to time.
My thinking is that one day he'll notice that no one else is listening.
I liked how Dr. Karen Overall explained the drama as "looking for information, seeing how you/environment will respond".
George doesn't bark at all dogs, just some (mostly the ones who ignore him...which makes no sense to me) or if they're running at him, so as long as it's just an "i'm over here, who are you" bark..I'm like you and just make sure the other dogs I'm walking with are focused on me rather than banding behind the schnook George.
It's true, I never cared so much about Dottie's barking until I saw how it was affecting Gustav. He has finally learned not to listen to her when she barks "out the window" i.e. "I'm bored and would like some attention, please." I can tell if there's really someone there if Gustav gets up and puts his tail high. Otherwise he just looks and his tail slowly lowers, then he goes and lays down again.
ReplyDeleteParticularly difficult is Dottie's excited bark at people, which really puts Gustav on edge. That's the important one to deal with for sure.
Gustav's bark is such a low pleasant tone I wish it was him who had a barking problem instead! Dottie's bark is high and very piercing. At least she always lets me know what's going on with her, no issues there.