Discouraged

Our walk last night was ill-fated enough to be funny. Nothing terrible happened, just annoying circumstances.

It was ten at night, in cold cold weather, so I envisioned (ha!) a quiet brisk walk. I didn't even take the time to chop up chicken or cheese or hot dogs, just grabbed a bunch of Charlee Bears. The very first thing I saw was a dog across the street. Great thing about feet and feet of snow: I can see way before they do. I treated them and it was fine. Next up: the bike path. I was going to go left, but then saw some people and decided to go right. As I walked, I turned around and noticed the people were: a. coming our way b. jogging and c. had a big ole doberman. Ok. I hustled up to a side street and went up a distance I thought the dogs could handle. I waited until the joggers came. Surprise! They needed to come up the tiny side street. Ok. I went up farther, thinking they could go across the street and go that way. Dottie and Gustav have totally noticed the dog at this point, but are being great, especially since all they get for their trouble are crappy dry charlee bears. Well, the joggers aren't moving and I look up to hear them say, "Um, that's exactly where we're going." I had stopped literally right in front of their house. The joggers don't really take the hint that my dogs are under training and start walking briskly home while I drag the dogs across the street, having lost their composure by now. Thank god for gentle leaders, I had no handling issues. We got across the street and I got them in a sit. I feel like even the intensity of freak-outs is less since our counter-conditioning program started, especially for Dottie. She acts like she's thinking "Oh, dog! I hate them! Bark! Oh wait, something usually happens . . . it's treats! Treats! I love them! Oh, the dog is too scary! But I love treats!" The effect is a wild turning back and forth from the dog to me, trying to decide on a course of action that she can live with.

After something like that happens, everything else on the walk is twice as bad. We walked down a bike path through a field and all of a sudden a guy on his BIKE with TWO dogs comes racing down the path. We dove for cover by leaping into the deep deep snow. They did pretty good, with some lunging and barking at the point when the dogs were closest. Oh well. Dottie gets the most improved award, while Gustav wouldn't even look at dogs while on leash when we first got him, so definitely most unimproved. I completely blame Dottie along with Gustav's increased sense of bad-assness for this development. Free advice: a two/three year old dog is not a grown-up dog. Older and bolder, they say. Caution at two is aggression at three. We don't really know precisely how old he is, but he came into his own over his time here, and "his own" includes taking action in situations that used to cause him to just ignore people/dogs or go into the other room.

A great way to make a dog walk go awry is to think "Oh, a nice quiet night. I won't see anyone." Still, it wasn't the end of the world and I've personally come a long way in learning to take the setbacks without too much disappointment. Justin can attest that I used to come home nearly in tears if we had some embarrassing bark-a-thon. My type-A personality wants everything to be fixed and right and all that, but that's just not the way it works.

Some musings: I used to think of dogs as either trustworthy, or not. Kind of like when I had a behaviorist come over for Dottie because I wanted her to teach me a "stop barking" command. She helped me realize that it's not about the "no barking," it's about the internal state that's causing all the barking. Very few dogs are trustworthy in all circumstances, and even if they are it's no reason to give people carte blanche to do whatever they want to the dog. My dogs are just proactive in letting me know what their comfort level is and what kind of a life they enjoy the most. I think Dottie has profited most from Gustav's aggression, because I would routinely put her in positions that she really didn't enjoy because I wanted her there and she would be "fine." Think potlucks and State Street. Justin was always wise in this respect, but I didn't want to listen. He would ask, "do you want her there because it will be fun for her, or for you?" Now I have no choice but to carefully consider their threshold and internal state of being, because if I don't someone might get hurt or at the very least my training would be set back.

That being said, I sure get jealous when I see dogs tied up outside the store, or laying next to the swing set while their family plays nearby. Sigh. I always bitterly think "Those dogs have no personality, anyway. Who needs it?"

Today my calming signals book came in! I've heard some people clicker train their dogs to display calming signals on demand, helping in dog-dog aggression cases especially. Given Gustav's difficulty in listening when out and about, and general slow learning style, I think this might be a distant possibility. People are my number one priority, but someday it would be nice to work on his dog-dog aggression too.

Well, another day, another training session. Hoping to do some off-leash work today, as it may get in the (*gasp*) upper twenties!