Second-hand report

Recently I've taken to playing with the dogs in the yard as my daily time with them. I'm doing this because I'm trying to focus on pure aerobics with Gustav, since it turns out he's a bit overweight. He's supposed to lose about ten pounds. The upside is that it's convenient and they are both panting (as am I!) by the time we come in. The downside is that there are fewer counterconditioning opportunities.

That being said, Justin still walks them. He said yesterday that they passed three people right on the sidewalk while he shoveled treats into Gustav's mouth. Good! Also, however, he took them on leash in a park-like woodsy area near our house last night and got mobbed by an off-leash dog. Dottie barked incessantly and Gustav reared up and did his scary low bark, and Justin got pulled down because it was so slippery. The dog quickly realized that his potential playmates were insane and definitely no fun. The owner apologized profusely. This sort of thing is unfortunate, but I honestly think we deserve some of this karmically (does anyone remember Gustav mobbing a sweet dog out for a ski with his owner? From about 100 yards away? And me frantically calling him to no avail? Yeah. I do. I can't get too self-righteous about other people with no control over their dogs. And at least her dog was friendly, if naughty).

Tomorrow is our visit from the behaviorist. At some point today I'm going to sit down and refine my list of questions. Here's a brief overview of my thoughts:
1. might doggie drugs help for a bit? Should we consider them?
2. what about food? It seems intuitive to me that Gustav's behavior is affected by food, just like anyone would be. Is there something I could be feeding him to help? The vet was skeptical of the low-protein, I thought she had good points (i.e. small sample size, and the reasonable assertion that if a dog food company had solid evidence that a certain food was prone to reduce aggression, we would be hearing a lot more about it.)
3. Is it best to go crazy with counter conditioning and expose them to as many people/dogs as possible, even with the increase in over-threshold incidents inherent in this approach? Or best to do mostly yard exercise and then only really controlled exercises, albeit necessarily less frequently?
4. Is it really beneficial to walk them separately? I could do this, and have, but it really cuts down on their exercise in general.
5. Given Gustav's pushy nature, is it best to have visitors just ignore him rather than shower him with treats? Or maybe assert themselves by having him sit first? Sometimes I worry that he will abuse the expectation of treats from visitors by becoming pushy or rude (I've already seen a bit of evidence of this with the band guys).
6. When I start my training group, what's the best way to proceed?
7. What about Dottie's part in all this? Are our dog park visits too much, or a good exercise?
8. What small things can I do with Gustav regarding other dogs? This issue is less important to me than people, obviously, but it would be nice if he could have a few dog buddies or could cut down a bit on his need to be a bully.
9. How tough do we need to be in regards to his general pushiness? Does he have to sit for everything, or are some freebies okay?

I am excited to hear her opinions, because I think Gustav has his own special set of needs that requires a little professional attention.