[Debbie]

James, it’s wonderful to hear about him playing with some other dogs. You must have really been thrilled to see that…

[Chris]

Thanks to Robert’s wisdom, our crazy rescue dog is getting much better on leash. Not only are the leash lessons helping, but his philosophy of ‘fairness’ from the videos on resource guarding – the dog always gets something in exchange for giving something up in a fair way – inspired me to try something new.

I realised our dog could be convinced to walk nicely in exchange for being allowed to be ‘loose’ every few minutes to sniff and pee on stuff. This has reduced conflict (another one of RC’s pearls of wisdom) and walks are becoming fun at long last. We both get what we want and the length of time he has to concentrate is reduced into smaller intervals, allowing him to succeed over and over on a single walk. Now all I need to do practice increasing heeling intervals.

This is also helping with his reactivity, because he’s learning that if I’m walking he’s coming with me if he likes it or not, so he prefers to walk next to me rather than being dragged. It also allows me to easy up on corrections – he doesn’t respond well to too many corrections, he’s had a rough life and doesn’t have much trust, so being able to teach him to stick near me minimal pressure is a blessing.

Onwards and upwards.