POSTED: November 10, 2005 by oreokitty
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My lil furface is very afraid of other dogs and has been since day one. She never did go near other dogs even in puppy school (she spent the entire set of classes running away from them) and has only ever played with one other dog (a neigbour's who she seems to like but he's the only one). I've taken her to training and lately to daycare for a few days just to try and get her a little more comfortable, but so far she would still rather run for cover than meet up close with another dog. Luckily she hasn't been aggressive but being afraid could sure bring it on.
anyway, furface came with me to the pet show last weekend. That was Fri night and all day Sat & Sun. There were tons of other dogs there including in the booths around us. What I did notice was that by late Sat she was starting to sniff them when they approached rather than skulking off and by Sun was approaching them all on her own (a whole new experience).
One of her daycare people had a booth nearby and noticed and said it had to be the constant exposure over the weekend. She probably came across 50 dogs a day there plus the ones that were within feet of her the entire time. I suppose it was trial by fire in a way but I realized the 6 or so we see on walks or the few times she has been to daycare or training just aren't enough to get her comfortable. I have to say the crack up was she really liked to approach the dogs like rottis or shepards at the show but was still backing up from the 12 week old puppy in the booth right next to us. There was no comparison in cuteness scale but I guess that doesn't matter to dogs.
I guess what I am saying is even if you take Kohl everywhere he may need even more people experience just the way mine seems to with other dogs. I don't know how you manage it and I suppose it can take some expertise, but I thought I'd throw out what such a concentrated experience did for my pup. I also now see I am going to have to take her to daycare for a good week or two, everyday, to get her some constant exposure rather than what I was doing.
BTW Superdogs training is one in town that deals with dog communications. When we went pretty much every dog there had some fear issue and most were with people. They taught us what signs of stress to look for, how to calm the dog, and how to tell people to approach that particular dog so we'd know.
In our intermediate class we learned more off leash stuff.. It was soo long ago. Okay about seven months ago.. If I find my notes from the class I will post them. It was very helpful I think better than the puppy class. It was pretty long class to. I think eight weeks.
This class... We have only gone once but.. This trainer is supose to be more involved with agression (which Kohl has started showing). So we hope to knock that out of him. We found out that Kohl is a terrified of people????? He is just unsure of everything. Not sure how that came about because he comes everywhere with us but he has only been showing this side for about six months... So we are working on that so far.
hope you both have fun!
Canine Good Citizen...both my guys have been tested and both passed with flying colours... it was fun to train them up for it...
Kohl good luck!!! You are lucky to have a variety of levels of obediance! Shiraz graduated on Tuesday, and we are re-enrolling in January. Unfortunately, it is the same class, but it is good to keep working on a solid heel and ignoring the other dogs/people. If he jumps up, he can already put his feet on my shoulders, so it is REALLY important that he doesn't!
Oreokitty, what did you learn in the first and second classes? What are you expecting to learn in this one?
Hey, has anyone done the Canine Good Neighbour Test (is that the name in Canada? Can't remember)
Lore
good for you guys...we take our guys once a year to a 6 week doggie boot camp just to remind us and them, who is the boss....lol
Always a good thing to brush up so you aren't lixing him up. Have fun and the socializing is always a good thin.