After the German Shepherd incident, we sought the help of yet another trainer.
Oh, did I not mention that by now we have developed another (but actually it was always there) and it appears, escalating problem of letting people into the house. If you recall, we already have a dog who gets separation anxiety and chews up stuff, doesn't like other dogs and who has recently and with no provocation that I could see, other than being canine, gone for a very nice German Shepherd, leaving me very frightened of taking him out.
Now we are not the most social of people, but, I can tell you that the sight of Sonny launching himself at the living room glass door, barking and growling, anytime one of the boys brought their friends over, was not designed to encourage a warm and nurturing home environment. However, in a funny sort of way, whilst I was worried by this behaviour, I was not entirely unhappy about it? Why? Because when I heard friends talk about their terrible experiences of teenage drinks parties, with kids throwing up in the pot plants and trashing the lounge, I knew there was no way it was ever going to happen in our house! The simple act of needing a drink from the kitchen for a visitor was an operation that required extreme military precision. Like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, they tentatively crept downstairs, eyes scanning in all directions for any sign of the Devil Hound! Often it would be a matter of the visitor calling down and us rushing to put the dog somewhere out of sight for them to take that vital step to the kitchen, knowing they were in no danger of being traumatised!
Fortunately not all people were a problem for Sonny. He seemed to be OK if the visitor was very regular and not fearful of him. He never seemed worried by anyone elderly (his previous owner was in her older years), but he definitely disliked young people and children and if any adults were scared of him, that definitely made him worse.
Can you imagine the scene, you invite someone round for a drink, 'Oh please don't worry about the dog, no it's really not a problem when he launches himself at you. You really musn't be afraid....' I can hear the sound of the No Win No Fee Lawyers rattling their sabres as we speak....So, no ones up for a barbecue then? What a shame....
And so we move on to the arrival of the third dog trainer. Again, she was very good and gave us what appeared to be very sensible and professional advice. Suggesting that visitors should sit at the moment sit at the table and throw him treats, so that we could create a positive association around people coming into the house. That when we took him out if we saw another dog we should change direction and then gradually work on finding a submissive female dog for him to walk with, so that we can practice socialising with other dogs. We got so far and then came unstuck.
Remember that by now I am so fearful of taking him out that I am finding it very difficult to stay calm when we see another dog approaching. He is confined to lead walking and the trainer advises to avoid any areas where we might meet a dog off lead. No more country walks as we live in a very highly populated area where all the local beauty spots are mobbed at weekends. So the boy and I become like guardsmen at Buck Palace, a 20 minute walk each end of the day up one straight road and down again. If we see another dog we cross over and if there is a handy bush nearby try to walk behind it, because if he is distracted or doesn't see the dog coming, he is less reactive. Does anyone make doggy blinkers?
As for the finding another dog to socialise with, well it's not that easy to make doggy friends when you can't talk to other people with dogs. So how are we going to meet this paragon of virtue who isn't averse to putting their beloved pet in a potentially scarey situation. Most people would not want their dog attacked, so how do we do this?
The answer is we don't. We continue with the going up the road and down the road, aggression with visitors is managed in that mostly I put the dog away so he is not learning. In other words I'm back in my old rut and yet again I don't want to bother the nice trainer lady with lots of unnecessary questions. Do you see a bit of a theme developing here? So who is more screwed up, me or the dog? They say dogs are like their owners don't they, nuff said....
I come across a website that tells me about Reiki healing for animals, this amazing method can so it says even be conducted over the telephone. Now this is not as daft as it sounds, because given that my confidence is at rock bottom, I'm ready to try anything. At this point if someone had told me that the only thing to cure Sonny was some rare plant found only in the amazon jungle, I would probably have jumped on a plane!
I book a slot with the person I shall refer to only as The Telephone Man, he was very lovely and caring, he had such a calm voice. Told me that Sonny was such a nice dog underneath and that he could not pick up that he had any underlying health problems which might be causing it. Whatever you might think about the methodology, I just sat and cried. I knew he was a nice dog, at least he was nice to his pack, just not to anyone in the outside world. Sonny of course was totally unphased by his mistress blubbing all over him, however with hindsight I suspect that is not something the pack leader is supposed to do, a sure sign of weakness, blubbing over your dog!! The Telephone Man Tells me to buy a loud whistle and if he shows aggression to use the whistle. This is apparently to distract him or snap him out of his aggressive display. Well, this is preferable to shouting at him or, I have to admit the odd slap when I felt I'd tried everything else. And no, the whistle is no more effective as nothing gets through to Sonny when he is in one of his moods, but probably still useful if you're lost on a mountain...
So, where are we, we've to date consulted 4 trainers with varying success and yes I admit mostly my fault for not persevering based on not wanting to bother people...
What now for Sonny?
No comments:
Post a Comment