Rocky wins again!!

Today's training session did not have a very auspicious start.  The day dawned with a blanket of heavy grey drizzel, and I've been nursing some sort of flu virus for the best part of a week.  I take Sonny out for a brief walk around the village this morning to see how I feel, I feel crap actually.  I deliberate over whether I should phone Sally and tell her that I'm crying off today.  I'm worried that I won't be transmitting the right energy for Sonny and that the extra stress will mean we have a bad morning.  It's already 9 o'clock, so it's too late.  I decide to brave it out, after all probably better that I don't miss a week as my anxiety tends to increase if I don't keep at the exposure work.

As we drive up to the lake it's clear there are not many people about but the lovely Rocky is there waiting and Sonny does well, not reacting to him as last week.  We set off around the lake, the heavens open, both owners now looking like drowned rats.  However, nothing daunted we do the passing exercise, first with owners in between, then allow the dogs to be next to one another.  We up the anti, now Sally gives me Rocky's lead and I am walking both dogs up and down, including a turn.  No reaction from Sonny, brilliant!  Yet again, Sally reflects that Sonny is not aggressive, but uses aggression to avoid situations of which he is fearful.  With Sonny it's all about the approach, if he meets a dog who is a bit 'up there' or, they come too close, or, he is surprised by them, he just can't cope and responds by lunging at them.  This is a 'get off, get away' message and also telling them to get away from his missus, due to him thinking I am scared of the other dog, if he is.  For this reason it was particularly important today that Sonny got to see me walking Rocky in a calm and relaxed fashion, the message being Mum is OK with other dogs then, so maybe I can be too.

Rocky is the most amazing dog.  He is just so attuned to what Sonny needs from him, which is no contact basically.  The dogs walked in closer proximity today but Sonny was OK with it.  At one stage Sally also walked Sonny, to start with he was tense, as his main focus is usually to get back to my side as fast as possible.  After a bit he relaxed more and seemed less bothered about what I was doing. 

The next step is to take Sonny and Rocky to a busier place where he is likely to meet more dogs and some off lead.  At present I am really scared of handling this situation by myself.  However Sally says what I need to do is to keep walking if we meet this situation, as to stop is likely to put more focus on the situation than we want.  If we keep walking the loose dog is likely to get fed up or, it will start walking alongside us.  I have yet to put myself in a situation where this could happen since I tend to avoid field walks where we are more likely to meet dogs off lead.  However, we'll see what happens....