Watch him go!

Wednesday is training day, Sonny and I headed off the local park to meet up with Sally and Rocky.  Today we are going to challenge him by having to tolerate Rocky being off lead and running for the ball.  Fortunately Rocky has one of those ball launchers which even with its aid shows up  my complete ineptitude with hand eye coordination. (the bug bear of many a school netball team that had to have me on its patch)!  Fortunately in the dog world, if the ball is unpredictable it makes life more interesting so Rocky was very tolerant of some rather peculiar throws, how he loves his ball!  Sonny of course, now being detained at Sally's side, is beside himself for two reasons, one his beloved mum is more than a stone's throw away and to add insult to injury playing with another dog,

secondly we suspect he would love to join the ball game but cannot.  Next we challenge Sonny's sensitivity to having people and animals coming in close proximity to him. Sally reminds me of the unpleasant feeling that being on a packed train on the underground can have, unpleasant for a lot of people, so we can fully understand how he feels.  But for a guy like Sonny, who is so hyper-sensitive this feeling must be multiplied many times.  I am tasked with running up and down, getting closer each time, with Rocky in tow, putting myself between the dogs, he manages this but I acknowledge that people appearing out of narrow openings unexpectedly is very much a source of my own fear because I am so worried he will react.  Sally suggests I get my partner to practice this as an exercise, so in a way me being startled which is natural, is nothing for him to worry about.  Again I get the question, what am I afraid of when it comes to these situations? I KNOW he can't actually hurt anyone, he could knock a child over, but I would not let that happen, so what is it that bugs me?  Hard as I try I cannot get to the bottom of it, I am even wondering if I should try hypnosis to desensitise myself to these encounters, but still thinking about that one as would be another expense.  How much money is this dog going to cost me over his lifetime, rather like parenthood, best not to think about it!!

Finally Sonny get's his chance, we agree it's safe enough to let him off lead as there are no other dogs around.  Sonny is still muzzled but running for the ball, he loves it, he's totally not worried about Rocky and in future we might even get to a point where they can be off lead together.  At present I'm trying to find a muzzle that would allow him to just be able to pick up the ball so the whole game has some reward for him.  Let's stop it on a good note, Sonny has a positive association of being around Rocky and having a game which will serve him well for next time.

What this dog really needs is to go and live with a pack of dogs but as we know they would need to be balanced as further trauma is not what he needs right now.  My sense has always been that if Cesar Milan had seen Sonny he would have suggested taking him into his pack for several weeks, that would involve intensive work and being around other dogs to the point that he learns the language of dogs.  At present his levels of fear are so great that he is unable to differentiate between non-threat and threat.  Much as I love him I do not propose to ship him off to LA however we may come across a situation that we can put him in here, we will let you know.

Before I finish can I just have a rant about insurance?  It has come to my attention over the last few weeks that it is impossible to get any third party liability insurance for a dog that has bitten, even if he is being muzzled AND on medication AND being rehabilitated by a professional trainer who will vouch for his behaviour and diagnosis.  This, as Sally and I have discussed is a serious issue for anyone with a dog that develops problems with aggression or, considers taking on a dog from a rescue organisation who might have these type of issues.  The future for these troubled and difficult dogs, often presenting with such challenging behaviour through no fault of their own looks very bleak and potentially even more dogs will be euthanized as no one will dare to take a risk!  My best offer was that 'he had to be free of aggression for 2 years' before they would consider it. Thanks a lot Petplan!  Bearing in mind that he would be 12 and a half by then it really wasn't worth it.  All I can say is GRRRRRR!!!