Christmas wishes

Yes I know I'm not blogging regularly at the moment.  1.  Icy weather, when it's slippy underfoot the thought of trying to reign in a dog that's lunging at another dog is not great for your confidence, he can pull me over at the best of times.  I wish I could stop him lunging it's wearing.
2. Bloody cold walking so find it hard to be out for long, I think I was probably a bear in a previous life.  My desire to hibernate in the winter months is very strong.  If I had my way I would draw the curtains in October and emerge when the bad weather was over!  3. A racking cough which is now on it's 4th week and making me feel wretched, I sound like old man Steptoe on a bad day! 4. Virtually not meeting other dogs or, as usual all untrained/dominant/generally lairy beasts.  Poor Sonny, why can't he be surrounded by nice sensible non reactive dogs who could help him build his confidence! 

This last week we've been trying him OFF medication to see how he would fare, in our view not much difference to his behaviour either way.  Only thing I did notice was that his todger was sticking out again, this is possibly a sign of stress so whether this is a good enough reason to keep him on it, I don't know as the meds are hugely expensive if we have to keep them going over a long period.  Will need to discuss this with Sally and get her advice on this.

Classic example of Sonny not exhibiting any common sense recently.  A girl in the village has just got herself a very sweet Jack Russell pup.  It is TINY, did Sonny react, yes he did.  It's obvious he shows absolutely no judgement about what could be a danger to him or, me.  Another day we past what is a habitually yappy Yorkie who is forever boundary-chasing in the garden.  Glad I don't live next door!  Whenever Sonny sees him, he goes mad. I thought that if we had been able to keep Sonny there long enough he would not have been able to react for ever and would eventually have to calm down.  He tried all tactics, the usual bark and lunge.  I put him in a sit, he would not take a treat, he would look at me, briefly, then he would start again.  At one point he tried 'flight' tactics and appeared to be trying to climb up into my arms, that's when you really see his fear, poor lad.  Unfortunately the yorkie was by now completely frantic and the owner came out to remove him, probably not best pleased that I was making his dog bark even more than usual.  Hey ho, a missed opportunity for both of us to have more well behaved dogs, never mind.

Well the next few days are Christmas so hope all of you have a great time.  Don't forget to keep all the grapes and chocolates well out of the dogs way as they can be lethal and you don't need an expensive vet bill to add to your Christmas financial burdens.

Sonny and I wish you all a Merry Christmas xxx

We've been quiet for a while

We've been quiet for a while.  The snow is falling and the icy roads do not make the dog walking any easier.  A mixed bag of experiences over the last few weeks.  Either not meeting any dogs or, meeting all the wrong ones.  I have started some hypnotherapy sessions to help me manage my anxiety in relation to walking Sonny.  If I can't take my own capacity to trigger him out of the equation he does not have much chance of rehabilitation.

 I've only had one session so far so it's early days.  I'm supposed to visual a confident me walking my dog, it's extremely hard to do but I'm working on it.  In addition I'm supposed to tap various areas which apparently rebalances the meridians, I do find the effect calming but wonder if it works by distraction.  Maybe I could get someone to kick me every time I see another dog, would the effect be the same?  Anyway, if you see a mad woman tapping herself whilst walking along with a rather confused looking dog, it's probably me!

This weekend we were away so consequently had to walk Sonny in a different area, I dealt with this by separating myself from him and walking our other dog ahead of him if we encountered other dogs.  This helps him distract onto where I am rather than the dog he is about to encounter.  He did really well and even managed to pass a collie and 4 kids at close proximity, it just goes to show the more confident the handler the better he is.  This is my mission to get to the point where I feel able to face these situations with him rather than avoiding them and giving that responsibility to other people but at least I got to see that he could do it,