Two new threats to the walk!!
Great! Now I am not safe when I walk outside my front door. There are two new dogs that I have never seen before who live across the street who are now running to the edge of their yards and charging the fence and barking. To give you an idea how our neighborhood is laid out: The front of our house faces the backyard of the houses across the street. The houses are a big distance apart, so Ellie has never reacted too much at all to dogs (just normally) barking at her when they see us go out for a walk. In fact some of the dogs have stopped barking because they see us everyday and they have decided it's no big deal. However, today a Austrailian Shepard I have never seen before took exception to us walking on our sidewalk and charged its fence and was barking its head off. Ellie literally jumped straight up like she was on springs and then lunged and barked back. I was startled, because I have never seen that dog before and did not anticipate any kind of threat to our peace when walking eight feet down from our house, but I said in a quiet, calm tone, "Ellie, watch me." Ellie is very familiar with this command and she immediately looked up and saw that treat I was holding up and she sat staring at me. I held her gaze and talked to her quietly and calmly and soothing and told her what a good girl she was. I fed her three treats. In between the treat one and two she tried to peek around me to see the other dog. I quietly stepped whichever direction I needed to block her view and gave her the "watch me" command again. By the time she got done with treat three the AS had given up because no one was barking back, so we continued on our walk. Ellie did one over the shoulder look for the AS, but I did the "watch me" command once again and she looked up at me and got another treat. She did it while walking (I am getting better coordinated!). The rest of the walk was peacful until we came back home. This time I saw a beautiful GR that I had never seen before two doors down on our right.
IT decided to make its presence known as well and we had to go through the whole "watch me" routine again. Just like the AS, because Ellie was not barking back, the GR just gave up and shut up. IT WORKED!!!!!!!!! This time I did not raise my voice and tell Ellie "NO!" "STOP!" and make her keep going. I have FINALLY learned the incredibly hard way that does not work. She IS more senstivie than I ever thought. I thought she was stubborn, but really, she is the kind of dog that is reactive to loud voices. DUH! I feel so bad! I know dogs live in the moment, so I am blessed. Hopefully she has forgiven me. Hey, Ellie, I finally got it! LOL!
I do have some questions though (you knew I would!). Because Ellie is SO smart, do you think that she will associate jumping up/barking/lunging as the pre-cursor to the "watch me" command and the treat that follows? She IS that smart. For example, she KNOWS she is not allowed to jump on the fence. So if she wants a treat from my husband she jumps on the fence. Richard then says, "Ellie Come!" to make her come inside and stop jumping on the fence. Because he wants to reward her for coming when she is called (because he could NEVER get her to come to him before), she gets a treat. Who's training who?
I am afraid that Ellie is just going to start making a fuss to get the "watch me" command and a treat.
In the book "The Reactive Dog at the End of the Leash" the authors say that the ultimate goal of doing the "watch me" command when your dog sees another dog is to get the dog to a point that it will automatically look at you when it sees another dog and it will ignore the other dog in lieu of getting a treat from you. That all lunging/barking/fussing reactions will stop because it will have been conditioned to look at you because: looking at a dog = looking at mom = yummy treat! I am worried that Ellie is smart enough to connect the dots, i.e., ACT BAD = WATCH ME = TREATS. Should I just cross that bridge when I come to it or is there something I should do to ward it off ?
It's always high drama with me, aint it? LOL!
I went through two previous clubs before finding the training club I really liked. First club the trainer was obnoxious! Second the trainer was good but the class was waaaay too over-crowded and noisy and Cadbury just could not concentrate. Then I found this club which I love and have been there over a year now. So keep looking and keep trying, you never the right club might be just around the corner.
Sorry labgirl, LOL
