When I was walking him this morning and watching his reactions, I realized that a small tug on the leash and praise was enough to get him back on track some times. On a busy road he did very well walking past a large hydro truck on the opposite side, doing work on the hydro lines. He growled and fixated on it a bit, but when I gave him a gentle tug on the leash and kept going, he looked away and returned to my side.
This is wonderful!! I don't know if Sandstorm could do that
well! With huge noisy trucks I have to stop and hold him, he is afraid of those. Luckily we don't get many around here, it is very residential and not as busy.
Karen
Toby is continuing to do better when we're on walks. Traffic itself doesn't seem to bother him, but if someone gets out of their car near him, a car starting or slowing down near him causes an outburst every time. I think I'm going to get my dh to work with me, starting up the car and driving beside us, so that it doesn't scare him so much. He seems to usually be ok when he sees something coming, but reacts strongly when startled.
He also continues to shy at strange things, both inside and outside. Often things he's walked past many times but not noticed before, like a stop light or the desk in my computer room or some random sound will set him off.
I'm trying to be patient but it gets kind of frustrating. He cannot be outside without me in his sight or he seems to have anxiety. Often I'll try and leave the dogs outside for a few minutes to play while I get their Kongs ready in the morning, but as soon as Toby hears a sound, looks to me for reassurance and discovers I'm gone, he has a barking fit.
The other day he did something that really shocked us. I was leaving to go see a movie with a friend, my dh was raking the front lawn and the dogs were on our front porch, which is gated. When I jumped into my friend's car and drove away, Toby barked and proceeded to jump over the side of the porch and land on the pavement in the driveway. He was lucky that he didn't break anything and only got slight road rash on his bottom lip. I don't know if this is separation anxiety or if it has to do with the sound of the car, or possibly both. It never occurred to me he would do something like that, I'm so relieved that he wasn't hurt and didn't become lost!
Looking forward to our obedience class tomorrow, I have lots of questions...
