Shadow's reactivity log

snowbunny

snowbunny

Location
Andorra and Spain
Thanks for your support and understanding. Sadly @Beanwood, I don't have any dog-savvy friends here who would be interested in helping out with training. Lots of people with dogs, no-one really interested in doing anything with them.

Well, this morning, I saw Luna and her "Dad" (who I finally asked his name - Javier) coming from a distance, so I got the Labs all on lead, gave Willow and Squidge over to J and walked down the hill with Shadow. He was squeaking as we approached, and clearly a bit excited, but it didn't overly concern me. I called out to Javier, asking if he was happy for them to meet, and he said yes, so I let Shadow (muzzled) off lead. He hooned over, and did his normal awkward greeting, hackles up, but then broke off to have a sniff. He came back when called, and then we let them figure each other out for a few minutes. I explained to Javier that yesterday he was too OTT to meet, but I was happy to do it one on one. Luna is a GR version of her namesake. SUCH good body language, turning away when it got uncomfortable, but also trying to encourage play. I think Shadow will end up playing with her at some point. After a while, Shadow's hackles were down and, although he continued to show some avoidance behaviours, he was good with her, even when she came up to me all exuberant (remember, he has a history of resource guarding me) and he didn't even flicker when she humped him!!
We walked together back up to where J was with the other two, and I told him to let Squidge off lead to play, which, of course, she did with gusto. It's so funny to watch them together, they play exactly the same. When left of her own devices, Luna2 was also todoggonning! Anyway, Shadow did well. A couple of times I could see him switch into chase mode - he does this in play, but it's far too much for a new dog, and is accompanied by neck grabbing and barking, so I didn't want him to get to that. Albeit he still had his muzzle on, it's still not appropriate for new relationship. He recalled perfectly each time. So did Squidge! We kept Willow on lead because that would have been one step too far - and she was having a grumpy day, anyway.

So I'm very happy about that, and happy that if we see him again, I can just pop his muzzle on and they can be loose together, rather than having him get frustrated on lead.
 
snowbunny

snowbunny

Location
Andorra and Spain
We've had another couple of good experiences with other dogs. There's a teeeeeny tiny gorgeous Irish Setter called Lady that he's met before; we saw her once over the holidays, and I let Shadow go say hi with his muzzle on for my peace of mind. She's such a sweet little thing (and truly tiny, the size of a small border collie!) and although is very playful has body language that screams "I'm no threat!". Like Squidge but somewhat less hippoish :D

And a couple of days ago, we had a "whoopsie" - walking up a little steep bit of hill, the dogs often go ahead to search for cones by a fallen pine tree. It's only about 15m ahead of us, but because of the lay of the land is out of sight. It turns out that we've obviously become rather complacent about it, with them having done this pretty much every day for the last five years! However, on this occasion, as we crested the incline, no sign of the dogs... then we saw them waaay below us in the distance, heading towards another dog and his owner. I pipped my whistle, they all stopped, the girls came back, but Shadow couldn't manage that, being only about 10m away from the dog. I recognised it as being a very large yellow entire male Lab that he's shouted at a few times in the street, but has never met. Oh, crap. But, as it turned out, they both had a good sniff (Shadow stiff and on his toes, obviously), but then he turned tail and ran straight back to us, responding rather belatedly to the recall whistle, but with the same vigour.
I know we got lucky, and I believe that this Lab is your typical older Lab, who simply isn't interested in any nonsense so diffuses it all really well. They were too far away to know if Shadow growled, but the lady's body language was totally chilled, so I believe not. I shouted "sorry" and waved as he came back to us.

Not ideal, and a failure on my part, of course, but for Shadow's sake, I'm glad he had another neutral experience with an unfamiliar dog to add to the list. And I'm glad we're walking him with his muzzle at the moment, as it really does allow me to relax somewhat in this sort of situation.
 
Charlie

Charlie

Location
Argyll & Bute, Scotland
Not a failure at all, we can't and shouldn't expect 100% success rate with reactive dogs in my humble opinion. I would be very happy with that Fiona. A while back I had an unexpected 'meeting' it was too late to do anything so I stayed calm, Charlie and the other medium sized black dog sniffed nose to nose, I waited a couple of seconds then verbally recalled him and off we went with no encounter. I was thrilled but it isn't always that way xx
 
snowbunny

snowbunny

Location
Andorra and Spain
Thanks, Helen :)
I know I shouldn't have let it happen; I was complacent and I shouldn't have been. However, I was thrilled with him. On the other hand, I had the foresight to have the muzzle on him for this exact scenario at this holiday time of year, so maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself!

 
MellowYellow

MellowYellow

I think that sounds positive, Fiona. I don’t think any of our male dogs are immune to suddenly running up for a ‘meet and greet’ with other males... Personally when it happens I am happy if it diffuses naturally, as it did in this case with Shadow.
 
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