- Location
- Canada
Two interesting requests from Shamas today:
1) After work, I had some errands to do. Shamas saw me getting ready, without the leash and sat at the entrance to the front hall, staring at me: May I come too, please? It's been raining all day and he's only been in the yard because he doesn't like walking in the rain- noises are much louder, and he's skittish
2)I had Shamas out for his Chapters walk tonight, and I noticed that he was a little stressed with the people. Not unusual, but he did an interesting thing: He asked to go to the bathroom.
I've been taking him into the bathroom with me for awhile now to get him used to the sounds of the hand dryer, and things in there. I didn't realise he likes it in there, I just thought it was a part of socialising him to noises.
Apparently those bathroom trips are a little "time-out" from the environment, if he feels people are too much.
It's good to see Shamas asking for that time out when he feels a little overwhelmed- shows he's learning to cope better. I think I'll show him where Petsmart's bathrooms are too, he got a little overstimulated in there last time we went...had a minor incident of correcting a dog that came too close to him. The owner was good about it, and AB says the dog was a little unruly before Shamas corrected him. He lunged towards the dog's face and growled. it was over as quick as it started, and I always keep him on a traffic handle in stores, but I wasn't happy to see him so overstimulated. We left right away, and gave that dog a wide berth on the way out, just to be certain of avoiding a recurrence. We've been really great in Petsmart for months now, looking at other dogs, and only occasionally actually meeting them. Usually he listens really well in stores, leaving the lead slack and turning away from the other dogs after a few seconds of looking. I think the yappy puppy a minute or two before had him on edge?
1) After work, I had some errands to do. Shamas saw me getting ready, without the leash and sat at the entrance to the front hall, staring at me: May I come too, please? It's been raining all day and he's only been in the yard because he doesn't like walking in the rain- noises are much louder, and he's skittish
2)I had Shamas out for his Chapters walk tonight, and I noticed that he was a little stressed with the people. Not unusual, but he did an interesting thing: He asked to go to the bathroom.
I've been taking him into the bathroom with me for awhile now to get him used to the sounds of the hand dryer, and things in there. I didn't realise he likes it in there, I just thought it was a part of socialising him to noises.
Apparently those bathroom trips are a little "time-out" from the environment, if he feels people are too much.
It's good to see Shamas asking for that time out when he feels a little overwhelmed- shows he's learning to cope better. I think I'll show him where Petsmart's bathrooms are too, he got a little overstimulated in there last time we went...had a minor incident of correcting a dog that came too close to him. The owner was good about it, and AB says the dog was a little unruly before Shamas corrected him. He lunged towards the dog's face and growled. it was over as quick as it started, and I always keep him on a traffic handle in stores, but I wasn't happy to see him so overstimulated. We left right away, and gave that dog a wide berth on the way out, just to be certain of avoiding a recurrence. We've been really great in Petsmart for months now, looking at other dogs, and only occasionally actually meeting them. Usually he listens really well in stores, leaving the lead slack and turning away from the other dogs after a few seconds of looking. I think the yappy puppy a minute or two before had him on edge?
