(no subject)
An update about Billy and a plea for some advice.
So far Billy has really made himself a part of my life. He is such a love! He sleeps in bed with me at night and follows me around during the day. His happiest times are snuggled up against me.
Gypsy and Billy love each other. We have not had any issues at all for the past three weeks. Gypsy will grumble at him from time to time, but mostly they enjoy playing together and snuggling on the bed.
He is doing well learning some basic tasks, he is great at holding and carrying objects for me and he can pick up pens, though he is still struggling with my keys. The jingling worries him, and he doesn't like how the keys bang against his jaw. He is already alerting, which is surprising, but welcome. We are refining his alerts and teaching him things to do to help me. He sucks at bracing at the moment, but is making progress. He is doing great at pulling into harness and is getting better at walking in a straight line. He is has learned 'left' fairly well and turns left even when I ask for 'right'. We are working on that too.
He is brilliant at Basic O and is working on down stays the most. He is perfect at almost everything, and his recall is golden. Even with other playing dogs as distraction. He will have no problem passing the CGC when I get around to taking the test with him. I may have to wait until this summer because I can't seem to find anyone doing the test without the class right now. I want to get him into a rally-o class, but again that has to wait because the next one starting up close to me will be in the spring.
He has show that he lacks some confidence in new situations so we have been working on confidence building exercises, including teaching him to navigate some agility equipment and preform some silly tricks.
His big problem is that is fearful in new situations. He's been worried about the car, and we worked through that with the help of a thundershirt, some patience and plenty of treats. He is now happy to get in the car, a calm passenger and pleased to be left for short periods in the car. He does get a little wiggy when trucks go by, but he recovers quickly. For the past two weeks we have been working on public access training. He has been to a restaurant, about 15 min before he stopped showing signs of stress and relaxed, and three time to my school, 10 min, 8 min and 5 min to relaxation. So you can see that he is making HUGE progress. He is, however, reactive to sounds in the environment. If he hears a door opening or closing he stands up and looks around to locate the sound, the same for people entering or leaving the area we are in. I have, of course, been rewarding him for all calm attentive behavior. He is getting much better and turns back to me faster and refocuses much faster now, than he did when we started. His stress signs are refusing high value treats, shaking, heavy panting, blinking, lip licking, pacing and cowering. The shaking and refusal of treats usually only lasts for seconds at a time. Everything else takes time to go away. Once he is relaxed he is very attentive to training and willing to do whatever I ask of him. He will respond to cues even when still stressed, even when he won't take treats, he WANTS to always be doing the right thing.
So my question for you is, what would you recommend in this situation to help Billy be more at ease in new situations? I am very committed to doing everything in my power to help him be as happy as he can be in life. I want him to enjoy working with me, and I really hope we can get there.
So far Billy has really made himself a part of my life. He is such a love! He sleeps in bed with me at night and follows me around during the day. His happiest times are snuggled up against me.
Gypsy and Billy love each other. We have not had any issues at all for the past three weeks. Gypsy will grumble at him from time to time, but mostly they enjoy playing together and snuggling on the bed.
He is doing well learning some basic tasks, he is great at holding and carrying objects for me and he can pick up pens, though he is still struggling with my keys. The jingling worries him, and he doesn't like how the keys bang against his jaw. He is already alerting, which is surprising, but welcome. We are refining his alerts and teaching him things to do to help me. He sucks at bracing at the moment, but is making progress. He is doing great at pulling into harness and is getting better at walking in a straight line. He is has learned 'left' fairly well and turns left even when I ask for 'right'. We are working on that too.
He is brilliant at Basic O and is working on down stays the most. He is perfect at almost everything, and his recall is golden. Even with other playing dogs as distraction. He will have no problem passing the CGC when I get around to taking the test with him. I may have to wait until this summer because I can't seem to find anyone doing the test without the class right now. I want to get him into a rally-o class, but again that has to wait because the next one starting up close to me will be in the spring.
He has show that he lacks some confidence in new situations so we have been working on confidence building exercises, including teaching him to navigate some agility equipment and preform some silly tricks.
His big problem is that is fearful in new situations. He's been worried about the car, and we worked through that with the help of a thundershirt, some patience and plenty of treats. He is now happy to get in the car, a calm passenger and pleased to be left for short periods in the car. He does get a little wiggy when trucks go by, but he recovers quickly. For the past two weeks we have been working on public access training. He has been to a restaurant, about 15 min before he stopped showing signs of stress and relaxed, and three time to my school, 10 min, 8 min and 5 min to relaxation. So you can see that he is making HUGE progress. He is, however, reactive to sounds in the environment. If he hears a door opening or closing he stands up and looks around to locate the sound, the same for people entering or leaving the area we are in. I have, of course, been rewarding him for all calm attentive behavior. He is getting much better and turns back to me faster and refocuses much faster now, than he did when we started. His stress signs are refusing high value treats, shaking, heavy panting, blinking, lip licking, pacing and cowering. The shaking and refusal of treats usually only lasts for seconds at a time. Everything else takes time to go away. Once he is relaxed he is very attentive to training and willing to do whatever I ask of him. He will respond to cues even when still stressed, even when he won't take treats, he WANTS to always be doing the right thing.
So my question for you is, what would you recommend in this situation to help Billy be more at ease in new situations? I am very committed to doing everything in my power to help him be as happy as he can be in life. I want him to enjoy working with me, and I really hope we can get there.