One step forward...
Unimpressed dog is unimpressed
Sandy has been up and down on her behaviour. She tumbled back about a month or two ago and I felt like a total failure, wondering why my dog was just destined to be such a total jerk.
Our trainer reminded us to go back to the beginning, Sandy now has building blocks, strong foundations which means that starting again should take a much shorter time than before. So we did, but I felt like I was still on a treadmill with her and never going to win.
So I added another dog. Because what the hell. Another year isn't going to make much of a difference in her awful, terrible, no good behaviour anyway.
As we walked down the street today with my mom & Marvin, a little dog came racing off of someone's porch and right for us. Marvin reacted as per usual, slightly interested in this small creature that was like a bullet being launched at us.
Oh no, here we go.... I thought. What was the worst Sandy did? She jumped around a bit, pulled a bunch, but that was it. No vocalizing, no lips pulled forward, just a lot of "Lemme at 'em!!" I asked my mom if she saw a change in Sandy's behaviour, and she told me she was actually comfortable walking Sandy now and didn't feel like she was going to lose control of her when another dog was around.
That's always a good sign.
It's been hard adding Marvin to the house, because Sandy's state of arousal is such that when she wants to play SHE WANTS TO PLAY NOW AND I WILL HUMP YOU AND YOU WILL LIKE IT.
Marvin does not like this.
Marvin will give it to Sandy, and does not like engaging with Sandy, which can make for some interesting fights. That being said, I broke up a NUMBER of fights between Sandy & Burbear when their play escalated, so it's nothing too new for me, especially considering Marvin has only been with us for a week and we're all still sorting ourselves out. But the number of times Sandy goes after Marvin is far less than she would've in the past. With the level we're at now with Sandy's behaviour, I don't know that it could ever get better than this. She still has arousal issues, she still hyper focuses and will "hunt" Marvin after being over stimulated and I wonder if a year really would've made a difference. (My trainer would be totally choked to learn I added another dog....oops....)
But now that I acknowledge how far she has come since December, maybe a year would've made a difference. Maybe I'm not doomed to the total jerk dog that I always think I have.
On the flip side, in the first week of walks with Marvin, Sandy's behaviour toward other dogs really has improved. I always contended that having a second dog oddly calmed her toward other dogs. Yeah, she likes to chase Marvin when she's on the long line, yeah she likes to play "relaxed", lay down calmly, and then run right at him bitting his bum, yeah she likes to steal any toy he wants and be a big bully, but he adds an extra layer of calmness to our house that I really enjoy. Bring down the frenetic energy just a touch.
I would like to sleeps now
And really, he's just all kinds of awesome.