We worked on a couple of different kinds of greetings today. We met a couple more new dogs (and more scheduled for meet and greets throughout the week). Poni's initial reaction is to bark and run up towards the other dog. But this lasts for a much shorter time every time we greet a new dog.
Kiko is Mr. Social and goes right up to Mitch and initiates play.
Slowing Poni down when he was getting worked up around Mitch and giving him a short break helped him in that introduction. He was willing to interact with Mitch but not quite ready to play.
Poni still prefers to play with Kiko. At least for now...
We are getting him used to a variety of dogs (soon we'll have some different breeds to meet). Just because a dog is well socialized with one or two dogs does not mean that it will transfer to other dogs. Socialization to other dogs also is a life long endeavor. It's one of those things, even if you have done a good job socializing them when they are young, if they don't have exposure to other dogs throughout their lives they can have some tension and nervousness around other dogs.
He's still a little nervous and occasionally shows some calming signals like a lip lick
But overall he's feeling a lot more comfortable and he's able to respond to commands even in the middle of a bunch of dogs (big ones no less). We spent a lot of time working on being surprised by the dogs. We would go into another room and do something else for a while and then open the door to find all the dogs waiting to greet us. His recovery time (the amount of time it took him to recover from his startle) was less and less each time. By the end of the day, he had stopped barking when the dogs surprised him.
As a side note, he seems to have a similar reaction to cats. My cats are behind a baby gate so he cannot make contact with them but every time he saw them he would bark, lunge and nip towards them while occasionally jumping back in fear. My cats, of course, don't even bat an eye. We worked on this throughout the day. When he barked, I said "no" in a very calm voice (I don't want it to sound like I'm barking too -- that would really worry him). Then I said his name and rewarded him for sitting in front of me to give me attention. By the end of the day he was walking past the cats without saying a thing to them. Very nice progress!
I also wanted to make sure Poni was still able to manage being around the dogs when Kiko was not around. Success!
Not to worry, it wasn't all stressful today. We had plenty of time for play in between training sessions.
Kiko worked some more on his recalls. This is coming along really nicely. He's responding very quicking in heavy distractions and from long distances. He's even doing well when I'm out of his sight. Such a good boy! We're working on a little bit of self-control once he gets there now. He's got a nice strong recall foundation so now we can tidy it up by adding a nice sit when he comes. It's not easy, though, the boy loves his food so...
Part of building a really nice recall is rewarding random check-ins. Even though there is a lot going on around Kiko and he's having a good time playing with his new friends, he's taken the time to come check in with me in the middle of all those distractions. That's a really big deal. Rewarding that behavior will help him learn to keep an eye on you even when he's got a lot going on around him.
He's working hard on his automatic sits for greetings. Such a hard task for such a social guy.
Don't believe any of the stories Kiko tells you about all the water bowls being designed for big dogs. He has two water bowls to choose from that are on the ground but he much prefers to act like one of the big dogs.
He does like acting like one of the big dogs and he's particularly fond of their big, cushy beds.
Poni, on the other hand, will take the hard floor as long as it's close to me. What a snuggly boy!
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