Well we've done it, transformed Tina from a stressed out little dog who was guarding, not eating very much and growling into a joyful bundle of fun.
She is putting weight on, not barking any more, a more confident little dog. I am so pleased, I knew there was a canny little dog in there somewhere, all it needed was a little understanding and knowledge.
Our dogs guard and bark, we expect it and think its natural and for most it doesn't cause a problem. But there are some dogs like sensitive Tina the responsibility of being on guard gets too much for them and they go into a melt down. Recognising this is tricky, when our dogs look at us they are asking us a question, the knack is know what they are asking! I am better at reading dogs than people but that is a good thing, I love it.
Here she is on her best behavior in her new waterproof coat.
She is such a joy, she now comes to work with me along with Buzz. She is a big hit with my customer Don, she sits on his knee.
Oh, have been practicing my dog training techniques on horses. Another customer of mine has a very large horse who is scared of new people, I approached him while he was in his box making sure that I made no eye contact at all, quietly put my hand out so he could smell it. By the time his owner had taken a rug off her other horse, he had his head over my shoulder while I scratched his shoulders. He was nearly asleep, Liz was amazed he was letting me near him let alone touching him. So horses are like dogs, if they are nervous making eye contact scares them. Easy when you know how.
Sharon
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Quite the dog/horse whisperer! Amazing results. Interesting about the eye contact thing - I was watching our cat and next door's in our garden the other day, and noticed that our cat slowly put her head down and looked away from next door's, which seemed to me to indicate submission and perhaps if not fear then certainly timidity. And next door's is smaller and a newcomer!
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about cats, but with dogs, a well balanced dog will look at other dogs and then look away which is totally non confrontational. Agressive dogs will not break eye contact. I had a deaf collie so I had to learn dog body language to help train her to hand signals, it was fascinating. X
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness what a lovely story and I am so impressed that you learnt to speak 'dog body language' with hand signals! xx
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