It's raining outside and so I thought it was a good time to update the world on Coco. So, we'll do a good story and a bad story. The good story is that earlier this week we were on a walk and we met a neighbor of mine that has experience with bull breeds and who loves Coco. For the first time, Coco ran over to her and let both her and her daughter pet her without a fuss. Now, let me say that again, a CHILD pet my fierce dog! Coco sat at her feet, threw her shoulders back, half closed her eye and looked ever so pleased with herself. 
It was so cute and so funny that I have the image permanently burned into my brain. Good for you Coco!
The bad news is that Coco's aggression, which seemed to be on a downswing since the end of Rowdy Rover has come back to the surface. Today, she saw some birds, and wanted to eat them. Even though she was on her no-pull leash, it took both hands to hold her back from the bush and no pleading or scolding could get her to knock it off. I gotta say, we didn't talk for a little bit after that episode. I really feel frustrated with the dog training books and the advice I've gotten from trainers. Distracting her works when she is say at a "7" on a scale of 1-10. Then clicking and touching and sitting and "find it" work great. But when she makes it to 10, like when there are birds, or another dog barks at her on her walk, I can't break through. Her eye turns red and she just looses it.
I read in a dog book today that stress hormones take a week to get out of someone's system. And that reactive dogs in apartment complexes are almost impossible to treat because they are constantly agitated so they constantly have stress hormone in their blood. I think my next idea is to try these calming pheremones and see if I can get Coco to be more relaxed at home. Then maybe when she sees stimuli outside it won't be so shocking to her.
It was so cute and so funny that I have the image permanently burned into my brain. Good for you Coco!The bad news is that Coco's aggression, which seemed to be on a downswing since the end of Rowdy Rover has come back to the surface. Today, she saw some birds, and wanted to eat them. Even though she was on her no-pull leash, it took both hands to hold her back from the bush and no pleading or scolding could get her to knock it off. I gotta say, we didn't talk for a little bit after that episode. I really feel frustrated with the dog training books and the advice I've gotten from trainers. Distracting her works when she is say at a "7" on a scale of 1-10. Then clicking and touching and sitting and "find it" work great. But when she makes it to 10, like when there are birds, or another dog barks at her on her walk, I can't break through. Her eye turns red and she just looses it.
I read in a dog book today that stress hormones take a week to get out of someone's system. And that reactive dogs in apartment complexes are almost impossible to treat because they are constantly agitated so they constantly have stress hormone in their blood. I think my next idea is to try these calming pheremones and see if I can get Coco to be more relaxed at home. Then maybe when she sees stimuli outside it won't be so shocking to her.
2 comments:
Awww, it's to bad she gets so worked up, is she going out each day for a walk? That helped sophie and jack a ton.
I hope something works, she is so cute, she shouldn't get worked up :D
She gets 1-3 walks a day, but they are short. I talked with my friend who is a dog behaviorist and she gave me a new book to try. Thanks for thinking of us!
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