I have discussed some of Boss' issues on the forum before. He is very reserved with strangers, especially if he is on leash. Last night at the store he lunged at a woman, something he usually does not do.. he saves that for men. Right after that, he sat and let his favorite worker at the store pet him for about 5 minutes, but once in the middle of being petted, he snarled at him too. (he had his muzzle on) Most of his problems with meeting people are when he is on leash and has his muzzle on.
I know he needs to see a behaviorist, and as much as I hate to say it I haven't had the money before to do it. I've got the opportunity to do it soon with the profit I'm making from the sale of my house.
My question is this. Boss is very dependent on routine and doesn't like change very well at all. When we moved here we made huge backward steps with chewing issues and after holes in my couch, many lost pairs of shoes, holes in 3 mattresses, etc. he was again crated when I went to work and had to be on leash in the house when I was home. He finally settled in and had developed a routine that he thrives on. Bringing Gracie in the house worked for us mostly I believe because I made no changes in Boss' routine other than that Gracie wakes up earlier than Boss.
I did everything I could to keep it routine for him when she came. Even though he doesn't really use his crate anymore and I needed one for Gracie, I never used his for her because it would be out of the norm for him, etc.
I've started to pack and Boss is noticing something is up and I've seen small changes in his behavior. He's a little more clingy and sometimes seems restless.. wandering around the house for no apparant reason.
I am a creature of habit myself and I don't always deal well with change. My routine is the same pretty much every day. I go to work at the same time every day, I take my college classes online so I'm home every evening.
Aside from the packing and changes at home, I'm going to have to start going out and looking at houses soon and other things involved in house hunting and buying so the routine will be different around here some nights. I'm going to be feeling stress over this move myself.
Would it be wise to wait until after we are in the new house and resumed the normal household routine before I introduce the concept of the behaviorist and training?
I don't put Boss in situations where he can hurt anyone. He's not aggressive with me or the main people in his life, usually just strange men and not even all the time then. I have resigned myself to the fact that he will never go to dog parks, never be in situations where he or anyone else is in danger. We are still working on trust issues at home too. He still bears mental scars from the abuse. Even though I do not use physical corrections on him, there are times that if I move a certain way or raise up anything like a broom or something around him he will cower down like he's preparing for a beating.
The purpose of my wanting him to see a behaviorist is that I would like to not have to be so worried what his reaction will be to people. I want reliability in his reactions. I work on things with him at home to build his confidence and I do clicker training with him. He also has jobs to do at home, such as his job to turn the light on when he goes outside (motion sensor he has been trained to trigger), he has jobs to watch out for Gracie, etc. Should I continue on this path until we are moved and somewhat settled?
For anyone who doesn't know his background: Boss was kept in a small crate inside a closet (door closed) for the first 8 months of his life by my old neighbor. He couldn't even stand up or turn around in the crate. He was not properly socialized, he was beaten up to and including a broken front leg, he was fed a crappy diet when he was fed. He only weighed 30 pounds at 8 months old when I took him in, he was forced to pee and poop in his crate and did eat it. His leg never healed properly and his elbow is out of wack and does cause him pain when it rains or gets cold.
I've had him for a year now and he has come a long way. He has learned his basic commands, and has picked up on other things as well. He is very smart and loves to please. I have been able to work him through some issues of dog aggression. We do use NILF
When I look back on things, he has more of a problem meeting new people now than he did when I first brought him home. We took major steps back when he had to go to the vet with a puncture hole in his eye, and it doesn't help that since buying my house a store was built on the other side of our fence. The people who go to the store taunt him through the fence and so do some of the workers over there. They make funny noises at him, hit the fence and try to tease him and then laugh when he lunges at the fence and barks. That was another thing I wondered about. If the trainer comes here and wants to work outside with him, there will be distractions of cars in and out of the parking lot all day and the fact that there is more construction going on behind my house now too as they build more stores.
I won't get the money from the sale for another month anyways, and then the real fun starts.. looking for a house and all that. I'm not trying to justify waiting. I just want to do what will be best for Boss without causing him any undue stress. I worry that if I don't get the timing just right to introduce something new to his life that it will be worse for him.
Okay, any thoughts now that I have babbled???