Cherokee update

    • Gold Top Dog

    Cherokee update

    Yeah, I know I kind of lost it in my last thread about Cherokee's behavior, but I figure this one's okay because I'm not asking for advice (which doesn't mean you can't offer constructive advice if you see a reason to..but constructive is the key word, please). Wink

    We've been working on her aggression almost every day. Mostly dog-aggression so far, because it's a little easier to work on, but somehow becoming less aggressive towards dogs is making her less aggressive towards people. I guess it's not really terribly surprising, aggression is aggression, but I guess I thought they were pretty separate problems.

    Anywho.. We've gotten to the point where on walks, she barely even looks twice at calm dogs a certain distance away. She glances at them, and her sniffing gets a little more..frantic, but there's no aggression at all. However we haven't really had a chance to work around NOT calm dogs, because it's just so happened that every dog we see is calm and disinterested in her, at least at that distance (I'm not good at guesstimating distances, but it's probably like 40 feet..which is GREAT for this dog. It used to be if a dog so much as glanced her way from 300  feet, she'd lose it. And actually we just haven't gotten any closer than that yet, so she might be perfectly fine even closer..).

    So the day before yesterday we were walking through our park (I'm certainly not brave enough to walk around my neighborhood yet..too many barking crazy frustrated dogs), and this lady was walking with a boxer in a muzzle. We were on one side of the road that goes through the park, and they were on the other, so I'd say about..40-45 feet away, going in the other direction. Boxer was frantic. Yanking on his leash, whining like crazy (and I KNOW that whine..it's an "I'm way too excited and I'm about to get aggressive" whine). I was a little worried, but I kept the leash nice and loose, and acted like it was nothing.

    And my dog? Oh... Cherokee? You want to know what Cherokee did? NOTHING. Just kept on walking. Sniffing got a little more excited, like it does around ANY dog at that distance, she bounced to the end of her leash a couple times (in front of us though, not towards the boxer at all), but then she bounced back..she let out the teeniest of whimpers at one point, but that's IT. No lunging, no snarling, no barking, no trying to yank me towards the dog, nor yank me forward.. Of course, stupid me is so caught up in that moment that I forgot to even reward her while this was going on (meanwhile I have a pocket full of pork, LOL!), but she was probably so into her sniffing that she wouldn't have taken it anyway. It was a little above threshold, and I'd really have preferred it weren't, but at that point there was nothing I could do. Right after we got past the dog, I got my head back and gave her a handful of pork.

    I'm just so proud of Miss Cherokee that I had to share. Big Smile

    • Gold Top Dog

    I think you have learned the distance and timing that allows her to re-condition. Any journey starts with a single step, no matter the size of the step. And now you know what I mean about rewarding for nothing. That "nothing" is a behavior that can be reinforced.

    Congrats to you and Cherokee.

     

    • Gold Top Dog

    Congratulations, Cherokee, for learning to be calm (and getting handfuls of pork. YUM!). 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Wow, that's awesome! Congratulations!!!!! 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Good for you and Cherokee -- great results!!

    • Gold Top Dog

    Awesome!!  Congrats! 

    • Gold Top Dog

     Bravo Cherokee!! Big Smile
     

    • Gold Top Dog

    That's GREAT!  Yay Cherokee - keep up the good work!!

    • Gold Top Dog

    WTG Cherokee!!

    • Gold Top Dog

    Good girl, Cherokee!  Keep it up!!Yes

    • Gold Top Dog

    ron2

    I think you have learned the distance and timing that allows her to re-condition. Any journey starts with a single step, no matter the size of the step. And now you know what I mean about rewarding for nothing. That "nothing" is a behavior that can be reinforced.

    Congrats to you and Cherokee.

     

     

    Ditto - and GOOD GIRL, CHEROKEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!