Now I'm not much of a braggart by nature, but I just can't help feeling so immensley proud of my dogs' behavior as of late. [
] For years I've been battling against Cairo's fear aggression toward dogs on walks and never thought I would ever manage to control his obnoxious howling/snarling/straining at the leash. I've been working on this forever...fueled on by my own embarassment for having caused this in him from lack of socialization as a pup. I tried many different tactics and eventually I came down to the method I use today. I've learned how important it is to stay on my toes while on walks and make sure
I see a dog coming before Cairo does. I've learned to watch Cairo extremely closely as we approach and how to recognize his "fixation language" when he fixates on that other dog right before he lunges and howls. I've found that if I catch it early enough I can snap him out of it with a light correction on the leash and a "Cairo,
leave it." And if he starts fixating again I just turn him right around and walk the other direction and make sure he keeps looking straight ahead. I've also learned that giving positive reinforcement rather than constant correction and yelling is SO much more effective not necessarily because it helps Cairo learn, but because it helps me to stay positive and thus make the walk more enjoyable for both of us. Finally, finally, finally have we gotten to the point where he will usually look away on his own when I say Leave It (though there are exceptions such as when the dog is right in front of us coming straight at us - and how can I expect him to look away too easily then anyways?), and if I have to turn him around, he almost immediately calms down and relaxes again.
Cairo's problems have always made it impossible for me to walk the dogs together because he gets so much worse when Nikki's involved, almost like he has to growl more, bark louder, and pull harder than she does. A few days ago I felt comfortable enough to attempt to walk them both together for the first time in years, and yes, we had some minor exploding at the dogs we passed. I tried again the next day, and, feeling a little more confident in myself that I could handle this and we
could learn to do this, I was amazed to find that I could just turn right around and walk the other way and our problems would cease. In fact, Nikki was more problematic than Cairo, but only in the sense that she kept swiveling around to watch the dog behind us. Today I even ventured to try something I've always stayed away from because it never ends up well - to bring Cairo to a local park with woodland trails and always a lot of dogs. Well, Cairo did wonderfully - only one minute growl when we walked fairly close by a large Akita, and he got a wonderful hour and a half long jaunt (which has reduced him to a bump on a log for the rest of the day) and I was so pleased that I brought him home, swapped dogs, and went back with Nikki to walk the same trail alongside my friend's little terrier (or is that terror?), Merlin. She did just as well as Cairo and ignored the potentially aggressive Merlin and we even had them walking side by side many times [
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I just feel so overwhelmingly good about the whole situation and I am so absurdly proud of my hounds...I feel like now I can give them so much more exercise per day now that they can go together, and indeed I've been able to wear them out each day since I started doing this. I'm pleased to say that I actually look forward to encountering other dogs on walks because it poses a challenge that I know we can beat if we play the cards right. I'm sure the road will still be bumpy from here, we'll have good days and bad ones, but at least now I know that my final goal is indeed possible, and perhaps, not as far into the future as I'd originally thought. And mayhaps this will give some hope to those of you who have been having similar problems with your own dogs [
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