Training

So I've talked a bit about the behaviorist now lets talk about the trainer.

We go to training every Tuesday evening and let me tell you Tuesday evenings are my least favorite. Watching my trainer with my dog is terrifying to me. That woman is fearless and I'm lucky to have found her.

So the first session she tells me, "give me the dog," and I'm like I don't think this is a good idea, he's not ready. She very nicely but very firmly told me to shut up and sit down. She then proceeded to touch Chingu which he of course didn't like and didn't handle well and he tried to bite her. Since he was muzzled he was unable to be successful and she didn't flinch at all. She then started to do this dog massage stuff and within 5 minutes he was relaxed, calm, and OK with her touching him. I was in awe.

Now normally I'd be like doggy massage? Then I would roll my eyes and call it voodoo. Well I became a convert that day. I give Chingu a massage every night before bedtime and not only does it strengthen our bond but some of these touches really do help calm him down in stressful situations. It also helps him to learn touch from people is positive not negative.

So at this point I was hooked, but watching Chingu bite (which he always does at least once every session) is hard for me. Its hard for me to watch him be like that and I of course only want to put him in situations where I know he can't fail. This lady though in every session pushes him to the edge which is terrifying at times to watch.

But while its scary to watch every time she's pushed he's succeeded.

Tonight we went there and there were two other dogs present. A chocolate lab and an English-mastiff-mix (enormous!) and she asked to take the leads from me and she started walking him around the room.

It was so scary. When we walk I'm terrified of running into off leash dogs and a dog fight breaking out. Chingu doesn't speak 'dog' very well and I know he'll be aggressive on a leash. He also always lunges and pulls when we see other dogs. Well this time he only tried to lunge once and actually sat calmly next to the other dogs! For him this is huge. Not only that but he went nose to nose with the dogs and has started to learn to actually be civil to other dogs. The mastiff did sniff his butt which he didn't like and he did try to bite at that but aside from that he's backed down to growls and snarls. Sure the growling and snarling aren't pleasant to hear but his warning system is kicking in before he bites and thats fantastic. I'd love for him to start growling regularly rather than bite 'without warning'.

But Chingu is making huge strides and he's done this all within about a 2 month time frame. I think about where I was 8 weeks ago with that vet saying I'd probably need to put him down to a point now where he can calmly sit next to other dogs and people without lunging and his bite threshold improving and I'm just so proud of him. He of course still can't be trusted off a muzzle and he will probably have to wear it for a long long time before he can have that trust but yay for Chingu. So I think the lesson that keeps being reinforced as we progress each week is never give up.