The Little Bear Dog Blog

Little Bear

The thing about our modern pace of life is that we often allow it to rob us of our triumphs. We write a challenging report, cook a fantastic meal or haul ourselves to the gym on a wet Monday night and instead of taking a moment to metaphorically pat ourselves on the back, we’re off, rocketing onto the next thing on the never-ending to do list.

Maybe it’s a sign of getting older but I’ve developed a bit of a leaning for books which depict a slower pace of life.  The excellent ‘Cat Who’ books by Lillian Jackson Braun, although crime books, have a relaxed charm that make me hanker for a lifestyle which is walked as opposed to sprinted.

Anyway, now that I’m feeling decidedly pedestrian, I’ll get to the point.  Little Bear is doing brilliantly. I just took a few minutes to bask in that statement and cuddle him for all his hard work.  In fact, he’s been doing brilliantly for weeks but of course “I’ve not had time…” to reflect on it yet alone write about it.

Reactivity

The main progress is in his reactivity to other dogs. We’re now at the stage where 85% of the time, if he sees another dog across the road he’ll whine and look at me instead of launching into a full out bark-fest.  It’s not foolproof, other dogs barking at him is something he can’t ignore and he still can’t stand puppies but it’s progress and that’s fine with me.

Persistence and consistency with the clicker training plus I hope, slightly better timing than I had before means that if I can get in with a better alternative before he rapidly runs out of coping strategies and resorts to barking and lunging, we’re in with a good chance.

We use ‘watch me’ and ‘find it’ for treats as distractions but I’m careful to make sure that the food is a reward for non-reactivity; get the timing wrong and it’s easy to end up rewarding and therefore reinforcing what you don’t want.

So that’s my moment and Little Bear’s triumph and now that I’ve taken the time to reflect and record it, I’m going to go give him another cuddle.