So much calmer

[TxPepper]

I've been stepping up Luna's training a bit, taking her to our neighborhood park twice a day when it's at it's crowdedist. I've also been feeding Luna every bit of her breakfast and dinner when she sees another dog, as well as practicing with the leash.

Today, we saw probably a total of 16 dogs and she didn't even lunge or bark or anything. I didn't expect for it to be that much but we were there and then 3 dogs would come out of nowhere. I can't just keep feeding her food because she starts getting really spaztic anyways, ignoring it even if it's cheese or smoked chicken. So when she sees another dog she will freeze and look at it, and then I'll drop kibble right in front of her face. She enjoys sniffing it out so much that she almost completely forgets the other dog. Now when she sees another dog she often looks up at me all happy, waiting to play the sniffing game. I noticed that she likes to be working when she's around other dogs. When we took an agility class (a loonnnggg time ago) we got kicked out because Luna started freaking out every time the instructor stopped us to talk. If she was running through tunnels she was wayyy better with the other dogs, so yay!

I'm noticing for the first time how much my mood affects her. If someone I don't like is at the door, then she's snarling at them but if it's someone I do like then she barks all excited. The second I get upset when doing leash work with her (I still hate it passionatly) then she starts getting frustrated and keeps lunging forward. I have keep my brain "Shut down" so I don't get angry with her. She's doing so much better now.

[chay]

great to hear txpepper!! its amazing how much dogs pick up on in terms of our moods, isn't it?