The dog next door and lure course raceing

[jacksdad]

I am sooooo proud of Jack. last night he had the best response to one of our neighbors and his dog yet. Despite all his progress, there are a couple dogs in our neighborhood that Jack still completely flips out over. To date he has had 2 good encounters. both were surprises. meaning we came around the corner and there the other dog was. both time Jack stayed calm and gave play bows. But if he has seen them in the distance he gets worked up very quickly. Last night was the first time Jack saw the dog coming and didn't flip out. We were walking back from his final potty break for the day and as we past the other dog's house out they came. bad timing normally. but this time Jack stopped looked, was loose and calm...I am thinking "oh, maybe jack is ok with this dog now...." then suddenly he stiffened up and I am thinking oh great...but before I could react he gave one bark, turned and gave me an auto watch, took his treat and we started walking away. Even though every time he looked over his shoulder back at the other dog Jack would give a single bark and turn back to me and keep walking, this is the calmest he has ever been when he has not been "surprised" by this dog.

I am actually starting to think the issue might be with the big tall human that walks the dog Jack has issues with rather than the dog it's self. on Christmas day my neighbor's father was walking the dog, and Jack had a somewhat "surprise" encounter and gave a play bow and stayed calm and wanted to play. This was one of the two other encounters.

Then today, I took Jack to his first Lure Course Race event. he did sooooo good. I am very proud of him. we were there only about 3 hours, he ran 5 times (not in a row, we all rotated turns), and the rest of the time we had to wait in the parking lot with the other dogs. when we got there he was very excited by all he people and dogs. about 10 - 15 dogs and close to 20 people. I just kept walking him around, doing watch, let him sniff etc. He did calm down though. By the end of the three hours I suspect some of his calm was moving into a case of sensory over load. I am undecided if he enjoyed it or not. I will probably take him a couple more times as these only happen once a month. I won't keep taking him if he doesn't seem to enjoy it and just seems to be going through the motions. While he has dealt with a lot more dogs then this on an outing and done just fine and showed all the signs of having enjoyed him self, there was defiantly a different vibe to this verse the beach.

I have been waiting a year to try this. Jack soooo loves to run my thought was this would allow him to have an all out run while chasing something. 3 or 4 times this past summer/fall I thought he was ready, but either something didn't feel right or we would have a set back just about the time of the month they hold the races.

Here is Jacks final run of the day. I kept hitting the power button rather then record on my camera so this is the only good recording of an entire race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duGxWmX9IJs

here is some footage of jack just hanging out and dealing with everything going on around him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeZbHuWeCVE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aHvre8Ov_Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku8FUgAPOOc

there are a few other videos of today posted here

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSpazzydog

[Fundog]

Wow! You have good reason to be proud. I still cannot allow Dottie to get as close to other dogs as you allowed Jack to do-- she would hurt them. For some reason, Jack is a lot larger than I envisioned him. Lure coursing looks like a lot of fun. I wonder if Annie would enjoy something like that....

[MPbandmom]

Such good news for Jack!

That is so cool that they have the lure dissapear into a tunnel. We practically had to drag Sky off of the lure when she tried running it one day, and then she peed on it for good measure before giving it up.

My dogs would love to do lure coursing, but I don't know of anyplace around here that does it on such a regular basis. You are lucky that they have that where you are.

[jacksdad]

Wow! You have good reason to be proud. I still cannot allow Dottie to get as close to other dogs as you allowed Jack to do

It was months before I would allow anything close to that. it was only late summer that we really started closing the gap between him and other dogs. the goal being able to pass on the same sidewalk, not so much a meet and greet of every dog. before this point I still measured "close" in yards and I was only starting to back off the avoidance of all dogs at this time and be more selective of what tactic I took. I was constantly "can he or can't he" deal with the dog in the distance..will it come closer or won't it"...oh am I glad those days seem to be behind us for the most part.

his friendship with Luna has been really good for him. couldn't have asked/planned for a better walk buddy for him. her breed is pretty aloof, it's only been this last month she shows any interest in me and she has been walking next to me and Jack 2/3 times a week for a good 4 months now. so while they are happy to see each other, she response much more reserved and physically appears to be "ignoring" him most of the time. which is great for Jack...but if Jack starts fear barking...heck barking in general and she hears him...she comes running. couple times she rushed in and started barking at anyone and everyone that wasn't Jack or me or her "mom". though the other day Jack started barking at some dogs who were barking at him from behind a fence...she gave him a "whatever, they are behind the fence" attitude and walked on calm as could be...jack followed.

getting free time on the beach off leash has helped. in hind sight I might have rushed this a little. now he sometimes forgets we are not at the beach and thinks it's ok to go up to other dogs at will. But it's been a good confidence builder. I have seen him use body blocks with his shoulder to tell another dog to bug off. prior to his association with Luna, I had not seen that. I am pretty sure he learned that from her. so he is also learning to deal with other dogs without having to flip out. of course it doesn't hurt that he also knows I will step in and fend off the dogs he can't or isn't ready to deal with. with only a couple of exceptions the dogs at the beach clue in real fast when I just place my self between them and jack or I body block them. Almost never have to do it physically, just take up space and give them a good hard look.

This time last year non of this would have been possible.

[jacksdad]

Such good news for Jack!

That is so cool that they have the lure dissapear into a tunnel. We practically had to drag Sky off of the lure when she tried running it one day, and then she peed on it for good measure before giving it up.

My dogs would love to do lure coursing, but I don't know of anyplace around here that does it on such a regular basis. You are lucky that they have that where you are.

That is funny....peeing on it.

Jack was actually nervous of the machine that ran the lure so when it hit the tunnels he lost interest. but there were other dogs, particularly the terriers that still went after the lure even after it was in the tunnels. they got it too. you could see the people picking up there dogs and the dog not wanting to let go of the lure.

[Noobs]

I'm late replying to this but nevertheless WOW!!! That lure course looks like a great time for Jack. I love him in his tiny Walkeez.

If I could find something like that around here and could actually afford it I would totally try that with Murphy. He loves running too!

[emmabeth]

No idea how much they are in the US but it is possible to buy the machines and i have seen at least one 'pocket' machine for under $100 though no idea how good it is....

The real issue is really finding somewhere to set one up as you obviously wouldnt want loose dogs joining in and potentially kicking off and fighting over it.