17/12/2024
Who doesn't love a nice success story?
These two dogs live in the same complex. The big one is Percy, the little one is Luna.
Over time Luna decided she absolutely hated Percy. Which is not uncommon, for a dog to have very strong feelings about certain dogs in their neighborhood. Unfortunately, however, these two live a few doors apart, and see each other often.
Every time that Percy walked past Luna's home, even with no access to the windows, Luna would sense his presence and go crazy. If she saw him, even from a distance outside, she would go nuts. It had gotten to a point where it was quite stressful and dramatic. She had also begun to associate any of Percy's people as a threat as well.
Percy is a really friendly dog. His humans, equally lovely.
Luna is an adorable, sweet, intelligent and friendly dog. Her humans, equally awesome.
No one was doing anything wrong, but the situation was really awful for everyone.
We started off working on skill building for Luna. How to walk on a leash without pulling, impulse control, an emergency stop, recall, and how to respond to leash tension.
We then started working the dogs in each other's presence but from a distance.
But the big win was taking them away from their territory, and doing a big parallel walk together, keeping their attention off of each other, and on their humans. Working on timing of communication, when to redirect attention, and when to allow curiosity and proximity.
We then took those same principles and did the same exercises back in front of their homes.
They were able to walk side by side, happily, and peacefully. They were even able to just hang out in each other's presence without any management, trusting each other to make good choices.
There likely will still be some big emotions the next time Luna sees Percy, as old habits die hard, but we are confident now that they are able to coexist, and their humans know exactly how to help them work through it quickly if needed.
Does your dog have any enemies in the neighborhood? It's really common for them to decide that one specific dog is a huge threat.
Reach out if you want help!