10/07/2024
Huge shout out to Colleen, Brandon, and Jasper (with some help from Pancake) for their continued hard work! Jasper is dog reactive and, admittedly, his mama suffered from some fear and anxiety regarding this. After working soo hard for a couple of months on being the leader and walking correctly, etc., the first amazing piece of news is that Jasper is now entire OFF PROZAC!!! Hooray! Behavioral training really works!! No more meds! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
In addition to this, we worked on giving Jasper (and his mama) time and space to conquer their anxieties today. So much of the time, we are in such a rush to make change happen right away. A critical part of change is slowing down and giving your dog time to get comfortable in his environment before trying to conquer a new trigger. Take your time! Be patient. Breathe. Walk around and just BE for a while. Look at the progression of the proximity of Jasper to Pancake as the time went by. He starting far away and barking incessantly. After about 10 minutes, they were 10 feet apart. Five minutes after that, they were five apart, and so on. Then we walked. Walking makes dogs friends (when done the correct way). By the end, Pancake was in Jasper’s house, and they happily coexisted, completely relaxed for almost the entire time.
Key take aways… your dog may not need meds!
Patience and calmness are so important when training. Trust. Believe in yourself and your dog.
Way to go, Jasper and crew! You have one proud trainer here!