Tons to see here. First, let me state that I let a lot of this go much longer than I usually would because there was so much cool communication going on. Loon is a high energy, sensitive, intense dog who is pretty easily overwhelmed and copes with feeling overwhelmed by movement if possible. So she will try to turn something into a game of chase because she is very fast and feels less trapped in movement. I’m working on her feeling better about standing her ground and remaining calmer, but we have a long ways to go. She has recently started facing off and backing dogs out of her space if they insist on overwhelming her, and I allow it to a degree because I believe it improves her confidence. Mars, the young German Shepherd, is very pushy and rude, and is much too intense for sensitive Loon. Loon tries to use movement to lower the pressure, but Mars doesn’t back off her intensity. It may seem like Loon is inviting Mars to play, but she’s actually trying to diffuse the intensity from Mars through play until it doesn’t work. Enter Whimsy, my brilliant happy-go-lucky, middle-of-the-pack mediator. You can see her repeatedly stepping between to diffuse. Sometimes she corrects and body checks. Other times she tries to draw attention to herself into play, all to diffuse the energy. The other mixed breed Callie tries to help with that. She’s also a good middle with great social skills. And finally, you see the Jack Russell Billie come over and mount Loon, trying to bring her energy back down. She stays there long enough to see Loon settle a bit. Most of the time I will intervene much sooner to keep the energy from becoming that intense. But if I miss something, these helper dogs are quick to let me know that the energy needs to come down. In the case of Loon and Mars, Loon does not have the natural confidence to effectively match Mars’ intensity and effectively shift her energy. So I will be stepping into back up her communication right away so that Loon feels sa
Tahoe friends! Looks like too much weather uncertainty for me to make it up this week. The next class will be planned for two weeks from now. Stay warm!
Dog behavior and training using dog psychology and based on mutual understanding, communication and trust.
