Oh Hey Zoey!

Zoey had an interesting walk today. We started off on a bad note when the elevator opened on the way down, and she was too LOUD (despite corrections) for the two women to want to enter. I apologized.

Once we got outside the walk went well, we walked all the way up to the park … but then we met another puppy. This time the puppy seemed in a good state of mind, so I let her sniff to say hello, but the little boy with the dog kept saying “she’s going to bark, she’s going to bark!” about her dog, so I think they both became tense (as did I). When I pulled her away, Zoey flipped and started aggressively barking again. I pulled her away, and it took a minute to get her calm, she was extremely vocal and made a big scene.

We finished walking around the park, and since there weren’t any people around I decided we would play in the open area there. We had a good chunk of intense playing, and I even felt comfortable letting go of the leash for a bit, when there weren’t others walking on the path.

Towards the end I think she got a little worked up as she was getting more tired. At one point she lunged toward a guy walking on the path, barking (but not her usual aggressive barking). I reigned her back in w/the rope using the same correction as the prong collar, then we just sat for a few minutes to get her back to being calm. We left shortly after.

On the way back things seemed a little better. She completely ignored a man in a hood walking past us, and a granny on a scooter passing us at the same time as a runner, so those were both good instances.

Finally we were inside and I sat her down to grab the mail, but a man came out of the stairway. I heard him coming and moved her out of the way, but she of course shrieked when he came out, and we managed to startle him.

Hopefully this afternoon/evening’s walks will go a little more smoothly!

Zoey did really well today, we went to the park on two of our walks. On the first walk she handled a guy that was goofing off and running all over the place on the street — this normally would have freaked her out and caused her to bark, but she completely ignored him.

We were able to relax and sit on the rocks for awhile — normally she would be calm for awhile, but the longer we sat there and she observed things going on, the more nervous she would get — today she did great, even when dogs were walking by. When we got up and left there was a doberman right behind her on the path — this dog has set her off before — and although she wanted to look back at him, overall she handled it so well and when she stopped to go to the bathroom, the dog was able to pass us without her getting nervous.

Later in the evening I finally got her rope set up, so we were able to go up the street to the park where we played soccer for a good 45 minutes. She didn’t want to play her favorite game of fetch with the “donut” but the ball definitely kept her attention, so she was able to have a great time and finally got exhausted. I didn’t let go of the rope this time because there was another dog in the park and I didn’t want to push my luck, but I think next time we’re there without any other dogs I’ll see how it goes without holding on to the rope. 

Finally, she’s still struggling a bit with remembering not to go ahead of me, but she’s not pulling on the lead, and overall is doing really well. Hooray!

Today we walked up to the park, and were able to relax there while other dogs were roaming the park. She didn’t seemed bothered by them in the slightest, which was really nice.

We were able to pass several runners today, and she’s doing well with keeping by my side, though she still wants to go ahead of me.

When we came to our corner a lady who lives in our building was waiting to cross the street. She’s definitely seen Zoey before, and expected her to freak out, but we were able to enter the building and hold both doors for her with only minimal whining. Overall it was a really great second experience with meeting someone while in our building.

Today we had our first experience coming across someone in the building. When we got to the elevator my (male) neighbor and his (female) friend were coming out of their apartment. At first Zoey started barking, and I had to correct her several times (I felt like I looked so mean!), but she was able to calm down while we waited for the elevator, we were able to get in the elevator with them, and ride down peacefully.

She mostly ignored my neighbor the whole ride down, but decided she wanted to sniff the female friend, so I let her check out her shoes.

When we hit the first floor, the elevator door opened and another (female) tenant of the building appeared. Normally this would have freaked Zoey out (and we’ve run across the lady before, so she actually flinched when Zoey appeared), but Zoey gave no reaction, and we were able to exit the elevator and pass the lady without any problem. Overall the experience was a great success!

She’s also gotten a lot better about not whining/crying in the lobby when we’re headed towards the door. She sometimes will still wimper, on the way down the elevator, but it’s barely audible, and significantly better than before.

We had a good afternoon walk — when we first got out we had to cross paths with another dog for the first time. Zoey did well at first until it seemed that the other dog didn’t want to be friendly and was struggling to behave as well. So as we got closer Zoey broke out in aggressive barking, but I quickly corrected her. She accelerated very quickly, but I got her to calm down faster than ever (even with a guy on roller blades going by, a big trigger!) and we got to continue the walk calmly instead of all worked up.

Shortly after we were able to pass two other dogs with no problems, and one more on the walk back.

She handled a busy, animated group of squirrels really well!

Finally, I had to put her in her first “Time Out” for barking out the window. It seemed to be affective, woot!

Zoey’s been doing so well on her walks! She struggles a little bit with remembering not to go ahead of me, but overall she’s been doing so well so far. I’ve noticed that a lot of the time when she’s thinking about going ahead she’ll stop herself then look at me instead, before I have to correct her.

Other than that, none of her other triggers have set her off yet. We haven’t ended up coming too near other dogs yet, but she hasn’t even paid attention to the one’s we’ve seen from a distance! We’ve also had no trouble with joggers, men, or squirrels.

The not being on the bed has been a big adjustment for her (and me!). I’ve had to kick her off a lot, but I think she’s starting to get it. I see her checking herself then turning away or looking at me as if to ask permission instead, which is good.

We pretty much have a word for everything already, but we’ve been working on “behind” when I want her to switch sides by going behind me on walks, and started “over” for jumping over things (vs. “up” which is for jumping on things).

We’re still figuring out which side of the body works best for walks, but on the right side seems to feel more natural.

For the elevator/lobby — we haven’t come across anyone yet, but virtually all whining in both the elevator and lobby have stopped — hooray!