On New Year's Eve I was watching the Dog Whisperer - they were running a marathon I think because there were a lot of them on. Anyway, one of the folks had a border collie that acted exactly the same way Axl does on the leash. This dog would look all aggressive and lunge and try to get at other dogs whenever it was on a leash. That's exactly what Axl does!!! It even made the same kind of sounds Axl does. Needless to say I watched this episode with great interest. Everything that Cesar told these owners to do is what my trainer had told us to do. That made me feel good. At the end of the show when they do a little recap of the dogs, the border collie's owner said it had been a few months and progress was slow but it was happening. That made me feel great. That's what I was worried about. Progress with Axl is being made but it is so slow I was wondering if I'm doing something wrong. But it appears that this type of situation just takes time. It was funny because my trainer told us that pit bulls (Axl) and border collies (that dog) are more prone to this type of behavior. These breeds are so hypersensitive to their environments that if they are a little off they get like this. So I think we are doing just fine. I'm no Dog Whisperer but we are making progress and that's all I can ask right now.
Now for something completely different.....New Year's Eve turned out to be not at all as I expected. Fireworks are legal here and the street I live on becomes a war zone on New Year's Eve. You cannot drive down the street it is so filled with smoke. And the noise....forget about it..... So I was a little worried that Axl would react badly to all the noise and lights. I was wrong. Axl pretty much slept through the entire thing. Once or twice we walked out to the street to look and Axl was curious about the lights and noise but it did not bother him in the least. Lola was another story. She became a 60 lb lap dog. She was panting and breathing hard and really not happy with all the noise and lights. I tried everything I could think of to help her. I had the TV on really loud - that didn't help. I turned on my computer and my netbooks and played music really loud - that didn't help. Finally, we realized that if we went in the bedroom, closed the windows and turned on the light she calmed down. So we laid in bed with all the lights on until things calmed down around 1:30am. I will be glad to be in the new place next new years. I think it's going to be a lot quieter.
No comments:
Post a Comment