Baby steps....

We walked Axl and Lola again last night and it was better than Thursday night. I do believe that they will get back to where they were quicker than it took to get there. I'm also going to that seminar tonight and hopefully I will learn something. I really wish I could afford to take him somewhere and have a professional help me, but it's too expensive and we are broke right now. Too bad they didn't have Online Schools for dog training but then I'm not sure that would work. Your instructor really needs to see what you are doing in dog training. Anyway, I'm trying very hard to be patient. One thing that kind of ticks me off is my husband. He doesn't seem to get that they won't get better on their own. We have to train them and do things in order for them to get better. For example, there are 2 new dogs on our walk that bark at us as we go by. When dogs bark at him Axl gets a little nuts (moreso now). So before we get to the dogs I start feeding Axl treats. This puts him in a good frame of mind, so to speak, and when the dogs start barking I just keep feeding him treats. I can see it working. When I do that he doesn't whine and cry and go crazy at the end of the leash. Instead he looks at the dogs then looks at me for more treats. He doesn't get all excited, just a little bit tense, but then calms down almost immediately and we go on our merry way. Hubby doesn't seem to understand that we have to do that every single time we pass a barking dog. We can't do it once or twice, every single time. And quite frankly, I'm committed to doing it for the rest of their lives if I need to, but I don't think I will. I'm willing to do whatever it takes for however long it takes until Axl is comfortable and understands the world is a safe place for him.