Proud Mama

Jack has been making some really big improvements since we moved here. He is our most fearful dog. When we got him, he was afraid of men, children, other dogs, loud noises, car rides, leashes, collars, shoes...if I thought hard enough, I could probably think of other things as well but that's good enough. Some of those problems have disappeared, others, he's still working on. The thing he's really improved on recently is with other dogs.

Not too long before moving here (before the accident) I was on our daily walk. I walked all three dogs together out there because we almost never ran into anyone on the road we used and since I only had to do one walk, they were able to get a longer walk. A woman walked by walking a dog. The dogs went crazy and Jack, who was wearing a head collar too big for him managed to get out of the collar. He ran straight for the woman's dog and latched onto one of his legs. The woman was screaming and trying to pick up her dog. I'm surprised she didn't really kick Jack good. Jack let go and ran back to me. I almost grabbed his regular collar but he ran back toward the dog. This time, he just circled it barking like crazy. I'm sure the woman thought I was a jerk letting Jack torment her and her dog like that but if I got close enough to get Jack, then Bear would be close enough to get in on the action so I had to wait until Jack came to me. It was a pretty helpless feeling for me and I wasn't even the one being attacked! Once I got ahold of Jack, I asked her if she and her dog were ok. She said they were fine and the dog wasn't limping when they walked away.

But now you'll still see Jack, and the other two, barking at any dog that goes by the yard but once Jack gets out of the yard and starts walking, he almost couldn't care less about the dogs he sees. He will look at them as we walk by but there's no pulling, charging or barking...there is some freezing though sometimes. I give him a minute to freeze in place then I'll grab his attention and he usually doesn't have a problem moving on at that point. We walked past a house where there was a dog in the driveway with no person around. Jack saw him and stopped. The dog stood up and started walking toward us. It only walked a couple of steps before stopping. Jack just kept his eyes on him but sat down. He never barked or growled. The other dog lost interest and walked away to the back yard. Jack watched him walk away then got up and continued walking with me. The walks are so much more calm now and I'm so proud of the progress he's making.