Went pretty well. The trainer we saw was the same one we took obedience classes with and her methods are . A lot of what she said I've heard in passing on the porch, (she also went on a tangent about healthy food and vaccination protocol and recommended Dr. Dodds ) and I really, really enjoy talking to her. She ended up spending almost 2 hours with us going through basically his entire life with us and putting pieces together and helping us make a plan of action.

The main thing that made this all worth it to me was that she reassured us that we weren't at his "stopping point" of not being able to move forward anymore and mostly using management to make him comfortable in the world. She said that eventually we'll probably reach that point, where steps forward are few and far between, and he'll never be a "public dog", which we knew already, but that she really thinks we can get him comfortable with people approaching and strangers being around.. oh and hopefully kids. (She wasn't too hopeful about that one, because it's difficult to find kids to use.. but we'll work on that as much as we can without them.) She ALSO said () that his reactions to things while observing him were good. Not because he reacted but the way he reacted- startled and much more flight than fight.

Overall, she gave us lots of tools, books, resources, ideas, alternate routes if something doesn't work for him, contacts, websites, and recommended a new vet as we aren't sure we'll stick with the one we have. The vet is a holistic vet who can help us get some herbal stuff going for anxiety. She had some really great ideas to help him become comfortable around strangers and recommended a thundershirt for when people come in the house.

I think what this whole thing has really done though, is get Josh on board and renew our hope to get us back on track. We WILL make more progress, we just reached the end of our own capabilities without help. I will post here any updates we have and this post didn't even scratch the surface of all the things she gave us to try, advice she gave, etc.. but if it did, this post would take approximately 2 hours to read. So I know there are some people facing similar situations- feel free to ask questions.

I think this is the start of a whole new chapter with Bruno. Here's to hoping it's a good one

It sounds great! Its just so nice to be able to talk to someone and formulate a plan and feel like you know where you are going. I'm sure it was good to hear that she felt you still had potential to move forward, I think that is always good to know. Finding that line of when and what to manage vs try to improve has always been hard for me, and really, with some of our recent improvement, I think I called the line too soon. But I do think one of the most important things we did in that first session we had was set the goals of what things were most important to us to change.

I hope a Thundershirt helps, I've been amazed at how much it has helped Winslow. Flight instead of fight is also good, easier to keep working with. One of the things we did in Winslow's BAT class to help with reactions to kids was the trainer bringing out a toddler size doll to let the dogs react to. Yeah, they knew it wasn't a real kid, but it was a place to start and work forward from.

And a new potential vet with possible herbal anxiety help could also be helpful. I know some people have good results with some things like that and if that can help him, that would be great. Anything to help lower the anxiety level a little so that he can learn is really helpful.

I can't wait to hear how everything goes! If anything works really well, I'd love to know more, we are always on the lookout for something new

Thanks Jamie, it absolutely does help to have gotten a professional opinion. So many things to try and different ways to try them.

Have you read "the Cautious Canine" by Patricia McConnell? It's making a lot of sense to me and I'm formulating a plan based on that book on how to deal with his triggers and turn them from triggers into things to get excited about. It'll take time but I'm hoping it works. I'll post a shortened version when I'm done.

That's a good idea about the doll. I think I'll do that and walk him past the (fenced in) playground and implement the cautious canine techniques. I'm excited to begin and I think that's the main thing.. I'm no longer frustrated, more excited.

I do have the cautious canine. I haven't read it in awhile (funny, I had to look at the cover on Amazon to make sure it was the book I thought it was because Stan is in the room with the books right now and Amazon has a thing on the top of the page telling me I bought it in August 2008 - thanks Amazon LOL) I need to go back and reread it just to remind myself of all it says. I know we did work some on trying to change some triggers into more exciting things. I remember really liking it but not the specifics now, so sounds like a good time for a reread.

Isn't it fun to be excited to be working in a new way? I think we pass that along to the dogs too, its like they are excited to find a new way too

Walking by a fenced playground is a great way to let him see kids without having to be right up on them.

I already have my plan for tomorrow in place. I just hope that I don't get lazy with it. Especially in the heat. It's go time baby.

Go...go...go!!! You can do it!!!!

Ok, I wrote up our plan and sent it to the trainer. She is so great, she got back to me with her thoughts and helped me avoid a mistake! *phew* So that's great, she also knows we have issues with him walking past other dogs without going into full out fits of excitement and it's hard to control when you pass a dog on a walk.. his "look at me's" are solid when it's quiet, but haven't gotten him to watch me while out and about yet so that poses a problem. So, she offered for us to come out and work with her and some of her dogs on walking past while watching me, which will be a great, controlled situation with dogs who won't feed Bruno's excitement. That was so nice of her! She does collie rescue, so she's always got dogs in the house. I just love working with this woman, and have so many good things to say about her.

On to our plan:

We will start by walking Bruno past strangers at a distance and having him focus. Get closer and closer once his automatic reaction when he sees a stranger is to watch us and click/treat every time he looks at us. Once we can soundly walk past strangers without him pulling towards them (He does really want to say Hi, but isn't sure he confidently can yet) then we can work on greeting. But this is the first step. We want him to know that he CAN greet if he wants to, but never has to.

The key here is keeping him "under his threshold".. so basically never letting him get far enough to have much anxiety. The hope is that by keeping that fear/anxious reaction at bay and not pushing his limits, that the reaction of watching us and getting excited that there's a stranger nearby will be his dominant reaction and the fear/anxiety won't be habit anymore. Now, obviously this is going to take a lot of time, and we won't be able to keep him below threshold every single time, but hopefully enough so that he can get out of the habit of just getting way overly excited when he sees people closer than 10 feet, because that excitement makes him anxious, then he gets scared. So we'll start with people 15-20 feet away, then get slightly closer once his watch me reaction is solid, then closer, closer, etc until we can begin working on greeting a stationary person, then a moving person.. etc which we'll use friends with treats for that.

If that made any sense.. yay. Writing it out helps reinforce my own end of the deal, so I know what I need to do. We have a cool coat on the way so I can't use the heat as an excuse not to go out every single day anymore.

That does all make sense Dani. Working with the trainer, keeping B under threshhold - sounds great!

It makes good sense to me. That is great that she offered to let you work with him opposite her dogs. That was always one of the hardest things for me is finding good situations to set him up with. Staying under threshold is a good idea to let him start figuring out that like you said, he doesn't have to greet and doesn't have to get that anxiety started.

Sounds exciting!

I like the idea of having a plan. You're getting me inspired to focus on setting some goals for Obi for this summer/fall.

How is it coming along?

Sounds like a wonderful plan, Dani. How's things going so far? Just remember it's like anything - small steps forward, don't rush things and expect some steps backward too without getting frustrated about it. Building confidence in a dog takes a lot of time and good, repeated exposure to things....routine, routine, routine.

We haven't gotten much accomplished because it's been storming a lot and we're waiting for his head collar, but we're getting "watch me" down better and keeping him walking next to us better, so a start is a start

Thanks for being supportive!

Vicki, can't wait to hear about your progress with Obi!

Remember baby steps make the best progress you can do it!!

Woo! Over an hour of hiking on a very busy trail with lots of stuff that Bruno is afraid of and he didn't react to anything! He got excited over a passing dog, but men, children, bicycles.. etc were no big deal. Even a busy playground! Thank goodness nobody tried to approach him and ruin that.

I'm hoping that just being around those things will help him when it comes time to face them head on