Jeri Wagner, Dog Behavioral Therapist & Master Trainer with Bark Busters Home Dog Training chronicles her dog foster experience in the hopes of inspiring and helping others on their dog foster journey. Read along to follow Jamie’s progress!
Jamie had a pretty good week! I’m really happy with the improvements in her relationships with Craig and Jason. She not only lays with Craig every evening after dinner, she also puts her head under his hand for more pets if he stops. Craig can even walk around the house with little issue – the only time Jamie barks and/or growls is if he enters a room when she is sleeping or if he has food.
Jamie is approaching Jason more often and giving him quick little kisses on his arm or leg as long as he doesn’t reach near her or look directly at her. She will either run away, bark and growl, or lean into me if he makes eye contact with her, however. She is hesitant to move past Jason at times and darts past him if she does, BUT she’s not barking and growling, so I’ll take it. Jason even gave me a hug with Jamie in the room and she just watched without reacting.
I continue to gate the doorway to the guest room where Jamie and I watch an hour of TV each night. Jamie no longer charges the gate when Craig and Jason walk past to go upstairs or into the bathroom, but she will sometimes still bark and give a low growl. I will be using the gate until we can eliminate these kinds of reactions.
This week, I took Jamie on her neighborhood walk without Zoey, who typically provides an example to Jamie in new situations. The first loop around the block took 20+ minutes, as Jamie had a hard time being out front without her. She did her typical “bucking bronco” and froze multiple times, with parked and moving cars being the biggest sources of fear. She walked much better after some coaxing, however: we took it one step at a time, with lots of encouragement and even a small verbal correction at times to get her attention. She ignored most distractions, including a mom pushing a baby carriage and a bike going past, but tried to chase a runner – she was fine after a quick correction. We made it around the block four more times with Jamie walking pretty much next to me with a loose leash.
I am continuing Jamie’s leash exercises in the backyard, as well as working on her door manners, gate manners, and sit and stay. She does really well with the leash in familiar areas, and both her manners and reactions to sit and stay commands are steadily improving when she is in a comfortable place.
Jamie is keeping on weight, so we are sticking with four meals per day for a total of two-and-a-half cups of food. She is also sleeping better, making it seven to eight hours just about every night (yeah!!!) While Jamie is still very managed around human or dog food or whenever I am unable to supervise her, she is showing slight improvements with each passing week. Fingers crossed that I will be able to leave her on her own with a little more time!