Yet more firsts for George recently. Considering he lives a fairly sheltered life, he still ends up having to deal with a lot of new experiences.
Things that most people don’t even have to think about become learning experiences for us—for example, buying a new kettle and a new hairdryer. Obviously, they have nothing to do with him, but the new noises were a bit of a challenge, and the hairdryer is particularly loud!
After running upstairs the first time I turned the hairdryer on, he’s gradually become more comfortable with it. The kettle is now fine too, thankfully. As a British person, it gets quite a lot of use. 😆
I was doing some training with him through the window recently. We were looking at the neighbour and rewarding calm behaviour. He was doing really well until she held up a cat. He just managed to hold in the barking and full-blown reaction but was absolutely trembling with emotion. He did his best!
That might explain his reaction at daycare drop-off recently. They have a poster in reception advertising pet food, which features a picture of a cat. He’s walked past it hundreds of times, but recently growled and lunged towards it. It does look very similar to the neighbour’s cat!
We’ve had some great walks and some more challenging ones. We enjoyed a couple of lovely walks in a nearby cemetery, followed by a cup of tea at my friend’s house. George mostly did really well.
We are constantly vigilant, though, and keep a big distance from triggers. On one occasion, there was a man and his young daughter walking a couple of dachshunds in the distance.
I was wary of the young child holding the dog’s lead—mindful that if George reacted and the little dog responded, she might not be able to keep control.
So we decided to retrace our steps and create some distance. As we were walking away, my friend turned around to check their route and shouted, “They’re coming in fast! They’re coming in really fast!”
The little girl had dropped the lead, and the dog was running full pelt towards us. My friend was amazing as usual. She managed to block the dog, somehow standing on its lead while we created distance.
George did have a big reaction, but it could have been a lot worse.
My friend was also incredibly helpful on a recent walk in the forest. We were able to retreat off the main path, and she shielded us from a large off-leash dog pack walk and a couple who didn’t seem very aware of where their dog was.
There were a lot of cyclists on the path (which George handled very well) and lots of joggers. Again, he did really well, particularly with those coming up behind us, but I was mindful of each trigger filling his stress bucket a little more.
At the end of the walk, we couldn’t avoid coming into fairly close proximity with a couple and their spaniel. All I could do was try to shield George’s view and keep him close to me. It was a fairly explosive reaction. A shame, as he had been doing so well.
I must try to remember all the times he didn’t react on the walk and remember that he had already dealt with a lot of triggers that day.
It reiterated to me that although George is making some improvements with people (at a large distance), he still really, really struggles with dogs.
At one of our favourite Sniffspots, we got a message from the owner that they’d had to move some livestock around, so the entrance route was different—past some goats and calves. I don’t think George has ever seen a goat before!
He did pretty well. We had to pass quite closely. He only reacted when I moved us away. He often does this, which makes me think there could be some frustration reactivity mixed in with the fear. Although it could also be the lack of choice and control.
He didn’t see the calves at all (thankfully), although we got closer than I would have liked. He was very curious about the sheep—we didn’t look for long (and kept our distance) as I could sense he was on high alert.
It wasn’t the most successful day, as due to traffic we only had a short time. But perhaps that was for the best, given the new animal experiences.
As always, a mixed bag—but a little progress.