A small victory to share

[lpowers50@yahoo.com]

I first want to say it has been an absolute joy raising "Dru" using NDT.

After raising another puppy many years ago, making every mistake in the book before coming to NDT and then....more mistakes....having to "manage" her life ...and now, to be lucky enough to do it all again from start is such a rich experience.

So, the reason for this posting is a bit of a brag... Dru, now 13 months has spent most of the last 7 months playing tug, pushing, fetch tug etc.

Yesterday as we were doing one of our daily walks after a good session of play (tug,fetch tug tiny bit of box work) when we ran into our neighbors dog who is always free to run at will. (Fortunately, she's very well mannered and has a good prey/predator play she does when she meets Dru....and if you tell her to go home....she does.)

Most walks the two pee/poop/pee/poop....play...pee/poop/play for a few minutes before I tell her to go home.

Yesterday she came out to play and they did their normal routine and I decided to let go of Dru's 50 thousand foot leash . They took off running (I live on a dead end road with very little traffic in rural Vermont)up the road when Dru stopped, turned and ran for me!!!! Fortunately I had a tug toy and he was glad to play for a few moments even with the other dog coming up and kind of watching from only about a foot away. Dru was so focused on his tug. This same scenario happened two more times just that same way.

Then, Dru did his own down, rubbed his back in the snow and stayed there for a few moments while the other dog was sniffing around him trying to engage him in play, Dru was so relaxed just hanging for a moment. Before getting up Dru gave me one of those looks (the other dog doing her best to entice him to play)and he charged at me so we did more tug....... I was so excited to see this......

This entire thing pretty much repeated itself for the next 3/4 of a mile until we got home. A couple of times he ran off with her in the woods (not too far) before coming back for more fun with ME.

Does that mean it's all starting to work? All of these days of playing and pushing and tug and fetch tug, crate time, outside quiet time etc.

In the early months when I did puppy Kindergarten or when I took him for assessment on she I was told things like ...he's a lot of dog...you have your work cut out... he's a dog with a high prey drive I hope you're able to manage him.....

I think I'm doing it and embracing every minute. Dru is turning out to be so delightful with the few dogs I allow him access too and very friendly to everyone he meets. (He still has some quirks but we're getting there too.)

[Sang]

Yes! Absolutely it means it's all starting to work and come together. That is awesome! You've done a fantastic job with Dru, and it's showing. Keep up the great work!