My forgotten dog....

[Sang]

So I speak often about my troubled dog Roxy. She is the one who brought me to NDT, and has occupied most of my time and energy. However, I rarely talk about my other dogs, because for the most part, they occupy the background of my life. But I wanted to share a NDT success story about my girl Jackie.

Years ago, during my dominance period, we used to live next to a house that was also occupied by 2 Chihuahuas. Every day they would come outside and bark at us through the fence. They put such a charge into Jackie towards small dogs, that this all started building up and manifesting itself when Jackie started lunging at and attacking smaller dogs. Basically any dog smaller than her, she'd be on them. She also became very reactive to all dogs. Pile the stress of the dominance stuff on top of that, and it was inevitable.

So tonight a friend of ours moved into our place for a while. With her she brought her small dog Kamala. We went through the whole process of introducing Roxy to her, but I won't get into that since this isn't about her. Once it was Jackie's turn to meet her, I assumed that Jackie was going to have a BIG charge towards Kamala. The reason I believed that is because I actually haven't introduced Jackie to ANY new dogs since the time I spent with Kevin in Vermont, over a year and a half ago. Now, any trainer or behaviorist would have told me that I needed to "socialize" Jackie around dogs, especially small dogs, either rewarding her to make the experience "positive", or correcting her for acting up if you subscribe to the dominance school of thought. Well, I didn't do any of that. All I've done with her this past year and a half is pushing and bite work at high levels of intensity. Just her and me, without ever bringing her around any other dogs. And this is how Jackie's introduction to Kamala played out tonight.....

My wife Amanda was pushing and playing tug with Jackie outside. I had Kamala on leash and brought her over. Even though Jackie was aware of Kamala's presence, she was laser focused on Amanda, pushing and biting. Even when there was a pause in the action, and Kamala was up close and smelling her, Jackie kept her laser focus on Amanda, not even turning to look at Kamala, a dog she has never met before this moment. Now, in the past, before NDT, she would have been on Kamala and would have "attacked" her at the mere sight of her. They were then ready to walk together, and we all went for a nice walk, with Jackie and Kamala walking along together as if they were old friends.

So then I put Jackie back in the house, and then we brought Kamala in a bit later. When Kamala came in the house, Jackie was totally cool with her. Again, just as if she had been living with Kamala her entire life. I mean, I know that NDT works. I'm a huge supporter of it. I understand the theory and the model, but there are times like this that still surprise me when it all comes together. As I'm watching Jackie and Kamala interact, I'm just thinking to myself, "Wow, WHAT is going on? This is NOT how this is supposed to be playing out. Nothing is happening. How is that possible?"

With so much of my time, focus, and energy on Roxy, it's very easy for me to forget and not see how far my other dogs have come. Jackie doesn't get much of my time and energy, yet she has had these major shifts that go unnoticed until something like tonight comes along that allows me to see it. Again, I haven't "socialized" her around any dogs since starting NDT, yet she has become more social around other dogs.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this with everyone here, since it's always nice to hear everyone's little successes.

[Chris]

That is so cool. Thank you so much for sharing Sang and pleased it went so easily for you. NDT will continue to amaze for a long long time I think

[Mel]

Wow that's awesome, Sang and Amanda!

[BrownieNJoyce]

Thanks for posting about that, Sang. I'm having a somewhat similar experience with Brownie. We just kept him away from other dogs after we first got him (over a year now) because our first few dog encounters (pre-NDT) turned into tussles. No injuries but it freaked out the other dogs' owners a bit. So we continued to avoid encountering other dogs all these months. In December it became important to take the risk that he could handle being around other dogs- we needed to host my brother-in-law and his two small dogs for a few days. I had a feeling that Brownie would be okay given how well we do around the distraction of cats. But, like you, I didn't expect it to be as easy as it was. We had Brownie outside when they arrived and had his food available for pushing. He just kept coming to me to push so we did, and they kept trying to meet him. Eventually he started sniffing around on the ground where they were and sniffed them a bit. It was frigid temps so we walked them only a tiny bit and then all went inside. Not ideal, but it was okay. Although Brownie never showed any signs of wanting to interact with the other dogs all weekend, and, he seemed a little anxious whenever the younger one got riled up, he also settled, took his naps, and there were no problems. His pushes were really strong that weekend!!! And now he sometimes pees in the backyard which he never did before other dogs peed there. That's a good thing if he wants to go out first thing when it's 10 degrees out!
I look forward to seeing even more ease someday when Brownie's pipes are even cleaner