Hello from Croatia

[msikoron]

Hello everyone I am Marija,
I will shortly introduce my mixed breed (terrier/bobtail) Ira. We have her around 9 months, she is around 2 yrs old. I have been practicing NDT for some 4 months now. She's opened up a lot since then (me too). We still have a long way to go, since her prey instinct is so strong, and we have a lot of stray cats in our neighbourhood. She is pushing really hard now. Sometimes when the cat is on a decent distance she will turn to me for a push, sometimes she will lunge (this is ok, I'll give her as much time as she needs). She is much calmer when we see other dogs during our walks (she was always ok with bigger dogs, the smaller ones were turning her prey instinct on). During our forest walks I always bring her tug toy so we tug and push and walk. She still runs away a few times during our walks - nose leads her away, she returns but not immediately. She was also very scared of people, especially men, this has improved also. You are thinking where are the questions, I have many. I think a lot about her progress, sometimes I think we've made no progress at all and other times I am aware that she's come a long way from a dog who was completely shut. Also I've read many postos on this forum and it has helped me a lot to know that it can be time consuming.
My biggest issues are:
-she is not bite shy, she tugs really well, do I have to let her jump up all over me or do i have to keep the game calmer and let her jump on me only when invited?
-she sometimes bites me during tug (it's not hard), and I am wondering should I let her know and pause the play, or do I continue as nothing happened?
-house time is always nap time and relax time, but my 4yr old sometimes gets playful and she runs around, the dog gets excited and runs after her, she usually opens up her mouth and uses her teeth very gently on her leg/her rear/arm, sometimes she pushes her sideways (I've seen her play that way with other dogs) - at that times I say no and give her the tug toy to bite and tug a little - is that OK?
- our mother in law is from a closeby town and we visit often. She has a cat (and a dog so the cat is used to dogs), Ira sometimes chases her, and other time plays with her gently chewing her neck. If it becomes rough and painful the cat lets her know and Ira stops, but she is so geard up from that on our walks. I know that these moments could be precious in her training but other than pushing whenever a cat is nearby I don't know what else can I do. This cat doesn't have a crate so that we can gradually expose her to Ira. Are there aby other suggestions?

Thanks for any input and Happy easter everyone!

[Sang]

Hey Marija, welcome aboard.

Sounds like things are going really well overall with you and Ira. So keep up the great work.

Don't be too concerned about her jumping on you. This will eventually become more coherent as Ira becomes more channeled.

If she's biting your arm during tug, have you considered a puppy bite sleeve? It's really soft and covers your arm, that way you can safely allow her to bite your arm.

Try not to let her chase your 4yr old around the house, as it gets her too excited and loads her up too much. Getting her to bite a toy when she gets revved up is good, but it's better if she's not put in that situation to begin with. It's actually better if she has more time alone in an isolated place where she isn't going to get overstimulated like that so she doesn't learn to chase things like your 4yr old as a channel for her drive. You want to channel all that energy to you, rather than have her leak it and channel it towards other things.

As for your mother's cat. Have you tried doing any box work with Ira yet? Getting her to push with you when she feels energized by the cat is great, but the next step is to get her to channel all that energy into a good long down stay. The primer for that is the box/settle work. You want to get her to a point where she can stay on her box no matter what's going on around her. Then, what will start to happen, is that she'll see your mother in law's cat, feel energized, and go to her "place" instead of chasing the cat. Going to her place will then start to feel like chasing the cat. Make sense?

I hope that helps, and happy easter to you as well.