Greg and I took the dogs for a walk today. Chopper doesn't move around enough. He lies on his blanket most of the time, until we take him out in the back yard. He'll stretch a half dozen times and he walks very stiff. His fear is keeping him still. So today we decided that we would brave some of the distractions of being outdoors and take him for a walk to get him some much needed exercise. He had to walk up our hill and around a bend until we got to a trail in a wooded area. It was amazing to see the transformation. On the road he had the tail tuck and was not sniffing the ground much. In the woods, tail went up to normal position, nose to the ground and less tense body. (I wish I'd gotten a picture, but we didn't bring our phones). He's used to the woods, and he likes it there. Kolohe, being half golden retriever likes anything. The woods back up to a park where we thought we'd take him for a tiny jaunt, provided no one was playing baseball at the time. Well, the baseball field was free, but the tennis courts were being used, the basketball courts were being played on and Chopper shifted back to fear mode. Tail tucked and he tried to bolt. This is why Greg was given Chopper's leash, stronger hands. Whew, we kept him with us. Back into the woods we went, tail went back to normal, sniffing resumed. I think perhaps Chopper was a hunting dog with his previous owner. He clearly was in his element. Of course the only hunting he'll get with us is perhaps a hidden peanut butter kong.
When Chopper came back he was feeling confident so we did some clicker training. It didn't last long. Maybe 6 repetitions and we watched him shut down. He went to his blanket and we saw his eyes glaze completely over. I've never seen that happen before. Like a canine dissociative state.
Greg and I are going to try our best to get him up into those woods as much as possible. It will be harder on work days as it won't be safe to go up there in the dark but we'll give it our best shot. Plus, I really enjoyed myself too. We need to find other trails in this area, low volume ones, to take him to.
I think this is were you can really use the scent training your trainer is talking about.I think this would help at home i could be very wrong but anyways you would not beleive the amount of info on scent training and the levels this could be something the whole family enjoys rate in the back yard.
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