2:25 Last week at this time we had just picked Rufus up from his home. Before I was able to blog some fun news last night I fell asleep… 🙂 But Rufus finally gave in to Mo’s playing advances. It was so funny to watch them play. They ran like crazy dogs all around the house and then would stop in their tracks, take everything in, and then boom they are off. I even hear Rufus use his voice a little bit throughout the play. Quiet little whines signaling excitement. His tail was straight up and all he was thinking about was having fun.
Right now he is resting listening to the calming music I have playing off my phone. He really likes calm music. He rested nicely at the end of my workout class yesterday where we stretched and breathed.
We have hit a very important part in Rufu’s training right now. Although his anxiety has decreased he is trying to revert back to come of his old ways. He has been going under the bed. Only in the morning and not out of being scared. He just calmly crawls under there. When I leave the room he comes right out. When I saw him trying to go under the bed I didn’t reprimand him but I made it clear that that behavior was not ok with me. Nor did I run after him and say, “no no Rufus please don’t go under there, oh you poor thing.” I said, “Rufus Off” and stepped in front of the bed where he wanted to go and sent him back (he had to actually physically move his body away from the bed). Its important to use your body at times. When I put my body in between him and the object he wants, I am displayed dominance. I am telling him that he cannot go under the bed and as your pack leader you have to respect what I am asking. So use your body. Get physical with situations. You will see huge results and the dog will test you less times. Remember that time length I gave you with humans needing 14 days to change a habitual behavior. Well if we assume its similar with dogs it makes sense that at the 7/8 day the last of those habitual behaviors would sneak out to try and “save” themselves. Now we have to be especially attentive and strong so that those behaviors get stopped preferably before they happen (IE. we stop him from going under the bed before he gets under there). Or we immediately change the behavior if he did follow through with it. I grab his collar and with one finger gently lead him out. I don’t pull him out, I put pressure on his collar and until his brain begins to move forward I just wait. Slowly he starts to come out on his own with just a slight pressure from me. This makes it so he is making the decision to come out on him own, I am just not allowing him to freeze and stay in the unhealthy state he is in or let him go further away from me. But in the end we want the dog to use their brain to make the decision themselves to come out.