Hello most influential friends (it's true, I still reference things I learn here ALL the time.),
Some of you may remember Toby! For awhile we struggled with leash aggression. Thanks to the "Look at That" game, he's gotten MUCH better and lately things have been rather smooth sailing. He is very well behaved and a decent breed ambassador. He's certainly not perfect and makes mistakes sometimes, but I would not trade this dog for anything. In fact, I have learned that it's not Toby making mistakes, but me. I sometimes set him up for failure. =( I try hard to be a good trainer though. =)
I recently moved in with a roommate (two actually, but on is only here on the weekends) and my roommate wanted a puppy. I was hesitant. Toby hasn't played with another dog in over a year, and I was worried since his leash aggression was such an issue. She found a puppy at the Humane Society that she wanted (12 week old female, Lab x Weimaraner) so I took him over there to meet her. He did just fine with her so my roommate brought her home a few days later.
We had a friend/positive trainer stop by for a visit a few days later to watch the dogs and help us with any potential issues / how to manage a multi dog home. She was really impressed at just how good Toby's social skills were and how gentle he was with Tilly, the puppy. My roommate is doing an excellent job at getting Toby to respond her and when she trains Tilly on her basic commands, she works with Toby too. He is going to be really solidly trained! haha, it's a lot of fun watching Toby play with another dog! He sometimes gets too excited and smashes her, but we typically try to let them work it out for themselves. The only time we intervene is when Tilly is telling Toby to leave her alone but he still keeps trying to play with her (usually he backs off when she yells, but sometimes he just gets too excited and keeps trying to play). So far neither have shown any signs of possessiveness with toys and equally share back and forth. We are going to start feeding them in the same room to help avoid any future issues.
In not so great news, Toby picked up kennel cough from somewhere (most likely the Humane Society visit) so he is antibiotics just in case and an antihistamine. Tilly has an appointment in a day or two to get checked up.
Anyway, that is the update on us! I'm going to try to be a little regular on here, but I tend to go in phases. haha, Nice seeing you all!
Kristen & Toby