Behaviorist.

[Doggyhelpplease]

Hows it going? We used some of your help it has been helping us too Broccolini and ordered a flat thicker collar to see if it may help. Apparently distance was making her react more than walking closer, right by for us, though it takes good timing with body blocking at times. I still need practice but husband seems great at it. Now we can walk right by like 4 feet away though she is still trying to meet like a "bull in a china shop" (to dogs only) but will go slower and listen when dogs she knows are the ones we are walking by. The second there is any pressure on her halti or collar she growls..not at the dog or me and she will still lick and smell them but just vocal bear like growl...if you release the tension she stops the noise. Since small dogs are afraid the noise we are working on it...but with a TM its sure hard to make them learn to go up to her favorite thing in the world slowly only using voice command but I am sure this is what we need to do since any tension on her neck we get bear noises and over excitement only with dogs! You could put tension on her collar any other time and you NEVER get this weird noise (it isn't a snout growl more bear like lol).

Anyways let us know how Athena is doing!

 

[broccolini]

Athena is doing better. She is to the point where she will give dogs across the street a brief glance and that's it. We were at the park and an off-leash dog came flying out of nowhere chasing a ball. The dog was completely ball obsessed and not interested in Athena at all so we stayed and watched it for about 20 minutes. Athena did great even when the ball took a bounce toward us. She hasn't growled or barked since we started keeping her leash loose. She will still occasionally pull and we have to increase her distance but she doesn't look so much like she wants to kill the other dogs.

I'm not sure when she will be ready to pass dogs at a closer distance. I don't want to rush it.