Saturday Play Date With Jan, Nad, and "The Girls"... Goal 2, Appropriate Behavior Around Dogs, Known and Unknown

Because of occasional lameness, Rooster has had little interaction with dogs other than those he trains with and those times, always on leash. Saturday, Jan brought Nad, Samantha, and Kasey over to train with Rooster. This was the first time Rooster has seen Nad's "sisters" and the first time in a year he has been allowed to play freely with other dogs. He plays with our Jack Russell, but he lives with Winston.

The videos below chronicle the interactions beginning with first meeting to swimming in the pool. The dogs also spent time together in the house which wasn't flipped. At the start, Rooster was in the house and when the door opened on the other dogs he did bark. He was not allowed to leave the house until he could do so quietly and on a loose leash. This took several attempts. At last, leaving the house on a LL is the beginning of the flips. After that point, all the dogs remained below threshold and things progressed quickly. With the dogs resting and observing in the shade of the planter, Jan even took time to do some nonsense shaping with Nad. Rooster and "the Girls" politely watched.









After chilling in the shade, watching Jan shape Nad, and earning the "big reward", it was time to hit the pool. For Rooster this meant...run free at last.









This was a strong, positive, beginning toward Goal 2, Demonstrate Appropriate Behavior Around Dogs, Known and Unknown. The situation was totally controlled. Jan's dogs are amazing. Their calmness and good manners were examples that Rooster could follow and I could learn from. This is step one but a giant step. There are lessons learned and things to work on. Rooster needs to continue to learn to play with his pals. A valuable lesson and such an obvious one is that good manners (Zen) are all the time, everywhere. Rooster has a way to go but because Nad and "the Girls" have such strong Zen, Rooster for the most part was able to remained below threshold. When his threshold did raise, he recovered quickly. Here's to more play dates and strengthening ZEN.