We had a fantastic home visit with the trainer on Friday and we learned sooo much (leaving us feeling guilty for not getting training for our sweet corgi girl). She observed us (me, the husband, and the boy) and Indy in our home, outside on the leash, and in the dog park, on and off leash. We learned about displacement behavior, where the dog may show less obvious signs of distress or anxiety than snarling, snapping, or the hair of the neck raising up. Stress van display as panting, as we observe in the car, turning away, sniffing the ground (wow!), scratching, yawning, and licking the lips.
These cues remind me of the day he first meet other dogs through the fence at the dog park and how he turned away from them. What I read as his disinterest was more likely him showing his stress. Damn, I feel like it was so obvious NOW 🙁
It’s so obvious now.!
We were fortunate in our time outside with the trainer to encounter a big dog on a leash (complete with owner who would not take the hint that we wanted him to continue on his way), and while in the dog park, the man Indy has been hesitant around, and his big dog. Ben explained to him what was going on and we were able to engage in some active training right then.
We now have our “homework” with weekly check-ins with the trainer planned. At some future date Indy will pay a visit to her in Savannah when she has a good group of dogs for him to interact with. The issues we are training for are: (1) preventing the resource guarding before it starts as he is not showing this right now, (2) having others participate in the resource guarding training with the end goal that he will also not show this to others, allowing him to find his forever home, (3) working on the anxiety during car rides, (4) how to meet other dogs, because that itself is important, but to also ultimately determine if, and what sort of dog, he may be able to share a home with, opening his possibilities for a forever home, (4) overcoming his hesitancy about the neighbor, especially now that we know WHY he may feel this way about him.
Dog Loaf