I think daycare is starting to pay off!
I just let the dogs out front to take care of business. My neighbor with the cream shiba came out to let their shiba go potty. They don't really have a front yard like mine - they only have a front porch type thing, so they let their shiba out in our common area outside of their porch. Their shiba is always off-lead, unless they are going for a jog. So...usually when Gringo comes out - he comes up to our gate and Ninja goes nuts - hackles go up, showing of teeth, intense growling and just really fixated on getting to Gringo. But tonight...nothing! Ninja saw Gringo and walked up to the gate and was sniffing and just watched Gringo. No hackles, no growling, no showing teeth. Of course I praised the shit out of him!
Pretty awesome!
Pretty awesome!
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He will continue to surprise you all the time....enjoy the hell outta it!
Congratulations on the daycare work! I'm glad to hear that Ninja is tolerating new dogs well!
Jesse
Kudos to you Romi!
It was cute the last time we took our doggies to the park. Ninja was good all day and then he gave 1 growl at Kei and Romi right away says, "REDIRECT!" And then she takes him to the side, makes him sit and busts out the cheese. It was great! I don't think he growled at all at Lynx.
AWESOME!
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So I walked about 3 feet away and Portia went up and laid down in front of Buddy. Then Ninja went up and they were sniffing face to face for about 30 seconds and then I saw Ninja growl and his hackles go up and buddy backed off and everything was fine, I didn't need to re-direct him or pull him back...It was like Buddy was doing the training for me! It was really cool to see Ninja actually approaching a dog in a calm state and then letting the other dog know when enough was enough...without being so reactive. I thanked the guy for letting me do that and he said "anything we can do to help! I think I got really lucky to have such a well mannered dog - might as well use him to help others and their dogs, right?" He seemed like a really cool laid back guy. I am very thankful that he gave me the oppurtunity to do that!
How cool to have such nice people where you live Romi
That's great news. It's nice to know there are some other dog owners out there that:
1.) have an accurate assessment of his own dog.
2.) offered his dog to help socialize yours.
3.) you recognized the opportunity to have a socialization exercise.
Not everything is Ninja's fault and when he growled, the other dog knew exactly when he wore out his welcome. I can't begin to tell you how many dog owners have tried to meet Ichi with their own dogs, but I politely say, "I'm sorry, but my dog is very sensitive to energy and yours has some really high energy." (The whole time I'm saying this their dog is pulled taught on the harness almost upright as their dog is desperately trying to lunge at Ichi for a smell and they are holding their dog back).
I would call that greeting a normal meeting with a Shiba.
Romi, since both our dogs have socialization issues and behave better with calm-mannered dogs. We should meet up and train them together!
Jesse