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Molly and Other Dogs


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I just wanted to share an update on Molly. Many of you probably remember my previous postings about her unfortunate experiences with an obedience trainer and fear of the dogs at the next training session.

 

It seems that she may NOT be so afraid of other dogs! She has had a few instances of shaking in her basket in the car when people have tried to meet her from the car, so we're just going to make sure that she feels the car is her safe place. We're also planning to start using her crate for transport for safety reasons.

 

But for other dogs... We were down at my horse trainer who has two aussies. Not sure if shepherds or ACDs, but anyway.. She'd met them before the whole trainer thing. So when we were there last week, we asked the trainer if we could try again with the dogs and told her about Molly's experience. She put the bitch away, who is a bit more dominant, and kept her male out and we got Molly out of the car. Molly was so eager to talk to Shiner (blue eyes blue merle australian fuzz ball a bit bigger than she is) and the trainer and everyone from the start. We took them into the riding hall and let them loose. No barking. Molly showed her teeth a few times, but Shiner just ignored her when she did and didn't press her. They were running around and seemed happy. We let them go for a while. Molly mostly wanted to eat horse droppings and be with people. Shiner just wanted to be near Molly wherever she was. Molly didn't even get upset when we pet him! (She got very VERY angry last time when my husband gave him any attention. We let her know that was not okay)

 

Before that, the day after the wedding, one of our friends had his small white fuzzy thing with. I dunno what breed. But an older bitch. We had them both loose in the closed tent for a while with no incidents. Molly ran around following Cleo and both were all over the place being cute and maybe even playing a bit (we're not sure if Molly really knows how to play with other dogs). No fights, no growling, no barking. But Cleo is tiny and Molly hadn't really been in the tent enough to consider it "hers" even if it was on our property.

 

Today I had her out on a walk and she did fine with a meet and greet on an older BC bitch who didn't like her near her territory (Molly backed off and didn't get all growly) and a medium sized poodle-like thing. But those she met once before too.

 

She also is making huge progress on her recall so now that the tourists are gone and I think we're past the leash law season, I even let go of the end of her leash and she got to play ball on the beach for a long time! I'm SOOO proud of her. I'd taken her favorite ball and a bunch of treats with and once we hit the beach and I could see no one was around, I tried out her recall at the very end of the long leash a few times and it worked and she was interested in treats, so I let go and tried and it still worked, so we played ball and walked and played ball. I kept calling her to me at frequent intervals with lots of praise and would often take up the leash just to let go again after a little bit just to keep going. It went so well. But she's still a chicken about the water. The ball rolled in once (it floats), but I had to get wet feet to retrieve it.

 

Then on the way home, I found a long dry reed in the sand and remembered Woobie's Mom's heeling stick advice, so we tried... and walked the whole way home with Molly on a loose leash and almost always where she belonged!!!! Much of the time I could even have the stick over on the other side. If I praised her, she tended to forge ahead, so then I'd swing it back and tell her to slow down quietly in Danish. And if it got real bad, I'd just get her back in a sit in place and start over, but I didn't have to do that much. I think she's starting to get it!! It helps that she was worn out from all the fetch, but still.

 

So things are really going well for Molly. She also coped well with the excitement around the wedding, although she was crated for the entire reception. At one point I considered taking her out, but my husband had just had her out of the crate and she'd run around and played a bit then gone back in herself, so we decided it was better to leave her be if she was that content than to risk anything. She is actually quite happy in her crate and my husband is now happy for it. She also loved my parents and did great with my dad. She took him on a couple walks while he was here. Molly also taught my mother to throw the ball on command, but my mom kept forgetting the Danish word for drop ("slip" that sounds like the English of the same spelling), so Molly kept trying to trick her into playing tug with a ball. My dad refused to touch the ball with his hands so kept trying to teach her to drop it at his feet. I think he would have managed if he'd been here a couple more days. It's just that I spent a LOT of time teaching her that only hand delivery or dropping it on my lap is acceptable (and he didn't want it on his lap either). He'd fall asleep in a chair and wake up with ball and hedgehog and pup tread on his lap...

 

So basically Molly is doing well getting over her bad experiences. One of these days when she is doing even better, I may try taking her to the training grounds and giving her lots of treats just to make sure she doesn't have any negative associations with any places. I'd start slow of course. Driving by, then stopping near it, etc. I want her to learn that we can go anywhere--even there--and nothing like that will happen again. But I don't want to go too fast and ruin the trust we are so slowly rebuilding.

 

Thanks everyone for all the support and all the great tips!

bexie and Molly

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Guest WoobiesMom

Bexie,

That's so great! I'm so glad to hear Molly's bouncing back from her bad experience! Congrats on your wedding BTW! I got married in Denmark too, in Sonderborg (Hope I spelled that right). It's such a beautiful country! I hope to return someday.

Woobie pulls ahead when I praise him too. I feel bad ignoring him when he's doing well, but praise makes him break so I wait til whatever exercise is completely over and then give him loads of praise all at once. It's hard not to praise them when they're doing what we want, huh? Very counter-intuitive!

Hope you and Molly continue to do great!

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Bexie,

That's so great! I'm so glad to hear Molly's bouncing back from her bad experience! Congrats on your wedding BTW! I got married in Denmark too, in Sonderborg (Hope I spelled that right). It's such a beautiful country! I hope to return someday.

Woobie pulls ahead when I praise him too. I feel bad ignoring him when he's doing well, but praise makes him break so I wait til whatever exercise is completely over and then give him loads of praise all at once. It's hard not to praise them when they're doing what we want, huh? Very counter-intuitive!

Hope you and Molly continue to do great!

 

goodness, do i agree! ever ever ever so hard when they look all adorable and stuff!

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Bexie,

That's so great! I'm so glad to hear Molly's bouncing back from her bad experience! Congrats on your wedding BTW! I got married in Denmark too, in Sonderborg (Hope I spelled that right). It's such a beautiful country! I hope to return someday.

Woobie pulls ahead when I praise him too. I feel bad ignoring him when he's doing well, but praise makes him break so I wait til whatever exercise is completely over and then give him loads of praise all at once. It's hard not to praise them when they're doing what we want, huh? Very counter-intuitive!

Hope you and Molly continue to do great!

 

If you ever make it to Northern Jutland, you've got a free tour guide at your disposal. Just let me know! I live near Skagen, the northernmost tip.

 

I think if I mostly just keep talking to her, it works. Switching to "rolig" when she goes too fast then back to praise when she does it right, she'll work it out. I don't feel right ignoring her. She is SOOO sensitive to praise.

 

How'd you end up in DK?

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Guest WoobiesMom
If you ever make it to Northern Jutland, you've got a free tour guide at your disposal. Just let me know! I live near Skagen, the northernmost tip.

 

I think if I mostly just keep talking to her, it works. Switching to "rolig" when she goes too fast then back to praise when she does it right, she'll work it out. I don't feel right ignoring her. She is SOOO sensitive to praise.

 

How'd you end up in DK?

 

Careful! I just might take you up on that! :rolleyes: I was a military brat, my dad was stationed in Germany and my ex was there in the Army as well. The rules and waiting period for getting married in Germany were a pain. The Army Times had run a story on how DK was like the equivalent to running to Vegas since you didn't really have to do anything but pay the fee to get married there, so we hopped in the car and drove just over the border. We didn't even understand what the woman was saying, we just waited until she paused and looked at one of us, then we said "I do!" :D

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Careful! I just might take you up on that! :rolleyes: I was a military brat, my dad was stationed in Germany and my ex was there in the Army as well. The rules and waiting period for getting married in Germany were a pain. The Army Times had run a story on how DK was like the equivalent to running to Vegas since you didn't really have to do anything but pay the fee to get married there, so we hopped in the car and drove just over the border. We didn't even understand what the woman was saying, we just waited until she paused and looked at one of us, then we said "I do!" :D

 

Hehehehe.... It was very easy, but since we both live here, it cost nothing to get married. We did understand the ceremony.

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