My boy, Jack

[dracina]

Awhile back, I posted here about my very reactive boy, Jack. We adopted Jack from a shelter a bit over a year ago, where he had been found as a stray, then adopted out and returned to the shelter at least once. He has some fear aggression, reactivity, and trust issues that have resulted in biting in the past.

 

I have given occasional updates, and we are still working hard. He has come a very long way. I think that it is important to share his success with the board, since his success has so much to do with information that I received here.

 

We are training Jack on sheep for about 30 mins. weekly, and we have just started up again recently after the winter. He was exposed to sheep only four times last year; he was keen, but pretty stressed and had not developed a partnership AT ALL with me. This year, we are working very hard at developing this mutual trust, and pretty much starting from scratch. Here is a video of Jack working the sheep with me today under the tutelage of our instructor.

 

As far as his skill, he is doing wonderfully! He has lots of natural ability, and is taking direction and correction pretty well. He's a bit stubborn, but learning very fast. Strangely, he seems a bit loose-eyed in this video. He is usually quite strong, and this kind of surprised me when I watched the lesson later. I think he was a bit stressed because my husband was there, which is not usually the case. The issue we are trying to work out here is is lack of confidence while walking in: he is far more comfortable on the flank, and uses it as his default. He also has a hard time downing while on the sheep, but we are working on that, too.

 

I think he's going to make a pretty good little sheepdog, although we are far from trialing. I just want to show how well he is doing because I am so proud of his progress!

[Jedismom]

That's wonderful news on Jack. Kudos to you for sticking it out and helping him!