AGILITY TRAINING

When I got Jack the Dog he came from a home with a young girl with MR. She had little tolerance for the dogs and would take a rolled up newspaper and smack them with it when they annoyed her or were barking. It was disheartening to see, and her parents tried their best to redirect her, but it has resulted in a dog with little trust. When I first brought him home, and he thought he was in trouble, he would immediately run and hide under the bed, or he would coward into a little ball. It was sad to watch. Over the last couple of years, and as he got older, he has become better, and trusts people better as he gets to know them. You can imagine my frustration when a guy came over to our house a couple of months ago who obviously did NOT like dogs, and kicked at Jack to get him out of the way. I was livid, but we won't go into my thoughts on that. Since then, Jack has started nipping at the feet of people who come into the house, and if someone stands up unexpectedly, he goes into attack mode. He even does it with my roommate, who he has always known. It is incredibly frustrating. It was then escalated by two weeks of having a constant flow of people coming in and out of the house to visit my roommate, who had broken her leg. The perfect storm!I've done all sorts of research on how to change his behavior, and have even talked to my boss about it, who is a dog trainer, but it basically comes down to him trusting people - again. Grrr!! Lots of positive reinforcement, patience, and working one-on-one with him. I figured we needed something different, so starting Monday, I'm taking Jack to a 6 week agility training course! Hooray! I'm excited about it and can't want to see how he responds to it. It will get both of us outside and playing together, and it will teach him discipline and routines. A win-win situation. Here's to hoping for a better Jack....