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Diary of an adventurer

My first session with the trainer

Today was my first session with my new trainer. Mum didnt exactly have high expectations considering how aggressive I was to her last time.

So the trainer comes and first thing she does is have a sit down with mum and just explain her methods, the equipment that they use, correction scale etc. Mum was also taught the magic word which is Ahh. A loud clap and Ahh sound mean hey, stop what your doing. We started with the scratching on the door and charging through. Mum was shown to open the door a little and if I tried to run through to close it fast and say Ahh. after about 3 times I sat patiently on the other side and mum came out without any problems.

Next thing was jumping, again another loud ahh. I only jumped once, mum ahhed at me and I didnt jump again for the whole session.

Mum was shown some really good recall exercises and then we moved onto the big issue. The food aggression.

Mum was taught 4 different ways to deal with it and she got to choose one that she felt most comfortable using. Can you believe that on the first try she got me to walk away from my food bowl and let her pick it up without showing any sign of aggression. She was completely shocked and so proud of me. The trainer also said that usually it takes dogs a while to catch on but she was so impressed at how smart I was.

The whole session I was relaxed and super calm. Mum has never ever seen me this way, I was a completely different dog.

My next session is in two weeks and mum has alot of homework to do between now and then but she's not giving up and she's going to try her hardest. She knows I can do it now, she needs to gain back leadership.

A new friend and a trainer..

Well mums friend got a new puppy today called Ruby. She's a 9 week old Standard Poodle and she's just as big as me, I'm 14 weeks :O She's going to be huge when she's fully grown. Tomorrow mum is going over for a photoshoot and I get to play with her again.

Mum found a trainer last week to work with me on my food aggression issues. Tomorrow is our first session, she's coming over for 1-2 hours. Hopefully everything goes ok and mum doesnt become emotional if I show signs of aggression. Lets just hope all goes well and I'm on the way to being a better behaved dog.

I'm sorry mum....

I'm sorry for what happened tonight but I was just protecting my food. Please dont think I dont love you mum, you know I do. Food is just so important to me and I want no one taking it away from me or even coming close to me.

Banjo's mum here;

Tonight Banjo tried to attack me multiple times, I am extremely distraught to say the least. I've been working with Banjo's food aggression for weeks now. I've tried different methods such as hand feeding and dropping food in his bowl. Tonight I walked past to drop food into his bowl and it was like Banjo was a different dog. He growled and tried to lunge at me. Following the advice of someone I tried scruff Banjo to show him that behaviour is not on and that was when it went from bad to worse. He kept coming at me over and over, growling and lunging.

I completely broke down. Starting bawling and hyperventilating, I couldnt breath and I started to get dizzy. This lasted about 20 minutes until I was finally able to calm myself down and now my head is pounding. I am just so hurt that my own dog would do this and I know it's not his fault but it just makes me feel horrible.

No matter what I do nothing is working. Not only is it not improving but it's getting worse. I dont know what to do anymore. I dont want to give up but I am so worn out.