Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Feeling groovy

When Bugsy was a young pup we were charged by two large off leash German shepherds. I & my husband were frightened and prepared to fend off the dogs. Bugsy just stood there calmly as they ran toward us aggressively barking and meaning business. The hair on the back of my neck was raised and I feared for my puppy. Bugsy stood there, head up looking right at them, tail in his normal slightly raised position.
He didn't cower, roll over, bark, or any other fear or defensive move. He just stood there. The two dogs lost steam upon arrival. They sniffed him, he sniffed them and off they went. We humans were shaken, we watched carefully as the dogs sniffed each other, having difficulty in understanding our puppy seemingly fearless upon being charged by two large and unpleasant dogs and the fact they pulled up and didn't attack him.
This was the first and most remarkable incident we had with him and unpleasant dogs but we often found ourselves amazed at his disinterest in the three very noisy schnauzers we passed daily, or the border collie that wouldn't stop trying to hump him, or the bc mix that bit his neck pulling out fur or any of the other unpleasant dogs we met in our wanderings. He never cared. He never retaliated he just stayed happy and in human terms seemed to ignore them.
Things changed when at about 3.5 yrs old an aggressive dog in our neighborhood, with irresponsible owners, got a bit too close to making contact with us. The third time it did it Bugsy responded. He responded with an aggression that was beyond anything I thought he was capable of; he seemed to have either a non- response or a very serious response.
Very shaken and confused we headed home.
Thus began a journey. A journey to recover MY Bugsy.
After this incident he became a reactive dog. And he was darn serious and at 105lbs of muscle I was no match for him.
I'll skip the blow by blow and just say I shed tears, read furiously, studied his behavior, tried every technique I felt appropriate and I prayed.
I also just kept walking him.
A while back I started to notice improvement. There were still times I managed him in order to prevent an opportunity to react but he was more easily managed. He became extra alert but did nothing more. And he just kept improving.
Saturday we were out walking and we were charged by a golden, a dog known to have harmed two other dog's I know. As if in an instant replay from that day over 5 yrs ago he just stood there. Looking right at the charging dog, confident but not aggressive body language and once again the situation was diffused.
As my heartrate slowed and we made our way home I was less shocked by Bugsy's behavior compared to puppy Bugsy but I was more impressed. Slowly I realized my prayers had been answered, MY Bugsy was back.
As if to reinforce this we met a crazy young BC the other morning who stalked and then pounced on Bugsy and snarled and was generally unpleasant. Bugsy ignored him.
So my Bugsy is back.
I'll never not watch his interactions with new dogs again (as I did pre-reactivity) but I feel this tremendous peace and happiness that we have made it full circle. It has taken 2.5 yrs but we've made it.
Thank you Bugsy, I sure do love you.

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