Fred Friend

Yes. Especially for the wallet!

for sure.

Fred is learning to say hello to neighbors. On our walk today, we visited two neighbors and Fred lay in the grass the whole time people chatted. Good doggie!

That is a good doggie. He's coming along quite nicely.

Well... Maybe. He tried to viciously attack the lady who comes occasionally to clean the house. She needs the work, and I like skipping a week every month. Anyway, for some reason, Fred hates her. He was on the leash, but still dragged me to her snarling and snapping. I had barely any control. I'm thinking we need to go to professional obedience training. Fortunately, he didn't get to her, but it scared both of us pretty badly.

Until I can figure out what to do, he will stay in the barn when she comes. I think it's a protection thing. He is very protective of the house and me, which is good. But, I need to figure out how to have him less distracted and tense. It's obviously an aggressive defense thing. Will be calling trainers on Monday.

I hate hearing that. I would go the professional route. You an incredible Mom.

Yes... He is a very good dog except around this one person. I don't know what it is. He was friendly to everyone we saw today. He obeyed well and was easy to handle. I think I will get a head collar, and we will be working on "sit," "stay," and "settle." If he learns no other commands, those are essential. A professional will definitely help us refine these things. He was a hunting dog for a long time, and obviously didn't get much training. The fact that he's as good as he is is pretty impressive.

That's odd, then again no it's not. He has come a long way and I think in this case a professional is well worth it.

As much to train me as to train Fred. I was very frightened, and I'm sure I reacted poorly. I need to be calm and get my dog to be calm too. The pros I'm thinking of work with military and police dogs. If anyone can teach a person to call off a dog and a dog to obey that call, it's those people.

I understand. Situations like that are terrifying. Still it sounds like you've got a handle on the situation.

We got to test socializing today. We met a neighbor on our walk. He alerted, but I was able to tell him to be calm and that it was ok. He let me approach first and then went calmly to her. I was pleased. We will need to work on house protectiveness, and the UPS guy is coming tomorrow. No time like that to practice. I have treats ready.

Glad today's meet and great went well. Here's to the same for tomorrow.

It was too hot to meet people today. We went for a quick walk and came home for a drink. Now, he's lying under the fan acting like he was outside all day.

He did roll in something stinky when he came out with me to take care of the horses. Yuck! Bath time.

LOL!!

We are trying to work on sit and settle. Not much success so far. I have found that he panics when I push on his hips to ask him to sit. I don't know if he has pain from his bad leg (which seems to be completely fixed) or if someone did something bad. He acts very scared when I do that. I am looking for other ideas to teach him to sit. It's difficult!

I bet someone was not merely mean but downright cruel. A pox on them.

I suspect something similar. I like that he wants to protect the house. I just wish that he wasn't so enthusiastic about it.

That's going to be a slog. Hopefully you will find the right trainer. Can the agency you adopted him from can give you a recommendation.

They did give me a couple recommendations - including the military people close to us who have some really trained dogs. I didn't know that the military takes "reject" dogs to train for bomb sniffing and police work.

That's interesting. Great idea. Dogs with that ability are few and far between.

Fred offers to go food sniffing!

I'm sure he would be most excellent at it.

Now that his leg doesn't hurt, he's all about cookies and chewies. I got him to settle a bit when the roofers were here yesterday. He started off lunging at the door and snarling. By the 3rd time they knocked, he was just normal barking. Key is to get his focus on me not on the door/stranger.

That's good. Progress in small steps.

We made ore progress today. I took him outside while the cleaning lady ran the vacuum. At first, he wanted to run and snarl. Then, he decided that sniffing around and going potty were more important. Best progress is that he laid by the door and waited patiently for a while.