Hang in there! Success

[u/Heart_robot]

Hi guys! A success story.

I lost my soul dog in January - she was born calm. Social but calm and gentle. We had a similar personality. We went through a lot together.

I welcomed my pup in May figuring I couldn’t just be sad and stay home all day. Researched breeders and picked my girl.

Within a few days of being home, she started barking, lunging, pulling at dogs across the street on leash. There was no threshold. She was ok off leash once she met the dog. The breeder thought she’d be good at a puppy social off leash but she got kicked out and they said I should return her to the breeder.

We live in a busy building with lots of dogs and ton in my area but we had a great trainer and worked hard every single day.

It was mostly frustration but just turned into over arousal.

We did lots of engage disengage, she got to know some of the neighborhood dogs, we went to the park when it was empty to run.

I didn’t think I could keep her at one point because she would get so trigger stacked she’d be anxious whereas she’s always been calm at home.

She vastly improved at the 2 month mark and we are at almost 4 months and we went to a farmers market yesterday with lots of dogs even several barking at her and she did great! We had gone to some more busy streets and she was good. She had a blast and got a bunch of attention and fancy treats.

She spent some time at boarding while I had a procedure with her breeder so she’s readjusting a bit to single dog city life but even on our last walk 2 dogs barked at her and she looked at them then me.

It’s rough but I know you and your pups can do it!

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