Finally…

Good news to report on mason!! Tonight we took mason to petsmart to meet with our trainer, Ricky. He brought in his 2 dogs (an older calm male lab and a male spunky chihuahua). Mason will usually react more to the smaller dogs so we first met with his older lab, Drew. We walked outside and Ricky took Drew to the end of the side walk and then we passed eachother. Mason didn't react at all… We did this a few times, bryan walking. Then as we passed Ricky started to walk next to mason so that they were together and mason again didn't react. On the way back to the store Ricky handed the leash to Bryan who then walked them both. Mason didnt even notice until we were up to the doorway and then was trying to get to Drew. So we started over…Ricky took mason and made him get closer and closer and had them sitting in front of him to give treats. Mason didn't care even when he got sniffed. We then went in and went to the back of the store. Ricky took Drew back to the pethotel to get his Chihuahua, Charlie. As they approached, Bryan still had mason. He at first looked just interested and then once they were about 10 or 15 feet away mason reacted. Not as bad as in the past but definatly not in a good way. Ricky then had me go where he was and take Charlie's lead. Ricky then took Mason and had me walk Charlie by. Mason was then more interested why I was walking this strange dog and so it changed from being aggressive and almost protective to interest as to what I was doing. Then we let them meet and mason was almost playful. I took mason and Charlie an walked from the back of the store, out the front and down the sidewalk. No incident. We got back to the store and went to where we were and everything was fine. Bryan then did the same and there seeemed to be a little more aggression when he first took the leads but that soon was over with a minor correction. At the end we were all in the back of the store, mason laying down and the other dogs hanging out around him. When we left…We all left together and even passed a very young and very interested chocolate lab. Which generally would set Mason off but we walked by without incident and even i got startled when a woman came quickly around the corner as we walked out the door…but mason did excellent. All in all it was probably the best improvement we've ever had. It does help alot to actually SEE it in action. not just have someone say hey he was good w/ me today. It doesnt do much good unless he can learn to be good with us there. i was very happy and surprised that it all went so well.

Yay mason!!