I know I said I was done with excessive dog-walk-blogging, but this is too much. I must share.
Today marks the most miraculous dog walk in all of my many dog walks. I'm not sure how long this will last, but it feels absolutely wonderful at the moment. Let me talk about the last three days.
Day 1
Three days ago, I was walking the dogs and Eddie was being his usual pain in the butt. He doesn't pull (like I've said before, I can walk him with one finger on the leash, but it's a constant little tug), but he is always in an excited state such that he's just edging forward ever so slightly. It's really just a constant annoyance, but it also means that he has a much shorter path towards getting completely amped up. In addition, even with the pinch collar, certain vehicles or dogs barking or dogs off leash would set him off such that I need to react quickly to ensure he doesn't escalate into a frenzy that is not controllable. Anyway, we're walking along and he's doing this constant "pulling" ahead and generally just too excited (getting excited at every car and jumping to eat bees that fly in front of him). I gritted my teeth and made this noise that if you were to imitate an electric shock, this is what it would sound like. He literally stopped and backed up about 2-3 feet. We walked forward and he stayed behind me. We walked like this for the rest of the walk. I figure this is a fluke, but am excited about it nonetheless.
Day 2
I decide to make the noise before we set off on the dog walk. Same thing. He back ups in a very submissive way and follows well behind me; in fact, he's behind Turtle even. We walk with him on the leash attached to his nylon collar through the entire cemetery, including when a four-wheeler goes by us very slowly. He didn't even look at the four-wheeler. This has never happened. We've had minor successes where he doesn't get amped up as high, but he's always anxious and high strung when they go by, particularly when they are going slowly and are very close as this one was. We continue along with both dogs walking loose leash behind me. I let them off leash for the trail portion as usual and give them the "OK" to break their sit and run ahead. They both happily enjoy the trail portion as usual. At the end of the trail, I always put both dogs on leash before we exit the trail. At that point, we have to walk behind a house with a barking dog (barks because we go by). Eddie has never, ever not been difficult to walk by here. We're walking up steps, turning a corner, and the dog always barks and Eddie is always very amped up - whining and trying to lunge forward. I make the noise right when Eddie's ears perk up (a sign of excitement to come) - he drops behind immediately and does not challenge me the rest of the walk. The dog is barking and he just keeps his eyes on me and follows. Again, we've never - not once - not with the pinch collar, not with the choke chain, not when I've been super focused or unfocused walked by this fence in a calm manner. It was always a battle. This time: perfection.
Day 3 (today)
Time to really test this out. Same routine, the long 2-mile route through the neighborhood. I make the noise before exiting garage. He has his pinch collar on, but the leash is hooked to the nylon collar. We walk the entire walk with him completely behind me. He has no issue with the barking and charging Rottie that we pass on this particular route (he's behind a rod-iron fence, so very visible, but cannot get to us). We have cars pass us often. We pass by a bush with lots of bees and he doesn't try to catch a single one. Then we come to the test of all tests: the road portion. There's a long road that is fairly busy that we walk. I like to walk it because it's a good sidewalk (nice and wide) and is a flat portion in between the hills. Again, success. The entire walk he walked well behind me. So much so that I told him to speed it up a bit, which he did. Final test: the houses with the electronic fence and two dogs. Two houses next to each other that we pass have front yards, but no backyards. They're not fenced front yards, but I've figured out that what the neighbors have done is put an electronic fence around their combined front yards and let their dogs chill out front during the day. The dogs always bark when we pass, but never cross the street. T&E actually have always handled this fairly well, but today Eddie was stellar. Just continued to walk behind me.
Now, what is behind all this massive change? I believe I know what it is, but it's interesting to me that this is the result. I got sick of Eddie's barking during the day that would cause me to pop up a lot to bring him in, so I bought him a bark collar - the shock kind. It works as he'll bark once and then stop. I believe that he associates the noise I make with a possible shock and therefore falls into line. If this is indeed the case, I think this success on walks is likely to end at some point because sooner or later he'll figure out that he never gets shocked on a walk.
I have mixed feelings about the bark collar. I don't like that it's such an extreme way to stop the dog from barking. But, on the other hand, I have tried absolutely everything recommended to stop barking. I also have some guilt about the fact that Eddie's reaction to me when I make the noise is so submissive. In the end, I land on the side that all it took was a couple of shocks from that collar and I don't have to actually use the pinch collar (again, he's wearing it, but I don't have to touch it). The other thing that is very positive about it is that, even though he has a very submissive response to me when I make the noise, after about 15 seconds, he just relaxes completely. He doesn't go running all over sniffing and trying to mark his spot, he doesn't get all bent out of shape with every car, he just enjoys his walk. It's like you can see this visible weight be lifted from him and he can be a normal dog.
Anyway, that's the big news on the dog walking front. We'll see how long it lasts. Tomorrow I'm going to try not making the noise initially and see if he starts to do it out of habit.
Dinner last night was amazing. It was at a restaurant run by a couple who have a cooking show on PBS here in PDX. They also do cooking classes and things like that. We also thought the neighborhood was pretty cute, so we're going to go back this weekend and have a look around the shops.
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