Celebrate, no matter how small the step!

Yesterday Finn and I did one of our park visits. It was a horrible day, a bit rainy and very blustery. There were people around the park, but all some distance away - apart from the workmen by the cricket pavilion who required a good staring at, as did the noisy kids on bikes but they were on the other side of the park. He was a little jumpy, as he often is when it's windy, but settled after just a minute or two, and did some beautiful loose lead walking, looking up at me and thoroughly engaged, then heading off to the end of the lead for a good sniff around when released to do so. Direction changes with a cheery 'Let's go!' resulted in a dog bouncing along beside me and looking for his reward. Lovely (if soggy) coaching session.

We were getting towards the end of the time available (we drop Mum off for her hair to be done and go back to pick her up afterwards) and I started heading back towards the car, parked at the edge of the park. I saw a lady walking along the side of the park towards the road I was parked on. I steadied our pace and tried to work out where she was going, and decided it looked like she was going to cross the road. That being the case, I steered for the empty space between my car and the next car along.

Guess which was her car? 

She emerged around the front of my car (a Land Rover, so hid her from sight) while we were about halfway along the length of it. Finn barked at her - he was shocked at her sudden appearance I think - so I gathered up the leads (front and rear of harness) and ushered him away backwards towards the bin and behind my car with my knees. He stuck his head between my knees and barked again, refusing to go any further backwards, so I walked him quickly around the car, with me between him and the other lady, and got him inside through the car's rear door rather than trying to go round to the tailgate. He settled down immediately and just watched her through the window.

The bad: he barked at an unsuspecting person in a public place.

The good: Where do I start?

Yes, he barked. Two or three single barks, not a furious volley of barking. No snarling, no growling, most importantly no pulling or lunging. He came with me when asked and, despite being vigilant when we were the other side of the car, sat himself down and listened to me calmly and did what I requested immediately.

The other lady, although I believe she jumped when he first barked, carried on with what she was doing putting her stuff in her car and didn't show any signs of being worried by what he was doing.

He was calm in the car, and again when we had to go out later which involved waiting for an extended period of time in the car. He managed to focus on treats when three separate families with dogs walked past the car, although I saw his ears going as he listened to them go past, but decided waiting for me to drop another treat was far more important. He then spent most of the rest of the day cuddling up on the sofa.

'I hope I'm getting treats for being out in this weather!'

So - yes, he barked at a person. That's a long way from being ideal, but it's a long way improved from where we were in the past. He showed a reaction, but it wasn't frantic, his brain was still switched on enough to listen to me and he did as I asked him to. For my side of it, I didn't panic, I didn't tense up and grab hold of him. I calmly spoke to him - I think I said something like 'Don't be daft' as I made sure the lead was short enough he couldn't make any sort of contact if he did pull (he didn't) and, remaining calm, walked him away from the problem area until we had a barrier in place and then he visibly relaxed.

We're both learning all the time through this process. The important thing we are learning at the moment is to trust each other. Finn is learning he can trust me to look out for him, keep him safe and get him away from the things that scare him as soon as he tells me he's scared, and I'm learning that he will listen to me and come with me, as long as I am observing him and the environment and don't let him get/put him into situations with which he is not yet mentally and emotionally equipped to cope.

We keep making small steps but those small steps add up to make a massive amount of progress. It can feel like a very long and lonely road working with one of these complicated, complex dogs. Looking at how far we have to go to get from the whirling, snarling dervish of a reactive dog in the beginning to anything approaching normality feels overwhelming. Small steps breaks that up, makes it more manageable in our minds.

I have come to the conclusion that Finn may well never reach normality. I am prepared for that, I am (mostly) okay with it now. We work towards getting him as comfortable as he can be, everything is driven by him. For now, we go to the park, or to the DIY store car park, wherever we can go to watch people from a safe distance, and just let him watch the world go by and process it while feeling safe.