Oh and by the way - yes Angus is currently at Walkys Unanderra as is my daughter’s dog Sunny. I am desperately hoping that Walkys can teach Angus how to be nice to Sunny. Fingers crossed. So we can have family gatherings involving both dogs. 😊

Thank you Lex my eyes nearly fell out of my head when I saw you and your colleague walking Angus a Sunny together. A miracle! Angus is 12; I have not noticed deafness - but I have wondered about eyesight. He often will not see a dog until it moves. As you suggested, he has not been walked all week and he has not seen another dog since last Thursday. We are doing the training to stay in place and stay at a door at least three sessions a day. Angus will stay in place for 4 minutes before I ‘break’. I can walk away and even out of sight - but still speaking saying ‘stay’ - and he will stay. I’m pretty impressed by how quickly he has built up this capability, especially considering his age. I do think he really does want to please me. I look forward to what might happen for him next time at Walkys! Thank you for your great work with Angus!

Hi Nathan and Lex - I watched the replay of the live chat. I am the dog parent you mentioned that showed shock when Lex instructed me not to walk Angus all week. Yes, I probably did show shock - but it was not because I doubted the advice. It was because the two dog walks each day are how I structure MY day to manage MY health issues. I need to walk, to keep my body in order. I was struck with panic about how I could balance my own needs with the need to train my dog. Setting this reaction aside, I did see amazing evidence on Thursday that your methods can work. I arrived to pick up Angus last Thursday to find him walking side by side with Sunny - no over the top angst from Angus! amazing!!! For the moment, I am following your instructions with no walking but lots of training. But I need to figure out how to manage Angus’ health, as suddenly his diet is composed mainly of dried treats, whereas on veterinary advice Angus has been given a completely wet foods diet. I worry that all the dried food plus no exercise might be difficult for him. I will continue to work out these problems. Thank you for your help! Denise

@Nath Morrison thank you I will do this. 😊

@Nath Morrison thanks for the chat - with those gorgeous children Blueberry and Goldie - I did enjoy meeting them. What I got out of this is that I cannot expect to change Angus’ reactivity when he is in the middle of being reactive - I get that. I have found that out. Angus is always attentive but when he explodes I cannot get through to him until it is over. You are also saying about building up calm to underpin the stressful experiences with more certainty -and this is where to crate comes in to it. The crate is a ‘safe’ place for the dog and thus allows relaxation to happen. My struggle is with the experience I have with Angus - he has 4 ‘safe’ places, one in each room of our house. These are cushions and beds. He uses the ‘safe’ cushion that is in the room we are in. His ‘safest’ place is on my bed - this is where he goes if he is left home alone. He sleeps on my bed with me at night - and I’m fine with this. Are these arrangements a problem? Oh, and I should add, if Angus is pestering me when I am too busy to give him attention, I tell him to ‘go away’ and he goes to one of his safe places. Sometimes he comes back again but I only have to say ‘go away’ in a firmer voice and he retreats. So I’m not confident that a crate would be any better than what Angus has already got?

@Nath Morrison Hi Nathan thank you for your thoughtful reply. I’m not sure I fully understand everything but I will go with it and see what happens. I cannot make the evening calm collective today but I will do my best to tune in when I can. Thanks again, regards, Denise