Dandy is hard at work...

Dandy has been hard at work and for the most part having a good time, there's still lots of worry/nervousness with all this work. He's been attending a dog class at UCLA, learning new skills and he's had two TTouch sessions that are working on touch and exposure to new things. The goal in everything we do with Dandy is building his confidence and increasing feeling more comfortable in his skin and with the world at large. He has a ways to go but, between the medication and having lots of committed and positive people around and working with him, we are seeing slow but steady progress. Dandy is the type of dog who you have to slow down way with, take small steps and celebrate small accomplishments! He can get overwhelmed quickly so moving at his pace and keeping an eye on his body language is key.

We had a great TTouch session recently and as a reward, Dandy and I stopped off at All The Best (big supporters of NR) to pick out a new toy.  With his new blue whale, we've been working on play and tug - you can see how slowly we move as we want to match Dandy's ability to be successful in each new game we play.

In this video Dandy isn't able to make eye contact and this is very common when he's nervous or unsure about what he's supose to be doing and/or how you will respond to him.

Here's a video a little bit later and he's more excited and engaged in play and he's able to make some eye contact although he's still unsure. Regadless of the eye contact he was successful in play and a little tug which is exciting! I was disappointed that I accidently stoped the video camera before he went into his sit position which was a big deal for him since going into a sit this close to me usually means he will give me eye contact of which he gets praise and a treat marking his success.