Sometimes Luke does things that make me so proud of him! It’s the little things for us – small ways he shows how smart he is, or subtle ways he shows me that he’s overcoming some of his fears, at least at times.
It wasn’t that long ago that I decided to give Luke a bath; we have always done it in our walk-in shower here. It was one of the few things that Luke would actually let me do – there is no teeth brushing, ear cleaning, or nail trimming happening with him. Unfortunately, we added baths to that list, when he refused to come anywhere near the shower, even with treat bribes. Big sigh. It’s so hard not to get discouraged with him, and that’s one of the reasons we might make a big deal about things that are normal for other people’s dogs.
Here are a few things he’s done lately that have made us very happy and proud of him:
- Luke’s seasonal allergies are acting up again, just as they did late last summer. I was hoping the CBD/Hemp Oil we’ve been giving him would help with that, but it’s not doing as much as I thought it might. He licks his skin on his legs until the fur is not visible (his fur is very thin in those areas anyway), and his skin is red and splotchy. When that first happened, I tried to at least wipe him down with a cool wet cloth to soothe his skin, but he wouldn’t even have that. Then just the last couple of days he let me do it! He balks a little, especially when I get to his paws, but he’s been allowing it. I try not to do it for too long, and then he gets a treat!
You can see some of the red on the insides of his legs. - We take walks every day and I am diligent about putting bug spray on both of us. He doesn’t love getting sprayed, but he puts up with it. I switched to a different spray and the type of bottle produced a lot of overspray, which made our tile floor slippery. Therefore, I wanted to get him to stand on the rug so it would collect the spray. At first, he’d have nothing to do with going to the rug, knowing he’d get sprayed there. But I think he learned I was going to spray him anyway; and suddenly one day after I put his harness on, he went right to the rug and stood on it! Now he’s been doing that every morning before our walk!
- I give him Benadryl for his allergies as well. It also doesn’t work as well as I’d hoped but our vet has said it is pretty harmless, and I think it might help at least some. Now when I go to our bathroom to get the pill, he knows what I’m doing and follows me excitedly back from the bathroom and into the kitchen where I put it in a pill pocket. He just amazes me sometimes with how observant he is about things, and how quickly he picks up routines!
- We often work on cues when we go on walks. “with me”, “this way”, “let’s go” and “watch me” are our biggest ones. If we need to suddenly stop or switch directions these help a lot. I like him to stay in tune with me as well, so getting him to stop and come to me for a treat is important. We kind of got out of the habit of practicing those things though, and for a while he rarely came back to me for a treat. Just lately, however, he is stopping several times on a walk and sitting in front of me. He makes eye contact completely on his own without his cue!
“Watch me”. - Last, but certainly not least, he definitely surprised me yesterday. We were walking along the road and I heard a car coming. I tried to speed him up and get him to our driveway and out of the way (he has a tendency to want to pull towards cars, so I try to get him as far off the road as we can). My heart sank a little when I noticed this car slowing down, and I knew the driver was going to stop and speak to me. Luke is very afraid of strangers and I completely expected him to bark and lunge at the car as soon as this man opened his mouth. I held onto his harness and waited for it. Except it didn’t happen! The man and I had a short conversation and though Luke was a bit fidgety, he never barked at all! I was simply amazed.
Can you tell how much I love this sweet boy?
I am definitely crediting the CBD/Hemp oil we’ve been using with helping with these things. This gives me hope that maybe we can start working on a few things again…..very slowly of course. I am proud of what a quick learner and smart dog Luke is, and even if progress on his fears stalls again, we will always celebrate each little success like these.
Has your pet done anything special to surprise and please you lately – big or little?
I am so glad for your good steps forward. I bet that your consistency is a factor too. It is so important to take note of the victories when you have a fearful dog… I know it from first hand experience. Way to go!
Thank you! I try to be consistent, but sometimes it’s hard! In some areas I do great, but in others, like with people coming over, it’s a struggle to figure out how best to handle it.
Good boy Luke! Your doing great!!!!
Thank you!!
Indeed you should celebrate the little things that are big accomplishments for Luke!! That sounds especially wondrous about the talk with the guy in the car!
I was really amazed at that one!
At our veterinarian’s urging, we did an informal trial of several OTC allergy pills a few years ago when Nutty was still with us. Chloretrimeton was the clear winner. Talk to your vet about dosing, etc, but you could probably try that a well as Zyrtec or Claritin. Benadryl didn’t do much for my dog, either, but that is not the only thing to try.
Thank you SO much for those tips! I had heard Claritin was a possibility so I got some of that. But ever since I did that, without even trying it yet, he’s been better! Doesn’t that figure?
Luke is making milestones! That’s wonderful…. Have you tried a holistic vet? I finally did with the Boys and they are both on med’s that work wonders. Allergies are a killer – we hate them…
I know you’ve had a tough battle with allergies too. 🙁 I am still searching for a holistic vet around here, they are not easy to find.
Well done Luke! It’s amazing that even when you’re not teaching them anything, just talking to them they pick up something anyway. Merlin is so smart, on walks sometimes i tell him to wait just talking to him and later on a walk i told him to wait and he stopped walking and waited. The little things you don’t mean to teach them they learn by themselves. Dogs are amazing.
They really are! It also means we have to watch ourselves around them, to be sure they don’t pick up on something we don’t want them to! LOL
I am so happy that Luke is making progress. Little things can mean a lot when you have a reactive dog. I am always so proud of Bentley when he walks past another dog without losing his mind. LOL!
It’s hard to picture Bentley losing his mind, he seems like such a calm and laid back boy. But I know only too well how looks can be deceiving. LOL
Good boy Luke ! I am glad the hemp oil is helping.
Those are all great things, good for Luke. And you of course.
When he’s good, I’m good! 🙂
We’re glad that Luke is learning to handle situations better. We’ve heard good things about using CBD oil and we bet it really is helping him.
We think it’s a big factor too.
It would be super hard to deal with so much fear and reaction. None of us like a bath, but if we won’t go on our own power, Mom carries us to the tub and closes the door to the bathroom, so we do it. We are not keen on the dremel for our nails, but for tasty treats, we don’t put up too much of a fight. I guess Mom is lucky, or we are too dumb to really protest. Mom never accepts no from us, so we usually cave after a while. Good the CBD oil is helping out.
Cricket used to get carried to the bath too if she protested. If only Luke were small enough that I could do that! You are good girls!
Oh Luke, we’re proud of you too, you sure are doing good!
As a fellow appreciator for the use CBD I’ve witnessed first hand the ‘pawsitive’ ways it helps dogs, especially reactive ones. Elsa has similar moments to the ones you described. Love those precious babies.
Celebrating the small victories is so important! That’s great about the car incident yesterday. Ruby also doesn’t like strangers – she reacts (barking and lunging) at some joggers and bikers, mostly men. It’s mostly when she’s startled so I try to always be alert and then step off the sidewalk, road or path when someone is approaching us.
Yes, startling them definitely makes it worse. I think that’s why some people use the “What’s that” cue, as an alert something is coming they might not like, and then giving a treat. I haven’t tried that cue myself, mostly because we really don’t run into a lot of people on our quiet road!
That’s awesome, and a credit to your patience and hard work.
Yesterday on our evening walk, we were approaching a man with a small dog. As we got within speaking distance, the man called over to me, “Day one.” He had a puppy! It was some type of GSD or GSD mix, cute as all get out. As soon as the puppy saw us, it’s little ears shot straight up! Anyway, Delilah wasn’t paying attention at all, she was focused on the treat in my hand, and after we had passed them, and I had given her the treat, the puppy barked, and that caught her attention. She stopped to ‘look’ (well you know she doesn’t really see all that well) and I said, “Leave it, let’s go.” And she did!! YOU who have followed me for so long, and who deals with a reactive dog yourself, totally understand why this was such a ‘win’ for us.
That was definitely a win, and I know how proud that must have made you!
Luke has also been really good at ignoring our guinea hens in the yard. They tend to hang out close to the front door where we go in and out for his walk. I just speed up and hustle him right by them and most of the time he doesn’t react at all to them!
When Luke is really focused on something, he doesn’t seem aware of anything else around him. I wonder if Delilah is the same, and that’s why we have our successes….getting them to focus on us or that treat totally distracts them?
Bravo Luke!!! that was fabulous! we have this car problem too, I always scan the area for a spot where I can wait with the twins when we see a car… or much more horrible: a bike…
We have a kid who likes to ride a dirt bike up and down our road. Luke barks at him from the house, so I can’t imagine what he’d do if we met him on the road!
We’re proud of Luke, too!!! Give him kisses for me! Those splotchy red areas on his legs look soooo painful it hurts me to look at them. I wonder if you could put some CBD oil directly on them?
I think (hope) they look worse than they feel. I hadn’t thought about putting the oil directly on them, thanks for that idea! I’ll look into it. ♥
Aww he is pretty 🙂
Thank you!!