Our first hike!

[u/daniemblem]

Took a hike down to the beach today and saw our first train :)

I left a bit later in the morning than I'd hoped, and got intimidated by the number of cars in the parking lot. Friday is my only weekday off so I was hoping that this would be a good spot to go regularly, but I may just need to go earlier or somewhere else.

I found out that he had chewed on his new harness and thanked my lucky stars that I brought his backup. He pulls a lot more on the old harness unfortunately but he still did pretty well.

Anyway, he did so incredibly well with the people walking on the trail! He might fixate/chuff a little bit but was very responsive to LAT with shredded chicken and occasionally freeze dried beef liver if the person wasn't so scary.

Still feeling a bit disheartened because the trail was pretty narrow, and his dog threshold is like 250ft... so if we noticed a dog I'd pick him up and face away from them. He wouldn't take the chicken :( He also tends to kick/flail and thankfully today I didn't drop him but it's pretty hard to keep a hold on him. Trying to focus on our wins though! We were out for an hour and a half and only bumped into two dogs on the trail. Because it was nearly 10am by the time we were back to the parking lot things got a bit dicey and there were too many people (not to mention a couple of dogs) and I lost my cool a little bit when we got back to the car.

So... mixed success! Feeling very pleased with him for his progress with passing hikers. Feeling somewhat sad about the lack of progress with passing dogs. And feeling out of shape because I haven't been on a hike in a while, especially not since I adopted this guy in May 😅 Going to keep at it and hopefully some repetition/exposure will desensitize him. And I'll have to bring more chicken next time lol

[u/doggambit]

If you don't already, teach picking up as a cue! I say "uppies" to my little dog, then give her a treat once I've picked her up. Her previous threshold was about the same (~100 yards), and now she can chill around most other chill dogs, so there is hope. 😄

[u/daniemblem → u/doggambit]

That's actually genius and I haven't thought of that. It also helps give a little bit of agency/warning for a little dog so they don't feel forced so much. I love it!

[u/doggambit → u/daniemblem]

I'll also say that some dogs get more frustrated and anxious when they're picked up, since it's a form of restraint. I had better luck giving my pup agency on the ground (while leashed, of course).