dlmckay Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Further to this incident here, Raven was fitted with a muzzle which initially she only wore in "happy" places - on the beach, bush walks, etc... Then I got her to wear it at the flash point place - agility training. She has been the victim so many times, always whilst on lead and always at agility training Anyway, the idea of my training was to get Raven to come to me, look at me, totally trust me to protect her from other dogs and not to let her take the initiative and lunge in first. She's a big girl and capable of a lot of damage (as my knee will tell you). In the meantime, I had the muzzle on her so that if she got away from me or did something unexpected, I had the insurance that she couldn't do any damage. An interesting twist happened... when she was wearing the muzzle, Raven started to warn. Before there was no warning, she just lunged. Now, she's started grumbling under her breath... wonderful! This gives me a heads up to get her attention back on me and everything's lovely and positive. She must have realised that she couldn't bite with the muzzle on, so had to react another way. We had a wonderful moment at agility club last Friday... Raven was wearing her muzzle, but something happened with her lead and she got off There was a Marama Sheepdog loose too, quite a lot bigger than her, and she went over to it I called Raven, she started to come back, but then the Marama sniffed her again, so she stopped and went stiff. I called her a second time and she came back to me! Oh joy of joys! No grumbling, no scuffles, no fight! I'm so happy right now, I could cry. Raven has been such hard work. At times I wondered what on earth I'd done taking on such baggage, particularly when I also wanted to compete with her. I really hope that, at 3 years old, we've turned a corner and we can just enjoy being together in the company of other dogs instead of this huge battle that I have with her. She's just gorgeous and has been such an education Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaos Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 WTG Raven ! and well done Diana for sticking with it........you've got all the summer now to look forward to, and all those dogs to practice with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReikiAnge Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Excellent Raven's beautiful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
safneo Posted October 7, 2007 Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 brilliant news It does boost your confidence too when they take a step forward doesnt it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlmckay Posted October 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 It does boost your confidence too when they take a step forward doesnt it. Sure does... particularly as I so nearly gave up I honestly thought she was just too much for me to cope with... The muzzle stays for sure, and I would hope that anyone else considering whether their dog should wear one, takes my experience on board. She has had to react differently because of the muzzle, but this has been fantastic as far as I'm concerned. She's still a tiny bit frightened, most of her aggression is fear based, however, she also has a slight tendancy to bully, so I never knew which dog would set off a reaction from her! It's just been fantastic. I've stuck with her because even though start lines are a bit of a nightmare (mostly because others aren't watching their dogs), when she's in the ring and in the zone, she just a joy to run. She runs on ahead! She turns in mid air! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JACKYSIAN Posted October 8, 2007 Report Share Posted October 8, 2007 Got a huge grin on my face reading this!! Well done Raven! What amazing pictures!! It gives me hope with Tiz to see her doing agility! I'm going on the 27th to my training classes 'Multi Sport' day where I'm gonig to try her and see what she enjoys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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