I also brought Odin along for a training session with Erika. I had tried a couple weeks ago to get a Gentle Leader on him so I could take him for walks. He freaked out, fought me on it, got it off, and generally exhausted my patience and my strength in the process. Erika was more adept at getting it on him, almost before he knew what was happening, and she had it fitted better than I did. Still he freaked out, went into the alligator death roll and everything, but still she persisted. She may be small, but she is determined and persistent. He wore himself out fighting it. It doesn't hurt him, it's just a reaction to having something on his face, and then having someone in control.
Of course the lovely Virginia swamp-like climate makes everything more exhausting and miserable, but she accomplished in 15 minutes what normally would have been done over a much longer period of time. This needed to be done because he needs to get adopted. He's not totally ok with it even now, but at least the next time we try it won't be his first time and we will get there, we just have to.
Odin was happy to get that thing off his face and get back into the air-conditioned van. I took Otto out again and spent some time brushing him. He enjoyed that and I removed a lot of that dead, sunburned fur. He still needs a bath but he looked a lot better afterwards and it must have felt good because I didn't even need to hold his leash while I was brushing him. I left Otto with Erika and the new "foster" home came and picked him up this evening. He is a good dog.
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1 comment:
Lucky Otto. Good on you.
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