I made a HUGE mistake the other day.  I told Alfie off!!

I was tired – and cranky – and I wanted to get on with what I was doing – and he was barking and carrying on and I needed to talk to someone – so I barked back and tapped his bottom.

– Totally normal training reaction  – for a totally normal dog.

The instant I had done it I thought to myself – you silly cow – you can’t do that!

And Alfie went of in a total panic and hid for the rest of the day.

A split seconds loss of concentration – bugger!

That’s the thing with trying to train a nervous dog – my training rule book has totally been thrown out of the widow.  No normal rules apply.  You can’t scold a nervous dog – not can you put them in their place or dominate them.  You have to coax them out to do the right thing.

So – he went off and hid in absolute terror for the rest of the day – he would not be coaxed into bed to snuggle – and it was 2 days later that he started to interact with me again.  I feel such a muppet – but it was a really good wake up call.  Alfie has made huge progress in the past couple of months – but it has only been a couple of months and there is such a long way to go yet.

Last week his toilet habits were disastrous to say the least – was that a consequence of his telling off and him losing confidence?  or just a bad week?  Who knows – this will be a long road of humps and bumps – but I hold my hands up – I could have done better this week.

A couple of days later – we are in recovery mode!  I think I am forgiven