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