Doxie News Dachshund Blog

Today Kody and I started out on the best walk we’ve had in a long time. I have been working hard to pay attention to Kody’s needs when walking and today he decided all on his own that he wanted to go on a longer walk. I was so happy, and as I suspected, dogs that aren’t afraid are far less likely to pull on the leash. It was just comfortable wonderful walk.

Then, a sort of worst case scenario happened. Kody went poop in some bushes and that was great. But what I know about Kody is that the ten seconds after he poops are the most important ten seconds. He seems to feel most vulnerable at that time. I have to make sure he’s feeling good, so I usually click and treat a couple of times, which works out great.

We were just about the point where he would be fine, when a little dog in a car on one side of us barked. This, by itself would not be that bad, but it put Kody on alert. Right after that, some people in an apartment on the other side of us just clicked their blinds, like they were looking out the window or something. This was the point of no return. Kody felt surrounded on all sides and let me know in no uncertain terms that he wanted to go straight home and was really scared.

This all happened so fast, it took me a while to catch up. I tried clicking just to see if Kody was even capable of calming down, he wasn’t. I still had to pick up the poop and since Kody had gone in some bushes today it was going to be a little more difficult that usual. Oddly, Kody seemed to understand this. I was in a sort of panic, though, because I knew if I didn’t handle this situation correctly, it could cause a lot of trouble for us in the future. Kody needed to get home and fast and know that I would take care of his needs when he had them so he would trust me in the future.

I got the poop picked up, and we walked straight home and Kody didn’t stop pulling on the leash until we got to the front door. It was a bad day for Kody, and while I felt good that I had responded fairly well, I still had some negative feelings because I was so disappointed that a situation that started out so positive ended up so, well, weird.

Looking back, I think I made the right decisions though. I think whatever Kody’s fears were, he wasn’t afraid that I would put him in danger, and that’s hopefully going to help us in the future.

I’m so happy that I can understand when Kody’s afraid now, because it explains a lot of our past challenges. When he’s not afraid, things are so much better. With my learning to be patient, Kody now finally has the ability to learn to be more comfortable and courageous in our world. He can trust that when things get bad for him, I won’t make them worse.