I watched this video on CNN and realized they were trying to use some of the training techniques we use for dogs on children, with disastrous results. There's nothing wrong with communicating with our dogs and children about the behaviosr we prefer. But when it turns into trying to change who they are at their core, it's going too far.
Something really exciting happened yesterday. Some people were out by the pool with a miniature dachshund. He and Kody sniffed each other through the fence and then Kody and I went inside the pool fence to hang out.
Today Kody and I faced our biggest challenge yet. Right outside our back door five construction workers were making repairs to the siding and the fences. They were hammering on our walls and using nail guns. They were ripping down fences and dropping them on our patio and they were climbing up ladders. We were in quite a situation... this is our story.
Kody was behaving amazingly well around the ducklings today. He was growling out the back porch and I was waiting for him to calm down expecting there to be nothing there. When I finally looked, there were ducklings!
Recently something occurred to me that should have been obvious, but for whatever reason, it wasn't. I find this type of realization happens all the time to me and other dog parents. I think it just takes a while to learn things.
Now that we have the new harness we practice with it every night. Since this is the first time we've really taken a harness seriously and it's fresh, I want to do this right so that Kody eventually thinks the harness is great and will walk by my side while wearing it. I think we're making good progress.