Looking Back, I See Progress

Since I've been a bit negative lately, let's take a look at something I wrote almost a year ago (last summer) as a description of Monster, and compare it to how he is today. I was asked what it was like going for a walk with him, and this is how I described it:
What does he do when you leave the house?
He starts scouting the surroundings, searching for things to react to. His body is tense and his eyes are everywhere.

 

These days I look to Mom, to see where we're going and what we're doing!

How are his leash manners?
He does pull a bit, but it's gotten better. He's completely unaware of the leash, he gets tangled and stuck but remains unaware or uninterested in avoiding it - or even getting free. He just keeps trying to move forward, to the point of falling over if I don't get him untangled. 

That sounds really strange! Why would I do that? I know what a leash is and how to handle walking without getting tangled. And why would I pull you?

What does he react to?
Everything. Anything that moves, makes noise, or just plain exists - or may exist - is interesting. He reacts to different things in different ways, but he always reacts. Things he will lunge at are dogs, joggers, scooters, cars and cats; things he will try to chase are deer, hares, bikes, hedgehogs and cats again; he will freeze, fixate and stare at children, bags blowing in the wind, horses, machinery and rustling leaves. These are just examples, mind. He will react to anything. If there's nothing around he'll try to quickly get to a place offering a new view, like round a corner or a bush - maybe there's something on the other side. At worst he lunges and at best he's in a world of his own.

That sounds exhausting! Well, all right, I'll admit a lot of those things are still interesting... But I'm not crazy or anything, and I certainly don't wander around in a world of my own!

At what point does he become impossible to reach?
As soon as we leave the yard. I've tried to take the excitement out of it, tried moving the "border" further away, but he's completely on/off no matter what I do.

Naw... She's messing with you - she's got to be! No way would I flip out like that just from leaving the yard!

Anything to add?
Parts of our walk I demand he walks by my side on a short leash. He'll do it, but he keeps building stress and frustration throughout. Other parts of the walk I give him full length leash and he winds around in all directions to try to examine everything all at once (and in some areas I let him run on a long line, which actually makes him slightly more interested in me). It makes no difference if we walk the exact same route 20 times in a row, he never relaxes but keeps expecting something. Apart from training basic leash manners (which is more or less constant) I try to do short tricks and obedience here and there along the way, but he can't cooperate. Occasionally he'll focus enough to perform something very basic (like a 0.5 second hand target), if he realizes that's the only way he'll get to move forward - but he may just as easily just have a complete meltdown from frustration. Nothing works as a reward, except getting to move forward. This is a dog who - judging from the number of black eyes and nose bleeds I've ended up with - would kill for a frisbee. But out on a walk nothing is interesting, except for the entire world - which is too interesting.
From time to time I'll catch a small glimpse of the wonderful dog I know he is, but mostly he's an absolute nightmare to walk...

Oh, I get it! You're joking! Haha, very funny... Look, we both know I love working on tricks on walks! I keep the leash loose and I make sure to keep an eye (or at least ear) on you at all times - you might do something super fun, like a recall! And I keep pointing out anything I find, from sticks to someone's dropped glove, in case you'll want to reward me for it - or use it as a toy reward! And I'm fully aware of that bag of turkey meat you keep in your pocket...

Well, there you have it: a perfect example of why a written record can be extremely helpful. Without these notes, I doubt I'd think about just how difficult the simplest things were for a while. I wouldn't see the great progress we've after all made, instead just looking ahead at the goals we haven't reached yet - and getting depressed, because it'd seem like we weren't getting anywhere. After writing this blog post, I feel happy, and I'm actually looking forward to the progress we'll have made a year from now. Sure, Monster has some issues - some big ones, I'm fully aware - but that doesn't mean we're not getting anywhere! If you have problems with your dog, I can only recommend that you start keeping some sort of record of your situation. It's hard to see when things change, as usually it's not going to be through some dramatic breakthrough. And without noticing the little things - which over time build up to bigger things - you'll soon feel like you're going nowhere. And feeling like that, you'll probably make it true...

I feel free!

Me too, Monster!