Today's Sunshine

Met with Teach again today. I don't have any photos from our session, but take a look what BAT can look like when we're just doing it on a regular walk. Here's Monster after he's spotted a trigger, calmly checking it out:

Hmmm... So that's a dog, huh?

I know the sitting is a bit weird, but sometimes he just likes to get comfortable for a little while. It doesn't seem to be hurting any, so he's free to choose. Because after a while:

Well, that was fun. Now what?

Monster is very good at giving clear cutoff signals. He'll usually either seek eye contact with me or turn around completely. Which gets him praise from me, and a nice reward in the form of leaving:

Onwards, adventure awaits!

In our session today Monster got close to the setup dog. A little too close a couple of times, when he surprised me and leaped towards it, pulling the leash tight. At first this got me down a bit - I've been somewhat negative lately - but pretty soon I realized how amazing that negative reaction was. Not so long ago, I wouldn't have been caught off guard by Monster lunging toward another dog. I'd have been expecting it! The only reason I wasn't prepared for his behavior today is that it's become rare.

How about that?