This sweet little girl is Zoe.
Zoe is sad because she is on a gentle leader. Zoe’s mom (Marcie) is sad because Zoe is afraid of other dogs and in order to protect herself Zoe maintains the “I’ll get you BEFORE you get me” attitude.
Marcie and Zoe attend the Thursday night drop in obedience class at our local training facility. I fell in love with Zoe the first moment I saw her.
So last night when I dropped into class and saw Marcie and Zoe, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her.
I restrained myself for about 10 minutes, then ran up to Marcie and said, “May I?”
As soon as we had our first pause, I slipped the gentle leader off….
Sarah got in behind me to work the big baby German Shepard, as we rounded the corner of the room, Zoe saw the Shepard behind us and made her move. I snapped the leash and brought her back to me telling her “No!”
At the potty break I gave the leash back to Marcie, I felt miserable, like I had failed Zoe and Marcie.
A little back story on Zoe, Marcie has had her about four years, she did not have a problem with other dogs when Marcie got her; one day Marcie’s sister’s dog was over and while Marcie had her back turned there was some sort of altercation. Marcie is not sure what the tiff was about. Ever since that incident, Zoe has been aggressive with other dogs. She can do a quick sniff and go, but it has to be quick.
I thought I should throw this out to blogger land and see if any of you have any thoughts or suggestions on how to help Zoe and ultimately Marcie.
I feel like I have had success with Delilah but I don’t know how to transfer this to help Zoe or Marcie. How can we help Zoe overcome her fear aggression? I know as Zoe grows more confident Marcie will as well.
Look at this sweet face, let’s help take the sadness away.
Author’s Post Script: You may notice the fine white markings all over these pictures, that is deliberate. It is a watermark I am using. I heard from Sheltie Times that some of her pictures were stolen.
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