Chanty: Session 2

Chanty was much less reactive towards me when I arrived for his second session. He did lunge and bark at me when I was moving into position for the pass-by exercises, but after a quick correction from Becky, he chose avoidance. For safety, he was muzzled for the duration of the exercise.

  Chanty is still very fearful of new people. He shows this by keeping his head low while looking up at them. He doesn’t turn his back on new people, either; he doesn’t trust that he’s safe. However, Chanty has made huge strides since Session 1.

During the third or fourth round of the greeting exercise, Chanty cautiously extended his nose to smell me. Becky and I continued to talk while I remained still as stone. I did move my hands a bit without thinking – at the first session, the slightest movements sent Chanty into a panic – but Chanty did not react at all. Instead, he continued smelling me. Then, when he was finished, Chanty surprised us further by calmly moving away, turning his back to me, and sitting down. It was a massive show of trust on his part. Video highlights of the entire session have been posted on the Facebook business page.

Chanty is making great progress learning how to open up and play with the other dogs in Becky’s pack [photo: Becky and Chanty near the end of the session], but with humans, it’s a painstakingly slow process. His extreme reactivity towards new people clearly indicates unpleasant past experiences. However, seeing him make new, different choices in this second session, and seeing videos of him playing with Becky and her pack, shows that he can let go of those past traumas. This means he can be helped to recover and go on to live an amazing life with the right forever family.

The next session with Chanty is Sept. 21st at 10am. Stay tuned….