Echo: Moving Forward

Thursday’s session with Echo went very well. He and his owner practiced walking together. Echo did a wonderful job controlling his impulses to move ahead and decide what direction to take, and Ken did very well learning how to use the leash. His experience with a regular leash is extremely limited; all of his previous dogs were Seeing-Eye dogs trained on special harnesses with large handles. The positioning of the hand and arm with a handle harness is completely different to that of holding a regular leash. On the prong collar, that up and back position creates tension, which in turn causes discomfort for Echo. Echo has been doing so well on the prong collar; it’s important that he continues to have positive experiences with it.

For safety, the session was done inside the house. Ken walked Echo up and down the hall and I stayed close to both of them to provide support. We practiced this exercise for about 20 minutes, and then I took Echo outside for some distraction work, “baby” recall practice, and some well-deserved sniffing time. The relationship I’ve been building with Echo was put to the test with one of the neighbor dogs a few houses down.

Echo and I were playing recall games in between his sniffing moments. We were relaxed and enjoying our practice, when suddenly, Echo went stock-still and stared down the street. I had heard the neighbor dog barking at him, but Echo had been doing a great job of ignoring him. So, when he stopped and stared, I looked at what Echo was staring at. The neighbor dog was staring Echo down… and I saw Echo’s hackles start to rise. At that moment, I moved away and called Echo to me – and to my tremendous and very pleased surprise, Echo immediately broke eye contact with the neighbor dog and came to me! This was a huge show of both trust and respect from Echo, and you can believe I rewarded him like crazy.

This stare-down with the neighbor dog happened twice – and both times, Echo immediately responded to me when I called him away. After the second time, I decided to take Echo back into the house; as a distraction for him, we practiced door manners. At the door, he and the neighbor dog could no longer see each other, which took a lot of pressure off Echo. Once we got back inside, Echo was heartily rewarded again, the prong collar was removed, and he was released. He gave me kisses – and then, for the very first time, he leaned into me, lifted his head upward, and gave me the softest eye contact he’s ever shown me. I’m not ashamed to admit that this profound offering from him made me tear right up.

Upcoming sessions with Echo will now be focused more on working him and Ken together. I’m hoping to transition them to the front yard very soon; our next goal is to work on going up and down the stairs slowly and calmly. Echo has been doing well with me on this exercise, but it’s time for him to learn how to do this with his owner.

Stay tuned for the next update. In the meantime, have a great day, and remember to stay calm and lead on.