It’s hard to believe Ben has been with us for a month. Four weeks ago, he came into our home in a red-zone state. Today, he’s playful, he listens well, he’s understanding basic commands much better… He has his issues, yes – and a couple of them may never resolve – but overall, he’s been making phenomenal progress. He’s a much happier dog today than he was when he arrived. And he is so, so loving… and compassionate… and gentle when he needs to be…

Things are rather hectic around our house right now, and I haven’t had a chance to get more videos or photos of him working. I’ll try to rectify that over the next few days.

Ben is making excellent progress. He can now eat in the same room as Glimmer without having to be controlled by a leash. He is also showing excellent impulse control and patience: Glimmer is fed first. Ben salivates and shakes from over-excitement when she starts to eat, but he works very hard to control himself and go into a sit position without being asked. Then, he focuses on me and waits for permission to eat. A month ago, this behavior did not exist.

One of Ben’s bigger issues involves small children. I’ve been working on this with him by lowering myself to his level to approximate the height of a small child. So far, he’s been doing really well with the exercise. He gets very nervous and he does a lot of lip-licking and yawning, but so far, he’s handled the exercise fairly well. He hasn’t growled at me or even lifted a lip in warning. I’m going to continue with this exercise; it’s critical to his success as a family dog that he learns to be calm and quiet around small children, and that he learns to go to his safe place when he starts feeling nervous or anxious about them.

Ben is also showing tremendous improvement with the kennel. He still gets anxious when he’s put into it during the day, but the intensity of that has calmed down considerably. He’s progressed to the point where he can be kenneled for about 30 minutes – without a bone to chew on – without becoming so stressed that he loses control of his bladder or bowels. This is absolutely phenomenal. I’m continuing to work with him on this to help him associate the kennel with calm relaxation as well as safety when he’s feeling overwhelmed.

Have a great day, everyone, and remember to stay calm and lead on…

We’re in our fourth week with Ben, now, and he’s been doing very well in almost every area. He’s completely off the lead, now, inside the house, and aside from his ongoing resource-guarding issue with food, he’s been making great progress. His manners are slowly but steadily improving, he’s getting better at giving space, he’s learning that he doesn’t have to compete for affection – he doesn’t have to shove Glimmer or other people out of the way – and he seems to be starting to understand and accept that he’s not the boss. He still needs work on giving humans space when they’re eating, but we’re getting there. Slowly but steadily, Ben is learning and trying to respect the rules, boundaries, and limitations that are set out for him.

We did have an incident on Friday night. I brought home a bag of food and set it down on the floor so I could get my coat and boots off. Ben and Glimmer were both smelling the bag, and the next thing I knew, there was growling and barking and Glimmer was screaming. Ben was attacking Glimmer…. because she was too close to the sealed bag of food.

Ben was immediately corrected and after ensuring Glimmer’s injury didn’t require an emergency visit to the vet, I got the lead on Ben and took him to her. Glimmer was curled up into a tight ball on our bed. I got Ben onto the bed and made him present his rear end to her. Glimmer was understandably afraid, but she trusted me to protect her… and she smelled him. To my surprise, Ben took things one step further: Keeping his rear towards Glimmer, he laid down on his side, and gave her and me his belly. This was a huge act of submission and trust on Ben’s part. Glimmer accepted his apology by giving him a thorough sniffing. They’ve been getting along fine ever since.

Glimmer was not seriously injured. She got the equivalent of a paper cut on the inside of one of her ear flaps. It bled quite a bit, making things look a lot worse. But the fact that Ben attacked her because she was too close to the sealed bag of food showed me that his food aggression is still a very serious problem.

Which, I will admit, really confuses me, because Ben does a fantastic job about waiting his turn to eat, waiting his turn to get food rewards, and generally being patient and polite. He shows no aggression or possessive behavior at all under those circumstances. So, why he goes berserk and attacks over unopened bags of food has really got me scratching my head. I can honestly say that in all my years of working with dogs, I’ve never seen this particular behavior. It doesn’t make any sense to me.

All in all, Ben is making excellent progress in virtually every area. He’s even doing well with the kennel again; his anxiety has decreased to a point where he no longer requires a bone to chew on when he’s kenneled. We can’t leave him kenneled to go out of the house, yet, but we’re working on that. Slowly but steadily, we’re getting him there.

Ben is now available for adoption. If you’d like to meet him, please visit his page to find out how. Have a great day, and remember to stay calm and lead on…