Anyway, time for a Custer update!!! He is still here..........
Above is Custer on his new bed, very nice double duvet with paisley cover from charity shop. This was to replace his CRATE!! Yes, we got brave and finally after nearly six months we took it down, it was big enough to take over most of the room and we had hoped it would not be for quite so long. So far (5 days in) its going okay. Custer does have a habit of stealing his Daddy's shoes to sleep with whilst I am out with Jaja, but he isnt chewing them, and (so far) has not stolen anything else. When I leave him with Jaja (again, so far) he does nothing.
The walking thing is still a bit up and down. Each 'down' has a bad effect on my confidence though so does tend to set us back somewhat, which is not good for either of us. Our 'downs' are his reaction to submissive dogs, he will dominate and is rather noisy about it.. now I know it is NOT aggression, Custer is NOT an aggressive dog - this was proved when we were set on by a stray and I had Custer behind me and submitting. Problem is of course the other owner does not know this, and despite the fact I am never so far away, and do step in immediatly I still get 'what for' over it.
We have made some progress this week though, Custer has a new friend - a flatcoated retriever called 'Sam' I hope to get some pics one day to show you. Sam told Custer off twice for his dominant behavoir and now all is well, they get on great - also after initial fear Custer is now good with Sam's owner too.
Today I had a meeting with a dog walker I have known a few years on passing, she is rather experienced and despite having heard about Custer until today we had not met with her dog 'Scout' - this was an interesting meeting as she had already told me not to worry as Scout could handle unruly dogs and there would be no problem, Custer immediatly went to dominate Scout who totally ignored him and calmly removed himself, this was quite fascinating for us to watch. Apparently if the dog in question (being Custer) is not aggressive Scout will try reassure him, they too ended up playing well with Scout only 'telling him' about playing too rough.
So, at nearly 6 months in - there is such 'slow' progress going on - it really is not easy by any means, BUT there are days when it goes well, before hand there was not any days that went well.
Oh I forgot, I have now got Custer to enjoy playing ball - he just went through the motions before, now he loves it, I can even get him to ignore 'some' dogs when we play, often he does not bother with smaller dogs at all.
We still do evening walks for them both, his lead walking for Daddy is fantastic - long way from that first day, and he walks on just a collar and lead for him, I still have a double sided harness as due to the damage he caused to my right arm I cannot hold him in that now.
I try to walk away from as many dogs as I can and if I do not know the dog I will change direction, or walk in a lot of mud to avoid any trouble - just work with the dogs I know - rightly or wrongly this works for me, but if I dog runs to us - I will let go, if its a confident dog with a dog savvy owner all is well.
I think thats all for this time's update - better not make anymore promises about my next one.
