Reactive Rovers Night Three

Improvement! Definite improvement!

Got there and got Elo settled on his mat in his little corner area. I was still doling out treats like a Pez dispenser the entire night, but towards the end I was able to slow down my rate of reinforcement a little bit. Elo spent most of the time "chilling" on a mat. He wasn't relaxed, but he wasn't quite as on edge as last week.

He did better with dog sounds this week. At first I was clicking and treating for every dog sound. Admittedly the dogs were quieter this week, but by the end of class he was basically ignoring the occasional bark or whine! We also had fewer reactive outbursts this week. Only 3 or 4, and most of them were towards the stuffed dog when it got too close. However, the dog was closer this week than last week and Elo was slightly more relaxed while looking at it. Maybe. I'll choose to think that he was. He was fine to look at the dog for a second while he was on his mat. Interestingly, he has a harder time when the dog is walking away from him. He wasn't able to get up off his mat with the dog present without reacting. Movement is hard for Elo, whether it's another dog's or his own.

We also had each dog come out of their hide-away for a quick walk to the center of the ring and back. Elo didn't react to the dogs that he could hear walking and was able to walk semi-nicely and sort of focus on me on his turn.

At the end of class, the last 10 minutes or so, Elo was awesome!! We were able to do some mini relaxation protocol work--just moving a step back or to the side, and by the end of class he was nearly as relaxed as he is at home while doing RP! Last week, I wasn't even really able to stand up without him having a fit, let alone take any steps! We also were able to do some LLW with moving attention within our space which he also could not handle AT ALL last week! So a couple small victories!