Georgie Whisperer

Georgie has been getting progressively more aggressive towards other dogs over the last year. When he sees another dog, his entire body gets over-excited and the hair on his back stands up. He barks and if he gets close enough, he'll do a faux-bite. I call it that because he doesn't try to hurt other dogs so much as tell them to get away with his "bite". But it's scary to watch and is obviously a behavior that has to stop.

Today we took him to meet with a doggy behavioral specialist. The guy taught us some techniques to keep him more calm when meeting other dogs, specifically that he needs to be constantly paying attention to whoever is walking him instead of the other dog. So even though Georgie is good on a leash, we are now teaching him "heel" and to walk directly beside us. He's a really smart dog so he's already picked it up and within the 2 hours we spent with the trainer, he was already acting better around other dogs. Go Georgie!

A funny note about Georgie- he is a little prissy and doesn't like to put his butt down on anything but carpet. Like he won't sit if it's on tile- he'll scoot over to the carpet and then sit. It's funny. I didn't think he would sit for us while on walks (which is part of the training) but he did and I think he's happy to be taking direction from us. He's such a good boy.